Winner never looked in danger after turning into straight Favourite Benvenuto Cellini non-runner after stalls incident Christmas Day won the Derby at Epsom for trainer Aidan O’Brien, revelling in the rain-soaked soft ground to give his handler a 12th win in Britain’s premier Classic. The 7-1 shot was up with the pace from the start and the result never looked in danger soon after entering the straight, staying on strongly to the line and repelling a ate challenge from Maltese Cross. Continue reading...

Russian, 19, beats qualifier 6-3, 6-2 for first slam title Poland’s Chwalinska fails to emulate Raducanu’s feats Twenty minutes into the first grand slam final of her young career, it looked like Mirra Andreeva’s head was already in danger of exiting Court Philippe-Chatrier. Between the weight of such a potentially career-defining occasion, the excruciating windy conditions and a resourceful opponent seemingly built to cause her maximum anguish, Andreeva looked crippled by tension. Her reaction to the surrounding pressure underlined the work Andreeva has put into addressing her emotional vulnerabilities. She maintained her composure at all costs, coolly problem-solving and then eventually flourishing after a tense start as she ended the qualifier Maja Chwalinska’s historic run with a 6-3, 6-2 victory to capture her first grand slam at Roland Garros. Continue reading...

Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé and Michael Olise have the attacking power to shred opponents but will Didier Deschamps let them off the leash? This article is part of the Guardian’s 2026 World Cup Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 48 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from three countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 11 June. Continue reading...

Sullivan hoped football would legitimise him but claims about historical conduct have led to his resignation from West Ham • Sullivan steps down at West Ham to fight claims about private life When David Sullivan was growing up in a council house in Cardiff, he dreamed of becoming a professional footballer. Short and squat, he would never be a player, but later in life the fortune he built through the pornography industry and the property world gave him a route into the sport. The only problem, Sullivan discovered, was finding a club willing to roll out the welcome carpet for him and his business partners, David and Ralph Gold. They were fans of West Ham United and bought a stake in the east London club in 1991, only to find entry to the boardroom closed. “We had no contact with the board,” the late David Gold wrote in his autobiography. “They simply did not want David Sullivan and the Golds at their football club.” Continue reading...

Co-hosts’ government adamant Zocalo event will go ahead 100,000 expected at official Fifa Fan Fest for kick-off Mexico is planning to increase the police and security presence around Zocalo plaza in Mexico City to ensure the World Cup Fan Fest can go ahead amid growing social unrest and public protests. Much of the city’s historic centre, including the Catedral Metropolitana and Aztec ruin Templo Mayor, is locked down, but the president Claudia Sheinbaum’s government is adamant that Zocalo will remain open throughout the tournament. Continue reading...

From spicy South African relish to Scottish tattie scones, food is an integral part of watching the beautiful game. Here’s how fans around the world fuel match day • International recipes inspired by the World Cup The biggest World Cup ever is surely going to mean the most ever watching parties around the world. With 48 countries competing, why not take inspiration from global cuisine to serve your friends and family something more adventurous than crisps and lager this summer? Football, after all, is a sport of rituals – from fans wearing the same “lucky pants” to watch every game, to placing the name of an opposing team in the freezer – and that extends to eating and drinking, too. This doesn’t just mean booze; in nations where alcohol is prohibited, for example, tea and traditional sweets provide the social lubrication. South American fixtures are fiestas of churrasco (barbecues), chimichurri and a lot of cheering, while in regions where cafe culture thrives, baked goods and strong espresso are more commonly enjoyed during matches than half a cider and some pork scratchings – even at 3am. Continue reading...

Former figures at regulator voice disquiet after series of provocative interviews by recently departed chair Regulators are not generally known for courting controversy. When the day job involves making delicate, legally fraught decisions, they tend to be a circumspect bunch. However, since stepping down as chair of Ofcom, one of Britain’s most scrutinised watchdogs, the Conservative peer Michael Grade has been doing his best to buck that stereotype. “I’m free of the shackles,” he recently said. Continue reading...

From Donnarumma to Kvaratskhelia, this all-star team, with a maximum of two players per country, all have the summer off The 27-year-old Italy captain is widely considered one of the best keepers in the world. After a high-profile move to Manchester City, he has quickly adapted to the Premier League demands for ball-playing, a skill he honed at Paris Saint-Germain. Despite his Euro 2020 penalty-saving heroics, Donnarumma failed to stop a single one against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Azzurri’s crunch World Cup playoff. Continue reading...

Italian will start his first grand slam final as the underdog but he has shown he knows how to beat No 2 seed on clay At almost the exact time Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Arnaldi had been scheduled to take to Court Philippe-Chatrier on Friday and contest the match of their lives, they could instead be located in the bowels of the stadium, their faces a picture of total misery inside the main interview room at Roland Garros. If not for the seriousness of the situation, with Arnaldi forced to withdraw from his first grand slam semi-final due to a virus that had overwhelmed his body overnight, it would have been a comical sight. Somebody behind the scenes was not exactly of sound mind when they decided it was a good idea for Cobolli to sit next to an individual with a viral illness two days before his grand slam final. Continue reading...

Live qualifying updates from 3pm UK time Russell refuses to feel pressure amid title battle You can email Philip | Sign up for The Recap Gambling is a mug’s game but betting odds can be informative. Looking at one bookies on Friday night, at 1-2, Kimi Antonelli was not yet a prohibitive favourite to win the drivers’ championship but George Russell was next best at 9-4, with Lando Norris 14-1 to retain his title, and Charles Leclerc 20-1. However, narrow the focus to this weekend’s party by the Med and it was Antonelli who was 14-1, with Leclerc 5-6 favourite. Nothing you are about to see is likely to tell you anything about what is going to happen across the rest of the season, unless Antonelli overturns those Monaco Grand Prix odds. All F1 circuits are different, despite the off-the-shelf feel in the Middle East, but Monaco is the outlier’s outlier. The street circuits generally have more idiosyncrasies than those F1 tracks simply going about their day jobs but the twists and slopes of the principality are unlike anything else. It’s as if one of the major cricket venues did not just have one tree in the middle of it, in the manner of Canterbury and its lime (RIP), but an avenue here and a copse (from Silverstone?) there. Continue reading...

Karmelo Anthony, who is Black, is accused of stabbing Austin Metcalf, who was white, at track meet in an affluent Dallas suburb Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email After a 2025 high school track meet in Frisco, Texas, ended with one student dead and another accused of murder, Karmelo Anthony, then 17, was indicted on first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf, 17. Social media posts about the death divided the case into racial lines, sparking national outrage. Anthony, who is being tried as an adult, is Black; Metcalf was white. This week marked the beginning of Anthony’s murder trial. Continue reading...

Brands such as Portmeirion in Stoke welcome £120m package but seek further support to avert fresh closures On the floor of Portmeirion’s factory in Staffordshire, staff are hard at work as clays are moulded, glazed and fired – an intricate process requiring precision and specialist skills honed over years of practice – to manufacture the company’s array of tableware. Portmeirion, a homeware brand founded in 1960 that employs 433 people, is based in Stoke-on-Trent, at the heart of British ceramics. The centuries-old craft is so integral to the area’s identity that the six federated towns that make up the Staffordshire city are known as the Potteries. Continue reading...

More than 6.5 million Somalis have been pushed to the brink of severe hunger as the climate crisis, fighting and cuts in aid leave a trail of despair For three years, Zeynab Ibrahim watched as her little town shrivelled up and died. The rains never came, the reservoirs were depleted and the farms gradually turned to dust. Hunger and sickness swept through the village, claiming the lives of many, including four of Ibrahim’s 10 children. “We tried every means to survive – selling dried grass and digging up water from the barren earth. Unfortunately, there was nothing left, so we had no choice but to escape to save our children,” she says, sitting in front of her shelter in a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in the Kahda district of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. Continue reading...

Congressional Democrats say GOP majority is unraveling, but moves may in fact be aimed at retaining power The wrath of Donald Trump has kept congressional Republicans in line for much of his second term thus far. But as the November midterm elections draw closer, the president’s allies in the Senate and House of Representatives appear increasingly willing to defy a president who appears to have asked lawmakers for too much in some areas and too little in others, all while the public sours on his administration. In both chambers, small groups of Republicans have in recent weeks joined with Democrats to advance resolutions requiring that Trump receive Congress’s permission before continuing hostilities against Iran. Republican dissidents in the House helped pass another round of aid for Ukraine, as well as an effort to protect Haitians from deportation. In the Senate, a critical mass of Republican senators has given Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, a cold reception. Continue reading...

Elon Musk firm plans the biggest stock market launch in history – but experts have flagged potential downsides It’s being billed as the biggest stock market launch in history. Shares in Elon Musk’s SpaceX are poised to be released on 12 June with a valuation of $135 (£100.84). The company plans to sell 555.6m of them, which means it will raise $75bn from the sale. On Friday, it was reported that up to a quarter of the shares could be reserved for individual investors, rather than funds and banks. This is a bigger share than is typically the case in a large initial public offering (IPO). Continue reading...

Cold storage and logistics body warns food supplies at risk from fuel shortages, cyber attacks and extreme weather Ministers have been accused of being complacent about the risks to vital supplies of food into the UK amid concerns over fuel shortages, cyber attacks and extreme weather. The trade body for cold storage and logistics has urged the government to make potential disruption to the UK’s food system an “immediate national priority”. Continue reading...

Game-by-game final updates from 2pm UK time Chwalinska stuns Shnaider in historic semi-final upset You can email Katy | Sign up for The Hotspot Salut! The teenage prodigy vs the 24-year-old qualifier and 500-1 outsider; as paths to a first grand slam final go, Mirra Andreeva’s and Maja Chwalinska’s couldn’t be more different. Andreeva, having burst on to the WTA Tour as the most precocious of 15-year-olds in 2023, before reaching the French Open semi-finals in 2024, has long been tipped for major glory, and now, aged 19, the Russian appears to be finding the temperament to add to her tremendous talents and take that final step. Continue reading...

