Keyword – Life and style
Trefwoorden – Relationships, Life and style, Time management
Title – You be the judge: should my girlfriend make better use of our shared calendar? | Relationships | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/georgina-lawton
Link – You be the judge: should my girlfriend make better use of our shared calendar? | Relationships | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-11T07:00:09.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/11/you-be-the-judge-should-my-girlfriend-use-our-shared-calendar

The prosecution: Jordan

I’m not trying to control her but having one shared calendar helps us plan our lives together

In the last year, I’ve made my girlfriend Charlene share her calendars with me. We’ve lived together for six years and it’s only recently that she’s given in. I thought it would be helpful to know what the other was doing – not because I’m controlling, but because it helps us plan our lives together – but she doesn’t like it.

Charlene says that “we need to have independent lives”, but I think that’s impossible when you live with someone. We can still be independent and give each other a heads-up if we are hosting or going away.

Charlene is always having people over to our house. She hosts knitting mornings once a week for her friends and she’s always having dinner parties and work events here too. I’ll come home and there’ll be three random girls she met on Instagram in my living room, discussing something heated.

Charlene is very social and I love that about her, but it would help to have some advance notice. If I’m tired and coming home late, the last thing I want to do is talk to strangers about knitting patterns or work politics. I meet my friends out and about, but Charlene loves being at home and having people round.

Charlene is quite stubborn. She has resisted making the calendar sharing easy, and has made three separate calendars. She has a colour-coded one for work, one for sports and one for socials, but they’re hard to read. I have one for everything, that I share with her.

Charlene says I should “communicate better, instead of fussing over the details of the calendar”, but we both have full-time jobs and busy lives. We don’t always remember to say everything in person. She’s also not the best texter.

She says the calendar is pointless, but today she told me she’s going to Scotland for a friend’s birthday on the same weekend I wanted her to come to my mum’s birthday, which I’d put in the calendar. She needs to stop being so half-arsed about the calendar thing, so that we’re both on the same page.

The defence: Charlene

The idea of sharing every activity and keeping tabs on each other makes me feel a bit sick

I think it’s good to have independent lives. Jordan knows that I have a busy social life. I run things past him in person, but the idea of sharing every activity that we’re doing every day makes me feel a bit sick. Overall, he’s relaxed and not controlling, but I hate the idea of being surveilled.

Jordan recently joked that we could do Find My iPhone to see where we are at any given point, but I would never do that. It’s creepy and I’d rather not be checking up on him.

I agreed to sharing calendars recently to appease Jordan, but he’s still not happy. He says my method is complicated because I have several different calendars. I’d rather just find out where he is by texting, or even have a written calendar in the kitchen.

Jordan always texts back if I want to know where he is in the evening, but he says I’m not the best texter when it’s the other way round. However, Jordan doesn’t tend to text asking me where I am.

I created the digital calendars to make his life easier but I prefer just communicating in the week about our plans. I use them more now, but sometimes I forget to add everything.

I reminded Jordan this week, in person, that we’re having a friend to stay in our spare room for four nights and he was fine with it. Putting it into the digital calendar wouldn’t have made any difference as we have to discuss it in person beforehand, anyway. For things like that, I’d always run it past him.

I disagree that I have random people off the internet in our house. I just have a lot of female friends. Jordan never hosts his male friends. I don’t think that men in their 30s socialise and have dinners at home like women do. Because they never meet at our home, I don’t know as many of his friends, which I find weird.

Jordan wants me to use the calendar more but I’ve already colour-coded mine and shared them with him. What more can I do?

The jury of Guardian readers

No wonder Jordan can’t keep up with Charlene’s three-calendar system. It would drive anyone nuts. However, I agree that sharing every activity would make Charlene feel “surveilled”, so they should keep it simple with her kitchen calendar suggestion, and just give each other notice of bigger things, like weekends away. Then the writing’s on the wall, so to speak. Carla, 45

I get that Jordan needs to know when Charlene has people coming over, or if she’s going away, but total diary sharing is a bit intrusive. The kitchen calendar is a good idea for the big stuff – as for the rest, just chat over breakfast. Jack, 37

As much as I sympathise with Jordan, I think he’ll just have to suck it up and accept that Charlene is pursuing the life she wants to lead, with friends and acquaintances constantly part of the picture. The real issue is that it seems Jordan wants a quieter life – a shared calendar won’t solve that. Neil, 56

I’m with Jordan: it is good to know what your partner is up when you live together, so you can plan accordingly. They could use a wall calendar, but that would be less efficient because paper calendars can’t send you reminders. Mayling, 28

I can think of nothing less romantic or spontaneous than a shared electronic diary. Surely a kitchen calendar is the way to go – you can get them with three columns for each day: Jordan, Charlene and Together. Sorted. Carlinhos, 49

Now you be the judge

In our online poll, tell us: is it time Charlene became a calendar girl?

The poll is now closed

Last week’s results

We asked if Alice should get rid of her old dishcloths and sponges . 56% of you said yes – Alice is guilty 44% of you said no – Alice is innocent

Keyword – Film
Trefwoorden – Film, LGBTQ+ rights, Zach Braff, Romance films, Culture, Drama films
Title – Girls Like Girls review – Sapphic teen romance is a precious and predictable yawn-a-thon | Film | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/emma-madden
Link – Girls Like Girls review – Sapphic teen romance is a precious and predictable yawn-a-thon | Film | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T11:00:02.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/18/girls-like-girls-movie-review

O n 26 June 2015, the US supreme court finally declared gay marriage legal nationwide. Two days later, singer-songwriter and former Disney Channel alum Hayley Kiyoko effectively came out to the world with her debut single, Girls Like Girls . “Girls like girls like boys do, nothing new,” she sang with triumphant bluntness. Its accompanying music video, featuring a Sapphic teen romance, spread fast and wild across Tumblr, a website defined by its intensely nostalgic aesthetics, where style and identity formation merged for many queer teens. Today, the music video has 163m views on YouTube.

Kiyoko, now engaged to former The Bachelor contestant Becca Tilley, has since been hailed the “lesbian Jesus” by fans. Queer expressions in pop music, from King Princess to Chappell Roan to Reneé Rapp , have become far more common in the decade since the music video was released, but Kiyoko still seems to inspire one of the most dedicated, and specifically Sapphic, audience in queer pop music today.

Unlike her more sardonic peers, Kiyoko carries forward the neoliberal optimism of the Obama years. Kiyoko’s 2023 novel adaptation of the Girls Like Girls music video, which became a New York Times No 1 bestseller, continued that same spirit, and it persists in her directorial debut of the same name.

Kiyoko’s vision for Girls Like Girls, the movie, is guided by the Obamacore mantra that representation matters . Her stated reason for making this film was that “ we need more queer stories ”, buying into the liberal belief that visibility for historically underrepresented groups like the LGBTQ+ community constitutes political progress in itself. But in Kiyoko’s film, representation is all that matters. The film assumes that depiction alone is meaningful enough to excuse other glaring deficiencies in its film-making.

Set in small-town Oregon in the summer of 2006, the film follows Coley (Maya Da Costa), a quiet and sullen teenager newly relocated to live with her estranged father – Zach Braff jumpscare – following the death of her mother, a textbook lesbian backstory. Biking through suburban back roads in flannel shirts and low-rise jeans, with a nascent butchy earthiness, she encounters Sonya (Myra Molloy), the ideal American girl: pretty, charismatic, but unhappily tethered to her boyfriend, Trenton.

The two strike up an instant connection that is ambiguously romantic, pushing at the limits of female friendship as they twist their legs together and whisper “Olive Juice” to one another, a phrase that resembles “I love you” on the mouth. Throughout the girls’ tryst, Coley becomes the watcher and Sonya the watched, gazing longingly at her crush’s legs and ass.

As in Kiyoko’s music videos, color overwhelms the film. It’s washed in a burnt orange, digitally re-creating analogue warmth with the nostalgia of an Instagram memory. Nothing in the film is left implicit, the film’s ache for a bygone time as heavy-handed as the romance at its center.

In the opening seconds, the film unsubtly tells us we are in 2006, as Coley cycles past a banner celebrating that year’s graduates. She picks up her iPod Classic (2006), wears her shoddy over-the-ear headphones (2006), plays Tegan and Sara (lesbian) and logs into AIM (where she curiously has only seven contacts).

Stylistically, Girls Like Girls strains desperately for a kind of cinéma vérité, with its overlapping dialogue and over-the-shoulder shots. But there is no vérité to be found; the script is far too rote to pull off any sense of realism. “I’m tired of running,” says Sonya, putting her head on Coley’s shoulder. “So don’t,” Coley replies, with the faux-profundity of bad YA fiction.

Molloy and Da Costa’s performances exceed the script. Their lingering pre-kiss glances invoke the same stomach-dropping fear and excitement that comes with a first smooch. When their lips finally lock, it feels like relief: ravenous and real. There is curiously little sex for an R-rated film; just a lot of PG-13 neck kissing. But these moments are clumsily stitched together by a rambling storyboard, Kiyoko crafting cute vignettes without a sufficient narrative backbone, like a horror director constructing a plot merely to connect scenes of gore.

Kiyoko’s adolescent fantasy is perhaps even too faithful. Like a teenager’s view of the world, it is thoroughly depoliticized. Towards the end of the film, Sonya says her relationship with Coley is “wrong”, but there’s no indication as to why it’s wrong or to whom. Nothing in Girls Like Girls exists beyond individual feeling, and there are no larger institutions to speak of, not even a school.

It all leaves the film stranded in an unsatisfying place: intensely personal yet emotionally unearned, politically gestural yet totally vacant of politics. Kiyoko has made a film obsessed with being seen. It never once learns how to look.

Girls Like Girls is out in US cinemas and on VOD in Australia on 19 June, with a UK release date to be announced

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, Australia, Football, World Cup, Australia sport, Sport
Title – Mo Touré’s parents on the struggles that paved way for a Socceroos career: ‘It was life or death’ | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jack-snape
Link – Mo Touré’s parents on the struggles that paved way for a Socceroos career: ‘It was life or death’ | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T02:10:29.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/18/mo-toure-parents-refugee-journey-to-australia-socceroos-world-cup

T he stories of these Socceroos can be traced back through grassy fields around Australia in the 1990s and 2000s, when 20 or so wide-eyed young footballers were just coming to terms with the ball. There were games, goalposts, quartered oranges. Old teammates, new boots. Season-to-season, year-on-year.

Their progression to the international arena is a secret recipe countries have spent millions of dollars trying to perfect, with flashy academies and talent identification programs. Consultants within elite football call this the talent pathway.

But go back further, to where one Socceroo’s story begins, and there is no path.

Amara and Mawa Touré – parents of striker Mo Touré – were children when war broke out in Liberia in 1989. “Everything went helter-skelter, and every Liberian started running for their life,” Amara says.

Amara, his little brother and adult sister walked for 18 days to make it to the border with Guinea. They survived on ripening wild fruit and vegetables, with a warning to avoid anyone they came across. “It was a scary time,” he says.

“But now when I reflect on it, it would have been even scarier if I knew the ramifications of what we were going through. Because it was life or death.”

Amara spent almost 14 years in Guinea. Initially he was supported by UNHCR and given essentials like food, a tent and a mosquito net. He moved from the refugee camp to marginally improved conditions in the broader community, but his life remained constrained.

“Football was everything for me,” he says. “When I walked on to the park, I felt that is where I got to demand my respect, and that’s where I felt good. So my sanctuary was only football.”

Amara and Mawa met at age 20. Their first son Al Hassan was born, followed by Mohamed – now better known as “Mo” – before they travelled to Australia on humanitarian visas. Both brothers have become Socceroos.

“Every parent wants one’s child to go into something that they like and they excel at,” Amara says. “So when I would see them playing football and they’re entertaining people, I can’t afford not to be happy.”

Mo is wearing No 9 at this World Cup . “Wearing the Socceroo jersey represents freedom,” he says. “It was the land that gave us opportunity, that lent us a helping hand, so every time I just play, I play with freedom and I always remember how things could have been if we weren’t in Australia.”

The four refugees within the Socceroos squad – Touré, Nestory Irankunda, Awer Mabil and Milos Degenek – have found themselves in the spotlight during the internationally celebrated refugee week, culminating in the United Nations’ world refugee day on Sunday.

They have contributed to the Socceroos’ video promoting cultural diversity and Touré’s family are working with local charity Australia for UNHCR to support displaced people. That involves the retelling of the family’s trauma.

The Socceroos striker says it’s something they do willingly. “It’s just something that happens and for us. It’s, I wouldn’t say normal, but it’s common. We see a lot of our family members or a lot of the African community have similar stories and everybody came and migrated to Australia in a different way. So we’re just happy to share our story and then people find out how we did it.”

Mo was seven months old when he first arrived in Australia, in 2004. The family settled in Adelaide’s inner-west suburb of Croydon. “My early life in Australia, I thought it was good because I didn’t know better,” he says. “I can now see that there were times in my childhood where my parents struggled, but I was too young to really understand.”

Sometimes others in the neighbourhood would be given possessions or treats while the Touré boys were left wanting. “I just thought it was them [his parents] punishing me or them not wanting to do it,” Mo says. “But now that I’m older, I understand the struggles, and the real reason why we didn’t have all these things was because simply it was hard. Life was hard at that time.”

Ferrying around three young footballers – Al Hassan now plays for Sydney FC and younger brother Musa is at Mo’s former club Randers in Denmark – was not easy, either. Some years at least one of the boys would play every day of the week.

“It would be raining, and my parents would be there, freezing, waiting for us to finish training,” Mo says. “When we were very young, they would take our boots off before we got in the car as they didn’t want mud in there. Oh man, the next day they [would have to] clean the car [anyway].”

Australia is now grateful for their sacrifice. Al Hassan debuted for the Socceroos last year, when he took the field alongside his brother in a friendly against Venezuela. Though only Mo won selection for this World Cup, the family were in Vancouver to see him play a key role against Turkey. “This is our country now,” Amara says. “Wearing that green and gold and going there and fighting for that country, to me, is the greatest thing I can ever see them do.”

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – Brexit, Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, Politics, European Union, Labour, UK news
Title – The Guardian view on Britain and the EU: Ed Davey is right – a changed world changes the argument | Editorial | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/editorial
Link – The Guardian view on Britain and the EU: Ed Davey is right – a changed world changes the argument | Editorial | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T17:50:41.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/17/the-guardian-view-on-britain-and-the-eu-ed-davey-is-right-a-changed-world-changes-the-argument

M embership of the European single market was at stake when the UK voted on Brexit , but it was not the decisive question in the campaign. The leave campaign dishonestly promised a cost-free severance of ties with Britain’s largest trading partner. As immigration came to dominate the debate, the requirement to allow free movement of people as a condition of seamless integration with European markets undermined the remainers’ most compelling argument.

Reluctance to advocate a liberal migration regime imposed a taboo on calls to reconsider the Brexit settlement, even as warnings about the cost of rupture were vindicated. Now, after a decade of forsaken growth, the mood is finally changing.

On Wednesday, Sir Ed Davey used a speech marking the referendum anniversary to call for Britain to rejoin the single market. The Liberal Democrat leader describes Brexit as an experiment that has failed. He observes that the world has changed since 2016. These things are self-evidently true and public opinion has shifted accordingly. Opinion polls regularly show a majority would vote to reverse the referendum outcome.

The idea that Britain needed liberation from Brussels to enjoy competitive advantages was misguided already at a time when the US was a reliable ally, upholding a rules-based global economic order. It looks catastrophically mistaken with Donald Trump in the White House, using tariffs as a weapon of economic coercion, and with Russia waging a brutal war on Europe’s eastern frontier, while supporting acts of sabotage to destabilise democratic politics in countries that support Ukraine.

Although the Lib Dem position is supported by strategic and economic logic, those factors do not easily rival the forces of domestic politics that mobilise anti-immigration sentiment to shut down discussion of Britain’s need to reconnect with the European project. That resistance can be challenged. It can be argued that Brexit failed to deliver the control that the leavers promised; that Eurosceptic diplomatic vandalism made the task of border management harder. It could also be noted that freedom of movement was a reciprocal benefit, not a one-way street – an opportunity denied to the generation that lives with the consequences of a ballot in which they were too young to participate.

That perspective deserved greater salience in the debate 10 years ago. Whether it would have swayed public opinion then, or can move the dial now, is unknown. Anxiety around appearing to support “open-door” immigration is not unfounded. It explains why Sir Keir Starmer ruled out single-market membership in his 2024 manifesto, why that red line still limits the ambition of Labour’s “reset” in EU relations and why it has taken the Lib Dems two years to get from their own caution on these matters at the last general election to their current, more assertive stance . It is easier to set out a theory of better UK-EU relations from opposition than it is to negotiate a better deal in government.

Lib Dem plans for Britain to rejoin the single market are not going to be enacted any time soon, but that doesn’t invalidate the call to reconsider. The challenges are formidable, especially when it comes to changing political narratives around migration. But a lesson from the past decade is that arguments for integration with Europe will only gain ground when politicians show the courage to make them in the first place.

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 – Environment
Trefwoorden – Biodiversity, Zoology, Heritage, Conservation, Environment, Science, Wildlife, Climate crisis, Kew Gardens, Libraries
Title – A bonanza for fans of the natural world: the digital library sharing 64m pages of scientific knowledge with everyone | Biodiversity | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/donna-ferguson
Link – A bonanza for fans of the natural world: the digital library sharing 64m pages of scientific knowledge with everyone | Biodiversity | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T07:00:03.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/18/natural-world-digital-biodiversity-heritage-library-scientific-knowledge-free-access-aoe

S ome go there to read about the wood that Victorian manufacturers used to make walking sticks. Others want to see an illustration of a Tasmanian tiger or marvel at the field diary of one of the first known botanists to explore the Antarctic.

Over the past 20 years, more than 64m pages have been made freely available through the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) – a digital treasure trove for fans of the natural world. More than 680 museums, universities, libraries and scientific institutions from China, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand to Europe, Africa, Mexico, Canada and the US, have contributed to the library.

This week, a report from Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), Kew revealed the crucial role digitisation is playing in “transforming our ability to understand and respond to the climate and biodiversity crises”, but it was the creation of the BHL 20 years ago that first demonstrated how bringing centuries of scientific knowledge online can unlock transformative discoveries and insights about the natural world.

David Iggulden, who chairs the BHL executive committee alongside his job as head of data and digital, library and archives at RBG Kew, describes the library as an invaluable and “absolutely essential” resource for scientists in the field. But it is also used by scientific researchers, environmental historians, educators, art historians, artists, citizen scientists and members of the public who – like Iggulden – simply enjoy browsing its contents on a rainy weekend.

“I just get caught up in it sometimes, looking at the various collections,” he says. “I think it’s amazing that we can explore such a vast array of different collections from very different institutions.”

As well as published biodiversity literature and journals, there are letters, illustrations, climate records, field diaries, ecosystem profiles, distribution records and manuscripts containing the original collecting stories of a particular species or detailing voyages of discovery.

Manuscript on parchment from the Circa instans . Dating from about 1190, it is the oldest book in the digital library. Photograph: LuEsther T Mertz Library/New York Botanical Garden/Biodiversity Heritage Library

The oldest book is one of the earliest western medical manuscripts, a medieval pharmacopeia known as the Circa instans , which dates back to approximately 1190. Considered a fundamental text in the development of modern botany, it helped to provide clarity across medieval Europe by standardising plant names and their uses, and was digitised by the New York Botanical Garden last year.

Another highlight for Iggulden is an 1892 illustrated exhibition catalogue by Henry Howell & Co, a Victorian firm based in London, which marketed itself as the world’s largest manufacturer of walking sticks.

The illustrated exhibition catalogue of Henry Howell & Co. Photograph: Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Biodiversity Heritage Library

Catalogues such as this are helpful for scientists studying plants used for economic purposes, as well as the importance and characteristics of wood, and how wood has been used over history, he says. “It’s a really fascinating find – and quite different to what you’d expect in the BHL.”

Watercolour sketches from Sir Joseph Hooker’s illustrated Antarctic journal. Photograph: Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Biodiversity Heritage Library

One of the most significant books in the collection is the botanist Sir Joseph Hooker’s illustrated Antarctic journal , which includes his watercolour sketches of two volcanoes, first sighted in 1841 on his expedition to the continent with Capt James Clark Ross. “It’s the personal account of Hooker’s adventure … to the Antarctic and the sights he saw there,” says Iggulden.

Being able to share such unique, handwritten manuscripts with the world fulfils one of the key aims of the BHL, says Nicole Kearney, who leads the Australian branch of the library, based at Museums Victoria. “I once uploaded a handwritten field diary about birds in Australia, and someone who was studying the flooding of the river in the region wrote to me and said: ‘you’ve just given me this incredible resource where I’m able to tell every time this river flooded between 1947 and 1957’ because it was written down in this diary in the mid-20th century – which I thought was all about birds.”

During the pandemic, historical journals uploaded to the BHL helped scientists to show that there had been a “massive change” in the distribution and abundance of rare Australian orchids during the “black summer” of the wildfires , in late 2019 and early 2020. “That meant that those orchid species could be reassessed and their threatened species status was changed as a result,” Kearney says.

Handwritten pages from the 1947-1957 Australian ornithological field diaries of A Graham Brown. Photographs: Museums Victoria/Biodiversity Heritage Library

When she talks about the role that BHL plays for scientists, she often quotes Charles Darwin: “The cultivation of natural science cannot be efficiently carried on without reference to an extensive library.”

She says: “I’m sure Darwin would agree that, in today’s world, it is essential that we can access the world’s biodiversity knowledge online. And that this knowledge is freely accessible for everyone.”

One of her favourite books in the collection is The Mammals of Australia by the British naturalist John Gould , published in 1863. It features an arresting illustration of a Tasmanian tiger, a native Australian marsupial which was hunted to extinction after it was – perhaps erroneously – blamed for killing sheep. “The last one died in a zoo in Tasmania in 1936,” says Kearney. “It was such a stunning creature. It had a pouch but looked very much like a dog or wolf with stripes. There is nothing else like it in Australia, it’s like nothing in existence today.”

The entry for the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, in The Mammals of Australia (1863), by British naturalist John Gould. Photographs: Smithsonian Libraries and Archives/Biodiversity Heritage Library

The BHL Flickr album is followed by tens of thousands of people and highlights some of the more unusual copyright-free illustrations in its collection (some of which have been turned into an award-winning jigsaw puzzle app, The Art of Fauna ).

One popular album is Louis Renard’s 18th-century book, Poissons, Ecrivisses et Crabes , which was uploaded to the BHL in 2016. It features an illustration of a mermaid and other imaginary creatures mixed in among the scientifically accurate representations of real fishes, crayfishes and crabs.

The mermaid and another imaginary creature illustrated in Poissons, Ecrevisses et Crabes by Louis Renard, 1754. Photograph: Ernst Mayr Library/Museum of Comparative Zoology/ Harvard University/Biodiversity Heritage Library

“It was originally published in 1719 and is considered to be the very earliest known publication in colour on fish, yet about 10% of the species are actually completely fantastical,” says Kearney. “It’s a really important part of scientific literature from the age of enlightenment, [when] people were going out and reaching parts of the world that had never been seen before. Artists would interpret what people had told them and they would copy drawings from other artists who may not have ever seen the species,” says Kearney. “They believed they were all real.”

T he BHL was born 20 years ago after librarians came up with a radical idea to improve global research into climate change and biodiversity loss at a transformative moment in internet history. It was the dawn of web 2.0, when using the internet for networking and socialising was starting to become fashionable, and a sense of optimism and opportunity was in the air. What if 10 prominent museums and institutions in the UK and the US digitised their historic biodiversity literature collections to create one online library that every scientist around the world could access for free?

At the time, the idea of working internationally on a mass digitisation project was “really revolutionary”, says Iggulden.

An excerpt and illustration from Sir Joseph Hooker’s illustrated Antarctic journal 1839-43. Photograph: Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Biodiversity Heritage Library

Today, however, the future of the world’s largest open-access digital library for biodiversity literature is under threat. Earlier this year the Smithsonian Institution, which has faced severe funding cuts under the Trump administration , stopped hosting the BHL’s administration functions, paying some staff wages and supporting its technical infrastructure. “A ‘tick over budget’, just to keep it running as it is, would be ideally about a million dollars a year – and we only have funding, we estimate, until the end of 2027,” says Iggulden.

“It would be just horrendous – devastating, really – to lose it after coming so far and unlocking so much.”

Even additions to the library’s Flickr page were paused because “we don’t have the resources to keep adding to it”, says Kearney. “There is so much more functionality we could bring in [to the BHL] if we had the money to incorporate AI, improved optical character recognition software and a mobile-friendly and multilingual platform,” she says.

Illustrations from Poissons, Ecrevisses et Crabes by Louis Renard, 1754. Photograph: Ernst Mayr Library/Museum of Comparative Zoology/ Harvard University/Biodiversity Heritage Library

Iggulden says the potential for BHL to use AI to unlock data is huge. “AI is a real positive for BHL,” he says. “The library contains vast quantities of taxonomic, geographical, ecological and specimen-level knowledge that remains inaccessible to modern computational workflows. So, unlocking this at scale would create new opportunities for biodiversity synthesis, collections linkage, historical ecological analysis and AI-assisted scientific discovery.”

Kearney says the journey of enlightenment told by the books in the BHL can remind us of how much we still don’t know about the natural world, and help us to rediscover a sense of wonder and awe about the species which have – and have not – gone extinct.

“The BHL is fundamental to our understanding of all the species that we share this world with, and our ability to save them,” says Kearney. “We now have 64m pages of knowledge at our fingertips, which we need to make more discoverable and accessible. There’s so much more we could be doing.”

John Gould’s illustration of the thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf, in his 1863 book, The Mammals of Australia. Photograph: Smithsonian Libraries and Archives/Biodiversity Heritage Library

Readers can help secure the future of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, and keep its collections free and open to the world, via the Donate button at biodiversitylibrary.org .

Keyword – Music
Trefwoorden – Classical music, Culture, Music
Title – Dazzling, delightful – and unfairly dismissed: Stephen Hough on the art of the transcription | Classical music | The Guardian
Author – Stephen Hough
Link – Dazzling, delightful – and unfairly dismissed: Stephen Hough on the art of the transcription | Classical music | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T11:27:18.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jun/18/stephen-hough-the-art-of-the-piano-transcription

T hey have long been the norm in the world of jazz clubs and hotel lounges, but transcriptions in the classical world were for many years a bit of a naughty word – or at least a guilty pleasure. To arrange someone else’s music in a way they hadn’t originally intended, often with extravagant decoration, is still regarded in some quarters as displaying a lack of seriousness, a lapse of taste – or even as sacrilege.

Listen to Mozart’s Don Giovanni in the hands of Liszt . The venerated 18th-century opera underwent a metamorphosis, becoming a blisteringly virtuoso potpourri, its melodies serving as mere launch pads for the most exaggerated form of showing off. Our jaws may drop with astonished delight but is it serious or tasteful?

A condemnatory attitude used to be everywhere in the last century, especially in the German-speaking world, the shift in taste evidenced by how many recordings there were of transcriptions up to the second world war – and how few for the next three or so decades.

Much mid-20th century negativity was a reaction against a perceived cult of excessive virtuosity, from a time when audiences would flock to hear famous pianists more because of their playing than the music being performed. The transcription genre was the most extreme example of this because the music itself was subsumed into the transcriber’s or pianist’s own identity – often the same person. A piece such as the Bach-Busoni Chaconne took on a life of its own, and was made into the grandest gothic monument, far distant from the original slender, vulnerable version for solo violin. And Myra Hess is remembered more for her arrangement of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring than she is for playing any of Bach’s unadulterated music.

But if we go back earlier in history, composers were far less squeamish about reworking others’ music.

Transcription began as soon as written-down instrumental music began. Strictly speaking, any work played on an instrument different from the original is a transcription. But this “appropriation” turned into variation with the Elizabethan virginalists (Byrd, Bull, Gibbons et al) taking famous tunes of the day as the basis for much of their keyboard music. A century on, Bach wrote a fugue on a theme of Corelli and transcribed violin concertos by Vivaldi for the keyboard, and most composers from then to the present day have written variation sets based on other composers’ material – Beethoven’s 33 transformations of a little waltz by Diabelli being the non plus ultra of the form.

In the 19th century, piano transcriptions developed down two different paths. Firstly, as the classical orchestral and operatic repertoire increased and there was a desire to be able to enjoy this music at home, arrangements were made for the amateur market. These were never meant to be played in public; they were purely for home consumption, often published as duets. Everything from symphonies to overtures were newly rendered for four hands, sometimes by the composers themselves. Brahms comes immediately to mind – he arranged all four of his symphonies for piano duet.

On the other hand, as the piano evolved as an instrument and the pianists playing it acquired superhuman skills, transcriptions as high-octane embellishment expanded to fiendish proportions, with opera paraphrases in particular showcasing the virtuosi of the day, most notably Liszt and Sigismond Thalberg . We can imagine Liszt arriving at a rich patron’s home from the opera house after a performance of, say, Bellini’s Norma and sitting down at the piano to remind everyone of the hummable tunes, now shamelessly embellished in his hands, sometimes combining a couple of melodies at the same time in layers of acrobatic audacity.

In many ways such transcriptions are related to jazz: a familiar song is played in a distinctive, personal way, close enough to the original to evoke an Aha! moment of recognition but different enough to be amusing or admirable. Autumn Leaves played by Bill Evans or Gonzalo Rubalcaba … these are transcriptions in all but name, originality judged more by inventive treatment than raw material.

I’ve always had a fascination for this form, mainly because my introduction to the piano in early LPs came from the pianists whose repertoire was filled with such delights: Rachmaninov’s arrangement of Kreisler’s Liebesleid, Lhévinne’s dazzling recording of Schulz-Evler’s Blue Danube, Paderewski ’s fleet, fastidious rendition of the Spinning Chorus from Wagner’s Flying Dutchman – another of Liszt’s arrangements, Percy Grainger’s Shepherd’s Hay (“dished up” for piano, as he put it) … the list goes on. The genre ran out of steam around the same time as the railways did, but some courageous pianists kept the tradition going at the cost of not being taken seriously in more standard repertoire – Shura Cherkassky, Jorge Bolet and Earl Wild spring to mind, the latter actually composing some of the most fabulous examples. But now in the 21st century the tide has turned back somewhat and most pianists today have one or two of these bonbons up their sleeves.

There are basically three different kinds of piano transcriptions designed for the concert platform. Firstly a faithful rendering of the original, staying as close as possible to the original. Liszt’s Beethoven Symphonies are a brilliant example of this. He is trying to make his piano version sound like the orchestra, a tall order realised with genius. In my transcription of the Franck Chorale No 3 I tried to do this too, as well as aiming to create the acoustic aura of an organ in a cathedral with pedalling and voicing effects.

Then there are transcriptions that are faithful to the shape and spirit of the original but highly decorated for virtuoso purposes. Schutz-Evler’s is a glittering example – the keyboard becomes a display of kaleidoscopic colours. Rachmaninov’s version of Kreisler’s Liebesleid allows us to see the personality and harmonic footprint of the Russian while maintaining love and respect for the source violin piece. This category lends itself especially to the encore, those after-dinner mints offered after the works on the printed programme are finished.

Finally there are transcriptions that use the original merely as a starting point for freewheeling elaboration. Liszt did this in his opera paraphrases, as did Vladimir Horowitz more recently in his Carmen Variations ; then there’s Arcardi Volodos in his outrageous Turkish March arrangement, or György Cziffra in almost everything he touched.

My new album celebrates transcriptions. Each of the works on it could fit on to one side of an old 78 – four minutes maximum. The music ranges from classic 20th-century transcriptions by Rachmaninov and Wilhelm Kempff to 10 of my own including a rollercoaster version of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, a transformation of the Taiwanese song Pining for the Spring Breeze in the style of Rachmaninov, the Japanese children’s song Aka Tombo made into a gentle, nostalgic lullaby, and an intense, chromatic take on Nature Boy made famous by Nat King Cole. When I lost confidence composing my own music in my 20s I made a number of arrangements of songs by Richard Rodgers, Roger Quilter and others. It’s how I kept my creative flame alive, and it’s what I suggest to young pianists I meet today. We should all write music as the pianists of the past did; if an original work seems beyond our skill or inspiration then take a song for a ride.

Stephen Hough’s Piano Postcards is released on Hyperion on 3 July . He performs at Birmingham’s Bradshaw Hall on 18 June and with the Hallé in Nottingham, Manchester and Sheffield 23-25 September .

Keyword – Film
Trefwoorden – Film, Culture
Title – Tell us your favourite film of 2026 so far | Film | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/guardian-community-team
Link – Tell us your favourite film of 2026 so far | Film | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T07:32:27.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/18/tell-us-your-favourite-film-of-2026-so-far

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

Which films have captured your imagination this year? Are there any new releases from so far in 2025 that you would recommend watching?

Tell us your nomination and why you like it below.

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

Keyword – Global
Trefwoorden – Newsletter sign-up
Title – Sign up for The Long Wave newsletter: our weekly Black life and culture email | Newsletter sign-up | The Guardian
Author – Guardian Staff
Link – Sign up for The Long Wave newsletter: our weekly Black life and culture email | Newsletter sign-up | The Guardian
Publish date – 2024-10-16T12:47:09.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/global/2024/oct/16/sign-up-for-the-long-wave-newsletter-our-weekly-black-life-and-culture-email

Keyword – Business
Trefwoorden – Business, Economics, Stock markets, FTSE, Bank of England
Title – Bank of England leaves interest rates on hold and lowers inflation forecast amid Middle East ‘uncertainty’ – business live | Business | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/graemewearden,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/kalyeena-makortoff,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/sarahbutler
Link – Bank of England leaves interest rates on hold and lowers inflation forecast amid Middle East ‘uncertainty’ – business live | Business | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T14:06:27.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2026/jun/18/bank-of-england-interest-rates-uk-unemployment-wages-oil-price-stock-markets-latest-news-updates

Bank of England leaves interest rates on hold

Newsflash: The Bank of England has voted to leave UK interest rates on hold.

In a decision widely expected by economists, the BoE is maintaining Bank rate at 3.75%.

The decision is not unanimous, though – two policymakers wanted to hike interest rates to 4%, but were outvoted by the other seven who voted to hold rates.

Announcing the decision, the Bank says:

Global energy prices have fallen since the previous meeting in response to events in the Middle East. But they remain higher than pre-conflict and have continued to be volatile.

The impact of the energy shock on the UK economy remains uncertain. Monetary policy cannot influence energy prices but is being set to ensure that the economic adjustment to them occurs in a way that achieves the 2% inflation target sustainably.

The policy stance required to achieve this will depend on the scale and duration of the shock, and how it propagates through the economy.

The Bank of England had cut rates six times since mid-2024 and was expected to continue doing so, before Trump’s Operation Epic Fury led to Iran choking off oil supplies from the Gulf.

JP ⁠Morgan has now ⁠pushed ⁠back its forecast ​for the ⁠Bank of England to raise ⁠interest ​rates ‌to November ‌this year, ‌after today’s decision to maintain Bank rate at 3.75%, Reuters reports .

It had ⁠previously expected ​a quarter ​point ​rate ​hike in ‌July.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has told broadcasters that stability was important, when asked ⁠about the Makerfield by-election ⁠which ​could return Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to parliament.

With Burnham hoping a successful byelection will mean he can encourage Keir Starmer to step aside as prime minister, Bailey explained:

“Stability is important, I think ‌everybody recognises that.“

“This is not one part of the political spectrum versus another. I think everybody recognises the importance of stability.”

City cautious over Badenoch’s reform plans

City lobby groups are being incredibly cautious in responding to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s proposals to eradicate bank ringfencing and the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) ( see earlier post ).

There seem to be a few factors at play, including the fact that not all of their members are going to be on board (read: Barclays’ opposition to changing ringfencing rules ).

Scrapping the FOS could also prove politically sensitive and there is also no guarantee that its replacement would be swiftly introduced and efficiently implemented.

There’s also a matter of how much a FOS replacement and reversing ringfencing might cost firms in the end.

In a statement, TheCityUK’s CEO Miles Celic was careful not to take sides, saying:

The leader of the opposition’s speech is an important contribution to the debate on how financial services can best support growth across the UK.

There is a clear need to ensure our tax and regulatory framework is competitive, proportionate and predictable. This has to be built on the high standards that underpin trust in the UK markets.

Likewise, UK Finance said:

Financial services are vitally important to the UK economy, and we welcome engagement on how to get the best from the sector and enhance UK competitiveness.

Ensuring reforms are delivered, from enabling responsible risk‑taking to reform of bank capital requirements, will help the sector support investment and growth across the wider economy, as set out in our recent Plan for Growth: From Strategy to Delivery report.

Meanwhile in the US, there appears to have been a small drop in the number of people being laid off.

The number of new initial claims for unemployment support fell by 4,000 last week to 226,000, indicating American workers continued to hold onto staff.

Experts doubt Bank will raise interest rates this year

Reaction to today’s UK interest rate decision is pouring in.

ING’s James Smith predicts the next move in UK interest rates will be downwards, next year:

There’s nothing in today’s decision that changes our mind that the next move is likely to be a rate cut in 2027. It feels like it would take a lot for the five more neutral-to-dovish members of the nine-strong committee to vote for a hike, barring the Iran deal falling apart and energy prices moving materially higher

Ruth Gregory , deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics, says the Bank of England is talking “a good hawkish game” – with two votes to raise interest rates – but is unlikely to deliver.

The last thing the MPC wants to do is unwind some of the tightening in financial conditions priced into the markets. And while there are important differences with the energy shock in 2022, the Bank won’t want to make the same mistake as then, when it was widely criticised for keeping policy too loose for too long.

The key point is that the hawkishness of Pill and Greene does not seem to have been replicated amongst the four “centrists” (Lombardelli, Bailey, Breeden and Ramsden). This suggests there hasn’t been a material shift in the Bank’s “reaction function”. And it means the hawks probably won’t have the five votes required for a rate hike soon.

David Muir , senior economist at Moody’s Analytics , suggests the Bank could avoid raising interest rates this year, unless the US-Iran peace deal falters:

With demand subdued, labour market conditions weak, and the outlook for energy prices less concerning, a rate hold was no surprise at June’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting. The decline in energy prices following the U.S.-Iran agreement gives us greater confidence that the Bank of England will avoid a rate hike in the second half of the year and instead address the energy-driven rise in inflation through a prolonged pause. But an unravelling of the deal would raise the risk of a precautionary hike aimed at anchoring inflation expectations and containing second-round effects on prices and wages.

Pound hits 10-week low against the dollar

The pound has fallen to its lowest level against the US dollar in over two months, after the Bank of England left interest rates on hold today.

Sterling is down 0.8 of a cent, or -0.6%, to $1.3207 against the dollar, the lowest since 6 April.

That suggests the City sees today’s decision as somewhat dovish, with the bank also lowering its forecasts for inflation by the end of the year ( see earlier post ).

However, the money markets are still pricing in one interest rate hike by the end of the year.

Daniela Hathorn , senior market analyst at capital.com, says:

Despite the hawkish undertones of the BoE statement, sterling weakened sharply against the dollar, the euro, and the yen following the decision. The move suggests markets focused less on the 7-2 vote split and more on the Bank’s decision to lower its inflation outlook and acknowledge progress on disinflation.

However, the decline in GBP does not necessarily reflect a dovish repricing of UK rates.

Indeed, markets continue to price in the possibility of a rate hike by year-end, supported by the dissenting votes from Greene and Pill, the MPC’s emphasis on second-round inflation risks, and Bailey’s warning that higher energy prices could still feed through into broader price pressures.

The case for a rise in interest rates

Policymakers Huw Pill and Megan Greene have both insisted that it would have been better to raise UK interest rates today, rather than hold them.

BoE chief economist Pill warns that “upside risks” to hitting the Bank’s 2% inflation target have increased in recent months due to war in the Middle East.

He explains that he continues to favour “prompt but modest action” on interest rates now. saying:

Recognising the significant uncertainty that surrounds the UK inflation outlook, raising Bank Rate to 4% continues to be the most robust monetary policy response to the intensification of these risks.

Greene , who joined with Pill in voting for a rate rise today, argues that the Bank should be pursuing a “risk management strategy”, of raising rates now in case the ‘second-round effects’ from the energy shock (ie, a wage-price spiral) are stronger than the Bank predicts.

She argues that higher interest rates would cool households’ and firms’ inflation expectations, saying:

Hiking Bank Rate assuming greater second-round effects, then discovering they were smaller and course-correcting results in a very moderately lower output gap and inflation returns to target at the end of the forecast period.

These risks are asymmetric, so we should insure against the possibility of larger second-round effects until we have evidence to determine they are not materialising. A proactive hike now in Bank Rate should help anchor inflation expectations.

Andrew Bailey: I am content at the present time with holding rates

The Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, has explained that he is content to hold interest rates today – but would respond ‘promptly’ if there were signs that high energy cost were driving up prices in the shops, or wages.

Bailey uses the MPC members’ views section of today’s minutes to lay out his thinking, saying:

There has been a marked fall in energy prices in recent days, reflecting progress on talks involving US and Iran. But the situation remains unpredictable, and there is clearly a risk that energy prices remain elevated for an extended duration. Recent inflation outturns give greater confidence that gradual underlying disinflation has continued. Labour market data show some further softening, and there are further signs of demand weakness.

Our remit recognises that attempting to bring inflation back to the target too quickly may cause undesirable volatility in output.

Given the context at present of softness in the real economy and uncertainty around the scale and duration of the shock to energy prices, tolerating temporarily above-target inflation as part of a return to target is an appropriate way to approach the trade-off, providing inflation expectations remain contained. I am content at the present time with holding, while accepting that risks to inflation and interest rates are on the upside, as reflected in the upward slope in the sterling yield curve, which appears to be accounted for more by risk premia than expected rates. I would respond promptly to any signals that an extended period of elevated energy prices could be leading to stronger possible second-round effects.

Bank of England lowers inflation forecast

The Bank of England has trimmed its forecast for how fast UK inflation will rise this year.

The BoE now predicts that CPI inflation – which was 2.8% last month – is now expected to be a little under 3% in the third quarter of this year, and “pick up to a little over 3.25% in Q4”.

That’s a downgrade compared with April; two months ago, the Bank forecast inflation would hit 3.3% in Q3, and “rise somewhat further in Q4.”.

BoE: Middle East is “dominant source of uncertainty” for inflation

Announcing today’s interest rate decision, the Bank of England says that the conflict in the Middle East, and its impact on energy prices and the UK economy, remained the “dominant source of uncertainty for the inflation outlook”.

The minutes of this week’s meeting say:

As had been outlined in the April Monetary Policy Report and Minutes, monetary policy could not influence global energy prices. And it would take time for monetary policy to work through the economy, so any action the MPC might take would not prevent higher inflation in coming months. What the MPC would do is set monetary policy to make sure that the effects of the shock did not become embedded into broad-based inflationary pressures, so that inflation fell back to the 2% target and stayed there.

Pill and Greene wanted rate rise

Bank of England chief economists Huw Pill again voted to raise interest rates, as he also did at the last meeting (and was outvoted then too).

But this time he had company – external MPC member Megan Greene also voted to increase rates to 4%.

Bank of England leaves interest rates on hold

Newsflash: The Bank of England has voted to leave UK interest rates on hold.

In a decision widely expected by economists, the BoE is maintaining Bank rate at 3.75%.

The decision is not unanimous, though – two policymakers wanted to hike interest rates to 4%, but were outvoted by the other seven who voted to hold rates.

Announcing the decision, the Bank says:

Global energy prices have fallen since the previous meeting in response to events in the Middle East. But they remain higher than pre-conflict and have continued to be volatile.

The impact of the energy shock on the UK economy remains uncertain. Monetary policy cannot influence energy prices but is being set to ensure that the economic adjustment to them occurs in a way that achieves the 2% inflation target sustainably.

The policy stance required to achieve this will depend on the scale and duration of the shock, and how it propagates through the economy.

The Bank of England had cut rates six times since mid-2024 and was expected to continue doing so, before Trump’s Operation Epic Fury led to Iran choking off oil supplies from the Gulf.

The BoE’s MPC will almost certainly keep interest rates on hold today, and probably in July as well, reports Professor Costas Milas, of the University of Liverpool’s Management School.

He explains:

First, as Dr Papapanagiotou and I show in a brand new blog published today for LSE Business Review , a model which takes into account UK economic policy uncertainty (EPU) in addition to output growth and inflation developments (Chart 3 in the blog) is quite impressive at forecasting BoE’s policy rate. EPU is currently elevated, not least because of today’s by-election, and this will put off MPC members for hiking.

Second, and as we discuss in the LSE Business Review blog , the BoE has been looking at interest rate rises in three different scenarios, depending on oil prices hitting $108 or $130 per barrel. Following the 60-day “deal” between the US and Iran, oil currently trades at less than $75 currently. All in all, my expectation is that the MPC will hold both today and on July the 30th!

Britain’s stock market is in the red ahead of the Bank of England’s interest rate decision, due in 15 minutes time.

The FTSE 100 share index is down 107 points, or just over 1%, at 10,401 points. That follows losses on Wall Street last night, after the US Federal Reserve was more hawkish than expected.

Other European markets are faring better, with Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC both up over 0.1%.

The US dollar has climbed to its highest level in over a year, after America’s central bank indicated it could raise interest rates later this year.

Half the policymakers at the Federal Reserve predicted there would be at least one increase in US interest rates this year. The Fed also left rates on hold last night, as expected.

This has pushed the dollar index up to its highest level since May 2025.

Keyword – UK news
Trefwoorden – UK news, Private schools, Reform UK, The far right, Nigel Farage, Politics, Europe, US news, Schools, Education, Kemi Badenoch, World news
Title – Leading figures from Eton college to attend rightwing London summit | UK news | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/benquinn
Link – Leading figures from Eton college to attend rightwing London summit | UK news | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T13:45:37.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jun/18/leading-figures-eton-college-attend-rightwing-london-summit-alliance-for-responsible-citizenship

The Reform UK MPs Sarah Pochin and Andrew Rosindell will be there. As will a plethora of Reform advisers, backroom staff and figures such as Ben Delo, a British crypto billionaire who has given £4m to Nigel Farage’s party .

Yet as populist-right politicians from across the globe and their multimillionaire backers prepare for this year’s Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc) – a rightwing London summit labelled an “anti-woke” Davos – others whose expected attendance has not been publicised potentially raises more questions.

They include two leading figures from Eton college: Tom Arbuthnott, who is the elite school’s deputy head (partnerships), and Luke Martin, a theology master at the school.

Martin was previously at odds with the school’s modernisation and resigned from a role in 2020 in protest at the dismissal of another teacher, taking issue with the promotion of a “so-called progressive ideology” at the school, which he likened to religious fundamentalism. He remains a teacher at Eton, where he is master of divinity.

He will be among 4,000 people from more than 85 countries descending on London’s Olympia exhibition centre for three days of speeches and discussions hosted by Arc.

Speakers will include Sarah B Rogers, the US undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and an official who has become the public face of the Trump administration’s growing hostility to European liberal democracies .

She has attacked policies on hate speech and immigration by ostensible US allies, and promoted far-right parties.

A number of other US government attendees – including a state department official involved in interference in UK abortion rights and the online safety debate – have also been identified in a joint investigation by the Guardian, Greenpeace’s Unearthed team and DeSmog .

They include Samuel Samson, a US state department official who last year challenged Britain’s communications regulator over the impact on freedom of expression created by online safety laws. His meetings with Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) marked the end of decades of a US policy of holding the country’s far right at arm’s length, while he reportedly discussed abortion and censorship privately with Farage . Also attending is Jon Morgan, a senior official in the office of JD Vance, the US vice-president.

A strong US anti-abortion presence at the three-day summit also includes more than a dozen representatives of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the conservative legal advocacy group behind the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US, which is also ramping up its activities in Britain .

Fresh from attending a summit in Russia, another expected Trump official at Arc is Rodney Mims Cook Jr, the chair of the US Commission of Fine Arts and overseer of the president’s controversial White House ballroom extension.

Aside from politicians and activist groups, leading corporate entities are also present at this year’s Arc, which has grown since it was first established three years ago by figures including the rightwing Canadian psychotherapist Jordan Peterson and Philippa Stroud, a British Tory peer and former government adviser.

Christian evangelical political thinking is one of the strongest guiding themes of the conference alongside hostility to net zero and climate scepticism.

European far-right attendees include members of the AfD, Vlaams Belang from Belgium, Spain’s Vox, and the Netherlands’ Party for Freedom.

While many of the politicians are from the populist right, the Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch , is once again one of the keynote speakers. Last year she appeared at the conference, where she vied with Farage to be the torchbearer for conservatism.

At least 40 UK MPs are attending the event, while Reform attendees are expected to include the head of the party’s Christian fellowship and James Orr, a senior advisor to Farage and a member of Arc’s advisory board.

Wealthy donors and sponsors, meanwhile, will ensure Arc continues to be as lavish as previous years thanks to support on a scale that puts other conservative events in the shade, including the “Great British-PAC” venture in July organised by Liz Truss, who was briefly prime minister in 2022.

The conference’s main funders include Paul Marshall, a co-owner of GB News, and the Dubai-based investment fund Legatum. In the past, the conference has also received financial backing from a host of American fossil fuel interests and leading Trump donors.

In his speech at the event last year, Marshall claimed countries were “being infected by an ideological zeal” that had led them to develop net zero plans and that economic prosperity was being sacrificed “for the sake of making some fractional changes to the level of CO 2 in the atmosphere”.

Corporate attendees this year will include Johnson & Johnson, Palantir, BP, Philip Morris International, Rio Tinto, Airbus, Sanofi, the US investment fund RedBird Capital and DP World, owned by the Dubai government.

An Arc spokesperson said its role was to bring together leaders across business, culture, politics, and technology to discuss how to “recover civilisational foundations”.

“When we launched in 2023, it was tantamount to heresy to challenge net zero – now everyone from Bill Gates and Tony Blair to leaders across the right have made the point that abundant, reliable, cheap energy is the base layer of modern civilisation.

“At the same time, no one was talking about demographic decline as a major risk for the west, now it is firmly on the radar.”

However MSI Reproductive Choices, which provides contraception and abortions to women in Britain and internationally, said the presence of US officials and other American activists at Arc raised serious concerns about attempts to import US-style culture-war politics into the UK.

Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said: “The Arc gathering – and the fact that its attendees include politicians from both the outer fringes and the conventional parts of what it seems reasonable to call the rightwing international – is a symptom of the collapse of what used to be a heavily policed border between the far and the centre-right.

“Mainstream conservatives seem to have given up on the idea that they can see off the insurgents on their flank, preferring that old adage, ‘If you can’t beat them join them’ – if not institutionally via formal pacts or mergers then ideologically.”