Keyword – Environment
Trefwoorden – Trees and forests, Environment
Title – We would like to hear your memories of the Major oak in Sherwood Forest | Trees and forests | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/guardian-community-team
Link – We would like to hear your memories of the Major oak in Sherwood Forest | Trees and forests | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T08:56:26.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/18/we-would-like-to-hear-your-memories-of-the-major-oak-in-sherwood-forest

The Major oak, one of Europe’s oldest, largest and most celebrated ancient trees, which has grown in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire , England, for at least 1,000 years, has died.

The huge tree failed to produce any leaves this year, after becoming stressed by a series of hot, dry summers. Footfall from visitors admiring the oak and well-intentioned historical interventions have also not helped its longevity.

Thousands of visitors admire the oak each year. Were you one of them? We would like to hear your memories of the Major oak. What did it mean to you? What are your thoughts on its demise?

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – US-Israel war on Iran, Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, Trump administration, US foreign policy, Iran, Strait of Hormuz, Middle East and north Africa, US politics
Title – Donald Trump’s Iran deal met with anger, relief and incredulity | US-Israel war on Iran | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jonathan-yerushalmy
Link – Donald Trump’s Iran deal met with anger, relief and incredulity | US-Israel war on Iran | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T03:32:15.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/18/donald-trump-iran-deal-reactions-anger-relief-incredulity

Pakistan’s prime minister has hailed the “peaceful resolution” of the conflict between the US and Iran , while congratulating the leadership of both countries for signing an agreement that he claimed would immediately reopen of the strait of Hormuz.

But amid the celebrations from Shehbaz Sharif – who has served as mediator for the deal – the release of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that gets the ball rolling on the next 60 days of negotiations between Iran and the US, has proven more divisive, eliciting a mixture of outrage, bewilderment, and relief.

In France, the leaders of the G7 countries welcomed the deal , calling it a “historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon.”

European leaders have largely been sidelined from the negotiations, but expressed relief that the strait of Hormuz would reopen, allowing the flow of oil to resume. Emmanuel Macron said it would put a stop to a “situation of great instability that had terrible consequences for our economies”.

In Israel , however, the agreement has been greeted with less optimism.

Mark Regev, a former senior adviser to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu , questioned how seriously Iran would approach negotiations over its nuclear program, now that America has removed the economic and military “pressure”.

Under the terms of the MOU , Iran will reopen the strait of Hormuz, and in return receive waivers for US sanctions on crude oil exports, petroleum products and associated banking services. They will then enter into negotiations over the fate of their nuclear program and stock of highly enriched uranium.

“The straits are open and the Iranians can start exporting their oil, and therefore they get money coming in, you’ve taken away the economic pressure,” said Regev, adding “maybe Trump will get a great deal … but at the moment I don’t see that. I see America having given Iran’s regime a return to life.”

Regev’s views were reflected across Israel.

Yair Lapid, the leader of Israel’s opposition, said on Tuesday, “Netanyahu promised us a historic victory – and we got a crisis with the Americans, Hormuz open to the Iranians, money for the Revolutionary Guards, ballistic missiles aimed at Israel, and Israel waiting in the corridor like a scolded child.”

With Israel set to hold elections before October, Lapid and his coalition partner Naftali Bennet, are seeking to capitalise on the anger brewing in Israel over the agreement between the US and Iran.

Trump, who has previously enjoyed high approval among Israelis, is facing widespread criticism in local media. David Horovitz, the founding editor of the Times of Israel, wrote on Wednesday that the US-Israel war on Iran was lost due to “US presidential weakness”, among other issues.

“It will come back to bite America. It leaves Israel more vulnerable than before the war began, with a new US-Iran ceasefire agreement that aims to deny Israel the freedom to protect and defend itself,” he wrote.

Netanyahu’s Likud party, apparently aware of the cooling views on the US president, has reportedly scrapped plans to highlight the prime minister’s close ties with Trump in its upcoming election campaign.

Not all voices were speaking in opposition to the agreement though; Danny Citrinowicz, a former head of the Iran branch of Israeli military intelligence, said the deal showed reality had “finally returned to US policy on Iran”.

“Before events spiraled completely out of control, the US administration stepped back from maximalist objectives and returned to a more measured and realistic approach,” Citrinowicz wrote on Wednesday.

Those same splits in opinion were reflected in the US .

The Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a key Trump ally, appeared to soften his view of the MOU after a “very lengthy and productive” conversation with the US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

“After this discussion, it is my opinion that signing the MOU will be beneficial to the United States, in as much as the strait of Hormuz will begin to open, and the hostilities with Iran will stop,” Graham wrote on social media.

