Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – Society, Food
Title – Queueing is a great way to meet people? That’s nice – because we could soon be doing a lot more of it | Emma Beddington | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/emma-beddington
Link – Queueing is a great way to meet people? That’s nice – because we could soon be doing a lot more of it | Emma Beddington | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T13:00:34.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/21/queueing-is-a-great-way-to-meet-people-thats-nice-because-we-could-soon-be-doing-a-lot-more-of-it

I t’s hot – fancy a frozen yoghurt? Probably not, given that ice-cream exists, but a New York Times reporter recently queued for an hour to experience the city’s fro-yo craze with 74 other patient souls, long enough, she wrote, to “feel affection for my cluster of line, the kind of camaraderie you develop with fellow passengers on a delayed flight”. The yoghurt, while fine, was emphatically not worth the wait. That’s surely also true of the UK’s current slew of viral bakeries , pizza joints and, improbably, baked potato spots. Can carbs really be that good? Maybe, but I’ll never find out: reaching the head of an interminable queue only for the person in front of you to take the last treat is psychological violence I won’t put myself through, and queueing at a mayonnaise vending machine – another real NYC phenomenon – is my idea of hell.

But queues are everywhere now. Even in my hometown of York, where formerly the only people queueing were tourists waiting to enjoy the stench of rotting herring and latrine at the Jorvik Viking Centre (or to patronise our sui generis tearoom, Bettys ), locals line up at brunch spots and bakeries. How and why have queues, previously an occasional annoyance, become ubiquitous?

Well, we do love them. The Queen’s coffin queue was a phenomenon so significant that social psychologists studied it ; the Wimbledon Queue, capitalised on the website as if it’s an event in itself, has a downloadable code of conduct . And our proud queue stoicism – the fruit of a wartime propaganda exercise to prevent food shortages creating unrest – means we’re unlikely to balk at waiting for pastry. Then there’s the viral factor: social media means long lines are often a feature, not a bug, whipped up by paid-for influencer enthusiasm and manufactured (or real, to be fair) scarcity.

But what if there’s something else going on? That NYT writer pondered whether it wasn’t about fro-yo, but the queue itself. “Free public space is disappearing from urban infrastructure. Not enough people are meeting their neighbors … So maybe the lines for viral foods are just due to get longer and longer each year, like an IRL bar chart of American loneliness.” It’s not a new theory: the Londoner explored it in January, with the co-owner of one viral bakery (Toad, in Camberwell) calling their queue “a rare communal thing that brings people together with a shared interest that isn’t to do with drinking”, and noting the “nice interactions” it stimulated. On Substack , writer Lauren O’Neill described bakery queues as places to “arrange to meet friends for a two-birds-one-stone catch-up”.

So standing in a breadline (fine, brioche line) is now considered a sociable, community-building trip out? There’s a trend at the moment for identifying your personal “ recession indicators ” and queueing for a pain au chocolat being reframed as a convivial treat might be one of mine. But maybe I’m missing the point? Perhaps it’s part of the broader shift (still, I suspect, cost-of-living related) towards low-key, no-frills “ soft socialising ” – people getting together for “ admin nights ” and hanging out in other humdrum ways . If it’s a low-pressure way of feeling more connected, fair enough: the real treasure wasn’t the “ everything bagel croissant ”, it was the friends you made along the way.

I’m still wary of this rebrand of queues as a third space, though; they exclude anyone who physically can’t stand for an hour, for a start. And this is probably paranoid, but with dire warnings of a looming food crisis and imminent recession , the queue’s glow-up has echoes of wartime propaganda, as if we’re gently prepping ourselves for worse things ahead.

Also, wouldn’t it mean that by imposing austerity and Brexiting, arguably, the Tory government generously created third spaces where we come in contact with our neighbours? Sure, cuts meant closed libraries , leisure centres and youth clubs , but if queues are desirable community experiences, should we thank them for now enjoying luxuriantly long ones at GPs, NHS dentists ( people queued from 5am when a new one opened in Bristol last month ), A&E wards and border control ? Bond over annoying waiting room music; share a laugh at your unflattering passport pics; find a new BFF by staunching each other’s bleeding! Patience is a virtue, yes, but I’m not sure it’s always the appropriate response.

Keyword – Politics
Trefwoorden – Labour party leadership, Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting, Labour, Politics, UK news
Title – Transition timetable: what a Starmer autumn handover could look like | Labour party leadership | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/peterwalker
Link – Transition timetable: what a Starmer autumn handover could look like | Labour party leadership | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T17:15:27.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/21/keir-starmer-autumn-handover-labour

I f the predictions are proved correct and Keir Starmer does announce a timetable for an autumn departure from Downing Street, the machinery of government will again kick into gear for a handover of power – but one that will be, by UK standards, relatively leisurely.

While many democracies build in lengthy transition periods – a defeated or retiring US president serves for nearly three months after their successor has been picked – the UK tends to do things at speed. A losing prime minister will typically get out of 10 Downing Street the morning after an election while the removal vans of their replacements lurk idling around the corner.

In July 2024, an election-wearied Starmer held his first press conference inside Downing Street, confessing to the assembled media that he was still getting lost in the maze of interconnected buildings that made up his new home-meets-workplace.

Two years on, he is widely expected to announce a date for his exit, perhaps on Monday . Andy Burnham’s team are understood to have pushed for the PM to stay on until September, a timetable that would allow for two main possible eventualities.

The first scenario – and this is very much Burnham’s wish – would be for the Greater Manchester mayor turned MP for Makerfield to be nominated to become Labour leader by an overwhelming number of his fellow MPs, with either no other challengers coming forward or else those who did failing to get the necessary support of at least 20% of the parliamentary party, or 81 MPs.

This would give ministers and civil servants clarity about a handover process and allow Burnham time to select his governmental team and fix his policy priorities, thus perhaps avoiding the slightly unfocused look of the early Starmer period.

