The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said she had a “good exchange” with Donald Trump on Sunday, a Commission spokesperson told reporters during a daily press briefing this morning.
The spokesperson said:
We want to reach a deal with the US (by 9 July). We want to avoid tariffs. We believe they cause pain. We want to achieve win-win outcomes, not lose-lose outcomes.
Cilic has won from two sets down on eight previous occasions, but not since 2020 and never at Wimbledon. Four of them came at the US Open, three at the Australian Open and one in Davis Cup play. Oddly enough, he’s managed it twice against former Wimbledon semi-finalist Jerzy Janowicz.
Cobolli closes out the second set with a 131mph ace down the middle. He’s taken a 6-4, 6-4 lead over Cilic after 73 minutes. More impeccable serving from the Italian, who has won 19 of the last 20 points on his racket.
Javier Milei’s government’s punishing budget cuts have forced researchers to take up work as electricians, school teachers or Uber drivers
Leonardo Amarilla is desperate. The geneticist and PhD in biological sciences holds a coveted position as a full-time researcher at Argentina’s prestigious national science council, Conicet, studying how to improve yields of crops such as peanuts, soya beans and sunflowers.
But after President Javier Milei imposed sweeping austerity measures, known locally as his “chainsaw” plan, Amarilla’s salary plummeted and he found he could no longer afford basic groceries or support his ageing parents.
There’s a birthday in the peloton! Joyeux anniversaire Damien Touzé of Cofidis.
On another note, TNT Sports’ viewer prediction poll has Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) as the favourite for today’s stage, but the presenters seem to be favouring Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step). Does anyone have any riders tipped for the win outside the top names? Let me know if you do.
Camp Mystic, the girls summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas, has confirmed that 27 children and counsellors died in the flash floods that have wreaked devastation on the area since Friday.
“Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy. We are praying for them constantly,” a statement on the camp website read.
Joe Biden's advisors convinced the aging president to hold an early debate with Donald Trump in summer 2024 by insisting it would allow him to reach the "widest audience possible," a leaked memo reveals.
Low water levels after heatwaves and drought are limiting shipping on some of Europe’s biggest rivers including the Rhine and the Danube and pushing up transport costs.
As much of Europe swelters in hot temperatures, water levels in its main rivers have fallen. This is affecting shipping along the Rhine – one of Europe’s key waterways – south of Duisburg and Cologne in Germany, including the choke point of Kaub, forcing vessels to sail about half full.
In this beautifully acted film, a man returns to the Japanese seaside town where he met and fell in love with his wife
For the first 40 minutes, this film’s title feels like a poke in the eye. There is nothing remotely happy about twentysomething Sano (Hiroki Sano). His wife has just died suddenly in her sleep, and Sano is visiting the sleepy Japanese seaside town where they met five years ago. He is rude and sullen, and obsessive about finding a red baseball cap he lost on that first visit. In the pain and anger of his grief, everyone sounds vapid and dumb, their words meaningless blah-blah-blah.
It’s hard to see where the happy fits in, until the film flips back in time. In the same hotel five years ago, Sano first claps eyes on his wife Nagi (Nairu Yamamoto) in a chance meeting in the hotel lobby. Yamamoto gives the performance of the film as aspiring photographer Nagi: funny, scatty and earnest. She plays it so naturally, so true to life, that Nagi feels like someone you might have actually met. She and Sano wander around town, young and free: dancing in a club, eating instant noodles. There is a glow to these scenes, a bit like in Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, which similarly bottles the heart-flutter moment of something clicking, flirtation that feels like more than flirting.
Light and aromatic lemongrass chicken wrapped in lettuce and doused in peanut sauce makes perfect assemble-and-enjoy material for a summer’s day
The perfect meal for a hot day, when you want something light and refreshing. You can assemble all the components for these lovely, fresh lettuce wraps while the chicken poaches in an aromatic broth, and either make up the cups yourself or put all the components down on the table for everyone to help themselves. This was a hit with my three-year-old daughter, and it even encouraged the one-year-old to try lettuce for the first time.
