Keyword – Science
Trefwoorden – Comets, Space, Science, The sun, Nasa, Astronomy, James Webb space telescope, Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)
Title – Interstellar comet may be oldest object seen in our solar system, scientists say | Comets | The Guardian
Author – Daniel Lawler
Link – Interstellar comet may be oldest object seen in our solar system, scientists say | Comets | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T16:37:49.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/22/interstellar-comet-may-be-oldest-object-seen-in-our-solar-system-research-finds

An interstellar comet that blazed past the sun last year could be nearly three times older than our solar system and is unlike anything ever before seen in our cosmic back yard, astronomers said on Monday.

The comet 3I/Atlas is just the third visitor from beyond our solar system that humanity has ever observed, its unusual brightness offering scientists an unprecedented opportunity to study something that came from elsewhere in the galaxy.

After being spotted in July last year, the space rock prompted excitement online, with one prominent Harvard researcher speculating it could be an alien spacecraft: a theory that Nasa shot down . Now, observations made by the world’s most powerful telescopes are revealing more about the unique comet.

According to a study published in the journal Nature, 3I/Atlas could be up to 12bn years old. Our solar system is believed to have formed about 4.5bn years ago.

The lead study author, Martin Cordiner of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center, told Agence France-Presse that “maybe it’s the oldest object to have been observed in our solar system”. However, there could be “edge-case scenarios” that offer other explanations for the comet’s unusual chemical composition, he added.

The new research is based on the comet’s ratio of chemical elements called isotopes detected by the James Webb space telescope and the Alma observatory in Chile. These measurements “reveal an elemental composition unlike any solar system body”, the study said.

Compared with comets in our solar system, 3I/Atlas has 10 times more deuterium, a type of hydrogen commonly seen in heavy water, according to the study. “That high abundance of heavy water can only really happen, according to our understanding of astrochemistry, in a very cold environment,” Cordiner explained.

This means the comet is also probably among the coldest objects ever seen in our solar system, the isotopic evidence suggesting it formed in an environment that was -243C (-405.4F).

Exactly where this comet came from within the Milky Way remains a mystery, but these interstellar objects are thought to form in a similar way to the comets in our solar system – being flung out during the violent formation of a new planet. Untethered to any star, 3I/Atlas likely spent billions of years on “vast unimaginable trajectories around our galaxy”, Cordiner said.

The scientists also detected a strange lack of chemical enrichment on the comet, which suggests it formed relatively close to stars being born. It could even be a “relic” from an era called “cosmic noon” when many stars were forming approximately 10bn years ago, Cordiner said.

The previous interstellar objects – 1I/’Oumuamua, which was spotted in 2017, followed by 2I/Borisov in 2019 – were not bright enough to gather isotopic evidence. The Harvard professor Avi Loeb, who had previously sparked controversy by suggesting ’Oumuamua could be an alien spacecraft, made similar suggestions about 3I/Atlas.

However, Nasa dismissed this possibility. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (Seti) said last month it had found “no evidence of extraterrestrial technology” on the comet.

The astronomer Peter Vereš, who was involved in identifying the comet at the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, called the research “exciting”. “The comet is now leaving the solar system and will never return, so future observations will become increasingly difficult,” he told AFP.

However, astronomers expect to spot many more interstellar objects in the coming years, particularly thanks to the new Vera C Rubin observatory in Chile. “This is just the beginning of an exciting new field, we’ve got a lot more to learn about these things – and what they can tell us about our galaxy,” said Cordiner.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, Belgium, Football, France, Media, Europe, Parents and parenting, Pregnancy, Sport, World Cup
Title – L’Equipe apologises to Belgian footballer Jérémy Doku for presenter’s comments | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ashifa-kassam
Link – L’Equipe apologises to Belgian footballer Jérémy Doku for presenter’s comments | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T19:40:42.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/22/lequipe-apologises-belgium-footballer-jeremy-doku-birth-child-presenter-comments

The French media outlet L’Équipe has apologised to the Belgian footballer Jérémy Doku after he was criticised by one of its pundits for saying he would duck out of the World Cup to be present at the birth of his first child.

News of the apology came as the Belgian football federation said Doku had made it back to London in time to be with his wife Shireen, who gave birth to a boy called Praise ⁠on Monday.

“Jeremy received news before yesterday’s match that the birth was imminent,” the team ⁠doctor, Brahim Hacene, said in a statement. “Everything went perfectly, and the mother, father, and baby are all doing wonderfully. Jérémy will rejoin the squad [on Tuesday] evening in Seattle.”

Last week Doku had told reporters that Shireen was due to give birth in the second week of July and, should Belgium still be in the tournament by then, he was hoping to go home for the birth . “It depends on when it happens, but it’s my first child, so I ‌would ⁠definitely want to be there,” said Doku, Belgium’s 24-year-old winger, who plays for Manchester City. “If you ask me what I want, my answer is that nobody wants to miss the birth of their first child … I know the federation supports its players and understands their situations. We’ll see what we can do.”

His comments drew short shrift from France Pierron, a presenter with L’Équipe, who on Friday cited the “hundreds of footballers who would kill” to be playing in Doku’s place at the World Cup. “You’re living out a childhood dream, yet you’re going to walk away ‌from it all to attend the birth of your child – a disgusting moment, if you’ll pardon the expression, where the dad is completely useless,” she said. “He just holds your hand and takes a photo.”

Her view echoed the criticisms already made last week, when one of Doku’s former youth coaches told Belgian media that the player had already made his choice by turning up at the World Cup. “It may sound harsh, but if you’ve chosen to be there, you’ve chosen to play,” Peter Janssens told the news site VRT. ”The baby will still be there afterwards.”

The former Belgium international Gert Verheyen made light of the decision, asking what Doku would do while his wife was giving birth. “The only thing you can say is: ‘You’re doing great, keep going,’” he said. It wasn’t long, however, before it was Pierron being criticised, amid a global conversation on the intersection of sport and modern-day fatherhood. As her remarks went viral, voices from across the world of football and beyond lined up behind Doku.

“Shame on you,” the content creator Caroline Salame, who played for Canada at the Under-17 World Cup in New Zealand, told the TV presenter on social media. “As someone who has played in a World Cup and who has also given birth, let me tell you this: the hardest thing I have ever done in this lifetime – and the thing that I am most proud of – is bringing my baby earthside,” she said. “And I do not know how I would have done that without my husband beside me. Birth can be extremely complicated; anything can happen.”

Pierron’s comments were also challenged by a fellow commentator on L’Équipe. The retired boxer Brahim Asloum, who won light-flyweight gold for France at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, immediately took umbrage with Pierron’s claims, describing the birth of a child as a singular, once in a lifetime moment. “A baby is your entire life. A World Cup is over when it is over,” he said.