Darren Jones, the cabinet minister who serves as chief secretary to the prime minister, charged with getting things done across government, is understood to have already met Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary who is a key Burnham ally.

Jones would be expected to take a leading role in ensuring the work of government continues, particularly the complex and vital tasks of planning for the budget in autumn, even if the actual policy choices would be Burnham’s.

The alternative scenario involves Wes Streeting , the former health secretary, or another challenger getting enough nominations to go against Burnham, an option some Labour MPs would actively prefer, believing that Burnham’s ideas and arguments must be tested properly.

A brief initial period would involve any hopefuls having to show they had enough parliamentary backers, and also nominations from at least 5% of all local party branches or at least three party-affiliated groups, with a minimum of two being unions.

Any who passed this threshold would go to a vote of Labour members. The timing of the contest would be set by the party’s national executive committee, which would be expected to make it as rapid as possible.

While the leadership election that Starmer won in 2020 – held in opposition – took three months, in 2025 when Angela Rayner resigned as deputy leader it took just six and a half weeks to find her replacement under the same rules.

Transition work would take place throughout but of course would be slightly more complicated, at least while the contest was taking place.

And what of the role of the man still in No 10, in body if not in authority, more a caretaker than CEO? Here, Starmer would face a political half-life a bit like that of Theresa May, who set her own timetable for departure in 2019.

Such a prime minister has very obviously limited bandwidth but can still follow personal projects or try to cement a legacy. May used much of her time to put a target for reaching net zero carbon emissions into law, doing so in June 2019 , six weeks before she handed over to Boris Johnson.

We could expect Starmer to be busy, not just on the international stage – with a Nato summit in July – but trying to finalise a legacy of his own.

Keyword – Environment
Trefwoorden – Mining, Water, Drought, European Commission, European Union, Environment, Business, Europe, World news
Title – ‘It’s Russian roulette’: alarm as Europe backs critical minerals mines in water-stressed regions | Mining | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rachel-salvidge
Link – ‘It’s Russian roulette’: alarm as Europe backs critical minerals mines in water-stressed regions | Mining | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-20T06:00:03.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/20/europe-backs-critical-minerals-mines-water-stressed-regions

The European Commission plans to rewrite the EU’s flagship water protection law to speed up the development of critical minerals mines, despite many being located in drying and water-stressed regions, analysis has found.

Mining is a water-intensive industry, requiring large volumes of water for ore processing, dust suppression, waste management and mine dewatering. While modern projects recycle water, they still require significant amounts, and in water-stressed regions those demands can add to pressure on already stretched rivers, aquifers and water supplies.

Analysis and mapping by Watershed Investigations, shared with the Guardian, found that more than half of the 33 planned new or expanded mines designated as “strategic projects” under the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act are located in areas that have been drying over the past two decades, according to Nasa satellite data.

Nearly half are in zones that experienced drought conditions in the past three months, according to EU data, and a quarter are in regions deemed water-stressed.

Six of the strategic mines are planned for highly water-stressed areas in Spain, with others in Portugal and Greece. All three countries rank among the top 10 EU nations with the worst water scarcity, according to the European Environment Agency.

In 2024, the Spanish region of Catalonia declared a state of emergency over its worst ever drought, and water-use restrictions were imposed in Andalucía. In 2022, 96% of Portugal was experiencing “extreme” or “severe” drought conditions, according to the EU’s Earth observation programme.

Some projects have already sparked fierce opposition. The environmental organisation Ecologistas en Acción is challenging the European Commission’s decision to grant strategic project status to all six Spanish mines, arguing that it failed to properly consider risks to water resources, biodiversity and protected areas.

Global demand for critical minerals has tripled since 2010 as countries race to build artificial intelligence infrastructure, electric vehicles, renewable energy technologies and defence systems. It is expected to more than double again by 2030, with graphite, lithium and cobalt need projected to rise nearly 500% by 2050 from 2020 levels.

Concerned about its dependence on imports, the EU designated 47 mining, processing and recycling projects as “strategic projects”, including 33 mines. The designation puts projects within the EU on a fast track through permitting processes and is designed to accelerate development. Those located outside the bloc will gain political backing and potential access to EU funding.

In a move that has alarmed environmental groups, Brussels is also preparing to revise the water framework directive (WFD), the EU’s key law protecting rivers, groundwater and wetlands, with the stated aim of removing permitting bottlenecks and improving access to strategic minerals.

Euromines, the trade association for Europe’s mining and metals industry, has been pushing for these changes. It wants longer deadlines for countries to meet water quality targets, amendments to how the WFD’s “no deterioration” rule is applied to water bodies, and greater legal certainty for mining and other industrial projects.

Environmental groups fear the proposed changes could weaken protections but the industry body rejects this suggestion and insists it is “not a licence to pollute”.

A Euromines spokesperson said: “Our overarching priority remains constructive engagement with policymakers to ensure strong environmental safeguards alongside legal clarity and predictability for permitting authorities.”

The European Commission defended its choice of mines, saying the strategic projects were assessed by independent experts and must comply with EU environmental law. A spokesperson said the WFD review would consider ways to improve access to critical raw materials while protecting the environment and human health, with environmental and water impact assessments carried out by national authorities.

But Sara Johansson, a water policy manager at the European Environmental Bureau, called the plans reckless. She said the mining industry had “not presented a shred of evidence” that the WFD was creating bottlenecks for mining projects.

“Dismantling those protections undermines Europe’s water resilience and leaves taxpayers, farmers and communities to pay – both with their health and their wallets,” Johansson said.

Prof Kaveh Madani, the director of the United Nations University Institute for Water , Environment and Health, also warned against removing protections. “The safeguards now being portrayed as obstacles are already fragile and full of gaps. Removing them may be celebrated as efficiency today, but history may judge it as recklessness tomorrow,” he said.

