Keyword – Film
Trefwoorden – Film, Steven Spielberg, Disclosure Day, ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, Culture
Title – As Spielberg confirms whether ET was ‘slimy or dry’, we enter a new age of the celebrity interview | Film | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/stuart-heritage
Link – As Spielberg confirms whether ET was ‘slimy or dry’, we enter a new age of the celebrity interview | Film | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T06:00:05.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/18/steven-spielberg-et-was-moist-but-never-slimy

F or the most part, Steven Spielberg has avoided most of the indignities of the modern day press tour. He hasn’t had to subject himself to any spicy chicken wings , or summon any witticisms when presented with a cloche-covered sausage roll . Unlike many other celebrities, he hasn’t chosen to promote Disclosure Day by answering softball questions while simultaneously fashioning a Lionel Richie-style clay approximation of himself for YouTube . For this he should be applauded.

Instead, Spielberg has spent this promotional cycle on something more suited to his stature. A maestro tour, if you will, on which he gets to position Disclosure Day against a body of work that is second to none. Publications have run long oral histories about his entire career . He was a guest during the prestigious final week of Stephen Colbert’s talkshow. He was interviewed by the New York Times about the exact texture of ET’s skin .

That last one really did happen. A clip of the interview has gone mildly viral, featuring interviewer Rachel Abrams straight-out asking Spielberg “Was ET slimy or dry?” before suggesting that this is a decades-old conundrum that had long foxed everyone she knows. To his credit, Spielberg answered the question with tremendous gusto, if a little bewilderment. “ET was a little moist but never slimy,” he replied, after shaking his head. He then explained that, while “ET was only dry when he got sick”, it would be wrong to call him slimy. Xenomorphs are slimy, he pointed out. “ET never had tendrils of drool.”

Now, why Abrams asked this question is another matter. The good faith interpretation is that Spielberg has spent the last half-century in the public eye, and been interviewed so many times that he has developed a tendency to become something of an anecdote jukebox, reeling out the hits unprompted. This is something that afflicts only the truly famous but it can be debilitating. There are, after all, only so many times that a person can hear Ringo Starr’s “ I thought it was you three ” story.

Viewed from this perspective, there is real value in extracting genuinely new information from A-list celebrities. The fact that ET is now canonically moist maybe adds something to the cultural conversation that wasn’t there before? If so, the question deserves to be commended. However, if Abrams just asked a deliberately dumb question to the director of Schindler’s List because she knew it would get clicks, then that is another matter entirely.

We must also question why the subject arose in the first place. Abrams’s justification that it was in the public interest, since it had long been a discussion within her social group, rings a little false, because presumably everyone in her social group has eyes and can see perfectly well for themselves that ET isn’t slimy. It’s right there! All through the film! We know what texture ET’s skin is because ET is a visible character throughout the entire movie. As everybody knows, ET’s skin is clearly pleather or pleather-adjacent, like the skin of a Mediterranean grandmother. There is certainly no slime there. If there was, then the film would have included a scene of Drew Barrymore skidding about in ET’s slug trail, or the climatic hug scene between ET and Elliott would have ended with Elliott looking down at his slime-covered clothes and tutting, “These were new on today.”

But none of that happened so we can reasonably ascertain that ET isn’t slimy and this was a stupid question to ask. Still, the new media landscape loves nothing more than a replicable format, so perhaps this is something we’ll see more of in the future. For all we know, the New York Times is working on a series called Famous Auteurs Answer Self-Evident Questions as we speak, and this time next week they’ll drag Martin Scorsese in to ask if Jake LaMotta had 12 ears, or Paul Thomas Anderson to ask if Daniel Day-Lewis is secretly a mouse. For the avoidance of doubt, I hope this happens.

Keyword – Environment
Trefwoorden – Plants, Insects, Hay fever, Environment, Rural affairs, UK news
Title – Country diary: Everybody loves to hate the stinging nettle – don’t they? | Plants | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/derek-niemann
Link – Country diary: Everybody loves to hate the stinging nettle – don’t they? | Plants | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T04:30:21.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/17/country-diary-everybody-loves-to-hate-the-stinging-nettle-dont-they

E yes smarting, throat tickling, nostrils dog-wet, I pick my way along a thready footpath up the combe, only half-prepared for the next irritation. Nettles, I am watching you. But not well enough it seems, for a sneaky one hidden under the skirts of encroaching grasses and umbellifers grazes the back of my bare calf. It induces that tingling somewhere between pain and pleasure – one that quickly develops into a needling throb.

It is hard to love a nettle. This much-loathed plant may be one of the first that many children learn to identify, for their own protection. It has a secondhand look, with wrinkly, crinkly jagged hearts for leaves. It has no sheen; it does not shine. Near-invisible fine hairs on the upper surfaces give the dulled green a dusty, soiled appearance.

Glass spines hang like malign stalactites from the undersides and poke their points out from the stems. Such small spikes, yet so much discomfort . Other than a bramble , no plant says no so emphatically, forming high, hairy phalanxes on these slopes, midsummer’s biggest block to off‑path wanderers.

A barrier to some; an opening for others. Close inspection picks out aphids aplenty, feeding, crawling, being. And the sap-suckers are being sucked, chomped and chewed by a red soldier beetle , alighting on the apex of one plant and finding meals on the downpipe. Spiders have hung out speculative chains between leaves and stems. A blackfly leg dangles halfway along one thread.

Most prominent of all are the little dark dots of insects swarming all over the purple-tinged flowers. Nettle flowers may be underwhelming, looking like over-tied knots of thin string, but they are irresistible to the aptly named nettle pollen beetles, locked into an orgy of eating and mating.

Tonight I will pay for breathing in during all this observation. The weather report might report a high grass pollen count for hay fever sufferers, but the air knows better. Those microscopic grains shooting the breeze include not just grasses, but also the near weightless dust of any wind-pollinated flower. And copious amounts are produced by the stinging nettle. Atishoo!

Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024, is available now at guardianbookshop.com

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – Royal Ascot, Ryan Moore, Horse racing, Sport, Horse racing tips
Title – Unbeaten Bow Echo holds off Gstaad in Royal Ascot thriller as Moore gets ban | Royal Ascot | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/gregwood
Link – Unbeaten Bow Echo holds off Gstaad in Royal Ascot thriller as Moore gets ban | Royal Ascot | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T19:51:42.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/16/bow-echo-bravely-holds-off-gstaad-to-stay-unbeaten-in-thriller-at-royal-ascot

Five races and two Group Ones into his career, Bow Echo remains unbeaten – just. He had only a short head to spare over Gstaad at the line in the St James’s Palace Stakes, having briefly looked likely to canter to victory passing the two-pole, but it was enough to secure a first Royal Ascot Group One for both George Boughey, Bow Echo’s trainer, and his 20-year-old rider, Billy Loughnane, whose best season yet just keeps getting better.

On the face of it, perhaps, this was a slightly scrambled success, given Bow Echo’s winning margin of nearly three lengths over Gstaad in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket last month, and the apparent ease with which it was achieved. But Ascot is a very different track, with a sterner climb to the finish, and Bow Echo is hardly the first colt to find that it has different demands.

The favourite was also involved in some early scrimmaging as the half-dozen runners looked for a good early position, interference that was enough to see Ryan Moore , Gstaad’s jockey, pick up a three-day suspension from the stewards for “careless riding for allowing his mount to edge left-handed without correction, causing Bow Echo and [third-favourite] Talk Of New York to become short of room and awkwardly placed.”

As a result, Bow Echo can be forgiven for needing the line at the other end of the race, against a rival who enjoyed a perfect, ground-saving trip after Christophe Soumillon, on Gstaad’s front-running stable companion, Puerto Rico, moved left at the top of the straight to allow the second-favourite a clear run up the rail. While it did not affect the result, the manoeuvre did not impress the stewards and Soumillon picked up an eight-day suspension for “riding his mount in such a way that intended to give an advantage to another horse from the same stable”.

“The first furlong was crucial and I got squeezed out early,” Loughnane said. “There were five of us in a line and I slightly lost my position and Bow Echo got lit up. It was then a case of trying to manage things. The Amo horse [Power Blue] came back into our lap and it meant I had to move probably sooner than ideal, but his guts got him through. He’s a very determined horse with a great turn of foot and fantastic ability.

“You have to adapt, and it was a case of getting him back relaxed, breathing again and into his rhythm. Once he found that, he was powerful.”

Goodwood, where Bow Echo is likely to head next for the Group One Sussex Stakes in late July, is a different challenge again, but this time a speedier track that should play to his strengths. He is favourite at around 7-4 to extend his streak to six if he lines up for what would be his first race against all-aged competition.

“I think that was the first time Bow Echo got into a proper battle,” Boughey said. “It was quite a scrap early doors [but] I think we’ll see a better horse now that he’s been in a scrap like that. He has done everything we’ve hoped. It’s fine margins in this game and luckily he was on the right side of it.”

Bow Echo and Gstaad’s memorable duel in the feature event was matched for excitement by a three-way conclusion to the King Charles III Stakes, as Mission Central edged out Rayevka by a head with the Australian-trained favourite, Overpass, three-quarters of a length away in third.

Mission Central, something of a rarity as an Aidan O’Brien-trained sprinter, was off the pace early but came with a powerful run towards the stands’ side to grab victory in the final strides.

Having seen off one of the southern hemisphere’s top sprinters at Ascot, Mission Central may now be tasked with repeating the trick on Australian soil in the Everest, the world’s richest turf race, in October.

“We have a slot in the Everest,” Tom Magnier, from the Coolmore syndicate that owns Mission Central, said. “It’s a great race and one we’d love to win. We will see how the horse pulls up, but it would definitely be a race that you could put on the radar for him.”

The first-day crowd was stunned into near-silence by the opening race of the meeting, as Ten Bob Tony, at 50-1, accelerated from last to first in the closing stages of the Group One Queen Anne Stakes. Ed Walker’s gelding was the longest-priced winner of the race for 76 years.

“It is just an amazing story,” Walker said. “Ten Bob Tony won a Group Three [at Epsom] 10 days ago and then turned up here and did that.

“Kieran [Shoemark] gave him an absolute peach of a ride [and] the miracle happened. We’d agreed we’d sit last and try to pass as many as possible.”

Hopes for a winner in the royal colours in the Ascot Stakes Handicap proved to be wildly optimistic as Reaching High, who was the subject of a significant gamble to start favourite at just 13-8, trailed home a long last behind Joseph O’Brien’s Kizlyar in the two-and-a-half-mile contest.

The king and queen’s search for a first winner at the meeting since Desert Hero three years ago will now move on to their colt Point Of Law, an 8-1 shot for the Queen’s Vase at 3.05 on Wednesday.

Take Daryz to dazzle

The betting suggests that the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot on Wednesday is close to a head-to-head between Ombudsman, last year’s winner, and Daryz, who took the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in October, but both Almaqam and Minnie Hauk, the Arc runner-up, have form that puts them in the mix and the race could well be the highlight of the week.

Daryz (4.20), though, is both the top-rated runner according to both the official figures and Timeform , and the only horse in the field with fewer than 10 runs in the book. He has also dropped back from the Arc trip to make short work of Group One on his two starts this season, over ten-and-a-half and then an extended nine furlongs at Longchamp.

Good-to-firm ground is an unknown for Francis Henri-Graffard’s colt but there will be plenty of water going on overnight, and while he was last of six on his only previous trip outside France for last year’s International at York, that was just the fourth start of his career and he looks much more the finished article this season.

Royal Ascot 2.30 Senorita Bonita, who cost a shade under £1m at the breeze-ups in the spring, made a successful racecourse debut at Nottingham despite finding all sorts of trouble in running and the turn of foot and attitude that got her out of trouble should be potent weapons here.

Royal Ascot 3.05 Andrew Balding’s Galiyan improved for a step up in trip and posted a strong time when breaking his duck at Chester in May and promises to be better still over an extra two furlongs.

Royal Ascot 3.40 The lightly-raced Catalina Delcarpio ran in the 12-furlong Ribblesdale here last year but has shown improved form dropped back in trip this season and a strongly-run race over the this stiff mile could be ideal.

Royal Ascot 5.00 A closer from a high draw tends to be the percentage call in the Royal Hunt Cup and Erzindjan is an ideal fit. The eight-year-old is not long with the excellent TJ Kent stable and was value for more than the official margin at Newmarket last time. With Ryan Moore booked to ride, he looks a big price at around 14-1 from stall 24.

