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Thursday 20 August 2026 £3.50 From £2.40 for subscribers

Working in Starmer's No 10 was unbearable, says ex-chief of staff

Sue Gray offers her first insight into Labour government's early days

Rowena Mason Whitehall editor

Keir Starmer's former chief of staff has lifted the lid on how "unbearable" it was working in No 10, revealing she feared she was being recorded by colleagues seeking to leak her remarks.

Sue Gray, who was the most powerful adviser in Downing Street before resigning in 2024, criticised the working environment under Starmer, saying she was "disappointed" he did not act on her concerns about staff briefing journalists against her.

In an interview with the Political Currency podcast, shared with the Guardian, she gave her first major analysis of the extreme tensions in the early days of Starmer's operation, providing an insight into the culture of what has been called a "boys club" operating with Downing Street.

In the weeks before Gray quit, Starmer was accused of having lost control of his senior team after a series of acrimonious leaks to the media about his chief of staff's pay being higher than that of the prime minister and her apparently difficult relationships with senior colleagues.

In relation to a story she had tried to get Starmer's other closest aide, Morgan McSweeney, moved farther away from the prime minister, Gray told the interviewer, Ed Balls: "I had always taken a view as a civil servant and actually as a special adviser that

you should be able to speak freely in rooms ... I couldn't recall those sort of discussions being briefed out, and yet here I found myself.

"Stories about supposedly trying to move Morgan McSweeney to the back of the building. Actually, that was a genuine ... 'I can't believe so many of you are going to sit in this small room. Let's find a better room for you.' It just got to the point where you know everything you say, you feel somebody is recording it."

Asked whether Starmer had acted on her concerns, Gray said: "I talked

to him a couple of times about it, and I don't really want to disclose individual conversations. But I was disappointed that not more was done because I think it could have been done."

She said the atmosphere was "definitely unbearable, particularly for me", adding: "I would say that none of that briefing came from me. I think it was very difficult, and it was just affecting me and my life... It was a very, very, very difficult period."

Gray is the second senior woman from Starmer's

IDF admits firing at car in which family died

Jason Burke

The Israeli military admitted yesterday that its troops had opened fire on a car carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and six family members in Gaza in 2024, saying it had ordered a criminal investigation into the killing.

The death of Hind and her family was one of the most high-profile incidents involving civilian casualties in the first months of the Gaza conflict, and prompted international outrage.

Hind died after a desperate three-hour phone call to the Palestinian Red Crescent on 29 January 2024 in which she pleaded for rescue. The family's Kia Picanto car had been hit as they sought to flee a new Israeli offensive into Gaza City, and all the other passengers had been killed.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) repeatedly denied its troops were present in the area near the incident, but investigations by media and others found evidence that strongly suggested nearby Israeli tanks were responsible.

▲ Hind Rajab, five, died in Gaza in 2024 after a three-hour wait to be rescued. Six relatives also died PHOTOGRAPH: AP

Harry and Meghan 'to move back to Britain'

Nadeem Badshah

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are planning to move back to Britain, six years after leaving for the US, the Guardian understands.

The couple and their two children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, are expected to relocate later this month to a non-royal residence.

The property is believed to be outside London, and the children are enrolled to start school in September, the Daily Telegraph reported.

King Charles was informed on Sunday that his son and daughter-in-law would return to Britain, the paper reported.

It comes after the Sussexes, who have lived in California since 2020, had a reunion with the king last month at Highgrove in Gloucestershire.

The king is said to welcome the opportunity to see more of his family in a personal capacity, but there will be no change in their status as private individuals after

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Compulsory GCSE resits in England 'harm teenagers' mental wellbeing'

Richard Adams Education editor

Forcing teenagers who fail GCSEs to face multiple resits has a negative impact on their mental health, according to research to be published as pupils receive their grades today.

The study by academics at University College London (UCL) compared the mental wellbeing of students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who failed to reach a grade 4 in maths or English GCSEs. It found that only those in England, where resits are mandatory, showed significantly lower wellbeing.

Robbie Maris, a research fellow at UCL and one of the authors, said the dent to teenagers' self-confidence

Tice owes UK's firefighters an apology, says Labour chair

Kiran Stacey Policy editor

Richard Tice should apologise to firefighters for his comments this week urging British people to 'enjoy' this summer's extreme heat, according to the Labour party chair.

Bridget Phillipson has called on Reform's deputy leader to say sorry to those who over the past several weeks have battled wildfires across the country that have forced evacuations and destroyed homes.

Her comments underline Labour's confidence that voters have been alienated by Reform's increasingly strident attacks on net zero policy,

when faced with resits could be a contributing factor to the rise in young people not in education, employment or training, known as Neets.

Maris said: 'Some [resitting] students will not turn up for their exams, they won't enter them or they will drop out of education - these are the highest-risk kids of dropping out of education and becoming Neets. It could be leading to further disengagement, which is a worrying thing.'

The resits policy in England was introduced in 2014 and forces students who have not achieved a grade 4 pass in English or maths GCSE at age 16 to continue to study those qualifications as a condition of their further education or college places being funded. This year about 180,000 students who sat GCSEs last year

even as the prime minister comes under pressure for saying relatively little on the issue.

Tice told a press conference this week: 'When it's a bit warm, let's enjoy it. And if it means that English wine and sparkling wine gets better and better, fantastic. That means we can take on the French - fantastic. Let's celebrate some of these things rather than just be sort of doom and gloom about it.'

Phillipson told the Guardian yesterday: 'I think he owes an apology to the firefighters who were battling in extreme conditions, putting themselves and their lives at risk in order to protect people's homes and deal with these extraordinary fires that we've seen. He should apologise to them.

'It's not funny to crack jokes about sparkling wine at a point at which our brave firefighters are out there kind of battling the real world impact of what we're seeing from climate change.'

Reform did not respond to a request to comment.

Labour has sought to highlight Tice's comments in recent days, including by releasing a video putting

will retake GCSE English and about 175,000 are expected to retake maths.

Maris said the comparison between students with similar academic records in Wales and Northern Ireland and those in England left the resits policy as a big difference.

'We see no impact really at all for failing English and maths in Wales or Northern Ireland, but in England there's a relatively large negative impact,' he said.

'This is strong evidence that it's something to do with England's policy setting that is generating these impacts.'

The study, to be published as a working paper by UCL's Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, found considerable differences between girls and boys.

his words next to footage of homes destroyed in the Stourbridge wildfire.

The Reform deputy leader made the remarks as part of a broader attack on net zero policies, which have also been a target of the Conservative party in recent days, despite the increasing frequency of extreme heat events.

Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, gave a speech yesterday criticising the government's push to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

She said the UK 'should focus all our attention on making electricity

▲ Richard Tice suggested that people should 'enjoy' the UK's extreme heat

The biggest impact on girls was on those who narrowly missed out on a grade 4 in maths. For boys the biggest impact was among those who were "substantially below" the threshold for a passing grade in English.

In contrast, boys who failed to get a 4 in maths, and girls who failed in English, showed little or no downturn in wellbeing.

'Girls already have low self-efficacy and anxiety in maths, on average, and we've got similar issues with boys doing English - anecdotally, a lot of boys don't like doing English,' Maris said.

'Being forced to resit these subjects where there are these particularly strong gender norms have large effects on boys and girls. It's a very interesting pattern that emerges.' He added that further research would be needed to explain why it occurred.

The mandatory resits policy for those remaining in education has been controversial since its introduction, with the success rate among 17- to 19-year-olds falling in recent years. Last year fewer than 20% of students in the resitting age group achieved a grade 4 or above in English, while in maths fewer than 15% got a 4 or better and fewer than one in 100 got a grade 9.

Angela Rayner, as shadow education secretary, said in 2018 that a Labour government would scrap compulsory resits.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: 'We know that resitting exams repeatedly without improving grades can be demoralising, which is why we're taking action to break the endless cycle of resits.

'Our new 16-19 English and maths qualifications will properly prepare students before they resit their GCSE, with changes to the accountability framework to support this and ensure students only sit an exam when they are ready to progress.

'We have also ensured that students will get at least 100 hours of teaching per subject, backed by extra funding and free teacher training, so they progress with a genuine chance of success.'

cheap, and then let consumer choice be king'.

Andy Burnham has been criticised by climate campaigners for saying little about the climate crisis. The prime minister held a Cobra meeting last week to discuss the impact of the heatwave and drought, but failed to mention climate breakdown, focusing instead on disposable barbecues.

Later, on a visit to Stourbridge, Burnham said: 'We have to face up to the changing climate ... there's no point denying where we are. We need to face up to it. We need more clean energy.'

Ministers are expected to announce in the coming weeks whether they will approve two new giant oil and gas fields in the North Sea, Rosebank and Jackdaw.

Phillipson defended Burnham's record on the climate crisis. 'I don't think it's fair to say he hasn't spoken about it,' she said. 'And he's seen it first-hand on his visit to the West Midlands - the real impact of what this means in terms of people's lives, their communities, their homes, the devastation that's been caused.'

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Thursday 20 August 2026 The Guardian

News

▼ The conservatory, built in the 1960s, is 'in urgent need of rescue'. Hundreds of plants are being given away before it closes for three years

'London's green lung'

Rush to adopt plants as Barbican closes greenhouse till 2030

Helena Horton

Above the waxy monstera leaves and bright pink hibiscus flowers in the Barbican conservatory hangs a giant net to catch the panes of glass on the ceiling that are at risk of falling on the unwitting plant lovers below.

This precarious situation has caused the greenhouse to close for the next three years so a full refurbishment can take place, part of a wider renewal of the estate. But the hiatus had a silver lining for many of those who visited yesterday to give plants from the conservatory a home.

Five hundred people turned up to pick up a cutting from the Barbican's plant collection and fill out an 'adoption form'.

Lydia Goldberg, 56, a tech worker, chose a pretty, silvery-green Swedish ivy plant. 'I am a houseplant lover,' she said. 'I live in the Barbican and my bedroom overlooks the conservatory.'

'I am sad to see it close but it's great that it is being restored. Having a piece of the conservatory in my flat will be an incredible thing and this is a real community event. I can see quite a few of my neighbours here.'

'There has been a social media storm. The interest has been amazing'

Marta Lowcewicz Head gardener

Residents Anne and Beverley took advantage

The Swedish ivy is among the plants being sorted by Marta Lowcewicz, the head gardener. 'There has been a social media storm,' she said. 'It is amazing how much interest there has been.'

There are three adoption events, each giving away 500 cuttings. The first one, this week, ran out of free online tickets almost immediately.

Part of Lowcewicz's job is to figure out which plants will remain indoors and which will go outside. The climate has changed considerably since construction of the Barbican began in the 1960s, and many indoor plants are now outdoor plants.

'Some of the plants are a bit rough around the edges after the weather we have had,' she said.

London has sizzled in five heatwaves and the climate control in the conservatory hasn't caught up. 'When we have new climate control and irrigation systems, the plants will be healthier.'

She will be choosing new plants for the collection but said she would retain 'as many plants as possible'. She will select plants that have 'big, bold leaves'.

'The architecture of the Barbican is striking and bold so we are trying to make sure the collection fits well with the concrete,' she said. 'We want them to soften it.'

There are plants from all over the world in the conservatory. Geoffrey, 36, a spatial designer, chose one that reminded him of Mexico, where he used to live. 'I chose a white velvet plant. I love it,' he said. 'I am a great fan of the building and it is great to take a piece of it home with me.'

Savannah, 33, who works with elderly people, said: 'I chose the peperomia. I love the texture of it, it's very soft. I have a ton of plants, but I love the Barbican so it's very special to have something from here.'

Maria, 30, an architectural designer, chose the trailing purple heart plant. 'I have lots of houseplants but this is my first non-green plant,' she said.

Stella, 88, lives in the Barbican and chose a Benghal dayflower. 'I like it because it has a little secret blue flower,' she said. 'I have houseplants everywhere and am meant to be cutting back but, really, how can you resist this?'

Stella has given some of her houseplants that got too big for her flat to the conservatory, including a giant monstera. 'It's huge. I hope they don't give it back to me.'

The event was bittersweet because most people were sad that the space would be shut for such a long time. Dr Philippa Simpson, the Barbican's chief operating officer, feels the responsibility of faithfully restoring the conservatory, which means a lot to lovers of brutalist architecture and plants alike.

'It's a green lung of the city,' she said. 'We are undertaking a massive restoration of it because it was in urgent need of rescue. We have nets up to deal with falling glazing (and) massive waterproofing issues. It is leaking into all of our significant spaces.'

When it reopens in 2030, it will be fully accessible and open seven days a week.

Holland to make 'at least $100m' from Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Laurence Phelan

The British actor Tom Holland is expected to make 'at least $100m' for starring in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, according to the Wrap.

Unnamed sources 'with knowledge of Holland's deal' say he was paid $20m (£15m) upfront, about double what he reportedly received

for his previous Spider-Man film No Way Home in 2021. But the extraordinary success of Brand New Day at the global box office means the 30-year-old is expected to earn a further $80m or more in backend bonuses.

In only its third week of release, Brand New Day has become the eighth highest grossing film of all time (unadjusted for inflation), and passed $2bn in ticket sales.

Of the eight films to have reached

this box office milestone, it is the second fastest to have done so. Avengers: Endgame, released in 2019, is the fastest.

Holland's reported salary represents a vast increase from his previous performances in the role.

When he first played Spider-Man, in a relatively brief but significant appearance in Captain America: Civil War (2016), he was reportedly paid $250,000.

For the next three Spider-Man films in which he starred - Homecoming (2017), Far from Home (2019) and No Way Home - he was reportedly paid $500,000, $4m and $10m respectively. But his initial contract

Tom Holland's salary has reached new heights

$250k

Sum Holland was reportedly paid for his 2016 debut as Spider-Man, in Captain America: Civil War

is thought to have expired after the end of No Way Home, and the hugely increased remuneration is the result of a freshly negotiated deal.

Brand New Day's success comes even though audiences' interest in films set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in superhero films as a whole, has been waning.

It has been a remarkable year for Holland. He also appeared as Telemachus in the second most financially successful film of 2026, Christopher Nolan's adaptation of The Odyssey ($1.3bn in ticket sales), and he married Zendaya, his co-star in both films.

The Guardian contacted Sony Pictures for comment.

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8

News

Zelenskyy fires top aide as former minister warns of 'governance crisis'

Dan Sabbagh Kyiv

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has fired a senior aide amid a fresh corruption investigation – one day after a former defence minister warned the country was facing 'a crisis of governance' and needed to hold a wartime election.

Iryna Mudra, a presidential deputy chief of staff, was dismissed after multiple reports in Ukrainian media that her house was being searched by officials investigating an alleged money-laundering scheme.

No official reason was given for Mudra's sacking as Zelenskyy sought to carry on as normal, despite ousted minister Mykhailo Fedorov's surprise call for an early presidential election in a video address late on Tuesday.

The president did not directly address Fedorov's accusations or his election demand in his initial public statements, though he did thank Ukraine's parliament for voting to confirm Fedorov's replacement, Yevheni Khmara.

At the heart of Fedorov's argument were accusations that corruption remained widespread under Zelenskyy and that the president had failed to get a grip.

'Corruption is only a symptom. The main problem runs much deeper.

We have a systemic crisis of governance,' Fedorov had said.

The removal of Fedorov from his post in July triggered the most significant street protests in Ukraine since the war began.

Fedorov is now considering visiting the US, possibly as soon as next week, in an apparent effort to win over American support. In the past, US president Donald Trump has called for Ukraine to hold elections, though his comments were made at a time when his relationship with Zelenskyy was strained.

Elections have been suspended in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Fedorov has become the first major public figure to call for a presidential poll, effectively posing a direct challenge to the sitting president.

'Can Russia effectively be given the right to dictate when Ukrainians

▲ Volodymyr Zelenskyy has come under fire over corruption charges

can choose their government again? I am convinced that the answer is no,' Fedorov said in a nine-minute video address released late on Tuesday.

Zelenskyy's term notionally expired in spring 2024, but an election during wartime is prohibited by the constitution, and had been considered by most Ukrainians to be impractical and potentially divisive while Russia continues to attack.

The Nabu anti-corruption agency said it was conducting a special operation to expose what it said was a criminal conspiracy that involved 'the participation of high-ranking officials from the office of the president' and several others.

It released a video saying those involved included a deputy head of the president's office, a serving MP and a former MP, as well as the chief executive and supervisory board head at a state-owned bank, though none were named.

Nabu added that the group was accused of laundering 150m hrvinas (£2.5m) through the bank in order to post bail in June for the former energy minister Herman Haluschenko, himself facing anti-corruption charges.

Haluschenko is a defendant in the high-profile Midas corruption case, alongside businessman Timur Mindich, who has fled the country. Mindich is a former associate of the president who co-founded the TV production company Kvartal 95 Studio in the years before Zelenskyy went into politics.

Yesterday, Zelenskyy presented 25 certificates giving housing to decorated veterans and their families. The president said that Ukraine was a country that honoured its heroes and emphasised it was important to be thankful to its bravest troops.

'Gratitude is what should accompany respect,' the president said. 'It must be an integral part of a normal state, a normal society and normal people.' It was perhaps the closest he had come all day to making a comment of any kind on the crisis.

▲ Iryna Mudra, who was fired after reports in Ukrainian media of officials searching her house as part of an ongoing investigation PHOTOGRAPH: RAI VALLEY/ALANY

Fedorov has been shut out of government, confirming his transition from trusted insider to a potent political opponent

Analysis Luke Harding

Criticism comes at a time of mounting pressure for democratic renewal in Ukraine

For more than a month, demonstrators have gathered in Ivan Franko Square outside Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office. The protesters have been chanting a name – not that of Ukraine's embattled president but that of the man he recently sacked as defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov. On Sunday evening, 2,000 people marched along Khreshchatyk, Kyiv's main boulevard, waving cardboard banners in support of their ousted hero.

Zelenskyy has refused to reinstate Fedorov, who was widely seen as an effective and reforming figure. Yesterday, Ukraine's parliament voted to approve a successor as defence minister, Yevhen Khmara. The move shows Fedorov has been shut out of government and confirms his transition from trusted insider and Zelenskyy loyalist to a potent political opponent.

On Tuesday, Fedorov released a nine-minute video to call for wartime elections. 'Democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia,' he said. 'We must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism which will allow Ukraine to renew its full democratic process even in the conditions of a long war.'

Fedorov offered a blistering critique of Zelenskyy's administration. The country was facing a 'systemic crisis of governance', he said, in which corruption inside the defence ministry was hurting the war effort. Reforms were stymied, with loyalists promoted.

Most civil society activists agree with this analysis. Corruption has always existed in Ukraine. During the 2010-14 presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, who was backed by the Kremlin, it reached spectacular levels.

In the peaceful past, large-scale theft from the state budget left less money for schools and hospitals.

As Fedorov noted, today's schemes have 'an entirely different meaning' as full-scale war rages. They represent 'ammunition that did not reach the front' and technology that 'could have been put into production but wasn't'.

The video shows a photo of Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy's former chief of staff, who resigned last year amid a corruption scandal

implicating other figures such as Timur Mindich, Zelenskyy's former business partner. Yermak's lawyer has dismissed the allegations as 'baseless' and Mindich, who fled to Israel, also denies wrongdoing.

Oryisa Lutsevych, the head of the Ukraine forum at Chatham House, said of Fedorov's comments: 'I think he's right. He says the system is old-fashioned, does not run fast enough, stalls innovation and prioritises loyalty.' She added 'personal and vested interests' sometimes influenced official decision-making, not always in Ukraine's interests. 'This could be called corruption,' she added.

At the same time, Ukrainian society – led by students, veterans, journalists and anti-corruption bodies – is politically engaged. 'The street is a check on the president. It corrects,' Lutsevych said. 'There are checks and balances even under martial law.'

There is little prospect Zelenskyy will hold an election any time soon. Under Ukraine's constitution, polls cannot take place during wartime.

Nonetheless, pressure for some form of democratic renewal is growing. And when presidential elections are eventually held, Fedorov has nimbly positioned himself to challenge Zelenskyy.

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Vaping Young users 'risk becoming smokers' Page 7

Scaling up Return of giant tuna a 'marine success story' Page 15

National

3

CCTV shows track defect before Lewes train derailment on year's hottest day

Alex Daniel

Rail operators have apologised after a report into last Thursday's derailment found a track defect on the approach to where the train derailed on the hottest day of the year so far.

A report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) said CCTV showed the "track geometry irregularity" existed before the incident near Lewes injured 30 people.

The watchdog published an image that appeared to show the track had buckled - something that can happen in high temperatures - before the Southern train derailed.

It said its investigation was taking weather conditions into account, as well as the status of the track, embankment, condition of the train and the effectiveness of any measures taken to mitigate the hot weather.

In a joint statement, Network Rail and Greater Thameslink Railway (GTR), which runs Southern, said

they were "very sorry that this happened on our railway".

Lucy McAuliffe, Sussex route director at Network Rail, and John Whitehurst, chief executive at GTR, said: "We also recognise the ongoing impact the incident has had on customers, local communities and railway colleagues."

"Safety is and will always remain our highest priority. While Britain's railway is one of the safest in the world, when incidents like this occur it is essential that we understand exactly what happened and identify any lessons that can be learned."

The stretch of railway between Lewes and Haywards Heath is set to remain closed until at least the end of service on 26 August.

That will give time for the train to be recovered and for recovery teams to make sure evidence is preserved.

The incident happened on 13 August amid the UK's fifth heatwave of the summer, during which two trains derailed in less than 24 hours.

The embankment on which the

▲ The Lewes derailment left 30 passengers injured on the hottest day of the year. CCTV footage of the area (left) appears to show the track having buckled

PHOTOGRAPH: JAMES MANNING/PANHEATER THAMESLINK RAILWAY

railway sits near the derailment site is made of clay, meaning it is "sensitive to variations in water content and may undergo movement as moisture levels change", the RAIB said.

It added that "although, at this stage, there is no evidence to indicate that a significant embankment slip occurred before the accident, there is evidence that some movement had previously taken place".

RAIB investigators said they had received "several reports of rough riding" from passengers on other trains in the same location.

It is understood that the final report may not be published for a year or longer.

The Office of Rail and Road said it was also "investigating the circumstances of the incident". Unlike the RAIB, the ORR's remit is to look into potential "breaches of health and safety law" and it has the power to prosecute on that basis.

The train was travelling at about 65mph - within the 70mph speed limit - as it approached the site of

the incident, with about 150 people onboard.

Three carriages ended up on their side, trapping passengers and leaving 30 people injured, including 20 who required hospital treatment, the RAIB said.

"Significant damage was caused to the train and to railway infrastructure," the watchdog added.

James MacCleary, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, said the early findings "raise serious concerns" and the fault on the track was "deeply concerning".

"I travel this line very regularly and reported to the authorities just how bumpy this section of track had become. We cannot assume that this is related, but that makes the current findings even more troubling."

The Department for Transport said: "Safety remains the absolute priority across our rail network, and we will ensure the industry acts on any findings in the Rail Accident Investigation Branch's full report when published."

Harry and Meghan 'will return to UK with children'

➤ Continued from page 1

relinquishing their official working roles within the royal family.

The Prince and Princess of Wales are said to have also been informed of the decision.

The couple are expected to retain their homes in Montecito, California, and Portugal, where they went on holiday earlier this summer. Their security arrangements have not been disclosed.

The long-running issue over their security meant that Harry did not bring Meghan, 45, or their children to events in London last month, as had been originally planned.

The prince, 41, has previously stressed he would not feel safe bringing his family back to the UK without police protection.

In May 2025, after losing a legal challenge over his security in the UK, Harry said: "I can't see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the UK at this point."

In an interview with the BBC after the ruling, Harry said he "would love a reconciliation" with the royal family.

He said: "There have been so many disagreements between myself and some of my family," but he had now forgiven them.

"I would love reconciliation with my family. There's no point continuing to fight any more, life is precious."

Harry added the dispute over his security had "always been the sticking point".

Asked whether he had asked the king to intervene in the dispute over security, he said: "I never asked him to intervene - I asked him to step out of the way and let the experts do their jobs."

Last month, the prince and six other co-claimants lost a privacy case against the publishers of the Daily Mail in London.

▲ Harry and Meghan have lived in the US with their children since 2020

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6

National

▲ Tributes are left close to where, from top, Hassan El-Khawas, Zeina Alayn and their daughter, Sara El-Khawas went into the sea

swimming. The coldness, even when it feels hot outside, it can shock people, and that can cause the difficulties. So people just need to remember that at all times."

Two air ambulance helicopters and a critical care team were sent to the scene and Shoreham RNLI said its lifeboat had been called out at 3pm.

Burnham paid tribute to those who tried to save the family. "I do need to praise the emergency services, who I know were on scene very quickly yesterday. They've had a busy summer, but they were there, and we thank them. As I say, just huge sympathy to the friends and the family," he said.

There have been a series of water-related deaths across the country in a summer of record-breaking heat. On Saturday, a 12-year-old boy drowned in the River Lea, near Hackney Marshes in north-east London.

In April, a woman and her young child died after getting into difficulty in the water in west London. Both died at the scene in Elthorne Park, Ealing, the Metropolitan police said. There have been at least 35 drowning deaths, according to a study by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Joss Loader, the chair of Shoreham Beach Residents' Association, said: "There's just a really strong sense of shock, obviously people are really concerned for the young girl. A small, tightly knit community with a very deep sense of shock and that sense of disbelief you get after a tragedy because it has come out of nowhere."

Shoreham beach is a spit of land with water on three sides from the River Adur, the estuary and the sea, and Loader said she understood the "tragic events" had happened in the estuary.

"It's school holidays and we have had a wonderful summer so the beaches have been packed with families," she said. "People swim from those beaches even in the winter, generally it is considered as safe as the sea can be. You wouldn't be swimming there and think you were taking a risk."

Anna Peacock, 81, who lives near Kingston beach across the water from Shoreham Fort, said emergency services were on the scene very quickly.

"People come down to swim, particularly in the summertime and I don't think they realise there's a riptide along here," she said. "It's very inviting to come to the sea, but the tide could carry you out in seconds, and I don't think people have realised that."

Father, mother and daughter who died off the Sussex coast were British Palestinians

Matthew Weaver

A father, mother and their teenage daughter who died off the Sussex coast on Tuesday have been identified.

Sussex police named the victims as Hassan El-Khawas, 55, his partner, Zeina Alayn, 37, and their 14-year-old daughter, Sara El-Khawas. A younger girl who is also part of the family is in hospital in a critical condition. She has not been named.

The Palestinian embassy in London said El-Khawas was a British man of Palestinian descent.

Police, paramedics, coastguard crews and a lifeboat attended the scene at Shoreham-by-Sea, where four people were pulled from the water.

Sussex police said the cause of the tragedy was still being investigated. They could not confirm reports that Sara got caught in a fishing net.

The force said in a statement: "Following review of CCTV footage and initial witness accounts, the current hypothesis is that this was a tragic accident, with no third-party involvement."

Adnan Hmidan, the chair of the Palestinian Forum in Britain, said: "According to the information available to us, the family encountered strong currents while at sea. Their daughter, Sara, became caught in a fishing net and her father attempted to help free her.

"As the waves and currents intensified, her mother, Zeina, also entered the water to try to save them, followed by their younger daughter."

Two other children from the family

were in the care of their paternal uncle, he said.

"The Khawas family are British citizens of Palestinian origin, with roots in Rashidieh refugee camp in Lebanon," he said. "Like many Palestinian families, members of their extended family have lived in Britain for many years and have built a strong and close-knit community here.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire family, particularly the children, who are facing an unimaginable loss. We ask everyone to respect their privacy and dignity at this painful time."

Andy Burnham, the prime minister, said the incident was "a terrible family tragedy" and a reminder of the dangers of open-water swimming.

There was a huge emergency service response to the incident on Tuesday afternoon, when police

were told four people had got into difficulty in the water.

Sussex police said they believed all four entered the water to swim. Ch Supt James Collis confirmed that a man, woman and a teenage girl had died at the scene.

Asked if the government needed to do more on water safety, Burnham said: "Always. It's so sad to hear what happened yesterday, and obviously we think there's a young girl still in the hospital fighting for her life, and we send our best wishes and love to wider friends and family."

Speaking on a visit to north-east England, Burnham added: "Obviously, we will look in detail at what happened. The thing I can say today, and there is still, I think, a further heatwave to come in this summer period, it is just to remind people about the dangers of open-water

PM sets sights on illegal dumps with clean-ups and bigger fines

Kiran Stacey

Policy editor

Illegal dumps in West Yorkshire, Surrey and Kent will be cleared up using taxpayer money, Andy Burnham has announced, as part of a new drive to tackle toxic waste.

Ministers have identified dumps in Bradford and Runnymede and on the Isle of Sheppey to be cleared. They collectively contain about 22,000 tonnes of waste.

Fines will be raised for rogue dumpers, and AI-powered drones will be used to detect illegal activity as it happens, as the government looks to prioritise prevention alongside clean-up efforts.

The prime minister said: "These toxic dumps have blighted communities for too long. I said we would clean them up - and that's exactly what we're announcing today."

He added: "These mountains of rubbish have been a clear sign to communities that politics hasn't

been working for them or their area. This government is going to tackle the issues that have been ignored by Westminster for too long and bring back hope."

Hundreds of dumps have been reported across England, with a BBC investigation uncovering 11 "supersites" that contain more than 20,000 tonnes of rubbish.

One of the most notorious is in Burnham's own constituency of Makerfield, where a rotting, rat-infested mountain of waste has remained for more than 20 months. The site was identified for clean-up in March alongside two others, but locals say they have seen little improvement in the site since then. During the byelection campaign,

which Burnham won earlier this year, voters in the area told the Guardian they would vote for him specifically to get rid of that one site.

In February, Varun Datta, the ring-leader of a waste crime gang, was ordered to pay £1.4m after being convicted for the organised illegal dumping of mostly municipal waste at 16 sites nationwide, including at a historic manor house and a nature reserve in Lancashire.

Downing Street said the three new

sites had been chosen because of their scale, the risk to nearby communities, their environmental damage, and links to organised crime.

Under the plans, 33 AI-powered drones will be fitted with ranging technology, which can create highly detailed maps of illegal waste sites.

Burnham also announced fines for people who dump waste illegally or fail to treat it correctly will rise from £300 to £5,000. Tougher sanctions, including imprisonment, are already available for more serious offences.

In West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, mayors and council leaders will be asked to coordinate with councils, police, regulators and other enforcement agencies to ramp up crime prevention efforts.

£5,000

The new fine for people who dump waste illegally or fail to treat it correctly, an increase from £300

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Thursday 20 August 2016 The Guardian

National

7

Dog food brand

Years issues recall after reports of sight loss in pets

Rupert Jones Sarah Marsh

A dog food brand has recalled all of its fresh meals after reports that a recipe change may have caused some animals to develop an eye condition that, if left untreated, can lead to sight loss.

The brand Years said owners should stop feeding its fresh meals to their dogs "immediately" and also told them not to feed them to any other animal, donate or sell them.

In response to reports from some owners of pets not responding to treatment and in some cases losing their sight, Years told the Guardian: "The picture is mixed. Some [ophthalmologists] report dogs responding well to treatment ... others have seen limited or slower responses."

The firm runs a subscription-based service delivering "personalised" meals and its products are also available at some retailers including Pets at Home.

Years said that as of the early hours of yesterday, it had received 192 reports of "potential, yet unverified, eye issues" out of roughly 40,000 customers. It previously said that as of Sunday it had "57 suspected cases" of the condition, known as sudden bilateral dry eye.

Dry eye in dogs - also known as keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) - occurs when a dog is unable to produce tears, making their eyes sore. Bilateral means it affects both eyes.

The Royal Kennel Club says on its website that affected dogs may rub at their eyes, squint or be sensitive to light: "Their eyes may be inflamed and reddened, or the cornea may appear dry and dull. There is commonly a thick, mucus discharge in or around the eye."

"If this condition is not treated early or is not managed effectively, it can lead to visual problems and blindness."

A Facebook group called Years Dry Eye Cases and info that was set up on Friday had, by Wednesday morning, passed 2,100 members.

Another group has been set up

▲ Some dogs have developed an eye condition that can affect their vision

to discuss "legal avenues for those that have been affected by dry eye with a potential link to the years.com recall".

A number of dog owners have posted on the Facebook sites saying that their pet had developed sudden-onset dry eye during the time they were being fed Years meals, with many posting photos of their animals.

Some vet sites say the condition can require lifelong management.

Years said on its website that the recall followed reports of some dogs having a potential adverse eye reaction to buckwheat, an ingredient included in its meals.

One dog owner who received the recall notice told the Guardian that their pet, a three-year-old shiba inu, had so far shown no symptoms, "but after eight months on this new food, I'm genuinely worried about whether eye problems are coming".

The owner, who is 27 and based in London, said they had been a Years customer for two years. They said that on the Facebook group "new cases are being posted hourly".

On its website, Years said that "as a precaution" it was issuing a voluntary recall of all Years fresh meals, adding: "This follows a small number of reports of dogs having a potential adverse eye reaction to buckwheat, a common and approved ingredient."

All customers had been switched to the new recipe containing buckwheat some months ago.

Years said that in late July it began receiving reports of dogs experiencing sudden, bilateral dry eye. It added that on 1 August an independent vet and Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons specialist advised that a link to Years foods was "unlikely" based on available data, but recommended that it investigate.

It launched an investigation, including lab testing, engagement with ophthalmologists, a customer questionnaire and the appointment of two independent experts "to lead formal root cause and toxicology investigations". It took the decision on Monday to issue a full recall.

"The investigation has identified buckwheat as a potential contributing factor, and that includes investigating potential contamination within the buckwheat supply," a spokesperson said. "Further independent laboratory testing is ongoing."

"Years has chosen to issue a voluntary recall as a precautionary measure, rather than any causation having been proven ... There's not conclusive evidence or [an] established link to Years, but we have looked into diverse factors and taken the voluntary recall based on multiple potential factors."

Vapes linked to health risks for young and lead to smoking, evidence finds

Rachel Hall

Young people who start vaping risk developing breathing problems and going on to smoke cigarettes, children's doctors have warned.

Child vaping is consistently linked with poor respiratory health, such as coughing, wheezing, bronchitis symptoms and asthma, while vapes have been shown to act as a gateway to tobacco, according to one of the most comprehensive reviews of the evidence so far, by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).

The review's co-author, Prof Will Carroll, said: "Vaping should not be seen as a harmless part of growing up. The evidence shows clear links with respiratory symptoms, nicotine dependence and subsequent cigarette smoking, while concerns

about wider impacts on young people's health continue to grow."

He urged the government to quickly implement the new measures announced in July under the Tobacco and Vapes Act, which include plain packaging, moving vapes out of sight in shops, and simplifying vape flavour names so they are not inspired by sweets, desserts and alcohol.

Carroll also recommended going further, including limiting the number of flavours available.

Vaping has surged in popularity over the past decade, with rates of experimentation and regular use among young people increasing around tenfold, often beginning in adolescence. An estimated one in five of 11 to 17-year-olds in Britain has tried vaping.

The review, published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, looked at 14,000 published articles and 81 studies. It also identified evidence linking vaping to poor oral and dental health, including symptoms such as inflammation, ulcers and dry mouth; and negative mental health outcomes such as anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation.

Emerging evidence indicated potential impacts on sleep and eye health and adverse outcomes associated with babies exposed to nicotine during pregnancy.

RCPCH vice-president for policy, Dr Mike McKean, said that as vaping

▲ One in five 11- to 17-year-olds have vaped. New rules will bar colourful shop displays, left NOTHINGSHIPS: TOLGA ARMINGTON, JOHN KREBLE/GETTY

is a relatively new product, "there is much we do not yet know about its long-term impact on children and young people". He added: "But a clear and concerning picture is emerging. Continued research and monitoring is essential if we are to properly understand the risks and respond to emerging evidence."

"The Tobacco and Vapes Act is an important step towards protecting children from nicotine addiction, but it must not be seen as a one-and-done solution. We need to keep pace with a rapidly evolving market and continue to take action to protect children from nicotine products that are deliberately made and marketed to appeal to them."

Andrew McCracken, director of external affairs at Asthma + Lung UK, called for more research on the impact of vaping, and a quicker response to protect children's lungs, which he said were "paying the price" for vape manufacturers' targeting through products designed to look and taste like sweets.

"Urgent action is needed to stop the brazen marketing of vapes to children," he said. "Vapes can play an important role for current smokers looking to quit, but anyone who doesn't smoke shouldn't vape, and that is especially true for children."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "Children should never vape and this evidence shows just some of the risks associated."

"We have already banned single-use vapes and have legislated to ban advertising and sponsorship from next year too. We're also consulting on proposals to crack down on packaging that appeals to children."

"Through the Tobacco and Vapes Act, this government will protect children and young people from the potential harms of vaping, smoking and risks of nicotine addiction and create the UK's first ever smoke-free generation."

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National Politics

▼ Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner, left, at the Changing Lives homelessness charity in Newcastle

Burnham calls on wider society to get homeless off streets by Christmas

Rowena Mason Jessica Murray

Andy Burnham has said government money alone may not be enough to get rough sleepers off the streets by Christmas, as experts called for more of a plan to deal with the problems that cause homelessness.

Speaking on a visit to the north-east of England, the prime minister said he felt “very passionately” about tackling homelessness and wanted wider society to play a part in wiping it out.

He acknowledged that not every rough sleeper may take the offer “for their own reasons”. But he said a nationwide effort to stop as much rough sleeping as possible by Christmas was the aim – replicating what happened in the Covid pandemic.

Burnham told reporters: “The government money may not fully get us there, and I’m saying to wider society, faith organisations, let’s see if we can do this together. Let’s see if Britain can do this. Give everybody an offer to come inside before Christmas. You know, that is just something we can do.

“We did it in the pandemic. We can do it again, and it’s a rallying call, really, that I’m putting out there today, with a lot of government money behind it.”

Burnham wrote in the Guardian on Tuesday that rough sleeping had become so common it now “feels like part of the scenery”, as he promised another £100m to tackle the problem this winter.

The announcement makes tackling homelessness a central policy for Burnham’s government, and gives

voters a measure by which to judge his success.

As mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham introduced schemes such as A Bed Every Night to offer emergency accommodation. But while the number of rough sleepers fell, it then began to increase again.

The prime minister said this was because “we were the only place providing that level of support, and understandably people then travelled to Greater Manchester to access that support”.

He added: “So my point is, we can do this, but only if all areas are pulling in the same direction, and that’s what this funding is designed to achieve – to make this a nationwide initiative as we go into the Christmas period, getting everybody behind it.”

He said people being left to sleep on the streets “can often cost more

to the state because people can be in and out of A&E, and in and out of hospital beds, and sometimes in contact with the police”.

As part of the national effort, Burnham said he would host a meeting this autumn to “bring together leaders from across society – from business, finance, charities, health, faith communities and more – to ask what role each of them can play in ending rough sleeping”.

Council leaders and experts have applauded Burnham’s aims but also called for more work on how to deal with issues underlying homelessness, from mental health problems to addiction.

Liam Robinson, the leader of Liverpool city council and chair of the Local Government Association’s inclusive growth committee, said there may need to be “future conversations” about more funding to tackle homelessness, including the thousands of people living in temporary accommodation.

“It does need to be resourced more,” he said. “We know councils are spending £950m more than they were five years ago on this issue, so we’re really just talking about the tip of the iceberg with rough sleeping. There may be a requirement for more funding.

“It probably requires more NHS investment for better mental health and addiction support,” he added.

“It’s more than just paying the bills of hotels and landlords.”

Ish Camp, the regional head in east London for the homelessness charity St Mungo’s, said: “Entrenched rough sleepers have usually been round and round all of the systems that are available multiple times before and it hasn’t worked. So we need to look at why it hasn’t worked and what we can do differently this time around.”

She added that the country needed to learn lessons from the “temporary accommodation nightmare” to ensure this new funding was not funnelled straight into the pockets of private companies.

Burnham also said yesterday that he would be donating 15% of the additional salary he got as prime minister to homelessness causes. Speaking to the Big Issue, he said he wanted to continue what he had been doing as mayor of Greater Manchester. He has already said he will donate 15% of the salary he gets for being an MP to local causes in his constituency of Makerfield.

The latest annual national statistics, published in February, estimated there were 4,793 people sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2025 in England. This was a new record and the fourth annual increase in a row, with 43% of those people sleeping rough in London and the south-east.

---

'A monumental task'

Doubts remain over prime minister's pledge to end rough sleeping

Amelia Gentleman Jessica Murray

As Andy Burnham set out his plan to end rough sleeping on Tuesday night, volunteers from the homelessness charity Under One Sky were offering hot drinks, sandwiches, socks, underwear and soap to dozens of rough sleepers in central London.

Among those sleeping on the streets, the prime minister's plan was met with widespread scepticism born from long familiarity with similar political declarations.

'You can never end rough sleeping. I think he is taking on a monumental task,' said a former construction worker in his 50s, who did not want to be named.

He was living in a hostel after struggling to find work over the past few years, and was reluctant to sign on for unemployment benefits. 'Burnham has committed himself to the target; if he doesn't fulfil it, there will be problems. I wouldn't have done that,' he said.

Many said it was hard to follow the news without regular internet access, but several were aware that Burnham had made a commitment to end rough sleeping.

'He has made a pledge? You mean he has said some words?' said one man in his 60s who has been sleeping intermittently in a tent in front of a furniture shop for several years.

He was reluctant to say why he was homeless, only that he had previously owned a restaurant before losing his house. He chose to stay in his spot on the street because of the easy access to a nearby hospital, and said he was not looking for any help from the government.

▲ Some of those sleeping rough in London were sceptical of the plan

Burnham has likened his plan to the Everyone In scheme launched during the Covid pandemic, which housed thousands of rough sleepers, mainly in hotels, during lockdown.

'We got people out of the cold because, as a country, we decided it had to be done. We can do it again,' Burnham said in a Guardian article.

But many working in the homelessness sector warned it would not be easy to recreate this feat. Adam Soliman, a deputy manager at St Mungo's, ran a Holiday Inn that was used to house rough sleepers during the pandemic.

He said that while the scheme was successful at getting people through the door, it didn't help stop rough sleeping in the long term, largely because there weren't homes for people to move to.

'Bringing people in is great and gives them a sense of safety, but if there's no move-on options, we're just putting a plaster on the issue,' he said. 'Is there going to be more affordable housing for people? Is there going to be more money for mental health services? It's great to get everyone in by Christmas, but on 1 January, what's the plan?'

He also said there were many people, often with mental health or addiction problems, who refused to engage with services for years.

Lesley Howard, the head of homelessness at the charity Change Grow Live, which helps people with substance misuse, said it was not just about 'throwing more money at the issue'.

'We need to think it through and we need to make sure there's longer-term funding because these things take time,' she said. 'During the pandemic, we had a lot of hotels that were open for people to go into. That's not going to be the offer this time - is it going to be night shelters? That's not necessarily an offer everyone will accept.'

Government guidance states councils should use studio flats, shared houses, supported accommodation, B&Bs, hostels and night shelters to house rough sleepers over the coming months.

Near the bars of Soho, a man who had recently been released from prison said there were lots of ex-prisoners on the streets.

'We saw that it can be done overnight; they did it during Covid. There are so many buildings up and down the country that are empty,' he said. But he remained sceptical about whether Burnham would succeed. 'He says he is going to eradicate homelessness. He is writing cheques at the moment, and this one might bounce.'

VAT cuts and fare caps

What will Labour's plans cost?

Since becoming prime minister, Andy Burnham has floated a number of policies, ideas and ambitions for his government. But many of his promises are not actually firm commitments, so what has he pledged and how much will it cost?

Cutting VAT from household electricity bills

On his second day as prime minister, Burnham promised to scrap VAT on household electricity bills from October this year. He announced the immediate tax cut to help ease the cost of living pressure on people's pockets.

The government said the move would reduce the average household's electricity bill by £45, even though the actual saving could depend on how much each household uses. Burnham said it would be funded by ending Keir Starmer's digital ID scheme, which would have cost the government £1.8bn over three years.

However Darren Jones, a former chief secretary to Starmer, claimed the digital ID scheme was still unfunded, adding that Burnham would 'have to set out how' he would pay for his new policies at the budget.

£2 bus fares

From January, single bus fares across England will be capped at £2, £1 down from the current maximum, which reverses the increase Starmer and the former chancellor Rachel Reeves put in place in 2024. The cap will last until the end of 2027 and excludes London. It is expected to cost £454m and ministers have said money has been allocated for devolved governments to make similar moves.

About £400m will come from switching investment in international climate finance to loans, with the rest coming from savings in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero's budget. Experts have raised concerns that Burnham's decision to use the aid budget to pay for cheaper bus fares in England will leave the country's most vulnerable people at risk.

End rough sleeping in England by Christmas

Burnham has made not just addressing the cost of living but tackling homelessness a central policy for his government. Although he did not say he will completely end rough sleeping by Christmas, he said everyone sleeping rough will be offered a route off the streets by Christmas.

'We're putting £442m behind a national drive to get everyone in for Christmas,' Burnham wrote for the Guardian, of which £102m will pay for medical care and addiction support for anyone who needs help getting off the streets, and £340m, from existing housing budgets, will be used to get more people into accommodation and settled housing over the next three years.

The prime minister said he has not set a target for how much rough

▲ Andy Burnham has pledged to cap single bus fares at £2 outside London

sleeping would have fallen, instead saying 'real progress' must have been made by Christmas.

Free bus travel for disabled people Disabled people in England will be able to use their bus passes for free at any time of the day, seven days a week, from April 2027. Burnham changed the entitlement from its current form between 9.30am and 11pm on weekdays so disabled people do not lose out on free travel because they need to leave earlier for work or appointments. The government has committed £60m to pay for this change.

West Midlands bus network under public control

Burnham has backed moves for the West Midlands Combined Authority to bring its bus network under public control, announcing an extra £11.5bn over three years of new funding to help the authority manage the change. Burnham said around 4,800 jobs would be protected and 750 buses a day would be kept running during the transition.

Cutting business rates for pubs and music venues

Burnham promised a 20% cut in business rates for pubs, social clubs and most live music venues from April next year. The government said about 32,000 businesses would benefit, with the average pub saving at least £1,100 a year.

The entire measure is expected to cost about £100m a year, with ministers insisting they would pay for it by making other businesses, such as vape shops, pay more in business rates, and cracking down on overseas sellers avoiding VAT on online marketplaces.

Aletha Adu

Former No 10 aide says work environment 'unbearable'

● Continued from page 1

administration in recent weeks to have expressed frustration at his leadership. Yvette Cooper, the former home secretary, now the health secretary under Burnham, and the wife of Balls, gave an interview to the same podcast this month accusing Starmer's No 10 of sidelining her during the launch of a key immigration policy when she was home secretary.

Starmer oversaw a huge churn in staff within No 10, with Gray lasting just four months in the job after working for him in opposition on preparing for government. She was replaced by McSweeney, who subsequently had to resign over his role in the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.

Starmer has not given a big interview since being forced out of office by his MPs but he has previously said he was wrong to have appointed Gray, a former ethics chief and senior civil servant. Starmer allies have blamed

Gray for failing to prepare adequately for government when she was put in charge of the first 100 days of power when Labour was still in opposition.

Gray defended her preparations, saying there was 'a lot done' from working to restore British-Irish relationships; working with the European Commission and the US administration; and suggesting media announcements should have been for the media team.

It has previously been reported that the communications team were not confirmed in jobs until the day Labour entered power in July 2024, and that preparations for government were split between planning for the key events of the first 100 days and day-to-day media operations.

Some of those who worked in No 10 at the time say their recollections differ from those of Gray. One senior female adviser from the time pushed back on the suggestion that there was

▲ Sue Gray said she found her time at No 10 'a very, very difficult period'

a culture of briefings against Gray, describing it as 'precisely the kind of paranoia that, ironically, Sue herself brought into the building.'

She said: 'She was literally clapped in with genuine excitement about her experience. But she quickly undermined herself. It didn't need to be this way, she wrote her own story.'

A former female adviser also disputed the idea there was a boys' club: 'Before Sue's arrival there was no narrative about a 'boys' club' and in my whole time in there, I never recognised it. There have been damaging implications from that divisiveness; two and a half years on, the new prime minister is being asked about it, costing him time and energy, and the Labour government's reputation.'

There had been speculation that Burnham could bring Gray, now a Labour peer, back into government in an advisory role. Asked whether she could be enticed back, Gray said she was enjoying herself outside government and was still 'taking part in many aspects of public life'.

Looking back on what she thought had gone wrong, Gray said: 'I think government and opposition are very different, and I'm not sure I would say they shouldn't have survived, but I do think that we needed bigger people, people with bigger experience to be heads of, whether it was comms or policy or strategy. Government is very very different.'

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10

National

Sketch

John Crace

Where did one of Reform's

biggest supporters go wrong? By taking Farage at his word

You would need to have a heart of stone not to fall about laughing. There was a time not so long ago when Reform could give a passable impression of a vaguely functional political party. One that knew its audience and had learned how to get its message across. Admittedly this was largely because the party was a one-man band, with all its MPs accepting that they owed their entire existence to Nige. Nigel Farage was Reform, and Reform was Nige.

In recent months though, things have been falling apart and Reform now resembles an anarchic end-of-the-pier clown show. And chaos has seldom been this entertaining. The fun started when Nige tried to pretend he was only a first among equals with the announcement of a "shadow cabinet" of four people. Largely because that's about as many serious politicians as he had at his disposal.

The trouble with this was the country took one look at Robert Jenrick, Suella Braverman, Richard Tice and Zia Yusuf and thought it must be a joke. Was that really it? The idea of any of them in charge of a government department was genuinely terrifying. And Yusuf can't even get elected as an MP. He's a man people dislike on sight - it saves time that way - and appeared to have only been admitted to the

► Nigel Farage said he wanted intelligent voices to challenge his ideas.

The mistake made by Tim Montgomerie, above, was to believe him

Reform elite because he had a lot of money to give to the party.

That was just the start though. Then came the money troubles. The £5m gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne that Nige has never satisfactorily managed to explain. There were also the financial transactions that originated from Posh George and his mum that were deemed worthy of investigation for money laundering. Hardly the stuff of the man of the people. As for Nige's decision to call a diversionary byelection, that too has backfired spectacularly. Beating a man with a bin on his head was hardly sticking it to the establishment.

With Nige having taken to lying low, Reform appear to be in freefall. Their latest circus act has been to suspend one of its most prominent members, Tim Montgomerie, and for the row to become public. Montgomerie was about as loyal to Reform as someone who defected

from the Tories a while ago could be. Which is to say, he was as close to being a loyalist as you can get.

Though, for a bright man, Tim has been extraordinarily dim. He thought that when Nige had told him he wanted intelligent voices to challenge his ideas, he actually meant it. Forgetting that Nige is a narcissist through and through who can't tolerate criticism. When Nige says he wants to test his ideas, what he actually had in mind was a few emails telling him how marvellous he is. As Dicky Tice will tell you, the only safe place with Nige is when your head is firmly implanted in his bum.

Even so, Montgomerie might have survived if he had just contented himself with sending a few unwanted messages to Nige. But Montgomerie is a believer who can't keep quiet. He's a top Rent- a-Gob on the Rent-a-Gob media merry-go-round. So he made no effort to hide his dissatisfaction

with Yusuf. In particular, he didn't like the way Yusuf appeared to be enjoying himself when he was announcing ever more extreme ways to control immigration. It wasn't that Montgomerie didn't believe in the policies. He just thought Reform should appear to adopt them with a heavy heart.

This was a bad category error. Montgomerie should have realised that taking pleasure in being unpleasant to foreigners is central to Reform's appeal. When Yusuf suggests he wouldn't mind firing shots into small boats or starting a war with France, he is only saying what other members are thinking. Reform isn't about Making Britain Great Again. It's about bringing the fun back into politics. Making the profane sacred.

This wasn't even Montgomerie's biggest mistake. That was to imagine he was allowed to utter a word of criticism. The rules on this are strict. Only Nige is allowed

PHOTOGRAPH: LEAH (MOTIVTIES GUARDIAN)

to fall out with other members of the Reform inner circle. He makes the rules as he goes along. What's acceptable one day may not be so the next. So it's quite possible that Nige is equally fed up with Yusuf, but just isn't ready to do anything about it. Montgomerie should have learned to keep his mouth shut.

And it's catching on. Albeit in Dicky's case, almost certainly by accident. Nige's silence has allowed Dicky to imagine he has a mind of his own. Which, of course, he doesn't. So that's why he has been holding press conferences in which he has been happy to embarrass himself. Like appearing to welcome climate change with the suggestion we should all be taking advantage of the drought by embracing food insecurity and increased deaths.

In an otherwise quiet August, they are doing us a favour with some of the best entertainment on offer. Next year, they should try the Edinburgh fringe.

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National Energy

11

Energy bills forecast to hit three-year high amid fallout from conflict in Middle East

Jillian Ambrose

Household energy bills across Great Britain are expected to climb to a three-year high this winter as the impact of the Middle East war wipes out Andy Burnham's tax cut on electricity bills.

The government's cap on energy prices is on track to rise by 4% from this October to the equivalent of £1,729 a year through the last three months of 2026, which could hit struggling households especially hard this winter, according to analysis by the energy consultancy Cornwall Insight.

The forecast quarterly price cap would be the highest since July 2023, after soaring energy market prices

from the Middle East were compounded by the increased use of expensive gas in power stations during heatwaves across Europe.

The rising cost of gas will more than offset the new prime minister's promise to cut VAT from household electricity bills from October, which aimed to give voters 'some breathing space' on living costs by shrinking bills by an average of £45 a year.

Craig Lowrey, the principal consultant at Cornwall Insight, said: 'It is a stark reminder that our energy bills remain tied to events thousands of miles away. Moments like this are the strongest argument for reducing Britain's reliance on volatile international gas.'

'While temporary relief like VAT cuts help soften the blow, they don't touch the underlying fact that Britain

is heavily dependent on imports of natural gas. As long as we're exposed to global markets, the risk of these price shocks will remain.'

Ofgem is due to set the price cap next Wednesday. The regulator determines the maximum price of each unit of gas and electricity based on the cost of supplying energy to homes, including the average wholesale market costs in the months leading up to the start of each new cap.

The analysts have estimated that electricity rates will rise from 26.11p a kilowatt hour to 26.57p, and gas charges will rise from 7.33p to 7.90p for households that pay via direct debit.

This is the equivalent of an annual dual fuel bill of £1,729 for the typical UK household, under the energy regulator's new calculations, which

£1,729

Annual dual fuel bill for typical UK households expected from October, more than offsetting the cut in VAT

assume that households use less energy than before. Under the previous methodology, the price cap would rise to £1,940.69 from October, according to Cornwall, from

£1,862 in the three months from July. 'Rising energy bills aren't welcome at the best of times, but with winter approaching, this latest hike will hit struggling households especially hard,' Lowrey said.

The consultancy expects bills to rise again in January based on current market prices, although this could change depending on developments in the Middle East.

Jess Ralston, the head of energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: 'To many households this will feel like a horrible reminder of the first gas crisis after Russia invaded Ukraine. What's even more worrying is that wholesale gas prices have reached a near four-year high, which is likely to cause more increases to future bills.'

Ralston said the UK's reliance on gas for home heating was 'a particular concern as although electric heat pump sales are on the up, we still lag behind European neighbours going further and faster to reduce gas dependence'.

Business Page 31 →

Labour Greens 'could take 50 seats' over oil policy

Matthew Taylor

Labour could lose dozens of seats to the Green party if the government allows new drilling in the North Sea, according to internal research shared with the Guardian.

Green party analysis suggests up to 50 Labour MPs, including Andy Burnham's key ally Louise Haigh, could lose their seats at the next election if the government fails to make urgent climate action a priority or allows new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.

The research found that voters in these key Labour v Green seats want bold action to tackle the climate crisis, which has contributed to record heatwaves, devastating wildfires and crippling droughts this summer in the UK, and say Labour MPs will pay the price if the demands are not met.

Rachel Millward, a deputy leader of the Green party, said: 'If Labour won't be swayed by the science or the moral imperative to leave all fossil fuels in the ground, perhaps they will listen to the polling. The data is clear: voters want more from our government on climate change, and they certainly don't want our new prime minister to back away from his party's bare minimum commitments.'

Labour dismissed the claims, pointing out that since Burnham took office the number of seats the Green party is projected to win at the next election had fallen from 20 to seven.

Last month, Burnham - who has been tight-lipped about the climate crisis since tackling office - said he would be 'pragmatic' about oil and gas and that decisions on new drilling would be made 'in due course'. 'The

▲ The prime minister is challenged on his inaction on the climate by Greenpeace in a land artwork on a north Wales wildfire site, left PHOTOGRAPHS: GREENPEACE/REUTERS

question isn't whether Britain will still be using oil and gas, the question is where does it come from,' he said.

Many Labour MPs are increasingly worried about how support for expanded drilling will play with an electorate alarmed by the worst drought since 1976, record heatwaves, wildfires, and climate-related

food inflation and potential shortages. They say new drilling in the North Sea will do nothing to improve energy security or lower bills but will pour even more taxpayer money into the coffers of oil firms, which have already made record profits this year.

The Greens have stressed their opposition to further new licences

for oil and gas drilling the North Sea, including the Jackdaw and Rosebank gas and oilfields, west of Shetland.

A decision on these projects is due in the coming weeks and the Greens say they expect a new surge in defectors from the Labour party if the projects are approved.

Millward said: 'Right now we are facing the worst crisis since world war two - and yet rather than step up to the mark, we have a prime minister who seems more interested in telling Donald Trump what he wants to hear on North Sea drilling than taking the bold action needed to keep us safe.'

Green party researchers identified the 50 seats held by Labour that required the smallest swing to be taken by the Greens. They then cross-referenced constituency-level polling carried out by Friends of the Earth in October last year that included a question on whether the government

should 'go faster' in its efforts to tackle the climate crisis.

More than 50% of voters in every Labour-Green battleground constituency supported the idea that the government should do more to tackle the climate crisis, with more than two-thirds backing the idea in several constituencies. Thirty-seven of the 50 seats equalled or exceeded the England-wide average of 55.5% that favoured faster climate action, and 13 fell below that figure.

Luke Tryl, from the polling group More in Common, warned that urgent action on the climate was 'an important glue that unites much of Labour's coalition'. He said: 'If Labour is seen to be rowing back on its commitment to tackling climate change and clean energy, it will undoubtedly deter some of the progressive voters Labour has been winning back under Burnham.'

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National Edinburgh festival

Dance review

Meditation on grief

answers brutal killing with joyous harmony

Ihsane Festival theatre ★★★★☆

Chris Wiegand

In 2019 at the Edinburgh international festival, the Swiss director Milo Rau staged an intense theatrical investigation, La Reprise: Histoire(s) du Theatre (I), recreating a homophobic killing in Belgium. The murder of Ihsane Jarfi, seven years earlier, had made headlines and disturbed the choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui who was just a little older, also gay and had a Belgian mother and Moroccan father like Jarfi.

Cherkaoui now arrives with his own act of remembrance, every bit as engrossing as Rau's, yet more expansive. It pays tribute, too, to the choreographer's father, who died 30 years ago and whose past is interwoven with Jarfi's death.

Cherkaoui's larger point is about the interconnectedness of all lives and his characters morph into each other. He takes his cue from the victim's first name, which essentially means 'benevolence', and counters the production's disturbing flashes of violence with a floating lightness, whether in breakdown or traditional forms, and by presenting ideals of harmonious joy and kindness.

We begin in an Arabic class, where the script is written on a board with brush strokes that initially complement two narrators' graceful arms and echo through much of the show's smooth flow. The tutor encourages the audience to join in with pronunciations; we share camaraderie and knowledge with the colourfully clad students. They arrange themselves in four rows of four and their tessellating gestures add to the patterns of Amine Ambarech's set and the intricate interplay of viola d'amore, piano, oud and percussion in Jasser Haj Youssef's compositions. It is a lovely scene of common purpose,

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's 18 dancers join musicians and singers in an expansive show that commemorates a homophobic murder and explores notions of grief and healing in its aftermath PHOTOGRAPHS: MIKRO MACLEOD/ THE GUARDIAN

brought to an end by the set's huge golden doors closing.

They reopen to show the death of Jarfi, who was tortured and killed by a group of men he met after leaving a gay bar. Here, a solitary figure torments him, with blows that never connect yet each vicious action sends the victim twisting in agony. Much later, the scene is reversed, with the body taken into the care of a woman.

Rau's forensic production asked why the crime had been committed and how performance could ever begin to help us understand it. Cherkaoui includes a horrifying

assessment of the injuries, and proves similarly interested in ritual, yet his focus is more on the aftermath, even the afterlife, and how a society heals. Jarfi's body is reclaimed by a swaying collective under Fabiana Piccioli's golden lighting. Further spoken texts analyse grief and dispel the notion of closure. The movement highlights the potential of each individual life; one chapter staged with billowing white drapes unites a blissful assembly of dancers in flesh-coloured costumes.

Tea is served in a scene merging the casual and ceremonial, as a

football is kicked across the stage, but a throat is cut and blood spills across Maxime Guislain's startling video design. Home movies and reportage play on screens, with meditations on society's strictures and the march of technology that distract from the emotional impact.

On stage are 18 dancers from Cherkaoui's two companies, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève and Eastman, joining four musicians and a pair of singers. A whole world is created, merging past and future, and death is met with teeming life.

Until today

Stage review

Misfit finds a place to stand tall in the human zoo

Giraffe Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★☆

Mark Fisher

It takes a brave writer/ performer to make her character a sociopath. How to keep the audience on board with someone who is callous and indifferent?

In Abigail Weinstock's sparkling one-woman show, 30-year-old Eliana has been caught making clandestine recordings in her neighbour's bedroom and cannot deny it. A court summons follows. Even then, her first thought is how to game the system.

Her attempt to do so is what gives Giraffe its structure. Eliana has a fortnight until a judge will determine whether her temporary restraining order should be made

permanent. If she can drum up three letters of support in that time, she has an outside chance of avoiding homelessness (she lives too close to her victim to stay put). With no obvious advocates - her mother long dead, her stepmother intolerant and her father inscrutable - she needs extra resources of imagination to find backers.

Sociopaths, of course, can be ruthless, so Eliana is prepared to bluff her way into a childminding job (reassuring the confused mother that she wishes no harm to her daughter) and mask her true nature from a therapy group in the hope of seeming like a trustworthy citizen.

Everything goes wrong before it comes right in Emma

Abigail Weinstock's character has a gift for bonding with a silent child

Jude Harris's production but, on the way, Weinstock gives a delicious portrayal of a physical and emotional misfit who is hopelessly and hilariously at sea with the business of human communication.

What emerges is a quite different diagnosis. Touchingly, in this semi-autobiographical show, Eliana understands the psychology of the silent child she looks after unlike anyone else. It proves she is an emotionally rich human being who happens to have her own way of interpreting - and misinterpreting - the world. Standing out from the crowd in a human zoo, she and the child are giraffes among zebras. So is this show.

Until 31 August

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11

National

Galaxy's fastest star could offer answers to mystery of black hole

Hannah Devlin Science correspondent

Astronomers have detected the fastest known star in the Milky Way, hurtling around the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy.

The star, called S301, travels at around 25,000km per second, 100,000 times faster than a commercial plane. It is also the closest known star to the Milky Way's central black hole, Sagittarius A*, approaching it around the distance of Saturn to the sun.

Felix Mang, PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial

Physics (MPE) in Garching, Germany, and author of the study published on the findings, said: "What is special about this star is that it's orbiting Sagittarius A* on a very tight orbit, taking just 8.7 years to complete it, and is approaching the black hole at a mere 12 times the distance of Earth to the sun. That is unprecedented."

The star's extreme proximity to Sagittarius A* means that it could open a new window on to the black hole's fundamental properties and the environment surrounding it.

Like many objects in the night sky, black holes are predicted to spin. According to Einstein's general theory of relativity, a spinning black hole

▲ Observation of the super-fast star S301 as it orbits the Milky Way's central black hole will

be a key test of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, left, according to astronomers

'For the first time, we would be able to measure the spin of a massive black hole'

Dr Stefan Gillessen Co-author of the study

drags spacetime along with it, warping the orbits of surrounding stars. This effect is only meaningful for objects orbiting fast-rotating black holes at close range.

S301 appears to have the perfect combination of a highly eccentric (lopsided) and very tight orbit.

Dr Stefan Gillessen, a senior scientist at MPE and co-author of the study, which is published in the journal Nature, said: "For the first time, we would actually be able to measure very directly the spin of a massive black hole, which would be a key test of Einstein's theory."

Previously it had been assumed it would require measuring the motion

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN DAVIS/STUDY OF WARSAW

of multiple stars for several decades to estimate the spin of Sagittarius A*. The scientists were able to trace S301's orbit back to 2017 and, by tracking it through its next closest passage in 2031, hope to have enough data.

"With this star we hope to measure, within the next 10 years, the spin of the black hole," said Mang.

The observations were made using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, which combines the light from four 8-metre telescopes.

Although the star is unusually close to the central black hole, it is not expected to cross its event horizon, the point beyond which objects can never escape. "Black holes are perceived as these cosmic vacuum cleaners engulfing everything they can get a handle on," said Mang. "But it's just a massive object."

Dr Ziri Younsi, an astrophysicist at University College London, who was not involved in the observations, said: "This is incredibly important as a discovery. It's very exciting because this thing comes insanely close to Sagittarius A* and it's travelling, at its peak, at about 8% of the speed of light, which is crazy."

Younsi said that using the orbit to provide a measurement of the black hole's spin would be a game-changer for understanding the evolution of the Milky Way.

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National

15

Bluefin tuna catch off Yorkshire is 'success story' for conservation

Raphael Boyd

Researchers have lauded two giant bluefin tuna being caught off the coast of Yorkshire for the first time in over six decades as a 'success story' for marine conservation.

The tunas, which were caught a day apart off the coast of Whitby this week, have mostly been absent along the north-east coast of Britain since the 1960s. While small numbers of the species have been spotted in the waters around Yorkshire in previous years, the pair were the first to be caught for market from the North Sea since licenses to catch the fish were issued in July.

Rodney Forster, a professor at the University of Hull and head of the Hull Marine Laboratory, called the tunas' reappearance a 'success story about the management of fisheries' in Britain.

'They were fished almost to the point of extinction in their spawning grounds in the Mediterranean through the 70s and 80s,' Forster said. 'But now careful protection of the stock means they've increased, even to the point that they're now spreading back out to their old grounds around the UK and even into the Baltic Sea.'

Forster said tuna was not the only marine life that has returned to the Yorkshire coast, pointing out there has been a noticeable increase in numbers of minke whales and bottle-nose dolphins around the North Sea over the past decade.

Dr Bryce Stewart, a senior research fellow at the Marine Biological Association, a marine charity based in Plymouth, called the return of bluefin tuna to the UK 'fantastic' and lauded the work done by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat) to re-establish populations.

'It seemed like an era that had gone for ever, you know. I mean normally if we lose a large species like this from an area of sea, they don't come back,' said Stewart. 'So as I said, both from a personal scientific point of view, this is a really wonderful thing to see.'

Despite joy at the tuna population increasing around Yorkshire and beyond, concerns have also been raised that their increased numbers farther north could in part be linked to the effects of the climate crisis.

Both Forster and Stewart mentioned rising temperatures in the North Sea as another factor in the tuna's return, albeit a less influential one than the management of fisheries. Stewart said the warmer temperatures have 'sort of knock-on effect' as the small fish such as herrings and sprat that tuna eat do better in warmer temperatures.

Climate change is one of many factors, alongside pollution and illegal fishing, that could prevent the tuna from properly re-establishing themselves along the Yorkshire coast, but there are hopes that if properly managed they can thrive there and even move into Scottish waters.

Calum Duncan, the principle policy specialist at the Marine Conservation

Society, lauded the regeneration of the tuna population, but said their continued survival depended on consistent care and for British fishing policies to place a greater onus on protecting marine ecology.

'We've got a long, long way to go, but it's really encouraging to have achieved this,' said Duncan. 'Stories like the return of bluefin tuna send a clear signal that human beings can manage our way out of

environmental decline by making good decisions and working together, making good plans and most importantly implementing them. But we just need to do a lot more of it and need to ramp it up.'

Inquest told flat from which boy fell could have been made safer

Nadeem Badshah

An inquest into the death of a five-year-old boy who fell from a 15th-floor window has heard that additional measures could have been taken to make it safer.

Aalim Ahmed, who had autism, died after falling from a kitchen window at Jacobs House residential block in Plaistow, east London.

His father, Makail Ahmed, rushed from the top-floor temporary social housing flat and discovered his body shortly before 6am on 16 May 2024.

There was a long history of complaints about the council accommodation from the family, who had asked to be moved, the inquest heard.

East London coroner's court heard

that Newham council's property manager, Nnenna Muoma, thought 'more restricted features could have been installed' after visiting the Ahmed family on the afternoon he died.

In a note to the council after seeing the family at Jacobs House, the property manager wrote: 'Following the horrible incident and fatality, I visited the family yesterday.'

'The kitchen window from where the child fell off is functional but can be operated by a child, hence the incident.'

'There is (a) restricted feature to allow a limited opening. More restricted features could have been installed to reduce this risk.'

Muoma told the court: 'That was my personal thought. I have seen other households with children with

special needs with different gadgets which can be done to make it safer.'

Muoma added that she was not an expert in the area and did not know the window restrictors in place could be locked.

Ahmed and the boy's mother, Sahra Osman, have described their son's death as 'preventable' and blamed Newham council, after claims that the latter reported safety concerns about the flat on a number of occasions.

A postmortem examination found Aalim died from 'multiple injuries due to or as a consequence of trauma' from a 'fall from height'.

Osman has told the court she was 'scared' and 'horrified' when Newham council put them in the top-floor flat, which needed repairs, because her autistic son had 'no sense of danger'.

She felt the property was not suitable for her young family, which also included a newborn girl, but felt obliged to take it or risk homelessness.

On the day Aalim died, Osman was sitting on a bed with her arms wrapped around herself when Muoma saw her. She said the mother had told her: 'I asked to be moved and nobody listened to me'.

Muoma told the hearing: 'I said

I do not have that information but I am sorry. We want to assist you and if you cannot stay overnight I can find you a place to stay.'

Muoma said she had tried the window twice and was able to open it on the second attempt, but could not remember exactly how she did it.

The council property manager said she may have pressed a button to help open it but did not give details about the restrictor or the position of the handle. She also took a photograph of the open position to show her manager how far it could open, she told the court.

Relatives had gathered and Muoma said: 'It was quite tense. The ladies made a comment saying the council would not move her.'

Aalim could have been climbing to get a biscuit from a cupboard, Osman previously told the inquest. Biscuits were found on the kitchen table.

Newham council has said it is unable to comment until after the inquest has concluded.

The hearing continues.

▲ Aalim Ahmed fell from the top floor of Jacobs House in east London

The five-strong crew led by skipper Ben Shutt, 35, landed the 338kg (740lb), 112in (284cm) bluefin tuna in Whitby, North Yorkshire, on their 12-metre fishing vessel, Dominator

PHOTOGRAPH: 54 NORTH MARITIME TRAINING/SWRS

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the taste of

a glass and a half

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National

17

Call for urgent law change so UK's biggest water reuse system can be switched on

Sandra Laville

The largest water reuse system in the UK, which could save thousands of litres of water a day for people in one of the country's driest regions, is not allowed to be switched on because of drinking water regulations.

As water supplies in England fall to critical levels, a model water recycling system within an urban housing development in Cambridgeshire has not been switched on since it was completed in 2021.

Thousands of people could be saving about 25 litres each a day by using recycled rainwater in their homes for non-drinking purposes. But the water reuse system - installed by Cambridge Water in the Eddington urban quarter, a mixed development of housing, student accommodation, academic research space and a primary school and nursery - has been switched off because the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) deems it not in line with the law.

This summer's drought has led to Cambridge Water and neighbouring Anglian Water imposing hosepipe bans as reservoirs have run low.

The block to the water reuse scheme, and others that water companies want to install, is impeding attempts to bring in large-scale water recycling schemes for new developments and to tackle the extreme water shortages the country will face by 2055, experts warn.

Despite ministers in the current and previous governments being aware of the obstacle, there has been no change to the law and the reuse system remains locked down.

Lutz Johnen, the chair of the UK Water Reuse Association, said the block at Eddington needed to be removed urgently and the system copied at scale across the country.

"The government is aware of this issue and there is activity around this," he said. "But they need to act urgently. We are running out of water, we are seeing that this summer, water companies are struggling.

"Rainwater harvesting and grey water recycling are well-proven and sustainable technologies that have been implemented internationally at scale for years. The UK is lagging behind."

Water reuse involves rainwater harvesting, recycling grey water from household appliances or both for domestic and commercial buildings. In homes it can save 20 to 25 litres of water per person a day.

Other countries in Europe, such as Belgium and Germany, have had reuse systems operating for more than 20 years.

In Belgium, mains water use is about 90 litres per person per day, compared with 140 litres per person per day in England and Wales.

At Eddington, on the north-western edge of Cambridge, the urban quarter developed by Cambridge University will eventually provide

▲ Eddington urban quarter in Cambridge. The new homes, below, were meant to be partly supplied by Britain's largest water reuse system

homes for 8,000 people. Its state-of-the-art water recycling system features swales - shallow channels designed to capture rainwater - that feed water into a lagoon to protect nearby brooks from flooding.

Cambridge Water designed a treatment system that allows the lagoon's water to be recycled back into homes for toilet flushing and other

non-drinking purposes, with the aim of significantly reducing water consumption to about 80 litres per person per day.

The DWI objected, saying it was illegal for water companies to provide grey water in homes, according to its interpretation of the 1991 Water Industry Act. Section 70 of the act makes it an offence to supply water that is unfit for human consumption for household use.

In addition, regulation 4 of the water supply (water quality) regulations 2016 requires water supplied for domestic purposes to be wholesome, meaning it must meet the same standards as drinking water.

140 litres

Daily mains water use per person in England and Wales. In Belgium, which reuses water, it is 90 litres

Labour ministers are channelling millions into the Greater Cambridge area, one of the most water-scarce in the country, as a region of growth. They have held up the Eddington development as an example of innovative water reuse schemes.

Last year Matthew Pennycook, the minister for housing, promised to work with experts to switch on the water recycling at Eddington by 2026.

Cambridge Water said it was working with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) "to identify solutions to the current legislative constraints that mean water companies can only supply potable water to households.

"We are keen that the water demand savings are unlocked at Eddington from this installation as soon as practically possible, particularly as Cambridge is an area of significant water stress. We believe these types of schemes have a critical part to play in reducing the demand for water."

The Environment Agency has predicted a water demand gap in England of 5bn litres a day by 2055 unless urgent action is taken.

In March the DWI created a framework for rainwater harvesting and grey water reuse in homes and commercial properties after being told to act by ministers.

It agreed that using rainwater and grey water for applications that do not require drinking-quality water was needed to tackle water shortages. Its report recommended the law be changed to allow dual-use water systems in homes.

The DWI said the government was

reviewing its recommendations. It said rainwater and grey water reuse could help to address water shortages, but it had to be done safely and not pose risks to public health.

"Under the Water Industry Act 1991, all water used for domestic purposes must be wholesome," the inspectorate said. "As the regulator, the inspectorate acts in the interest of public health by enforcing this legislation."

A spokesperson for the University of Cambridge's estates division said: "Sustainability is embedded in the design of Eddington and water scarcity is an important issue in Cambridge.

"The rainwater harvesting system has not been switched on at Eddington because the extensive commissioning process in 2021-22 revealed a gap in regulations that can only be fixed by changing the law.

"Currently, the system would need to run on drinking-quality water, even for non-drinking water uses, which is not possible for homes on the scale delivered in Eddington.

"We have engaged positively with the Drinking Water Inspectorate and Defra. We welcomed a commitment from the minister to review the regulations."

Referring to the clean water bill announced in the king's speech in May, the spokesperson added: "The forthcoming water bill may be an opportunity to improve the regulations."

A Defra spokesperson said: "We want to see adoption of rainwater recycling and grey water reuse and we're working with the Drinking Water Inspectorate to review the regulations and make this happen.

"We know the water system isn't working and we're taking action - banning unfair executive bonuses and setting up a new regulator, backed by a record-breaking £104bn of private investment to fix leaking pipes and build nine new reservoirs."

▲ The Alconbury Brook, a tributary of the River Ouse, in Cambridgeshire, one of Britain's driest regions. The brook ran dry during this summer's hot weather

PHOTOGRAPHS: IAN LANGKRY / MARC MANN/ALAMY

'Rainwater harvesting and recycling grey water are well proven. The UK is lagging behind

Lutz Johnen Water expert

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National

19

Toxic algae linked to heat forces closure of Thames designated bathing site

Sandra Laville

Swimmers are being warned not to enter the water at the first official bathing water site on the River Thames in London because of the presence of toxic blue-green algae.

The blue-green algal blooms are rare in moving water such as rivers, but are likely to be caused by the extreme heat, low river flows, and nutrient pollution from sewage waste. A Thames Water treatment plant is situated three miles upstream of the bathing site.

The discovery raises further questions about plans by Thames Water to pump 75m litres of treated sewage a day into the river near the bathing spot, in a water recycling scheme that is in the pre-application stage for a development consent order.

Marlene Lawrence, of the swimming group Teddington Bluetits, which successfully applied for the bathing water designation on the

Thames at Kingston, said: "This is so unusual to get blue-green algae in a moving body of water. It is the first time in nearly six years of swimming here that this has happened.

"The river is very low flowing at the moment because of the lack of rain, and the high temperatures we are having. With climate change this is likely to happen more."

The Teddington water recycling scheme has been opposed by the local Lib Dem MP, Munira Wilson, the local council and river users. But it has been designated a strategic infrastructure project, which can be pushed through above the heads of the local authority.

The £250m scheme involves abstracting 75m litres of water a day from the Thames at Teddington when the river is in low flow at times of drought and replacing it with the same volume of treated sewage from the nearby Mogden sewage treatment works via a new tunnel.

A previous attempt to develop the scheme was rejected by the

Environment Agency because the treated sewage would raise the temperature of the water during low flow, change river salinity and harm fish and biodiversity.

Campaigners point out that while putting the river under huge environmental pressure the recycling project would only provide 75m litres of water a day – a fraction of the 570m litres of water the company leaks from its creaking infrastructure every single day.

Thames Water has been in breach of its permit conditions at the Hogsmill sewage treatment works

three miles upstream from the bathing site, which means it has discharged raw sewage in breach of the law.

The company, which is £20bn in debt, had promised to upgrade Hogsmill by 2025, but it was one of more than 100 improvement works the company has postponed. The failure to upgrade the infrastructure is being investigated by the regulator, Ofwat. Hogsmill is now unlikely to be upgraded until 2028.

Lawrence said: "What Thames Water are planning to do will make the river temperature at least 1C

higher than before and put it under extreme environmental pressure. The presence of blue green algae shows that the river is under stress."