He added: “Fast-tracking mining in water-stressed regions by weakening safeguards is a form of Russian roulette. It may look like an economic booster in the short term, but one serious failure in the wrong location can neutralise many of the promised gains – especially when the damage to people, rivers, aquifers and ecosystems is long-lasting or irreversible.”

Several companies contacted disputed suggestions their projects would place undue pressure on water resources. They pointed to environmental assessments, closed-loop water recycling systems, monitoring programmes and regulatory oversight designed to minimise risks.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, Strait of Hormuz, Middle East and north Africa, World news
Title – Secret correspondence claims suggest tensions at top of Iranian government | Iran | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/patrickwintour
Link – Secret correspondence claims suggest tensions at top of Iranian government | Iran | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T15:56:15.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/21/secret-correspondence-iranian-government-tensions-supreme-leader

A former member of Iran’s negotiating team in the previous round of talks with the US in Islamabad is facing the threat of prosecution and dismissal from parliament after he went on the main state broadcaster to reveal what he claimed were confidential letters from the country’s supreme leader.

The interview with Mahmoud Nabavian, the deputy chair of Iran’s national security council, was eventually cut off, but only after he said he had seen secret correspondence written by Mojtaba Khamenei in which the ayatollah allegedly said Iran’s negotiating team had overstepped its mandate.

An hour after the censored broadcast, the archive of the interview was removed and a senior official at the broadcaster resigned.

Nabavian’s claims were dismissed by a spokesperson for the negotiating team as old and distorted. The state broadcaster said Nabavian’s statements were “evidence of a legal violation and worthy of legal prosecution”.

Members of the camp of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator at the current talks in Switzerland , called for the leaker to be identified. Centrists and reformists have long argued that the state broadcaster Irib acts as an agent for hardliners in the Paydari or Stability Front, of which Nabavian is a supporter.

The episode, apart from revealing tensions at the top of government in near real time, also appears to show that the newly appointed supreme leader has been taking a much more hands-on approach to the talks than was previously known, and has also been ordering the negotiators not to relent on the nuclear file or the immediate payment of tolls to Iran by ships in the strait of Hormuz.

Khamenei has not been seen in public or issued an audio tape, operating instead through written statements. Some reports suggest the negotiating team once had to wait a fortnight before securing his guidance on how the talks should proceed, and that he would send detailed questions to the negotiators.

In a letter to Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, that Khamenei published on Thursday, he said he took a different view on the outcome of the talks to the president but had deferred to his judgment on certain conditions.

Nabavian claimed the supreme leader had in fact set 11 conditions for continuing the negotiations, including receiving compensation from the US, maintaining the right to uranium enrichment, lifting sanctions, releasing Iran’s frozen assets and exercising full sovereignty over the strait of Hormuz, including the immediate charging of fees.

According to Nabavian, Khamenei emphasised “Iran’s monopoly on the management of the strait of Hormuz, collecting tolls from passing vessels, restrictions on enemy ships, and allocating the revenues from the tolls to the people, families of martyrs, and veterans.”

The reopening of the waterway should only happen when the US agreed to pay compensation, he ordered. The US has agreed to set up a $350bn (£264bn) development fund but has said it will not contribute.

Nabavian also claimed Khamenei wrote in a message to the negotiating team: “What was agreed upon in the Pakistan talks is completely different from what was supposed to happen and was a condition for the legitimacy of the talks, and the talks must be stopped.” He was referring to the talks in Islamabad in which the negotiating team did discuss aspects of Iran’s nuclear programme.

Later on a Telegram channel, Nabavian continued the argument, saying he has not released secret documents and was only revealing the truth.

He said that, based on the memorandum of understanding, “four issues had to be implemented before negotiations could begin: 1. End of the occupation in Lebanon and complete withdrawal 2. The release of our frozen money by America. Not borrowing from Qatar. 3. Lifting the siege 4. Temporary lifting of sanctions.”

He questioned whether these four preconditions had been met before foreign ministry officials went to Geneva for negotiations, and further asked: “Does that mean that people should not be aware of what the imam’s orders were and why the agents disobeyed them?”

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – NHS, Andy Burnham, Health policy, Labour, Politics, Health, Public services policy, Society, UK news, Social care
Title – I disagree with Andy Burnham’s politics. But as former health secretaries, we both know the NHS needs to be fixed | Jeremy Hunt | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jeremy-hunt
Link – I disagree with Andy Burnham’s politics. But as former health secretaries, we both know the NHS needs to be fixed | Jeremy Hunt | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T05:00:50.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/22/andy-burnham-nhs-jeremy-hunt-politics

I f Andy Burnham moves from Manchester to No 10, he will be the first prime minister to have been health secretary in the history of the NHS. What might that mean for the troubled service? His commitment to social care is well known. But when the Treasury tells him there is no money, he is going to have to think hard about how to make his mark.

The UK now spends the fifth most of any OECD economy when it comes to government health spending as a proportion of GDP. That’s why health service insiders no longer say the issue is money but productivity. They have been puzzling over why, since 2020, the total number of staff across NHS England has grown by 20% but activity has only gone up by 10% . That’s part of the reason why waiting lists have remained stubbornly high and a significant part of the progress made in reducing them has come from “list cleaning” – removing people from lists who no longer need treatment – rather than actual increases in activity.

Getting to the bottom of this matters because there isn’t likely to be a lot of extra cash soon. One reason for inefficiency is poor IT, which is why, as chancellor, in my 2024 budget I gave the NHS £3.4bn for a new productivity plan that included the joining up of medical records and embrace of AI. But that won’t be enough because it won’t tackle the root cause of NHS inefficiency.

And the reason is something that the former mayor of Greater Manchester will be very familiar with. As mayor, if Burnham needed money for a big infrastructure project, he had to bang on the door of No 11 and get in a Whitehall queue.

