76 m. ago Despelote review – a beautiful, utterly transportive game of football fandom

Panic; PC, PS4/5, XboxSet during Ecuador’s 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign, this fascinating, semi-autobiographical game gives you control of the life of a soccer-mad eight-year-oldVideo games have been simulating football since the 1970s, but they have rarely ever thought about simulating fandom. You can play a whole international tournament in the Fifa titles, but what they never show is the way the competition seeps into the everyday lives of supporters, how whole towns are overtaken, how a World Cup can become a national obsession. The way most of us experience the really big matches is through stolen moments of vicarious glory on televisions and giant pub screens, surrounded by friends and family and the sounds and images of real life.This is the territory of Despelote, a beautiful, utterly transportive game about childhood and memory, set during Ecuador’s historic 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign. Football-mad eight-year-old Julián – a semi-autobiographical version of the...

Sport

3 h. ago Israeli strike on hospital kills 28 in Gaza, civil defence says

Israel kills prominent Palestinian journalist Hassan Aslih in separate airstrike on Nasser hospital

Events

6 h. ago The good news from Kyiv: with or without a ceasefire, Ukraine has a newfound confidence | Nathalie Tocci

Its European allies must commit to the long-haul – but they, as much as Zelenskyy, will reap the rewardsMy train rolled into Kyiv last week as Russian ballistic missiles and drones hit the city, killing a mother and her son. I had last been in Ukraine just over a year earlier. Back then, in April 2024, the mood was dark. Frustrated by delays in western military aid, people had a palpable fear of escalating Russian territorial gains, perhaps even a collapse of Ukraine’s frontline. Today, the international context is even more fraught. The Biden administration was frustratingly slow and scared, but few doubted that the US wanted to prevent Russia from prevailing. The same cannot be said of Donald Trump, whose ideological affinity with Vladimir Putin has thrown Europe, starting with Ukraine, off balance.But despite the Trump administration’s betrayals, I found the mood in Kyiv more confident than a year previously. After more than three years of war, Ukrainians are tired, but they are ...

Events

6 h. ago Western countries gave Mossad information used to track and killi Palestinian terrorists in 1970s

Declassified documents reveal secret support by intelligence agencies without oversight by elected politiciansA secret coalition of western intelligence agencies supplied Israel with crucial information that allowed the Mossad to track and kill Palestinians suspected of involvement in terrorist attacks in western Europe in the early 1970s, newly declassified documents have revealed.The support was offered without any oversight by parliaments or elected politicians, and, if not actually illegal, would have caused a public scandal. Continue reading...

Events

8 h. ago 'I've visited 18 European countries but these 4 left such a big impression on me'

One travel influencer has shared the top four countries that she will 'be revisiting ASAP' after travelling 18 countries in Europe - and France and Spain are not on the list

Politics

9 h. ago In one Indian city, reflective paint and bus stop sprinklers offer relief from killer heat

Rising heat is a problem for millions of people in India, and one western city is pointing the way in figuring out some ways to deal with it

Events

10 h. ago How Real Madrid could line up under Xabi Alonso after Arsenal transfer hijack and Man Utd blow

Xabi Alonso is set to take over as the next manager of Real Madrid after announcing he would leave Bayer Leverkusen, and he has a big task before him to get the team back on track after a difficult season

Sport

11 h. ago Donald Trump's agriculture chief says Labour's family farms tax is a threat to national security

Brooke Rollins warned that the policy could mean the UK would have to outsource its food supply to other countries.

Events

12 h. ago Sweden, Ukraine and the Netherlands qualify for Eurovision final

Dutch act Claude Kiambe, 21, went through with his track C’est La Vie.

Politics

12 h. ago Eurovision 2025 Semi Final 1 full results as Ukraine and Sweden qualify for final

The first 15 countries took to the stage in Switzerland with the final is just days away

Politics

13 h. ago Flash flooding forces evacuation of elementary school in western Maryland

Flooding in rural western Maryland forced the evacuation of an elementary school as downtown homes and businesses were inundated with rising floodwaters in Westernport

Events

15 h. ago No evidence of genocide in Gaza, UK lawyers say in arms export case

Palestinian rights organisation Al-Haq has launched high court action over carve-out of F-35 fighter jet programmeNo evidence has been seen that a genocide is occurring in Gaza or that women and children were targeted by the IDF, UK government lawyers have claimed, as a high court case opened into the handling of arms exports controls to Israel.They also suggested there was no obligation placed on the UK to make other states comply with international humanitarian law but only to ensure that no breach occured within its jurisdiction. Continue reading...

Politics

16 h. ago Why do UK, France, Spain, Italy and Germany automatically qualify for the Eurovision final?

Why are these countries called the 'Big Five'? Well, we have the answer.

Politics

17 h. ago Trump’s border intimidation is coming for US citizens too – ask streamer Hasan Piker | Owen Jones

The leftwing, pro-Palestine streamer’s interrogation by airport officials on his return to the US shows a chilling escalation of the war on free speechWhere are all the free speech warriors on the right now? Hasan Piker, a popular streamer with 4.5 million followers across YouTube and Twitch, who has been hailed by mainstream publications such as the New Yorker and New York Times as the left’s answer to the deluge of rightwing internet influencers, says he was detained and questioned for hours by border control agents as he re-entered the US (Piker is a US citizen). It is an instructive moment. Countries that behave like this towards political commentators and dissenting voices who are their own citizens are either nakedly authoritarian, or well on the way.Piker was reportedly interrogated at length not just about Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah, but his views on Donald Trump. The 33-year-old pundit – an unapologetic champion of the Palestinian cause – stuck to a message of opposin...

Politics

17 h. ago Iran proposes partnership with UAE and Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium

A consortium would help Tehran deal with US objections and tie in Gulf states to its enrichment programmeIran has floated the idea of a consortium of Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to enrich uranium as a way of overcoming some US objections to Iran continuing to have its own enrichment programme.The proposal would be one way of locking the Gulf states into supporting the Iranian position that it must be continued to be allowed to enrich. Continue reading...

Politics

18 h. ago Putin mocks the West's 'moron' leaders for hitting Russia with sanctions and 'tipping their own countries into recession'

Western leaders have lined up to warn the Russian President that his country will face yet more sanctions if he fails to engage in peace talks in Turkey.

Politics

18 h. ago Court urged to jail Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s father for ‘regime of repeated abuse’

Prosecutor cites ‘culture of fear in the home’Gjert Ingebrigtsen denies all chargesThe father of the Norwegian track and field superstar Jakob Ingebrigtsen should go to prison for two and a half years for “a regime of repeated abuse” that spanned a decade, prosecutors have told a court in Norway.Summing up the state’s case, the prosecutor Angjerd Kvernenes said that Jakob and his sister, Ingrid, had suffered physical and mental abuse at the hands of their father and former coach, Gjert, which began when Jakob was seven years old. Continue reading...

Events

19 h. ago Eurovision 2025: Israeli hopeful says she is ‘mentally prepared’ for backlash

Israel's Eurovision contestant Yuval Raphael says she had been frightened by pro-Palestinian protests and security concerns surrounding Israel's participation in the competition.

Politics

19 h. ago How Russia is pushing to take control of Africa’s nuclear future

Russia has signed deals with at least 20 countries across the continent, Nick Ferris writes, and that is unlikely to slow down as Trump cuts funding to energy projects

Events

19 h. ago Joy Division fans find out what band name actually means after 49 years

Joy Division were one of the most popular and pioneering post-punk bands of the 1970s and 1980s - but many fans don't know the shocking reason behind the band's name

Politics