Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, Bukayo Saka, England, Football, Sport
Title – Saka says he is gambling on fitness but ‘ready to go’ for England’s date with Croatia | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ed-aarons
Link – Saka says he is gambling on fitness but ‘ready to go’ for England’s date with Croatia | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-15T20:57:55.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/15/bukayo-saka-fitness-gamble-england-world-cup

Bukayo Saka has admitted he is continuing to gamble on his fitness to play for England at the World Cup finals but said he “is ready to go” despite a nagging achilles injury.

The Arsenal forward came off the bench in England’s last warm‑up game against Costa Rica but the England manager, Thomas Tuchel, warned that Saka’s fitness is being monitored carefully. The 24‑year‑old player is believed to have picked up the injury during the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City in March and missed Arsenal’s next seven matches as a result. Since then, he has completed 90 minutes only once in five appearances and was substituted before the end of normal time in the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain.

Asked whether he agreed with Tuchel’s suggestion that he was not ready to play an entire match, Saka said: “I don’t want to say anything that goes against the manager. But what I would say between Mikel [Arteta] and Arsenal’s medical team and England’s medical team, since March they have managed me amazingly and helped me get back on the pitch and do what I can for the team. I am feeling better than I have felt for the last few months. I am ready to go.”

Saka acknowledged, though, that he has been playing through the pain barrier. “As players it’s the biggest gamble, especially if you’re not feeling your sharpest. You have the choice whether you don’t play or you put yourself out there knowing people are going to judge you the same.

“At the end of the day people don’t really care how you’re feeling, they expect you to deliver, they expect you to perform. I’m happy to take the gamble. It paid off, I’d say. I’m going to continue doing that. But I am feeling a lot better than I did in March and I’m ready to go.”

Noni Madueke could start in place of Saka on the right side of England’s attack if Tuchel decides not to risk Saka against Croatia on Wednesday in Dallas. The two of them, Declan Rice and Eberechi Eze were all given extra time off after Arsenal’s Champions League commitments and Saka believes that winning the club’s first Premier League title for 22 years has given them “more confidence and freedom”. He said: “Knowing what it takes to win is important, and we have that feeling now. It gives you more belief.”

John Stones is expected to start his 25th tournament game in a row despite being used sparingly by City this season. The 32-year-old has revealed previously that he even considered retiring at the end of last season but is now determined to play his part for England.

“City didn’t want to keep me any more and wanted me to find a new challenge,” he told ITV.

“I said to myself: ‘OK, I could do that and find somewhere.’ Or what did I do as a kid when you played down for two years, wasn’t big enough, played out of position, what did you do? I fought and that’s what I did and I have always reflected on that. I think I feel as good as I’ve ever been before a tournament.”

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – Prem Rugby, Sport, Rugby union
Title – Fast-paced, risk-taking Prem is a blueprint for England but everyone needs to buy in | Prem Rugby | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/robertkitson
Link – Fast-paced, risk-taking Prem is a blueprint for England but everyone needs to buy in | Prem Rugby | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T09:22:38.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/16/fast-paced-risk-taking-prem-rugby-is-blueprint-for-england-the-breakdown

F or anyone who hasn’t yet watched them, the weekend’s two English Prem semi-finals were brilliant adverts for the sport. The game between Northampton and Leicester fizzed with speed and quality passing. The following day’s encounter between Bath and Exeter involved one of the best fightbacks and tautest finishes imaginable.

The upshot is a Northampton v Exeter final this Saturday, a showpiece with the potential to be just as absorbing. Henry Pollock v Greg Fisilau, Tommy Freeman v Henry Slade, Fin Smith v Harvey Skinner … not to mention two intelligent English coaching teams led, respectively, by Phil Dowson and Sam Vesty, and Rob Baxter and Dave Walder. If the Rugby Football Union is pondering future homegrown alternatives to Steve Borthwick there are some increasingly strong candidates.

But hang on a second. The future has to start now. There is a World Cup next year at which Borthwick’s England have to show the very best of themselves. There is some magnificent young talent in English rugby – it would be utterly bonkers not to trust it.

Take Northampton’s sixth try, an absolute beauty in which Tom Pearson and Fraser Dingwall exchanged passes before George Furbank reappeared on the inside to give a scoring pass to his equally alert scrum-half Archie McParland. Stick them in Toulouse jerseys and everyone would be gushing about French flair, casually excellent support play and total rugby.

Cue the naysayers who argue that transferring this kind of enterprise to the international stage is impractical. Defences are better, the margins tighter, the stakes higher. Which is true to a certain degree. The Test arena is a step up from the club game and World Cups, in particular, are rarely won by the prettiest rugby.

But that kind of traditional thinking ignores present-day trends. Top-level rugby is fast becoming a different sport. As Bath found on Saturday teams who shut up shop are increasingly vulnerable. At 26-10 ahead entering the second half there should only have been one winner. Instead Bath tightened up, their energy levels drained down the plughole and they stopped playing.

It was reminiscent in some ways of how England plodded through the middle chunk of the Six Nations. Structured, controlled, clunky … it all appeared distinctly outdated compared to the approach of other more enterprising teams. “Rugby in general is going that way and we probably realised that a little bit too late,” said Jamie George, talking to his former England teammates Ben Youngs and Dan Cole on their Love of Rugby podcast.

How good to hear someone in the England camp publicly acknowledging the obvious. And the penny, in fairness, did eventually drop in the form of a sharply improved performance against France in Paris . The question is whether Borthwick’s England can now reproduce that free-wheeling rugby when the weight of expectation is heavier or the opposition forwards are pawing the turf, starting in Johannesburg against the world champion Springboks on 4 July?

This may be the area in which last weekend’s semi-finals can best inform the Borthwick project. Fin Smith, the Saints and England fly-half, was particularly insightful on Friday night regarding Northampton’s determination not to be hampered by nerves. “You can still go and play a certain style of rugby if you’re brave enough,” said Smith. “Just because it’s a final doesn’t mean you have to be cagey.”

For that to become possible, though, everyone has to buy in. There will inevitably be the odd mistake; not every offload will stick. There are loads of people, too, who bang on about the DNA of English rugby being based around forward dominance and/or playing the percentages at the exclusion of everything else. OK, but what if the rest of the sport has moved on?

Better, surely, to try to replicate the can-do mindset of their top clubs. Imagine an England starting pack this summer containing George Martin, Alex Coles, Ollie Chessum, Ben Earl and Pollock, who had perhaps the most impressive game of his still-fledgling career against Tigers. Start Smith, Freeman and Furbank against the Boks as well.

Yes, it clearly matters who starts in the front row, with this Friday’s preparatory game against a French XV in Vannes sure to be instructive on that front.

Either way the more crucial it becomes that Borthwick selects proactively at No 9. To win the World Cup a go-faster England require a running nine – or, ideally, two of them – with genuine vision. There are better box-kickers than McParland but his club relationship with Pollock and Smith is a plus. To get ahead of the curve between now and the World Cup, England will need to take a few calculated risks.

This is an extract from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To subscribe just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, World Cup, Football, Sport, France, Argentina, Spain, Brazil, England, Czechia, Mexico, South Africa football team, South Korea, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Qatar, Switzerland, Haiti football team, Morocco football team, Scotland, Australia, Paraguay, Turkey, USA, Curaçao, Ecuador, Germany, Côte d’Ivoire football team, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, Tunisia football team, Belgium, Egypt football team, Iran, New Zealand, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay, Iraq, Norway, Senegal football team, Algeria football team, Austria, Jordan, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo football team, Portugal, Uzbekistan, Croatia, Panama, Ghana football team, US sports, Australia sport
Title – World Cup 2026: guide to all 1,248 players | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – Marcus Christenson
Link – World Cup 2026: guide to all 1,248 players | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-04T08:55:49.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2026/jun/04/world-cup-2026-complete-player-guide