Yes, defence spending has to rise – but slashing the welfare state to fund it would be a big mistake
European governments are once again haunted by a tough choice between financing the military or spending on social programmes. That, at any rate, is the narrative that has taken hold since Donald Trump’s retreat from the postwar global security order and the urgent pressure to rearm Europe.
But to frame the dilemma facing Europe in this way is a big mistake. History teaches us that the political choice has never been about guns or butter, but rather guns or taxes.
From bucket hats to Man City socks and the band’s logo everywhere, gig-goers in Cardiff talk us through their outfits – and explain why Liam is still a style icon, even with shorter hair
In the weeks leading up to their first gig for 16 years, Oasis have been busy when it comes to merch. They opened pop-up shops and announced collabs with Levi’s, Adidas and Next. The results are plain to see on the streets of Cardiff the afternoon before the long-awaited gig. If they say you are never more than six feet away from a rat in a city, here you are never more than six inches away from that famous Oasis Helvetica Black Oblique logo.
It’s on bucket hats, football shirts, tracksuit tops, T-shirts and, every so often, someone’s face. The fanbase goes across generations and demographics. There are those who were there the first time, and teenagers who grew up on their music. Some have travelled for miles – from Italy, Spain, Portugal and the US. If the crowd is largely white, there’s a contingent of fans from east Asia.
From left: Ash Parker, Marcus Long and Joe Gallagher in their brand new T-shirts
Stephen Morgan, the early education minister, would not confirm every child who has an EHCP would continue to keep the same provisions
The Conservatives will try to change the government’s welfare Bill to tighten up access to personal independence payments (Pip) and universal credit, PA Media reports. PA says:
Kemi Badenoch will pledge that the Tories are “now the only party committed to serious welfare reform” after Keir Starmer shelved plans to restrict eligibility for Pip in the face of a backbench revolt this week.
The Tories will look to lay amendments to the legislation – set to be renamed the universal credit bill – and party leader Badenoch is due to deliver a speech on welfare on Thursday.
‘I feel better in my mind and ready to support the girls’
“There’s more than just England under consideration when it came to that decision,” says Millie Bright on stepping away from the Lionesses ahead of their European title defence. “There’s me being able to walk down the stairs after I’ve played 90 minutes of football, there’s me in the future when I have children being able to walk around properly, being able to bend down and pick up toys, there’s me being able to do normal life things like put on socks without being in pain and, for the first time in a long time, I genuinely didn’t think about the response of the public because that just wasn’t a priority.”
Chelsea’s Bright is discussing her decision to step back from this summer’s Euros for her mental and physical health with the former England international and close friend Rachel Daly. The pair have recently launched a podcast that leans into the chemistry they have as friends.
A Texas man described what it has been like witnessing the worst flooding to hit his area since he started living there and vowed to keep his business running.
British driver says intensity of races is proving draining
‘They’re pretty strenuous, exhausting weekends’
Lando Norris described his victory at the British Grand Prix and his intense battle with Oscar Piastri for the world championship as exhausting, but is hopeful he has established some momentum for the next round in Belgium.
“It’s two wins, but they’ve not come easy by any means,” he said, after following up his win in Austria at Silverstone. “We’ve had good fights, but they’re pretty strenuous, exhausting weekends because you’re fighting for hundredths and thousandths and you’re fighting for perfection every session and I’m against some pretty good drivers. So, it takes a lot out of you, especially when you have a race like Sunday.”
Management ask visitors to ‘choose clothing in keeping with the decorum of the theatre’ after complaints
Operagoers have been warned they will be banned from entering Milan’s prestigious La Scala theatre if they turn up wearing shorts, tank tops or flip-flops. Kimonos, however, are acceptable.
The venue’s management team reminded people how not to dress for an opera after complaints that some spectators were donning attire more suitable for the beach.
Powerlifting champion and influencer Stefanie Cohen has been arrested for domestic violence -- a year after she hacked into her ex-boyfriend’s laptop and posted nude photos of his new flame.
