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Neil Johnston, BBC Sport journalist It’s going to require something extra special to stop this Les Bleus juggernaut from reaching a third straight World Cup final. France have overcome a two-hour storm delay in Philadelphia, the loss of Deschamps for one match (he returned home for the funeral of his mother) and Paraguay’s ‘dark arts’…

She is concerned, however, that it will be difficult for voters to coalesce around any new candidate in just three months. “The thing I’m the most worried about is we run somebody and he or she loses, and then we spend the next four years pointing fingers at whose fault that was,” she said. In…

Iran’s slain ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday will be buried at the country’s holiest shrine in Mashhad after a week of mass funeral processions, rallies and mourning ceremonies that has coincided ​with a flare-up in conflict with the US. Khamenei’s son and successor, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, has still not made any public appearances. 

The initiative aimed to offer families, particularly children, a brief escape from the realities of war. Egypt’s matches attracted large crowds, reflecting the long-standing popularity of the team among many Palestinians in Gaza who have long shared cultural, emotional and political ties with their neighbours. Videos of children and families gathering around giant screens among…

Welcome and summary Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s coverage of the continuing crisis in the Middle East. Iran was pummelled with a volley of missiles for a second consecutive night, with the US military claiming to have struck 170 Iranian targets in the last 48 hours. US Central Command (Centcom) said the intense bombing…