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – US-Israel war on Iran, Iran, Iran nuclear deal, World news, US news, Strait of Hormuz, Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah, Middle East and north Africa, Iran nuclear programme
Title – Trump hails Iran deal that fixes nothing except a problem his war caused | US-Israel war on Iran | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/julianborger
Link – Trump hails Iran deal that fixes nothing except a problem his war caused | US-Israel war on Iran | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-15T18:33:49.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/15/analysis-us-iran-peace-deal-nuclear-talks-resume

If we get to a Friday signing ceremony without this uncertain new US-Iran deal being derailed by any of its inherent ambiguities, then nuclear talks can finally restart in the same place – and at almost exactly the same point they were before this conflict started.

The world will have irrevocably been changed in other ways. There is no going back for the 120 Iranian children in Minab killed in their primary school in the war’s first hours, nor for their bereaved parents, or any of the thousands in Iran, Lebanon and around the region whose lives were erased or blighted by a feckless war of choice.

Iran itself has been changed as a state and society in ways which will only become clear in the coming months and years, but for the time being it is evident the military has been strengthened at the expense of secular civilian governance. Freedom and basic rights for Iranians are as elusive as they were before the conflict, maybe more so .

Tehran has been bolstered by its proven capacity to close the strait of Hormuz and squeeze the lifeblood of the global economy. Conversely, the power and credibility of the US has been undermined decisively in front of the entire world.

Donald Trump has so far achieved none of the stated regime change and nuclear disarmament goals he laid out when the war was launched with Israel on 28 February. The achievement he advertised overnight – “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” – was a matter of claiming credit for fixing a problem his war had caused.

Even that is not in the bag yet. It is still a long way to Friday and a planned signing ceremony in Geneva, in view of all the fudges that have been packed into this compromise deal . It is not clear, for example, if Iran will continue to charge tolls (or “service fees”) for the use of the strait, nor whether $24bn (£18bn) of Iran’s frozen assets will be released and paid to Tehran before or during the intended nuclear talks in Geneva. The two sides have very different spins on what was agreed under those headings in the past few days.

Ultimately, the ships will only start their engines and the oil begin to flow through the strait of Hormuz when the shipping companies and insurance companies judge it to be safe – and that may be some days or weeks off.

At the same time, Iran and the Pakistani brokers are adamant that the deal should stop Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, but members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition have already made clear they do not intend Israel to be bound by the agreement .

A deal that freezes the Middle East battlefield as it stands now is a political disaster for Netanyahu , who promised Israelis he would rid them of their worst enemies: Iran’s regime with its nuclear programme, Hezbollah and Hamas. They are all still standing while Israel’s relationship with the US, its ultimate security guarantee, has taken a battering.

Netanyahu’s greatest success was finding a US president he could persuade to go to war with Iran with him, but that glimmering triumph has turned to ashes in his hands. Trump is now openly dismissing the Israeli prime minister as a “difficult guy”, and the relationship is unlikely to get any easier in the near future, as Netanyahu seeks to demonstrate his independence of action to sceptical voters before elections due by October.

Trump will try to constrain Israel as much as possible – certainly to get to Friday’s signing, and through to the end of the US-hosted World Cup extravaganza – but Netanyahu has his own security and political imperatives. The divergence will sour the partnership still further, at a time when a majority of Americans no longer treat the relationship as sacrosanct.

A continuing Lebanese conflict will not be the only centrifugal force tearing at the limbs of this fragile agreement. There will be internal US and Iranian politics too , which could tempt each side to renege.

Most importantly, there will be the nuclear issue – the supposed casus belli itself, left essentially unmoved by the war. Starting from Friday, US and Iranian negotiators are due to sit down to 60 days of talks in Geneva to resolve the fundamental dispute over how much of a nuclear programme Iran should be allowed to have.

At the centre of the negotiations will be Iran’s right to enrich uranium, how long a moratorium on enrichment it should observe, and what should be done with its stockpile of uranium which has already been enriched to a level approaching weapons grade.

If that all sounds familiar, it is because it is exactly what was on the table in Geneva on 26 February, the last day of negotiations before Trump and Netanyahu went to war two days later. By all accounts, including those of UK government observers , those talks had been making progress at the time they were abruptly curtailed and the bombs started to drop.

The hope now is that some of that forward momentum can be restored, but the postwar Iranian delegation is likely to be an even tougher nut to crack. The regime has shown its durability and has a proven weapon in its pocket: the Hormuz option.

The Iranians will arrive knowing that it was Trump who blinked first to get this interim deal over the line. It seems to include no detailed parameters for future nuclear negotiations, as the Americans had wished, and Israeli reporting confirms arrangement for Tehran to get some of its frozen assets delivered before the Geneva nuclear talks, as Iran had demanded.

If Trump and Netanyahu had set out to demonstrate the futility of war, they could not have staged it better.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – South Korea, Starbucks, Asia Pacific
Title – Starbucks Korea to temporarily shut all stores for history lesson after bungled coffee promotion | South Korea | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/raphael-rashid
Link – Starbucks Korea to temporarily shut all stores for history lesson after bungled coffee promotion | South Korea | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T03:07:36.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/16/starbucks-korea-shut-all-stores-tank-day-promotion

Starbucks Korea will simultaneously close all its stores for a mandatory history lesson, after a disastrous promotion that evoked memories of a pro-democracy massacre sparked public and political backlash .

More than 2,000 stores will temporarily close at 3pm on 22 June, the company said, so staff can watch recorded lectures on modern Korean history and engage in “social sensitivity” training. The half-day closures will cost Starbucks an estimated 2.1bn won ($1.4m) in lost sales, according to data firm IGAWorks.

The measures follow a public relations crisis triggered when Starbucks Korea ran a discount promotion for its “Tank” tumbler series on 18 May, the anniversary of a 1980 massacre in Gwangju . The promotion led to store boycotts, customers smashing Starbucks mugs and tumblers and government ministries cutting ties with the chain.

Chung Yong-jin, the billionaire chair of Shinsegae Group, which operates Starbucks Korea under licence from its US parent company, will take the same training on 24 June alongside other executives.

The curriculum covers major events in contemporary Korean history and how companies should account for historical and social sensitivities in their marketing decisions.

Shinsegae said the shutdown was intended to demonstrate the seriousness with which it viewed the incident and to prevent a repeat of similar controversies. The only exclusion to the shuttering will be a handful of outlets at airports, a company spokesperson said.

Payment volumes, which plunged 26% in the week after the controversy, have shown signs of partial recovery, rising 12.8% in the first week of June, according to market data, but they remain about 25% below pre-controversy levels.

The Gwangju massacre is a painful memory for many. Over 10 violent days, paratroopers crushed pro-democracy protests against military strongman Chun Doo-hwan . Victims’ groups say hundreds were killed.

Starbucks branded the date of its promotion “Tank Day”. It also featured the slogan “thwack on the desk”, evoking a notorious police explanation for the 1987 torture death of student activist Park Jong-chul. Authorities falsely claimed he had died after an officer “hit the desk with a thwack” during questioning.

Marketers chose the “thwack” slogan after consulting an AI tool for suggestions, Shinsegae Group said. It turned out some managers who approved the campaign never opened the email attachments showing the marketing material.

The company pulled the campaign within hours, but the fallout was swift and the chief executive was sacked the same day.

Starbucks said it was “deeply sorry for an unacceptable marketing incident” and that it “should never have happened”. Chung issued a written apology, and also apologised in a televised press conference where he bowed three times.

Starbucks’ Seattle headquarters sent a written apology directly to the May 18 Foundation, one of the main bodies representing Gwangju victims, after the foundation wrote to the company demanding a formal response.

An internal investigation found no evidence of deliberate intent, though a police investigation is ongoing. Chung and the former chief executive have been registered as criminal suspects by Seoul police.

Attitudes towards the Gwangju Uprising remain one of the deepest fault lines in South Korean society.

Far-right groups have kept alive a decades-old, discredited state narrative that the Gwangju protesters were North Korean sympathisers, a claim the supreme court ruled false and defamatory earlier this year.

