There is still no bigger rugby team than the All Blacks but administrators realise the world is changing rapidly

There are two types of game being played in international rugby union. The familiar one on the field and another – arguably even more significant – unfolding off it. Long gone are the days when the only big hitters were the players. With the greatest respect to every immovable Springbok prop and 100-cap All Black, they are not the people ultimately shaping their sport’s future.

To be in New Zealand is to be reminded of this development more forcibly than ever. There is still no bigger team in the global imagination than the All Blacks but the world is changing rapidly. Rugby’s century-old certainties are melting away faster than the polar ice-caps and reputation alone is scant insulation from the chill blast of post-Covid reality.

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© Photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

Netflix and Amazon are driving a small bump in the market for TV shows after a major slowdown.

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• Romania v Netherlands (5pm), Austria v Turkey (8pm)
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Austria v Turkey (8pm)

Ralf Rangnick’s side hammered Turkey 6-1 in a friendly in March, which adds a meaty layer of context to tonight’s game. Here’s Nick Ames’ preview of what is going to be a cracking game. You have our word.

I thanked him [afterwards] for being the way he is, for caring for the group. I was certain that he would be the first penalty taker and show us the way to take victory. I think we’re all very proud of our captain. Our dressing room was all delighted. I think he gave us all a lesson. Life and football gives you difficult moments and the way he reacted shows why we are so proud in Portuguese football.

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© Photograph: Jasmin Walter/UEFA/Getty Images

More and more comedians are uploading their improvised encounters with audience members. But do these interactions detract from the craft of standup?

The front row of a comedy club is a scary place to be. Those courageous enough to brave that spot – or any stragglers forced to tentatively perch there – do so knowing that, at any moment, a microphone could be thrust into their face by a comedian asking them what they do for a living. Such unscripted back-and-forths – or “crowd work” in comedy parlance – have always been a part of standup, often seen as a benchmark to separate the good writers or performers from those with truly funny bones. It’s these moments, when tension fizzes and audience members squirm, that attenders regale to their friends with the phrase: “You had to be there.”

But thanks to the internet, you don’t actually have to be in the room to see crowd work. Now, TikTok and Instagram are flooded with footage of standup comics showing off their wit through off-the-cuff interactions where they ask the audience members who they’re here with or what country they’re from, and improvise around the answers. When these clips are posted online, they share the same instantly recognisable template. The dialogue is accompanied by fast-moving subtitles where words are highlighted one by one, both to improve accessibility and hold on to users’ ever-shortening attention spans. Then, they’re packaged up with a caption distilling the exchange in to a single theme or an enticing title to drive engagement: “Heckler can’t handle it” or “Audience member breaks comedians”. It’s pure comedy clickbait, and the latest string to the comedian turned content-creator’s bow.

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© Illustration: Martin Tognola/The Guardian

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© Illustration: Martin Tognola/The Guardian

Populated by tech and pharma hustlers, this bold and highly impressive debut novel has its thumb right over the sore spots of modern life

It’s rare but it does happen: a debut novel comes along that’s so obviously impressive, so advanced in the reach of its ideas and the gracefulness of its execution, that you want to start proselytising for it before you’ve even turned the final page. With its dissident intelligence and its comprehensive vision of a devastated social sphere, Mariel Franklin’s Bonding is the work of an author whose importance already feels assured.

Zoning in on a milieu of tech and pharmaceutical workers in 2020s London, Bonding depicts western society as a juggernaut zombie, digitally reconfigured and bereft of a coherent system of values, that staggers onwards in flight from an all-pervading truth: “no one had any idea how to live”.

Bonding by Mariel Franklin is published by Picador (£16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

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© Photograph: Maxim Vinciguerra

• Experienced props Joe Marler and Will Stuart selected
• Marcus Smith retains fly-half place to face All Blacks

England have thrown down the gauntlet to the All Blacks by naming their team 48 hours early for Saturday’s pivotal first Test in Dunedin. The starting XV shows two changes, with props Joe Marler and Will Stuart both selected in the front row, while Harlequins’ Fin Baxter and Northampton’s Ollie Sleightholme are both in line to win their first caps off the bench.

Baxter and Sleightholme are joined among the replacements by Alex Coles and Ben Spencer, with Bevan Rodd, the suspended Charlie Ewels, Harry Randall and Tom Roebuck all dropping out of the matchday 23. The benched Dan Cole will win his 114th cap to equal Jason Leonard as England’s most capped male forward.

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© Photograph: Hannah Peters/Getty Images

Coach Steve Borthwick says England ‘want to find out more about ourselves’.

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In speech from White House, president said ruling ‘undermined the rule of law’ and compared their characters

Joe Biden has issued a full-throated denunciation of the US supreme court’s decision to grant his predecessor, Donald Trump, broad immunity from criminal charges of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, calling it a “dangerous precedent” that overturned the basic principle of equality before the law.

