I have to say, the Stade Tourbillon is probably one of the most picturesque stadiums I think I’ve ever seen! The mountainous backdrop behind the ground is absolutely stunning. Anyway, onto the football now…
The teams are out! The national anthems are about to be sung. Kick-off is just a few moments away!
The 32-year-old was granted asylum in 2014, but lost his refugee status because of his record
Austria has returned a Syrian with a criminal conviction to his birth country in what it described as the first such deportation since the fall of the Assad regime.
“The deportation carried out today is part of a strict and thus fair asylum policy,” Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner, said in a statement.
Combs remains jailed awaiting sentencing as more than 50 civil cases alleging abuse and assault move forward
After two months, the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs came to a close on Wednesday with a mixed verdict. The jury acquitted the 55-year-old music mogul of the most serious charges – racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking – but found him guilty on the two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Still, this verdict marks only one chapter in Combs’s mounting legal battles. Combs, who remains incarcerated at the Metropolitan detention center in Brooklyn, is now awaiting sentencing and faces a growing number of civil lawsuits against him alleging sexual assault and abuse.
The actor on working with Mike Leigh, death by disco ball and drinking on the job
Has your northern accent helped or hindered your career? Eluned51 They do call a group of actors a “moan” of actors. We like to have a good moan. When people hear a regional accent, they immediately make assumptions about your class, financial status and education. People generally think if you’ve got a strong regional accent, you can’t do much else. Obviously there are amazing actors like Jodie Comer who smash that to pieces because people don’t realise she’s from Liverpool. But because I came out the traps with the northern accent it’s probably helped.
Do you ever suffer from impostor syndrome and think: “Why are people so fascinated by me?” RealEdPhillips I don’t ever think people are – I think they are generally quite bored by me! Of course I have impostor syndrome. When you don’t get a job, you can’t help but think: “Why didn’t I get that job? Why don’t they think I’m good enough?” So there’s a healthy balance of inferiority complex and slightly prickly ego.
I recently chatted with a middle-aged co-worker about her friend who is unhappy being single and thinks she should lose weight. As Gen X women growing up in the 1980s, our biggest concern was weight and calorie counting to control it (now we can add wrinkles, yellow teeth and odd body hair to the list).
Lawyer claims families falsely told they would not get compensation unless they completed complicated forms
The lawyer representing families whose loved ones died in the Air India flight 171 crash has said he is “angered and appalled” by the airline’s “ethically outrageous” behaviour towards bereaved relatives.
Air India said the claims, which they take “incredibly seriously”, are “unsubstantiated and inaccurate”.
Officials say about 90 people killed since Wednesday night as Israeli security cabinet prepares for meeting
Israel has escalated its offensive in Gaza before imminent talks about a ceasefire, with warships and artillery launching one of the deadliest and most intense bombardments in the devastated Palestinian territory for many months.
Medics and officials in Gaza reported that about 90 people were killed overnight and on Thursday, including many women and children. On Tuesday night and Wednesday the toll was higher, they said. Casualties included Marwan al-Sultan, a cardiologist and director of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, who died in an airstrike that also killed his wife and five children.
American hellfire Pentecostal preacher brought down by sex scandals who tearfully begged for forgiveness on TV
The American televangelist hellfire preacher Jimmy Swaggart, who has died aged 90, fell by the wayside not once but twice with sex workers, spectacularly ending his previously successful TV ministry that screened in 140 countries and was reputed to bring in $150m a year in merchandising sales.
On the first occasion, when he was filmed with a woman at a motel near his church in the suburbs of New Orleans in 1988, he prayed for forgiveness in a tearful TV address. On the second occasion three years later in California when he was caught with a woman in his car, he just told his congregation: “The Lord told me it’s flat out none of your business.”
Delayed 2023 accounts show Peter Hebblethwaite was paid £683,000 despite public outrage over dismissals
The boss of P&O Ferries was paid £683,000 in the financial year after the cross-Channel operator outraged the public and parliament by dismissing almost 800 mainly British workers.