Keyword – Business
Trefwoorden – Interest rates, Economics, Japan, Asia Pacific, World news, Business
Title – Bank of Japan raises interest rates to 31-year high … of 1% | Interest rates | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/graemewearden
Link – Bank of Japan raises interest rates to 31-year high … of 1% | Interest rates | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T10:41:08.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/16/bank-of-japan-raises-interest-rates-iran-war-inflation-us-fed-bank-of-england

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) has raised interest rates to a 31-year high as it tries to dampen inflationary pressures created by the Iran war.

Policymakers in Tokyo raised the BoJ’s short-term policy rate by a quarter of one percentage point, to 1% from 0.75% , and warned that companies were passing on rising oil costs to each other at a “relatively fast pace”.

The BoJ decided to tighten monetary policy despite a fall in the oil price in the past few days as Washington and Tehran agreed the basic structure of a peace deal , and also despite Japan’s annual core inflation having fallen to a four-year low of 1.4% ​in April.

The central bank’s governor, Shinichi Uchida, told a press conference in Tokyo that the signing of a memorandum by the US and Iran to end the Middle East conflict was “a welcome move”. He said there was uncertainty about how quickly oil supplies would rise.

“Compared with the previous meeting, the risk of a sharp deterioration in the economy has diminished. On the other hand, price rises are broadening, and there is a risk that underlying inflation may deviate from our target,” Uchida said. “With underlying inflation approaching 2%, it’s important to ensure we achieve our target stably.”

The BoJ also said the risk of Japan’s economy deteriorating sharply from the Middle East conflict had diminished. It cited the government’s relief package to help households facing high fuel costs.

Tuesday’s rate rise has lifted Japan’s borrowing costs to their highest since 1995, when the BoJ was midway through lowering interest rates after a bubble in property and asset prices burst .

Susannah Streeter, the chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said: “The move – increasing the short-term policy rate to 1% from 0.75% – was widely expected, but it’s a step-change in monetary policy for Japan, given it pushes borrowing costs to levels not seen since 1995. There was some relief that the move wasn’t more hawkish, with even a 50-basis-point hike having been mooted.”

In 1973, the BoJ raised rates as high as 9% as it tried to combat inflationary pressures from the Opec oil embargo. But by 2016 the BoJ was implementing a negative interest rate policy as it tried to drag Japan out of a long deflationary slump that followed the end of its asset boom in the late 1980s.

Tokyo’s stock market closed at a new record high after the Nikkei share index hit 70,000 points for the first time during Tuesday’s session. The Nikkei has soared by a third so far this year.

The BoJ is the second G7 bank to raise borrowing costs since the Iran war began. Last week the European Central Bank lifted its main interest rates. The US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England are expected to leave borrowing costs unchanged at their monetary policy meetings this week.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Football, World Cup 2026, World Cup, Sport
Title – History for Cape Verde as Spain start with a stutter – World Cup Daily | Football | The Guardian
Author – Max Rushden
Link – History for Cape Verde as Spain start with a stutter – World Cup Daily | Football | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T06:31:37.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/audio/2026/jun/16/history-for-cape-verde-spain-start-with-stutter-world-cup-daily-podcast

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts and join the conversation on email .

On the podcast today: their first ever game at a World Cup and Cape Verde hold Spain to a 0-0 draw after an utterly heroic defensive effort. Sid Lowe joins us to ask if this is just an early blip or if Spanish fans should be concerned.

Elsewhere in Group H, Saudi Arabia cling on to claim a point against Uruguay. Marcelo Bielsa looks on ruefully from his bucket as his side missed several chances in the second half.

In Group G, Belgium need Romelu Lukaku to help them procure a point against Egypt, while New Zealand’s Elijah Just gives them the lead twice but they can’t hold on against Iran.

All that, a preview of Tuesday’s action and your questions answered.

Support the Guardian here .

You can also find Football Weekly on Instagram , TikTok, and YouTube .

