Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – US Open, Golf, Sport, US sports, European Tour, PGA Tour
Title – US Open golf 2026: final round – as it happened | US Open | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/scottmurray
Link – US Open golf 2026: final round – as it happened | US Open | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T23:22:56.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2026/jun/21/us-open-golf-2026-final-round-updates-wyndham-clark-live

Bryan Armen Graham was at Shinnecock Hills: his report has landed, below, and is a mere click away. At which point, this blog signs off. Congratulations to Wyndham Clark, the 2026 US Open champion! Commiserations to Sam Burns, who is getting closer and closer to US Open glory by the year – his last three finishes are now T9-T7-2 – and Tom Kim, who is back in the big time after a couple of quiet years. And thanks to you for sticking with myself, Dave Tindall and Matt Cooper over the four days. It’s been a blast. See you here for Birkdale next month? OK, it’s a date!

-4: Wyndham Clark -3: Sam Burns -1: Tom Kim E: JT Poston, Keith Mitchell, Scottie Scheffler +1: Joaquin Niemann, Tyrrell Hatton, Gary Woodland, Sam Stevens +2: Justin Rose, Aaron Rai, John Parry, Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Schauffele, Sahith Theegala

Then another nod to his locker-bothering antics at Oakmont last year, something he’s taken ownership of and for which he’s clearly sorry. “The first [US Open] was the breakthrough of knowing I can do it … this one was a lot of redemption … last year was so tough … a terrible year … I left this place in shambles … it’s amazing what a year can do … I’m leaving this Sunday as a champion and I am just so blessed … thank you, guys … happy Father’s Day, I love you so much!”

Then the inevitable question about the attitude of the gallery: “Yeah, New York really didn’t like me … I love you guys … but I get it … [some cheering and applause] … some of it is self-deserved … I did some unfortunate things last year that I really regret … I’ve been sorry multiple times and I’m still sorry … hopefully I can win you guys over eventually … but I get it, they’re rooting for Scottie! … grand slams only happen a few times … he’s gonna get it … he’s the best player in the world … but today is my day!”

A broad smile. More applause. That was a classy response given the borderline contempt he’s been subjected to by some sections of the gallery. And to be fair it was reciprocated by the punters who have stayed to watch the trophy hoist and speeches.

Clark is asked by NBC how it feels to lift the trophy again. “Pretty amazing … it seems just like yesterday … pretty similar, two putts to win … surreal, to be honest … I played some ugly golf the last two days but my putter and short game kept me in it … to make all the putts I did with my Ping putter that I love so much has been amazing … it comes down to believing that good things are going to happen and you’re going to make the putt … it’s been a grind … I haven’t played the prettiest golf … to make birdie [on 16] was the pivotal moment.”

The closing ceremony. First up, a silver salver for Wyndham Clark’s caddie, David Pelekoudas. Then the Jack Nicklaus Medals for Ryder Cowan and Jackson Koivun, this year’s co-low amateurs. Then the champion of the 126th US Open , who receives the Jack Nicklaus Gold Medal. Some warm applause at last! Finally the trophy is handed over, and lifted. More of that sweet-sounding applause. Where was that all afternoon? Better late than never!

Wyndham Clark started the day six clear; he was reeled in to a single shot. But he never so much as shared his lead. When he looked like buckling, he pulled some magic out of the hat. Nothing on a par with his 3-wood into 16 last night, that set up eagle, but some stuff that came close: his approach to 10 that set up a momentum-shifting first birdie of the day; his staunch birdie at 16, teasing in a 30-footer from the back of the green, just as Sam Burns and Tom Kim were threatening to finally catch him. A final round of 73 was enough, his work done long before: that 64 on the first day, all of those scrambles yesterday afternoon. It might not have been the prettiest US Open victory; it was certainly one of the grittiest. And all of that while fending off both the world number one and an antagonistic gallery. The toughest round Clark ever played, according to his pops, and he came through with flying colours. He’s now a two-time US Open champion. He’s earned that status.

Clark is congratulated by his caddie, Scottie Scheffler, his partner, several friends and family … and finally, a surprise, his father! Well it is Father’s Day after all. A huge hug. “So glad you could be here,” Clark mutters in his pop’s ear. “I’m so proud of you!” his dad returns. “That was the toughest round you ever played, and you were such a worker!” Tears and smiles. Clark deserves this sweet moment. He’s been through the wringer today, and come out smiling.

Wyndham Clark: 2026 US Open champion!

Clark taps in, spins around, celebrates with his caddie, and soaks up the … well, the reserved applause from the gallery who were never on his side. But he deserves a hell of an ovation: he’s just won the US Open , leading wire to wire after opening with a 64 on Thursday, and never relinquishing his lead, despite the field threatening to catch him. But every time they got close … Clark got clutch. What a performance!

-4: Clark (F) -3: Burns (F)

Scheffler tidies up for his par. A final round of 71, and that’s a tie for fourth at level par. And then …

Scheffler very nearly does chip in, as well. A delightfully judged clip bounced into the bank and rolled out to four feet. And then over to Clark, who has two putts to win the US Open … and he strokes it up to tap-in distance! A clenched fist as he celebrates his certain win, though he’ll not tap in before Scheffler tidies up! Muted applause, bordering on respectability, but that’s all he’s getting for now. Sam Burns meanwhile trudges off the practice green. So close. Again.

Scottie Scheffler won’t be completing the career slam this week. But he receives a warm ovation from the gallery anyway as he walks up to assess his final chip of the week, having bundled his ball through the back of the green. He’ll be desperate to get up and down for a share of fourth place. Chip in, and he’s sharing third with Tom Kim.

Wyndham Clark catches a good lie in the semi-rough to the right of the 18th fairway. Upon hitting his nine-iron, he reacts like he’s made a grievous error, moaning in despair. But his ball reaches the green. A good 50 feet from the pin, but it’s uphill, and two putts will secure the 32-year-old from Denver his second US Open in four years!

Tom Kim dribbles his birdie putt towards the hole at 18. No birdie, but that’s a kick-in par for a 70. Third place at the US Open: happy 23rd birthday, Tom!

-4: Clark (17) -3: Burns (F) -1: Kim (F) E: Poston (F), Mitchell (F), Scheffler (17)

Wyndham Clark bogeyed 18 last night. He can’t afford the same outcome now. And he doesn’t start well, carving his tee shot towards the fescue on the right. But the ball, which initially looks like scampering from the fairway, through the first cut, and into the tall stuff, stops a couple of feet short of the proper nonsense. Not perfect, but not a killer either. Up in the clubhouse, Sam Burns can’t sit still. If he doesn’t win this, he’ll see those putts at 17 and 18 again and again when he closes his eyes tonight. So close.

Clark steps up to take his putt … but he doesn’t like it, and withdraws. When he gets back into his routine, he still looks a little twitchy … and sends a nervy putt slipping by on the left. He tidies up for bogey, but it’s now just a one-shot lead going up the 72nd. Just! He’d have taken that at the start of the week, but perhaps not at the start of this round, given that six-shot advantage. But here we all are. The crowd cooed their approval at the miss, by the way. Of course they did.

-4: Clark (17) -3: Burns (F)

Clark is left with a putt of 70 feet. He lags it up to six. Another test upcoming. The business end of the US Open . Meanwhile up on 18, Tom Kim, having split the fairway with his tee shot, sends his second to six feet. Too late for glory, but he allows himself a warm smile anyway. It’s been a good week, and it is his birthday after all. Third place at the US Open won’t be too bad a present!

Clark’s tee shot at the par-three 17th finds the dancefloor. Not anywhere near the flag, but then it doesn’t have to be. That birdie on 16 should seal the deal, though nothing on major-championship Sunday is certain until the past putt drops.