As a furore mounted online, Pierron appeared on social media to apologise. “These remarks are solely my own and in no way reflect a collective position. I understand that they may have shocked, offended or hurt some of you, and I am sorry for that. My intention was never to minimise the place or role of fathers with their partners and children,” she wrote.

In a statement published late on Sunday, L’Équipe distanced itself from the comments made by Pierron, saying they had “shocked” many of its viewers. “L’Équipe distances itself with these remarks, which are far removed from [its] values and apologises to the footballer concerned and more broadly to its audience,” it said. The TV channel of the French sports newspaper was reported by AFP to have said on Monday that Pierron would remain off-air until the end of the current season of her show on 3 July.

Critics remained unimpressed. “It seems ridiculous to me that we still have these big outrages, when men talk about wanting to do the most basic human thing imaginable, which is to be present when their baby is born,” said Jeremy Davies of the Fatherhood Institute in the UK.

He described Doku as setting a “refreshing” example by demonstrating that one can be more than just a top-ranked footballer. “To me, it’s like we haven’t moved on from the sort of gladiators in the Colosseum. You know, these kinds of masculine heroes who are supposed to have no softness to them, no family commitments or anything like that,” he said. “You can be a soft and loving man and hard as nails on the pitch, if you like.”

He applauded the footballer for having the “perspective” to see the broader picture. “In the end, fine – football is important, everybody loves football, everybody gets terribly excited. It’s just a job, on some level, too,” he said. “This footballer gets it, and it seems to me that’s a healthy attitude in life. And if more of us had it, maybe the world would be a better place, you know?”

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, World Cup, Mexico, Football, Sport
Title – Julián Quiñones, Blackness in Mexico and the complexities of national identity | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/raul-vilchis
Link – Julián Quiñones, Blackness in Mexico and the complexities of national identity | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T12:22:53.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/22/julian-quinones-mexico-world-cup-blackness-race-identity

O n a March night in Guadalajara in 2024, Club América were winning El Clásico Nacional. Julián Quiñones, their star player, had scored and headed toward the sideline. Then a shout at Quiñones, who is Black, rang out from the stands. ¡Puto negro! A racial slur.

Moments later, monkey noises were heard in the stands. The scene was familiar to anyone who follows Mexican soccer. Cell phone videos captured it. Commentators analyzed it the next day. Officials condemned it. Investigations were announced. For a few days, the Mexican game went through its ritual of shock.

Then the season continued. Another match, another transfer rumor, another refereeing controversy. That June, Quiñones moved to Al-Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia, where he would become the league’s top scorer. The incident was lost in the vast archive of soccer’s weekly dramas. Or so it seemed.

Less than two years later, another Mexican stadium produced another uproar. This time it was a celebration.

On 11 June, Quiñones scored Mexico’s first goal in the 2026 World Cup, the opening triumph in a tournament played on home soil for the first time in four decades. Tens of thousands rose to their feet. Television commentators chanted his name. Images of the striker draped in the Mexican flag flooded social media. The same culture that had publicly denigrated him hailed him as a national hero.

This week, Quiñones returned to the same stadium in Guadalajara where the racist chant had been heard in 2024. Before Mexico’s second group-stage game against South Korea on Thursday, crowds wearing Mexico jerseys and oversized sombreros gathered outside the hotel housing the national team. When Quiñones appeared they shouted in unison: ¡Quiñones, hermano, ya eres Mexicano! “Quiñones, brother, now you are Mexican.”

It was an embrace for the Mexican national, but still a tentative one. The chant is usually reserved for foreigners who have shown an affinity with Mexico, not for Mexican passport holders like Quiñones.

These moments, so close in time yet distant in spirit, capture all the contradictions of how modern Mexico is grappling with its own national identity.

Karma Frierson, who teaches Black studies at the University of Rochester and has written about Black culture in Mexico, said the discourse around Quiñones’s goal, and the fact that he is Black, was one of surprise. “This surprise speaks to the expectations people still have about what a Mexican person looks like. So, you have this dissonance,” she said. “You know that the player, by virtue of wearing the jersey is of that nationality, but you never imagined that person would look a certain way.”

Q uiñones, 29, was born in Colombia, arrived in Mexico in 2015 and forged his career in Liga MX. He became a naturalized Mexican citizen in 2023 and was first called up to the national team that same year. His inclusion on the World Cup squad raises a question about race that Mexico has tried to avoid for much of its modern history: who has the right to be Mexican?

The answer is wrapped up in the national soccer program’s future, which increasingly lies beyond Mexico’s borders.

For much of the 20th century, the national team was primarily comprised of players developed within its own territory. Today, however, the pool of Mexican talent extends across a transnational landscape shaped by migration and family networks.

It is possible that the most important soccer recruiting ground for the Mexican federation is no longer a state within Mexico, but rather in California or Texas. A new generation of Mexican-American players is emerging north of the border, including more Black players. Two of the most promising young prospects for Mexico’s program were born in the United States to Mexican mothers and African American fathers. Antonio Leone and Da’vian Kimbrough, both born in California, have represented Mexico’s youth teams.

Other recent stars have come from farther south. In recent years, Giovani and Jonathan dos Santos played on the national team. Their father was the Afro-Brazilian footballer Zizinho; their mother is Mexican. Melvin Brown, who was of Jamaican descent through his paternal grandfather, represented Mexico at the 2002 World Cup.

None of these players fit neatly into the visual stereotype often associated with Mexican nationality.

“Historically, Mexican society doesn’t talk about race,” Frierson said. “The promise of mestizaje was that there is no race because we are all one race.”

The concept of mestizaje – the idea that Mexico emerged from the fusion of Indigenous and European peoples – became one of the founding myths of the modern Mexican state. After the Mexican revolution, it offered an appealing narrative for a fragmented nation. Instead of emphasizing difference, it emphasized mixing. Instead of multiple peoples, it envisioned a single people.

Versions of this ideology emerged throughout Latin America, and served as a powerful contrast to the racial order of the United States. While the US openly grappled with segregation and racial classification, many Latin American countries embraced the notion that mixing itself had dissolved such distinctions.

The promise was seductive. The reality proved to be more complex.

Discrimination and racism against Black people in Mexico are still prevalent but often dismissed. When South Africa hosted the World Cup in 2010, Mexico’s largest broadcaster Televisa featured characters in blackface and afro wigs wearing animal skins and wielding spears. In 2018, on major broadcaster TV Azteca, reporter Carlos Guerrero appeared in blackface during a broadcast of a Liga MX game . The networks received criticism but many people brushed the incidents off as jokes.

