Author: The Guardian

timeEngland and Scotland may have been a bit lukewarm at the Euros and Andy Murray may be doing his best for one final Wimbledon, but the emergence of Jack Draper is at least good news for British sports fans.Last week at Queen’s, the UK’s top-ranked player defeated defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the second round. It was a breakthrough victory for the 22-year-old left-hander, whose thunderous serve kept Alcaraz – who won the French Open less than three weeks ago – at a disadvantage. Like Alcaraz, whose forehand often elicited gasps from spectators because of its power, Draper wowed fans…

I wasn’t one of those kids who had their own plot in the garden. I count myself fortunate to have had access to a garden and a feeling of comfort in roaming the nearby fields, but I was so bookish that I preferred rainy- day indoor play to playing outside. Nevertheless, it’s interesting which plants we carry from our childhoods into our adult gardens: for me, a key one is Papaver cambricum, or Welsh poppy (AKA Notpoppies in our house, named by my Yorkshire grandfather, with according accent, after he – wrongly – identified them as such).Tiny, yellow, rebellious: for…

Joe Biden won the Democratic primary earlier this year, but he didn’t officially become the party’s presidential candidate until he was endorsed at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 19-22.There is currently no formal mechanism to replace him as the presumptive nominee, a move that would be the first time a U.S. party has attempted to do so in modern times.In effect, Biden’s only option is to agree to step down and allow the delegates he won in the primaries (who vote to nominate candidates at the Chicago convention) to choose someone else.The law does not require…

Suzanne Blank Redstone and her husband, Peter Redstone, have lived on the same Devon farm, nestled in a tree-fringed valley a mile from the sea, for 50 years. The couple’s current home was once their cowshed, a simple, functional structure that they built in 1979 to shelter their herd of Jerseys over winter.Suzanne Blank Redstone’s art hanging in one of the bedroomsToday, it’s an architectural statement, albeit a very livable one. It was longlisted for the Royal Institute of British Architects’ house of the year in 2023 and bagged a prestigious Manser medal, too, while a photograph of the property was selected for…

FOr those who call themselves “tall,” meet Olivier Rioux, a high school senior who signed to play for the University of Florida last fall. Rioux is ridiculously tall – 7 feet 9 inches (currently) to be exact. Whether playing with or huddled with high school-age teammates, the 300-pound beanpole looks like one of those adults who impersonates teenage players just to get the thrill of beating up kids. The only thing Rioux isn’t great about is his story.Rioux has been on a growth spurt for some time: He was 5 feet 2 inches tall in kindergarten. By the time he…

In the summer of 1969, promoter John Brower thought he had a foolproof plan for a classic concert. Though just 22, he had already promoted successful shows by some seminal rock bands of the day, leading to his creation of the first full-scale pop festival in his native city of Toronto. That two-day event, held in June, starred acts as hot as Sly and the Family Stone, The Band, and Blood, Sweat & Tears. But the artist who wound up stealing the show that day was none other than Chuck Berry, who hadn’t had a hit in years and who…

AWhen Victoria Azarenka took her first steps as a professional tennis player 21 years ago, one of the most important early decisions she made was to invest in her own fitness trainer. After enjoying a stellar junior career, Azarenka already knew she wanted to be a top tennis player for as long as possible, and starting to build a strong team around her was a top priority in achieving that goal. But not everyone did that back then.”I think when I first started, when I was a young player, I was one of the few players who traveled with a…

The prosecution: Ted She doesn’t do it in our private bathroom – because other people won’t see it there – but she will everywhere else My wife, Marian, has a funny habit and I think it’s all to do with trying to keep up appearances. She’s always filling up expensive bottles of things with stuff from a cheaper brand. She’s done it for years. It’s usually with the bottles of hand soaps in our downstairs bathroom, but she’s also done it with diffusers and shampoos. I’m always teasing her and saying “this isn’t the real thing, is it?” But one time…

After Joe Biden vaguely ended a debate, cable news network commentators pondered what would happen next.Will there be a contentious Democratic National Convention? So what to do? They say replacing the president may not be an option, but many acknowledge that Democrats are talking about the issue, spurred by Biden’s troubling debate performance.MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace explains how candidates can unleash their delegates. Joy Reed said someone sent her the rules.”The rules are spreading,” Wallace laughed.”No one is saying this is going to happen, it’s highly unlikely,” Reed reiterated.The fact that liberal networks would broach the idea of ​​whether an incumbent…

Moustafa Bayoumi: ‘The Democrats must select someone other than Biden as their candidate’What a catastrophe. From the moment the debate started, Joe Biden was meandering, confused and charmless. It never improved. Donald Trump, however, was relatively restrained, at least for Trump. Of course, he resorted to lies, insults and exaggerations throughout the 90 minutes. By citing things called “Black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs” and by calling Biden a “bad Palestinian”, Trump managed to hit all his usual racist notes.Yet the whole thing was simply painful to watch, mostly because it was useless on any practical level. This much ballyhooed confrontation…