Airdrops are not enough to avert the humanitarian catastrophe, says the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative
The UN’s World Food Programme has warned that the disaster unfolding in Gaza is reminiscent of last century’s famines seen in Ethiopia and Biafra in Nigeria.
WFP emergency director Ross Smith told reporters in Geneva:
This is unlike anything we have seen in this century. It reminds us of previous disasters in Ethiopia or Biafra in the past century.
And then back home. Nike pulled out the stops for the plane with the word Home branded on the wing, the H made up of the roman numeral two to represent back-to-back Euro wins. Fans waited at Southend airport before the players were whisked away by coach to 10 Downing Street for a special reception. They were hosted by Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister as Keir Starmer had been in Scotland for talks with the US President, Donald Trump.
The win was history making. It was the first time England had won a major tournament away from home. The Lionesses also became the first senior English side to defend their title – and they did it by coming from behind at half-time – the first time that had been done before at the women’s Euros.
A business associate of the oligarch Roman Abramovich has failed to overturn sanctions imposed on him after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, after a supreme court judgment seen as a test case for the UK’s sanctions regime.
Eugene Shvidler served on the board of companies owned by the former owner of Chelsea football club and now lives in the US. He was placed under sanctions by the UK government in March 2022 as part of measures to target Russia-linked oligarchs and officials after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
The Late Show’s cancellation might have arrived at a suspicious time politically but speaks to an ongoing problem for late-night TV
“I acknowledge we’re losing money,” comedian Jon Stewart told viewers this week. “Late-night TV is a struggling financial model. We are all basically operating a Blockbuster kiosk inside a Tower Records.”
The remark did not dull Stewart’s righteous anger about his friend Stephen Colbert’s show being cancelled by CBS after its parent company Paramount settled a lawsuit with Donald Trump – and a week before Paramount’s $8bn merger with Skydance was approved by federal regulators.
From a wall in a back garden to their first international contest, a dedicated community of young climbers is attracting new recruits in the south African country
Emmanuel Jekete was at secondary school in 2019 when his mother’s Canadian boss invited him to try out a climbing wall in his gardenin Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. Jeketefound it easy to pull himself up the plastic holds when the wooden board was vertical. But, once it jutted out at a 25-degree overhang, he struggled – and was hooked.
Now, Jekete is part of a growing group of young Malawians who love climbing and the community they have created, and who want to see the sport thrive in the southern African nation.
Strangely, this plant benefits from mild stress and ‘benign neglect’. So limit the nutrients and watch it flower!
What’s the problem?
My Hoya carnosa cutting, taken from my father’s treasured plant, bloomed once, in 2022, but has not flowered since. How can I encourage it?
Diagnosis
Hoyas, often known as wax plants, have a reputation for thriving on “benign neglect”. They flower best when slightly stressed, as this triggers their reproductive mode. Regular watering and abundant nutrients will encourage leaf growth rather than blooms.
No money, no flat, no fiancee: in 2022 Bolton lost almost everything that underpinned his life. Three years and 53 countries later, he has more than rebuilt it
On the eve of his 30th birthday, Bobby Bolton found himself living in a mouldy caravan on a derelict farm in Hertfordshire. His relationship of 11 years had just ended, the construction business he had spent five years building was collapsing and he only had a few hundred pounds left in the bank. “I had moved out of the flat I shared with my ex, borrowed money from her to buy this caravan and had such low self-esteem about the direction my life and career was headed that I isolated myself,” he says. “I couldn’t socialise and I was stooping so much when I walked that I felt myself getting back issues. My mum thought I was suicidal.”
She pleaded with him to come home and live with her in Wigan, but Bolton refused. “It felt like the ultimate defeat.” He compromised on a weekend visit instead. Driving the 200 miles north, Bolton soon ended up in the pub with old school friends. Several pints in, he saw something that would change his life.
Surprise move towards trial of veteran diplomat over Patrice Lumumba’s 1961 assassination coincides with show seeking to widen focus on his life and fight
If he had lived, Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, would have marked his 100th birthday this month (on 2 July). This unreached milestone is being marked by an exhibition in Brussels at a time when Belgium, the former colonial power, is facing renewed questions about his death.
Lumumba was 35 when he was overthrown during a political crisis, then tortured and assassinated by a firing squad in January 1961, along with two associates, Joseph Okito and Maurice Mpolo. Nearly 65 years after the murders, which were carried out by Congolese rivals with the support of Belgian officers, Lumumba’s family are still searching for answers.
Gianluigi Donnarumma would be most people’s pick as the best goalkeeper in the world, playing for the best team in the world (not now, Chelsea fans), the Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain. So while the French club’s decision to sign a new goalkeeper – and a very good goalkeeper in Lucas Chevalier from Lille – is an eyebrow-raising one, it simply felt like an expensive exercise in keeping Donnarumma on his toes. Imagine the Mill’s surprise that Donnarumma is now being linked with an exit from PSG … to Manchester United! Just why an elite keeper would want to join a team that finished 15th in the Premier League, is not playing in Europe and has no serious ambition for a league title is beyond comprehension, particularly as the usual answer is money. Donnarumma already earns €12m per year after tax, and United have spent the last couple of years pleading poverty. But L’Équipe seem fairly convinced of the rumours and we are just here to translate.
Borussia Dortmund are light on wingers after Jamie Gittens left for Chelsea and Jadon Sancho has again been mooted as a potential replacement. The Englishman has twice signed for the German club – most recently on loan in January last year – and the 25-year-old could complete a permanent switch with Manchester United asking for just £20m. Any deal would be dependent on Sancho taking a substantial pay cut.
Arturo Suárez and others deported in Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown describe dire conditions at Cecot
Arturo Suárez struggles to pinpoint the worst moment of his incarceration inside a prison the warden boasted was “a cemetery of the living dead”.
Was it the day inmates became so exasperated at being beaten by guards that they threatened to hang themselves with their sheets? “The only weapon we had was our own lives,” recalled the Venezuelan former detainee.
Japan’s deployment of kamikaze pilots to bomb US ships in the Pacific during the second world war killed almost 4,000 Japanese and 7,000 American soldiers. This powerful documentary tells the story of these shocking missions
Going by the raw numbers, Japan’s use of kamikaze pilots in the dying days of the second world war was an effective military action. While the country lost almost 4,000 of its men by asking them to fly planes laden with explosives into enemy ships – a task that entailed certain death – the losses on the other side were closer to 7,000. But it was a bewildering act of collective desperation that still has the ability to shock, and tells us a lot about the futility of modern warfare and the power of mass hysteria in times of conflict.
Kamikaze: An Untold History is a documentary by the Japanese public broadcaster NHK that could have been a very powerful film at 60 minutes but is still impactful at an exhaustive hour and a half. It starts with the first suicide pilots who flew in October 1944, as the Americans advanced inexorably across the Pacific towards mainland Japan. The programme is determined to commemorate individuals who perished, beginning with 20-year-old Hirota Yukinobu. There is clear footage of his plane hitting an aircraft carrier and creating a large explosion on deck, having taken a hit to the wing on its descent: we can well imagine the last moments of a young man’s life being filled with fear of failure and perhaps the physical pain of fire in the cockpit, followed by a final split-second of realisation that his mission had been accomplished.
Kamikaze: An Untold History aired on BBC Four and is available on iPlayer.
Two fortysomething Glaswegians from either side of the tracks form an unlikely friendship in this comic melodrama
They’re an unlikely duo. Jada is a petty criminal who lives hand to mouth in a cramped 60s tower block and can’t remember how many children he has. Dan is a TV producer with a Tesla outside his mansion and who – after five years of trying and six rounds of IVF – is about to meet his first child.
The pair encounter each other outside the sliding doors of Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University hospital, where Dan takes sips of cold air while he comes to terms with the wonder and terror of first-time parenthood and Jada sneaks a quick fag. Dan examines Jada’s vigilant eyes and seasonally inappropriate sportswear; Jada clocks Dan’s Rolex and works out how quickly he could take him in a fight. They bump into each other again in the lift a few days later, laying the seeds for a relationship that will reveal what divides them and what they share, building to a climax of kinship and betrayal.
Pollution incidents reported between 2014 and 2019 were compared against scientific study that used satellite imagery to count slicks
Just 474 out of more than 90,000 oil slicks from ships around the world were reported to authorities over a five-year period, it can be revealed, and barely any resulted in any punishment or sanctions.
The figure, obtained from Lloyd’s List by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations, shows the pollution incidents reported between 2014 and 2019, compared against a scientific study using satellite imagery that counted the number of slicks from ships over the same period.
Technology secretary Peter Kyle says Reform UK leader’s latest comments demonstrate he is ‘not on the side of children’
John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, raised the situation in Gaza with Donald Trump during their meeting, the PA Media reports. PA says the leaders spoke for around 15 minutes, before posing together for pictures in front of a US flag and the saltire of Scotland ahead of the opening of a second course at the president’s golf club in Aberdeenshire.
About 50,000 people who become disabled or chronically ill will be pushed into poverty by the end of the decade because of cuts to incapacity benefit, despite ministers dropping the bulk of its welfare reform plans, the Commons work and pensions committee has said. Patrick Butler has the story here.
Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as US Treasury chief Scott Bessent attends negotiations in Sweden
Donald Trump is in the UK, and by the looks of it he has been talking to someone with an interest in the oil industry: he has said the UK’s taxes on North Sea oil “make no sense”.
The US president wrote on the social network he owns, Truth Social, that the UK should “incentivize the drillers” and that there was “A VAST FORTUNE TO BE MADE for the UK, and far lower energy costs for the people”.
The bonding of players through highly personal stories, and access to home comforts, helped power them to Euro 2025 glory
The gold confetti may have been swept away but it will take some time for the dust to settle on the most remarkable of tournaments. England are European champions. Again. Writing a new chapter in the history book of English football. Leah Williamson, the first England captain to lift two major trophies. Michelle Agyemang, the 19-year-old wonderkid. Jess Carter and her remarkable performance amid the most difficult of times. Hannah Hampton, defying the odds to become England’s saviour on penalties, twice. Chloe Kelly almost quitting football in January and becoming a European champion for club and country by the end of July. Lucy Bronze playing with a leg fracture.
Each one of the 23 has a tale to tell. The people are remarkable and their stories are remarkable.
Dave Brailsford was hailed as a ‘not-so-secret-weapon’ on his return to the Tour de France but an investigation into a staff member has overshadowed the team’s modest successes
As Tadej Pojacar stood on the Champs-Élysées podium, celebrating his fourth victory in the Tour de France, the man who led British cyclists to multiple yellow jerseys and numerous Olympic gold medals had already flown home to Monaco.
Not that long ago, a Dave Brailsford-led success in the Tour de France was almost routine. From 2012 to 2019 when riders from Team Sky, and later Ineos, won seven titles in eight years, Brailsford was at the heart of it all.
Host country provided a record attendance and a summer spectacle despite a relatively modest football infrastructure
Twelve hours before Euro 2025 reached its crescendo the Uefa executive director of football, Giorgio Marchetti, addressed a hall of delegates in Basel. The morning coffees were still taking hold as officials from clubs, federations and other stakeholders settled down for a forum designed partly to debrief the previous month. There was no mistaking the congratulatory mood and Marchetti was determined to see it last. The tournament would not be “like a butterfly, over in 24 hours”, he said; instead its reverberations would be felt far into a burgeoning sport’s future.
There was certainly little sign of any effects dulling as afterparties swung long into the night following England’s heist against Spain. The overwhelming sense was of euphoria, sprinkled with relief, that host and governing body had pulled off what some viewed as a high‑wire act. Switzerland’s relatively modest football infrastructure, not to mention its muted appreciation of the women’s game, had raised eyebrows but it staged an event that delivered to the last.
After a long, slow buildup, everything is over in a flash. Changing positions doesn’t help, so what’s left?
I am a man in my 60s. When my wife and I have sex, I can keep it up (as it were) for 45 minutes, including about 20 minutes of coitus. All of which I enjoy very much. The problem in recent years is my orgasm. When it arrives, it is a bit of a letdown. It happens extremely quickly and feels like a premature ejaculation, even though it has taken a long time to get there. It makes no difference whether I am on top and in charge of the pace or whether my wife is. How can I make my orgasms more enjoyable?
Certain medications – whether prescription or over-the-counter – can change the nature of one’s orgasm, so consider whether the culprit could be in your medicine cabinet. If this is a possibility, you should consult with the prescribing physician to find out if there might be an alternative. Another element to investigate is whether your hormones might have something to do with it. For example, you might ask a doctor to look at your testosterone levels. Strong orgasms are fuelled partly by sex hormones such as testosterone, and an insufficiency could lead to the symptoms you are experiencing. Finally, I can tell that you are proud of your sexual prowess, but it might be a good idea to relax a bit on the expectations you set for yourself. A person usually has a better orgasm when they are able to let go of performance pressure. Try to focus simply on pleasure.
Little known Queyras natural park promises blue-green lakes, mountain views, pretty villages and plenty of cheese – but almost no crowds
The baguette was fresh from the boulangerie that morning, a perfect fusion of airy lightness and crackled crust. The cheese – a nutty, golden gruyère – we’d bought from Pierre: we hadn’t expected to hike past a human, let alone a fromagerie, in the teeny hillside hamlet of Rouet, and it had taken a while to rouse the cheesemaker from within his thick farmhouse walls. But thankfully we’d persevered. Because now we were resting in a valley of pine and pasture with the finest sandwich we’d ever eaten. Just two ingredients. Three, if you counted the mountain air.
As lunches go, it was deliciously simple. But then, so was this trip, plainly called “Hiking in the French Alps” on the website. The name had struck me as so unimaginative I was perversely intrigued; now it seemed that Macs Adventure – organisers of this self-guided walk in the Queyras region – were just being admirably to the point.
We shouldn’t celebrate a falling population, according to this persuasive debunking of demographic myths
As a member of the 8.23 billion-strong human community, you probably have an opinion on the fact that the global population is set to hit a record high of 10 billion within the next few decades. Chances are, you’re not thrilled about it, given that anthropogenic climate change is already battering us and your morning commute is like being in a hot, jiggling sardine-tin.
Yet according to Dean Spears and Michael Geruso, academics at the University of Texas, what we really need to be worried about is depopulation. The number of children being born has been declining worldwide for a couple of hundred years. More than half of countries, including India, the most populous nation in the world, now have birthrates below replacement levels. While overall population has been rising due to declining (mainly infant) mortality, we’ll hit a peak soon before falling precipitously. This apex and the rollercoaster drop that follows it is the eponymous “spike”.
World Rugby CEO says criticism of officials is unfair
But Australia coach Schmidt to avoid official sanction
World Rugby officials have called for greater respect to be shown towards referees following the furore over the pivotal late call in Saturday’s second Test between Australia and the British & Irish Lions. Alan Gilpin, World Rugby’s chief executive, believes the mental health of match officials needs prioritising and has described the post-game outburst by the Wallabies coach, Joe Schmidt, as“disappointing”.
The call by the Italian referee Andre Piardi to allow the Lions’ match-clinching late score was criticised by Schmidt, who was unhappy with the decision not to penalise Jac Morgan for a clear-out just prior to Hugo Keenan’s try. A routine post-match review of the officiating is continuing but Gilpin says public criticism of match officials is unfair on those at the sharp end.
Every company at every stage of the supply chain will try to pass on the cost of US tariffs, as much as possible
Burying the hatchet with Brussels, Donald Trump – flanked by the leader of the European Commission – hailed a bold new era of transatlantic relations, an ambitious economic pact, and declared: “This was a very big day for free and fair trade.”
That was seven years ago. And then on Sunday, the US president – flanked by a different leader of the European Commission – hailed another new era of transatlantic relations, another economic pact and declared: “I think it’s the biggest deal ever made.”
From Mitch Epstein’s early colour experiments to Ori Gersht smashing glass prints of iconic paintings, these images celebrate three decades of the New York gallery
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