Wyndham Clark’s putt from the back of the green rolls up a ridge, then down a fast slope. It looks like stopping short for a second, but somehow keeps on going, and drops for birdie! What an outcome, given the wild tee shot … and how close his approach came to dropping off the back of the green. But fortune favours the brave, and he was certainly that with both approach and putt. It’s a huge birdie, one that’s almost certainly won him this US Open … and shoved a few hollers back down the throats of the gallery that’s been baiting him all day. Tom Kim meanwhile can’t get up and down from sand at 17, and a brave charge from a previously out-of-sorts player comes to a quiet end.

-5: Clark (16) -3: Burns (F) -1: Kim (17)

Scottie Scheffler’s uphill 29-footer needs to go in. But like so many of his putts this week, it stops one turn short. The world number one’s been a little too tentative with the flat stick all week. He remains level par, and he’s all but cooked.

Clark from the centre of 16, 144 yards out. He sends his approach a little bit long and left, and the ball threatens to topple off the back. But it stays put on the back edge. Just. So close to potential disaster. Scheffler meanwhile sends his third from thick rough down the right into the heart of the green. He’ll need to make a 30-footer for birdie if he’s to have any realistic chance of making a play-off, his best remaining hope.

Scheffler splits the fairway at 16, then opts to go for the green. Driver off the deck! He carves it off into trouble down the right. Clark then powers out of the thick fescue, back onto the fairway. That’s a great shot, a great result considering the circumstances. And up on 17, Kim’s tee shot dribbles into the bunker to the right of the green. This is all still very much in the balance … but Clark remains in the box seat. No huge mistakes, and this is most likely his title. That’s what he has to tell himself, anyway.

Tom Kim isn’t out of this either! He lays up at the par-five 15th, backing his wedge game. The birthday boy – 23 today – wedges from 127 yards to nine feet, prowls around the putt awhile, then rolls it into the centre of the cup confidently! He yells in delight as the birdie putt drops. He’s just two off the lead, one off the clubhouse lead. The biggest two holes in his life coming up!

-4: Clark (15) -3: Burns (F) -2: Kim (16) E: Poston (F), Mitchell (F), Scheffler (15)

Poor Sam Burns, who enters the scorer’s room a study in dejection. A hige sigh. He sits in the chair, leans back, closes his eyes, and puts his hands to his head. Off comes the cap as he stares at the wall awhile, before finally getting down to the business of signing his card. It could still be the winning card, to be fair. Meanwhile Scottie Scheffler can’t make his birdie effort on 15, and his race is more likely than not run. But he’s not quite out of it yet either. Not least because Wyndham Clark has just yanked his tee shot at 16 into thick rubbish down the left of the par-five. Not a good lie at all.

Burns shoots 67; sets -3

Sam Burns, having gone to school on that putt, rolls his effort on a similar line … but it slides by the right lip. He falls to his knees while tossing his putter away – gently – with sadness. Two missed birdie chances on 17 and 18 could prove the difference. He signs for a 67 and sets a clubhouse target of -3, but wears the look of a man who thinks he might have come up just short yet again on US Open Sunday.

Wyndham Clark and Scottie Scheffler take turns to land their approaches at 15 pin high, spinning them back to 20 feet. Both left with uphill putts. Clark’s effort is never going in, always stopping a little short, but it’s close enough to tap in for par. Meanwhile up on 18, Keith Mitchell reads the line of his right-to-left slider perfectly … but doesn’t give it enough oomph. It stops one turn short and he tidies up for par. His fourth level-par 70 of the week, and he becomes the first-ever player in US Open history to make par in each of his four rounds!

Sam Burns sends his tee shot at 18 into the semi-rough down the right. Anticipating a flyer, he clubs down, and sends a nine-iron into the front of the green, the ball rolling up to 15 feet. A chance of birdie – and he’ll get a read from Keith Mitchell, whose second stops a couple of feet behind. Should it go in, he’ll post a clubhouse score that will challenge Wyndham Clark to close it out.

Xander Schauffele ends the week at +2. He’ll end the week in the top 15, and that’s the tenth time he’s done that in his ten appearances. What a record, without actually once winning it! It’s a sequence only matched in history by Willie Anderson and Bobby Jones, two bona-fide US Open legends. Tommy Fleetwood flings an arm around him; he finishes at +2 as well. At least Schauffele has a couple of majors to his name; poor Tommy is still looking for his first.

On 17, Burns hangs his head as his pusillanimous prod at his short downhill birdie putt dribbles apologetically towards the hole, then stops short. Par. And it’s a three-putt bogey for his playing partner Keith Mitchell, whose race is now almost certainly run. Par for Tom Kim at 15, but otherwise, the last few minutes have generated some much-needed positivity for the beleaguered leader.

-4: Clark (14) -3: Burns (17) -1: Kim (15) E: Poston (F), Mitchell (17), Scheffler (14)

From 33 feet on 14, Clark nearly makes one of the birdie putts of the week, a big right to left swinger that grazes the right-hand lip. But it somehow stays out. Not even the width of a dimple away. Then Scheffler clips that right-hand lip from similar distance, albeit along a straighter line. He’s got a bit excited with that, though, and it slingshots three feet to the left. And he doesn’t make the one coming back. Almost complete silence as the crowd process their hero’s error. The career slam might have to wait for another year. Clark remains at -4, Scheffler slips back to level par.

Scheffler and Clark both reach the 14th green in regulation. Neither particularly close to the pin. Scheffler was coming in from 200 yards; Clark, who had gone for broke with the big stick, will be a little bit disappointed to end up further away than his playing partner from 150 yards. Putting contest coming up, though with three shots still between the players, time is running out for Scheffler to make his move. Level par for his round so far, he’s not made a move towards Clark today; it’s Clark, at three over today, who has come back towards him.

Sam Burns has clearly decided to go for broke. Win or bust. He whistles a forensic arrow at the par-three 17th straight at the flag, to six feet. A huge chance for birdie that would give him a share of the lead. He was seven behind at the start of play.

Sam Burns with a bounceback birdie on the par-five 16th! He walks in a left-to-right slider from 20 feet and the crowd do their (much more reasonable) thing! We’ve got ourselves a US Open here all right.

-4: Clark (13) -3: Burns (16) -1: Mitchell (16), Kim (14), Scheffler (13) E: Poston (F)

Amid the hubbub, Clark does exceptionally well to bump his chip up from the bottom of the swale to eight feet. He’ll have a chance to salvage his par. Before he can have a go, Scheffler’s left-to-right birdie slider dies a death one dimple shy of the cup. A few joules more, and that was birdie. Scheffler turns with an agonised look on his face; he knows holes are running out. But Clark does him a favour by letting his par putt slide by on the low side. Off go the crowd again, delighting in his misery. This is getting both old, and increasingly embarrassing.

-4: Clark (13) -2: Burns (15) -1: Mitchell (15), Kim (13), Scheffler (13) E: Poston (F)

Pantomime nonsense at sporting events is all good and well. But this is getting really uncomfortable to listen to now. Scottie Scheffler’s second into 13, sent pin high to 20 feet, is met with love. Wyndham Clark’s approach topples off the back, ever so slowly, and the groans when the ball threatens to stop on the green, followed by the delighted cheers when it speeds away down the slope, are a bit much. The gallery need to raise their game.

Cowan and Koivun share low amateur

Ryder Cowan makes a birdie on 17 thanks to a shot that he could sell to the leaders for cash money. Were he not an amateur, that is. And were it actually possible. Anyway, one shot behind Jackson Koivun, in the house at +5, and needing a birdie, Cowan fires a go-for-it arrow over the bunker guarding the pin, front left, to seven feet. In goes the putt, and then he pars the last. And so that’s a share of Low Amateur status with Koivun, the pair winning the Jack Nicklaus Medal! Some players to have previously won this award (latest first): Viktor Hovland, Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Justin Leonard, Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples, Ben Crenshaw, Jack Nicklaus, Bobby Jones. Not bad company, huh?

Out of nowhere, a careless three-putt bogey for Sam Burns on 14. That could be extremely costly with holes running out. Back on 12, Scottie Scheffler nearly holes his birdie putt. [FX: BEDLAM] Then Wyndham Clark narrowly misses his effort. [FX: TUMBLEWEED] It’s getting a bit too much on the nose, this.

-5: Clark (12) -2: Burns (15) -1: Mitchell (15), Kim (12), Scheffler (12) E: Poston (F)

There are reports of some fans getting hoicked off the property for sledging Wyndham Clark. He’s getting the full treatment from a few members of the gallery. One punter screams “GO WYNDHAM!!!”, though it’s not 100 percent clear whether that’s sarcasm as his tee shot at 12 disappears into semi-rough. Either way, that particular doofus is quiet when Clark whips out a chip to 12 feet. His ball is right by Scottie Scheffler’s, and the world number one will give him a read.

Some missed birdie putts. Sam Burns on 14, Tom Kim on 12, Scottie Scheffler and Wyndham Clark on 11. The pressure cranking up and up and up. The crowd becoming even more obvious in their preferences, too: a few cheers as Clark missed his birdie chance, whoops as Scheffler tidies up for par, next to nothing as his playing partner does the same. Some residual ill-feeling for Clark beating up on his locker at Oakmont last year, perhaps.

Par for JT Poston at the last. He signs for a superb 67, and becomes the new clubhouse leader at level par. His playing partner John Parry bogeys and that’s a 69 for a +2 finish. Parry is part of an impressive English contingent at the top end of the leaderboard, alongside Tyrrell Hatton (+1), Justin Rose (+2) and Aaron Rai (+2). Tommy Fleetwood (+2) and Matt Fitzpatrick (+3) are still out there too.

Scottie Scheffler is in the zone. After rolling in that birdie putt on 10, he sends his tee shot at the par-three 11th to the left of the flag, the camber taking the ball back to the right, ten feet past. Good birdie op. But not as good as the one Wyndham Clark sets up for himself: he fires over the flag, the spin taking his ball back to six feet. The gallery don’t boo exactly, but there are groans as Advantage Wyndham is established. Scottie clearly the crowd favourite, and though that’s been obvious from the very first shots of their round, it’s beginning to get a little bit more pronounced. Again, this could either work for or against both players. How much Brooks Energy does Clark have within?

The golfing gods smile kindly on Scheffler’s moment of sporting largesse. He rattles in his 15-footer for birdie, and suddenly the pressure is on Clark, whose four-footer looks twice the distance. But he pours it in. Once again, it’s notable that the gallery whoops and hollers when Scheffler sinks his birdie putt, but not when Clark makes his. Tough crowd, but that’s the entertainment industry for you.

-5: Clark (10) -3: Burns (13) -1: Mitchell (13), Kim (11), Scheffler (10) E: Poston (17)

Tom Kim responds to dropping a stroke on 10 by hitting one of the shots of the day at the par-three 11th. A gentle fade from 154 yards to a couple of feet. He’ll tap in for birdie to bounce back to -1. Meanwhile back on 10, Scottie Scheffler sends his second to 15 feet, a fine result given the carnage that’s occurred on and around this green this week. But Wyndham Clark trumps him with a glorious wedge in, the ball gripping 15 feet past the hole and spinning back to four feet. Scheffler, already up on the green, and to his great credit, offers a thumbs-up back down the fairway to Clark. A lovely sporting moment! And what a shot from Clark.

The new PGA champion Aaron Rai finishes well. A long birdie rake across 17, followed by par at the last, and that’s a final round of 69. He ends the week at +2 and that’s a very respectable return for a man playing in his first major championship as a major champion. The gallery give him the flowers he’s due. A class act, as ever.

JT Poston, who missed a tiddler on 15 to move to -2, can’t get up and down from the back of 17 and drops back to level par. The small margins between glory and ending up in the pack. Bogey meanwhile for Tom Kim at 10; he slips back to level par as well. There are now just three players under par, which is just how the USGA like it.

-4: Clark (9) -3: Burns (13) -1: Mitchell (13) E: Poston (17), Stevens (11), Kim (10), Scheffler (9)

If Wyndham Clark’s nerves are jangling, his short game isn’t betraying them. From the thick rough at the front of the 9th green, he lobs high and confidently into the air, the ball landing softly a couple of feet shy of the cup and nearly rolling in. That would have been a proper US Open moment. Not quite up there with Tom Watson on 17 at Pebble in 1982, but something nonetheless. He’d have grabbed par with both hands before taking the shot, though. Scottie Scheffler doesn’t hit his birdie putt from 15 feet and what looked most likely to be a two-shot swing ends up in a half. Clark remains -4, Scheffler level par.

Clark can’t reach the green with his second from the rough at 9. His ball lands in the thick strip of rough guarding the front of the green. Scheffler turns up the heat by clipping his iron from the middle of the fairway pin high. It’s a half-chance for birdie; a two-shot swing between these players is eminently possible here.

Sam Burns finds the thick stuff down the right of 12. He sends his second scampering to the edge of the green, then nearly drains his Texas Wedge. He’ll take that par to remain at -3. Meanwhile back on 9, Scottie Scheffler batters a drive down the middle, but Wyndham Clark’s tee shot ends up in the first cut to the right of the fairway, and mostly disappears. The leader is three over for his round today and continues to look ragged. He got away with a wild long game yesterday, but it’s not entirely clear whether this is sustainable. When it all comes down, it may prove that he started the day with enough shots in his back pocket. But right now, he’s treading a thin line.

Wyndham Clark lags his long putt at 8 to a couple of feet, and wastes not too much time over the par putt. In it goes. Scottie Scheffler reads his 15-foot right-to-left birdie curler perfectly … but doesn’t hit it! He taps in. Both players move on, four shots between them.

Gary Woodland signs for a 68. That’s the 13th round under par already today; there were only two players to break 70 yesterday. That puts the 2019 champion in a tie for the clubhouse lead at +1. Meanwhile Rory McIlroy, who fought his way into contention on Thursday, and Friday, and Saturday, carelessly letting things go south each time, finishes his week with an underwheming 73. He’s +6 and he’ll always have Congressional.

Bogeys on 7, then, for both players in the final group. But Scheffler will be much more content with the way it all unfolded, making his missable putt after taking two to escape from sand, Clark missing a short one for his par. And now on 8, Scheffler is on in regulation, while Clark, having found a fairway bunker … well, he gets on as well, but he wasn’t in any position to go for the flag, and aiming for the meat of the green, is a long way away. Concern etched across his face. He’s not got his best stuff here at all.

It’s Scheffler’s turn to make a damage-limiting putt. He guides in his right-to-left bogey curler on 7 … then Clark shoves his downhill four-footer right of the cup and a couple of feet past! He makes the one coming back, but that was an extremely nervous stroke. And on that subject, JT Poston misses a putt from similar distance on 15 for birdie. He remains very much in this at -1, but what an opportunity to put some scoreboard pressure on the leaders. However Keith Mitchell, who dropped a stroke at 10 having failed to get up and down from the swale, birdies 11, and this US Open continues to bubble away. No procession here!

-4: Clark (7) -3: Burns (11) -1: Poston (15), Mitchell (11), Kim (8) E: Scheffler (7)

Scottie Scheffler splashes out delicately from the bunker at 7. Too delicately. His ball topples back into the trap, and though he gets out with his second attempt, he’ll need to make a 15-footer for bogey. Wyndham Clark by contrast whips up decisively to four feet, and this could be a matchplay double-whammy for the world number one.

Scheffler and Clark both find the bunker guarding the front-left of the par-three 7th green. But while the former’s only just squeaks in, looking for a while like it was dead on line for the pin, the latter slam-dunks into the trap. The leader continues to make some big tee-to-green errors … though it’s not cost him dearly. Yet. He remains ahead thanks to that street-fighting short game, which by the looks of things will continue to be stress-tested over the closing two-thirds of his round.

