Keyword – Global
Trefwoorden – Newsletter sign-up
Title – Sign up for the First Edition newsletter: our free daily news email | Newsletter sign-up | The Guardian
Author – Guardian Staff
Link – Sign up for the First Edition newsletter: our free daily news email | Newsletter sign-up | The Guardian
Publish date – 2022-09-20T10:16:38.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/global/2022/sep/20/sign-up-for-the-first-edition-newsletter-our-free-news-email

Keyword – Fashion
Trefwoorden – Yves Saint Laurent, Fashion, Life and style, Photography, Art and design, Exhibitions, Museums, New York, Culture, Irving Penn
Title – Fashion goes pop! How Yves Saint Laurent created photography magic – in pictures | Yves Saint Laurent | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/briana-ellis-gibbs
Link – Fashion goes pop! How Yves Saint Laurent created photography magic – in pictures | Yves Saint Laurent | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T09:00:27.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2026/jun/17/yves-saint-laurent-created-photography-magic

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – England, Thomas Tuchel, Football tactics, World Cup 2026, World Cup, Football, Sport
Title – England offer rare peek behind the curtain with no place to hide under Tuchel | England | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jacob-steinberg
Link – England offer rare peek behind the curtain with no place to hide under Tuchel | England | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T00:58:34.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/21/england-world-cup-training-intensity-peek-behind-curtain-thomas-tuchel

T he tall hooded figure kept barking instructions under a hot Missouri sun. Thomas Tuchel was looking for perfection as preparations for Ghana geared up. England’s head coach watched from a distance at first but it was not long before he was making sure the training drill was up his standards.

Tuchel, wearing a hoodie to protect himself from the UV rays, loomed over a group made up of Elliot Anderson, Jude Bellingham, Anthony Gordon, Marcus Rashford, Djed Spence and Ollie Watkins. This was a rare peek behind the curtain. At international tournaments there are days when journalists are allowed to watch 15 minutes of open training. They are often anodyne experiences, limited to a bit of jogging around, maybe a glimpse of a rondo if you’re lucky, but there was more insight at England’s base in Kansas City on Saturday morning. Mannequins were carefully arranged in four zones and it soon became clear there is no hiding place when Tuchel is watching.

The German is a perfectionist who has been known to measure the height of the grass used at training. “If he sees something that he doesn’t like he calls it out,” Dan Burn said when he spoke to the media later in the day. The honesty is refreshing, the clarity welcome. On this occasion the focus seemed to be on England accelerating the play and moving through the lines. The players were passing through the mannequins. They could only take two touches. They needed to go through the middle at first, work on enticing the press and give and go before turning out to shifting the ball wide, but Tuchel was quick to move over when he spotted one group in need of some advice.

Tuchel is big on players controlling the ball with the correct foot in training. He wants everyone to know the favoured foot of every teammate on the pitch. It sounds logical. It speeds up the play and when Tuchel wandered over to Anderson, Bellingham, Spence, Gordon and Rashford it was possible to see the intensity go up.

Holding a whistle in his right hand, Tuchel was loudly telling players which foot to use to control passes. There was a moment when he zoned in on Spence, telling the full-back to wake up. “Open up,” he said. “It’s been five minutes already, Djed. Come on!”

The cajoling was relentless and the level went up. England were pushing it in the heat and the mind went back to the first half of their opening game against Croatia last Wednesday. The roof was shut at the Dallas Stadium and England struggled to beat the press during the first half. They played themselves into trouble and twice lost the lead, only to blow Croatia away with an astonishing burst of attacking football after half-time.

The aim is to play like a Premier League side: with speed, intensity and physicality. Historically, though, England have struggled with teams pressing them high. It comes down to technique. Tuchel makes it sound easy. If a left-footer receives the ball on their correct foot it makes it easier to open up the body, pass beyond an opponent, get England on the attack and use the pace of their forward players.

No wonder England’s players talk about how much they learn from Tuchel. The buy-in is total, although there is room for levity. There is basketball on offer at the team hotel. Backgammon has been on the agenda and Burn has been trying to work out how to play Wolf, a long-running card game inside the camp. “I’ve been watching a few of them before getting in there, trying to work out who the best liars are,” the big Newcastle defender said.

The players had a day off on Friday. Harry Kane and Jason Steele, the training goalkeeper, joined Burn at an Ella Langley gig. “I like country music, so I had a cowboy hat on and cowboy boots,” Burn said. “If you’re going to do it, do it properly. Ella is an amazing country artist, so it was nice that we get to do those things. Then today it’s focused back on football.”

The demands are high. While Tuchel watched the passing drill his No 2 threw himself into the action. Anthony Barry pressed and was also blasting out a stream of instructions. It was Barry who did the half-time interview with ITV and delivered a searing critique of England’s first 45 minutes against Croatia. The Liverpudlian did not hold back, saying there was a nervous energy from the team.

Burn, who first came across Barry when the 40-year-old was cutting his teeth as a young coach at Wigan Athletic, was not surprised. “There’s no grey areas with Baz and the manager,” he said. “The one thing that I really do like about them is that they just say it how there is. They’re not going to beat around the bush. That’s all you want as a player. You just want that honesty.”

England have it with Tuchel and Barry’s double act. The players will hear about it whenever they dare to slow down.

Keyword – Books
Trefwoorden – Fiction, Books, Culture
Title – A Little Bit Bad by Cassandra Neyenesch review – a sparkling, subversive debut | Fiction | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/daisy-hildyard
Link – A Little Bit Bad by Cassandra Neyenesch review – a sparkling, subversive debut | Fiction | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T06:00:03.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jun/18/a-little-bit-bad-by-cassandra-neyenesch-review-a-sparkling-subversive-debut

The plot of A Little Bit Bad sounds like the setup for a joke: “Like, this white lady lusting after her hot Chicano roofer?” Perdita Jungfrau, the narrator, is describing her own situation. “Yuck.”

It’s 2009 and Perdita is 39 when she meets 25-year-old Nando, who is working on next door’s roof. “Burned out” after a decade as a hospital social worker, she’s a stay-at-home mother to a toddler, and pregnant again (though she doesn’t know it yet). She isn’t happy. Her husband is critical of her for quitting her job, and won’t look after the children: “Babies scare me!” Perdita is out in her San Diego backyard on the day that Nando falls from a ladder propped up against the neighbour’s house. She sees it happen, calls an ambulance and sits beside him on the grass to wait.

“You know when someone is either handsome or wild-looking, and you don’t know which it is?” Nando’s face is freckled, with two little bumps where his nose has been broken twice. He describes himself as an “anarcho-Marxist” and is “opinionated in a calm, deadpan way”. He reads The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon on his lunch break, but has “somehow missed out” on college and is struggling to make a living in the post-crash economy.

Perdita and Nando should make an odd couple, but they don’t. They’re both raw and fragile, and they share a sense of delight in the abyss. (When Perdita’s son bites the face of another child at toddler group, Nando totally gets it: “He just likes the taste of human flesh”.) Their attraction feels real – there’s a sense of something tense and secret between them when they’re alone. When their differences come between them, that also feels realistic.

A Little Bit Bad is the debut novel from New Yorker Neyenesch. It’s released in the wake of Miranda July’s very successful All Fours , another story of a middle-aged California wife who discovers an intense desire for a younger man, and absconds. Where July’s novel concentrates on the “unleashed life” of the perimenopausal woman, Neyenesch’s takes a different turn. A second plot strand, set one year on in 2010, runs in parallel to the story of the affair. Nando has been murdered, and Perdita is trying to solve the case (she’s devastated, and also a fan of true crime).

Like All Fours, A Little Bit Bad has a careering plotline, flying between the everyday drudgery of mom-life, and a heightened, surreal or imagistic mode. My favourite character is an owl with the face of a woman who appears occasionally to Perdita and addresses her in the voice of the man who works at the local pawn shop. Beyond or via their fictional flights of fancy, All Fours is concerned with the politics of biology and the “true self” of a woman in midlife, whereas A Little Bit Bad is more interested in societal injustice. The military-industrial complex, the “good Obamaverse” and the carceral system all feature. At its sharpest, the novel poses questions about the structural violence of a culture that privileges the normative nuclear family. To some extent, it pulls back from a focus on the middle-class mother to ask who really feels that violence.

It’s also very funny. I was reminded of the heroines of Halle Butler’s novels – Perdita could be their older sister, another ferocious dork with a genius for behaving inappropriately. ( Of course her son bites faces.) Neyenesch’s comic excellence and sharp insight occasionally come at the cost of blunter things, such as emotion. When Nando falls off the ladder and lies on the ground between life and death, Perdita, kneeling beside him, sees the blood coming out of him as “exit-sign red”. There’s something here that could be felt by the reader as serious, but the narrative chooses a smart humour, and those feelings never get too close.

There were points at which I wondered whether Neyenesch was deliberately satirising All Fours, or more broadly the trend for frantic fictional celebrations of older women going rogue. Certainly, she is having a laugh with California-flavoured ideas about self-expression. One chapter is wonderfully titled “The Roofer Holds Space for My Feelings”.

At heart, this story is tragic. The touch of satire pulls it back from the abyss, and it’s probably for the best. I absolutely enjoyed every single page. The plot is constructed for compulsive reading: the two storylines are told in interspersed chapters, and as the affair begins to cool, the murder mystery gets going. The central couple are sparkling and adorable. At an open-mic night on their first date they get up on stage. Perdita raps, while Nando, at her side, does “an Irish clog dance”. The audience is delighted.

A Little Bit Bad by Cassandra Neyenesch is published by Fig Tree (£16.99). To order your copy, go to guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, World Cup, Curaçao, Ecuador, Football, Sport
Title – Room shuts door as Curaçao claim historic first World Cup point against Ecuador | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ed-aarons
Link – Room shuts door as Curaçao claim historic first World Cup point against Ecuador | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T02:35:43.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/21/curacao-ecuador-world-cup-group-e-match-report

It’s doubtful whether many Ecuador supporters – or many others for that matter – had ever heard the name Eloy Room before this match. They will never forget it now.

Watched by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands in the stands, the Curaçao goalkeeper etched his name into the pantheon of World Cup legends with what must rank as one of the most heroic performances in the long history of the competition.

Room – a 37-year-old who has spent most of his career sitting on the bench for clubs in the Eredivisie – came within one save of breaking Tim Howard’s all-time record of 16 in a single men’s World Cup game from 2014, although that included a period of extra time. It earned the nation with the smallest population ever to make it to a finals a first ever point on their World Cup debut against highly-rated opponents, as Dick Advocaat’s side recovered from their 7-1 thrashing against Germany a few days ago in some style.

“I still have to process it myself,” admitted a delighted Room, who revealed that he had received a congratulatory kiss from Queen Máxima in the changing room afterwards. “I’m a bit annoyed that I didn’t get the record in the end but I think Tim Howard was sweating on it a bit.”

Advocaat, who stepped down in February due to his daughter’s health concerns before returning last month and who is the oldest manager at a World Cup finals, was in tears at the final whistle. “I’m so proud,” he said. “We have come from nothing and they fought like lions. It will be a big party on the island tonight and they deserve it.”

For Ecuador, who left the field to jeers from their fans as Curaçao’s players congratulated theirs, it was another performance to forget and they know they must beat Germany in their final match to stand any chance of progressing. “There are things you cannot explain in football – we’ve had 27 shots on goal but we couldn’t score,” said their coach, Sebastián Beccacece. “It is normal to feel this pain but we still have a chance to put things right.”

Curaçao’s thumping against Julian Nagelsmann’s side had not dampened the spirit of their partying supporters, with as many as 5% of the country’s 160,000 population estimated to have travelled to the United States. They more than held their own in the pre-match decibel challenge at the self-styled loudest stadium in the world that usually hosts the serial Super Bowl winners the Kansas City Chiefs.