Royal Ascot 5.35 Miss Nightfall was better than the bare result at Yarmouth last time and could find this set up for her fast-finishing style.

Royal Ascot 6.10 Robson de Aguiar’s Controlla was a big outsider on debut but the clock suggests her run into second was no fluke.

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – US Open, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, PGA Tour, Golf, US sports, Sport, European Tour
Title – Scheffler faces mighty Shinnecock test in bid to claim career slam with US Open victory | US Open | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/bryan-armen-graham
Link – Scheffler faces mighty Shinnecock test in bid to claim career slam with US Open victory | US Open | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T16:00:38.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/17/scottie-scheffler-us-open-preview-faces-mighty-shinnecock-test-in-bid-to-claim-career-slam

S hinnecock Hills is a study in restraint and attrition that has spent more than a century bringing the world’s finest golfers to heel. When the US Open returns here for a sixth time on Thursday, the current crop will once again face a rugged coastal masterpiece where calamity lurks around every corner and mistakes are punished with uncommon severity.

The William Flynn-designed layout, one of the United States Golf Association’s five founding clubs, is a 7,440-yard track of rare beauty and menace revered as one of the purest tests in championship golf. Three distinct clusters of holes form a rough triangle across the property, exposing players to shifting winds from different directions throughout the round. With gusts forecast to exceed 40mph at times, even players who know Shinnecock well acknowledge that controlling trajectory and accepting adversity will be every bit as important as making birdies.

The biggest storyline centers on Scottie Scheffler , the world No 1, who arrives with a chance to complete the career grand slam. Having won two Masters titles to go with the PGA Championship and Open Championship last year, the 29-year-old American needs only the US Open to join one of golf’s most select groups alongside Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen.

Any perceived dip in Scheffler’s form is largely relative. He has a win this season, recorded seven top-five finishes and remains a fixture near the top of the leaderboard. “I feel like maybe I’ve just been a touch dull,” Scheffler said this week. “By no means is it a bad year. Is it up to the play I’ve had the previous couple of years? Probably not, but it’s not far off.”

Scheffler insists the career slam itself is not a motivating factor, but the significance of the moment is undeniable. A year after McIlroy completed the set at Augusta, Scheffler has an opportunity to follow him into the club and further cement himself as the dominant player of his generation.

Standing in his way is a field packed with contenders and a windswept course that has been rattling champions’ vulnerabilities since the 1890s. McIlroy, who successfully defended his Masters title in April, arrives as perhaps Scheffler’s most obvious challenger. The Northern Irishman has become one of the game’s most consistent US Open performers, posting six top-10 finishes since missing the cut at Shinnecock in 2018. His approach to the track is simple: discipline.

“This course demands so much patience,” McIlroy said on Tuesday. “It can really lure you into taking on things that you probably shouldn’t.”

Europe enters the week with unusual momentum. McIlroy’s Masters triumph was followed by Aaron Rai’s victory at the PGA Championship at Aronimink, marking the first time Europeans have captured the season’s opening two majors in the modern four‑major era. England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, the 2022 US Open champion, has been among the most consistent players on the tour this year, collecting three victories and arriving fresh off a runner-up finish at the Canadian Open.

Fitzpatrick would happily see the screws tightened further. “I don’t particularly like playing birdie-fests,” he said after watching course staff water parts of the layout during practice rounds.

The fear for players is that Shinnecock’s reputation for brutality and dread is on merit. When Brooks Koepka won here in 2018 at one over par, the championship descended into controversy as greens became so fast and firm that balls struggled to stay in place. Phil Mickelson famously incurred a penalty after striking a moving ball on a green during a chaotic third round. Organizers have attempted to avoid a repeat by keeping the course greener and softer in advance of this week’s expected winds.

The scoring history illustrates the challenge. In five previous US Open tournaments at Shinnecock, only three players have finished under par, while Retief Goosen’s four-under total in 2004 remains the lowest winning score in a US Open held at the course.

Koepka arrives after a hand injury forced him to withdraw from the final round of the Canadian Open last week, though the two-time US Open champion has indicated he expects to play. The 36-year-old arrives with a proven advantage on a course where he claimed the trophy in 2018, becoming just the third man since the second world war and the seventh in history to defend America’s national championship successfully.

Beyond the championship race, Shinnecock’s return places a spotlight on its place in American golf lore. The course sits on land intertwined with the history of the Shinnecock Nation, whose members helped build and maintain the layout for generations. It was also the site of a landmark moment in 1896 when John Shippen, a 16-year-old Black golfer and clubmaker, and the Shinnecock tribe member Oscar Bunn competed in the US Open despite objections from several British professionals. Shippen became the first Black player in championship history, while he and Bunn are believed to have been the first US-born competitors in the event.

History gives Shinnecock its meaning, but difficulty gives it its mystique. The world’s best arrive knowing they are competing on one of golf’s most storied stages, but also one of its most unforgiving. If Shinnecock bares its teeth over the coming days as expected, by Sunday night the champion may simply be the player who has suffered the least.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Football, Women’s football, Sport, Newsletter sign-up
Title – Sign up for the Moving the Goalposts newsletter: our free women’s football email | Football | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/suzanne-wrack
Link – Sign up for the Moving the Goalposts newsletter: our free women’s football email | Football | The Guardian
Publish date – 2022-03-22T16:57:35.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/mar/22/sign-up-for-our-new-womens-football-newsletter-moving-the-goalposts

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 – Rory McIlroy, Golf, LIV Golf Series, Sport, Sport politics, Saudi Arabia and sport, US Open, PGA Tour, European Tour, US sports
Title – McIlroy fears ‘false economy’ created by LIV Golf could put PGA Tour events at risk | Rory McIlroy | The Guardian
Author – PA Media
Link – McIlroy fears ‘false economy’ created by LIV Golf could put PGA Tour events at risk | Rory McIlroy | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T17:48:55.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/16/rory-mcilroy-liv-golf-pga-tour-us-open-golf-shinnecock-hills

Rory McIlroy believes the “false economy” created by the threat of LIV Golf may now be putting some well-established PGA Tour events at risk. The world No 2 and current Masters champion said he felt people had lost sight of how good the tour was before it too had a huge cash injection.

When the Saudi breakaway started luring away some of the top talent on multimillion-dollar contracts ­during the early years the PGA Tour’s response was to restructure, ­creating eight signature events each with smaller field and prize funds of $20m (£15m), plus generating a number of associated financial benefits.

The threat of LIV has now subsided with its future in doubt after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – which had pumped $5bn into the venture – announced it would stop financing it at the end of the year. But further changes were already in the pipeline on the PGA Tour, including the contentious two-tier system of tournament rankings which McIlroy is not a fan of.

“It’s funny as they’ve done all this work [and] you start to realise that the way the tour was before LIV came along was actually pretty good,” said the Northern Irishman ahead of the US Open at Shinnecock Hills in Long Island, New York.

“It was a pretty good structure, and everything sort of worked pretty well. LIV created this false economy where we had to up prize funds and had to cut fields and try to support the top players.

“ I think it needed to ­happen because that was the only way to retain talent at the time, but now that LIV looks like it’s less of a threat, I think, as I said, the old ways of the PGA Tour weren’t actually that bad.”

“An event like last week, the Canadian Open, potentially going to one of these Track 2s. Track 2 is a glorified Korn Ferry [second-tier] event. I don’t think the Canadian Open should be one of those.

“I just think there’s going to be certain events that might lose their stature if a sponsor doesn’t pony up $30m, so that’s the tough thing.”

McIlroy will begin his bid for a ­second US Open title alongside Ryder Cup teammates Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Åberg at 7.52am local time (12.52pm BST) on Thursday. Nine months ago the trio were part of the European side which won overseas for the first time in 13 years, 60 miles west of Shinnecock Hills at Bethpage.

They will tee off at 7.52am local time (12.52pm BST), just after Brooks Koepka – a two-time US Open winner who was champion last time Shinnecock hosted in 2018 – goes out with compatriots Cameron Young and Chris Gotterup.

The event provides the world number one Scottie Scheffler with his first shot at completing the career grand slam and he tees off at 8.14am (1.14pm BST) with defending champion JJ Spaun and 2025 US amateur winner Mason Howell.