The Environment Agency has put up a sign at the swimming spot warning swimmers not to bath. It reads: "Do not enter the water. Do not let pets enter the water."

A Thames Water spokesperson said: "Our proposed Teddington Direct River Abstraction project would not deteriorate water quality.

"The new treated water outfall would also be located downstream of the proposed bathing water site."

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National

21

John Irvin, film-maker who directed BBC series Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, dies at 86

Sian Cain

John Irvin, the British film-maker who directed the Bafta-winning BBC miniseries Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, as well as films including Hamburger Hill, The Dogs of War and Raw Deal, has died aged 86.

Irvin died “peacefully at home” on 11 August, surrounded by his family, his producer Claire Evans confirmed.

Over a 50-year career that spanned TV, documentaries and action films, Irvin was known for his versatility, working with actors from Fred Astaire to Arnold Schwarzenegger. His most famous work was Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the John le Carré adaptation starring Alec Guinness as George Smiley; Guinness once wrote of his admiration of Irvin, “a director with balls behind the camera!”

Born in 1940 in Wallasey, Cheshire, Irvin started out as a student at the London Film School and worked at British Movietone News. In 1963 he released his first film, the documentary Gala Day, and a documentary short, Inheritance, which was narrated by Richard Burton and won Irvin his first Bafta.

After he documented the North Yemen war, Irvin said MI6 took an interest in his work but he was never formally enlisted as a spy. “I was far too leftwing, for a start, but was anti-apartheid, anti-war, anti-nuclear. They were probably well aware of my leftwing activities, so I was certainly not involved in any hanky-panky,” he said in a 2021 interview.

Irvin directed several short films for the BBC and ITV, including 1969’s The Peasants Revolt, starring

▲ Clockwise from main, John Irvin on the set of Hamburger Hill; with Jacqueline Bisset; Alec Guinness as Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

“I was far too leftwing to join MI6, for a start, but was anti-war, anti-nuclear”

John Irvin ©2021 JACOB IN 2022

Anthony Hopkins in his first TV role. In the 1970s he directed TV series including The Nearly Man, Hard Times, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Guinness, Ian Richardson, Patrick Stewart and Beryl Reid. The miniseries won two Bafta and was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding limited series.

The success of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy opened the door to Hollywood. Irvin directed The Dogs of War (1980) starring Christopher Walken and Tom Berenger; Ghost Story (1981) starring Astaire; Champions (1984) starring John Hurt; Turtle Diary (1985) starring Ben Kingsley; Glenda Jackson and Michael Gambon; Raw Deal (1986) starring Schwarzenegger; Hamburger Hill (1987) starring Don Cheadle and Dylan McDermott; and Next of Kin (1989) starring Patrick Swayze and Liam Neeson.

In 1991 Irvin directed Robin Hood with Patrick Bergin and a 20-year-old Uma Thurman; the film was deliberately commissioned as a rival to Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner. While Irvin’s film was released two months before Costner’s, the latter was a megahit at the box office. “It was very much a standalone film with the aim of giving Kevin Costner’s version a good kicking if we could,” Irvin told the Guardian in May. “The studio wanted to go immediately because they wanted to pre-empt the Costner.”

In the 2000s, Irvin focused on independent cinema, directing films such as Shiner (2000) with Michael Caine, The Moon and the Stars (2007) with Alfred Molina and Jonathan Pryce, and The Garden Of Eden (2008) with Jack Huston, Mena Suvari and Richard E Grant.

Irvin’s final film was 2016’s Mandela’s Gun, a biopic of Nelson Mandela focused on his experience as a guerrilla for the African National Congress. Irvin was working on a new cut of the film at the time of his death.

He is survived by his three children, Emilie, Luke and Amy, and two grandchildren.

Trainline among major brands facing ‘drip pricing’ inquiries

Lauren Almeida

The UK’s competition watchdog has launched investigations into Trainline, Virgin Atlantic and Red Driving School over concerns that all three companies displayed misleadingly low prices to their customers.

The Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) investigations are part of a broader clampdown on “drip pricing”, an illegal practice that makes a product appear cheaper by not including all mandatory fees.

The regulator said it had opened investigations into the companies amid concerns that customers had not been shown the total price up front when buying train and coach tickets, holidays or driving lessons.

“The first price customers see should be the price they pay,” said Emma Cochrane, the executive director for consumer protection at the CMA. “Clear pricing helps

people compare offers confidently and choose the option that works best for them.

“Unexpected mandatory charges make this much harder, which is why the CMA initially put these firms on notice over concerns about their pricing practices and is now opening formal investigations.”

Trainline said in a statement to the stock exchange that it had “proactively engaged with the CMA over several months” and was “taking steps to enhance the presentation

▲ Virgin Atlantic said that it was cooperating with the regulator

of certain fees”. Shares in the business, the only one of the three listed on the stock exchange, fell by as much as 14% in early trading yesterday.

Virgin Atlantic said mandatory fees were “indicated at multiple stages” when customers were booking trips but it was reviewing the concerns and would cooperate with the regulator.

Red Driving School said it valued transparency in its customer interactions and was engaging with the CMA.

The CMA’s investigations have been launched using consumer protection powers granted last year. These powers allow it to decide whether consumer laws have been broken, rather than having to go through the courts. If the CMA finds there has been an infringement of the law, it can order businesses to pay compensation to affected customers and can fine companies up to 10% of their global turnover.

This year the CMA ordered the ticket seller StubHub to pay nearly £1.5m in customer refunds and penalties for drip pricing. It also fined the AA £4.2m and told it to repay more than £760,000 to learner drivers.

Business view Page 32 →

Drivers hit with record 17m parking tickets in single year

Press Association

UK drivers have been hit by a 17% increase in the number of parking tickets issued by private companies, figures show.

This comes as the delay in the introduction of a legislation-backed code of conduct for the sector reached seven years.

A record 16.9m parking tickets were handed out by private businesses in the year to the end of March, according to analysis of government data by the Press Association and the RAC Foundation. That is up from 14.4m a year earlier, and 6.8m in 2018-19.

The parking industry has attributed the rise to an increase in the number of car parks being managed.

Each ticket can be up to £100, meaning the total cost to drivers may be more than £4.6m per day.

Private parking businesses have been accused of using misleading and confusing signs, aggressive debt collection and unreasonable fees.

A bill to enable the introduction of a code of practice for the industry received royal assent in March 2019.

This code included halving the cap on tickets for most parking offences to £50, creating a fairer appeals system, and banning the use of aggressive language on tickets.

It was withdrawn by the Tory government in June 2022 after a legal challenge by parking companies. A new consultation by the current government closed in September.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “We’re committed to bringing in a strong parking code of practice as quickly as we can to protect motorists.”

17%

Increase in the number of parking tickets handed out in the year to the end of March, up from 14.4m

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22

Eyewitness

▲ The aurora borealis over Mount Shuksan, in the US state of Washington, won the Mobile Night-time category

ENRIQUE BARQUET/SWNS

▶ A 30-second shutter speed was used for this image of Namibia's Karas region, which was third in the Nightscapes category

MARCIN ZAJAC/SWNS

▶ A starlit campfire in Otago, New Zealand is seen in this image, which was third in Night-time Adventures CHRIS OWEN/SWNS

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An Oregon vista has taken second place in the Night-time Adventures category of the Capture the Dark competition. It is the sixth edition of

the annual night-time photography competition, which drew 2,288 submissions from 30 countries PHOTOGRAPH: DUSTEN BISCHKE/SWNS

▲ A satellite launch over Inner Mongolia won the Impact of Light Pollution category KHUYU MAING/SWNS

◀ A self-portrait under Turret Arch in Utah with the Orion constellation was the winner of the International Dark Skies Places category KAT LAWMAN/SWNS

▲ Second place in the International Dark Sky Places went to this image of New Zealand's South Island sky MAX INWOOD/SWNS

23

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24

World

Trump says he will meet Kim Jong-un as South Korea military drills cut short

Andrew Roth Washington Raphael Rashid Seoul

Donald Trump has said he is planning to meet Kim Jong-un this year even as the reclusive North Korean leader's younger sister cast doubt on their communications and dampened hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough between the two men.

Trump, who also claimed North Korea had 57 nuclear weapons, had suggested he and Kim were holding secret negotiations on Tuesday, after announcing that the US would downgrade its participation in military exercises held by South Korea, a US ally. Asked whether Kim had responded to his request for a conversation, Trump said: 'Yeah, he has.'

However, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korea's supreme leader, said she knew 'absolutely nothing' about those supposed communications and that while Trump and Kim had an 'excellent' relationship, the US remained an enemy of Pyongyang.

'The United States' hostile policy toward the DPRK [North Korea] has not changed, and the United States and its followers are vigorously carrying out hostile military activities

against the DPRK even at this very moment,' she said in a statement carried by North Korean state media.

Trump was questioned further about his talks with Kim during an informal press briefing in front of the Marine One presidential helicopter yesterday. He declined to say whether he was in direct contact with Kim. But asked whether he was planning to meet Kim later this year, he said: 'Yeah, I will be.'

'I know Kim Jong-un very well and he's gonna be fine,' Trump said. 'As long as we have a smart president, he's gonna be fine. If we have a dumb president, then he's probably not going to be so fine.'

South Korea's military, meanwhile, confirmed yesterday that joint military drills with the US would be cut short after Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back the exercises.

In a statement, South Korea's joint chiefs of staff said that at the request of the US side the Uchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise - which began on Monday - would end tomorrow, six days earlier than originally planned.

Joint field training exercises, live outdoor drills held alongside the simulated command exercise, would also be 'partially reduced',

▲ South Korean soldiers taking part in US-led Uchi Freedom Shield drills

though the two armed forces were still working out the details, the statement said.

A Pentagon official later confirmed the US military was 'substantially' reducing its joint exercises with South Korea.

Trump said on Sunday that he was 'not happy' with US participation in the exercise, citing his 'very good relationship' with Kim Jong-un, and describing the drills as costly and 'hostile' toward Pyongyang.

South Korea's foreign minister, Cho Hyun, told a parliamentary hearing yesterday that Seoul had been caught off guard by Trump's directive. 'Our government officials, of course, and the US government officials hadn't known about it in advance,' Cho said.

Before yesterday's announcement the South Korean broadcasters KBS and MBC and the newspaper Kyunghyang reported, citing unnamed military sources, that the exercise's second stage, a simulated counterattack against North Korea that Pyongyang has always denounced sharply, would be scrapped entirely, bringing the exercise to an early end.

The US military presence in South Korea dates back to the Korean war, which ended in an armistice rather than a formal peace treaty in 1953, meaning the two Koreas remain technically at war.

US troops have been stationed in South Korea ever since, and the country now hosts Camp Humphreys, the largest American military base outside the US. The two militaries train and operate together closely, including through large-scale annual exercises such as this week's.

Previous cuts and cancellations to joint exercises, including in 1992, 1994 and after Trump's first summit with Kim in 2018, were all decided before the drills began, rather than after they were already under way.

Trump met Kim three times during his first term, and in 2019 crossed briefly into North Korean territory at the demilitarised zone.

● Continued from page 1

IDF admits its soldiers fired on car in which Hind Rajab, five, died

Analysis Raphael Rashid

Seoul has got what it wanted from Washington. So why has the move made it so uneasy?

At their first summit last year, the South Korean president, Lee Jae Myung, told Donald Trump: 'If you, Mr President, become the peacemaker, then I will assist you as the pacemaker.'

The remark at the Oval Office captured the thrust of Lee's approach to North Korea: dial down the military posturing and make repeated peace overtures to revive dialogue, even if they have been consistently rejected by Pyongyang largely over Seoul's insistence on denuclearisation.

Fast forward to this week, and Trump's move to cut joint military exercises with South Korea echoes what Lee had himself floated as a possible tool

for drawing Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.

Lee's broader message is that South Korea should take more responsibility for its own defence and reduce its reliance on others. On Tuesday, he used the moment to renew calls for wartime operational control of the armed forces and progress on his country's nuclear submarine programme.

Trump has delivered on the drills, albeit in the blunt, discourteous fashion typical of the president: via social media, hours before the drills were to begin.

Yet the move has inverted South Korea's usual political lines, where the left-right divide is shaped more by attitudes toward North Korea - hawks v doves, confrontation v

engagement - than by economic or social values.

Reducing joint drills has long been advocated by some on the Korean left. A rightwing US president imposing the policy on his centre-left counterpart lands awkwardly for both sides.

While some see the reduction as potentially useful for diplomacy, the louder concern in Seoul is that Trump is weakening a key pillar of deterrence, and leaving South Korea with little say over decisions that directly affect its security.

The opposition conservative People Power party has called the decision a 'security disaster' and warned of a return to 'Korea passing', a term used when Seoul feels sidelined in matters directly affecting it.

The left has not shared that sense of alarm. Hankyoreh, one of the country's main progressive papers, raised no objection to the substance of Trump's decision, only to how it was delivered - unilaterally and disrespectfully on social media - calling it 'regrettable'.

Reducing tensions with North Korea and creating space for dialogue are central to Lee's agenda. The ruling party has been quiet on the move, but openly welcoming Trump's decision could put it at odds with a base that has

generally viewed Trump with suspicion, if not hostility.

Aside from the domestic politics, the episode is likely to deepen doubts about Washington's commitment to its allies, said Prof Jaechun Kim, who teaches international relations at Sogang University in Seoul.

Trust, he argued, is the foundation of any alliance, and remarks such as Trump's reinforce the impression that the US's obligations are increasingly viewed 'through a highly transactional lens', one that could shape how South Koreans judge US reliability long after Trump has left office.

South Korea enjoys protection under the US nuclear umbrella, but public support for an independent arsenal among South Koreans and their neighbours has hovered around or above 70% in recent surveys. The latest news may push that support higher still.

Kim said he expected Pyongyang to welcome any sign of friction within the alliance, but doubts that it views improving relations with Washington as a priority, given the stronger backing it now enjoys from China and Russia. 'The irony,' he said, 'is that [US] policies intended to reduce American burdens may ultimately strengthen calls for independent nuclear deterrents among US allies.'

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Ceuta migration crisis

Spain to allow 500 children to stay

Page 26

'Nightmare come to life'

Alaska athlete survives brown bear attack

Page 27

▲ Palestinians carry the body of the victim of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City yesterday. At least seven people were reportedly killed

is nothing in this account that does so," it said. "The decision is inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive.

"At the time of the lethal attacks, the IDF knew that our team in Gaza was unarmed and posing a threat to nobody. It had full visual clarity on our clearly marked humanitarian vehicles during the extended, multiple airstrikes. It knew our team's movements, identities and activities in advance."

The military also decided not to take criminal action over the killings of four workers from Médecins Sans Frontières in two instances in November 2023 and February 2024. Israel later in effect barred the medical charity from operating in Gaza.

Dan Owen, a researcher at Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group, said in the past decade only a "tiny" proportion of investigations had led to indictments, while rising political pressure "further deters Israeli law-enforcement authorities from holding those responsible accountable, even when clear evidence does exist".

In February, the UN described "a pervasive climate of impunity" by Israel "in relation to gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law ... some constituting war crimes and possibly other international crimes".

Israeli forces claim they never deliberately target civilians in Gaza and accuse Hamas of using civilians to shield its militants.

The IDF claimed that as part of its obligations under international law and domestic law, it examined "exceptional incidents that occurred during combat". It said: "For more than 1,000 days, the IDF has been conducting intensive combat across numerous fronts, carrying out a wide range of military missions in an exceptionally complex operational reality."

The war began in October 2023, when Hamas launched an attack into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Israel's ensuing offensives in Gaza have killed more than 73,000 people, mostly women and children, including more than 1,200 since a supposed ceasefire took effect in October.

Yesterday, Israeli airstrikes killed seven Palestinians. Israeli military officials told local media one strike, which killed six, had targeted a meeting of Hamas commanders.

Though Palestinian paramedics dispatched an ambulance to rescue Hind and stayed on the line until contact was lost, the ambulance too came under fire, killing two medics. The bodies of the casualties were only retrieved 12 days later when Israeli troops withdrew. The IDF also admitted yesterday that troops had fired on the ambulance.

The military said yesterday: "Following review of the findings and due to alleged failures in the coordination of the movement of the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance, it has been decided to initiate a criminal investigation of the incident by Military Police Criminal Investigation Division."

Criminal misconduct investigations into Israeli troops over the killing of Palestinians rarely lead to convictions.

The IDF published reviews yesterday into four other high-profile

◀ Hind Rajab's death stirred global outrage. Two paramedics coming to her rescue were also killed

incidents in Gaza, saying it was also launching a criminal investigation into the killings near Rafah of 15 Palestinian medics and humanitarian personnel in March 2025.

Troops lying in wait for Hamas militants initially shot at an ambulance trying to retrieve casualties from an Israeli offensive, then fired on a series of emergency vehicles that approached their positions, according to phone footage and the sole survivor. The soldiers then bulldozed over the bodies and vehicles, burying them in a mass grave. UN and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later.

Jonathan Whittall, a UN official who helped recover the bodies, said: "They were killed in their uniforms. Driving their clearly marked vehicles. Wearing their gloves. On their way to save lives. This should never have happened."

The Israeli military initially claimed it had opened fire because the vehicles were "advancing suspiciously" without headlights or emergency signals. But it backtracked

from that account after the footage emerged, showing the Red Crescent and Civil Defence teams driving slowly with their emergency vehicle lights flashing and logos visible.

Munther Abed, a Palestinian paramedic who was present at the incident in which 15 colleagues died, said he hoped "those who killed my colleagues, who were like family to me, face justice, real justice".

"I want to say to the whole world, Ambulances 101 is not a target and they must be protected," he said, referring to the speed dial number for the Red Crescent Service in Gaza.

The IDF said it had decided not to open an investigation into the April 2024 airstrikes that had hit a convoy of World Central Kitchen (WCK) vehicles, killing seven humanitarian workers from the US-based aid group, which distributed food in Gaza during the war. WCK said it had coordinated with the military over its movements. Its cars, which had the group's logo on their roofs visible from the air, were left incinerated and mangled, indicating multiple targeted strikes.

'They were killed on their way to save lives. It should never have happened'

Jonathan Whittall, UN On paramedic killings

The IDF claimed yesterday it had mistaken several individuals in the vehicles for armed Hamas operatives, and that the convoy had deviated from the previously coordinated route. But it concluded that "the decisions of the commanders did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct". At the time, two officers were removed from their positions and three others were reprimanded.

WCK said it strongly disagreed with Israeli officials' account of the airstrikes and their decision not to pursue a criminal investigation. "There has never been any excuse or justification for the attacks, and there

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20

World

▼ Migrants protesting in Ceuta on Monday about not being granted asylum by Spain PHOTOGRAPH: ANTONIO SEMPERE/INA PRESS/COVER IMAGES

▲ People returning to Morocco on 1 August, shortly after entering the territory PHOTOGRAPH: ABDEL MAJID BZU/GAF/GETTY

Spain to allow 500 migrant children in Ceuta to move to mainland

Stephen Burgen Barcelona

The Spanish government has U-turned and said it will allow 500 migrant children in Ceuta to relocate to the mainland.

The majority of the estimated 72,000 people who crossed into the Spanish territory on the coast of north Africa on 30 and 31 July have returned to Morocco. However, under Spanish law, the state has a duty of care to young unaccompanied migrants until they reach the age of 18.

On 13 August, the interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, had said: "Anyone who illegally enters Ceuta or Melilla [another Spanish enclave in north Africa] knows they will be sent back because Spain and Morocco work together to this end.

They will not reach the peninsula, nor the European continent and nor will they remain indefinitely in Ceuta or Melilla."

The transfer of the children to the Spanish mainland is a sensitive political topic as several regions governed jointly by the conservative People's party and the far-right Vox are reluctant about or opposed to receiving their quota.

To minimise conflict, the youth ministry, in coordination with the Ceuta government, is devising a plan under which NGOs and child protection agencies take charge of the most vulnerable children, especially girls, without transferring their guardianship to Spain's regional governments.

Rubén Pérez Correa, the secretary of state for children, has been in Ceuta since Sunday in an effort to resolve a situation in which hundreds

▲ An estimated 72,000 people crossed into Ceuta, a tiny Spanish territory in north Africa, on 30 and 31 July PHOTOGRAPH: ABDEL MAJID BZU/GAF/GETTY IMAGES

of children are living on the street and existing on handouts from residents. News of the government's plan came only hours after the European Commission said that under EU law all the migrants should be returned to Morocco. Asked to clarify, the commission's spokesperson on internal affairs, Markus Lammert, said that by law all irregular migrants remaining in Ceuta should be sent back, "including unaccompanied minors".

The People's party has rejected the government plan, saying the best place for the children is with their families. Its deputy finance spokesperson, Juan Bravo, said in a television interview: "If Morocco has asked for the children to be returned and if Europe says the illegal immigrants should all be returned, whether children or not, what more does the government need?"

Ukrainian diver is arrested over Nord Stream pipeline bombings

Jakub Krupa

A Ukrainian man has been arrested as part of an investigation into the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Germany and Russia.

Undersea explosions in September 2022, months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, damaged three of the four pipelines carrying Russian fossil gas under the Baltic Sea.

The man, a trained scuba diver who prosecutors allege was directly involved in the explosions, was arrested in the Croatian seaside town of Pula yesterday. Berlin will seek his extradition to face trial in Germany.

German prosecutors claim the suspect "belonged to a group" who

planted explosives near the island of Bornholm, and "participated in the necessary dives".

The suspect was identified only as Vladimir Z, but he is understood to be the same man arrested by Poland last year - and released after a Polish court ruled against executing a European arrest warrant issued by Germany. He was identified in that court as Volodymyr Zhuravlev.

In a landmark ruling that caused friction in Polish-German relations, the Polish court argued that Germany had no jurisdiction in the case, and that the destruction of Nord Stream could be seen as a justified action by Ukraine as part of a defensive war.

The ruling aligned with Poland's longstanding opposition to the pipeline, seen as a symbol of Berlin's close

relations with Russia, with the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, publicly saying: "The problem with Nord Stream 2 is not that it was blown up; the problem is that it was built."

Polish and German media reported that the suspect had evaded arrest in Poland in 2024, fleeing back to Ukraine. Polish authorities blamed Germany for administrative errors when logging him into the international wanted database, which allowed him to cross the border despite an active arrest warrant.

Der Spiegel alleged the suspect was helped to escape by a Ukrainian military attache stationed in Warsaw.

The man's latest arrest - this time in Croatia - highlights Berlin's determination to bring him in front of German courts, despite awkwardness given its longstanding help for Kyiv.

The other suspect, Serhiy K, was arrested in Italy last August and extradited to Germany in November, after unsuccessful appeals in Italian courts.

France's assisted dying law given formal approval

Jon Henley Europe correspondent

Legislation granting incurably ill adults the right to assisted dying has been formally adopted in France after the text was approved by the country's highest constitutional authority and published in the official journal.

The law, known as a law on "end of life" or "aid in dying" rather than "assisted dying" or "euthanasia", means France joins the small group of countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada to have legalised the practice.

Published yesterday after years of debate, it establishes a right to

assisted dying for patients of legal age who are French nationals or long-term residents and are suffering from conditions that are assessed as being incurable and causing unbearable pain.

A doctor must verify the patient's eligibility before a panel assesses whether the criteria have been met. Once approval has been granted, patients must wait at least two days before the procedure can take place and confirm their decision on the day.

The patient may withdraw consent at any time and must administer the lethal substance themselves unless they are physically unable to do so, in which case a healthcare worker can help.

Until now France has allowed passive euthanasia - such as withholding artificial life support - and deep sedation before death, but people seeking active end-of-life options have been forced to travel to other countries where assisted dying is legal.

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World

Alaska marathon runner tells of using spray to fend off bear

Ramon Antonio Vargas

An Alaska marathon athlete has recounted how she used a repellent spray to fend off a bear after it injured her while she was running on a popular trail – an encounter that she described as “a nightmare come to life”.

The harrowing episode unfolded on 13 August, when a woman who later identified herself online as the marathon winner Klaire Rhodes, 28, was running alone on the Wolverine Bowl trail in Chugach state park, officials with Alaska’s fish and game department said. A brown bear on the trail attacked and injured her, according to the agency.

She was equipped with bear spray and deployed the irritant against the animal to halt the attack – before “self-rescuing” to the Prospect Heights trailhead in the city of Anchorage.

The runner was then taken to a local hospital for treatment, officials said. Biologists interviewed her and went to the attack site to look for signs of the bear, but did not find any. They said they then posted warning signs

at the trailhead while also reminding visitors to, among other things, carry deterrents such as bear spray.

Fish and game department officials did not name Rhodes in their statement on the incident. But on Sunday, she wrote in a social media post that she had been the attacked runner. She wrote: “I ... feel incredibly fortunate that I came out of the situation with relatively minor injuries.”

Rhodes said the “most severe” of those was “a deep puncture wound” to her left hip as well as “claw and teeth marks” on her body.

“At risk of sounding dramatic but being totally honest, the moment felt like a nightmare come to life,”

It so happens to be someone else’s home too, and despite all the precautions it’s just a risk to live life in the way we love

Klaire Rhodes Athlete, 28

the professional runner added. “And yes, bear spray works.”

Rhodes recounted how “running in the Chugach is where I feel most at home”.

Referring to the bear whose path crossed with hers, she said: “It just so happens to also be someone else’s home too, and despite all the precautions in the world, it’s just a risk to live life in the way we love.”

She also wrote: “The outcome was just about as good as it could have been, and I’m actually really proud of how I handled a completely terrifying situation.”

Having won three consecutive Mount Marathon races, as reported by the Anchorage Daily News, Rhodes said she had been preparing to race in Europe “in less than two weeks”. She said she was unsure what the attack meant for her race preparations.

She also explained having mixed feelings about being able to get back to racing soon and simultaneously grappling with anxiety at the thought of again “running in the woods”.

“Strange to feel overwhelmed with gratitude to be OK and knowing I probably have some intense trauma to work through,” Rhodes wrote.

Alaska wildlife officials estimate

that hundreds of thousands of bears inhabit the state. They calculate that some areas may have one bear every square mile.

The attack on Rhodes came roughly four months after a brown bear injured two US soldiers in a mountainous training area at the Elmendorf-Richardson base in Anchorage.

A brown bear then mauled a resident of the city of Kenai on 9 July after climbing – with two cubs – over a fence into her front garden, Alaska’s public safety department reported.

Nine days later, Anchorage police said, a bear attacked and injured a woman who was hiking with a friend and three dogs.

A study by the state of Alaska’s epidemiology section, meanwhile, counted at least 68 people who were admitted to hospital in connection with bear attacks during a 17-year period beginning in 2000. Nearly all the attacks involved brown bears.

Neither authorities nor Rhodes provided specifics about the bear that had attacked her. She said she was grateful for the support she had received as word of the attack spread, but added that she refused to “rehash” the details online “because the internet is a weird place with a lot of unsolicited opinions”.

“I might share the full story another time, which I know will open a can of worms of opinions on what I did or didn’t do wrong,” Rhodes wrote. “But I’d rather be in control of the narrative instead of leaving the [social media] trolls to their speculation.”

▲ KPop Demon Hunters has been a huge hit for Netflix since its release

Christian band sue Netflix over Demon Hunters name

Marina Dunbar

The Christian metal band Demon Hunter are suing Netflix, accusing the entertainment giant of trademark infringement and unfair competition tied to the blockbuster KPop Demon Hunters name.

The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday by Hyde Lane, the company behind Demon Hunter, and alleges that Netflix Studios and concert promoter AEG Presents have created “substantial confusion” among consumers.

“Demon Hunter [are] a well-known and celebrated metal band. Demon Hunter was formed at the turn of the century and, in the quarter-century since, it has consistently released albums, toured, and sold merchandise to a large and dedicated audience,” the filing stated, according to the Wrap.

“Unfortunately, in 2025, Netflix and Netflix Studios – despite almost certainly being aware of Demon Hunter – chose to release a movie titled KPop Demon Hunters,” the filing said, adding that the film “reached unprecedented levels of success, not only as a film on Netflix’s streaming service, but also via the KPop Demon Hunters movie soundtrack album and merchandise”.

The band say the alleged confusion has already had real-world consequences.

Among the examples included in the lawsuit is an email from someone who spent $500 on tickets for a Demon Hunter concert, believing the tickets were for a KPop Demon Hunters show that they planned to attend with their five- and six-year-old girls.

“Is their [sic] any way to refund me or get me a credit or something[?]” the person asked, according to Complex.

The complaint points to other alleged mix-ups as well. A television producer reportedly approached Demon Hunter’s management under the mistaken impression that the band were connected to KPop Demon Hunters, while social media users have incorrectly tagged Demon Hunter in posts about the film.

Demon Hunter are now asking a court to block Netflix from using the KPop Demon Hunters name in connection with recorded music, live performances and merchandise. The band are also seeking unspecified damages.

Garuda rising Women take part in a carnival to celebrate the 81st Independence Day of the Republic of Indonesia in Lhoknga district, Aceh province. The carnival, attended by thousands of people, showcased traditional attire from across the archipelago.

PHOTOGRAPH: KRABRI HYDERILLAH/ ZUMA/HEUTTERSTOCK

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F24

World United States

Who is Natalie Harp?

President's favourite aide at centre of online speculation

David Smith Washington

With shoulder-length blond hair and wearing gold earrings and a red dress, the cancer survivor Natalie Harp introduced herself to the 2020 Republican national convention as "a formerly forgotten American from California" and compared Donald Trump to George Bailey, the everyman hero played by James Stewart in the classic film It's a Wonderful Life.

"George Bailey's father was right," said a smiling Harp, her voice echoing in the Andrew W. Mellon auditorium in pandemic-hit Washington. "All you can take with you is that which you've given away. Mr President, that makes you the richest man in the world."

Six years later, Harp is one of Trump's closest and most devoted aides. Her official job title is special assistant to the president and executive assistant to the president, on a salary of $150,000 ($110,000). Her unofficial job title is the "human printer", for supplying him with print-outs of information.

For years she had only been a minor character in the Trump Cinematic Universe. But that changed this week when Jon Ossoff, a Democratic senator and possible 2028 presidential contender, accused Trump in a campaign speech of wanting to "build his ballroom and travel with Natalie" instead of doing his job.

The remark triggered a tsunami of online speculation about the nature of the relationship and an angry backlash. On Monday Trump lashed out at the CNN reporter Kristen Holmes after she asked a question about Ossoff's comments. The White House's anonymous "rapid response" team posted at Holmes: "Someday, your children will come across your disgusting and inhumane question."

Far from dousing the flames, the White House had in fact poured petrol on them, inadvertently enhancing Ossoff's national standing among Democrats and inviting millions of people to ask the question: who is Natalie Harp?

The Californian, 35, graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University, a Christian liberal arts college in San Diego, in 2012 and earned an MBA from Liberty University, an evangelical college in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 2015.

Four years later, as Trump was mounting a campaign for re-election, Harp wrote a post on

▲ Natalie Harp is called on stage by Donald Trump at an event in 2019. She is said to write him 'adoring' letters and has hailed him for saving her life

PHOTOGRAPH: MARK WILSON/GETTY

LinkedIn titled: "I'm Living Proof - the Party of Healthcare is Trump's." She praised Trump's signing of the 2018 Right to Try Act for giving her the chance to access experimental treatments that proved successful. "My oncologist didn't tell me I had other options," she wrote. "Donald Trump did ... Now my numbers are stabilizing and so is my pain."

The post caught the eye of Rupert Murdoch's conservative Fox News network, which invited Harp on air. Trump responded on social media: "Right To Try is producing some truly spectacular results. Proud of Natalie!"

That led to Harp's speech in praise of Trump at the Republican national convention. She took a swipe at Britain's NHS after offering a message to Trump: "I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for you."

But a Washington Post article cast doubt on the claim, noting that experts pointed out: "Harp's description of the treatment she received and her timeline for receiving it make it unlikely Trump had any effect on her case."

Still, Harp and her mother quit California and moved into an apartment in Florida, 3 miles from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. In 2020 Harp joined the far-right One America News Network, where she was a presenter for two years before she began working for Trump, then a former president facing criminal

▲ Harp has become one of Trump's closest and most devoted aides

cases and mounting a seemingly unlikely attempt to return to the White House.

Harp has become an indispensable aide. When the president secretly swapped planes in Turkey last month because of an alleged Iranian assassination threat, she was one of the few to join him on a military plane while other staff and journalists remained on a decoy Air Force One.

One acquaintance of Harp, who did not wish to be named, said: "She is beautiful by any definition and because of that people don't understand how intelligent, articulate, loyal, trustworthy and engaged she is with politics."

Harp also plays an outsized role in shaping Trump's worldview and his output. She reportedly shows him proposed Truth Social posts - often containing recycled content - then logs into his account to publish them. These have included a racist video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes and an AI-generated image portraying Trump as Jesus Christ, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In the book Regime Change, the New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan wrote that Harp's loyalty extended to writing Trump "adoring letters" including one that read: "You are all that matters to me." In one she described Trump as her "Guardian and Protector in this Life".

Haberman and Swan described a typical scene: "She fulfilled, in a flash, any request, whether a 'Trump 2028' that needed to be fetched from the merchandise room, a quick Google search, or producing the latest story from rightwing websites like Breitbart or Gateway Pundit."

The administration's furious response to Ossoff's speech implies he touched a raw nerve. Kurt Bardella, a political commentator and former congressional aide, said: "There's something in life called a proportional response and what we saw from the White House was a massive response, which only further encourages questions and intrigue."

Colombian election

Activist claims candidate requested his US arrest

Tiago Rogero South America correspondent

In the week before Colombia's presidential election, Beto Coral, a well-known activist living in the United States, travelled to Florida to persuade fellow Colombians not to vote for the far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella.

Coral held banners outside polling stations in Miami warning that the millionaire lawyer, whose candidacy was endorsed by Donald Trump, would "help deport all of you".

The following morning the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, issued a memo to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alleging that the activist had used his presence in the country "to conduct political activity" against a Colombian presidential candidate, and that DHS could take steps to "facilitate his departure".

Hours later, Coral was arrested. He said that, over the following 30 days in DHS detention, he was assaulted, deprived of food and water, and held in solitary confinement before securing his voluntary departure back to Colombia in mid-July, after more than 10 years living in the US.

Although other immigrants have previously been detained in the US over their political activism - most notably the Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil for protesting against the war in Gaza - Coral's case is being seen as the first involving remarks about a foreign election.

"They detained me simply because I protested against a Trump-backed candidate," said the 40-year-old activist, whose full name is Franklin Humberto Coral Garrido.

Coral, who has no criminal record, alleges that his detention was the result of a request by De la Espriella, who went on to win the election and

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▼ Angie Nixon at a campaign event this week. She had a fraction of her establishment rival's funding

PHOTOGRAPH: JOE BAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES

was sworn in earlier this month to replace the leftwing president Gustavo Petro, with whom Trump had repeatedly clashed.

In early June the US deputy secretary of state, Christopher Landau, wrote on social media about Colombia's election that those "tempted to undermine or manipulate the democratic process" were putting their visas at risk. "That's why they call me El Quitavisas (the visa taker)", he added. De la Espriella replied: "I have the list, dear deputy secretary."

On the morning of 16 June, the same day Rubio issued the memo, De la Espriella posted: "There will be good news for Colombia and for patriotic Colombians abroad," alongside

an AI-generated image of "El Quitavisas" projected into the sky. That afternoon, Coral was arrested.

"De la Espriella knew that I was going to be arrested and announced it on X," said Coral.

The US state department and De la Espriella did not respond to requests for comment.

Colombia's new president already knew the activist from his years as a lawyer. De la Espriella represented the former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez in a defamation lawsuit filed in Florida against Coral after the activist accused him of leading paramilitary groups. Coral lost the case and was ordered to issue a public apology. Last May, Coral filed a complaint

with the FBI alleging that De la Espriella had secretly recorded a telephone conversation between them and attempted to blackmail him with it. In his memo, Rubio cited the activist's alleged "use of US courts to target a Colombian presidential candidate".

Coral entered the US on a tourist visa and applied for political asylum in March 2016, saying he had received death threats in Colombia after investigating the death of his father, Humberto Coral Caballero, a police captain who took part in the operation that brought down the drug lord Pablo Escobar in 1993.

"I had been waiting for a decision on my asylum application since 2016, but I always had legal status and a work permit," said Coral, who held "the kinds of jobs immigrants usually have - I drove for Uber, worked in construction, was a cook, a waiter, a baker". On the day of his arrest, he was with his 12-year-old son.

The DHS did not respond to questions about the mistreatment Coral said he suffered but sent a statement describing him as "an illegal alien".

After briefly returning to Colombia, Coral has since left the country. He said he does not know where he will live next, but it will not be the US - because it is "the worst place in the world for any immigrant".

Florida Democratic socialist claims surprise win in Senate primary

Richard Luscombe

The progressive Democrat Angie Nixon won the party's US Senate primary in Florida, beating the former army intelligence officer Alexander Vindman in an upset for the Democratic establishment.

Nixon, a state representative and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, had significantly less funding going into the primary - with $975,000 (£717,000) to Vindman's $16.3m at the end of July, according to Florida Politics.

Vindman served on the national security council in Donald Trump's first term and became a well-known whistleblower and witness in the president's first impeachment, centred on Trump putting pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's president, to investigate Joe Biden.

Democrats have their sights set on upsetting the Republican Ashley Moody in the US Senate election in Florida in November, which will determine who will serve the remaining two years of Marco Rubio's term after he became Trump's secretary of state in 2025. Moody has been acting as an interim successor to Rubio.

Nixon, who was born in Jacksonville, has aggressively opposed the policies of the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, including with a sit-in at his office in spring to protest against Republican redistricting, the Miami Herald reported. That demonstration

resulted in her facing charges of trespassing and resisting a police officer, which she is fighting in court.

Vindman's campaign had been focused on Moody, not Nixon, and he did not agree to debate with her, despite her public calls for him to take the stage with her.

"Floridians don't want the establishment in Washington DC deciding who their Democratic nominee and US senator is going to be," Nixon told the Tampa Bay Times in an earlier interview. "I'm someone who's willing to debate. He's not. I'm someone who doesn't have to be briefed on the issues Floridians are facing because I've been fighting the attacks alongside them for nearly two decades."

Vindman praised Nixon in a post on Tuesday night after the race was called, saying she "ran a strong campaign". "I will be standing by her side in the fight against Ashley Moody. I hope you'll join me," he wrote.

Vindman had been expected to win the primary given his huge fund-raising advantage. One poll projected the Republican incumbent would win against either Democrat, however.

"We did it y'all," Nixon posted. "Thank you to every person that put their heart into this campaign."

National Democratic leaders praised Nixon's victory, with Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, and Kirsten Gillibrand, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair, releasing a statement saying she had "dedicated her career to fighting for Florida".

'I'm someone who doesn't have to be briefed on the issues Floridians are facing'

Democratic nominee

Trade Canada wins reprieve on 50% tariffs

Uwa Ede-Osifo

Canada has temporarily avoided a bruising 50% US tariff, reaching an agreement with Trump administration officials on Tuesday evening, hours before new levies that would have affected Exifini (£14.8bn) worth of goods were due to take effect.

Late on Tuesday, Donald Trump posted on social media that he had paused the tariffs for three days "based on the fact that Canada and the USA, subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!"

After Trump's announcement, the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, said "substantial progress" had been made towards a trade deal but more work was needed.

The duties would have affected a range of Canadian exports including wine and hockey sticks.

In the same post, Trump said the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project "may be awoken from the grave", without suggesting whether it was linked to the tariffs deal.