Black players in Liga MX – Colombian striker Darwin Quintero, who played for América, and Panamanian defender Felipe Baloy, who played for Santos Laguna – have accused rival teams of racist insults. In 2021, Ecuadorian Félix Torres, a defender for Santos Laguna, left the field in tears after reporting alleged racist insults from Germán Berterame, then a player for Atlético de San Luis. While the Mexican Football Federation investigated those incidents, officials said they could not be corroborated and no disciplinary action was taken.

Quiñones himself mostly shrugged off the 2024 racist incident in Guadalajara. In an Instagram statement at the time, he spoke out against online harassment of his daughters – “you can say whatever you want to me, but don’t mess with my daughters” – and said he was “mentally strong enough to handle any kind of insult, especially when it’s about my skin color, which is the most frequent type of message I receive”.

Having a Black player excel at a home World Cup may help bring race to the forefront of Mexican culture in a way that it hasn’t before, Frierson said.

At the same time, Mexican players who travel to the US to play in Major League Soccer are also bringing new perspectives back home. Jonathan dos Santos, in a 2020 interview when he was playing for LA Galaxy, said he felt comfortable in the US because he didn’t receive racist taunts.

“It’s truly sad to hear the insults, the racism. I’ll never understand it,” he said at the time. (He said he also experienced racism in Spain, where he played for Barcelona and Villarreal.) “I think many countries have to learn from the United States regarding the respect shown to athletes.”

Opening up a discussion about race in the country’s national sport, could lead to a broader exploration of Mexico’s own history, which includes roots in Africa. During the colonial period, hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans were brought to New Spain. Their descendants built communities throughout the territory, especially in Veracruz and along the Costa Chica of Guerrero and Oaxaca. They participated in the formation of Mexican society from its very beginnings. Vicente Guerrero and José María Morelos were both heroes of Mexican independence with Afro-Mexican roots, though that heritage is not often mentioned.

“Blackness is incorporated into the very fabric of the nation,” Frierson said.

Seen from this perspective, it’s not just that Mexican soccer today is becoming more diverse. It’s that race in Mexico is becoming more visible.

Soccer, at times, can be a national mirror. A national team represents not just a country, but an idea of the country. The World Cup is one of the few remaining spaces where nations are publicly showcased. Every starting lineup announcement, every anthem, every goal becomes a debate – sometimes conscious, often unconscious – about who belongs.

Mexico is changing. Digital nomads from Europe and the US are setting up shop in Mexico City, opening trendy coffee shops and stores that resemble those in other international capitals. People from Haiti, Cuba and South America have settled in the country at unprecedented levels, some discouraged from migrating to the US. And some Mexicans who had been living in the US for decades are now returning home with their American families, either voluntarily or after deportations. The Mexican national team is beginning to show a bit of that diversity: the World Cup squad includes a player born in Spain, Álvaro Fidalgo; another born in Alaska, Obed Vargas; one born in Argentina, Santiago Giménez; and Quiñones, who was born in Colombia.

Quiñones is challenging the expectations many still hold about what a Mexican is supposed to look like. Mexican diversity has always existed, but soccer possesses a unique ability to bring that reality to light.

A player scores a goal. The crowd rises. Cameras search for a face. And, for an instant, a nation contemplates itself. Not necessarily as it imagined itself to be, but as it has been all along.

Keyword – Global development
Trefwoorden – Myanmar, South and central Asia, Human rights, World news, Conflict and arms, War crimes
Title – How paragliding soldiers carrying bombs rain destruction on Myanmar’s villages | Myanmar | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/harriet-barber
Link – How paragliding soldiers carrying bombs rain destruction on Myanmar’s villages | Myanmar | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T10:00:22.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jun/22/myanmar-paragliders-junta-bombs-light-aircraft-civilians

T hey appear after midnight, slowly crossing Myanmar’s skies. The motorised paragliders are improvised aircraft, suspending small metal frames from brightly coloured sails. They drift over a patchwork of villages, farmland, forests and winding rivers.

Each “paramotor” has two or three soldiers strapped in – one piloting, the others holding the bombs. Their craft are powered through the sky by small, rattling engine propellers, heading towards the lowland villages. Finally, switching their engines off to glide low and near silently through the dark, the men throw their explosives.

The destruction is immediate and devastating. Attacks can last several minutes, with bombs weighing up to 16kg (35lb) each dropped in quick succession. Homes are torn apart, schools and religious buildings destroyed – and civilians killed or injured as they sleep. The villages descend into panic and confusion, with families fleeing into the darkness and emergency workers digging through debris for the wounded.

“People try to run to the bomb shelters. But there is usually not enough time,” says Lwan Thu, an activist in the Sagaing region, which has been heavily bombed by the paramotors. “There are scores of dead and injured after the strikes.”

Often, as rescue teams are still digging through the rubble, the telltale chainsaw-like sound of engines heralds the gliders’ return. In these “double-tap” attacks, more bombs are dropped, striking people who have rushed to help victims of the first blasts.

What began as a handful of attacks in late 2024 has rapidly evolved into a nationwide tactic as Myanmar’s civil war grinds into its sixth year. Data collected by the conflict monitor Acled recorded just two incidents involving paramotors in 2024. By 2025, that figure had surged to 353. More than 100 attacks were recorded in the first five months of this year alone.

In 2025, the Myanmar military added another aerial asset: the gyrocopter, a small rotor-propelled aircraft capable of flying faster, higher and over longer distances than paramotors. Acled recorded 69 incidents involving gyrocopters in 2025 and a further 74 in the first four months of 2026.

The data suggests the attacks have resulted in hundreds of casualties and deaths, though analysts say the true toll is probably higher.

“We’re facing constant strikes by these new aircraft,” says Lwan Thu. “They are using them to attack everything – civilians, hospitals, religious ceremonies, residential homes.”

Myanmar’s military junta seized power five years ago, crushing a decade of democratic reforms and imprisoning much of the elected government. Peaceful protests against the coup met lethal force, igniting a nationwide conflict between the junta, pro-democracy resistance groups and long-established ethnic armed groups. Thousands of people have since been killed and more than 3.6 million displaced, according to UN figures.

In recent years, resistance forces have seized territory from the military, prompting the junta to expand its air power with improvised aircraft – typically used by explorers and hobbyists – to strike opposition-held areas beyond the reach of its ground troops. “It’s a significant development in this conflict,” says Su Mon, a senior Asia-Pacific analyst at Acled. “The impact is devastating.”

Unlike military jets, these lightweight aircraft require little infrastructure, use small amounts of fuel, are cheap to buy and are hard to track, evading detection from early-warning systems. Soldiers can be trained to operate them in a matter of days, rather than the years needed to fly conventional aircraft.

Buying paragliders, which are widely available commercially, also allows the junta to evade international sanctions targeting the military’s access to arms.