The windfall, revealed in much delayed 2023 accounts seen by the Guardian and ITV News that report more than £90m of annual losses, represents a pay rise of at least 55% for Peter Hebblethwaite, who was the company’s highest-paid director.
The drummer says he met with director Sam Mendes to clarify the depiction of himself and his then wife Maureen
Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr said that he personally intervened in the script of the forthcoming four-film Beatles biopic directed by Sam Mendes to clarify the depiction of himself and his then wife Maureen.
In an interview with the New York Times, Starr said that he had met Mendes in London in April and spent two days discussing the script for the section of the project focusing on him.
Fire on island being fanned by gale-force winds as blazes also rage on mainland Greece and in Germany
A wildfire fanned by gale-force winds has forced the evacuation of more than 1,500 people on the Greek island of Crete, officials have said, as large swathes of continental Europe baked in a punishing early summer heatwave linked to at least nine deaths.
About 230 firefighters, along with 46 vehicles and helicopters, were battling the blaze on Thursday after it broke out 24 hours earlier near Ierapetra, on the south-east coast of the country’s largest island, threatening to engulf houses and hotels.
Damien Saunder set out to survey the cartographic influence on album sleeve design. Four years and 400-plus records later, he’s created the coffee table book music fans and map lovers never knew they needed
Growing up in rural Wangaratta in north-eastern Victoria, Damien Saunder spent many a wintry day listening to music on the family’s record player. Just beneath the stereo was a Reader’s Digest atlas. “Anytime we put on a record, I’d get out the atlas,” Saunder recalls. “It was like a gateway to the world – a way to dream, explore and let your mind wander.”
Decades later, music and maps have come together again, this time in a coffee table book: Maps on Vinyl, a world-first survey of the cartographic influence on album sleeve design; an atlas of album cover maps. It’s the book most music fans – and map-makers – never knew they needed.
It’s frightening to learn we’re not to similar to others, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. One way to respond is to allow that feeling of otherness
I received an ADHD and autism diagnosis at the end of 2024 after a period of stress and depression. I thought that my profession was to blame (I work, however unfittingly, in finance) but have come to appreciate that I am sensitive to many kinds of environmental stressors.
It has been difficult to navigate the world since the diagnosis. At first I was ecstatic, finding many of my life’s complexities could be easily answered by a natural neurodivergence, but have since found the world to be even more confusing, especially where relationship dynamics are concerned. Some people I have told about my diagnosis have started to baby me slightly. Whereas before the diagnosis I might have struggled along in certain social situations, feeling myself a little bit slow off the mark, or bored, now I am starting to notice a pronounced sense of my “otherness”, which is quite scary.
The ‘obscene’ movies once banned in the UK are now mostly freely available. Are these tales of cannibals and the undead antiquated schlock or genuinely repellent?
Later this month, the cult film service Arrow will do something that would once have plunged the UK into screaming fits of utter chaos. That’s right, it’s going to stream Zombie Flesh Eaters.
The film comes with a tremendously confusing backstory. In Italy, George A Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was recut by Dario Argento and retitled Zombi. Zombi, no relation to Bambi, was such a success that a sequel was commissioned, using the script of an unmade movie entitled Nightmare Island. This film became Zombi 2. In the UK, Zombi 2 was renamed Zombie Flesh Eaters. And then it was banned.
He hated baths, he was allergic to cats and he once ate a live mouse. Now that he’s gone, I don’t know how to miss him
When the woman from the pet crematorium asked what to put on the plaque, I had a single thought. Rupert, I told her, who ate a live mouse. The mouse had been inside the house. We had a full army chasing it – me, the kids, a herd of cats – but it had escaped our clutches for a full 30 minutes until, to my horror and delight, I turned just in time to see a scaly tail slip between my dog’s jaws.
I’ve always wondered how long a mouse could live in a dog’s digestive tract. Too long, probably. Rupert lay down for a long time after that.
Sources say no complaint has been made to police – with expectation that garment will ‘turn up’
Lauren Sánchez packed 27 designer dresses for her wedding to the billionaire Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, in Venice last week, but left with only 26 after one went missing.