But the section of blue-shirted fans who brought their own brass band to perform the national anthem before kick-off were totally outnumbered by an expectant Ecuadorian crowd, boosted by a large local expat population, who were desperate to make amends for the surprise defeat by Côte d’Ivoire that ended a 19-match unbeaten run.

The stylish Beccacece – a long-haired Argentinian who started his career with the youth teams at Lionel Messi’s childhood club, Newell’s Old Boys, and is a disciple of Jorge Sampaoli – had urged against complacency as they prepared to face a side ranked 83rd by Fifa. “We are not Germany,” he warned beforehand.

With a team packed full of players starring for top European clubs, including Arsenal’s Piero Hincapié and Willian Pacho of Paris Saint-Germain in defence, La Tri were widely tipped to do well here after finishing second in South American qualifying.

Enner Valencia should have settled their nerves inside the open two minutes when the veteran former West Ham striker raced through in goal. But Room – who earned himself a move to second-tier side Miami FC off the back of his performances in qualifying – produced an exceptional save to push his shot around the post.

The king and queen, having been treated to an impressive 5-1 Netherlands victory over Sweden in Houston hours earlier, may have feared the worst for the territory less than 40 miles from the South American coast that was colonised by the Dutch in the 17th century. Yet Curaçao showed they are not here to make up the numbers as a driving run from Sheffield United’s Tahith Chong – the only member of Curaçao’s squad born on the island and sporting a distinctive haircut for the occasion – lifted the tempo before Juninho Bacuna shot wide.

Advocaat was further encouraged by the space his side were finding down the flanks as Ecuador’s wing-backs pushed high. The frustration was starting to grow for Beccacece after Pedro Vite curled wide and some slack passing undermined his side’s dominance of possession. Valencia and John Yeboah tested Room just before the break but the goalkeeper was again equal to their efforts.

It was up to Ecuador to significantly raise their game and Beccacece hauled off Jordy Alcívar for the second half after he had picked up a booking and replaced him with Kevin Rodríguez. Room resumed where he left off by making a routine save from Moisés Caicedo before somehow stopping a goalbound header from a corner that deflected off his own player.

Curaçao’s discipline began to wane as they were pushed back but they continued to look dangerous on the break. A brilliant backheel from Bacuna set up his older brother and captain, Leandro, and Hernán Galíndez ended up having to make a triple save from Livano Comenencia and Jürgen Locadia.

Room took centre stage yet again moments later when Rodríguez powered a header on target from a corner and the goalkeeper repelled further efforts from Valencia and Pacho. Hincapié headed over from a corner before the substitute Ángelo Preciado’s cross hit the woodwork. Valencia wasted the best chance to win it as Ecuador failed to avert disaster and left Curaçao feeling on top of the world.

Keyword – Politics
Trefwoorden – Labour party leadership, Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting, Labour, Politics, UK news
Title – Keir Starmer expected to announce departure as prime minister on Monday | Labour party leadership | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/peterwalker
Link – Keir Starmer expected to announce departure as prime minister on Monday | Labour party leadership | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T09:03:57.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/21/keir-starmer-expected-to-announce-departure-as-prime-minister-on-monday

Keir Starmer is expected to announce on Monday that he will step down as prime minister, after overwhelming pressure from Labour MPs to make way for Andy Burnham to become Labour leader.

Speaking for the government on Sunday, Peter Kyle, the business secretary, refused to comment on Starmer’s specific plans but said the prime minister was aware of the “political realities” and would do what was best for the country.

“I don’t want to come on here and be delusional that there is no process, there are no forces at work which are challenging the prime minister as leader – that is clearly the case,” he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.

The prime minister and his allies had insisted for weeks, before the Makerfield byelection in which Burnham secured a return to Westminster, that they would fight a leadership challenge from Burnham, or anyone else.

Downing Street reiterated this on Sunday, pointing to Starmer’s comments to reporters on Friday, after Burnham’s byelection win, in which the PM vowed that he would fight any challenge to his leadership.

While Kyle said he did not know “what the next few days will entail”, he presented Starmer as thinking very carefully about his future and how to avoid damaging the national interest.

Kyle said he had spoken at length to Starmer on Friday. “He was very mindful of the interests of the country, and in that conversation he repeatedly said to me and asked my advice on what I believe the country wanted at this moment in different circumstances.”

Refusing to say what advice he had given, Kyle said of the Labour party: “We are a tight group of people, and we are now facing a period of political uncertainty, and we need to find a way to get through this that puts the country first. This is what we are trying to do.”

Kyle is a close friend of Wes Streeting , who resigned as health secretary last month and has pledged to challenge to become prime minister.

Asked if he would want a full contest to see who might replace Starmer, rather than the mooted coronation for Burnham, Kyle said that while contests were “better wherever possible, that needs to be balanced with the needs of maintaining authority of a party”.

He urged Labour to “learn the lessons of the Tories and make sure that any change that may or may not happen is done in a functional way, and in a way that keeps the government focused on the needs of the people”.

But in a veiled warning to those expecting Burnham to turn around the party’s fortunes, Kyle said Labour also needed to learn from the Conservatives that “whenever they saw a challenge in their party, they always thought that changing the person at the top would fix everything, and that palpably, patently, is not the case”.

After the Greater Manchester mayor won Thursday’s contest by a significant margin over Reform, gaining a 9,000-plus majority and more than 50% of the vote, Burnham’s team believed they had the support of about 200 Labour MPs, about half the parliamentary party.

That number has since increased, with Burnham becoming increasingly confident of a coronation in which he would take over as Labour leader and thus PM without a contest, with Starmer setting out a relatively quick timetable for departure.

On Friday, ministers previously loyal to Starmer told him that he should reach a decision on a timetable for his departure by the end of the weekend or face being forced out of office, with an intervention at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting likely to result.

Under Labour party rules, any MP who wishes to challenge to be leader needs the backing of at least 20% of the parliamentary party, or 81 MPs.

Streeting has pledged to seek the top job and says he has sufficient backers, but allies of Starmer and Burnham are sceptical. His candidacy will become less likely if wavering Labour backbenchers conclude that they would prefer to back a likely winner and swing behind Burnham.

Starmer’s departure will set the UK on course for a seventh prime minister in 10 years, just two years after he led Labour to a sweeping general election victory, winning a majority of 174 seats.

His premiership has been battered by controversies and U-turns, including over winter fuel payments to older people and the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington.

Labour has slumped in the polls, and Starmer himself is enormously unpopular with much of the public. Reform UK has led for more than 300 consecutive national polls and many Labour MPs are increasingly convinced that without a change of leader, Nigel Farage will win the next election.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Football, World Cup 2026, World Cup, Sport
Title – Brian Brobbey doubles up for Dutch and Deniz Undav: supersub – World Cup Daily | Football | The Guardian
Author – Max Rushden
Link – Brian Brobbey doubles up for Dutch and Deniz Undav: supersub – World Cup Daily | Football | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T05:15:02.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/audio/2026/jun/21/brian-brobbey-netherlands-sweden-germany-deniz-undav-curacao-ecuador

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts and join the conversation on email .

On the podcast today: the Netherlands hammer Sweden 5-1 to top Group F. Brian Brobbey comes into the Dutch attack and transforms them with some classic centre-forward hold-up play.

Elsewhere: Deniz Undav scores two from the bench as Germany come from behind to beat Côte d’Ivoire, while Ecuador, potential dark horses, fail to beat Curaçao. Where does that result rank in the shocks so far?

Plus a preview of tomorrow’s games, including Spain v Saudi Arabia, and your questions answered.

Support the Guardian here .

You can also find Football Weekly on Instagram , TikTok, and YouTube .

Keyword – US news
Trefwoorden – Trump administration, Donald Trump, US news, US politics, Washington DC
Title – Trump news at a glance: US president claims ‘vandalism’ for Washington DC reflecting pool problems | Trump administration | The Guardian
Author – Guardian staff
Link – Trump news at a glance: US president claims ‘vandalism’ for Washington DC reflecting pool problems | Trump administration | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T01:29:43.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/21/trump-administration-latest-updates-saturday-reflecting-pool

Donald Trump , without offering evidence, blamed “vandalism” for “real problems” at Washington’s reflecting pool after an algae bloom in the wake of a $14.2m renovation of the site that he declared would turn it “American flag” blue. Paint has been seen peeling off in the water. He also made claims that vandals had been arrested.

Days after his administration claimed the pool was actually “crystal clear”, despite an unmistakably green hue, the US president acknowledged issues – and claimed there had been foul play.

“We’ve cleaned, renovated, and beautified over 45 Monuments and Memorials, 28 Statues, and 22 Fountains in Washington DC,” Trump wrote in a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform on Friday night. “However, we’ve had some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool, which sits between The Washington Monument and The Lincoln Memorial.”

Trump claims people arrested for vandalising ‘magnificent’ pool

In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump claimed, again without producing evidence, that “multiple individuals” had been arrested by US park police for “vandalizing our Nations magnificent Reflecting Poll”.

“Who would do such a thing?” Trump wrote. “These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail! Work will begin immediately on its repair.”

Trump also claimed in his post that the algae problem was largely under control, suggesting it was “75% gone” and the issue would soon be “completely remedied”.

Read the full story

Trump’s DC makeover frenzy bewilders locals and visitors

Washington DC is “a different city right now” as Donald Trump tries to put his stamp on the capital in time for the US’s forthcoming 250th anniversary celebrations.

“It’s so symbolic of what he’s doing to the country. It’s like he’s shitting all over our nation’s capital,” said Norma Roth, a children’s book author.

Read the full story

Investigation finds that 93% of ICE arrests targeted Latinos

Federal agents have arrested hundreds of immigrants off New York and New Jersey streets in recent months in a stealth enforcement campaign that disproportionately targeted people from Latin American countries, according to an investigation by the City Reporter based on a review of more than 1,200 lawsuits.

More than 93% of the people grabbed off area streets who filed suit were from Latin American countries, although Latinos make up only 66% of immigrants without legal status in the region.

Read the full story

US treasury chief urged Trump not to host ‘Mr Bean on crack’ Zelenskyy, book says

Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, advised Donald Trump not to host Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, having called the Ukrainian president a “little fucker”, a “special-needs child” and “Mr Bean on crack”, according to a new book.

The suggestion that a US cabinet official described a world leader in such terms is included in Regime Change, a blockbusting account of the second Trump administration by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, set to be published worldwide on Tuesday.

Read the full story

‘It’s not science, it’s coercion’: health experts decry RFK Jr order on hantavirus quarantine

The Trump administration is employing “authoritarian” and “unconstitutional” quarantine measures for at least one person who came into contact with a hantavirus patient, health law experts say.

Read the full story

Trump loyalist Jim Jordan linked to group that received ‘dark money’ from ICE contractor

Jim Jordan is among the most famous names in this stretch of Ohio.

The congressman and chair of the powerful House judiciary committee is considered among the most conservative and influential members in Congress, and is a longtime loyalist of Donald Trump.

But a report released last month by Pogo Investigates, a nonprofit newsroom, highlighted the close ties between Jordan and a company profiting from the Trump administration’s anti-immigration crackdown.

Read the full story

What else happened today:

Environmentalists have lost a bid to block Elon Musk’s SpaceX from closing a Texas beach during rocket launches.

A website leak has exposed participants in the secretive, Peter Thiel-founded Dialog retreats, including top politicians from across the American divide.

Israelis have expressed feeling betrayed and angry after the US-Iran peace deal – and there is particular ire for Donald Trump.

Catching up? Here’s what happened on 19 June 2026 .

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Ghana football team, World Cup 2026, World Cup, England, Football, Sport, The FA
Title – Thomas Partey in spotlight as he faces England and former Arsenal teammates after rape charges | Ghana football team | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rob-draper
Link – Thomas Partey in spotlight as he faces England and former Arsenal teammates after rape charges | Ghana football team | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T11:11:47.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/21/thomas-partey-england-ghana-handshake

T he Football Association has remained coy over what will happen when England line up for their next World Cup match against Ghana on Tuesday and come up against a familiar opponent in Thomas Partey. The former Arsenal midfielder played for Villarreal this season, but will be released at the end of his contract this month.

In the pre-match ceremony, all players are expected to shake hands with opponents, and the FA will leave England’s players to decide whether they wish to go through the ritual with Partey. The squad includes two of his former club-mates, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka.

For some, a handshake will seem uncomfortable. Partey is scheduled to go on trial next year at Southwark crown court after he was charged with five counts of rape and one of sexual assault last year. He was later charged with two further counts of rape. Partey has denied all the charges, with his lawyer insisting that he welcomes the chance to clear his name.

He missed Ghana’s opening World Cup game against Panama on Thursday, but that was not because of any qualms on behalf of the Ghanaian FA in selecting him. The team coach, Carlos Queiroz, a former assistant of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, has maintained his player should be regarded as innocent unless proven guilty. “Let events run their normal course, let the river flow and one day, when the river meets the ocean, we will find the truth,” he has said.

Partey’s absence from Ghana’s first game was because it was being played in Toronto and Canadian officials refused him entry. He is available to play against England in Boston because the USA has granted him a visa.

The Ghanaian is not the only player accused of rape participating at the World Cup. The Japan midfielder Kaishu Sano was arrested for gang-rape in 2024, when it was alleged that he and two friends sexually assaulted a female companion after she had joined them for a celebratory meal in Tokyo when the player’s transfer from Kashima Antlers to Mainz was confirmed. The woman called the police immediately after the alleged attack and the three men were arrested on a nearby street.

Prosecutors dropped the charges after Sano reportedly apologised to the complainant and made a large payment to her. Sano later issued a statement saying: “I am truly sorry for causing trouble to so many people with my actions,” before returning to the national team.

As Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi prepared to take on Scotland on Friday, a French court confirmed he would face trial for the alleged rape of a woman in 2023 , which he denies. The woman, then aged 24, told police she met Hakimi, now a two-time Champions League winner with Paris Saint-Germain, in January 2023 on Instagram and went to his home in a taxi ordered by the player and he raped her.

Shortly after the Versailles court of appeal delivered its ruling, Hakimi wrote on X that he had been “waiting for this trial since day one. At last, I’ll be able to speak.” A date has not been announced for trial.

In Partey’s case, many in Ghana initially blamed the co-hosts, with the African country’s ministry of foreign affairs condemning “the high-handed and extremely unfair decision by Canada to refuse a temporary residence application. Ghana considers that reliance on unproven charges in the absence of a judicial determination raises fundamental questions of fairness and proportionality.”

Diplomatic channels were used, but when the Ghana FA challenged the visa denial in court, it turned out that Partey had misled officials in his visa application. The court ruling said: “In the statutory criminality and security questions of the application, the applicant [Partey] answered ‘No’ to having ever committed, been arrested for, charged with or convicted of any criminal offence in any country.”

That seemed unwise in the extreme, given he is engaged in a hugely high-profile rape case for crimes allegedly committed when he was playing for Arsenal. It meant his appeal was always likely to fail, which it did. It also sparked a political storm in Ghana, again not over his suitability to represent the nation, but over how the Ghanaian FA had allowed such a basic mistake to be made.

“All this while, we were being fed lies and inaccurate information, creating a false impression about why Partey was denied entry into Canada,” said Fiifi Boafo, a politician with the opposition New Patriotic party in Ghana, on Facebook. “Heads must roll.”

Others said it was shameful for Ghana to be portrayed in such a light. “What we are witnessing now is an ‘amateur hour’ at the GFA,” said Dr Joshua Jebuntie Zaato, senior fellow at the University of Ghana, on TV3 Ghana. “Someone must be held responsible for this error.”

