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The Guardian

Boost special needs internships to tackle youth jobs crisis - Milburn

'Turbocharge' scheme to help young people into work, says top adviser

Exclusive Patrick Butler Claudia Efemini

Specialist internships designed to secure work for young people with special educational needs should be put on 'turbocharge' to help tackle

the growing youth jobs crisis, a government review is to propose.

Alan Milburn who is leading a review of young people and work, said supported internships should be scaled up to combat 'devastating' joblessness rates for young people with a learning disability, autism or mental illness.

Nationally, as few as 5% of some groups of young people with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) move into permanent jobs. However, employment rates among those who complete supported

internship schemes can be as high as 70%.

Nearly 1 million 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK are classified as Neet (not in employment, education or training), a 10-year high that Milburn - a former minister in the Tony Blair government - has said represents a moral crisis and is economically unsustainable.

In May, his first report warned that Britain risked a 25% rise in the number of Neets to 1.25 million by the early 2030s without urgent government action.

Central to the recent growth of Neets is a rise in the number of young people diagnosed with neurodevelopmental conditions or mental illness who do not make the transition into work, leaving them at high risk of being economically inactive.

Milburn said Britain had to move away from the idea that people with a diagnosis were unable to work. They can work, he said. 'The question is: are the opportunities there and is the support there?

'Supported internships have got such an effective track record. With

the best ones, around 70% of people on them end up in paid employment. In my view we have to turbocharge support - and at the moment the system is not set up to do that.'

Milburn dismissed 'myths' about 18- to 24-year-olds being a 'snowflake generation', saying: 'The problem isn't shortage of effort on the part of young people. It's a shortage of opportunities, jobs, support.'

He added: 'There are two views about [the rise in youth ill health]. You can either say it's fake or you can decide its real.'

Kyiv sends huge wave of drones to hit Russia

Dan Sabbagh Kyiv

Ukraine has launched one of its largest drone attacks since the start of the war, causing a fire at a distribution warehouse near Moscow and killing at least six people, according to Russian authorities.

The defence ministry in Moscow said yesterday that it had shot down 1,478 Ukrainian drones in the previous 24 hours - the highest ever total claimed - in an escalating air war in which seven Ukrainians were also killed as Russia bombed 13 locations inside the country.

A huge fire engulfed a building of 250,000 sq metres near Podolsk, 25 miles south of Moscow's city centre, belonging to Wildberries, Russia's biggest online retailer. The facility was disabled as a result, Ukraine's military said.

Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said the region had been targeted overnight on Saturday by 600 drones, of which 201 were destroyed. One person was

▲ Amy Hunt celebrates Team GB's win in the European Athletics Championships' mixed 4x100 metres relay final. Between them Hunt, Dina Asher-Smith, Jeremiah Azu and Zharnel Hughes set a new European record for the event

Royals face £10m bill to insulate rentals

Nick Sommerlad

King Charles and Prince William could be forced to spend up to £10m upgrading hundreds of rental properties on their private estates to meet planned energy-efficiency rules.

The government has announced that landlords will need to ensure their properties have energy performance certificate (EPC) ratings of C or higher by 2030 - up from the current requirement of an E.

EPCs are documents that provide an energy-efficiency score for properties, in relation to their running costs.

Introduced in 2007 amid growing concern about carbon emissions, they help to estimate energy bills and environmental impact. The most energy-efficient properties are awarded an A rating, the worst a G.

A Guardian investigation has found that almost nine in 10 domestic properties on the duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster and the Sandringham estate have had EPC ratings of D or lower. Both Charles

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News

Peter Hall, whose daughter, Michaela, was murdered by a man who had assaulted her. He was released in 2021 with minimal supervision PHOTOGRAPH: KAREN ROBINSON/ THE OBSERVER

More women will die if their abusers

get early release, say victim's parents

Jessica Murray

Social affairs correspondent

More women will die if domestic abusers are included in the early prison release scheme, the parents of a woman murdered by her part- ner shortly after he was freed have warned.

Michaela Hall, a 49-year-old char- ity worker, was killed in her home in Cornwall by Lee Kendall in 2021 two weeks after he was released from prison, where he had been serving a sentence for assaulting her.

The Probation Service incorrectly assessed Kendall as medium risk, despite the fact he had strangled Hall, threatened her with weapons and police had received 34 pieces of intelligence about his abuse against her.

At an inquest into her death, pro- bation staff cited "horrendous work pressures" as part of the reason why the error was made.

Hall's parents, Anne and Peter, said

domestic abuse victims across the country would be "absolutely petri- fied" at the prospect of their abusers being released early.

"There's going to be more vio- lence and there's going to be more death. It's very simple," Peter said. "The Probation Service can't cope on a day-to-day basis. They certainly can't cope with 5,000 prisoners being released. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

From October, the government is planning to release 5,000 offenders in England and Wales earlier than scheduled to create more space in overcrowded prisons.

Probation officers have voted over- whelmingly in favour of potential strike action over excessive work- loads and the chief inspector of probation for England and Wales, Martin Jones, has said he does not think the system will be able to cope.

Prisoners convicted of rape, seri- ous child sex offences and grooming charges will be excluded from early release after an intervention by the

prime minister, Andy Burnham, in response to anger over the plans.

Farah Nazeer, the chief executive of Women's Aid, said it was "really upsetting and troubling" that domes- tic abusers would not be excluded.

"We're releasing prisoners early

▲ Michaela with her parents. She was killed in her home in Cornwall

Numbers of

killers from minorities 'overestimated'

Vikram Dodd

Police and crime correspondent

The public overestimate how many ethnic minority people are killers, as well as the number of foreign nation- als who are offenders, a new study has found.

The research from King's College London tested knowledge and per- ceptions of crime - as radical-right parties try to link offending to eth- nicity and nationality.

The survey, carried out by YouGov,

of 1,800 people in England and Wales found that, overall, people think 55% of convicted killers are from an eth- nic minority, when the real figure is 35%. They also think 45% of homi- cides are committed by white people, while the real figure is 64%.

Reform voters were the furthest off, believing 70% of killers were from an ethnic minority - 10 percentage points more than supporters of any other party. Academics say beliefs about levels of crime and who is to blame are a reflection of the popula- tion's emotions, rather than the facts.

The public's estimates of foreign- national offenders show why crime is fertile ground for the far right. People surveyed thought they comprised 25% of the prison population, while the real figure is 12%.

Responders also overestimated the number of foreigners commit- ting sexual offences, believing it to be 30% of offences, while the real figure is 15%. Again, Reform voters'

perceptions were the least accurate; they believed 50% of sexual offences were committed by foreign nationals - 20 percentage points higher than Conservative supporters.

Prof Bobby Duffy of King's College London said: "There are two buckets of explanations for our mispercep- tions: 'how we think' and 'what we're told'. On the former, it's vital to rec- ognise that misperceptions are partly driven by what we're worried about - cause and effect run in both direc- tions, where we inflate the scale of an issue if it's something we're con- cerned about. Reform supporters' higher concern about immigration and diversity ... will mean they're more likely to give attention and weight to things they see that fit with that view, including crimes being committed by those groups.

"On 'what we're told', they're also more likely to be seeing media, social media and political communications that emphasise those examples."

when they won't have had proper rehabilitation. Probation is probably not able to manage them effectively. They're going to be angry. Where do you think they're going to go first? It's absolutely appalling," she said.

"Women will die as a result of this. There is no doubt in my mind. Survi- vors need to come forward and they need to seek help."

Nazeer criticised the government for failing to give survivors enough time to prepare for the early release and said it would "completely under- mine" Labour's goal to halve violence against women in a decade.

"You can't have a halving violence against women strategy and then choose to release the perpetrators of the biggest crime against women and children early," she said.

The government has announced £10m for victim support, a national helpline and greater involvement for victims in setting licence conditions, but Nazeer said this was not enough to help inundated support services.

The Hall family have launched a legal challenge under the Human Rights Act against the Probation Service and police over their han- dling of Hall's case. The service miscategorised Kendall's risk level, meaning he was released with min- imal supervision. Police officers failed to enter Hall's property on the right she was murdered despite a call from a friend saying she was being attacked. As they drove away, one officer said: "What can you do if she don't help herself?"

Anne Hall said: "Our daughter was stabbed by some evil person that should never have been anywhere near her because they all didn't do their jobs properly."

Peter Hall said the aim of the legal action was to get justice for his daugh- ter but also to help prevent future deaths. "It doesn't make us feel any better," he said. "We are only doing this to bring about change and so other people don't have to suffer."

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "The murder of Michaela Hall was a horrific crime, and our thoughts remain with her loved ones.

"We have always stated we wanted to go further to protect the public, and we are fast-tracking a plan to keep more of the most dangerous offenders behind bars."

The claims of "two tier" justice - the perception that ethnic minor- ity people have an easier time in the criminal justice system - are taking hold, despite all the evidence being to the contrary, according to the survey.

It found that 52% thought ethnic or religious minorities were sen- tenced differently for crimes, with 29% believing they were given more lenient sentences, and 23% thinking they were sentenced more harshly.

Duffy said those believing the "two tier" justice claims were more likely to question the system and call for radical change. "This is important for trust and faith in the system, which is an issue particularly when it's not justified by the reality - we may end up taking actions that are not neces- sary or effective," he said.

Duffy added: "Age matters more than ethnicity in our data. For example, gen Z puts the white share of homicide convictions at 58%, whereas baby boomers put it at 35%."

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Monday 17 August 2026 The Guardian

News

▼ One of the epic shots from the surprise French hit La Bataille de Gaulle: l'âge de fer, and, right, Simon Abkarian in the title role PHOTOGRAPH: TCU/PROD.DE/ALAMY

3

'Spirit of resistance'

How French youth made De Gaulle film a surprise hit

Kim Willsher Paris

On 18 June 1940, Charles de Gaulle, then a little-known army officer, sat in a BBC studio in London and made his famous rallying call for the French to resist the Nazi occupation and its puppet Vichy government.

To the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, De Gaulle was an arrogant, stubborn and defiant thorn in his and the allies' side, but the Frenchman never stopped believing in the greatness of France and the need for resistance.

Now a new two-part biopic, based on a biography of De Gaulle by a British author, has proved a surprise summer hit in French cinemas and has given the country's young a new old hero.

La Bataille de Gaulle, to be released in UK cinemas on 28 August and 19 September, has drawn an audience of 5 million people since its release in June, rivaling Hollywood blockbusters Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey. And it is not just because cinemas have been air-conditioned refuges from the heat.

The French historian Alya Aglan, a professor at the Panthéon-Sorbonne university in Paris, and co-author of the bestselling book De Gaulle, France and the World, said: 'The enthusiasm for the film among young people is because they are discovering parts of a story they did not know: a man who knew failures, hesitation, hard knocks and who embodied the spirit of resistance because he remained himself against everything even at the cost of being occasionally ridiculous.

'There is emotion, there is information they didn't know and it resonates with today's young, particularly in the run-up to a presidential election in which we will find ourselves in a very divisive situation.'

The two films, each nearly three hours long and costing up to £80m to make, are adapted from the 2018 De Gaulle biography A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle by Julian Jackson, a professor of history at Queen Mary University of London.

The first instalment, L'Âge de fer (Iron Age), follows De Gaulle's journey to London in June 1940 and the founding of the Free French forces to combat the Nazis, highlighting the Battle of

Bir Hakeim, in which 3,700 Free French soldiers held out in the Libyan desert against 37,000 Nazi troops led by Erwin Rommel for 16 days, allowing Britain's Eighth Army to retreat. The second, Fécriston nom (I Write Your Name) covers the rest of the war up to the liberation of France in 1944.

Directed by Antonin Baudry, a French diplomat and former ministerial adviser, the cast includes the French-Armenian actor Simon Abkarian - who played

'Few French films can be called a historical epic and this is one'

Henry Rousso French historian

▲ Churchill, left, and De Gaulle portrayed in the film and (below) in life, in November 1944 PHOTOGRAPH: TCU/PROD.DE/ALAMY; HULTON GETTY

a Bond villain in Casino Royale - as General de Gaulle and Simon Russell Beale, the acclaimed British stage actor, as Winston Churchill.

Baudry told French radio that he wanted the films to 'speak to young people ... and the themes of war, resistance and engagement'.

After the first release, the film appeared to be a flop. Then its production company, Pathé, organised watch parties hosted by the YouTube and Instagram influencer Inoxtag for young guests to meet Baudry. Local councils also offered free tickets for students and the word spread.

Outside one central Paris cinema last week, business student Alex and friends said they had enjoyed the film. 'We heard about it on social media and decided to see what it was all about,' he said.

'We're taught about the Free French and De Gaulle in school, but there were a lot of things I didn't know. It was interesting to see how Paris students heeded De Gaulle's call to resist.'

The historian Henry Rousso, a second world war specialist, said: 'There are very few films in French cinema that can be called a historical 'epic' and this is one of them. The director has succeeded perhaps because it is one of French history's greatest epics.

'De Gaulle was an exceptional character in his lifetime and he remains one for the French today when there is no equivalent political figure.'

Not everyone is an enthusiastic. Arnaud Teyssier, a historian and De Gaulle biographer, dismissed the film as a 'comic strip' that did not do its subject justice. 'The film is not without great appeal: it had a big budget, good cast and is based on a rightly respected biography,' he wrote in Le Point magazine, adding: 'But the disappointment is equally great.'

Nathalie Cieutat, the deputy director of distribution at Pathé Films, said the company's research had showed 'it is the theme of resistance that has made the film particularly popular to the young'.

Aglan said the character of De Gaulle had a particularly modern resonance as France approaches what promises to be a bitter presidential election next year - current polls suggest it could result in a battle between the far-right National Rally and the leftwing France Unbowed.

She said: 'When French people are divided and faced with the extreme right and extreme left and wondering who to vote for when they don't want either, they would like to have the choice of a providential man or woman who can save us from such terrible choices.

'De Gaulle gives hope because he resisted and right now everyone is thinking about how to resist.'

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National

US navy families angry at Trump's dismissal of crew welfare concerns

Ed Pilkington

Naval families with loved ones deployed for months on US warships during the Iran war have reacted with fury to Donald Trump and his defence secretary Pete Hegseth's dismissal of their concerns about the extreme pressures and dire conditions they say they are enduring.

The Guardian has spoken to several naval families who have been following the physical and mental stresses on their relatives with mounting alarm. The families, with loved ones onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Tripoli, all spoke anonymously for fear of retribution against their active duty relatives.

They spoke of insufficient nourishment that has led to close relatives losing 20-30lbs (9-14kg) in weight since they were deployed to the Middle East five months ago, leaving one sailor 'emaciated', according to his mother. They spoke also of low-quality drinking water and scarce mental health support despite the intense burden of being at sea for months on end without making land.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier with more than 5,000 sailors and marines onboard, has been at sea for nearly nine months, having begun its deployment in November. There have been reports of multiple suicide attempts including jumping overboard.

When Trump was asked on Friday whether naval families were worried about conditions onboard, he replied: 'No, they're not.' He said the Abraham Lincoln's deployment was 'not nearly long enough'.

Earlier, Hegseth also attempted to swat away families' concerns, saying the reality onboard the US navy warship had been 'completely misrepresented'.

The sister of a Lincoln crew member said the remarks made her want to grab Trump and Hegseth and shake them. 'I grew up in a United States, where you have to be very respectful of the military, as they're making the ultimate sacrifice and protecting their country, and now you have the commander-in-chief and defence

▲ US crews have complained about poor conditions onboard their ships

secretary dismissing their experiences and calling them liars. I'm really angry,' she said.

She added: 'It's a feeling of betrayal. These are frustrating, false and careless comments, and they are going to have a lot of consequences for my brother.'

The mother of another sailor onboard the Lincoln said: 'My son signed up to serve his country. But why isn't his country serving him? They are not feeding him or supplying clean water, and living conditions are horrible. He didn't sign up for that.'

The sister of the crew member shared text messages received from her brother. In one he said 'the water is so bad that they took out the scuttlebutts', referring to the drinking water containers on the carrier.

He also described the mental health services available to struggling sailors that are now overstretched. 'Our deployment resilience counselor quit months ago. To see the ONLY PSYCHIATRIST is a five-week wait unless you do like three of our shipmates and jump off the ship or take 27 sleeping pills.'

CNN has reported that among the multiple suicide attempts onboard the Lincoln, a sailor had succeeded in going overboard earlier this month and had to be rescued by helicopter.

The Guardian asked US military authorities to explain the logistical challenges faced by US warships deployed in the Iran war, but it did not respond.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that another aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, is being sent to replace the Lincoln.

The Lincoln crew member's sister said that in the months of deployment her brother had lost 20lbs. An even more extreme picture was painted by the mother of a sailor on board the USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship with 3,500 sailors and marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit onboard.

The Tripoli was redeployed from its base in Sasebo, Japan, on 11 March, and returned to base last month. Over the five months of active deployment, the mother said her son had lost more than 30lbs.

The mother, herself a naval veteran with six years' service, showed the Guardian photos of her son before and after deployment. Before he had a fleshy round face and muscular arms; after he is markedly skinny, with thin arms and a scrawny neck.

The mother said that her son had been on many deployments with the navy. This was the first time that he had ever indicated a lack of food and other basic supplies.

'Something genuinely wrong has happened,' she said.

Kyiv launches huge drone strike on Moscow region

● Continued from page 1

reported killed in the region, while Ukraine said a seewood warehouse at nearby Domodedovo was also targeted.

The Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that the figure was the largest daily total claimed by the defence ministry, exceeding a record that had been set only the day before, though the figure is probably exaggerated and could not be verified.

Experts said Russian numbers needed to be treated with caution, but added that the scale of damage nevertheless demonstrated how fast Ukraine has expanded its long-range attack capabilities this year.

Serhii Kuzan, head of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre thinktank, said Russian authorities 'deliberately inflate their figures' to make exaggerated claims about the effectiveness of their air defence.