Keystone XL, which was proposed in 2008 to bring oil from Canada's western tar sands to US refiners, was halted in 2021 by its owner, TC Energy, after the then US president, Joe Biden, revoked a key permit needed for a US stretch of the 1,200-mile project. It became a flashpoint in US-Canadian relations amid opposition from US landowners, Native American tribes and environmentalists.

North American oil pipelines, including Dakota Access and Enbridge Line 3, have faced steady opposition from environmental groups amid concerns about spills.

Tuesday's 11th-hour deal comes after a year of strained relations between the two countries, with tit-for-tat tariffs and Trump musing about turning Canada into a US state.

The White House announced the 50% tariffs in July, saying it was seeking to hold Canada accountable for discrimination against US-produced cars, alcohol and dairy products.

Carney told reporters on Monday that top officials from the two countries had been engaged in "intense and delicate" talks.

▲ Abelardo de la Espriella, the new president of Colombia. Beto Coral was arrested in June after campaigning against him in Florida

PHOTOGRAPH: CARLOS PARRA KOSI/EL DOMBERG

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World

▼ Rumen Radev in Sofia during April's polls, in which his Progressive Bulgaria party won a huge majority

'Already awkward' Bulgarian leader trying out for role of new EU disruptor

Eden Maclachlan Sofia

One evening nine years ago in the Bulgarian town of Balgari, a Brazilian tourist approached a casually dressed middle-aged man surrounded by bodyguards, bystanders and photographers. 'Why are you important?' she asked. 'I'm not so important,' he replied. She repeated the question and he admitted: 'I'm the president.'

Now, in 2026, the rightwing populist Rumen Radev is no longer the president, but the prime minister - a more powerful position - after his Progressive Bulgaria party secured an overwhelming majority in April's election. While many in Europe were relieved at the fall of Viktor Orbán in Hungary that month, others wondered if Radev would become the European Union's next disruptor-in-chief.

Analysts suggest his first months have pointed towards a more transactional foreign policy with the US and Europe, and some initial moves that could be seen as benefiting Russia.

In May, Bulgaria halted its military support to Kyiv, with Radev saying he believed the

Ukrainian cause was 'doomed'. When 36 countries signed up to a special tribunal to prosecute Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Bulgaria did not.

Visiting Paris on Bastille Day, Radev pulled Bulgaria out of the 'coalition of the willing', saying his country did not have the capacity to help Ukraine, and that military support would only prolong the war. Days later, Bulgaria agreed to host up to eight US aerial refuelling tankers to support US operations in the Middle East.

Maria Simeonova, the head of the Sofia office at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said: 'He's already an awkward leader for Europe because his moves are surprising Europeans by the fact that Bulgaria, for many years, despite its internal challenges, held its pro-European course.'

She said Radev was distancing

▲ Radev, left, in Paris in July, when he pulled out of supporting Ukraine

the country from the emerging European security architecture and hoping to continue benefiting from US security guarantees - though it maintained its commitment to the EU and Nato. 'There's clearly a lack of any ideological consistency in the way he conducts foreign policy in those first months,' she said. 'And this is becoming very visible.'

The prime minister also has a newly found affinity with Orthodox Christianity. In June, Progressive Bulgaria supported the March of the Family, a Christian event supporting 'traditional family values', defined as being in direct opposition to Sofia Pride, which happened on the same day.

Radev also threatened to veto the EU's 21st package of sanctions against Russia over its war against Ukraine, which included measures against the head of the Russian Orthodox church, Patriarch Kirill.

'I am not interested in the Russian patriarch as an individual,' Radev told reporters. 'I am interested in the fact that he is the head of the Russian Orthodox church, which is Eastern Orthodox, just like our church. I am concerned about the millions of people who belong to that church.'

A source close to the Bulgarian Orthodox church, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Radev's recent rapprochement with

the church was '100% political. I think it was just a gesture towards Moscow. It has no practical benefit for Bulgaria, nor for Radev.'

Dimitar Keranov, a visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States thinktank, said Radev was 'sitting on two chairs' with pro-European and pro-Russian statements in an attempt to appease his diverse electorate.

'There's this idiom in Bulgarian: he who sits on two chairs falls,' said Keranov. 'My opinion is that if he continues this, sooner or later it will turn against him.'

Vladislav Bonev, 19, an IT student at Sofia University, said

Maria Simeonova: 'Radev's moves are surprising Europeans'

he was disappointed with the government and that the pro-Russia rhetoric was not showing Bulgaria in a good light to other European leaders. Yet he was not very concerned about the possibility of Radev pulling Bulgaria out of the EU and Nato.

'I don't think we have anything to worry about because he doesn't have that much power to pull us out of the EU,' he said. 'But what would be good is to have him kept in check by the EU.'

It is too early to determine whether Radev is emerging as the new Orbán. Simeonova said she believed Radev, who does not see the EU as a solidarity club, would not be as disruptive or block crucial EU decisions. But some of his actions may have dire consequences for the country and prevent its development.

'The difference with Orbán is that Orbán's actions had consequences for the EU and Hungary, whereas Radev's actions will only have consequences for Bulgaria, marginalising the country, isolating the businesses from any opportunities,' she said.

Keranov said Radev lacked the infrastructure to be as disruptive as Orbán. But he believed he could yet become a more awkward leader for Europe. He said: 'If he is given enough time, like Orbán was given as prime minister, we could expect him consolidating his power more and more, blocking some reforms that are not really in his interest, or even turning this pro-Russian rhetoric into even more pro-Russian policy in practice. We need to be aware that, right now, he's also just testing the ground.'

Nevertheless, some believe Radev will face serious problems in the autumn. A newly approved budget, freezing the minimum monthly wage at €620.20 (€530.40), projecting a 5.7% GDP deficit and authorising up to €10.1bn in new government borrowing, has rattled part of the electorate. Last December, the proposed state budget for 2026 provoked mass protests, leading the then prime minister, Rosen Zhelyazkov, and his cabinet to resign.

Tsvetelina Mareva, 27, who runs a children's centre in Sofia, said she was disappointed in Radev's pro-Russia stance and wished he was focusing on his campaign promises.

'We can see now that he lied to us,' she said. 'So probably we'll go to protest after the summer. We are already talking about that on social media. In September I am sure there will be a lot of protests.'

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9

FTSE 100 +15.31

2024.12.30

All share +9.49

2025.09

Dow Indl +79.84

2024.12.24

Nikkei 225 -2134.31

2025.09.27

£'€ 1.1668

2026.09.03

£'S 1.3608

2026.09.06

SOURCE: ICE www.ice.com/data

Inflation rises to 2.9% as Iran war hits energy bills

Richard Partington Senior economics correspondent

UK inflation rose to 2.9% in July as the impact of the Iran war on energy prices triggered a renewed cost of living squeeze for British households.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said inflation rose from a 15-month low of 2.6% in June, driven by the rising price of gas and electricity.

Matching City economists' forecasts, it was the first rise in the annual rate as measured by the consumer prices index since March.

Underscoring the challenge for Andy Burnham's government to give 'breathing space' to hard-pressed

households, the acceleration in price rises comes after consumers in Great Britain faced the sharpest summer increase in energy bills in four years in July as a result of the US-Israel war on Iran sending shock waves through global energy markets.

The 13% increase in the energy price cap at the start of July led to a rise in gas and electricity bills.

The ONS said consumers faced other pressures alongside the biggest jump in gas prices since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, including furniture prices falling by less than usual for this time of year, and a smaller drop in clothing prices because of reduced discounting.

However, the prices of raw materials and goods leaving factories

slowed, driven by a drop in crude oil and refined petroleum prices in July.

Against a volatile backdrop in the Middle East, the Bank of England is considering whether to raise interest rates from an early as next month in response to fears over stubbornly high inflation becoming entrenched in the economy.

The chancellor, John Healey, is preparing for a tough October budget as rising inflation and higher borrowing costs complicate the task of funding Burnham's policy priorities.

Burnham used his first week as prime minister to announce a series of 'breathing space' measures to ease cost of living pressures, including cutting VAT to reduce consumer electricity bills by an average of £45 a year from October.

But such pressures could intensify in October when the energy price cap is next adjusted. The consultancy Cornwall Insight has predicted that the cap will rise by 4% in the next

13%

Increase in the energy price cap at the beginning of July, which led to a rise in gas and electricity bills

quarter, taking average bills to a three-year high.

Healey said the UK economy was resilient despite 'Iran war inflation' driving up prices for British households, but there was 'more to do to restore hope and build a stronger economy where prosperity is shared more fairly across Britain'.

Official figures show Britain's economy overcame gloomy forecasts to grow at the fastest rate in the G7 in the first half of this year.

Inflation had also shown signs of cooling from a peak of 3.8% last year. The headline rate had been on track to fall close to 2% before the outbreak of the Iran war in late February.

Economists said the Bank could 'look through' the latest energy price shock as a cooling jobs market limited the risk of inflation sticking at higher levels. Separate figures on Tuesday showed that wage growth in the UK slowed in June and vacancies hit a five-year low.

The latest figures showed core inflation - which excludes volatile items such as energy and food - remained unchanged at 2.6%, slightly higher than City economists' forecasts of 2.5%. Services inflation eased from 3.6% to 3.4%.

Oxfam review prompts fears for up to 100 shops and its warehouses

Sarah Butler

Oxfam is reviewing the operations of its three warehouses in Batley, Bicester and Milton Keynes, and says it 'cannot give guarantees' on the future of its high street shops in a 'difficult economic climate'.

The charity said it currently had no plans to close warehouses or shops but insiders fear that Batley, which houses Oxfam's main textile recycling centre, will shut as part of a cost-cutting drive because the West Yorkshire site's lease is up for renewal. The three warehouses together employ about 90 people.

A source said that Oxfam was considering closing up to 100 of its 500-plus UK outlets. 'Donations have dropped,' said the insider. Shops were also facing competition from online sellers of secondhand goods such as Vinted and eBay. 'Oxfam is more expensive, and that's starting to have an effect,' the source said.

Oxfam Activities Limited is the charity's arm that aims to raise money through its trade in new items for sale in shops, its textile recycling plant in Batley and the provision of stewards for festivals. However, it made losses of more than £2m in the year to March 2025 and the year before.

Sales fell by 7% in the year to March 2025, driven by a slump in income from recycling. This division of the business does not include direct income from the stores.

Lorna Fallon, chief supporter officer of Oxfam GB, said: 'In [the last financial year], Oxfam GB's shops, warehouses and online retail teams generated a £6.3m (net) contribution to our humanitarian work, as well as raising funds through emergency appeals to support crises in Venezuela, the Middle East and Ukraine.'

'We keep all parts of our retail operations under review. While we cannot give guarantees in this difficult economic climate, we are confident in and positive about our retail performance and do not have plans to close our shops or warehouses at this time.'

Oxfam's review comes after job cuts and store closures at charities including the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research.

Charities selling secondhand clothing have faced increased competition for customers and donations from online businesses, while the price has fallen for 'rag' - damaged or unwanted clothing and home textiles for recycling and once a key source of income.

Shares in robot maker surge 600% on Chinese stock market debut

Lauren Almeida

Unitree, the biggest humanoid robot maker in the world, has made a spectacular entry on to China's stock market, with its shares surging by more than 600%.

The Chinese company's robots have gained global fame via viral videos of them performing martial arts, running at Olympic speeds and serving as backup dancers for pop stars. Shares in the business, officially known as the Yushu Technology Co, rose to as high as 1,100 yuan (£120) yesterday, up from an initial public offering (IPO) price of just 150.8 yuan. Its gains were later pared back to a rise of nearly 500%.

Investors are searching for winners in robotics development, which has emerged as one of the key battlegrounds in the AI race.

Unitree, which was founded in 2016, shipped more than 5,500 humanoid robots last year.

The market for human-like robots is expected to grow rapidly, with analysts projecting that sales could rise from around $2bn (£1.5bn) in 2025 to $300bn by 2035.

There was exceptional demand from Chinese retail investors in

Unitree's IPO, with the tranche of shares dedicated to non-professional stockpickers hugely oversubscribed.

Unitree is one of the few listed humanoid robot makers in the world. Its biggest competitor, Agilot, is private and its smaller rival UBTech is listed in Hong Kong.

However, at least half a dozen other Chinese humanoid robotic businesses are preparing to go public, including Deep Robotics and Leju.

Wang Xingxing, who founded Unitree in 2016 and remains its chief executive, owns about a fifth of the business. The surge in its share price means his personal wealth is now $12bn, according to Reuters.

Unitree's market debut coincided with the opening of the World Robot Conference yesterday in Beijing, where hundreds of companies, mostly Chinese, will launch new products and demonstrate their technical developments.

Last month, the US Federal Communications Commission banned imports of future models of foreign-made robots based on national security concerns.

This summer the Pentagon also added Unitree to a list of Chinese military companies, describing it as a 'contributor to the Chinese defence industrial base'. Unitree has said its robots are for civilian use.

▲ Unitree robots spar yesterday at the World Robot Conference in Beijing. Below, a Unitree robot dog PHOTOGRAPH: ANDRES MARTINEZ CASARES/FIFA

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Business

Chery to open R&D centre in Bedfordshire as Chinese car firm expands into UK market

Alex Daniel

The Chinese carmaker behind the irreverently nicknamed "Temu Range Rover" is planning further UK expansion with a research and development centre in England.

Chery, which makes the Jaecoo and Omoda car brands, said the new research and development site was "the next step in our long-term plan" for Britain, as it also moves towards manufacturing its cars in the UK.

Chery's sales are growing rapidly in the UK. In July, the Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo brands had nearly 8% UK market share, up from 3% last year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

The Jaecoo 7, a hybrid electric built in China known as the "Temu Range Rover" for its low price and techy add-ons, became the top-selling model in the UK in March, but Chery currently has to bring them in from abroad. The company, part-owned by the Chinese state, has already signed a deal with Nissan to build its cars at

its Sunderland plant, in a move that would begin mass-market Chinese car production in Britain for the first time from 2027.

The new R&D facility would open in late autumn, Chery said yesterday. Gary Lan, the chief executive of its UK business, said: "We waited over 20

years for the right time to enter this market, and our ambition has always gone much further than simply bringing vehicles here."

An existing vehicle testing centre in Bedfordshire used by engineering and motorsport companies - as well as the Ministry of Defence - will be the site of the new R&D facility. The centre, UTAC Millbrook, will give Chery access to more than 43 miles of purpose-built test tracks for it to fine-tune its cars for UK roads. Chery will also use the site to work on self-driving cars and artificial intelligence.

8%

UK market share for the Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo brands in July; they accounted for 3% last year

Business view Nils Pratley

Competition regulator's war on 'drip pricing' is welcome - and sends a usefully strong message

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is on message with Andy Burnham's declaration of war on the small - and sometimes not-so-small - hassles and expenses of everyday consumer life created by companies' underhand and misleading pricing tactics. Trainline, Virgin Atlantic and Red Driving School found themselves under investigation on Wednesday for alleged "drip pricing" - not being upfront about mandatory add-on charges, in other words.

The prime minister had nothing to do with the CMA's pursuit, it should be said. The watchdog's "consumer protection drive" predates his arrival and was encouraged by legislation under the last Tory government - the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act of 2024, which gave the regulator "direct enforcement" powers, meaning it no longer had to go to court under consumer protection laws. And it is using those powers: eight cases were opened last year, with the driving schools AA and BSM and ticketing site StubHub UK already fined.

This is very welcome. Putting a few household names in the spotlight sends a usefully strong message. By way of boosting that signal, shares in Trainline, the only quoted company on yesterday's list, plunged 14%.

It's merely an investigation

Eight cases were opened last year, with the driving schools AA and BSM and ticketing site StubHub UK already fined

at this stage, so one can't draw conclusions, but there was a curious line in Trainline's statement. "Trainline has proactively engaged with the CMA over several months and is taking steps to enhance the presentation of certain fees," it said.

The obvious question is why, if the regulator has been on the warpath for months, Trainline didn't just give it everything it wanted on day one.

Regular users of the slick app know there can be a fee at the end of the booking process (for about 30% of journeys), so they are unlikely to be deterred by a message to that effect displayed prominently at the outset.

There may be complicating details. Trainline adds its value for consumers by navigating the hellishly complicated fare structures on Britain's railways by, for example, identifying "split tickets" (multiple tickets covering legs of a single journey) or cases where an obscure railcard will almost pay for itself. If Trainline's fee depends on the type of ticket, perhaps it's not possible to state the fee precisely until the punter has chosen.

But such dry technicalities were, presumably, mentioned in the months of engagement with the CMA. So it would be fair for Trainline shareholders to ask how this affair has even reached the stage of a formal investigation by a regulator with the power to order refunds and fine 10% of turnover. It's not as if large sums are involved - the CMA said it observed transactions with additional fees ranging from 50p to £2.79.

To repeat, no wrongdoing has been found. But the investigation comes at a bad moment as Trainline waits to see if the state, in the form of the new Great British Railways, gets round to launching a rival fee-free ticketing app. A regulatory quarrel over transparency is the last thing this company needs.

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Business

33

Taming the Treasury Can Burnham rein in mighty department to deliver growth?

Heather Stewart Economics editor

Andy Burnham is far from the first prime minister to dream of taming the power of the mighty Treasury. Boris Johnson all but forced the resignation of Sajid David by handpicking his team; Margaret Thatcher favoured her economic adviser Alan Walters over Nigel Lawson, prompting the latter's furious resignation; Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's power struggle was a Whitehall legend.

Burnham's approach harks further back still, to Labour prime minister Harold Wilson's Department for Economic Affairs (DEA), a short-lived attempt to bring long-term thinking to British economic policymaking.

The PM made the historical analogy as he gave fresh details this week of his plan to hand control of growth policy from the Treasury to a new No 10 department in Manchester.

The DEA was responsible for drawing up a national plan for the economy - which began with the timeless exhortation, "we must pay our way in the world and produce more wealth inside this country".

The baleful influence of the Treasury, with its stranglehold over the public finances, has long been lamented by leftwingers, who accuse it of short-term thinking and ingrained, institutional caution.

"The dual job of growth and control of the public finances sometimes clouds the growth mission," Burnham told the Times. "Having No 10 leading on that growth mission means you've got maximum power to unlock the blockages where they exist in the Whitehall system."

Some of the most criticised decisions of Keir Starmer's tenure were seen by many Labour MPs as resulting from this "Treasury brain" - from slashing the winter fuel allowance, to caving in to City lobbying on a bank windfall tax.

Burnham hopes the new prime minister's department, overseen by his powerful cabinet ally Louise Haigh, will open space for fresh thinking. "The new No 10 North innovation is more significant than people realise," he said.

Burnham's route to growth runs through devolution

One of the few detailed policy publications the new cabinet has so far produced was on radical plans for devolution. The PM hopes handing additional powers to metro mayors will help bring

► John Healey addressing staff at the Treasury, which has long been accused of short-term thinking

PHOTOGRAPH: KIRBY O'CONNOR/TREASURY

▲ Andy Burnham and John Healey, his chancellor, united on devolution

together growth policies currently scattered across Whitehall.

Ruth Curtice, director of the Resolution Foundation thinktank and a former longtime Treasury official, says coordinating across these different policy areas - housing, education, planning and so on - could be the most effective use of the Manchester-based unit.

"No one department has all of the levers - the Treasury don't own

'Having No 10 leading on growth means you've got maximum power to unlock Whitehall blockages'

Andy Burnham Speaking to the Times

all of the levers," she says. "I would see it as a positive thing that this No 10 says, 'given what a priority this is, we're going to put more force behind it'."

The former Brown adviser Michael Jacobs, emeritus professor of political economy at the University of Sheffield, cites the former Office of Climate Change, which helped to coordinate policy across government.

"The really interesting version of this to me would be a new growth unit, drawing on and made up of officials from all the relevant departments."

Sanjay Raja, chief UK economist at Deutsche Bank, points out that Burnham's pick for chancellor, John Healey, was instrumental in the creation of regional development agencies in the Blair/Brown era.

These were meant to bring a regional dimension to growth and industrial policy - but were scrapped by the 2010 Conservative-LibDem coalition. George Osborne went on to create and empower city region mayors as the focus for devolution.

Given the pair's interest in devolution, Raja argues that far from clipping Healey's wings "this is one of the more merged tag teams in No 10 and No 11 that we have seen."

Treasury power is inescapable Yet, not everyone is convinced that it makes sense to create a policy counterweight to the Treasury. The former Conservative chief secretary to the Treasury David Gauke says the Treasury's control over tax and spend - which it will maintain - means it is inevitably powerful. "The Treasury is always

going to be the most important department."

Indeed, he suspects stripping growth out of the Treasury's remit would just exaggerate its tendency to fixate on penny-pinching.

He also questions whether No 10 North can work: "You're going to have this office, which will get at best a day a week of face-time with the PM, and little access to other ministers - and it will be trying to push the government in a more pro-growth direction."

A Treasury source stresses that, as the initial announcement said, No 10 North will focus on "local growth" and in particular devolution - rather than taking over economic strategy from No 11.

The Treasury has "fent" a small number of staff to the new unit, while its second permanent secretary, Beth Russell, who was instrumental in the creation of the Treasury's own Northern outpost, the Darlington Economic Campus, has been working closely with the Manchester team.

More civil servants are being transferred from other departments, including housing and local government, and the former Times journalist Sam Lister has been appointed as

▲ Harold Wilson, right, who failed in his attempt to rein in the Treasury

No 10 North's director. However, Whitehall veterans point to the new department's relatively modest resources thus far.

Jonathan Portes, a former senior government economist and now professor at Kings College, says the big question will be how inevitable policy clashes will be resolved.

"What happens when No 10 wants to do something, and Treasury says no - or says, 'yes, we'll pay lip service to this but don't expect any spending to go along with it?'" he says. "That has been the historic response of the Treasury when No 10 has got more powerful".

Hannah Peaker, deputy chief executive of the New Economics Foundation thinktank, says the priority should be ensuring economic decision-makers - including the Treasury and No 10, but also the Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility - work better together. "While a more devolved approach could help accelerate regional growth, the most important remedy is better coordination between economic institutions so that they are all pulling in the same direction."

Will No 10 North open the space for more radicalism?

In an article for the progressive Renewal journal earlier this year, Haigh complained of the Treasury that, "faced with the dual mandate of maintaining fiscal control and supporting economic growth, the institution defaults toward caution, prioritising near-term debt dynamics over longer-term economic outcomes".

In the run-up to Burnham's bid for power, he appeared to suggest large-scale renationalisation of public utilities and radical tax reform would be on his agenda - alongside the long-promised shakeup of social care.

But some of these ambitious are likely to come into sharp conflict with the institutional caution Haigh identified.

With a critical budget fast approaching, the new cabinet - north and south - faces a string of decisions on tax and spend; and other key choices loom, including on how to shape the future of the privatised water industry.

In the run-up to the last two Labour budgets, debate was dominated by the immediate challenges for fiscal policy, often played out noisily in public against a backdrop of febrile government bond markets.

Burnham clearly hopes to shape a different debate, both inside and outside government, but the historic precedent he highlighted, in the Wilson era, underlines the difficulties of reining in the Treasury.

Wilson's temperamental secretary of state for economic affairs, George Brown, moved on after two years, by which time the national plan had been blown way off course.

His role was then downgraded so it was no longer a cabinet position and, by 1969, the experiment with a separate DEA was over - and its powers had been sucked back into the Treasury.

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14

Weather

Thursday 20 August 2026

UK and Ireland Noon today

Forecast

Carbon count

Daily atmospheric CO₂ readings from Mauna Loa, Hawaii (ppm):

Latest
14 Aug 2026	427.80
Weekly average
09 Aug 2026	427.59
19 Aug 2025	425.53
19 Aug 2016	403.08
Pre-industrial hour	280
Safe level	350
Source: NOAA (GBL)

Around the UK

Atlantic front

High tides

© Crown Copyright and/or database rights. Reproduced by permission of the Keeper of Public Records and the UK Hydrographic Office

Aberdeen	0616	3.5m	1847	3.4m
Avonmouth	1132	10.5m	2350	10.1m
Barrow	0357	7.6m	1624	7.3m
Belfast	0358	3.2m	1629	3.0m
Cobb	1011	3.4m	2232	3.3m
Cromer	1119	4.2m	2359	3.9m
Dover	0349	5.6m	1608	5.7m
Dublin	0429	3.4m	1659	3.3m
Galway	1008	4.1m	2234	3.8m
Greenock	0447	3.2m	1728	3.0m
Harwich	0417	3.5m	1636	3.5m
Holphuad	0355	4.6m	1526	4.4m
Hull	1048	6.3m	2317	5.9m
Leith	0741	4.6m	2001	4.4m
Liverpool	0336	7.8m	1604	7.6m

London Bridge	0626	6.1m	1847	6.2m
Lessonsouth	0429	3.3m	1658	3.2m
Milford Haven	1051	5.5m	2314	5.3m
Newquay	0947	5.3m	2211	5.1m
North Shields	0820	4.2m	2050	4.0m
Obae	1007	3.0m	2212	2.9m
Penzance	0923	4.4m	2144	4.3m
Plymouth	1007	4.6m	2218	4.4m
Portsmouth	0413	4.0m	1632	4.0m
Southport	0256	7.5m	1517	7.3m
Stornoway	--	--	1219	3.6m
Portland	1053	1.5m	2309	1.4m
Whitby	0849	4.7m	2119	4.4m
Wick	0400	2.8m	1627	2.7m
Workington	0403	6.8m	1634	6.5m

Sun & Moon

Lighting up

Belfast	2046 to 0612
Birm'ham	2022 to 0600
Brighton	2021 to 0557
Bristol	2023 to 0606
Carlisle	2033 to 0557
Cork	2047 to 0628
Dublin	2042 to 0615
Glasgow	2042 to 0601
Harlech	2032 to 0608
Inverness	2046 to 0554
London	2052 to 0555
McKester	2026 to 0559
Newcastle	2029 to 0552
Norwich	2010 to 0547
Penzance	2031 to 0620

Weatherwatch

It may still feel like summer, but autumn migration is well under way. Cuckoos and swifts have already left us, and while swallows and many species of warbler will not depart our shores until September, many species of Arctic-breeding waders have begun to stop off at our coastal marshes to refuel for their long journey south.

This year, however, there could be fewer than usual. A review by the British Trust for Ornithology, working with other conservation organisations, has found that more than half of these species of global travellers are suffering major declines. Many of those under threat use the African-Eurasian flyway, one of the largest mass-migration systems on the planet.

Among many causes of these declines, including habitat loss, disease and pesticide use, one stands out: the climate crisis. It is not just the long-term effects of major shifts that affect migratory birds, but also extreme weather events becoming far more frequent.

The report calls for conservation strategies that address all of these threats across birds' lifecycles and along all of the international flyways, combined with efforts to create and preserve habitats for these species. Stephen Moss

Around the world

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Women's football

Arsenal and Chelsea top the WSL rich list

Page 37 →

Premier League

United no closer in search for fresh legs at the back

Page 40 →

Sport

▲ Groundstaff around the country have been struggling to produce playable wickets after a series of heatwaves DANIEL DEAN/TEX/REUTERS

Fever pitches

Heatwaves leave groundstaff high and dry as they try to keep play going

Tanya Aldred

Today, the County Championship resumes for its final six-week run, charging towards 27 September with barely a pause for breath. It's tight at the top of Division One, with only 11 points between first-placed Nottinghamshire and sixth-placed Essex, while Kent and Northants prepare to elbow it out for the second Division Two promotion place alongside almost-inked-in Durham.

The players, on the treadmill since 3 April and switching between competitions, are run ragged. But no one is as wrung out as the groundstaff, dealing with a summer of fiery extremes, five heatwaves, excruciating temperatures and barely a drop of rain across most of England. In the words of the Met Office scientist Mike Kendon, "the climate of the 20th century has now gone" but the cricket season is expecting to roll on by as if nothing is happening. The Guardian asked three head groundsmen how they are coping.

Vic Demain Durham

It's been incredibly hard for everyone with next to no rain since the middle of June. We're fairly lucky in the pro game, in that most of us have got good irrigation so we can keep things reasonably green, but looking at some of the recreational cricket clubs and a few pro grounds who haven't got irrigation, it is a nightmare: the outfields are so hard and bumpy, it almost becomes dangerous.

Unlike most years we've really had no games called off because of weather, which has added to an already heavy schedule. There is a great deal of demand on

pitches which are already almost at breaking point. We are literally hunting for suitable areas of the ground to play the remaining fixtures on.

In a normal year we would have each game mapped out, that has gone out of the window - we're looking for pitches with a reasonable covering of grass which might hold together for four days. We've got three more championship games, two women's one-day matches and the very last game of season is the England v Sri Lanka ODI. I like to use a brand-new pitch for international cricket but this year it has not been possible.

We have to accept that the seasons are changing and with that comes different challenges, not necessarily just for the groundstaff but the producers of grass seed, and fertiliser - are we going to be looking at different grass species more tolerant to the warm weather and ground conditions we are getting even up here in the north-east?

Gary Barwell Warwickshire

These summers are becoming the norm, which is a bit worrying. Physically it is slightly easier, you're not pulling sheets on and off, constantly on duty with the covers, but mentally it is really tough. The pitches dry out so quickly, it is really tricky to maintain moisture and if we cover up we can scorch the square.

The way things are going, there will be more water restrictions in this country, so we have to be proactive. There are two or three bits of tech I've looked at: rainwater harvesting, irrigating from underground and feeding the roots. I've even thought about putting a brook into our practice ground - sometimes the stupider the idea, the better it is. We haven't had rain for months.

The biggest thing is staff welfare, with people working out in extreme heat. You can do all the due diligence you want but we still have to get stuff done. I'm thinking of adapting rollers, putting a parasol on the top.

For limited-over matches there are criteria we have to stick to, basically they want pitches like the M6, but in four-day games they're looking for a bit more balance between bat and ball. The team have been doing 14- to 15-hour days to get the pitches ready.

It used to be at its hottest at 2pm, now the peak is 2-6, so we've been running around like idiots in the morning then hitting the shade. I'm glad to see the football season come along because we need a break.

'Unlike most years we've really had no games called off because of weather, which has added to a heavy schedule'

Stephen Manfield

Worcestershire

This summer has not been conducive to making cricket pitches, it has been challenging keeping the field alive. I've had boys on split shift, working in the dark. It's all getting a bit repetitive. Worcestershire is not suffering a hosepipe ban, but we try to be mindful not to waste water. The square has to be watered, and we're trying to keep the important bits alive - but the situation is far bigger than cricket. But we do have

duty of care to make sure fielders can field safely and dive around. But the far extremities around the boundary edge and the run-up to the practice area and the picnic area are just a desert.

We're finding that spin is becoming a big deciding factor, which is certainly not what New Road is known for. The pitches are definitely changing, though our ground is an outlier because of the flooding and has so many variables. During the second heatwave the office staff worked at home and we tried to do 20 minutes on and then half an hour off. We're looking into more sustainable ways to store water, rainwater harvesting, but we need it to rain first. We couldn't harvest the floodwater because of what is in it. Everything is a bit harder and it's a bit harder to motivate yourself, it feels a bit like groundhog day, every day.

23

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10

Sport Tennis

Jódar beaten by Cobolli but Spaniard's rise continues

Teenager continues to impress in his first full season but loses 4-6, 7-6, 6-3

Tumaini Carayol Cincinnati

As Rafael Jódar slowly trudged from the court, he could only bring himself to wave at his adoring crowd for no more than a millisecond. The 19-year-old was appropriately devastated after he had come within two points of victory on numerous occasions before losing 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the fourth round of the Cincinnati Open to an excellent Flavio Cobolli.

No matter, Jódar departs Ohio having further solidified himself as the subject of so much conversation on the ATP Tour. This has been

▼ Rafael Jódar came within two points of fourth-round victory several times in Cincinnati WALLY NELLISIMA PREM WIRKIN/STEREFICK

a turbulent and unpredictable year in men's tennis, largely thanks to Carlos Alcaraz's extended injury layoff. The one certainly through it all has been the imperious rise of Jódar. After a short period competing at the University of Virginia, Jódar started to play regularly on the tour only in May last year. In August 2025, he was ranked No 5-60. He began the 2026 season at No 165.

Over the past four months, Jódar has won his first ATP title in Marrakech, he reached another final in Washington, he powered to his first grand slam quarter-final at Roland Garros and at Masters 1000 level he has reached a semi-final and two quarter-finals.

With the exception of the grass-court season, where he struggled with an abdominal strain, Jódar's consistency has been astounding for someone who only just arrived at the top level of the sport. He has risen from No 109 to his current ranking of No 11 and he is seventh in the ATP race, a clear candidate for the

ATP finals in his first full season as a professional tennis player.

After reaching his first Masters 1000 semi-final in Montreal just over a week ago, a tournament many viewers thought he would win, the madness continued in Ohio. Jódar showed his toughness in a spectacular comeback win over Denis Shapovalov in the second round, recovering from 5-1 down late at night to win. Then he laid waste the 22nd seed, Alejandro Tabilo, in round three. It took one of

the best performances since his run to the French Open final from Cobolli, the seventh seed, to defeat him.

At a lanky 6ft 5in, Jódar is already one of the most devastating shot-makers on the tour, capable of generating immense pace off both wings. Like Jannik Sinner, what separates the Spaniard from the rest of the field is the fact that so much of his pace is a result of his immaculate timing.

His ability to change the direction of the ball off both wings is elite, as is his return of serve. The rest of his game, from his serve to his movement, continues to improve.

His emergence, however, has led to discussions about more than just his game. Jódar's perceived lack of sportsmanship has been a consistent theme throughout his rise. Some took issue with his various medical time-outs in matches, including against Taylor Fritz in their Washington final this month, which have generated ample criticism.

Then there was the bizarre spectacle of his shoelaces breaking in numerous matches, leading to extended four-minute delays. His treatment of balkids and volunteers on the court is another matter.

At Roland Garros, many even believed that Jódar had pushed a ballgirl to the side as he angrily left the court between sets in his match against Alex Michelson. It turned out to be a trick of the broadcast camera angles, with Jódar angrily gesticulating with his arms at the same time that the ballgirl stumbled back over sandbags placed on the edge of the court.

His dramatic win over Shapovalov was as remarkable due to the accompanying drama as the comeback itself, with Jódar having to pause the match on multiple occasions to change his shoelaces, to the irritation of Shapovalov. Two days later, he returned to the court with a comically large transparent bag filled with about a dozen Adidas shoes.

The notion that Jódar is deliberately breaking his shoelaces to halt his opponents' momentum is laughable, but his impatience with balkids and other on-court helpers, most of whom are either children or volunteers, is unimpressive.

He has already developed the entitled habit of throwing up his arms in disgust whenever a balkid dares to hand him an ice towel or ball slightly late, a sight that always reflects badly on a player.

Jódar is clearly incredibly single-minded, aloof and not always considerate of how his actions may affect others. However, he is also only 19. As he continues his growth as a player, it will be nearly as compelling to see how his character develops.

Kyrgios admits 'huge mistake' after ban for using cocaine

Matt Hughes

Nick Kyrgios has been suspended after testing positive for cocaine, with the 31-year-old Australian revealing on Instagram that he had 'made a huge mistake'. The former Wimbledon finalist's suspension was confirmed by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA).

Kyrgios tested positive while playing at an ATP 250 event in Mallorca in June, with the presence of cocaine in his system confirmed by tests at a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) laboratory last month. Under ITIA regulations, provisional suspensions are mandatory for positive tests for cocaine, although Kyrgios has the right of appeal.

'I wanted you to hear this from me first,' Kyrgios wrote. 'I recently failed a drug test in Mallorca after testing positive for cocaine. I made a huge mistake and I take full responsibility for it. I'm sorry to my fans, my family, my sponsors and everyone close to me. Above all, I'm sorry to the kids who follow me. I know the example this sets and I'm deeply disappointed in myself.'

'I'm not going to make excuses, but I do want to give some context about where I've been. The last couple of years of injuries have taken a huge toll on me, both physically and mentally. My body hasn't been able to do what my mind expects it to do, and coming to terms with being near the end of my career has been harder than I ever imagined.'

'However, the good news is that this has given me a wake up call. For the next 28 days, I'll be stepping away from social media and public life while I focus on getting myself right.'

The ITIA confirmed an unspecified provisional suspension for Kyrgios, with its length to be determined by whether the substance was taken in or out of competition.

'Kyrgios provided a sample during an ATP 250 event in Mallorca, Spain, on 22 June 2026,' the ITIA statement said. 'On 17 July 2026, a World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory confirmed the presence of benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine.'

'Cocaine is a stimulant and is banned in competition under the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme. Because of the nature of the substance, a provisional suspension is mandatory and has been in place since 4 August 2026.'

Threat of media boycott remains at US Open

● Continued from back page

media boycott at Flushing Meadows remains if the players are unhappy with the level of prize money, while they are also waiting to discover the finer details of the proposed player

advisory council before confirming their position.

A source involved in the negotiations said it was vital for the players to have a say in determining who represents them, how those representatives are selected and the extent of their involvement in the slams' decision-making.

The ATP and WTA tours have player councils whose members are elected directly by the players for fixed terms of office.

In addition to extending the media non-cooperation a number of players

had threatened to boycott the US Open's mixed doubles, which takes place next week and is part of an

▲ Jannik Sinner is not in the main draw for the US Open mixed doubles

attempt by the USTA to grow its revenues by turning it into a three-week tournament.

Significantly, Sinner, the men's world No 1, was not among the entrants in the main draw announced on Tuesday, although Sabalenka, the women's No 1, will take part in a star-studded pairing with Novak Djokovic.

Sinner entered the mixed doubles last year alongside Katerina Siniakova, but pulled out because of an illness picked up at the previous week's Cincinnati Open.

▲ Nick Kyrgios has apologised to his family, fans and sponsors

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Sport

▼ Arsenal and Chelsea are the only Women's Super League clubs with a wage bill of more than £10m JOHN WALTON/PA

27

Sport In brief

Cycling Lloyds Tour of Britain Women's Wibes sprints to opening-stage victory

Lorena Wiebes took the victory in the first stage of this year's Tour of Britain. The opening stage started and finished in Cockermouth, Cumbria, with the course spanning 158.9km. The Dutchwoman powered to victory in a thrilling sprint finish, where the Team 3D Worx-Protime rider narrowly piped her rivals over the line. Italy's Chiara Consonni finished in second, while Great Britain's Josie Nelson claimed third.

Anabella Blackburn sparked a breakaway with about 9km remaining and along with Audrey De Keersmaeker created a gap of nearly three minutes. Blackburn,

▲ Lorena Wiebes celebrates after sprinting to opening-stage success

an 18-year-old Scot, suffered a slice of bad luck and was stung by a bee, her challenge fading. Belgium's De Keersmaeker was caught well before the finish and Wiebes, winner of the first two stages of the Tour de France Femmes, powered over the line. The race resumes today with a stage between Clitheroe and Blackpool. PA Media

Racing Unexpected Item in winner's enclosure

Item, a 10-1 chance trained by Andrew Balding and ridden by Colin Keane, ran down Almaam in the final strides to win the International Stakes at York, with the 'Big Two' in the betting, Constitution River and Ombudsman, only third and fourth respectively. It was not a race that followed the expected script at any stage, as Aidan O'Brien's Action, the expected pace-maker, missed the kick and left his stable companion Hawk Mountain in front, with Constitution River much closer to the lead than anticipated in second place.

Ombudsman was towards the rear and still in last place as the field turned for home. William Buick struggled to find a clear run towards the lead in the straight, but eventually came with a short-lived challenge against the far rail as Almaam kicked for home under Kieran Shoemark. Greg Wood

Results

Football

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Playoffs: First leg

Gallon (2) 3 LASK (0) 0

Nugent 26

Duvall 30-67

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Edgbaston: Warwickshire 200-4 (M Austin 04; CAR Cooper 4-55), Yorkshire (0) 15; Aida 121, Warwickshire beat Yorkshire by 57 runs (0) 3 Method.

