UK is latest country to set minimum age for social media access but big tech is fighting back globally against curbsSocial media bans go global: big tech faces a reckoning after Australia’s crackdownArturo Béjar, a former employee turned whistleblower at Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, has talked to parents around the world. He says they share the same perspective: they dread the day their children are old enough to go online.Governments appear to be listening too. This month the UK became the latest country to state that it would set a minimum age of 16 for accessing major social media platforms. Social media bans are becoming a legislative trend after the precedent set by Australia last year, when it imposed an age limit on platforms including Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, Google’s YouTube, Elon Musk’s X, TikTok and Snapchat. Continue reading...

28 Jun 2026 10:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Document appears to have been subject to conflicting interpretations on key issues of Lebanon ceasefire and strait of HormuzMiddle East crisis live – latest updatesThe sudden eruption of fresh hostilities in the Gulf – just 10 days after Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding to end the conflict – threatens to put the two countries back on the path to war.It appears the deliberately opaque wording in the memorandum has been unable to withstand the pressure of conflicting interpretations, and as a result supporters of the deal inside Tehran are on the back foot. Statements to the effect that Iran’s government should never have agreed to reopen the strait of Hormuz are proliferating – and not just among the country’s hardliners. Continue reading...

28 Jun 2026 15:02 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Marco Rubio is scrambling to provide effective disaster response to country whose president US deposed in JanuaryThis week’s dual earthquakes in Venezuela are a test for the new era of American power in the western hemisphere, as the Trump administration scrambles to provide an effective disaster response mission to a country that it now calls an ally in Latin America, after a US special forces raid in January deposed the country’s strongman leader, Nicolás Maduro.The US is marshalling what secretary of state Marco Rubio called a “big, fast, effective” and “whole-of-government” response as the state department sent three specialised urban search and rescue teams and pledged a $150m assistance fund that one former disaster relief expert called the largest he had seen within 24 hours of an incident. Continue reading...

28 Jun 2026 09:32 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

We take a look at the creativity and emotion shown by fans of each nation during the group stage of the World CupThe 2026 World Cup has set a new all-time attendance record for the men’s tournament, surpassing the previous record of 3,587,538 set during the 1994 World Cup – and the group stages have only just ended.As ever, fans have brought colour and fun to the tournament – from Mexico’s duck mascot to Norway’s Viking rowers, with plenty more in between. Here are a selection of our favourite images of fans at the matches and at watch parties across the globe. Continue reading...

28 Jun 2026 11:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

The hotter it gets, the faster our bodies lose water. Obviously, we need to replace it – but is anything better than plain H₂O? And does timing matter? Here’s what the science saysHydration is important. In temperatures like those we’re increasingly seeing in much of the world, sweating can be the only way for our bodies to cool down, and our thirst isn’t always the best indicator of how much water we’ve lost or need. The consequences of not being sufficiently hydrated as temperatures creep towards the 40s can be severe, and can kick in much faster than most people realise. The good news is that remembering to drink plenty of water at regular intervals throughout the day will be enough for most people to avoid the worst. But if you’d like to understand why dehydration is so dangerous, whether you really need extra electrolytes, or if a cup of tea really can cool you down, read on.To start with, it’s helpful to understand that our bodies are producing heat – and therefore losing water – all the time. “All the cells in our body are constantly using fuel for energy for various different processes, whether that’s movement or just staying alive,” says Dr Lewis James, a lecturer in sport, exercise and health sciences at Loughborough University. “About 75 to 80% of the energy that we use appears as heat.” If we didn’t have any way of dissipating this heat, then even lying on the couch would see your body temperature rise about 1.3C in a single hour (already enough to make you noticeably feverish) – but of course, we do. Normally, we lose a decent amount of heat through a combination of convection and radiation: the blood vessels in our skin dilate, allowing the blood to be cooled by the outside air. The problem is that when the external temperature goes up, this process becomes less effective and eventually stops working altogether. At this point, our main way of losing heat is through sweating: our bodies produce tiny droplets of warm water mixed with trace minerals, which (usually) evaporate on contact with the air, drawing heat away from the skin in the process. And as we rely more on sweating, it’s increasingly important to replace the fluids our bodies are losing. Continue reading...

28 Jun 2026 13:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

We were exhausted and in need of rest. In the morning, the kind locals prepared a huge breakfast and refused to accept any paymentRead more in the kindness of strangers seriesSudan in the 1980s was relatively quiet. In 1987 I was based there, working for aid agency Care in the final years before Omar al-Bashir seized power.One day I was returning from the city of El Obeid to the capital, Khartoum. After two weeks of dust and extreme heat we were thankful to be travelling overland across the desert at night, when it would be cooler. There were no tarmac roads, just dusty tracks. Two colleagues, our driver and I left at sundown for what should have been a six or seven-hour drive. Continue reading...

28 Jun 2026 15:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsThis week’s question: Are there places on Earth where humans haven’t been?Why does silence feel so horribly awkward? Ruth Thompson, by emailSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com.Someone you know well: silence is fine. Not listening to them is fine, too, but you might wish to tell them that you are switching off, just in case they have something of import to say.Someone you don’t know and do not plan to know: silence is fine.Someone you do not know, but will have to know (colleague, inherited family members): talk about the weather, scenery, seating, anything bland and immediate.Someone you do not know or not well but looks scared or stressed (shivering, twisting hands, looking like they need the loo): smile blandly and make a small comment that does not require an answer. Continue reading...

28 Jun 2026 13:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN