In the first of a new series of dispatches, fans in US, Mexico and Canada tell us that they want visitors to have a good time but are angry about ticket prices, Fifa’s priorities and a lack of long-term thinking from politicians The 2026 World Cup features 104 matches in 16 cities across Canada, Mexico and the USA, from Vancouver to Mexico City and San Francisco to Boston. Before, throughout and after the tournament we’ll be hearing from fans in those cities about their experiences – some shared and some different – in our “My World Cup” series. Here some of our correspondents share their first thoughts. Continue reading...

US claims world’s 10th-biggest economy engages in ‘unreasonable’ trade practices that ‘restrict US commerce’ Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email The Trump administration proposed 25% tariffs on imports from Brazil, charging that the world’s 10th-biggest economy engages in trade practices that are “unreasonable’’ and that “burden or restrict US commerce”. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he received the decision “with indignation”. The Brazil president also blamed the decision by the US administration on his rival in October’s elections, Flávio Bolsonaro, the senator who visited Washington last week. The senator is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, once nicknamed “the Trump of the Tropics” by his allies. Continue reading...

Trump, who was swiftly evacuated from April gala after incident, confirmed his attendance at summer event The White House correspondents’ dinner will be rescheduled for 24 July after the Washington event was abruptly cancelled this spring following a shooting. Donald Trump, who was swiftly evacuated from the gala following the incident on 25 April, has pledged to attend a rescheduled event. Continue reading...

Four years to the day after England’s first Test under Brendon McCullum began at Lord’s, England are adopting a fresh approach against the same opposition Four years to the day after England’s first Test under Brendon McCullum began against New Zealand at Lord’s, the start of a summer when players reached new heights and observers reached for new words to describe them, the latest incarnations of the two teams gathered in St John’s Wood as preparations ramped up for the rematch. Once again the series will begin amid talk of England adopting a fresh approach. In 2022 New Zealand batted first in all three games and in all three England chased down testing targets to seal victory. The attacking approach McCullum instigated that summer was embodied most memorably by Jonny Bairstow. In more than a century of Test cricket before that year (not counting the early years of the game, when that kind of data was not gathered) only three English players had scored more than 300 runs in a series at a strike rate above 85. In only four years since another 10 have joined their number, a list topped by Bairstow against the Kiwis in 2022, when he rampaged to 394 runs at a strike rate of 120.12. That figure has been bettered only once, and even then marginally, in cricket history, though the 330 runs at 121.32 banked by Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi against India in 2006 were largely down to his contributions to a pair of high-scoring draws on batting-friendly pitches. Continue reading...

‘Right now, I’m a Manchester United player’ says striker Toone back in England camp after injury absences Ella Toone has said she will have to decide “what’s best for me” as she weighs up her long-term future with one year remaining on her Manchester United contract. The England midfielder, speaking before Friday’s crucial Women’s World Cup qualifier in Spain, was asked about her club future and implied she would hold discussions with United this summer. Continue reading...

On Monday night residents faced the third heavy assault on Ukraine’s capital in less than a month, as Putin appears to be trying to take advantage of a shortage of US-made air defence systems In the northern residential suburb of Vynohradar – a district of modest apartment blocks – residents were quietly and calmly getting on with salvaging, clearing and dealing with what remained of their apartments after Monday night’s massive missile attack on Kyiv. Dozens of rockets and hundreds of drones had been let loose on the city, leaving five people dead. A woman drinking coffee in her apartment, which was damaged in the night attack on the UNIT.City residential complex. Continue reading...

As ethnonationalist far right drives racist agenda, Reform UK leader felt need to weigh in on murder of Henry Nowak The full horror of Henry Nowak’s last moments was only just sinking in on the morning after the release of police footage showing him pleading for help when Reform UK served notice that its leader would be making an “emergency address”. Appearing via a live stream from a location with fields in the background, Nigel Farage paid tribute to the “extraordinarily dignified” response of the Nowak family, before wading in with remarks of his own. Continue reading...

Helen Spree, 63, headed prison watchdog and was said to have become besotted with killer Dylan Westall, 35 A corrupt prison watchdog boss who billed herself “the prisoners’ Deliveroo” has been jailed for five years after admitting sending sexual messages to a killer inmate and smuggling drugs. Helen Spree, 63, was the head of the independent monitoring board (IMB) for HMP Liverpool when she engaged in illicit chats with prisoners over a 20-month period. Spree was said to have become besotted with Dylan Westall, 35, who was serving a life sentence for manslaughter for shooting a teenager in the head. Continue reading...

Investigation follows circulation of videos showing groups climbing out of sewer systems across the city at night New York police are investigating a bizarre mystery involving groups of people emerging from the city’s manholes in recent weeks. The investigation follows the circulation of multiple social media videos showing people climbing out of sewer systems across the city, all in the middle of the night. Continue reading...

The US president seeks to curb Israel’s intensified offensive as he looks for an exit from war with Iran, but turmoil in the Middle East will not easily be ended “Let’s see how long that lasts,” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday night, addressing his attempts to de-escalate in Lebanon following Israel’s intensified military campaign. Within hours, Israeli drone strikes had killed eight people in the south, including a father and his two children, and damaged a hospital. Hezbollah continued launching rockets and drones. Anxious to escape the illegal war that he launched on Iran, and with Tehran threatening to suspend peace talks over the Israeli offensive, the US president reined in Benjamin Netanyahu – for now – in what was described as an expletive-laden phone call. Mr Trump’s post, despite its unusual admission of doubt, still oversold the agreement. He claimed that Hezbollah and Israel had agreed to “stop all shooting”. Lebanon’s presidency suggested a more limited deal: Israel would not strike Beirut’s southern suburbs if Hezbollah did not launch attacks against Israel. Continue reading...

Witness B said in police interview that she pretended to be asleep when allegedly abused as a child A jury in Northern Ireland has heard details of the alleged rape of a child by the former Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader Jeffrey Donaldson. A police interview with the complainant was played to Newry crown court in Northern Ireland on Tuesday on the sixth day of the former MP’s trial for sex offences. Continue reading...

An era of excellent coming-of-age dramas moved away from the glossy lives of wealthy American teens, but unflinching portrayals easily veer into tropes Television’s portrayal of adolescence has challenged adult complacency about young people’s lives. The best coming-of-age dramas have not just shown young people behaving badly, or dangerously, or foolishly. They have asked questions about a society that leaves them to learn about sex, addiction and violence with little help. That idea has driven shows such as Skins, Chewing Gum, Sex Education and, at its best, Euphoria. Their value did not lie in provocation alone. Drugs, humiliation and self-destruction were ways of dramatising how power affects young lives: through families, friendships, money, class and the internet. The characters mattered to audiences – and therefore so did the scandals. Continue reading...

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Rather than a continuation of the company’s recent issues, isn’t this an example of the board doing what it is supposed to do? An easy narrative about the great BP boardroom drama runs like this: the plodding non-executive directors couldn’t handle the blunt ways of the hard-charging chair they had hired precisely to give the place a kick. Therefore the defenestration of Albert Manifold after only eight months in post shows BP is even more dysfunctional than thought. The best outcome for shareholders, on this reading, would be a takeover bid from Shell to put everybody out of their misery. In the meantime, continues this interpretation, Amanda Blanc, the Aviva boss who is the senior independent director, should let somebody else lead the search for the next chair, given how her last production turned out. Continue reading...

The second tranche of documents related to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador have been released. The documents, running at more than 1,000 pages, were supposed to reveal what ministers knew about Mandelson’s links to Epstein and the security process to approve his appointment, but instead have revealed government infighting and doubts about Keir Starmer’s premiership. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s head of national news, Archie Bland. Continue reading...

Tie-up between blockbuster toy brands offers hi-tech play sets that will allow fans to ‘feel like the trainer’ Many Pokémon fans secretly fantasise about being a trainer and that dream has become a bit closer as hi-tech Lego bricks bring Pikachu to life for the first time. And that can only mean one thing – epic battles. The sets are the latest to feature the Danish toy company’s motion-sensitive “smart” bricks that produce an array of sound effects and flashing lights when paired with different sets. Continue reading...

Durvalumab shows promising results in trial led by London-based Institute of Cancer Research Doctors are hailing a drug that spares bladder cancer patients “life-changing” surgery and stops tumours coming back. Bladder cancer is the ninth most common cancer in the world. Advanced or aggressive forms are often treated with surgery to remove the entire bladder, with patients left having to find alternative ways to pass urine for the rest of their life. Continue reading...

Mette Frederiksen, who returns for third term as PM, says minority coalition will ‘improve everyday lives’ Denmark’s new left-leaning government has pledged to keep pushing back against US pressure over Greenland and address the cost of living crisis, with measures including halving VAT on food and offering free public transport to young people. “We present a government that will help improve the everyday lives of Danes,” Mette Frederiksen, who will return for a third consecutive term as prime minister at the head of the four-party minority coalition, said on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Updates from 6.30pm BST start at the County Ground Kemp makes mark to level the T20 series | Mail Tanya Roll up, roll up for the final game in this T20 World Cup warm-up series. Happily for the crowd, it’s a decider with meaning, England and India both have a point in the purse – and the winner will take the momentum with them into the tournament proper. They’ll toss the coin at 6pm BST, with play starting half an hour later. Pull up a chair and join us! Continue reading...

Readers respond to Jonathan Freedland’s article about Tony Blair’s vision for the future Jonathan Freedland says Tony Blair “would say you can only address [poverty and inequality] once the economy is firing. Maybe” (Tony Blair says he is all about the future – but his vision is woefully stuck in the past, 29 May). In fact poverty and inequality are the reasons the economy is misfiring. In the big economic crashes of history, gross inequality has been present. After 47 years, you would think that the obsession with supply-side economics might have been rumbled, but no: acres of newsprint are expended on the idea that incentivised businessmen alone can reboot the economy. There can be no animal spirits if there is no market to buy the goods. And things like people having to spend as much as 40% of their weekly salary on rent explains why there is no market, at least not without people having to get into dangerous and silly amounts of debt. Continue reading...

Readers strike an encouraging note for those sceptical of the joys of Proust, saying it has plenty to make it worth perservering I read all seven volumes of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time over a nine-month period. In answer to Mike Bromberg (Letters, 26 May), a great deal happens besides the famous madeleine incident: the advent of electric lighting, motorcars and aeroplanes, not to mention endless romances and social intrigues. My memory is that every hundred pages or so of tedium would yield five to 10 pages of the most revelatory reading that I have ever experienced. Was it worth it? Totally. Would I do it again? Probably not. But I won the bet. Bill Gaver London • Proust is not inaccessible. I read most of it in French on the Métro during my year abroad in Paris. It was the 1960s, and being buried in a book was a good way of deterring unwanted male attention. For anyone who fears that nothing happens, read on – there is a great variety of sex, for example, and plenty of it. Continue reading...

Prof John H Arnold and Douglas Russell respond to a letter that said defined-benefit pensions place enormous pressure on public finances Prof Stephen Caddick’s letter (26 May) on public sector defined-benefit (DB) pension schemes requires a response. There are five large “unfunded” schemes: NHS, teachers, civil servants, police and army. It is true that employers, and thus ultimately taxpayers, put in a fairly high employer contribution. But without a decent pension scheme, such sectors are likely to require higher levels of pay to recruit and retain staff, the cost of which would also fall on taxpayers. The £1tn in liabilities for public DB schemes that Prof Caddick mentions is misleading, as is usually the case with any assessment of pension liabilities outside the private sector. This figure (in fact probably £1.3tn) estimates the money that the government would have to pay out to cover pensions were there no income coming from workers and employers to support them – that is, in the unlikely scenario that we suddenly ceased to have any NHS workers, teachers, soldiers and so forth, but only those in receipt of a pension in those areas. Continue reading...

James Stoddart and Richard Eltringham respond to an investigation which found that deaths within two weeks of leaving prison have hit a record high Your investigation showing that deaths within two weeks of release from prison have hit a record high (Report, 31 May) rightly identifies release into homelessness as a primary driver of deaths of ex-prisoners. I would add that the danger is concentrated in the first 72 hours after the gate closes behind you, and that the failures which kill people in that window are often astonishingly basic. People are routinely released without housing, medication, identification or a bank account, and sometimes without a clear idea of when or where their first probation appointment is. Miss that appointment and the usual consequence is immediate recall back to prison. The figures you cite are not surprising to anyone who has been through it. Continue reading...

Pop star says the man, 31, tried to force his way into her LA home last month and insisted she was expecting him Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email Sabrina Carpenter has been granted a temporary restraining order against a man she says has been stalking her and tried to get into her California home. On Monday, the Los Angeles county court issued an order to prohibit William Applegate, 31, from being within 100 yards of the Hollywood Hills home that she shares with her sister and the latter’s partner. Continue reading...

World No 2 wins quarter-final 7-6 (3), 6-1, 6-3 Zverev will face Mensik or Fonseca in semi-final Alexander Zverev took another step towards winning his elusive grand slam title as he held off a rapid start from the breakout teenage star Rafael Jódar to return to the semi-finals of the French Open with a 7-6 (3), 6-1, 6-3. The past few weeks have had little precedent in the recent history of men’s tennis, with so many of the top players suffering early upsets in Paris. As the dust has begun to settle on the early losses to Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic, the second seed Zverev has emerged as the player most likely to win the title. This report will update later Continue reading...