Senior lawyers call on prime minister to request Indian prosecutors drop charges that would breach double jeopardy rule Four senior lawyers, including the former attorney general Dominic Grieve, have written to Keir Starmer urging him to request that Indian prosecutors drop charges against the British national Jagtar Singh Johal on the basis that continued prosecution would be in manifest breach of the double jeopardy rule which prevents someone being tried twice for the same offence. Johal has been held in an Indian jail for eight years, and in March last year was acquitted of the terrorist charges laid against him in a court in Punjab. The court found the prosecutors had ‘miserably failed’ to present any reliable evidence, despite having had seven years to do so. Continue reading...

Former health secretary’s intervention comes as government closes consultation on age limits for social media platforms Social media companies should be treated like the tobacco industry, Wes Streeting has argued, as he called for a ban on under-16s accessing certain platforms. Speaking publicly about the prospect of a ban for the first time since he left government, the former health secretary said one was needed because large technology companies were trying to dodge regulations. Continue reading...

A century of our favourite images from the season including wild celebrations, protesting fans and goal-mouth scrambles Reigning champions Liverpool left it late to beat Bournemouth 4-2 on the opening day of the season in their first league game back at Anfield following the death of Diogo Jota. The Reds also squeaked past Newcastle thanks to Rio Ngumoha and then Arsenal, after Dominik Szoboszlai’s stunning free-kick, which won goal of the month. Meanwhile, Manchester City lost 2-0 at home to Tottenham and 2-1 away to Brighton, Everton christened their new home, Hill Dickinson Stadium, with a win, and Sunderland made a strong start on their return to the top flight with two wins from three. Continue reading...

Police launch murder investigation after incident in early hours of bank holiday Monday outside One Four One bar A 30-year-old woman has died after being shot outside a bar in a busy area in Sheffield city centre. South Yorkshire police have launched a murder investigation after the incident in the early hours of this morning outside the One Four One bar on West Street. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Chancellor pushes for procurement of ships, steel, energy and AI to prioritise Britishness as well as cost Rachel Reeves has instructed cabinet colleagues to award government contracts in four critical industries directly to British companies, making clear her irritation that ministers have been sending too much government business abroad. In a letter seen by the Guardian, the chancellor tells every cabinet minister in charge of a spending department to “buy British” wherever possible, adding that she is disappointed they are not already doing so. Continue reading...

Temperatures soar to 33C on Monday at Roland Garros Kasatkina: ‘I don’t remember the last time it was so hot’ Competitors at the French Open are tackling unusually blistering heat at the start of this year’s event along with navigating the red clay and the pressure of performing at one of the biggest tennis tournaments in the world. Temperatures scaled 33C in Boulogne-Billancourt on Monday, with players forced to adjust their games while trying to find their best level through obvious discomfort. This hot weather is expected to endure throughout the first week. “I don’t remember the last time it was so hot at Roland Garros,” said Daria Kasatkina. “Maybe one day, but we’re going to have it for the whole week or something.” Continue reading...

At the end of a ‘crazy, crazy day’, Elche were safe. But opponents, Girona, were down with Mallorca and Oviedo Eder Sarabia wasn’t out there to see the tightest, tensest battle there has ever been end with liberation at last, but his mum and dad were and he wasn’t far away. Suspended for the final night of a season like no other, Elche’s coach was hidden down in the dressing room instead, watching the game that he knew was “us or them” on a TV set perched precariously upon a metal crate. There, as staff ran in and out delivering messages until it was his turn to set off on a sprint, he saw the match that defined five teams’ fate finish 1-1. Mobile in hand, alerts beeping, most of all he saw suffering. “Terrible, terrible, terrible,” he called it later, but by then at least it was done. Elche were safe. Their opponents, Girona, were down. Real Mallorca, like Real Oviedo, were going with them. “Crazy, crazy day, crazy match, a lot of emotions: this league was really crazy,” Sarabia said. He had spent much of it surrounded by clothes on hooks and flags taped to walls; like everyone else, he had also spent it, he said, “on the edge of the precipice”. From the visitors’ dressing room at Montilivi, he had seen Álvaro Rodríguez score the kind of goal that wins cups in cartoons, tearfully dedicating it to his late dad, and Arnau Martínez equalise. He had seen cameras zoom in on his parents in the stands and wondered how Manu, a former footballer who doesn’t so much watch games as broadcast them, looked so calm when they were a goal from losing it all. He had seen Thomas Lemar hit Elche’s bar, “+7” appear on the screen, and his goalkeeper catch a cross on 95.55, Matías Dituro triumphantly holding the ball like Rafiki on Pride Rock, but it still wasn’t over. Continue reading...

