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It’s been a while since we felt something. The Premier League has barely been about the Premier League of late, all the focus on who qualifies for Bigger Cup, Liverpool’s title secured in the Jurassic Period, relegation sorted when those three teams were promoted from the Championship a year ago. The Women’s Super League was also lacking in jeopardy when it wrapped up last week, the key question being whether Chelsea would remain invincible. This weekend of FA Cup finals arrives in a time of desperate need: give us some of that so-called magic, please.

The annual congress is the single most important body to ensure good governance of international football [and] 210 member associations have traveled from all over the world to participate at this congress here in Paraguay, expecting professional leadership and dialogue at the highest level. I understand the frustration and disappointment from European Fifa members, and we feel sorry for the excellent hosts in Paraguay. We now expect Fifa to explain this situation to its members and ensure that the voices of the member associations are heard and respected going forward” – Norway Football Federation president Lise Klaveness explains why she was among eight European members of the Fifa Council to walk out of congress in protest at the late arrival of Gianni Infantino, who had been schmoozing with Donald Trump in the Middle East amid accusations from Uefa that he was pursuing “private political interests” ahead of responsibilities to football. Well aren’t we just shocked.

With regards to Ajax’s massive implosion and PSV’s hot streak at the end of the Dutch season ( yesterday’s Football Daily ), I am reminded of the phrase: ‘It’s better to be lucky than good.’ Nothing epitomises that more than the PSV captain, Mr De Jong. No, not Frenkie, Nigel or Siem but Luuk!” – Michael Glogower (and no other mean readers).

With reference to your comment that Edgeley Park is currently the closest league ground to the River Mersey (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition), I’ve always preferred the answer when you limit the question to Premier League grounds – the answer being Old Trafford. Obviously, also about to become an ex-fact once Everton move into their new gaff” – Andrew Payton.

While I realise this week marks the last men’s game at Goodison Park so we are newsworthy, I was surprised to see Everton FC mentioned in almost every section of yesterday’s missive ! Davy Klaassen’s former employer in the main headline text, Quote of the Day from Colin Harvey, letters, on the edge (breakout section), on Bramley-Moore dock becoming the closest ground to the Mersey, and FA Cup final quiz with Joe Royle as last English manager to win. I respect the commemorative nature of the Toffees’ inclusions – but then in Memory Lane you showed an aerial view of Lens FC’s ground and not Goodison. An opportunity missed! Has anyone outside the top six featured in every section of Football Daily? I am sure The Knowledge knows!” – C Hawtrey.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions .

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The new pick for surgeon general, Casey Means, doesn’t have an active medical license. But she does have ‘impeccable Maha credentials’

The US health secretary doesn’t think you should really listen to him when it comes to health issues. During an appearance before House and Senate committees this week, Robert F Kennedy Jr , famous for his unconventional views about medicine and his revelation that a parasite ate part of his brain , seemed to think it was strange that lawmakers were asking him about vaccines.

“What I would say is my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant,” Kennedy said when pressed on whether he would vaccinate his child for measles. “I don’t want to seem like I’m being evasive, but I don’t think people should be taking advice, medical advice, from me.” The US health secretary repeated his refrain about not wanting to give advice a number of other times.

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US retailers being targeted after attacks on Britain’s Marks & Spencer, the Co-op and Harrods

• Business live – latest updates

UK-based members of the Scattered Spider hacking community are actively “facilitating” cyber-attacks, according to Google, as disruption to British retailers spreads to the US.

A group of hackers labelled “Scattered Spider” have been linked with attacks on UK retailers Marks & Spencer , the Co-op and Harrods , with Google cybersecurity experts warning this week that unnamed retailers across the Atlantic are being targeted as well.

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The raging beauty of the ocean has clearly found its perfect embodiment. Now we need to decide who will play the other elemental forces

Some actors are lucky and manage to immediately luck into a perfect role. Others have to struggle for years, sometimes even decades, before eventually finding a part that completely encapsulates their personality. Jeremy Irons is one of them. But the good news is that his number has just come up, because Jeremy Irons has just been cast as the sea.

According to Variety , Water People: The Story of Us, the first documentary feature by acclaimed artist Maya de Almeida Araujo has just cast Irons as the voice of the ocean. Which just makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

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The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

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Aggressive, hedonistic and seductive – often in the span of the same song – the independent LA-based singer-songwriter spans shoegaze, vaporwave and capital-P pop

From Los Angeles via Virginia
Recommended if you like PinkPantheress, Kylie Minogue, Daniel Lopatin’s Chuck Person alias
Up next Album She Comes from Nowhere, released 20 June

Neggy Gemmy has quietly spent the past decade building one of the strongest catalogues in underground pop. Born Lindsey French – and previously known as Negative Gemini – Neggy Gemmy’s music spans coldwave, shoegaze, trance, vaporwave and capital-P pop; her records can be icily aggressive or hedonistic and seductive, often in the span of the same song. Although her work is always distinctive, she’s also canny with iconoclastic references. On 2016’s Body Work, she sampled Britney Spears’ Everytime one song before her own masterpiece of emotional desolation, the breakbeat ballad You Never Knew; the highlight from her underrated 2023 club odyssey CBD Reiki Moonbeam, titled On the Floor, sounds like – and, in a just world, would have been – a 2000s Kylie Minogue single. French’s forthcoming album She Comes from Nowhere still foregrounds her distinctive voice, which can be both breathy and appealingly harsh, but it also incorporates touches of gauzy, gallic bands such as Stereolab and Air, adding appealing new textures to her work.

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Apart from agreeing to swap 1,000 prisoners each, Moscow sticks to maximalist demands in Istanbul

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a large-scale prisoner exchange but failed to reach a breakthrough during their first direct peace talks since 2022, held in Istanbul without either Vladimir Putin or Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Sitting down under pressure from the US president, Donald Trump, Ukraine had pushed for a 30-day ceasefire before the talks. Moscow rejected this, appearing to stick to its maximalist demands, including sweeping restrictions on Ukrainian sovereignty.

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Go Crazy star remanded until 13 June after appearing in Manchester magistrates court charged with grievous bodily harm

Chris Brown has been remanded in custody after appearing in court charged over an alleged bottle attack at a London nightclub two years ago.

The American R&B star was arrested at a hotel in Manchester in the early hours of Thursday and was later charged with grievous bodily harm with intent.

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Judge says €300m collection should remain property of the state, after attempt by family of Umberto II to reclaim jewels

A court in Italy has rejected a request made by the descendants of the country’s last king to reclaim the crown jewels, with the judge ordering that the national treasures remain the property of the state.

In February 2022, the descendants of Italy’s last monarch sued the Italian state to reclaim the jewels, which for almost 78 years have been stashed in a treasure chest in a safety deposit box at the Bank of Italy – the country’s central bank – amid a long-running saga over their ownership.

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