“Whether or not the United States can reach an acceptable, verifiable deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program and other issues is yet to be determined, but I see little downside to trying.”

A handful of other Senate Republicans were more critical in their views . Bill Cassidy, who Trump failed to back in a tightly fought primary last month, said “Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the strait of Hormuz works and will undoubtedly leverage it in the future.”

Senator Ted Cruz, who has backed the war, said the president was getting “very poor advice when it comes to this deal”.

Susan Rice, a former official in the Obama and Biden administrations was more blunt in her assessment, calling it “the biggest national security blunder in decades”, while Democratic Senator Adam Schiff said it was “hard to imagine a more thorough capitulation.”

“Iran gets sanctions relief, the release of frozen funds, the ability to export oil, and a $300 billion reconstruction fund. The U.S. gets a reiteration of the vague promise Iran won’t develop a nuke.”

Trump himself hailed the agreement as a “major win” for the United States, while Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Ghalibaf called it “a record of US failure”. Trump signed the agreement on Wednesday and soon after, Iran announced that its president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has also signed it in Tehran.

Trump signed during a dinner with Macron at the palace of Versailles, the site of the 1919 agreement which formally ended the conflict between Germany and allied powers after the first world war. The outcomes of that agreement were short lived, and Europe was again consumed by war just 20 years after it was signed.

Keyword – Games
Trefwoorden – Games, Fighting games, Sports games, Culture, MMA
Title – UFC 6 review: a bloody, brilliant MMA fighting game | Games | The Guardian
Author – Kirk McKeand
Link – UFC 6 review: a bloody, brilliant MMA fighting game | Games | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T09:00:28.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/jun/17/ufc-6-review-mma-fighting-game-ea-sports

B ecoming a professional fighter takes years of repetition, drilling techniques and training footwork until everything is instinctual. Your body needs an automatic answer for every limb, from every angle. In MMA , which encompasses every martial art, it’s even harder.

EA Sports’ UFC 6 realistically captures the grind of this brutal discipline. Throw on Career Mode and you spend most of your time working on combos and techniques. It’s all about making the complex controls feel second nature, increasing the effectiveness of every strike thrown by your fighter. With simulated six-week-long training camps between bouts, you can sometimes spar 12 times before a fight that could be over in a matter of seconds.

It’s an authentic fighter experience. In real life, these athletes spend relatively little time actually trying to take each other’s heads off with a shin, and most of their time training. In a game, however, it’s a bit of a slog. Once you’ve proven that you can ace these drills you can skip them, but you get fewer benefits. And it’s still laborious, as is tending to your inevitable injuries.

Happily, the fighting itself is excellent. UFC games have had a bit of a rock-’em’-sock-’em quality to them, but this latest instalment does a great job at creating more natural animations, flowing beautifully between the different levels submissions, wrestling, and stand-up — of an MMA fight. It looks almost worryingly realistic, too. From the pores on their skin to the wrinkles on the soles of their feet, these character models are the most detailed I’ve seen in a sports fighter, as impressive as Fight Night was when we saw HD video games for the first time. You can even tell who’s a standup fighter and who’s a wrestler by who has the most disfigured ears.

Every fight takes its toll on their bodies, too, with bruises and cuts appearing in direct response to your strikes. Blood droplets fly through the air and stain the canvas. When you land a knockout punch, the slow motion replay cranks up the volume so you hear the crunch of bone on bone and see cheeks wobble like a basset hound barking at a hairdryer.

A welcome new addition is The Legacy, a story mode that mythologises the rise of an up and coming fictional wrestler who’s trying to escape the shadow of his famous father, while brewing up a rivalry with another prospect at the same gym. It’s fully acted-out melodrama, your very own Rocky story, shining a light on how violence occasionally spills outside the Octagon and stains careers; inbetween fights, you attend press conferences and respond to provocations on social media.

The story does a great job of pulling you along for the first few hours as you go from rivals to friends and back to rivals again. It gets you invested in the action and raises the stakes, but the narrative climaxes near the beginning of your UFC career and then fizzles out. It feels like a bit of a missed opportunity to keep you engaged when you reach the top and have to defend your belts. Nonetheless, between the fluid fighting and the story-mode razzmatazz, this is the best version yet of EA’s fight-sim series.

UFC 6 is out now; £69.99

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Ukraine, Russia, Europe, World news, Drones (military), Oil, Vladimir Putin
Title – What did Ukraine target in Moscow and how significant was the drone attack? | Ukraine | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/pjotr-sauer
Link – What did Ukraine target in Moscow and how significant was the drone attack? | Ukraine | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T13:58:33.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/18/what-did-ukraine-target-in-moscow-and-how-significant-was-the-drone-attack

Ukraine hit Moscow with nearly 200 drones in its largest-ever attack on the capital on Thursday, striking a Russian oil refinery and sending huge plumes of smoke billowing over the city’s south.

The towering plumes of smoke rising above Moscow offered a stark demonstration of Ukraine’s growing ability to strike deep inside Russia with its increasingly sophisticated, largely domestically produced long-range drones.

What was hit?

The main target was the major oil refinery in Moscow’s Kapotnya district on the capital’s south-eastern edge, which had already come under attack earlier this week. Footage shared online showed a fuel tank detonating, sending part of its roof soaring into the air before flames engulfed one of Moscow’s most important energy facilities.

The refinery supplies up to 40% of the capital’s petrol and around half of its diesel fuel. At least one high-rise residential building, an industrial facility and several private homes were also damaged in the attack, with Russian authorities reporting 17 injuries.

How did Ukraine do it?

Ukraine frequently launches drone attacks against Moscow, but the vast majority are intercepted by the capital’s extensive air-defence network, the densest in the country. This time was different.

The sheer scale of the attack appears to have strained Russian air-defence systems. Videos circulating online showed Ukrainian drones flying over the Russian capital largely unchallenged, suggesting some were able to penetrate Moscow’s layered defences.

Footage circulating online also showed a Russian operator with a shoulder-launched Manpads missile system scrambling to shoot down a Ukrainian drone moments before it struck the Moscow oil refinery.

The mix of weapons used may also have played a role. Alongside conventional long-range strike drones typically deployed against targets deep inside Russia, Ukraine appears to have employed jet-powered missile drones during Thursday’s attack on the Moscow refinery and other sites around the capital.

Kyiv publicly unveiled several such missile-drone systems in late 2024 and early 2025, including the Bars hybrid drone-cruise missile, which was used in the strike. Faster and more difficult to intercept than conventional propeller-driven drones, they pose a growing challenge for Russian air defences .

Moscow also faces constraints in how it deploys its air-defence systems. Interceptors that miss their targets, or falling debris from destroyed drones, can pose a serious risk in a city densely packed with high-rise apartment blocks, raising the prospect of significant civilian casualties.

What are the lasting effects?

By targeting a key oil refinery, Ukraine hopes to bring the consequences of the war closer to ordinary Russians. Previous attacks on energy infrastructure have led to fuel shortages in parts of the country, most notably in Russian-occupied Crimea, where residents have spent hours queueing at petrol stations. Much will depend on the extent of the damage to the refinery, Russia’s ability to redirect fuel supplies from elsewhere, and Ukraine’s capacity to sustain further strikes.

But arguably the greater impact will be psychological. For the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many Muscovites could look out of their apartment windows and see smoke rising over the capital.

Russian social media was flooded with videos of residents reacting to the strikes. In one widely shared clip, a woman could be seen in tears. “The war is here,” she said. “My windows are shaking. The air is dark and smells of smoke.”

Residents of Balashikha, a town east of Moscow, described a “black rain” after the refinery strike, sharing photographs of cars, streets and buildings coated in a dark, oily residue.

Taken together, the apocalyptic images served as a stark reminder that, despite years of war, Moscow and its suburbs are no longer insulated from the conflict and are increasingly a part of it.

How will Putin respond?

Vladimir Putin, who is attending a summit with several Asian leaders in Kazan, has yet to comment publicly on the strike. The Russian president typically avoids addressing sensitive developments immediately, preferring to leave initial responses to officials and state media.

Russian hardliners, however, were quick to react. Several influential nationalist figures took to social media to demand retaliation, with some even urging the Kremlin to consider the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

The most likely response, however, is a renewed wave of large-scale missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities. In the past, Moscow has frequently answered high-profile attacks on Russian territory with barrages targeting urban centres across Ukraine, often resulting in significant civilian casualties.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – South Korea, World Cup 2026, World Cup, Football, Mexico, Sport
Title – Mexico military brings down drone near South Korea World Cup training camp | South Korea | The Guardian
Author – Associated Press
Link – Mexico military brings down drone near South Korea World Cup training camp | South Korea | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T06:24:48.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/18/mexico-south-korea-drone-training-world-cup-2026

Mexican military forces intercepted and brought down a drone that flew near the South Korea team’s training camp as they prepared for their World match against the co-hosts. Military forces used specialised equipment to detect an “unregistered drone” near the camp, prompting them to “neutralise” it, a Mexican federal agent said.

