Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – Books, Ukraine, Israel-Gaza war, Poetry, Russia, Myanmar, World news, Culture
Title – The Guardian view on literature in wartime: words do not stop when the bombing begins | Editorial | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/editorial
Link – The Guardian view on literature in wartime: words do not stop when the bombing begins | Editorial | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T17:07:51.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/12/the-guardian-view-on-literature-in-wartime-words-do-not-stop-when-the-bombing-begins

L ast week, thousands of readers gathered for a literary festival in Kyiv, risking air raids to hear from writers. Four brutal years of war have not destroyed the appetite for writing, but fuelled it. Russia’s extensive and systematic attempts to destroy Ukrainian culture, and therefore identity, have rightly received widespread attention. Over 700 libraries were damaged or destroyed outright within the first three years of the full-scale invasion.

But that campaign has also spurred efforts to move away from Russian literature and the Russian-language titles that previously dominated the market. Ukrainian literature and publishing has flourished far beyond the powerful documentary accounts of war often awarded attention outside the country, with growing room for experimentation. Newer writing also attempts to bridge the gap between those on the frontline and those more safely at home.

War tries to destroy culture because culture sustains identity and memory. Literature is not only a victim of war, it is an instrument of survival, resistance, witnessing – and, sometimes, welcome refuge. When civil war broke out in Sudan in 2023, one resident of Nyala in Darfur concluded that the best thing he could do for his suffering neighbours was to open his own library to replace those closed or destroyed, allowing them to escape an oppressive reality.

“Bombing, looting, deliberate destruction – this forms the dominant narrative when people write about books in wartime, where books pay the price for the aspirations of their rulers. There is more to it than this,” wrote the historian Andrew Pettegree, presenting them instead as “both victims and protagonists”. Franklin D Roosevelt put it more crudely in 1942: “books are weapons” – though not always brandished for the better.

In Myanmar, poets and other writers have been among those targeted by the regime in its brutal war. Poetry has long played an important role in politics there, including the anti-colonial struggle against the British. When Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in the 2015 elections, 11 poets were among its lawmakers. The previously anti-war poet Maung Saungkha was one of many young writers to take up the gun following the military’s 2022 coup. His journey is documented in a recent book, Frontline Poets: The Literary Rebels Taking on Myanmar’s Military , which combines their writings with their life stories.

Writers often struggle against the impulse of external readers to see them only as documenting horror and destruction in a land far away. Israeli strikes killed at least 45 artists, writers and cultural activists within the first four months of war in Gaza, including the poets Saleem al-Naffar , Refaat Alareer and Hibu Abu Nada. Yet the Lebanese-American translator and academic Huda Fakhreddine has said : “It is shameful that we only allow Palestinians space on the page when they are dead or being slaughtered.” Gaza had one of the highest literacy rates worldwide and a rich literary heritage, as well as eight universities, before the war.

Poems written by the hungry and desperate, in crumbling ruins, can reach out to readers thousands of miles away. Poetry bears witness to “what cameras cannot reach and numbers can never explain”, noted Nazmi al-Masri, professor of languages at the Islamic University of Gaza. But it also demands that there must be more, daring to imagine a future, perhaps even justice, for those now faced with destruction.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here .

Keyword – Travel
Trefwoorden – Road trips, Norway holidays, Scandinavia holidays, Sweden holidays, Camping holidays, Europe holidays, Travel
Title – Journey into the midnight sun: my solo road trip to the top of Norway | Road trips | The Guardian
Author – Caroline Mills
Link – Journey into the midnight sun: my solo road trip to the top of Norway | Road trips | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-13T06:00:06.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/jun/13/journey-into-the-midnight-sun-solo-road-trip-to-the-top-of-norway

I t’s midnight, in June. Powder pink and dark grey clouds drift across a pallid sky, the palette reflecting in the motionless water of Lake Inari. Islets of pine and just-budding birch create pools of distorted shade close to the horizon of this 420 sq mile (1,080 sq km) lake in Lapland, northern Finland. There is not a sound. It’s so silent, I barely breathe to avoid disturbance. Only me, the lake and a moonbeam-coloured moth, whose wingbeat is inaudible.

I am sat beside my car-sized campervan, with mesmerised reverence for the rose-tinged panorama. I do not wish to go to bed and miss this moment. And I am loving the wild freedom and deliciousness of being entirely alone, with nobody in the world knowing my exact whereabouts. Ordinarily, I would be long asleep by midnight, exhausted after a day of work and family life. But I have left my husband and (adult) children at home in England for an eight-week solo camping adventure through Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway, with the singular aim of reaching Nordkapp (North Cape) and Knivskjellodden, Europe’s northernmost point at the top of Norway, in time for midsummer.

Earlier in the day, I’d met Father Christmas. “If you’re driving north, be careful of the reindeer,” the costumed gentleman said as I sat beside him at Santa Claus’s Main Post Office in Rovaniemi, the capital of Finnish Lapland, a place considered over-touristy in winter, but certainly not during my summer visit.

