Cannes film festival
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning review – sweet, sad portrait of gen Z discontent and disillusion
Peter Bradshaw
Wed 20 May 2026 10.34 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 06.10 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/may/20/i-see-buildings-fall-like-lightning-review-gen-z-clio-barnard-cannes-film-festival

W ith warmth and heartfelt passion, and a quintet of outstanding performances from young actors shot in looming closeup for so much of the time, Clio Barnard has created an absorbing and moving social-realist picture. It’s a film whose mix of poignancy, defiance and contaminated euphoria stayed with me hours after the closing credits.

It is about five young people from Birmingham who grew up together, reaching the end of their 20s, sensing a looming crisis and on the verge of a tragedy that is mysteriously growing from within their own increasing disparity. It is adapted by screenwriter Enda Walsh from the novel of the same name by Kieran Goddard, the statically rendered pentaptych of five consciousnesses in Goddard’s book being transformed into a fraught and dynamic home town drama with a sense memory of Fellini’s I Vitelloni.

We are introduced to our five musketeers at a boozy and weed-and-coke fuelled birthday party where the good times are laced with a suspicion that the party is actually now over. First among equals is Rian, played by Joe Cole, the one from their friend-group who has made something of himself. Using an inheritance from his late father, Rian hit the jackpot dealing in stock warrants online and while his mates are living modestly or in squalor, he has now bought a chilly and soulless designer flat in London where he dates a beautiful young woman that his friends nickname “Kate Middleton”. He isn’t really happy there and is only too glad to get back to the home turf.

Rian’s success has sent eddies of unease and self-examination through everyone else. Conor (Daryl McCormack) is the son of a builder who took pride in his work, and has been inspired by Rian’s triumph to set up a building firm in which he has persuaded Rian to be the chief investor; he is a hardworking guy and an expectant father but clearly careworn by the responsibility. Shiv (Lola Petticrew) is a smart and caring mother to two little girls, perfectly happy with her stay-at-home existence and married to Patrick (Anthony Boyle), who is deeply depressed at still being a food delivery cyclist at the end of his 20s. But easily the biggest loser – apparently – among them is Oli (Jay Lycurgo), a goofy, smiley slacker who deals heroin but is evidently inspired to change his ways by adopting a stray dog in the street; Conor sentimentally hires Oli as a site-worker.

Patrick talks about the time when he was away from them all at uni, something that makes his current lowly Deliveroo-type job even more mortifying, and he rants at the way that capitalism and the asset-owning classes are exploiting working people like him. As it happens, though, Patrick isn’t the only one with an education. Conor has named his new building firm “Dedalus” after the architect of Greek myth; this is a tribute to his dad, although Barnard may intend audiences to remember that Dedalus’s son was Icarus, who flew too close to the sun. The action is interspersed with time-lapse security footage of the Dedalus apartment block rising from the wasteground.

The film suggests that building and housing are a mythic centre to their five lives. It’s the centre also of a revived debate: is housing a social right or a maturing capital asset and loan security for the well-off? The demolition of Birmingham’s brutalist tower blocks when they were kids was a spectacular, formative event. Oli dreamily says that Satan’s face was discernible in the giant dust cloud; it was awe-inspiring, exciting, unsettling. Was it a new beginning? For Rian and Conor, the answer would appear to be yes, but Patrick is furious that their glitzy, gentrified construction venture is another money-making scheme for the newly rich. But what drives Rian anyway? Does Shiv know something about his secret Rosebud of unhappiness? What would have happened if Rian hadn’t got rich? If he hadn’t, Conor wouldn’t have been in a position to start his construction firm, and Rian wouldn’t have inadvertently encouraged him to believe it was as easily profitable as the online trading casino.

The divisions between Rian and Patrick and Patrick and Shiv might not have opened up the way they did, but then Oli’s life would not have turned around either. This is such a sad, sweet film, finally laced with sobriety and hope.

I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning screened at the Cannes film festival .

Brexit
The Guardian view on Britain and Europe: international upheaval demands new terms of debate
Editorial
Wed 20 May 2026 19.52 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 06.22 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/20/the-guardian-view-on-britain-and-europe-international-upheaval-demands-new-terms-of-debate

T he spectacle of a prime minister clinging to power while his party grows increasingly desperate for a replacement is painfully familiar from the end of the last Tory government. British politics feels trapped in a loop. This condition is not wholly a result of Brexit, but the failure of that project is a significant part of it. None of the benefits promised in the referendum by the leave campaign have materialised. It is all downside, but political discussion of any significant rewriting of the terms of departure is taboo. Sir Keir Starmer’s “reset” of European relations is mostly tinkering at the margins.

Meanwhile, the strategic calculus has changed entirely since 2016. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine exposed European complacency about continental defence and energy security. Donald Trump’s aggressive contempt for old allies makes it clear that they cannot depend on the US for protection.

Discussions in Brussels around “strategic autonomy” have become increasingly urgent. A club of 27 member states is still unwieldy in decision-making, but in a world of geopolitical upheaval and increased international lawlessness, the logic of collective continental action is irresistible.

It is significant, in this context, that EU foreign ministers are discussing potential candidates for a future negotiation with Moscow over the war in Ukraine. The former German chancellor Angela Merkel has been mooted, as has the former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi. This may seem premature when there is no negotiation yet, but that is the point. To the extent that there has been any kind of peace process so far, its tempo and tone have largely been set by the White House. Europeans were not invited.

Mr Trump’s sympathy with Vladimir Putin has made that a hazardous model for Kyiv and the rest of Europe. And that was before his limited capacity for attention on complex foreign matters was consumed by an ill-judged war in Iran. To influence the endgame in a war on Europe’s threshold, the EU rightly understands that it needs more agency in negotiations.

As a non-EU member, Britain is not part of that conversation. It is still a nuclear-armed Nato member and, by European standards, a significant military power. It has strong bilateral relations with fellow European democracies and a defence and security deal with Brussels in the works. Those credentials matter, but they do not compensate for the loss of a seat at the EU top table. Sir Keir, for all his ambitious talk of a reset in relations, either fails to recognise that shortfall in influence or lacks the political will to close the gap.

The prospect of a Labour leadership contest is forcing these questions up the agenda . Wes Streeting, the former health secretary, has said that he would like Britain to rejoin the EU. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester and a candidate in a byelection that might serve as the platform for a challenge to Sir Keir, rejected that idea on the grounds that voters do not want to endure a relitigation of old arguments. That view is oriented towards the leave-supporting constituency that Mr Burnham hopes to win next month.

Any successor to Sir Keir will find that Brexit arguments cannot be avoided, but they do not have to be old ones. The world has changed since the referendum. Britain needs a whole new conversation about Europe to reflect the present reality.

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

Business
UK business activity shrinks as economy faces ‘perfect storm’ – business live
Lauren Almeida
Thu 21 May 2026 12.09 CESTFirst published on Thu 21 May 2026 08.43 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2026/may/21/nvidia-beats-wall-street-ai-chip-boom-asia-tech-stocks-business-live-news

UK business activity contracts in May as economy faces ‘perfect storm’

British businesses reported their first in output in over a year in May, as conflict in the Middle East and political uncertainty in the UK hit activity in the services sector.

The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) by S&P Global dropped to 48.5, well below an expected 51.6 and under the 50 threshold that marks the difference between expansion and contraction.

The decline was driven by a fall in the services sector, where the reading slumped to 47.9, compared with expectations of 51. It was its worst performance since January 2021, when the economy was dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chris Williamson , chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence , said:

The UK economy is facing a perfect storm as rising political uncertainty adds to the growing impact from the war in the Middle East. Businesses are reporting falling output, surging inflation, supply shortages and job cuts in May.

The May PMI data indicate that the economy contracted at a 0.2% quarterly rate, representing a marked contrast to the robust growth seen earlier in the year. The blame lies first and foremost with the war in the Middle East, though companies are also noting that domestic politics are taking an increasing toll, driving uncertainty higher, in turn deterring spending, hiring and investment.

Things could well get worse in the coming months, as we have been seeing some support to manufacturing from precautionary stock building which will inevitably fade once warehouses are full.

Just as the economy shows signs of sinking into decline, prices are surging higher to herald a marked upturn in inflation in the months ahead as these costs pass through to consumers.

This combination of a faltering economy and spiking price pressures leaves the Bank of England in a major quandary, facing the growing need to hike rates to help contain inflation but thereby adding to recession risks.”

British factory orders shrink at fastest rate since 2020, CBI says

Some more gloomy figures this morning – British factory order books were at their weakest in May since September 2020, according to a survey by the Confederation of British Industry .

Its monthly balance of total new orders slid to -41 in May from -38 in April.

Cameron Martin , senior economist at the CBI, said:

Against an increasingly uncertain global backdrop, the conflict in the Middle East is feeding through to higher energy costs and renewed supply chain disruption, adding another layer of challenges for manufacturers, who are already grappling with weak demand.

Business activity across the eurozone also shrank in May, at its fastest pace in two and a half years.

The PMI index fell to 47.5 in May from 48.7 in April, S&P Global found, once again driven by a slump in the services sector.

Williamson said the data showed the eurozone economy taking an “increasingly severe toll from the war in the Middle East”.

Job losses are also starting to become worryingly widespread as business confidence in any swift turnaround in the adverse economic climate fades further.

The service sector is being hit especially hard by the surge in the cost of living created by the war, notably via the demandsapping impact of higher energy prices. While there has been some support to manufacturing from precautionary stock building, this boost is starting to fade, with demand for both goods and services now in decline.

The region’s supply shock from the war is also intensifying, as indicated by increasingly widespread supply chain delays. Supply shortages threaten not only to constrain growth in the coming months but also have the potential to add further upward pressure to inflation.

The rise in the survey’s price gauges already hints at inflation running close to 4% in the coming months which, combined with the growing signs of the region slipping into an economic downturn, creates a deepening dilemma for policymakers.”

Rob Wood , chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics , says the sharp downturn in output means the Bank of England is more likely to hold interest rates in July.

The [monetary policy committee] now face a sharp trade-off between weaker growth and still rampant inflation pressure. The manufacturing price balances tend to be far more sensitive to oil prices than actual inflation is so we ignore those for now. The services output price balance eased to 60.6, from 62.9 in April, consistent with underlying services inflation accelerating to over 6.0% year-over-year from its latest reading of 3.7%.

As a comparison, the services output price balance rose by 5.2 points between January and May 2025, almost the same as between the same months in 2022, suggesting strong pass-through of energy costs to underlying inflation. Firms also noted strong wage growth. The services price balance looks far too high to be plausible, as the PMI measures only the proportion or firms raising prices rather than by how much. But pricing indicators all point to accelerating underlying inflation.

