‘There wasn’t time to sit down and discuss politics and the future of the world, or your aims and aspirations. You just did stuff’

I was approached by Gavin Martin, who ran a fanzine called Alternative Ulster. He wanted to put a flexi-disc on the cover and said: “Can we use Suspect Device?” That was going to be Still Little Fingers’ debut single so I told him he couldn’t have that, but I would write him a song.

Across the Bangladeshi megacity, designers are adapting to the climate crisis

Documentary celebrates the American photographer who lived, breathed and captured the shimmering fever dream of NYC’s gay culture in the 1940s and 50s

George Platt Lynes was an American photographer who lived in Paris in the 1920s and then mostly in New York City for the rest of his life; he died in 1955. A gay man who was very out by the standards of the times, he was right in the middle of the one of the most flamboyant bohemian queer scenes of the period. And, man, did he have fun, shagging up a storm and taking nude pictures of beautiful men and women (but mostly men) when he wasn’t earning work shooting fashion spreads for Vogue magazine. This documentary, directed by Sam Shahid, introduces his life and work in a deeply respectful, straightforward way, splicing in hundreds of examples of his mostly black-and-white pictures with curators, admirers and some surviving friends and acquaintances. Notable interviewees include portrait artist Don Bachardy, and the painter Bernard Perlin, seen in archive footage given he died in 2014, who was a very close friend of Platt Lynes and the executor of his artistic estate.

Like so many other documentaries about dead artists that require cooperation from the deceased’s estate, this sometimes gets a little hyperbolic about its subject’s talent. Which is not to say that Lynes’ work isn’t worth exploring and celebrating, not only for its aesthetic merits but also for the way it captures a specific time and place. His commercial work was classical and elegant, tinged with a surrealism he learned first hand from Man Ray himself. His nudes and frankly erotic material are gorgeously sensual with a chilly, sculptural quality whose influence can be traced in later photographers of male nudes like Robert Mapplethorpe.

If so, you’ve got company – nearly one in six Britons have prepared bacon and eggs on an open flame. But not everyone is happy about the practice

Name: Breakfast barbecues.

Age: Our ancestors cooked with fire at least 780,000 years ago; they must have done it in the morning at some point.

Israeli minister says meeting with Trump will focus on ‘a new Middle East’ with 60-day pause discussed in Doha

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas over a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza continued for a second day on Monday, hours before a meeting in Washington between Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump.

Avi Dichter, an Israeli minister and member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, said he expected Trump’s meeting with the Israeli prime minister would go beyond Gaza to include the possibility of normalising ties with Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia – an ambitious project that is central to the US president’s policy in the Middle East.

iPhone maker accuses European Commission of going ‘far beyond what the law requires’ in ruling

• Business live – latest updates

Apple has launched an appeal against an “unprecedented” €500m (£430m) fine imposed by the EU on the company, in the latest clash between US tech companies and Brussels.

The iPhone maker accused the European Commission – the EU’s executive arm – of going “far beyond what the law requires” in a dispute over its app store.

Industry insiders cite free speech concerns, saying broadcaster overreacted by limiting live streaming of ‘high risk’ artists

Music industry figures have accused the BBC of making “arbitrary and disproportionate” changes to its coverage of live music after the fallout from Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury festival performance.

There is serious concern among artists and music agencies over a BBC decision that means any musical performances deemed to be high risk will not be broadcast live or streamed live.

In 2015, a nationwide campaign rounded up hundreds of rights advocates. Since then, suppression has become more systematic and less visible, lawyers say

A decade on from China’s biggest crackdown on human rights lawyers in modern history, lawyers and activists say that the Chinese Communist party’s control over the legal profession has tightened, making rights defence work next to impossible.

The environment for human rights law has “steadily regressed, especially after the pandemic”, said Ren Quanniu, a disbarred human rights lawyer. “Right now, the rule of law in China – especially in terms of protecting human rights – has deteriorated to a point where it’s almost comparable to the Cultural Revolution era.” The Cultural Revolution was a decade of mass chaos unleashed by China’s former leader Mao Zedong in 1966. During that time judicial organs were attacked as “bourgeois” and the nascent court system was largely suspended.