“We have 230,000 reindeer here in Finland, but only one of them has a red nose.” As it happens, I see countless reindeer, in Finland, as well as Norway and Sweden, creeping through forests and grazing at the coast. Not Rudolph to my knowledge, but many females with calves, all legs and ears.

My meetings with reindeer and the night beside Lake Inari are two of many memorable experiences on my road trip through the Land of the Midnight Sun, so called because north of the Arctic Circle the sun doesn’t set below the horizon during the summer months. It doesn’t set for long south of it either, including in Denmark, where (after I’d driven my campervan from the UK via Germany) my Nordic adventure started in Rødby, on the island of Lolland.

Other than reaching Nordkapp, I have no plan; no accommodation booked either. Instead, I am utilising the popular practice of Allemansretten (everybody’s right, as it’s known in Norway), which is also legal in Finland and Sweden: the right to stop off-grid overnight on uncultivated land, leaving without a trace. On my journey I’m able to park up and stay overlooking fjords, beside mountain passes, with lake or coastal views.

From the flat plains of Lolland, Denmark’s fourth-largest island, my route north takes me to Helsingør for the ferry across the Øresund to Helsingborg in Sweden, leaving a rear-view image of Kronborg Slot – “Hamlet’s Castle” – at dawn.

Luminous lupins and puce pinks litter the roadsides of my 370-mile cross-country route to Sigtuna, 30 miles north-west of Stockholm. The lakeside settlement of colourful timber houses is Sweden’s oldest town. Half an hour’s drive north is Linnaeus’ Hammarby , a pretty 18th-century farm that once belonged to Carl Linnaeus, the botanist who developed the binomial system of naming species we use today.

Hammarby is wonderfully representative of this Uppland region of Sweden. I walk 10 miles through the cultivated countryside along the Dannmark Trail between Linnaeus’s farm and Uppsala, a route he would walk with his biology students for nature studies. Students at Uppsala University (where Linnaeus was a professor) are celebrating finals when I arrive, mingling around ice-cream cafes and in floral parks and botanical gardens. Nearby, the vast twin spires of the city’s rust-red cathedral protrude above blossoming rowan trees.

From Uppsala, I follow the E4, a road that reaches the border with Finland, covering more than 600 miles over six days. Along the way I cross Scandinavia’s longest suspension bridge, the Högakustenbron, at the Höga Kusten , or High Coast, a Unesco world heritage site.

Vast stretches of empty road lined with little but pine trees provide a chance for contemplation. But it’s not until I arrive in the colourful town of Karasjok days later, having crossed from Finland into Norway, that I truly understand the scale of the Nordics. For Karasjok feels very far north, yet it is still a four-hour drive to Nordkapp.

Karasjok is the Norwegian administrative centre for the indigenous Sámi population of Sápmi, the cross-border cultural region that includes parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. The parliament building resembles a traditional lavvu tent and, nearby, Sápmi Park offers an introduction to Sámi traditions.

Leaving Karasjok, the road winds its way alongside Porsangerfjorden, passing fishing hamlets, waterfalls, shaly mountain cliffs and tremendous viewpoints before dipping beneath the Arctic Ocean by tunnel to reach Magerøya, the island upon which Nordkapp sits. I chance upon fine weather as I climb beyond Honningsvåg, one of Norway’s northernmost towns, over snowy mountain plateaux to reach Nordkapp. A tear forms in the corner of my eye. I am alone, about 2,500 miles from home by the quickest route, and I wish my family could see what I can. But this is a solo adventure, and I have reached my goal, staying up all night to watch as the midnight sun sends orange beams across the Arctic Ocean. Captivating.

It is not by the quickest route that I return home, though. My journey back south through Norway (and ultimately Sweden and Denmark, too) is contorted, meandering west and east. Picnics beside turquoise sea coves on the Lofoten Islands, watching pods of dolphins in the Norwegian Sea. Bulging rivers and thundering waterfalls in Saltfjellet national park . Then small farms and meadows with emerald stripes of hay, amassed buttercups, and long lakes through the region of Trøndelag. It is Norway bursting into colour after the bleached landscapes of the north. Occasionally I’ll put in a long stretch in one day – 200 miles or so. Other days, I simply stay put, enjoying the view or stepping out for long walks.

Atlanterhavsvegen – a 22-mile national scenic route across skerries and strung together by bridges – is captivating. Then Runde, one of Norway’s westernmost islands, renowned for a colony of puffins that breed on the cliffs here. A steep mountain walk across the island reveals clusters of people perching on cliff edges in the hope of witnessing the spectacle of birds coming in to roost.

But it is the east of the island where I park up and sit alone for days, watching an otter swimming among the lichen-speckled black rocks, alerted by a clatter of ducks and ducklings, shelducks, wigeon and oystercatchers. Keeping my distance, I observe parent gulls sheltering fluffed-up chicks as curlew call overhead. Orchids, sea campion, clover and a host of other flowers smother the coastal ground. A memorable time.