But he said that 'against the backdrop of increased production of Ukrainian long-range drones and missiles, both the number of strikes and the scale of Ukrainian weaponry's deployment' were on the rise as the war continued.

Kuzan argued it was 'quite possible' that it had been the biggest attack on the Moscow region and

that it was 'at least on a par' with the May strikes on the oil refinery in the Kapotnya area near Moscow.

A rapid development of largely home-grown technologies, including the Flamingo cruise missile and the FP-1 long-range fixed-wing drone from Fire Point, has allowed Ukraine to bomb warehouses, oil refineries, ports and military facilities up to 1,500 miles from its border.

Ukraine can now almost match the deep strike capability Russia has had since the beginning of the war using large drones and cruise missiles, though it still does not possess the high-speed ballistic missiles fired frequently by Moscow.

At the same time, the air defences of both sides are stretched to the point of near exhaustion, leading to a rise in civilian casualties and worries that the impact of the conflict beyond the immediate frontlines will only increase into the winter.

Kuzan said: 'With every successful strike, Russia's economic and military capabilities are diminished, and the Kremlin faces a new dilemma: how to counter this in a war of attrition.'

In the past month, Kyiv has shifted focus to attacking facilities linked to the Wildberries company, used widely by businesses to support online retail. Ukraine says the

warehouses are used by the military for logistics, though they also store stock sold by large and small Russian businesses.

Ukraine's military said yesterday that in a strike conducted with FP-1 drones it had disabled seven out of 10 of the company's largest warehouses in an attempt to damage the Russian economy and affect ordinary citizens financially.

Five people were reported to have been killed in Russia's southern Rostov region, which borders Ukraine. Ukraine said it had targeted a factory that produced rocket fuel in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, causing a fire there.

Russian drone and missile attacks killed two people in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, while a Spanish F-18 jet shot down what appeared to be a Russia drone that had crossed over the border into Romania.

The Spanish fighter jet, part of a Nato patrol mission, shot down the drone at about 5am.

'The drone appears to be Russian,' a Nato military spokesperson said.

Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region, said the assault on the region was 'one of the most massive drone attacks in recent memory'. Video footage on social media showed a fire raging across the Wildberries warehouse complex.

Russian attacks on Ukraine also killed two in the Sumy border region and three others across the country. A ballistic missile attack on Kyiv shortly before 3am injured six and caused several fires in the capital.

A blaze caused by the attacks destroyed a large part of the Petrovka book market in the Obolonskyi district in Kyiv overnight, with some booksellers reporting they had lost their entire stock.

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, praised the work of the country's emergency services and accused the Russians of attacking civilian infrastructure.

Over the past week, he said, Russia had launched more than 1,350 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs and 62 missiles at Ukrainian cities and communities, most of them various types of ballistic missile.

▲ A trader at a book market in Kyiv despairs as firefighters try to put out a blaze caused by a Russian missile attack

PHOTOGRAPH: FRANCHOOSKOVAP

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'I didn't go before' Clinic on a bus brings cancer testing to town Page 13

Ariana Grande review Robust arena show is deeply conflicting Page 17

National

3

Cambridge defends its mental health support for late academic Jason Arday

Rachel Hall

The University of Cambridge has defended its mental health support for the academic Jason Arday.

The university said it had continued to provide Arday with extensive mental health support and security measures, including installing panic alarms and screening racist emails and post, after he resigned from his position as a professor of sociology of education this month.

He quit after widespread press coverage of accusations of plagiarism and inconsistencies in statements about his career and achievements.

A University of Cambridge spokesperson said: "Our support continued in the face of intense public and media scrutiny and after his resignation. Our thoughts and deepest

condolences are with Jason's family and loved ones at this extremely difficult time."

Arday, 41, was pronounced dead after emergency services were called to his home in Battersea, south London, on Friday.

When he was appointed a professor of sociology of education at Cambridge at the age of 37 in 2023, he was the university's youngest ever black professor.

A vigil in Arday's memory organised by the campaign group Stand Up to Racism will be held on the steps of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, central London, at 6pm today. The group's co-convener Weyman Bennett said Arday's death was the "result of a racist witch-hunt".

He added: "For more than a week the rightwing press, politicians and the far right have hounded Jason with the most vicious racism. They are

▲ Jason Arday was pronounced dead at home in London on Friday

spreading the far-right lie that black people are only appointed because of the colour of our skin, rather than our ability."

Arday was initially accused of plagiarising another academic's work for his PhD thesis. He denied the accusation, and an investigation by Liverpool John Moores University this year upheld its decision to award him a PhD.

When allegations surfaced in the UK media in July, Cambridge said it had investigated the claims and found no wrongdoing, describing Arday as the victim of a "vile-steer campaign to undermine his credibility".

This month the university announced it would open a fresh investigation after it said it had received new information about Arday's qualifications and career.

Other elements of Arday's life story were increasingly questioned, including claims of prodigious money-raising for charity and feats of long-distance running. He was also challenged about whether he was nonverbal until the age of 11, as well as being illiterate until 18.

It is understood Cambridge has paused the investigation so Arday's family can grieve, and will consider whether to reopen it in due course. Academics and politicians have

cast doubt on whether Cambridge took Arday's vulnerability seriously when he was appointed to the senior public-facing role in 2023. At the time, the university had been facing criticism for its lack of diversity in senior roles.

Prof Simon Baron-Cohen, Arday's friend and former colleague, told Times Radio he thought the university should proceed with the investigation.

"We should see what we learn from it. This is the whole purpose of investigations," he said.

Baron-Cohen added that there were questions about whether the media had failed in its duty of care towards Arday as a vulnerable person with disabilities. He said Arday had faced racist abuse and was used as a "lightning rod for a culture war on [diversity, equity and inclusion]".

Simon Woolley, the principal of Homerton College, Cambridge, and Arday's former mentor, has called for an investigation into the "vicious media onslaught".

On Saturday Prof Deborah Prentice, the vice-chancellor of Cambridge University, said her "thoughts and deepest condolences" were with Arday's family as well as with colleagues and students.

PHOTOGRAPH: FOUNDER WEBSTER/ GETTY IMAGES

You wait a year ... A parade of buses leaves the abandoned village of Imber in the Ministry of Defence training area, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, on Saturday, during the annual Imberbus charity event. Buses including vintage Routemasters take passengers for a trip across restricted military roads to raise money for the Friends of St Giles church, Imber, and the Royal British Legion.

Murder inquiry launched into death of man bitten by dog

Hannah Al-Othman North of England correspondent

Police in West Yorkshire have launched a murder investigation into the death of a man after he was bitten by a dog.

Officers were dispatched to Wakefield just after 1.30pm on Saturday, after receiving reports of an altercation a short time earlier on an old trainline footpath, during which a 55-year-old man was bitten by a dog. He was taken to hospital in a critical condition and died shortly after 7pm.

A 55-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder and being the owner of a dog dangerously out of control in a public place causing injury, police said. Police seized a dog understood to have been the one involved in the incident.

Detectives have appealed for any witnesses, including two women who stepped in to help the victim, to come forward. DCI Michael Cox said: "We know two people, one named Sophie, stopped to assist the injured man and direct officers. We would urge these two women to come forward to help us with our ongoing inquiries."

Anyone with information can contact detectives online via www.westyorkshire.police.uk/livechat or by calling 101, quoting crime reference 13260465524.

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National Politics

Arron Banks hired investigator to dig into Tory critic of Farage finances

Rowena Mason Whitehall editor

The businessman and Reform UK backer Arron Banks commissioned a private intelligence firm to dig into the Conservative party chair, in addition to having paid for an investigation into a prominent journalist.

Banks, a former Reform UK candidate and leave campaign donor, appeared to confirm yesterday that he was behind an investigation into Kevin Hollinrake.

The use of private investigators to look into Hollinrake was first reported by the Mail on Sunday, which said Banks had used Precision Risk and Intelligence, a firm he previously owned.

As party chair, Hollinrake has led the Conservative's response to revelations about Nigel Farage's finances, asking questions about the £5m undeclared gift Farage received from the Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne before the last election.

Hollinrake addressed Banks on social media yesterday, saying: 'When you can't answer the

questions, investigate the people asking them. After we called for scrutiny of Reform UK's finances, a close associate of Nigel Farage reportedly hired private investigators to dig into me (and journalists covering the same story).'

In a reply on X, Banks said: 'I've always come across people in this world who like to give it but can't receive it.'

Pressed on whether Reform knew about the surveillance, Banks suggested he had acted alone, saying: 'I'd now my own boat.' Banks has been approached by the Guardian for comment.

The developments come after it emerged previously in the New Statesman that Banks had commissioned Precision Risk to investigate Gabriel Pogrand, the investigations editor of the Sunday Times.

The revelation led to fears that other journalists examining the funding of Reform and Farage, including at the Guardian, could have been targeted.

When asked previously whether he had commissioned investigators to surveil reporters at the Guardian, Banks said he was 'not really

interested in the Guardian' but declined to comment further.

The News Media Association (NMA), which represents regional and national media, raised concerns and described it as an 'attack on our democracy'.

The Guardian, along with the Sunday Times, has broken stories in recent months revealing how cash has been given to Reform and Farage personally from donors and wealthy benefactors.

Theo Bamber, the chief executive of the NMA, said aggressive attempts to deter journalists' inquiry were at risk of becoming normalised. 'Using private investigators to try to deter journalists from making legitimate inquiries about public figures is an attack on our democracy.'

'Sadly, intimidation and abuse of local and national journalists is increasingly used as a weapon to limit scrutiny and deflect attention away from matters of public interest. This must not become normalised.'

'Ministers must wake up to this threat to our democracy and do much more to protect the independent journalism which underpins our democratic way of life.'

Banks previously told the New Statesman: 'We believe the Sunday Times used hacked information and that was an area of interest. We do have an investigative arm that's got advanced capabilities.'

The Sunday Times has rejected Banks's suggestion. Banks, when asked directly by the New Statesman

Arron Banks, who appeared to confirm he set up an investigation into the Tory chair, Kevin Hollinrake

whether he had paid investigators to look into Pogrand, responded: 'When you live by the sword, you die by the sword.'

The Sunday Times published a new investigation this weekend into links between Reform funders and Tether.bet, a website accused of illegally offering gambling to UK punters, which closed this week.

The newspaper said the convicted fraudster George Cottrell was a high-profile customer of the website, and Harborne owned a company, IFX, that processed payments on behalf of another company that took deposits and returned winnings.

Cottrell's lawyers told the newspaper his relationship with Tether.bet 'has been limited to that of a customer, in addition to which he knows and is friends with the owner.'

When contacted by the Guardian, Cottrell's lawyers said he was one of the world's best known professional gamblers. 'It is therefore hardly surprising that [others] may seek to associate themselves with him in an attempt to lend credibility to their businesses or generate publicity. Mr Cottrell has never invested in, owned or operated any betting company or casino. He has never solicited clients for any betting company or casino. Any suggestion that he was involved in unlawful gambling activity is wholly false.'

Harborne and IFX's representatives told the Sunday Times he had never had any role in the running and operations of IFX and that it 'operates in accordance with applicable regulations and legislation'.

A Labour spokesperson said in response: 'These reports raise yet more questions about the people bankrolling Reform and Nigel Farage ... Farage cannot run from the truth for ever. He needs stop the excuses, come clean with the public.'

Benefits Reform 'targeting vulnerable' in £50bn cuts

Reform has been accused of excluding the most vulnerable from society and punishing non-Britons living in the UK as it proposes £50bn of cuts to benefits for disabled people and foreign nationals.

Robert Jenrick, Reform UK's finance spokesperson, will detail the policy plans for £20bn of cuts to disability benefits overall, as well as £21bn from stopping foreign nationals - including EU citizens with settled status - from claiming almost all benefits.

The party said the plans were aimed at reducing the welfare bill by a quarter, with personal independence payments (Pip) replaced by another cash benefit that would be restricted to only the 'grarely ill and severely challenged'. It said 'lower level conditions' would get support overseas by councils and mayors.

In relation to foreign nationals, the plans extend proposals set out by Nigel Farage last year in which he claimed that banning migrants from

collecting some benefits and scrapping indefinite leave to remain would save £234bn over several decades.

Jenrick's policy paper goes further by stopping foreign-born households claiming universal credit, housing benefit, pension credit, jobseeker's allowance, child benefit, free childcare, free school meals or disability benefits. It said the change would save the taxpayer £21bn a year by the fifth year of the policy, and would also apply to those with EU settled status. However, foreign-born parents with British-born children would still be eligible for child benefit and free school meals.

Best for Britain, a pro-EU campaign group, said denying benefits to those with indefinite leave to remain would tear up Britain's EU

'It is cowardly to take from the most defenceless'

Mothin Ali Green party

withdrawal agreement. Tom Brufatto, the executive director of policy at the organisation, said: 'Our polling shows that people do want to renegotiate our relationship with Europe, but by moving closer, not by damaging ties with vital allies and punishing our neighbours, colleagues and friends who have settled status here.'

Jenrick claimed paying benefits to non-British people was 'plain immoral' - even though many would have paid into the tax system through working. He also wrote in the Telegraph that the amount spent on disability benefits was 'not generosity ... it is suicidal empathy'.

However, Jenrick was accused by campaigners of making life harder for disabled people and not understanding that it would not save money. Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP who led the campaign against previous disability benefit cuts under Keir Starmer, said: 'When Pip helps people go to work, play a role in our society and simply live, threatening to remove Pip demonstrates that Reform do not want disabled people to play a full role in our society.'

'Instead of making it harder for disabled people, who already experience significant financial deprivation, they should spend time learning of the benefit it brings.'

Linda Burnip, the co-founder of Disabled People Against Cuts, said previous attempts to replace

disability benefits with cheaper options had not been successful. 'Originally the Tories scrapped disability living allowance and replaced it with Pip, aiming to save 20% from the social security bill,' she said. 'However, this obviously has failed and the major problem with Reform's crude plans to save money by denying payments to disabled people is that they fail to understand that a relatively small payment which supports someone could result in a massive saving overall from the public purse.'

'It could, for example, mean someone with a mental health condition is able to remain living safely in the community rather than needing to spend weeks or even months in a hospital for which private firms often charge around £12,000 per person a week.'

Mothin Ali, the Green party's deputy leader, said it showed the 'establishment parties are all trying to outdo each other when it comes to who can be the most xenophobic, who can punch down the hardest to the most vulnerable in our country'.

He added: 'It is cowardly to take from the most defenceless when we should be taxing the super wealthy, including those in the privileged position of accepting £5m donations.'

Labour described the plans as 'fantasy economics', while the Conservatives called them 'cobbled together'.

Housing Default yes to projects near train stations

Thousands more homes are to be built within to minutes of transport hubs, including on green belt sites, under a major loosening of planning policy by Angela Rayner today.

The housing secretary will set out changes to national planning guidance ordering councils to have a 'default yes' approach to housing developments within a reasonable walking distance of well-connected train and train stations.

If the proposal is on green belt land then the government's so-called 'golden rules' say these developments must have higher levels of affordable housing, new or improved

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9

◀ Ministers want to 'unlock thousands of homes around well-connected transport hubs', even if they are built on green belt land PHOTOGRAPH: BLOOMBERG/GETTY

green spaces and be supported by the right infrastructure.

The approach was put out to consultation under her predecessor, Steve Reed, but the guidance is to be confirmed as part of the new national planning policy framework (NPPF).

Rayner is billing the changes as part of the biggest rewrite of planning rules in more than a decade as the government moves towards its target of 1.5m new homes being built by the end of the parliament.

The government is about a quarter of the way to its target, two years into a five-year parliament.

There will also be new minimum expectations for how much housing should be built in these areas.

Rayner said yesterday that it would help address the fact that 'too many people are being priced out of the communities where they want to live and work'.

'By unlocking thousands of homes around well-connected transport hubs, we're helping people live closer to work, school and the services they rely on, while backing local businesses and driving growth in our communities,' she said. 'That's how we'll tackle the housing crisis and raise living standards for people in every corner of the country.'

The new NPPF is aimed at providing clearer national policies for both plan-making and decision-making, meaning that conflicting local

policies will carry less weight where they are inconsistent with national decision-making policies.

• Other changes will include:
• Stronger support in principle for development, meaning a more explicit presumption in favour of building in sustainable locations.
• A requirement for at least 40% of homes to be accessible on major developments and stronger protections for community facilities.
• Stronger support for growth and infrastructure including support for AI growth zones and data centres.
• All pubs to get protection from

being turned into housing or offices, with developers having to prove there is no reasonable prospect of keeping a pub as a going concern, including evidence that it was marketed for sale for at least a year.

Ministers had been consulting on whether to change planning laws to protect the last pub in an area from being turned into housing or commercial use, but the limits of that proposal prompted warnings from hospitality campaigners that thousands of pubs could be lost.

Rayner is making the move because of concerns about the rate

of pub closures in England, with the prime minister, Andy Burnham, already having announced a cut in business rates for the hospitality sector. According to the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), 794 pubs have closed this year, with 82 either being demolished or converted.

The wider changes to planning guidance were criticised by the Conservatives and Reform UK for taking power away from local communities, in contrast to Burnham's promise that he would increase devolution to councils.

James Cleverly, the Tory shadow housing secretary, said: 'To try to fix their own mess, Labour are planning a power grab, seizing control from local communities and forcing them to accept development in the wrong areas because Labour won't build in the right areas.'

Reform's business spokesperson, Richard Tice, said it was 'in direct contradiction of Andy Burnham's devolution agenda'.

However, experts at the Centre for Cities welcomed the policy, saying it was crucial to growth and productivity.

Andrew Carter, the chief executive of the thinktank, said: 'A default 'yes' to homes near stations is a vital reform that opens up space for high numbers of homes to be built in the long term, all of them well connected to jobs in major cities.'

Milburn: boost on-the-job help for young workers with disabilities

● Continued from page 1

It's a real phenomenon. So we've got to deal with it and we have got to adjust our systems to w deal with it.'