“The junta essentially buys and assembles commercial motorised paragliders. Then they send up soldiers to drop mortar shells,” says Shayna Bauchner, a Human Rights Watch researcher.

The geographic spread of the attacks appears to be increasing. Acled data shows paramotor attacks were recorded in 42 townships during 2025. In the first four months of 2026, they were used in an additional six townships.

For every two attacks there is at least one death recorded, says Acled, with some leading to dozens of fatalities. The group has recorded at least 321 deaths from paramotor and gyrocopter attacks since 2025.

One attack on a Buddhist festival at a primary school in October killed at least 24 people, including three children, and wounded 61. A witness told Fortify Rights, a human rights organisation : “[The paramotors] had no lights … I didn’t hear any engine sounds at all.

“We later found out that the paramotors turned off their engines when they approached the school compound and glided over with their parachutes.”

One woman told Agence France-Presse in the aftermath: “Children were completely torn apart.” The next day, she said, they were still “collecting body parts”.

In January , a gyrocopter attacked a hospital in the Salingyi township, killing the hospital’s chief doctor and two other hospital staff. The next day, another gyrocopter bombed the cemetery where the doctor was due to be buried.

Lwan Thu says the last attack he witnessed was in March. At midnight, the air force bombed the area with a jet fighter, then attacked with paramotors. “Three people were killed and five buildings were destroyed. The bodies were only recovered in the morning,” he says.

On 1 June, the Mandalay Free Press, a Myanmar-based news agency, released a poster campaign advising civilians on how to protect themselves from a gyrocopter attack. “Immediately take cover in a well-built bomb shelter,” read one poster. “Avoid villages, densely populated schools, monasteries, hospitals and military bases as they may be targeted.”

Human rights groups say the consequences of the attacks are worsened by severe restrictions on aid access. “The ability for people who are injured, but not immediately killed, in these attacks to get the necessary medical care is extremely limited,” says Bauchner.

“Often we hear that a smaller number of people were killed directly, but then larger numbers die because of the lack of access to medical care and aid.”

The junta has systematically dismantled Myanmar’s healthcare system during its campaign of terror. It has arrested more than 870 healthcare workers affiliated with the anti-coup movement, closed private hospitals and attacked at least 263 healthcare facilities, according to Human Rights Watch .

Analysts and rights researchers say these aircraft are part of a wider pattern of escalating air attacks that have repeatedly been accused of violating international humanitarian law.

“The military is continuing to carry out war crimes, both deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, like how it is carrying out these paramotor and gyrocopter attacks,” says Bauchner.

She says the junta is continuing such operations, despite recent attempts to rehabilitate its image on the global stage.

Su Mon anticipates paramotor and gyrocopter attacks will expand across the country in the coming months, particularly given the limited ability of resistance groups to defend against low-flying aircraft.

“The result is not only physical danger but a profound psychological impact,” she says. “They are left feeling constantly insecure and constantly in fear.”

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – South Africa, Ultrarunning, World news, Africa, Sport
Title – Sweat, tears and camaraderie as 20,000 runners take on world’s largest ultramarathon | South Africa | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rachel-savage
Link – Sweat, tears and camaraderie as 20,000 runners take on world’s largest ultramarathon | South Africa | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T08:00:24.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/21/comrades-ultramarathon-south-africa

I n the early morning dark, thousands of runners waited, jostling with anticipation. South Africa’s national anthem rang out. Then the haunting swell of Shosholoza , first sung by Zimbabwean migrant workers in South Africa’s goldmines. Finally, that unmistakable, spine-tingling piano: Chariots of Fire.

Runners gather before the start of the marathon

5am. A cock crowed. A gun fired. The runners streamed across the start line of the Comrades marathon.

The Comrades is the world’s oldest and largest ultramarathon. The first race in 1921 took the runners 54.6 miles (88km) from Pietermaritzburg downhill to Durban on the coast. The following year the race was run in reverse, uphill back to Pietermaritzburg, and it has changed direction every year since, pausing only for the second world war and the Covid-19 pandemic. Over its 99 iterations, the route distance has averaged just under 55 miles.

L-R clockwise: Athletes gather before the start of the Comrades Marathon in Durban; supporters gathered to watch the start of the 2026 Comrades; the race begins

That first year, 34 runners, all white men, lined up for the race, conceived by the first world war veteran Vic Clapham as a way of honouring his fallen comrades. Sixteen of them finished. More than a century later, on 14 June, more than 20,000 people stood outside Durban city hall, hoping to make it to Pietermaritzburg before the 12-hour cutoff.

What started as an all-white, all-male test of physical endurance has become part of the fabric of South African life, something so ordinary that you would be hard-pressed to find someone here who does not know a Comrades finisher.

Running clubs bus in from all over the country. Security guards and shop workers line up alongside bankers and celebrities. And, for one day, every June, South Africa’s searing racial inequality seems to melt away.

Nomusa Shelembe, from the Run Alex team, passes through Pinetown

You hear it all around the race: every runner has their reason. William Seleka started running in March 2025, amid a deep depression after the break-up of his marriage. “I thought for me to stay alive, I had to keep myself busy,” he said, as he stretched before a run, outside the single room he rents in the Johannesburg township of Alexandra, two weeks before Comrades.

Seleka was persuaded to join Run Alex , a local club. Six months later, having never run further than 10km, he finished a 50km ultramarathon, from Johannesburg to Pretoria.

“I used to hear people saying, ‘This is Comrades, you are running from Durban to Pietermaritzburg.’ I said, ‘It’s insane, you can’t do that.’ But now we are facing reality – I’m doing that as well,” he said.

To train, Seleka ran at least 10km every weekday evening, after a day spent repairing appliances for fridge-maker Smeg. On Saturdays, the 38-year-old would run up to 50km with Run Alex. “Recovery,” he said, was a half marathon.

Seleka said he wanted to create a legacy for his 15-year-old son and three-year-old daughter. “I can’t wait to have my red cap and the medal to show my kids.”

William Seleka

On a Comrades “up run”, runners must climb about 1,800 metres (5,900ft) on their journey to Pietermaritzburg, 650 metres higher than Durban . This year, runners started in three batches, at 5am, 5.15am and 5.30am.

About 12 miles into the race, the sun began peeking above the horizon in Pinetown, a suburb above Durban. “Let’s go! Let’s go!” spectators shouted. Seleka appeared up the hill. “Good to see you,” he beamed, sweeping in for a glancing hug.

In 1923, Frances Hayward became the first woman to start and finish the Comrades. In 1935, Robert Mtshali was the first black man to complete the race. Nonetheless, with only white men officially allowed to compete, the Comrades seemed fated to stay what most ultramarathons remain today – a niche, elite pursuit.