Forget that bit about putting. Both players opt to chip up. Clark leaves his effort ten feet short, giving Scheffler the green flag to get more aggressive. Which he does, and he should be tidying up from a couple of feet. Another big pressure putt for Clark … and he makes them more often than not. And so he does here, the confident roll ensuring a bobble halfway along the route to the cup doesn’t divert the ball offline. Scheffler makes his par, and it’ll be Clark who’ll be the happier right now. But his game is getting a little tatty under these extreme tournament conditions. If at any point his putter goes cold, he’ll be in a spot of bother.

Having got to within one shot, Sam Burns immediately cedes ground. His chip at 9 races eight feet past the hole, and he’s left with a treacherous downhill par putt. He dribbles it down, but it slides off to the right. Bogey, and Clark’s lead is two again. The iron in at fault there. Burns still out in an impressive 32 strokes, mind. Meanwhile back on 6, Clark and Scheffler both send fine approaches into the heart of the green … only for the camber to slowly take both balls away from the flag and off the putting surface to the right. No bunker, and both will most likely putt from where they are, with Clark going first to offer his opponent a read.

-5: Clark (5) -3: Burns (9) -1: Poston (14), Mitchell (9), Scheffler (5) E: Fleetwood (9), Grillo (7), Kim (6) +1: Niemann (F), Hatton (F), Woodland (17), Parry (14), Morikawa (11), Schauffele (9), Stevens (7)

… so having said that, Sam Burns makes his first big mistake of the final round. From the centre of the fairway at 9, he underhits his approach, and his ball topples back off the front. It stops in a thick collar of rough. Meanwhile a final-hole bogey for Tyrrell Hatton, the result of finding the long stuff with his tee shot. That’s still an impressive closing round of 67, and at +1 he’s got a fair chance of another top-ten finish at the US Open . He’s got two of them on his resumé already. Hatton joins Joaquin Niemann in the clubhouse lead.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, World Cup, Football, US sports, Sport
Title – Maybe this World Cup will bring the best out of the US, not the worst | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/barneyronay
Link – Maybe this World Cup will bring the best out of the US, not the worst | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T04:00:50.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/22/world-cup-2026-us-united-states-usa-co-host-nation

O ne of the best parts of following football across the world is the way it drags you into special places, local shrines, objects of profound cultural connection. The US, of course, has these holy spaces too.

The queue of pilgrims in Philadelphia on Thursday morning stretched down the sun-blasted steps to the plaza at the bottom. Edging forward, the people in their ritual colours approached the figure at the top, arms outstretched in supplication, in a state of hushed deference. Called finally for his moment of communion, the man at the front of this line straightened his Ronaldinho shirt, clenched his fists above his head for the ceremonial Insta pic and shouted: “Adrian! I did it.”

This is of course the Rocky statue, the most popular public visitor site in the cradle of US history, and the only place in town for thousands of Brazil and Haiti fans, visiting for their Group C fixture and looking for the chance to grab a little pure Americana.

The Rocky statue is all about those clenched fists above the horizon, cradling the high rises below, holding America’s first city in his human-sized hands. I have a theory about the US and hands. So many of the great self-mythologising American creations have been hand-sized. The Hamburger. The .45 Colt. The baseball mitt. The onanism industry of Big Porn. The chocolate chip cookie, which was produced so workers could carry them to their fields and factories.

All of these creations are designed to fit the hand, in a way that is scalable and democratising, with the suggestion that this vast and brutal land can be cut down to human scale, that you can hold a piece of it in your palm. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. The settler’s dream is nonexclusive. All you need is a pair of hands.

This is of course not true. The US is also a violently stratified place, built on slavery, with centralised power, vicious edges and a recent history of blood-soaked economic colonialism. As opposed to, say, just being about doughnuts. But that’s the thing with dreams. They’re deceptive and confusing, but they may have just a little bit of truth in them.

This theory goes on to conclude that the moment the US began to lose the run of itself and fall into cultural decline was when it lost this connection to hand-sized scale. Suddenly the US is assailing its citizens with food so big you can’t even hold it, the vast and tumorous burger that explodes all over your face, the bin-bag-sized packet of crisps, the three-gallon container of vanilla Sprite. It’s out there inventing ways to further alienate not just itself, but the entire world, handing power to a weird coterie of tech gods, shifting our shared existence into a limbless digital space.

The end of the US won’t lie in political revolution or tanks on the hill. It’s choking to death on a basketball-sized M&M behind the non-wheel of your self-driving car, while on the White House lawn a cloud-based AI president tosses a virtual non-football around with its armless robo-offspring. And before you raise a hand to rail at this wild anti-US Euro propagandism, you might want to look down. You don’t have any hands.

What does this have to do with the World Cup of Mexico, Canada and the US, 11 days into what we have been assured is the greatest event staged by humanity? It is customary at this stage to assess proceedings on the football side. Attendances, goals per game and host-nation logistics will be graded and frowned over.

It isn’t hard to compose a list of don’t likes. Bad: the wretched and mendacious mid-half advert break . The boggle-eyed posturing of the Fifa president . The fawning over irrelevant celebrities. And the good: American cities , American stadiums, the warm and functional diaspora feel, and the games themselves, which have been breezy and fun.

But this World Cup was never really about all that. As with the last one in Qatar, it will be a success on its own terms whatever happens. These are: to make $14bn (£10.6bn) via the marketing of 300 hours of television content; to turn its face away from the pre‑converted saturation of Europe and to reach into the world’s greatest leisure market; and to shore up Gianni Infantino’s unassailable war chest before his acclamation for a third term .

As such, this World Cup has always really been about the US, and the wider question of what you should feel about this place and what it actually is: still the world’s most powerful cultural and economic force, but newly hostile and inward-facing, and now out there battering the world’s favourite shared spectacle into its own shape.

The World Cup in the US has so far revealed one interesting and unexpected thing. Travelling across the country in those opening two weeks from California to Texas to New York, it seems deceptively simple. But here it is. Maybe the World Cup will actually bring the best out of the United States, not the worst.

And yes, nobody actually believes the standard big-sport guff about connection, unity and hands across the volleyball net. London 2012 did not transform the nation. The opening ceremony optics – Paul McCartney breakdancing on top of a giant cheddar cheese – did not create a newly confident and inclusive Britain . There is no legacy, unless you extend this to include becoming much more depressed and angry in the years that have followed.

But maybe this World Cup will be different. Not just because this is a sport that literally models ideas of connection and togetherness. But because of the specific nature of the US’s alienation from the rest of the world.

The most notable part of being here is the confirmation of just how much people around the world do reflexively despise the US now, or regard it solely as a frightening and hateful entity, an agent of only bad things.

There are sound fact-based reasons for this. The US entered this World Cup having recently murdered the head of state of the second-ranked team in Group G, not to mention offering support to a conflict of annihilation in Palestine. The Trump administration is toying with crashing the world economy. The ICE immigration militia is persecuting its own population. Even the World Cup itself is an act of economic violence, priced out of any sensible human scale.

But hatred of the US as a single entity is also a confusing idea, albeit one that fits a certain monotheistic world view, where there can only be devils and angels. It involves demonising as a single failed entity a hugely diverse and varied nation with elements of every kind of people and every kind of culture, the great human experiment, with all its freedoms and flaws; and doing so based on the actions and pronouncements of a few governing Maga Republicans.

If America has become this single thing in so many people’s minds, it is perhaps because this is the way we experience things now. Everything is flattened, foreshortened, turned into sound and noise. Never underestimate the effect of the hive mind, that constant third space we carry around with us. This World Cup is the first global event to take place so deep inside that online space, experienced in peeled-eyeball detail through a screen as a set of images and shouted ideas.