But what he experienced in Manchester is also a daily reality across NHS England, which is the most centralised and bureaucratic healthcare system in the world: 1.5 million people are micro-managed from London with 18 monthly operational targets for hospitals and 44 “QOF” (qualities and outcomes framework) targets annually for GPs upon which their income depends. Every new health secretary is told by No 10 to “grip” the service. Every time, the response is a new target.

The result is learned helplessness by local managers. They are micro-managed to deliver “improvement trajectories”, leaving them little time for the innovations that boost productivity.

For that reason, I hope that as prime minister Burnham would consider a much bigger structural reform. First, he should scrap all national targets. It’s something I wanted to do as health secretary as soon as we got back to hitting targets that were being missed – something that sadly never happened. Second, Burnham should look at devolving responsibility for the NHS in different areas to the locally elected mayors who are now being rolled out across England. That would follow the regional model used in Sweden and Denmark, both of which have universal systems but with much better outcomes than the NHS.

But we don’t have to look abroad to see how this would work. We don’t have national targets for the number of A-level passes in maths or physics but instead give state school heads a high degree of autonomy. Accountability comes through Ofsted inspections and the publishing of exam results. And the result? England now has the highest reading standards in the western world.

A hospital in Barrow-in-Furness faces different challenges from one in central London. A rural integrated care system serving dispersed communities faces different pressures from one serving a large metropolitan population. There should be national standards, including maximum waiting times, but maximum autonomy in delivering them.

Manchester was supposed to have this with “ Devo Manc ” in 2016. But national targets remained. Hospital bosses were accountable not to the mayor but to NHS England. The impact was far less than originally hoped.

Now is the chance to finish the job. And if, at the same time, social care were handed to mayors in the areas where it is not already within their remit, it would help improve that too. Governments have been trying to break down the barriers between the two services for years. Now it might finally happen. It wouldn’t, of course, solve the funding problems in social care but it would help in other ways, not least by making it much easier for hospitals to end “bedblocking” by discharging patients promptly.

There are many issues on which I profoundly disagree with Andy Burnham’s soft-left worldview. But on this we might just agree. Both of us have sat on top of the pyramid as health secretaries and seen how difficult it is to make an enormous system responsive to patients. Both of us have wanted to be the health secretary who finally “fixed” the NHS from the top – and found we could not. But as prime minister, this is something Burnham really could do. It would turn the NHS from the world’s most bureaucratic health service into its most innovative one. And what other options are there in a world where there is no extra money?

Jeremy Hunt served as secretary of state for health, later secretary of state for health and social care, from 2012 to 2018

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 – Colombia, Americas, World news, The far right
Title – Far-right millionaire wins Colombia’s razor-tight presidential election | Colombia | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tiago-rogero
Link – Far-right millionaire wins Colombia’s razor-tight presidential election | Colombia | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T00:27:07.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/21/far-right-millionaire-abelardo-de-la-espriella-wins-colombia-presidential-runoff

The Trump-admiring far-right millionaire lawyer and self-styled “outsider” Abelardo de la Espriella has won Colombia’s presidential runoff, defeating the leftwing senator Iván Cepeda.

With 99.99% of ballots counted in the preliminary vote tally, De la Espriella had secured 12.96m votes, or 49.66%, just 250,830 more than Cepeda, who received 12.7m votes, or 48.7%. A further 1.6% of ballots were cast blank.

The margin was narrower than in the first round three weeks ago, when De la Espriella had beaten Cepeda by 673,000 votes.

De la Espriella’s victory marks a sharp swing back to the right after four years under Colombia’s first and only leftwing president, Gustavo Petro, who was barred by the constitution from seeking re-election and therefore backed Cepeda as his successor.

The result is also being seen as further evidence of a wave of far-right candidates sweeping presidential elections across Latin America , after recent victories by Nasry Asfura in Honduras and José Antonio Kast in Chile, while Keiko Fujimori currently leads the vote count in Peru.

Like them, De la Espriella also received the endorsement of the US president, Donald Trump – although only after winning the first round. Trump shared news of the Colombian’s victory in a brief social media post, writing: “He Won, BIG!”.

In his victory speech in Barranquilla, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, where both his law firm and campaign headquarters are based, De la Espriella promised to respect the constitution.

Although he said during the campaign that he would “disembowel” the left – a remark he later described as merely a figure of speech – he said that he will be the president of “all Colombians”.

“I want to speak especially to those who did not vote for me … Your rights, even if you did not vote for me, will be respected. Your opinions will be heard. You will never have to fear thinking differently,” he said from behind bulletproof glass, as he had throughout the campaign.

In a video posted by the US Republican congresswoman María Elvira Salazar after the result, De la Espriella said: “To solve Colombia’s problems, we need to build a very close alliance with the US, which is not only our main trading partner but also our most important strategic ally in the fight against organised crime.”

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, posted that he had spoken with De la Espriella to congratulate him: “The Trump administration looks forward to working closely with your incoming administration to advance regional security cooperation, end illegal immigration to the United States and strengthen our economic ties. Colombia’s best days are ahead,” he wrote.

When Petro leaves office in about six weeks, only Mexico, Brazil – which will hold elections in October – Uruguay and Guatemala will remain under leftwing governments in the region.

In a post on social media, Petro alleged irregularities in the preliminary vote count released by the National Civil Registry, the independent public body responsible for organising Colombia’s elections.

Petro also wrote that he would only recognise the outcome of the official scrutiny process, which is expected to take about two more days. “No president can be declared yet. It is the scrutiny process that determines who the president is,” he said.

In the first round, the president also alleged fraud in the preliminary count without presenting evidence, drawing widespread criticism from election experts. The difference between the preliminary count and the official tally was less than 0.1%.

