Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – Labour party leadership, Labour, Politics, Andy Burnham, Keir Starmer, Economic policy, Privatisation, Public services policy, Makerfield byelection, UK news
Title – The Guardian view on Labour’s leadership: Andy Burnham has a story. He must also have a plan | Editorial | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/editorial
Link – The Guardian view on Labour’s leadership: Andy Burnham has a story. He must also have a plan | Editorial | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T17:42:00.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/22/the-guardian-view-on-labours-leadership-andy-burnham-has-a-story-he-must-also-have-a-plan

P olitical careers often end when circumstances demand qualities that a politician cannot supply. That seems especially true of Sir Keir Starmer. On Monday, he stepped down as Labour leader, hours before Andy Burnham arrived at Westminster to take his seat as MP for Makerfield.

Sir Keir’s achievements were real. He won a large parliamentary majority in 2024 , provided more cash for the NHS and was steadfast in his support of Ukraine. He undoubtedly restored a measure of seriousness after years of Tory psychodrama. But the 2024 victory was always more brittle than it seemed: Labour’s vote actually fell from 2019 and Nigel Farage’s decision to stand candidates in 2024 fractured rightwing votes. Sir Keir won power; he did not change the political weather.

Although Mr Burnham is not yet Labour leader, the enthusiasm greeting him at Westminster suggested that many MPs regard his ascent as inevitable. If he were to enter Downing Street, Mr Burnham would become the seventh prime minister of the UK in 10 years. The Tory MP who shouted “ he’s not the messiah ” got laughs because it caught the mood: relief shading into perhaps unrealistic hope. But Mr Burnham is not Lenin arriving at Finland Station .

Sir Keir’s problem was that he offered incremental repair when the country wanted a moral vision . He could not explain what had gone wrong, who had benefited or what needed to change. Mr Burnham has a stronger grasp of the grievances that underpin politics. His enemies are legible and his story is simple enough for voters to repeat: Britain worked better before privatisation ; London has taken too much power for itself; communities have been ripped off; public control can restore fairness and pride.

Reports that Mr Burnham wants to break with Treasury orthodoxy are welcome. Cutting budgets of unprotected departments while waiting for interest rates to fall is not a strategy; it is drift. The influential thinktank Compass, close to Mr Burnham, published a policy paper – The Productive State – on Monday arguing that the state should lower the cost of essentials through public investment, ownership and coordination of key services so that real disposable income rises without relying endlessly on state subsidies.

The authors, Mathew Lawrence and Alex Williams, say that energy and water should be placed under national public corporations, while housing and transport would be organised at the city-region scale, with care and local services run through municipal providers. The political attraction of such a programme is obvious: it links the cost of living, growth, fiscal plausibility and public control in a way that mirrors Mr Burnham’s rhetoric. It also gives him the machinery of civic pride and regional renewal.

No other MP looks able to get the 81 nominations required to enter the Labour leadership race. If Mr Burnham is to become prime minister without a contest, he should seek the scrutiny that a contest would otherwise provide. A lengthy session before parliament’s liaison committee would be a good place to start. The public will not reward Labour for creating a new model of the state. They will reward it for making life cheaper, easier and more secure. Mr Burnham’s politics has offered voters a compelling diagnosis of what has gone wrong in Britain. Unlike Sir Keir, he has a story. The question is whether it has a convincing ending.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Albania, Conservation, Wildlife, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Environment, Europe, European Union
Title – ‘We want a new Albania’: protests against Jared Kushner-backed resort turn anger on government | Albania | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/helenasmith
Link – ‘We want a new Albania’: protests against Jared Kushner-backed resort turn anger on government | Albania | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T02:00:46.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/22/albania-protests-jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-resort-sazan-island-anger-government

F or Ina Shkurti, like so many Albanians, the island of Sazan has played an outsized role. As a child she bathed in its “always calm and emerald green” waters, as a teenager it figured in her dreams and as an adult it was an indelible part of the memory and desire that drew her back, every summer, to Vlore, her home town across the sea.

What Shkurti never imagined was that plans to build a mega-resort on Sazan – one of two luxurious complexes on Albania’s southern coast backed by Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner – would trigger a revolt , an uprising that has convulsed the Balkan state in a spasm of disgust over the perceived excesses of “a rotten oligarchic class” just as it hopes to complete accession talks with the EU.

“Am I outraged? Of course I am,” the cartographer said as the contours of the uninhabited outcrop came into view from a speedboat scudding towards its shores. “Sazan is our only island. It’s a small paradise that holds a special place in the hearts and minds of Albanians. Having some rich couple come in, develop it, and then deny us access, would be a crime.”

Not since the collapse of communism, more than three decades ago, has Albania been shaken by such collective fury. At 32, Shkurti, whose family emigrated to the US when she was 11, is typical of the tens of thousands, both in and outside the country, who have taken to the streets in what has become known as the “flamingo revolution” because of the threat posed by the proposed resorts to wildlife and delicate ecosystems on the sites.

“This government no longer represents us,” she said. “It has chosen to represent oligarch investors like Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner . These protests are not going to stop, even if they’re no longer exclusively about them.”

Every day, she said, friends from Albania’s diaspora were flying in to join the rallies. In the biggest so far, thousands converged on Tirana at the weekend, many travelling from the US and other parts of Europe , to add their voices to the wave of dissent.

I n a country with almost no tradition of civic unrest, the protests, both leaderless and non-partisan, have caught officials in Tirana and the EU off guard. Increasingly, demonstrators have in their sights a political establishment blamed for the country’s chaotic transition from repressive Stalinist rule. Fears of crisis are mounting.

Amid daily calls for his resignation, Edi Rama, the prime minister, has chosen to respond with nervousness, humour and barely concealed ire. But the veteran socialist, previously feted in Brussels for his visionary policies and an artist with a jovial disposition in more peaceful times, has also refused to back down. Elected for a fourth term last year on a vow to get the once isolated country into the EU, he has described the €1.4bn investment as vital if Albania is to become the Mediterranean’s “most attractive high-end tourist destination”.

“You have to ask where all of this is going,” said Afrim Krasniqi, the director of the Albanian Institute for Political Studies, who does not rule out demonstrators adopting “more radical” protest measures. “The government, it seems, doesn’t want to believe that all these people out on the streets are against it. This absence of dialogue, this lack of empathy, this refusal to want to find a solution, is dangerous.”

Three weeks have elapsed since the protests first erupted after bulldozers began clearing clusters of forest and ancient dunes to make way for construction in a protected conservation zone across the water from Sazan.

The Pishë Poro-Narta reserve, home to one of Europe’s last wild rivers , encompasses much of the Zvërnec peninsula, its sandy shores protecting an inland lagoon that is a major migratory route for hundreds of rare birds and more than 70 endangered species.

Tensions rose here – the first site slated for development – when opponents confronted private security contractors who had hastily erected a fence to keep the public out. In the mayhem that ensued, as demonstrators tried to scale the barrier, a local landowner was filmed being dragged by guards, his handcuffed body bumping over the rocky terrain as witnesses looked on aghast. Police officers, controversially, chose not to intervene.

In a podcast released the next day, Ivanka Trump waxed lyrical about the real estate venture and “this beautiful peninsula with a lagoon on one side, the ocean on the other” that she and her husband, as lead investors in the project, intended to transform. “It’s massive in scale,” she said of the plans to develop Sazan, a former Soviet-era military installation whose verdant landscape of wild fig trees and flowers is dotted with derelict buildings once used by personnel and their families. “Not only the island, but we have 5 miles of beachfront directly across from [it],” the US president’s daughter enthused, referring to the shoreline within view of this month’s violent scenes.

“People became very angry,” said Kostandin Xhaho, an environmentalist based in Vlore. “After all, Sazan is a historic monument. I’ve got friends who grew up in those buildings and both the island and Zvërnec are important habitats for flamingos, monk seals and loggerhead sea turtles. This idea of a 10,000-room resort being built on the peninsula sparked what I think you would call an explosion.”

The prospect of what critics condemned as the “the worst kind of global elite” plundering natural reserves in a country that remains one of Europe’s poorest soon tapped into deep anger over depredations highlighting other inequalities.

The development was granted preliminary approval after the Albanian parliament amended stringent laws safeguarding environmentally sensitive zones – although there is no evidence Kushner had any role in the change. Indicative of the perceived lack of transparency around the project, opponents claim the investors remain a mystery, their identities concealed behind a multi-layered shell company in the Netherlands. Continuing court cases over property disputes in Zvërnec have also played into popular anger.

“What we want is a new Albania,” said Justina Prenga, 24, who recently travelled from the northern city of Shkodër to join protesters in the capital, where cries of “Rama ik” (Rama resign) are heard nightly outside the shuttered 1930s building that houses the prime minister’s office. “We’re gen Z and we’re saying ‘enough is enough’, our country isn’t for sale.”

The outcry, she said, had gone “way beyond” the Kushners, even if her friends didn’t know “whether to laugh or cry” when in the podcast they heard Trump’s “Christopher Columbus-style” account of discovering Sazan. “We want this project stopped, but really, it’s about everything that is wrong with Albania. Sali Berisha should also resign. He made our country what it is today, so he should go to jail too,” she said of the main opposition leader, a former president and prime minister at one time barred from entering the UK because of his alleged links to crime and corruption.

Draped in a giant red and black Albanian flag, Lizander Saraci agreed. A risk manager at a private bank, he is typical of an older generation that has also joined the movement.

“It’s been more than 30 years and still our hospitals are terrible, our education system is shit, there are no jobs and everyone is leaving,” said the father of two, who frequently attends the rallies with his children. “The demonstrations are huge because people are tired of this injustice. They’re tired of all the corruption. One of our slogans is ‘stop the dictatorship of dirty money’ because we’ve learned from experience that similar projects only ever benefit a wealthy few.”

Last week, the European parliament also weighed in. In a resolution, MEPs backed the protesters, urging the government to halt further construction in protected zones. Some decried the “predatory capitalists” who had exploited legislation allowing strategic investors to accelerate similar projects – a law Brussels has branded unfair and long asked Tirana to repeal. EU officials say that without agreement on the environmental laws, accession negotiations cannot be concluded. “We would expect Albania, a year and a half away from this target … to have aligned itself with these [EU] standards,” Silvio Gonzato, the EU’s ambassador to Albania, told the Guardian.

Again Rama stood his ground as he reacted to the EU parliament’s vote, pledging to continue the Zvërnec development “based on an environmental impact assessment according to European Union standards”.

He has repeatedly called what is Albania’s biggest investment ever “a blessing” that will not only provide badly needed jobs but “ultimately result in approximately 25 % more trees and green space”.

Last year the 3 million-strong country attracted about 12 million tourists, many lured as much by its natural beauty as its affordability. “This is also about direction,” said Shkurti. “Do we really want that kind of development when, clearly, the infrastructure can hardly cope?”

B ut Rama has his supporters. Albert Pushka, the owner of a newly opened fish restaurant outside Vlore, is so enthusiastic he has named the enterprise Ivanka. When asked about the development, Walter Dimraj, 48, gave a Trump-like thumbs-up and said: “Albania has to grow up. It has to seize this chance. If we don’t do it, the Greeks will.”

Elpiniqi Merkuri , a psychologist who heads Vlore’s municipal council, is convinced the resort will help boost confidence at a time when the older generation still “cannot find the courage” to talk about the brutality of the past. “People tend to feel calmer and more optimistic when they see development, new opportunities and well-designed environments,” she said, as cows and sheep sauntered around the area where construction workers recently broke ground.

Standing by the salt flats overlooking the lagoon, Ledi Selgjekaj wishes she could agree. This is where the young ornithologist has come for the past five years, rising at dawn to monitor the behaviour and breeding patterns of shore birds.

“Back then, they had just begun construction work on Vlore’s new international airport,” she said, looking through her binoculars beyond the wetlands towards its tower. “And that is when we began to see ecological corridors being disrupted and jackals and other predators targeting wildlife in the lagoon.”

Flamingos and their egg-laden nests were especially affected, she said. “The airport, when it begins operating, is going to be a disaster. If these resorts go ahead it will be the kiss of death.”

Keyword – Life and style
Trefwoorden – Life and style, Sex, Relationships
Title – This is how we do it: ‘Sex was something to get through with my husband. With Jess, I feel desire’ | Life and style | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/olivia-ladanyi
Link – This is how we do it: ‘Sex was something to get through with my husband. With Jess, I feel desire’ | Life and style | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T10:00:27.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/21/this-is-how-we-do-it-sex-with-my-husband-desire-women

Meg, 35

I’d spent so many years visualising having sex with a woman

Before Jess, I’d only ever had sex with men. I’d been in a relationship with a man and had two kids with him, but felt completely disconnected from my body during sex – the only way I could orgasm was to shut my eyes and replay lesbian porn. Sex felt like something to get through. With Jess, I felt desire for the first time, instead of being the object of someone else’s.

Her Tinder profile said: “Smilier in real life, only in the area for three weeks.” I’d never kissed a woman before and had blown up my whole life to come out. When we kissed, my knees buckled and she called me Bambi – a nickname that has stuck. I rushed home and masturbated while thinking about her, then immediately told her about it.

I spent the first six months of our relationship getting out of my head and into my body. I’d spent so many years visualising having sex with a woman that I had to learn to orgasm without the internal screen I’d come to rely on. Jess was patient. She can read me from the inside out and knows when I’m stuck in a loop. Once, she noticed my mind drifting and said: “Stick with it.” I came immediately.

As a butch top, Jess gets pleasure from my pleasure and prides herself on taking care of me and the kids. That’s difficult for me to accept sometimes because I’ve always been the one in charge. Part of me feels like I don’t deserve to be taken care of, but handing over control to her is freeing. I love how visibly lesbian we are as a butch-femme couple. Mostly, I love how she talks to my kids – like they’re proper humans whose questions deserve serious answers.

We moved in together recently. Last night, the pressure got to me and I cried during sex. Will we still lose entire mornings in bed to mind-blowing sex when we have real-life stuff to manage? Jess is helping me learn how to relax – in bed, but also to walk away when I need to without feeling guilty.

One of the kids rolled her eyes and said: “Ugh! All you guys do is talk and kiss.” I’m excited to take Jess for granted, to do life together – even the mundane things.

Jess, 35

Meg desires me so openly that it feels liberating

Meg is the woman I’ll be with for ever – I felt that from very early on. But I knew she’d never dated a woman before, and there was a weight to that. I remember thinking: I hope I don’t give her a bad first experience.

I didn’t realise until later that she hadn’t kissed anyone but her husband in 12 years. She was confident and I was nervous, but then with our first kiss, the tables turned – suddenly I was on safe ground.

It was a big deal for Meg, and for me. It wasn’t just about sleeping with a woman – Meg had changed her whole life and there was no going back. She had to learn how to enjoy the entire process of sex, and not just rush to orgasm. Watching her experience desire for the first time was truly incredible. Seeing her discover what she likes and what she was capable of felt like a privilege.

Being a butch top isn’t about control for me. If anything, it’s the opposite. I see it as my job to take care of Meg in every way: practically, emotionally and sexually. I take the bins out, give her reassurance and make her come. But it’s more selfish than it sounds – my pleasure comes from giving Meg pleasure and looking after her, even though she doesn’t need me to.

The move has been stressful, but as a couple we’ve been incredibly steady, so I’m not worried. We’ve got this solid core that comes from being so sure about each other.

I grew up in a small fishing town, and although I’m proudly butch, in my younger years I questioned how conventionally attractive I was. But Meg desires me so openly that it feels liberating. She tells me how much she fancies me, and makes me feel so entirely loved. I never feel like too much.

It’s the best relationship I’ve ever had – and I hope it’s the last.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, World Cup, Football, Sport
Title – A history of World Cup red cards: high feet, lost heads and a covered mouth | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/richard-foster
Link – A history of World Cup red cards: high feet, lost heads and a covered mouth | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T15:15:24.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/22/world-cup-red-cards-history

A fter a fairly pedestrian first half of the opening match of the 2026 World Cup , the game burst into life in the second period. South Africa midfielder Sphephelo Sithole, who had been at fault for Mexico’s opening goal, compounded his error by being sent off in the 49th minute for denying a goalscoring opportunity. When Themba Zwane was dismissed, South Africa became the 15th team to have two players sent off in the same World Cup match.

There was time for one more red card before full-time, the Mexico centre-back César Montes seeing red in stoppage time and following in the footsteps of his manager, Javier Aguirre, who was sent off while playing for Mexico in the 1986 quarter-final against West Germany in Monterrey.

The Mexico v South Africa match was the seventh World Cup game to feature more than two dismissals. Referees have been unusually trigger happy with their cards so far at this tournament. When Belgium defender Nathan Ngoy received his marching orders in a goalless draw with Iran on Sunday, he became the eighth player to be sent off – already matching the total in the previous two tournaments combined (four in Russia and four in Qatar).

One of the four red cards in Russia four years ago came during a chaotic quarter-final penalty shootout, with Denzil Dumfries – penalised for taunting Argentina – becoming the eighth Dutchman to be sent off at a World Cup . Given their national team is associated with the finer points of the game, it is perhaps surprising that the Netherlands have been at the centre of so much rancour and controversy over the years.

They were involved in the only World Cup match that has featured four red cards – the Battle of Nuremberg , their 1-0 defeat to Portugal in 2006. The last-16 match featured 16 yellow cards, with the first booking coming when Mark van Bommel scythed down Cristiano Ronaldo with a robust challenge in the second minute. The Netherlands were not very subtle about targeting Ronaldo; only a few minutes later, his thigh felt the imprint of Khalid Boulahrouz’s studs and the second yellow of the match followed.

Ronaldo just about survived this twin assault, but he did not make it to half-time. He left the pitch in tears just after Maniche scored the only goal of the match, as some football broke out briefly. The ferocity soon returned and the first red card arrived just before half-time, when Costinha’s deliberate handball leading to his second yellow. Any hopes of the second half being less violent were quickly dashed. Petit, a half-time substitute, was booked minutes after arriving on the pitch. Amazingly, the total number of red cards could have been higher; Luís Figo was lucky that his head-butt on Van Bommel during a heated fracas was deemed merely a yellow.

The Netherlands were also involved in the World Cup match with the most yellow cards: that quarter-final against Argentina in 2022 . The referee issued 18 yellows (16 for players and two more to coaching staff) during a physical, bruising contest that Argentina won on penalties after a 2-2 draw. There was not much love between the teams by the end, with Argentina players infamously celebrating in the faces of the Dutch after the penalty shootout.

The Netherlands also adopted an aggressive approach in the World Cup final in 2010 , when they tried to unsettle a fluid Spain side with a series of rough challenges. There were 14 yellow cards in the match, with eight of the Netherlands’ starting XI booked. Maarten Stekelenburg, Wesley Sneijder and Dirk Kuyt were the only Dutch starters who did not go into the referee’s book.

If anything, the referee was too lenient. John Heitinga was sent off for two bookable offences, but Howard Webb decided not to show Nigel de Jong a red card for planting his studs on Xabi Alonso’s chest. The referee later reflected that it was a mistake. “One of the things I would change is the colour of the card for De Jong’s tackle,” said Webb. “Having seen it again from my armchair several times in slow motion and from different angles I can see that it was a red-card offence.” So much for Total Football.

Heitinga is the last player to be sent off in a World Cup final and the fifth overall. It was not until the 14th final, in 1990, that a player was dismissed, with Argentina making up for lost time in their defeat to West Germany. Pedro Monzón was sent off 20 minutes after he had come on as a substitute and Gustavo Dezotti soon joined him in having an early bath. In the 1998 final, the seemingly unflappable Marcel Desailly was sent off for a second yellow after he took out Cafu . Not to worry. France breezed to a 3-0 win against Brazil in Paris.

Zinedine Zidane scored twice in that final and went on to win the Ballon d’Or that year. Earlier in the tournament, as France were coasting to a 4-0 victory, Zidane was sent off for stamping on a Saudi player. That would not be his last red card at a World Cup. Eight years later he became the second Frenchman to be dismissed in a final after he head-butted the Italy defender Marco Materazzi (who had been sent off earlier in the tournament). It was an unsuitable epitaph for one of the most cultured, talented players the world has ever known. Zidane is not alone in being sent off twice at World Cups; Cameroon defender Rigobert Song saw red in 1994 and 1998.

The first sending off at a World Cup came on the second day of the inaugural tournament in 1930 in front of a crowd of a few thousand people in Montevideo. Plácido Galindo, the inaptly named Peru captain, received his marching orders (he was not shown a red card as they were not introduced until 1970) in a 3-1 defeat to Romania. The game was apparently littered with fights, one of which had to be broken up by the police.

Nearly a century later, players are still breaking new ground. Miguel Almirón made history when he was sent off in Paraguay’s 1-0 win over Turkey . There were no big fights in that match. Instead, Almirón saw red for the heinous misdemeanour of “covering his mouth while speaking to an opponent in a confrontational situation”.

This is an article by Richard Foster, who presents the It Started With A Kick podcast and is writing a daily World Cup quiz on the Seventh Heaven app, on Apple and Google Store .

Keyword – Life and style
Trefwoorden – Life and style, Fitness, Training programmes, Women
Title – The one change that worked: I saw a woman lift 100kg and decided: ‘I want to do that!’ | Life and style | The Guardian
Author – Laura Evans
Link – The one change that worked: I saw a woman lift 100kg and decided: ‘I want to do that!’ | Life and style | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T10:00:21.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/22/the-one-change-that-worked-i-saw-a-woman-lift-100kg-and-decided-i-want-to-do-that

I t’s fair to say I don’t come from a long line of athletes. When I was growing up in the 1990s, sport was something other people did; we were not a family who cycled, much less jogged. In PE I was the wheezing child hiding behind the bins, pretending I’d twisted an ankle. When I contemplated working out – not often – I had the vague idea it was supposed to turn my body into something other people might find attractive.

I evolved from an unsporty child into an unsporty adult. Occasionally, mostly in an attempt to lose weight without having to stop eating croissants, I would attempt something like Couch to 5K, which I’d either abandon after a couple of sessions or see through to the bitter end out of the perverse determination to prove I’d been right all along: exercise was a mug’s game and endorphins an invention of Big Wellness.

Then came children. A large-headed baby delivered two weeks late via C-section was not all that kind on the body. My back, in particular, began to protest; doubly so when, three years on, I did it again, this time while wrestling a toddler. Was this just what age felt like? Things that used to work becoming, overnight, a bit of a letdown?

I tried physio, osteopathy, chiropractic treatment. Eventually, someone suggested strength training. Apparently I had something called a core and it could do with being, well, stronger. I was desperate enough to try. That, and I was becoming increasingly incensed at the decades of internalised misogyny that had shaped the way I thought women ought to look. I didn’t want to be slim; I wanted to be strong .

Infuriatingly, it turned out that putting in actual effort did, in fact, work. Within weeks, I wasn’t waking from backache. I could pick up my children without wincing. For the first time in my life, I was beginning to understand my body’s potential in terms not of what it could look like, but of what it could do.