The Guardian recently reported that English primary schools could be required to identify children at risk of leaving education at 16 without finding a job as part of the Milburn review. 'The warning signs are there from a very early, early age,' he told the newspaper. 'You know, frankly from preschool.'

The year-long internships provide tailored onsite work experience and job coaching for 16- to 24-year-olds with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) who face high barriers to the job market. Employers involved include the NHS, Asda and Amazon.

Callum Beeston, a 20-year-old from Doncaster who has autism, completed a supported internship at Amazon with job coach support from Aspirations Doncaster. This month he started a full-time job there as a warehouse operative, and has been praised for his work by his bosses.

Beeston said his family's expectations of his finding work after he finished school were low, and he was 'unsure what to do next'. 'In the last 12 months I've become a very confident young fella,' he said.

Kim Patterson, the finance director at Aspirations Doncaster, said school-based ECHP support often 'drops off a cliff' once students leave. Some autistic young people find it hard to manage job applications and interviews, and can struggle to adapt to work routines without support.

In England there are only 4,500 supported internships. About 48% of supported interns found paid work, according to an official evaluation published this year by the Department for Education.

Milburn said capacity shortages meant there was no guarantee a young person with Send could access a supported internship in their local area. He believed that, while the model worked, it lacked the resources to be delivered at scale and there was low awareness of the scheme among parents, employers and schools.

He was tight-lipped on how such an expansion might be paid for, with fears that funding might be taken from young people's disability benefits. His final recommendations are expected to be delivered to the government in the autumn.

Milburn said the system was geared too much towards paying health and disability benefits and not enough towards supporting young people to enter the job market.

'If you are a young person today and you apply and get a health and disability benefit, there's a 50% chance that in 15 years' time you will still be eligible. You'll still be out of work. That is neither a good outcome, frankly, nor is it a progressive cause.'

▲ Andy Burnham in Cornwall on Saturday. Green belt developments must be supported by the right infrastructure, ministers say PHOTOGRAPH: JAMES MANNING/PA

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The Guardian Monday 17 August 2025

National

Man threatened with deportation allowed to reunite with his family

Diane Taylor

A Jamaican man who has lived more than half his life in the UK and was facing imminent deportation has been allowed to reunite with his British family after a legal challenge.

Mark Nelson, 47, came to the UK in 2000 and later set up his own car mechanic business. He has five British children and a British partner. He faced deportation in 2022 after serving a four-year prison sentence for possession with intent to supply a class B drug, abstracting electricity and two offences of racially aggravated intentional harassment. He had not committed any further offences.

The deportation was later cancelled and instead he was tagged and told to report weekly at a Home Office centre. However, last month

10

Number of years between Mark Nelson's conviction and the threat to deport him to Jamaica

• almost 10 years after his original conviction - Nelson was arrested, detained and told the government planned to deport him to Jamaica.

The Home Office gave him a ticket for a flight on 7 August, but after reading about his case in the Guardian lawyers offered to represent him pro bono to challenge his deportation.

After they made an 11th-hour application for a judicial review the Home Office backed down on the deportation and cancelled his ticket.

Last week he was granted bail and can return to the home he shares with his partner in the north of England and see his children again.

Nelson said he was overjoyed to have left the immigration detention centre near Heathrow, where he had spent several weeks in hot and crowded conditions.

"If it hadn't been for the lawyers who got in touch after reading the Guardian article I would be back in Jamaica by now, separated from my

'If it hadn't been for the lawyers who got in touch after reading the article, I would be back in Jamaica now'

Mark Nelson Referring to an article in the Guardian

family, not knowing when I would see them again," he said. "I have no family members there and believe my life would be at risk."

Naga Kandiah of MTC Solicitors, who contacted Nelson after reading about his case, lodged the judicial review application. He has also lodged an appeal relating to his immigration case and a referral has been made for him to the national referral mechanism as a potential victim of modern slavery.

Kandiah said: "He committed his offences in 2017 and served his sentence. Yet nearly a decade later he continues to endure the threat of deportation, with the devastating possibility that he could be permanently torn away from his British children and partner. A prison sentence should not become a life sentence by another name."

Nelson wrote an opinion piece for the Guardian in 2022 about being under threat of deportation. He said he no longer knew anyone in Jamaica after his great-grandparents, who had raised him, died when he was 16.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "All foreign national offenders who receive a prison sentence in the UK are referred for deportation at the earliest opportunity.

"We have removed or deported almost 70,000 people who were here illegally since the last election, an increase of 41%."

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National

Stage review Epic fever dream predicts and reflects US at 250

Angels in America

King's theatre, Edinburgh

Mark Fisher

Could Tony Kushner's sprawling fever-dream of a play have come of age? It is 34 years since the two-part epic had its premiere in San Francisco, when the memory of its Aids-crisis setting a few years earlier was still acute. Today, enough time has passed for us to see it in perspective: the historical moment in the mid-1980s when a new and initially untreatable virus was spreading, primarily among gay men, at the same time as reactionary conservative forces were in the ascendant under the two presidential terms of Ronald Reagan.

In an Edinburgh international festival that is asking questions of the US in the 250th anniversary year of the Declaration of Independence, Angels in America seems to predict and reflect the contradictory nation of today.

Subtitled A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, the five-hour play lays out a set of competing ideologies as if psychoanalyzing the country: the guilt of Judaism, the forgiveness of Catholicism, the repression of Mormonism, the liberation of being out and proud, the self-hatred of being closeted, and the law-of-the-jungle individualism that stokes rightwing thought.

"America has rediscovered itself," says Joe Pitt (Krisjan Schellingerhout), a Republican Mormon, believing that, under Reagan, his country has reclaimed a "sacred position among nations". Such messianic idealism runs counter to reality. There is a hole in the ozone layer, points out Harper

▲ Visitations: Felix Schellekens and Hans Kesting in Angels in America

(Eefje Paddenburg), his wife, and only a particular type of sociopath, such as Joe's idol Roy Cohn (Hans Kesting), would be proud that this is "no country for the infirm".

Joe and Roy are symbols of a nation eating itself from the inside. Joe, because he cannot square his conservative values with being secretly gay. Roy, because he associates homosexuality with weakness: "Roy Cohn is a heterosexual man ... who fucks around with guys."

The play does not mention it, but

in the 1970s and 80s, this real-life New York lawyer and kingmaker represented Donald Trump.

So far so polemical, but the appeal of Kushner's play is the way it blurs into the mythic with its feverish hallucinations. Characters end up in each other's dreams, there are visitations from horny angels, Harper treats her Valium like a passport to faraway places and even the brutish Roy is haunted by Ethel Rosenberg (Marieke Heebink), a woman condemned to death as a result of his prosecution.

It is this dreamlike quality that pervades Ivo van Hove's masterly staging for International Theater Amsterdam, performed here in Dutch.

Actors seem to appear out of nowhere on Jan Versweyveld's edgeless set, empty but for a counter with a couple of turntables blasting out favourites by David Bowie. There are no doors, beds, tables or phones; just a fluid movement of people and ideas as scenes wash over each other.

Leading an exemplary cast of eight, Kesting is at the play's troubling heart as a Roy Cohn who is at once brutish and intellectually consistent. Even as his body decays, he dominates with alphamale energy. His day is not over yet.

Until 20 August

Review

Lots of good vibes to feel in enjoyable new musical

The Singer

Traverse theatre, Edinburgh

Mark Fisher

There are other ways to listen," says Joe (Jamie Rea) to his new friend Andy (Dylan Wood), a busker he has discovered on the street and invited home for a drink. He takes off his shoes, the better to feel the vibrations through the floor, and straps on a gadget called a Subpac. He gets Andy to lean his full height against a towering speaker stack. Only then does the rumbling bass kick in.

Little, perhaps, to distinguish them from two drum'n'bass enthusiasts, but this is something else. Joe is less singer than singer, a British Sign Language (BSL) speaker whose disability has been no impediment to his love of music. He tells an incredulous Andy that he appreciates sound by feeling it,

▲ Jamie Rea as Joe, a deaf artist who 'sings' with his hands, and Dylan Wood as Andy, a busker. The show features music by KT Tunstall

and puts his hand on the musician's acoustic guitar to demonstrate. They form the least likely of songwriting partnerships.

Staged by Cora Bissett, who made a 20-minute film of the same name with Rea, The Singer is gig theatre with a difference. Midway through, the house lights come up and they teach us how to sign the chorus of Find My Feet, the kind of feelgood morale booster you can imagine on the soundtrack of a

children's movie. We all delightedly join in. The song is written by KT Tunstall, whose indie folk rock score lends an authentic edge to the story, complemented by Joe's beats, under the musical direction of Michael John McCarthy.

That story, also written by Bissett, is not the production's chief strength. Staged by Dundee Rep and Solar Bear, it is a simple tale of a tested friendship in an exploitative music industry. But as Andy goes from faithful to fickle and back again, it finds room to make salient points about exclusion and the lower status accorded to BSL culture.

It wears its politics lightly but unmistakably on a set by the designer Jenny Booth that ensures written, spoken and signed languages are always available. Adding a ribald running commentary are Hannah Jarrett-Scott and Peter Dobre as Andy's can-do grandparents, an excellent Jarrett-Scott giving Tunstall's songs a soulful boost alongside Wood's earthy singer-songwriter vibes. Whatever your language, it is a highly enjoyable show.

Until 30 August as part of Edinburgh festival fringe. Then touring Scotland until 26 September

▲ An ammonite fossil found in Lyme Regis on Britain's Jurassic Coast

MP urges ban on export of fossils after collection sold to Abu Dhabi

Nicola Davis

Science correspondent

An MP has called on ministers to change export controls so that significant fossils can be classed as national treasures after one of the UK's best collections, unearthed on Dorset beaches, was sold overseas.

Last week, a Guardian investigation reported that an unparalleled collection of fossils from the Jurassic Coast, comprising hundreds of specimens including ichthyosaurs, had been sold to the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi for what one source described as an "eight-figure sum".

The fossils, which had belonged to the Dorset-based private collector Chris Moore, were initially offered to the Natural History Museum in London and Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales. However, neither institution had the funds to buy them.

Senior figures at the Lyme Regis Museum have called on ministers to change the way fossil discoveries are recorded and sold. They said they had not been informed of the impending sale of Moore's collection or given the opportunity to acquire it.

A letter from Bridget Houseago, the director of the museum, to Edward Morello, the Liberal Democrat MP for West Dorset, noted that cultural goods export controls did not cover fossils and other natural history items because they were not "made".

This meant some important and rare fossils could be sold without an export licence, the letter said.

There is no suggestion the sale of the Moore collection to the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi had broken any rules.

The Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi previously told the Guardian that a large majority of the Chris Moore collection had already gone on public display.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport declined to comment.

Houseago said: "These fossils are a shared cultural asset of national and scientific importance, as well as being part of the physical evidence that supports the Unesco world heritage site designation.

"Here they have meaning and context, and help us tell the story of our history and geology, which is unique and special to this place."

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National Royal estates

▲ King Charles and Prince William have both been praised over the years for their environmental advocacy PHOTOGRAPH: TOBY MELVILLE/GETTY IMAGES

King Charles and Prince William face £10m energy efficiency bill for their royal estates

● Continued from page 1

and William have been praised for their environmental advocacy. They are likely to be criticised if the estates fail to meet the new government standards as fears about energy costs and the climate crisis intensify.

They face spending up to £10,000 to upgrade each property, and could be fined £30,000 for every home they continue to rent without carrying out the necessary work.

A government spokesperson said: 'Everyone deserves to live in a warm, comfortable home. Our plans for private rental homes to be EPC by 2030 could lift up to half a million households out of fuel poverty by 2030, cutting bills to give families across the country the breathing space they need.'

Nationally, just over half of all rental properties currently have an EPC rating below C, but the Guardian has found that properties on the three large royal estates are more poorly insulated and expensive to heat than average.

The king inherited the Sandringham estate and the Duchy of Lancaster from his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, after her death in 2022. He did not pay inheritance tax on either estate because assets passed between monarchs are exempt.

The Duchy of Lancaster was established in 1265 to provide a private income for the sovereign and its profits soared during the late queen's reign. It spans about 18,000 hectares (44,000 acres), ranging from north-west England to parts of London.

The income generated by Sandringham, bought by Queen Victoria

in 1862 and set over 8,000 hectares in rural Norfolk, has not been disclosed.

When Charles became king after his mother's death, he passed the Duchy of Cornwall to William. Founded in 1337 to generate money for male heirs to the throne, it too has become significantly more profitable in recent decades. It covers about 55,000 hectares and is concentrated mainly in the south-west of England.

The Guardian examined more than 700 domestic EPCs across the three estates and found that £30 would fail to meet the government's proposed requirements.

This analysis revealed that 99% of the rental properties on the Sandringham estate had an EPC rating of D or lower. The figure was more than 90% for the Duchy of Lancaster and about 80% for the Duchy of Cornwall.

The investigation excluded properties that appear to have been converted into holiday lets or those with separate leasehold titles, as it is unclear how the new rules will apply to them.

The precise number of domestic properties across the three estates is also unclear because they do not publish lists of their landholdings, though the figure is believed to exceed 1,200.

In the past, aides working at the two duchies have gone to great lengths to obscure details of their property portfolios, withholding the information even from parliament.

However, if this sample of more than half is representative, then more than 1,000 properties could fall foul of the new rules, requiring improvement if they are to be rented out.

The renovation costs could exceed

▲ Above and left, interior photographs of a property on the Duchy of Lancaster estate, thought to have an EPC rating of G – the lowest possible PHOTOGRAPHS: NICK SOMMERLAND

£10m, similar to the annual combined residential rental income of the duchies. The duchies pay out about £50m a year to Charles and William. They are exempt from most business taxes, which helps them to maximise their profits.

The details of how landlords will be required to upgrade their properties from a minimum of an E to a C from 2030 are yet to be published by the government.

This week, the Guardian revealed that more than 100 domestic properties on royal estates have EPC ratings of F or G.

Some have exemptions from the minimum energy efficiency standards regulations, while others are outside the scope of the rules as they are farmhouses or because the tenancies pre-date the current regulations. It is unclear if these loopholes will remain in place when the rules are amended by the government.

A Whitehall source said: 'We recently consulted on reforms to the energy performance of buildings regime and will update in due course.'

'Some buildings, such as historic or mixed tenure, may not be able to upgrade to the new standard and some limited exemptions are in place on this basis.'

'About 48% of privately rented properties are already at a current

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9

▼ Sandringham Hall, at the heart of the 8,000-hectare royal estate in Norfolk, which brings in millions for the king PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID GOODARD/GETTY

EPC C standard. We will consider further guidance for mixed-use buildings, ahead of the new standards coming into force.

The royal estates are less energy efficient than most privately rented homes because they are mainly older rural properties, often heated by oil, coal or wood.

Only the Duchy of Cornwall's newer builds at Poundbury, in Dorset, and Nansledan, in Cornwall, consistently meet the new planned targets for efficiency. However, of more than 300 Duchy of Cornwall EPCs the Guardian examined, just 11% were rated B and 8% rated C.

The rest were D or lower, and if this is typical of the rest of the Duchy of Cornwall's 600 or more rental properties, then the total improvement bill could reach up to £5m - or about one-quarter of the estate's annual profits.

On top of a previously announced £500m investment over the next decade, the Duchy of Cornwall said that 'an additional £50m is planned for improving the condition and efficiency of our existing properties'.

The Duchy of Cornwall said it had a 'unique portfolio, including many historic buildings located in isolated rural and island locations'.

'While this confers a special character, it also brings some unique challenges which we have started to

address systematically through our retrofit programme,' a spokesperson said.

'We recognise that these challenges mean work does not always happen as fast as we would like, but we will continue to work closely with our tenants to identify effective and practical energy-efficiency improvements as quickly as possible.'

The Duchy added that it had spent £11m on home improvements since 2022, and in the last year had delivered 150 'modern, energy-efficient homes, all of which are EPC A or B'.

However, in response to follow-up questions from the Guardian, it confirmed that only six of the new properties were duchy private rents, with most having been sold.

The Duchy of Lancaster's annual

If even the richest landlords get away with it, what hope is there of getting the rest to do the right thing?

Jonathan Bean Fuel Poverty Action

report states that it operates more than 300 domestic rental properties, but the precise figure is not known.

The Guardian found more than 200 properties on the estate that had domestic EPCs. More than 90% of them have ratings of lower than C. Nearly half are rated E and over a quarter are rated D. The total potential bill for improvements could top £2m.

The Duchy of Lancaster said it placed 'great importance' on 'being a responsible landlord'.

'Any tenant with concerns is encouraged to contact us directly and can be assured we will address these issues promptly and constructively,' a spokesperson added.

'Over the last year, the Duchy of Lancaster has invested more than £3m in residential property repairs and upgrades as part of our ongoing commitment to provide well-maintained homes compliant with all legislation.'

'While improving the energy efficiency of some historic buildings is challenging, we continue to work to improve their EPC ratings.'

The Guardian has seen EPCs for more than 150 properties on the Sandringham estate, understood to be about half of the total. None were rated A or B, with just one rated C. Almost all could need work to meet the new regulations, with 99% rated from D down to G.

The biggest group - 120 properties, equivalent to 75% of those analysed - are rated E, the minimum EPC rating allowed for rented properties since new rules in 2018.

This includes Marsh Farm, where Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor now lives. Its EPC, produced in 2019, rated it as a low E, just two points above an F. If the findings reflect the wider Sandringham estate, the total bill for energy-efficiency improvements by 2030 could come to £3m.

A spokesperson said Sandringham has 'a mixture of property and tenancy types, which are fully compliant with MEES [minimum energy efficiency standards] regulations'.

'We continue to invest significantly in an ongoing programme of maintenance and improvement works on all properties, including those out of scope of the regulations, to upgrade energy efficiency across the estate,' she added.

'While we do not comment on individual cases, these regulations do not apply to every property on the estate, and exemptions are necessary on a small number of properties.'