Mexico won their opening Group A match at the World Cup last week while South Korea beat Czechia the same day.

It was not clear if the drone was trying to spy on the South Korean team and the coach, Hong Myung-bo, said: “During our training, there was a drone in the sky,” he said. “But fortunately, it was right before we practised our tactics, so it did not impact us. But while we were preparing for the match, that was the most important timing, so what happened was unfortunate.”

The official did not say when the incident occurred or whether any arrests were made. He said several drones had been neutralised in recent days after attempting to enter security zones around stadiums in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey – the tournament’s three host cities in Mexico – as well as team base camps and fan festivals.

In March, Mexican authorities announced a World Cup security operation known as “Plan Kukulkán,” involving about 100,000 personnel from federal and local military and police forces. The plan includes early warning systems, security measures at stadiums, airports, roads and hotels and protection protocols for teams, officials and fans.

In Canada, authorities have banned unauthorised drones from flying over World Cup stadiums and several training sites in Vancouver and Toronto as a security measure. The restrictions remain in effect until 7 July – the date of the last game scheduled to be staged in the country.

In 2024, the Canada women’s team was accused of using a drone to spy on a New Zealand training session leading up to their opening match at the Paris Olympics. The scandal led to the suspension of two members of the coaching staff and the head coach Bev Priestman, who was subsequently dismissed by Canada Soccer . Canada – the reigning Olympic champions from the Tokyo Games – were deducted six points from their group standings in France.

Canada Soccer determined the incident was not an isolated error, but part of a pattern of insufficient oversight within the national teams .

Keyword – Food
Trefwoorden – Food, Italian food and drink, Bread, Sandwiches, Sausages, Meat, Snacks, Cheese, Pork
Title – Rachel Roddy’s recipe for focaccia sandwiches with mortadella and parmesan cream | Food | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rachel-roddy
Link – Rachel Roddy’s recipe for focaccia sandwiches with mortadella and parmesan cream | Food | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T05:00:03.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/jun/18/focaccia-sandwiches-mortadella-parmesan-cream-recipe-rachel-roddy

I t’s the time of year when the TV, balanced on the Ikea unit with castors, its feet supported by wooden splints, is wheeled between the kitchen doors so it faces out on to the terrace (flat roof). In the absence of a barbecue or outside shower, the TV is our seasonal shift; an inside object moved outside and, in the process, made (slightly) more exciting. As a result, TV dinners are also altered, as well as given another layer of soundtrack – birds shouting, people chatting in the bar below, the held-down horn of the articulated lorry that can’t reach the supermarket because a car is double parked – to the one coming out of the TV speakers. We also have a table outside, but that changes the nature of a TV dinner too much: the table is moved aside for wooden chairs, tea towels and plates on laps, with focaccia sandwiches with mortadella and parmesan cream for the meat eaters, and parmesan cream, tomato and a handful of green leaves for those who don’t.

Mortadella is considered an insaccati parzialmente cotti , or partly cooked sausage. Its origin is debated, with some suggesting it derives from the object it was pounded in, il mortaio (the mortar); others say the name can be linked back, as is so often the case, to the Romans, and a sausage flavoured with myrtle berries called farcimen murtatum . The dates around when it was first made are also debated, because of a mention of something called mortadella in 12th-century cookbooks, though that was likely made of veal or donkey. The 1600s are a better place to start, when a nobleman and agronomist called Vincenzo Tanara described meat: two-thirds lean from the pork shoulder and leg, cut into large cubes, then transformed through “sharp pounding”, stuffed and cooked at a moderate temperature. Alongside instructions for production, there were strict edicts regulating the labour-intensive processes involved in making luxury products for those who could afford them.

This would change with industrialisation in the 1900s and beyond; machines and the means of processing changed production, demand, expectations and exportation, which saw changes in the quality of the meat and other ingredients, not least the additives required for it to travel and stay Peppa Pig pink. In fact, those permitted additives are tripe, flour, rinds, emulsified ice, egg white, sugar, dried milk, polyphosphates or synthetic flavourings, all of which are noted on the packaging. There are, of course, plenty of producers who have other ideas.

