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Alpha review – Julia Ducournau’s disjointed body horror is an absolute gamma

Cannes film festival
The winner of the Palme d’Or for Titane delivers Cannes’ first true turkey: the tonally inept tale of a girl with a dodgy tattoo and a disease that turns people to marble

Strident, oppressive, incoherent and weirdly pointless from first to last … Julia Ducournau’s new film Alpha has to be the most bewildering disappointment of this year’s Cannes competition; even an honest lead performance from Mélissa Boros can’t retrieve it.

I admit I was agnostic about her much-acclaimed Palme d’Or winner Titane from 2021 but that had an energised purpose lacking in Alpha and Ducournau’s excellent 2016 debut Raw is still easily her best work.

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© Photograph: Mandarin & Compagnie Kallouche Cinema Frakas Productions France 3 Cinema

© Photograph: Mandarin & Compagnie Kallouche Cinema Frakas Productions France 3 Cinema

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Dogs are being trained to weed out eggs of invasive spotted lanternflies in US

Researchers are deploying sniffing dogs to combat spread of leaf-hopping pests that can damage trees and fruit crops

The spotted lanternfly, a leaf-hopping invasive pest first detected in the US a decade ago, has steadily spread across the East coast and into the midwest with little getting in its way.

But now researchers are deploying a new weapon to slow its advance: specially trained dogs with the ability to sniff out the winged insect’s eggs before they hatch.

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© Photograph: Sue Ogrocki/AP

© Photograph: Sue Ogrocki/AP

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The Last of Us recap: season two, episode six – many happy returns (of Joel)

Well, that didn’t suck! This birthday flashback episode had enough Pedro Pascal to feel like a glorious gift … only to end up breaking our hearts over and over

This article contains spoilers for the The Last of Us season two. Please do not read unless you have seen episodes one to six.

Back in early 2023 The Last of Us launched to admiring reviews and millions of viewers around the world. When it was quickly renewed for a second season there was speculation about how showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann would approach the task. Would they skip straight to adapting the second (and so far final) video game, which picks up the action five years after the original? Or would they take a more scenic route, inventing new post-apocalyptic adventures for surrogate father-daughter duo Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to have during that considerable time gap? It would certainly be an easy way to eke another lucrative season or three out of the source material.

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© Photograph: HBO/2025 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. HBO® and all related programs are the property of Home Box Office, Inc.

© Photograph: HBO/2025 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. HBO® and all related programs are the property of Home Box Office, Inc.

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Hinshelwood caps Brighton comeback against Liverpool to boost Europe hopes

Arne Slot spent the week partying in Ibiza after guiding Liverpool to their 20th league title with four games to spare. But against a Brighton team still desperate to qualify for Europe next season, the Dutchman and his side were brought back down to earth as Jack Hinshelwood’s late winner with his first touch off the bench sealed a memorable comeback for Fabian Hürzeler’s side.

It was no more than the hosts deserved after twice falling behind to goals from Harvey Elliott and Dominik Szoboszlai, with Yasin Ayari and then another substitute – Kaoru Mitoma – equalising acrobatically to spark a frantic finale. Slot had no complaints as Mohamed Salah endured a night to forget in front of goal and Trent Alexander-Arnold looked relieved that he didn’t even get on the pitch after being booed by his own fans last week. Brighton can now travel to Tottenham on the final day knowing that their fate is in their own hands having edged ahead of Brentford in the race for eighth spot.

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© Photograph: Tony O Brien/Reuters

© Photograph: Tony O Brien/Reuters

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Murder of Colombian model sparks outrage over rising femicides

María José Estupiñán, 22, was killed by a suspect who arrived at her house disguised as a delivery man, police say

The murder of a Colombian model and influencer, now being investigated as a possible femicide, has triggered widespread outrage and renewed criticism of the country’s failure to protect women.

María José Estupiñán, a 22-year-old student, model and influencer from the north-eastern city of Cúcuta, was killed on 15 May. According to the police, the suspect arrived at her house disguised as a delivery man and shot Estupiñán in the face when she opened the door. Surveillance camera footage showed the suspect fleeing shortly afterwards.

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© Photograph: Facebook

© Photograph: Facebook

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As key Israel allies threaten action over Gaza catastrophe, Washington is largely unmoved

As Palestinians are told to evacuate before ‘unprecedented attack’, the White House continues to publicly back Israel

As Israel orders Palestinians to evacuate Khan Younis in advance of what it calls an “unprecedented attack” on Gaza, much of Washington remains largely unmoved, even as Canada and European countries threaten “concrete actions” if Israel does not scale back its offensive.

Despite reports of growing pressure from the Trump administration to increase aid into Gaza, where widespread famine looms, the White House continues to publicly back Israel. National security council spokesperson James Hewitt told the Guardian in an email: “Hamas has rejected repeated ceasefire proposals, and therefore bears sole responsibility for this conflict,” maintaining the policy stance inherited from the previous Biden administration despite mounting evidence of humanitarian catastrophe.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

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‘I’m still not tired of it’: the best books to read aloud to kids, according to parents

From wordless books to dynamic bestsellers and those that will give your kids a giggling fit, these are some of our readers favourites stories to share

New research has shown a decline in the number of parents reading aloud to young children, with only 41% of 0 to four-year-olds now being read to regularly, down from 64% in 2012. The survey, conducted by publisher HarperCollins and book data company Nielsen, also found that less than half of parents find reading to kids fun.

With this in mind, we asked parents to share recommendations of books they enjoy reading aloud. Add your own suggestions to the list in the comments below.

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© Photograph: Huw Aaron

© Photograph: Huw Aaron

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US Open’s $800m renovation to include ‘spa-like’ locker rooms

  • Arthur Ashe Stadium will be overhauled as part of project
  • Project will not use public funds or taxpayer money

The site of the US Open will undergo an $800m transformation, the US Tennis Association said on Monday, with a “top-to-bottom” modernisation of the famed Arthur Ashe Stadium and a new player performance center planned for the sprawling Queens campus.

Work at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center will be completed by the 2027 US Open, with construction taking place in phases to avoid any interruption of the 2025 or 2026 editions of the tournament.

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© Photograph: Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images

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Surgeons in California perform first ever successful bladder transplant

Patient, 41-year-old man, was able to to go off dialysis with technique that two doctors worked for years to develop

Surgeons in California have performed the first ever successful bladder transplant, aiding a patient who previously had his bladder and both kidneys removed as a result of cancer treatment and end-stage kidney disease.

The treatment allowed the patient, 41-year-old father of four Oscar Larrainzar, to go off dialysis – although the surgery comes with considerable short- and long-term risks and unknowns.

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© Photograph: Nick Carranza/UCLA Health

© Photograph: Nick Carranza/UCLA Health

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France sparks outcry with plan for prison wing near former penal colony

Site in French Guiana once received prisoners who were sent to notorious Devil’s Island off the coast

French plans to build a maximum-security prison wing for drug traffickers and Islamic militants near a former penal colony in French Guiana have sparked an outcry among local people and officials.

The wing would form part of a $450m (£337m) prison announced in 2017 that is expected to be completed by 2028 and hold 500 inmates. The prison would be built in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, a town bordering Suriname that once received prisoners shipped by Napoleon III in the 1800s, some of whom were sent to the notorious Devil’s Island off the coast of French Guiana.

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© Photograph: Martin Argles/The Guardian

© Photograph: Martin Argles/The Guardian

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Spirit of willing and quiet resolve land UK-EU deal, but not without late wrangles

Eleventh-hour conflicts over youth mobility and fishing rights showed both sides bargaining hard

For weeks, Keir Starmer had stayed tight-lipped about what he was putting on the table in his negotiations as part of the UK-EU deal, saying in line with Brussels: “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”

But days before Monday’s summit, the prime minister appeared to make a concession and pave the way for a youth mobility scheme, telling the Times in an interview: “Youth mobility is not freedom of movement.”

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© Photograph: Carl Court/PA

© Photograph: Carl Court/PA

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Highest 2 Lowest review – Spike Lee and Denzel Washington remake Kurosawa in fine style

Cannes film festival
Akira Kurosawa’s downbeat noir High and Low is retooled with Washington on magnificent form as a record producer whose godson is kidnapped by mistake

Spike Lee has made a brash, bold, big-city movie with this pulsing New York adventure that doubles as a love letter to NYC’s sports and its music. It is a remake (or maybe cover version) of Akira Kurosawa’s classic downbeat noir High and Low from 1963, transplanting the action from Yokohama to New York – or rather returning it there, because the original source material, Ed McBain’s novel King’s Ransom, is set in a fictional city based on the Big Apple.

It’s got a terrific throb of energy and life, moving across the screen with the rangy grace of its superstar Denzel Washington – though a little of the minor-key sombreness and complex pessimism and cynicism of the first film has been lost and the modern technology of GPS (unknown in Kurosawa’s day) has indirectly left it with a very small plausibility issue.

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© Photograph: Courtesy Cannes Film Festival

© Photograph: Courtesy Cannes Film Festival

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Emma Raducanu sweeps past Daria Kasatkina to claim another win on clay

  • Raducanu beats world No 17 6-1, 6-3 in Strasbourg
  • ‘I’m starting to like clay more,’ says British No 2

Emma Raducanu continued her impressive clay-court form as she swept aside the sixth seed, Daria Kasatkina, in the first round of the Internationaux de Strasbourg.

The British No 2, who won three games on the surface for the first time in her career last week as she reached the last 16 of the Italian Open, beat the world No 17 by a comprehensive 6-1, 6-3 scoreline.

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© Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

© Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

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Trump and Putin hold phone call but Kremlin refuses Ukraine ceasefire

Trump describes call as ‘excellent,’ despite Putin’s lack of support for ceasefire that US said was primary objective

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump have held a rare phone call, which the US leader described as “excellent”, but the Kremlin refused to agree to a ceasefire in the war with Ukraine, despite pressure from Washington and European allies.

Speaking to reporters in Sochi after the two-hour conversation on Monday, Putin described the call as “very meaningful and frank” and said he was prepared to work with Ukraine on drafting a memorandum for future peace talks.

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© Composite: AP, Getty

© Composite: AP, Getty

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Netanyahu vows to ‘take control’ of Gaza as UK, France and Canada threaten action against Israel

Key allies call escalation ‘egregious’ and promise ‘concrete’ response if Israel does not end renewed offensive and allow aid into strip

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel will “take control” of all of Gaza, as three key allies attacked his “egregious” escalation of the military campaign and blockade on humanitarian aid.

Britain, France and Canada attacked Israel’s expansion of its war as disproportionate, described conditions in Gaza as “intolerable” and threatened a “concrete” response if Israel’s campaign continues.

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© Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

© Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

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Boredom, injuries and ‘weird guru vibes’: seven signs it’s time to change your workout

It can be hard for gym-goers to know what’s reasonable to expect from a workout or class. Here, trainers and coaches share common problems – and their solutions

It’s an uncomfortable feeling: you walk out of your fitness class and know the vibe was off but can’t say exactly why. The coach was perfectly polite and the workout itself was fine, but you’re sure you won’t go back. How come?

I have a few hunches because I’ve spent a lot of time in gyms. I played three sports in high school, was on the swim team in college, started CrossFit in 2016 and have been a CrossFit coach and personal trainer for the past four years. I’ve written for Men’s Health for almost a decade, and dropped into at least 50 gyms, from luxury boutiques to basement sweat boxes.

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© Composite: Getty Images/Guardian design

© Composite: Getty Images/Guardian design

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‘Extreme anxiety and extreme depression’: Jennifer Lawrence says she felt ‘like an alien’ as a new mother

The actor and co-star Robert Pattinson have each spoken about their experiences of early parenthood ahead of the premiere of Lynne Ramsay’s Die, My Love

Jennifer Lawrence has spoken of the “extremely isolating” effect of the postpartum period, while discussing a new film in which she portrays a mother descending into psychosis.

In Scottish art-house director Lynne Ramsay’s moody psychodrama Die, My Love, Lawrence’s character Grace is left alone to look after her newborn in a ramshackle house in the remote woods of Montana while her husband Jackson (Robert Pattinson) goes off to work.

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© Photograph: Clemens Bilan/EPA

© Photograph: Clemens Bilan/EPA

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Brighton v Liverpool: Premier League – live

5 min: Liverpool are dominant with the ball. Harvey Elliott, playing in central midfield tonight, has shown a few neat early touches. It looks like Chiesa is playing as a centre forward for Liverpool, with Gakpo left and Salah right.

3 min: “I hope you enjoy the game tonight!” emails Steve G. “I’m one of many – seems well over a thousand from the ticket site – season ticket holders unable to make the game tonight because Sky dictated a move of the fixture to 8pm on a Monday while so many have families, or themselves, with pretty important school exams this week for example. If there any opportunity to point out how unfair it is on fans to move fixtures to times that don’t take them into any consideration please do so, last home game of the season too. A bit like when during lockdown much was made of football not being the same without fans…then a few months after we were allowed back they scheduled Brighton v Brentford for evening on Boxing Day when all public transport had stopped for the day. Empty seats tonight aren’t because we don’t care - I’ll be at Spurs on Sunday - and it’s not because we think we’ve got nothing to play for, it’s because Sky made it impossible to go.”

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© Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images

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Trump officials reportedly reach $5m settlement in January 6 wrongful death suit

Family sought $30m in damages after Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot by police during 2021 US Capitol breach

The Trump administration has reportedly reached an agreement to pay nearly $5m to the family of the woman who was fatally shot by police while participating in the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol carried out by the president’s supporters.

Citing multiple sources, the Washington Post reported on Monday that the Trump administration had agreed to pay the family of Ashli Babbitt to settle the wrongful death lawsuit they filed after the attack.

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© Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

© Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

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Microsoft employee interrupts CEO’s keynote with pro-Palestinian protest

Protester is engineer who worked on Azure software, which enabled Israeli surveillance of Palestinians

A Microsoft employee disrupted a keynote speech by the company’s chief executive with a pro-Palestinian protest at the company’s annual developer conference on Monday.

Joe Lopez, a Microsoft firmware engineer who worked on parts of the company’s cloud-computing platform, Azure, was escorted out the Build conference by security nearly immediately after he confronted Satya Nadella.

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© Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP

© Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP

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Lawyer for Venezuelans deported to El Salvador prison arrested

Ruth López held without access to lawyers at secret location accused of ‘embezzlement’ a decade ago

The head lawyer of a human rights group representing the families of Venezuelan immigrants imprisoned in El Salvador after being deported from the United States has been arrested.

Ruth López, an outspoken critic of President Nayib Bukele, was detained late on Sunday under an order from the prosecutor’s office which accused her of “embezzlement” when she worked for an electoral court a decade ago, the human rights group Cristosal said in a statement.

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© Photograph: SECOM/Reuters

© Photograph: SECOM/Reuters

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The Guardian view on the EU trade deal: a rational step forward | Editorial

Tangible gains from these negotiations will be limited, but the prime minister has at last set a positive tone

So much remains to be worked out in Sir Keir Starmer’s deal with the EU that it must be regarded as a staging post rather than a final destination. In several key areas, the agreement announced in London on Monday is really a commitment to have more meetings at which negotiators will try to make more agreements.

On the issue of visas for young people and the UK’s mooted return to the Erasmus university-exchange scheme, there is little clarity beyond the rebranding of “youth mobility” as “experience”. A decision on the level of fees that European students must pay has also been booted forward. So have some details of how the UK will work with the bloc on policing and security, including the use of controversial facial-recognition technology in tackling drug and people smuggling across borders.

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.

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© Photograph: Hannah McKay/PA

© Photograph: Hannah McKay/PA

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Jim Morrison’s long-lost graveside bust turns up during French police search

Police make chance find of sculpture that adorned Doors singer’s Paris grave until its 1988 disappearance

Carved out of white marble and covered in graffiti, the hefty bust disappeared in 1988. Now, 37 years later, the doe-eyed sculpture that once adorned the grave of the American singer Jim Morrison has been found, in what Paris prosecutors described as a “chance discovery”.

Police in France said they had been carrying out a search related to a fraud case when they happened to stumble upon the bust of the frontman of the Doors. The announcement, made on social media on Monday, was accompanied by a photo showing the graying sculpture still covered in graffiti and missing a chunk of its nose, reportedly sliced off by souvenir hunters before its disappearance.

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© Photograph: DJP-PP/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: DJP-PP/AFP/Getty Images

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The Guardian view on Romania’s presidential election upset: a vote for stability and the west | Editorial

A stunning comeback victory for the centrist mayor of Bucharest was also good news for Kyiv. But elsewhere in Europe, the far right continues to flourish

As Romanians voted on Sunday in arguably the most consequential election in the country’s post-communist history, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, will have been preparing to welcome a fellow disruptor to the European stage. The first round of a controversially re-run presidential contest had been handsomely won by George Simion, a Eurosceptic ultranationalist who views Donald Trump as a “natural ally” and opposes military aid to Ukraine. On the back of a 20-point lead, Mr Simion, a 38-year-old former football ultra with a taste for violent rhetoric, was so confident of winning that he made a confrontational visit to Brussels in the last days of his campaign.

Those expectations were confounded in remarkable fashion at the weekend. In a dramatic reversal of fortunes, Nicușor Dan, the centrist mayor of Bucharest, benefited from the highest voter turnout in 30 years to triumph comfortably. One of the first foreign leaders to congratulate Mr Dan was a relieved Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who, in Hungary and Slovakia, already has to contend with two Putin-friendly governments on Ukraine’s western border.

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.

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© Photograph: Robert Ghement/EPA

© Photograph: Robert Ghement/EPA

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Young British woman held on drug charges in Sri Lanka could be linked to Culley case

Charlotte May Lee, 21, from south London, flew from the same Bangkok airport as Bella May Culley, who was arrested a day earlier

Within a day of Bella May Culley being arrested at a Georgian airport for allegedly trying to smuggle 14kg of cannabis, the same fate met another Briton 3,000 miles away.

As Charlotte May Lee stepped off her flight at Bandaranaike International airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka last Monday, the 21-year-old former cabin attendant was arrested for an alleged attempt to bring in £1.2m worth of a synthetic cannabis strain known as kush in her two suitcases.

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© Composite: Twitter/X

© Composite: Twitter/X

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From Coogler to Cruise: the Hollywood heroes saving cinema

With concerns remaining over the theatrical experience, some key figures are working hard at ensuring it survives

Throughout film history, there have been vanishingly few directors whose brand names reach the heights of the movie stars who log time in front of the camera. That’s natural; we see people like Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Paul Newman, Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise in movie after movie, sometimes experiencing a love-at-first-sight lightning-strike moment, sometimes developing a relationship over many years, and sometimes a combination of the two. Directors, for the most part, remain hidden, with a select few – Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Martin Scorsese – popping through to broader public consciousness, a process that seems to take twice as long. (Martin Scorsese became a commercial prospect roughly 30 years into his career.)

It’s a little surprising, then, that the newest crop of directors reaching for (or in some case, already attaining) brand-name status have become the public faces of saving an imperiled theatrical experience. Christopher Nolan was out front to an arguably foolhardy degree, lobbying for theaters to reopen and show his planned 2020 summer blockbuster Tenet before Covid vaccines were in place. He was understandably pilloried at the time, though now he’s celebrated for his big-canvas vision to the point where an Imax re-release of Tenet (at a safer time for public health) was a big ticket-seller for Warner Bros and helped inspire a similar reissue of his once-maligned sci-fi epic Interstellar.

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© Photograph: Dave Benett/WireImage

© Photograph: Dave Benett/WireImage

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs hit Cassie Ventura, singer Dawn Richard tells court on day six of trial

‘He would punch her, choke her, slap her,’ says Richard as second week of music mogul’s sex-trafficking trial resumes

The second week of Sean “Diddy” Combs’s racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking trial began on Monday morning with the singer Dawn Richard returning to the witness stand.

Combs, 55, is facing charges of sex-trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He was arrested in September 2024 and has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

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© Photograph: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

© Photograph: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

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Bedrock in the bedroom and an indoor stream: is this Arizona’s strangest home?

Sidewinder Ranch, a 40-acre property built over natural rock formations, comes with desert views and a bulldozer

Want to commune with nature? Bring the outside in? Ditch your white-noise machine for a babbling brook going through your living room?

A home that went on the market last month in Arizona offers all this and more. Sidewinder Ranch is a 40-acre hillside property built over natural rock formations. Every room is of geological interest, with a TV shelf perched on rock and boulders creeping to the foot of the bed. A fountain built inside has the feel of a mountain stream, and the property has stunning desert views. “Buy 40 acres but it might as well be 400,” read the listing.

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© Photograph: Courtesy Desert Rat Realty

© Photograph: Courtesy Desert Rat Realty

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Needless controversy over foreign-born Lions players ramps up pressure

The ‘Southern Hemisphere Seven’ long ago proved their commitment, making criticism of selection unwarranted

For the class of 2017 it was the Geography Six and for the current crop, it may prove to be the Southern Hemisphere Seven. Andy Farrell’s squad announcement was low on controversy, on glaring omissions or shock inclusions, and even the Owen issue was dealt with diplomatically. In the days since, however, provenance has been raised as a problem.

Farrell selected in his squad three players born in New Zealand, two in Australia and two in South Africa. Willie John McBride – a legend of five Lions tours – is apparently “bothered” by it and is not alone in expressing concerns at the number of foreign-born players in the 38-man squad.

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© Composite: Getty Images

© Composite: Getty Images

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This new EU deal is great for Britain. Now, Labour, focus on the future, not on Farage | Polly Toynbee

Cheaper food, passport e-gates, youth exchanges – we are finally on a path to repair the colossal damage Brexit has done

Circle the wagons: Europe draws together confronting an enemy to its east and a rogue state to its west. “Everything has changed,” said the prime minister and chancellor, and so it has. Once nestled in the arms of Nato, now alarmingly alone, we have no choice but to embrace neighbours we shunned. Thanks to Vladimir Putin, (nearly) all Europeans now see clearly what was always the case. In danger we need each other, never mind fish or dynamic alignment.

But talking about less important things was always the British way. So headlines and the Today programme bang on about the 12-year continuance of the fishing deal struck by Boris Johnson, allowing French boats into our waters. It’s hard on fishing communities, but not worse than before. The Brexiters used and cheated fishers. But a government has to weigh up winners and losers when fishing contributes just 0.03% to UK GDP and 10,000 jobs. Now set that against the 2.5% of GDP we spend on defence with 164,000 jobs. As the pathway opens up for British defence industries to bid for contracts from the giant €150bn EU defence fund, that’s altogether another kettle of fish.

Polly Toynbee 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.

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© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

© Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

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English football policing head tells fans not to visit Bilbao without final ticket

  • Predictions of 80,000 fans in city ‘not unreasonable’
  • Uefa warns fans second-hand tickets will not be accepted

The head of English football policing, chief constable Mark Roberts, has urged Tottenham and Manchester United fans not to travel to Bilbao if they do not have a ticket for the Europa League final on Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of ticketless fans are expected in the city and Roberts says Uefa, local organisers and police share a “real desire” to make the event work for supporters after the chaos of recent Champions League finals in Paris and Istanbul.

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© Photograph: Vincent West/Reuters

© Photograph: Vincent West/Reuters

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Trump claims without evidence that celebrities were paid to endorse Harris

President urges ‘major investigation’ of Beyoncé, Oprah, Bruce Springsteen and others in late-night social media rant

Donald Trump laced into a few celebrities who endorsed Kamala Harris in late night and early morning screeds on Monday, saying he would investigate them to see if they were paid for the endorsements – repeating a common refrain on the right about the star-studded list of Harris supporters.

“How much did Kamala Harris pay Bruce Springsteen for his poor performance during her campaign for president?” Trump posted in all caps on Truth Social at 1.34am Monday. “Why did he accept that money if he is such a fan of hers? Isn’t that a major and illegal campaign contribution? …And how much went to Oprah, and Bono???”

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© Photograph: Michael Gonzalez/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Michael Gonzalez/REX/Shutterstock

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Deal with EU will make food cheaper and add £9bn to UK economy, says No 10

Agreement reached to ‘slash red tape’ on food products, in exchange for extended EU access to fishing waters

A landmark deal clinched between the UK and EU to remove checks on food exports will add £9bn to the UK economy and lower food prices, No 10 has said, as the last-minute agreement was secured early on Monday morning.

Keir Starmer said the deal, billed as a “historic” turning of the page, delivered the “reset” he had promised after winning the general election last July.

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© Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

© Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

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Megyn Kelly puts Trump clash behind her to ride the Maga media wave

The former Fox News host once branded ‘nasty’ by Trump is now a cheerleader for him and her podcast is surging in the rightwing media-sphere

It was the night before a US presidential election that Donald Trump had called the most important in history. Who could close the deal at his campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania? The answer was Megyn Kelly. Trump “will keep the boys out of girls’ sports where they don’t belong”, the rightwinger podcaster said to rapturous applause. “And you know what else? He will look out for our boys, too. Our forgotten boys and our forgotten men.”

Turning around and pointing at Trump supporters wearing hard hats, Kelly eulogised guys “who’ve got the calluses on their hands, who work for a living, the beards and the tats, maybe have a beer after work, and don’t want to be judged by people like Oprah and Beyoncé, who will never have to face the consequences of her [Kamala Harris’s] disastrous economic policies. These guys will. He gets it. President Trump gets it. He will not look at our boys like they are second-class citizens.”