Still, I wasn’t hugely enjoying the exercising, and I didn’t need much of a reason to message my ever-patient personal trainer with a half-arsed excuse. But one day I saw the author Fiona Cummins had tweeted about managing, finally, to reach her goal of deadlifting 100kg. There was something about that number – its sheer, round, solid chutzpah – that made me tell my PT: “I want to do that.”

So we did. A programme of deadlifts, squats and bench presses, supplemented with complementary exercises, and I began to work towards some properly heavy weights. Weights that initially sounded impossible – but with only one hour-long session a week, I found myself getting closer. Within months I was deadlifting 80kg, then 85kg, then 90kg. At first a single rep, but a month later, five, 10. My body was changing, too – not as the byproduct of growing a child or mainlining cake, but as the direct result of what I was pushing it to do. It was a strange and exhilarating feeling.

Even more significantly, something about the measurable, incremental progress made the competitive side of my brain tick in a way no other exercise had. When I eventually hit my 100kg goal, it felt like being handed a trophy – but there were countless other rewarding moments, many of them outside my training sessions. I could swing my toddler over my shoulder and into a back sling. (I tried the move a few weeks ago, now that she’s nearly seven, and yes, I can still do it. Strong-arm emoji.) I could carry my own Ikea order in from the car. Hell, I could carry it up the stairs, and build it singlehandedly as well. I didn’t need a man to move something for me. Quite often I could move something for them.

Now, when I think about fitness, it’s as an end in itself. In the gym or out on my paddleboard – yes, a second form of exercise I genuinely enjoy – sport is no longer somewhere I don’t belong. And I’ve gone from feeling like a passenger in my body to feeling in control of it, C-section scars and all.

Laura Evans’s debut novel, Little Wild, is published on 25 June.

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

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – European Union, Keir Starmer, Ursula von der Leyen, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Friedrich Merz, Europe, Ukraine, Politics, UK news
Title – European leaders pay tribute to Starmer as EU-UK summit is postponed | European Union | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jennifer-rankin
Link – European leaders pay tribute to Starmer as EU-UK summit is postponed | European Union | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T15:07:40.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/22/european-leaders-pay-tribute-keir-starmer-eu-uk-summit-postponed

European leaders have paid tribute to Keir Starmer after he announced his resignation as the British prime minister, triggering the postponement of an upcoming EU-UK summit.

The European Council president, António Costa, said: “For sure we need to postpone it, but we are reassessing the opportunity to hold this new summit …

“My wish is ⁠that [Starmer’s] successor ​will give ​continuity on ​this path to ​reset ‌our relationship ​with ​the UK.”

Soon after Starmer’s resignation speech at No 10, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen , tweeted: “It can take many leaders years to grow into the statesman you became in just two years. European and Ukrainian security is stronger because of you. Thank you, dear Keir.”

The annual EU-UK summit was announced for 22 July only last week, after weeks of uncertainty and delay. With Andy Burnham hot favourite to be the next British prime minister and unlikely to face a contest, Starmer’s last outing on the world stage could be the Nato summit in Ankara on 7-8 July.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, thanked Starmer for “all our cooperation, your support, and the joint decisions that have helped make our Europe and our protection of life stronger”. While Kyiv expressed frustration with UK support during the early part of Starmer’s premiership , Zelenskyy offered warm praise: “Keir, you are always a welcome guest in Ukraine.”

The Kremlin’s chief spokesperson said Starmer had “not done anything to distinguish himself on the issue of British-Russia relations” adding that it was unlikely anyone on the British political scene would take a different position.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz’s spokesperson said Starmer had always been “a reliable and close partner in foreign policy questions, particularly regarding Ukraine”. Starmer is expected to attend an E5 meeting on Wednesday in Berlin, where Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Poland will prepare for the Nato summit.

Donald Trump offered his best wishes, laced with characteristic attack lines, even before Starmer made his Downing Street announcement. “Keir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister of The United Kingdom,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “He failed badly on two very important subjects- IMMIGRATION AND ENERGY (OPEN NORTH SEA OIL!). I wish him well!”

After an unexpectedly smooth start between the pair, differences were revealed when Trump disparaged Nato allies, prompting an angry rebuttal from Starmer over the “insulting and frankly appalling” comments about British troops in Afghanistan. Trump also criticised the UK over the Chagos Islands and, most significantly, over Starmer’s refusal to offer military support in the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

Trump, who waged an unsuccessful legal battle with the Scottish government to stop a windfarm development near his Aberdeenshire golf course, has also accused Starmer of “windmilling the country to death”.

Other traditional allies struck a different note. Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said he was thinking of his friend on “what must be a very tough day. Serving in public life is a tremendous privilege but politics can also be a harsh business.”

Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, also a centre-left leader, said: “The United Kingdom is Norway’s close ally in Europe, and over the past two years our countries have grown even closer through important agreements.”

Before he announced the postponement of the summit, Costa said under Starmer’s premiership “we turned a new page in EU-UK relations”.

“The EU is committed to continued cooperation in this spirit,” he added, describing Starmer as a friend.

At the postponed EU-UK summit, the two sides hoped to sign agreements on a food and drink deal to ease border checks, linking emissions trading systems and a youth mobility programme.

Post-referendum EU-UK relations turned a corner under the last Conservative prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in 2023 with the signing of a Northern Ireland Brexit deal. Relations became warmer when Starmer won power in July 2024, although many EU officials thought the government’s reset hopes were unrealistic.

While the EU and UK signed a security partnership in May 2025, the two sides failed to find an agreement on British participation in the EU’s €150bn Safe defence loans scheme.

Speaking to the Guardian earlier this month, Germany’s former Europe minister Micael Roth, who was Starmer’s counterpart during the Brexit negotiation years, said: “We cannot be happy if a close partner is in such a very, very challenging, difficult situation.