The couple, who are now honeymooning in Taormina, Sicily, were wed during a star-studded three-day celebration in the lagoon city.
The 18-year-old says it’s ‘very difficult’ to focus on Palmeiras as he knows his time with the club is coming to an end
Who would have thought that two Brazilian clubs would reach the Club World Cup quarter-finals? If Fluminense beat Al-Hilal in Orlando on Friday and Palmeiras get the better of Chelsea a few hours later in Philadelphia, one of them will make it to the final. Chelsea have already been embarrassed by one Brazilian side at the tournament – they were trounced 3-1 by Flamengo a fortnight ago in the group stage – but they are still favourites to beat Palmeiras in the quarter-finals.
The English side came out on top when the teams met in the final of the Club World Cup three years ago, winning 2-1 thanks to a 117th-minute penalty converted by Kai Havertz. At that point, a young prodigy known as “Messinho”, or little Messi, was taking his first steps in the Palmeiras academy having joined from Cruzeiro. When the teams meet again on Friday night, Estêvão Willian will be the central focus. The 18-year-old is inextricably linked to both clubs, having turned professional at one before agreeing to join the other in a deal that could be worth up to £52m.
Ronaldo says teammate’s death ‘doesn’t make any sense’
Wolves say ‘memories he created will never be forgotten’
Jürgen Klopp and Cristiano Ronaldo led the tributes from across the football world to Diogo Jota after the Liverpool and Portugal forward was killed in a car accident in Spain. Jota’s brother, André, also died in the crash in the province of Zamora.
Jota was 28, a father of three young children and had married his long-term partner, Rute Cardoso, less than a fortnight ago. Klopp, who signed Jota for Liverpool in 2020 and managed him for four seasons, posted on Instagram: “This is a moment where I struggle! There must be a bigger purpose! But I can’t see it!
The phrase, which refers to difficulty in sensing the passage of time, is now taking over TikTok. But can it always be a get-out-jail-free card?
Dr Melissa Shepard has a problem with managing her time. She had always been a high achiever, making it through medical school to become a psychiatrist and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. But no matter how hard she worked, she struggled with one of life’s simplest expectations: being on time.
“I really felt like I could just not crack the code,” Shepard said. “I worried: am I just an asshole? Is that why I’m always late? No matter how hard I wanted to be on time, it was a struggle.”
Holloman Lake was a haven for wildlife and seemed an ideal campsite. But strange foam around the shoreline turned out to be more than just an oddity – and reveals the alarming way forever chemicals move through ecosystems
For years, Christopher Witt took birdwatchers to Holloman Lake in the Chihuahuan desert off the route 70 highway in New Mexico. By mid-morning the sun would beat down as they huddled in the scant shade of the van. There were no trees other than a collection of salt cedars on the lake’s north shore. But the discomfort didn’t matter when the peregrine falcons appeared, slicing through the sky. “It was hard to leave that place,” says Witt.
The lake – created in 1965 as part of a system of wastewater catchment ponds for Holloman air force base – is an unlikely oasis. Other than small ponds created for livestock it is the only body of water for thousands of square kilometres in an otherwise stark landscape. However, Witt says there was always something slightly weird about the foam that would form around the edge. “But I only saw that stuff once I knew.”
As the Gallagher brothers prepare for the decade’s most anticipated tour, our critic offers 20 useful tips for what to play – including the deep cuts they really should pick
From the title to the chorus’s apparent declaration of fraternal loyalty – “we need each other” – Acquiesce seems the ideal opener for a reformed Oasis. But given that Noel’s always insisted it’s not about fraternal loyalty, it probably won’t be …
Astronomer says object could be further evidence that ‘interstellar wanderers’ are common in galaxy
It isn’t a bird, it isn’t a plane and it certainly isn’t Superman – but it does appear to be a visitor from beyond our solar system, according to astronomers who have discovered a new object hurtling through our cosmic neighbourhood.