Jonathan Bean, a spokesperson for campaign group Fuel Poverty Action, said: 'The royal duchies should be leading the way in upgrading all their properties to a minimum EPC of C by 2030 to protect people's health and the environment.'

'Instead they are dragging their feet and looking for loopholes. If even the richest landlords are allowed to get away with it, what hope is there of getting the rest to do the right thing? The government must act now to close all loopholes and increase enforcement efforts.'

A Duchy of Cornwall spokesperson said it was unable to confirm the accuracy of the findings as the Guardian did not provide the estate with a list of properties we had inspected, to protect the tenants who spoke to us on condition of anonymity.

'It's archaic'

The tenants braving hard winters in cold homes

Nick Sommerlad

This summer, the duchy of Cornwall got a new-look website with a bold statement of intent at the top: 'We're on a mission to become a world-leading impact organisation.'

Updating the website will have been the easiest part of that mission. Upgrading hundreds of ageing, mostly rural, rented cottages, farmhouses and country houses will be one of the hardest.

For many tenants, it will be long overdue. One, who is in failing health and struggles to heat a poorly insulated home where the only source of warmth is coal-fired stoves, said: 'This place is not up to the standards of the 20th century, let alone the 21st. It's archaic. It needs to be upgraded but I don't think they want to spend the money.'

There is money. Established in 1337 to provide an income to male heirs to the throne, the Duchy of Cornwall is unburdened by many of the taxes faced by other landlords, such as corporation tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax. It enjoys profit margins of about 60% and pays out more than £20m a year to the monarch's eldest son.

Changes are afoot: the duchy announced this year it would be selling off 20% of the estate over the next decade and investing £50m in local communities, housing and environmental projects.

Prince William, four years into his tenure as the 25th Duke of Cornwall, has promised to transform his inheritance: 'There is so much good we can do. I'm trying

to make sure I'm prioritising stuff that's going to make people's lives, living in those areas, better.'

However, the same tenant is not convinced he will benefit. 'I'm sure this is one of the properties that he will sell and I don't know what will happen to me after that,' he said. 'Will they have to find somewhere else for me or will I just be turfed out?'

It is the dilemma facing many duchy tenants, most of whom are reluctant to speak out, in parts of the country where the housing crisis is being keenly felt. Many properties in these areas - including those owned by the duchies - have been turned into holiday lets. Combined with an abundance of second homes, there are few other rental properties available.

At first glance, some of the duchy cottages look idyllic. But many were built cheaply, over the centuries, for the agricultural working poor. The older ones are stone, the relatively newer ones typically a single skin of brick. They are often clustered around farms, but some are in the towns and villages dotted throughout the duchy's heartlands in Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and Dartmoor.

The same complaints surface repeatedly - the duchy doesn't like to spend money, repairs take an age, friends are envious, but the homes are cold, winters hard.

They are not the kind of properties that make it into the duchy's glossy annual reports, where the homes that feature tend to be the newer-built developments at Poundbury in Dorset and Nansledan in Cornwall.

Commercial investments now make up over half of the duchy's income, but the homes it owns will only become a bigger headache as standards for rentals are raised.

Elizabeth Earle, a knowledge lawyer at Farrer & Co, which acts for the duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster, recently wrote about changes in legislation that 'may feel unduly hard on owners of older, rural and often energy-inefficient properties'.

Earle was not talking of the royals, but said: 'The irony is that, while these are precisely the sort of properties in which people dream of living, it is becoming increasingly hard to let them - and nigh-on impossible to make them comply with modern standards.'

▲ The Poundbury estate is a new development led by the Duchy of Cornwall. But many duchy properties are old and inefficient PHOTOGRAPH: KIRAN HILDE/GETTY

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12

National

Afghan police worker named in MoD leak is threatened by Taliban

Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent

A man has received threats from the Taliban after his work for the Afghan police was revealed by a Ministry of Defence leak and the UK refused his application for resettlement.

Hamid* worked for the Afghan national police special unit and received certificates for his work signed by senior British figures praising his “dedication, unparalleled service and leadership”.

His details were also included in an accidental 2022 leak by an MoD official that identified 18,700 Afghans who had worked with or for the British government.

Hamid said he had received a number of threats from the Taliban, including a video he shared with the Guardian in which a man cradling a rifle beneath a Taliban flag threatens to pursue him and cites knowledge of his previous movements.

The MoD, however, has rejected his application for resettlement under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) scheme. His most recent rejection, received on 31 July, stated that Hamid had not provided evidence of “working alongside, in partnership with or closely supporting a UK government department”. It gave him 28 days to appeal.

Hamid said: “This is extremely painful because I have already submitted every document available to me proving my service.

“Furthermore, many of my former colleagues who served in exactly the same department and performed the same duties have already been relocated to the UK through the Arap scheme.”

Hamid’s plea for help comes five years after the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan on 15 August 2021 after the withdrawal of US and Nato forces. The UK government launched the Arap scheme on 1 April 2021 and

▲ Taliban security personnel in Kandahar. Afghans who worked with British forces fear retribution PHOTOGRAPH: SANAULLAH SEIAM/AFP/GETTY

‘Must I wait until I am captured, tortured or killed by the Taliban before my service is recognised?’

Hamid Ex-Afghan police worker

closed it to new applications on 1 July last year. Pre-existing applications continue to be processed.

Under Arap, a high risk of death or serious injury are only taken into account if the other criteria are deemed to have been met, which they have not been in Hamid’s case.

He said: “Must I wait until I am captured, tortured or killed by the Taliban before my service and the danger I face are finally recognised?

“Following the Ministry of Defence data breach, my personal information was exposed, placing me at even greater risk.

“Since then, my life has changed completely. I cannot safely leave my

home to work. I live in constant fear of being recognised or targeted.”

After the leak, the then defence secretary, John Healey, said the dataset included people who had made speculative applications under Arap and had not worked with British forces. He said being included in the leak “doesn’t give them a right to claim access to Britain”.

Hamid said that because he was in hiding he had no reliable income and relied on his wife, who supports the family by doing small jobs from home.

He said: “The emotional impact has been devastating. My wife and I have become deeply exhausted, depressed and hopeless after years of fear, uncertainty, repeated refusals and financial hardship.

“I am not asking for special treatment. I am only asking for a fair review based on the evidence I have already provided.”

An MoD spokesperson said: “Each application is considered on a case-by-case basis, assessed against the evidence provided, such as how they supported the UK mission in Afghanistan, and in line with the publicly available eligibility criteria.

“Since the Taliban takeover, the UK has resettled almost 39,000 Afghan men, women and children through Afghan resettlement schemes.”

*Name has been changed

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National

13

'I feel so relieved'

Clinic-on-wheels saving lives with cervical screening

Anna Bawden Health and social affairs correspondent

It's 10am on one of the main pedestrian shopping streets in Warrington, and already there's a queue of women outside a small bus the size of a supermarket delivery van. While some look calm, others are visibly nervous. This is no mobile library, post office or coffee truck - but one providing far more intimate services: cervical screening.

The bus feels surprisingly spacious. There's a consultation area with room for the nurses, patients and anyone accompanying them to talk. Behind it, a separate room holds a bed, room to get changed and storage for all the clinical equipment. Purple lighting, smart decor and spa music add to the minimalist ambience.

Catherine, 26, is the first in the queue. She has never had cervical screening before. She says the fact that it is a bus, with people she doesn't know, persuaded her to go ahead with it. 'I didn't go for screening before because there's only one nurse at my doctor's and she's my asthma nurse,' Catherine says. 'So it felt too familiar.'

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women, according to the World Health Organization. Its cervical cancer strategy states that by 2030 all countries should screen 70% of girls and vaccinate 90% of girls by the age of 15.

But NHS figures show there are just over a million women in England who are not up to date with their cervical screening, and that number is rising. According to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data, in the decade since 2014, screening rates in England have fallen eight percentage points to 69%, the fourth steepest drop behind Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Turkey.

According to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, women from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled women, LGBTQ+ people with a cervix, and those in deprived areas are less likely to be up to date with screening.

In 2024, in a move to improve take-up, Living Well buses started running walk-in cervical screening clinics in Cheshire and Merseyside.

NHS nurses Jill West, left, and Heledd Watkins, on the Living Well bus; below left, the bus parked in Warrington town centre offering an

appointment-free cervical screening service to anyone who comes along and joins the queue PHOTOGRAPHS: CHRISTOPHER THOMING THE GUARDIAN

it needs to be done.' Less than 10 minutes later she steps out of the bus. 'I feel so relieved,' she tells me. 'It was fine, it's done now. The nurses ... put me at ease.'

By 4pm, 18 women have been screened - of whom five had never had a screening before and eight who were overdue. In all, the buses have screened more than 2,700 women across the north-west.

Dr Sue Mann, NHS England's national clinical director for women's health, says: 'Screening saves lives - and thousands more women have now had cervical screening they likely wouldn't have otherwise had thanks to these excellent roaming clinics-on-wheels.'

For some, even a friendly mobile bus would not be enough. Later this year, NHS England will start rolling out self-sampling, inviting women who are overdue a screening to order home kits.

Caroline Berchet, a health economist at the OECD, says this could increase rates without reducing efficacy of results. 'Allowing women to collect samples at home and return them by mail helps address common obstacles like limited access to providers, travel barriers, time constraints and discomfort with clinician-based screening.'

Melanie Tipples, a consultant gynaecologist and vice-president for education at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), says introducing home human papillomaviruses (HPV) testing kits is a positive step. 'We now need sustained investment in raising awareness of screening, and a clear, funded, accountable plan to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040.'

Elimination will involve concerted efforts to increase vaccination rates as well as screening by tackling barriers such as stigma, misinformation and logistical challenges, says Helen Hyndman, lead nurse at The Eve Appeal.

At 75.5% for girls and 70% for boys, HPV vaccination uptake in England lags far below the 90% target set by the World Health Organization and is falling - in 2017, the rate for girls was 85%. According to the OECD, getting to 90% could prevent 89% of all premature deaths due to cervical cancer in the UK.

Back on the bus, West says the crucial thing is not rushing women. 'One of the things we can do on the bus is give them time. Because there's no appointments, if it takes half an hour, it takes half an hour.'

'It's the best job in the world - I've retired three times but then I think I don't really want to, I want to be doing this.'

Names of the patients have been changed

Screening for cervical cancer has been dropping over the past decade

% of women screened in England ● Women aged 25-64 ● 25-49 ● 50-64

Source: NHS England

Funded by NHS England North West, the service was so popular that this summer it expanded into neighbouring regions. Now, two buses run 10 cervical screening sessions a week across Lancashire and South Cumbria, as well as Cheshire and Merseyside. From October, the service will start going to locations in Greater Manchester.

Jill West, one of the nurses running the clinic, says mobile screening is game-changing. 'The bus is fantastic. Women can sometimes forget about their own health - they've got children to think about, work to think about,

Less than 70% of UK women were screened for cervical cancer in 2024

Screening, % of female population

Source: OECD. Note: top 15 OECD countries. No data for Austria, Mexico and Switzerland. *US 2023 figures

they can't get a convenient GP appointment, or fit it in with their menstrual cycle. So the bus is perfect because it's advertised and women can come along and get screened without having to make an appointment.'

This morning's session certainly seems to be working. Peggy, 57, works in the NHS but says she had to sneak out of her shift to come to the bus and is very overdue for screening. 'I've had smears before but I can't remember when the last one was,' she says. 'I'm now on HRT and I had a little blood the other week, so when this came up, I

HPV vaccination uptake in the UK is far below the WHO target

Vaccination coverage by age 15, last dose ● Females ● Males

Source: World Health Organization. Note: 50% HPV vaccination target applies only to girls by the age of 15

thought that's the signal that I need to go and get checked.'

Imogen, 35, who works as a pharmacy technician, says the only appointment at her GP surgery would have been for 7am. 'I've got two children, I can't get there that early,' she says. 'It's just hard because you think it's so important and it's so hard to get an appointment [at the GPs], but this is just brilliant.'

Despite that, Imogen is incredibly anxious and at one point almost in tears. 'I don't know why I'm so nervous,' she says. 'It's just uncomfortable, isn't it? But I know

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14

News Climate crisis

Regulator could allow water companies to deploy 'surge pricing' in times of drought

Joanna Partridge

Water companies could be allowed to increase bills for customers during periods of drought under proposals being considered by the sector's regulator for England and Wales.

Suppliers would be permitted to factor 'water scarcity' into bills as part of efforts to reduce consumption under Ofwat's plans, which are being likened to surge pricing - the practice where private hire firms raise tax fares at times of higher demand.

The proposals come just a few days after the prime minister, Andy Burnham, said he was angry with

water companies and accused them of treating their customers like a 'blank cheque' after more than a dozen firms were given the green light by the regulator to raise water bills even higher.

It emerged last Thursday that five companies - Southern Water, Thames Water, Severn Trent, Wessex Water and South East Water - would be allowed to raise bills more than originally planned before the end of the decade to allow for billions of pounds of extra spending on repairs and infrastructure.

The surge pricing proposals, first reported by the Sunday Telegraph, come after the conclusion on 30 July of Ofwat's consultation on changing

the rules relating to wholesale charging, with the regulator due to share its final decision shortly.

Public anger over the behaviour of water companies has soared in recent years as bills have continued to climb even while sewage has flowed into waterways and companies have increased bosses' pay and paid out millions of pounds in dividends to shareholders.

During an exceptionally hot and dry summer, leading to almost three-quarters of England and all of Wales being declared officially in drought, suppliers have also come under fire for failing to save water lost through leaky pipes, which campaigners say far outstrips the amount that could

▲ Public anger has grown as bills rise and river pollution increases

be saved through a nationwide hose-pipe ban.

An Ofwat spokesperson said: 'The efficient use of water is in the best interests of everyone, including businesses. The options we are progressing would support greater consideration of water scarcity and efficiency by water companies when setting their charges, and encourage more tariff innovation.'

Several water companies have been carrying out charging trials over the past few years aimed at making bills more affordable and, potentially, reducing demand.

South West Water - which supplies water to about 1.8 million customers across south-west England, including

Cornwall and Devon - is trialling a 'rising block tariff', under which about 500 household customers are charged a cheaper rate for using a lower amount - or 'block' - of water, and progressively higher prices for higher consumption.

The company said 90% of its customers would see lower bills on this trial, according to its assessments.

Anglian Water - which supplies 7 million customers across the east of England, the UK's driest region - and South West Water are also trialling charging customers more for water used in the summer than in the winter months.

The Guardian understands there are no government plans for nationwide surge pricing for water bills.

A government spokesperson said: 'Water companies are trialling new charging structures which must, as promised, make bills fairer and more affordable while encouraging greater water efficiency.'

They added: 'We have already ringfenced money earmarked for new infrastructure so it can only be spent on fixing the problems, and will go further by fundamentally reforming the water sector so that it works

'Only going to get worse'

A Welsh community at the centre of the wildfire crisis

Bethan McKernan Wales correspondent

More than three weeks after it began burning and two days after the military deployed to the area, there is hope that the huge wildfire on the hillside above the Ebbw valley village of Blaenavon may finally be coming under control.

Emergency workers and soldiers described a gruelling battle against the deep-seated peat fire that has spread over 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres), putting lives, farmland and property at risk.

At least 13 other fires have blazed across the valleys this weekend, prompting south Wales fire and rescue service to ask for military

support - the first UK military deployment to deal with wildfires since 2018.

Nationally, about 36 fires are still burning, 11 of which have been declared major incidents. Extreme heat and a lack of rain, supercharged by the climate crisis, have made this summer the busiest on record for wildfires in the UK, placing significant pressure on crews and resources.

Jamie Windsor, a group commander at Ebbw Vale station, said underground layers of peat beneath the orange and purple heather on the Blaenavon hillside had made the fire harder to put out.

He said: 'It burns very deep, the peat, and because it's been so hot, it's not cooling down at night. You think you've got a handle on it but it's burning underground and it just pops up again somewhere else. We've got a lot of wildfire

▲ South Wales firefighters tackle a blaze above Blaenavon, where deep peat has made the fires difficult to contain PHOTOGRAPH: JAMES CUNNINGHAM

experience here in south Wales but I've never seen anything like it in 30 years.'

During the Guardian's visit to the scene yesterday, soldiers from the Queen's Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment tirelessly dug firebreaks and turned over smoking soil to minimise the spread of fire. Small flames licked around the base of blackened trees a few metres away as they worked, while in another part of the woods several trees suddenly caught fire.

On the ridge of the hill, a civilian contracted helicopter picked up water from a huge plastic pool fed by a local dam and circled again and again to douse reigniting pockets on the smouldering hillside.

Smoke from the area has been visible as far away as Cardiff and Gloucestershire. Firefighters from services around the UK have come to help find ways to get water to hard-to-reach places, using an old steel mill on the edge of town as a temporary headquarters. New thermal camera drones and specialised response vehicles designed by the south Wales fire service came online this summer.

'Just in time,' said Darren Cleaves, the group manager for the service, standing on top of the hill as he radioed a colleague at the perimeter of the fire, reporting what he could see on the drone screen. 'The drone means we can be much more accurate with pinpointing where we need to go, and it keeps our teams safer.'

The combined efforts have worked, saving houses in Blaenavon a few hundred metres away. For weeks, residents on Llanover Close, a road on the village boundary, have watched a steady stream of fire engines, water tankers, tractors and other emergency vehicles and equipment

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●●●

15

for the public, keeping bills as low as they can be."

Andy White, the head of social policy at the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), a government-sponsored body that represents customers' interests, said water companies were right to explore new tariffs to manage demand and give customers more control over their bills. He said: "Any new approach must be fair and protect customers who are already struggling with rising water costs. None of the schemes currently being trialled are designed to generate additional revenue for water companies, and many are structured so that most customers will pay less overall."

White added that companies should give consumers smart meter data to give them a clearer picture of how they use water.

A spokesperson for Water UK, the industry's trade association, said companies were working to reduce leaks, adding: "We also need to consider whether we could help people save water by rewarding people through their water bill. This might include eliminating standing charges or expanding discounts for customers who save water."