The forward-looking components of the PMI worsened, with new orders returning to falls and future activity expectations dropping to the worst since last April. Those balances are consistent with a composite PMI reading of 49.7 in June. Businesses shed staff at a slightly faster rate than April, but also less quickly than on average in 2025, suggesting that job growth has failed to worsen yet, consistent with this week’s terrible payroll numbers being revised up.

UK business activity contracts in May as economy faces ‘perfect storm’

British businesses reported their first in output in over a year in May, as conflict in the Middle East and political uncertainty in the UK hit activity in the services sector.

The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) by S&P Global dropped to 48.5, well below an expected 51.6 and under the 50 threshold that marks the difference between expansion and contraction.

The decline was driven by a fall in the services sector, where the reading slumped to 47.9, compared with expectations of 51. It was its worst performance since January 2021, when the economy was dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chris Williamson , chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence , said:

The UK economy is facing a perfect storm as rising political uncertainty adds to the growing impact from the war in the Middle East. Businesses are reporting falling output, surging inflation, supply shortages and job cuts in May.

The May PMI data indicate that the economy contracted at a 0.2% quarterly rate, representing a marked contrast to the robust growth seen earlier in the year. The blame lies first and foremost with the war in the Middle East, though companies are also noting that domestic politics are taking an increasing toll, driving uncertainty higher, in turn deterring spending, hiring and investment.

Things could well get worse in the coming months, as we have been seeing some support to manufacturing from precautionary stock building which will inevitably fade once warehouses are full.

Just as the economy shows signs of sinking into decline, prices are surging higher to herald a marked upturn in inflation in the months ahead as these costs pass through to consumers.

This combination of a faltering economy and spiking price pressures leaves the Bank of England in a major quandary, facing the growing need to hike rates to help contain inflation but thereby adding to recession risks.”

Shares in the pub chain Mitchells & Butlers have dropped sharply by 8% this morning, after it reported a slowdown in sales growth.

The FTSE 250 company, which owns All Bar One as well as Toby Carvery, Harvester and Miller & Carter, said its sales grew 3.3% in the 28 weeks ended 11 Aril, but that growth had sowed to 1.8% in the second quarter.

Victoria Scholar , head of investment at the broker Interactive Investor said the fall in the share price reflected worries that momentum is weakening and that the pub chain could experience further pressure.

It is facing headwinds on multiple fronts from the weak consumer backdrop and softer discretionary spending to heightened inflationary pressures that are weighing on the hospitality industry. No doubt the sector will be hoping for a boost from improving weather in the summer months ahead as well as the men’s football World Cup.

The stock is the worst performer across the FTSE today. In the year to date, it has lost about a tenth of its market value.

BT revenue drops as Openreach upgrade completes

It is a mixed bag of results from BT this morning: the telecoms group has reported a drop in revenue and has forecast another fall next year, but profits are up.

Its underlying revenues fell 4% to £19.65bn in the year ended in March, with UK service revenues down 1% despite price rises. Pre-tax profits rose 8% to £1.44bn.

The FTSE 100 group is now expecting revenue in the range of £19bn to £19.5bn next year, while earnings are expected to rise between £8.2bn to £8.3bn.

But BT also told investors that it has lost fewer customers than feared, down 825,000 customers across its Openreach network, better than the 844,000 which analysts had expected.

It has also announced plans to increase its dividend by “low to mid single digit percentage” in its current financial year, and that it will expand its cost cutting plan from £3bn in savings by 2029 to £3.7bn by 2030.

Shares in the company are down 1.5% this morning.

Matt Britzman , an equity analyst at the broker Hargreaves Lansdown , says:

BT’s results were light on fireworks, but they did what they needed to do. Revenue remains under pressure, but tight cost control helped cash profits hold up, while free cash flow came in a fraction better than expected.

That matters most for BT’s investment case from here. The group is now moving past the heaviest phase of its fibre build, and today’s reiteration of a stronger cash flow outlook gives investors a clearer path to a more cash-generative business.

Openreach remains a key part of this story. Full fibre now reaches 23 million premises, connections are growing, and line losses were slightly better than BT had guided for, though they’re still a reminder that competition is fierce. The dividend increase and new policy are helpful signals, but this is still a story about execution. BT needs to prove that years of heavy network investment can translate into sustainable growth, not just better cash flow as spending falls.”

European markets have opened lower this morning. The UK’s blue chip FTSE 100 has slipped 0.4%, while the German Dax is down 0.3% and the French Cac 40 is down 0.2%.

The Stoxx Europe 600, which tracks the biggest companies on the continent, is down 0.2%.

Nationwide to pay £100 cash bonus to millions of customers

Nationwide has put aside a £440m pot to pay £100 cash bonuses to 4 million members.

It will be the fourth “fairer share” payment by the bank since it started its profit sharing scheme in 2023. Eligible customers who have a qualifying current account, plus a savings or mortgage with the bank, will be paid the bonus from 10 June.

The announcement came as Britain’s biggest building society reported an annual pre-tax profit of £1.49bn, down from £2.3bn last year when it enjoyed a one-off gain from its £2.9bn deal to buy Virgin Money.

Debbie Crosbie , Nationwide’s chief executive, said:

More people than ever are choosing Nationwide. Our growth in mortgages, retail deposits and personal current accounts is leading the market, which means we can again make a Fairer Share payment to eligible members, and offer a new Member Exclusive Bond to all members.”

EasyJet takes £25m hit on extra fuel costs

Budget airline easyJet has said it had to spend an unexpected extra £25m on jet fuel in March, after the start the US and Israel’s war on Iran.

But chief executive Kenton Jarvis said this morning that there have been “no issues” with fuel supply and that people should not panic about their summer holidays.

Kenton Jarvis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

We have seen absolutely no issues with fuel supply at any of our airports in the UK, across Europe, or indeed beyond.

We stay in very close contact with our fuel suppliers, airports, governments, and they are equally raising no issues looking forward. What is true is obviously there’s a lot less oil coming from the Gulf region, but fuel suppliers have successfully diversified, with production increased in Norway, in West Africa, in the Americas, and refining capacity for jet fuel has also increased substantially outside of the Gulf region.”

The company has hedged 72% of its fuel needs for the next six months, covering the busy summer period up to the end of September. However, it has temporarily suspended short-term hedging as a result of “elevated near-term fuel prices”.

The airline reported a a £552m pretax loss for the six months to 31 March, compared with a loss of £394m in the same period a year earlier. It normally makes its profit in the second half of the year, which includes the peak summer period.

Closer to home, the UK chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to give a speech in parliament this morning, outlining her latest plans for cushioning the blow to consumers from an expected rise in inflation later this year.

It comes after Keir Starmer announced that the government will postpone the planned increases in fuel duty that were due to take effect in September and December, and give lorry drivers free vehicle tax.

Inflation fears are being fanned by conflict in the Middle East, which has triggered a spike in oil prices. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, is up 1.5% this morning to $106.61 a barrel.

Elsewhere in the world of tech, last night SpaceX unveiled its plans to list publicly on the US stock market.

Elon Musk ’s rocket and satellite operations company is planning to go public on the Nasdaq exchange at a valuation of about $1.75tn, under the symbol SPCX, likely on 12 June. It is seeking up to $80bn in investment.

It said in its filing:

Our mission is to build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars.

Introduction: Nvidia hits record quarter on AI chip boom

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

A fresh wave of AI optimism has lifted the stock market after chip designer Nvidia reported another set of record-breaking earnings last night.

The company, which designs chips critical for AI tech, reported an 85% year-on-year rise in revenue to $81.6bn in the three months ended in April, marking the 15th consecutive quarter of beating Wall Street estimates.

Nvidia forecast $91bn in sales for its current quarter, well above average investor expectations of $86bn, but short of the highest estimates. Its shares are down 1% in after hours trading, reflecting some worries among investors about how long the company can keep up its incredible growth trajectory.

Still, the revenue beat has lifted the mood in Asian stock markets: the South Korean Kospi has staged a dramatic 9% rise, while Taiwanese shares have risen by 3.3%, snapping a four-day losing streak. LG Electronics and Hyundai Mobis both rose by more than 20% after Nvidia boss Jensen Huang said that physical AI and robotics was the “second category” for major growth.

Elsewhere this morning, Wes Streeting , the former health secretary, has called for a “wealth tax that works”.

Speaking to the BBC , he proposed equalising capital gains tax with income tax, which he said could raise £12bn a year.

Streeting suggested that CGT rates should mirror the three bands of income tax of 20%, 40% and 45%, according to the BBC . He told the broadcaster’s Political Thinking podcast that loopholes should also be closed that allow people to disguise income from work as capital gains, and that lower rates of capital gains tax could be offered to entrepreneurs who are building companies.

His comments come after his resignation as health secretary last week, after several Labour MPs urged prime minister Keir Starmer to step down.

The agenda

9am BST: Eurozone flash PMI

9.30am BST: UK flash PMI

11.30am BST: UK chancellor Rachel Reeves expected to detail measures on cost of living support

1.30pm BST: US jobless claims

3pm BST: Eurozone consumer confidence reading

4pm BST: Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey speech at Cutler’s Feast, Sheffield

Uefa
No more mismatches? Uefa revamps qualifying for men’s major tournaments
Nick Ames
Wed 20 May 2026 19.48 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 06.14 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/may/20/mismatches-over-after-uefa-revamps-qualifying-for-major-tournaments

Europe’s larger nations will no longer face mismatches against minnows such as San Marino or Andorra in men’s World Cup and European Championship qualifying after Uefa agreed a new format designed to produce more competitive fixtures.

As reported by the Guardian in April the structure, which will take effect after Euro 2028, will be based on the most recent set of Nations League rankings. It will also include elements of the Swiss system implemented across Uefa’s club competitions over the past two seasons, meaning in effect that teams compete in larger groups.

The change, approved by Uefa’s executive committee in Istanbul on Wednesday, will mean three groups of 12 teams make up League 1. The lower 18 nations, potentially 19 if Russia are reinstated, will play in three groups of six or two of six and one of seven within League 2. Each team will play six matches, three home and three away, drawn from three pots formed according to ranking.

An unspecified number of teams in each group of League 1 will qualify for the tournament in question directly, with a playoff competition accommodating some of those who fall short along with a number from League 2. Those allocations will vary according to the tournament in question, with 24 teams reaching a European Championship and 16 spots currently available for Europe at World Cups. Host nations of any event held in Europe will qualify automatically but are also expected to take part in the fresh format.