“We very much hoped for a more stable government.” He added that Germany, France and Spain were among the European countries also afflicted by political troubles.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal, World Cup, Football, Sport
Title – Cristiano Ronaldo risks ruining his legacy if he continues to stymie Portugal by starting | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/miguel-dantas
Link – Cristiano Ronaldo risks ruining his legacy if he continues to stymie Portugal by starting | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T04:00:49.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/22/cristiano-ronaldo-portugal-world-cup

At 41, Cristiano Ronaldo’s problem is not his age. It is that nobody seems willing to tell him to his face what everyone else can see. In Portugal, patience for the legend has run dry.

Ronaldo is not fit to be a Portugal starter any more. What would have sounded like a treasonous statement a few years ago now looks an obvious truth. At least to everyone except the national team manager, Roberto Martínez, and his coaching staff.

More than the shock of Portugal drawing against the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – a team that had never earned a point at a World Cup – Ronaldo’s future has been the country’s biggest talking point. Whether you’re on the subway, walking your dog through the park or doing your shopping, you can’t escape the debate. It raged before the tournament and is deafening now.

Before discussing Ronaldo’s form, let’s get a few things straight. As a Portuguese citizen, football fan and journalist, I feel indebted to him. Travel to almost any corner of the globe, mention where you are from and his name will probably be the first thing you hear in response. People will ask whether you like him. They will recall a goal he scored against their favourite team. They will tell you where they were when they watched him play.

At the height of Ronaldo’s rivalry with Lionel Messi, choosing the Argentinian felt almost unpatriotic. Family lunches descended into chaos when the subject came up and two uncles had opposing views. Few athletes have done more to project the image of their country and Ronaldo has the merit of having done so since the early stages of the social media boom.

But that legacy is beginning to suffer. It is hard to understand why Martínez continues to start Ronaldo and, even more puzzlingly, leaves him on for the full 90 minutes. Against the DRC, he touched the ball 25 times, the lowest number of anyone who played the entire game for Portugal. He neither threatened the opposition goal nor disrupted the DRC’s defensive structure in any meaningful way.

The DRC midfielder Ngal’ayel Mukau in effect said as much after the match: “We know that he isn’t the same as before. He is a little bit older now. But still, he is one of the greatest to play the game. We have much respect for him.”

Can you imagine an opponent saying that about Ronaldo in 2016? Today, it reflects a reality that the vast majority of people can plainly see. Portugal have one of the best squads in the world, with players such as Vitinha, Bruno Fernandes and João Neves. They do not need Ronaldo to start any more.

So, who is responsible? Ronaldo is among the least culpable. It is natural for a footballer, regardless of age, to want to play as much as possible – especially someone with his relentless competitive drive, the quality that allowed him to conquer multiple leagues and countries.

More surprising is Martínez’s approach and that no one in Ronaldo’s inner circle appears willing to tell him what has become increasingly obvious: if he truly wants to serve the team, he should approach the coach about taking a reduced role.

Players of his stature have a duty to recognise when they are no longer contributing to the team as they once did. By continuing to occupy a position he can no longer justify on merit, he is holding Portugal back and damaging the image he spent his career building.

Should Ronaldo be part of Portugal’s World Cup squad? Absolutely. A player with his experience remains invaluable off the field. He can guide younger players through high-pressure moments, provide leadership from the sidelines and serve as a source of inspiration. It would be naive to ignore his commercial value for the tournament and the Portuguese football federation, and there may be moments when it would be useful to bring him off the bench.

The saddest part of the story is that the greatest player in Portuguese football history risks seriously tarnishing his legacy. How will he be remembered? As the boy from humble beginnings who left Madeira at a young age, moved to Lisbon alone and conquered world football? Or as the ageing superstar who tried to defy time and ended up a shadow of his former self?

Ronaldo no longer tracks back during defensive transitions. He lacks the explosiveness and relentless movement that once defined him. These were observations that many privately acknowledged years ago but hesitated to voice publicly. Now they are impossible to ignore or stay silent about.

Fernando Santos recognised this during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when he made the bold decision to leave Ronaldo out of the starting lineup. For the first time, his untouchable status within the national team was challenged. When Santos departed, a reset button was pushed and Ronaldo returned to being an automatic starter.

Will this criticism motivate Ronaldo to work even harder? Absolutely. Can he still prove everyone wrong? Realistically, no. Would I like him to enjoy a dignified farewell on football’s biggest stage? There is nothing I want more.

Keyword – Television & radio
Trefwoorden – Television & radio, Culture, Podcasts
Title – Barack Obama’s gripping new show: best podcasts of the week | Television & radio | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/hannah-j-davies,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/alexi-duggins
Link – Barack Obama’s gripping new show: best podcasts of the week | Television & radio | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T06:00:52.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jun/22/barack-obamas-gripping-new-show-best-podcasts-of-the-week

Pick of the week Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise

Who would have thought, back in 2008, that Barack Obama (pictured above) would become one of podcasting’s biggest movers and shakers? The former president is front and centre of this series on the post-slavery period in the US, a collaboration with Malcolm Gladwell for Audible and the History Channel. It’s slick and excellently researched, but it’s the calibre of conversation and careful dot-joining that make it so compelling. Hannah J Davies Widely available, episodes weekly

Tocqueville Road Trip

John Prideaux, the Economist’s US editor, embarks on a road trip to assess America’s democracy on its 250th anniversary. He’s following the 1831 tour of French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville, whose book is “the single most insightful thing ever written about the United States”. It’s a colourful way to wrestle with anxieties over whether it can survive Trump. Alexi Duggins Widely available, episodes weekly

Swingers

Journalist Catrin Nye tells the tale of a woman who joined a swinging website to please her husband – and says she had non-consensual sex with more than 100 men. It’s graphic, troubling and spares no detail, as Nye looks into swinging, including interviews with the men who do it. What she uncovers is not easy listening. Alexi Duggins BBC Sounds, all episodes available now