Encouraging figures for latest reboot starring Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey, albeit below previous films in the series

Jurassic World Rebirth has outperformed expectations at the box office in its opening week, with the latest instalment of the dinosaur franchise recording over $318m in revenue worldwide after initial projections suggested it might make $260m.

The film opened over the Fourth of July holiday weekend in North America, releasing into US cinemas on Wednesday 2 July – a standard tactic to help boost opening-weekend figures. The film grossed more than $147m (£108m) over five days (Wednesday to Sunday) in the US and Canada, and recorded $171m (£126m) in the rest of the world.

Keir Starmer and Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh join survivors and emergency workers at St Paul’s Cathedral

• UK politics live – latest updates

The prime minister and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh joined survivors and emergency workers at St Paul’s Cathedral to mark the 20th anniversary of the 7 July London bombings.

Four coordinated attacks on three tube trains and a double-decker bus killed 52 people and left several hundred injured in the worst single terrorist atrocity on British soil.

Move after far-right protests is latest example of measures within EU that are straining passport-free Schengen zone

Poland has reintroduced temporary border controls with Germany and Lithuania in response to public concerns over irregular migration.

The measures came into force at midnight on Sunday and will last until 5 August, in the latest example of EU governments imposing measures that are straining the fabric of the bloc’s passport-free Schengen zone.

Exhibition looks at housekeepers, maids and governesses who ‘enable the lives of the heroines and heroes’

After Elizabeth Bennet walked 3 miles across fields to visit her sick sister, the heroine of Pride and Prejudice came in for scandalised criticism of her “blowsy” hair and petticoats “six inches deep in mud”.

What of the women who restored Elizabeth’s hair to coiffed curls and washed the filthy petticoats? Jane Austen’s novels include mentions of working women, such as housekeepers, maids and governesses, but now an exhibition puts their stories in the spotlight.

Exclusive: Study also finds no change in number of casualties on roads just outside low-traffic neighbourhoods

Low-traffic neighbourhoods cut road injuries and deaths by more than a third within their boundaries with no apparent negative safety effect on nearby roads, a study has shown.

Based on comparisons of more than a decade of road casualty statistics between 113 London LTNs and other roads that did not have them, the report’s authors found that LTNs were associated with a 35% reduction in all injuries, rising to 37% for deaths and serious injuries.

President Lula rebukes wealthy countries for retreating on climate and trade but bloc is divided and unbalanced

As the US retreats from the international stage, the most powerful political alliance in the global south has come together in Brazil this week to try to revive and reinvent a collective approach to the world’s problems.

The summit of the Brics group of nations at the Museum of Contemporary Art on the edge of Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro is both a dress rehearsal for the Belém Cop30 UN climate conference in November and a rebuke to wealthier countries that have withdrawn to bunkers, launched missiles and choked off aid to poorer regions.

Musk says he is setting up America party to challenge Republican and Democratic ‘Uniparty’

• Trump says tariffs are delayed until 1 August, sparking confusion

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.

• Updates from the fourth round action at SW19

• Email Daniel | Organisers sorry after line-call error

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.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

• Tour updates from the 178km stage to Dunkirk

• Stage by stage guide | Email Amy your thoughts

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 says the search continues for missing people while life-threatening flooding still remains a threat

• Texas floods – latest updates

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.

Vessels on Rhine in Germany and Danube in Hungary forced to sail partially loaded

• Business live – latest updates

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

Farage says any errors in the runup to the 2024 general election cannot be laid at his door as he was not party leader at the time

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.

• Centre-back is recovering from knee operation

• ‘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,” said 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 was 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.

• 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.

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.

• Stand-in captain hits unbeaten score in Zimbabwe

• 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.

ADHD UK says over-25s wanting assessment with Coventry and Warwickshire trust have no choice but to pay privately

A charity supporting people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is preparing a legal challenge against an NHS trust that has temporarily stopped accepting referrals for adults over 25.

Coventry and Warwickshire partnership NHS trust said any new referrals for people over 25 would be paused from 21 May to reduce waiting lists for children.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Demanding that the University of Virginia’s president resign is taken from the Viktor Orbán playbook of authoritarianism

Under pressure from the Trump administration, the University of Virginia’s president of nearly seven years, James Ryan, stepped down on Friday, declaring that while he was committed to the university and inclined to fight, he could not in good conscience push back just to save his job.