Europe Fires kill two in Greece and torch Belgian nature reserve

Angela Giuffrida

An elderly couple died in fires on the Greek island of Salamis yesterday while a fire ravaged Belgium's largest nature reserve in the latest wave of European wildfires.

The couple died outside their home in the Peristeria beach area of Salamis, Greece's coastguard said. More than 500 people were ordered to evacuate.

In Spain, a soldier died while helping efforts to extinguish a major wildfire in Aragon, authorities said. The fire in the northeastern region has raged for a week and threatened a 1,000-year-old monastery.

In Belgium, a wildfire that broke out on Friday in the High Fens, a large nature reserve in the east of Belgium popular with hikers, had ravaged

► A wildfire on the island of Salamis near Athens, where two people died PHOTOGRAPH: PANAGOPOLLOS/EUROKINISSAEV

3,000 hectares (7,410 acres) of land and was encroaching on the border with Germany by yesterday morning.

About 600 residents in the municipalities of Waimes and Bittenbach, in Liège province close to the German border, were told to evacuate from their homes and tourists were advised to leave on Saturday afternoon as winds shifted and smoke spread. Of those who followed the order, about 20 spent the night in a sports hall while others sought refuge with family and friends.

Hervé Jamar, the provincial governor of Liège, said more than 250

firefighters and emergency staff were involved in the operation, including firefighters from Germany.

Local farmers have also been helping, using their tractors to pull in water from Robertville lake.

The air support, provided by two water-bombing aircraft from Sweden and four helicopters - two from Belgium and two from the Netherlands - is crucial owing to the nature reserve's fragile terrain, made up of dense forest, peat bogs and raised wooden boardwalks where heavy firefighting vehicles risk sinking.

Access to Lake Bittenbach was

prohibited yesterday in order to allow the aircraft to refill.

Authorities described the conditions as still "challenging", although two fire fronts towards Jalhay and Monschau were now "under control", Belgium's interior minister, Bernard Quintin, said after visiting the crisis centre in Vottem, near Liège, yesterday afternoon.

"On this third day of fighting the fires, all resources remain mobilised on the ground," he wrote on X. "We can also count on the solidarity of our European partners ... thank you to everyone who mobilised to fight the fires. United, we are stronger."

Described by officials as the largest in Belgium's modern history, the blaze erupted in an area that was ravaged by massive wildfires in 1911, during a drought.

Much of Europe is experiencing a new period of intense heat, creating conditions conducive to wildfires.

On Friday, a fire engulfed homes in a Croatian holiday resort, killing one person, injuring 40 and forcing 1,200 to evacuate, officials said, as the EU warned that pockets of "very extreme" wildfire conditions stretched across the continent.

'We've got a lot of wildfire experience in south Wales but I've never seen anything like it in 30 years'

Jamie Windsor Ebbw Vale firefighter

◀ Gurkha soldiers build a firebreak near Cwmavon; above, a helicopter drops water over Pontypool

PHOTOGRAPH: ADRIAN SHERBATT/THE GUARDIAN

go back and forth to the forestry track above their homes.

Cindy Rogers, 60, lives in the last house on the road where Blaenavon meets the hillside. A fire in 2004 that began on the top of the mountain almost reached her house, she said, pointing from her back garden to where the fireline is still visible.

She said: "It's a worry that this is going to get worse in the future with climate change but I wouldn't move unless I really had to. All it takes is the wind to change direction and that's it."

By yesterday afternoon, the

Blaenavon fire was showing signs that it may be slowing, said Fin Monahan, chief fire officer of the south Wales fire and rescue service.

"It's been very tough, but I'm so proud of the professionalism of these teams and how hard they are working. Morale is still high, everything is calm and controlled ... It's just the scale of what we're dealing with is unprecedented. We normally get about a thousand 999 calls a week, and at the moment it's seven thousand."

The Blaenavon fire and many others across the country may finally settle with cooler temperatures and rain - but the onset of autumn and more rainfall is not guaranteed to reverse the drought conditions affecting most of England and all of Wales, the Met Office said this weekend.

In Blaenavon, flash flooding has already plagued residents in recent years; a supercharged El Niño is now predicted to bring wet and stormy conditions this winter.

An 89-year-old resident of Llanover Close, who did not want to give his name, said he had lived on the street since it was built. "It's the flooding that worries me. My basement flooded last winter," he said. "Fire and flood ... I never thought it would come to this."

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14

National

Live water quality map aims to help beach users avoid pollution

Julia Kollewe

The company behind a rapid bacterial water testing kit is planning to launch live water quality maps as scores of beachgoers report falling ill after swimming.

Molendotech, a company that has been spun out of Plymouth University, sells a portable test that detects E.coli and other bacteria in water and delivers results on the spot, without waiting days for laboratory results.

Molendotech is now working on an app that will map water quality across Britain and the US, collating data from daily water tests with rain flow and tidal flows and using artificial intelligence to create predictive models. A launch is planned in the UK and US in October.

There have been increasing calls for the government to step up water testing amid numerous incidents of pollution and sewage spills in recent

years that have contaminated rivers and sea waters in popular locations.

The campaign group Surfers Against Sewage has received 164 reports of sickness so far this year from beachgoers, mostly gastroenteritis but also ear and skin infections and other health problems.

"Rivers are probably worse in the UK than in Europe," said Simon Jackson, a professor of environment and human health at Plymouth University and the chief scientific officer of Molendotech.

He founded the company in 2018 when he and his team developed a first version of the test, partly prompted by his stepdaughter getting conjunctivitis and a throat infection, requiring antibiotics, after swimming in the sea.

"What we're providing is a tool to enable [people] to test the water because it's easy to use and portable," he said. "You can test the water repeatedly on the same day. You get a result in real time, whereas currently

you're having to wait one or two days to get a result."

The company is known for its handheld test, called Bactiquick, which detects harmful gram-negative bacteria - those protected by an outer shell - such as E.coli, Pseudomonas, Legionella and salmonella. It produces a colour-change reaction, which is converted into electrical signals and a numerical readout.

The test works with a smartphone app that uses a traffic light system, with a green light signalling low risk for water use, and amber and red warnings indicating bacteria levels above the UK and EU water quality

▼ The beach near Saltdean was rated 'high risk' by Molendotech but had an official 'excellent' rating PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

▲ The Bactiquick testing device. The firm will launch its app in October

thresholds. The device, which was launched in May 2025, costs £300, and a test sample costs about £25. Sales revenue has grown from a few thousand pounds a month in mid-2025 to a peak of £94,000 in May, a near 30-fold increase over the past year.

Whereas in present water quality testing a sample is taken and sent to a lab where bacteria cultures are grown and counted, Molendotech's test looks for a molecule called endotoxin that is released when bacteria break down, and delivers results in less than 15 minutes.

It rated water on Saltdean beach in Sussex as "high risk" in July last year when the Environment Agency had graded the beach "excellent".

"We have tested on some beaches with a 'poor quality' rating where Bactiquick has given a green or good quality result," Jackson said. "Sometimes the converse - a red or poor quality result when the rating has been good. This reflects the infrequency of current testing regimes - once a week at best - and the time taken to get a result by current culture methods." Standard testing typically takes between 24 and 48 hours, Jackson said.

Molendotech, which has received £1.4m in grants from Innovate UK and others, works with Britain's water companies, which are trialling the devices, as well as local authorities.

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National

17

Music review

Power pop is sincere, slick - and worrying

Ariana Grande: Eternal Sunshine tour O2, London ★★★★☆

Kate Solomon

There's a thrum of excitement as an eight-minute countdown starts and Ariana Grande's unmistakable silhouette appears on a backlit stage curtain. Is it actually her? Posing there for eight minutes before the show starts? It can't be. But is it? It's the first time we question what is and isn't real at this Eternal Sunshine tour stop, a 10-night residency and a robust arena show that wants us to see one thing and experience another.

Collectively, we've been scolded for the "endless, ongoing public scrutiny" of Grande's body that has pushed her to "[take] a step back from visibility" when this tour ends. It can't be nice to have your body discussed for any reason, but it is impossible to witness the 33-year-old's frame on stage and not be gripped by concern for her. But you put it aside, of course.

That's how this all works: you're powerless in the face of it, so you get on with enjoying the show, which is grand and sincere and slick, and full of songs that are so huge they rattle the O2's rafters. There's no pyrotechnician, but who needs it when you have a voice as explosive as Ariana Grande's? Her diva-era belters such as Break Free and One Last Time are peaks amid the troughs of her newer, more subdued sounds. Dangerous Woman is punctuated by drums that sound like firecrackers as she drags the mic stand around to belt the chorus directly to as many fans as possible. The songs from Petal, her eighth album, released weeks ago, are largely packed into the final portion and forgo the judging choreography of the rest of the show for something more gig-like. Pogong through the live debut of Bad Thing and swishing her Victorian nightie around through a ferocious Petal, Grande cries: "It's such a fucked situation." Well, yes. The energy of the show is buoyed

by a gaggle of dancers who orbit around her, and you never feel Grande wane even as she struts the runway on impossible stilettos. Her vocals are supple and astonishing, ad libis that scamper and swan-dive; at the climax of Safety Net, she kneels at the edge of the stage, casually emitting sounds that her peers would envy.

Much of Grande's music has been created in the face of painful adversity but it - and she, in this moment too - carries a lightness with it. She has a smile playing on her lips for most of Thank U, Next. She throws her arms open to the crowd and flicks her long ponytail around with whip-like precision

Grande's vocals are astonishing, sounds her peers would envy

and all the sass of the woman who sees it and wants it and gets it. Every so often, that illusion of lightness breaks. She turns on the mid-stage and leans forward as she sings Past Life, a move to communicate her earnest romantic pain, a plea for empathy.

The angle she's standing at and the lighting collude to knock the breath out of me for a second: I shouldn't be able to see this person's skeleton.

Those moments are deeply conflicting and in them I wish she had cancelled this run of dates rather than wait for them to wrap up. The show is a good testament to her 13-year pop career and worthy of being enjoyed, but that is hard to do when you feel that someone spectacular might be slipping through our fingers in front of us. I really hope this tour does not go down in history for the wrong reasons. I hope it ends up as an aside in a long and rich life.

Selected dates until 1 September

BBC settles with Abbington over allegations of Strictly bullying

PA Media

The actor Amanda Abbington has reached a substantial settlement with the BBC over bullying allegations she made about her time on Strictly Come Dancing.

The programme was the subject of a review in 2024 after she alleged her professional partner, Giovanni Pernice, had bullied and harassed her.

Abbington left the celebrity dance show early, citing personal reasons, before alleging "inappropriate behaviour".

Pernice rejected any claim of threatening or abusive behaviour and welcomed the conclusion of the review, which upheld some but not all of the complaints.

The out-of-court settlement was a five-figure sum and was paid by BBC Studios, meaning the funds did not come from the licence fee, the Press Association understands.

It is understood the corporation made no findings relating to physical aggression in its 2024 review, but complaints of verbal bullying and harassment were upheld.

The BBC declined to comment on the settlement. Representatives for Abbington were contacted for comment.

▲ Amanda Abbington left the dance show early, citing personal reasons

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News Technology

▼ Tori Thomas filming scenes for the latest hybrid AI horror movie Touch Grass at Promise's new studio PHOTOGRAPHS: ALEX WILDUTHE GUARDIAN

19

The final reel

Will AI destroy film industry or usher in a golden age?

Robert Booth

Near the colonnaded entrance to Sony Pictures' Culver City film studio, a tech-powered rival has sprung up this summer. The artists at Promise, a new studio feeding off the potential of AI, can see the lots where Singin' in the Rain and Men in Black were shot, but no longer do they need to get beyond the studio's high walls to make their visions come true.

From far more modest premises, they are making movies with rapidly accelerating AI models that create backgrounds, special effects and even "synthetic performers" - using US models but also driven by market-leading Chinese AI.

Backed by Google, Silicon Valley venture capitalists and Disney, Promise is one of a rising number of AI film studios in Hollywood.

It is a controversial trend. Leading directors including Christopher Nolan and Guillermo del Toro have criticised generative technology, actors and writers are fearing for their jobs, and the Democrat congresswoman Laura Friedman, who represents Hollywood's actors, writers and directors, warned: "We can't wait until we see tens of thousands of American workers displaced."

But the excitement and energy about AI was palpable this week at Promise's new base, when a human actor, Tori Thomas, waited for her call amid rows of computers on the studio's AI-enabled horror film, Touch Grass, with a budget in the low millions of dollars.

The sound stage was a corner of the office hung with white sheets. A small camera followed Thomas

as she scrambled in a chase scene, then the AI superimposed her movement in real-time on to a field of swaying grass generated by a new Chinese AI model, Seedance 2.5, which looks as if it will slash production times.

Whole scenes - actor and backdrop - were visible on the director's handheld monitor as if they were filming in real locations. With a glance at the screen, Thomas could immediately see the backdrop she was acting with.

Promise is not alone in embracing the technology, which Netflix last week said it had used in 300 of its 1,000 titles in 2026. Imagine, the 41-year-old studio run by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, the director of The Da Vinci Code and A Beautiful Mind, now has an AI studio, Obsidian, operating from space in its Beverly Hills HQ.

Imagine has partnered with Obsidian to make The Code, an AI-enabled, Howard-directed animated feature based on drawings made in Vietnamese captivity by US prisoners of war.

Brad Pitt this week said that, although there was a lot of resistance, "AI is going to be the very thing that, if used as a tool, is going to help these mid-budget films, $40m to $90m-budgeted films, get made."

That chimed with predictions from a new wave of AI native film-makers, such as Kavan "the Kid" Cardoza, 37, who has set up the Phantom X studio. He predicted a creative renaissance circumventing the studio giants not seen in more than 30 years.

Cardoza said the growth in AI-led film-making "reminds me more of like the 90s era ... when you got like Tarantino, [Robert] Rodriguez, and all these guys popping off ... You put on any one of their movies,

and you will know that it's theirs without their name being shown because of the style and voice." Now, he said, films in cinemas "all look the same".

The Promise shoot involved veteran film-makers including Joel Hynek, an Oscar-winner who worked on the manual special effects for Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1987 action-horror film Predator.

"When we went from optical to digital film, we thought we'd gone to heaven," he told the Guardian. "It's like that again. So many things are easy to do. I am an embracer of AI. Some people are wary of it, a little afraid of it, but I see the incredible promise."

Others, such as Nolan, voice concern. "I've never seen a technology advancing so rapidly, so completely rejected by the public," the director of The Odyssey has said. "Everybody's suspicion of it is so extreme, particularly young people."

There has been opposition to an AI resurrection of the late actor Val Kilmer to star in a new feature and the emergence of the AI "actor" Tilly Norwood, with the actor Emily Blunt pleading: "Please stop taking away our human connection."

But the new AI studios are undeterred. Dave Clark, director of Promise's Touch Grass said that with "great dialogue and backstory" AI-generated characters can become interesting and believable.

The actors' union Sag-Aftr will no doubt beg to differ, but Cardoza predicted "next year [AI actors will] be just as good as real actors". George Strompolos, co-founder and chief executive of Promise, estimated hybrid AI films - human actors alongside AI technology - will prove 20% to 50% cheaper

than conventional production. That could free film-makers from requiring major studio investment.

"We're at the beginning of a golden era of independent, highly empowered creative companies - call them small studios, micro studios - that will lead to more creative risk-taking," he said.

Joanna Popper, a producer and an adviser on AI to production companies, said the positive view on AI in film and TV is that it "empowers anybody with a talent and a discipline for storytelling to be able to go make what they want to make". But she said: "The concern is ... if five tech companies suck all of the financial gain out of the industry."

D Ryan Reeb, executive producer at Obsidian, estimated that the

"The growth in AI film-making reminds me of the 90s when we got Tarantino and Rodriguez"

Kavan Cardoza AI film-maker

technology delivers a 30% to 40% cost saving and said he has met with dozens of top production companies interested in the technology and predicts all will use it. But AI in Hollywood has drawn comparison to plastic surgery: everyone's doing it but nobody wants to talk about it. "It's 100% like that," said Reeb.

For an AI native film-maker such as Cardoza, who makes films in his spare bedroom in Playa Vista, AI has helped him reach 28m YouTube views for his Chronicles of Bone fantasy universe series launched online last autumn and a lucrative deal with the Magnific AI platform.

Cardoza believes AI film-makers are attracting audiences because, ironically, their direct authorial voice has greater authenticity than in Hollywood where "they turn writing into algorithms".

"I've had meetings with studios where [they say] a horror movie has to have X amount of jump scares ... Why can't I just write the story? And if there's two jump scares, there's two. If there's 10, there's 10. Why are we hitting markers? That's not creativity - that's manufacture."

Cardoza highly rates the models made by Chinese tech companies who are "smoking everybody on everything - the image generation models, the video generation models."

He assumes they are so powerful because they have been "trained on everything under the sun", in a way that US models cannot because of intellectual property restrictions. But with Washington considering restrictions on Chinese open-source AI models, Cardoza opposes a ban on the powerful tools, which have allowed him a creative flourishing. "I'll move to China," he said. "I'm not even lying."

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20

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World

Lula launches campaign for fourth term with vow to stop Brazil's far right

Tom Phillips

São Bernardo do Campo

Brazil's leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has launched a bid for a fourth term by vowing that as long as he lives he will not allow the "shameless" right to return to power.

Addressing supporters in São Bernardo do Campo, the city where his political career began nearly half a century ago, the 80-year-old politician reminded voters of the chaos that unfolded during the 2018-2022 presidency of his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, whose son, Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula will face in October's presidential election.

Lula recalled how hundreds of thousands of citizens died during a Covid outbreak Jair Bolsonaro was accused of bungling with his anti-scientific policies. Gun ownership soared as Donald Trump's ally relaxed laws, allowing criminal groups to expand their arsenals, he added.

Lula promised to dedicate a fourth term to improving education and healthcare, as well as developing Brazil's rare earth deposits, the world's second largest after China's.

Lula also vowed to improve security by targeting the rich organised crime bosses who lived in luxury apartments, rather than ordering security forces to shoot low-level drug traffickers. "It's easy to kill a crook in a favela. But the guy running the show lives in a penthouse ... and we need to stop this," he said.

Lula was speaking at the Vila Euclides football stadium, where his rise to the presidency began in 1979 when, as a 33-year-old union leader, he spearheaded two strikes that helped end the military dictatorship. Those strikes made him a household name and in 2002, after three failed attempts, he won a landslide victory to become Brazil's first working-class president.

During Lula's first two terms, from 2002 to 2010, he was credited with fighting hunger, expanding social welfare programmes and access to higher education, and boosting Brazil's global standing, though his administration was also blighted by corruption scandals. His successor, Dilma Rousseff, became Brazil's first female president but led the country into a severe economic recession before being impeached in 2016.

In 2018, Lula was jailed for alleged corruption and he spent 580 days in prison before the supreme court quashed his conviction. Lula's imprisonment allowed Bolsonaro to win that year's election, ushering in four years of environmental destruction and international isolation under the radical former paratrooper.

Lula returned to frontline politics in 2022 to win his third term, defeating Bolsonaro by a razor-thin margin. "This nightmare is over," Lula declared at his January 2023 inauguration. A week later, far-right radicals rampaged through the capital, Brasília, in a botched attempt to bring Bolsonaro back.

Bolsonaro was jailed for 27 years

in 2025 for plotting that failed post-election power grab, meaning Lula's rival in this year's vote is his 45-year-old senator son. Flávio Bolsonaro launched his campaign yesterday with an event on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach, the scene of huge rallies in support of his father.

"I am going to be Brazil's next president because I'm going to fight this system," Bolsonaro, who wore a bullet-proof vest under a yellow Brazil shirt, told a crowd far smaller than those his father used to attract.

Polls suggest Lula holds a slender advantage over Bolsonaro, with 43% of intended votes to his rival's 40% in a run-off, which will take place on 25 October if, as expected, no candidate secures 50% of the vote in the first round on 4 October.

Trump's administration has repeatedly asserted its leadership over the region, launching deadly military operations against alleged "narco-terrorists" in the Caribbean and Pacific, threatening to "take back" the Panama canal, and, in January, abducting the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Last week, the state department published an incendiary video declaring: "American dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again".

Trump has recently turned up the heat on Brazil, declaring its two biggest organised crime groups, the Red Command and the PCC, designated terrorist organisations. That move has kindled fears of a US military intervention on Brazilian soil or interference in the presidential election.

During a visit to a jungle training camp in Panama on Friday, the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said Washington planned to use the military to "ruthlessly" pursue Latin American drug traffickers, "just like [they did with] Isis and al-Qaida" during the "war on terror".

There was anger at the US moves outside Lula's campaign launch event, with some activists handing out stickers that read "Fuck Trump".

In Rio, Flávio Bolsonaro praised Trump's decision to target crime groups and claimed he was the only politician capable of "sitting down with the US".

Addressing the crowd in Vila Euclides, Simone Tebet, a Lula ally, urged voters to do everything they could to stop Brazil falling back into the hands of far-right politicians who wanted "to kill Brazilian democracy" and create "a country of hate".

Renaissance paintings by Antonello da Messina stolen from home city

Lorenzo Tondo

Palermo

Four of the most important works of art by the 15th-century Renaissance master Antonello da Messina were stolen during a national holiday from a museum in the Sicilian port city of Messina.

Thieves gained access to the regional museum of Messina, or MuMe, on Saturday evening, possibly capitalising on attention being

focused on La Vara, a huge religious festival that takes place in the city on 15 August, when Italy marks the Ferragosto national holiday.

The gang broke into a security display box and stole four wood panels painted by Antonello, who is widely credited with transforming the course of Renaissance art.

Thieves took three of the five surviving panels that made up an altarpiece known as the Politico di San Gregorio, one of the Sicilian painter's most important works.

▲ Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva greets supporters during a campaign rally at the Vila Euclides football stadium PHOTOGRAPH: MIGUEL SCHINCARIO/LAFFOLTTY IMAGES

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Kind of blue Heat shows how vital Hungary's Danube is Page 24

Exam season The new driver of instability worldwide Page 26

23

"It is an extremely serious and significant loss," said Marisa Mercurio, the director of the Regional Museum of Messina. "They have stolen works of enormous cultural, artistic and symbolic importance, not only for Messina but for Sicily as a whole. All we can do now is hope they are recovered as soon as possible."

Originally composed of six panels created for the Monastero di San Gregorio, which was destroyed in the 1908 Messina earthquake, the altarpiece was the only work by the Sicilian painter never to have left his home city.

A fourth work was taken from a secure display case: a small double-sided painting depicting the Virgin and Child with a Franciscan monk on one side and Christ on the other.

The painting had belonged to the Wilhelm Soldan collection and was sold by Christie's to the Sicilian

▲ Clockwise from above left, the front of a panel showing the Madonna and Child; the five surviving panels of the Politico di San Gregorio, top, three of which

were stolen; and Christ in Pieta, on the back of a panel. All were taken from the regional museum of Messina, below PHOTOGRAPHS: MUSIC/REGIONALE ACCASCINA MESSINA/REUTERS

regional government in 2003, the year it was attributed to Antonello.

The haul could have been even greater: six paintings were stolen in total. But two of the panels were inexplicably abandoned on a low wall outside the museum.

Born around 1430, Antonello trained in Naples where he studied the works of Provençal and Flemish artists, whose influence is apparent.

Valentina Certo, an art historian affiliated with the University of Messina, said: "Antonello was instrumental in bringing Flemish oil-painting techniques to Italy, making possible a new softness, delicate glazing and subtle shading."

Certo, the author of the illustrated children's book The Workshop of Antonello da Messina, added: "The overnight theft is a wound inflicted on the historical memory and cultural identity of the city of Messina.

"These were works that had survived the earthquake, destruction and five centuries of history. To see them taken from the public in this way makes the loss impossible to measure in purely economic terms."

In February, the Italian government secured a rare Antonello masterpiece at auction in New York, spending $14.9m (£11m) on his Ecce Homo. The painting, sold at Sotheby's, is an intensely human portrait of the suffering Christ, believed to have been completed about 1460.

Prosecutors in Messina have opened an investigation. Police sources said the museum was fitted with cameras and that the works were protected by a sophisticated alarm system. Investigators are examining several lines of inquiry, including whether the paintings were stolen for the illicit art market.

According to the state news agency Ansa, investigators are also considering the possibility that the theft was carried out on commission for an art dealer.

Israeli attack on southern Lebanon kills 11 in worst toll since truce

William Christou Beirut

Eleven people were killed, including three children, and 19 injured in two Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon over the weekend.

It was the worst toll since deals in June brought a lull in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israeli warplanes bombed a home on the outskirts of the village of Ansar on Saturday morning, killing seven people and flattening the building.

Rescue services were working at the site to try to find survivors and recover bodies.

Another airstrike hours later on a home in the town of Deir al-Zahrani killed two, wounded nine and covered the streets in rubble. An Israeli drone also targeted a motorcycle in the nearby city of Nabatieh. It was unclear if the driver was killed.

The escalation came despite a June ceasefire that largely ended fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

The people of southern Lebanon wondered whether the attacks signalled further escalation or if it was safe to remain in their homes. Neither village was in Israel's self-declared "security zone" - a 231 sq mile area occupied by its forces.

The roads out of Nabatieh and the surrounding villages were choked with traffic after the strikes as people fled north in search of safety.

Ella Waweya, Israel's military spokesperson, said it had attacked "Hezbollah infrastructure" in the Ansar and Nabatieh area in response to the group attacking Israeli soldiers in the Ali Taher area.

Ali Taher is a hill where the Israeli military says large underground Hezbollah command and control centres are located, and it has been shelling the area for months.

The Lebanese prime minister, Nawaf Salam, condemned the Israeli attacks, calling them "extremely dangerous", and said they undermined efforts to establish stability in the south. He called on Israel to stop the escalation.

Salam said: "The seven martyrs of the Israeli strike on the town of Ansar were not 'military infrastructure' and

► The site of an Israeli airstrike on a home in Ansar, southern Lebanon, where seven people were killed

the children and women killed were not military targets."

Hezbollah condemned the attacks in a statement and said they would be met with a response. The group also accused the Lebanese government of serving Israel's interests by negotiating with it.

Its media relations department said: "The Israeli enemy must clearly understand that its attacks, violations and attempts to impose a fair accompli cannot continue, and will be met with an appropriate response in defence of Lebanon."

The latest round of fighting in Lebanon started after Hezbollah struck Israel with rockets on 2 March in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader. Israel responded with an aerial campaign and invasion that killed more than 4,300 people and occupied about 6% of the country's territory.

Violence has decreased since the signing of a US-Iran memorandum of understanding in June on the broader Middle East war, and a US-sponsored framework deal between Lebanon and Israel agreed later that month.

But Lebanon still reports intermittent Israeli strikes occasionally causing casualties, and the demolition of civilian buildings in southern villages and towns.

The news agency NNA said "the valley between Ansar and Zrariyeh was also subjected to a strike, the first at this geographical depth since the ceasefire two months ago". It also said "Israeli warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes targeting the Ali al-Taher ridge".

The news agency said Israeli forces destroyed homes in the town of Bint Jbeil near the border.

The Israel-Lebanon framework deal includes the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in "pilot zones".

On Friday, Hezbollah's chief, Naim Qassem, accused Lebanese authorities of subjecting the country's armed forces to undue pressure by implementing the deal.

He said: "How can you accept this ongoing humiliation of the Lebanese army, exposing it to bombardment and Israeli pressures, instead of acting as its protectors?"

This week, Human Rights Watch urged the UN to keep an international force in Lebanon after its peacekeepers' mandate ends this year, saying "peacekeepers are a crucial deterrent against attacks on civilians and human rights abuses".

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22

Eyewitness

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▼ Budapest, Hungary

A member of Team Russia performs a spectacular somersault during the final of the World Aquatics Junior

Artistic Swimming Championships – Russia dominated the medals table going into the last day yesterday PHOTOGRAPH: KIRIMAN/HOTT/INSTOCK

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24

World Climate crisis

'We've hit rock bottom'

How Europe's drought has devastated the Danube

Lorenzo Tondo Budapest

For centuries, the rock was seen as a warning. When it began to emerge from the Danube, beneath Gellért Hill in Budapest, it meant the river had fallen so low that floating mills could no longer operate, crops were probably failing and hunger would almost certainly follow. That is why, in the Hungarian capital, where over time the boulder became little more than a legend, it was named Inség-szikla – the Rock of Starvation.

Amid record-low water levels on the Danube, the rock is visible almost in its entirety along with the sandy riverbed on which it rests, astonishing geologists and government scientists sent to examine it. And much as the rock was said to warn, Hungary is now facing an unprecedented energy crisis after all but one of its Danube-cooled nuclear reactors were shut down for the first time in 44 years.

The Guardian travelled for more than 100 miles (160km) along the Danube, the EU's longest river, which crosses 10 countries, visiting villages and towns where residents are struggling to secure drinking water and farmers are fighting to keep crops alive.

Pöcsmegyer

Last week, the Hungarian prime minister, Péter Magyar, said the economic damage caused by this year's drought was expected to surpass that of the historic dry

spell that devastated Hungary's farmland in 2022.

While the full extent of the losses is still difficult to assess, István Somogyi, a 56-year-old farmer from Pöcsmegyer, a village on the Danube in Pest county, has already done his calculations.

"I've lost nearly 50% of my harvest this year and it could go up to 70%," he said. "It's gone. Everything has dried up. Since I started farming this land after the end of communist rule, I've never seen a catastrophe like this."

Somogyi said the unprecedented crisis had not come out of nowhere, and that the heatwaves and droughts of previous years had been a warning. Scientists say human-caused climate breakdown is making heatwaves more intense and more likely to happen.

"You could see this coming," Somogyi said. "The harvest was already poor last year. But we were lucky because the Danube stayed high. Despite the intense heat, there was still enough water in the soil. This time, there is no hope of saving our crops."

On the near-deserted roads running alongside the river, families with children sought relief in the shallow waters while nearby military tankers were siphoning water from rural wells, hauling vital supplies to the storage pools that feed the local water main network.

Szentendre

Across the river from Pöcsmegyer, on the opposite bank of the Danube, lies Szentendre, a town

known for its community of artists. During the most intense days of the heatwave, some evening performances have been held by candlelight to reduce electricity consumption.

In recent weeks vast, desert-like islands have emerged here. The exposed riverbed is a cracked mosaic of dry clay baked hard by the suffocating heat that has pushed temperatures in Budapest close to 42°C, with overnight temperatures hitting 28°C.

Europe is warming faster than any other continent, with intense summer heat and prolonged drought being amplified by the deepening human-caused climate crisis. Extreme conditions continue to fuel wildfires and put water supplies under strain.

In some stretches of the Danube near Szentendre, it is now possible to walk right through the river with the water barely reaching above your ankles.

"Swimming and navigation are banned here," said László Balázs, 44, the head of the local river rescue service. "But people escaping the heat still enter the water unaware it can suddenly drop into deep pools where they risk drowning."

At the end of June, the Budapest police said three people had gone missing in the Danube over a single weekend. Police later recovered one body near Iváncsa, while searches continued downstream for the other two missing swimmers.

The drought and resulting

'You could see this coming. The harvest was poor last year. This time there is no hope of saving our crops'

István Somogyi farmer

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▲ Gábor Kürti, the president of the Hungarian cyclists' club, was able to ride his bicycle from Budapest for 30km along the Danube's exposed riverbed. Left, a navigational buoy rests in shallow water in Szentendre, north of Hungary's capital

▲ A tourist boat in Budapest navigates the Danube's greatly reduced water levels. Above left, a geologist photographs the usually submerged Rock of Starvation. Left, the Kis-Háros-sziget nature reserve can now be reached by walking on ground that under normal conditions would be several metres under water

PHOTOGRAPHS: DAVID LEVEMU/ THE GUARDIAN

disruption to energy supplies have also left some Hungarian towns struggling with shortages of drinking water.

In a room inside Szentendre's tourist information office, thousands of bottles of water are stored, ready to be distributed, particularly to elderly and vulnerable residents.

"About 4,000 to 5,000 households were left without water," said József Gulyás, 62, Szentendre's deputy mayor. "We distributed 25 tonnes of water and received about 100 emergency

calls a day. We had never experienced anything so serious. Elderly women would hug the officers delivering water and burst into tears."

Budapest

Driving from north to south towards the Hungarian capital, Budapest, where the level of the Danube under normal conditions reaches an average depth of 2-3 metres and can rise as high as 8 metres, intense summer heat and continuing drought conditions have caused the river to fall to a record low of just 14cm-19 cm on 4 August.

The water levels have fallen so dramatically that as the Danube has retreated it has revealed a succession of relics long hidden beneath its waters, including the remains of a woolly mammoth, a bridge in Budapest that was destroyed after the second world war, a Nazi warship and an unexploded British bomb.

On 28 July, at about 4.30pm, Gábor Kürti, the president of the Magyar Kerékpárosklub (Hungarian cyclists' club) and the owner of a cargo bike company, left his office in central Budapest, jumped on his bike and rode for 30km along the exposed bed of the Danube, with his journey quickly going viral on social media.

"I wanted to show that if you can cycle along the bed of the Danube for 30km, it means that because of this climate emergency we have literally hit rock bottom," he told the Guardian.

Riding his KTM X-Strada 20 gravel bike, Kürti set off from the mouth of the Szilas stream and made his way across fine gravel, large pebbles, hard-packed sand and mud, eventually reaching the ferry terminal at Vác about three hours later.

"For many people it was an extraordinary adventure. For me, it was heartbreaking," he said. "Cycling through parts of the river where as a child I used to swim or go kayaking filled me with an indescribable sadness. It was like looking at the scene of a terrible accident. Throughout that journey, the scale of the catastrophe was unfolding before my eyes."

Nagytétény

Kürti took the Guardian into what until only a few months ago was the striking floodplain forest in Nagytétény named Kis-Háros-sziget, a protected area that is home to climbing plants, wild vines and several families of European beavers.

The river is reached by walking across ground that would normally lie several metres beneath the surface. Here one branch of the Danube has receded so dramatically that it came to an abrupt halt, blocked by exposed riverbed left behind by the drought.

Its dry, clay-like surface looks like an image from a future shaped by the escalating human-caused climate crisis. Yet this is happening now. Passersby walk across what was once the river, their feet sinking into patches of

mud. Kayakers struggle to make their way through the remaining shallow channels; many eventually give up, lift their kayaks on to their shoulders and walk home.

Hungarian authorities have been pumping water into large areas of the country's nature reserves such as the one in Nagytétény to keep marshlands from drying out as the drought intensifies.

Paks

Continuing south, the road finally reaches Paks, home to Hungary's nuclear power plant, its towers rising above the horizon. Municipal workers have been working weekends to keep more than 700 threatened trees alive and water the town's flowerbeds.

"I've been doing this job for 18 years," said Szilvia Farkas, 39, who is employed by Dunakom Zrt in Paks, owned entirely by the municipality, to plant and water trees and plants.

"I have never seen so much vegetation dry out in all my years doing this job, and I have never worked as hard as I have this year to try to keep it alive," she said.

Dunakom Zrt uses its own drilled well for water extraction. The company is also able to extract water from a decantation basin. The public is not allowed to use tap water for irrigation at the moment; instead, residents collect grey water to water their gardens.

In the country's more marginalised and deprived areas, the water crisis has compounded longstanding problems for

thousands of people who were already living in difficult conditions before the drought, struggling with inadequate access to running water and sewage systems.

Géza Orsós Renáta, 43, who lives with her four children in a small farmhouse on the outskirts of Paks, has never had access to running water. Orsós, who also works for Dunakom Zrt helping to water public green spaces, has long relied on water from a neighbour.

"Even in winter we have to pump water and heat it in large bowls so we can wash," she said. "Now a friend brings us water once a week, but it is becoming unbearable."

Driving back from Paks, tall, swollen clouds occasionally gather on the horizon in the clear skies above Budapest, appearing to promise the return of rain only to fade by evening, dashing the hopes of an entire country.

For now, people can do little but cling to the hope that the Rock of Starvation will disappear once more beneath the currents of the Danube, returning to the depths of the river and becoming little more than a legend once again.

But Somogyi, who grew up hearing the story of the boulder passed down through generations, and who is now witnessing the consequences of the warning it was said to foretell, knows it will not.

"The drought will return next year," he said. "That is the trend. There isn't much that we can do."

Additional reporting Zsuzsa Borbély

---

26

World

◀ Students take part in a demonstration in Delhi led by the Cockroach Janta party, a youth-led protest campaign in India that began after an exam paper leak affected millions of students and was linked to more than a dozen taking their own lives PHOTOGRAPH: JAGARESH RIVERA

In brief

Indonesia

Powerful earthquake kills at least 51 people

Rescue crews dug through collapsed buildings in eastern Indonesia yesterday as they searched for survivors a day after a powerful earthquake killed at least 51 people, injured more than 100 and displaced thousands.

The magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck 42 miles north-west of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province, the US Geological Survey said.

Officials said more than 900 homes were destroyed and nearly 450 damaged, forcing about 5,000 people into temporary shelters. Thousands more spent the night outdoors fearing strong aftershocks. Associated Press

Hungary

Motorway bus crash leaves 12 pilgrims dead

Twelve people have died after a bus carrying Polish tourists overturned on the M3 motorway.

Police said the bus crashed near Mezőkeresztes at 1am local time. Early reports suggested the driver had fallen asleep. He survived the crash and was taken into custody.

The bus was carrying pilgrims from Poland's south-eastern Podkarpackie region who were returning from a pilgrimage to the Catholic shrine in Medugorje, in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, with 57 passengers and two drivers onboard.

Poland's foreign ministry said 10 people were in a serious condition. The Hungarian ambulance service said 37 people sustained minor injuries.

Poland

Giant Virgin Mary effigy unveiled in village

An enormous statue of the Virgin Mary, believed to be Europe's tallest, was inaugurated on Saturday in the small Polish village of Konotopie.

Hundreds of people attended the consecration of the monument (below), which towers 55.6 metres (182 ft) over the central Polish village, home to fewer than 150 people.

The statue is taller - if less dramatically located - than the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which measures 38 metres. Associated Press

Exam turmoil

Marking errors and leaked papers pile more pressure on global students

Deborah Solomon Oliver Holmes

Families with teenagers in education know the hidden pain of exam season. But this year, what might have been a summer of quiet family anxiety has erupted in several countries into public unrest.

Exam-related turmoil has led to mass student protests in Mexico after nearly 60,000 university applicants were forced to visit tests amid suspected cheating, while Portugal's disastrous attempt to digitise school exam marking sparked the country's worst education crisis in decades.

By far the largest and most ground-shaking incident was in India, however, where an exam paper leak affected millions of students and was linked to more than a dozen students taking their own lives. The scandal forced the

education minister to resign, and challenged the government's hold over its 1.4 billion citizens.

Experts say the growth of AI cheating and attempts by academic institutions to digitise examinations are at the heart of the issue. When coupled with the high stakes of good grades in a precarious global economy, the result can be explosive.

"It would seem that exams are getting more fraught on a global scale," said Dr Sarah Eaton of the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. "The pressure on young people has absolutely changed.

"We've seen the economic situation change around the world in the last decade. And the results of one examination determining a person's entire future really creates untenable pressure on young people," said Eaton, a leading expert on academic ethics. "This is a tragedy when young people are dying by suicide because of an examination outcome."

When a single test can determine a young person's entire future, cheating is no longer just about individuals but becomes a systemic issue, said Eaton. This is compounded when illicit commercial industries, known as the "education mafia", exploit student desperation by stealing and then selling exam papers, something that has become widespread in India and elsewhere.

Students from across India joined the mass demonstrations led by the Cockroach Janta party, a youth-led protest campaign that began as an online satirical joke and grew into a nationwide outcry that poses an unprecedented challenge to Narendra Modi's government.

In Portugal, the national fallout from a failed push by its education minister, Fernando Alexandre, to fully digitise the exam marking process has landed the government in a crisis. Parents, teachers, and students have been protesting, demanding Alexandre's resignation after his policy resulted in serious marking errors.

Similar demonstrations took place in Mexico. The National Autonomous University of Mexico, the country's most prestigious university, announced that due to abnormally high marks in entrance exam results, which raised suspicions of cheating, approximately 58,000 students would have to retake the exam.

Schools worldwide are rushing to

'An essay is no longer a viable way to demonstrate students' learning'

Dr Sarah Eaton Research chair

deal with AI use by students, either through bans or teaching AI literacy and ethics to pupils. Denmark has announced that from the new term, teenagers would have to make a verbal defence of their written essays to combat AI cheating.

"AI can generate a perfect essay in seconds. So an essay is no longer a viable way to demonstrate students' learning," Eaton said. "We should let it die with dignity and find other ways to assess student learning."

Dr Thomas Lancaster, a computer scientist at Imperial College London who researches the educational use of generative AI, says students have always cheated but it has become far easier, with pupils using earpieces or miniature cameras, and communicating with friends or family with access to internet searches.

"With any kind of communication technology, you can have that expertise waiting outside for you in a human form. They either know the answers, they've got the expertise or they can look them up online. You can go further than that now and have access to AI to communicate directly during the exam as well," he added. "It's spy technology, really."

Eaton said the failure to properly train educators was forcing students to navigate through these "broken" systems rather than focusing on learning.

"This idea of these mass examinations happening at scale, it sort of dehumanises the learning process and the assessment process," she said.

This, she said, "sort of perpetuates this idea that examinations are the most important thing for students. I think we've lost the thread. Learning should be the most important thing for students."

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Climate crisis Europe feels economic cost of heatwaves

Page 29

Business

29

Home prices in UK's richest borough fall 6% in a month

Rupert Jones

The average price of a home newly listed for sale in Britain's richest borough has dropped by almost £100,000 in a month as fierce competition among sellers in many areas prompts some to slash their price expectations, data shows.

The property website Rightmove said that for Britain as a whole, average newly listed asking prices for homes had fallen by 2% over the past month, the largest August price drop in eight years.

Separate data shows that buy-to-let investors are cashing in on the cooling housing market by forcing more sellers to accept low offers as some struggle to drum up interest in their properties.

In recent days, a series of surveys have pointed to a weak or cooling market. On Thursday, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said the UK housing market "remained subdued" in July.

According to the lender Lloyds, UK house prices were broadly stagnant last month as prospective buyers were squeezed by higher mortgage rates, economic pressure caused by conflict in the Middle East and stretched affordability. The rival lender Nationwide said prices rose by only 0.1% last month.

Rightmove said the national average - which equates to a £7,360 reduction in the average newly listed asking price - hid a divided regional picture, with London seeing the biggest drop over the month, of 4.4%, or almost £30,000.

The site's data suggests that in some London boroughs, sellers are resorting to drastic action to try to get their sale over the line amid summer holidays and heatwaves.

Rightmove put the average new asking price of a home in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea at £1,552,970. A month ago, the figure was £1,648,148, a difference of just over £95,000, a near 6% drop.

The property website said the number of available homes for sale in London was the highest it had been for 16 years, "leading to fierce competition among sellers to tempt buyers in the costliest part of Great Britain".

Colleen Babcock, a property expert at Rightmove, said: "This month's

▼ Portobello Road, Kensington and Chelsea, where the average asking price is down £95,000 in a month PHOTOGRAPH: RICHARD BARKES/ALAMY

'Many sellers are now pricing competitively from day one'

Colleen Babcock Rightmove property site

larger-than-usual August price drop is a sign that many sellers are recognising the reality of the market and pricing much more competitively from day one."

Data from the estate agent Hamptons shows landlord purchasers capitalising on the conditions to push for steep price reductions, and sellers

increasingly willing to accept lower offers. In July, according to Hamptons, landlords accounted for 14.1% of all home purchases in Great Britain, up from the 12.4% year-to-date average. At the same time, the average landlord buyer paid 88.7% of the initial asking price in July.

In fact, more than half (56%) of offers from investor buyers in July were at least 10% below the seller's initial asking price, the highest figure since April 2020, a few weeks into the first Covid lockdown.

Sellers are increasingly willing to drop their prices. In July, 27% of the 10% or more below-asking-price offers from investors were accepted, up from 18% in July 2025.

For leasehold properties, the July figure was even higher at 41%, said Hamptons, which based its analysis on data from Britain's biggest estate agency group, Connells.

Some flats in particular are struggling to find buyers, even when the owners have cut the price, with many blaming the discredited leasehold system for this lack of appetite.

Fresh cost of living squeeze looms as rising energy bills fuel inflation

Richard Partington Senior economics correspondent

British households are facing a renewed cost of living squeeze, with official figures expected to show this week that soaring energy bills drove up inflation in July to close to 3%.

As the Iran war continues to send shock waves through global energy markets, economists predict the surge in UK gas and electricity bills last month will push Britain's headline inflation rate to 2.9%.

In a fresh squeeze on household budgets, the figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) due on Wednesday are forecast to show a jump from a rate of 2.6% in June.

The Bank of England is considering raising interest rates from as early as September in response to fears that stubbornly high inflation could become entrenched in the economy.

The latest snapshot will highlight the challenge facing Andy Burnham's government to ease financial pressure on households and businesses before a difficult autumn budget.

Economists said a rise in inflation as measured by the consumer prices index was likely after Ofgem, the energy regulator, lifted its cap on household gas and electricity bills by 13% in July.

Thomas Pugh, chief economist at the accountancy firm RSM UK, said the increase would add about 0.44 percentage points to headline inflation. This would be partly offset by a fall in petrol and diesel prices. "The cost of living squeeze is set to return to the headlines," he said. "[Higher inflation is] adding fresh pressure to household budgets and complicating the outlook for interest rates."

As the stop-start Middle East war fuels volatility in the global oil price, countries around the world are facing renewed inflationary pressures and heightened uncertainty over the scale of the economic hit.

Britain's economy has shown more resilience than initially feared, with official figures last week revealing that it continued to grow in the first half of 2026 at the fastest pace in the G7. Inflation also fell by more than expected in June, to 2.6% - down from a peak of 3.8% last year. Inflation had been on track to fall to close to 2% before the outbreak of the Iran war.

However, economists warn the impact from the conflict is likely to weigh more heavily in the second half of the year after the increase in the energy price cap. The Bank predicts UK inflation will reach 3.2% before the end of the year.

Call to curb firms' use of bogus status to deny workers rights

Richard Partington

Andy Burnham is being urged to protect a million gig economy workers by prosecuting firms that use widespread "bogus" self-employment practices to deny people their rights.

As the prime minister fleshes out his agenda, the Fabian Society and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation say millions of workers are missing out on statutory rights including parental leave, redundancy pay and

protection against unfair dismissal. The report calls on the government's Fair Work Agency - launched in April as a watchdog for workers' rights - to use its civil proceedings powers to prosecute companies suspected of engaging in "widespread bogus self-employment". It also urges ministers to push ahead with changes to employment law to combat long-standing misuse of the system.

Britain has three classifications of employment status. An employee has the most rights and responsibilities, while a self-employed person

has least. There is an intermediate "worker", or "limb (b)" status, with fewer rights and obligations than a full employee.

According to the report, as many as 4 million workers - including hairdressers, personal trainers, delivery workers and drivers for gig economy platforms - work in this gap. Experts say many have been hired in this way to avoid granting them employment rights.

Labour had promised to create a single "worker" status for all but the

4m

Number of gig economy workers, many denied employment rights by false classification of their status

genuinely self-employed, but rowed back to fend off Conservative attacks on its approach to business before the 2024 general election. A change is not included in current plans.

The Fabian Society and Joseph Rowntree Foundation report calls for the burden of proof for whether someone is an employee, worker or self-employed to be shifted from the worker to the employer.

This would help people to avoid fighting lengthy legal battles to secure basic rights such as the minimum wage and holiday pay.

A government spokesperson said: "We've committed to consult on employment status and will consider how the Fair Work Agency can use its civil proceedings power alongside that."

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P.3

Business

The summer job is back thanks to the World Cup and hot weather

Joanna Partridge

The summer job has staged something of a comeback this year thanks to the hot weather and a packed calendar of events such as the men's football World Cup, new figures for the UK show.

Recent months have shown a significant increase in seasonal hiring in sectors such as hospitality and tourism compared with last summer, said the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), which runs a monthly labour market tracker. It said that this time last year "there was concern about the death of the great British summer job", but

added: "This is the summer when the seasonal summer jobs market started to come back. Exceptionally warm weather and a busy calendar of sporting, music and cultural events ... has helped boost demand for workers."

A dip in postings for summer jobs last year fuelled concerns that squeezed employers would continue to cut back on seasonal hiring. However, this summer there was a double-digit rise in hospitality and tourism job adverts. There were 1.67m active job postings overall in July, up 7.7% on a year earlier.

Economics viewpoint

Dodgy data may have undermined Reeves

Heather Stewart

The keen new chancellor, John Healey, responded to last week's better than expected economic news by claiming the government was "bringing hope back". UK growth did not plunge as feared after Donald Trump unleashed war on Iran - with GDP expanding at a pretty decent 0.4% in the second quarter.

But what if we should have held on to a bit more hope all along? A new assessment of Britain's recent productivity suggests this critical measure of the country's economic strength may have been systematically underestimated.

Instead of stagnation, it points to a "meaningful pickup" in productivity since mid-2024, with annual growth of about 1.6% - up from an average of 0.3% in the previous decade.

This has very much not been the prevailing narrative since Labour came to power. Indeed, the then chancellor, Rachel Reeves, spent months last year scrambling to respond to a downgrade in productivity projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) - from 1.3% annual growth to 1% - with a knock-on effect for the public finances.

The OBR rethink didn't reflect anything Labour had done, resulting instead from the long-term failure of productivity growth to bounce back after the 2008 global financial crisis.

But the productivity downgrade contributed to the gloomy sense that Labour was overseeing an economy beset by intractable long-term challenges. And it increased the size of the tax grab that Reeves needed at last year's budget.

The new estimates, from the Centre for Economic Performance

▲ Rachel Reeves was hit by poor figures that may have been incorrect

at the London School of Economics (LSE), where the former Reeves advisers John Van Reenen and Anna Valero have now returned to their desks, paint a markedly different picture.

Productivity is defined as how much output each worker produces, but Britain has been botching the job of measuring the workforce now for several years, forcing the beleaguered Office for National Statistics (ONS) to withdraw the status of accredited official statistic from its labour force survey (LFS) in 2024.

Instead of using the LFS, the LSE co-authors, including Niki Barbas, use estimates made by the Resolution Foundation thinktank using an alternative ONS dataset based on what companies tell the tax authorities plus sources to account for the self-employed.

The differences are wide. While the LFS records a 377,000 increase in the number of employees since mid-2024, the tax-based measure shows a decline of 133,000.

Of course, depending on what's happened to those missing workers - retirement, unemployment, sickness, childcare - this may be a different cause for concern. Reeves has been accused of depressing hiring by piling costs on to employers.

But using the smaller estimate suggests that, far from flatlining, productivity has jumped. That raises the intriguing possibility that, with better data, the OBR downgrade and the huge headache it created for the then chancellor could have been avoided.

Van Reenen says: "The best current guess does suggest we are getting more out of our workers than we used to." He dismisses the idea that what has happened is just layoffs among low-skilled workers, pushing up average productivity. "I don't think that's the main story: a chunk of this appears to be real." One hypothesis is that AI is starting to bear fruit in some sectors.

He points to his former boss Reeves's policies - including a significant increase in public investment and the stripping back of planning rules - as reasons to hope the improvement could continue.

Some of Labour's worst domestic struggles over the past two years, from winter fuel to the welfare row, were self-inflicted. But as Reeves returns to the backbenches, she could be excused for feeling her challenges at No 11 were exacerbated by dodgy data.

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Business

29

From tourism to tomatoes Europe counts the economic cost of the heatwaves

Heather Stewart Economics editor

Across Europe this scorching summer, workers have struggled in the heat as wildfires raged and critical infrastructure was shut down.

Here we look at the impact of the heatwaves on several major economies across mainland Europe - with the help of analysis from economists at the Dutch bank Triodos, who estimate a total of €180bn (€15.9bn) could be wiped off EU GDP by the heatwaves.

In Britain, the green think tank Verdant said this week that the heat had already cost the economy £4.4bn by the end of July.

Research shows productivity tends to decline once temperatures breach 30C. Analysts at Triodos assessed the hit to each country on the basis of factors including how many unusually hot days it has suffered, giving a broad-brush estimate - but each economy also faces its own particular struggles.

France As well as widespread wildfires, one of the big challenges for the French economy has come via lost energy output, with knock-on effects for businesses through higher prices.

More than two-thirds of France's electricity generation comes from nuclear. When river temperatures around these nuclear plants get too high, the facilities can no longer discharge heat into them - and have no choice but to shut down.

On Friday, with temperatures soaring once again, up to 15% of the country's nuclear estate was expected to be offline.

Economists at Triodos believe France could be one of the worst hit European economies, with 1.4 percentage points knocked off gross domestic product (GDP) - pushing the economy into reverse.

That is only likely to exacerbate the country's continuing fiscal challenges, with the French government already paying the highest interest rate in 15 years on its borrowing amid political wrangling over tax and spending.

Germany Low water levels in the Danube and Rhine rivers have exposed long-forgotten artefacts this summer, including the skeletons of Nazi soldiers and an unexploded second world war bomb.

But the Rhine is also a critical freight route - and economists at the consultancy Oxford Economics reckon this is the greatest threat to the German economy unleashed by the heatwaves.

