Author: The Guardian

Joe Biden is set to meet with his family on Sunday, a discussion that might include talk about his political future, even though it was scheduled to take place before his calamitous presidential debate on Thursday with Donald Trump.The meeting at Camp David comes as pressures have mounted on Biden after the vast fallout of the debate, in which his halting performance highlighted his vulnerabilities in a close election and invited calls from pundits, media and voters for him to step aside.Insiders told NBC News that it would ultimately be Biden and first lady Jill Biden making any pivotal decisions…

SecondErling, the city where they won the World Cup in 2006, holds a special place in the Italian football imagination. The prospect of returning to the last 16 of Euro 2024 is so exciting that one commentator stumbled over his tongue. Fabio Caressa breathlessly repeats “goal” [Fabio] Grosso! It was almost as iconic as the player’s semi-final goal 18 years ago, which left him incoherent and unable to speak for a moment after Mattia Zaccani’s equalizer against Croatia on Monday.Caressa had no trouble finding her words after the game on Saturday night. Azzurri In the end, they lost to the…

Ron DeSantis stripped more than $32m in arts and culture funding from Florida’s state budget over his hatred of a popular fringe festival that he accused of being “a sexual event”, critics of the rightwing governor say.DeSantis justified his unprecedented, wide-ranging veto of grants to almost 700 groups and organizations by saying it was “inappropriate” for $7,369 of state money to be allocated to Tampa fringe, a 10-day festival that took place earlier this month with a strong message of inclusivity, and its sister event in Orlando.“[It’s] like a sexual festival where they’re doing all this stuff,” DeSantis said at…

The end of Jimmy Anderson’s remarkable Test career will also be the beginning of a new chapter – perhaps Bazball 2.0 – after England named a 14-man squad for the upcoming series against the West Indies. The game is about to change a lot.Men’s team director Rob Key has issued a call to “out with the old, in with the new” as he now tackles aging goalkeeping in the form of Jonny Bairstow or Ben Foakes debate. The answer lies in the pair’s exit following the 3-1 loss to India earlier this year, with Surrey’s 23-year-old Jamie Smith being called…

There’s a state that veteran Hollywood actors can reach, beyond ravenous ambition, but with retirement still distant, that seems to make them contented as professionals and mellow as people. Kevin Bacon, now 65, has hit that sweet spot. Continually employed for decades, he shares a Manhattan apartment as well as a Connecticut farm with his wife of 35 years, Kyra Sedgwick, and their two adult children, Travis and Sosie. Bacon is in a country band with his brother, Michael, and otherwise channels any musical overspill into adorable Instagram videos of the Family Bacon (barnyard animals included) covering pop songs old…

wattWere you there that night when the European Cup round of 16 match was suspended for 23 minutes due to thunderstorms? Let me put it another way: where were you when Germany strutted their way into the quarter-finals in front of jubilant home fans? The business-like dispatch of the Danish team – albeit aided by a motion-sensing microchip inside the match ball – partly made from sugar cane – brought huge public joy, while a ruthless performance also provided a thrilling performance. Convincing arguments as to why the hosts will struggle to stop here. The tour of Germany has already…

It is, as Chris Martin points out, 25 years since Coldplay’s Glastonbury debut, a silver anniversary they commemorate tonight by unexpectedly dusting down an acoustic version of Sparks from their debut album Parachutes. Perhaps more pertinently, it’s the fifth time they’ve headlined the festival, and they’ve got the hang of it to such an extent that it increasingly feels like the job the quartet were put on earth to do.Since their last appearance in 2016, they’ve completed a 180 degree turn from earnest stadium balladeers to purveyors of relentless, balls-out, more-is-more visual overload: their gigs are now effectively a 21st-century…

It’s a Tuesday morning and Byron Bay’s sweeping blue skies have opened up, and a half-dozen nudists – four men and two women – strip off their birthday suits and take a quick bath in their buff skins.This beach stretches for 800 meters along the vast coastline and is the only legal strip beach in the county. One of those taking advantage of the opportunity to get outdoors is Duncan James, vice president of Northern Rivers Naturists and an evangelist for embracing the beach as nature intended.”Many beach users describe clothing-free beaches as their happy place, a place where they…

There are “obby osses”, hooden horses, morris dancing horses and any number of “mock beast” traditions, dating back centuries, where humans carry horse heads on a stick.In the Eumundi School of Arts hall, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, they’re riding plain old hobby horses. Only they’re not so plain.One has a rainbow mohawk; another, sparkly eyes. There are colourful bridles and noble forelocks and funky ear covers. There’s even a dragon among the wondrous creations of Hobby Horse Riders Australia (HHRA).In June the HHRA herd and its riders gathered in Eumundi for a trot ahead of the Queensland championships (believed to…

Denmark coach Kaspar Hulmand has taken aim at “ridiculous” handball in football after a controversial 2-0 defeat to Germany in a storm-torn last 16 tie rule.Denmark were in fine form against Germany and thought they had taken the lead when Joachim Andersen scored three minutes after half-time. But the goal was ruled out by VAR due to Thomas Delaney being scored for offside, and Anderson was then penalized for harsh handball detected by the video official. They could not find a way back after Kai Havertz’s penalty, with Jamal Musiala confirming Germany’s progress.Urmand went out of his way to congratulate…