This is how our flow of information works now, and indeed how Donald Trump took power, flooding the zone, shouting the simplest message above the noise. The US may feel like an expression of violence simply in its daily existence, an endless amplification of human talent, greed, desire, cruelty, where nobody is ever really in charge, they’re just out there riding it like a runaway bronco. But the US is also not Trump. Seventy‑seven million people voted for him, 272 million did not. A nation of 350 million people with more than 100 significant immigrant cultural groups cannot be one thing.

The US is the world in a very large and varied grain of sand, endlessly rich in all its beauty, energy, flaws and vices. To hate this is a baffling idea. If you don’t like America, what do you like? This is what humans are.

And like everyone else, Americans are oppressed too, right here in their own nation, by a tier of unelected technology overlords, and by an angry and divisive regime. This is a place that has been poisoning its own people for a hundred years, if not with violence and division, then with food, drugs and mental sludge.

For what it’s worth, the gathering of people under the banner of Fifa’s horribly compromised World Cup has provided a reminder of other things. Meeting people in the real space : this is pretty much an act of revolutionary dissent, a refusal to accept the loss of scale.

The reception at this World Cup from everyday people has been warm, anecdotally, and on the immediate evidence it is also striking how often people here want to talk about how their country is viewed by the rest of the world, to apologise and explain, to rage against Trump’s isolationism.

Who knows, perhaps the basic mechanics of sport can help point to something else. So many teams model the exact opposite of separation and division. The diaspora XIs of Curaçao and Cape Verde, for example, which are literally telling you what countries are, how they got this way, how they have interacted with the world, and who are now out there sharing moments of theatrical joy and agony, bumping into each other, coexisting.

Does this have any actual value? Nobody really knows. But Egypt and Iran will play in Seattle at the end of June on the Friday of the city’s Pride celebration, two nations where any kind of diverse sexuality is illegal, but who will just have to lump it and take it in; and this is the best of sport, making people confront each other in the real world space, to appreciate that they are not simply cyphers or hostile entities.

Football isn’t going to unite the world but it may just hold up a useful little hand mirror. This is a show that still provides a model of the best, not the worst, of what the US is supposed to be: a place on the human scale, an idea that fits into your hand. And a reminder that feeling hatred for this place, like hating anywhere else, is to fall into the trap of those who seem very happy to weaponise it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No, I mean “stunning”.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, Cape Verde, World Cup, Football, Sport, Australia sport
Title – Where is Cape Verde? Meet the tiny African island nation upsetting World Cup giants | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jack-larkin
Link – Where is Cape Verde? Meet the tiny African island nation upsetting World Cup giants | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T04:57:02.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/22/cape-verde-cabo-world-cup-football-team-country-best-players-explained

Cape Verde announced themselves in what was one of the biggest World Cup upsets in recent memory. In their first World Cup game, they held a stunned Spain goalless in a remarkable 0-0 draw . The European champions boast players of the pedigree of Pedri, Lamine Yamal and Rodri, and were marked as one of the favourites going into the tournament. But they couldn’t get one over the debutants.

Many chalked it off as a fluke, but the fairytale continued in their second game against Uruguay – ranked 19 in the world – with Cape Verde pulling off a 2-2 draw and recording their first World Cup goals. After making history by qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, they now have the chance to progress to the last 32.

Where is Cape Verde?

The country is an archipelago with 10 islands, nine of which are inhabited. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean roughly 600 km off the coast of the African continent, with Senegal being its closest neighbour.

Discovered in the mid-1400s by Genovese and Portuguese explorers, the island was uninhabited until 1464, when the Portuguese settled the then capital of Cidade Velha, using the island as a shipping lane out of Africa and a centre for the trade in enslaved people. Cape Verde gained its independence from Portugal in 1975.

What is the population of Cape Verde?

The population of Cape Verde is just over 500,000, making it one of the smallest countries to play at the World Cup, along with Curaçao, with 158,000. It’s largest city is the capital, Praia, estimated to have over 180,000 residents, followed by São Vicente with 88,000.

It is one of the most stable democracies in Africa, according to Australia’s department of foreign affairs, and its economy is reliant on service-based industries, including tourism and foreign investment. There is a large diaspora community in the US – estimated at 500,000 – which is where all their Group H matches are being played at the 2026 World Cup.

How did they qualify for this World Cup?

To qualify for the tournament, Cape Verde came through the African qualifiers. Their campaign got off to a shaky start with a goalless draw with Angola before getting demolished 4-1 by Cameroon. However, they went on to win seven of their remaining eight games to top the group and relegate favourites Cameroon to second place.

“Independence Day and 13 January 1991 – when the first multiparty elections were held – are the two symbolic dates that have united our people,” said José Maria Silva, the national director of state protocol, after the team qualified . “This World Cup qualification can already be considered the third defining moment of our nation.”

Who are Cape Verde’s top football players?

The team, known as the Blue Sharks, is made up of a lot of dual-nationality players assembled by coach Pedro Leitão Brito, known as Bubista. The 26-man squad represents 25 clubs from 14 countries and has more players born in Rotterdam (six) than in Praia (four); overall, there are 11 players born in Cape Verde.

Their star player is the captain, Ryan Mendes, who has played for Lille in France and Nottingham Forest in England before making his way to the UAE and Turkey.

Cape Verde was named by the US government on a list of countries whose citizens must post a returnable bond of US$15,000 to travel to the US, in addition to a visa fee. The high costs prevented the mother of Cape Verde’s star goalkeeper Vozinha, Ana Candida Evora, from attending the tournament , before an intervention by US House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.

“Cape Verdeans in America and throughout the diaspora have been celebrating the underdog grit and resilience of the Blue Sharks, joined by soccer fans from nations throughout the globe,” Jeffries said last week before the match against Uruguay.

“It is a privilege to announce that Vozinha’s mom will be able to secure a visa in time to attend their game this Sunday against Uruguay.”

To read more about the Cape Verde team, check out our team guide .

Will they qualify for the knockouts?

Unbeaten in two games, Cape Verde sit third in Group H with two points, just behind Uruguay on goal difference. Their final group game will be against bottom-placed Saudi Arabia on 26 June (27 June AEST).

A win against Saudi Arabia will secure them a spot in the knockouts, and a draw may be enough to get through as a third-placed team.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – England, World Cup 2026, Arsenal, Football, World Cup, Sport
Title – Declan Rice reveals he has played through hamstring nerve pain for six months | England | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/davidhytner,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ed-aarons
Link – Declan Rice reveals he has played through hamstring nerve pain for six months | England | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T15:30:59.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/21/england-declan-rice-hamstring-nerve-pain-arsenal-schedule-world-cup

Declan Rice has revealed he has been managing nerve pain in a hamstring since Christmas as he reflected on the “obscene” number of matches he has played this season.

The England midfielder sparked concern when he was forced off in the 72nd minute of the 4-2 World Cup win against Croatia last Wednesday. The problem relates to the upper hamstring, with the pain radiating into his lower back. But Rice described his substitution as “smart” and said he would be fighting fit for England’s second group game against Ghana in Boston on Tuesday.

“I’m ready and fit, raring to go,” he told ITV Sport. “I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time. Obviously, not a lot of people would have known that. It was all behind-the-scenes stuff but it was a smart decision.

“In the end, that last 20 minutes is probably where you pick up the most, and it’s where you play a 70‑minute match. But that last 20 is where you really feel your body going for it. And I think it was a smart decision because the last few days I felt really, really good.”

Rice has played 63 matches this season, 55 for Arsenal and eight for England. His club reached the finals of the Champions League and Carabao Cup, losing against Paris Saint‑Germain and Manchester City , and won the Premier League.

“It’s an obscene amount of games,” Rice said. “The schedule was crazy but what can we do about it? You can’t sit and complain. We have to just get on with it for the moments like I had in the ­Premier League, winning that ­Premier League. You know you’d play as many games as possible to have that ­feeling again and ­knowing that there’s a World Cup at the end of it as well. You know you’d put your body on the line to be always in to play. It’s a lot of games but we’ll get our break at the end.”