The Ghanaian FA said its role in the visa application had been “mischaracterised”. It said it “had a duty to support and facilitate visa applications for all accredited members of the Ghana delegation” and had “worked closely with the player, his legal representatives, Fifa, and the relevant Canadian authorities.

“The court did not make any finding of fault, negligence, misconduct or incompetence against the Ghana Football Association. The GFA remains satisfied that it acted diligently, professionally, and in good faith at all times in support of the player and the national team.”

It meant that while his teammates travelled to Boston, Partey was left at the team’s training base at Bryant University in Rhode Island. That Ghana recorded a dramatic 1-0 win over Panama, courtesy of a 95th-minute Caleb Yirenkyi goal, has somewhat rescued Ghanaian officials from criticism.

Pre-match handshakes have led to some awkward footballer confrontations, though usually related to personal issues between players such as John Terry and Wayne Bridge and Patrice Evra and Luis Suárez .

The FA has not expressed an official position and legal experts agree it would be unwise for it to do so given Partey’s lawyer is sure to claim such a stance would be prejudicial to his trial. It would not, according to experts, mean a trial being thrown out, but it would be an unnecessary position for the FA to take.

England players are not expected to snub Partey; most regard the pre-match handshake as a mere formality devoid of significant meaning.

Additional reporting by Gavin Blair

Keyword – Art and design
Trefwoorden – David Hockney, Painting, Art, Art and design, Culture, Exhibitions, UK news
Title – David Hockney’s funeral held in private with just two mourners | David Hockney | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/donna-ferguson
Link – David Hockney’s funeral held in private with just two mourners | David Hockney | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T12:06:07.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/jun/21/david-hockney-funeral-private-two-mourners

Only two people attended David Hockney’s funeral last week – in line with the British artist’s final wishes.

The two mourners at the private ceremony were Hockney’s 61-year-old partner, Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, and his 33-year-old great-nephew, Richard Hockney, a photographer who worked as the artist’s assistant and frequently modelled for him. Both are trustees of the David Hockney Foundation, established by the artist in 2008.

When the pioneering painter of The Splash died peacefully at his home on 11 June aged 88, Keir Starmer and King Charles were among those who paid tribute to his “vivid, instantly recognisable” work and “irrepressible charm, talent and constant innovation”.

Although Hockney wanted his funeral to be an intimate ceremony, his publicist, Erica Bolton, announced that his life and work would be celebrated in a series of memorial services to be held in places he has lived around the world, including London and Yorkshire.

Bolton said: “We have been overwhelmed by your tributes which have meant so much to us and we wanted to thank you.

“As we have already received so many inquiries about David Hockney’s funeral arrangements and memorials, we would like to clarify that it was David’s clear wish that his funeral should be attended only by his partner, JP, and his great-nephew Richard, and that their privacy would be respected. The funeral has already taken place.

“Also in accordance with David’s wishes, we are able to announce that the first memorial service to celebrate David’s life and work will be held in London in spring 2027, followed at later dates by memorials in Yorkshire, Paris and Los Angeles.”

She added that most of Hockney’s works in his private collection would be given to foundations and public institutions around the world “in furtherance of his legacy”.

Hockney refused a knighthood in 1990 and he revealed why 13 years later, in a 2003 interview with his local newspaper, Bradford’s Telegraph & Argus . “I do not care for a fuss,” he said. “I don’t value prizes of any sort. I value my friends.”

Hockney is thought to have created about 35,000 artworks throughout his six-decade career, including the Queen Elizabeth II window at Westminster Abbey, where the memorial in London is likely to be held.

He donated about 8,000 works to his foundation which were collectively valued at more than £1bn in 2024.

A free exhibition, David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts About Painting , runs until 23 August at the Serpentine in London.

Next year there will be two more exhibitions of Hockney’s work, at Tate Britain and in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern.

There was a surge in demand for the artist’s work at Art Basel last week, where buyers were given one of the first chances since his death to acquire his work in person.

Clare McAndrew, the author of The Art Basel and US Global Art Market Report, told the Observer there had been a “supply grab” of Hockney’s paintings, with demand reportedly up more than 1,200% in the 48 hours after his death.