Tennis

AFF & WTA CINCINNATI OPEN (Waxon, DBA, USA)

Mon. Singles: Third round: 7 Tiafias (1/3) M.1, Tien (1/3) 6-4-6-6-6; F. Auger-Aliassime (Can) M.1, Crunadda (de) 7-5-6-3

Fourth round: 7 Tirante (de) 0-1; Morais (2/3) 7-3-4-6-4; F. Cabelli (1/3) M.3, Joliet (1/3) 4-6-7-6 (1/3) 0-3; A. Fila (1/3) M.4, 0-6; M.5, 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6

Fourth round: 7 Tirante (de) 0-1; Morais (2/3) 7-3-4-6-4; F. Cabelli (1/3) M.3, Joliet (1/3) 4-6-7-6 (1/3) 0-3; A. Fila (1/3) M.4, 0-6; M.5, 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6

Women: Singles, Third round: M Bozulova (C) M.1, Jovic (0/3) 7-5 (0/3) 7-6 (1/3) 6; Salsalava (Ruz) M.4, 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6

Women: Singles, Third round: M Bozulova (C) M.1, Jovic (0/3) 7-5 (0/3) 7-6 (1/3) 6; Salsalava (Ruz) M.4, 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6; 0-6

Fourth round: M Kustyn (UK) M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1

Fourth round: M Kustyn (UK) M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1

Fourth round: M Kustyn (UK) M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1, M.1

Cycling

LUTTER TIME OF BRITAIN WOMEN

Stage 1: Cuckernwith, 158 (knot) 61; Wishes (Nett) 10; Bice's Protime 46; Jeter (knot) 27; Cansons (D) Carves (knot) 3; Hutton (GB) Pictic Profile, 4; G. Tice (Nett) 14; Aida Jocin 5; C. Anderson (D) 14; Aida Jocin 5; B. Bergher (D) AG; Haysayne, Gould; P. S. Sankela (Nett) 14; T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T.

Stage 1: Cuckernwith, 158 (knot) 61; Wishes (Nett) 10; Bice's Protime 46; Jeter (knot) 27; Cansons (D) Carves (knot) 3; Hutton (GB) Pictic Profile, 4; G. Tice (Nett) 14; Aida Jocin 5; C. Anderson (D) 14; Aida Jocin 5; B. Bergher (D) AG; Haysayne, Gould; P. S. Sankela (Nett) 14; T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T.

Stage 1: Cuckernwith, 158 (knot) 61; Wishes (Nett) 10; Bice's Protime 46; Jeter (knot) 27; Cansons (D) Carves (knot) 3; Hutton (GB) Pictic Profile, 4; G. Tice (Nett) 14; Aida Jocin 5; C. Anderson (D) 14; Aida Jocin 5; B. Bergher (D) AG; Haysayne, Gould; P. S. Sankela (Nett) 14; T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T.

Stage 1: Cuckernwith, 158 (knot) 61; Wishes (Nett) 10; Bice's Protime 46; Jeter (knot) 27; Cansons (D) Carves (knot) 3; Hutton (GB) Pictic Profile, 4; G. Tice (Nett) 14; Aida Jocin 5; C. Anderson (D) 14; Aida Jocin 5; B. Bergher (D) AG; Haysayne, Gould; P. S. Sankela (Nett) 14; T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T.

Stage 1: Cuckernwith, 158 (knot) 61; Wishes (Nett) 10; Bice's Protime 46; Jeter (knot) 27; Cansons (D) Carves (knot) 3; Hutton (GB) Pictic Profile, 4; G. Tice (Nett) 14; Aida Jocin 5; C. Anderson (D) 14; Aida Jocin 5; B. Bergher (D) AG; Haysayne, Gould; P. S. Sankela (Nett) 14; T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T. T.

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18

Sport Football

The good, the bad and the stripy

(Clockwise from top left) Rio Ngumaha of Liverpool, Chelsea's Morgan Rogers, Issa Diop of Ipswich, Hull's Oli McBurnie, Bryan Mbeumo of Manchester United and Newcastle's Yoane Wissa GETTY IMAGES, SOUTTERSTOCK

2026-27 fit check

The best and worst Premier League kits

There are some instant classics, dubious inspirations and outright eyesores for Hannah Jane Parkinson to enjoy - and ridicule - in the new season's strips

The Premier League season kicks off tomorrow and league debutants such as Christos Tzolis and Victor Muñoz, along with masses of fans, will be

pulling on their teams' shiny new strips. There were some lovely efforts at the World Cup (not least USA), and others more tedious than a 0-0 draw. It's a mixed bag once again.

Manchester City have gone with an ombre design, which feels - apposite for a gradient fading of colour - exhausted as a look in 2026. Sunderland have teamed up with Elvis Presley, or his estate, anyway, for a pink away shirt that nods to the supporters' longstanding unofficial anthem Can't Help Falling in Love.

Here's a selection of the best, worst and most interesting (for reasons good and bad) that sportswear giants - and Oxen Sports - have in store for us.

Chelsea

Chelsea's new home kit may look like the sort of thing a team called London Blue would wear in one of the early editions of Pro Evo, but it is pretty neat. The lack of a corporate logo will always make a shirt look better (Sunderland fans also got to enjoy this for pre-season, but alas the Black Cats have a sponsor incoming).

The Blues have rolled out a number of stars to preview their 2026-27 look, first among them Madonna, a longtime supporter, which is why Cole Palmer and João Pedro made a surprise appearance in her recent video. The 90s polo-shirt collar is a popular

aesthetic this season. The home and away kits - in a sleek black - heavily feature Ted Drake's famous lion emblem.

As a side note, Madonna's twin daughters play for Tottenham, which I mention only because Spurs have, once again, produced the world's most insufferably dull kit, presumably designed by Kazimir Malevich.

Liverpool

Surely the kit of the season. An entirely unsubtle homage to the 1989-91 home jersey (and as far as sponsors' logos go, Candy's was one of the least hideous), the home shirt is a blast of fun at a time when football - Infantino, VAR, you name it - is increasingly dispiriting. Then again, I am not sure even a top this jazzy can offset the hideousness of Jeff Bezos acquiring a stake in the club.

The white away kit is also a handsome affair, proving that white strips do not have to be boring; again, commiserations to Spurs fans. While the home fit is giving disco, the away is a more demure meet-the-parents type, with a preppy v-shaped neck. I do still miss the old YNWA crest, though.

Hull

The Hull accent is one of Timothée Chalamet's favourites and the actor and keen football fan would no doubt be charmed by the promoted side's new-but-old look. This kit feels like it belongs on a glorious swamp of a pitch in the mid-to-late 20th century, complete with dribbled juice stains from half-time oranges.

The official reference point is the Tigers' late 70s aesthetic: wide black and amber stripes and a white collar and trim, the shirt features the HCAFC logo for the first time in 47 years, invoking the spirit of Billy Bremner. It is definitely understated, given how many riotous bangers the club has had in the past (see the amazing tiger-striped 1992 shirt, among others).

Away from the MKM Stadium, Hull will turn out in a much more meh monotone kit with amber accents, but still, sterling work in the main from homegrown sportswear brand Oxen Sports.

Newcastle

It is extremely low-hanging fruit to compare this shirt to a barcode, but, seriously, look at it. It's a barcode.

It's also dizzying to the eye. I'm generally a fan of risk-taking kits - being on the chaos - but this is, well ... the PR blurb describes the pattern as 'disrupted'.

Given this design belongs only in the vicinity of a self-service checkout, it is truly an unexpected item in the playing area. Then Adidas chucked some pale blue stripes on the shoulders just in case fans weren't distressed enough.

The away strip is an improvement; a refined navy, it has a nice alternative badge of the city's titular castle and a magpie. Newcastle aren't the only club that has done too much with their home strip; Macron has produced a striking sash design for Crystal Palace, but, in the words of Hannah Gadsby describing the Pride flag: bit busy.

Ipswich

Among what is always extremely strong competition, Ipswich secure the trophy for the most eye-rolling kit 'inspiration'. The motif on the round-necked, blue home shirt is, according to Umbro's press release, a tribute to Portman Road's floodlights. As it happens, the weaved pattern is lovely, but the diamonds recall those mood-indicating crystals above the heads of characters in The Sims (officially plumbois) more than the stadium floodlights.

The change kit is cream with thin red and black horizontal stripes and black side panels. Floodlights 100% snubbed.

Manchester United

I am haunted by the Adidas stripes on the red home shirt being white, while the ones on the white shorts are black. This would be fine, except the designers have made the stripes so thick - they seem to spread larger each season - that this looks like one half each of two separate kits; it's 24 hours before laundry day at the Theatre of Dreams.

The shirt itself is beautiful; the perfect shade of red, a retro collar not too dissimilar to Chelsea's, but the black touches are not strong enough to cohere with the oil streaks on the shorts. The away kit nods to the 80s, in suave cobalt blue with red touches and trefoil logo. A final positive: it looks like just the one kit.

Sheffield United co-chair could be disqualified over dispute

Matt Hughes

The Sheffield United co-chair, Steven Rosen, is facing disqualification as a director by the English Football League after the company through which he bought the club two years ago, COH Sports Bidco Limited, was liquidated.

The winding-up order issued by the high court in London is the result

of a dispute between United's owners and their predecessor, Prince Abdullah's United World, which claims it is owed £35m by Rosen and his business partner Helmy Eltoukhy in unpaid fees resulting from the £1tion sale of the Championship club in December 2024.

Abdullah filed the winding-up petition last month after Rosen and Eltoukhy transferred ownership of the club to a new parent company, 1919 Partners LLC, which he alleged

was part of an attempt to avoid paying the outstanding debt.

1919 Partners concede £35m is outstanding to United World, but insist the debt is not behind the restructure. A spokesperson declined to comment after yesterday's hearing.

'Sheffield United Football Club is aware of today's hearing at the high court,' read a club statement. 'This is a matter between the current owners and former owner.'

Nevertheless, there could be ramifications for United. Under EFL regulations, any club official who is the subject of two insolvency events is prevented from acting as a controlling owner or director. In 2023, Rosen was a director of a US medical manufacturer, Invacare, that filed for

bankruptcy, so he could be forced by the EFL to stand down and reduce his shareholding in United.

The EFL is also likely to launch a formal investigation into the allegations that the club's owners are deliberately seeking to avoid paying fees owed from their purchase

▲ Sheffield United's previous owner claims it is owed £35m from the sale

of the club, which would result in a points deduction if they are found guilty. EFL sources confirmed that an insolvency overseas would count as a disqualification event.

'The EFL notes the high court's decision to issue a winding-up order on COH Sports Bidco Limited,' a spokesperson said. 'The league will consider the implications of that development in line with its regulations, including whether any further action is required.'

United World claimed the club's owners have refused requests to reach a mediated settlement. 'United World made every effort to resolve this matter amicably and tried to give the owners a final opportunity to find a solution,' read a statement.

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60

Sport Football Premier League

▼ Manchester United need backup for Luke Shaw, who started every Premier League game last season ANDRELI IMANGZUK/HUPHOTIS/HUTTERSTOCK

United must support Carrick as he tries to fill glaring vacancy

With time running out in the transfer window, Luke Shaw remains the only senior left-back at Old Trafford

Dominic Booth

After signing Aaron Wan-Bissaka in 2019, Manchester United's PR machine boasted they had scouted 804 right-backs before landing on the Crystal Palace player. At the time it felt like an unnecessary brag, designed to convince fans and journalists the club were doing their due diligence when it came to scouting and data.

Now, as the search for a left-back to challenge Luke Shaw drags on with less than two weeks of the summer transfer window remaining, there seems to be a lack of credible targets.

As they did with Wan-Bissaka seven years ago, United's analysts this summer plumped for a prodigious English full-back playing for one of the Premier League middleweights. That player, Lewis Hall, ticks many boxes

£60m bid for Baleba

Manchester United are confident of signing Brighton's Carlos Baleba (40) for less than £75m and the midfielder has agreed personal terms. United have made an initial offer of £60m for the 22-year-old, which is below Brighton's valuation.

Baleba, who at present is out with an ankle injury, has been a target for United since last summer, when Brighton valued him at about £100m. The Cameroon international's price has dropped since then following his uneven performances for Fabian Hürzeler's side last season.

Baleba, whose preference is to play as a No 6, would be United's third new midfielder of the summer, after Youri Tielemans, who was signed for £35m from Aston Villa, and Andrey Santos, who arrived for £48 from Chelsea. Jamie Jackson

for the club except for the price, with Newcastle understandably slapping a premium on the 21-year-old having already lost Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimarães. United have indicated a reluctance to pay over the odds for players and hence negotiations for Hall have hit the rocks, with Newcastle valuing him at about £70m.

However, United's need for a left-back reinforcement to help out Shaw, and probably displace him longer term, is clear. The 31-year-old started every Premier League game last season and performed solidly, but his history with injuries is such that another ever-present campaign is highly unlikely, especially as United will have far more than the 40 games they played last season - the minimum amount possible and the fewest since 1914-15.

With the return of Champions League football, United should play upwards of 50 games. With Casemiro gone and Manuel Ugarte unavailable for the rest of 2026 with a knee ligament injury, United would appear to have found the final piece of their midfield puzzle as they pursue Brighton's Carlos Baleba. Up front, Marcus Rashford is back after loans at Aston Villa and Barcelona and, if he stays, will offer pace and variety.

That leaves one major area of concern, heightened by the fact Shaw struggled in a 4-2 pre-season defeat to Ruben Amorim's Milan on Saturday. Although Jorge Salinas of Racing Santander and Club Brugge's Joaquin Seys have been linked with the club, both are green and would appear unready to usurp Shaw. Patrick Dorgu is viewed as more of a winger by Michael Carrick while Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui are clunky fits on the left side of defence. Youngster Harry Amas is likely to be sold or loaned out.

United will be fairly happy with their midfield business if and when they get the Baleba deal done. Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans have impressed in pre-season after United chose not to go after Elliot Anderson, signed by Manchester City for £16m, nor Tonali or Mateus Fernandes, who joined Tottenham for a combined £185m. A third new midfielder was always needed to reduce the burden on Santos, Tielemans and Kobbie Mainoo over a long season.

"We've done really good business," Carrick said last week, before news of the Baleba transfer was mooted. "We're delighted with that [but] we want more, we need more. We keep looking for how we can do that, so that never stops. "Over time we need to be

pushing to enhance the squad, 100% we need to do that."

But if Carrick is to push for one final marquee signing, can United afford not to fully back their manager when there is a hole in the squad? Can they find value in the market as they did with Santos and Tielemans? The hope is a left-back transfer comes out of nowhere, as the deals for the three midfielders have done.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has gained a reputation for penny-pinching since acquiring a minority stake in the club that came with control of football operations. His drive to save money at Old Trafford has been controversial, with staff made redundant and bizarre stories emerging about the ways he and Ineos have tried to cut costs.

That said, last summer United shelled out more than £200m on

a new frontline, with Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko arriving and impressing in their debut seasons. They also found a gem of a goalkeeper in Senne Lammens from the Belgian Pro League. And their financial outlay paid dividends, albeit after the sacking of Amorim, as Carrick guided United to third place.

Many believe refusing to spend more would equate to hanging a bright young manager out to dry. Having won 12 of his 17 matches in charge and being handed the reins on a permanent basis, most agree Carrick has earned the right to a full campaign.

The Baleba deal would be a step in the right direction, but failing to sign another left-back could be a costly transfer mistake from the Old Trafford hierarchy.

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●●●

11

Arsenal agree £51m deal for Konsa as Villa brace for Al-Hilal to increase Watkins bid

David Hytner Ben Fisher

Arsenal have agreed a £51m deal to sign Ezri Konsa from Aston Villa. The Premier League champions have been keen to find defensive cover for William Saliba and Jurrien Timber, who are out with injuries. They have tracked Konsa throughout the summer and have made a breakthrough in the negotiations.

Mikel Arteta hopes Konsa, whose Villa contract has two years to run, can help make light of Saliba's absence in central defence. The timeframe for

the Frenchman's return is unclear but he is not expected to play before mid-October, having sustained a back injury in France's World Cup semi-final defeat against Spain.

Konsa's appeal is bolstered by the fact he can also play at right-back, where Timber is battling to return from a groin injury which has affected him for months.

Konsa starred for England on their run to the World Cup semi-finals. A fixture in Villa's successful team, the 28-year-old will encounter fierce competition at Arsenal, especially when Saliba is fit. Arteta rates Saliba's partnership with Gabriel Magalhães

as the best in England but he thinks the addition of a player of Konsa's calibre is a signal of Arsenal's desire to build on their title success of last season and dominate.

▲ Ezri Konsa won the Europa League with Aston Villa last season

Konsa joined Villa from Brentford in 2019 and has been central to their rise under Unai Emery. He has made 286 appearances and was in the team that won the Europa League last season. Arsenal kick off the new season at home to Coventry tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, Villa are braced for another bid from Al-Hilal for Ollie Watkins, after rejecting an offer worth almost £40m for the striker. Al-Hilal are pursuing a move for Villa's all-time Premier League goalscorer, who has reached double figures in the top flight in his six seasons at the club after joining from Brentford.

If Villa sell Watkins they would seek to replace the 30-year-old England striker and Emery is a big admirer of Nicolas Jackson, but Chelsea's valuation of £65m is thought to be prohibitive. There is an acceptance at Villa that any marquee arrival before the close of the window would probably

have to follow another major sale, owing to the Premier League's financial regulations.

Villa gave Watkins, together with Konsa, an extended four-week break after the World Cup. Emery said Watkins volunteered to play in last week's Super Cup against PSG, but the manager advised him to continue to rest.

Inter have submitted an offer of £30m rising to £35m (£30m) for Curtis Jones, with the Liverpool midfielder expected to leave his boyhood club after a 16-year association. Jones has been a target for Inter since January and was the subject of a failed £25m bid in June. Liverpool valued their homegrown midfielder closer to £40m, but with Jones in the final year of his contract, and no sign of an agreement over an extension, that figure is unlikely to be reached.

Additional reporting by Andy Hunter

Fifa president's support continues to crumble

Matt Hughes

Gianni Infantino has lost the support of another one of Fifa's vice-presidents, with the Hungarian football federation chief, Sandor Csanyi, criticising the president's "professional judgment, ethical standards and leadership".

In an explosive letter sent to Infantino on Tuesday, first obtained by the news agency AFP, Csanyi states that he has "lost the confidence I previously placed in you" and describes the "unexpected dismissal" of Fifa's chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, as the "final straw".

Lamour was sacked by Fifa on Monday after breaking ranks last month by criticising Infantino over his aborted plan to sell off shares in the World Cup to private investors.

Csanyi's letter continues the trend of senior global football figures deserting Infantino, with the Hungarian banker the fifth of Fifa's eight vice-presidents to call for him to stand down. The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, Victor Montagliani of Concacaf - the North and

'The final straw was the dismissal of Kevin Lamour'

Sandor Csanyi Fifa vice-president

Central American and Caribbean Confederation - and Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa of the Asian Football Confederation have all made their positions clear, as has the Football Association chair, Debbie Hewitt.

Of the Fifa vice-presidents, only Alejandro Dominguez of South

America's Conmebol, Patrick Motsepe of the Confederation of African Football and Oceania's Lambert Mallock are supporting Infantino.

Csanyi is also a member of the 37-strong Fifa council, which is theoretically its main decision-making body, but has been repeatedly overlooked by Infantino.

"My conviction that you are capable of continuing to lead Fifa successfully and effectively in accordance with the shared values that previously formed the basis of our cooperation has been undermined," Csanyi wrote. "The final straw was the unexpected dismissal of Kevin Lamour."

The letter also cited "a number of controversial decisions" at this year's World Cup, including Infantino's involvement in "plans to outsource Fifa competitions and place them in the hands of external parties".

◀ Gianni Infantino retains the support of just three of Fifa's eight vice-presidents GARBIE JONES GETTY BRADES

City target Koné as Spurs discuss Marmoush and Savinho moves

Jamie Jackson David Hytner

Manchester City have identified Konsa's Manu Koné as a potential target to strengthen further Enzo Maresca's options in midfield.

While City have already bought Elliot Anderson for £116m and are closing in on the £85m signing of Lille's Ayyoub Bouaddi, Maresca admires Koné for his dynamic mode

of play. He would be expected to cost about £50m.

The 25-year-old impressed for France at the World Cup, playing five of their eight matches. France won all four of the games he started.

If signed, Koné would add elite-level experience to Maresca's squad, which is now without Rodri after he was sold to Barcelona for about £65m on Tuesday.

▲ Manu Koné impressed in central midfield for France at the World Cup

While Anderson was a first-choice for England at the World Cup and made his Premier League debut for Newcastle in 2021, at 18 Bouaddi is still relatively inexperienced.

Yesterday, another City midfielder departed when Tijjani Reijnders was sold to Al-Qadsiah in a deal worth about £51m after only one season at the club. While the Dutchman operates as a No 8, Nico González, who plays as a defensive midfielder, may also follow before the window closes on 1 September.

City are still expected to make an official bid for Chelsea's Enzo Fernández, though they are thought to value him less than the £120m asking price.

City's busy summer also includes their continuing talks with Tottenham regarding the sale of Savinho and Omar Marmoush in a double deal worth about £150m.

Masters calls for a challenge to Infantino after Balogun scandal

◀ Continued from back page

the outcome of a complaint made against Fifa to the European Commission two years ago over a lack of consultation over the fixture calendar.

Masters said it was vital that Infantino was properly challenged in the Fifa presidential election next year. "I think that what needs to happen now is another candidate needs to emerge within the deadline with a new offer, a different offer, that can hopefully unify the confederations," he said.

Webb said he had been "really troubled" by the Balogun scandal, as he announced new measures to increase transparency over refereeing decisions in England. "What do we know? We know for sure that a red card was shown. I understand why it was given," he said.

"We know that there was pressure placed by a politician on to Fifa, because that was admitted. And we know that the suspension was taken away for that particular tournament and suspended through a process which seemingly didn't exist before the tournament started."

He continued: "We live in a world now which is different to the one that I occupied as a referee. Decisions were previously viewed as correct or incorrect, based on your judgment. Far too often now decisions are viewed as correct or corrupt by people who want to type all over social media.

They try to draw inferences around decisions that they don't agree with and what's the motivation behind that decision. Which is born out of no facts, no evidence."

This season, English football's senior refereeing body, now known as Pro Ref, will seek to publish the assessments of an independent key match incident panel which examines all the biggest decisions taken by Premier League referees each week. As reported by the Guardian, Pro Ref will publish some audio of conversations between referees and players during matches.

New video assistant referee specialists have been recruited at Stockley Park to expand the pool of officials as Pro Ref seeks to cut the length of time around VAR interventions and eliminate incidents where VARs intervene when - according to ProRef - they should not. "I'd rather have missed interventions than over-interventions," Webb said. "I'd rather VAR not get involved wrongly to rectify something that wasn't wrong in the first place, because that's a damaging effect on the game."

In a further attempt to improve the speed of decision-making, the protocol behind semi-automatic offside technology has been streamlined.

Webb said fans and players alike can also expect to see more penalty kicks awarded for holding at set pieces. "More situations will be penalised, not only in August or September, but throughout the season," Webb said. "[But] I'm not going to commit to say we're going to go from here to penalising lots of contact. Contact is still part of the game, we still maintain a high threshold, but this time next year, all being well, we'll be able to reflect on a season where more offences have been penalised."

◀ The USA's Polaris Balogun (right) is shown a red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina by the referee Raphael Claus. The striker's ban was suspended PHIL MORALE/REUTERS

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12

Sport Cricket First Rothesay Test

Robinson and Tongue put Root's England firmly in driving seat

Bowlers both take five wickets to give returning captain a promising start

Ali Martin Headingley

For all that Joe Root was playing his 167th Test match for England, and had led the side on 65 previous occasions, there will surely have been a few butterflies as he pulled on the blazer and walked out for the toss on his home ground.

Root was resuming what he once described as an 'unhealthy relationship' with the captaincy, while a supposedly one-off return to the job earlier this summer ended in a crushing defeat to New Zealand. Aged 35, England's premier batter

could easily have said a polite 'no thank you' when the vacancy came around again.

Yet Root appears to be driven by something more than just duty; a sense of unfinished personal business, perhaps. And if there were any nerves or second thoughts, they surely evaporated once Ollie Robinson struck with the first ball of the series to set in motion a one-sided opening day against Pakistan.

By stumps the match had progressed significantly. Robinson went on to claim his fifth five-wicket haul in Test cricket with a masterful display of wobble seam, while Josh Tongue picked up his fourth to share all 10. And in response to Pakistan's 171 all out in 48.1 overs, England closed on 112 for two from 25, with Root 37 not out.

Plenty went for Root, it must be said, not least the coin falling his way to claim the best of conditions. The

last seven Tests here have been won by the side bowling first and, while not as quick as some in recent years, the pitch was offering movement for any seamer who could lock in on the Headingley length.

Doing so is Robinson's forte, of course. And after trapping Azan Awais lbw from around the wicket with his opening delivery - the first time a Test series in England has started with a wicket - Root's metronome rarely missed a beat. As a result, the initial rustiness of Jofta Archer and Gus Atkinson was scarcely felt.

One of Robinson's victims here was a touch unfortunate, with Saud Shakeel too late in reviewing an lbw shown to be going over the stumps. But figures of five for 51 from 18 overs were no less deserved, while an afternoon spell of eight overs, two for 17, was also a positive as regards his fitness and old-ball prowess.

That Pakistan did not fold entirely

Joe Root ended the day 37 not out as England cut their deficit to 59

owed much to Abdullah Shafique, who emerged at six for two in the fifth over - Shan Masood plumb lbw to Robinson - and top-scored with 61. But for all that he looked assured,

Shafique was eventually made claustrophobic by Jamie Smith's presence up at the stumps - a notable move by Root - and then powerless as Robinson jagged one through the gate.

Imam-ul-Haq, one of four Pakistan players to have played for Yorkshire, was probably the batter left with the greatest sense of regret on the day. The left-hander had been so diligent during an initial rebuild alongside Shafique that straddled an early lunch triggered by rain and added 91 runs for the third wicket.

But after struggling with an ankle problem that required treatment on the field, Imam drove loosely to slip on 42 to hand Tongue his first wicket. Unlike Archer and Atkinson, Tongue did not look like a bowler coming off a diet of 20 balls per match in the Hundred but rather the Test thoroughbred he is fast becoming.

So much comes down to Tongue's natural angle that, allied with nip in either direction, can turn defence into a lottery. Here he snuffed out any chance of a fightback from the lower middle order, his figures of five for 46 seeing both the stand-in skipper, Salman Ali Agha, and Mohammad Rizwan pinned lbw.

Tongue found himself on a hat-trick after a third lbw won against Ali Usman, only for Khurram Shahzad, first-class average of 10, to lace it

Scoreboard

Headingley England hold Pakistan by 59 runs with eight first-innings wickets remaining.

Pakistan First innings	8	1	0	0
Azan Awais lbw to Robinson	0	1	0	0
Imam-ul-Haq c Brack to Tongue	42	74	6	0
Shan Masood lbw to Robinson	5	20	0	0
Abdullah Shafique to Robinson	61	104	3	0
Saud Shakeel lbw to Robinson	5	25	1	0
*Salman Agha to Tongue	21	29	4	0
Mohammad Rizwan lbw to Tongue	12	19	1	0
Ali Usman lbw to Tongue	0	1	0	0
Khurram Shahzad
c Atkinson to Robinson	14	12	3	0
Mohammad Abbas to Tongue	2	5	0	0
Mohammad Ali not out	0	0	0	0
Extras (54, 64, 101)	9

Total (48.1 overs) 171 Fall 0, 6, 97, 117, 118, 150, 150, 170, 171 Bowling Robinson 18-3-51-5, Archer 5-4-26-0, Atkinson 12-3-40-0, Tongue 5-3-0-46-5.

England First innings	8	1	0	0
BM Duckett lbw to Mohammad Abbas	15	20	0	0
EW Gay
c Salman Agha to Mohammad Ali	33	31	7	0
JM Cox not out	23	36	4	0
*JE Root not out	17	53	6	0
Extras (64)	4

Total (for 2, 25 overs) 112 Fall 36, 46. To bat HC Brook, DW Lawrence, 18, Smith, OE Robinson, ASP Atkinson, JE Archer, JC Tongue. Bowling Mohammad Abbas 10-2-54-1. Khurram Shahzad 7-0-28-0, Mohammad Ali 7-0-38-1, Ali Usman 1-0-6-0. Toss England elected to field. Umpires A Fowler (54) and CB Gaffney (62). TV umpire PR Roffitt (Aas). Match referee RS Madagala (54).

► Josh Tongue makes a successful appeal for the wicket of Ali Usman ALLEN MCKENZIE/ SWITCH.COM/ SHUTTERSTOCK

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through the vacant covers for four. But history still came Tongue's way as he and Robinson mopped up the last two in successive balls. Not since Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar at Old Trafford 20 years ago have an England pair claimed five apiece in a Test innings.

Pakistan (the victims on that occasion also) tried their best to muster a response. Mohammad Abbas trapped Ben Duckett in front on 15 - revenge for an umpire's call that earlier went the opener's way - while Mohammad Ali squared up Emilio Gay with a beauty that flew to slip to end a breezy 31 from 31 balls.

But, in a final session that ran to 7.30pm due to the earlier downpour, that was as good as it got for Pakistan. Jordan Cox contributed a confident 23 not out in his first stab at No 3 as he and Root batted through to the close. At times it was tricky to tell the two right-handers apart, which says plenty about how the rookie fared.

As much as you don't get a second chance to make a first impression and Pakistan are clearly a struggling side, Root's return to the captaincy full-time began as well as he could have wished for. A first win in the job since 2021 - the one amid the notorious run of one in 17 - already looks like the likeliest outcome.

Half and half Bunch of fives delight quicks in 'exciting time'

Taha Hashim Headingley

A ball cut in half was the solution to Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue's novel problem. Courtesy of a helpful member of the Headingley ground staff, the two quicks shared the souvenir after each took five wickets on the opening day of England's first Test against Pakistan, with the visitors bowled out for 171.

"You don't really have too many halves of cricket balls, so it'll be something that we never forget," said Robinson, showing off his share in his post-match press conference as he reflected on his haul of five for 51, including a wicket with the first ball of the series.

England find themselves in a commanding position as they begin life again under Joe Root's captaincy, closing day one on 112 for two.

For Robinson it marked his first Test since featuring against New Zealand at Lord's, which was his comeback match after two years in exile.

A knee problem ruled him out of the second Test of that series, and he was left out at Trent Bridge for Ben Stokes' final hurrah. England lost both matches, and the series.

"It was frustrating not to be able to play at the Oval," said Robinson. "Just a bit of a freak training injury and then I was available for Trent Bridge but not selected and I suppose that's part of professional sport, isn't it?"

"Since then I've just worked really hard on a bit more fitness and a bit more skill so it's nice when it comes off on days like today."

"I probably learned a lot about myself when I was out of the team. At the moment I probably feel as good as I've ever felt."

"I'm probably not in as good a rhythm - and that sounds silly after [taking] wickets - but I'm probably not in as good a rhythm as I would like, having not played red-ball cricket since Lord's. For me, the more I play, the better I tend to get. So as long as I can stay on the park and stay fit, hopefully I can get that rhythm."

While Robinson and Tongue shared the wickets, the former was keen to big up England's wider seam stocks, with Jofra Archer and Gus Atkinson forming their quartet for this Test.

"The four guys that played today - it's a really exciting time for English cricket. You've got a few other lads in the background that can also come in and do the same job. I can't remember a time in English cricket where you've got seven, eight, fit fast bowlers to choose from for a series."

'It sounds silly but I'm not in as good a rhythm as I'd like'

Ollie Robinson England bowler

Analysis

Taha Hashim

▼ Ollie Robinson took the key wicket of the top scorer, Abdullah Shafique MATT WEST/SHE/STEIRSTOCK

Captain-bowler double act evokes Headingley history to flatten Pakistan on opening day

One win in England's last 17 Tests. Those were the numbers that greeted Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes when they took over in 2022, a reminder of just how bad things had ended under Joe Root. It was a statistic that gave the new boys permission to rip up the old order.

So it's easy to forget that precious one. It was near the middle of that horror run, and it came at Headingley against India five years ago this month. The tourists were bowled out for 78 as Root reached three figures and celebrated his 27th victory as Test captain, a record among Englishmen. The Yorkshireman had to come home to find some breathing space.

Ollie Robinson was integral for Root back then, still in his first summer as an England cricketer and ending up as the player of the match. He remains that way. The pair are the only members of that XI playing against Pakistan this week, with Root back in Leeds to herald a new era. Robinson might not have been loved by the previous hierarchy, leading to two years in exile, but Root clearly rates him, picking him in 10 of the seamer's 22 Tests. Never mind that he's operating in the 70s (mph), he'll deliver, as the bowling average tells you. With seven quicks in his squad for this series, Root decided that Robinson would bowl the first over of his second stint as captain.

"Ollie Robinson, when he's fit and bowling at a decent pace for him, which is around 82-83 mph, he is world-class," said Rob Rey back in May. He definitely looked

the part when bowling a touch slower in the morning. With the very first ball of the series, clocking in at 76mph, Robinson wobbled it into Azan Awais from around the wicket, thumping the front pad and raising the umpire's finger. To Shan Masood not long after it was over the wicket, at 79mph, an inswinger to show off Robinson's range with the Dukes.

At six for two, Pakistan were in proper bother. This is a side who few expect to make a serious splash this summer. They sit second last in the World Test Championship table and haven't won a series away from home since 2023. Their captain and finest batter, Babar Azam, is injured. He caused a brief stir when he emerged before the toss in full whites, cap and blazer on, but it soon turned out that it was for a picture with his opposite number and the series trophy.

Was this going to be another 78 all out? Abdullah Shafique's straight hat made sure Pakistan got off a little lighter. He emerged a few years ago as a prodigious talent, making his Test debut at 22 in just his fourth first-class match. He

hit a ton against Australia a few months later and once batted for more than eight hours in Colombo to set up an innings win against Sri Lanka. The runs dried up for a time but another marathon knock at the start of the month against West Indies in Trinidad, an unbeaten 160, lifted the 26-year-old's Test average back above 40.

Either side of a heavy shower on day one at Leeds, Shafique mixed resistance with style. There were gorgeous punches through mid-on and a shot off Robinson where he got all the equations right in his head, the angles inch-perfect as he middled the cover drive. It's an odd quirk that Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel and Masood have all played for Yorkshire; this England side, with Root, Robinson and Harry Brook, trail them in terms of first-team White Rose representatives. With Shafique and Imam building a decent third-wicket stand, you could argue that it was two locals keeping Pakistan afloat.

Ultimately, it couldn't save them as they folded from 97 for two to 171 all out. Robinson continued nibbling away and Josh Tongue reminded the visitors what they lack on this tour, something they once built their reputation on: lethal pace to go with a stinging yorker. Shafique went for 61, undone by another wobbling Robinson delivery, ducking into the right-hander to smash the stumps. Jamie Smith up close to make life harder.

You can sense the shape of this match already and the rhythm of the next few weeks, too. Pakistan showed off their new-ball nous through Mohammad Abbas - their answer to Robinson - when he dismissed Ben Duckett. But an England lead beckons. It was, in so many ways, a fairly predictable day, ending with Root batting under the setting sun, home once again. Shafique was the one bit of light for a side up against it.

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England's

Headingley high fives

Seamers put Root's men in charge of the first Test against Pakistan before sharing half the ball each

Report and reaction Page 42 →

GARETH COPLEY/Getty IMAGES

'Believe your eyes'

Masters says Premier League's integrity cannot be doubted

Paul MacInnes

Richard Masters has sought to reas- sure fans that the Premier League remains "everything that it should be" after the Folarin Balogun red- card scandal called the integrity of disciplinary decisions into question.

Both Masters, the chief executive of the Premier League, and Howard Webb, the chief refereeing officer for English football, were critical of the process that led to Fifa's disciplinary

committee suspending the USA strik- er's one-game ban for a year after an intervention by the US president, Donald Trump. Masters went fur- ther, calling for a candidate with "a different offer" to run against Gianni Infantino for Fifa president next year.

Asked about the Balogun affair, Masters - who was speaking in advance of the new Premier League season beginning tomorrow - said: "We should be talking about look- ing back on the World Cup and the football that was played, and Spain being obviously the best team and

England's agonising semi-final defeat," Masters said. "We're not. We're talking about other issues. I think that's a huge shame. The Balo- gun issue ... is very difficult to com- prehend, really, when you look at it."

Masters insisted that the taint of the scandal would not reach out into the Premier League, even as refer- eeing conspiracy theories continue among fans. "Do people believe their eyes? I do scroll through social media every now and then. I do bump into some of the stuff that people are say- ing and thinking out there," Masters said. "But I do still believe that fans, when they turn up to matches that are 99% sold out, when they watch what's going on on the pitch, they see everything that it should be. It's still the same."

"It's English football. Everyone's trying their best. Referees are trying their best. There's lots of controversy, but it is what it says it is."

The Premier League, as a member of the World Leagues Asso- ciation, is still waiting for

Sport

Slams hope a

player council will defuse prize fund row

Exclusive Matt Hughes

Tennis's grand slam tournaments have agreed to establish a formal player advisory council in a move aimed at defusing the row over prize money. The joint venture could soon be confirmed as part of the US Tennis Association's (USTA) announcement of this year's US Open prize money, which is expected to top $100m (£74m) for the first time.

The four slams have been in dis- pute for almost 18 months, with lead- ing players - including Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka - demanding a greater share of tournament rev- enues as part of a wider overhaul of the sport's finances and operations that would also lead to the major tournaments making contributions to player welfare and offer meaning- ful player representation.

After failing to achieve a break- through, the world's top 10 male and female players took direct action by withdrawing from some of their con- tracted media activity at the French Open in May, although a similar boycott planned for Wimbledon the following month was cancelled after last-minute negotiations.

The players are demanding the slams match the tours runs by the men's Association of Tennis Pro- fessionals and the Women's Tennis Association in allocating 22% of their revenues to prize money, whereas the £64.2m on offer at Wimbledon was about 14.4% of the total money made at the championships.

The slams remain under signifi- cant pressure to produce an increase, with all eyes on the USTA, now under the leadership of the former Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley.

The US Open, which begins on 30 August, has traditionally offered the highest prize money in tennis, with last year's fund totalling $90m, and there is widespread expectation it will exceed $100m for the first time. The threat of another

▲ US Open prize money could exceed $100m for the first time this year

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Companies must pay when their actions lead to social harm Editorials, page 2

Can you be too poor to buy a toothbrush? I was Katriona O'Sullivan, page 3

Why execs like Musk aren't fazed by the climate crisis Emma Brockes, page 4

G2 Daily pullout life & arts section Inside

Opinion and ideas

Journal

Welcome to the age of climate whiplash: bone-dry and soaked

Aditya Chakraborty

This summer could be the hottest, driest and deadliest in the history of England. Successive heatwaves have so far claimed almost 3,000 lives. Nearly three-quarters of England and the whole of Wales is in drought, while key reservoirs are parched. Across this brown and stickily unpleasant land, from Grimsby down to St Ives, hosepipe bans are in force, while music festivals are staged not on green fields but in giant dust bowls.