England began a hot-weather acclimatisation camp in Florida at the start of June and know the heat and humidity in North America are among the major challenges. The Croatia game was played in Dallas’s domed, air-conditioned stadium, where the temperature was set at 22C. Happily, it is forecast to be something similar in Boston’s open-air stadium for the 4pm local kick-off (9pm BST).

It is likely England will play in much hotter conditions after that but Rice said the players have been reassured by Thomas Tuchel that they have the conditioning to cope.

“The heat’s going to dictate [our playing style] in spells but the manager’s been really clear with us and with this squad that we have the strength and power to outrun and outplay teams with our strength,” Rice said.

Rice also talked about the fitness worries that cling to Bukayo Saka , his Arsenal and England teammate. Saka has been managing an achilles problem for some time and was fit enough to play only as a 72nd-minute substitute against Croatia. He was good when he came on and set up the fourth goal for another replacement, Marcus Rashford. Saka followed an individual training programme on Saturday and is not expected to be ready to start against Ghana. Noni Madueke is likely to continue on the right wing.

“Bukayo will impact this tournament,” Rice said. “It’s really good the way we’re managing him. I think the amount of football he’s played – I’ve seen him at Arsenal – this little achilles problem he’s got. I think we’re managing him the right way, for sure.

“I don’t think you want to put him in straight away and put him at risk. We need to keep building him in. He’s been training really well. He came on and had an amazing impact the other night. He’s one of the biggest game players I’ve played with and he wants to play every game. But here he’s being smart. And we also have Noni who, for me, has been unbelievable.”

William Saliba is another Arsenal player who has pushed himself through the pain barrier this season. The France centre-half, though, continues to do so as he chases World Cup glory.

“I’ve had some minor niggles for several months,” he said in advance of Monday’s game against Iraq. “I’ve been gritting my teeth because there was the Champions League and the Premier League. But the coaching staff are handling it very well. The World Cup comes round only once every four years so you’ve got to grit your teeth. I’m not at 100% but there are plenty of players who aren’t at 100% either – you can’t make excuses.”

Meanwhile, Ollie Watkins has revealed he has taken Michael Owen’s advice to be nastier on the pitch and is ready to be England’s supersub again after finishing the season in blistering form.

The Aston Villa striker scored eight goals in his last 10 Premier League games to earn a late recall from Thomas Tuchel and came off the bench to score the winner against the Netherlands at Euro 2024 . “I feel like I understand the competition now, I understand that everyone has their moment,” he said. “I watch the game when I’m on the bench, I can see the game opens up. There’s so many more opportunities when you come on, a lot of people are tired, they lose focus and sometimes it can be better to be a substitute than to start the game.”

Keyword – Politics
Trefwoorden – Brexit, European Union, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Europe, World news, Foreign policy, Politics, UK news
Title – Two-thirds of EU citizens back UK rejoining bloc, survey finds | Brexit | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jonhenley
Link – Two-thirds of EU citizens back UK rejoining bloc, survey finds | Brexit | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T05:00:21.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/21/two-thirds-eu-citizens-back-uk-rejoining-bloc-brexit-survey

Two-thirds of EU citizens would back Britain rejoining the bloc, while most UK voters say Brexit has been bad for the issues they care about and want closer ties, including levels of integration – such as free movement – long seen as toxic, a survey has found.

Ten years after the Brexit referendum, the polling by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) , a thinktank, found 66% of respondents across 15 countries said they either “strongly supported” or “tended to support” UK membership.

The average comfortably exceeded those favouring a closer relationship (59%) or the status quo (46%). Support for rejoin ranged from lows of 56% in Bulgaria and 59% in France and Italy to highs of 75% in the Netherlands and Denmark.

Even voters for far-right and EU-critical parties said they would support closer relations between the bloc and the UK, including a majority of backers of Poland’s Confederation (71%), Germany’s AfD (58%) and France’s National Rally (58%).

Many European leaders have reflected this view. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has said the door is “always open” and Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said Spain would “absolutely” support British membership.

Alexander Stubb, Finland’s president, has explicitly named the UK as a candidate for membership, saying: “We need a UK voice in Europe. We really miss you guys.” In May, the European Green party formally invited the UK to rejoin .

In the UK, the polling, carried out in May, found voters across party lines, including supporters of Reform UK, believed Brexit had had a negative impact on the country and on many key issues at the heart of the debate a decade ago.

British respondents said leaving had hit their main priorities: the cost of living (66%), the economy (65%), youth opportunity (57%), illegal immigration (56%) and trade (56%). Even most leave voters (58%) said Brexit had made illegal immigration worse.

Asked to identify the primary benefits of Brexit, the most common response, by a wide margin, was “don’t know”, followed closely by “none of the above” – suggesting most British voters now feel Brexit did real damage for no apparent upside.

That overwhelmingly negative verdict on the decision to leave translates into a strong desire for a closer relationship with the bloc: 75% of UK respondents were in favour. Asked about trade and economic ties, 66% said they should be very or slightly closer.

Perhaps most strikingly, a large majority (63%) of respondents – including 57% of those who voted leave in 2016 – said they would now accept freedom of movement in exchange for closer trading ties, with only 18% rejecting it.

Even among voters who said their top concern was immigration, 44% said they would back freedom of movement as part of a closer economic relationship, suggesting one of the core drivers of the Brexit vote is no longer central to the UK debate.

The report’s author, Mark Leonard, the director of the ECFR, said the polling showed the EU was open to the UK’s return and that the British public had fundamentally moved on from 2016 – meaning Europe was now a political opportunity for the UK government.

“Brexit was the insurgent vehicle for a nation rejecting the status quo,” he said. “A decade on, Brits realise their hopes for a better life outside the EU are unfulfilled and Brexit is undermining the UK’s ability to manage the issues they care about most.”

Leonard added that the data showed the “vast majority of citizens are open to a closer relationship”, revealing the existence of a “very broad permissive consensus for going far beyond the government’s current reset”.

The report identified three main voter camps in the UK: “optimists” (28%) who view European alignment as a geopolitical necessity; “realists” (35%) who support closer ties but still value US ties; and “loners” (27%) who still prioritise national sovereignty.

Overall, the survey found British voters favoured Europe over the US as a preferred security partner, with just 18% now viewing the US as an ally and 58% favouring closer defensive relations with Europe, compared with 19% for the US.

A majority of British voters do not want to buy more weapons from the US, while more than 60% would prefer to follow a “buy European” policy. Almost two-thirds (63%) also want the UK to participate in developing an alternative European nuclear deterrent.

This article was amended on 21 June 2026. Owing to confusion over supplied information, an earlier version said that 66% of polled EU citizens felt UK membership in the EU was a “very good”, “good” or “neither good nor bad” idea. In fact, it was 67% who felt this way, and the intended reference was to 66% of respondents who “strongly supported” or “tended to support” UK membership. A graphic referring to the former poll has been removed.

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – Society, Food
Title – Queueing is a great way to meet people? That’s nice – because we could soon be doing a lot more of it | Emma Beddington | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/emma-beddington
Link – Queueing is a great way to meet people? That’s nice – because we could soon be doing a lot more of it | Emma Beddington | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T13:00:34.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/21/queueing-is-a-great-way-to-meet-people-thats-nice-because-we-could-soon-be-doing-a-lot-more-of-it

I t’s hot – fancy a frozen yoghurt? Probably not, given that ice-cream exists, but a New York Times reporter recently queued for an hour to experience the city’s fro-yo craze with 74 other patient souls, long enough, she wrote, to “feel affection for my cluster of line, the kind of camaraderie you develop with fellow passengers on a delayed flight”. The yoghurt, while fine, was emphatically not worth the wait. That’s surely also true of the UK’s current slew of viral bakeries , pizza joints and, improbably, baked potato spots. Can carbs really be that good? Maybe, but I’ll never find out: reaching the head of an interminable queue only for the person in front of you to take the last treat is psychological violence I won’t put myself through, and queueing at a mayonnaise vending machine – another real NYC phenomenon – is my idea of hell.

But queues are everywhere now. Even in my hometown of York, where formerly the only people queueing were tourists waiting to enjoy the stench of rotting herring and latrine at the Jorvik Viking Centre (or to patronise our sui generis tearoom, Bettys ), locals line up at brunch spots and bakeries. How and why have queues, previously an occasional annoyance, become ubiquitous?

Well, we do love them. The Queen’s coffin queue was a phenomenon so significant that social psychologists studied it ; the Wimbledon Queue, capitalised on the website as if it’s an event in itself, has a downloadable code of conduct . And our proud queue stoicism – the fruit of a wartime propaganda exercise to prevent food shortages creating unrest – means we’re unlikely to balk at waiting for pastry. Then there’s the viral factor: social media means long lines are often a feature, not a bug, whipped up by paid-for influencer enthusiasm and manufactured (or real, to be fair) scarcity.

But what if there’s something else going on? That NYT writer pondered whether it wasn’t about fro-yo, but the queue itself. “Free public space is disappearing from urban infrastructure. Not enough people are meeting their neighbors … So maybe the lines for viral foods are just due to get longer and longer each year, like an IRL bar chart of American loneliness.” It’s not a new theory: the Londoner explored it in January, with the co-owner of one viral bakery (Toad, in Camberwell) calling their queue “a rare communal thing that brings people together with a shared interest that isn’t to do with drinking”, and noting the “nice interactions” it stimulated. On Substack , writer Lauren O’Neill described bakery queues as places to “arrange to meet friends for a two-birds-one-stone catch-up”.

So standing in a breadline (fine, brioche line) is now considered a sociable, community-building trip out? There’s a trend at the moment for identifying your personal “ recession indicators ” and queueing for a pain au chocolat being reframed as a convivial treat might be one of mine. But maybe I’m missing the point? Perhaps it’s part of the broader shift (still, I suspect, cost-of-living related) towards low-key, no-frills “ soft socialising ” – people getting together for “ admin nights ” and hanging out in other humdrum ways . If it’s a low-pressure way of feeling more connected, fair enough: the real treasure wasn’t the “ everything bagel croissant ”, it was the friends you made along the way.

I’m still wary of this rebrand of queues as a third space, though; they exclude anyone who physically can’t stand for an hour, for a start. And this is probably paranoid, but with dire warnings of a looming food crisis and imminent recession , the queue’s glow-up has echoes of wartime propaganda, as if we’re gently prepping ourselves for worse things ahead.

Also, wouldn’t it mean that by imposing austerity and Brexiting, arguably, the Tory government generously created third spaces where we come in contact with our neighbours? Sure, cuts meant closed libraries , leisure centres and youth clubs , but if queues are desirable community experiences, should we thank them for now enjoying luxuriantly long ones at GPs, NHS dentists ( people queued from 5am when a new one opened in Bristol last month ), A&E wards and border control ? Bond over annoying waiting room music; share a laugh at your unflattering passport pics; find a new BFF by staunching each other’s bleeding! Patience is a virtue, yes, but I’m not sure it’s always the appropriate response.

Keyword – Books
Trefwoorden – Books, Thrillers, Crime fiction, Culture
Title – The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup | Books | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/laurawilson
Link – The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup | Books | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-19T11:00:31.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jun/19/the-best-recent-and-thrillers-review-roundup

The Pinnacle by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill, £16.99) In the eponymous Mumbai apartment block, the immensely rich and those who serve them exist side by side but worlds apart. Fading American actor George Abercrombie, married to superstar Sweety Sahota, finds himself advertising Indian whiskey while his younger wife’s acting career continues its stellar trajectory. Waking on the sofa with a hangover and only hazy memories of the night before, George discovers Sweety stabbed to death in the marital bed and one of his shirts, blood-stained, in the laundry basket. He knows he will be the prime suspect, but not only have Sweety’s phone and laptop disappeared, so has his assistant, Amit … Told from the points of view of George, Amit and Sweety’s put-upon PA Gemma – with Amit and Gemma both having secrets of their own – and laced with dry humour and social commentary, this is a tense, fast-paced tale of class, power and corruption.

A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper (Faber, £9.99 ) Set in LA, award-winning American novelist Harper’s latest novel is a dark and topical tale. Jake, who livestreams crime scenes to an audience hungry for sensation, is currently tapping into the market for serial killer nostalgia with episodes on the LA Ripper, “up to three victims and counting”. Kara works for Sub Rosa, a concierge service that provides the very rich with whatever they desire, legal or otherwise. And Gibson is a public defence lawyer who reluctantly agrees to act for a wealthy predator who threatens to bring down “the pillars of this whole goddamn town”, including Sub Rosa’s clients, before apparently killing himself in his cell. When Kara’s colleague goes missing and she suspects it’s the work of the Ripper, the three protagonists’ worlds converge. Told in apocalyptic language, there are shades of both James Ellroy and Tom Wolfe in this story of greed in all its forms, played out in an intense, chaotic and thoroughly amoral world.

Murder on the Red River by Marcie R Rendon (Viper, £9.99 ) Native American playwright and poet Rendon’s debut novel is set in 1970, on the North Dakota/Minnesota border. Cash Blackbear, a 19-year-old Ojibwe woman, is a farm worker, her evenings spent playing pool for beer money. Her world is one of low expectations, limited opportunities, poverty and alcoholism; a hardscrabble childhood with a series of foster families has made her self-reliant, her only real friend being Sheriff Wheaton, who has tried to look out for her since she was “legally kidnapped” from her mother and siblings. When an Ojibwe man is murdered, she helps to gather intelligence for Wheaton’s investigation, putting herself at risk. Beautifully written, with an appealing central character, this is the first novel in a projected series; Rendon prepares the ground well, focusing as much on the larger, systemic crimes committed against the Native American people, such as the forcible removal of children from their families, as on the individual investigation. More, please.

The Devoted by Catherine Cho (4th Estate, £16.99 ) There’s more generational trauma and limited choice in Cho’s Hong Kong-set debut novel, this time among the rich and powerful. As the daughter of a key player in the Triad crime syndicate, the narrator Eunha has her life mapped out for her, but her pampered existence as a “ tai tai ” (wealthy wife) comes to an end when her young son is kidnapped and, despite his safe recovery, she is judged not fit to look after him any more. It is only when she steps away from her safe haven and takes a job as a nightclub hostess that she starts on the long road to understanding the extent to which not only she, but other family members, have been caught up in the machinations of her father’s criminal world. Told in chapters alternating between present and past, this is a moving story of secrets, betrayal and how women are denied agency: The Godfather, seen through a female eye.

The Repentants by Kate Foster (Mantle, £18.99 ) Foster’s fourth historical mystery begins in 1790, in St Monans on the east coast of Scotland, where the Rev Mitchell is determined to keep his flock on the straight and narrow. When Florrie Aitken, the underappreciated wife of important local businessman Jonny, is caught with a lover, she is forced into a humiliating public act of repentance; there she encounters Eliza Wood, similarly punished for failing to attend church. Eliza is one of Jonny’s indentured labourers, with no choice but to work for him – first harvesting sea salt then, when Florrie accompanies Jonny to Iceland where he hopes to expand his operation using British prisoners from the hulk in Reykjavík harbour as labour, as their servant. As Jonny plans revenge on his wife, a bond forms between the two women – both, in their different ways, as captive as the men on the prison ship – who begin to plot their escape. Intelligent, atmospheric 18th-century domestic noir.