So, too, my wild camp at the summit of Sognefjellet mountain pass, the highest road in Scandinavia. I set out from Lom, an attractive town that sits between three national parks and possesses a famous stave church and the fascinating Norwegian Mountain Centre . The road, also a designated national scenic route , runs alongside the pretty Bovra River initially, then climbs into some of Norway’s wildest scenery. My overnight is cold, with huge frozen lakes of glacial blue and roadside snow above the height of the campervan. In the morning, as Nordic skiers and a pack of snowmobiles head out to nearby glaciers, I brush snowflakes from my windscreen to begin the descent to the green and luscious Sognefjord. It’s as if I have stepped through a wardrobe and imagined the wintry summer scene.

I appreciate that being alone by choice is entirely different to loneliness. I am often asked of my solo travels, “Don’t you ever get lonely?” I can feel lonelier, I explain, in a crowded room than camping in the wild. Yes, leaving family behind creates a sense of “wish you were here”; special moments I’d like to share. Then again, this adventure is understanding that the memory is mine alone. The thrill, the excitement, the calm and occasionally the trepidation. I’d do it all again tomorrow.

The writer travelled in her own campervan, using Scandlines ferries between Puttgarden , Germany, and Rødby , Denmark . In the UK and Europe, hire of Roadsurfer’s smaller vehi cles starts at £4 9 a night

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, World news, Football, US immigration, ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement), Fifa
Title – It’s a Trumpian World Cup for racism and cynicism – why don’t those who condemned Qatar 2022 say so? | Jeremy Corbyn | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jeremy-corbyn
Link – It’s a Trumpian World Cup for racism and cynicism – why don’t those who condemned Qatar 2022 say so? | Jeremy Corbyn | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-13T07:00:07.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/13/donald-trump-world-cup-qatar-2022-white-house

O mar Artan was to be the first Somali to referee at the World Cup finals. A Fifa-certified referee since 2018, Artan officiated at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2023 and was named the 2025 Confederation of African Football men’s referee of the year. Last weekend, as we know, Artan was denied entry to the United States at Miami international airport.

The US has not officially given a reason for Artan’s ban, but we know that Somalia is one of the countries on Donald Trump’s travel ban list. After the news reverberated around the world, an administration source, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed the move came about because Artan had possible links to possible terrorists . But that claim, in the face of a furore, merits widespread scepticism. There is a word for this: racism.

For this disgraceful decision is just the tip of the iceberg. Somalia is one of 39 countries – including Laos, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and South Sudan – on a US travel ban list. This means fans from more than a quarter of the countries taking part in the World Cup are facing visa rejections and restrictions ; so much for Fifa’s claim that “football unites the world”. The World Cup is meant to bring people together, but this year’s tournament threatens to drive people apart.

This is what happens when a World Cup is cohosted by an administration that divides, detains and deports at will. International organisations have been sounding the alarm for months about this tournament – and a human rights emergency that extends far beyond match officials, to players, fans and residents alike. According to a recent report by Amnesty International , the “starkest threat” at the World Cup, cohosted by the US, Canada and Mexico, is posed by “the machine of abusive, discriminatory and deadly immigration enforcement and mass detention in the USA”.

We all saw the footage in January of an Immigration Control Enforcement (ICE) agent shooting dead Renee Good . Two weeks later, ICE agents claimed another victim: Alex Pretti . These are just two high-profile incidents; at least 17 people have died in ICE custody this year. In June last year, the US moved to deport more than 500,000 legal immigrants – six times the number of people who will watch the World Cup final in the MetLife stadium in New York. The acting director of ICE has said that the agency will be “a key part of the overall security apparatus for the World Cup”.

So far, neither Fifa nor the US have offered any assurance that fans will be safe from unlawful detention, raids or deportation. Nor have they provided satisfactory answers to a range of other concerns raised by Amnesty: severe restrictions on peaceful protest; the further displacement of homeless people; the expansion of mass surveillance; and doubts over the ability of the US to provide the “safe, welcoming and inclusive” tournament promised by Fifa, particularly to members of the LGBTQ+ community.

When Qatar held the World Cup four years ago, I joined human rights organisations in raising concerns over freedom of expression, LGBTQ+ rights and the appalling exploitation of workers, many of whom died while building the tournament’s infrastructure . I cannot help but notice the deafening silence of those – including our prime minister – who spoke out four years ago . The double standards are astounding, and expose the cowardice of those who defend human rights only when it is convenient to do so.

This is a rank hypocrisy that has helped justify horrendous complicity in some of the worst crimes imaginable. Since Trump was awarded the newly created Fifa Peace prize in December 2025, the US government has illegally kidnapped the president of Venezuela , waged an illegal war on Iran and deepened its criminal blockade on Cuba. In all three cases, the US has relied on the moral cowardice of our own government, which has failed to condemn the abduction of a head of state, allowed the use of its airbases for strikes on Iran , and abandoned the Cuban people in their time of need. That’s quite the hat-trick. That’s without mentioning the UK’s participation, alongside the US, in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

“ I’m not responsible for America’s immigration policy .” That is what government minister Liz Kendall said this week, in response to a question about Omar Artan’s ban. That’s true. But so is this: part of the reason the US shows such flagrant disregard for human rights is because it enjoys the blissful silence from governments like our own.

