• Pacquiao, 46, fights to majority draw in comeback bout

• Barrios keeps WBC title after strong final three rounds

• As it happened: Manny Pacquiao MD 12 Mario Barrios

By the time the final bell rang, Manny Pacquiao had done everything but win the fight. He out-threw, out-landed and out-hustled a champion 16 years his junior on Saturday night in Las Vegas, but the scorecards told a different story.

Pacquiao’s spirited return to the ring after a four-year layoff ended in a majority draw against WBC welterweight titleholder Mario Barrios. One judge scored it 115–113 for Barrios, while the other two had it 114–114, allowing the 30-year-old Texan to retain his belt by the narrowest of margins. (The Guardian scored it 115-113 for Pacquiao.)

Officially, the party says there is no mission to court Conservative defectors, but insiders suggest otherwise, and warn against the dangers of doing so

At last year’s GB News Christmas party, Suella Braverman was the centre of attention. The former home secretary is popular in rightwing media circles, but it wasn’t her straight-talking brand of conservatism that was topic of the evening, rather it was the growing whispers about what some thought was her imminent defection to Reform UK.

“It was like a panto – everyone saying: ‘Oh yes you will’, and her saying: ‘Oh no, I won’t’,” says one Reform party guest. “We all thought she was just biding her time until the right moment.”

Pen names have a long history. Now Liadan Ní Chuinn is shunning publicity in an industry that demands ever more exposure

What’s in a pen name? Irish writer Liadan Ní Chuinn’s debut short story collection, Every One Still Here, is receiving rave reviews and rapturous praise, but hardly anyone seems to know who they are. A cursory Google turns up no photos or biographical information. All we know is that the writer is Northern Irish and was born in 1998, the year of the Good Friday agreement.

A statement from Irish publisher The Stinging Fly reads: “The Stinging Fly has been working with Liadan on these stories for the past four years. From early on in the process, they expressed a desire to publish their work under a pseudonym and to protect their privacy throughout the publication process. No photographs of the author are available and Liadan will not be participating in any in-person interviews or public events.”

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist

Do you feel ready to merge your past and your present? By considering a friendship with this man, you can see if this will work for you

Until four years ago, I was a sex worker – specifically, a high-end escort. In my experience, when clients treat you with respect and understand the boundaries, it’s possible to form a relationship not unlike that between a therapist and a client.

One client I was particularly fond of was a man a few years older than me. He is on the autism spectrum, which makes him somewhat socially awkward, but he is intelligent, creative and empathetic – and passably handsome. I always felt he would make a wonderful partner for a woman who could see past his quirks.

The Palestinian Authority’s ability to use the Gaza Marine field could leave them less dependent on aid

Recognition of Palestine as a state would put beyond doubt that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is entitled to develop the natural gas resources of the Gaza Marine field, according to one of the experts that worked on the stalled project.

Michael Barron, the author of a new book on Palestine’s untapped gas reserves, has suggested the field could generate $4bn (£3bn) in revenue at current prices and it is reasonable that the PA could receive $100m a year over 15 years.

£6 a pint, £199 a month for gym membership, £1,200 to rent a studio flat? The Guardian’s former North of England editor asks if the city she’s worked in for 12 years is changing for the better – or worse

Arriving in Manchester after moving up from London in 2013, I spotted something I took as a sign of how different my new life would be – how much cheaper, how much less pretentious. I told everyone back in London about the £1 Brew Stall at Piccadilly station. “Can you imagine being able to get a cup of tea at Euston for only a pound?” I would ask.

For a while, I was always seeking to prove I had not made a mistake leaving behind the bright lights of the capital city. I was the last staff reporter the Guardian had left in the whole of the north of England, and I felt isolated in a place no one in London really seemed to care about. It made me extremely chippy. This was a year before George Osborne anointed Manchester the centre of his fictional “northern powerhouse”; four before Andy Burnham abandoned Westminster to become the region’s mayor.

Christina Block is standing trial in Hamburg accused of kidnapping of her own children from her ex-husband

For over half a century Block House has ranked as one of the most recognised restaurant chains on the German high street – a collection of family-friendly steakhouses whose staples include the “classic Block burger” and filet mignon.

But for months the Hamburg-based chain has been making headlines for an altogether different reason: a bitter and extraordinary custody battle between the heiress to the family business, Christina Block, and her ex-husband over the youngest two of their four children.

Murdering and massacring innocents is indefensible. So why on earth is it allowed to continue? The answer is moral relativism

The quest for peace in major conflicts has rarely been so desperate and so seemingly futile. In Gaza, talk of ceasefires, truces and pauses typically ends in tears. In Ukraine, the war is now well into its fourth year with no end in sight, despite Donald Trump’s new 50-day deadline. Syria burns anew. Sudan’s horrors never cease. Last year, state-based conflicts reached a peak – 61 across 36 countries. It was the highest recorded total since 1946. This year could be worse.