In a 5-minute speech from the White House, Biden said the 6-3 ruling “undermined the rule of law” and rendered a “terrible disservice to the people of this nation” because it means Trump is much less likely to be held legally accountable for inciting a mob to launch a deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

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© Photograph: ABACA/REX/Shutterstock

During the most challenging period of President Biden’s re-election bid, the first lady appears on the cover of a high-fashion bible.

Toll of dead and injured at anti-government rallies where police opened fire is almost double earlier figure disclosed

At least 39 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in anti-government demonstrations in Kenya, the national rights watchdog has said, as activists geared up for a new round of protests this week.

The toll announced by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) is almost double the figure previously disclosed by the authorities for those killed while contesting a set of unpopular tax increases that have now been withdrawn.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Laws in Florida and Texas were designed to restrict big tech’s power over alleged bias towards conservative speech

The US supreme court on Monday threw out judicial decisions involving challenges to Republican-backed laws in Florida and Texas that restricted the power of social media companies to remove or down-rank objectionable content.

The justices directed lower appeals courts to reconsider a pair of decisions regarding these 2021 laws authorizing the states to regulate the content-moderation practices of large social media platforms. Tech industry trade groups had challenged the two laws under the US constitution’s first amendment limits on the government’s ability to restrict speech. The ruling came on the final day of the supreme court’s term that began in October.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Biden campaign launches counter-offensive amid fears that frail appearance at debate could mean defeat in November

With the White House scrambling to prevent Joe Biden’s candidacy being enveloped in a full-blown crisis, several state governors were said to be subtly positioning themselves as late substitutes while avoiding being seen to do so.

The Biden campaign has launched a counter-offensive, including furious networking among senior Democrats, to counteract fears that the 81-year-old president’s frail appearance in last week’s debate had made defeat at the hands of Donald Trump in November’s election inevitable.

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© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

‘It indicates to me they’ve died,’ one heartbroken fan suggested

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Important scene refers to events that took place in ‘Game of Thrones’

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Returning star left ITV soap in 2005

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Fans of the franchise have been left perplexed by the new trailer

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In the cold light of day, the sense remains Gareth Southgate got away with how he used his bench against Slovakia

Let’s pretend there was a strategy. Let’s pretend Gareth Southgate knew that waiting until the fourth minute of added time to bring on Ivan Toney would result in the randomness of Marc Guéhi’s header from Kyle Walker’s long throw landing in just the right spot for Jude Bellingham to score a bicycle kick. Let’s pretend there was evidence of some grand managerial plan coming together as England muddled their way to a face-saving victory over Slovakia in Gelsenkirchen.

There was plenty of incentive for Southgate to big up his substitutions after an unbalanced, confused team secured a quarter-final with Switzerland. Instead of facing an inquest into England exiting Euro 2024, the manager had room to talk about spirit, togetherness and desire. He could use a little diversion as he talked about giving a presentation to his players about the 1966 World Cup last month, explaining that England would not have won then without the understudies in Alf Ramsey’s squad being ready to contribute when their opportunity arrived. Remember hat-trick hero Geoff Hurst coming into the team only in the quarter-final? Look over there. Is that football coming home?

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© Photograph: Paul Currie/REX/Shutterstock

• Mark Robinson says younger fans have to be considered
• All Blacks open England series in Dunedin on Saturday

New Zealand’s top rugby official says the introduction of 20‑minute red cards at all levels of the game is an increasingly urgent necessity if the sport is to remain relevant to younger fans. He has also warned that rugby needs to think more about its paying public if it is serious about enhancing the game’s appeal in the longer term.

With the All Blacks due to face England in the first of two back‑to‑back Tests in Dunedin on Saturday, the New Zealand Rugby chief ­executive, Mark Robinson, has renewed calls for the red-card ­system to be reformed this year, urging World Rugby to extend its closed ­trials to the entire global game.

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© Photograph: Christophe Ena/AP

European Commission objects to ‘pay or consent’ model for users of Facebook and Instagram

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The European Commission has accused Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta of breaching the EU’s new digital laws with an advertising model that charges users for ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram.

Meta launched a “pay or consent” model last year in an effort to comply with the bloc’s data privacy rules, under which users pay a monthly fee for an ad-free version of Facebook or Instagram that does not use their personal data for advertising purposes. If users do not pay, their data is used to tailor personalised adverts that appear in their social media feeds.

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© Photograph: Peter Dasilva/Reuters

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© Photograph: Peter Dasilva/Reuters

‘It was personal,’ film star said of ‘cheap shot’ made at his expense

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Including one of the greatest shows of all time

© Netflix / ABC

Star’s inclusion would mark a big first for the series

© BBC