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Syrian troops pulled out of Sweida on Thursday on the orders of the Islamist-led government, following days of deadly clashes
Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Friday that Israeli strikes killed 14 people in the north and south of the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
The emergency service said fighter jets conducted airstrikes and there was artillery shelling and gunfire in the early morning in areas north of the southern city of Khan Younis.
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© Photograph: Khalil Ashawi/Reuters
© Photograph: Khalil Ashawi/Reuters
© Photograph: Khalil Ashawi/Reuters
Deal is 18th such package since Ukraine invasion as Ursula von der Leyen says EU is ‘striking the heart of Russia’s war machine’
One other thing to watch at this morning meeting of EU ministers in Brussels is the national reactions to the European Commission’s draft budget for 2028-2034.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz made it very clear last night that he was not happy with parts of it, particularly with the proposal to tax EU businesses as he regularly criticises burdens already placed on companies.
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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
‘Devastated’ Samu told he cannot feature in tour match
‘They must have been worried we were going to win’
The British & Irish Lions have been accused of running scared on the eve of the first Test against the Wallabies amid a disagreement over the availability of Pete Samu for next week’s First Nations & Pasifika XV tour match.
Samu, who last season represented Bordeaux before joining the Waratahs for the next Super Rugby season, has been blocked from playing in Tuesday’s game and is said to be “devastated” by the head coach, Toutai Kefu.
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© Photograph: Mark Brake/Getty Images
© Photograph: Mark Brake/Getty Images
© Photograph: Mark Brake/Getty Images
Rules to prevent ‘enormous waste’ of fuel are seen as weak and poorly enforced and firms have little incentive to stop
The fossil fuel industry pumped an extra 389m tonnes of carbon pollution into the atmosphere last year by needlessly flaring gas, a World Bank report has found, describing it as an “enormous waste” of fuel that heats the planet by about as much as the country of France.
Flaring is a way to get rid of gases such as methane that arise when pumping oil out of the ground. While it can sometimes keep workers safe by relieving buildups of pressure, the practice is routine in many countries because it is often cheaper to burn gas than to capture, transport, process and sell it.
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© Photograph: Eremeychuk Leonid/Alamy
© Photograph: Eremeychuk Leonid/Alamy
© Photograph: Eremeychuk Leonid/Alamy
Treasury minister James Murray said Abbott’s claim that ‘this Labour leadership wants me out’ was ‘absolutely not the case’
There are “serious constitutional issues” raised by the Afghan data leak, the chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has said.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland on Friday, Lord Beamish said the ISC was not informed of the breach, despite the names of more than 100 Britons being divulged - including spies and SAS operators.
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© Photograph: HoC
© Photograph: HoC
© Photograph: HoC
Shapps, defence secretary when the superinjunction was imposed, said its use was ‘entirely justified’ to save lives
The former defence secretary Grant Shapps has defended the use of an unprecedented superinjunction to suppress a data breach that led to the UK government relocating 15,000 Afghans.
The Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) was created in haste after it emerged that personal information about 18,700 Afghans who had applied to come to the UK had been leaked in error by a British defence official in early 2022.
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© Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images
© Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images
© Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images
(RCA)
While the sonic invention and off-kilter details remain, on his 10th album the cult musician eschews distortion for melancholic melodies and crooked love songs
Alexander Giannascoli’s nine-album back catalogue is the record of a great creative evolution. Starting with thin, wobbly Moldy Peaches-style anti-folk in his teenage years, the Pennsylvania native added lusher, twangier elements – Americana with a slacker twist – before introducing glitched beats, pitched-up vocals and copious vocoder. By 2022’s God Save the Animals he had a zealous cult following and was pushing at the limits of what indie singer-songwriter fare could be, melding acoustic strumming and sweet melody with distortion that ranged from unsettlingly inhuman to downright demonic.
On Headlights, his 10th album, Giannascoli, 32, reins in the warp and abrasion: the sonic invention remains, but it is deployed with increased subtlety. Exceptional opener June Guitar has chipmunk backing vocals and a surging organ riff that strongly recalls Centerfold by the J Geils Band; Beam Me Up is haunted by a mid-century sci-fi sound effect and Louisiana begins with a revving engine – yet all serve the timeless, melancholic soft-rock rather than overpowering it.
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© Photograph: Chris Maggio
© Photograph: Chris Maggio
© Photograph: Chris Maggio
The 18-year-old No 1 draft pick struggled to shoot in his first Summer League game. But his poise, defense and winning mentality confirmed his billing as a generational talent
“I would say that might be one of the worst games of my life,” Cooper Flagg told reporters last Thursday night. “But we got the win, so that’s what really matters to me.” It was a telling statement from the 18-year-old basketball phenom after his first Las Vegas Summer League game. The No 1 overall pick in this year’s NBA draft – taken by the Dallas Mavericks after a one-and-done college career at Duke – didn’t have nearly as disastrous a debut as he made out. Though he struggled to shoot the ball, Flagg still managed to flash his playmaking and defensive range. Clearly hyperaware to the moment and the hype surrounding his technical NBA debut, he looked determined to put on a show: aggressively hunting his shot and seeking out highlight-reel dunks at every opportunity.
He bounced back with 31 points in his second (and ultimately final) Summer League appearance on Saturday. But it was the second-half of his comment after Thursday night’s game that encapsulates why Flagg is one of the most hyped teenage prospects in decades: the kid is a winner.
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© Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
© Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The journalist and TV presenter’s memoir of events leading up to her diagnosis, aged just 61, is a moving account of a life slowly unravelling before her and her husband’s eyes
In 2019, the TV presenter and journalist Fiona Phillips booked a last-minute trip to Vietnam with a friend. Nothing unusual there, you might think. But not only did Phillips not invite her husband or children, she didn’t consult them, instead simply informing them that she was leaving the following week. It was an impulsive decision that she hoped would lift her out of a depressive episode that was manifesting in brain fog and anxiety. But for her husband, TV editor Martin Frizell, it was another instance of Phillips behaving oddly, a sign that things “were not all they should be”.
Remember When chronicles, with illuminating candour, the changes that culminated in Phillips’s diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s in 2022, at the age of 61. Billed as a memoir by Phillips herself, owing to her decline during the three-year writing process, it’s really a co-production between her, her ghostwriter Alison Phillips (no relation) and Frizell, who provides fitful interjections. As such, it offers a rare account of the impact of Alzheimer’s not just from the person who has it, but from their primary carer too.
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© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
Firm says technology used in El Eternauta is chance ‘to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper’
Netflix has used artificial intelligence in one of its TV shows for the first time, in a move the streaming company’s boss said will make films and programmes cheaper and of better quality.
Ted Sarandos, a co-chief executive of Netflix, said the Argentinian science fiction series El Eternauta (The Eternaut) is the first it has made that involved using generative AI footage.
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© Photograph: Mariano Landet/Netflix
© Photograph: Mariano Landet/Netflix
© Photograph: Mariano Landet/Netflix
(River Lea)
Masters of atmosphere, Ruth Clinton, Cormac MacDiarmada and John Dermody contrast hauntological synths with robust noise on this playful debut
The latest gorgeous release from the fecund Irish folk scene doesn’t begin with bassy dread in the Lankum mode, but a mood of gentle, haunting psychedelia. Adieu Lovely Erin starts by evoking Broadcast swirling around a maypole; then it’s as if Cocteau Twins had been transported to a traditional music session. Its sweet, high female vocals also evoke the improvisations of sean-nós singing, while simmering, krautrock-like drums build drama.
Poor Creature comprises three musicians expert in heightening and managing atmosphere: Landless’s Ruth Clinton, Lankum’s Cormac MacDiarmada plus live Lankum drummer John Dermody. Their debut album steeps cowboy songs, Irish ballads, bluegrass and other traditional songs in a misty, playful lightness that somehow also carries an eerie power. Bury Me Not is a 19th-century American song about a dying sailor desperate not to be buried at sea, and Clinton delivers its lamenting lyrics with a bright, shining innocence. MacDiarmada leads Lorene, a rolling, country ballad by Alabama duo the Louvin Brothers, with a similarly soft, brooding magic. Singing as a boy desperate for a letter from his beloved, despite clearly knowing he’s being ghosted, the song’s melancholy slowly rises as voice and guitar mesh together.
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© Photograph: Cían Flynn
© Photograph: Cían Flynn
© Photograph: Cían Flynn
The blockbuster adaptation of Homer’s epic has not finished filming and has no official runtime. But super fans – and scalpers – already have seats
The first tickets to Christopher Nolan’s take on Homer’s Odyssey have gone on sale – before he’s even finished filming it and a year before the film is even out, in what is likely the longest pre-sale in cinematic history.
The Odyssey, which stars Matt Damon as the cunning Odysseus as he fights his way home after the end of the Trojan war, will be released on 17 July 2026. But on Thursday, Imax released tickets to the first screenings at the 26 Imax cinemas around the world that have the staff and equipment required to project in 1570 format.
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© Photograph: Allstar/LEGENDARY PICTURES
© Photograph: Allstar/LEGENDARY PICTURES
© Photograph: Allstar/LEGENDARY PICTURES
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