The object, originally called A11pl3Z and now known as 3I/Atlas, was first reported by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (Atlas) survey telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile, on Tuesday.
Details include how White House staff thought ex-president ‘was a prick’ who disrespected and mistreated Biden
Barack Obama, the former US president, sounded the alarm about Joe Biden’s ailing re-election bid almost a year before polling day, warning his former vice-president’s staff “your campaign is a mess”, a new book reveals.
The intervention came amid tensions between the Obama and Biden camps as they braced for a tough fight against Donald Trump. In the end, the ageing Biden withdrew from the race in favor of his vice-president, Kamala Harris, who was defeated by Trump.
Justices will hear Idaho and West Virginia appeals on laws barring trans girls from female public school teams
The US supreme court announced on Thursday that it will consider a bid by West Virginia and Idaho to enforce their state laws banning transgender athletes from female sports teams at public sector schools.
The decision means the court is prepared to take up another civil rights challenge to Republican-backed restrictions on transgender people.
This warm, funny account of a mercurial talent gone to waste teems with love for its subject
When the music journalist Will Hodgkinson proposed writing a book on Lawrence, ex-frontman of the post-punk band Felt and latterly of Go-Kart Mozart (recently re-christened Mozart Estate), he was told there would be conditions. Lawrence – who goes by his first name only – said he couldn’t speak to any old bandmates. Furthermore, there could be no anecdotes or use of the word “just”. Asked what is wrong with “just”, Lawrence tells him: “I just don’t like it.”
A simultaneously entertaining and melancholic account of an overlooked musician, Street-Level Superstar depicts the sixtysomething Lawrence as a pallid eccentric who passes his time walking around London, who lives on liquorice and milky tea and is fearful of cheese – “We know that in nature if something smells, it is dangerous to eat.” We learn that Lawrence hasn’t had a girlfriend for years. Reflecting on sex, he says: “I was a two-minute wonder. They’re not missing much.”
Far-right activist allegedly told journalists: ‘I’m coming to get you’ and ‘I’ll be knocking at your door’
The far-right activist known as Tommy Robinson has denied harassing two journalists by allegedly telling them: “I’m coming to get you” and “I’ll be knocking at your door”.
Robinson, 42, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, appeared at Southwark crown court where he denied two offences of harassment causing fear of violence.
Album launch party was ending when three people in an SUV began firing on a crowd outside a nightclub
Four people were killed by gunfire and 14 others hospitalized overnight after a drive-by shooting outside a private nightclub event in Chicago, police said on Thursday.
At least three were in critical condition and city news outlets reported that the incident happened after a launch party for the new album by the local rap star Mello Buckzz and that her boyfriend was one of those shot.
The EU and US are closing in on a high-level “framework” trade deal that would avert 50% tariffs on all exports from the bloc next Wednesday, Donald Trump’s self-imposed deadline.
Talks in Washington could go down to the wire, but diplomats and officials said the EU was willing to accept Trump’s 10% blanket tariffs. Negotiators will only accept this, however, in exchange for an extension in talks and possible concessions on a 25% car tariff, which is hurting the German car industry, sources said.
DJ and producer, real name Keith McIvor, says health has ‘declined very rapidly over just a few weeks’
JD Twitch, one half of the celebrated Scottish DJ and production duo Optimo, has been diagnosed with a brain tumour which he has been told is untreatable.
The musician, real name Keith McIvor, announced the news in a post on Instagram. He said: “My symptoms weren’t immediately diagnosed, and my health declined very rapidly over just a few weeks. Because of how rapidly everything progressed I haven’t been able to share this news personally with everyone I care about so this feels the clearest and kindest way to let you know what’s happening.”
Jeffries has just passed the five-hour mark and has no intention of stopping: “We still got some ground to cover.”
“We are going to continue as Democrats to take our sweet time on behalf of the American people because the issues are too significant to ever walk away from,” Jeffries said, to cheers from the Democrats in the chamber.
