UPDATE: Javier Cercas, Spanish author: to beat the fascists, we need to understand them

The novelist tells how he dredged up the ghost of his own great uncle, a fascist ‘martyr’, to throw light on Spain’s struggles today

Leaning across a cafe table in his Barcelona barrio, Javier Cercas delivers a tirade against the “national populist” perversions of history that he blames for the return of Spain’s far right, Brexit, Donald Trump and Catalan separatism. “This national populism is a postmodern mask for what fascism in particular and the totalitarianisms of the 1930s were about,” warns the novelist, who returns to that decade and the trauma of the Spanish civil war in his latest novel, Lord of All the Dead.

He makes no apology for bundling together separatists, some of whose leaders are being tried in Madrid on sedition charges, with the return of Spain’s historically “terrifying” far right for the first time since General Franco’s 40-year dictatorship ended in 1975. In fact, he blames the appearance of the Vox party directly on separatists who tried to push his fellow Catalans into independence two years ago.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2LhpBFo

UPDATE: Barcelona win La Liga title as Lionel Messi goal secures victory over Levante

• Catalans retain league with three matches to spare
• Messi comes off the bench to earn win over strugglers

Lionel Messi fittingly sealed Barcelona’s 26th La Liga title on Saturday by coming off the bench to score the only goal in a 1-0 win over Levante in front of a jubilant Camp Nou crowd, who celebrated a remarkable eighth league crown in 11 years. Barcelona’s captain decided the game and the title in the 62nd minute as he received a header from Arturo Vidal, effortlessly freeing himself from two defenders with his right foot before using his left to plant the ball into the far bottom corner.

Messi had started on the bench along with Sergio Busquets as Ernesto Valverde had one eye on Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg at home to Liverpool. But the coach inevitably turned to his talisman with the game goalless at half-time, despite the best efforts of Philippe Coutinho, who had numerous attempts on goal and struck the crossbar before being withdrawn for Messi.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2XMEAIY

UPDATE: Corbyn launches bid to declare a national climate emergency

Labour will attempt to force Commons vote as it is revealed that the government has failed to spend anti-pollution cash

Labour will this week force a vote in parliament to declare a national environmental and climate change emergency as confidential documents show the government has spent only a fraction of a £100m fund allocated in 2015 to support clean air projects.

Jeremy Corbyn’s party will demand on Wednesday that the country wakes up to the threat and acts with urgency to avoid more than 1.5°C of warming, which will require global emissions to fall by about 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching “net zero” before 2050.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2J7NKvN

UPDATE: Trump sends support to NFL draft pick who called Kaepernick a 'clown'

• Trump tells new 49ers DE Nick Bosa: ‘Stay true to yourself’
• Bosa, 21, deleted posts that criticized Colin ‘Crappernick’

When college athlete and future NFL star Nick Bosa realized he might get drafted to a team in liberal San Francisco, he started deleting some of his more conservative-minded tweets and posts on social media.

If he was hoping to let it all wash away and let his football do the talking, Donald Trump has severely messed up his plans.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Wbi8Jc

UPDATE: Mo Farah believes lessons learned will help in his London Marathon bid

Britain’s No1 has endured a tough few days away from running but hopes he can get back on track and challenge the marathon world record holder, Eliud Kipchoge

Storm Hannah may have blown over but the clouds hanging over Sir Mo Farah have stubbornly refused to dissipate. As he prepared for Sunday’s London marathon, he has been on the front pages and the back, accused of starting a “brawl” with another athlete, getting shirty with a gym instructor for “copying his routine” and not paying a hotel bill.

To make matters worse he has also faced renewed questions over his relationship with the controversial coach Jama Aden, who faces doping charges by Spanish police, as well as more negative stories in Sunday’s papers. And yet, as Farah prepares to line up for the London Marathon, he is convinced he can do better than last year, when he finished third on a broiling hot day.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2DzQWwA

UPDATE: Mario Vrancic blasts Norwich past Blackburn and into the Premier League

Norwich confirmed their return to the Premier League with a swagger, winning here with the brio that has become a leitmotif under their German manager, Daniel Farke. Marco Stiepermann scored early and Mario Vrancic soon added a second and, despite Lewis Travis’s goal for Blackburn, Norwich never looked like collapsing to a defeat that would have delayed their promotion to the top flight after a three-year absence. They will go up as title winners if they earn point or more next week at Aston Villa.