Vera; or, The Nihilists concerns a plot to kill a tsar but after Alexander II was assassinated, its London premiere was cancelled. Now receiving a rare production, it captures his conflict between ethics and aesthetics
Who wrote the following: “When private property is abolished, there will be no necessity for crime”? In one of his plays the same writer has a female revolutionary cry: “How easy is it for a king to kill his people by thousands but we cannot rid ourselves of one crowned man in Europe.” If I reveal that the writer was a London-based Irishman, most people would assume it was Bernard Shaw. In fact, it was Oscar Wilde and, while the first quote comes from his essay The Soul of Man Under Socialism, the last is from his play Vera; or, The Nihilists which is to get a rare professional production at the Brockley Jack Studio theatre, south-east London, in September.
The play itself is virtually unknown even to Wildean devotees. It was written in 1879 and loosely based on the story of a 22-year-old Russian revolutionary who had attempted to shoot the St Petersburg chief of police. Wilde’s version is set in Moscow but his heroine, Vera Sabouroff, has a similar political ardour and leads a band of nihilists who plan to assassinate the tsar. That is only the starting-point for a robustly noisy melodrama that was intended for London production in 1881. But the actual assassination of Tsar Alexander II in March of that year and the fact that the Prince of Wales was married to the sister of the new tsarina killed it stone dead. When it was eventually produced in New York in 1883, it was greeted with sneery disdain and, aside from the odd amateur revival, has lain buried ever since.
Brian Lara hit 400 not out against England in 2004
South Africa’s Wiaan Mulder scored an unbeaten 367 against Zimbabwe before the stand-in captain remarkably declared 33 runs shy of Brian Lara’s Test record.
In his first match as South Africa captain in place of the injured Keshav Maharaj, all-rounder Mulder reached the stunning total – the highest by a player in his first Test innings as captain – as he arrived at lunch with the team on 626 for five.
Some parents can now opt students out of LGBTQ+ book readings. The writers warn of increased book bans and bias
Sarah Brannen, an illustrator and children’s book author, was riding in the car with her sister when she received an alert on her phone in late June. She was in a group chat with other authors whose books were being debated in a US supreme court case, and the messages soon poured in. Her book, Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, highlights a same-sex marriage, and is at the center of a contentious case that could have widespread implications for public school education throughout the nation.
As per the 27 June ruling, a group of Maryland parents have the option to remove their public elementary school students from classes where Uncle Bobby’s Wedding and other storybooks with LGBTQ+ themes are read. The justices decided through a 6-3 vote that the Montgomery county school board violated parents’ right to freely exercise their religion by forbidding kids from opting out of instruction. The parents argued that the board impeded them from teaching their kids about gender and sexuality in a way that aligned with their belief system.
Detention comes amid Trump crackdown against perceived political enemies, including immigrants and labor leaders
Farm worker activist Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez Zeferino, 25, was driving his partner to her job on a tulip farm north of Seattle one March morning when they were pulled over by an unmarked car. A plainclothes agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) emerged and shattered Juarez Zeferino’s front window before handcuffing him, his partner said.
The officer drove Juarez Zeferino to a nondescript warehouse – the same one he and other activists had years ago discovered is an unmarked Ice holding facility. After his 25 March detention, dozens gathered outside to demand his release.
The controversy around the state’s once-celebrated ethnic studies curriculum reveals deeper schisms afflicting public schools nationwide
It was celebrated at the time as a major milestone for progressive education. In 2021, California became the first state to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement, mandating all high schools teach the subject by fall 2025.
The idea, championed by California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, was to bring modern concepts into the classroom. At its core, ethnic studies, an academic discipline born on California campuses during the civil rights movement, elevates the experiences of historically marginalized groups. Its materials push students to question their biases, reimagine power structures, and think critically about the enduring legacies of colonialism. In California high schools, courses would bring to the fore the experiences of Chicano, Black and Indigenous communities in the state by diving into issues such as gentrification, the impact of pesticides on farm worker communities and the legacies of Indian boarding schools. Many school districts enthusiastically jumped on board.
On Monday, July 7, Uranus, our side-spinning planet of rebellion, liberation, and chaos with a capital C, swaps the placid materialist pastures of Taurus for the wild climes of Gemini.
Indonesia’s rumbling Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupted Monday, sending a column of volcanic materials as high as 11 miles into the sky and depositing ash on villages.
Connexion