It largely mimics a similarly revamped Nations League, which will be consolidated into three leagues of 18 teams – League A, League B and League C – from its current four. Those will be divided into groups of six, with teams playing six games against five opponents, one of them home and away. A League C group would expand to seven teams if Russia return. The subsequent knockout stages will not be altered. The 36 teams in League A and League B of the Nations League will make up League 1 of the World Cup and European Championship qualifiers, with League 2 of the latter mirroring League C of the former.

Uefa’s president, Aleksander Ceferin, said: “The new formats will improve competitive balance , reduce the number of dead matches, offer a more appealing and dynamic competition to fans, while ensuring a fair qualification chance for all teams and without adding any additional dates in the international calendar.”

Leading countries and broadcasters had been pushing for Uefa to update a system widely regarded as having gone stale, with England among the countries routinely cantering to major tournaments. The continent’s football associations discussed a range of proposals last month before the plan was settled upon. Some smaller nations may be unhappy that the near guarantee of big-ticket games in qualifying competitions has in effect been taken away.

The new-look Nations League will commence in 2028-29. Final approval is expected at Uefa’s next executive committee meeting, in Thessaloniki on 15 September.

Tennis
‘She could beat anyone’: 50 years on from Sue Barker’s French Open triumph
Simon Cambers
Wed 20 May 2026 13.00 CESTLast modified on Wed 20 May 2026 17.10 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/may/20/sue-barker-french-open-roland-garros-1976-tennis

A s one of Britain’s leading TV sports presenters for the best part of three decades, Sue Barker has always been more comfortable asking questions than answering them. Many who watched her relaxed, confident style as she presented coverage of Wimbledon from 1993 to 2022 probably did not know she was once a tennis player herself. Fewer still would have known that Barker is a grand slam champion.

Her finest hour came at Roland Garros in 1976, when she won her first and only slam title, beating the Czech Renata Tomanova in three sets. This year’s event, which begins on Sunday, marks the 50th anniversary of Barker’s win. Following in the footsteps of Christine Truman, who won in 1959, and Ann Jones, who did it twice, in 1961 and 1966, Barker is the last British player, man or woman, to triumph in Paris.

It remains one of the finest achievements in British tennis, and has a claim to be one of the most underrated in British sport. It does not help that the 1976 final was not shown live on television due, reportedly, to a strike by French camera technicians. It is also, no doubt, because of what happened at Wimbledon the following year, when Virginia Wade won the title most coveted by British players. Barker was upset by the Dutchwoman, Betty Stöve, in the semi-finals, a loss that hurt so much she could not bring herself to watch the final. Instead she went out and spent a good chunk of her £3,500 prize money on jewellery.

Barker politely declined an interview request to mark the anniversary of her win in Paris, not wanting to look back too much. “It’s funny how some people look at their losses,” the former British No 1 Jo Durie says. “I know she was really disappointed in 1977 when she knew she could beat Virginia [but lost to Stöve].” Durie, who is four years younger than Barker, feels she should be enormously proud of what she achieved. “Virginia’s win was a bigger inspiration because it was Wimbledon and that’s the one everyone wants to win. But when Sue won in Paris, it made me think, if she can do it then maybe I can do it.”

At only 20 years old, it seemed as if Barker would go on to bigger things, but after missing out at Wimbledon the following year, her career was cut short by injury and she retired in 1984. “Winning the French Open was magical,” she told the Isle of Wight literary festival last year, when touring with her book: Wimbledon: A Personal History. “Of course, I thought it was the first of many, so I didn’t really celebrate that well. If I’d known it was my only one I really would have gone to town.”

In fact, after a couple of quick glasses of champagne, Barker flew home, losing her trophy and medal in the process. When Ash Barty won the French Open in 2019, she became the first Australian woman to do so since Margaret Court in 1973, but as she scanned the list of names on the trophy, she was surprised to see that Barker was also listed as an Australian . In a 2022 interview with BBC Sport, Barker said she did not care too much. “I think it’s because I used to play so much in Australia that people used to think I was Australian,” she said. “There weren’t that many British players on the clay. But it doesn’t really bother me, I knew I’d won it.” At the time, embarrassed tournament organisers vowed to make the necessary correction, but the French Tennis Federation did not respond to the Guardian when asked if the alteration has been made.

Ranked No 3 at her peak in 1977, Barker was a good athlete and possessed a forehand that was the envy of her rivals, good enough to pick up victories over Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King, only for her career to be cut short by injury. “Sue could beat anyone on her day, she knew that,” Durie says. With Evert, Navratilova and King all absent in 1976, she was also the No 1 seed in Paris so had to deal with high expectations. “I looked back at her draw,” Durie said. “She had a close one in the quarter-finals [against Regina Marsikova], then [Virginia] Ruzici was a great player on clay and Tomanova in the final, they were good wins. She was expected to win too, so she had that pressure.”

Ruzici won Roland Garros in 1978 and after her playing career, was the longtime manager of her fellow Romanian Simona Halep. Ruzici found Barker too good on the day. “We had similar styles,” Ruzici says. “She had the big forehand and more of a slice backhand, although with time, she started to drive it more.”

Like Barker, Ruzici’s win at Roland Garros came when Evert was again missing. “I was lucky in 1978 when I won, because Chris Evert didn’t play,” she says. “Chris was my bête noire, she beat me about 20 times. But what counts is having the title, because you have it for ever, and it’s there in the books. In the long run, that’s what counts.”