I love football , but it is a game. People’s lives are not. It is time this government had the courage to blow the whistle on a foreign policy of appeasement, cowardice and hypocrisy – and started defending the human rights of everyone, everywhere.

Jeremy Corbyn is the MP for Islington North and parliamentary leader of Your Party. He was leader of the Labour party from 2015 to 2020

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here .

Keyword – Environment
Trefwoorden – Greenhouse gas emissions, Climate crisis, Trees and forests, Science, Environment, US news, World news
Title – Trees may store less planet-heating carbon than hoped, study suggests | Greenhouse gas emissions | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ajit-niranjan
Link – Trees may store less planet-heating carbon than hoped, study suggests | Greenhouse gas emissions | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-13T04:00:04.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/13/trees-store-less-carbon-than-thought-study

Trees may not be able to store as much planet-heating carbon as hoped, a study suggests, with researchers finding photosynthesis does not always lead to wood growth.

Scientists studied 137 sites across the US and found trees stopped growing months before the point in the year at which photosynthesis stopped.

Forests are a vital defence against climate breakdown but their power depends in part on how much carbon dioxide they can convert into wood, which keeps the planet-heating molecule out of the atmosphere for decades and centuries. Other uses of carbon are typically shorter lasting.

As fossil fuel emissions leave more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for trees to absorb, climate scientists expect the land-based carbon sink to remain stable or grow over the 21st century. But many of the models estimate the uptake using the levels of photosynthesis, rather than actual wood growth.

“Right now, most models assume that if you have photosynthesis, you have growth. We find that’s not the case,” said Mukund Palat Rao, a carbon cycle scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University and lead author of the study. “Just because there is more photosynthesis might not necessarily mean more tree growth in the future.”

At sites in the eastern US, the researchers found about 36% of yearly carbon uptake occurred after the tree growth stopped in late summer. At sites in California, it was about 26%.

More detailed measurements at four sites showed wood growth was restricted to periods of low aridity and temperature, which are becoming rarer as the global rise in temperature makes heatwaves and droughts more common.

Rao said:“The moment you have dry and hot conditions, growth activity stops pretty instantly, while photosynthesis seems to continue at a slightly decreased rate.”

Last week, a report found humanity must suck carbon out of the atmosphere with new technologies even faster than the speed with which it has deployed solar panels. Land-based actions such as planting trees make up the overwhelming majority of human efforts to remove carbon dioxide, with machines and chemical processes responsible for just 0.1% of the 2.2bn tonnes of CO 2 that are removed globally each year.

The researchers are now studying whether the decoupling of photosynthesis and wood growth they observed can be seen in other tree species and regions. They said their results showed the capacity of forests to store carbon over long periods depended on how much carbon was absorbed and then directed towards wood growth. If more of the absorbed carbon were to flow toward transient uses – such as foliage and internal processes – the power of forests as carbon sinks would fall.

“Earth system models that assume consistently tight coupling between photosynthesis and growth may therefore overestimate future forest carbon sequestration under rising atmospheric moisture demand,” the researchers wrote.

Keyword – Life and style
Trefwoorden – Life and style, Acting, Theatre, Stage, Television & radio, Film, Culture
Title – Toby Stephens: ‘I lost my dad to cirrhosis. The only difference between us was that, tragically, he couldn’t stop drinking’ | Life and style | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rosannagreenstreet
Link – Toby Stephens: ‘I lost my dad to cirrhosis. The only difference between us was that, tragically, he couldn’t stop drinking’ | Life and style | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-13T09:00:11.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/13/toby-stephens-actor-equus-menier-chocolate-factory

B orn in London, Toby Stephens, 57, is the son of actors Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens. He trained at Lamda and, in 1992, made his film debut in Orlando. In 2002 he played the Bond villain in Die Another Day. His television work includes One Day, The Split and Black Sails. On stage he has performed for the RSC and the National Theatre , and he is currently starring in Equus at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory, until 4 July, and then Theatre Royal Bath, from 14-25 July. He is married to the actor Anna‑Louise Plowman, with whom he has three children, and lives in London.

What is your greatest fear? To be completely alone.

What is the trait you most deplore in others? Vanity.

What was your most embarrassing moment? I was in a restaurant with my daughter in Los Angeles and I had an accident involving a stomach upset. That was mortifying for both of us.

What is your most treasured possession? My wife.

What makes you unhappy? Social media.

What do you most dislike about your appearance? The width of my body. I look like a fridge.

If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose? My mother.

Who would play you in the film of your life? Damian Lewis, because we’re always mistaken for one another.

What is your most unappealing habit? I can talk over people.

What scares you about getting older? Everything.