Golf’s newest major champion, Wolverhampton’s Aaron Rai, is off at 1.14pm (6.14pm BST) with Collin Morikawa and Jason Day, both major winners themselves.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, England, Harry Kane, Thomas Tuchel, Croatia, World Cup, Football, Sport
Title – Harry Kane reveals half-time Tuchel pep-talk inspired England to victory over Croatia | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ed-aarons
Link – Harry Kane reveals half-time Tuchel pep-talk inspired England to victory over Croatia | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-17T23:32:27.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/18/harry-kane-england-croatia-inspired-thomas-tuchel-speech

Harry Kane has revealed that a half-time speech from Thomas Tuchel when he told England “to show the world what we can be” inspired victory in their opening match of the 2026 World Cup .

Croatia equalised twice before half-time after Kane had equalled Gary Lineker’s record for goals scored by an England player at the World Cup finals with a penalty and a header from Declan Rice’s corner. But a much-improved performance in the second half saw Jude Bellingham re-establish England’s lead before Marcus Rashford came off the bench to wrap up the victory late on.

“He told us to take the shackles off, calm down and let’s go. He said what’s the worst that can happen? Show the world who we can be,” said Kane of Tuchel’s rousing speech.

“We came out in the second half full gas and they couldn’t live with it, and that’s the level we have to set in every game. The way we controlled the game once we went ahead, we never really looked like we were in danger and then scored on the counterattack. We had a spell where we could have scored three or four. Credit to everyone: the first game of the tournament and a great result against a tough side.”

Bellingham added: “It wasn’t one of those where it was a big drama or standing up and shouting; it was what the team needed. We have a mature group with great leaders in there; everyone knew the level we had to get to. The start of the second half gave us a great platform.”

There were concerns when Rice was taken off as a precaution in the second half and Tuchel said the Arsenal midfielder had felt discomfort in his lower back and upper hamstring.

“He feels discomfort. And I didn’t want to take any risks. So if I take Declan off, which I never wanted to do,” said Tuchel. “But it was the moment to protect him. I hope it’s nothing more. Declan just reassured me at the end. ‘It’s good, it’s good.’ I know the discomfort and we will take care of it.”

The England manager also acknowledged that his players had shown signs of nerves despite going twice ahead but hopes that they will learn from the experience.

“Sometimes if you want to get it so perfectly right, you sometimes want it too much and you overthink it,” he said. “In the end, in doubt, we took the decision to go backwards, on and off the ball. We played way too many [passes] backwards, we played way too many back to our goalkeeper. It took us a while to find our confidence. That’s why I said maybe it’s also normal. I had the hope that the goals would help us. It was not the case.”

Reflecting on his half-time speech, Tuchel added: “I told them to calm down. We just conceded the goal. To calm down, calm their nerves. And encourage them to do it our way. I told them that my perception of them in the last 17 days will not change no matter what the result is. I want them to do it their way. Our way. I want them to be brave, courageous and tenacious on the front foot. And just go for it.”

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – US-Israel war on Iran, Donald Trump, US news, US politics, World news, Iran, Middle East and north Africa
Title – Trump signs Iran peace plan, claiming deal averts ‘worldwide depression’ | US-Israel war on Iran | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/roth-andrew,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/patrickwintour
Link – Trump signs Iran peace plan, claiming deal averts ‘worldwide depression’ | US-Israel war on Iran | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T00:36:22.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/17/trump-us-iran-war-mou-deal

Donald Trump has signed a 14-point agreement with Iran, claiming it delivered a “major win” for the United States – even as it made significant political and financial concessions to Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz and prevent a “worldwide depression”.

In extraordinary remarks on Wednesday, Donald Trump went from threatening Iran with a new wave of attacks to suggesting the country had basic rights to enrich uranium for civilian use, that he would not pressure Tehran to abandon its ballistic missiles programme and the US was “going to have to give back” billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets.

Those remarks, as well as the full text of the agreement – which was hailed by the Hezbollah chief, Naim Qassem, as a “great victory” – are likely to fuel anger in Israel and among hardliners in the Republican party who had urged Trump not to make a deal with Tehran.

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, signed the agreement on Wednesday from Tehran. The US vice-president, JD Vance, is also expected to sign the deal at a more formal ceremony in Geneva on Friday.

Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said: “The agreement is a record of US failure. People will see it and judge.”

Defending the deal, Trump said no US president had ever been as tough on Iran as him, and “there is nothing as smart as the market – and the market loves it”.

Trump said that “the alternative would be a worldwide depression”, arguing that if he had not struck a deal, “the strait [of Hormuz] would never have been opened. They don’t like floating billion-dollar ships up and down the strait when their rockets are flying overhead and there are mines all over the place.”

Senior administration officials said the deal would help prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, pointing to an agreement to discuss down-blending its 440kg stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be further enriched for use in a nuclear weapon. Trump has said he was open to the stockpile being diluted inside Iran under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Trump administration had delayed the release of the full text of the memorandum of understanding, which is essentially a 60-day ceasefire agreement, in order to hold more comprehensive nuclear and permanent peace talks with Iran. The 14-point plan was dictated to journalists during a background briefing by senior administration officials as Trump spoke at the end of the G7.

The deal would provide important financial incentives to Iran, including the immediate lifting of a US naval blockade on Iranian ports and the issuance of waivers for Iranian crude oil to be shipped abroad, as well as the potential lifting of all international sanctions against Iran, the unfreezing of billions of dollars in Iranian assets, and plans to develop a $300bn (£224bn) reconstruction fund for Iran funded by regional partners in the Gulf.

Trump angrily rejected suggestions that the US would be contributing to the $300bn fund, instead saying payouts by Gulf states were likely to be conditional on Iran’s good behaviour.

“Anyone who wants to can invest. What do you expect me to say: no one is allowed to invest? But we’re not investing; we’re not putting up even 10 cents,” he said.

The ceasefire deal included Lebanon, a key Iranian demand, which would restrain Israel from conducting military operations in the country, according to a senior administration official. It also included a clause ensuring the “territorial integrity” of Lebanon, although an administration official when asked did not confirm that meant Israel would be forced to withdraw from the swathe of the country it has occupied as a “buffer zone” against Hezbollah.

In return, Iran would agree to restrain its foreign allies including Hezbollah in Lebanon, and “reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons”.

The agreement would also allow the toll-free passage of ships for 60 days through the strait of Hormuz, but on Wednesday Ghalibaf said Iran would charge ships travelling through the waterway at the end of the period stipulated in the memorandum of understanding.

In an interview aired on state television, Ghalibaf said the “strait of Hormuz will not return to prewar conditions”, adding: “Iran has the right to sovereignty over the strait of Hormuz and of course we will receive a fee for services.”

Suzanne Maloney, the vice-president and director of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, said: “Realistically, the level of expertise and detail that is required to hammer out even the nuclear piece of this seems overwhelming for an administration that is flying by the seat of his pants in these negotiations.

“So much is front loaded for the Iranians … they’re going to be able to export oil without the sanctions regime, which is almost surreal at this point in time. They’re going to make an awful lot of money very quickly.”

Trump backed a G7 leaders’ joint statement that welcomed the deal but said a follow-on agreement was necessary to rein in Iran’s ballistic missile programme, an issue not directly addressed in the memorandum of understanding.

“They have to have some, because other people have some. You got to have some,” Trump said.

“What am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can’t have them?” he added, referring to previous discussions with advisers on Iran’s missile arsenal.

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, called it a “very good deal”, adding that US allies in the G7 support it “because it’s an agreement that puts a stop to a situation of great instability that had terrible consequences for our economies”.

But the G7 proposal for further talks involving European leaders about Iran’s ballistic missiles and support for proxy forces is certain to be rejected by Iran. Tehran has been negotiating exclusively with the US and regards Europe as largely irrelevant.

Iran is also likely to reject France and Britain’s plan for a taskforce to escort ships through the strait, a proposal endorsed in the G7 leaders’ statement.

The G7 leaders said the agreement provided “a historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon and tackling the threats related to its regional and ballistic activities. We support and are ready to contribute to its implementation.”

Trump also sounded a conciliatory note on returning frozen assets to Iran, a stipulation of the Obama administration’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that he had attacked in 2015.

“We have taken a lot of their money,” Trump told reporters. “It’s not our money, it’s their money, and we froze it at a certain point in time. I guess we’re going to have to give it back, you know, if we didn’t give it back, nobody would ever invest in the dollar again.”

Trump claimed the price of a barrel of oil had fallen to $72 – Brent crude dipped below $80 on Tuesday – and would soon fall below the level it had been at before the war.

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – Social media ban, Young people, Social media, Social media bans, Schools, Education, Digital media, Media, Society, UK news, World news
Title – We must be alive to the dangers of a UK social media ban – and the way to really help young people | Rosie Parkyn | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rosie-parkyn
Link – We must be alive to the dangers of a UK social media ban – and the way to really help young people | Rosie Parkyn | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-18T11:00:02.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/18/uk-social-media-ban-dangers-young-people-education-content

A s a parent, I understand the appeal of the announcement on Monday by the prime minister that would prevent children under 16 from using social media. Right now, you are in constant battle with the infinite scroll for your child’s attention, while their impetus to explore the real world is subdued by endless entertainment always within reach. At best, their rapidly developing brains are rotted by a diet of the synthetic, sensationalist and shallow – humanity’s least impressive creative output catering to its lousiest instincts. At worst, they are being preyed upon by forces intent on manipulating, exploiting or recruiting them. You look around and wonder where they are, even as they are right under your nose. You worry they will never experience the boredom that leads to creativity and propels us forward.

The desire to protect children from an often hostile environment makes sense, and the ban sends a signal of what we deem acceptable, and maybe even opens up the possibility of a behavioural shift in how we use social media. But evidence from Australia, where similar legislation was enacted last December, is not encouraging. According to one study , two-thirds of young people retained their accounts, while 51% of those most affected by the ban now see less news. The fact is that this demographic get most of its news from social media feeds , consumed incidentally amid footage of fights, diet tips and dance crazes and conveyed by influencers whose shtick is authenticity not accuracy. But it is encountered nonetheless. If we remove access, we need to create alternative routes to news and information.

Given social media platforms’ abandonment in recent years of trust and safety protocols, effective content moderation systems, support for third-party factcheckers and any real pretence at serving the public interest, you may not see them as the best place to get information. Seventy-three per cent of people in the UK would agree with you . But young people want to understand the world, and there is real value in helping them navigate the information ecosystems we have as we build those we wish for, particularly when those ecosystems play such an outsize role in real-world outcomes. In addition, young people use social media as a place to connect and express themselves. And why wouldn’t they, as other dedicated spaces such as youth clubs, community organisations and extracurricular school provision closed down. Disconnection is dangerous too.

At the Guardian Foundation , we deliver media literacy programmes in primary and secondary schools in the UK. We update our materials regularly to reflect rapid changes in the way that people are accessing news and information, but the journalistic process – verifying information, seeking alternative perspectives, challenging assumptions and providing context – remains a constant. Children develop the skills to assess the reliability of information, but they also learn about algorithms and platform economics. They discuss who might benefit from targeting them with misogynistic content, or why filter bubbles develop, or how outrage is incentivised and dopamine activated – and how all this might make them, and those around them, feel.

This is critical preparation for a world in which trust is eroding and truth is increasingly contested, and particularly important in communities which have lost their local journalists and don’t see their concerns reflected in the national media. Teachers tell us that they are better equipped to handle conversations they might otherwise avoid, and young people delight in creating their own journalism, paving the way for an active role as consumers and producers of information.

Media literacy will join the national curriculum in England in September 2028 . If this fosters greater resilience to misinformation and disinformation and the ability to identify high-quality sources as conversational chatbots embed themselves in daily life, that will be good for all of us. Research has demonstrated how news consumption improves knowledge of current affairs and increases political participation, and our own research shows a strong correlation between media literacy and civic engagement. Conversely, the harms wrought by misinformation and disinformation are so well rehearsed they don’t bear repeating again.

But it’s an important addition in other ways: as is painfully felt by young people coming to the end of exam season, today’s education system emphasises the acquisition and retention of knowledge just long enough to recall it for the marking schemes. While a solid mastery of some facts is, of course, important, the ability to critically assess and make productive use of the abundant information you will be deluged by is surely more so. That’s why the social media ban must be accompanied by other measures to help young people thrive in a digital world, including properly funded news and media literacy education and alternative spaces for safe connection and participation.

Without this holistic approach, we cannot hope to win the battle to help our children stay safe and make good choices, while engaging – as they must – with technology. The ban is just a signal that there is much more to do.

Rosie Parkyn is executive director of the Guardian Foundation