Norwich knew it would take freakish results in the last week of the season to deny them promotion but Farke was warning against complacency. Few managers know better than him how quickly fortunes can change. There were some Norwich fans who wanted rid of him earlier this season, when his team mustered one win in their first six league matches, an ominous start on the back of a last season’s ho-hum 14th-place finish. But the faithless did not get their wish and instead Farke demonstrated the benefit of giving a good manager time to cultivate a fluent team.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2ZGCpZ5

UPDATE: San Diego: suspect held by police after shooting at synagogue

• Police say several injured at Chabad of Poway synagogue
• One man in custody and wounded taken to nearby hospital

Police in San Diego County have detained one man for questioning following an apparent shooting at a synagogue on Saturday morning.

Sheriff Bill Gore said in a statement several injuries were reported at the Chabad of Poway synagogue. He said those wounded have been taken to Palomar medical center.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2GxGRAE

UPDATE: #enough is not enough if PFA wants to be convincing on anti-racism | Daniel Taylor

Reactions to the social-media boycott show the players’ union still has much to do to win over sceptics and persuade Twitter et al to act

It wasn’t easy at first to know what to make of the Professional Footballers’ Association’s #enough campaign. It was difficult to be sure if it was genuinely the work of its equalities team or an idea dreamt up by a PR agency. A suspicious mind might have wondered whether the relevant people needed some positive publicity after all that unfortunate business with Gordon Taylor and, even if you were willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, I couldn’t help but feel they were pushing their luck to think a 24-hour boycott of social media, a hashtag and a new buzzword would make a lasting difference.

More than anything, it all felt, well, a bit tame. This was the first time ever in England and Wales that the people who play the sport professionally had been invited to protest, as one, about the racism many of them have to endure. It needed something impactful. Yet, somehow, I am not sure this was it. Unless I am being unfair to assume the general response at Uefa and Fifa headquarters could probably be summed up, in modern parlance, with the shrugged-shoulder emoji. And, regrettably, I don’t think I am.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2WivrY8

UPDATE: Therapy saved a refugee child. Fifty years on, he’s leading a mental health revolution

Psychologist Peter Fonagy tells of his own struggles in early life as the Anna Freud charity that he heads opens a major new centre for traumatised children

In 1967, a young Hungarian refugee sent to live in Britain planned on ending his life. “At 16 I was a very depressed adolescent, I had suicidal ideation, I had suicidal plans,” Peter Fonagy recalls. “If I was assessing myself now I would be very worried about me, because I knew exactly how I was going to do it. The reason is not that subtle or surprising: I was a Hungarian boy, who had landed in England and was not able to speak English.”

Lodging with a family in Kew Gardens, west London, the young Fonagy did not want to eat, or leave his room. He hated talking to people and was struggling academically. “I was massively inhibited. I was at a secondary modern school with kids who failed the 11-plus whose main interest was football.”

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2ZGkjXm

UPDATE: Marker Wadden, the manmade Dutch archipelago where wild birds reign supreme

A silted-up lake has been transformed into the latest addition to the map of the Netherlands – and an eco-haven teeming with wildlife

It takes about an hour on the ferry, across often choppy waters, to reach the newest bit of the Netherlands. For those sailing in from the port of Lelystad, the first sign of the Marker Wadden is a long finger of sand dunes designed to protect against flooding.

“You see the cormorants, the black birds?” asks the environmentalist Roel Posthoorn, pointing skywards.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2ULUH7E

UPDATE: Technology cuts children off from adults, warns expert

UCL professor says digital world disrupts family life, risking mental health of youngsters

One of the world’s foremost authorities on child mental health today warns that technology is threatening child development by disrupting the crucial learning relationship between adults and children.

Peter Fonagy, professor of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Developmental Science at UCL, who has published more than 500 scientific papers and 19 books, warns that the digital world is reducing contact time between the generations – a development with potentially damaging consequences.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2DF7sLM

UPDATE: Public thinks EU referendum was a bad idea, says poll

Opinium finds more than half of voters say it would have been better not to have held vote

More than half the public (55%) now think it would have been better never to have held the EU referendum given the difficulties of reaching an agreement on Brexit, according to the latest Opinium/Observer poll.

Strikingly, more Conservative voters (49%) now think the referendum was a bad idea than believe it was the right thing to have done (43%).

