Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Scotland, World Cup 2026, World Cup, Football, Sport
Title – Scotland’s World Cup destiny is in their own hands but lack of gamechangers shows | Scotland | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ewanmurray
Link – Scotland’s World Cup destiny is in their own hands but lack of gamechangers shows | Scotland | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-20T18:13:50.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/20/scotland-2026-world-cup-destiny-morocco-brazil-steve-clarke

T he permutations Steve Clarke is so desperate to avoid are already dominating discussion among the Tartan Army. As Ismael Saibari smacked Morocco in front inside two minutes against Scotland , goal difference rose on the horizon of anyone wanting Clarke and his players to create history. Those in navy blue were clinging on in Boston.

What happened next can be considered a moral victory for Scotland. Morocco were wasteful for the remainder of the first half. Scotland improved markedly in the second period, even daring to control spells of the game. The 1-0 defeat returns their goal difference to zero rather than leaving them already staring at early elimination while on three points. The problem is, Brazil lie in wait next.

Scotland find themselves in strange territory. Should they avoid a heavy loss to Brazil – and the Morocco fixture proved that is feasible – they have at least a decent chance of progressing to the last 32. Not that anything can be said with certainty regarding stage-one outcomes; far too many matches are still to be played. Group B is problematic for Scotland, given a win for Bosnia and Herzegovina against Qatar would move three teams to at least four points. So, too, is Group D where Australia and Paraguay – both on three points already – face off in the final game. Mutual acceptable outcomes etc. A batch of teams who finish the group stage after Scotland will know precisely what they have to do. Clarke not unreasonably is unwilling to focus on possibilities or probabilities for qualification.

“Absolutely nothing,” said Scotland’s manager when asked what the group situation does for the mindset of his squad. “They will want to win the game. If they can’t win the game, they don’t want to lose it.”

There is a broader picture that it would be silly to ignore, especially if Scotland squeeze out of Group C largely thanks to the 1-0 win over Haiti. This marked only their fourth goal in what is now eight finals outings under Clarke. Two of them have been via huge deflections and one was a consolation during a 5-1 hammering by Germany. At this level, the Scots are painfully short of gamechanging talent. The technical level of attacking players at countries of comparable size – Norway are the perfect model – is streets ahead of what Clarke can call upon. Nobody doubts his Scotland team display a terrific attitude and have been an overwhelming success after decades in the international doldrums. They are, however, a hugely limited side and routinely a tricky watch.

It is a basic fact that Scotland will break new ground if they qualify for the last 32. Nonetheless, elevating the class of 2026 above that of, for example, 1974 would be ludicrous. Scottish fans light up tournament football. The team? Patently less so.

This is a Scottish football problem, not a Steve Clarke one. It should be acted upon while the going is good, specifically by way of incentivising clubs to develop homegrown players. This marks a third tournament qualification out of four. The average age of the starting XI against Morocco was closer to 30 than 29. Clarke has signed on for another four years with a stated aim of sourcing a new generation of squad members. His looks a highly invidious task. Tyler Fletcher, the latest poster boy for a brave new dawn, has spent as much time in the Scottish domestic football system as he has on the moon.

Clarke, his paymasters at the Scottish Football Association and the Scottish Professional Football League need a collaborative approach to raise standards markedly. The World Cup has merely emphasised this. During this transfer window Premiership clubs will welcome footballing also-rans from all over the world, diminishing the prospects of emerging Scottish talent.

Ben Gannon-Doak continues to provide hope. Clarke has a habit of playing down hype around the Bournemouth man, which from a manager is understandable. The 20-year-old is lightly raced in club football. External noise is also apposite; Scots yearn for a star, hence Gannon-Doak generates giddiness .

“He is a terrific player,” said Clarke after the former Liverpool man’s impact as a substitute against Morocco. “It took him a little bit of time to get into the game. Once he gets in there, you know Ben is going to give you unpredictability at that end of the pitch. He gives us a threat that is different. Ben does something different, we know that. Brazil is a different game and probably a different approach.”

There may be no need to overthink this. Nations short on resource, who have a player with Gannon-Doak’s pace and directness, would routinely just pick the player. There feels no need to protect him with Scotland crying out for a difference-maker. Clarke can remove one criticism, that he lacks ambition, by turning to Gannon-Doak.

Scotland cried foul after the Morocco clash from the belief that John McGinn and Scott McTominay should have been awarded penalties. Although a long way from ranting and raving, Clarke implied Morocco should have been reduced to 10 men. The refusal of video assistant referees to intervene in games looks a deliberate – and welcome – approach in this World Cup but it harmed Scotland on this occasion. This also, it must be noted, meant a penalty was not given against Grant Hanley for handball in the Haiti fixture.

Scotland exited Euro 2024 under stinging complaint towards a referee who did not award a spot-kick in their final group game against Hungary. It felt empty then and the same now. Scotland as a country has football issues, and stark ones, which on even loose inspection matter much more than acts of officialdom.

Scotland’s destiny is in their own hands. Draw with Brazil and the knockout phase should be a certainty. Lose and other, uncontrollable elements enter the fold.

Keyword – Television & radio
Trefwoorden – Television, Culture, Television & radio
Title – Tell us your favourite TV shows of 2026 so far | Television | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/guardian-community-team
Link – Tell us your favourite TV shows of 2026 so far | Television | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-09T15:52:01.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jun/09/tell-us-your-favourite-tv-shows-of-2026-so-far

The Guardian’s culture writers have compiled their favourite TV shows of the year so far – and we’d like to hear about yours, too.