Modi to be honored on historic two-day visit but country’s Muslims express concern over human rights record
News that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi will receive Trinidad and Tobago’s highest honour during a historic visit to the country has been welcomed by the Indo-Trinidadian Hindu population but has drawn strong objections from the country’s largest Muslim organisation.
Modi’s two-day visit to the country on Thursday marks the first time a sitting Indian prime minister sets foot in Trinidad and Tobago. Modi accepted the invitation from the recently appointed prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who has longstanding diplomatic ties with India.
Opponents say the decision allowing parents to let their kids opt out of lessons featuring LGBTQ+ themes will hurt the US education system
Kiernan, a 24-year-old transgender person from Colorado, feels drained from dealing with legislation that consistently limits the spaces and freedoms of people like him. Since he transitioned in 2016, it’s been the same – first bathroom bills, then censorship in the education system – routine attacks on LGBTQ+ rights that Kiernan feels have now just become part of living in the US.
So the news that Donald Trump “will take a look” at deporting his billionaire former “first buddy” Musk has many smirking and shrugging: “Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.”
Football’s reigning world champions – and favourites to win Euro 2025 – have become symbols of women’s fight for equality
For years, they battled on multiple fronts: pushing back against the misogyny, misconduct and mistreatment of their football federation while simultaneously seeking to be the best in the world.
The conflicts of Spain’s women’s team exploded into public view after they won the World Cup in 2023 – a historic triumph that was almost immediately overshadowed by an unwanted kiss on the lips from the country’s football chief.
Nearly every Italian region produces its own fizzy white, many of them not nearly as sweet as your average prosecco
When I was at university, whenever I partook in that most sacred of further educational rituals (that is, pre-drinks), my tipple of choice was an entire bottle of prosecco. More times a week than I feel comfortable disclosing here, I’d trundle down to the Tesco Express in Durham to score a bottle of Plaza Centro prosecco for the sublime price of £5.50 (it’s now a princely £7). While many other wine writers’ careers begin with a unicorn bottle from a relative’s cellar, I’m proud to say that mine started here.
Why am I telling you this? Well, not only did I feel cool sipping my fizz from a plastic flute while my friends drank rum and orange juice mixed and swigged direct from the carton, but I also loved prosecco. Today, however, I’m more indifferent, which is not to say that prosecco has got any worse or changed in any way over time. But I have. When I was an 18-year-old concerned with getting as trollied as possible in the least amount of time and at little cost, I was drawn to sweetness, as many of us are when we’re younger, and most supermarket prosecco is rather sweet – even the confusingly named “extra dry” category allows for 12-17g sugar per litre.
As his debut album Brown Sugar turns 30 this week, we look back on the relatively slim but astoundingly rich catalogue of the architect of neosoul
For an artist no one could describe as prolific, D’Angelo has contributed a surprising number of exclusive songs to films. Good songs too, as evidenced by this, from the Space Jam soundtrack: a fine, funky, faintly Stevie Wonder-ish, mid-tempo example of his initial retro-yet-somehow-modern approach to soul.
Report by Francesca Albanese singles out companies such as Palantir and calls for prosecutions
The UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories has called for sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel and for global corporations to be held accountable for “profiting from genocide” in Gaza.
A report by Francesca Albanese to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday points to the deep involvement of companies from around the world in supporting Israel during its 21-month onslaught in Gaza.
Inspectorate finds force has made ‘significant improvements’ in how it treats victims of sexual exploitation
Greater Manchester police are investigating more than 1,000 grooming gang suspects, as a new report found the force was “trying to provide a better service to those who have experienced sexual exploitation”.
The force has made “significant improvements” in how it investigates grooming gangs and other types of child sexual abuse offences, according to the report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.
Broadcaster admits making mistakes before and during punk duo’s show in which they chanted ‘death to the IDF’
The BBC has said it was wrong to believe the punk duo Bob Vylan were “suitable for live streaming with appropriate mitigations” for their performance at Glastonbury festival, despite ranking them as “high risk” before the event.
In a statement signalling there would be repercussions for those blamed for the failure, the corporation said any musical performances deemed to be high risk would now not be broadcast live or streamed live.
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