L-R: A runner receives a leg-rub from a volunteer along the route in Camperdown; spectators cheer on the runners in Pinetown

That changed in 1975 when the privately run race was desegregated and also opened to women. South Africa at the time had been shut out of all major global sporting events in response to apartheid, driving the sport-obsessed country mad.

“Some people in the sporting world in South Africa had the idea that if they start desegregating some minor sports … it’ll show that South Africa is not as backward and racist a place as it’s made out to be,” said Ryan Lenora Brown, a journalist who has been covering the Comrades since 2017.

Then there was the introduction of TV in 1976. The single, heavily censored state channel started showing Comrades highlights. In 1986, it broadcast the entire, all-day race in full.

South Africans were mesmerised by the sight of delivery driver Hoseah Tjale going toe to toe with Bruce Fordyce, a professional athlete who won eight Comrades in a row from 1981.

Runners fill the road from Durban to Pietermaritzburg

“You would have these scenes in the 1980s of a white runner sharing a bottle of water with a black runner, which was such a small gesture, but such a huge thing in that society that was so divided,” said Brown.

Apartheid had forced black South Africans on to the lowest rungs of society. But Tjale and Sam Tshabalala, the first black man to win Comrades in 1989, were proof that they could do anything.

L-R: Supporters take photos with a runner in Pinetown; spectators line the route out of Camperdown

As the runners left Durban, they wound their way upwards through lush trees, open fields and small towns. Families braaied by the roadside. Running clubs handed out supplies from gazebos pumping out music. Everybody was cheering the runners, willing them on.

By the halfway point, most were walking up each hill. At the Run Alex aid station, Seleka changed into a spare pair of shoes. It was the wrong choice: by 34 miles he was in agony. The only way he could distract himself from the pain was by counting or singing.

William Seleka near Camperdown

“I’m not a person who goes to church,” he said. “But on that day I started to sing. I don’t know where those songs came from.”

Around 46 miles, Seleka found another Run Alex aid station and put on a clubmate’s shoes. He pushed on.

The light turned golden. Some runners danced across the finish line, arms outstretched. Some were arm in arm, complete strangers who had become friends on the road. Many stumbled over the line, or collapsed and were carried away on waiting stretchers.

Darkness began to fall. Guns were fired for the first 12-hour cutoff, and then the second. Around a third of Comrades runners finish in the final hour .

An official prepares to fire the shot to mark the final 12-hour cutoff

South Africa’s pacing “buses” are unique in long-distance running for their size and camaraderie, racers singing and chanting, led by a metronomic pacer, known as a bus driver. Perhaps the biggest cheer of the day came when the final 12-hour bus driver, Shahieda Thungo , crossed the line at 11:56:34, carrying dozens of runners home with her. About 91% of runners finished this year, according to The Running Mann blog.

L-R: Jenny Da Silva misses the 12-hour cutoff time by seconds; an exhausted runner rests shortly after crossing the finish line in Pietermaritzburg

Then there were those who just missed the cutoff. At exactly 5.30pm, a wall of people stepped across the finish line. Two women ran into them, seconds short. One, wearing the green bib of a 10-time finisher, doubled over in anguish, her face in her hands.

Seleka cried as he crossed the line at 10:30:49. He was thinking of his sister, whose kidneys failed in 2018. “At the start, everything changed,” he said. “I said this pain today is for my younger sister.”

A runner crosses the finish line of the 2026 Comrades Marathon in Pietermaritzburg

Everyone needs a reason if they are to finish the Comrades, said Seleka, who was already planning his race next year. “If you’re going through a lot, once you say why, then it’s a mission,” he said. “After Comrades is accomplished, it’s a new chapter again.”

Keyword – Music
Trefwoorden – Pop and rock, Music, Culture, R&B
Title – Ibeyi: Offering review – French twin sisters master the balance between mysticism and edge | Pop and rock | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rachel-aroesti
Link – Ibeyi: Offering review – French twin sisters master the balance between mysticism and edge | Pop and rock | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-19T08:00:26.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jun/19/ibeyi-offering-review

H aving ceded creative control to numerous collaborators on 2022’s Spell 31 (veteran pop songwriter Eg White; rappers Pa Salieu and Berwyn), Naomi and Lisa-Kaindé Diaz return to first principles for their fourth album. Written mainly by the sisters themselves, Offering recentres Ibeyi in their own sonic universe: fusing the influences of their Cuban percussionist father and Parisian upbringing, the twins sing in multiple languages, summoning ancient lore over intricate beats, transcendent harmonies and brooding distortion.

Self-sufficiency crops up as a lyrical theme, too: “One thing is for sure, I’m who I was looking for,” goes the refrain of Baba, which matches incantatory vocals with an irresistibly grimy bassline. (Perhaps the fact this is being released on their own label rather than XL, the taste-making British indie they were previously signed to, is also relevant here.)

That said, it would be a contradiction to suggest Ibeyi are going back to basics: there has never been anything straightforward about their sound. It’s a heady brew that can overwhelm in large quantities, but this finely tuned, melodically strong collection provides the perfect dosage. The duo have mastered their Rosalía-like balance between otherworldly mysticism and grinding edge: on opener Olokun, urgent chanting about an ocean deity walks the line between euphoria and doom, while celestial R&B gets a gratifyingly industrial tinge on Moshpit. Yet it’s the truly heavenly vocal interplay on the spine-tingling Good Life that feels like the Diazes’ most impressive accomplishment: an offering you’d be a fool to refuse.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Canada, Healthcare industry, Americas, World news, Health, Work & careers
Title – Canadian healthcare staff decry ‘cruel hoax’ after scam email promises paid day off | Canada | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/leyland-cecco
Link – Canadian healthcare staff decry ‘cruel hoax’ after scam email promises paid day off | Canada | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T17:30:23.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/22/canadian-healthcare-staff-scam-email-paid-day-off

For years, healthcare staff in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador have felt overworked and underappreciated. Turnover, burnout and thinning resources were pushing workers in the sector to a breaking point.

So when the email titled “June Holiday” arrived in thousands of inboxes, they felt a moment of overdue joy.

The message thanked them for their professionalism and their work ethic, citing hundreds of hours of recent mandatory overtime to implement a new digital platform called CorCare. The email said the province “recognizes the work employees have carried through a significant period of change”, and, as a token of appreciation, it promised to reward them with a paid day off.

“Thank you for the care, professionalism, and commitment you continue to bring to N.L. Health Services and to the people and community we serve,” it said.

Recipients were told to simply click a link to register for the “June Holiday” on offer. The email was sent to staff from an outside domain: remailmail.com.

It was a sign that anyone hoping for a well-deserved day off was about to be disappointed.