Artigianquality , for example, which is a small producer in the centre of Bologna, uses high-quality cuts of pork from 100% Italian pigs, predominantly from the Bologna region and raised in semi-wild conditions. Half the mix is shoulder, a quarter minced ham and trimmings, and both are pounded to a paste, before neck fat (known as lardelli ) is mixed in. Next comes the seasoning: mace, cardamom, nutmeg, black and white pepper, garlic and whole sea salt flakes. This mixture is then extruded into casings and tied by hand, producing mortadella. The forms are cooked in dry air ovens at a low temperature for 24-28 hours. Their mortadella is antique pink, with a firm texture and delicately spiced scent, and it is best, I think, served cut into cubes, though it’s also wonderful sliced so thinly that it falls in folds on a base of focaccia – I suggest Carlas Tomasi’s recipe in the Guardian archives –and is then spread with parmesan cream.

In a bowl, beat 60g finely grated parmesan with four tablespoons of soft cheese or ricotta, until well blended and creamy; you can also add a dash of milk to loosen the mixture, if you like. Add white or black pepper, salt and nutmeg to taste, then mix again. Split four squares of focaccia or four bread rolls (or eight slices of bread), and spread both sides thinly with the parmesan cream. Lay two slices of mortadella on one half of the bread, then top with the other half of bread. Repeat with the remaining bread.

Ever since visiting his shop in north London, I can’t make a focaccia sandwich without thinking of Max Halley of Max’s Sandwich Shop fame, and what sort of crisp he would include in any particular mix. He suggests ready salted Kettle Chips, and I suggest putting the crisps in a bowl and the bowl on a small table with wheels, so it can be pushed between chairs and everyone can add the amount they wish.

Focaccia sandwiches with mortadella and parmesan cream

Makes 4

60g parmesan , finely grated 4 tbsp soft cheese or ricotta Black or white pepper Salt Nutmeg 4 squares focaccia , or 4 bread rolls, or 8 slices of bread 8 slices mortadella

Beat the grated parmesan and soft cheese or ricotta in a bowl until well blended and creamy; add a dash of milk to loosen the mixture, if you like. Add white or black pepper, salt and nutmeg to taste, and mix again.

Split the focaccia or rolls and spread both sides thinly with the parmesan cream. Lay two slices of mortadella on one half of the bread, top with the other half of bread and repeat with the remaining bread, cream and sausage.

Keyword – Music
Trefwoorden – Experimental music, Classical music, Music, Culture, Canada, Christianity, Indie, Americas, World news, Religion
Title – ‘A sacred kind of sound’: inside a solar-powered journey to preserve the music of church organs | Experimental music | The Guardian
Author – Andy Cush
Link – ‘A sacred kind of sound’: inside a solar-powered journey to preserve the music of church organs | Experimental music | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T09:00:01.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jun/18/michael-cloud-duguay-album-church-organs

Michael Cloud Duguay and his band of collaborators were nearing the end of their pipe organ tour of Newfoundland when they encountered a hitch in Aguathuna, a town of about 400 people on a craggy peninsula that juts out from the Canadian island’s south-western edge. For the past week, they’d been showing up at old churches in remote communities like this one, preparing their solar-powered mobile studio, and recording instruments both humble and monumental, whose complex systems of keys, stops, hand cranks, foot pedals, bellows and reeds were designed to vibrate the air around them until it approximates the sound of God.

This was all in service of music that was still taking shape in Duguay’s mind. It would eventually form the basis of the Ontario composer’s new album, Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go, a collection of quietly elegiac pieces that doubles as a sort of audio documentary about Newfoundland’s organs and the congregations to which they belong . The music is collaged from recordings that Duguay made on that trip in July 2024, of the organs (which the team documented and will be available as Midi instruments later this summer) but also of church leaders and ordinary congregants talking about their lives, as well as saxophones, flutes and whatever other sounds happened to go by while the tape was rolling. Listening in headphones on a spring day can be mildly hallucinatory: are the bird calls, the rustling wind and the chattering people part of the music or the world outside?

When Duguay and his crew got to Our Lady of Mercy, the century-old church in Aguathuna, the locals told them there was no organ there. That came as a disappointment to Duguay, who’d coordinated the visit in advance with someone at the church, though planning the excursion had required such a quantity of cold emails and phone calls to strangers that this crucial detail could have gotten lost in the shuffle. The churches were generally small, with hardly any presences online. Finding them had taken extensive sleuthing; at one point, he was searching through Facebook pages for photos that looked like they might have an organ in the background. “They were like, ‘What organ?’” he recalls, wearing a Grateful Dead T-shirt while speaking from his home in Peterborough, Canada . “I was like, ‘This is what we’ve been talking about. This is what we’re here to do.’ And they’re like, ‘We’ve never seen an organ in this space.’”