Rehabilitation of young offenders is vital. But victims should not leave court wondering why they bothered The decision to review the sentences of two teenage boys convicted of raping two girls, aged 15 and 14, in separate incidents in November 2024 and January 2025, and a third boy who took part in the second rape, is correct. A knife was used to threaten the second victim, and the attacks were filmed with footage later uploaded to social media. Given the severity of the crimes, and the fact that having raped one girl, two of the boys went on to rape another two months later, the non-custodial sentences handed down last week by a judge in Southampton look like a serious mistake. Fortunately, the law in England and Wales allows for overly lenient sentences to be revised by the court of appeal. In this case, a dramatic request came from one of the victims herself. In a BBC television interview on Sunday, she said that the youth rehabilitation orders issued by the judge felt like “a rock straight in my face”. She said the outcome had made her question the point of reporting the crimes in the first place, and going through a distressing trial. Such comments should alarm everyone concerned with prosecuting rape. Her mother made a public plea to the prime minister: “Please help.” Continue reading...

In calling for regulation of the digital revolution, and foregrounding human dignity, the pontiff has contributed to a crucial ethical debate When the present pope adopted his regnal name, he explained the choice by reference to a 19th-century predecessor who used the papacy to address the great social question of his time. In the 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum (Of New Things), Pope Leo XIII analysed the social forces unleashed by the Industrial Revolution, and outlined principles for a just settlement between the forces of capital and labour. Leo XIV hopes to do something similar in relation to the accelerating digital upheaval of our own age. As anxiety grows over big tech’s impact on how we work and live, such ambition should be applauded. The early fruits of the pope’s work were presented in the Vatican on Monday after the publication of his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity). In 42,000 or so words the document itemises the daunting challenges posed by developments in artificial intelligence, and urges political leaders to safeguard human dignity as new technologies emerge at a pace which is outstripping ethical regulation and control. Continue reading...

Protesters say agents used pepper spray and batons in clash outside Delaney Hall where a hunger strike is under way Protesters outside a New Jersey migrant detention center where a hunger strike is under way alleged that US immigration agents deployed pepper spray and batons against them during a demonstration on Monday. The protesters tried to stop ICE from transferring Martin Soto – who announced the strike – but officials said that they were able to move him to the Elizabeth contract detention facility. Continue reading...

Director general of World Health Organization urges neighbouring countries to take immediate action The World Health Organization has warned that the Ebola outbreak is outpacing response efforts and countries neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are at high risk from the disease. “We are urgently scaling up operations, but at the moment the epidemic is outpacing us,” said the WHO’s director-general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as he urged neighbouring countries to take immediate action. Continue reading...

British driver had a thrilling duel with Kimi Antonelli in Canada before engine failure handed win to teenager George Russell was left wondering quite which deity he had offended as he despairingly contemplated his retirement from the Canadian Grand Prix with a mechanical failure. Fortune, for good or ill, will always play a part but what also became clear in Montreal is that Russell’s teammate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli is going to be fearsomely hard to beat this season, whatever the circumstances. Russell ground to a halt on the circuit Gilles Villeneuve on lap 30 after a thrilling battle with his Mercedes teammate Antonelli that had ebbed and flowed. The British driver deserved better, the two had been exchanging the lead and going side by side repeatedly, inches apart and trading paint on one occasion, only for Russell’s efforts to count for naught as he went out not with a whimper when the systems on his car shut down due to battery failure. Continue reading...

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NZ 80; Eng 81-3. Eng win by seven wickets England complete chase with 37 balls to spare England achieved a straightforward win against New Zealand, bowling the visitors out for 80 before chasing down the runs with 37 balls to spare to secure the series 2-1. The win was set up by a catastrophic batting collapse from New Zealand, who sunk to 33 for six in the first nine overs. A Thomas Becket-esque miracle had saved them at Canterbury, but a second one was unlikely to materialise, especially as the in-form Sophie Devine was dismissed for a duck. Continue reading...

The UK is experiencing record-breaking temperatures in an unprecedented May heatwave, while large parts of Europe are also facing blistering conditions. As the climate crisis makes extreme heat more likely, are we prepared? Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian reporter Helena Horton. Continue reading...

The Breton’s signing of Enzo Le Fée sparked chain of events leading to promotion and now European qualification One of Régis Le Bris’s first acts as Sunderland’s head coach was to preside over a pre-season training camp near Alicante. It was July 2024 and, according to those present, the Breton sometimes cut a slightly isolated figure. “I arrived alone, without any collaborators,” Le Bris has said, reflecting on his leap of faith that involved exchanging the familiarity of Lorient for a job that, initially, meant working with Sunderland’s existing backroom team rather than bringing hand-picked assistants. Continue reading...

Fifa approached Mexico after US declined to host Iran squad despite it playing group games in the United States Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said on Monday her government agreed to allow the Iranian national football team to stay in Mexico during the World Cup, adding that the United States did not want to host the team. Sheinbaum said football’s governing body Fifa approached her government after the US said it did not want Iran’s squad to stay in the country throughout the tournament, despite Iran playing all three of its group matches there. Continue reading...

The final match of the English domestic season saw football’s oldest professional club continue a clamber back up the divisions. Alassana Jatta’s injection of higher echelon quality for the opening goal began a County stroll in baking Wembley sunshine as Salford melted away. Following Lucas Ness’s towering header, Jodi Jones’s second-half goal confirmed County’s promotion to League One. Salford, club of the Class of 92, facing Notts County was celebrity versus tradition. Not that Salford lack football heritage within their ownership, nowadays Gary Neville and Sir David Beckham, with further former Manchester United notables lending a hand. Beckham, furthering the A-lister trend of soccer ownership by co-owning two, was in the posh seats, along from Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt. Continue reading...

Mohamed Salah leaving after Luis Díaz not replaced ‘In general you see more and more focus on wingers’ Arne Slot has highlighted the importance of wingers to Liverpool’s prospects of recovery, and claimed this season’s disappointment can be rectified with the correct squad additions. Liverpool ended a difficult campaign by qualifying for the Champions League but also their lowest points total and goals scored since 2015-16, a season in which Brendan Rodgers was sacked and replaced by Jürgen Klopp. A sharp decline in goals and assists from wide areas was a factor, with Liverpool failing to replace Luis Díaz, and Mohamed Salah’s impact diminishing in his final season at the club. Continue reading...

Vociferously anti-Turkish party doubles its number of seats although mainstream parties didn’t see vote crumble as predicted An anti-immigrant far-right party, inspired by Greece’s defunct neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, has made the biggest gains in parliamentary elections in Cyprus. The group, which has pushed for the closure of checkpoints on the ethnically split island and is vociferously anti-Turkish, doubled its seats in the 56-member legislature after securing 10.9 % of the vote. Continue reading...

Deciding who can come along to your big day is always a sensitive issue. But Tay-Tay may have known what she was doing when she banned a singleton from bringing a friend Name: Plus-ones. Age: Bringing a partner along has been going on a while, possibly since Noah invited a pair of every animal on board the ark … Continue reading...

We saw it when Russia jailed members of Pussy Riot, and again when the US overturned Roe v Wade: misogyny is a powerful political weapon. Let’s focus on fighting it, not ‘understanding’ it In preparation for interviewing Pussy Riot’s Maria “Masha” Alyokhina at the Charleston festival, I was reading her new memoir, Political Girl. I thought I remembered the group’s origin story pretty well – in 2012, they performed their anthem, Punk Prayer (Virgin Mary Banish Putin), and two band members were imprisoned for two years in a penal colony, then released slightly early in order to sanitise the country’s reputation before the Sochi Olympics in 2014. Upon release, they immediately went on to protest at those Olympics, the courage of which is jaw-dropping. That was missing a few key details: Alyokhina had never even been detained for an act of protest when she was arrested, strip-searched and jailed for this. We weren’t looking at a thin-skinned but otherwise democratic government, overreacting in the way that young democracies sometimes do. The detention of Pussy Riot signalled a significant shift towards the aggressive authoritarianism that is now self-evident, and, in those early days, was expressed and mobilised through misogynistic, patriarchal values-setting built on Christian nationalist foundations. At their trial, one lawyer argued that “feminism is a mortal sin”. Alyokhina was pilloried for being a bad mother (her son was four when she was imprisoned). If Pussy Riot weren’t on trial for being women per se, certainly their cultural act of defiance was immeasurably worsened by the fact that they weren’t men. Continue reading...

Ciaran Martin says Reform UK leader’s allegation over Guardian report on £5m gift ‘entirely unsubstantiated’ Nigel Farage’s claim that a Russian hack was behind a Guardian report on the £5m gift he received from a crypto billionaire has been described as “without any merit” by a former head of the National Cyber Security Centre. Ciaran Martin, founding chief executive of the agency, which is part of GCHQ, said Farage’s allegation, if true, would have major implications for UK policy towards Russia but that the Reform UK leader had yet to provide “a shred of evidence”. Continue reading...

Nick Moss, Derrick Joad and John Wilkinson respond to an article by Sacha Hilhorst on why voters are turning to the party Sacha Hilhorst is right to highlight the fact that many Reform UK voters are disillusioned with the political status quo because their lives are ever less secure (I’ve interviewed Reform UK voters – and they’re much more progressive than you might think, 18 May). The issue at the heart of rightwing populism is an existential one: taking back control, as daily life feels insecure and out of control. But the essence of what Reform and the rest do is to swerve the causes of, and solutions to, this lack of security. Instead of looking at housing, welfare, rising prices, failing healthcare and, consequentially, failing health, they talk of control over borders. The Reform project is to offer a racial solution to a class problem. It is not alone in this. Substituting race for class has been part of the agenda of the Labour party and the Tories whenever they have come under pressure. But bussing asylum seekers out of hotels or tightening border controls changes nothing. If we go back to those communities that fought to “empty the hotels” they are no more secure now and still just as poor. Continue reading...

The education system should not just be about passing exams, writes David Selby. Plus a letter from Mara Musso Two quotes in your article (Schools are ‘pipeline’ to joblessness for many people, says ex-Labour adviser, 21 May) struck a chord with me: “a joyless education system that focused too heavily on passing exams” and “the level of vitriol and hatred these young people used when talking about schools”. I worked on the government’s Youth Opportunities Programme and Youth Training Scheme several years ago, and latterly on the Youth Offending Scheme as a volunteer for more than 20 years – and the quotes did not surprise me in the least. It was bad enough in secondary modern schools, where the majority of children took no exams at all. In the comprehensives and latterly in the academies, every effort is made to show off the school through its exam results, watched at a distance by those students with little or nothing to show for about 10 years of schooling. Continue reading...