The sheer scale and depravity of war crimes and other conflict-zone atrocities is extraordinary. The deliberate, illegal targeting and terrorising of civilians, the killing, maiming and abduction of children, and the use of starvation, sexual violence, torture and forced displacement as weapons of war have grown almost routine. Israel’s killing last week of children queueing for water in Gaza was shocking, made doubly so by the fact that scenes like this have become so commonplace.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

Northern parts of the country hit on Sunday morning, according to authorities, after some of the heaviest hourly rainfall on record

At least two people were killed and more are missing in heavy downpours in South Korea, officials said, amid heavy rain, flooding and landslides, bringing the death toll to 14 from torrential rains that have lashed the country for a week.

Close to 170mm of rain hit the resort town of Gapyeong county in Gyeonggi province, 70km east of Seoul, early on Sunday, said disaster authorities, after a landslide engulfed houses and flooding swept away vehicles during a period of heavy rainfall.

Police in London detain scores of people and confiscate placards under section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000

More than 100 people have been arrested across the UK at events related to Palestine Action, in the third week of demonstrations since the group was banned as a terrorist organisation.

Demonstrations were held in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol and Truro on Saturday as part of a campaign coordinated by Defend Our Juries.

• United States 5-40 England in rugby double header at Audi Field

• Ilona Maher stars as US women hold on to beat Fiji 31-24

On a perfectly unlovely summer’s day in Washington DC, amid lasering sunshine, lowering clouds, debilitating humidity and lengthy lightning delays, Steve Borthwick’s Lions-light England sweated to a six-try win over the US Eagles.

Borthwick expressed satisfaction, telling reporters his men did well “in the challenging conditions, two lightning breaks, so the game lasted effectively a long time. There’s a scenario that none of us had faced before. We wanted a short half-time to deal with that but it wasn’t possible, but that’s six new caps in today.”

Measles on the rise and vaccination rates falling; EPA to be gutted of its crucial research function. Key US politics stories from Saturday 19 July at a glance

“The current administration is waging a war on science,” warned Celine Gounder, a professor of medicine and an infectious disease expert at New York University in a keynote talk in May to graduates of Harvard’s School of Public Health.

That war appeared to enter a new phase in the aftermath of a recent supreme court decision that empowered health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a prominent vaccine sceptic, and other agency leaders, to implement mass firings – effectively greenlighting the politicization of science.

New codes developed by the tech sector and eSafety commissioner come into effect in December, with major ramifications for internet users

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As the old adage goes, “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”. But in Australia it might soon be the case that everything from search engines and social media sites, to app stores and AI chatbots will have to know your age.

The Albanese government trumpeted the passage of its legislation banning under 16s from social media – which will come into effect in December – but new industry codes developed by the tech sector and eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant under the Online Safety Act will probably have much larger ramifications for how Australians access the internet.

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Cornelius Taylor was killed during a sweep of a homeless encampment in city’s preparation for MLK weekend

The family of a man who was killed after city workers crushed his tent with a bulldozer during a sweep of a homeless encampment in Atlanta, Georgia, filed a lawsuit against the city on Friday over his death, calling it “tragic and preventable”.

The lawsuit filed by Cornelius Taylor’s sister and son alleges that city employees failed to look to see if there was anyone inside the tents in the encampment before using a bulldozer to clear it in the 16 January sweep. Taylor, 46, was inside one of the tents and was crushed by the truck when his tent was flattened, the lawsuit says.

• Ukrainian adds IBF belt to WBA, WBC and WBO titles

• Dubois suffers second defeat to Usyk in two years

The mighty Oleksandr Usyk is, yet again, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world as he decisively defeated Daniel Dubois in the fifth round after a display as clinical as it was brutal. At the age of 38, Usyk outclassed and outfought his British rival, who is 11 years his junior, to establish himself definitively as the best heavyweight, so far, of the 21st century.

The end was as conclusive as it was crushing. A sharp combination set up an opening for Usyk’s crunching right hook. Dubois crumpled to the canvas then, bravely, he rose unsteadily to his feet. But the outcome had already been decided. Usyk moved in with shark-like speed and stealth. A shuddering overhead left detonated against the already listing head of Dubois who fell heavily to the canvas, his gumshield spitting helplessly from his mouth.

The goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger produced one of the all-time great European Championship saves as a courageous performance from 10-player Germany stunned France to progress to the Euro 2025 semi-finals on a night of compelling drama in Basel.

In an absorbing affair packed with unpredictable moments, including a shocking, early red card offence, video assistant referee drama, two penalties and two disallowed France goals, ultimately it was the more familiar conclusion of Germany’s mental strength excelling in a penalty shootout that led to the elimination of a France side who had struck the crossbar in the 120th minute.

