Just days before the final, we still do not know what is getting England through the big moments at Euro 2025

“This is a movie,” Sarina Wiegman said, and as England celebrated their heist in Geneva that sense of unreality seemed to have infused her players too. “Goodness me,” sighed Esme Morgan as she returned to the dressing room after the 2-1 extra-time win over Italy, blowing out her cheeks in relief. Meanwhile, the captain, Leah Williamson, was trying to explain just how England manage to keep going behind but pulling out victories at the very end.

“Whilst there are seconds on the clock, there are seconds that we’re just waiting,” she said. “It’s less ‘if’ and more ‘how’. I don’t know how to explain it, I don’t know how we do it.”

Royal Albert Hall, London
Mark Simpson’s vibrant new work for Sean Shibe was the centrepiece of a polychromatic Prom that began with Strauss and ended with a vividly told Symphonie Fantastique

In 1974 – six years after publishing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – the sci-fi writer Philip K Dick had a hallucinatory experience, sparked by the reflection of light from a delivery woman’s necklace, that began a lasting obsession with an imaginary and elusive godlike being. He called this figure Zebra, on account of its propensity for camouflage – hence the title of Mark Simpson’s new electric guitar concerto for Sean Shibe, Zebra (or, 2-3-74: The Divine Invasion of Philip K Dick), the centrepiece of this polychromatic Prom from the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Anja Bihlmaier.

It’s a conventional concerto in some ways: in three movements, fast, slow, fast. But, although the guitar carries the melodic line most of the time, it doesn’t hog the limelight: no Brian May on the palace roof posturing here. Instead, chameleon-like, it slips in and out of camouflage, blending with the orchestra then standing apart, and creating new sonorities. Guitar and muted trumpets wah-wah together; high pinprick notes merge into high violin glitter; in moments of stillness, the orchestra, augmented by synth and organ, traces an aura around the guitar that sounds like the result of a reverb pedal until this halo asserts an eerie presence of its own.

Administration mired in scandal over president’s previous links to sex offender in case that has rocked Maga base

• US politics – follow live

A US federal judge on Wednesday denied a justice department request to unseal grand jury transcripts related to a criminal investigation of the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein in south Florida from the mid-2000s.

The move is the first ruling in a series of attempts to release more information on the case by Donald Trump’s administration, which has been mired in a scandal in recent weeks, after the justice department announced it would not be releasing any additional files related to the Epstein case – despite earlier promises from the president and the the US attorney general, Pam Bondi.

Director of Hereditary and Midsommar tasked himself with the impossible in grimly satirical new film – but he finds truth where others have stumbled

Eddington, writer-director Ari Aster’s polarizing new black dramedy, opens with a troubling sight: an unhoused and clearly distressed man walking through the New Mexico desert, bleating an incoherent ramble of modern buzzwords.

Troubling not for the man, but for the content of his ramble and the time: late May, 2020. TikTok. My immediate reaction was a derogatory “oh no.” Aster has specialized in gut-twisting, unworldly horror, the kind of brain-searing, highly symbolic shocks that linger for weeks; I watched large stretches of his first two features, the demonic family parable Hereditary and Swedish solstice nightmare Midsommar – through my fingers. But in Eddington, he took on not one but two insidious bogeymen haunting our psyches: phones in movies and Covid.

Wall Street is expecting the search giant to report $2.18 in earnings per share following the bell on Wednesday

Google is expected to report earnings following the bell on Wednesday after closing out a quarter of AI-related momentum that has given investors reasons to be optimistic. Wall Street is expecting the search giant to report $2.18 in earnings per share (EPS) on $94bn in revenue.

All eyes will be on how the company’s various AI efforts and investments are faring as Google closes a quarter of considerable growth in the crowded space. Most recently, OpenAI announced it would add Google Cloud to its suite of cloud storage providers for ChatGPT. Analysts are also expecting a favorable outlook on general growing demand for Google’s cloud services.

For months Israel kept food shipments to Gaza far below starvation rations. Now the death toll is rising rapidly

• Starvation in Gaza is destroying communities – and will leave generational scars

Mohammed’s skeletal arms stick out of a romper with a grinning emoji-face and the slogan “smiley boy”, which in a Gaza hospital reads as a cruel joke. He spends much of the day crying from hunger, or gnawing at his own emaciated fingers.

At seven months old, he weighs barely 4kg (9lbs) and this is the second time he has been admitted for treatment. His face is gaunt, his limbs little more than bones covered in baggy skin and his ribs protrude painfully from his chest.

Anti-vaccine campaigns have targeted thimerosal for decades despite no evidence of ingredient causing harm

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, will formally require vaccine makers to remove thimerosal from vaccines.

The ingredient has been the target of anti-vaccine campaigns and misinformation for decades. Arguments against the preservative culminated in June, when a key federal vaccine advisory panel, remade with Kennedy’s ideological allies, recommended against the preservative.