The following day, they were informed that the message – and their paid vacation day – was in fact part of an internal cybersecurity test to track employees who clicked on the link.

When staff, many of whom were denied time off during the rollout of CorCare, learned they had been tricked, their reaction was disbelief and anger.

One union president said he and others were “disgusted” at the “cruel hoax” that targeted fatigued workers.

“Our members deserve better than to be taunted with the promise of a day off after the incredible amount of work and sacrifice they made to get CorCare up and running,” Jerry Earle, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees, said in a statement.

Earle also said that at least one person had quit after the email, calling it a “straw that broke the back” for burned-out employees.

Yvette Coffey, president of the Registered Nurses’ Union Newfoundland and Labrador, echoed those frustrations, telling CBC News that the stress associated with mandatory overtime, combined with denied vacation requests, had led people to quit during the rollout of CorCare.

She called the test “very insensitive and very disrespectful to our members” and called for and someone “to be held accountable for this one”.

Hospitals and healthcare networks across the country have become a target for hackers, who can freeze entire systems in pursuit of ransoms. Newfoundland in particular had good reason to worry about the threat of “phishing”, where malicious links are hidden in seemingly innocuous emails: in 2021, a cyber-attack took certain healthcare computer systems in the province offline for months.

Officials quickly apologized for last week’s particular email, however, calling for an internal investigation into how it was sent.

“We are taking a step back to review how these exercises are developed and communicated to ensure they reflect the respectful and supportive culture we strive to foster,” wrote Ron Johnson, the health board’s interim CEO. He later told reporters that the test “really missed a mark” and was “not reflective of how we value our employees”.

Other union leaders said the apology fell short of capturing the profound disappointment of staff.

“While I understand that cybersecurity awareness is important, especially in a healthcare setting, targeting a benefit like paid time off is disgusting,” said Sherry Hillier, the CUPE Newfoundland and Labrador president, in a statement.

“These workers are tired, burned out, and desperate for time off. As the employer, NL Health knows that and chose to exploit that feeling anyway.”

Keyword – Technology
Trefwoorden – AI (artificial intelligence), Data and computer security, US news, UK news, Australia news, Canada, New Zealand, Technology
Title – AI models that can take down governments and business months away, rare Five Eyes statement warns | AI (artificial intelligence) | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/sarah-basford-canales
Link – AI models that can take down governments and business months away, rare Five Eyes statement warns | AI (artificial intelligence) | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T13:00:24.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jun/22/anthropic-claude-fable-ai-model-artificial-intelligence-national-security

Powerful AI models capable of taking down governments and businesses are mere months away, cyber intelligence agencies for the Five Eyes have warned in a rare joint statement, urging leaders to “act now”.

The surprising public intervention by signals agencies for Australia, the US, the UK, New Zealand and Canada comes after the Trump administration earlier this month decided to block “foreign nationals” from using a much-hyped AI model built by tech company Anthropic, called Fable.

The statement, issued late Monday night Sydney time, said while AI “would help us improve cyber defence over time, it also accelerates the speed, scale, and sophistication of cyber threats”.

“Frontier AI models are anticipated to exceed current industry expectations, fundamentally transforming both offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. The timeline is not years, it is months,” the warning by Five Eyes’ agencies said.

“In this environment, cyber resilience is integral to advancing business continuity, market confidence, and long-term value.”

The cybersecurity agencies said the leaps in AI models showed the technology would lower barriers for bad actors and increase the speed and complexity of attacks.

“A whole-of-organisation and whole-of-society response is required,” the statement continued.

“Cyber risk can no longer be treated as a purely technical issue. This is a core business risk and leadership responsibility.”

While no AI models or companies are mentioned in the statement by name, many around the world have their eyes on Anthropic’s advanced tier of tools.

One of the major tech company’s latest inventions is called Fable 5, a supposedly more community-friendly version of Mythos – a powerful AI model released earlier this year capable of detecting vulnerabilities in cyber systems that is only available to vetted organisations and companies because of concerns it could be exploited for bad.

Both of Anthropic’s models were suspended for use by “foreign nationals” in June by the US government, which cited advice by national security authorities.

Olivia Shen, an expert in national security and AI at the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre, said much of the world was focused on what happens next for Anthropic but there could be many more powerful AI models not far off on the horizon.

“I think we have to anticipate that the next Mythos or the next Fable is just around the corner,” Shen said.

“We can only see what’s been released, but there could be other models being developed by the likes of China, or other states and other actors and companies, that are just as advanced.”

In March, the Albanese government signed Anthropic as the first company on to its national AI plan.

The non-binding memorandum of understanding means companies agree to share details of AI progress with the government and “promote safety”.

The government’s national plan promotes a light-touch approach on regulating the sector in a bid to capture economic and productivity benefits from the technology.

Keyword – US news
Trefwoorden – US immigration, Ohio, US news, Ukraine, US politics, Europe
Title – A Ukrainian family built a community in Cleveland. Now, they face deportation | US immigration | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/stephen-starr
Link – A Ukrainian family built a community in Cleveland. Now, they face deportation | US immigration | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T14:45:33.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/21/ohio-ukrainian-family-deportation

Tamila Vashchuk and her husband, Mykola, are minor celebrities in this corner of Ohio .

The Ukrainian couple have appeared on the cover of local magazines and been invited onto morning television shows. En route to building a successful pierogi food business , they’ve met with the governor. A recent law graduate from Cleveland State University, Mykola is hoping to do his bar exams someday. Most Sundays, they volunteer at the local church.

But now, the family faces an immigration court hearing they believe could see them deported back to Ukraine , where they would struggle to treat their son’s illness and where Russia’s ferocious assault has increased in recent weeks.

Four years ago, Tamila noticed their 10-year-old son, whom they asked not to be named, wasn’t growing physically as they expected he would.

“His appetite was so low. He was not gaining weight,” she recalls.

Facing astronomical medical and testing expenses in Ohio, Tamila and her son decided to temporarily return to their hometown, Kyiv, where they knew they could get their son’s health assessed at a cost they could afford.

Before they did, Tamila made numerous trips to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Cleveland to ensure that if they left the US, they could re-enter the country without problems. She also called Customs and Border Protection officials at the Cleveland airport, from whom she received similar advice.

“We were told repeatedly that due to the humanitarian parole stamps in our passports, we would be re-admitted to the US without any issues,” she says.

But when their son’s treatment ended in Ukraine and the family came back to the US through Boston Logan international airport in December 2022, they were immediately issued with removal orders, having allegedly violated the terms of the parole, which prohibit leaving the US.

“The officer said: ‘Technically, you have broken the parole.’ Our brains were absolutely melted,” recalls Mykola, who does not face deportation, having entered the US just once.