Then a teenage volunteer piped up: wasn’t there something like that in the balcony? Sure enough, surrounded and covered by old church junk – dusty nativity figurines, outdated hymnals – there was a keyboard and two Leslie cabinets, vintage motorized speakers whose horns spin in circles to better emulate the flutter of air through pipes. This was an electronic organ, unlike the instruments that Duguay and his team had recorded so far on the trip, but an organ nonetheless. They later learned it hadn’t been used since the 90s. They set up a couple of microphones for recording, depressed one of the keys and powered it up, hoping for sound.

What they heard became Pond 1, the first track on Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go. A single note comes on more abruptly than you might expect, given the decades of disuse. It wavers slowly with the movement of the Leslie speakers, then sputters and restarts itself a couple of times. Gradually Duguay depresses another key, and then another, and it grows from one voice into a wistfully ambiguous chord. “We recorded the sound of this organ coming back to life,” he says. “There’s these outcomes of making records in this way that are so special and kind of sacred to me. I’m never going to hear that exact sound again, and it was an incredible sound.”

Duguay grew up in Catholicism, but his current spiritual practice is a “self-constructed” one, developed in recovery from a long period of addiction, neglect of music-making, and occasional incarceration. Though he doesn’t share his interviewees’ Christianity , he wanted to capture the organs within their spiritual and social contexts, just as he might turn a microphone on a creaky floorboard or a dog barking outside to capture the instruments’ physical surroundings. Scattered among the drones and arpeggios of Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go are interviews with church members that Duguay conducted while the recording crew was setting up. “The general question was: ‘What do you think is going to happen to these instruments?’” he says.

“And the response, again and again was: ‘They’re going to stay here forever because this church is going to be here forever.’ Because even though not a lot of people are coming to church right now, people are going to come back.”

These people often talked to him about the biblical idea of the remnant: a small community of believers who remain faithful as the rest of the world turns its back on the church. “We were seeing these remnants of two or three elderly people working in these churches, diligently maintaining them daily, painting everything, and as soon as they’re done, they just start again,” he says. “It’s all this idea of service to their community, service to God and service to the people who have not yet arrived. These spaces are uniquely forward-looking.” With the climate crisis and totalitarianism raging, one needn’t be a believer to be moved by their optimism.

Duguay, whose background is in punk and indie rock, is not a trained organist. He had never touched one before starting work on Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go . His willfully simple approach to the instrument is best illustrated by a track called Damnable Island. For six and a half minutes, you hear a note that flickers and warps as it sustains, an effect the composer attained by recording an E flat on all seven of the organs he visited and layering them atop each other. Some of the instruments were in perfect tune; others hadn’t been maintained for years. The micro-variations in their pitches contribute to a sound richer and stranger than any one could produce on its own.

This was typical of Duguay and his team’s process: they were always recording material without knowing precisely what they’d do with it, or how it would interact with other organs they hadn’t heard yet. Sometimes, they didn’t know for sure whether the other organs existed at all. In a way, the experience of recording Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go helped Duguay to be more like the people whom the album is about. “We had to think about how to arrange the music if we wanted multiple organs on the same piece,” he says. “‘OK, we’re gonna record these next parts on either the organ we encounter tomorrow or the day after, and we’re just going to have to accept whatever that is.’ We couldn’t even guess what they were going to sound like. We just had to practice a sort of faith.”

Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go is out on 10 July

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Transfer window, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Football, Sport
Title – Real Madrid announce signing of Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella in £52m deal | Transfer window | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jacob-steinberg
Link – Real Madrid announce signing of Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella in £52m deal | Transfer window | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-15T09:18:58.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/14/real-madrid-marc-cucurella-chelsea-transfer-window-football

Real Madrid have announced the signing of Marc Cucurella from Chelsea in a package worth up to €60m (£52m).

News of the deal emerged on Sunday, with this Spanish club now revealing a six-year deal has been negotiated. “Real Madrid CF and Chelsea FC have reached an agreement for the transfer of the player Marc Cucurella, who will be linked to our club for the next six seasons, until June 30, 2032,” a club statement released on Monday morning read.

Chelsea also released a statement confirming the move has gone through. “Marc Cucurella has completed a permanent transfer to Spanish La Liga side Real Madrid,” it read. “Everyone at Chelsea FC would like to thank Marc for his efforts during his time at the club and for the role he played in our recent achievements.”

The Spain left-back, who is preparing to face Cape Verde in the World Cup, threw his future into doubt when he criticised the Chelsea hierarchy during the March international break. Cucurella said the team paid for “inexperience” when thrashed by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, and he raised misgivings over Enzo Maresca’s departure as head coach.

A return to Spain has been on the cards and Cucurella has signed a contract at the Bernabéu until 2032 on after four years at Stamford Bridge. Madrid will pay an initial €55m plus €5m in add-ons for the 27-year-old.