• Striker joins from Eintracht Frankfurt on six-year deal

• Liverpool’s summer spending nears £300m

Liverpool have completed the signing of Hugo Ekitiké from Eintracht Frankfurt, with the striker rejecting a late attempt by Manchester United to hijack the transfer.

The France Under-21 international has joined the Premier League champions for a guaranteed £69m plus £10m in add-ons, having undergone a medical in the UK on Tuesday. He is understood to have signed a six-year contract and will meet up with his new teammates on their pre-season tour of Hong Kong and Japan.

• Euro 2025 semi-final updates from the 8pm BST kick-off

• Football Daily | Top scorers | Player guide | Mail Sarah

Montse Tomé, Spain coach, added:

The team has made history. These players are destined for greatness. Our [quarter-final] performance was very good against a [Switzerland] team playing at home, which we knew would be a challenge. We managed to keep a clean sheet, which was one of our goals. We’re in the semi-finals – objective accomplished.

I can already promise that we will give Spain a tough battle, just as they will fight us with everything they have. Then we’ll see who comes out on top in the end. I think [the win against France] will give us another huge mental boost. The girls really wanted to prove what they’re made of and that we can overcome such setbacks and come back.

Owens has claimed that France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, is a man, and that French president is controlled by CIA

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife, Brigitte Macron, are suing the rightwing commentator Candace Owens for defamation.

In a suit filed on Wednesday in Delaware against Owens and her businesses, the Macrons say Owens has engaged in ongoing defamatory attacks against them in order to elevate her media platform, gain more audience and make money.

• FSA says ‘loads’ of fans at their first tournament

• Pre-match fan marches enhancing overall experience

England fans are being backed to “bring the absolute vibe” to St Jakob-Park on Sunday, with an expanded travelling Lionesses support expected at the final in Basel.

The 34,250-capacity arena is sold out and that includes the 2,000 allocation for England fans. Official resale tickets are unavailable but that is unlikely to stop the Lionesses’ travelling support, who have been planning for this moment for some time.

Condemnation is rightly growing. But until concrete action is taken, western allies will remain complicit with these horrifying crimes

July has been one of the deadliest months of the war in Gaza, with Israel killing one person every 12 minutes. The UN says more than 1,000 Palestinians have died trying to get food, mostly when they attempted to collect aid from hubs.

Behind these visible deaths lies the horror of systematic starvation: “minutely engineered, closely monitored, precisely designed”, in the words of Prof Alex de Waal, an expert on humanitarian crises. More than 100 aid groups warned that it is spreading fast. At least 10 people died of hunger and malnutrition on Tuesday alone, said Gaza’s health ministry. Parents watch their children wither. Adults collapse on the street.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

• ‘It’s been pretty tough … racism is still going on’

• Carter brought off bench in semi-final win against Italy

Jess Carter has thanked England fans for their “unbelievable support” after revealing she had been racially abused on social media at Euro 2025. The Lionesses defender said if her decision to speak up stopped just one instance of abuse then it would have been worth it.

Carter said on Sunday that she was stepping away from social media, because of what her teammates labelled as “online poison” aimed at her throughout this tournament. Before the extra-time win against Italy on Tuesday, England’s substitutes stood arm-in-arm with Carter on the sideline to show their support after deciding not to take the knee before kick-off.

• Fourth Test, day one: India 264-4

• Wicketkeeper’s participation at Old Trafford in doubt

After the row about time-wasting at Lord’s came an unscheduled ­10‑minute delay on the opening day in Manchester but this time no one was grumbling. It ended with Rishabh Pant being driven off on a golf buggy nursing a suspected ­broken foot, the agony on his face as clear as the egg that had swollen up within seconds.

This was a very Pant way to get injured, India’s maverick wicketkeeper attempting a reverse sweep off Chris Woakes only to bottom edge the ball straight on to his boot. ­England burned a review for the lbw but it still proved as good as a wicket, Pant retiring on 37 and his further role in this pivotal fourth Test left very much in doubt.

Families speak of grief as court hears how DNA and video footage helped link Bryan Kohberger to crimes

Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for the murders of four University of Idaho students, a crime that shocked the quiet college town of Moscow nearly three years ago.

Judge Steven Hippler ordered Kohberger to serve four life sentences without parole for four counts of first-degree murder in the brutal stabbing deaths. He was also given a 10-year sentence for burglary and assessed $270,000 in fines and civil penalties.

Dahud Hanid Ortiz, convicted in Venezuela of triple homicide in Madrid, is one of 10 US nationals flown to Texas

A Venezuelan American murderer and ex-US Marine, who killed three people in Spain in 2016, was released to the US during last Friday’s high-profile prisoner swap between the US, El Salvador and Venezuela, according to media and NGO reports.

Dahud Hanid Ortiz, who was convicted last year in Venezuela of a triple homicide in Madrid, is one of the 10 US nationals that arrived in Texas last Friday.