Tamila and her son now face a court hearing, initially set for late June but which has been rescheduled for August, that could see them taken into custody and deported.

“I have two master’s degrees. We know this country. We love this country,” Tamila says. “We just want to stay here.”

If deported, the health of their child, whose daily medication to treat his hormonal deficiency must be refrigerated at all times, would be at significant risk.

All the while, several judges at Cleveland’s immigration court are noted for being especially unforgiving.

TRAC, a research center at Syracuse University, found that immigration judges based in Cleveland have been denying asylum applications at rates of more than 70% for years. The judge assigned to the Vashchuks’ case has the highest asylum denial rate in the court, and one of the highest in the country.

What’s more, the court has also become a place where ICE agents regularly detain people .

Questions sent to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asking whether the family’s potential deportation is an excessive punishment given the health risk and potential threats to their lives from the conflict were not directly answered.

A statement from a DHS spokesperson said: “In December of 2022, Tamila Vashchuk and her son … attempted to illegally re-enter the US through Boston, without valid travel documents. They were admitted to the US in June of 2022 under the Uniting for Ukrainians humanitarian parole program but traveled outside of the US without permission and without valid travel documents. They both will receive full due process, pending the outcome of their immigration proceedings in August.”

Russia’s years-long targeting of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which has seen its electricity generation capacity reduced by 50% due to near-nightly bombing raids, means that if they are deported to Ukraine, keeping the son’s medication refrigerated would be near impossible. On top of that, there aren’t steady supplies of the medicine.

“The doctor was saying that the supply in Ukraine is unreliable, and he has to take it until he is 18,” says Mykola.

“In our apartment building, there is no electricity, no fridge, no heating, no water.”

The Vashchuks aren’t the only Ukrainians facing mounting problems in the US. Temporary protected status (TPS) for an estimated 103,000 Ukrainian nationals is set to end in October .

Last year, the Trump administration froze the Uniting for Ukraine program, which allowed more than 235,000 people fleeing the war to enter the US. Trump has frequently criticized Ukraine and its political leadership for refusing to bend to Russia’s demands.

All the while, Russia’s assault on Ukraine has escalated.

In recent weeks, dozens of people have been killed and hundreds injured in Dnipro, Kyiv and Kharkiv in some of the worst attacks since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

All this has fueled human rights groups to call on the Trump administration to extend immigration resources for Ukrainians in the US.

A report released in February by Global Refuge, a Maryland-based non-profit, found that “Country conditions in Ukraine continue to meet the statutory requirements for TPS, including armed conflict and other extraordinary conditions that affect the ability of nationals to safely return”.

The US Department of State has categorized Ukraine as a “level four: do not travel” country due to what it calls the risk of “active ground combat, frequent shelling, missile and drone attacks on populated areas and civilian infrastructure”.

While the Uniting for Ukraine program that the Vashchuks entered the US on prevents holders from being deported, Mykola says that immigration judges have discretionary authority “and can make whatever decision they deem appropriate. I don’t know what’s going to be in the judge’s mind.”

Historically, Cleveland has been home to one of the largest Ukrainian communities in the country, which began to grow in the early 1900s as people left poverty and famine to seek work in factories. Today, the city’s suburbs are dotted with large eastern orthodox churches and, since Russia’s invasion, the community has grown by several thousand people, fueling a host of local cultural festivals.

“We work in the public school systems and we have seen every single Ukrainian student graduate on time and every single one be accepted into post-secondary education programs,” says Patrick Kearns, executive director of Re:Source Cleveland, a non-profit that works with immigrants in Ohio’s Cuyahoga county.

“They have worked incredibly hard when they get here. They’ve been nothing but a boon to our economy. It’s unfortunate to see that our policies haven’t kept pace with where they were when we [first] welcomed these folks several years ago.”

Kearns says that the bipartisan Ukrainian Adjustment Act – a bill that would give certain Ukrainians in the US a pathway to permanent residency but that’s failed to gain traction among lawmakers – should be moved forward.

“We’d like to see a comprehensive approach. They are an asset to the community,” he says.

The looming threat of deportation has made it impossible for the Vashchuk family to invest in or plan for their already successful food business. Their food production business back in Kyiv is on life support due to the war. They petitioned to have the removal proceedings dismissed, but that was denied.

“We have appealed for help from local politicians but heard nothing back,” says Mykola.

“We have parents in Kyiv, and they say this is the worst it’s been.”

Keyword – Film
Trefwoorden – Steven Spielberg, Film, ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Empire of the Sun, Culture
Title – ‘Once my tummy stopped shaking, I was absorbed by the scale, spectacle and wonder’: your Steven Spielberg film favourites | Steven Spielberg | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/guardian-readers,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/alfie-packham
Link – ‘Once my tummy stopped shaking, I was absorbed by the scale, spectacle and wonder’: your Steven Spielberg film favourites | Steven Spielberg | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-20T12:00:02.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/20/readers-favourite-spielberg-films-close-encounters-et-raiders-hook

ET the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

ET is my favourite Spielberg film. It was the first I ever saw at the cinema, when I was eight years old, at Bolton Odeon in 1982. It was also the first film that made me cry – not just cry, but sob all the way home on the bus. I remember feeling completely confused by the fact that I was so happy and yet so sad at the same time. I watched the film with my mum and some of her friends from the Gingerbread Club, a single parents’ organisation that arranged social events and outings, mainly for single mothers. At a time when there was still a stigma attached to being a single parent, it provided a sense of community and support.

Looking back, I think part of the reason I connected so strongly with ET was that it featured a single mum rather than the perfect nuclear family that dominated so many films and TV programmes of the time. It felt much closer to my own reality, and that made me love the film even more. That Christmas, my favourite present was an ET doll with a light-up stomach and glowing fingertip. I adored it. More than 40 years later, I still love the film dearly and never hesitate when someone asks me what my favourite film is. Even now, hearing a few notes of John Williams’s score is enough to bring tears to my eyes within seconds. Andrea, 51, Manchester, UK

Hook (1991)

Universally touted as a Spielberg flop. So much so, that even Spielberg himself started to regret ever making the film. All of this is inconsequential to its meaning for me as a child of the 90s. The film is a trusted comfort. I can quote all the dialogue, and even use phrases from it in my day-to-day life. The casting, the effervescently sad Robin Williams as the boy who accidentally grew up, the lawyer jokes, the warm haze that permeates the film. I remember it being played on free-to-air many times as a child and having my own – pardon the pun – pirated copy. I returned to this film often as a child, and still return to it at least once a year now, when a dose of nostalgia is needed. So despite Spielberg’s protestations, it is my favourite of his oeuvre for many selfish reasons. Rhea, Melbourne, Australia

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind will always be the Spielberg movie that means the most to me, as much for the circumstances that led to me seeing it as the wonderful film itself. I was five years of age and my mum decided to take my sister and I to see a movie double bill at a cinema in nearby Chester. From memory, the films we were meant to see were a Spider-Man movie that was actually made for TV, and a much older, Ray Harryhausen-animated, Sinbad film. Long story short, my dad dropped us at the wrong cinema, on the opposite side of town, and my mum decided we should see whatever was showing there rather than venturing through an increasingly dark, wet evening.