Chelsea will regard this as the right time to cash in on Cucurella, who overcame a difficult start after joining from Brighton for £62m.

They felt his level dipped after Christmas and were encouraged by the form of Cucurella’s deputy, the 20-year-old Netherlands left-back Jorrel Hato.

Madrid, who are revamping their squad after two trophyless years, are moving quickly after appointing José Mourinho as their manager and have bolstered their defence with moves for the Netherlands right-back Denzel Dumfries and the former Liverpool centre-back Ibrahima Konaté. They have also agreed to sign the former Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva on a free transfer.

It remains to be seen whether Madrid look to do further business with Chelsea by attempting to sign Enzo Fernández. The Argentina midfielder joined Cucurella in speaking out against the hierarchy towards the end of the season.

Fernández has made little secret of his desire to join Madrid but Chelsea will look for more than £100m for the former Benfica midfielder.

Chelsea, who missed out on qualification for Europe, will also be guided by the wishes of their new manager, Xabi Alonso.

They are not under pressure to make sales but Fernández, unlike Cole Palmer and Moisés Caicedo, is not regarded as one of the club’s untouchables.

Keyword – Business
Trefwoorden – Real estate, United Arab Emirates, Middle East and north Africa, Dubai, World news, The super-rich, Business
Title – Dubai property sales have fallen ‘off a cliff’ since start of Middle East war | Real estate | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/lauren-almeida
Link – Dubai property sales have fallen ‘off a cliff’ since start of Middle East war | Real estate | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T05:00:04.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/18/dubai-property-sales-fall-since-middle-east-war-say-experts

Property sales in Dubai have fallen “off a cliff”, a leading market watcher has said, after war in the Middle East forced a dramatic slowdown in one of the world’s most expensive real estate markets.

Sales in the city dropped 19% in May compared with the previous month, accelerating from a 4% drop in April, the researcher ValuStrat found.

Transactions are now below half their level compared with the same point last year, it said.

“The ready homes market has not recorded an annual decline of this magnitude since the pandemic,” said Haider Tuaima, head of real estate research at ValuStrat, a Dubai-based consultancy which has been tracking the city’s property market since 2014.

A separate study from the Dubai-based research firm Reidin found that property worth 22.5bn dirhams ($6.1bn/£4.5bn) was sold in May, 42% below the April figure. It was about half the 46.6bn dirhams in the month before the conflict began, according to the figures, which were first reported by Bloomberg.

Dubai, which is on the eastern side of the Arabian peninsula, had had a frenzied trade in property in recent years, boosted by a wave of high-earners attracted to the city’s zero income tax policy.

But the outbreak of war in the Middle East in late February has rocked the market, with an Iranian missile hitting the five-star hotel in Dubai’s famed Palm Jumeirah area in March.

It remains unclear how quickly the market may recover if a peace deal between the US and Iran holds firm.

Sellers of luxury villas and flats in the city have wiped tens of millions of pounds off asking prices, according to property agents.

Yasin Valimulla, a buying agent in Dubai who specialises in properties worth at least $10m (£7.5m), said that the few home sales still going through were at a 20%-25% discount to their value before the conflict.

“We have sold to super-high-net-worth guys in the last year and a half – every single one them has now left Dubai,” he said.

“There was a lot of panic in March and there is still not much clarity to this day,” he said. “Western European buyers are now more reluctant to buy properties here. I think they want to wait out maybe a year, even two years. It depends on how things play out.”

It marks a sharp correction for Dubai, which was the busiest city in the world last year for luxury real estate. The international estate agent Knight Frank found that more homes worth $2.5m to $10m were bought in Dubai than any other city in the world in at the end of 2025 – ahead of London, New York, Los Angeles and Hong Kong.

In the $10m-plus bracket, there were 9,050 sales in Dubai compared with 6,577 in New York and 3,089 in London.

But the market is now correcting itself, Valimulla said. “The numbers were so high to begin with, especially in the last two years. The market at that level was not sustainable anyway.

“There is going to be a correction in pricing, we just do not know the impact of that correction until we have [geopolitical] clarity.”

In the meantime, the nomadic super-rich class are turning to other international hubs, such as Milan , London and Singapore.

Richard Waind, of the real estate group Cencorp, added that several brokers in Dubai’s once booming property market would now be forced to close.

“The war has been a black swan event that was huge and swift,” he said. “The slowdown in sales is putting pressure on those smaller agencies that set up in a frothy market. There were about 1,000 brokers in the market a decade ago – now it’s about 10,000. That is going to fall.”