Salvador Plasencia is the fourth of the five people charged in connection with the Friends star’s death to plead guilty

A doctor pleaded guilty on Wednesday to giving Matthew Perry ketamine in the month leading up to the Friends star’s overdose death.

Dr Salvador Plasencia became the fourth of the five people charged in connection with Perry’s death to plead guilty. He stood next to his lawyer and admitted guilt to four counts to judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett in federal court in Los Angeles.

• Inter Miami stars did not travel for the game

• League rules mandate suspension for non-participation

Lionel Messi and Jordi Alba will not appear in the MLS All-Star Game on Wednesday despite being selected for the event, with both Inter Miami players now in line to be suspended from their club’s next match as a result.

Messi and Alba had been absent from the All-Star festivities this week in Austin, Texas, which culminates in Wednesday night’s friendly match against an equivalent select squad from Mexico’s LigaMX. Alba had been scheduled to take part in Tuesday evening’s All-Star skills challenge, but was withdrawn. No explanation was given for Alba’s withdrawal, and MLS has not commented publicly on Messi and Alba’s absences.

Few could have predicted the speed at which the piano-playing striker has burst on to the international stage

On the afternoon of Wednesday 2 April, Arsenal’s Michelle Agyemang was sitting pitchside at St George’s Park, watching her England Under-19 teammates cruise to a European Championship qualifier victory against Belgium, unable to play because of suspension.

With the senior Lionesses also based at the national football centre that week, the England manager, Sarina Wiegman, and many of her staff came along to observe the 6-0 win and several of the England players – including the captain, Leah Williamson – chatted with Agyemang in the seating area. Little could the 19-year-old have known that, just over three months later, she would be the Lionesses’ saviour – twice – in the knockout stages of Euro 2025.

• Forward says La Liga club ‘feels like home’

• Rashford has fallen out of favour under Amorim

Barcelona have signed Marcus Rashford on a season’s loan from Manchester United with an option to buy. The forward joins after falling out of favour under Ruben Amorim at his boyhood club.

“I want to win the biggest trophies and feel like Barcelona is a huge club in the football world so it is the perfect place,” Rashford said in an official unveiling by the Spanish club. “You see with the team last season, they have a young ambitious team and I want to add my qualities, my personality, improve the team and help them win.”

You can’t blame DeGeneres for wanting to escape a toxic atmosphere. But she is of the exalted class who can buy themselves out of a bind

You may remember the first half of 2020, when, as light relief during the early stages of the pandemic, we could look towards the banks of celebrities trying to raise our spirits and come together in mutual hostility. Schools and industries had shut down, key workers were struggling, but the one certainty in life that remained undisrupted was that, as long as Gal Gadot and Natalie Portman kept sharing their inspo-content, we would never run short of a laugh. Covid ended and now we have Donald Trump – and guess what, some of that dynamic is back.

It’s different this time because the threat is different, but for anyone living in the US who has glanced, longingly, towards Europe or Canada and wondered about the possibility of moving, comments made by Ellen DeGeneres this week may strike a familiar note; specifically, the extraordinary tone deafness that only high net-worth individuals can hit when trying to share in a common experience. DeGeneres and her wife, the actor Portia de Rossi, moved to rural Oxfordshire last year and this week, DeGeneres was interviewed on stage in Cheltenham and gave us some insight into exactly what happened.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

The ‘first of its kind’ immersive experience in London costs up to £300 a ticket and is dividing audiences

Name: Elvis Evolution.

Age: New this week.

European leaders urge Ukraine to uphold EU standards after president backs legislation weakening anti-graft watchdogs

European leaders piled pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday to reverse a contentious decision to weaken the powers of two anti-corruption agencies, as demonstrators took to the streets of Kyiv for a second day.

Ukraine’s European backers including Germany, France and Sweden raised concerns about new legislation, which the Ukrainian president approved on Tuesday night. They warned it could hamper Kyiv’s attempt to join the EU and hinder the fight against corruption.

David Lammy seemingly believes Israel and its supporters will always be able to act with impunity – but the status quo surely cannot hold

A terrible tipping point in Gaza has been reached. The number of people admitted to hospital or dying from starvation has surged. The journalists’ union for Agence France-Presse (AFP) has issued a statement warning that “without intervention, the last reporters in Gaza” will die of hunger.

This is horribly shocking, but it is no surprise: after all, we are now more than 140 days into Israel’s total siege on Gaza. In May, Israel abolished the UN’s effective method of delivering aid in favour of a dystopian system in which Palestinians are forced to compete for a trickle of often unusable aid, and are shot at while doing so. About 1,000 civilians have been murdered while seeking food since the end of May. “There is no case since World War II of starvation that has been so minutely designed and controlled,” declares Alex de Waal, one of the world’s leading experts on hunger. Under the Geneva conventions, “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited”.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.