Bodies were buried in Happisburgh after HMS Invincible sank in 1801 on way to join Nelson at Battle of Copenhagen A mass grave for 119 sailors who drowned more than 200 years ago could be exhumed to avoid their remains being exposed by coastal erosion. HMS Invincible sank off the Norfolk coast in 1801 on its way to join Horatio Nelson’s fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen. The recovered bodies of those who drowned were buried at St Mary’s church in Happisburgh, the nearest village to the shipwreck. Continue reading...

CNN anchor Jake Tapper joined a chorus of voices accusing the former first lady of rewriting history and dodging accountability for the 2024 loss Forget the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fight being held on the White House lawn, if you want to tune in to a far more amusing brawl, may I suggest Hunter Biden v Jake Tapper? The CNN anchor is categorically unimpressed with Jill Biden’s new memoir, View from the East Wing, and has joined a chorus of voices accusing the former first lady of rewriting history and dodging accountability for the 2024 loss. In response, Hunter has accused Tapper of having the wrong priorities. “So let me get this straight,” Hunter wrote on Twitter/X on Wednesday. “Jake Tapper is focused on attacking my Mom. Jared and Ivanka are building a private island paradise on Albanian protected land. Don Jr married the daughter of Epstein’s banker, and a startup his fund backs just got a record $620M Pentagon loan. Eric is taking an Israeli drone company public for $1.5B in the middle of a war with Iran that nobody wanted. And I know: ‘But what about your paintings, Hunter?’ Please.” Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Diagnostic interviews seen as ‘gold standard’ vary in reliability from condition to condition, study says Diagnostic interviews – the most common way to diagnose substance use and mental disorders including depression, anxiety, bipolar and personality disorders – vary in reliability from condition to condition, according to a new study in Jama Network Open. Laura Duncan, a psychiatry professor at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and one of the study’s authors, said diagnostic interviews are “often treated as a ‘gold standard’ for assessing mental disorders in both clinical settings and research”, but pointed out that these interviews fall short of providing a “definitive benchmark that demonstrates excellent validity and reliability”. Continue reading...

Joint-chair and director of relegated club to tackle ‘false allegations’ ‘I am absolutely not the person the media has decided to paint me as’ David Sullivan has announced his resignation as a joint-chair and director of West Ham with immediate effect in a statement. Sullivan and his legal representatives published his intention to stand down on the club’s website on Saturday “for the benefit of transparency”. It read: “I have recently become aware that factually incorrect and entirely false, decades-old allegations concerning my personal life are due to be broadcast and published. Continue reading...

Presidential candidate Riquelme wants German as coach Former Liverpool manager now works for Red Bull Jürgen Klopp’s agent has dismissed talk of the former Liverpool manager filling the vacant post at Real Madrid should Enrique Riquelme become the club’s next president. Marc Kosicke rejected Riquelme’s statement that the German, who left Anfield for a job as Red Bull’s head of global football, would become head coach after releasing a statement confirming him as first choice if elected on Sunday. Continue reading...

Horse racing updates from Epsom Downs Racecourse Horse-by-horse guide | Email Greg with your thoughts 4pm DERBY STAKES preview And so here we are: the most famous Classic of them all, and 14 runners vying to become the 247th horse on the Derby’s roll of honour. The rain overnight and this morning has changed the picture somewhat, but the trials have done their job in assembling a field full of possibilities and it is now up to the punters to draw their own conclusions. Is Benvenuto Cellini’s Chester Vase win the best form on offer, or the ding-dong between Maltese Cross and Bay Of Brilliance at Lingfield? Could Item be the fifth Dante winner this century to add the Derby to his record, or might Action or Christmas Day reverse the Knavesmire form? Is Ancient Egypt ready to live up to his pedigree and price tag for Kia Joorabchian and Charlie Johnston? Or maybe the Leopardstown Trial, where James J Braddock edged out Pierre Bonnard, will supply the winner for the first time since 2002. Could there even be a complete outsider that comes through on the rain-softened ground. Continue reading...

The seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was in his mother’s arms when he was hit in the incident in Hebron Israeli troops killed a seven-month-old Palestinian baby in the occupied West Bank and injured one of the child’s parents after opening fire on the family’s car, despite it having complied with an order to stop. Soldiers opened fire on Friday on a car carrying the infant and his parents in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron. The seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was critically injured, evacuated in critical condition to a hospital, where he later died. His parents were also injured. Continue reading...

Total number charged rises to 11 after protests that broke out following sentencing of man for murder of 18-year-old Six more people have been charged with violent disorder in Southampton after riots broke out following the sentencing of a man for the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak. It brings the total number of people charged after disorder in the city to 11. Kevin Reeves, 31, of Portswood Road, Southampton; Andrew Riddett, 38, of Seacombe Green, Southampton; Harry Varney, 34, of Briarswood, Southampton; Taylor Grundy, 22, of Pavillion Way, Gosport; and Dillon Crawford, 29, of Wilton Avenue, Southampton, were charged with violent disorder, Hampshire constabulary said. Continue reading...