Following Petro’s lead, Cepeda declined to recognise the preliminary results and, likewise without presenting evidence, said in his speech that a team of lawyers from his party was “proceeding to challenge 33,000 polling stations across the country”. He added: “Once the final scrutiny result is produced and the corresponding verifications have been carried out, we will recognise the official result that emerges from that scrutiny process.”

There were protests by Cepeda supporters: in Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, demonstrators burned US flags and clashed with police. In the capital, Bogotá, hundreds gathered outside Corferias, the country’s largest polling station.

In his victory speech, De la Espriella called on Petro and Cepeda to respect the result: “Refrain from unleashing social unrest”.

In a campaign dominated by the violence that has once again engulfed the country , De la Espriella prevailed on a promise to adopt an iron fist approach against criminal groups.

Although security indicators remain far below the extraordinarily high levels recorded in the decades before the landmark 2016 peace agreement between the government and most of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the past year has been the most violent since then.

The president-elect, who will take office on 7 August, has pledged to build 10 maximum-security “mega-prisons” and kill criminals “like rats and cockroaches”.

Calling himself “El Tigre” (The Tiger) and having never held public office, De la Espriella has vowed to make a complete break with Petro’s “total peace” plan of negotiating the dismantling of all criminal groups.

After four years of fits and starts – during which analysts say some armed factions took advantage of temporary ceasefires to continue expanding – the government managed to disarm the first criminal group only on Thursday , one with just 99 members, while experts estimate that more than 27,000 people belong to Colombia’s many criminal organisations.

The new president, by contrast, has promised a return to full-scale military confrontation that has done little to curb violence in the past, and said he will seek US support for airstrikes against coca plantations. Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine, and drug trafficking is the main driver of the country’s violence.

Born in the capital, Bogotá, but raised on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, De la Espriella rose to prominence as a criminal lawyer representing the leaders of a group at the heart of the decades-long armed conflict: the paramilitaries , private armies created by rightwing landowners to fight leftwing guerrilla groups.

Later branching out into liquor, real estate and menswear businesses, and fond of showcasing a lavish lifestyle on social media, he announced his presidential bid in July last year, a month after the rightwing senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay was shot during a campaign event – he died two months after the attack .

Though long associated with Colombia’s rightwing political establishment through his legal career, De la Espriella presented himself as an “anti-establishment” candidate, following the example of many other far-right leaders who have risen to power across the region in recent years.

His vice-president will be the economist José Manuel Restrepo, who served as finance minister under Petro’s conservative predecessor, Iván Duque. The president-elect said that Restrepo would be responsible for implementing the plan to shrink the state by 40%.

They will take office with a minority in congress and what many analysts see as a deeply divided country after the most polarised election in years, in which the two candidates failed to agree on holding a single debate and instead traded a barrage of insults.

Keyword – Culture
Trefwoorden – Australian television, Australian theatre, Culture, Stan, Television, Stage
Title – Heather Mitchell: ‘I got the biggest reaction for playing Donald Trump – but I really enjoyed playing Bill Clinton’ | Australian television | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/emma-joyce
Link – Heather Mitchell: ‘I got the biggest reaction for playing Donald Trump – but I really enjoyed playing Bill Clinton’ | Australian television | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-20T20:00:14.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/jun/21/heather-mitchell-interview-australian-actor-stage-screen

You’re in a new TV show called The Killings at Parrish Station, playing a detective who is plagued by an unsolved mystery. What do you think is life’s greatest mystery?

I don’t want to say anything too obvious, like death, but it is such a mystery. It’s hard not to sound like a cliche, [but] the greatest mystery is: how does it all end?

Speaking of death, and it’s a bit morbid, but what song would you like played at your funeral?

Oh, that’s not morbid. My dear friend James Valentine died recently, through voluntary assisted dying; knowing his family so well, joy is the word that kept coming up, so I do not find the idea of death morbid.

But the music I’d like? Oh, far out, I have thought about this, but I’ve never really come to a … I am drawn to songs that my sons love rather than what I love, and one son loves Teeks, the Māori singer. But my father used to play the steel guitar and sing American folk songs; I’ve got a recording of one of his. I’d like that played, I think.

You’ve just finished touring RBG: Of Many, One, in which you play not only Ruth Bader Ginsburg but three US presidents – along with 29 other characters. Which president did you enjoy being the most?

I certainly got the biggest audience reaction for Trump, but I must say I really enjoyed Clinton. Because of the way Suzie [Miller ]’s written it, there’s humour in his conversation and that southern drawl. It’s a lot of fun, and I suppose it’s the longest scene I’ve got with any of the presidents; Clinton and Ruth are sort of getting to know each other before she’s chosen to be on the court. Also, people react so much to what they believe his relationship with Hillary was all about.

Is it true you found yourself brushing your teeth like Ruth ?

In the first season, yes, but not any more. We’ve done more than 300 shows, and in the first season I found it very hard to stop speaking like Ruth, because I was still trying to get the language and the voices, so even in my non-theatrical hours I was practising her movements. I found myself driving like an old lady, for example, but I am now completely able to switch her off.

You met your husband, Martin McGrath, shortly after a seeing a tarot reader, who told you you’d meet a man . Have you returned to a tarot reader since?

Yes, in fact, because of that. Once our relationship began and we were definitely going to be together, I said, “let’s go and see someone, it was really fun”. We went to a woman in Melbourne, who had turquoise eyeshadow on. She was scary, and I’ll never forget it. She did Martin first and said all these amazing things about him – and I was kicking him under the table, going, See? Isn’t this great?

Then she turned to me and said, “Why don’t you go out for a walk, Martin, I’ll talk to Heather now.” She put her arm around me and said, “There’s not much to her, is there?” and then said to Martin, “Never mind, where did she go wrong?” I just panicked and looked at him, like Don’t leave me, don’t leave me .

He did go for a walk, and she said one terrible thing after another – telling me that I was going to ruin his life – and, anyway, that was my last time.

You made your professional acting debut aged 22 in Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Henry IV, Part 1. What’s the most overrated Shakespeare play?

Oh, I don’t know if any of them are overrated. I mean, I think the ones which are usually held in the greatest esteem, or seen the most and produced the most, are pretty magnificent plays – the Scottish play, Hamlet. Overrated? I mean, this will be controversial: I’m not as crazy about Twelfth Night.

If you could be any animal, what would it be?

I’ve always identified with a giraffe. That long neck, their head being so far and small compared to their body; it’s hard for them to get down on the ground, but they can. They seem to overcome their extraordinary physical challenge in order to reach the high leaves and yet still be able to get down. I just find something about giraffes so magical and wonderful.

Are you still making toast art for your co-stars and is there a superior bread for your canvas?

Yes I am. I did 65 toasts of every crew member on a show called Dalliance, that I’ve just co-produced and will be coming out later in the year through Paramount. I stayed up all night for a week [to complete them].

I won’t mention the label, but the whitest, most sugary, oldest fashioned bread is excellent for a portrait because you don’t want to get too many pockmarks – you don’t want raisins in it, for instance. But for a landscape, I love nothing more than a rough sourdough.

A Vegemite gallery in Victoria asked if I could do some Vegemite on toast for their gallery, and that was a lovely reaction. I’m hoping some bread company just offers me free bread!

What film do you always return to, and why?

I return to films that are sometimes connected to my childhood, or are the first films I’ve seen – things like It’s a Wonderful Life, which we watch at Christmas. Citizen Kane.

We watched Muriel’s Wedding again recently, which I had forgotten what an amazing film that is – how wonderful and joyous and fabulous.

Hugo Weaving is a friend of yours, but also your most notable on-screen lover, in the recent Love Me and in the 1984 series Bodyline. What’s Hugo’s most annoying habit as a co-star?

Oh darling, as if he has one! He’s so nice to everyone. He’s so lovely to the crew, so lovely to everybody. He’s annoyingly nice. He’s annoyingly lovely, which is why he’s so beautiful to work with too. He’s just annoyingly pleasant and present and lovely. He’s such a wonderful actor, but he’s such a wonderful person. It’s almost annoying how fabulous he is.

Heather Mitchell appears in The Killings at Parrish Station, which premieres on Stan on 24 June

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – Andy Burnham, Labour, Labour party leadership, Makerfield byelection, Greater Manchester, Politics, UK news
Title – As Starmer eyes the exit, here’s a vital lesson for Andy Burnham: first impressions are everything | Polly Toynbee | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/pollytoynbee
Link – As Starmer eyes the exit, here’s a vital lesson for Andy Burnham: first impressions are everything | Polly Toynbee | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T14:03:48.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/21/andy-burnham-labour-leadership-keir-starmer

P ause here before we rush headlong into the turbulent future. Stop and inhale last week’s rare political triumph, revel in the sunshine of cheery optimism. It was a precious but unfamiliar sensation when life on the progressive side of politics in Britain is so often a litany of hopes dashed and disappointments.

Andy Burnham’s comprehensive victory in the Makerfield byelection, surpassing expectations, was a precious moment. He demolished £5m-Nigel Farage’s party of loathsome Reformers, whose every election candidate seems more repugnant than the last. Hostile hard-right politics in Britain needs defeating time and time again, every time nativists and hate-stirrers – from Enoch Powell to the BNP – erupt in our politics.

No one but Andy Burnham could have stamped out Reform in a part of Greater Manchester where it had just won every council seat only last month. And how heartening it was that not just Liberal Democrat and Green voters but Makerfield Tories too lent him their votes because they understood that keeping out Reform mattered most: forget flag waving, that’s what patriotism looks like. I will relish Makerfield alongside other rare dates; I delivered leaflets before I could vote in the 1964 election which put and end to what Harold Wilson called “13 years of Tory misrule”. Remember where you were the night of Labour’s great 1997 win after 18 wilderness years? Obama night was best of all.

As Keir Starmer drafts his resignation speech – expected to be delivered on Monday – let’s also recall how he vanquished 14 years of Conservative rule, a triumph after the Jeremy Corbyn wipeout of 2019. But, in truth, Labour’s 2024 general election victory was a freak landslide, won on a paltry 33.7% of the vote. It never felt like a surge of public enthusiasm. The Starmer government struggled from its early days to inspire affection. Why? His speech in the Downing Street garden spoke about a “painful” budget to come as Rachel Reeves announced there was a £22bn black hole in the Treasury. It set a glum tone. Honesty doesn’t always pay.

The first 100 days saw much good done: rail nationalised, bills introduced to improve renters’ and workers’ rights, bus services freed up to local control, free school breakfast clubs rolled out, good public-sector pay deals, and restrictions on onshore windfarms ended. But so much of what his government accomplished was visible only to political obsessives who were aware of announcements on Great British Energy , the national wealth fund , liberalised planning laws for housing and the new border security command .

But what did catch the public eye, just a month into power, was that unexpected cut in pensioners’ winter fuel allowance: cue stock images in the minds of voters of cold old folk wrapped in blankets. If only they had abolished the two-child benefit cap the same day, an old-to-young swap would have resonated well. The other eye-catcher was making farmers pay inheritance tax on a level a bit closer to everyone else’s: cue picturesque tractor protests in Whitehall.

Starmer always lacked a sense of political theatre, but reports of free suits, glasses and gig tickets offered all too vivid imagery, deeply damaging a new, clean regime. It may have been a drop in the ocean compared with the big money political scandals common on the right, but it stuck. Time and again on doorsteps at Makerfield and in recent byelections when I heard people say they “hated” him, those were the only reasons they could think of. No good telling them someone like me getting a winter fuel allowance was absurd or that farmers’ land is pretty valuable: their firmly fixed image was Starmer punishing Old Mother Hubbard and Old MacDonald.

In other words, the vital lesson for Andy Burnham is this: good first impressions are everything. He could look for inspiration to the remarkable Blair/Brown first 100 days in 1997: a windfall levy of £5bn on underpriced privatised utilities, VAT cuts, stamp duty raised on expensive properties, the first ever minimum wage set in motion, child benefit raised – and yes, that winter fuel allowance created.

Every early gesture will brand his future. But his portfolio of promises includes plenty of beacons to illuminate the Burnham way, immediately and memorably. He should start with first steps on easing the cost of living with his reported plan to freeze rents for a year for the roughly 20% of the country who are private-sector tenants .

His other reported ideas should be up and running as soon as possible. That includes capping bus fares at £2 , cutting energy bills by shifting green levies on to general taxation, and cutting business rates for pubs and small shops. Equalising tax rates for income tax and capital gains , as Wes Streeting advocates, would more than cover these, along with blocking that private equity tax loophole – something Starmer promised but didn’t fully deliver. Repossess the failing water companies, Thames Water first, and declare his long-term intent to take back control of the National Grid.

Radicalism can also be cost-free. Burnham (perhaps rashly) promises a breath of fresh air in parliament by relaxing the government whip, freeing his MPs to speak their mind more often. One benefit would be suffering fewer excruciating ministers sent out miserably to read official “lines” to take. Next, it’s time to clean up politics: take dirty money out of Westminster with a strict cap on all political donations.

He is expected to send up flares signalling the start of his promised constitutional reform. Begin the complex devolution route to “Manchesterise” local mayors, with powers to tax and spend, and oversight of schools and health. Longtime backer of fairer elections, Burnham should appoint his promised national commission on proportional representation now: that secures tactical voting support from all progressive parties eager to see it happen.

It’s a lavish tasting menu, yet it’s only for starters. No one can complain he doesn’t have substantial policies. Add in a warmer EU embrace on this Brexit anniversary and chillier caution in coping with the White House. All of this would tell a good story about what Labour is, who it’s for, what it can do. That sense of purpose and direction is all that can keep him motoring ahead when confronted by a monstrous intray of wants and needs, with too little money. Hope is the word and he’s good at it.

But choosing his chancellor will be his most perilously emblematic first act. The hostile press – alongside Unite’s Sharon Graham, never one to miss the chance of throwing spanners in Labour’s works – are trying to poison Ed Miliband’s chances, though he is the more serious economist and the most experienced at dealing with rigid Treasury obstructionism. The exchequer could end up being Wes Streeting’s consolation for not standing, but that could create a narrative of Blair-Brown-esque friction. Keeping Rachel Reeves would steady the markets, says her team.

As for the process of how the next PM is selected – who needs a long, politically damaging leadership contest when the result was written in Makerfield? Meanwhile, let Starmer go with good grace. His political tragedy is that he leaves a strong legacy of much good done, as Labour always does, from universal nursery places to falling NHS waiting lists. As for the future, as the only popular leading politician, Burnham may buck the current terrible trend: each of our last four prime ministers has been the most unpopular ever in their time. Keep chanting the mantra – hope and change, hope and change, hope and change.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, Spain, Saudi Arabia, World Cup, Football, Sport
Title – Lamine Yamal and Oyarzabal fire Spain to emphatic win against Saudi Arabia | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/sidlowe
Link – Lamine Yamal and Oyarzabal fire Spain to emphatic win against Saudi Arabia | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T18:18:48.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/21/spain-saudi-arabia-world-cup-group-h-match-report

Luis de la Fuente said he wanted a new jumper for his birthday but this was even better. On the day the Spain coach turned 65, his players gifted him the perfect afternoon in Atlanta, the doubts from their opener blown away. Unable to find a way through in 97 minutes here against Cape Verde , this time they had celebrated putting three goals past Saudi Arabia before the first drinks break. Life is there to be enjoyed, Lamine Yamal had said, so they did. By the end it was four and it couldn’t have worked out any nicer.

This was exactly the way the coach would have wished it. Lamine Yamal scoring 10 minutes into his first start since suffering a hamstring injury in April. Mikel Oyarzabal adding two more in the first “quarter”, Marc Cucurella forcing the fourth on 49, victory secured so early that De la Fuente could withdraw those players who needed protecting and give minutes to those that needed them, Mikel Merino and Nico Williams invited to join the party too. Unai Simón was the last to arrive, not making a significant save until the 80th minute.

There were changes in personnel and structure from that first, disappointing day, but above all in personality: intense and aggressive, Spain were Spain again. “The ball ran,” De la Fuente said.

The new starters, Pedro Porro, Álex Baena and Dani Olmo, all made an impact; so too did the man for whom they had all been waiting. Lamine Yamal, the 18‑year‑old the Spain coach likened to Salvador Dalí and Michelangelo, was never going to get 90 minutes but nor did he need to: 45 were enough, job done and the winger withdrawn to fight another day.

This had begun at his feet. They had been playing only 41 seconds when Lamine Yamal’s Cruyff turn enabled him to escape Salem al‑Dawsari. That was the first of three key moments from the teenager inside four minutes, the expectation rising with every touch, intent in all of them. His presence changes everything, especially the mood. He got on the ball more than anyone in the first five minutes and had scored the opening goal inside 10.

There is something contagious about Lamine Yamal and he certainly wasn’t alone. With him drawing everyone in, Spain cut through Saudi Arabia even more on the other wing, which was where the opener came from. Baena’s neat pass with the outside of the boot set Oyarzabal free to deliver all the way across the six yard box. Lamine Yamal slid in at the far post to score. Skidding to his knees, released, he put his head on the turf and prayed. Only one player had ever scored a World Cup opener younger and that was Pelé.