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – US-Israel war on Iran, Iran, Donald Trump, Trump administration, Obama administration, Middle East and north Africa, US news, US politics, US foreign policy, World news
Title – Trump’s war accomplished nothing – the Iran deal is proof | Kenneth Roth | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/kenneth-roth
Link – Trump’s war accomplished nothing – the Iran deal is proof | Kenneth Roth | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T09:00:01.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/18/trump-iran-war-deal

N o one gets a Nobel peace prize for ending a war he started, let alone for a pointless war of aggression that set back the causes that supposedly prompted the conflict. No amount of Donald Trump’s spin can obscure the fact that his newly announced deal with Iran is one big lesson in why this war should never have been launched.

The text of the deal, a 14-point memorandum of understanding, underscores its emptiness. The tyrants of Tehran are undoubtedly celebrating.

Trump’s political challenge is to show that his deal is better than the one negotiated by Barack Obama in 2015 and abandoned by Trump in 2018 – that Trump’s bombing produced a result superior to Obama’s diplomacy. The problem for Trump is that it didn’t. He did worse.

Trump will likely spotlight two supposed “victories”. First, Iran “reiterates that it will never produce nuclear weapons”. But it made that pledge in the Obama accord and many times since then. The key issue is whether the steps that could lead to a nuclear weapon are curtailed.

To that end, Obama imposed severe restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. Trump can only hope to secure similar limitations during negotiations that are supposed to be concluded over the next 60 days. But such complex issues are unlikely to be settled so quickly, and the deal allows for the deadline to be extended by mutual consent.

Still to be resolved are whether and for how long Iran will limit what it calls its right to enrich uranium, whether it will export or dilute its half-tonne of highly enriched uranium, and whether it will dismantle its nuclear program. The deal says only that in a final accord such issues will be resolved by “mutual agreement”, hardly an airtight commitment. Trump will tie sanctions relief to Iranian concessions on these points, but that could have been accomplished through diplomacy, without resorting to war.

Second, Trump will highlight that Iran has agreed to reopen the strait of Hormuz, where its restrictions on movement of some 20% of the world’s oil and gas led to galloping prices and a surge in worldwide inflation. But Iran only closed the strait once Trump initiated his war of choice. Now Tehran sees the power of this new weapon. The genie is out of the bottle and will not easily be lured back.

Trump announced that the strait will be “ permanently toll free ”. But the published deal doesn’t say that. And Iranian officials have maintained the right to impose fees for unspecified services, which might mean no more than the “service” of not firing on boats passing through. Trump’s war has left global commerce worse off.

The deal is noteworthy for what it does not include. There is nothing on Iran’s ballistic missile program, nothing on Iran’s military support for regional allies such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, nothing on regime change in Tehran. These were all reasons cited by Trump for going to war. In these areas, his bombing accomplished nothing.

Indeed, in lieu of regime change, he obtained regime hardening, as US and Israeli bombers killed off Iranian clerical leaders and left Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials in charge.

Meanwhile, the Iranian government can trumpet its own victories. The deal requires that Israel end its attacks in Lebanon.

That does give Benjamin Netanyahu the opportunity to play spoiler, given his quest for ongoing war with Iran. But Netanyahu may not dare. Trump has become overt in his anger at the Israeli prime minister, calling him “ fucking crazy ” and “ a very difficult guy ”, and explicitly criticizing his tendency to attack entire apartment buildings using the pretext of attacking a single Hezbollah member (although the same criticism can be made of Israel’s disproportionate attacks in Gaza, which Trump aided and abetted).

As soon as the accord is signed, Trump commits to issue ”waivers” for all sanctions on Iranian petroleum exports. That is a reward for simply returning to the status quo that existed in February before Trump opted for bombing over negotiation.

Then, according to the “progress of negotiations” toward a final agreement, Trump agrees to release frozen Iranian assets. Once a final accord is reached, Trump commits to lifting all sanctions on the country. In addition, the deal includes a $300bn private fund for “rehabilitation and economic development of Iran”.

These economic incentives toward a deal were all available in February as well. The bombing made no positive difference.

If there is a silver lining in this debacle, it is that the utter failure of Trump’s military adventure in Iran may give him pause before trying another. (The same could be said for Vladimir Putin’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine.) Resorting to military force is often far more complicated than Trump’s quick removal of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. Might makes right , in Trump’s warped view, but it doesn’t guarantee victory. There turns out to be a role for diplomacy after all.

Kenneth Roth is a Guardian US columnist, visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, and former executive director of Human Rights Watch. He is the author of Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments