Tottenham Hotspur’s bonus prize for winning last season’s Europa League begins here. They open their Champions League campaign against the 2021 Europa League winners Villarreal. The two clubs can share their war stories of seeing off Manchester United later, but for now there’s a match to be played. The first meeting of the pair kicks off at 8pm UK time. It’s on!
The Champions League is back, baby! The road to glory is arduous, taking almost nine months, but the journey will be worth it for whoever gets to lift the trophy in Budapest on 30 May 2026.
The club who part-own that trophy, Real Madrid, are one of 12 teams in action of opening night. We have separate liveblogs for Athletic Bilbao v Arsenal (5.45pm) and Lads, We Really Need to Put This To Bed and Just Call Them Tottenham v Villarreal (8pm), so it’s the job of clockwatch to flirt with nystagmus and follow the other games:
The esteemed history professor and writer has explored the complicated history of the US constitution in a fascinating new book
In her new book, the Harvard history professor and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore makes a 600-page case for the US constitution as a living document, made to be amended by each generation.
Lepore said her book, We the People, is also “a deep historical critique of originalism”, the conservative legal theory that dominates the supreme court, deep political polarization having rendered constitutional amendments all but politically impossible.
Vietnam and Albania have their fans. Some Americans might even enjoy the UK. But there’s a lot to be said for a country with universally accessible healthcare and freedom of movement within the EU
Accommodation costs at climate summit in Belem are pricing out some developing countries and media outlets
The United Nations has urged its staff to limit attendance at the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil in November due to high accommodation prices, while government delegations are still scrambling to find rooms within their budgets.
The move comes as delegations grow increasingly concerned about the cost of accommodation in the coastal Amazon city of Belem hosting Cop30. Brazil said it was working to increase the number of available hotel beds, but soaring prices for accommodation have stoked calls from some governments to relocate the conference, which Brazilian officials have rejected.
Kipyegon is first woman to win four 1500m world titles
First Tokyo witnessed the spectacular. Then came a divine act of Faith.
In the women’s 400m, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran one of the fastest times in history, easing down, to raise the question of whether one of the oldest – and most controversial – track and field records might fall later this week.
21-year-old leading tourists in three-match T20 series
‘Not a whole lot has been said of why I’ve been chosen’
Jacob Bethell is ready for England to “chuck me in the deep end” as he prepares to lead the side for the first time against Ireland on Wednesday, making him the country’s youngest men’s captain.
With Harry Brook rested for this quickfire three-match Twenty20 series in Malahide, just north of Dublin, the 21-year-old steps in to continue his brisk rise in international cricket. Bethell made his England debut last September and impressed in his first Test series against New Zealand at the end of the year. Yet to seal a regular place in the red-ball XI, he has become an automatic pick in Brendon McCullum’s white-ball teams.
‘Sobering and concerning’ that Axel Rudakubana had searched X for Australia knife attack, inquiry told
A lawyer said it was “sobering and concerning” that the Southport attacker probably viewed footage on social media of a stabbing in Australia by a teenage boy just 40 minutes before carrying out his own crimes.
An inquiry is being held into the circumstances and events leading up to the attack by Axel Rudakubana, then 17, on 29 July 2024 in which he murdered three young girls and attempted to murder eight children and two adults.
Winning an away Ryder Cup is “one of the biggest accomplishments in golf,” to quote Rory McIlroy. Neither team has a great away record. USA have only won twice on their travels since Europe joined the event in 1979, their last away victory coming in 1993. Europe’s only win on American soil in the last 20 years came in Medinah, and we all know it took a miracle for that to happen.
Of Europe’s four away wins – in 1987, 1995, 2004 and 2012 – their shock victory at Oak Hill 30 years ago remains a personal favourite. Things were far from rosy for Bernard Gallacher’s team in 1995: the captain was bruised after two defeats; there were complaints about his team selection; one star player was ruled out with an injury; and a few others were out of form.
Giddy romantic fantasy sends its two commitment-phobe leads on a magical road trip through their pasts that may lead them back to love
Korean-American auteur Kogonada has until now been known for his intriguingly complex, cerebral essayistic movies, such as Columbus and After Yang, whose emotional content, though potent, isn’t immediately obvious. Now he has made the leap into a big, bold, primary-coloured romantic phantasmagoria, as if Chris Marker had remade The Umbrellas of Cherbourg for the American multiplex with two unfeasibly beautiful Hollywood stars. This is a musical without musical numbers (without its own musical numbers, anyway) and a romantic comedy mostly without comedy – an imbalance it shares with most romcoms in fact. The screenwriter is Seth Reiss, co-author of the (much chillier) drama The Menu, with Ralph Fiennes as a scary chef.
What Kogonada and Reiss are offering is a likably, if obtusely uncynical, heart-on-sleeve wish-fulfilment spectacular, which gradually retreats from its initial, borderline insufferable self-awareness. Or maybe it’s just that you get used to it. We are plunged into a woozy daydream as multicoloured as a ball pit in a kids’ play centre, all about love, relationships and the overwhelming importance of being open and risking emotional hurt to find the One. This involves coming to terms with your past and how you feel about your passionately remembered parents who are either dead or at any rate don’t tactlessly appear on screen in their present elderly form.
It doesn’t have to be miserable. We asked experts how best to start training your new (or old) best friend
My family has never been closer to the brink of collapse than when we got a puppy. We spent hours reading articles and watching videos about puppy training, and were constantly arguing about the right way to potty train him or get him to stop barking.
Every new piece of information seemed to contradict what we’d already learned – never scold him! Scold him! – but one thing was certain: make one wrong move and you will ruin your dog and your life forever.
Arsenal’s goalkeeper David Raya was put up for interview in Bilbao and asked if Arsenal’s players are talking about the possibility of winning this season’s Champions League. “We are, we have belief,” he said. “We want to win, we are Arsenal and we play to win, no doubt. That’s what we play football for. It’s a long journey in the Champions League and the Premier League.”
On his Athletic counterpart Unai Simon: “We played against each other in pre-season,” he said. “We haven’t talked too much about it but as a goalkeeper, there is no need to say what I think about him. He is an amazing goalkeeper. He is a guarantee here and in the national team.”
Referee: Donatas Rumsas
Assistant referees: Aleksandr Radius and Dovydas Suziedelis
We are deeply saddened by the loss of our founder and friend Robert Redford.
Bob’s vision of a space and a platform for independent voices launched a movement that, over four decades later,has inspired generations of artists and redefined cinema in the US and around the world.
Creative director Stuart Vevers appeals to gen z audience with ‘down-to-earth pieces’ for New York fashion week
New York fashion week is proving a particularly perplexing time for brands as they continue to grapple with a global slowdown, leading many to question what luxury even means today.
For some consumers, it is always going to be about a gleaming five-figure handbag. For others, it is a limited-edition Labubu. While a certain cohort considers a plain cashmere jumper to be the peak of high status, logomania endures for others. Vintage shopping is now used to denote quality but equally buying nothing has become a powerful signifier.
After a tough week for Labour, Donald Trump is touching down for a state visit. Let’s hope the PM can stomach it
Quick update on Keir Starmer’s government of “national renewal”: having just lost his deputy and housing secretary over her failure to pay the required stamp duty, the prime minister has also lost his US ambassador over his known close association with a known paedophile sex trafficker. Hang on – he’s now also lost his director of political strategy for relating some dirty jokes about Diane Abbott.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of people think the solution to all this is Andy Burnham taking over, suggesting the current Greater Manchester mayor could run in a parliamentary seat that has only notionally become free because the previous Labour MP was suspended from the party after being found to have sent messages hoping a couple of constituents would soon be dead/“mown down”, and is now apparently “off sick”. On top of which, we’re having the Americans round. US president Donald Trump touches down in the UK tonight on the eve of the most hideously ill-starred dinner party since the vomiting scene in Triangle of Sadness. I don’t think the nation could possibly feel any more renewed.
Marina Hyde 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.
As well as the Eden Project, Grimshaw’s ambitious and audacious work on railway stations, airports, sports complexes and supermarkets could elevate even the most mundane experience
‘I asked for the eighth wonder of the world and I got it,” declared Tim Smit, co-founder of the Eden Project designed by Nicholas Grimshaw, who has died at 85. In a Cornish china clay quarry, a cluster of geodesic domes resembling monumental soap bubbles enclose conservatories housing luxuriant plant eco-systems. Completed in 2000, it was one of Grimshaw’s most ambitious and audacious projects, seemingly springing from the mind of a science fiction novelist rather than an architect.
But however thrillingly futuristic Grimshaw’s buildings appeared, they were grounded by an avid interest in engineering and craft, and how historic precedents could be transformed and adapted for the modern era. Instead of using glass for the Eden Project’s domes, Grimshaw employed gossamer-light foil cushions.
Tommy Robinson’s ‘free speech’ protest attracted more than 100,000 people – and it was easy to find links to key political figures and events in the US
A young man in a suit made of union jacks held up a framed photograph of their hero above his head. The crowd loudly chanted the name. The focus of this acclamation was not Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, the organiser of the so-called “free speech” march in central London last Saturday.
They were instead shouting themselves hoarse for Charlie Kirk, the murdered political activist from Cook County in the US state of Illinois.
25-year-old took three-year break from elite sport
Beats Jamaican duo to gold on sweltering night in Tokyo
Cordell Tinch took the long road to becoming a world-class athlete but capped a superb second season as a professional by winning the 110m hurdles at the world championships on another sweltering Tokyo night on Tuesday.
The 25-year-old American was all control and pace as he blazed over the 10 hurdles and held off the fast finishers in the run-in to claim the title in 12.99 seconds. Orlando Bennett ran a personal best 13.08 to win silver, while his fellow Jamaican Tyler Mason took the bronze in 13.12, which matched his previous best time.
Claims on social media feeds are that synthetic hormones cause infertility and affect romantic choices. Experts say unintended pregnancies have reached ‘concerning levels’
In the 1960s it was considered a watershed moment of liberation for women. Now, a new generation is being inundated with messages online that birth control is “evil” and “poison”. Across social media feeds, influencers are venting about hormonal contraception. Some are spreading false claims that taking synthetic hormones causes infertility, or can even be responsible for bad romantic decisions because you are “attracted to different men than you would be if you were off the pill”. Others emphasise known side-effects, such as weight gain and depression.
Meanwhile, millions of TikToks promote the effectiveness of natural contraceptive methods, with self-described “hormone experts” claiming it is “not that hard to prevent pregnancy naturally” with fertility awareness methods “just as effective, if not more effective than the birth control pill.”
Survey of 12,000 women also revealed severity of long Covid symptoms rose and fell across menstrual cycle
Women with long Covid are prone to longer, heavier periods, which could put them at greater risk of iron deficiency that exacerbates common symptoms of the condition, doctors say.
The findings emerged from a UK survey of more than 12,000 women, which also found that the severity of long Covid symptoms rose and fell across the menstrual cycle and became worse when women had their periods.
World champion says ‘only matter of time’ to run 9.6sec
Seville dismisses effect of Noah Lyles’s mind games
On Sunday night, Oblique Seville became the first Jamaican to win the men’s 100m world title since Usain Bolt. But it turns out the 24-year-old’s mind is just as quick as his blistering leg speed.
In an interview to celebrate his victory, Seville was asked if he were to design a sprinter what would he look like. The questioner expected a long answer. Perhaps Justin Gatlin’s start, Michael Johnson’s mentality, and Bolt’s leg speed. But one word came back from Seville’s mouth almost instantaneously. “Usain.”
Videos of frontman Ken Casey confronting rightwing provocateurs at the band’s gigs have gone viral, attracting new fans and new safety worries. He wants to lower the temperature – and see other bands speaking out
Backstage at the Rock la Cauze festival in Victoriaville, Canada, where Boston punk-rock institution Dropkick Murphys are headlining, founding bassist/singer Ken Casey is experiencing an uncharacteristic moment of anxiety.
“We have concerns about going back over the border tonight,” he says, gravely – not for the illicit reasons touring musicians usually fear border crossings, but because Casey’s regular on stage rants against Donald Trump have gone viral. “We’re not worried about being arrested,” he adds. “But we have a show in New York tomorrow. Are we gonna get harassed or held up? We used to come over that border and they’d be, ‘Dropkicks! Come right through!’ But what’s it going to be like now?”
Group of activists, who range in age from seven to 25, include plaintiffs who won landmark climate case in Montana two years ago
Youth climate activists are taking the Trump administration to court this week over its anti-environment agenda.
In a two-day hearing in Missoula, Montana, starting Tuesday, the young activists, who are between seven and 25, will argue that a federal judge should block three of Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel executive orders.
Connexion