The pass from Oyarzabal was impeccable and just the start. The striker, who had not had a touch in the first half an hour against Cape Verde, got an assist and two goals within 23 minutes here. The first of the two strikes came when Saudi Arabia made a mess of a corner and Aymeric Laporte leapt to provide clarity in the chaos, nodding down for him to finish for 2-0.

The next arrived just two minutes later and showcased Spain’s ambition with how high the full-backs were. Porro’s curling cross found Cucurella, who side‑footed back and, as if playing headers and volleys, Olmo headed on for Oyarzabal to score, all without letting the ball bounce: 3-0 and the favourites were healing.

Oyarzabal might have scored a third as well, a gorgeous shot with the outside of his foot coming back off the bar with Mohammed al-Owais out of his goal. No one talks about Oyarzabal, especially not Oyarzabal, but they should: that’s 14 goals and seven assists in his past 13 Spain games.

Still Spain came. De la Fuente admitted they had been “stung” by the reaction to the 0-0 draw with Cape Verde: provoked by the criticism, there was a point to prove and this was some way to prove it. With Pedri facing the game; Olmo finding spaces where appear to be none; and Rodri controlling, completing 113 passes, while Pau Cubarsí clocked up 98 of 99 attempts, the dominance was total. Spain’s possession, more than 70%, came with a purpose too.

“We want to say ‘here we are’,” Laporte insisted, and they were everywhere. Lamine Yamal even sprinted 60 yards to break up a rare Saudi attack, led by al-Dawsari just before half-time. Tired now, it was his last service here; it won’t be his last at the tournament which is even more important. Oyarzabal departed too at half-time, his work done, but Spain did not stop. From another badly defended corner Cucurella volleyed in the fourth, off Hassan Tambakti.

The changes came, Pedri and Baena following Lamine Yamal and Oyarzabal off. Merino and Williams came on to take another step towards rehabilitation as the game drifted towards the end. Although a brilliant ball from Williams almost saw Yéremi Pino score and Ferran Torres had a fifth taken away by the video assistant referee, De la Fuente had everything he could have wished for already. Happy birthday, boss.

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – Athletics, Sport, Dina Asher-Smith
Title – Amy Hunt beats Dina Asher-Smith to retain 100m crown at UK Championships | Athletics | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ben-bloom
Link – Amy Hunt beats Dina Asher-Smith to retain 100m crown at UK Championships | Athletics | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-20T19:57:32.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/20/amy-hunt-beats-dina-asher-smith-to-defend-100m-crown-at-uk-championships

For all that Britain possesses its fair share of truly world-class athletes, it is a rarity for two of them to line up in the same event. It is why the women’s sprints should be savoured.

Over the past couple of years, bragging rights between Amy Hunt and Dina Asher-Smith have repeatedly swung both ways. Last summer, Hunt claimed her first British 100m title in Asher-Smith’s absence, before ceding the 200m crown to her more experienced rival the following day when the pair clocked identical times. A few weeks on, Hunt won a memorable 200m silver ahead of Asher-Smith, who then hit back with the British 60m title earlier this year. To me, to you. And repeat.

On a cloudy Saturday evening in Birmingham Hunt reasserted her dominance in the latest edition of their contest, riding a helpful tailwind to overhaul the fast-starting Asher-Smith and successfully defend her British 100m crown in 11.01 seconds. A season’s best 11.13 for silver was Asher-Smith’s consolation.

“One of the things I said to myself today was that if I can’t win my own national trials then how am I expecting to win gold at Europeans?” said Hunt, 24, who broke the 11-second barrier for the first time this month and will bid for the European title back in Birmingham this summer.

Hunt said: “I really wanted to come here and put a statement out to all the other European girls and the British girls that I’m here, and I’m a force to be reckoned with.”

Asked about her rivalry with Asher-Smith, who still holds British records over all three sprint distances, Hunt said: “It’s so great. It shows that our national championships are one of the best in the world. Dina is one of the fastest athletes on the circuit, so I know when I come here I have to bring my A game. It’s been a really good one to get the victory.”

Where Hunt has steadily improved year upon year, Romell Glave said his first British 100m title had felt “a long time coming”.

Born and raised in Jamaica, he moved to south London aged 16 and made a name for himself the following year when a 10.21 run earned him the title of the world’s fastest 17-year-old. It has been a rollercoaster journey since, as he recovered from a career-threatening fractured back to win his first senior international medal with bronze at the 2024 European Championships.

Having exploited illegally strong tailwinds to run 9.88 and 9.90 already this season, he arrived in Birmingham as an unlikely favourite in a field of better-known names. He promptly responded with a personal best 9.98 for gold, dipping under 10 seconds legally for the first time.

In a blanket finish, British record holder Zharnel Hughes took silver in 10.01, with the former British champion Louie Hinchliffe claiming bronze in 10.03.

“I knew the talent was there, the potential was there, but I had to believe it, because through adversity this was my calling,” said Glave, 26. “Thanks to my support staff, my coach, they have been there for me through the ups and downs. They helped me to have that belief.

“This season has been a big change in my mental mindset, taking each day by day, and when it matters, I just shot. I’m running with freedom, because once you run with freedom, you’re more dangerous. Don’t be too respectful of the field. You give them respect, but you don’t give them too much. You have to be a bit nonchalant, which is what I did today. The mission now is to go to Europeans and strive for gold.”

The second day of UK Championships action features a host of finals, including the women’s 400m, with the Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson using the weekend as a speed workout over the one-lap distance. Hodgkinson advanced fifth fastest from the heats, with the British record holder Amber Anning leading the qualifiers.

The Olympic 400m silver medallist Matt Hudson-Smith also qualified fastest for his one-lap final, as did Jake Wightman and Georgia Hunter Bell in the 800m.