Which book are you ashamed not to have read? Ulysses – I’ve tried many times and never got through it.

What is the worst thing anyone’s said to you? A review of Phèdre said – because I was quite large at the time – Toby Stephens’s Hippolytus needs to get on a StairMaster.

What was the last lie you told? That my wife’s shoes went well with her dress – I just wanted to get out of the house.

What is your guiltiest pleasure? Cigars.

What do you owe your parents? My mother particularly was very practical. She was, like, “What kind of plays do you like, what movies do you like? Don’t just sit back and expect this thing to happen; you need to be actively cultivating and curating your own taste.”

What did you dream about last night? That I was making a very low‑budget movie and I couldn’t fit into my costume.

If you could edit your past, what would you change? There was a very large part of my 20s where I was an alcoholic, and an addict. When I lost my dad to cirrhosis, I knew that the only difference between us was that, tragically, he couldn’t stop whereas I could.

When did you last cry and why? I cry all the time. It’s embarrassing. I mostly cry when my children perform something at school. My wife regularly says, “Do you see any other fathers weeping?” But I can’t stop myself.

How often do you have sex? Not enough.

How would you like to be remembered? Fondly.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you? Never ever think that things are going to turn out all right.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – US-Israel war on Iran, Iran, US news, Donald Trump, Market turmoil, US foreign policy, Stock markets, World news, Middle East and north Africa
Title – Chaotic talks on a US-Iran deal continue on the Trump rollercoaster | US-Israel war on Iran | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/julianborger
Link – Chaotic talks on a US-Iran deal continue on the Trump rollercoaster | US-Israel war on Iran | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T18:05:19.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/12/trump-rollercoaster-deal-us-iran

G reat news! Donald Trump has said the US and Iran are on the verge of a peace agreement . Oil prices are down, and the stock market is up. This comes only hours after Trump warned Iran was about to be struck “VERY HARD”, a threat that had sent oil prices up and stocks down.

It has been another ride on the Trump rollercoaster, keeping traders on edge, most of the world poorer, and people of the Middle East constantly whiplashing between fear and hope. But whether the ride veers up or down, the management always makes money.

This is the 39th time that the president has declared US-Iranian talks to be on the point of fruition (other counts have the figure higher – it depends on what you term a prediction or just a hint). On five of those occasions, the promise of peace has involved walking back the threat of mass devastation, including the destruction of critical civilian infrastructure, a near-certain war crime if carried out.

As he was menacing Iran with “very hard” strikes on Thursday night, Trump also pledged the US would take over “total control” of the country’s oil and gas markets and seize the island of Kharg. He has threatened the capture of Kharg, a focal point of Iran’s hydrocarbon industry , several times before, although in this instance the threat was made while actually bombing Iran, in a tit-for-tat exchange with Tehran in which a critical reservoir and water tanks were badly damaged in the drought-stricken south, a war crime if intentional .

By Thursday afternoon however, the prospect of mass destruction had evaporated as quickly as it had materialised.

“I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,” Trump declared on his Truth Social platform as if providing his full capitalised title added any weight to the statement.

The air of optimism was reinforced on Friday afternoon by a White House briefing that a text was in place which both the US and Iran could live with. US officials echoed the president’s prediction that a signing ceremony could be held in a matter of days.

Iran’s foreign ministry was less definite, saying that the proposed agreement was being studied by the country’s “decision-making bodies”, but the oil price fell below $90 (£67) a barrel nonetheless.

No matter how many times Trump predicts conflagration or diplomatic breakthrough, the markets still obediently bob up and down like a trained seal. It is a guaranteed response that represents an opportunity to make big, easy money for anyone with advance knowledge of presidential announcements.

A recent BBC investigation found that multimillion-dollar trades have been made in global markets just before Trump makes major administration announcements, particularly involving oil trades on the futures market.

After so many false dawns and hoax Armageddons, why are traders still reacting to Trump’s rhetoric? One theory is that, while individual traders are no suckers, they suspect that some of their competitors might be, so react rapidly to presidential statements to get ahead of the curve.

An alternative explanation, suggested by the Australian-American economist Justin Wolfers , is what he calls the “known liar problem”. The markets know Trump is an unreliable narrator and heavily discount everything the president says, but the economic implications of war or peace in the Gulf are so enormous that even a heavily discounted reaction still moves the dial.

After all, one day there will be a deal. The president’s on-off signals are not being sent in a vacuum, but in the midst of talks between the two sides intended to turn the ceasefire, which has mostly held since April, into something more permanent.

According to reports from the region, the gaps in those talks are indeed getting smaller in the past few days. The focus is on a limited memorandum of understanding (MoU), putting off nuclear negotiations for later and focusing on opening the strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global trade.

The most immediate impasse has been about cash. Tehran has no confidence Trump would keep his word in any deal so wants to be paid up front from a $24bn tranche of an estimated $100bn of its assets frozen around the world, in return for lifting its blockade on the strait of Hormuz.