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – Formula One 2026, Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Lando Norris, Mercedes GP, Ferrari, McLaren, Motor sport, Sport, Formula One, Kimi Antonelli
Title – ‘You always have it’: Hamilton breaks F1 Ferrari drought but admits he doubted himself | Formula One 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/luke-mclaughlin
Link – ‘You always have it’: Hamilton breaks F1 Ferrari drought but admits he doubted himself | Formula One 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-14T20:21:51.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jun/14/you-always-have-it-hamilton-breaks-f1-ferrari-drought-but-admits-he-doubted-himself

Lewis Hamilton said he feared he had lost the ability to win in Formula One after ending a long wait for success with Ferrari in Spain on Sunday.

The 41-year-old Briton, a seven-time world champion, charged to his 106th grand prix victory at the ­Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona with a flawless drive that capitalised on Ferrari’s pivotal three pit-stop strategy.

After starting second behind George Russell of Mercedes, ­Hamilton’s sparkling performance ended a 41-race winless run – and he admitted there were doubts such a day would ever come.

“After a year like last year, there were definitely moments that I was like: ‘Sheesh, maybe it is true that when you get to a certain point, you lose it’,” Hamilton said.

“I’ve proven you don’t. You always have it. It takes work, it takes perseverance, constant believing in yourself, to tap into your inner self.”

Asked about the negativity that clouded his early struggles at Ferrari , with intense criticism rife on social media, Hamilton said: “I’m only human. There’s moments where I see the stuff, moments where I allowed it to get to me and penetrate deeply … I spent lots of time with family, lots of time with friends, real people that know me, that have never doubted me … Then I just went on the mission from Christmas Day. The training I put in was harder than I’ve ever experienced.”

Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal, said Hamilton’s victory was “a lot about resilience … he had to face tough moments. Beginning with us was not always easy. He had moments when he was down, struggling to build up the relationship with the team, to understand each other. But he kept putting the same energy into the project, continued to push each day at the factory.”

Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, said of his former ally: “Congratulations to Lewis. He’s worked so hard and has gone through so many difficult moments, particularly last year, that wholeheartedly I’m happy for him. If it’s not our turn to win, it should be Lewis. He merited that today. You can say the virtual safety car [for Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso] maybe came at the right time, but that’s what it is.”

Hamilton added that self-belief was key in achieving a cathartic success that may yet help him force his way into a fight for the drivers’ title with the 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli , whom he trails by 41 points after the Italian’s late retirement.

“You’ve got to believe in yourself at the core,” Hamilton said. “Those are the things that I’ve managed to re-implement into my mentality. I’ve rebuilt my mind to this point, to get myself back to where I was. It was a great feeling to stand on that podium. I’m probably going to sleep in this red top tonight – it’s a good feeling to have the horse [Ferrari logo] on there.”

Of Hamilton’s well-documented relationship with Kim Kardashian, meanwhile, Wolff added: “Maybe the girlfriend helps.”

Keyword – Info
Trefwoorden – Information, Football, Newsletter sign-up
Title – Sign up for the Football Daily newsletter: our free football email | Information | The Guardian
Author – Guardian Staff
Link – Sign up for the Football Daily newsletter: our free football email | Information | The Guardian
Publish date – 2022-11-14T09:05:50.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/info/2022/nov/14/football-daily-email-sign-up

Keyword – Environment
Trefwoorden – Nigeria, Conservation, Wildlife, Mammals, Environment, Africa, World news, Endangered species, Animals
Title – The bat that weighs the same as a teaspoon of salt – and the biologist who rediscovered it | Nigeria | The Guardian
Author – Kingsley Charles
Link – The bat that weighs the same as a teaspoon of salt – and the biologist who rediscovered it | Nigeria | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T06:00:48.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/16/iroro-tanshi-biologist-rediscovered-short-tailed-roundleaf-bat-teaspoon-salt-aoe

J ust after sunrise, a cacophony of whoops and chatter can be heard over the verdant forests of the Afi mountain wildlife sanctuary . Nestled within the Cross River rainforest in south-east Nigeria, and spanning an area about the size of central Paris, the steep sanctuary is a haven for endangered gorillas, drill monkeys, the grey-necked rockfowl – and the short-tailed roundleaf bat.