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© Photograph: Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images

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Hairy Biker Si King’s Honest Playlist: ‘Led Zeppelin is perfect for when you’re speeding along’

The chef, author and presenter wants to be John Bonham and might be found busting out Baker Street at karaoke, but which song reminds him of lost love?

The first single I bought
I Don’t Like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats from Sounds Nice on Birtley High Street, when I was in my teens. I know it was about a school shooting, but at the time, I thought: I have a visceral reaction to Mondays as well.

The first song I fell in love with
Still in Love With You from Thin Lizzy’s Live and Dangerous album. I was learning to play drums and Brian Downey, Thin Lizzy’s drummer, used to do this wonderful shuffle beat because it’s a relatively slow track, and his playing is beautiful. I still play the drums. I’ve never stopped being a musician.

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© Photograph: Andrew Hayes-Watkins

© Photograph: Andrew Hayes-Watkins

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Kylie Minogue review – house, techno … doom metal? This is a thrilling reinvention of a pop deity

OVO Hydro, Glasgow
Her Tension world tour reaches the UK, and it’s the work of a relaxed but inherently flamboyant singer with a bold new vision for her back catalogue

The lights go down in Glasgow, and Kylie Minogue ascends from underneath the stage like a pop deity: head-to-toe in electric blue PVC, sitting in the centre of a giant neon diamond. After acclaimed runs in Australia and the US, she’s kicking off the UK leg of her Tension tour, celebrating an era that started two years ago with lead single Padam Padam – a phenomenon everywhere from gay clubs to TikTok – and continued with her equally hook-filled albums Tension and Tension II.

In contrast to some recent over-complicated arena tour concepts from the likes of Katy Perry, the Tension show is admirably straightforward after Kylie’s big entrance, allowing her to remain the focus at all times. She races through hits – some condensed into medleys – at an astonishing pace; from 1991’s What Do I Have To Do, to Good As Gone from Tension II. For Better the Devil You Know, she changes into a red sequin jumpsuit and matching mic, leading a troupe of highlighter-coloured dancers in front of a minimalist, impressionistic backdrop. There’s something of the Pet Shop Boys’ art-pop flair in the show’s considered design choices, and in Kylie’s inherent – rather than costume-driven – flamboyance.

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© Photograph: Martin Grimes/Getty Images

© Photograph: Martin Grimes/Getty Images

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Balearics hit back at ‘selfie tourism’ as sites become overwhelmed

Tourist authority backtracks on use of influencers after one tiny cove is swamped by 4,000 visitors a day

The authorities in Spain’s Balearic Islands have said they will stop using social media influencers to promote popular destinations, saying “selfie tourism” is damaging some of its most beautiful locations.

In an attempt to quell the effects of overtourism, the Balearics had hoped that influencers, many of whom have hundreds of thousands of followers, might relieve the strain on some better-known sites by directing visitors elsewhere.

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© Photograph: Sina Ettmer/Alamy

© Photograph: Sina Ettmer/Alamy

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‘Our hearts ache’: the fight for survival in Gaza amid Israel’s new offensive and no aid

Ceasefire rumours of little interest, say the bereaved who face starvation after one of Beit Lahiya’s ‘hardest nights’

Middle East crisis – live updates

At about 2am on Sunday, Basel al-Barawi was dozing fitfully in his home in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza. For hours, he had listened fearfully to the sound of explosions and shooting.

Then there was a massive blast. Barawi ran out to the street and saw that his cousin’s house had been bombed, with 10 people inside. The strikes on Beit Lahiya came days after Israel launched a major new offensive, named Operation Gideon’s Chariots.

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© Photograph: Haitham Imad/EPA

© Photograph: Haitham Imad/EPA

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Pope Leo XIV receives White House invitation in meeting with JD Vance

US vice-president delivers letter from Donald and Melania Trump during talks with pontiff at the Vatican

Donald Trump has issued a White House invitation to Pope Leo XIV, the Chicago-born pontiff who as Cardinal Robert Prevost previously criticised Trump’s administration.

The invitation came via a letter from the US president and the first lady, Melania Trump, that was delivered to the pope by the US vice-president, JD Vance, during a meeting at the Vatican on Monday morning.

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© Photograph: Vatican Media handout/EPA

© Photograph: Vatican Media handout/EPA

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