The US wants rewards to follow tangible progress, but the administration has a fundamental problem with releasing Iranian assets. Trump and other top Republicans have spent years lambasting Barack Obama for providing unfrozen assets to Iran in the form of pallets of cash as part of a 2015 nuclear deal, which was successful in curbing Iran’s programme until Trump walked out of it in 2018.

The workaround being discussed, according to a source briefed on the talks, involves a line of credit from a bank in a Gulf state issued against Iran’s $100bn of frozen assets as collateral. It will fool only those who want to be fooled, but that would include the administration’s defenders on the American political stage.

The second major sticking point is how much detail about nuclear issues should be included in the MoU. The US wants concrete parameters including a moratorium on uranium enrichment of 15 years or so, and arrangements for the disposal of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

US officials focus on these two factors in briefings to the American press, but when the Iranians have briefed diplomats and experts lately, they have said such matters have hardly been mentioned and are pressing for only vague references to nuclear issues in the memorandum, leaving them to be negotiated in Geneva in the weeks after an MoU is agreed.

Trump may have shown the way for a possible fudge by insisting that the deal will ensure “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon”. That is something Tehran might agree to. Iran’s renunciation of atomic arms was once reinforced by religious edict, or fatwa, but the supreme leader who issued that fatwa, Ali Khamenei, was killed by an Israeli bomb in the first seconds of the US-Israeli war on Iran on 28 February. Any Iranian pledge now is likely to be secular, and contingent on the MoU being upheld.

A compromise MoU along similar lines appeared close to agreement in late May, but Trump helped derail it by suddenly moving the goalposts, including the suggestion that the regional guarantors of the agreement normalise relations with Israel as a gesture of gratitude for the suspension of hostilities. The suggestion was greeted by a stunned silence across the Middle East.

Throwing last-minute surprises into negotiations has long been a Trump tactic in business and US politics. It has not worked in the Iran talks. Instead, the president has sometimes behaved as a finicky eater faced with a stark menu of two unpalatable options: all-out war or messy compromise. He has noisily wavered between choosing one or the other in the hope of being presented with something more to his taste, but that has yet to happen.

“You have an impasse. Trump doesn’t have any good options. He’s come close to accepting an MoU, but then he’s backed away because it’s difficult for him to politically sell it at home and claim victory,” said Vali Nasr, a former state department adviser, who is now professor at Johns Hopkins University’s school of advanced international studies.

Some observers believe Trump could give concessions to agree an MoU and ensure a peaceful backdrop to the World Cup, leaving the big gaps between the two sides to be addressed in the nuclear talks to follow.

The US administration’s explanation for the long delay in achieving an MoU is a divided camp in Tehran, in which Iran’s chief negotiator, the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, is constantly being second-guessed by Revolutionary Guards generals back home.

That may be true. The internal dynamics of the Tehran regime were murky before the bombing started, but now they are virtually a black box. The one certainty is that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the principal target of US-Israeli decapitation bombing, has emerged stronger in relation to the other power centre. It is unclear whether Khamenei’s successor, his badly injured son Mojtaba Khamenei, is any more than a figurehead.

However it organises itself internally, the regime has shown itself to be remarkably resilient. Dead leaders have been replaced and domestic unrest has been suppressed. The war has arguably made that suppression easier. The brunt of the economic war being waged by the US is being borne by the Iranian people but that has yet to turn into decisive pressure on the leadership.

Peace is likely to be more dangerous to the regime than war, as there will no longer be an external enemy to blame for runaway inflation and high employment. Nasr said that is why Tehran is so insistent on getting funds up front in any deal.

Despite Iran’s dogged survival in the face of a US-Israeli onslaught, in which the US alone claims to have bombed 13,000 targets, the Israeli leadership and Washington hawks are continuing to try to convince Trump that one more big push will finally bring down the regime. Even if an MoU is agreed, the hawks are confident that the ensuing nuclear talks will break down over Iran’s insistence on its right to enrich uranium.

“I think the president eventually is going to do a much bigger kinetic military strike,” Darin Selnick, a former Pentagon deputy chief of staff told BBC Radio 4. “[US forces] never finished the target list. So they have about 20% of the target list. They can start taking out what will really hurt, which is the various oil facilities … They can take out another level of military leadership. They could have taken out those who are at the negotiating table, but they wanted to have someone to negotiate with. They can take those guys out as well.

“Then they can forcibly reopen the strait themselves. If this trade opens … Iran would really have no ability to do anything but surrender.”

For all Trump’s past threats of civilisational erasure if Iran fails to acquiesce, he has so far shown himself reluctant to double down on a military bet that has already failed.

Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, argued that Trump’s latest threat of devastating strikes was performative.

“Trump is using the threat either to force the Iranians to make last minute concessions, or to justify a deal that he knows would be criticised by the hawks,” Vaez said.