Just how bad is it? I asked a leading climate scientist. "This is as good as it's going to get," said Hayley Fowler, a professor at Newcastle University. "It will only get hotter." A little while back, the Met Office filmed a mock weather forecast for 2050, with an authoritative yet smiley man wielding a clicker in front of a map. So far, so soothingly familiar - only the UK had gone from its usual green and jaunty yellow to a deep, bloody red. Cambridge was stamped with 40C, while Somerset and Dorset were up at 45C.

This is the near future that awaits you and me, our children and grandchildren. Just two decades away, the weather forecaster urged us to block out the sun and stay indoors. "Drink plenty of fluids," he added.

Except there will not be as much fluid to drink. Britain is world-renowned for its soft steady drizzle, but over the next couple of decades, our summers will turn arid while winters are more likely to bring a regular deluge of rain, breaking our riverbanks and flooding our homes. Indeed, El Niño means the coming winter is likely to be especially bad - up there with Storm Desmond, believed Prof Fowler, the cyclone that in December 2015 shut down railway lines and plunged more than 60,000 homes in the north of England into darkness with no power.

"Climate whiplash", scientists call this: lurching from bone-dry to soaked to the bone. Pleading for water half the year, then terrified of its power the other half. This is not "climate change" as it used to be shown on official graphs, running on smooth lines pointing upwards; this is breakdown.

Not that you'd know it from Britain's politicians. This week, Nigel Farage's useful idiot, Richard Tice, urged us to stop moaning and down some English sparkling. Our new prime minister, Andy Burnham, is strikingly eloquent on many subjects but keeps stumm on the climate crisis, apart from his promises to be "pragmatic" on fossil fuels. Elsewhere, the columnists dust off

ILLUSTRATION: SÉBASTIEN THIBAULT

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2

Welcome to the age of climate whiplash: bone-dry and soaked Aditya Chakraborty

← Continued from front

their standby paragraphs fulminating about the Englishman's right to wash his own SUV, and the public information advertisements chide us to turn off taps, as if more mindful toothbrushing is a climate adaptation strategy. All this is business as usual - even while the business model itself is broken.

"We are used to taking water for granted, thinking of it as infinitely available," Dr Jonathan Paul, an earth scientist at Royal Holloway University of London, told me. "Very soon, we will be treating it as a precious resource." He can foresee battles for who gets water between farmers and datacentres.

At the start of this year, I wrote about the temporary drought faced by households in Kent and Sussex, thousands of whom faced no running water for days on end. In Tunbridge Wells, people told

Within living memory, Britain was a world leader at the design and building of reservoirs. Its water engineering was studied from Iran to Israel to the US. That expertise has vanished and the last big reservoir in England was built in 1992

me how quickly social norms broke down. Washing from buckets, they spent their days feeling grubby and smelly. Supermarkets were stripped bare of water. Readers wrote to me about how those everyday scenes struck them as frightening, but they are what lies ahead for many more of us if we leave a looming water crisis to be solved by our busted water system.

Britain's water supply is entrusted to a string of private monopolies, overseen by underfunded, demoralised and largely toothless watchdogs. Since Margaret Thatcher sold off our water, this key infrastructure has fallen into the hands of a transnational network of spies and cowboys who have stripped it of almost every penny. For the sake of elite enrichment and lower household bills, the water system has relied on the public investment made by postwar social-democratic governments.

Within living memory, says Paul, Britain was a world leader at the design and building of reservoirs. Its water engineering and research was studied from Iran to Israel to the US. That expertise has vanished and the last big reservoir in England was built in 1992, planned and designed before privatisation.

These financiers and their husk companies cannot cope with the scenarios laid out by scientists. This summer the water firms have urged us to take shorter showers while lobbying ministers to allow surge pricing - which means charging more for water when we most need it. Never let a good crisis go to waste, after all. Late in the day, the government has demanded the industry plan for climate breakdown, but its plans are little more than patching up leaks and cutting down on waste. As is argued in a recent book on the industry, Murky Water: Challenging an Unsustainable System, by the Foundational Economy collective, this is a "fantasy plan", in which Thames Water and the rest suddenly fix more burst pipes than they have ever managed before.

This crisis has been in part imposed on us from above - by successive bungling governments and rapacious companies. It will not be fixed from above, by either a Labour government paralysed with fear of the electorate or financiers out to make one last buck. Even if the water industry is taken back into public hands, we will need to find a way of investing vastly more into the system. As is argued in Murky Water, the fairest way of doing that is by changing our billing system so that we pay according to our means.

But for now consider today's Britain. A country famous for its rain struggling with a dwindling water supply. A country in the North Sea now importing its energy. A democracy that just 10 years ago voted to take back control is now on the verge of losing control over its water and energy. What a state of affairs.

The Guardian

Founded 1821 Independently owned by the Scott Trust №55,990 'Comment is free... but facts are sacred' CP Scott

Grenfell

The law must make firms pay when their actions lead to catastrophic social harm

There is something profoundly wrong when the company behind Grenfell Tower's flammable cladding paid more compensation to its shareholders than to victims of the disaster. Of Arconic's £86m in Grenfell-related settlements, all but £1.5m was covered by insurers. Hardly enough to make a multinational think again. The company whose product the inquiry found was the "primary cause" of the fire's rapid spread has ended up paying only a fraction of the wider social cost, while the multibillion-pound bill for making hundreds of buildings safe falls largely on the state. In June 2017, 72 people - including 18 children - died in London's Grenfell Tower fire. Almost a decade later, nobody has been criminally charged over its causes. It's hard to conclude anything but that Britain's system of corporate accountability is rotten.

A new report by the thinktank Common Wealth and the financial investigations group FIND suggests putting right this state of affairs in England and Wales by adopting two changes that parliament could enact quickly. The first is a "failure to prevent" law that would make companies responsible for having adequate systems to prevent foreseeable serious harm. The second is to adopt a "punitive damages" approach. Rather than compensating victims for their loss, punitive damages ask what a company should pay for its conduct. Such an award against Arconic could have been used to meet the costs of remediation, the report says, "at no public cost".

This is possible in America. Some Grenfell families tried to bring a case under US law, where damages can

punish and deter corporate wrongdoing, not just compensate victims. Currently, Meta is accused in a California court of intentionally addicting children to Facebook and Instagram in pursuit of profit. It denies wrongdoing, but says litigation potentially exposes it to $1.4m in penalties and changes to its products. Whatever the eventual outcome, the case shows how alleged social harm can be a company-sized risk.

Arconic successfully argued that the Grenfell families' case be heard in British courts, where civil compensation and criminal punishment are kept separate. The Metropolitan police are investigating 57 individuals and 20 organisations as criminal suspects, but no charges are expected before Grenfell's tenth anniversary. Compare that with Hong Kong's Wang Pak Court fire, which killed 168 people in November 2025. Authorities immediately treated it as a potential crime involving corporate actors. Within seven months, seven people and two firms faced manslaughter charges. No one is suggesting authoritarian Hong Kong as a model. But nearly a decade without charges in Britain, against seven months in the far east, is an uncomfortable contrast.

There are reasons why justice has taken so long: the Covid pandemic disrupted the Grenfell public inquiry involving hundreds of core participants, and responsibility stretches across manufacturers, certifiers, architects, contractors and regulators. This exposes a deeper problem: the more entities involved, the easier it becomes for blame for a disaster to disappear between them.

Lawmakers know how to stop companies passing the buck. The polluter pays in environmental law. There are recall obligations in product safety and collective wishes in competition law. Why aren't legal principles that are already used to force companies to account for economic and consumer harms being extended to catastrophic social harms? Until they are, the law will remain better at protecting investors rather than the public from corporate wrongdoing.

Global health

The Ebola outbreak in DRC is a case study in why international aid matters

For months health experts have warned that the scale of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) could surpass the one that swept west Africa in 2014-16. This week, the authorities in the DRC announced that a grim milestone has already been passed: at least 2,325 people have died from the virus, making it the deadliest of the country's 17 outbreaks and the fastest-growing in history.

There is no effective vaccine against Bundibugyo - a rare strain of the virus that spread fatally undetected during the spring, often being misdiagnosed as malaria or typhoid. In contrast to neighbouring Uganda, which succeeded in eliminating an outbreak, multiple factors are combining to let the disease rip through the DRC. The worst-affected region is contested by armed groups, and a context of population displacement and chronic insecurity has made monitoring and surveillance more difficult. Ebola treatment centres have been attacked as a result of misinformation and community distrust.

The impact of this dire set of circumstances has been disastrously compounded by choices made in the west and, above all, in the United States. International aid cuts have deprived the DRC of vital human and material resources with which to fight back. In 2014, as the scale of the Ebola crisis in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea became clear, Barack Obama addressed the United Nations general assembly and mobilised a global response that was crucial in containing the outbreak. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) led efforts to train local health

workers, pursue contact tracing and implement an eventual vaccination programme.

The contrast with the Trump administration is stark and shaming. Last year, as the de facto head of the now defunct "department of government efficiency", Elon Musk was given licence to implement swinging cuts that led to the eventual dismantling of USAID. In the DRC, the direct consequence was the weakening of local health infrastructure and surveillance capacities, leaving one of the poorest countries in the world still more vulnerable. Also lost was a wealth of institutional experience and expertise gained in combating emergencies such as the one now unfolding.

The US has further undermined the capacity for coordinated international action by withdrawing from the World Health Organization, to which it had been one of the biggest donors. European countries, notably Britain, Germany and France, have also been viewing international aid as luxury expenditure and cutting back. Last year, Sir Keir Starmer announced that from 2027 UK aid would be reduced from 0.5% of GDP to 0.3%.

Against such a backdrop, the lack of diplomatic urgency over the current crisis, compared with 2014, should not perhaps come as a surprise. But that does not make it any less disappointing. The Ebola outbreak in west Africa laid bare the risk of regional and global disruption as a result of inadequate health infrastructure. A thousand pieties were then uttered in the wake of the Covid pandemic regarding the need to invest in global health security and future preparedness.

Subsequent actions by governments have belied those words, leaving the DRC exposed to an epidemic that is threatening to spiral out of control. Relatedly, the global community needs to mobilise to address the threat. More fundamentally, it needs to draw the right lessons from a case study in why international aid matters.

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Opinion

3

Can you be too poor to buy a toothbrush? Yes – that was me

Katriona O'Sullivan

I don't listen to Nick Ferrari on LBC very often. His antagonistic way of dealing with complex problems gets me screaming at the radio. Last month was a perfect example. Someone from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation was on, discussing research showing that about 7 million people are struggling to afford basic essentials, including toothpaste and toothbrushes, because of the cost of living crisis.

This did not strike me as a controversial finding. The cost of fuel, food, school, clothes – everything – has gone up, while wages and benefits have not kept pace. Ferrari, however, latched on to toothbrushes. I found myself listening to him talk about the price of them in pound shops and Asda. Sometimes it sounded like a price comparison ad. At others, it sounded like lazy journalism: take a complicated issue, strip it of context and turn it into something that will generate outrage, clicks and applause.

Had I been on the show, I would have brought my lived experience and academic knowledge to the argument. I would have explained why a person living in poverty might buy cheap wine instead of a cheap toothbrush. The first thing I would have talked about is decision-making. How we decide what to buy and where to spend our money is shaped by far more than price. One of the first questions we ask is whether the thing we're buying will help us now or later. You know those people who buy 48 toilet rolls because they are on special offer? They can look ahead and think: spending more now will save me money later. Psychologists could call this delayed gratification, and it requires the ability to resist an immediate need or reward in order to benefit in the future.

Stress makes that much harder. When people are under constant pressure, they tend to focus on the here and now. A toothbrush is an investment in the future. So is buying healthier food that costs more and takes longer to prepare. The benefit is delayed.

Poverty, on the other hand, creates urgent problems. The debt collector is knocking at your door. The electricity is about to run out. The school is asking for payment for a trip. Your son is being bullied because he is wearing cheap trainers instead of Nikes. These things feel immediate. The possible dental problems caused

ILLUSTRATION: GUARDIAN DESIGN/ GETTY IMAGES

Katriona O'Sullivan is professor of psychology at Maynooth University, Ireland, the bestselling author of Poor and Hungry and a columnist for the Irish Independent

How I felt about myself shaped what I believed was worth spending money on. My parents did not brush their teeth or ours

by not replacing a toothbrush feel far away. That does not make the decision sensible. It makes it human.

Long-term planning becomes more difficult during periods of stress. If you are raised in an environment where life feels unstable and the future uncertain, it can be much harder to believe that sacrificing today will bring a reward tomorrow. According to some studies, growing up poor can affect the development of your brain – the areas associated with reward are more active than those responsible for reasonable decision-making. That is part of the reason poverty is associated with higher levels of addiction and criminality. Not because poor people are naturally reckless or immoral, but because deprivation, stress and hopelessness shape our brains and behaviour.

Had I been sitting opposite Ferrari, I might have asked him whether he had ever been told to change his habits. Most of us have struggled to change something about ourselves. If making the right choice were simply a matter of knowing what's best, we would all eat the salad, go for the run, stop smoking, drink less and buy the toothbrush. But we don't make decisions like machines. Our choices are influenced by stress, habit, upbringing, addiction, fear, exhaustion and whether we believe there is any point in planning for the future. I know this because I have made the choice not to buy toothpaste many times.

I did not do that because I was stupid, or a bad person. I did it because how I grew up and felt about myself shaped what I believed was worth spending money on. My parents did not brush their teeth or ours. Looking after your teeth was not something I had been taught to value. I had such low self-worth that my own health was often the last thing on my mind.

The same was true of sanitary products. When I was living on about £35 a week in benefits in the 1990s, I sometimes bought three bottles of Diamond White, rather than spending 50p on tampons. You might judge me for that. But when you live in shit and have stopped caring about yourself, a few bottles can feel like an escape. It felt easier to stuff my knickers with toilet roll from my cash-in-hand job and have one night away from the misery than to sit sober with the constant belief that I was failing myself and my son. At times, it felt like the choice was three bottles or dying.

That may seem hard to understand when your life has always contained safety, options and hope. But ask yourself one question – would anyone choose that type of life if they could have another? I am glad I stayed alive long enough to learn that poverty is not created by the bad choices of poor people but by systems that leave people without security, support or genuine options – and by powerful people who reduce those lives to lazy tropes that reinforce stereotypes about irresponsibility. You cannot call something a choice when the alternatives are not equally available.

Putting a 49p toothbrush on a shop shelf does not mean everyone can buy it. Availability is not the same as access, and access is not the same as capacity. Of course people should buy toothbrushes. But repeating the price of one as though it disproves poverty is not analysis. It is ignorance dressed up as common sense. Choice is far more complicated than that. I think choice is a myth for many people; it is an idea that is inflicted on poor people by people in positions of power so they don't have to do anything to help.

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4

Opinion

REGULA BOWINGS

Why Musk isn't fazed by the climate crisis

Emma Brockes

The next time the weather gives the UK 61 days without rain and we wonder idly if this is the end, there is a term we may whistle up to soothe us. Like murmuring the rosary, or putting our fingers in our ears and humming, this phrase is to be mumbled on repeat - "the Kardashev scale, the Kardashev scale" - a buzzy concept in tech, much favoured by Elon Musk, and precisely the thing we've been waiting for. The Kardashev scale is the answer both to our impending doom and our anxiety around it - and if we decide to believe in the idea, we will not have to give the climate crisis a single thought until the last drip falls from the tap.

This is the idea and it's a familiar one to anyone who has watched tech billionaires take intractable, commonplace crises and decide that, among the measures and proposals in play, the vital missing ingredient so far has been them. Do you remember when the Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, rather than doing something quotidian and loserish like funding public education by ensuring that his company pays the same tax rate as regular Americans, decided instead that he'd reinvent preschools?

Or the Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, who also set up some schools - no expertise required, just a reach-for-the-stars attitude and a passion for change. At the risk of sounding callous, one might even put Steve Jobs's eschewing of traditional cancer treatment in this category; after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, the founder of Apple delayed surgery in favour of his own holistic and dietary remedies. None of these ventures has been successful.

We know what this is - the default belief held by tech billionaires that their particular brilliance is a kind of skeleton key for all human knowledge, past, present and future, rocket-fuelled by innovation and untethered from the limitations that come with the dull, plodding alternative: that of actually knowing stuff about a specialist subject. If they offer a magic bullet for any number of problems, the appeal to the rest of us is powerful. Who, among us, when booking a flight or glancing up at another cloudless sky, hasn't thought guiltily, oh, well, at some point someone will, like, invent a shield or something, and everything will turn out OK.

Which brings us to the Kardashev scale, named for the Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev, who in 1964 invented a rubric to measure the success of any civilisation based on its ability to harness

energy. Kardashev came up with a sliding scale of energy usage on which humanity had not reached even "type I" according to his measurements - because we can neither control the weather nor fully harness the energy of the sun. The highest level in this schema was a type III, which describes a civilisation that has harnessed the energy of the galaxy - and above that further theoretical levels, including a type IV (the energy of the universe) and type V (the multiverse) to hold up against our dimwit civilisation's current reliance on fossil fuels.

You can see why this appeals in Silicon Valley. The Kardashev scale has a kind of nostalgic futurism about it that will be familiar to any student of the space race or the works of L. Ron Hubbard, and leans on fun terms such as "galactic", "space-time" and "moon bases". If this isn't blue-sky thinking, I don't know what is, and Musk, SpaceX's chief executive, has launched into it. He has suggested that a natural implementation of Kardashev's ideas is to develop space infrastructure - in effect moving energy production "off-planet", along with orbital datacentres - by launching millions of units into orbit to better capture the energy of the sun.

It sounds super-cool. And while visionaries need vast ambition and an ability to withstand ridicule, these proposals demand a willing suspension of disbelief from us, too. If you don't, for instance, let your mind drift back to that time Musk had Tesla engineers design a tiny submarine to fetch those kids trapped in a cave, or to whatever it was he did at the US "department of government efficiency" (Doge) that everyone in the Republican party now seems keen to pretend never happened, you can persuade yourself that the creator of Starlink might be on to something. The Kardashev scale, the Kardashev scale - don't you feel better already?

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Letters

guardian.letters@theguardian.com

5

Established 1906

Country diary

Newton Flotman, Norfolk

The rural road is flanked with a bank of green fuzz. It's jungly and verdant - lush in a landscape that has turned brown and yellow from drought. I run my hand over the green birdies erupting from a bamboo-like stem.

Equisetum arvense, or field horsetail, looks fluffy, but it is wiry and rough. One could serve effectively as a toilet brush. The bristles are rich in abrasive silicon, which gives the texture of sandpaper. This explains another of equisetum's common names, scouring rush, from when it was used to clean wood and polish metal. If you are careful, a hollow jointed stem can be separated at its junction and then rejoined like children's tubular pipes for building, slotting back in a satisfying way.

Equisetum has been on Earth since before the dinosaurs. These flowerless plants were giant then, reaching more than 20 metres tall and probably the diet of herbivorous dinosaurs. To have persisted since prehistory, surviving mass extinction events, tells you plenty about its adaptability and resilience - features that also make it a successful if invasive weed.

Their ability to thrive despite the lack of rain here in the east tells of their aggressive underground network of rhizomes. This can reach metres deep and even spread beneath roads or foundations. They are difficult to eradicate, spreading rapidly by spores and invisibly underground. Luckily, this patch is harmless here, in the middle of nowhere. Equisetums don't damage trees, and their dense cover provides habitat for invertebrates such as weevils, sawfly larvae and many species of spider.

A passing driver looks at me strangely as I part the green fronds and stroke the wiry bristles. I've read that they can be used as a shine treatment for hair, because of the silicon. Could I boil them up, I wonder? I'm glad to live in this particular period of equisetum's history - a few hundred years ago, my fascination for strange plants and their hidden properties might have seen me persecuted as the village witch.

Whether you see it as a living fossil or an invasive weed, chances are it will be here for millions more years. As the planet burns, I find that thought, that endurance, somehow comforting.

Kate Blincoe

We may edit letters. Submission and publication of letters is subject to our terms and conditions: see theguardian.com/letters-terms

Food security is an issue we can no longer ignore

George Monbiot is right that Britain has become dangerously complacent about food security (Has drought-hit Britain planned for a food crisis? Not on your life, 14 August). A country facing climate shocks, disrupted trade routes and increasingly volatile harvests - all of which contribute to not only the availability of food but its increased cost - cannot rely indefinitely on just-in-time supply chains and supermarket logistics.

But strategic food reserves are only part of the answer. The other underused resource is our communities themselves. Research has shown that during floods, infrastructure failures and other emergencies, local groups, charities and neighbours are often the real first responders, stepping in long before formal systems can fully mobilise. Resilience is not just about what sits in a warehouse; it is about the strength of local networks, trusted relationships and the capacity of people to act together.

That is why food security should also be seen as a question of land use and reciprocal trust. Councils, NHS bodies, universities and other public institutions hold significant areas of underused land that could support community food-growing, local skills and stronger neighbourhood connections. Brilliant organisations such as Incredible Edible have proved this model can - and does - work. This land can and should

become civic infrastructure for food, nature and belonging.

The lesson of recent crises is not limited to questions about government stockpiling of food; it should also be about investing in building the long-term sustainable community capacity that helps people withstand shocks together.

Dan Farag Director of Innovation and practice, The Young Foundation

● George Monbiot accuses the British government of complacency over national food security. By coincidence, the day before his article appeared, the UN publicised the recently released 86-page report Roadmap for Resilience: A UK Food Plan for 2050 by UK Research and Innovation.

This detailed document provides foresight-based assessments of the national food situation and offers a palette of solutions to the problem of food security, supported by a significant amount of research. Interestingly, it does not mention stockpiling, Monbiot's suggested solution. Hence there seems to be a divergence of opinions on strategy.

Government bodies in the UK have been working on food security issues for decades. The silence of elected representatives is enigmatic because we don't know whether they have shelved the problem or simply left it to civil servants and researchers to deal with. A more

open debate, led by politicians, would help us assess whether the Food Plan for 2050 is wishful thinking or the answer to the problem, and whether stockpiling of food is likely to be any use.

David E Alexander Emeritus professor of emergency planning and management, UCL

● George Monbiot is right that Britain needs to take food security much more seriously, but stockpiling should be understood as part of a wider resilience strategy.

Switzerland offers a useful example. Its national economic supply system requires the private sector to maintain stocks of essential foodstuffs, amounting to several months' supply. Crucially, it also provides for stocks of agricultural inputs, including fertilisers. This recognises that if a crisis extends from weeks into whole growing seasons, national food security depends on being able to produce the next harvest.

However, stockpiles can only go so far. A government can preemptively fill silos with grain and still watch its population go hungry if electricity grids collapse or fuel supplies are severed. Food security ultimately depends on the complex web of energy, transport, water, communications and other infrastructure.

Britain should therefore ask not simply how much food we should stockpile, but what capabilities we need to preserve to keep people fed when the next crisis lasts longer than expected.

Antony So Contributor, Just in Case: Narrowing the Civil Food Resilience Gap, National Preparedness Commission

Screens can play a key role in the classroom

Your article buries the real story beneath the headline (Use of tech in schools harms children's learning, says expert, 15 August). Even Jared Cooney Horvath's own data, cited mid-article, shows that moderate school device use is associated with better outcomes than no device use at all - it is only the heaviest use daily that drags results down. That is a case for sensible integration, not blanket alarm.

The article's most significant omission is what technology

means for students with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), and for those learning English as an additional language.

With continual cuts to Send funding and learning-support staff, a single teacher cannot differentiate instruction for 20 children unaided. Assistive technology - text to speech, translation tools, audio versions of lesson content - is often the only thing that allows these students genuine access to the national curriculum.

Technology in moderation is an invaluable tool, but it shouldn't replace meaningful human interaction in the classroom. However, dismissing screen use entirely fails to recognise the crucial role that modern technology plays in equity, accessibility and basic school operations.

When used thoughtfully and purposefully, moderate educational technology does not diminish learning, it demonstrates it.

Charlotte Bleakley Teacher, Roding Valley high school, and digital lead at Chelmsford Learning Partnership

Stop brutal hysteroscopies without pain relief

I fully endorse everything Anna Moore writes in her excellent article on the lack of pain relief for hysteroscopies ('It was barbaric. I was crying my eyes out, 17 August).

I have had three of these barbaric procedures, two of them being associated with being on hormone replacement therapy (HRT). All three were administered with very basic pain relief, ie a small amount

of local anaesthetic, which I would compare to numbing a gum with a piece of ice and then proceeding with root canal treatment. I was offered a general anaesthetic on the third occasion, but this is way too much. At no point was anything else offered, like it is for colonoscopies.

I feel the system is biased against women. The hysteroscopies were much worse than childbirth for me

• it was zero dilation to full dilation in no time at all. As a result of my three awful experiences, I came off HRT, because I have no wish to experience this ever again.

In the 21st century, the NHS should be offering women a bit more than a paracetamol and the equivalent of a bit of ice. A bit of dignity would also help - a recovery space perhaps? Or even treat us like men who have colonoscopies.

Carole Kendall Letchworth, Hertfordshire

Corrections and clarifications

● Plans for an Anglo-German rail link do not include a direct train to Berlin, as an article said (Virgin Trains takes step closer to running service to Europe in blow to Eurostar, 18 August, p4)

● An article suggested that Harrogate was the smallest place to have hosted Eurovision; in fact, in 1993 the event was hosted in the Irish town of Millstreet, current population 1,722 (Bulgarians baffled, 18 August, p3).

Editorial complaints and corrections can be sent to guardian.maderez@theguardian.com or The readers' editor, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. You can also leave a voicemail on 020 3353 4758

Zero stars for those online rating pleas

To Stuart Heritage's excellent list of words to describe our tech dystopia (18 August), can I add "iRate"? This is when you make an online purchase and, even before you've had time to remove the packaging, receive an email asking "How was it for you?", followed by another a few days later if you fail to review every detail of the transaction, and then another, and another, until you're left wanting to throw your purchase and/or your laptop across the room.

Elli Woollard London

● Rather than criminalising parents who take their children on holiday during term time because it's much cheaper ('Cheap travel is not a defence': the parents facing court for school absences in England, theguardian.com, 15 August), why not address the blatant profiteering by travel firms charging inflated prices during school holidays?

Max Fishel Bromley, London

● Re kissing in the back row in the cinema (Letters, 17 August), my local cinema in the 60s, the Elysian in Cheadle Hulme, had double seats at the end of every row - and usherettes with very bright torches!

Trish Cockayne Lymm, Cheshire

● A friend who used to live in Barking (Report, 19 August) once referred to a mutual acquaintance as "a bit East Ham". I had to ask him what he meant, "One stop short of Barking," he replied.

Dr Glyn Thompson Leeds

● Richard Tice's answer to climate change is "Let them drink English sparkling wine" (Letters, 19 August). Is this what we might call champagne populism?

Martin Shipway Parly, France

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6

Obituaries

Mark Rydell

Actor and director whose films received more than 20 Oscar nominations between them

Stars flocked to work with the director Mark Rydell, who has died aged 97, and no wonder: he had trained as a performer alongside James Dean and Steve McQueen, later becoming west coast artistic co-director of the prestigious Actors Studio, while his movies notched up more than 20 Academy Award nominations between them.

Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn won best actor and actress Oscars respectively for his reflective, sentimental drama On Golden Pond (1981), which put Fonda, then a frail 75-year-old, on screen with his daughter Jane for the first and only time. Rydell received a best director nomination for the picture, which ruminated on the themes of family and mortality. "I'm attracted to

material that is substantial enough to deal with life and death issues," he said in 2001. "I don't like to waste my time with trivia."

Others who benefited from his expert direction included Bette Midler, who got her only best actress Oscar nominations after working with him on the musical dramas The Rose (1979) and For the Boys (1991), and James Franco, who won a Golden Globe for playing the title role in the TV movie James Dean (2001), in which Rydell had a small role as the studio boss Jack Warner.

Rydell believed all film-makers should try their hand at acting: "I think directors need to stay in touch with the agony of narcissism." He was as good as his word, continuing to act even once his directing career was in full swing. He played the gangster Meyer Lansky in his friend Sydney Pollack's drama Havana (1990) and a permanently smiling agent in

I can tell you without hesitation, none of my movies could be made in today's market

Woody Allen's comedy Hollywood Ending (2002). Towering above these was his indelible performance in Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) as a charming hoodlum who casually smashes a Coca-Cola bottle in his girlfriend's face. "I grew up in the Bronx," he said in 1981. "I know those street thugs."

Born in New York, he was raised in that area by his parents, Sidney, a stockbroker, and Evelyn, whose passion and talent for the piano rubbed off on him: Mortimer - a name that he traded for Mark early in his career - trained at the Juilliard School of Music under the great jazz pianist Teddy Wilson, then worked on the New York and Chicago club circuits for five years before abandoning that career to avoid the temptations of heroin. He served in the army and later won a scholarship for Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse, where

Rydell directing For the Boys, 1991, main image; and with John Cassavetes, left, and Sal Mineo, right, in The Streets, 1956 MONISTORE COLLECTION LTD/ALAMY

he studied alongside McQueen and was instructed in dance by Martha Graham. From there, he joined the Actors Studio and appeared with his classmate Dean in 1953 in a TV version of William Inge's play Glory in the Flower.

In Don Siegel's Crime in the Streets (1956), a drama about juvenile delinquency, Rydell acted alongside John Cassavetes and Sal Mineo. In the same year, he made his debut on the soap opera As the World Turns, where he had a recurring role for the next six years. The end of that job overlapped with his beginnings as a director. Pollack had already employed him as his assistant on the TV medical drama Ben Casey, and soon Rydell was calling the shots on episodes of that show, as well as other series such as Gunsmoke and I Spy.

He graduated to film with two literary adaptations: The Fox (1967), based on the DH Lawrence novella, and a version of William Faulkner's The Reivers (1969) starring McQueen. While shooting The Cowboys (1972) he reprimanded his star, John Wayne, in front of the entire cast and crew for calling "Action". Rather than being sacked as Rydell expected, he was instead congratulated by the actor for having had the guts to stand up to him. "He took to calling me 'Sir' for the rest of the picture."

Rydell made two consecutive pictures with James Caan - Cinderella Liberty (1973), and the period romp Harry and Walter Go to New York (1976) - before lobbying hard for Midler to be given the lead role in The Rose, despite her lack of acting experience.

Later films included The River (1984), a rural drama which gave Mel Gibson his first US role, and Intersection (1994), starring Richard Gere and Sharon Stone. For television, he directed Stephen Rea and Isabella Rossellini in Crime of the Century (1996), about the 1932 Lindbergh baby kidnapping case. His final movie was Even Money (2006) starring Kim Basinger and Forest Whitaker as gambling addicts. "Directing is a very paternal occupation," he said. "You have to lead [actors] in a way that they don't resent or rebel against."

But he confessed in 2001 that the film-making process had been "all uphill" for him since the mid-1970s. "I can tell you without hesitation, not one of my movies could be made in today's market. This is a time for special effects that substitute for human drama."

He is survived by Amy and Christopher, his children from his first marriage, to the actor Joanne Linville, which ended in divorce in 1973, and by his son Alexander from his second marriage, to the producer Esther Rydell, which ended in 2007, also in divorce.

Ryan Gilbey

Mark (Mortimer) Rydell, director, born 23 March 1929; died 13 August 2026

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obituaries@theguardian.com

7

Other lives

Hermione Carline

Textile designer and artist with a style that was neither fully abstract nor entirely representational My friend Hermione Carline, who has died aged 74, came from a long line of artists stretching back to the 19th century. But although she was an artist almost from birth, making just the sort of animal drawings and miniature books that remain a family tradition, she resisted following in the footsteps of her parents, the painters Richard Carline and Nancy Carline (nee Higgins), and began her career as a textile designer.

Born in London, Hermione grew up in Hampstead, in a house filled with old books, old furniture and old paintings by generations of Carlines. It was 'more like a museum than a house,' she said, and it left her 'craving the modern world'. After Hampstead school for girls, she studied fine art at Camberwell School of Art, followed by an MA in textile design at the Royal College of Art from 1974 to 1977.

She took a first job at the Bodansky and Dickinson studio in 1979 and then co-founded The Collection in the early 1980s, producing fabric designs for Nicole Farhi in London, Dior and Ungaro in Paris and Donna Karan in New York, travelling the world to sell them. It was around this time that she met Philip Hunter; they married in 1981 and had three children.

Birthdays

Amy Adams, actor, 52; Sophie Aldred, actor and broadcaster, 64; Leonard Barden, chess player and writer, 97; Ben Barnes, actor, 45; Amanda Berry, former chief executive, Bafta, 65; Jamie Cullum, jazz musician and radio presenter, 47; Lord (Nigel) Dodds of Duncairn, former Democratic Unionist MP, 68; Fred Durst, singer, 56; John Embury, cricketer, 74; Dame Anne Evans, soprano, 85; Sir Roger Gale, Conservative MP, 83; Ralf Hütter, musician, 80; Don King, boxing promoter, 95; Alan Lee, book illustrator and film designer, 79; Lord (Gus) Macdonald, former Labour minister, 86; Tom Mangold, broadcaster, 92; Sylvester McCoy, actor, 83; Sir Robin Niblett, former director, Chatham House, 65; Robin Oakley, journalist, 85; Robert Plant, singer and songwriter, 76; Scott Quinnell, rugby player, 54; Lady (Janet) Royall of Blaisdon, former leader of the House of Lords, 71; Nat Sciver-Brust, England cricket captain, 34; Maxim Vengerov, violinist, 52.

Hermione was proud of her family history and when I met her in 2022 it was to interview her for a newspaper feature on Those Remarkable Carlines, an exhibition at Burgh House, Hampstead, featuring four generations of the family, including Hermione and two of her daughters, Madeleine and Josie.

The exhibition took its title from Henry Lamb's description of the Carline siblings - fellow painters Sydney, Hilda and Hermione's father Richard - who all attended the Slade School in the first decades of the 20th century, and whose family home in Hampstead was, in the years after the first world war, a gathering place for artists including Lamb, Stanley Spencer, and Paul and John Nash.

Hermione shared her father's passion for travel, and like him she was an inspiring and dedicated

teacher. She gave art classes from her south London home from when her children were small, and at one point took six children's and two adult classes a week (the classes continue, taught by two of Hermione's daughters and a former pupil).

In 2004 she returned to oil painting, developing a distinctive style in which vells of colour evoke myriad light effects, in paintings that are neither fully abstract nor entirely representational, and retain a structure and fluidity evocative of textiles. She exhibited widely, including with the Turps Art School, and the UNPRIMED Collective that grew out of it, and carried out projects with Claridge's hotel and Visto Images.

She is survived by Philip, their daughters, Madeleine, Josie and Isabel, and grandsons, Freddie and Theo.

Florence Hallett

Hermione Carline in front of her painting Radiant Sky

Margaret Levy

Teacher who initiated the first 'return to study science' course, aimed at mature women My mother, Margaret Levy, who has died aged 97, was a gifted scientist, a dedicated teacher and the driving force behind internationally recognised core skills and work-based learning projects. She recognised that, in the 1950s and 60s, education and training for over 165 short-changed many young school-leavers; her life's work was to do something about it.

Born in Chigwell, Essex, to Winifred (nee Asser), and Albert Snazell, a corn and seed merchant, Margaret spent her early life in Southend-on-Sea. During the second world war she was evacuated to Claygate, Surrey, and studied at the Tiffin girls' school in Kingston.

On returning to Southend, she attended Westcliff high school for girls, and was head girl. She met her future husband, Arthur Levy, when she was 16. He became a civil servant, working at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food. They

married in 1948 when Margaret was 20. She graduated from King's College London in 1952 with a science degree and received a master's in crystallography from Birkbeck, University of London, in 1955. She gave birth to my elder sister, Margi, in 1951 while still at university, which was very much frowned upon, due to strict administrative regulations.

She went on to teach

A-level chemistry, physics and mathematics at Southwark College, south London, from 1958 until 1978. Many young women would tell her that 'girls can't do science'. It was Margaret who showed them that they could; they did, and secured good, better-paid jobs too. When Arthur died in 1976, Margaret decided to leave teaching and redirected her energy into

Peter O'Callaghan

Housing association executive at the centre of the early movement to tackle homelessness As a young man, my friend Peter O'Callaghan, who has died aged 82, had his heart set on being a priest, but after five years in a seminary decided it was not his calling and instead dedicated his life to helping homeless people.

From the late 1960s, as head of the emergency department of the pioneering housing charity Shac (the London Housing Aid Centre), directed by Father Paul Byrne, Peter was at the heart of the movement, undertaking detailed casework and building bridges between radical campaigns, housing charities and councils who wanted to tackle homelessness and bad conditions in the private rented sector.

In the mid-70s he moved on to run Brent Housing Aid Centre, before becoming assistant director of housing at Hammersmith and Brent councils in the 80s. Over the following two decades he served as chief executive of Patchwork Housing Association and then the Brent Irish Advisory Service.

Born in Cork, Ireland, Peter was the son of Pauline (nee Donovan) and James O'Callaghan, a bank manager, who had eight children; Peter was the second eldest of the six who survived early childhood. Due to his father moving frequently for work, Peter attended several

educational research and vocational training policy, and initiated the first 'return to study science' course, aimed at mature women.

In 1981 she was headhunted by the Manpower Services Commission, and the following year became director of the Core Skills Project, which was supported by the European Social Fund.

Margaret's aim was to bridge the gap between policy direction and implementation. She had a fiercely independent spirit, a quick wit and a sense of fairness. These qualities made her memorable; her kindness made her loved.

In 2002 she moved to Kingston, which is close to my home. There she got involved in a local residents' group, Friends of Latchmere Recreation Ground, championing a right of way near her house and taking on Kingston council, to stop the building of a sports pavilion.

Margi died in 2013. Margaret is survived by me, four grandchildren, a great-grandchild, and her longtime companion, Jim Ray.

secondary schools, the last being Knockbeg college, on the County Laois-Carlow border.

Peter then began training for the priesthood at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, County Kildare; he later told stories of being reprimanded for one misdemeanour or another. After leaving he completed a teacher training course at University College Cork. In 1968 he moved to London, where he began working with homeless Irish emigrants through the Catholic Housing Association Society (Chas).

The following year he began working at Shac with Byrne. Together with Shelter, Chas and others, Shac's advocacy for homeless people ultimately led to the transformational 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act that is still the basis for homelessness legislation today.

I knew Peter as a close friend working in the same sector. As a manager he was inspirational, and he felt most fulfilled helping people in housing need.

Known for his quick wit, warmth and humour, as well as his fabled speeches and storytelling, he saw the good in everyone.

While working at Shac, he met Lesley Williams, who became a psychotherapist, and they married in 1972. They settled in Queen's Park, north-west London, where they raised their twins, Kate and Tim. After retirement in 2010 Peter and Lesley moved to Devizes, Wiltshire. In his final years Peter lived with dementia and Parkinson's disease.

He is survived by Lesley, Tim and Kate, a granddaughter, Louise, and two brothers, Ivor and Niall.

Announcements

Birthdays

FRINCH, Peter, 70 today! A very happy birthday from all the family. Enjoy your day. 'Up till now, everything has been satisfactory.'

Deaths

ROGERS, James Christian Maxwell, The funeral of James Rodgers, 60, who died on 1 August 2026, will take place at St Leonards Church, South Stoke, Arundel at 1pm on 24 August. Donations in his memory can be sent to the Samaritans.

For Announcements, Acknowledgments, Adoptions, Anniversaries, Birthdays, Births, Deaths, Engagements, Memorial Services and in Memoriam, email us at announcement@theguardian.com including your name, address and telephone number or phone 0203 353 2114.