For all the disappointment of Wimbledon in 1977, Barker would surely agree.

Taiwan
Trump claims he will speak to Taiwan’s president, departing from decades-long diplomatic norms

Thu 21 May 2026 04.07 CESTFirst published on Thu 21 May 2026 02.48 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/21/trump-taiwan-president-china-relations

Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would speak to Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te, an unprecedented move for a US leader that could roil US relations with China.

“I’ll speak to him,” the US president told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before boarding Air Force One when asked about Lai. “I speak to everybody … We’ll work on that, the Taiwan problem.”

Responding to Trump’s comments on Thursday morning, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Lai would be happy to speak to the US leader, according to Reuters.

US and Taiwanese presidents have not spoken directly since Washington shifted diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taipei in 1979. However, as president-elect in late 2016, Trump broke decades of diplomatic precedent when he spoke to then-Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen .

The political fallout from that call saw China’s government lodge a complaint with the US government , while Trump’s transition team played down the significance of the conversation.

Beijing has never renounced the use of force to take control of the democratically governed island. It has been angered by longstanding US military support for Taiwan to deter Chinese military action.

Trump’s comments was the second time in a week he said he intends to speak to Lai, dispelling initial speculation that his first mention of it after meeting China’s leader Xi Jinping last week was a verbal slip.

A call between the leaders had not yet been scheduled, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when such a call might happen or what would be discussed. China’s embassy in Washington also did not respond immediately.

Trump administration officials have noted that Trump has approved the sale of more weapons to Taiwan than any other US president, but he has also described future weapons sales as a “very good negotiating chip.”

Trump has repeatedly touted his relationship with Xi as “amazing”. After last week’s trip to Beijing , Trump said he has not decided whether to proceed with a major weapons sale worth up to $14bn to Taiwan, adding to uncertainty about US support for the island.

In an attempt to pressure Trump, Beijing is now reportedly withholding approval for a potential summer visit to China by the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defence for policy, Elbridge Colby.

Beijing has signalled to Washington that it cannot approve Colby’s trip until Trump decides on how he will proceed with the weapons sale, according to the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter.

Any direct US-Taiwan conversation would ordinarily anger China , which sees the island as its own territory.

However, Trump’s language has sent mixed signals to Taipei . While Lai has welcomed the chance to speak to Trump, the US president’s reference to the “Taiwan problem” echoes Beijing’s phrasing. Lai, who Beijing views as a separatist, said earlier on Wednesday that if he got the opportunity to speak to Trump, he would say his government is committed to maintaining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, and that it was China that was undermining peace with its massive military buildup in the Indo-Pacific.

“No country has the right to annex Taiwan. The people of Taiwan pursue a democratic and free way of life, and democracy and freedom should not be regarded as provocation,” Lai said.

Under US law, Washington is required to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, and both Republican and Democratic US lawmakers have urged the Trump administration to continue with weapons sales.

Underscoring Taiwan’s strategic importance to the US, the island of 23 million people is the fourth-largest US trading partner, behind China, which has 1.4 billion people. Much of that trade is based on exports to the US of advanced semiconductors, which fuel the global economy.

With Reuters

Music
Fantastic visions and cosmic rhythms: how Whistler is making me see – and hear – differently
Tom Service
Wed 20 May 2026 14.17 CESTLast modified on Wed 20 May 2026 14.34 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/may/20/whistler-chopin-debussy-felicity-lott-herbert-blomstedt

C omparisons between music, painting and sculpture have never quite rung true for me because you’re talking about fundamentally opposed ideas of what the experience of art is all about. A painting can be experienced in a second’s contemplation or an hour’s, but a piece of music, be it symphony or sonata, has to be journeyed through for just as long as the performance lasts.

And yet, the week the James McNeill Whistler exhibition opens at the Tate in London (here’s Jonathan Jones’s five-star review ), I’m having to reconsider. Whistler was profoundly influenced by music, a connection that goes so deep that the results aren’t only aesthetic but visceral, in the fabric of the form and expression of his pictures and his philosophy of painting.

Whistler titled his pictures using the abstract conventions of music. Arrangement in Grey and White No 1 , a painting of his mother; Symphony in White, No 1: The White Girl , a picture of his mistress Joanna Hiffernan; or Harmony in Grey and Green , a portrait of Miss Cicely Alexander. And above all, there is the series of Nocturnes, most especially of the Thames at twilight, taking the title from Chopin’s Nocturnes and the whole history of musical nocturnalia that Susan Tomes’s new book describes .

As Whistler said in 1875 , “As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight, and the subject matter has nothing to do with harmony of sound or of colour … Why should I not call my works ‘symphonies’, ‘arrangements’, ‘harmonies’, and ‘nocturnes’? … I know that many good people think my nomenclature funny and myself ‘eccentric’…. The vast majority of English folk cannot and will not consider a picture as a picture, [standing] apart from any story which it may be supposed to tell … Art should be independent of all clap-trap – should stand alone and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism and the like”.

Music, and in particular instrumental music, with what Whistler thought of as its art-for-art’s-sake abstraction, offered a foundation for his own way of thinking about painting, a radicalism that makes Jones ask “was Whistler the first absolute modernist?”

But what’s wonderful about this chain of connection across the arts is that what begins as an inspiration from music becomes in turn an inspiration for music, and for one composer in particular: Claude Debussy. Debussy’s Three Nocturnes for orchestra, completed in 1899, aren’t composed in a musical tradition of nocturne-making. Instead, the title is indebted to Whistler’s Nocturnes. As Debussy said, his Nocturnes are about “the various impressions and the special effects of light that the word suggests”, which is exactly what Whistler’s Nocturnes are about too, plays of light in blue and silver; the Thames turned into dreamlike silk.

And there’s more to bind image to sound: two of Whistler’s Nocturnes in the Tate show put time on the canvas. His Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge and Nocturne: Black and Gold – The Fire Wheel take a freeze-frame of fireworks and turn their evanescence into painted permanence in a way that no other technology of the time could do. You could describe them as: “vibrating, dancing rhythms of the atmosphere … sudden flashes of light … a dazzling, fantastic vision of luminous dust participating in … cosmic rhythm”. But in fact, that’s Debussy talking about the second of his orchestral Nocturnes, Fêtes (“Festivals”) .

Even more than mutual inspiration, what Debussy and Whistler share is something fundamental: the idea that their compositions aren’t “about” any one thing, but it are a play of sonic and colouristic forms that gave audiences a new kind of physical and expressive sensation. Inspired by music, Whistler’s painting becomes visionary and abstract; inspired by painting, Debussy’s music turns sound into colour, space, and flashes of light.

F elicity Lott ’s life in music was one of the treasures of our time. Happily for us there remain many recordings where we can watch and listen to her light up the stage with her gleaming soprano and luminous presence. Watch her as the Marschallin with the conductor Carlos Kleiber in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier and be transported to a world of aching nostalgia and searing emotional honesty.

Several decades ago, as a Boulez-obsessed teenager, I was enough of a snob to imagine that Strauss’s Four Last Songs were a decorative indulgence, an over-romantic opiate for those who really ought to know better. I was, in other words, a total idiot. Hearing Lott sing the work at the Usher Hall during 1992’s Edinburgh festival with Klaus Tennstedt conducting the London Philharmonic was an epiphany. (And here is the very performance , even more radiant than I remember!) I was taught a lesson in the power of music’s many lines of beauty to say more and mean more than any narrow ideologies of modernism.

This week Tom has been listening to: inspired by moving accounts of the 98-year-old Herbert Blomstedt’s courage in conducting Mahler’s Ninth with the San Francisco Symphony, I’ve been listening to his live recording with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra from 2019, made when he was a mere 92. It’s easy to get carried away with “cuddly-elder-statesman-still-conducting!” vibes when thinking about Blomstedt, but what’s amazing about this Mahler Nine is its forensic musical clarity and expressive honesty. Blomstedt is never histrionic or superficially daring in his approach, but he implacably reveals Mahler’s score, and makes its screams the more shattering in the first movement, its parodies more cutting in the third, and its consolations on the edge of existence in the final movement still more breathtaking. Listen on Spotify .

Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS)
Can a name change transform PCOS outcomes for women? – podcast
Madeleine Finlay
Thu 21 May 2026 06.00 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2026/may/21/can-a-name-change-transform-pcos-outcomes-for-women-podcast

‘Unprecedented’ global effort leads to renaming of polycystic ovary syndrome – and fresh hope for millions of women

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Climate crisis
UN backs historic climate crisis ruling, despite US attempts to stop resolution

Thu 21 May 2026 05.18 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 05.50 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/21/un-vote-support-icj-world-court-climate-change-opinion

The UN has voted 141-8 to adopt a resolution backing a world court opinion that countries have a legal obligation to address climate change, with the US – which is the world’s biggest historical emitter – among the small group opposing it.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said Wednesday’s general assembly vote, in which 28 countries abstained, underscored that governments are responsible for protecting citizens from the “escalating climate crisis”.

“I welcome the adoption of the General Assembly resolution on the ICJ’s advisory opinion on climate change – a powerful affirmation of international law, climate justice, science + the responsibility of states to protect people from the escalating climate crisis,” Guterres said in a post on X.

The resolution, brought by the Pacific island Vanuatu , affirms a July 2025 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that states are obligated to reduce fossil fuel use and tackle global warming.

While not legally binding, the court’s advisory opinion is already being used in climate litigation around the world and judges are starting to reference it in their climate-related rulings.

But it has proved more intractable as a diplomatic lever . It failed to make a mark at last year’s UNFCCC climate talks in Belem; Saudi Arabia called its inclusion in final texts a “red, red line” .

The US joined Saudi Arabia, Russia, Israel, Iran, Yemen, Liberia and Belarus in opposing the resolution on Wednesday. Cop31 climate summit host Turkey, India, and oil producers Qatar and Nigeria were among those abstaining.

Australia, Germany, France and the UK were among the 141 voting in favour of the resolution.

The Trump administration has removed the US from the Paris climate agreement and other major environmental accords, and has pursued policies to boost fossil fuel production.

“The resolution includes inappropriate political demands relating to fossil fuels,” the US deputy ambassador to the UN, Tammy Bruce, said. Washington saw no basis for requiring the secretary-general to report on the legal issues raised, Bruce added.

The Associated Press reported in February that the Trump administration had been urging other nations to press Vanuatu to withdraw the resolution from consideration.

Before the vote, Odo Tevi, the Vanuatu ambassador to the UN, said: “We should be honest with one another about why this matters … It matters because the harm is real and it is already here, along our islands and coastlines, for communities facing drought and failed harvests.

“The states and peoples bearing the heaviest burden are very often those who contributed least to the problem,” he said.

Vanuatu’s minister of climate change, Ralph Regenvanu, said: “In the current geopolitical context, sustained commitment to the rule of law is more important than ever” and that climate change “is no exception”.

“Upholding the court’s clarification of existing obligations is essential for the credibility of the international system and for effective collective action,” he said.

For decades, Pacific nations have watched their homelands slowly disappear.

In Tuvalu, where the average elevation is just 2 metres (6.6 feet) above sea level, more than a third of the population has applied for a climate migration visa to Australia, although only a limited number are accepted each year. By 2100, much of the country is projected to be underwater at high tide .

In Nauru, the government has begun selling passports to wealthy foreigners – offering visa-free access to dozens of countries – in a bid to generate revenue for possible relocation efforts.

The Paris climate agreement in 2015 set a goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times, or the mid-1800s, giving rise to the mantra “1.5 to stay alive,” but now scientists say even their best-case scenario still shoots past that signature temperature mark.

Vishal Prasad, the director of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, which led the campaign for an ICJ opinion, called the vote a commitment to “making it a reality”.

With Reuters and Associated Press

John Travolta
The lesson from John Travolta’s dramatic new look: always dress for the job you want
Morwenna Ferrier
Wed 20 May 2026 14.15 CESTLast modified on Wed 20 May 2026 19.34 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/20/john-travolta-cannes-festival-beret-glasses-new-look

I t happened, as most of the best fashion moments do these days, at Cannes . I’m not talking about Demi Moore wearing a pink bow the size of a dog, or Jane Fonda sparkling in Gucci to the point of blindness, but John Travolta, of all people, who appeared at the festival this week to debut a new film and a new look , the centrepiece of which was a beret.

He actually had three in rotation, in black, brown and cream. On the seafront boulevard La Croisette, he paired them with wire-frame spectacles and a beard that appeared to have been applied with a felt-tip pen. A beret, beard and specs you say? Hardly a radical glow up for a 72-year-old celebrity. But that didn’t stop images of Travolta from going viral, sparking some lively online conversations comparing him to – in no order – a barista, a Bond villain and a character from Guess Who?.

Happily, the man himself was delighted to reveal his inspiration in a charming interview with CNN . Since he was marking his first foray into directing, Travolta had decided to dress like film directors from the past. “You’re an actor,” he had told himself, scrolling through images of Ingmar Bergman and Roberto Rossellini in similar getup. “Play the part of a director.” In other words: manifest.

Travolta’s admission had a spectacular effect in softening the hot takes. He had simply dressed for the part he wanted, or at least wanted to be known for. And however absurd his outfits were – particularly when he was waving his honorary Palme d’Or around – there was a small part of me, and perhaps all of us, that felt incredibly seen.

Who among us has not used clothes to try to shift an outcome? Perhaps as a way of signalling an attempted career change, or to forge a new identity after a breakup. Or in my case, to partly defang the industry I work in – fashion – by wearing Birkenstocks (though it helps that they’re comfy too). Whatever you think about clothes, the way we dress affects how we feel. And the way we dress also affects how other people feel. This is not cosplay. It’s enclothed cognition. The only mistake Travolta made was committing too keenly to the bit.

It’s worth adding that red carpets are fundamentally weird places. Too much attention must be hell for celebrities, but its absence is a lot worse. However instructive the dress code, however famous its participants, when the primary focus is on the films rather than the clothes, as is the case at Cannes, stars can go for broke. But it’s trickier for directors, who are toggling between necessary publicity and a desire to be taken seriously as auteurs.

Add to that just how cruel, fickle and frankly ageist Hollywood can be, even to men, and particularly when it comes to reinvention. Who can blame Travolta for buying some new hats to try to shift the invisible lever of relevance, even if said hats make him look more like a mime? Is it any different to Taylor Swift wearing Elizabeth Taylor’s jewellery this week in the hope that some of the latter’s star power might rub off, or Pep Guardiola wearing plaid shirts as a way of quiet quitting from his job at Manchester City, or even Kim Kardashian wearing Marilyn Monroe’s 1962 “naked” dress to the Met Gala in 2022 not to pay homage to its original wearer, but rather as a way of inviting comparison?

But it’s in politics where this sort of method dressing occurs most intently, where clothes serve as an exercise in would-be-leadership theatre and ultimately signal the kind of politician you want to be.

Right now, Andy Burnham is dressing for the job he wants, which is Keir Starmer’s. To show that he’s a man of the people, he is out in retro Everton shirts and running shorts – the go-to soft launch garment of choice (I’ve got stamina!) – or bomber jackets and tees, deliberately anti-Whitehall dress codes at odds with his beleaguered rival. Then there’s Wes Streeting, who has long been a wearer of the centrist blue suit – and a carrier of its implicit ideology. He is, as he always has been, dressing for the big job, while taking a leaf out of the Barack Obama playbook of easy-breezy leadership by occasionally ditching his tie. Or Angela Rayner, who as demonstrated in her recent sit-down interview with ITV, is simply wearing more red.

The problem is, dressing the part can only take you so far. You can dress for the job you want but it doesn’t mean you’re any good at it. Go too hard and you risk veering into parody or even Halloween. Still, at least Travolta earned the right, having actually directed a film ( albeit a middling one ). As for the others? There’s only so far a pair of shorts can manipulate public perception.

Morwenna Ferrier is the Guardian’s fashion and lifestyle editor