Richard Nephew, a former Iran affairs director at the US national security council and now a research scholar at Columbia University, said: “I think he is probably poised to try and cut some sort of deal. He’s going to want to describe some sort of Iranian concession as coming from how loudly he barked.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, World Cup, Ghana football team, Football, Canada, Sport
Title – Thomas Partey out of Ghana’s World Cup opener after visa application to Canada refused | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ed-aarons,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/leyland-cecco
Link – Thomas Partey out of Ghana’s World Cup opener after visa application to Canada refused | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T17:32:52.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/12/thomas-partey-ghana-world-cup-visa-application-to-canada-refused

Thomas Partey has been denied entry to Canada and will not be available for Ghana’s first World Cup game in Toronto on Wednesday.

The former Arsenal midfielder was charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault in July 2025 by the Metropolitan police and pleaded not guilty. Partey, who now plays for the Spanish club Villarreal, was subsequently charged with two new counts of rape in February and also pleaded not guilty.

The 32-year-old was allowed to enter the United States with the rest of Ghana’s squad on 4 June and has been in a training camp in Boston before the start of the World Cup. They are in the same group as England and kick off against Panama. But in a statement on Friday, Fifa confirmed that Partey’s visa application had been rejected by the Canadian government.

“Fifa is not involved in the immigration processes of host countries, including the adjudication of visas. As with previous Fifa events, the host government ultimately determines who receives a visa and is admitted into the country,” it added.

The midfielder, who previously lived in Potters Bar in Hertfordshire, joined Arsenal from Atlético Madrid in 2020 in a transfer worth about £45m, before he left the club in June last year. Ghana are due to face England, who take on Croatia in their opening game on Wednesday, in their second match of the World Cup, in Boston on 23 June.

Canada’s immigration department said in a statement that while it cannot comment on specific cases without the signed consent of those concerned, staff apply the rules “consistently and without exception, regardless of nationality, profile, or role in the tournament”.

The department added that officers are trained decision-makers who assess an individual’s eligibility and admissibility in accordance with Canadian immigration laws.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, USA, Football, Sport, World Cup, Paraguay
Title – In a USA win for the history books, what stood out most was the ‘fun’ and free nature of it | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/alexander-abnos
Link – In a USA win for the history books, what stood out most was the ‘fun’ and free nature of it | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-13T11:00:14.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/13/in-a-usa-win-for-the-history-books-what-stood-out-most-was-the-fun-and-free-nature-of-it

T o find a precedent for the United States’ win over Paraguay, one must return to a time when World Cup teams were forced to drop out due to the Great Depression, and the ones who did make it arrived via ship, playing with a leather ball held together by seam and laces.

The dominant 4-1 win matched a 96-year-old landmark – the largest margin of victory for the USA in a men’s World Cup game (they won 3-0 twice in the inaugural 1930 tournament, against Belgium and, in a neat bit of symmetry, Paraguay).

Friday’s four-goal romp also marked the most goals scored by the USA at a men’s World Cup. It featured a 3-0 first-half blitz that matches the previous most unexpected 45 minutes of World Cup soccer played in the modern history of the program: the 3-0 lead built in 2002 against Portugal, a result the ESPN commentator Jack Edwards famously guaranteed was “stopping traffic all over Europe”.

The result will live on in the record books for these reasons. But it will hold a special place in the hearts and minds of US fans because of the ethereal, less-fungible stuff.

“I think we are winning a lot of fans, and adding fans for this sport,” Mauricio Pochettino said of his side’s performance. “I think it was a great match; was amazing for our fans to see this type of game.”

No longer were the USA the same workmanlike outfit that had featured at previous World Cups, white-knuckling through on the strength of their grit and grind (though they showed some of that too, not letting a second-half Paraguay goal knock them off course).

The iconic element of the USA’s opening victory was the very manner of it. Combinations flowed freely in midfield, defenders were split and dragged with alacrity. Neat finishes off moves well-worked enough to make the opening Paraguayan own goal an afterthought. Oohs and aahs stirred in the sold-out crowd of 70,492 at Los Angeles Stadium.

“It’s pretty special to watch,” said Christian Pulisic, who was on a heater of his own before being pulled at half-time due to a knock picked up in the first half, and later brushed off as nothing serious. “It’s fun to look around and know that there’s different guys that can pull off these different skills and moves and things going on. It’s great. I feel like there’s such a good connection between us right now.”

The USA midfielders tied Paraguay’s defensive unit in knots with rotations, in a manner that the Paraguay manager, Gustavo Alfaro, compared with “floating”. “This is a team that is complex, because they have answers to every element you throw at them,” Alfaro said. “We knew they were a very complex rival. We knew they have coordination, broadness, triangulations, and we were not ready … They dominated technically, tactically and physically as well.”

One could call it, by some distance, the best World Cup performance ever by a USA men’s team. And it contained within it two of the best individual performances by US players at a World Cup.

Pulisic became USA’s leader for World Cup assists and was dangerous throughout his 45 minutes. And in Folarin Balogun’s double, the US has its first multi-goal scorer in a single World Cup game since 1930 – that year again – when Bert Patenaude put three past, you guessed it, Paraguay.