Reed our obituaries of the businessman and philanthropist Sir Christopher Ondaatje, the actor Cheryl Hall, and the ceramics designer David Quemoberry theguardian.com/obituaries

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8

Puzzles

Yesterday's solutions

Killer sudoku Easy

5	4	3	2	9	6	8	1	7
8	9	7	5	4	1	2	6	3
2	1	6	7	3	8	9	4	5
4	6	8	3	7	9	1	5	2
7	2	1	6	8	5	4	3	9
9	3	5	1	2	4	7	8	6
3	8	4	9	5	2	6	7	1
1	5	2	4	6	7	3	9	8
6	7	9	8	1	3	5	2	4

Medium

6	7	9	4	2	3	1	8	5
2	3	1	9	5	8	7	4	6
8	5	4	6	1	7	9	2	3
1	8	2	3	7	5	6	9	4
7	9	3	8	6	4	5	1	2
5	4	6	2	9	1	3	7	8
4	6	8	1	3	9	2	5	7
3	1	7	5	8	2	4	6	9
9	2	5	7	4	6	8	3	1

Codeword

L	E	S	S	C	O	W	A	R	D	L	Y
A	T	T	E	N	H	U	U	R
A	T	T	E	N	D	I	N	M	U	N	E
E	V	V	A	A	R	R	G
I	N	T	E	G	R	A	L	A	P	E	X
S	S	D			H	E
L	I	D	O	W	H	I	P	L	A	S	H
O	R	R	I	N	A	O
I	N	J	E	C	T	E	D	R	L	U	R
A	T
F	O	R	M	I	N	S	K	R	T	B	E
N	N	A	E	C	A	I	B	R
R	I	K	I	N	I	D	A	N	O	L	E
O	Z	S	A	L	T	E	E
U	N	S	E	E	M	L	Y	H	I	D	E

Cryptic crossword Solution No. 30,080

H	L	B	P	H	O	S	S
T	O	E	E	C	A	S	S
O	O	S	S	L	U	C	C
A	N	O	N	E	I	S	A
T				A	U	R	L
R	A	V	I	W	H	I	N
A	L
H	L
L
N
S
N
S
N
S
N
S
N
S
N

Looking for more?

Download the Guardian app for more puzzles, including our new Premier League game, On the Ball, and our movie quiz, Film Reveal. Plus clues and answers to all our interactive crosswords and sudoku. Available in the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Killer sudoku

Easy

The normal rules of sudoku apply: fill each row, column and 3x3 box with all the numbers from 1 to 9. In addition, the digits in each inner shape (marked by dots) must add up to the number in the top corner of that box. No digit can be repeated within an inner shape.

23				6			9		20
18			23	21			13
	21			17			7
15								22
		3		23				8
	14	8			17		17
		7	7					7
14			17				10
	14			10				12

Medium

16	13			22			11		11
	26		21				21
				10				3
	9				23		7
13	21		12				6
					8			16
19				11			20
21		10	10				8	16
			19

Codeword

Each letter of the alphabet makes at least one appearance in the grid, and is represented by the same number wherever it appears. The letters decoded should help you to identify other letters and words in the grid.

	3		3		19	2	19	1	22	11	4	22
7	16	3	10	4	3		1		16		22
	2		13		3	11	19	3	22	11	13	1
13	19	1	5		4		4		18		20
2			6	7	22	19	5		7			12
3	11	1	13	10		20	13	6	7	3	13	13
1		4		13		15				19		7
19	15	9		20	1	4	23	3		4	15	9
2		13				1		11		2		19
22	7	2	23	16	26	13		19	26	3	13	1
13			19		9	1	4	2	3			20
	17		26		1		2		19	10	19	24
12	16	2	22	3	16	1	13		2		25
	4		4		2		9	16	21	21	5	13
26	3	1	19	4	14	11	3		19		13

Guardian cryptic crossword No 30,090 set by Brendan

3	2	3	4	5	8	7	8
9			10
11					12
		14	15		19
16	17
18
21		22	23
25				24
27			25

Want more? Get access to more than 4,000 puzzles at theguardian.com/crossword. To buy puzzle books, visit guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 332 6846.

Across

1 Crazy MAGA ran America as a repeated crime, for instance (7) 5 Traumatized son held by uncle outside (7) 9 Compose crosswords at home to become established (3,2) 10 River plant may spread in profusion (9) 11 Closely observing vote in favour, with subsequent outcry heard (10) 12 ... is 21 reversed? So it is! (4) 14 Kind of setter one's figured out? Produced solution again (11) 18 Angry outburst about small fight (5,6) 21 Turn back on monster (4) 22 Nothing in numbers is changed as result of moving 15 (10) 25 Like the most one can do, in terms of manual employment (3-6) 26 Program's producer, person able to handle Morse, say (5) 27 Rector having letter forwarded? It's about one name for God (7) 28 Solidly constructed - one's mad to change it (7)

Down

1 Something solvers may lack - and so were not finished (6) 2 Part of bloomer in Guardian? There you have it (6) 3 Happens to meet - as any

intersecting answer here does (4,6)

4 Good lesson as example of double definition (5) 5 About negative introduction, admission of meanie who delivers jabs? (9) 6 Get across what's central to crossword? Separate out valuable bits (4) 7 Excel on course in skill, not in approach (8) 8 In part of Florida, wife or daughter located crucial elements (3,5) 13 Builds lead in constituency, embraced by Tory supporters (10) 15 Doctor's beginning new round, confused and extremely distant (4,5) 16 Wordplay known to Greeks, Socratic sort (8) 17 Little Women, for example, in half a reel? (8) 19 Like certain answers in relation to clues, some of which I'd denigrate (6) 20 Girl's name forming part of solution (6) 23 Way to address lady in Mother's Union (5) 24 Endure like this clue (4)

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Life & Arts

Thursday 20 August 2026

'Are you ready for some filth?'

The smuttiest shows!

The wildest character comics!

The funniest jokes!

Welcome to the Edinburgh fringe 2026

The Guardian

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PASS NOTES Nº 5,037

Açaí

Age: First imported to western countries from South America as freeze-dried pulp in the 1990s. Appearance: A small, dark-purple berry, or a purée made from them, commonly used in smoothies. It has bits coming off it. Sorry? There's a sort of chin whiskers hanging from the "c" and something weird is going on with the dot over the "T". Those are accents, designed to help you pronounce the word correctly. They're no help to me. That could explain why açaí is the most mispronounced word in the UK, often rendered in speech as "ack-eye" or "ah-sigh".

How should I be saying it? "Ah-sigh-ee".

Seriously? Açaí is just the tip of the iceberg. It tops a new list of 20 commonly mispronounced words. What are some others? Quinoa came fourth; grocchi came fifth; chipotle was seventh.

Are you sure this isn't a list of Britain's least-ordered menu items? Not all the words on the list are foods. Segue, often mispronounced "seeg" instead of "segway", was second. Worcestershire came sixth.

What? Knowing how to pronounce Worcestershire is the only advantage Britons have over the rest of the world. Those days are over.

Who came up with this list? It's from a recent poll of 2,000 people commissioned by Skoda.

Why would a Czech car company care how I pronounce chipotle? I think it is trying to make a point because Skoda is often mispronounced as "scooter" rather than "shkoda". And, obviously, it's a publicity thing.

Does Skoda think it's good publicity to humiliate us? Beneath the confusion over imported foodstuffs and the never-ending debate about how to say gif, it does seem that an identity crisis is unfolding.

What do you mean? We have forgotten that some peculiar pronunciations make English a nightmare for foreigners.

Can you give me an example? The word colonel came 15th in the poll. Some people think it's pronounced as it is spelt, when it should be pronounced "kernel", which isn't how it is spelt.

Ludicrous. And some of those polled mistakenly pronounced "squirrel" as a single-syllable word to rhyme with "girl", instead of a two-syllable word that doesn't rhyme with anything.

I'm sure we can find something it rhymes with. Good luck with that.

I have one more, slightly embarrassing question ... It's pronounced "chi-poht-lay".

Do say: "There once was a man from Wirral / Who woke up in bed with a squirrel ..."

Don't say: "Do you have any blueberries?"

Polly Hudson

I live to declutter - and I won't let my husband get in the way

Older doesn't always mean wiser. Jo Whiley has spoken about a home hack she picked up from Dame Judi Dench, and I'm opposed to it with every fibre of my being. Whiley is in a new phase - her four children are grownup - so she recently began the most satisfying project of all: a decluttering spree. Hard even to type those words without a shiver of anticipation. Trigger warning for fellow neat freaks, though: this anecdote does not end well.

Whiley went to interview Dench for her RHS Roots podcast and found the actor's house "packed with family photographs, children's drawings and memories everywhere". Mind-blowingly, she means this as a positive. "Seeing Judi's reminded me that lived-in spaces are often the most beautiful because they reflect a lifetime of love, family and shared experiences," she says. "I suddenly thought: 'Why am I putting all these things away?'" As soon as I got home, I immediately put all the family photographs back out. TLDR: I cleaned up and then I made it all messy again. Shudder.

This sorry tale could be viewed as a recluttering, but instead it's called reverse decluttering - and it's a trend. Give me strength. It's backed up by a review article from Current Opinion in Psychology, which determined that - duly - some objects help to bring significant memories to mind. Another study found that possessions could evoke pride. What, more pride than tidiness? Nothing matters more than that. Decluttering is the heroin of housework - in its addictiveness, that is. In every other way, it's the opposite of heroin - it will make your life better and you'll never be sorry you tried it. I live to declutter. It cleanses not only your environment, but also your mind, body and soul. I'm prepared to keep a capsule collection of essential items - everything else is to be chucked out, sometimes while someone is still using it, if they pause for long enough. I'm like a snake, constantly shedding skin and donating it to the charity shop.

Because fate has a sense of humour, I accidentally married

a hoarder. The following sounds like hyperbole, but the man has never thrown anything away. If at any point since birth he was given or bought it, he still has it. He has every laptop he's ever owned, even though all but the one he uses no longer work, which is why he begrudgingly replaced them. He has clothes from his schooldays, including a T-shirt that hasn't fitted him for decades and resembles a cobweb because of the ratio of hole to material. If a member of his family ever touched it - even an individual he never met, even if it is ugly, broken, useless or all three - he intends to take it to his grave.

He has a mustard cravat that also smells like mustard, despite many spins in the washing machine, which belonged to a great-great-aunt's husband's brother. You'd be amazed how few occasions call for a cravat, unless you assumed it was none at all. My husband is like a bird refusing to budge from its nest because it's fiercely protecting eggs, but instead of eggs it's nonfunctional laptops, antique T-shirts and a pungent cravat.

Clearly, snakes and birds are not natural bedfellows, which is why our relationship is an endless argument about whether his items have been innocently mislaid (by him) or secretly disposed of (by me). If he hears about reverse decluttering, it's all over for me. To continue the snake metaphor too far, I won't have a leg to stand on. We recently had a lengthy, passionate debate over a stone; I won only on a technicality (he couldn't name the beach it was from before the buzzer went). The route out of our house is a one-way street and there's a no-returns policy. If he even tries to mess with the system, I'll unhinge my jaw and swallow him whole.

◀ Wouldn't it all look better in the bin?

3

Why French Sundays are the key to happiness

They know what they're doing when it comes to kissing, toast and horns, so get ready for a French Sunday. A new theory suggests that embracing this intriguing-sounding strategy from across the Channel might just be the secret to life, and, more importantly, to dreading Monday less.

Apparently in France the Sabbath really is a complete day of rest; not for the French any running of errands, cleaning or batch cooking. Rather than trying to do everything, they do absolutely nothing. And the hypothesis is that the French Sunday - or le dimanche français, as nobody is calling it - is transformative, and stamps out the Sunday Scaries for good.

The idea of being deliberately unproductive is certainly a tempting one. It feels bold and controversial because it's the antithesis of the modern way of life, where we attempt to cram as much as we can into every single second, all aiming to become the most efficient, effective, prolific versions of ourselves. Sacré bleu, exhausting! No wonder we're not looking forward to climbing back on the hamster wheel when Monday comes around; we haven't given ourselves a break, in either sense.

A French Sunday is basically laziness rebranded. It's not a waste of a day, you're not being slothful; what you are doing instead is staving off burnout and recharging. Instead of running yourself ragged trying to wring the most out of the weekend, you're sleeping in, vegging out, relaxing, lolling, pottering, while thinking chic thoughts, or whatever. Perhaps reading a bit, although holding a book takes a lot of energy, so caution is advised.

The only potential pitfall with the French Sunday is that you could end up enjoying it too much, climbing too enthusiastically on board and trying to extend it beyond the weekend. I can't imagine many bosses would approve a proposal to introduce a company-wide French Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but, you know, God loves a trier. Bonne chance with that.

COPIES PHOTOGRAPH: MERRY BALLENSTEIN/GOBRIAN

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The Guardian G2 Thursday 20 August 2026

4

Edinburgh 2026

From the side-splitting to the heart-wrenching

Comedy, drama, dance and more: the Edinburgh fringe has something for every taste. But what stands out in this year's 4,206 shows? Kicking off this six-page special, four character comics tell how they created their alter egos

Emine Saner

Katie Pritchard is Sir Elton Scone

In the Covid lockdowns, I was drawing all these silly things, and one day I drew Elton John as a scone. It brought me lots of joy. I love Elton John and everything he's about - his music and his outfits - and my first job as a musician was in a bar in Soho, where I used to play his back catalogue. I turned the drawing into a very silly character, just for my enjoyment.

I didn't think anything of it until last year, when I was talking to my friend, the amazing drag artist Michael Twaits, and mentioned Sir Elton Scone. He was, like, 'you need to develop that.' The character has evolved, but he's still true to his roots in that it's basically a bit like Elton John - but

▲ Katie Pritchard ... 'I love Elton John and everything he's about'

obviously for legal reasons, nothing like Elton John - and he just loves to bake. He's hosting a TV baking gameshow that uses no ovens, so it's completely nonsensical. It's become really fun because audiences understand how a TV studio audience reacts, so it's a clear game for them to play.

I thought if I was coming at it as drag, what would I perceive to be very 'masculine' traits to put into the character? For me, it was manspreading and making people move out the way for me. I realised when I'm backstage I'm constantly trying to not be in the way, and I'm only 5ft tall, so I thought, let's play with the opposite of that. If I am taking up this much space, what comes with that is more confidence, so I made this giant

character - giant hands, a big chef's hat, the suit jacket twice the width of my shoulders. Although if I could go back to last March, when I bought some velvet curtains from a charity shop in Wales to make the suit, I wish I could tell myself: in the run-up to Edinburgh, you're going to have to preview this show in 30C heat.

Previous characters I've done include someone who sang hip-hop songs, opera style - but I found it very restrictive. I feel like a baking-themed Elton John is more free. That's been a really joyful part of it as well. It has sparked so many ideas.

Katie Pritchard Is Sir Elton Scone is at Hoots @ Nicolson Square until 30 August.

Sam Eley is Basil Crumbwick

I started doing standup 10 years ago, and got a bit sick of writing normal jokes. The standups I liked were absurd and surreal. I started a Twitter account called Basil Crumbwick with no intention or really knowing what I was doing, and I would tweet out weird nonsensical things, a kind of free-writing exercise. It turned into this character of this horrible old man. If anyone tried to follow it, I blocked them. It was very much for me and just this experiment I was

doing for my own amusement. He had to be the most weird, confused, un-self-aware person imaginable, and I think an older British man is a good way of getting to that. He exists in a very small world, but it's all filtered through a lot of absurdity and surrealism. Whether that's his delusion or whether he just actually exists in this insane, cartoon world is for the audience to decide.

I'm 7ft tall with Crumbwick's head on. Because I'm not an actor, and the character was built through this anonymous Twitter account, it felt right to have the anonymity of a big papier-mache head. I knew

▼ Hudson Hughes as Rev Derek Gritt. His act includes an animatronic coffin

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Thursday 20 August 2026 The Guardian G2

5

'I've done standup and I don't think I've got anything interesting to say'

about a monk who kills a witch. She comes back to life three nights in a row, and he's got to preside over the last rites. I don't know why, but when I watched that, I thought: I could do that, but as a comedy.

I initially wrote pages of ideas, and then I got a bit stuck. I just couldn't figure out what the character would be, so I shelved it for about a year. Then I must have been watching something with TV presenters Richard Madeley, Alan Titchmarsh or Anton Du Beke, and I thought, this is who he is. I find something funny about them - they're middle-aged men who wear foundation.

So Derek is a vicar, but he's also a TV celebrity. The audience are his old parish that he hasn't been back to for 20 years. He treats them terribly, like they're country bumpkins, practically medieval, and he can be extremely condescending to them. There's a veneer of charm that I think is quite funny, and I think he does genuinely try to be friendly, but he's also quite sneering.

The show has a lot of electronic props, including an animatronic coffin which is controlled remotely - I studied electrical engineering at university - mainly to advance the horror rather than the comedy.

I'm not really interested in being myself on stage. I've done standup a couple of times and I don't think I've got anything interesting to say. It's so much easier to put words into someone else's mouth and figure out who the character is. When you're playing a character, you can be a lot less self-aware. I like high drama, and being theatrical. I find character comedy more surprising as well. I know a lot of clowns, and I definitely draw stuff from that. In standup, unless you're doing audience interaction, most of the time you're talking about stuff happening elsewhere and getting

the audience to imagine it, whereas with clowning, and with character comedy, it's all about what's happening in the room. Hudson Hughes: At Your Service is at Underbelly, Cowgate, until 30 August

Anna Leong Brophy is Born Sexy Yesterday

The seed of the show came from a podcast I used to do with my comedy partner, Emily Lloyd-Saini, where we reviewed the Luc Besson film The Fifth Element, and the concept of Born Sexy Yesterday came up. It was first identified by writer Jonathan McIntosh. He noticed this theme, particularly in sci-fi, of a powerful alien or an otherworldly entity deposited into the body of, usually, a 19-year-old model who has a lot of attributes men value - martial arts or gun-fighting skills - but is completely naive to the human world. Which means as soon as she meets any man, often an extremely mediocre man, she thinks he is the most wise, amazing person ever, just because he's shown her what pizza is.

She's unaware of her physical beauty, so she might accidentally take her top off, because what's the big deal? It's this worrying concept that men are so desperate to feel unthreatened that they actually want the mind of a baby in the body of a sexually active woman, whereas no woman would fantasise about having a baby deposited into a man's body. She lives in the same world as the manic pixie dream girl, and the girl next door, and all these tropes. I started seeing her everywhere, and I also realised that I had really bought into this idea of a woman having to be profoundly naive, but also incredibly strong and kick ass.

I went with what immediately occurred to me as a 'sexy alien'. Initially, she was blue, but after several shows of painting myself and the resulting skin problems, she's no longer blue. But she has that smooth alien otherness while still being very human that I associate with characters like Leeloo in the Fifth Element - the sci-fi bottle.

I have an acting background and I'm always drawn to performing rather than telling. The show is essentially about inequalities that I see or experience day to day, but no one wants to sit in the dark for an hour to be ranted at. You can push it really far by parodying, for example, the tropes. It feels like these stories we're all told, men included. We've all bought into them because that's the water we've been swimming in. But it's interesting to lift the lid, and it feels like the audience all does that at the same time.

I've played fantasy characters in TV and film - as a mixed-race person who is often viewed as 'other', it's a natural casting place where people want to put me. This show gives me the opportunity to play multiple characters, including all the characters I don't get cast as. I can play a man, I can play Leonardo DiCaprio. I get to make this show, play the roles and flex the muscles that I never get to flex. The joy of self-creation. Anna Leong Brophy: Born Sexy Yesterday is at Pleasance Courtyard until 30 August

Ten of the best jokes at the festival

Heard the ones about margarine and magicians? You will, and plenty more ...

Olaf Falafel

I remember thinking, as I taped a piranha to my boomerang, this could come back to bite me.

Richard Stott

To the person who stole my bank card and spent all my money on ancestry.com - you know who you are.

Scout Boxall

I like my men like I like my passwords - weak, easily compromised, barely distinguishable from each other.

Li Jin Hao

A friend said to me, 'The last thing I wanna be is racist,' and I was like: 'Oh, so it's on your list?'

Jenny Gorelick

I dated a magician - I was seeing him, now I don't.

Chris Grace

The Trump administration is like the film Oppenheimer. It's full of weird white guys and halfway through you wish it would end early.

Bella Hull

I lost my nail file, so I've just been using the pavement. As a method, it's concrete.

Anna Thomas

I'm having an awful time at the moment. The back of my car fell off and you'll never guess what you can't buy at a car boot sale.

Alex Kitson

I spent all day writing a joke about margarine and I can't believe it's not better.

Adele Cliff

I hate Al because it keeps trying to steal the jobs I love, like creative writing and being confidently wrong.

people would say, 'Are you doing Frank Sidebottom?' I think Frank Sidebottom's great, but I wouldn't say this was inspired by him and I'm doing quite a different thing.

This is now the third head I've made. It's really hot and because I can't see very well, I'm constantly bumping into things, banging my head or falling over. He's such an angry character that when I, as a performer, am suffering, it ends up fitting him quite well.

Basil says horrible things. I've written routines where he says xenophobic, sexist and homophobic things, and I don't want to shy away from that and what people like him are like, but there's a satirical side to the show. You let the audience figure out what your angle is, and different people interpret it in different ways. That gives you more creative freedom. But it can be tricky being a performer who wants to be liked, playing the least likable man in the world. Sam Eley Is Basil Crumbwick: Soul Sewage is at Monkey Barrel Comedy until 30 August.

Hudson Hughes is Rev Derek Gritt

I started with the idea of this horror story, based on Viy, a Ukrainian film - and the first officially sanctioned horror film in the Soviet Union -

▲ Sam Eley as Basil Crumbwick: 'I'm 7ft tall with my head on'

▼ Anna Leong Brophy channels her kick-ass sexy alien

PHOTOGRAPHS: HUDSON HUGENS/STOTT COOK/STOTT

---

6

Edinburgh 2026

'This used to be a place to mess around'

The fringe has always been known for its willingness to take risks. But have rising costs and commercialisation destroyed its radical spirit?

Arifa Akbar

Somewhere in Edinburgh, a man is drinking his own urine. Elsewhere, the story of a religious sect that commands its followers to use 'butt plugs' plays out as a musical. In yet another room, a comedian sings the same song over and over for an hour.

It is shown like these that have sustained the welcomingly weird and ungovernable lore of the Edinburgh festival fringe. In recent years, though, the annual jamboree has been accused of becoming an increasingly commercially savvy entity. The radical experimentalism might just be intact, but does this now sit at the fringes of the fringe, rather than its centre?

Francesca Moody, one of the festival's superproducers, says that putting on a show here has become increasingly expensive. When she produced Phoebe Waller-Bridge's stage version of Fleabag in 2013, it cost about £10,000. By 2019, when she co-produced Richard Gadd's Baby Reindeer, it cost about £40,000. Putting on a one-person show now, she says, costs her closer to £100,000. The reasons for this, which have been well reported, include soaring accommodation costs, funding cuts and rising production costs. Some have argued that this might dial down the risky spirit on which the fringe was founded. The ethos was different when the financial risks were not as high, says Moody. 'It was a space for messing around and building your craft, your sense of taste. As a producer or as an artist, you're working out what your voice is, and doing that over a number of years.'

Artists and producers may now want more out of it too: to be scouted for the big time with a transfer to London or, the ultimate

◀ Gore-fest ... Georgina Collins in Succubus, a one-woman horror show

dream, a television series in the mould of Fleabag or Baby Reindeer. Some high-profile productions have lined up transfers before their shows debut at the fringe. The Australian writer-performer Hannah Reilly's show Roleplay, about a woman who becomes a 'slutfluencer' - which is also produced by Moody - already has a London transfer. As does Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It, featuring a clown duo who cause chaos in their town after faking Bigfoot sightings. Elsewhere, the musical Bliss, which turns the traditional fairytale story on its head, will travel to London with the backing of the entertainment company ATG.

Moody believes the low-budget gems are still out there though. Comedian and fellow fringe veteran Rory Bremner agrees. Although he is a big name at the festival, with his latest show, Making an Impression, playing at the 1,000-seater McEwan Hall, he still likes to test out 'work-in-development' material alongside new, unknown acts. 'It's an opportunity to try stuff that I've written in the last couple of days,' he says. These below-the-radar gigs take place in pubs or tents, sometimes containing as few as six people in the audience and

often raising money for charity. Moody thinks small-scale, risk-taking work will find a home at the fringe because people are 'hungry' for it. 'There is always going to be a weird, idiosyncratic little show in a back room or basement that people discover at the fringe. It's just about finding it.'

So off I go on my very own theatrical odyssey to discover the 'fringe of the fringe' and find an interactive act with a surprising degree of danger attached. Truthmachine plays out in an upstairs room of the city's Quaker Meeting House and is produced by the Australian company Counterpilot. A maximum of 12 people at any one time sign up to a 30-minute participatory show with a lie detector test at its heart. If that exudes Jeremy Kyle vibes, it proves much more thoughtful and transgressive than the gimmick it first appears to be. We are seated before our own voting machines for a warm-up, in which people are selected at random, put under a spotlight and asked to state 'yes' or 'no' to questions that range from the conceptual ('has capitalism failed?') to the icky ('have you ever touched yourself at night?'). It has an interrogatory feel, as exposing as a game of spin the bottle, but with

strangers. I find myself wondering what might come next, and where the nearest exits are.

There is no time to escape because, before you can say 'polygraph machine', one of us is chosen to be strapped up to one. It is hardly coercive - the lie detector test is the basis on which we have all convened - but I still grow edgy. A young woman is chosen and begins boldly answering questions that become more intimate while her heartbeat and other biological measurements are taken, giving us the probability of her telling a lie as a percentage. 'Have you ever had a sexual dream about a family member?' she is asked. I feel everyone in the room wince. Then: 'Have you had a sexual experience in public?' 'Did you enjoy it?' 'Did you want to get caught?' There are existential inquiries too: 'Do you think you will get what you want?' 'Can everyone be forgiven?'

Things have turned a shade Black Mirror, it seems. This is not so much a playful game of truth or dare as a carefully orchestrated experiment around group dynamics and exposure. What are we prepared to share? What will we hide from others? What brings up shame or social inadequacy? I am surprised by how relieved I am not to be the person strapped up to the biometric sensors, but also how much my discomfort tells me about myself.

I come out blinking into the daylight and head to Succubus, a one-woman horror show that features a trigger warning of cannibalism. A debut written and acted by burlesque performer Georgina Collins (AKA Strawberry Duval), it was inspired partly by her experience with doctors dismissing her medical symptoms as 'hormonal issues'. The play touches on medical misogyny but in dark, satirical ways, its social commentary as sharp-fanged as the female killer at its centre. Its conspicuously low-budget set design adds to its semblance of a B-movie feminist horror gore-fest, especially its props, which include a string of fake sausages representing human intestines.

Succubus is performed at the 60-seater Dexter stage at the Underbelly and is packed on the day I attend. Directed by Grainne Robson, it is not just an imaginative take on the notion of the monstrous feminine but finely crafted in its writing. Emily Ritchie and Zara Jayant, former theatre publicists, are its producers. 'When we started the company, there were so many

'There is always going to be a weird little show in a back room or basement'

artists whose only resort was to wait for the door to open. We thought: 'Why not build the door ourselves?' says Jayant. Succubus was financed on a profit-share model, its £6,500 budget raised through crowdfunding, a supper-club, a horror-themed film quiz night, a burlesque cabaret night and a raffle.

The night show at Summerhall Arts is another horror, in the shape of Bunny! It is the name of Craig Manson's drag after ego, who emerges in a blond wig and gold dress with tufts of chest hair peeping from beneath. The self-produced show is gloriously scrappy but with a serious sting. Bunny is a struggling performer, desperate for a breakthrough after a decade of rejections and living in penury. In real life, Manson has been vocal about the state of arts funding in Scotland. In a blend of comedy and song, Bunny decides that the only way to correct the inequities is to kill off her competitors, beginning with an artistic director and graduating to famous actors and artists. It is fuzzy entertainment, intelligently barbed.

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7

So is Mother, Maiden and Crone at the Bedlam theatre, a loose modern-day adaptation of Macbeth by an Edinburgh-based drag troupe. Shakespeare is occasionally winched into a plotline involving the drama of a gay bar (a hen do for a bride called McBride), with a violent denouement on a dancefloor involving fatal quantities of foam and lube.

The show had a limited run in a

hotel basement at last year's fringe and has been financed through fundraisers. The auditorium is filled this year and I feel as if I have been let in on a thrilling local secret.

The fringe is famed for discovering student talent, namely through the Edinburgh University group Footlights, but the show I plump for is off the beaten track of university comedy societies. Moth And Dog Are Dying to Get Out is

a play with enormous ambition, selected for the National student drama festival at Curve theatre, in Leicester, this spring. It features two teenage boys navigating same-sex desire for each other under the oppressive forces of homophobia, peer pressure and strong-man masculinity. Written by full-time student Aidan Monks and inspired by the writings of the poet Peter Scalpello, it stars Dylan Swain as

Dog and Ben Stuart as Moth. They are schoolboys, one of whom has been "outed" as gay with a graphic image stuck on his locker (a photo of his "spread arsehole" from Grindr). It plays out in flashbacks and forwards, the narrative jagged yet emotionally tender. It is a heart-rending play, as lo-fi as Succubus in its production values but full of promise and led by two brave performances.

There are other shows tucked away in studio spaces that encapsulate the spirit of experiment, such as Leticia Rodrigues's autobiographical production about body size, 116 Grams: A Play to Lose Weight, which shocks with its expressive, sometimes harrowing, nudity. Thank You, F**k You and I'm Sorry (was there ever a more fringe-appropriate title?), is in the studio space at C Arts and is an intense, sung-through requiem that mourns a dead father. There is an audience of three on the night I attend but Welsh performer Jonathan Powell (also known as Jonny Forever) powers on, playing violin and guitar

▲ Xhloe and Natasha in Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It

'There is an audience of three but performer Jonathan Powell powers on'

◀ Arifa Akbar hunts for some out-there shows

alongside the vocals. It is entirely self-funded and deeply personal. The fringist shows, I realise, are visible in plain sight if you look, and often nestling in the smaller spaces of established venues. Bunny! is in the modestly sized Anatomy lecture theatre at Summerhall. Another jewel of the festival is in an even smaller basement space in the venue, the former gents locker room at Summerhall.

QFWFQ, with Los Angeles performer Gregory Nussen, directed by Hannah Pilkes, is an enormously accomplished riff on Italo Calvino's novel, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, with its own postmodern stops and starts, direct addresses and reflections on the construction of story. It is a small but exquisitely formed creature of the festival, full of experimental energy, intelligent inquiry and, most of all, an exciting mix of mischief and danger. Nussen leads one audience member to the toilet, makes phone calls and tells stories on stories. They are a natural comic but switch to a gripping dramatic tone when they begin their stories of coming out as non-binary, going to Jewish summer camp and then on a tour of the concentration camps in Poland. Nussen arrives at Zionism, the genocide in Gaza, the brutality of Israel's government before they interrupt themselves with another layer of story, another voice, which states that this is too dangerous a story to be aired.

As the winner of the best solo show at the 2025 Hollywood Fringe, it is not exactly an Edinburgh festival fringe discovery, but it is an amazing find from a punter's point of view, immaculately structured, surreal and labyrinthine. The invention and imagination makes me tingle. It is better than the work I've seen on bigger Edinburgh stages. The best of the fringe, found in this basement room, and stumbled across before noon. This is what the festival is all about.

◀ Mix of mischief and danger ... Gregory Nussen in QFWFQ

▶ Craig Manson's Bunny, an aspiring theatre starlet ... and serial killer

PHOTOGRAPHS: MUSEO MALLEOUTHE GUARDIAN, SOYIA & STEERA

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8

Edinburgh 2026

One common Smut Slam sex confession is falling asleep in a threesome

up a lot lately is someone finding out that their hook-up is radically rightwing." Others have involved people falling asleep during threesomes or nipple rings going astray at sex clubs. "I am forever amazed at the variety that exists in the human sexual experience," laughs Moore.

It is Smut Slam's first trip to Edinburgh in seven years, and it's not the only sex-laden show in this year's lineup. So, are we currently simmering in a summer of smut? Californian Bryn Woz has a show simply called Smut, while English TV star Tom Read Wilson's An Alphabet of Me alights at some rather filthy pit stops.

Most telling of all is an Edinburgh comeback for Julian Clary, after 17 years away, with a show called Fully Dilated. "That means I'm opening up to the public," says Clary when we meet in a pub garden. "And once you have dilated, that's when everything comes out."

Clary is well aware that he's best known for a smutty joke: at the 1993 British Comedy Awards he told the audience he had been "fisting Norman Lamont" (their shocked laughter drowned out the punchline - "talk about a red box"). The new show reflects on the run-up to this gag, in which Clary's life was split into two wildly different sides: soaring to TV stardom on one hand, tending to friends who were dying of Aids on the other. "This isn't going to sell me any tickets," he says with a smile, "but I'm talking about loss. It's uncharted territory for me."

Bawdy humour has been around since at least the ancient Greeks, but the kind we know so well in Britain is best associated with music hall and pantomime, where actors used innuendo and nudge-nudge wink-wink humour as a way of avoiding prosecution for obscenity. This style perhaps

▲ 'A cerebral titter is of no use to me' ... Clary backstage at Assembly Rooms

◀ The full gamut ... Entendre Entendre at Assembly Roxy

▶ Our writer gets his own erotic story from Sidewalk Smut's Cameryn Moore

'You get a proper belly laugh with smut'

What's behind comedy's great filth explosion? Our writer talks to Julian Clary, a burlesque star called Entendre Entendre - and gets his own fantasies turned into erotica

Tim Jonze

On a street in Edinburgh, a woman I've only just met is quizzing me on my sexual fantasies. "Do you want softcore or hardcore? What positions do you prefer?" asks Cameryn Moore, a former phone sex operator turned playwright from the US.

Her business plan is simple: for £20, punters can tell Moore what turns them on. She will then bash out a piece of bespoke erotic fiction

for them on her typewriter. "I listen to their content then spit it out on paper," she says. "They walk away grinning from ear to ear because nobody's ever asked them what they like when it comes to sex." She calls the service Sidewalk Smut.

That's not all Moore is doing: her custom erotica stand is an innovative way of drumming up support for Smut Slam, her nightly session of dirty storytelling that has travelled the globe since she started it in a Boston pub in 2011. There's a segment in the show in which anonymous sex stories are dropped in a bucket and picked out to be read aloud. "One story that comes

---

▲ 'We've got new rules - now can we have a laugh?' ... Chelsea Birkby at Pleasance Courtyard

reached its zenith with Clary, who used smut as a way to slip the realities of gay sex into homes around the country.

Read Wilson's alphabetical tour may sound crude - 'It is for Willy, after all - but it's actually rather erudite. What makes his love of words especially infectious is his Honor Blackman-esque purr, not to mention a rather Wildean flourish. It lends itself to smut throughout his Edinburgh performance, from his opening line ('Thank you for your warm hand on my opening') to his selection of penis jokes (describing one penis, he says: 'Its two neighbours are nuts and it has an arsebrile living at the back').

Smut can be fun and frivolous, but for Chelsea Birkby, a comedian performing her third show at Edinburgh, filthy gags are more than a way to get laughs. 'As a teenager I hated standup because of the sexual humour,' she says. 'But that's because I grew up feeling ashamed about sex.' After being persuaded to see live comedy while at university, she had an epiphany. 'Simon Amstell was the biggest influence,' she says. 'Being so confessional, and so much about sex, I saw him and thought: 'Yeah, this changes everything.' And now, getting older and working through some of that shame, I find that being able to talk about these things is liberating!'

Birkby's show is about desiring total domination and control. She has an easy way with the audience, especially when quizzing two older comedy-goers about whether they know what 'edging' means. But that doesn't mean it's all plain-sailing. Smut, when performed by a woman, has drawbacks. 'If you're talking about sex, people are thinking about you in a sexual way. There is a judgment there, which can be exposing.'

Bryn Woz has been trading in smut for some time. But while she used to have no trouble regaling audiences with her sexual stories, she started to find it more difficult, which is why her new show is delivered through filthy alter ego Entendre Entendre. 'I realised I had been using some version of this persona my whole life to kind of fool myself from realising how vulnerable I was,' she says.

As Woz peels off her emotional layers during her Edinburgh show, she also performs a burlesque striptease. While scarf, gloves and

► 'If you're encased in lead, then how do you get golden?' ... Shah PHOTOGRAPH: SARAH LESTER GUARDIAN

brassiere are discarded, Woz runs the full gamut of smut - we get songs with audience singalongs ('Call me when you learn how to use that dick'), and what Woz calls 'beautiful poems, such as Stanky Dick and Balls'. But there's also sadness. 'We get to see the person underneath,' says Woz.

For Clary, smutty humour started at home - his mother would make the family laugh by dropping naughty words into conversation. 'I like the way smut makes everyone a child again,' he says. 'And there's a different type of laugh you get with smut. A proper belly laugh, not a cerebral titter, which is of no use to me.'

The first line of his Edinburgh show is, 'Are you ready for some filth?', and he thinks the reason gay comedians are adept at smutty humour is because 'there's a lot of sex and immediate gratification that goes on, so we tend to cut to the chase'.

Smut Slam's Moore was raised as a Mormon, yet she has always rejected 'comedy that tiptoes around things or has euphemisms. I would much rather just say the thing.' That's proving tricky as Moore attempts to interview me for her erotic story. 'You'll need to take off your sunglasses,' she says as, to do this properly, eye contact needs to be established. It's not long before I'm telling her things I've never discussed with close friends.

So why this current appetite for smut? 'People in these difficult times need a good laugh,' says Clary. 'I'd much rather see something smutty and rude than some kind of highbrow analysis of Trumpism. That wouldn't make me feel better at all.'

'There's been a lot of nervousness around sex and talking about sex for the last few years,' says Birkby, 'which absolutely needed to happen. But now that we've had these valuable discussions about what consent is, perhaps we can say, 'We've got these new rules, how can we have a laugh about things now?'

She references the hemline index, a theory that women's hemlines lengthen during a recession. 'Perhaps there's a comedy equivalent,' she says, 'that whenever the world gets worse, the jokes get smuttier.'

My smut-filled tour has sadly come to an end. So, after learning the tricks of the trade from some of comedy's lewdest practitioners, there's only one thing left to do: unfurl the story Moore wrote with me and see if I have become a smut convert. 'The bedroom is already warm this late in the morning,' it begins, 'but her.'

Unfortunately, readers, we have just hit our word count. If you really want to know the rest, you'll just have to use your (filthy) imagination. Smut Slam is at Banshee Labyrinth until 30 August. Bryn Woz: Smut is at Assembly Rays until 31 August. Julian Clary: Fully Dilated is at Assembly Rooms until 23 August. Tom Read Wilson: The 4.2 of Me is touring from 6 September. Chelsea Birkby: Is in Full Control the Entire Time is at Pleasance Courtyard until 30 August

'I'm not Mr Saturday Night'

He won Edinburgh's comedy award with a work in progress. Now Ahir Shah is back with a show inspired by poetry and philosophy

Brian Logan

Among past winners of the Edinburgh comedy award, few seemed less likely when the starter pistol fired than Ahir Shah in 2023. Not because Shah wasn't a contender: he had been nominated twice before. But that year he arrived on the fringe with a work in progress, not even eligible for the award. Shah's director, the great Adam Brace, had recently died and the comic had just returned to the stage after a break. But then Ends, a tribute to the performer's grandfather and a hymn to multicultural Britain, began gathering steam. Shah reclassified it as a work-now-finished and, to a chorus of rapturous acclaim, it bagged the biggest prize in comedy.

