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The Blacks Ferns perform Ko Uhia Mai.

Epic stuff.

Joshua Oliver, 28, pleaded guilty to arson that gutted premises in Washington, Tyne and Wear

A 28-year-old man has admitted to starting a fire that destroyed the constituency office of Labour MP Sharon Hodgson.

Joshua Oliver, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to arson, with the resulting fire wrecking the Washington and Gateshead South MP’s office in the early hours of Thursday.

• Updates from the afternoon’s 3pm BST kick-offs

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Everton XI: Pickford, Keane, Tarkowski, O’Brien, Iroegbunam, Gueye, Garner, Dewsbury-Hall, Grealish, Ndiaye, Beto
Subs: Travers, Patterson, McNeil, Barry, Dibling, Coleman, Alcaraz, Rohl, Aznou.

Aston Villa XI: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Digne McGinn, Tielemans, Buendia, Watkins, Bogarde, Rogers
Subs: Bizot, Maatsen Proctor, Lindelof, Elliott, Torres, Malen, Sancho, Maatsen, Guessand.

The country’s finest male intellectuals – including some in positions of power – are weighing in on the matter

Should women in the US have the right to vote? You’d be forgiven for assuming this particular issue was sorted out quite a long time ago. But, because we live in hell, it seems the question is once again up for debate.

Not by women, though; the fairer sex is obviously too emotional for such muscular discussion. So please sit this one out, ladies, and listen to what America’s finest male intellectuals have to say.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Reaction to the shocking killing of Charlie Kirk has largely overlooked the obvious: the country is awash with guns and people prepared to use them on fellow Americans

At 12.23pm on Wednesday, as the rightwing influencer and provocateur Charlie Kirk was addressing a large crowd at Utah Valley University, a single shot rang out. He was struck fatally by a bullet in the neck, sending thousands of screaming students scattering in all directions and propelling the country into a new and dangerous crisis.

Exactly one minute later, at 12.24pm, about 450 miles to the east in Colorado, a 911 call came in to first responders in the mountain town of Evergreen. A 16-year-old student had opened fire with a revolver on high school grounds, critically injuring two fellow students before turning the handgun on himself.

As the rock band played the final stop of their sold-out reunion tour near LA, it was clear: Liam and Noel Gallagher have become icons stateside

After a crowd of nearly 90,000 finished singing Don’t Look Back in Anger, Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher had a question.

“Are we dating?” he asked fans at the Rose Bowl, a stadium just outside Los Angeles, last Sunday night. “America, Oasis, the new hot couple, yeah?”

• Lions 14.16.100 defeat Suns 6.11.47 in second semi-final at the Gabba

• Brisbane bounce back to set up clash with Collingwood on Saturday

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It was billed as the biggest game in Queensland ever: reigning AFL premiers Brisbane against their state rivals from down the M1. The long-derided Gold Coast had finally arrived as a force, winning an elimination final in an ecstatic finish over Fremantle, via a last-gasp point to retiring club great David Swallow.

For a short time, the semi-final looked like it might live up to its billing. And then it fell apart. The Suns barely fired a shot after half-time, overpowered by a manic Lions side desperate to atone after being humiliated by Geelong in Melbourne last week. Brisbane now face Collingwood in a preliminary final at the MCG on Saturday. Gold Coast are done.

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Artificial intelligence is changing how students learn and the world they’ll graduate into. Experts reveal how applicants can get ahead

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently told a US podcast that if he was graduating today, “I would feel like the luckiest kid in all of history.”

Altman, whose company developed and released ChatGPT in November 2022, believes the transformative power of AI offers unprecedented opportunities for young people.

Marina Ramazashvili says son, Giorgi Bachiashvili, was the victim of a ‘vendetta’ by billionaire politician

The mother of a jailed former aide to Bidzina Ivanishvili has accused the de facto leader of Georgia of treating her son as his “personal prisoner” as she appealed to the west for help.

Marina Ramazashvili, a renowned ophthalmologist in Georgia, said Giorgi Bachiashvili, who has allegedly been beaten in his prison cell, was the victim of a “vendetta” waged by the billionaire politician.

Laura Marie is one of six research volunteers preparing to spend 378 days inside Nasa’s Mars Dune Alpha in Houston

It sounds like the premise of a new reality show: take four strangers, isolate them in a 3D-printed Martian habitat for more than a year, and watch them tackle equipment failures, communication delays and attempts to grow vegetables. In fact, it is a scientific simulation – and for the first time a British pilot is among those training for the mission.

Laura Marie, who was born in the UK and is now a pilot for a regional airline in the US, beat about 8,000 applicants to become one of six research volunteers who are preparing to spend 378 days inside the 158-sq-metre (1,700 sq ft) Mars Dune Alpha habitat at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Duo are the most productive T20 openers, with Salt’s goal to be ‘best in the world’ after record innings against South Africa

As he reflected on his epic individual contribution to a thrilling and historic win for England against South Africa on Friday, Phil Salt spoke about being inspired to ever greater heights by the people around him. “The mentality that we’ve had from when I started playing for England to now, we’re always trying to push things forward,” he said. “Always trying to take, you know, the next step in the game.”

But over the past few years most of the steps taken by the white-ball side have been backwards. It is the Test team under Ben Stokes that have produced the thrills, while in shorter formats there has been a succession of spills. Jos Buttler, by general acclamation England’s greatest short-format player, stood down as captain in February after three years that started with victory in the 2022 T20 World Cup but came to be characterised by failure.

Hopwood DePree has been leading efforts to renovate Grade II* listed Hopwood Hall in Middleton since 2017

It was a story fit for the pages of a Hollywood screenplay, with a California actor moving to a town in north Manchester to restore his dilapidated ancestral home.

But Hopwood DePree’s romance plot has transformed instead to a horror, after he found himself locked out the building he was restoring, and now battling the local council in court for possession of the property.

The sport, a popular pastime of the white elite during the colonial period, has struggled in recent years, but its fortunes may be changing

The spectators on the grandstand at Ngong Racecourse in Nairobi jumped to their feet as the horses competing in the fifth race of the Day of Champions – the last meeting of the season – came around the final corner on a recent Sunday afternoon. “Bedford! Bedford! Bedford,” some roared, punching the air as the horse, jockeyed by Michael Fundi, broke into a gallop on the home stretch, passed the leader, and stormed to victory.

Fundi, who had started the day on top of the jockey standings, was crowned the season’s champion after the last race. At 20, he was the youngest in a decade.

Above: Michael Fundi with Bedford after winning the 2400m Jockey Club Stakes George Drew Challenge Series.

No item of clothing seems to go through revisions more than jeans. And the denim discourse is insufferable

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you are wearing clothes. Or my byline photo made you spontaneously strip down to nothing but a pair of crusty underwear and a smile. I don’t judge, and I also don’t blame you. That photo is from a decade ago.

Assuming you’re in clothes, then you had to decide what to wear. It’s an arduous task for most of us – the rummaging in a closet, color coordinating, the classic “smell” test to confirm you can go another week without doing your laundry. For me, dressing is a joy. I have multiple closets stocked with clothes – suits, mostly. I have some shorts, some sweats, hoodies and T-shirts, but those are for special occasions only. Like a kid’s birthday or a hangover.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

She fell mysteriously ill while living in a remote cabin with my stepdad, and I suspected it was a cry for help. Then came the unexpected diagnosis: folie à deux

For days before her last hospital visit, Mom’s texts worried me.

She sent them from the one-room mountain cabin she shared with my stepfather, Mark. They pinged each day on my phone like tiny arrows: two dozen or more, with random all-caps.

Mom: Making mark red velvet CAKE. we have the gang of coyotes eating and harassing down below on the flats. Going to rest and take it easy and go TOMORROW FOR FOOD and water AGAIN.

Me: Make sure you’re hydrated!

Mom: I will sweet ANGEL

March expected to be Britain’s largest far-right rally in decades, and will include speakers from Britain, the US and Europe

More than a hundred people have gathered outside Russell Square before the ‘march against fascism’ counter-protest against the ‘unite the kingdom’ march, featuring far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. Both are being held in central London on Saturday.

According to the PA news agency, people in Russell Square milled around with placards that said “refugees welcome” and “oppose Tommy Robinson”. Chants of “say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here” started at about 11.20am, the news agency reports.

The far right are a menace to the whole of society. Their first targets, asylum seekers and Muslims, are broadening to all migrants, black people and on to trade unionists, all religious minorities and anti-racists.

This is going to be big, but we are also talking about movement to the right of Reform UK and we still don’t know where it is going.

• Updates from the Lions v Suns clash at the Gabba

• Any thoughts? Get in touch with Geoff Lemon

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Q1: 15 mins remaining: Brisbane 1.1.7 – Gold Coast 2.0.12

Haphazard in the forward line from Brisbane, but they’re on the board. Zorko’s pinpoint pass from half back into the centre sets it up, then follows up with the one-two. Kick inside 50 is spoiled, Cameron gets ironed out in the contest, the ball is knocked around via Ashcroft, little kick inboard isn’t marked on the full, Logan Morris gets the snap away as he’s tackled, but he gets enough purchase and it sails through.

• Match at Emirates Stadium kicks off at 12.30pm (BST)

• Postecoglou vows to helm Forest back to ‘rightful place’

6 min Arsenal are starting to find some rhythm. Madueke cuts inside from the right and teases a dangerous inswinging cross that is headed away well by Murillo.

4 min Ndoye is down and in pai- oh forget it, he’s trying it on.

PM understood not to have seen messages from former ambassador to sex offender when speaking in Commons

Keir Starmer defended Peter Mandelson in the House of Commons two days after details of the damning emails between the former ambassador to the US and Jeffrey Epstein were passed to Downing Street, according to reports.

The prime minister sacked Mandelson on Thursday after emails were published revealing that he had told Epstein “your friends stay with you and love you” while the disgraced financier was facing jail for sex offences.

Phil Bellamy’s daughters refuse to ride in his electric car without travel sickness tablets. Are there other solutions?

It was a year in to driving his daughter to school in his new electric vehicle that Phil Bellamy discovered she dreaded the 10-minute daily ride – it made her feel sick in a way no other car did.

As the driver, Bellamy had no problems with the car but his teenage daughters struggled with sickness every time they entered the vehicle. Research has shown this is an issue – people who did not usually have motion sickness in a conventional car found that they did in EVs.

Customised plates often cost more than the car – and yet the number of people queueing up to buy them is at an all‑time high. What’s the appeal?

‘Well, lot number 56 created quite a buzz, ladies and gentlemen … ” I’m sitting in a marquee in Chichester at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, sheltering from the summer heat. The auctioneer tells us that there have already been several telephone bids for this particular lot. Someone on the phone kicks things off with £180,000. The room holds its breath. Behind us are various astonishingly luxurious cars. One, an orange 1992 Mazda RX-7 FD Veilside Fortune Coupe, was used in the film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. All of a sudden the bidding for lot 56 is at £220,000. Now £230,000. Now £240,000 from someone online. Now £250,000. I can hear the distant vrooming of race cars tearing around a track. But lot 56 isn’t a car. It’s a number plate.

Until recently, the UK record for a number plate sold at public auction was £518,480, set in 2014 when Ferrari dealer John Collins beat the competition to get his hands on “25 O”. Private deals have been done for millions of pounds. In Dubai, “P7” sold for £12m in 2023, setting a world record. Number plates can dwarf the value of the cars on which they sit. The question is: why?

The American dream has never looked more seductive, with long and loose summer wardrobes and beachy jewellery

With the death of Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren became the world’s oldest major working fashion designer. The spotlight arrives with great timing for an 85-year-old on a hot streak. His brand is in better health than it has been for decades, with shares up 35% in 2025 and annual sales figures showing an 8% growth to $7.1bn (£1.25bn).

On the first night of New York fashion week, Lauren hosted the curtain-raiser for a month of catwalks with a show in his Madison Avenue design studio. Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King chatted to Lauren’s family; Usher smiled broadly behind sunglasses, lounging on a plushly cushioned front row. Champagne was served on silver trays under twinkling chandeliers. In the fractious climate, with the US reeling from the shooting of the far-right activist Charlie Kirk, Ralph Lauren’s affable, charming vision of the American dream has never looked more seductive.

The Canada-based photographer used his camera’s slo-mo mode to create a fluid pattern

Raghuvamsh Chavali was born in Hyderabad, India, and now calls Canada – or more specifically Guelph in Ontario – his home. He describes his adopted city as “a peaceful and friendly place, with a mix of heritage buildings and modern life”. It also proved an ideal backdrop for his extended photographic series Wings Over Concrete, which explores the presence and movement of birds in urban environments.

Before he took this image, one cloudy afternoon in downtown Guelph, Chavali had been tracking this particular flock of pigeons for several weeks. “I was in search of the natural patterns of birds, and I’d seen this flock flying in circles around the buildings near a train station at the same time each day. They moved in a tight, repeated loop, and on this day the light was soft and just right to capture their movement clearly,” he says. He utilised his phone camera’s slo-mo mode “to create a visual that almost feels like it was drawn with light. Their flight formed a fluid, layered pattern, like an S-shaped ribbon floating in space.”