But in the same breath as he praised Pulisic and Balogun, Pochettino emphasized the collective nature of the performance, naming every starter on the pitch in quick succession, calling their performances “amazing”.

“You want to push me to talk about names, and it’s about the team … the collective approach,” he said. “Of course, we have talented players that you can observe … but one thing we need to praise is the collective effort.”

It was a collective approach that led to what Balogun called a “dreamy night” in Southern California. “I felt like it was a real statement.”

But was it the best of all time?

“I’m not one to speculate,” Pulisic said. “I haven’t seen all of them.”

Keyword – Media
Trefwoorden – BBC, Media, Television industry, ConservativeHome, Politics, UK news
Title – Head of Commons media committee denies writing article accusing BBC of bias | BBC | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/michael-savage
Link – Head of Commons media committee denies writing article accusing BBC of bias | BBC | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-13T10:00:13.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jun/13/head-commons-media-committee-caroline-dineage-denies-writing-article-bbc-bias

It was a crisis that toppled a BBC director general and his head of news . After contentious accusations of bias by a former external adviser, Michael Prescott, both Tim Davie and Deborah Turness quit the corporation.

At the height of the media storm that ensued last November, the corporation was struck by another blow. A key figure in scrutinising the BBC – the chair of the Commons culture, media and sport committee – delivered an equally damning verdict.

In an article for the ConservativeHome website , Conservative MP Caroline Dinenage said Prescott’s claims “made plain what many viewers have sensed for some time: a pattern of institutional bias within BBC News and current affairs”. She also accused it of “deep anti-Israel bias”.

The issue, she wrote, “runs into the very culture, editorial mindset and assumptions that have shaped the BBC for years”.

It was a strong take for a figure who would no doubt be involved in examining the claims Prescott had made. A problem has emerged with the excoriating article, however – Dinenage now says she did not write it.

Dinenage was quizzed about the article by the BeebWatch podcast, fronted by former BBC Radio 4 presenter Roger Bolton. However, before the episode was released, the podcast was contacted by Dinenage’s office to say that neither she – nor her team – had written the article, which did not accurately reflect her views

“[The article] was strong stuff coming from the supposedly independent chair of a committee helping to decide on the BBC’s future, so naturally I raised these statements with Ms Dinenage in our interview,” Bolton said .

“We had a vigorous discussion in which she did not question the article’s authenticity, and I challenged her suggestion of institutional bias in particular.

“However, shortly after we had recorded the interview, her office contacted us to say that Caroline Dinenage had not written the article, nor had anyone in her office, and that she did not hold some of the beliefs attributed to her.”

The section in question was cut from the podcast.

Meanwhile, ConservativeHome said it could not find the exact details of how the article reached its team, but stood by its publication.

“ConservativeHome cannot now find a record of exactly who sent them an article by Caroline Dinenage in November 2025,” it said in a statement. “However, it was received in the usual manner, subject to our usual processes, and we believe the article to be genuine, sent in good faith, and remains on our website as a record of that day.”

The bizarre disagreement shines a light on the process of drafting opinion pieces that appear under the name of a prominent politician. It is not unusual for such pieces to be drafted by media officers and later approved by the politician in question.

In this case, it is likely that a misunderstanding occurred over whether Dinenage had approved the piece, though the original “author” remains unknown.

“Given this disputed authenticity, we reluctantly decided to edit out that part of the discussion relating to the controversial article,” Bolton said. “There seem to be only two possibilities. Ms Dinenage or her office did write the article. Someone pretending to be her wrote it.

“Whatever the truth, it has remained on the ConservativeHome website for several months without anyone apparently noticing. It is still there to be read. Altogether a rum affair.”

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Transfer window, Football, Sport
Title – Women’s transfer window summer 2026: all deals from world’s top six leagues | Transfer window | The Guardian
Author – Sarah Rendell
Link – Women’s transfer window summer 2026: all deals from world’s top six leagues | Transfer window | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-08T09:00:05.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2026/jun/08/womens-transfer-window-summer-2026-all-deals-from-worlds-top-six-leagues

Forward is the French club’s first signing of the window

Defender is known for her ‘discipline, reliability and passing ability’

The club has said it will ‘always’ be the Scotland international’s home

The Austria international won the Champions League with Arsenal

The 20-year-old has been described as a ‘young, up-and-coming, talented player’

The Denmark international has experience of various leagues across Europe

The 23-year-old came through Arsenal’s academy

Manager Karen Hills said: ‘Karin has been an unbelievable servant for us. First and foremost, she is a lovely person who has worked really hard for the team’

Player has previously competed for Hashtag United

Midfielder was a key part of the club’s promotion into the WSL

Defender made over 100 appearances for her former club

Goalkeeper has only ever played her senior football for the German giants

The 31-year-old says: ‘It breaks my heart in ways I didn’t expect but I leave it with so much love, so much pride, and so much gratitude’

Midfielder provided 11 assists for her former side across three years

Defender’s collegiate career was with Portland Pilots from 2022 to 2024