Keyword – Politics
Trefwoorden – Labour party leadership, Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting, Labour, Politics, UK news
Title – Transition timetable: what a Starmer autumn handover could look like | Labour party leadership | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/peterwalker
Link – Transition timetable: what a Starmer autumn handover could look like | Labour party leadership | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T17:15:27.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/21/keir-starmer-autumn-handover-labour

I f the predictions are proved correct and Keir Starmer does announce a timetable for an autumn departure from Downing Street, the machinery of government will again kick into gear for a handover of power – but one that will be, by UK standards, relatively leisurely.

While many democracies build in lengthy transition periods – a defeated or retiring US president serves for nearly three months after their successor has been picked – the UK tends to do things at speed. A losing prime minister will typically get out of 10 Downing Street the morning after an election while the removal vans of their replacements lurk idling around the corner.

In July 2024, an election-wearied Starmer held his first press conference inside Downing Street, confessing to the assembled media that he was still getting lost in the maze of interconnected buildings that made up his new home-meets-workplace.

Two years on, he is widely expected to announce a date for his exit, perhaps on Monday . Andy Burnham’s team are understood to have pushed for the PM to stay on until September, a timetable that would allow for two main possible eventualities.

The first scenario – and this is very much Burnham’s wish – would be for the Greater Manchester mayor turned MP for Makerfield to be nominated to become Labour leader by an overwhelming number of his fellow MPs, with either no other challengers coming forward or else those who did failing to get the necessary support of at least 20% of the parliamentary party, or 81 MPs.

This would give ministers and civil servants clarity about a handover process and allow Burnham time to select his governmental team and fix his policy priorities, thus perhaps avoiding the slightly unfocused look of the early Starmer period.

Darren Jones, the cabinet minister who serves as chief secretary to the prime minister, charged with getting things done across government, is understood to have already met Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary who is a key Burnham ally.

Jones would be expected to take a leading role in ensuring the work of government continues, particularly the complex and vital tasks of planning for the budget in autumn, even if the actual policy choices would be Burnham’s.

The alternative scenario involves Wes Streeting , the former health secretary, or another challenger getting enough nominations to go against Burnham, an option some Labour MPs would actively prefer, believing that Burnham’s ideas and arguments must be tested properly.

A brief initial period would involve any hopefuls having to show they had enough parliamentary backers, and also nominations from at least 5% of all local party branches or at least three party-affiliated groups, with a minimum of two being unions.

Any who passed this threshold would go to a vote of Labour members. The timing of the contest would be set by the party’s national executive committee, which would be expected to make it as rapid as possible.

While the leadership election that Starmer won in 2020 – held in opposition – took three months, in 2025 when Angela Rayner resigned as deputy leader it took just six and a half weeks to find her replacement under the same rules.

Transition work would take place throughout but of course would be slightly more complicated, at least while the contest was taking place.

And what of the role of the man still in No 10, in body if not in authority, more a caretaker than CEO? Here, Starmer would face a political half-life a bit like that of Theresa May, who set her own timetable for departure in 2019.

Such a prime minister has very obviously limited bandwidth but can still follow personal projects or try to cement a legacy. May used much of her time to put a target for reaching net zero carbon emissions into law, doing so in June 2019 , six weeks before she handed over to Boris Johnson.

We could expect Starmer to be busy, not just on the international stage – with a Nato summit in July – but trying to finalise a legacy of his own.

Keyword – Environment
Trefwoorden – Mining, Water, Drought, European Commission, European Union, Environment, Business, Europe, World news
Title – ‘It’s Russian roulette’: alarm as Europe backs critical minerals mines in water-stressed regions | Mining | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rachel-salvidge
Link – ‘It’s Russian roulette’: alarm as Europe backs critical minerals mines in water-stressed regions | Mining | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-20T06:00:03.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/20/europe-backs-critical-minerals-mines-water-stressed-regions

The European Commission plans to rewrite the EU’s flagship water protection law to speed up the development of critical minerals mines, despite many being located in drying and water-stressed regions, analysis has found.

Mining is a water-intensive industry, requiring large volumes of water for ore processing, dust suppression, waste management and mine dewatering. While modern projects recycle water, they still require significant amounts, and in water-stressed regions those demands can add to pressure on already stretched rivers, aquifers and water supplies.

Analysis and mapping by Watershed Investigations, shared with the Guardian, found that more than half of the 33 planned new or expanded mines designated as “strategic projects” under the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act are located in areas that have been drying over the past two decades, according to Nasa satellite data.

Nearly half are in zones that experienced drought conditions in the past three months, according to EU data, and a quarter are in regions deemed water-stressed.

Six of the strategic mines are planned for highly water-stressed areas in Spain, with others in Portugal and Greece. All three countries rank among the top 10 EU nations with the worst water scarcity, according to the European Environment Agency.

In 2024, the Spanish region of Catalonia declared a state of emergency over its worst ever drought, and water-use restrictions were imposed in Andalucía. In 2022, 96% of Portugal was experiencing “extreme” or “severe” drought conditions, according to the EU’s Earth observation programme.

Some projects have already sparked fierce opposition. The environmental organisation Ecologistas en Acción is challenging the European Commission’s decision to grant strategic project status to all six Spanish mines, arguing that it failed to properly consider risks to water resources, biodiversity and protected areas.

Global demand for critical minerals has tripled since 2010 as countries race to build artificial intelligence infrastructure, electric vehicles, renewable energy technologies and defence systems. It is expected to more than double again by 2030, with graphite, lithium and cobalt need projected to rise nearly 500% by 2050 from 2020 levels.

Concerned about its dependence on imports, the EU designated 47 mining, processing and recycling projects as “strategic projects”, including 33 mines. The designation puts projects within the EU on a fast track through permitting processes and is designed to accelerate development. Those located outside the bloc will gain political backing and potential access to EU funding.

In a move that has alarmed environmental groups, Brussels is also preparing to revise the water framework directive (WFD), the EU’s key law protecting rivers, groundwater and wetlands, with the stated aim of removing permitting bottlenecks and improving access to strategic minerals.

Euromines, the trade association for Europe’s mining and metals industry, has been pushing for these changes. It wants longer deadlines for countries to meet water quality targets, amendments to how the WFD’s “no deterioration” rule is applied to water bodies, and greater legal certainty for mining and other industrial projects.

Environmental groups fear the proposed changes could weaken protections but the industry body rejects this suggestion and insists it is “not a licence to pollute”.

A Euromines spokesperson said: “Our overarching priority remains constructive engagement with policymakers to ensure strong environmental safeguards alongside legal clarity and predictability for permitting authorities.”

The European Commission defended its choice of mines, saying the strategic projects were assessed by independent experts and must comply with EU environmental law. A spokesperson said the WFD review would consider ways to improve access to critical raw materials while protecting the environment and human health, with environmental and water impact assessments carried out by national authorities.

But Sara Johansson, a water policy manager at the European Environmental Bureau, called the plans reckless. She said the mining industry had “not presented a shred of evidence” that the WFD was creating bottlenecks for mining projects.

“Dismantling those protections undermines Europe’s water resilience and leaves taxpayers, farmers and communities to pay – both with their health and their wallets,” Johansson said.

Prof Kaveh Madani, the director of the United Nations University Institute for Water , Environment and Health, also warned against removing protections. “The safeguards now being portrayed as obstacles are already fragile and full of gaps. Removing them may be celebrated as efficiency today, but history may judge it as recklessness tomorrow,” he said.

He added: “Fast-tracking mining in water-stressed regions by weakening safeguards is a form of Russian roulette. It may look like an economic booster in the short term, but one serious failure in the wrong location can neutralise many of the promised gains – especially when the damage to people, rivers, aquifers and ecosystems is long-lasting or irreversible.”

Several companies contacted disputed suggestions their projects would place undue pressure on water resources. They pointed to environmental assessments, closed-loop water recycling systems, monitoring programmes and regulatory oversight designed to minimise risks.