Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – Protest, G7, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, World news, US news, G8
Title – I once protested against the G7. I feel no need now, because it’s collapsing all by itself | Zoe Williams | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/zoewilliams
Link – I once protested against the G7. I feel no need now, because it’s collapsing all by itself | Zoe Williams | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T16:28:17.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/17/i-once-protested-against-g7-collapse

W hen 200,000 protesters gathered to meet the G8 summit in Genoa , 25 years ago, their point (our point, in fact; I went on a coach, it took two and a half days) was that eight rich nations shouldn’t dictate the rules to the rest of the world. If you accept that power concedes nothing without a demand, this demand probably sounds a bit broad, boiling down to “abnegate your power”. But it was part of a wider anti-globalisation movement, in which many of the precise mechanisms by which the developed world exploited the developing had been nailed down.

Many of the protest tactics and networks had been honed at the battle for Seattle in 1999, outside the World Trade Organization summit, along with an agenda that was capacious and versatile. Unfortunately, the authorities had also learned a thing or two, and both the elaborate security of the G8’s red zone and the police brutality outside it were met with some astonishment from the world’s (liberal) media, but not from anyone with a memory exceeding two years.

Genoa also became a no-fly zone, citing concerns about terrorism . Since this was before 9/11, it made the world’s establishment look rattled and paranoid. The profile of the demonstrators was pretty well-understood – they (we) looked like anti-capitalists, but did not look like people who could get anything dangerous into the air.

Was anyone rattled? Did the subsequent anti-poverty initiatives of the G8 in the next few years come from any of that activism, any of that messaging? It was certainly hard to miss what was called the inside/outside coherence, where street activists and NGOs syncopated their messages to insist that a rules-based order had to be pro-social or its moral authority would be empty and disorder would ensue. The G8 would never admit it if they had, and the protesters would say the anti-poverty crusade was just an interim phase in a broader neoliberalist unfolding that was very much pro-poverty.

Nevertheless, it’s interesting to consider these heritage moves of dissent and rebellion from the vantage point of the G7 just gone: there were protests , smaller in number at 20,000 , met by police with kettling overnight, which is just a mass arrest without the facilities.

The target was simpler than ever – grotesque and unsustainable wealth inequality – and one of the opening moves from protesters was to set fire to a Tesla . There’s nothing new about burning a car, but there is something stark about this particular car. Since Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire last Friday, his wealth has already gone up to $1.4tn . The person with £1 in the world is as close to the second-richest man on Earth as that man is to Musk.

National governments, even the ones that still say “social democracy” on the tin, seem paralysed by his power, sometimes domestically bemoaning his calls for civil foment, but where it counts, devoting a whole agenda item to banning social media for the under-16s.

There is no doubt that social media, Musk’s and beyond, misrepresents truth to people (not just children) for profit, to the detriment of democracy and society. Answering that with a call for society to better police its children is the clearest possible signal that governments will unite to do anything, as publicly as possible, to delay the moment when they have to take on the forces of concentrated private capital. It makes perfect sense for protesters to torch a Tesla, but it also throws into painful relief the weakness of state powers that once seemed so omnipotent.

Germany’s Friedrich Merz, meanwhile, declared it a success that the summit had “ found common language ” in its support for Ukraine. But the wild card in that commonality has always been Donald Trump, whose relations with Vladimir Putin are opaque, whose support for Volodymyr Zelenskyy looks more like coercive control and who hasn’t committed to any military aid for the country since he took office .

Whether that’s all strategic, or whether US foreign policy is now decided from day to day by an unsteady mood is secondary (though it’s not that mysterious, in the light of Trump’s pronouncements: “I am the boss,” he said of the summit; “If they don’t behave, we will go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their heads,” he said about Iran). These G7 nations are no longer unified; it doesn’t matter whether or not most of them are, you cannot watch a rules-based order in its pomp where only most participants are playing by the rules. It’s like watching a game of football with a horse on the pitch.

The leaders, meanwhile, look personally insecure in a way with which one can deeply sympathise while, at the same time, lose patience. Emmanuel Macron reportedly spent the week worrying about Trump leaving early ( as he did last year ). Keir Starmer was caught on a news feed asking whether the rest of the leaders were in a meeting he hadn’t been invited to . For every trenchant statement of success, there is an image of power unravelling. The only sense in which all these leaders are united is in their determination to pretend that their unity has held.

None of which is to say that protest is misplaced, nor that it is unsure of its aims. But it is fighting a different entity: rather than being strong and sure of themselves, heads of state are insecure and in denial. But perhaps the protesters’ crucial target in this meeting of rich nations wasn’t a nation at all, but the richest man in the world.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

Keyword – Technology
Trefwoorden – Elon Musk, Technology, Las Vegas, US news, City transport, Cities
Title – ‘A neoliberal nightmare’: my ride on the Vegas Loop – Elon Musk’s answer to traffic jams | Elon Musk | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/steverose
Link – ‘A neoliberal nightmare’: my ride on the Vegas Loop – Elon Musk’s answer to traffic jams | Elon Musk | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T10:53:15.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jun/17/neoliberal-nightmare-my-ride-on-vegas-loop-elon-musk-answer-to-traffic-jams

I t’s another blindingly bright day in Las Vegas but I’m 30ft underground and strapped in for a rocket ride to the future. Actually, it’s a Tesla ride to the future, and not a self-driving one. And it’s pretty slow – my driver tells me the speed limit down here is 30mph. It’s also pretty short: the journey is over in a matter of minutes. In fact, the Vegas Loop is a pretty underwhelming experience: a brief trundle down a white-walled tunnel only slightly larger than the vehicle itself, lined by strips of LEDs that change colour every few seconds, in an attempt to inject some Vegas glitz. I’d been hoping to ask other Loop-riders what they made of the experience, but … there aren’t any. I’m the only person here.

This is not the futuristic transport solution Elon Musk originally promised. When he first announced this innovative technology in 2017, it was accompanied by sci-fi visuals showing a car pulling over from the street traffic on to an elevator platform, which then descended into a network of tunnels and whizzed along on an “electric skate” at 200km/h (124mph). “There’s no real limit to how many levels of tunnel you can have … so you can alleviate any arbitrary level of urban congestion,” Musk said. A few months earlier, with characteristic edgelordly nonchalance, Musk had announced on Twitter : “Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging …” Followed shortly after by: “I am actually going to do this.” He did, and he named it the Boring Company .

The Vegas Loop’s underwhelmingness will come as no surprise to seasoned Musk-watchers. The all-powerful CEO has established something of a reputation for overpromising and underdelivering when it comes to his grand initiatives, from self-driving Teslas to intelligent robots, to missions to Mars – none of which have materialised within his promised timeframes. But the Boring Company can also be seen as a stark illustration of “Muskism” in action, in terms of not only the reality not matching the fantasy, but also of how the trillionaire’s credulous admirers and political clout seem to insulate him from scrutiny, criticism and regulatory red tape, and afford him a degree of control and latitude apparently unavailable to others.

In the early days, the Boring Company also reflected Musk’s tendency to mix serious intent with juvenile trolling. In 2018, he raised $10m by selling 20,000 Boring-branded flame-throwers , plus another $1m selling Boring baseball caps. Musk fans lapped it up, and so did investors. By 2022 the Boring Company was valued at $5.7bn . It was building test tunnels in Los Angeles and at its Texas headquarters. It was said to be involved in projects in cities across the US and beyond: Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, San Jose, Miami. But one by one, these projects fizzled out. At present, the only city that has taken up the Boring proposal is Las Vegas, although this is about to change.

The first three stations of the Vegas Loop opened in 2021, connecting one end of the vast Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) to the other – a distance of about a mile. Between 2022 and 2025 the network extended to three nearby casino resorts: Resorts World, the Westgate and the Encore. You can’t drive your own car into the tunnels: you have to book one of the Loop’s Teslas (which are standard issue, no electric skates), then access the vehicles at what are essentially taxi ranks, above ground or beneath the resorts. Tickets are $4.25 (£3.15) for a single trip, or $12.50 (£9.30) for a day pass.

It is not really a loop, either. Some tunnels are two-way, meaning if there’s another car coming in the opposite direction, your car has to wait for it to come out before you can go in.

The system is much busier when there’s a convention happening, the drivers tell me, but today the stations beneath the LVCC are closed. At its peak, the system might have 160 Teslas in circulation, but today there are just four – which turns out to be three more than are needed.

Is this in any way a viable alternative to public transportation? “It really doesn’t have that much utility,” says Ray Delahanty, a former traffic engineer and urban planner who now broadcasts on social media as CityNerd . After his visit last year, Delahanty posted a YouTube video titled “ The Vegas Loop is getting progressively more stupid ”.

“Theoretically, there are times when there is enough congestion on the surface streets that an uncongested tunnel underneath could be faster,” he says, but “tourism has really dropped off in Las Vegas”, so there’s less traffic congestion anyway. In addition, he has usually had to wait 10 to 15 minutes for his ride to arrive, he says, so there was no time saving.

The Boring Company claims its operation is cheaper than traditional metro systems since its tunnels are smaller and its operation leaner, but it is hard to see how the numbers add up. Leaving aside the Loop’s claim that it will one day serve “ 90,000 passengers per hour ”, at its current maximum capacity of six cars a minute, with four passengers a Tesla, that adds up to 2,400 passengers an hour, or 33,600 a day tops (it is only open 10am to 9pm). By comparison, London’s Elizabeth line alone carried more than 240 million passengers last year, or 665,000 a day. Added to which, the Loop requires one driver for every four passengers, whereas one Elizabeth line train, with one driver, can carry 1,500 people.

“If you were to take what should be public transportation planning and turn it into a neoliberal nightmare, this is exactly what you would get,” says Ben Leffel, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In March Leffel told legislators at a meeting of the Nevada Regional Rail Transit Advisory Working Group: “The Loop by the Boring Company is the biggest, most absurd transit scam I have ever heard of … The Boring Company has been lying to policymakers all around the world that their form, which is Teslas in tunnels, can transport more people more quickly than any kind of rail. And take it from me: that is physically impossible. So any policymaker that they’re saying this to should challenge them to provide even a shred of material evidence that that is true, but they cannot.”

Why did Las Vegas go for it? Part of the appeal to legislators, Leffel explains, is that the Loop is privately funded. “It is not paid for by tax dollars; it is paid for disproportionately by investors, and a lot of those investors are real-estate people,” he says. This means that the location of stops is determined by developers, rather than the needs of the city. “So we have diverted from a proper public rail system that moved more people and gone to a cheaper substitute, where influence over the design goes to the highest bidder.”

Private funding also enables Boring to avoid official oversight in Las Vegas and rigorous environmental analyses – which have often been why its projects have faltered elsewhere. Musk has publicly expressed his dislike of environmental regulation. “You have to get permission in advance, as opposed to, say, paying a penalty if you do something wrong, which I think would be much more effective,” he told the libertarian Cato Institute last year .