Are there any new series that you would recommend watching? What have been best TV shows of the year so far, and why?

If you’re having trouble using the form click here . Read terms of service here and privacy policy here .

Keyword – US news
Trefwoorden – Washington DC, Donald Trump, US news, US politics, Communities, Cities
Title – Trump’s DC makeover frenzy bewilders locals and visitors: ‘It’s like we’re under occupation’ | Washington DC | The Guardian
Author – Robert Tait
Link – Trump’s DC makeover frenzy bewilders locals and visitors: ‘It’s like we’re under occupation’ | Washington DC | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-20T09:00:05.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/20/trump-dc-makeover-frenzy

On the edge of Lafayette Square, a landmark park near the White House, a scuffed sign proclaimed: “We are making DC safe and beautiful.”

Julie, visiting Washington DC with her husband, Robert, to celebrate their recent marriage, was unconvinced. “The irony,” she said. “It’s neither safe, nor beautiful.”

A chain-link fence surrounded the square, closing the site off from the public as it underwent refurbishment on the orders of Donald Trump .

It is one of many locations across the city currently under renovation, or construction, as Trump tries to put his stamp on the capital in time for the US’s forthcoming 250th anniversary celebrations.

Local preservationists say Julie’s withering verdict is widely shared.

“It is a different city right now,” said Rebecca Miller, executive director of the DC Preservation League , a city heritage group. “There are visitors from out of town who are disappointed that they’re only here for a few days, and there’s so much construction going on at the moment.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime trip for some people, and to have it marred down with not being able to access certain sites can be really disappointing.”

Among a flurry of expensive projects, the US president has ordered the East Wing of the White House demolished to make way for a massive ballroom. Recently disclosed figures reveal the work is projected to cost $600m, with half the bill footed by taxpayers, contradicting Trump’s claim that the price tag would be $400m and met by private donors.

The National Park Service has been restoring fountains across the city, too, making them flow once again in time for the country’s birthday.

The administration also commissioned a restoration of the reflecting pool on the National Mall, which links the Lincoln Memorial with the George Washington monument, to repair the effects of discoloring algae. And plans have been unveiled for a 250ft triumphal arch south of the Potomac River, near Arlington national cemetery, which critics say would transform Washington’s low-rise skyline for the worse.

A simple recitation of the projects does not convey the temporary air that this frenzy of renovations has bestowed upon a historic area that has long drawn tourists from across the world.

Until its recent completion, the reflecting pool was for weeks a site of frenetic activity from workers repainting and re-coating its surface. The view for visitors was obscured by a fence covered by black tarpaulin. (Upon completion of a project Trump said would turn the pool “American-flag blue”, algae turned the water green .)

The transitory aura is compounded by renovations on the neighboring Arlington Memorial Bridge, a neoclassical structure built in 1932 whose columns and gold statues are also covered by tarpaulin.

Nearby, two projects unconnected to the administration – a memorial to veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf war, and the Potomac River tunnel project, an infrastructure scheme aimed at reducing sewage overflows – add to the building site atmosphere.

It is more intense still near the White House, which is overshadowed by a large crane.

In recent weeks, the area has resembled an exclusion zone, with extended areas previously open to the public – from the Ellipse south of the White House to Lafayette Square at the north and encompassing parts of Pennsylvania Avenue – sealed off.

Lafayette Square, a 7-acre site featuring fountains and statues of the heroes of the American revolution, forming part of the larger President’s Park, is subject to renovations carried out under a $17m contract awarded on a no-bids basis to Clark Construction, the same company undertaking the White House ballroom project.

Scenes of visitors – like Robert and Julie – squinting for a better view have become commonplace.

“Everything that I’ve seen is to honor Donald Trump, not America’s 250th anniversary,” said Robert, a retired US history professor at a private college in Brooklyn, who like Julie declined to provide a second name.

Trump’s claims of grandeur outstripped those of King George III, the British monarch at the time of the Declaration of Independence, Robert suggested. “We have the irony of a man who has the instincts of an absolute monarch presiding over the celebration of our separation from a constitutional monarch,” he said. “It’s quite something.”

A block away, on 17th Street, Norma Roth, a 62-year-old children’s book author from Tampa, gaped at scores of temporary toilets – known colloquially as “Porta Potties” – which were installed on the Ellipse for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on the White House’s South Lawn, which took place on 14 June, on Trump’s birthday.

“It’s so symbolic of what he’s doing to the country. It’s like he’s shitting all over our nation’s capital,” she said.

Wearing an “Elections Matter” T-shirt from a recent Bruce Springsteen concert, Roth called the exclusion area around the White House a denial of the free-speech values she taught her three children.

“They didn’t like George W Bush, but my husband and I explained to them what was meant by freedom: that you are allowed to protest and speak your mind,” she said. “So they stood in front of the White House and gave the thumbs down. You can’t do that now. It’s like we are under occupation.”

About a mile away, Mark, 68, a retired lawyer visiting Washington from his current home in Paris, took selfies at the reflecting pool, where he recalled being forced to stand during the 1976 bicentennial celebrations because of the vast crowds.

He voiced disappointment at the results of the recent work, costing $13.1m and leaving the surface water looking black under a slightly overcast light rather than the “American-flag blue” trumpeted by the president. “I don’t know if it’s a success or failure, but it doesn’t look as blue as I imagined,” he said.

Visitors were much rarer across the Potomac near the site of the proposed arch, which critics have dubbed the “Arc de Trump”, in mocking reference to Paris’s Arc de Triomphe.

Costing an estimated $100m, the arch would be built on a large roundabout that is now a busy traffic intersection. The few who passed expressed surprise and bemusement at the idea of the imposing structure.

Gabe Adame and his wife, Beth, both 43, from Corpus Christi in Texas and visiting the capital for the first time, reacted positively. “The whole area feels like a blank canvas and unfinished. It would be a good addition,” said Gabe, an instrumentation manager for an oil and natural gas company, who said he was a Trump supporter.

But Oliver, a 42-year-old worker for a nongovernment organization, said placing a towering structure at the gateway to the city could obscure more famous long-established landmarks. “I think it could be an obstruction to the main body of Washington, which is the George Washington monument,” he said. “The Lincoln Memorial has been with us for 150 years.”

That argument has been central to the objections of local heritage campaigners, who had until 15 June to make comment on the proposal under the planning schedule. “What is currently proposed does fundamentally cut off the sight line, unless you’re walking down the absolute center of Memorial Bridge,” said Miller, of the DC Preservation League.

About 600 letters of objection have been sent to the US Commission of Fine Arts, while congressional Democrats have introduced legislation to defund the project on the ground that it does not seek approval of Congress.

The White House argues that such approval is already granted under a 1925 report allowing for two 166-columns connected to the Arlington Memorial Bridge.

Miller dismissed that contention. “What they’re proposing is not the columns that were authorized for that design,” she said. “The columns [that were authorized] were on either side of the bridge, not on the traffic circle. It was designed in a very different way. That is not congressional authorization for them to build the arch.”

With large areas of the National Mall still cordoned off for the Great American State Fair, a 16-day exposition due to start on 25 June, Angie Clark, a molecular biologist from Salt Lake City visiting Washington for a scientific conference, complained of a “forbidding” atmosphere.

“I’ve been here many times before, and I have never imagined that I would be so completely locked out of everything,” she said. “It feels exclusive, and not in a good way. Maybe once the party starts up, it will be better.”

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Canada, Mark Carney, US immigration, Trump administration, US news, Americas, World news
Title – Canada’s policies force asylum seekers into US to face deportation, critics say | Canada | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/leyland-cecco
Link – Canada’s policies force asylum seekers into US to face deportation, critics say | Canada | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T07:00:24.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/21/canada-immigration-us-deportation

It was the threat of gang violence in Honduras that pushed Carlos and Antonia to flee their home. In 2021, with their toddler, Alejandro, and a handful of belongings, the married couple ventured north hoping to reach safety in the US.

The journey, through Guatemala and Mexico , was filled with danger and uncertainty

“We were in constant fear, every time we had to cross the border and travel with a young child,” said Antonia . “We were terrified.”

Arriving as the US began Donald Trump ’s migration purge, their opportunity to make an asylum claim vanished. A lawyer advised them if they appealed, they risked being detained at their migration hearing and deported.

Because Carlos has family members in Canada , they pushed farther north. But their arrival at the Fort Erie border crossing did not end of their precarious journey.

A Canadian border agent said he would let Carlos and Alejandro in, but Antonia – who did not have family in Canada – would be sent back to the US. Or all three could return to the US and risk detention and deportation.

“[I said]: ‘What am I supposed to tell my son about why they’re not going to let his mother come in with us?’ And the border officer just said, ‘That’s your problem, you’ve got 20 minutes to make a decision,’” Carlos later recalled.

Antonia began crying. “There was no way I could be separated from my son. I was completely in shock,” she later said. “And then my son started crying, too.”

The family, whose names have been changed for safety, opted to stay together. They were sent back to the US – and then deported to Honduras.

Their story is central to a court challenge by the Canadian Council for Refugees, Amnesty International Canada and the three Hondurans, which argues that Canadian border officials are failing to uphold court-ordered safeguards for asylum seekers before turning them back to the US under the Safe Third Country Agreement.

Until 2004, asylum claims could be made at any legal port of entry in Canada, where they would then be processed and claimants admitted if their claim was approved.

That changed when Ottawa successfully lobbied for the passage of the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), forcing migrants to make asylum claims in the country where they first arrived. It initially applied to land-based ports of entry – but not to irregular or unofficial crossings.

But advocacy groups and legal experts increasingly argue that the US should not be considered a safe third country. They point to the country’s long-term detention of those seeking refuge and threats to deport asylum seekers to countries where they could be harmed or killed.

At the same time, Canada is also tightening its own asylum system. New legislation has created further ineligibility rules for refugee claimants, prompting critics to accuse Mark Carney’s government of introducing “Trump-style” immigration policies.

Carlos, Antonia and Alejandro – who is now six years old – have gone into hiding in Honduras, over fears of retribution from the same gang they fled.

In 2023, Canada’s top court ruled the STCA was constitutional, ending a lengthy legal challenge by advocacy groups such as the Canadian Council for Refugees and Amnesty International Canada, which have long argued the deal violates the rights of asylum seekers. But in its judgment, the court also found that the inclusion of legislative “safety valves” in the agreement, including the discretion to exempt someone from returning to the US on the basis of humanitarian and compassionate grounds, meant the rules align with “the principles of fundamental justice”.

Advocacy groups say those “safety valves” only exist in theory, citing the growing number of asylum seekers sent by Canadian authorities to detention in the US.

“Every day, people fleeing danger present themselves at the Canadian border expressing grave fears about what will happen to them if they are returned to the US,” Asma Faizi, president of the Canadian Council for Refugees, said in a statement. “While their fears are very real, the ‘safety valves’ supposedly offered by the Canadian government do not in practice exist and refugees’ pleas for protection are ignored.”

In court documents, those groups point out that asylum seekers are typically not told they can seek an exemption or give evidence. Instead, often without access to legal counsel, they must make a quick decision that will define their lives for decades to come.

Canada’s border agency said in a statement that officers have limited discretion in “exceptional cases only” to delay a removal. A claimant must demonstrate clear and credible evidence they would face death, inhumane treatment or the threat of deportation without due process if sent to the US.

But Canada’s federal government has defended the US, saying it continues to meet the legal requirements under the agreement to remain a safe third country. The allegations of the claimants have not been tested in court. A judge must first decide whether to grant leave before the challenge can proceed.

“We wish we could show our faces and shout to the world and let everyone know that this is what happened to us. It is just not safe for us. But we are doing what we can to fight this,” said Carlos.

“The hardest thing has been trying to explain this all to our son. From one day to the next, everything was turned upside down for him: his world, his community, his space. It’s not easy for a child to compartmentalize. It’s not easy for an adult either.”

Keyword – Books
Trefwoorden – Fiction in translation, Books, Culture, Fiction
Title – Collapse by Édouard Louis review – coming to terms with a brother’s death | Fiction in translation | The Guardian
Author – Charles Arrowsmith
Link – Collapse by Édouard Louis review – coming to terms with a brother’s death | Fiction in translation | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T08:00:26.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jun/17/collapse-by-edouard-louis-review-coming-to-terms-with-a-brothers-death

A t 33, the French writer Édouard Louis has already seen all seven of his slim novels translated into English. In his breakout debut, The End of Eddy (2017), and again in Change (2024), he wrote about being the promising child of a poor family, the bullied gay son who became a bestselling author. Several of his other books have offered sympathetic sociological portraits of his parents: a father destroyed by physical labour, a victim of French healthcare and housing subsidy cutbacks, and a mother who, after raising numerous children in poverty, fled first Louis’s father and then, in Monique Escapes, published earlier this year, his abusive successor. Now, in Collapse, translated by novelist Tash Aw, Louis describes his eldest brother’s death, at 38, from complications relating to alcoholism.

“I felt nothing at the announcement of the death of my brother,” he begins; “not sadness or despair or joy or pleasure.” The reasons for his coldness soon become clear. His brother was violently homophobic. His drinking at one point prevented Louis from sleeping ahead of a crucial exam. After The End of Eddy came out, his brother went looking for him with a baseball bat. So when Louis talks with his mother and sister about how to pay for his brother’s funeral and admits, “yes, I would have let him be buried like a dog”, we understand why.

Collapse takes the form of a metaphysical inquest into the brother’s decline. Louis has said that the book was in various drafts a play, a diary and a manifesto – experiments that can all be glimpsed in the final product, which is a self-conscious hodgepodge of forms including witness testimony, a scripted dialogue between the author and his brother’s ghost and key scenes presented as numbered facts.

Long-term readers of Louis will be familiar with his tentative political diagnosis. His brother, ensnared in a vortex of negative social forces, stood no chance. “Your brother was above all else a victim of alcoholism,” a friend tells him. “It’s the narrative of a class destiny that you’re telling before anything else,” suggests another. But these conclusions are too pat for Louis. “My friends have clear ideas yet I don’t know, I don’t know,” he writes.

Reaching for fresh perspectives, he turns to literature: Catullus, Freud, Foucault, Joan Didion. His reading helps Louis find the distance he needs to think of his brother in new ways, and over the course of Collapse he gradually re-emerges as a kind of tragically ennobled figure. Louis describes his life in terms of “Destiny” and “Injustice” and writes of his brother’s “Wound”, a word that evokes not just the psychoanalytic work he cites but the incurable injury of Amfortas, pierced by the Holy Spear, in Wagner’s Parsifal. Though more mundane in provenance, Louis’s brother’s Wound is equally insurmountable.

The Wound is triggered by the divorce of the boy’s parents – he and Louis share a mother but have different fathers – and intensified by his father’s rejection and early death, also from alcoholism. Louis’s mother remembers a drawing his brother made as a child of “a river of blood, she never forgot the bodies or coffins that floated on the surface of an imaginary river”. The hurt never leaves. He distrusts the women he’s with; he blames his drinking on his humiliations. The Wound is a tragic flaw, an unconquerable inhibitor. “My brother’s life resembled the infinitely repeating image of a body struggling in quicksand,” Louis writes. At his death, his mother physically collapses – an operatic gesture entirely congruent with the emerging tragic scene.

Read in tandem with Monique Escapes, Louis’s latest reveals itself as the dark half of an equation that also has a more hopeful side. While his brother was unable to escape the cycle in which he was ensnared and it took his death to make a kind of redemptive sense of his life, Louis’s mother Monique has proved capable of forgiveness and growth. She sees in her son’s work how literature can be not just a form of revenge, indicting a person at their worst, but also liberating. Indeed, her escapes, as chronicled by her son, are enabled in part by his literary success – it’s to his Parisian apartment she flees; it’s the money from his writing that sets her up in her own house.

But most importantly, she retains a sense of her own destiny. “Through her, I’ve discovered the pleasure of writing in the service of someone else,” Louis remarks at the end of Monique Escapes. “I’ve become acquainted with the delight that accompanies disappearance, self-effacement, becoming just a glimpse into the story of a destiny other than my own … Nothing in literature has ever given me so much joy.” Though Louis has said that Collapse marks a close to writing his family saga, it’s hard to believe we’ve seen the end of Monique.

Collapse by Édouard Louis, translated by Tash Aw, is published by Harvill (£18.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Albania, Europe, World news
Title – People in Albania: share your thoughts on the recent ‘not for sale’ protests | Albania | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/guardian-community-team
Link – People in Albania: share your thoughts on the recent ‘not for sale’ protests | Albania | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T14:13:14.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/16/people-in-albania-share-your-thoughts-on-the-recent-not-for-sale-protests

For the last two weeks, Albanians have been protesting against a planned luxury resort backed by a company linked to Jared Kushner , the son-in-law of Donald Trump , near Vlora.

If it goes ahead, the development would occupy parts of an environmentally sensitive area which includes the uninhabited outcrop of Sazan and wetlands and coastal habitats in the surrounding marine national park – home to the Mediterranean monk seal and more than 200 bird species – including flamingos and Dalmatian pelicans, according to BirdLife International .

On Saturday, villagers from Rrjoll, located in an area of sandy beaches and pine forests in north-western Albania , protested against another development project , saying it was being built on their confiscated land.

We would like to hear from Albanians about what they think about the development project.

f you’re having trouble using the form click here . Read terms of service here and privacy policy here .

Keyword – Life and style
Trefwoorden – Life and style, Health & wellbeing, Guardian Careers, Relationships, Work & careers
Title – Chasing life goals is a recipe for disaster – so try these tiny experiments instead | Life and style | The Guardian
Author – Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Link – Chasing life goals is a recipe for disaster – so try these tiny experiments instead | Life and style | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T05:00:21.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/21/improve-career-health-relationships-experimental-mindset

E very January, millions of us sit down and write our goals for the year. By March, most of them have been abandoned. So we set new ones in spring, and when September rolls around, we do it again. New season, fresh start, same cycle – and plenty of beating ourselves up along the way. I lived this cycle for years. When I was working at Google as a digital health executive, I was a champion goal-setter with quarterly OKRs (objectives and key results) and a running list of personal goals I would review every week. On paper, it worked. I was successful by most external measures. But I had this persistent feeling that I was running just to stay in the same place, like the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass.

After retraining as a neuroscientist and studying how the brain learns, I started to understand why. Goals work brilliantly under very specific conditions. You want to buy a car that fits three kids and costs under £25,000? Set a goal, do the research, buy the car. The destination is known and the path is clear.

But most of the things we care about don’t work like that. Figuring out what kind of career makes you feel alive. Becoming the kind of parent you didn’t have a model for. Working out what “healthy” looks like for you. The destination keeps shifting as you grow.

That’s why chasing goals doesn’t work for life’s most important questions – career, relationships, health. It’s like locking in your answer before you have understood the question. And when we cling to a destination and try to push through the uncertainty, we set ourselves up for frustration and self-blame.

The experimental mindset

Scientists have a different relationship to uncertainty. They work with it. They wonder whether something will work, then design experiments to find out. Whatever the outcome, their only goal is to learn.

This is what I call the “experimental mindset”. It makes use of your brain’s natural ability to generate predictions about what will happen next, and to learn when those predictions turn out to be wrong. Most of us experience this as failure and try to avoid that feeling – so we stick to the plan, we double down.

The experimental mindset does the opposite. Instead of asking, “Am I there yet?”, you ask, “What can I learn?” This helps you to try new approaches, pay attention to what actually happens, and change direction when the evidence points somewhere new. The life you end up building is yours, not a copy-paste of someone else’s blueprint for success.

So what does this look like when you’re weighing up whether to leave a job, if a relationship has a future, or how to rebuild your social life after a big move? It all starts with designing a tiny experiment.

How to design a tiny experiment

All good experimentation begins with observation. Start by spending a bit of time observing your own life. I like to pretend I’m an anthropologist for 24 hours, taking field notes. What gives me energy? What drains it? Who are the people I love talking to? What are the ideas I can’t stop thinking about? Jot it all down on your phone or in a notebook.

Having coached thousands of people through this process, I can guarantee that you will spot areas of your life that are ripe for experimentation: routines you have been running on autopilot, such as checking your phone before you get out of bed, saying yes to every meeting invite, eating lunch at your desk because that’s what everyone does; commitments you have been accepting as part of the job, or part of the relationship; habits that are sabotaging your health. Those observations become the starting point for your first experiment.

The great news is you don’t need a lab. If you strip an experiment down to its most essential features, it is just two decisions: something to test and a trial period.

In effect, every experiment can be reduced to one line: “I will [action] for [duration].” That’s it. That’s your protocol. You’re not committing to a big goal. You’re running a tiny experiment.

Your career as a laboratory

We spend a huge part of our lives at work, and our career is deeply tied to our sense of identity, which makes it feel like a high-stakes area to experiment with. Add economic uncertainty to the mix and for most of us the instinct is: “I can’t afford to try things.”

But staying stuck in the wrong career is also costly: it costs us time, energy and the chance to figure out what we want. So rather than waiting until you feel ready to make a big change, try something small enough that it doesn’t feel like a risk:

“I will spend 30 minutes a day reading newsletters.”

“For a month, I will block out one afternoon a week for deep creative work.”

“I will have three coffee chats with people in jobs I’m curious about this quarter.”

None of these require overhauling your life, yet they can lead to unexpected opportunities. For instance, I committed to writing a weekly newsletter for 20 weeks. That experiment led to a consulting business and an online community of people interested in those ideas, which led to writing my first book. At no point did I set a goal to become an author, but that experiment opened doors I wouldn’t have known to look for.

Experimenting in relationships

We fall into patterns with the people closest to us – who calls whom, what you talk about, how you spend time together – and those patterns can calcify without anyone intentionally choosing them.

Applying an experimental mindset here is about noticing those defaults and testing whether something different might be better – for example, replacing one weekly catchup call with doing an activity together for six weeks, or contacting one person you’ve lost touch with each week for a month.

You won’t know which of these will help, but that’s the point. Each experiment teaches you something about what helps nurture the relationships that matter most to you and what doesn’t.

The same mindset works for romantic relationships. A friend of mine was single and, instead of setting the goal of finding a partner by the end of the year, he ran a series of experiments: trying singles events; asking friends for introductions; testing different apps. Framing each one as an experiment rather than a pass-or-fail audition gave him a chance to notice what he was drawn to. Instead of asking himself, “Was that person The One?”, he would reflect on what he had enjoyed and what he had learned about himself. It took the pressure off and helped him figure out what he really wanted, which turned out to be less about finding someone impressive and more about finding someone with whom he could talk honestly.

And you don’t have to experiment on your own. Parents can design experiments with their children, such as replacing screentime before bed with reading together for two weeks, or letting a teenager cook dinner once a month. Couples can test new date-night ideas; friends can commit to trying something new at the same time. In fact, some of the most rewarding experiments are the ones you run with someone else.

What does ‘healthy’ look like for you?

Wellness is the area most saturated with one-size-fits-all goals: 10,000 steps, eight glasses of water, lose X pounds by summer. And we either white-knuckle our way through them or feel like failures when we can’t stick to them.

And this is where the gap between generic advice and individual reality is often widest. What works for one person’s body, schedule and stress levels is completely different from what works for another’s. Yet we keep importing other people’s goals as if they were universal prescriptions.

The experimental mindset can help reframe your entire relationship to wellness: instead of adopting someone else’s definition of healthy and forcing yourself to comply, you run experiments to figure out what works for your body, your mind and your life.

Even something that looks like a straightforward goal, such as running a marathon, can benefit from an experimental approach. You don’t know how your body will respond to the training, what nutrition you need on long runs, or how to handle fatigue. The finish line might be fixed, but everything between here and there is experimentation.

Whether you are training for a marathon or just trying to sleep better, the approach is the same: rather than following a formulaic plan with borrowed goals, you design your own:

“I will exercise in the morning instead of the evening for two weeks.”

“I will go to bed at the same time every night for 10 days.”

“I will cut out processed food for a month.”

Each iteration will give you real data about your own body rather than following someone else’s rules. Over time, those experiments will add up to a definition of “healthy” that’s built around you.

Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World by Anne-Laure Le Cunff is published by Profile at £10.99 . To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply . Delivery charges may apply

Keyword – UK news
Trefwoorden – Monarchy, UK news, King Charles III, Tax, Income tax
Title – King Charles to publish personal tax bill in first for UK head of state | Monarchy | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/nadeembadshah
Link – King Charles to publish personal tax bill in first for UK head of state | Monarchy | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-20T22:27:54.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jun/20/king-charles-to-publish-personal-tax-bill-in-first-for-uk-head-of-state

King Charles will become the first head of state to reveal their personal tax bill in what the palace said was an attempt to enhance the transparency of royal finances.

Charles, 77, will publish his financial details as part of the royal household increasing the “clarity and accessibility” of the monarchy’s finances by producing a new report on the subject.

The king’s total personal tax information for the 2024-25 financial year will be published next week alongside other financial reports. His 2025-26 tax details will be released next year when the audit has been completed.

The decision by the king, who has spent the week at Royal Ascot in Berkshire, is in contrast to his son, the Prince of Wales, 43, who has not disclosed the tax he has paid since becoming heir to the throne.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “While this is the first time a monarch has shared this personal tax information, you may recall it was similarly released by His Majesty when he was Prince of Wales.

“The decision to do so as sovereign has come at the express wish of the king himself, as part of the adaptations carried across since accession.”

The king’s private sources of income could include money from investments or trading profits, funds generated by his private estates of Balmoral and Sandringham and private savings.

The Duchy of Lancaster estate, a private portfolio of land, investments and office, retail and industrial property, also provides the king with an annual income which in 2024-25 was £26.8m.

Charles voluntarily pays income tax on all his private income, and capital gains tax on relevant elements of his assets, as laid out in the Memorandum of Understanding on Royal Taxation 2023, agreed by the government.

William receives an income from the Duchy of Cornwall, a billion-pound hereditary estate featuring The Oval cricket ground and Dartmoor prison, providing the heir to the throne with funds independent of the monarch.

The prince received nearly £23m in the last financial year from the duchy and voluntarily pays the highest rate of income tax, once official costs have been deducted but the amount he pays in tax is not disclosed.

Accounts detailing the sovereign grant, which funds the official duties of the royal family, will be published at a press briefing next week alongside a separate extensive new royal household report on the monarch’s finances.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “Our aim is to explain all elements of royal finances in a way that further enhances clarity and accessibility, while also placing it in its historical and constitutional context.”

Alongside the new publication and the sovereign grant report, the Duchy of Lancaster’s accounts will also be published at another press briefing.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said about the changes: “In order to constantly improve, and to encourage wider understanding of our accountability, the royal household has been considering options to enhance this transparency still further – and can today announce additional measures in keeping with our public service priorities.

“To put it simply: we continue to modernise and evolve.”

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – Royal Ascot, Ascot, Horse racing, Sport, Horse racing tips
Title – Royal Ascot draw bias left too many with raw deal in otherwise stellar week | Royal Ascot | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/gregwood
Link – Royal Ascot draw bias left too many with raw deal in otherwise stellar week | Royal Ascot | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T04:00:20.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/21/royal-ascot-draw-bias-horse-racing

B ig numbers were something of a theme at Royal Ascot this year. Aidan O’Brien became the first trainer to saddle 100 winners at the meeting when Scandinavia took the Gold Cup on Thursday. Attendances were up throughout the week leading up to Saturday’s annual sell-out, by an average of 3.5% and the high-numbered stalls carried all before them on the straight course, with one winner after another powering up to the line against the near-side rail.

There are always talking points after a meeting like Royal Ascot, where the occasion and competition are so intense that everything feels exaggerated. This time around, there was a team tactics debate on Tuesday, as Christophe Soumillon picked up an eight-day ban for riding Puerto Rico “in a manner to assist” Gstaad in the St James’s Palace Stakes , though the decision is subject to an appeal to be heard this week. There was a furore, too, after Juan Hernandez was allowed to weigh in again after an easy win on Bacio in the last race on Friday, having being light first time round.

But the clear advantage enjoyed towards the stands’ side on the straight course was apparent from day one. It was one of the few significant disappointments in an otherwise memorable week, with high-class performances from well-backed favourites such as Bow Echo, Ombudsman , Scandinavia and Venetian Sun .

Simon Crisford called it out before watching his gelding Jazl, a leading fancy for Bacio’s race on Friday, finish 27th and last behind the easy winner, who was drawn in stall 31. “The bias has been shocking and it’s really disappointing because you want to be drawn high,” he said. “It’s not right when you pay what you pay as an owner to come to Royal Ascot and not have a fair racing track.”

A fortnight ago, the British Horseracing Authority’s stewards deemed the Derby favourite a non-runner because he had a leg off the ground when the stalls opened and lost maybe a length or so as a result. At Ascot, though, dozens of runners had their chances compromised through no fault of their own, but because when the stall positions were drawn the computer said low.

The wide – and much-loved – variety of tracks in British Flat racing means punters are accustomed to dealing with draw biases. Low numbers at Chester and Beverley and high at Ripon are among the betting mantras many backers will learn at an early stage of their punting careers. But these are often a result of a course’s size or layout. The bias at Royal Ascot – the premier meeting of the year at British Flat racing’s showpiece track – was on the straight mile, with no obvious reason why one side or the other should be favoured and with a potential effect on 18 of the 35 races.

The Britannia Handicap on Thursday, over the straight mile, was the most striking example. Thirty runners went to post and they split into two groups, 15 on each side of the track. The first 11 horses across the line were from the stands’ side group and nine of those were drawn 22 or above.

The draw played no part in Saturday’s feature, the six-furlong Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, as the field came down the middle and the capacity crowd enjoyed a thrilling three-way photo-finish as Almeraq, at 25-1, edged out the big overseas contenders, Satono Reve and Joliestar, by a nose and a short-head.

On Saturday morning, Chris Stickels, Ascot’s clerk of the course, had accepted there was a problem. “We work very hard at providing as fair a track as we can,” he told Sky Sports Racing. “We study the data, we aerate it evenly, we irrigate evenly. Yes, it does seem that the high numbers have been winning, but let’s be honest, not much has raced on that far rail.

“I don’t think it would be disadvantageous to be in the middle of the track at all either, there were horses winning in the middle of the track yesterday. It wasn’t like everything on the stands rails was way in front of everything else.

“It doesn’t walk massively differently [on the opposite sides of the track], but the evidence has been that the high-drawn horses have been winning.”

Smart punters can turn a draw bias to their advantage over the course of a meeting and also take note of beaten runners whose performances can be marked up with an eye to backing them next time. Laureate Crown and Exclusive Code, first and second on the far side in the Britannia, are just two among plenty of examples.

It is also fair to acknowledge it has been the accepted betting wisdom for many years that the high stalls are the place to start when looking for a winner on the straight course, especially when the ground is riding fast. This time, though, there was scarcely any point going even halfway across the track in the search for a winner. While punters can factor a bias into their calculations, owners and trainers, as Crisford pointed out, do not have the same luxury.

The yearling market has been remarkably robust in the face of various economic upheavals in recent years and one of the key drivers that persuades the biggest owners to keep investing in bloodstock is the possibility of competing at Royal Ascot. While few will shed many tears for a billionaire whose seven-figure thoroughbred is drawn on the wrong side of the track, they are still capable of sensing when they are getting a raw deal and choosing to get their kicks – or race their horses – elsewhere.

It is more difficult, too, for Royal Ascot to sell itself as the undisputed pinnacle of Flat racing if so many of its races appear skewed towards runners on one side of the track.

Interestingly, Stickels also told Sky Sports Racing that “we did try and deal with that by trying to put a little bit more water on [the near side] through May, but we got to a stage where we felt it was even. It’s not easy to do because you’ve got to shut off one side and not another.”

A more determined effort may be necessary next year.

Keyword – Games
Trefwoorden – Online multiplayer games, Games, Culture, Consumer rights
Title – ‘They kill games, we fight back’: the activists campaigning to keep video games playable | Online multiplayer games | The Guardian
Author – Nicole Carpenter
Link – ‘They kill games, we fight back’: the activists campaigning to keep video games playable | Online multiplayer games | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-19T09:00:27.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/jun/19/stop-killing-games-activists-campaigning-online-gaming

Y ou can never be sure how long an online video game will last. Developer BioWare shut off sci-fi shooter Anthem’s servers in January, after seven years. Electronic Arts discontinued access to The Sims Mobile the same month. Wildlight Entertainment shuttered its Highguard servers in March, mere months after the game’s release. Activision Blizzard took Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile offline in April. Dozens more games have had their servers shut down in the first six months of 2026, adding to an already long list of video games that are no longer playable.

There is little that players can do when a company decides to stop supporting online play. Communities work hard to keep their favourite games online, sometimes keeping dead games running on private servers , though that may not necessarily be entirely legal. Generally, though, when a game goes offline it is dead and it’s not coming back.

But there’s a movement lobbying to stop this practice. Stop Killing Games was set up in 2024 by YouTuber Ross Scott, after Ubisoft announced it was shutting down its online-only racing game The Crew . Something about that particular instance of game-death seemed to particularly rile people: two gamers filed a lawsuit accusing Ubisoft of fraud over it.

In the simplest terms, Stop Killing Games wants governments to introduce legal protections to prevent publishers shutting down video games, and advocates for “end-of-life plans” to keep them playable. Stop Killing Games’ director of US operations Jonah Goldman posits an example: if you play Call of Duty, you have the option to play multiplayer matches both online or through your own home network. If publisher Activision were to shut down the Call of Duty servers, Stop Killing Games suggests the company should allow players to buy and operate their own private online servers.

The movement has grown quickly, and Stop Killing Games has evolved into a non-governmental organisation in the US and Europe. The group has pursued “multiple legal and legislative avenues”, according to its website: a European Citizens’ Initiative petition, a lawsuit filed in conjunction with a French consumer advocacy group over Ubisoft’s The Crew, and a successful petition to get the issue debated in the UK parliament. As a result, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot met with European Commissioners and the trade organisation Video Games Europe on 3 June to discuss digital policy. And on 9 June, 45 members of the European parliament sent a letter urging the commission president Ursula von der Leyen, executive vice-president Henna Virkkunen, and commissioner for consumer protection Michael McGrath to commit to legislative action.

The European Commission responded this week that “it cannot propose a legal obligation to keep video games playable after they stop being provided commercially” because of European copyright and intellectual property laws. But it stated it will work with publishers to create a “code of conduct on managing video games’ ‘end of life.’”

This is a better response than expected. In an interview with the Guardian before the decision, Stop Killing Games’ strategy lead Moritz Katzner said that it had expected the Commission to simply do nothing. Instead, the group will lobby for inclusion in a forthcoming piece of legislation aiming to regulate manipulative practices online. “The Digital Fairness Act, which is a law package coming in front of the European parliament this summer, is perfect for us,” says Moritz. “We have committed promises, public commitment, that they’re going to put [our proposals] in there.”

In the US, meanwhile, Stop Killing Games helped the Protect Our Games act pass California’s Assembly vote in June; now it will head to the California senate for a second vote. If it becomes law, this bill will require publishers to give advance notice before taking a game offline, and mandate a way for players to keep accessing the game. It would apply only to purchased games – not free-to-play titles – released after January 2027.

“A constituent in my district brought this issue to my attention, highlighting a concerning gap in consumer protection for live service games,” assembly member Chris Ward told the Guardian in an emailed statement. “As technologies and markets evolve, our laws must keep pace, in this case to ensure that Californians can make use of the games they pay for.”

Goldman says the quick progress on the bill was “slightly unexpected, but very exciting.” He is optimistic about the bill’s chances of getting through the state senate. But whether it passes or fails, he expects more states to get involved. “There’s a lot of opportunity here for a lot of different states, especially those who have members who are focused on and care about consumer rights and consumer protections,” he says.

Stop Killing Games’ advancements have encouraged other states. Legislation such as that proposed in California is a major boon for the movement. That bill’s impact could be felt across the US; a California bill about transparency of digital licensing is the reason why every player purchasing a game on Steam now sees a disclosure right below the payment button: “A purchase of a digital product grants a licence for the product on Steam.”

The bill has met opposition from the Entertainment Software Association, a US-based trade organisation for the video games industry. In a press release in June, its president Stan Pierre-Louis wrote: “Behind every online game is an enormous, invisible infrastructure … When a game’s popularity fades, that infrastructure continues to run, for a fraction of the audience, at nearly the same cost.

“A legal requirement to keep games playable indefinitely will put game publishers in an impossible situation … This proposal essentially keeps games alive long after their natural lifecycle, draining resources and energy from creating what comes next.” Pierre-Louis posited that companies will make fewer games if they become “permanent obligation[s].”

Game companies’ resistance to Stop Killing Games policies is a “pure business decision,” says Katzner. “They’re concerned that … people still playing their existing games aren’t going to buy a new one,” he said. “That’s the simple thought chain here. But if you buy a new car, your old provider doesn’t come and destroy the old one.”