The only “suitable” movie was Close Encounters, although my mum said numerous times before buying the tickets that she was worried I might find it scary. Needless to say, her saying that made me feel very nervous indeed! Up until that point, my only issue with seeing a movie with the words “of the Third Kind” in the title was that I hadn’t seen the first two films (I was similarly confused when the crawling text at the beginning of the original Star Wars movie referred to it as “Episode IV”).

Anyway, I sat in the cinema next to my mum, quaking like crazy at this scary movie she was making me watch. But not for long! About 15 minutes in, I famously announced that my tummy had stopped shaking and from that point on I was utterly absorbed by this film of such mindblowing scale, spectacle and wonder. I vividly remember going to bed that night and asking my mum to leave the curtains open so I could see the stars. Spielberg’s genius had opened my very young mind and made it suddenly more curious as to what magic there might be out there. More importantly, I wasn’t afraid to look for it. Scott Harrison, 54, north Wales, UK

Always (1989)

Always, starring Holly Hunter, Richard Dreyfuss and John Goodman, is my feelgood movie. Funny, heartbreakingly sad, great action and classic dialogue: “Girl clothes!” Holly and Richard at their peak, their chemistry was excellent and that they are not your typical Hollywood handsome made you love them more. I have to watch this film every couple of years and I always laugh and always messy-cry and it never fails to reaffirm my faith in people. Spielberg made the perfect love story, but its joy is so often overshadowed by his summer blockbusters. Karen Cusick, 61, Devon

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Raiders, for its propulsive energy and giddy excitement as Indiana Jones cracks his whip through a booby-trapped temple in the South American jungle. Also choosing Nazis as the villains (and snakes!) was a masterstroke that helps keep the plot itself timeless. Steven Spielberg tips his fedora to the cliffhanger serials of the 1930s and the Tintin stories to bring us the adventure of a lifetime!

Spielberg’s name translates as “play mountain” in German and he brings that playfulness to the screen from the opening shot of the Paramount logo transitioning into a mountaintop in the Peruvian jungle as Indy searches for hidden treasures, before getting caught in snowbound Himalayan bar fights, foot chases through Cairo and an exhilarating truck chase through the desert. As you catch your breath, the chemistry between Indy and Marion has the alchemy of a 1930s screwball comedy. Niall Laverty, Dublin, Ireland

Empire of the Sun (1987)

For me, it is Empire of the Sun . It was one of the first major Hollywood productions allowed to film in communist China, in Shanghai. It is also faithful to JG Ballard’s excellent book. In fact, I can’t read the book now without seeing young Christian Bale as Jamie/Jim. The imagery is extraordinary, the acting feels real, and John Williams’s score is beautiful. The opening scene, with coffins floating down the Yangtze as Suo Gân plays in the background, hooked me immediately. I think I first saw it in year 11, towards the end of term, when our history teachers played it for us.

I already loved history, so the setting was the perfect recipe for me. But what really stayed with me was Jim himself. I was only a few years older than him at the time, and I remember wondering how I would have coped in his situation: separated from his parents, forced to fend for himself and having to grow up amid some awful scenes. I didn’t much like the conclusion I came to. There are scenes I still think about: the young Japanese pilot, the “difficult boy” scene, the atom bomb, and that extraordinary “Cadillac of the skies” moment. War might be the backdrop, but I don’t see it as a film about war. It is about imagination, resilience, choices and consequences. That is why it has stayed with me. Matthew Vandermeer, 50, Brisbane, Australia

The Fabelmans (2022)

I’m a high-school English and film studies teacher. I’m 49 – just a few months older than Close Encounters. The Fabelmans is my favourite film of all time, and is the capstone film we watch to finish my film studies class at Appleton West High School. In it, Spielberg explicitly tells the story of his own childhood and adolescence and his family’s influence on him becoming a film-maker, but he also uses that story to reveal the “how” and the “why” of a lifetime influencing the emotions of his audiences.

Watching The Fabelmans for the first time is an almost religious experience for Spielberg fans around my age. It’s a meditation on growing up with the movies and a sincere attempt to show the next generation of film-makers and enthusiasts all they need to take up the mantle themselves. For fans of Spielberg and the rest of the “New Hollywood” visionaries, there is no better (or more accessible) film to demonstrate how the movies that move us are built on foundations of both science and art, how Spielberg is an absolute master of both, and how his parents’ influence in those polar-opposite arenas made him (and us!) capable of dreaming so vividly on screen.

The Fabelmans also features the most joyous final shot you’ll see in a movie. It made me leap out of my seat in 2022 the same way I did as a kindergartener when ET’s heart started glowing again 40 years prior. The whole film is an elaborate magic trick, and nothing is spoiled when Hollywood’s master emotional illusionist reveals his – and his family’s – biggest secrets. Nathan Ossmann, Appleton, Wisconsin, US

The Color Purple (1985)

The Color Purple tells the stories of sisters separated and of women who help each other through hard times and characters who grow and mature. It shows the downtrodden rising, features fantastic singing and love lasting through decades of separation. The Color Purple is Spielberg’s best film because it shows the strength of women to overcome their circumstances when they support each other. It also has an amazing soundtrack of gospel and jazz and blues. The scene that sticks in my mind is Shug singing gospel demanding her father forgive and accept her. Mandy Purcell, 54, Melbourne, Australia

Duel (1971)

I first read Duel as a very enjoyable short story in Playboy magazine early 1970s. I was elated to learn it had been made into a film and first saw it on UK Channel 4 TV. Now have it as a DVD, regularly watch it, pleased that the lead is played by Dennis Weaver whom I recall from 1950s TV as Chester in Gunsmoke, an American western series. I am mesmerised by the way Spielberg captures the menace of the anonymous driver in the equally anonymous, oversized, unmarked, rust-brown truck, repeating the same conceit – the truck appearing from nowhere to intimidate, bumper to bumper. It’s a one-trick pony but Spielberg makes it fresh every time the bullying takes place. And the ending. Literally a cliffhanger, as an intimidated car driver abandons his vehicle at a cliff’s edge while the truck follows, over the edge and to oblivion. Very clever for a directorial debut. Mike Abbott, 83, London, UK