Three years on, he is returning with the follow-up: less uncut diamond and more, he hopes, polished gem. But didn't the success of Ends prove polish was unnecessary? 'You can get very in your head approaching the fringe, thinking: 'Well, it has to be absolutely locked in by August because x thousand pounds are on the line.' Shah admits. So doing a work in progress allowed him to 'quiet some of those voices - and have less of a panic attack about what you're going to say.'

Shah is no stranger to low confidence. His approach to standup is to ask: 'How are you justifying breaking the silence that exists in this room prior to you walking out?' With Ends, the justification was ample. Like all the Londoner's work, the show teemed

with ideas and erudition, this time at the service of a tale (as Shah now describes it) of 'the sacrifices people are willing to make in their own lives for subsequent generations. It was about what families do for one another.'

But the show, pulled together as Rishi Sunak became prime minister, was also about the UK, and how it had changed since Shah's grandfather moved here in the 1960s. 'I couldn't help but think about the incomprehensible shift that had to occur over 60 years to make something my grandfather could never have conceived of come to pass.' The UK, Shah declared in the show, is 'the least racist country in the world': not an argument audiences expected from a comic once known for firebrand lefty polemic.

'I completely understand the temptation to do the whole 'rainy fascism island' thing,' he says. 'I've succumbed to it. But for most of my adult life, we've reflexively told only very sad and bad stories about ourselves. But it's no way to lead a fulfilling, three-dimensional life. As a collective, we need positive stories as well.'

That positivity helped secure a stellar future for Ends, which toured the world (including India, 'which was really emotionally significant') and was broadcast on Netflix. And so the dreams came true for a comic who cut his standup teeth aged 17. Golden, his new set, is inspired by a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem and 'section 341 of The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche'. It finds Shah on the threshold of middle age, now married, planning a family, spooked by the looming responsibility.

'These are the issues of capital-G grownup life. All of a sudden there is someone more important than you sharing your roof. There are people who all this matters for. There are obligations that are going to bear down on you again and again. And there's a voice saying: 'What if you can't do it? What if you're not good enough?'

This time with reference to his mother's story, Shah is confronting those demons in a show that takes its title from Hopkins' verse The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo. 'The leaden echo,' says the comic, 'is the inevitability of decay. I call it in the show the cold, repetitive, mechanistic, obligatory forevers that every adult in our society is subject to, my mother more than most. And if that's what encases you in lead, then how do you get golden?'

It's a fine question to be asking for someone who got gold on his last full fringe visit, and is recalibrating his ambitions in light of that success. The Edinburgh comedy award, he says, 'was what I dreamed of winning when I started out. I did that. Let's see what happens now.'

One thing he won't be doing is diluting his highbrow tastes in pursuit of a mainstream audience. 'I'm not Mr Saturday Night,' he says cheerfully. 'An infrastructure exists around comedians that encourages you to underestimate audiences. But I don't accept that. As long as you build your work out of jokes, what you build is up to you. And what could be more freeing, more wonderful than that?'

Ahir Shah: Golden is at Pleasance Courtyard until 30 August. Then touring from 5 October to 14 March

PHOTOGRAPH: MEI BISH WALLENSTED GUARDIAN

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10

TV and radio

REVIEW BY ELLEN E JONES

Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing

Two plane crashes, 346 deaths and still no answers

★★★★☆

Netflix

It is unfortunate that a sequel was required to Rory Kennedy's 2022 documentary feature, which alleged that the profit-driven culture at a US aeronautics firm led to two plane crashes and the deaths of 346 people. But given the lack of corporate accountability evident at the end of Downfall: The Case Against Boeing - and the apparent complicity of regulators at the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) - it was inevitable.

Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing opens with a rundown of a significant development in the story: the mysterious death in March 2024 of John Barnett, a former Boeing employee turned whistleblower. Barnett, a contributor in the first film, was in the middle of a deposition when he was found dead at his hotel, which investigators ruled a suicide. Is this another casualty to add to Boeing's mounting death toll? And is the alarming aviation safety scandal - supposedly resolved in November 2020, when the FAA lifted its grounding order on the Boeing 737 Max - in fact still ongoing?

This is the urgent claim of many of this film's contributors. Some lost loved ones in the two Boeing plane crashes that happened within five months of each other - Lion Air Flight 610, in October 2018, killing all 189 people on board, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which crashed in March 2019. One contributor, Naoise Connolly Ryan, lost her husband and the father of her two small children, Michael Ryan, when he was killed alongside 156 others on Flight 302.

Others are Boeing whistleblowers who have gone public since the last film, inspired by it. Hidden camera footage from Boeing's Dreamliner assembly plant in South Carolina shows anonymised workers averring that nothing - not even a free luxury holiday - could tempt them to fly on the planes they manufacture.

There is a vast moral chasm between those determined to prevent further loss of life and the Boeing leadership. The only gap more glaring is the one between two shoddy outsourced sections of fuselage on a 737 Max. This isn't a horror film, but you'll struggle to find many movie scenes more nightmarish than Freefall's reconstruction of the January 2024 incident when a door plug blew out mid-flight (it was missing all four crucial bolts) and several passenger oxygen masks malfunctioned. Barnett had warned of this danger years earlier. Not only were his concerns ignored; he was also disciplined for having raised them.

Beside the whistleblowers, there is another group of heroes in Freefall. Kennedy's camera often cedes the floor to impressively fired-up politicians, such as the Missouri senator Josh Hawley, who, at a Senate hearing, challenges the now-retired Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun on his $32.8m 2023 salary, up 45% from 2022: "What is it you get paid to do exactly?" (Calhoun has not been charged with criminal wrongdoing.)

It's worth noting here that Rory Kennedy is not just any Kennedy, but the youngest child of the former senator and US attorney general Robert F Kennedy and his wife, Ethel Kennedy, who was pregnant with Rory when RFK was assassinated in June 1968. It was en route to Rory's wedding three decades later that the plane carrying John F Kennedy Jr, his wife and sister-in-law went down, killing them all. So this is a film-maker who understands not only tragic loss, but also those Camelot-era American values of progress and public service that Boeing once exemplified.

Freefall is a clear-eyed, serious-minded film, but it also echoes other recent documentaries on how, in the neoliberal era, unregulated capital has corrupted such diverse industries as construction (Grenfell: Uncovered), tech (The Social Dilemma) and pharmaceuticals (The Crime of the Century). The allegations are always the same: an incoming CEO seeks to maximise shareholder profit, whatever the cost to product quality, employee welfare or public safety; warnings are ignored; disaster occurs, then blame is shifted, often with breathtaking shamelessness, on to the dead.

Kennedy's two documentaries gather their participants' righteous rage steadily enough to burn off the cloud cover of this corporate obfuscation, leaving a clear view of the horizon ahead. In their view, until the individuals in Boeing's failed leadership face criminal prosecution - as opposed to multimillion-dollar retirement packages - nothing will change.

In response to the film-makers' requests for comment, Boeing stated that some of the claims against the company "remain unfounded" and that "others are issues that Boeing thoroughly addressed or continues to improve upon".

WHAT TO WATCH

Ludwig

9pm, BBC One

Is there a danger that, with John "Ludwig" Taylor's true identity revealed, this cosy-crime drama will lose intrigue in its second series? Jeopardy is just about maintained: John is now a police employee but he's still investigating his brother's fate, while solving a case a week in his bumbling style. But chief constable Ziegler is on his case - he knows something's up, he's just not sure what. Undemanding fun, enlivened by Mitchell's lead and Anna Maxwell Martin's Lucy.

Phil Harrison

◀ The wrecked fuselage of a Boeing 737 Max

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Dragons' Den 8pm, BBC One

A big first for the show in its 23rd season: with guest judges Susie Ma and Jenna Meek on board, there are more female dragons than male. Pitches kick off with Kimberly and her eco-conscious haircare range Selkie, before mother and son Shashi and Sanjay fill the den with Spice Kitchen aromas. Hollie Richardson

The Yorkshire Vet 8pm, Channel 5

Reality show featuring James Herriot's former trainee Peter, his vet pals and a god-like voiceover from All Creatures Great and Small's Christopher Timothy. Your enjoyment of the show depends on how much you like watching the surgical treatment of a recently pregnant cow with a prolapse. Priya Elan

A House Through Time 9pm, BBC Two

Back to Edinburgh where David Olusoga is busy bringing more dusty census records to life. We've reached the Victorian era in the house on Calton Hill and the residential turnover is brisk. There's

Thomas Mains, a struggling shoe-maker; Thomas Glen, a renowned bagpiper; and, most intriguingly, Catherine Johnston, a brothel keeper. PH

Better Date Than Never 9pm, BBC Three

"Better late than never! Who would have thought?" This dating show is a cheerful treat, following daters who range in age, gender and identity but who have left it late to get into the dating game. This time it's the turn of Charles, who is trying speed-dating, and Kento, who is excited about a second meeting. PH

Possession 9pm, Sky Atlantic

Karla Crome's rich, intelligent thriller about the echoing injustices of slavery comes to a mesmeric conclusion, which begins with British-Jamaican lawyer Claudia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) trapped beneath the floorboards of a house that thrums with past pain. Violent confrontations, in the present day and the 18th century, resolve the narrative in stunning fashion. Jack Seale

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11

BBC One	BBC Two	ITV1	Channel 4	Channel 5	BBC Four
6.0 Breakfast (T) 9.30 Countryville Treasures (T) (R) 10.30 Garden Rescue (T) (R) 11.15 Homes Under the Hammer (T) 12.15 Bargain Hunt (T) (R) 1.0 News (T) 1.35 Regional News and Weather (T) 1.45 News (T) 2.0 Money for Nothing (T) 2.45 Escape to the Country (T) (R) 3.30 The Repair Shop (T) (R) 4.30 The Sinner Run (T) 5.15 Pointless (T) (R) 6.0 News (T) 6.30 Regional News and Weather (T) 7.0 The One Show (T) 7.30 EastEnders (T)	6.30 Escape to the Country (T) (R) 7.15 Money for Nothing (T) (R) 8.0 Sign Zone: Gardeners' World (T) (R) 9.0 News (T) 1.0 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 1.30 The Finish Line (T) (R) 2.15 Do You Know Your Place? (T) (R) 2.45 Animal Park Summer (T) (R) 3.30 Serengeti II (T) (R) 4.30 Vintage Antiques Roadshow (T) (R) 5.10 Flog It! (T) (R) 6.0 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 6.30 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 7.0 Today at the Test (T)	6.0 Good Morning Britain (T) 10.0 This Morning (T) 1.0 News and Weather (T) 1.20 Local News and Weather (T) 1.30 ITV Racing: Live from York (T) 4.30 Topping Point: Best Ever Finals (T) (R) 5.0 The Chase (T) (R) 6.0 Local News and Weather (T) 6.30 News and Weather (T) 7.30 Tom Kerridge Cooks Italy (T)	6.30 The King of Queens (T) (R) 7.45 Everybody Loves Raymond (T) (R) 9.10 Fraser (T) (R) 11.10 Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) 12.05 News (T) 12.10 Find It, Fla. It, Flog It (T) (R) 1.10 The Great House Giveaway (T) (R) 2.10 Countdown (T) 3.0 A Place in the Sun (T) (R) 4.0 The Great B&D Challenge (T) (R) 5.0 Chateau DIY (T) (R) 6.0 American Pickers (T) (R) 7.0 News (T)	6.0 Milkshake! 9.15 Jeremy Vine (T) 11.30 Storm & Alexis (T) 12.45 News (T) 12.50 Matt Allwright (T) 2.20 TBA! Sins in the Family (Alex Caulfield, 2023) (T) 4.0 Castle (T) (R) 4.55 Love Nature (T) (R) 5.0 News (T) 6.0 Corsica: Jewel of the Med (T) (R) 7.0 Around the World in First Class (T) (R)	7.0 Villages By the Sea (T) (R) Norfolk's Holtham Estate. 7.30 Canal Boat Diaries (T) (R) Keadby to Kiveton Park.
8.0 Dragons' Den (T) Pitches include water-saving hair care and handcrafted spice blends. 9.0 Ludwig (T) New series. No longer impersonating his twin, John Taylor returns as a crime scene consultant, and a murder at a theatre sees John take centre stage. Drama, with David Mitchell.	8.0 The Big Deal With Steph McGovern (T) The six teams of aspiring art dealers have to buy and sell works to meet the brief of two high-end homeowners. 9.0 A House Through Time (T) David Olusoga examines the life of Victorian-era residents of the house on Calton Hill in central Edinburgh.	8.0 Emmerdale (T) Caleb is set on ruining Joe's big day. 8.30 Coronation Street (T) Leanne berates Idris for gambling. 9.0 The Chase Around the World (T) The teams land in the final city, Athens, where they must defeat all the Chasers in head-to-head battles across the region. Bradley Walsh hosts. Last in the series.	8.0 Renovation Rescue (T) In south Wales, a fed-up family who have been living on a building site for 18 months decide to complete their renovation themselves. 9.0 Love You to Death (T) Lisa's world implodes as an unthinkable truth is revealed. Matthew's illnesses are not as they seem.	8.0 The Yorkshire Vet (T) Matt Smith helps a cow who has suffered a massive prolapse after giving birth. Also a 12-year-old boston terrier has a very sore mouth. 9.0 Benidorm Is Murder (T) Dennis and Rosa investigate after a former jackpot winner is found murdered, clutching a bingo pad.	8.0 The Bridge: Fifty Years Across the Earth (T) (R) Documentary celebrating the Forth Road Bridge. 9.0 TBA! The French Connection (William Friedlin, 1971) (T) Two New York cops use unorthodox methods to try to break a drug ring. Thriller, starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider.
10.0 News (T) 10.30 Regional News (T) Weather 10.40 The Truth About My Murder (T) New series. Triple bill of the documentary about the role of pathology in criminal cases, starting with a killing near Newport in 1996. 12.40 Alan Carr's Picture Slam (R) 1.25 Weather for the Week Ahead (T) 1.30 News (T)	10.0 Red Dwarf (T) (R) 10.30 Newnight (T) Weather 11.05 Emergency 24/7 (T) (R) The work of the A&E department at Southmead Hospital, Bristol. 12.05 TBA! (Todd Field, 2022) (T) Drama, starring Cate Blanchett. 2.35 Sign Zone: The Mother of All Cows (T) (R) 3.35 This is BBC Two (T)	10.0 News (T) Weather 10.30 Local News (T) Weather 10.45 TBA! Skyfall (Sam Mendes, 2012) (T) James Bond hunts the mastermind behind a terrorist attack on Mf6. Thriller, starring Daniel Craig. 1.20 Shop on TV 3.0 Love & Death (T) (R) 4.0 Unwind With ITV (T) 5.05 Deal Or No Deal: Celebrity Special (T) (R)	10.0 Love You to Death (T) Last in the series. 11.05 Outback Murder Highway (T) Double bill. Last in the series. 12.55 Crime Scene Cleaners (T) (R) 1.50 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) 2.40 The Schoolgirl Terrorist? (T) (R) 3.35 Dictator (T) (R) 4.30 Couples Come Dine With Me (T) (R) 5.25 A Place in the Sun (T) (R)	10.0 Killer at the Crime Scene (R) 11.05 Fare Dodgers: At War With the Law (T) (R) 12.05 Street Cops: Catching the Yobs (T) (R) 1.0 Cruise TV (T) (R) 2.0 GPs: Behind Closed Doors (T) (R) 2.55 Castle (T) (R) 3.40 Friends (T) (R) 4.05 Friends (T) (R) 4.30 The Highland Vet (T) (R) 5.30 Entertainment News (T)	10.40 The Poughkeepsie Shuffle: Tracing 'The French Connection' (T) (R) 11.35 TBA! The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967) (T) Comedy drama, with Dustin Hoffman. Canal Boat Diaries (T) (R) 1.45 The Poughkeepsie Shuffle: Tracing 'The French Connection' (T) (R) 2.40 Villages By the Sea (T) (R)

Other channels

BBC Three7.0pm The Catch Up 7.05 Deadly 60 7.20 Deadly 60 8.0 Sort Your Life Out With Stacey Solomon 9.0 Better Date Than Never 9.30 Better Date Than Never 10.0 He Had 9 Coming 11.5 A Good Girl's Guide to Murder 2.40 Better Date Than Never 3.10 Calamity James U&Dress6.0am Teleshopping 7.25 Top Gear 8.20 Border Force: America's Gatekeepers 10.20 Rick Stein's Cornwall 11.20 Yukon Gold 12.20 Top Gear 2.20 Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing 3.0 Guy Martin: Proper Jobs 4.0 Mary Bliley: Best of British 5.0 Rick Stein's Cornwall 6.30 Rick Stein's Cornwall 6.0 Rick Stein's Cornwall 6.35 Rick Stein's Cornwall 7.00 Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing 7.40 Would I Lie to You? 9.0 Hit Point 10.0 Meet / Got a Bit More News For You 11.0 Teleshopping 12.0 Mock the Week: Election Special 12.40 Would I Lie to You? 2.0 Hit Point 3.0 Richard Stewart's House of Games 3.30 Parks and Recreation 4.0 Teleshopping	E46.0am Modern Family 6.55 Rudolish) Tabe Shorts 7.0 Couples Come Dine With Me 8.0 Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA 10.0 America's Funniest Home Videos 11.0 Below Deck Mediterranean 12.0 The Simpsons 2.0 Brooklyn Nine-Nine 2.30 Brooklyn Nine-Nine 3.0 Modern Family 3.30 Modern Family 4.0 Modern Family 4.30 Modern Family 5.0 The Simpsons 5.30 The Simpsons 6.0 The Simpsons 6.30 The Simpsons 7.0 The Simpsons 7.30 The Simpsons 8.0 Vanderpump Rules 9.0 Cruising Paradise: Above and Below Deck 10.0 Goggledon 11.05 First Dates 12.10 Mixed Attraction 1.15 Cruising Paradise: Above and Below Deck 2.30 Vanderpump Rules 3.0 Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA 3.50 The Goldbergs 4.15 The Goldbergs 4.40 Brooklyn Nine-Nine Film411.0am TBA! The Battle at Apache Pass (1953) 12.45 TBA! Ride Lonesome (1959) 2.20 TBA! Sleep of the Sasons (1963) 4.15 TBA! Cleopatra (1963)	9.0 TBA! Meet (1995) 12.20 TBA! Chepper (2000) 2.15 TBA! We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021) PBS America6.0am Teleshopping 8.0 World of Stonehenge 9.20 The Last Days of Anne Boleyn 10.40 Pocahontas: Beyond the Myth 11.50 The Truth About Franco: Spain's Forgotten Dictatorship 1.0 World of Stonehenge 2.20 The Last Days of Anne Boleyn 3.40 Pocahontas: Beyond the Myth 4.50 The Truth About Franco: Spain's Forgotten Dictatorship 6.0 World of Stonehenge 7.10 The Last Days of Anne Boleyn 8.25 Pocahontas: Beyond the Myth 9.35 The Truth About Franco: Spain's Forgotten Dictatorship 10.40 The Last Days of Anne Boleyn 12.0 Pocahontas: Beyond the Myth 1.05 Weathered: Earth's Extremes 2.0 Teleshopping Sky One6.0am Morning: With Ridge and Frost 8.0 Slaughter (S) 1.10 Will & Grace 10.30 Will & Grace 11.0 The Simpsons 11.30 The Simpsons 12.0 Africa's Hunters 1.0 Hawaii Five-0 2.0	Hawaii Five-0 3.0 S.W.A.T 4.0 S.W.A.T 5.0 The Simpsons 5.30 The Simpsons 6.0 Bob & Rombin as Superstar Dis 7.0 The Simpsons 7.30 Live (R) 10.30 Bob Beckett: Wabiq 11.40 The Paper 12.10 The Paper 12.45 Grimm 1.40 Evil 2.30 Road Wars 3.0 Hawaii Five-0 4.0 S.W.A.T 5.0 S.W.A.T Sky Arts6.0am Paxarotti in the Park 8.10 Artist of the Year: Masterclass 8.35 Artist of the Year: Masterclass 9.0 Tales of the Unexpected 9.30 Tales of the Unexpected 10.0 Alfred Hitchcock Presents 10.30 Alfred Hitchcock Presents 11.0 Discovering: Jack Nicholson 12.0 The Art of Film With Ian Nathan 1.0 Tales of the Unexpected 1.20 Tales of the Unexpected 2.0 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour 3.0 The Nineties 4.0 Discovering: Jane Fonda 5.0 Portrait Artist of the Year 2023 6.0 Tales of the Unexpected 6.30 Tales of the Unexpected 7.0 Voices of the Valiacs 8.0 Discovering: Mel Gibson 9.0 Scymanators: The Great Spy Writers 10.0 Billy Hill Should Be Dead 12.30 The Directors 1.20 James	Dean: The Emotional Man 2.40 Desert Washington: American Iron 4.0 The Breathe By Anita Rani: States of Disruption 5.0 The Art of Film With Ian Nathan Sky Atlantic6.0am Fish Town 7.0 Fish Town 8.0 Billiams 9.05 Billiams 10.15 House of the Dragon 11.25 House of the Dragon 12.40 Homicide: Life in the Street 1.30 Homicide: Life in the Street 2.30 Billiams 3.35 Billiams 4.30 Django 5.30 Django 6.30 House of the Dragon 7.45 House of the Dragon 9.0 Possession 10.0 TBA! Promising Young Woman (2020) 12.05 All Her Fault 1.05 House of the Dragon 2.15 Billiams 3.10 Billiams 4.20 The Guest Wing 5.10 The Guest Wing	Radio 36.30am Breakfast 9.30 Essential Classics 1.0 Classical Live: From the Proms, Ryan Bancroft conducts the BBC NOW in Stravinsky's Permalink (1947 version). Plus, at the Edinburgh International Festival, Cameron Biles-Liddell's The Breakers, with mazes Beth Taylor and pianist Ramián Brown. 4.0 Composer of the Week: Felix Mendelsohn (4/5) 5.0 In Tour 7.0 BBC Proms 2026. Live from the Royal Albert Hall, Miko Hazama conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in a tribute to Miles Davis, also including works by Garabian, De Falla, Rodrigo, Gil Evans, Weill and Eddie Barclay, and featuring tromperies Ambrose Akimeneire, pianist Sam Harris, bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Kendrick Scott. 10.0 Night Tracks 11.30 'Round Midnight 12.30 Through the Night Radio 46.0am Today 9.0 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics. Hallie Rubenfeld joins the classical to solve the murder of Rygilla in 4/5/10. (4/7) 9.30 The Guitar Story. A look	at the rise of the guitar 'god' in the late 1960s and early 70s, and punk's reset of the instrument. (3/4) 10.0 Memory: Hour 11.0 The Cultural Life: Jane Wilson talks to author Sebastian Faullis (1/18) 11.45 Book of the Week: The Fire in the Mountain. By Helena Attlee. (4/5) 12.0 News 12.04 Scam Secrets (4/8) 12.32 Slived Bread. Greg Foot investigates peptides. (8/8) 12.57 Weather 1.0 The World at One 1.45 Human Intelligence. Naomi Alderman explores how Eugene-François Vidocq pioneered modern policing, detective work, criminal profiling and early forensic methods. (4/10) 2.0 The Archers (R) 2.15 The Observer's Book. Drama, by Amanda Dalton. After the sudden death of her friend Joe, Misha persuades her friend Grace to accompany her to his country cottage to sort his belongings. With Zita Sattar and Joanne Mitchell. 3.0 Open Country: Martha Kearney learns ancient skills in Dorset. (1/7) 3.27 Radio 4 Appeal: The National Childbirth Tour (R) 3.30 The Metaphor Consultant (R) 4.0 The Briefing Room (8/9) 4.30 Inside	Science 5.0 PM 5.57 Weather 6.0 News 6.30 Icklewick FM (R) 7.0 The Archers 7.15 Front Row 8.0 At Your Own Peril (R) 8.15 The Media Show (R) 9.0 Loose Ends (R) 9.45 The Cows Are Mad (R) 9.59 Weather 10.0 The World Tonight 10.45 Book at Bedtime: Mr Sidhu's Post Office. By Herman Brar. (4/10) 11.0 Radical 11.30 Poetry Please (R) 12.0 News and Weather 12.30 Book of the Week: The Fire in the Mountain (R) 12.48 Shipping Forecast 1.0 In World Service 5.0 News 5.04 The Briefing Room (R) 5.32 Weather 5.34 Shipping Forecast 5.43 Prayer for the Day 5.45 Farming Today Radio 4 Extra6.0am The Absent Guest 7.0 Legal, Decent, Honest and Truthful (1/6) 7.30 The Burks Way (4/15) 8.0 The Train at Platform 4 (2/4) 8.30 Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (9/10) 8.30 Agnes Grey (4/5) 9.0 Icklewick FM (3/6) 9.30 The Essay: British Film Comedians (4/5) 9.40 Daily Service 10.0 Great Lives (2/9) 10.30 Found in Translation 11.0 The Absent Guest 12.0 Legal, Decent, Honest and Truthful	(1/6) 12.30 The Burks Way (4/15) 1.0 The Train at Platform 4 (2/4) 1.30 Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (9/10) 1.45 Agnes Grey (4/5) 2.0 Dilemma (2/6) 2.30 Snap (1/4) 3.0 A Pair of Blue Eyes (3/5) 4.0 Great Lives (2/9) 4.30 Found in Translation 5.0 The Absent Guest 6.0 Legal, Decent, Honest and Truthful (1/6) 6.30 The Burks Way (4/15) 7.0 The Train at Platform 4 (2/4) 7.30 Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (9/10) 7.45 Agnes Grey (4/5) 8.0 Dilemma (2/6) 8.30 Snap (1/4) 9.0 A Pair of Blue Eyes (3/5) 10.0 Comedy Club: Icklewick FM (3/6) 10.30 A Look Back at the Nineties (2/6) 11.0 Fresh from the Fringe (1/2) 11.30 Sophie William Guide to Normality (1/6) 11.45 What's the Story, Ashley Stevie? (1/4) 12.0 Great Lives (2/9) 12.30 Found in Translation 1.0 The Absent Guest 2.0 Legal, Decent, Honest and Truthful (1/6) 2.30 The Burks Way (4/15) 3.0 The Train at Platform 4 (2/4) 3.30 Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (9/10) 3.45 Agnes Grey (4/5) 4.0 Dilemma (2/6) 4.30 Snap (1/4) 5.0 A Pair of Blue Eyes (3/5)

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12

Yesterday's solutions

Wordsearch

Solution no 17,562

Sudoku no 7,423

Word wheel

WATCHWORD

Suguru

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Puzzles

Quick crossword no 17,563

Across

1 This animal unfairly bears the blame? (9) 8 Clarified butter (Indian) (4) 9 Television set (informally) (6-3) 10 Bishop, angel or enemy (4) 13 Padded bedcover (5) 15 Abrupt stop - bar exercise (4-2) 16 I'm sorry to hear that (2,4) 17 Over-effusive person - free-flowing oil well (6) 19 Stop a film at a particular frame (6) 20 Poison of organic origin (5) 21 Female sheep (4) 24 Elephant, rhino or hippo, eg - mad cypher (anag) (9) 25 Digits - little piggies? (4) 26 Othello's wife - nomad seed (anag) (9)

Down

2 Become distasteful from excess (as in sweetness) (4) 3 Three little house-builders (4) 4 Matured to adulthood (4,2) 5 Greek sun god (6) 6 Keen-sighted (5-4) 7 Energised - made to pay again? (9) 11 Pasta you may wind up eating? (9) 12 Hammered - after limb breakage? (9) 13 Undisturbed (5) 14 Sharp spike on rose stem (5) 18 Turn like a wheel (6) 19 Angled (6) 22 Sandler, Pearson or Ant (4) 23 English architect - small bird (4)

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Sudoku no 7,423

Hard. Fill the grid so that each row, column and 3x3 box contains the numbers 1-9. Printable version at theguardian.com/sudoku

Suguru

Fill the grid so that each square in an outlined block contains a digit. A block of two squares contains the digits 1 and 2, a block of three squares contains the digits 1, 2 and 3, and so on. No same digit appears in neighbouring squares, not even diagonally.

Wordsearch

Can you find 15 words associated with Mexico in the grid? Words can run forwards, backwards, vertically or diagonally, but always in a straight, unbroken line.

Word wheel

Find as many words as possible using the letters in the wheel. Each must use the central letter and at least three others. Letters may be used only once. You may not use plurals, foreign words or proper nouns. There is at least one nine-letter word to be found. Target: 8. Good: 11. Very good: 13. Excellent: 15.

Trivia corner

What is a baby otter called?

a. Cub b. Kit c. Ottlett d. Pup Answer top right

TODAY'S TRIVIA CORNER ANIMUS POP

制度与权力批判深度研判：The Guardian (2026-08-20)

▌ 本日全报思想与文化深思雷达 (Intellectual & Cultural Significance Radar)

在系统通盘梳理本期报纸所涉及的所有国际政治、经济、社会与文化报道后，以下 3 个具体事件在思想史、文化政治与制度伦理层面最值得学者进一步深思：

1. 爱丁堡边缘艺术节的商业化与成本危机 [F1_1 🔍]

   • 事件简述：报道关注爱丁堡边缘艺术节特辑，揭示了当代艺术节在成本压力下的生存现状。
   • 思想文化深思切入点：资本逻辑对“前卫艺术”的殖民。探讨当实验艺术的制作成本飙升时，艺术的“批判性”如何被转化为一种高门槛的商业奇观。

2. 乌克兰战时治理危机与民主更新的张力 [F8_15, F8_16, F10_17, F10_18]

   • 事件简述：泽连斯基解雇高级助手，前国防部长警告出现“治理危机”并呼吁战时选举，基辅出现支持被罢免部长的游行。
   • 思想文化深思切入点：战争状态下“紧急权力”与“民主程序”的冲突。分析在极端生存压力下，制度化的权力集中如何与公众对透明度及民主更新的需求产生结构性矛盾。

3. 英国强制重考政策与性别化焦虑的关联 [F4_7, F4_8]

   • 事件简述：研究显示，数学未达标的男孩和英语未达标的女孩在幸福感方面出现显著下降，且存在性别化的自我效能感低与焦虑问题。
   • 思想文化深思切入点：教育制度如何通过标准化考核强化传统的性别刻板印象。分析制度化的“成功”定义如何转化为个体的心理病理学压力。

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▌ 精选核心专题深度思想论证 (In-Depth Dialectical Monograph)

专题一：战时例外状态下的治理危机与民主合法性悖论

在乌克兰当前的政治情境中，一个深刻的制度矛盾正在浮现：一方面是总统泽连斯基在腐败调查中解雇高级助手的权力运作 [F8_16 🔍]；另一方面则是前国防部长警告该国正面临“治理危机”并主张举行战时选举 [F8_16 🔍]。这种冲突揭示了现代政治学中关于“例外状态”（State of Exception）的经典困境。

从权力逻辑分析，战时体制天然倾向于权力的高度集中与决策的快速化，以应对生存威胁。然而，当这种集中导致内部治理失效或被感知为缺乏透明度时，原本为了保护国家而设立的“紧急权力”反而成为了不稳定的来源。基辅伊万·弗兰科广场上的示威者以及在赫雷夏蒂克街游行支持被罢免部长的民众 [F10_18 🔍]，实际上是在通过非制度化的方式，要求将“民主更新” [F10_17 🔍] 重新引入战时体制。

这构成了一个合法性悖论：如果为了赢得战争而牺牲民主程序，那么战争胜利后的制度基础可能已被侵蚀；但如果在激烈的战争期间强行重启选举，则可能导致权力碎片化，危及国家安全。这种张力表明，民主并非一个静态的制度状态，而是在极端压力下不断被重新定义和争夺的动态过程。当民众开始在街头高喊被罢免官员的名字时，权力已经从单纯的行政指令转向了某种基于“英雄主义”与“治理正义”的社会认同博弈。

专题二：标准化考核制度对性别认知的心理殖民

关于英国学生重考政策的研究 [F4_7, F4_8] 提供了一个微观的权力病理学样本。数据显示，数学未达标的男孩和英语未达标的女孩在幸福感上出现下降，且马里斯（Maris）指出女孩在数学方面存在自我效能感低和焦虑，而男孩在英语方面则存在类似问题 [F4_8 🔍]。

这一现象揭示了教育制度如何通过“标准化”这一技术手段，在潜意识中完成了对性别刻板印象的制度化加固。当制度将数学与英语设定为绝对的、不可逾越的等级门槛（如“4级” [F4_7 🔍]）时，它实际上是在定义一种“正常”的认知能力分布。对于那些未能达标的学生，制度不仅给予了学术上的否定，更通过社会预设的性别期待（如“男孩不喜欢学英语” [F4_8 🔍]）将这种失败内化为个体的心理缺陷。

从福柯的权力视角看，这是一种典型的“规训权力”。学校不再仅仅是知识传递的场所，而是一个通过考核、分类和量化来生产“标准主体”的工厂。当个体在特定科目上失败时，他们感受到的不仅是分数的缺失，而是一种关于“我是谁”以及“我是否符合我的性别角色”的身份危机。这种制度化的焦虑证明了：标准化的考核体系在追求效率的同时，往往以牺牲个体的心理完整性为代价，并将社会文化中的性别偏见转化为一种可量化的制度压力。

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▌ 面向学者的开放性思想追问与研究路标 (Open Horizons for Scholarly Inquiry)

1. 【关于“战时民主”的法哲学追问】：在面临生存威胁的极端环境下，是否存在一种能够平衡“高效决策”与“民主问责”的中间制度模型？如何防止“战时紧急权力”在危机结束后转化为永久性的威权结构？
2. 【关于“教育量化与心理异化”的社会学研究】：标准化考核如何通过量化指标将文化偏见（如性别刻板印象）转化为个体的心理病理学症状？我们是否需要构建一种非量化的、基于个体成长轨迹的评价体系来替代目前的等级制考核？

理性与情感辩证深度研判：The Guardian (2026-08-20)

▌ 本日全报生活世界痛感与情感政治深思雷达 (Lifeworld & Affective Significance Radar)

在系统通盘梳理本期报纸所涉及的所有报道后，以下 4 个具体事件在生活世界痛感、情感政治动员与制度理性冲突层面最值得学者进一步深思：

1. 【乌克兰治理危机与民主更新压力】 [F8_15, F10_17]

   • 事件简述：泽连斯基解雇高级助手以应对腐败调查，而前国防部长警告该国面临“治理危机”，基辅出现支持被罢免部长的抗议游行。
   • 情感政治与伦理深思切入点：探讨在战时体制下，行政效率的“技术理性”与民众对民主透明度、政治问责的“情感诉求”之间的剧烈冲突。

2. 【巴比肯温室的“绿肺”修复与无障碍转型】 [F5_9, F6_11, F6_12]

   • 事件简述：被誉为“伦敦绿肺”的巴比肯温室因严重漏水和玻璃掉落关闭至2030年，计划在重新开放时实现完全无障碍通行。
   • 情感政治与伦理深思切入点：分析公共空间在面对物理衰败（熵增）时的修复逻辑，以及将“无障碍通行”纳入重建计划如何体现制度理性向包容性伦理的转向。

3. 【萨塞克斯海岸的家庭悲剧与离岸流认知】 [F13_23, F14_25]

   • 事件简述：一名英国籍巴勒斯坦家庭在萨塞克斯海岸遇难，三死一危。当地居民指出民众对离岸流（Rip currents）的认知缺失。
   • 情感政治与伦理深思切入点：剖析自然环境的不可预测性（Pathos）与公共安全预警机制（Logos）之间的断裂，探讨个体在面对自然力量时的脆弱性。

4. 【青少年电子烟健康风险的证据链】 [F18_33, F18_34]

   • 事件简述：研究显示电子烟与青少年呼吸道症状、尼古丁依赖及后续吸烟行为存在明确联系。
   • 情感政治与伦理深思切入点：研究科学证据（Logos）如何挑战关于电子烟“无害”的流行认知，以及在公共卫生干预中如何处理青少年成瘾的心理痛感。

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▌ 精选核心专题理性与情感辩证论证 (The Dialectic of Logos and Pathos Monograph)

专题一：【治理危机中的权力异化：战时行政理性与民主情感的撕裂】

在乌克兰当前的政治图景中 [F8_15, F10_17]，我们观察到一种典型的“战时治理理性”与“公民民主情感”的结构性错位。从制度理性架构来看，泽连斯基政府通过解雇高级助手来应对腐败调查 [F8_16 🔍]，这在行政逻辑上被定义为一种“清理门户”的自我修正机制，旨在维持国家机器在极端压力下的运行效率。然而，这种自上而下的行政操作在生活世界中引发了剧烈的反弹。

前国防部长的警告称该国正面临“治理危机”并呼吁举行战时选举 [F8_16 🔍]，而基辅街头数千名抗议者挥舞横幅支持被罢免的米哈伊洛·费多罗夫 [F10_18 🔍]。这里的辩证摩擦在于：政府试图用“反腐”这一理性话语来合法化人事变动，但民众将其感知为对民主更新的压制。抗议者在伊万·弗兰科广场的高喊，实际上是一种情感政治的动员，它将个体的政治认同（对被罢免部长的支持）转化为对制度合法性的质疑。

Logos 与 Pathos 的冲突在此体现为：制度端追求的是战时体制的“稳定性”与“纯洁性”，而生活端追求的是“参与感”与“透明度”。当行政理性将政治分歧简化为“腐败调查”或“人事调整”时，它实际上抹除了政治参与者的情感主体性。这种撕裂诊断出一种深层的政治危机：如果战时理性的高效是以牺牲民主情感的共鸣为代价，那么这种治理模式在长期内可能会导致社会契约的崩塌。

专题二：【公共空间的伦理重构：从“物理功能”到“包容性权利”的转向】

巴比肯温室（Barbican Conservatory）的关闭与重建 [F5_10, F6_11, F6_12] 提供了一个关于城市空间理性演进的微观样本。在早期的制度理性中，该空间被定义为“伦敦的绿肺”，其核心价值在于生态功能与美学呈现。然而，现实的物理衰败——玻璃掉落、严重漏水 [F6_11 🔍]——揭示了这种功能主义理性的失效。当建筑的物理结构无法支撑其功能定义时，制度端被迫进入一个大规模的修复周期。

值得关注的是，该计划在 2030 年重新开放时明确提出将实现“完全无障碍通行” [F6_12 🔍]。这一细节标志着一种伦理维度的升级：空间理性的逻辑从单纯的“维护功能”转向了“保障权利”。在旧的逻辑中，无障碍设施可能被视为一种附加的、非核心的成本；而在新的逻辑中，它成为了空间合法性的必要组成部分。

这种辩证摩擦揭示了公共空间在现代城市中的情感意义：它不再仅仅是一个植物收藏馆，而是一个承载社会包容性的符号。通过将“无障碍”制度化，城市治理试图弥合身体残障者在面对公共空间时的“被排斥感”（Pathos）。这种从“技术维护”到“伦理关怀”的转向，表明制度理性正在尝试吸收生活世界中的痛感，将边缘群体的空间权利转化为标准化的建设指标。这种演进虽然缓慢，但它证明了当制度理性能够感知到具体个体的不便时，其治理效能才真正具备了人文温度。

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▌ 面向学者的伦理与社会心理开放性追问与研究路标 (Open Horizons for Ethical & Sociological Inquiry)

1. 【关于“战时民主”的悖论研究】：在极端生存危机（如战争）环境下，行政理性的高效能与民主程序的正当性之间是否存在一个不可调和的临界点？如何构建一套既能快速响应危机又能安抚公民政治情感的治理模型？

2. 【关于“空间正义”的量化评估】：当公共空间通过“无障碍改造”实现包容性时，这种制度化的关怀是否足以抵消长期以来对残障群体在城市生活中的结构性忽视？我们应如何定义一个真正具有“伦理温度”的公共空间标准？