Here for the History

According to legend, a leaf drifted into Chinese emperor Shen Nung’s drink of boiling water in 2737BC and the cuppa was born. Tea is just one British tradition that historian Alice Loxton and the BBC’s Ben Henderson explore in this podcast – though the conversation soon turns to the violence and smuggling it provoked. HJD BBC Sounds, episodes weekly

Bone Valley

Rolling Stone writer Paul Solotaroff hosts the fifth season of the acclaimed true-crime strand, on the murder of a 12-year-old girl in New York State in 1995. While the circumstances of Josette Wright’s death are nightmarish, this is a careful, powerful investigation: says Solotaroff, this is a story that has “pierced the skin, and will not give me peace”. HJD Widely available, episodes weekly

Keyword – Books
Trefwoorden – Science and nature books, Books, Culture, AI (artificial intelligence), Technology, Computing
Title – The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow review – the real price of artificial intelligence | Science and nature books | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/dorianlynskey
Link – The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow review – the real price of artificial intelligence | Science and nature books | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T06:00:52.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jun/22/the-reverse-centaurs-guide-to-life-after-ai-by-cory-doctorow-review-the-real-price-of-artificial-intelligence

A s former Google CEO Eric Schmidt  could tell you, AI is a hard sell these days. Last month, he tried talking up the AI revolution during a commencement address at the University of Arizona and was loudly booed by students about to enter an AI-ravaged job market. His discombobulation was telling.

Schmidt is not the only AI booster to crash out with students recently as the popular backlash grows. Every week brings a new story about some writer, publisher or academic who has torched their reputation by using an unreliable chatbot. Most US voters are opposed to the construction of vast, resource-guzzling new datacentres. A majority believe AI will negatively impact not just jobs but creativity and human relationships. In some quarters, saying that AI has any benefits at all is akin to saying that biological warfare gets a bad rap. As a New York Times column put it : “AI populism is here. And no one is ready.”

A decade ago, when the likes of Elon Musk and Sam Altman were still passionate advocates of heavily regulated ethical AI (ha!), the technology’s most widely discussed downside had an apocalyptic glamour: superintelligent AI could one day destroy the human race. But since Altman’s company OpenAI released its large language model ChatGPT in November 2022, AI’s public image has fallen to earth: it’s now widely seen as a job crusher, a fact mangler, a slop maker, a privacy invader, a climate trasher and a general pain in the neck. Never before has a new technology been rammed down our throats with such speed, determination and complete disregard for public opinion. Cory Doctorow’s book pithily explains why.

Doctorow, who writes like he talks and talks like he writes, is not somebody who needs AI to fill pages. Counting fiction, nonfiction and graphic novels, this is, by my calculation, his 36th book, hard on the heels of last year’s Enshittification . That polemic expanded on his own neologism to describe why Big Tech’s grow-or-die business model has made online platforms so much worse. This tawdry contempt for its customers is one of the reasons AI is so reviled. The Silicon Valley oligarchs telling us that AI will change the world are the last people we trust to change the world for the better. As a technology, AI has pros and cons; as a rushed project of rapacious elites, it is transparently obscene.

Doctorow speeds through this entertaining primer with his usual vivid analogies, righteous ire and snarky asides – OpenAI, currently valued at $852bn, is parenthetically dismissed as “a grossly overhyped and terrible firm”. But as the central metaphor illustrates, this is not an anti-AI polemic and Doctorow is no purist. A centaur, in automation theory, is someone assisted by a machine, whether using a hearing aid or driving a car. A reverse centaur is someone whose freedom is diminished by the demands of a machine, like an Amazon warehouse worker. The technology of AI theoretically allows every worker to be a centaur, but the business model demands the reverse. Take radiology. In the centaur scenario, a human radiologist works with an AI radiologist to produce more accurate analysis, but that costs the hospital money. In the reverse centaur version, the AI radiologist demotes the surviving humans to the level of results-checking drones who are more likely to make mistakes. Much cheaper, but you see the problem.

Doctorow, who has written several science fiction novels, cites one of the genre’s defining messages: “The most important thing about the gadget isn’t what it does, it’s who it does it for and who it does it to.” Just as the Luddites weren’t angry with machines per se, most anti-AI sentiment is really anti-capitalist rather than anti-tech. Doctorow uses a framework a 19th-century socialist would recognise: the bosses will pull every trick to avoid paying workers more unless workers unionise to fight back.

The problem with the AI business is the same thing that drives enshittification. The improbable price-to-sales ratios of tech companies are based on the promise of future growth, hence high-stakes bets like the Metaverse or the failed social media platform Google+. The AI sector’s colossal valuation derives largely from the salaries of the human workers it aims to replace – Morgan Stanley predicts it will add almost a trillion dollars a year to the S&P 500. And because the net worth of tech bosses is tied to stock value rather than actual profits, they have a personal incentive to keep investors excited: today AI may be a money pit, but just you wait. If the investor is the real target of the AI industry’s marketing, then the consumer becomes simply a cog in the hype machine. Individuals using chatbots are not so much a crucial revenue stream as unwitting salespeople for the message that the machines will replace us any day now, as are journalists who cover such snake-oil absurdities as the AI-generated “actor” Tilly Norwood.

Doctorow despises the doctrine of “inevitabilism”, which he explains by way of Margaret Thatcher’s slogan “there is no alternative”. When Eric Schmidt told students, “[If] someone offers you a seat on the rocket ship, you do not ask which seat, you just get on,” that was inevitabilism. The idea is that revolutionary new technology gives you, the worker or consumer, no choice but to get on board. Yet the technology is shaped by the choices of people like Schmidt, and they aren’t inevitable at all. If you give people an ultimatum – use our product or suffer – then booing is the very least you can expect.

One thing to give anti-AI hardliners pause is Doctorow’s suggestion that the industry is deliberately juicing outrage about things like AI-generated art as a form of hype: if people are this scared and angered, then the promise of replacing human labour must be real. In this book, at least, he isn’t animated by the headline-grabbing concerns, whether existential risk or AI psychosis, deepfake porn or election disinformation, because those are unintended consequences. His target is the revenue model and the bubble it has created: “To be an effective AI critic, you need to strike at the source of AI’s power, which is the investment capital it attracts.”

It certainly looks like a bubble. Last year, two studies found that 90% of us are less likely to use a product if it is advertised as AI-enabled, and that 95% of generative AI pilot schemes are failing. In fact, many companies have been forced to hastily rehire employees that they had replaced with inadequate chatbots. For gen Zs, according to an NBC poll, AI has a favourability rating of minus 44. As Doctorow writes, “The tech platforms are desperate to convince Wall Street that you love AI, which is very different from convincing you that you love AI.”

Unfortunately, seven big tech companies alone account for one-third of the US stock market’s value, so the schadenfreude of watching the bubble burst would soon turn bitter – it is likely to cause an economic shock comparable to those of 2008 and 2020. This is the story of a remarkable new technology rolled out in the most reckless, self-serving way one could imagine, by the worst people, for the worst reasons. It’s not the machines you should be angry with.

The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence Before It’s Too Late is published by Verso (£16.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.

Keyword – Life and style
Trefwoorden – Life and style, Donald Trump, US news
Title – I tried the new soft drinks from Trump’s son and granddaughter. Bad! | Life and style | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/adam-gabbatt
Link – I tried the new soft drinks from Trump’s son and granddaughter. Bad! | Life and style | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T11:00:23.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/22/barron-kai-trump-yerba-mate-energy-drink-review

Do you like sugary soft drinks? Do you like Donald Trump and his family? Do you want to support nepotism?

If the answer is yes to all these questions, then have I got the products for you: a pineapple yerba mate co-founded by Trump’s son, and a syrupy, energy-drink-thing developed by his granddaughter.

Both endeavors represent the first steps by First Boy Barron Trump and First Granddaughter Kai Trump into the world of business. But how will they fare? Have the pair inherited Donald Trump’s famed business nous, a special kind of shrewdness that saw the president file for corporate bankruptcy six times and oversee the failure of numerous business interests? Or could their investments actually be successful?

I bought both drinks to find out.

Barron Trump’s effort, Sollos, came first. Sold with the vaguely threatening slogan “It begins where it ends”, Sollos says it is a “brand built around the Florida lifestyle”. Which lifestyle? Retirement home? Monster truck? It doesn’t say.

The drink’s “about” page does, however, claim that “SOLLOS is designed revolving around the cycle of the sun”, a phrase as grammatically incorrect as it is meaningless, while its creators – Trump, 20, is one of five co-founders, all of whom have spent some time in Florida – also say the drink “is built to move with your day”, a phrase I do not understand.

“Most brands launch with four flavors hoping you’ll like one of them; we have been obsessing over one flavor until it was flawless,” the website claims. The flavor they went with is pineapple and coconut, and it retails at an eye-watering $39.99 for 12 cans. It arrived, to its credit, in very nice packaging.

Excited, I opened a can of Sollos. It smelled like suncream mixed with pineapple juice. I took a sip. It tasted like suncream mixed with pineapple juice. I poured some out. It’s the color of a sort of posh apple juice, with the glass-staining sugariness to match.

It’s not for me. But then, I am not the target audience: I am neither seeking a beverage that will, in Sollos’s words, “truly fit how people in Florida actually live”, nor I am necessarily looking for something which “all started in a cabana”.

In fairness to Trump and his Sollos collaborators, their drink does feature some commendably natural-seeming ingredients, including organic raw honey and organic monk-fruit extract, neither of which I could taste.

So, what about Blue Raz Slush, the drink by Kai Trump?

It’s a collaboration with an existing drinks company called Accelerator, and is, according to Accelerator, “inspired by nostalgic blue raspberry slushies and summertime memories”.

“Blue Raz Slush delivers a bold, icy flavor profile designed to channel the feeling of summer while powering high-performance days,” the company said in a press release announcing the drink.

I bought 12 cans on Amazon for $24.99: about $5 more than the same amount of Celsius, a popular drink and likely competitor, but with slightly worse branding. The cans are in a sort of Sonic the Hedgehog blue, with blurry lettering claiming the drink has “clinically proven benefits” that include “sustained energy” and “enhanced focus”. It also claims that a study found it accelerates a drinker’s metabolism: the Accelerator website has a link to a page where that study is supposed to be available, but there is no study there .

So how does it taste? Bad. It is a bad drink. Like Red Bull but with a more chemical finish, it did not taste of summertime memories – none of my memories, anyway – although I suppose one could say that it does have a bold flavor.

Keen not to present as biased, I asked my wife to try the Kai Trump Accelerator. She refused, instead asking when I was planning to remove the 22 cans of Trump family drink from the corner of our living room.

“Working on Blue Raz Slush with the Accelerator team was such a fun experience because I was involved from the very beginning,” Kai Trump said in a press release accompanying the launch.

She said the team had “tested so many different versions to make sure the flavor felt authentic to my tastes”. The less said about that the better.

Accelerator contains 200mg of caffeine, which is three times the amount in an espresso, and the can warns that the drink is “not recommended for use by individuals under 18 years of age”. Kai Trump turned 19 in May.

While the move into the beverage industry represents a new move for Barron and Kai, it is far from the Trump family’s first foray.

Donald Trump launched Trump Vodka in 2005, telling reporters : “I fully expect the most called-for cocktail in America to be the ‘T&T’ or the ‘Trump and tonic’.” Trump Vodka was discontinued in the US in 2011 due to a lack of demand.

Trump Ice, a bottled water, was pushed by the president in the early 2000s. Trump described it as “one of the highest quality spring waters in the world”. It was reportedly discontinued in 2010.

It’s not the best track record, but perhaps Barron and Kai can shake off the failures of their ancestor’s past.

Maybe people want a drink designed revolving around the cycle of the sun, or a beverage inspired by nostalgic blue raspberry slushies and summertime memories.

All I know is: I don’t.