The Nigerian biologist Iroro Tanshi remembers the moment she first spotted the endangered bat in 2016, during a field expedition for her PhD research. “We were trapping near a roost that night, so we caught a lot of bats,” says Tanshi. But, she adds: “This looked very, very different. Big-eared.” She promptly turned to her identification guide, which revealed that the tiny furry creature she was holding between her fingers was Hipposideros curtus , better known as the short-tailed roundleaf bat, last recorded in the wild in the 1970s .

“That was the moment that changed everything. Actually, there was the catching and the moment of realisation, like: ‘Oh my gosh,’” she says of her breakthrough.

Spurred by this discovery, Tanshi and her small crew of local assistants set up harp traps and mist nets, tracking the cave networks within the Afi sanctuary and the nearby Cross River national park. During their gruelling survey, they found 15 more of the bat species.

The short-tailed roundleaf bat weighs about the same as a level teaspoonful of salt. Unlike large fruit bats, it has relatively small eyes and a large intricately folded nose, which helps it to navigate total darkness through echolocation. It is extraordinarily sensitive to noise and bright lights, so Tanshi typically uses red light during her field research.

“You put it on for a short time and turn it off again to kind of see your way or see the bat that’s hanging there,” she says.

For decades, the species was believed to exist only within specific forest caves in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. Thanks to human activities such as deforestation and hunting, all previously documented roosts had been erased by the 2010s. Scientists feared that the species had quietly gone extinct – until Tanshi’s all-important discovery. The small colony she rediscovered around the Afi sanctuary is the only confirmed population of the endangered bat still actively roosting.

However, having rediscovered the bat, Tanshi noticed that most of the attention in the sanctuary went to primates and other large animals, which local people treated with respect.

“People were very familiar with the need to protect nature and conserve these animals,” Tanshi says. “You couldn’t kill those animals in the village without getting reported. But everything else was up for grabs. Regardless of the fact that we were in a protected area, bats were still heavily hunted.”

Historically, bats have been burdened by negative stereotypes, commonly linked to witchcraft and bad omens. Their association with health emergencies, including the Ebola outbreak and Covid, has not helped. “Bats can’t catch a break, sadly,” says Tanshi, who describes the cultural perception of bats in Nigeria as a “complex scenario”. Amid the broader cultural aversion, some Nigerian communities treat the bats as food.

In Abia, a remote village 70km (45 miles) from the Afi sanctuary, the straw-coloured fruit bat is regarded as “normal bushmeat for us, like fish and chicken in other places”, says one villager, Judith Ojong, adding that bats for meat are typically sold in fours for 5,000 naira (about £2.70).

In response, Tanshi, along with Benneth Obitte, another bat specialist, set up the Small Mammal Conservation Organisation (Smacon) in 2016 to champion bats, rodents and other little creatures. The next year they launched the Zero Wildfire Campaign, to combat the destructive blazes that pose another threat to bats.

As part of the campaign, Tanshi and the team at Smacon designed colour-coded alert systems to guide farmers on safe bush burning. To supervise farmers during burning and provide a swift response in the event of an outbreak, Tanshi also formed a group called Forest Guardians. The incidence of wildfires within the forest area has plummeted in the past five years, she says.

In April, Tanshi became one of only six women globally to receive a Goldman environmental award , in recognition of her successful wildfire campaign around the Afi mountain wildlife sanctuary. She was also recently named a National Geographic explorer and has won a Whitley award .

A decade after finding the short-tailed roundleaf bat, Tanshi, a postdoctoral fellow at the Washington Research Foundation, remains enraptured by the hidden diversity in Nigeria’s rainforest and is still amazed at her discovery.

“Something that we thought was extinct was in this beautiful place that nobody goes to,” she says.

Find more age of extinction coverage here , and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield in the Guardian app for more nature coverage