Author: The Guardian

Four Weddings and a Funeral had just been released and Wet Wet Wet was high on the charts the last time the All Blacks were beaten at Eden Park. However, the visitors do not believe England’s defeat on Saturday is inevitable, with Steve Borthwick claiming the biggest expectation is New Zealand’s 30-year unbeaten run.The head coach, who has been seeking to clear up the confusion surrounding the officiating in the first Test, is adamant his side still have enough energy for the end of the marathon season and was fired up by a throwaway remark from a New Zealand fan…

Chidi, 31, LondonOccupation Bar owner and freelance bartenderVoting record Has voted Conservative, but at the time of the meeting was planning to vote GreenAmuse bouche Chidi once got stranded on an island in Finland. He had to walk six hours through a forest to the nearest village – “with a stick in case I had to fight off wolves”Christian, 32, LondonOccupation Accountant for a sausage-casing manufacturerVoting record He started out Tory and went on to the Lib Dems. Labour this timeAmuse bouche He holds three different passports: British, Dutch and AustralianFor startersChristian I found Chidi affable and engaging. I was particularly impressed he…

Normal service is just about restored to the Thursday quiz this week after last week’s little diversion. Fifteen questions on topical news and obscure trivia dragged from the corners of the internet await you. And you can get another point towards your fictitious GCSE collection if you choose that answer wisely. There are no prizes except the smug contentment of getting a good score, which you should definitely share with us in the comments. Enjoy!The Thursday quiz, No 1681.Who is the new president of Iran?Reveal2.King Charles has declined to continue his mother’s patronage of which sport?Reveal3.The Satanic Temple says it…

Ronald Koeman has criticized the penalty awarded for England’s equalizer in the Euro 2024 semi-finals, saying if it was deemed a foul then normal football would be over.Harry Kane scored on the spot after the Video Assistant Referee suggested to Felix Zwaye that he use the pitchside monitor to reassess Denzel Dumfries’ attempt to block the England captain’s shot. Just after Kane’s shot went over the crossbar, Dumfries’ right foot struck Kane’s foot.”As a former defender, what can he do in this position?” Koeman said. “He tried to block the ball… To punish him is to tell him that we…

Europe is experiencing “a wave of antisemitism” caused partly by the conflict in the Middle East, the EU’s leading rights agency has said, as it published a survey finding that nearly all respondents reported recent anti-Jewish prejudice.The survey by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights found that 96% of respondents had experienced antisemitism in the year before the survey, which was carried out between January and June 2023. A total of 84% considered antisemitism to be a “very big” or “fairly big problem” in their country, while fewer than one in five (18%) thought governments were handling it effectively.Although the…

A woman swept away while swimming on a Japanese beach has been rescued about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the coast after missing for 36 hours, officials said.The coast guard said Thursday that the 21-year-old Chinese national was swimming with a friend at Shirahama-Ohama Beach around 7:30 pm on Monday, buoyed by a rubber band.Authorities launched a search and rescue operation that night after her friend raised the alarm at a beach in the central Shizuoka area.A local Japanese coast guard official said: “At around 7:55 pm on July 8, the woman’s friends reported her missing to a nearby convenience…

It was the speech that made Nigel Farage’s reputation: inflammatory, insulting and riddled with distortions. Speaking on the floor of the European parliament, Farage addressed Herman Van Rompuy, an erudite, softly spoken former Belgian prime minister, appointed to the new post of European Council president. “I don’t want to be rude,” Farage began. “But, really, you have the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk and the question I want to ask is: ‘Who are you?’”Van Rompuy’s job was to chair meetings between EU leaders, rather than, as Farage put it, be “the political…

Harlequins substitute Fin Baxter will make his first start for England when he comes off the bench to replace the injured Joe Marler against New Zealand on Saturday. England needed a win to equalize the two-Test series at a venue where the All Blacks have not lost in 30 years.As well as backing 22-year-old Baxter and promoting Sale’s Bevan Roode to Matchday 23, England head coach Steve Borthwick has retained Dunedin’s 16-year-old from last weekend. -15 players defeated. Dan Cole will start again as a substitute and is expected to overtake Jason Leonard as England’s most capped men’s forward when…

It’s 1.30pm. Nila and Arion arrive home after finishing school for the day. They let themselves in, make some food, then sit down to do homework, or practise piano, or do the housework they’ve been asked to do. Their parents won’t be home for a few hours yet. The children sometimes go out with friends to play in the street or wander the fields. The only real rule is no screen time unless everything else has been taken care of.So far, so normal, perhaps, except the sister and brother are just 10 and eight, and they’ve been living this kind…

timeThe Dutch team has fans of this tournament. That may be little consolation for their late defeat to England in Dortmund, but it’s true. However, the huge crowds of Dutch fans who turned the city into a sea of ​​orange were unable to help their team cross the finish line. Ultimately, it’s the players who lose.After the Netherlands launched a fierce attack, did Memphis Depay’s injury change the course of the game? Or the penalty Denzel Dumfries received for a clearly inconsequential contact? Or is it what critics of Ronald Koeman’s side have been saying: that this team isn’t Dutch…