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2XJKHhg

UPDATE: Brighton thrown lifeline as Pascal Gross earns draw against Newcastle

This game had edged into its final minute when Anthony Knockaert swung over a cross and Glenn Murray, free at the far post, nodded the ball over a gaping net from close range. Chris Hughton buried his head in his hands in disbelief, the chance of a first league win since early March passed up in that moment. Yet when the dust settles, Brighton & Hove Albion may consider this to have been the point which preserved their Premier League status.

The draw, secured late with a first goal for seven weeks, has edged the home side four points clear of Cardiff City and, even with daunting fixtures to come, the likelihood is their current tally should prove sufficient to survive. The Welsh club will realistically have to win their last two games, at home to Crystal Palace and away at Manchester United, to stand a chance. The sense of dread that has been building in this corner of Sussex has eased marginally. Their team may be limping over the line, but there was relieved applause, rather than livid exasperation, to greet the final whistle.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2ZEFskQ

UPDATE: Extinction Rebellion activists stage die-in protests across globe

Environmental protesters lie on ground at transport hubs, venues and shopping centres

Extinction Rebellion supporters around the world have held a series of mass die-ins to highlight the risk of the human race becoming extinct asa result of climate change.

Related: Extinction Rebellion activists claim victory in HS2 tree protest

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2GCS5UP

UPDATE: Norwich City v Blackburn Rovers: Championship – live!

UPDATE: Leftwing activists join gilets jaunes for peaceful Paris protest

Figures from radical left and trade unionists join march as clashes break out in Strasbourg

Thousands of trade unionists and activists from left-wing parties marched with “yellow vest” protesters through Paris on Saturday to present a united front against French President Emmanuel Macron’s latest reforms package.

The demonstration, which passed off peacefully, came ahead of the main yellow vest march in the eastern city of Strasbourg, where protesters clashed with police trying to enforce a ban in parts of the city centre.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2PAhaDD

UPDATE: Fall of Bashir risks leaving Sudan prey to rival regional powers

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt compete with Iran, Turkey and Qatar to exploit political turmoil after deposal of president

In Sudan’s fresh minted revolution it is not only the country’s old military guard, once associated with the deposed former president Omar al-Bashir, whom protesters view with deep suspicion.

Last week the Egyptian embassy in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, was also the scene of protests and chants aimed at President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. “Tell Sisi,” the crowd shouted. “This is Sudan! [Egypt’s] borders stop at Aswan!”

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2L8a5fg

UPDATE: ‘We’re just proud to be Spanish’: why the far right is finding fertile ground

Vox could sway some 10% of voters in today’s election, many of them from neglected towns like Parla near Madrid…

The tramline that snakes through Parla passes an Extremaduran food shop dense with chorizo, cheese, ham and honey, a billboard for a real estate company catering to the Chinese community and the Titanic grocery shop, which offers couscous and not just halal meat but “100% halal meat”.

On either side of its winding tracks, on shopfronts, on faces, on clothes and in the conversations overheard on the streets, is written the story of the many and varied communities that have fuelled Parla’s growth over the past 50 years, transforming this small town half an hour from Madrid into a commuter sprawl of 128,000 people. Despite the town’s proximity to the capital, many of its residents feel overlooked and forgotten by successive central, regional and local governments.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2L82X2q

UPDATE: Mauricio Pochettino fears home defeat shatters Spurs’ spirit for Ajax

• Tottenham manager worries over team mood for Tuesday
• ‘It’s a setback,’ for hopes of top-four finish and facing Ajax

Mauricio Pochettino feared that the 1-0 home defeat by West Ham had not only inflicted a blow to Tottenham’s top-four hopes but changed the mood at the club before the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Ajax on Tuesday.

Michail Antonio scored the goal for West Ham, which was the first Spurs had conceded at their new stadium, and it was also the first time in five matches that Pochettino’s team had done anything other than win here.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2GDIsFh

UPDATE: Labour to decide on Brexit public vote on Tuesday, says Corbyn

Leader says he is ‘not a dictator’ and party will decide what’s in its European election manifesto

Labour’s ruling body will decide on Tuesday whether the party will campaign for a public vote on any Brexit deal, Jeremy Corbyn has said on the campaign trail in leave-voting Peterborough.

Almost 90 Labour MPs and MEPs, including a number of frontbenchers, wrote to the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to demand its European election manifesto includes a “clear commitment to a confirmatory public vote on any Brexit deal”.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2UYAiBj