Boring has some experience in this. Last October ProPublica alleged that it had violated environmental regulations nearly 800 times in Las Vegas in the last two years, including “starting to dig without approval, releasing untreated water on to city streets and spilling muck from its trucks”, as well as missing 689 inspections. A separate report by Fortune alleged that Boring “feigned compliance” after one inspection, “only to continue dumping the wastewater after a company manager ‘assumed district inspectors had departed the property’”. There have also been reports of employees and firefighters suffering chemical burns and other injuries while working on the project – penalties for which seem to have been minimal.

None of this helps mitigate the real problems faced by US cities such as Las Vegas that are heavily car-dependent and also increasingly vulnerable to extreme heat as a result of the climate crisis. The solution, as other cities have shown, is more trees and fewer cars, which means moving people around by metro or light rail networks.

“Las Vegas is the only large metropolitan city in the Mountain West region of the US that does not have a real mass public transit system,” says Minja Yan , a former real-estate professional who is running for Clark County commissioner. “But because our elected officials haven’t been prioritising public transit, the Boring Company came up with a private project and our elected officials were kind of like: ‘OK, maybe it sounds like a cool idea.’” So is light rail, she says – “but it takes work to make it happen. It takes vision, it takes coordination, it takes a lot of time.”

Work is under way to massively expand the Vegas Loop. The city has approved a network of 68 miles of tunnel and 104 stations , connecting the Strip to downtown, the airport and the 65,000-capacity Allegiant sports stadium, “cementing the Vegas Loop as a vital piece of the city’s future infrastructure”, as Boring’s website puts it.

What happens in Vegas is no longer staying in Vegas. In July 2025, Nashville, Tennessee, announced it was also committing to a Boring project: the Music City Loop. About 20 stations are planned, but its first 13-mile stage will connect the airport to the downtown convention centre and state capitol. By the time of the announcement, construction had already begun, much to the surprise of the public and many local officials.

“We were not informed about what was going to happen at any point along the way until it was a done deal,” says the state senator Heidi Campbell – “we” meaning her and her Democrat colleagues. She describes the process as “abnormally opaque. We got a special little memo sent to our mailboxes the day before the announcement was made by the governor [Trump ally Bill Lee]. And we were not invited to the ceremony or privy to the details subsequent to that. They wanted to keep us in the dark and they continue to do that.”

Campbell and others have raised similar objections to those in Las Vegas: that this is more a “tourist shuttle” than meaningful public transport; that it precludes other transport solutions; that the city’s geology and water table present risks; that if it fails, Nashville, not Musk, will be left holding the bag. “Even if this went really, really well, inevitably what you’re doing is still finding a creative way to move cars, not solving congestion problems.”

Last December there were protests against the Music City Loop outside the courthouse. Campbell believes the project’s approval is a case of politics over practicalities in the Republican-dominated state: “The guys I work with, they are so in love with Donald Trump that anybody who is adjacent to him is their friend. They feel like Elon Musk is Donald Trump-adjacent, and they are so excited to be able to do a project with him that they are not even thinking about the logistics.”

It’s telling that the only places that have taken up Musk’s Boring vision are aligned with him commercially as well as politically. Tennessee is already home to Musk’s Colossus datacentre – which provides computing power for his Grok AI, SpaceX operations and X social media platform. Located in Memphis and across the border in Mississippi, it attracted some controversy earlier this year when it was revealed to be using environmentally harmful methane gas turbines for electrical power.

Nevada, meanwhile, is the location of Tesla’s Gigafactory, near Reno, which opened in 2016 after stiff competition from rival states (Nevada reportedly offered a $1.2bn tax incentive). That deal was largely shepherded by Steve Hill , the director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. In 2018 Hill became the CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), which promotes the city and owns the convention centre. He is credited with bringing the Boring company to the city, and “remains actively involved in expanding the system throughout the Las Vegas Valley”, according to the LVCVA’s website.

The Boring Company did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

This intertwining of commercial and government interests fits a familiar pattern, says Quinn Slobodian, a co-author (with Ben Tarnoff) of Muskism, a new book that argues Musk’s business strategy is often to achieve some form of symbiosis with the state, by identifying an area where he can establish a monopoly, then benefit from public funds. The strategy has worked successfully with SpaceX, which has historically benefited from Nasa contracts (and built upon Nasa’s state-funded infrastructure), and with Tesla, where more than 40% of its revenue came from government carbon credits in the first nine months of 2024. Even as he was supposedly helping the Trump administration find $2tn in “efficiencies” ( another Muskian overpromise ), a report in 2025 estimated Musk’s companies had received $38bn in government funding .

“He really profits from a kind of terra nullius environment, where there’s as few regulations as possible, and he can quickly move into a relatively empty space and dominate it,” Slobodian says. Just as he achieved that with SpaceX’s rockets and Starlink’s low Earth orbit satellites, so Musk doubtless saw the underground realm as territory for the taking. Musk excels at what Slobodian and Tarnoff call “financial fabulism” – “which is the promise of not just an incrementally better product, but of a transformed future in which whole new sectors and markets that didn’t exist before will be created”. Unfortunately, the space under our cities is not as frictionless as the Boring Company might have liked, Slobodian points out, packed as it is with physical and regulatory obstacles. There is apparently another Boring project planned for Dubai , but it’s safe to say Musk’s pipe dream has not taken the world by storm.

Is Musk getting bored of Boring? It now seems like an insignificant backwater of his vast empire, overshadowed as it is by the tech titan’s inflammatory social media posting , and the much-hyped stock market listing of SpaceX last week, which valued the company at more than $2tn. SpaceX’s registration statement makes more grandiose claims: it anticipates future revenues of $28.5tn – “the largest actionable total addressable market in human history”. Growth strategies include AI datacentres in space, asteroid mining and “passenger and cargo transport to the moon and Mars”. It might happen one day, just as the Boring Company might whiz you beneath Las Vegas in a driverless Tesla at 200km/h one day. In the meantime, Musk’s master plan seems to be too good to be true and yet too big to fail. It could take us to infinity and beyond, it could usher in a hypercapitalist dystopia or, like Boring, it could simply be headed nowhere, not very fast.

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 – Global development
Trefwoorden – Somalia, US foreign policy, Africa, US news, World news, Global development
Title – Seven-year-old Abdiqadir was hit in a US airstrike. Without a $750 operation, he may lose his ability to walk | Somalia | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/marktownsend
Link – Seven-year-old Abdiqadir was hit in a US airstrike. Without a $750 operation, he may lose his ability to walk | Somalia | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T09:00:27.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jun/17/boy-injured-us-strike-somalia-ability-walk-operation-abdiqadir-salah-surgery-civilians-november-attack

A seven-year-old boy who was riddled with shrapnel during a deadly US airstrike in Somalia faces losing his ability to walk unless he has a £750 emergency operation.

But Abdiqadir Salah’s family cannot afford the surgery and the US – which refuses to admit that any civilians were killed or injured during its attack six months ago – appears unwilling to pay compensation to those affected by airstrikes in Somalia.

Shards of shrapnel are lodged in two places in Abdiqadir’s back and in his upper thigh after US airstrikes that killed at least 12 civilians, including eight children.

It is the deadliest attack on civilians in Somalia during either Trump administration and one of the worst since the botched 1993 US military operation in Mogadishu known as Black Hawk Down .

A Guardian investigation into the strikes in the town of Jamaame raises myriad questions over US intelligence, how the targets were selected and why children were hit while they were in the open and were likely to have been clearly identifiable to the drone’s strike team.

His mother said Abdiqadir was in the street outside his family home in Jamaame on 15 November 2025 when he was struck by a missile.

“That’s where three of my children got wounded. All three of them were laying on the ground covered in blood,” said Marian Haji Abdi Guled.

“When I tried to tend to them, shells began falling everywhere. Every step you took, or direction you turned, there were shells and missiles raining everywhere.

“There was no warning before the strikes but we could [hear] drones hovering above town before the strikes. It was very loud.”

After the attack, Guled took her three injured children into the surrounding countryside to flee the drones.

Her eldest, Mohamed, 16, had shrapnel lodged in his fingers, while her daughter Sumaya, 14, had three metal fragments lodged in her head, which have since been removed. Abdiqadir’s X-rays, which have been viewed by the Guardian, show shrapnel still lodged near his hip socket from where it entered his lower back.

“They bled throughout the night,” Guled said. “We couldn’t leave the countryside because we feared the drones hovering above would bomb us again.”

The next day Guled travelled 40 miles (60km) to Jilib, the de facto capital of the territory held by the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab , which was the stated target of the US airstrikes on Jamaame in November.

The hospital there, however, could not help. After borrowing money for the two-day journey, Guled travelled with Abdiqadir and his sister to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.

“My oldest still has shrapnel lodged in his body but I left him back in Jamaame because I couldn’t afford to take him to Mogadishu and took the younger ones.

“During the two nights and two days to reach Mogadishu, we couldn’t even eat anything. All I thought about was saving my children.”

Although her daughter received treatment in the capital, Abdiqadir remains in desperate need of help.

Doctors at Kaafi hospital in central Mogadishu told his mother that the shrapnel inside the child needed to be urgently removed to avoid life-changing consequences for him.

“They [doctors] told me if the shrapnel isn’t removed from his body, it could affect his ability to continue walking,” Guled said.

“But I don’t have $1,000 [£750] needed for the operation to remove the shrapnel from my son’s body. What’s worse than being a mother who can’t do anything for her wounded children?”

Despite being unable to afford the surgery, Guled has stayed in Mogadishu because it is the only place her child can get the required treatment. However, the cost of renting accommodation in the capital – nearly £190 a month – makes it impossible for the family to save enough for the surgery.

The US has not paid compensation to any Somali civilians injured or killed in airstrikes. Under the Trump administration, the Pentagon has also quietly scrapped a programme making it a legal requirement to prevent and respond to civilian deaths.

“I don’t know where the money [for the operation] will come from,” Guled said. “I left the children’s father back at the farm in Jamaame to protect our crops from wild animals. He also doesn’t have money to reach Mogadishu.”

The airstrikes were conducted alongside Somali ground forces in a joint operation led by the US military’s Africa command , suggesting the possibility that some of the casualties may have been inflicted by those troops.

Witness testimonies, however, all describe the Jamaame casualties being caused by bombs dropped from drones, rather than fire from ground troops. US officials would not answer questions over Somali forces’ role in the attack.

Guled has no doubts over the origin of the strikes that injured her children, insisting they had not been inflicted by infantry weapons such as mortars. “It is the Americans who are responsible for our suffering,” she said.

The US Department of War did not respond to a series of detailed questions regarding the airstrikes on Jamaame.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – G7, Ukraine, US foreign policy, Europe, US news, World news
Title – Macron hails US alignment with G7’s ‘shared commitment’ on Ukraine | G7 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/patrickwintour
Link – Macron hails US alignment with G7’s ‘shared commitment’ on Ukraine | G7 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T17:26:44.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/17/macron-hails-us-alignment-with-g7s-shared-commitment-on-ukraine

Emmanuel Macron has said the whole of the G7, including the US, recognises “the territorial integrity of Ukraine” as he hailed a “re-synchronisation” of positions on the issue.

The French president welcomed a “very deep change in the US approach”, saying Donald Trump and all the leaders present at the G7 summit at Évian-les-Bains understood that Vladimir Putin was not interested in peace.

“President Trump, like all of us, simply acknowledged that there was no serious willingness on Russia’s part today to discuss peace,” he said.

Macron repeatedly emphasised a “shared commitment to making progress on this issue”, which he described as “a very profound shift and remobilisation of the G7”.

The annual G7 meeting brings together the leaders of the world’s biggest economies: the US, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Canada and Japan.

Macron’s remarks were in sharp contrast to last year’s G7, when the chasm between Trump’s courtship of Putin and European support for Kyiv was so marked that the US president walked out early and there was no attempt to agree on a final statement.

Trump also met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, twice on the margins of the summit. Zelenskyy updated Trump on the Ukrainian military’s progress, which apparently impressed the US leader. The summit’s joint communique vowed to increase sanctions on Russia , including in the energy field.

Challenged on whether Trump could be trusted to follow through on a commitment to consider further sanctions against Russia, Macron said: “I have always trusted President Trump. When he has made commitments to us he has always done what he said he would do.”

Macron’s belief that Trump was re-engaging with the Ukraine issue was echoed by Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, who said he believed Trump had shifted to “a more realistic understanding of how this war will develop”. He described this as a gamechanger.

Diplomats at the summit said they had sensed that Trump’s relief at the apparently imminent end of the Iran war had brought him to the G7 summit in a far better mood than expected, and he showed a genuine willingness to engage on issues.

At his closing press conference, Macron said Zelenskyy had proposed that Putin come to the G7 summit to discuss the impasse, but “nothing had come back from Russia”.

The US and several European G7 countries also agreed to produce long-range missiles and air-defence systems under license in Ukraine . The move will not only fill a hole in European defences, but also give Ukraine’s increasingly efficient arms factories extra income.

The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said: “We are all currently producing too little, and this can be compensated for by granting licenses to companies that have these production capacities, including European and Ukrainian companies.”

Trump has said he would look into US missiles being produced under licence, but there are bound to be issues involving commercial secrecy and patents.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Cape Verde, Football, World Cup 2026, Sport, World Cup
Title – Mother of Cape Verde star Vozinha will secure visa to attend World Cup in US | Cape Verde | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ella-brockway
Link – Mother of Cape Verde star Vozinha will secure visa to attend World Cup in US | Cape Verde | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T16:02:21.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/17/world-cup-cape-verde-goalkeeper-mother-visa-vozinha

The mother of Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha will be able to receive a visa to enter the United States and watch her son play at the World Cup after cost issues prevented her from attending their historic draw against Spain earlier this week, US House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries announced Wednesday.

Cape Verde was named by the US government on a list of countries whose citizens must post a returnable bond of $15,000 (£11,200) to travel to the United States, in addition to a visa fee. The Trump administration last month dropped the requirement for World Cup ticket holders, but by that point the high costs had ruled out the trip for Ana Candida Evora, the mother of Cape Verde’s 40-year-old goalkeeper.

Jeffries said Wednesday that the visa fees have been waived and Evora will be able to attend Cape Verde’s next match against Uruguay on Sunday in Miami. He thanked Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, and the state department for their efforts.

“Cape Verdeans in America and throughout the diaspora have been celebrating the underdog grit and resilience of the Blue Sharks, joined by soccer fans from nations throughout the globe,” Jeffries said in a statement. “That joy was tempered a bit when Vozinha tearfully revealed that his own mother was unable to watch her son’s iconic performance in person due to visa complications. No mother should miss the chance to see her child make history.

“Upon learning of this development, I spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and asked the State Department to do everything in their power to ensure that his mother can attend Cabo Verde’s next match. It is a privilege to announce that Vozinha’s mom will be able to secure a visa in time to attend their game this Sunday against Uruguay. All fees have been waived consistent with official policy. Travel arrangements are now being made for mother and son to reunite in Miami. I thank Secretary Rubio, US State Department officials, the government of Cabo Verde and Fifa for working together to make this possible.”

Vozinha, 40, is Cape Verde’s most beloved footballer and has been their starting goalkeeper for 13 years. He has been a breakout star of this World Cup, helping to earn his country’s first-ever point and accumulating millions of new followers on social media.

“I cried because I grew up with my grandparents and unfortunately they were not here; they died a few years ago,” he said after Monday’s result. “They were everything for me, for my life. I also cried because my mum didn’t manage to be here because of the visa. Because of the money we had to pay for the visa, we didn’t manage to [get it done] on time. I would like her to be here, but I’m also very happy.

“I have worked my whole life for this moment. I’m 40 years old. I started playing football professionally when I was 25, in 2012. I thought about leaving but I continued because of this dream. This is for everyone. I was named man of the match but this is for all of my teammates because without them nothing would be possible. I will continue to work for Cape Verde and for the people.”

The Associated Press, citing a person familiar with the situation, reported that the state department believes Evora did not apply for a visa because she did not hold a valid Cape Verde passport, but that she is now in the process of getting one.

Evora, a 59-year-old house cleaner, told Reuters that she watched the match from home in São Vicente, one of Cape Verde’s 10 main islands.

“I said that no ball would enter his goal, and that is exactly what happened,” she said. “He is a great goalkeeper. I am very proud to be Vozinha’s mother, and I hope ​he continues to save every ball that comes his way.”

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – Athletics, Gout Gout, Australia sport, Sport
Title – Gout Gout flies home for third in rarely-contested 150m behind US great Noah Lyles | Athletics | The Guardian
Author – Australian Associated Press
Link – Gout Gout flies home for third in rarely-contested 150m behind US great Noah Lyles | Athletics | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T01:30:30.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/17/gout-gout-sprinter-third-150m-sprint-behind-usa-noah-lyles-golden-spike-ostrava

Teenage sprint sensation Gout Gout has flown home to finish third behind his training mate and new 150m world record holder Noah Lyles at the Golden Spike track and field meet in Ostrava.

Paris Olympics gold medallist Lyles clocked 14.67 seconds in the rarely-contested distance, smashing the previous previous mark of 14.92 set by Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson earlier this year in Florida.

Second-placed South African Sinesipho Dambile (14.78) also dipped under Thompson’s previous record, while the fast-finishing Gout was third in a national record of 14.96.

It was a huge improvement on Gout’s Diamond League debut last week in Oslo, when the 18-year-old struggled out of the blocks and could only finish sixth in the 200m.

“This is definitely a race I was needing after Oslo, and I am glad I got it, and I am ready for more,” told the Straight At It podcast.

“Usually when I get a bad start it’s hard for me to come back, but today I got an OK start and I brought it home.”

Earlier this year, Gout smashed his own Australian 200m record with a time of 19.67 at the national championships in Sydney.

It was faster than the legendary Usain Bolt had run at the same age.

The flying Queenslander has decided to skip the upcoming Glasgow Commonwealth Games to focus on the 200m at Under-20 world championships in Oregon.

US star Lyles, 28, won the 100m at the Paris Games and is a multiple world champion over 100m and 200m.

He and Gout embraced after crossing the finish line in Ostrava. The pair have regularly trained together at Lyles’s US base.

In other action at the Golden Spike meet on Tuesday night (Wednesday morning AEST), Australian Peter Bol won the 1000m in two minutes 15.13 seconds, also bettering the Australian record in a non-championship event.

Keyword – Media
Trefwoorden – Social media, Young people, Digital media, Media, Society
Title – ‘It makes no sense’: 16- and 17-year-olds on UK social media ban | Social media | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jane-clinton
Link – ‘It makes no sense’: 16- and 17-year-olds on UK social media ban | Social media | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T16:24:24.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jun/17/it-makes-no-sense-16–and-17-year-olds-on-social-media-ban

The UK government has announced a social media ban for under-16s .

They will be blocked from accessing social media, including Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and X, from next spring.

Livestreaming and stranger communication, including in gaming, will be switched off by default for 16- and 17-year-olds.

We asked 16- and 17-year-olds for their thoughts on the forthcoming ban and restrictions.

Here are some of their responses.

‘The plan is flawed – it makes no sense’

I will finish school when I’m 17 and go to university when I’m 17, but wouldn’t be able to livestream? It makes no sense. If I can vote, leave home, get married, pay tax, and join the army, why can’t I use my phone how I would like?

I relied on livestream revision sessions for my recent exams, and I know the younger children in my school were talking about this and worried that this resource may not be available to them with the ban.

People living in rural areas could also lose their connection to the world around them through platforms like TikTok. Using social media to build confidence and discover new hobbies will cease.

I just hope politicians sitting in Westminster realise the plan is flawed – they need to have another look at it. Mia, 16, Scotland

‘To suggest a digital curfew is laughable’

While I recognise some of the issues raised about the use of social media, I am concerned that this has been rushed out more as a political win than as an evidence-based solution.

No one should be scrolling Instagram until three o’clock in the morning – but to suggest a digital curfew is laughable. The government has no answers to any “how?” questions, only the response that this is “Australia plus”… Australia plus what, and how? Robert, 16, south-east England

‘Kids should be banned, not teens’

I don’t agree with entirely blocking social media from under-16s. It shouldn’t be our fault that the internet is an unsafe place; we should be blaming the [tech] companies for not doing better.

I feel it should be kids who are banned, not teens. Under-13s would be a better idea. The curfews for 16- and 17-year-olds is also utterly ridiculous. At this age, we can have sex. Why should we have a bedtime like we’re babies? We are basically recognised as young adults, so this curfew isn’t the right idea. Nate*, 16, South Wales

‘I think it will positively affect the young generations to come’

I don’t believe the ban is a bad thing. I think it has good intent to protect children from predators on the internet and from becoming addicted to social media.

If we can stop other generations from being addicted to the internet and these platforms, I think that’s absolutely a great thing. Social media has such an impact on mental health as well. I think we’ve all seen a decline in young people’s mental health as social media has had an increase in popularity. Overall, the ban has good intent, and I think it will positively affect the young generation to come. Hayley*, 16, Shropshire

‘Teenagers will find a way around the ban’

I welcome a social media ban, although I am sceptical of its effectiveness. When I was younger, with just a bit of ingenuity, I was able to get around standard parental controls on my devices. Teenagers, given a couple of months, will definitely find a way around the ban.

It is heartening to hear of the ban, but I am highly sceptical of the agency of the government to do anything with effect. All I have known is political flakiness and unrest, and I feel the damage has already been done, but I hope this ban may help my younger siblings have a better start. Fraser, 17, Edinburgh

‘It could push young people to less regulated spaces’

Supply and demand don’t stop just because the prime minister says so, and history shows that if anything, adding the allure of petty criminality to an action just makes it more appealing to most people.

The ban could push people to less-regulated places – places they would not have gone to before.

Why did the government promise to “tread [more] lightly” on our lives when what it actually plans to do is increase the strength of the law on an already maligned group – teenagers? Max, 17, Wiltshire

‘Decisions about social media use should be made within families, not by government’

Many teenagers use social media for creative outlets, education, and support networks, not just entertainment. The ban raises questions about where the line is drawn between protecting young people and restricting their freedoms. I believe that decisions about social media use should be made within families rather than by the government. Leo, 16, Cumbria

‘Marginalised groups could miss out on online communities’

I think I’d have been a lot happier and less self-conscious without social media, and I think it’s something kids can do without, but I think marginalised groups who perhaps struggle with being in public will be impacted, since their friends can be largely online.

I found online music communities can be really helpful and enriching when I was younger. We connected over our shared love of bands and became online friends. I think it would be really sad for young people to miss out on those communities and friendships because of the ban.

While I don’t agree with a blanket ban, I do agree there should be tighter controls on endless scrolling and maybe on the content that young people can see – there definitely should be more restrictions on that. Owen, 17, West Yorkshire

‘The ban punishes children, not the tech companies’

I don’t support a blanket ban. I see it as patronising. That said, I think some restrictions are needed – but more on the companies providing the services than the children using them. I feel that the ban punishes children rather than tech companies.

The tone of the [proposed] policy implies that under-16s cannot be trusted with their own free-time habits, something I rather disagree with.

Treating social media as a universally negative force is reductive. For many of us, it’s not so much an addiction as something we genuinely enjoy participating in. Online communities can be wholesome and supportive. Alice*, 17, Yorkshire

*Names have been changed

Keyword – Australia news
Trefwoorden – Health, Victoria, Australia news
Title – Doctor reported birthkeeper to police the day Melbourne wellness influencer died following freebirth | Health | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/melissa-davey
Link – Doctor reported birthkeeper to police the day Melbourne wellness influencer died following freebirth | Health | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T06:20:59.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jun/17/clinician-reported-birthkeeper-to-police-the-day-melbourne-wellness-influencer-died-following-freebirth

A senior clinician reported a birthkeeper to police the same day one of her clients died after giving birth at home – something the senior clinician said he had not done before.

The evidence was heard during the third day of the inquest into the death of 30-year-old wellness influencer Stacey Warnecke, who died on 29 September in Frankston hospital in Melbourne. She had paid Emily Lal $6,000 to support her to have a freebirth at home without any clinically trained staff involved.

Lal described her role at the time as a “birthkeeper”. Birthkeepers have no medical training and operate outside the medical system, and do not believe in the involvement of trained clinical staff throughout pregnancy.

Lal on Tuesday told the inquest that her role was not a medical one, nor was it to keep Warnecke safe.

Rather, she was acting primarily as a friend when she was hired and attended Warnecke’s birth at home, Lal said. She also said it was not her role to call an ambulance unless specifically asked to by any mother she was hired by.

Warnecke gave birth to her son shortly after 3am, and to the placenta about 20-25 minutes after that, when she suffered a bleed. At this point she said she needed to lie down, the court heard earlier.

She became short of breath and panicked, and Lal told her she might be suffering from a panic attack, the inquest heard.

She had in fact suffered a massive postpartum haemorrhage, which Frankston hospital’s director of obstetrics and gynaecology, Nisha Khot, told the inquest on Wednesday was treatable and was “very rare” for women to die from when they give birth in hospital, or with a midwife present at a home birth.

After a period of struggling to breathe, Warnecke told Lal “I’m bleeding”, but Lal looked between her legs and told her she wasn’t bleeding any more, the inquest heard.

Khot described how internal bleeding can occur following a haemorrhage and that visible blood is just one of many signs of haemorrhage clinicians are trained to look for.

The executive director of medical services and clinical governance at Bayside Health Peninsula, associate professor Shyaman Menon, described the efforts of clinical staff as they tried to save Warnecke’s life.

By the time Warnecke arrived at hospital approximately two hours after giving birth, her heart was also struggling and she had suffered from numerous cardiac arrests. Lal had asked Warnecke three times if she wanted an ambulance, but only called the third time after Warnecke said “yes”.

A paramedic who gave a statement to the coroner described how Warnecke was agitated, breathing rapidly and in an altered state of consciousness by the time she arrived.

Surgeons needed to perform both a hysterectomy to stop the bleeding and a procedure to drain the fluid from her heart, Menon said. Lal told the inquest she only attended the hospital because Warnecke’s husband, Nathan, had accidentally taken her phone instead of his own.

Menon said clinical staff were concerned by what Lal told them because, despite presenting herself as a friend, she was using language that indicated she may have been responsible for treatment or care.

“The feeling was the language was used was probably more than what a general public member would actually understand … and which raised a concern whether there was someone who actually had an element of knowledge provided during that care,” he said.

Concerns were raised by staff at a review meeting held in the hours after Warnecke’s death. That prompted him to go on the same day to Frankston police station to make a statement, which he told the coroner he had not done before.

“The basis of why I went to the police on behalf of Bayside Health Peninsula [was] to make a report from a public health and safety perspective.”

Lal was approached by police to give a statement, but told the inquest on Tuesday she did not do so.

“I wasn’t legally required to,” she said.

The inquest continues.

Keyword – Politics
Trefwoorden – Defence policy, Royal Navy, Ministry of Defence, Military, Politics, Russia, Europe, UK news
Title – UK officials expect Russia to retaliate for seizure of shadow fleet oil tanker | Defence policy | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/dan-sabbagh
Link – UK officials expect Russia to retaliate for seizure of shadow fleet oil tanker | Defence policy | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T18:47:03.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/17/uk-expect-russia-retaliate-seizure-shadow-fleet-oil-tanker-smyrtos

British officials believe Russia will try to retaliate for the Royal Marines’ seizure of the oil tanker Smyrtos, prompting UK ship owners to exercise greater vigilance until tensions with Moscow ease.

Military sources said the UK had considered possible responses to the seizure of the vessel carrying Russian crude worth $40m (£30m) to India, and anticipate that the Kremlin will want to hit back.

“Seizing the Smyrtos was in the works for a long period. They had gone through the risks, and expectation is Russia will try to retaliate,” said a naval insider. “If they do so, it could be globally. They are likely to take their time and pick their moment.”

No formal warning has been issued to British captains and ship owners, but the UK Chamber of Shipping, which represents the industry, said there was an understanding that there could be the risk of a Russian tit-for-tat action.

“We are aware of the increased risk and owners assess the risk for themselves,” said a spokesperson. “From an industry perspective, a greater vigilance is more prevalent, given the events of the last few days.”

The Smyrtos was seized in the small hours of Sunday on the orders of the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, as it sailed 25 miles (40km) south of the Isle of Wight. Its Indian captain has been charged with breaching UK sanctions on Russia .

On Tuesday, sailors on a Russian frigate, the Admiral Grigorovich, fired warning shots near a British yacht in the Channel. The pleasure boat, which was on its way to the French port of Cherbourg, had come close to the warship, though the couple on board said they had already taken evasive action when the shots were fired.

The Ministry of Defence did not think the incident had been a retaliation, but it demonstrates heightened Russian nervousness as tensions between London and Moscow deepen as a result of the UK’s support for Ukraine.

British-flagged tankers have been seized in tit-for-tat disputes in the past. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps held the Stena Impero in the strait of Hormuz for two months in 2019.

That incident came after the Royal Marines had detained an Iranian oil tanker, Grace 1 , in Gibraltar. It too was released after a couple of months.

The detention of the Smyrtos marks the first time that British forces have seized a Russia-linked oil tanker, and comes as the UK and Europe seeks to put pressure on Moscow’s shadow fleet of about 600 vessels, which are responsible for transporting half its crude oil exports, a key source of revenue to fund the continuing war in Ukraine.

Shadow fleet vessels are often old, falsely or not legally flagged, operating at poor environmental and safety standards. The UK says it captured the Smyrtos, which had been monitored for several days, because it was falsely registered under the flag of Cameroon, and therefore legally stateless.

The Department for Transport, which is responsible for issuing security notices to ship owners, said it was in constant contact with the industry to provide the latest advice. It does not comment on the details of such advice, sources said.

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – Wimbledon, Tennis, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Sport
Title – Wimbledon wildcard for Williams sisters is just reward for their contribution to tennis | Wimbledon | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/malaika-khan
Link – Wimbledon wildcard for Williams sisters is just reward for their contribution to tennis | Wimbledon | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T16:00:38.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2026/jun/17/wimbledon-wildcard-serena-venus-williams-sisters-tennis

Serena and Venus Williams have received a wildcard into this year’s Wimbledon women’s doubles draw, but do we really need them back?

From a competitive standpoint, perhaps not. Tennis has moved on to a new generation and neither sister is expected to challenge for a major singles title again.

But the Williams sisters are not just former champions. They are among the most influential athletes the sport has seen. Together, they changed the perception of women’s tennis, inspired generations of players and delivered some of the most memorable moments in the modern era.

As a doubles pairing, they were virtually unstoppable. Serena and Venus won 14 grand slam doubles titles together, including six Wimbledons, and three Olympic gold medals. They reached world No 1 in doubles and established themselves as one of the greatest partnerships tennis has witnessed.

Yet their story was never solely about playing alongside one another. It was also about competing against each other. Their rivalry began on 20 January 1998, when Venus defeated Serena 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 in the second round of the Australian Open. At the time, Venus was the established sister, ranked inside the world’s top 20, while Serena was only beginning her journey.

What followed was one of the most fascinating tussles in sporting history. The sisters faced each other 31 times, with Serena holding a 19-12 advantage. Nine of those meetings came in grand slam finals, where Serena won seven times. Between Wimbledon, the US Open, the Australian Open and the French Open, they repeatedly found themselves battling for the sport’s biggest prizes.

It created a unique dynamic rarely seen in professional sport. They were sisters, doubles partners, friends and rivals all at once.

Today, the picture is very different. Venus, now 45, has struggled for results in singles, losing all seven of her matches this season. However, her determination to continue competing remains admirable, more than 30 years after making her professional debut.

Serena, 44, returned to action at the Queen’s Club this month, four years after what many believed would be her final appearance, at the 2022 US Open. Although her comeback was disrupted when her doubles partner, Victoria Mboko, sustained a knee injury, Serena still showed flashes of the quality and competitive spirit that made her a 23-time grand slam singles champion. She then continued her return alongside Karolina Muchova at the German Open in Berlin, but the pair suffered a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Erin Routliffe and Giuliana Olmos on Tuesday. While the results have been mixed, Serena’s return has already generated excitement across the tennis world.

Neither sister received a singles wildcard for Wimbledon, and neither is expected to contend for the title. Their doubles partnership is unlikely to replicate the dominance of their prime years – but perhaps that is missing the point. The return of Venus and Serena is not about trophies. It is about celebrating two legends whose influence stretches far beyond the court. Tennis does not need them back because the sport can’t survive without them. Tennis needs them back because few players have given so much to the game.

For one more Wimbledon, fans will have the chance to watch one of the greatest partnerships in sporting history share a court again, and that is a good enough reason.