The Department of Justice demanded that Ryan resign in order to resolve an investigation into whether UVA had sufficiently complied with Donald Trump’s orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion.

Universities are controlled by leftwing foundations. They’re not controlled by the American taxpayer and yet the American taxpayer is sending hundreds of billions of dollars to these universities every single year.

I’m not endorsing every single thing that Viktor Orbán has ever done [but] I do think that he’s made some smart decisions there that we could learn from.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com

Only a robot would attempt to turn it into ‘tasty cookies’. A human would just scoop the sugar out again

At a time of intense, bitter division, it’s heartwarming when something brings us together. No, not “briefly becoming experts in lawn tennis”, or “being too hot” – that stupid Samsung advert where the guy “added way too much sugar to my gochujang pasta sauce” and asks his phone for help.

If, by the greatest good fortune, you have managed to dodge it, Google Gemini (an AI “assistant”) suggests he makes “tasty cookies” out of his sugary sauce. Instead of throwing his phone out of the window in holy rage, the youth seems inexplicably enthused (“Sweet!”) and follows its frankly inadequate instructions – add butter, mix, bake for 10 minutes – before wandering off with a cookie, apparently happy with this bizarre outcome.

When actor-director Anne Barbot embarks on an adaptation of a Zola novel with her neighbour, the gap between theatre and reality appears to collapse entirely

Art and life fuse deliriously in Gianluca Matarrese’s hybrid film, which alternates between documentary and fiction, theatre and cinema. Recently divorced from her husband, actor-director Anne Barbot throws herself into preparing a stage adaptation of Emile Zola’s classic novel L’Assommoir. In Gervaise, the working-class heroine of the book, Barbot finds echoes of her current situation: both are women who struggle to reclaim professional autonomy in the aftermath of broken relationships. Barbot’s production becomes more complicated when she casts Benoît Dallongeville, a neighbour who is also an actor, in the role of her love interest in the play. Soon, passion and tension begin to spill from personal relationships on to the page, and vice versa.

Matarrese’s film keeps the camera strikingly close to Barbot and Dallongeville as the pair embark on a long and physically arduous rehearsal process. Jagged, handheld closeups of minute facial expressions and gestures clue us into private emotions that may be unknown even to the two actors. We can sense that, in the beginning, Dallongeville is interested in courting Barbot, though she is pulling back. Yet, over long takes in which they feed each other lines, a certain chemistry gradually emerges, followed by actual romance. The film keeps this development deliberately opaque, as scene transitions make it difficult to tell whether they are reading a script or communicating as themselves. It is as if the border between performance and life has entirely collapsed.

This stuff is going to get interesting soon

The Arsenal striker mystery may have reached its denouement: who will be unmasked as the man to knock down the ball to an onrushing Declan Rice. The answer appears to be Viktor Gyökeres, who is close to sealing his dream move from Sporting. If Benjamin Sesko is the great, lost Gunner, it’s because RB Leipzig want to charge €100m (around £86m), when Gyökeres will cost £70m and lower wages. Victor Osimhen, another striker in the reckoning, seems likely to convert his loan at Galatasaray to a permanent move, should a £65m fee be paid to Napoli. Yet another candidate, Real Madrid’s rather good Rodrygo, seems poised for a move to Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.

Chances are that Noni Madueke will be one of Gyokeres’s suppliers as the Arsenal-Chelsea trade route opens up once more. The winger wants Arsenal but Chelsea are open to accepting other bids than the Gunners’ £50m. Also, isn’t he a right winger, where Bukayo Saka plays? Seems Arteta wants a surfeit of players in each position, following the addition of Martín Zubimendi to a packed midfield. Chelsea need to sell £60m of talent to make Champions League regulations after the slapped wrist – and fine – received from Uefa on Friday.

Russia says it has captured a village in the Dnipropetrovsk region as Ukraine president calls for allies to fulfil commitments on defence

The commission also addressed the reintroduction of Polish border controls with Germany and Lithuania, confirming at its midday media briefing that it had received a formal notification from Poland on Friday.

EU spokesperson Markus Lammert confirmed that “reintroducing temporary internal border controls is possible subject to certain conditions, as set out in EU legislation, and in particular in the Schengen borders code.”