• Live updates from the rematch at Wembley in London

• Donald McRae’s fight preview | And you can mail Bryan

The lights have gone down and Daniel Dubois is making his ring entrance. A half-dozen stage pyrotechnicians are doing their thing on stage to a Chase & Status banger. And now here’s Dubois, making the long way to the ring wearing a sleeveless black shirt with black shorts. He looks calm and composed, making his final approach as Dennis Brown’s Want To Be No General blasts from the stadium sound system.

Lawrence Okolie has beaten Kevin Lerena by a unanimous decision in the final undercard bout. Now it’s time for the main event. Ring announcer Michael Buffer has taken his position and we’ll have the playing of a couple of national anthems before the fighters make their entrances.

• Dominant Scheffler moves four clear of the field

• Li Haotong and Matt Fitzpatrick lead pursuit

Scottie Scheffler still had 20 holes of this Open Championship to play. History tells us leads can evaporate in just one. Dense rough, links bunkers, the scale of pressure attached to the oldest major. Open calamity is written in folklore. The ghost of Jean van de Velde still lingers. And yet, the bookmakers had Scheffler at only 1-8 to lift the Claret Jug. The fat lady had cleared her throat. Twenty holes. What sporting planet is this?

It is possible to run out of adjectives for Scheffler. Unflappable, remarkable, relentless. Nobody will ever match the impact of Tiger Woods on golf but it really is no exaggeration to suggest Scheffler can be similarly dominant. Come Sunday evening on the Causeway Coast, Scheffler will surely be a four-time major winner and three-quarters of the way towards a career grand slam. This is only his 24th major start as a professional. In one of them, his pursuit of glory was undermined by being thrown into a police cell.

Andy Byron leaves startup Astronomer after he and Kristin Cabot were placed on leave over Jumbotron incident

The married CEO who was filmed at a Coldplay concert in the US with his arms around his company’s HR head in a video that went viral has now resigned, the company Astronomer said on Saturday.

In a post on Linkedin, the software startup said: “Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted.”

At first, Australian soprano Nicole Car found her costar’s confidence curiously endearing. Later she realised they had serious chemistry, on and off the stage

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In 2015 I was making my European debut singing the role of Tatiana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in Berlin. I’d been offered the contract at relatively short notice and was assured by the casting director not to worry, my French-Canadian co-star was “a real charmer”. I took it with a grain of salt.

On the first day of rehearsals, Étienne (the charmer) arrived for a brief introduction before he rushed off to debut a very big role, playing Posa in Verdi’s Don Carlos.

How do we get better at discussing sexual satisfaction when our genitals are synonymous with the word ‘unmentionables’? It takes no luck, no money and can be learned

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In the fifth season of the British cringe comedy series Peep Show about two dysfunctional flatmates, Mark tells Jeremy that, for the first time in his life, he thinks he’s getting sex right. This is thanks to a new partner’s very explicit instructions. “That’s cheating,” Jeremy complains. “Anyone can please a woman if she tells you what to do. You’re not allowed to ask. That’s the whole point.”

I’ve spent a year trying to figure out why straight women are statistically last on the list when it comes to having pleasurable sex, but that one minute of television pretty much sums it up.

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As bombs began falling and threats mounted against my people, the Bahá’ís, Ballarat-based musicians brought me hope

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My vintage Pioneer turntable is playing the music of the Ballarat-based duo Zöj. The voice of the Iranian singer Gelareh Pour and her Persian kamancheh, a bowed string instrument, are feeding my lounge with the song The God of Rainbows. The weather is bleak but then so is the state of the world. I try not to let my mood follow. The music helps, offering a welcome contrast to the pain, violence and despair churned out by my social media algorithm.

I’ve been listening to Persian music a lot over the past month. Not only as a source of respite but as I strive to connect to my motherland – a place I’ve never been able to visit. My parents, who belong to the Bahá’í faith, left in 1979 during the Iranian Revolution. They have never returned.

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They don’t do it for money, and pregnancy takes a toll. So why do women lend their wombs to carry a baby for strangers they’ve met online?

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As I walk out of Hobart airport’s small arrivals hall, I immediately spot the person I’m looking for. My contact, Mollie D’Arcy, is standing at the exit, heavily pregnant. Her baby bump isn’t the only giveaway – she’s holding up a laminated sign in hot pink writing, sticky taped to a retractable light sabre toy. It reads, “Surrogates on Tour.”

It’s mid-September 2024 and D’Arcy is this year’s Surrogacy Sisterhood Retreat organiser and captain. Since its inception in 2018, it’s the first time this event, a roving annual weekend away for surrogates past and present, has made it to Tasmania.

Overnight violence leaves nine police wounded, say authorities, who suspect a gang turf war

Dozens of masked assailants wielding metal bars, mortars and molotov cocktails attacked cars on a highway and clashed with police early on Saturday in the city of Limoges in central France, officials said.

The overnight clashes left nine police wounded, according to authorities, who said they suspected a gang turf war.