"The Rhine carries the bulk of

▲ Tourists wilt at La Sagrada Familia in Spain PHOTOGRAPHS: LUIS GENEAP/SETTY

German inland waterway freight, especially coal, crude oil, gas and refined products that sit at the start of the production chain," they say.

At its shallowest point, near the town of Kaub, west of Frankfurt, water levels have fallen well below critical levels, forcing barges to lighten their loads, and ship traffic all but halted.

Nevertheless, judged on the number of hot days it has suffered, as well as other factors including air

275,000

Number of hectares damaged in Spain, according to the EU's Copernicus monitoring system

€20bn

Last revenue for Italian producers over the past four years, including from tomatoes, olive oil and wine

▲ Chooz nuclear power plant in France has been shut down since 1 August after prolonged dry weather; below, water levels in the Rhine have reached historic lows PHOTOGRAPHS: OLIVER HOSLEY/EPA; HESSAM ELISBURY/GETTY IMAGES

conditioning penetration, Triodos economists expect the aggregate impact on GDP in Germany to be smaller than in France, at less than a percentage point.

Spain Spain has been worst hit by this year's devastating wildfires, which could affect insurers, with almost 275,000 hectares damaged, according to the EU's Copernicus monitoring system.

Perhaps surprisingly, Oxford Economics finds that while the human toll is appalling, the economic hit is likely to be relatively minor, with tourism spending redirected elsewhere.

"Credit card data for the Spanish regions hit by wildfires show no clear disruption in non-resident spending, suggesting tourism was barely affected," they say.

Triodos expects the heat to knock almost 1 percentage point off the 2.8% growth forecast for Spain by the European Commission.

Italy With a heavier reliance on tourism and agriculture than many other European economies, Italy appears particularly exposed.

The agricultural association Coldiretti claims climate impacts have already cost producers of commodities including tomatoes, olive oil and wine about €20bn over the past four years - 12.5% of the sector's output in that time.

And with more hotel beds than any other EU country, Italy could also suffer if the legacy of repeated heatwaves is to tempt tourists to head for cooler climes.

Based on the high number of excess hot days, Triodos reckons Italy will be hit second-handed of the EU countries it studied - with 1.1 percentage points wiped off its GDP.

Over time, the effects could compound the challenges for an economy already struggling with an ageing population and high public debt.

Poland Unlike its more westerly neighbours, Poland is an outlier in having experienced only a few more hot days in 2026 than in a normal year.

It has not been completely insulated from the heatwaves: lack of rainfall means its rivers have suffered, with power plants having to be shut off owing to the low level of the Vistula, for example, Poland's electricity grid operator had to invoke emergency powers earlier this month, during what the prime minister, Donald Tusk, called "a very difficult period".

But the Triodos analysis shows the country recording healthy economic growth of 2.9% this year - little changed from the European Commission's spring forecast.

▲ Research estimates that nearly 3 million people in Britain, or 5% of adults, are on weight-loss medication

High earners are only people on weight-loss drugs saving money on food

Zoe Wood

The high cost of weight-loss medication is a "regressive tax on being thin" because the outlay outweighs any saving on food costs for all but the highest earners.

Someone needs to have discretionary income (after living costs) of nearly €100,000 a year to save money after covering the £1,200 annual cost of GLP-1 medication, according to an analysis by the consultancy Baringa.

"Our analysis shows that GLP-1s risk becoming a driver of inequality," said Paddy Winters, a partner at Baringa. "Only very high earners will benefit from savings to their groceries whilst taking the GLP-1 pill."

A regressive tax is one that takes a larger percentage from lower-wage earners' income compared with those who are more wealthy. Most users buy the drugs with a private prescription.

A GLP-1 user with €39,000 left over after tax and essentials will spend €481 less a year on food. But it is not until someone has €97,500 left to spend after tax and other outgoings that their grocery spend is reduced by £1,200, according to Baringa. The cost is an average for the pill form of the medication.

For "everyone else" the annual cost of the drug outweighs any reduction in spending on groceries, Winters said. "On top of that, users are spending more on vitamin supplements and personal care products like hair care, to manage side effects. In effect, GLP-1s become a regressive tax on being thin."

It is estimated that 5% of adults, or nearly 3 million people, in Britain are on weight-loss medication, according to separate research by accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

About 60% of GLP-1 users are women, according to PwC. Among current users 6% come from households with income of less than €20,000, whereas 20% are from the wealthiest, earning above €100,000.

Dr Leyla Hannbeck, the executive chair of the Independent Pharmacies Association, said that access to GLP-1s on the NHS is "limited only to a small eligible cohort and many people who might benefit are unable to access treatment at all unless they can afford private care".

"The NHS commissioning currently protects against some of the financial inequity, but access is limited," Hannbeck said.

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10

Weather

Monday 17 August 2026

UK and Ireland Noon today

Forecast

Atlantic front

• Cold front
• Warm front
• Occluded front
• ...
• Trough

High tides

Aberdeen	0356	4.3m	1630	3.9m
Avonmouth	1007	12.7m	2218	12.7m
Barrow	0157	9.3m	1420	8.7m
Belfast	0146	3.7m	1417	3.1m
Cobb	0814	3.8m	2032	3.8m
Cromer	0904	5.2m	2144	4.6m
Dover	0146	6.5m	1402	6.7m
Dublin	0159	4.1m	1429	3.7m
Galway	0800	4.9m	2015	4.8m
Greenock	0258	3.7m	1540	3.2m
Harwich	0228	4.0m	1437	4.0m
Hollywood	0051	5.7m	1314	5.2m
Hull	0856	7.7m	2125	7.0m
Leith	0520	5.6m	1745	5.2m
Liverpool	0139	9.4m	1400	8.9m

© Crown Copyright and/or database rights. Reproduction or permission of the keeper of Public Records and the UK Hydrographic Office

Sun & Moon

Sun rises	0540
Sun sets	2019
Moon rises	1150
Moon sets	2135
First Quarter	20 Aug

Lighting up

Belfast	2053 to 0606
Birm'ham	2020 to 0555
Brighton	2017 to 0553
Bristol	2029 to 0601
Carlisle	2040 to 0552
Cork	2053 to 0623
Dublin	2049 to 0610
Glasgow	2050 to 0555
Harlech	2039 to 0603
Inverness	2054 to 0548
London	2018 to 0550
M'cheilor	2033 to 0554
Newcastle	2036 to 0547
Norwich	2037 to 0542
Penzance	2037 to 0616

Starwatch

We turn our attention this week to one of the sky's smallest constellations. Seen high overhead from the UK after darkness falls, Lyra, the lyre, is easy to find thanks to the brilliant white star of Vega. The chart above shows the view facing south and looking up towards the zenith from London at 10.30 this evening.

As the fifth-brightest star in the night sky, Vega forms one corner of the summer triangle, with Deneb in Cygnus, the Swan, and Altair in Aquila, the Eagle, marking the other two. Having located Vega, the rest of the constellation is easy to trace even though the stars are much fainter.

One of the second-century astronomer Ptolemy's original 48 constellations, Lyra has the distinction of being a star pattern that actually looks like the figure it is named after. It represents the harp played by the Greek poet Orpheus. Stuart Clark

Around the world

Algiers	10	Lisbon	12
Ams'dan	11	Madrid	17
Athens	11	Malaya	18
Auckland	17	Melbourne	19
B-Aires	16	Mexico C	20
Bangkok	18	Miami	21
Barcelona	20	Milan	22
Bosra	18	Montana	23
Beijing	22	Moscow	24
Berlin	20	Mumbai	25
Bermuda	20	N-Orleans	26
Brossets	20	Nairobi	27
Budapest	20	New Delhi	28
C'hagen	20	New York	29
Cairo	20	Oslo	30
Cape Town	20	Paris	31
Chicago	20	Perth	32
Corfu	20	Prague	33
Dakar	22	Reykjavik	34
Dhaka	22	Rhodesia	35
Dublin	22	Rome	36
Florence	20	Shanghai	37
Gibraltar	20	Singapore	38
H'Kong	20	Stockholm	39
Harare	20	Stradity	40
Helsinki	20	Sydney	41
Istanbul	20	Tel Aviv	42
Ja'burg	20	Temelife	43
K'Lumpur	20	Tokyo	44
K'mandu	22	Toronto	45
Kabul	22	Vancouver	46
Kingston	22	Vienna	47
Kolkata	20	Moscow	48
Leopold	20	Waltham	49
Leys	22	Welton	50
Lima	22	Zurich	51

---

9

Football

Southampton struggle to shrug off 'Spygate'

Page 38 →

Cricket

Bangladesh romp to historic Test win in Australia

Page 33 →

Sport

31

▲ Joe Root was reappointed as Test captain for England in July having previously held the role between 2017 and 2022 GARETH COPLEY/GETTY IMAGES

Positive pairing

Root's return shows lack of options but he and Fleming could prove a good blend

Mark Ramprakash

As England's batting coach for a good deal of Joe Root's first spell as Test captain, I saw directly how conscientious he was in the role. It was impossible not to feel for him at the end, when the results dried up and he was almost alone on a burning deck.

Whenever I am asked who my favourite current cricketer is, I struggle to look beyond Root. He is such a grounded individual and clearly a fabulous player. He is also his own best coach, always first in the nets and last out of them, forever thinking about his game and how to improve those one-percenters.

He has a wonderful sense of humour and, in his second spell as captain, my hope is that he is able to have more fun in the role; that he can see the bigger picture and not get bogged down by it. Playing under Ben Stokes should hopefully have taught him that. As badly as the whole thing ended, the better aspects of the environment under Stokes and Brendon McCullum are worth persevering with.

Clearly things are very different now. In his previous stint, Root was blessed with having Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad at his disposal. Although it was not all positive. Being able to turn to them potentially stymied both the development of other bowlers and meant Root was less intuitive than he might have been. It often felt as if he was one over behind the game rather than thinking one over ahead.

Plenty will come down to the relationship he has with Stephen Fleming when he eventually comes in as head coach. When Trevor Bayliss was in that role, his

natural way was to be more in the background; to ask questions and make little interjections but also leave plenty of space for individuals to come to the fore. That approach allows those players with stronger minds and voices to lead.

But looking back, there was a view from some of us on the sidelines that Root - and very possibly Alastair Cook before him - needed a more proactive approach from their head coach. I would expect a quality individual like Fleming - both an experienced coach and a former Test captain himself - to challenge Root and also look to broaden the number of players thinking like leaders in the dressing room.

They could be a very good blend as captain and head coach, and the fact that England have had to turn back to Root clearly reflects the lack of options. Once Ollie Pope lost his place in the side and Harry Brook had his rather eventful winter, they clearly felt they had no other choice. The whole thing has been a bit of a mess, though, and the outcome feels like a halfway house.

The fact is, sections of the management have been in their roles a long time and very bullish along the way, only to see their aggressive philosophy end up being exposed in Australia. Now they are rowing back on it. That Fleming will not be in place until the winter is both a shame for Root but also a poor look. It is - or at least should be - a job that any coach wants to begin straight away. In the meantime it does give an opportunity for Marcus Trescothick to develop as a head coach, even if the squad chosen for the first two Tests against Pakistan does not address one big issue. Balancing the side is not easy post-Stokes but I am gobsmacked Rehan Ahmed is not being invested in here. At the very least he should be in the squad to have the option of a spin-bowling all-rounder at No 7.

England have already announced that Dan Lawrence will be performing this role from No 6, bowling his part-time off-breaks, which again I find limiting and almost perplexing. Surely you get to the ground to assess the pitch and the conditions before working out the balance of your attack.

I am pleased to see Lawrence given another chance, likewise Pope as the spare batter. Both players can still succeed at Test level. They are high quality and

We perhaps affected by some of the messaging in the past. Having seen Lawrence make an excellent double century against Hampshire this summer, I know he will still be looking to dominate. The key will be his decision making and his mindset.

Coming back into the England team after being dropped is something I struggled with in my Test career, almost as if the pressure went up a notch each time. I remember Alan Knott on the coaching staff once telling me that I should play every game as if it was my last. While it was clearly well meaning, it was not remotely what I needed to hear. I hope Pope and Lawrence are made to feel differently.

A challenge for all of England's batters in the first Test will be the adjustment after weeks of batting against the white-ball. In the Hundred, players look to hit the ball early, hands often in front of the body and standing more leg-side to broaden the arc of their swing. For all that modern players look to attack across all formats these days, they must play later and tighter to the body this week.

The best thing they can all do this week is to watch Root's body language and tempo at the crease. He is busy and looks to score, he is always assessing conditions, the bowling, and weighing up risk to make good decisions. I am amazed that more England players don't try to copy him and it is here where this second spell as captain could have the most impact.

---

22

The week ahead

Brooke Henderson hopes to defend her CPRC Canadian Women's Open title in Edmonton on Thursday

Today

• Football (7.45pm unless stated)
• Sky Bet Championship
• Cardiff v Wreckon (8pm) SSF1
• Crochet
• Man's Tool (third day of five)
• So'Lawton's India, Gallo (5.30pm)
• TNT Sports 2
• Tennis
• ATP & WTA Cincinnati Open
• Mason, Ohio (to 25 Aug) SS Tennis
• Racing
• Catterick Racing TV, Lingfield Sky Sports Racing, Windsor SSR, Wolverhampton SSR

Tomorrow

• Football (8pm unless stated)
• Champions League
• Playoffs, first leg (Anson Zayed)
• v Killing, Foundation v Lyer;
• Lovell's Jollin v AEK Athens
• Storm EFL Trophy
• Barnes v Arsenal U21, Leyton Orient
• v AFC Wimbledon (7pm);
• Northampton v Kingfisher U21 (7pm);
• Reading v Wolverhampton (7pm);
• Stockport v Everton U21 (7pm);
• Wigan v Aston Villa U21 (7pm)
• Rugby league
• Bedford Super League
• Hali KR v Warrington (8pm)
• Racing
• Cheychow SSR, Lingfield SSR, Wolverhampton SSR

Wednesday

• Football (8pm unless stated)
• Champions League
• Playoffs, first leg Collin v LASV, TNT Sports 1, Hapre/Sevrin Shava v Latahy, NEC v Body/Gilert, Steven Brabham v CAAI
• World EFL Trophy
• Mansfield v Man City U21 (7pm)
• Cricket (10.30am unless stated)
• First West v Test (first day of five)
• England v Pakistan, Headingley (11am) Sky Sports Cricket
• Metro North One Day Cup Women
• Eaton v Somerset, Chelmsford, Surrey v Hampshire, Guildford; The Blaze v Darbass, Trent Bridge; Women's Icebox v Yorkshire, Edgbaston
• Racing
• Carlisle-RTV, Hampton-RTV, Worcester SSR, York-RTV

Thursday

• Football (7.45pm unless stated)
• Europa League
• Playoffs, first leg Armenia (6pm);
• Benfica v AEF (8pm); Benfica v Kazan (6pm); Epoxy v Chichester (8pm); Legolabera v Iberia 1999 (7pm); Kairat v Anderlecht (4pm); Lock Puzson v Thun (6pm); Maliby v RB Salzburg (5pm); OFI v CIAA Sofia (7pm); Bell Star Belgrade v Pilsine v Piran (7pm); Star Toulon v Bosnia (7pm); Trubacupar v France (6pm); the Cosmos v Avoná Armenia
• Champions League

• Playoffs, first leg Atalanta v Hapoel Tel Aviv (7.30pm); Braga v Austria Wien (8pm); Dinamo City v Fofan (8pm); India v Inter Club v Escalib (7pm); Gent v Hibernian (7.30pm); Galath v Portsmouth (6pm); Gornik Zabrze v Moraca (7pm); Wyklok Split v Ralme; Hearts v Rapid Vienna (7.45pm); Inter Turks v Copenhagen (7pm); Kiv Riga (8.30pm); Lincoln v Laine (7pm); Lugano v Nelsalle Tel Aviv (7.30pm); Mettysland v Rijeka (6pm); Motherwell v Podbela (7.30pm); Nordsjælland v St Gallen (6pm); Panathinaikos v Hradec Kralove

• (7.30pm); Rangers v Jablonec (7.45pm); (8pm); Shamrock v HuPS (8pm); Sion v Ajax (7.35pm); Tromsø v Brighton (6pm); P4OK v Brune (6.45pm); Twente v Qindao (7pm); Villenge v Roma (7pm)

• Sky Bet League One
• Sheffield West v Bradford (8pm) SSF
• Cricket (11am unless stated)
• Rothmans Country Championship
• Dinamo One Hampshire v Yorkshire, UHRA Bowl, Lancashire
• v Slantergare, Uplensland/Grace Road, Somerset v Essex, Taunton, Surrey
• v Nottinghamshire, The Old Owl, Warwick/Elgin v Sutton, Edgbaston
• Division Two Derbyshire v Durham, Derby, Gloucestershire
• v Worcestershire, Chelmsham, Lancashire v Northamptonshire, Exeter Old Trafford, Middlesex
• v Kent, Northwood
• Golf
• Fedex 100th Championship
• Owings Mills, Maryland (to Sun) SS+
• Nose Championship
• Balmede, Aberdeenshire (to Sun)
• Sky Sports Golf
• CPRC Women's Open
• Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (to Sun)
• Racing
• Lingfield SSR, Newcastle SSR, Newmarket-RTV, Stratford-RTV, York-RTV

Friday

• Football (7.45pm unless stated)
• Premier League
• Arsenal v Coventry (8pm) SSFL
• William Hill Scottish Championship
• Inverness (7.5 March) (7.30pm)
• BBC Scotland (Player)
• Rugby league
• Bedford Super League
• Leigh v Bradford (8pm) SS+
• Wigan v Wakefield (8pm) SS+
• Golf
• Indianapolis Individual
• Westfield, Indiana, USA (to Sun)
• Cycling
• Yonika v España
• Spain (to 13 Sep) TNT Sports
• Darts
• Australian Masters
• Wollongong, NS Wales (to Sat) ITV4
• Racing
• Flos Las Usk, Hamilton-RTV, Newmarket-RTV, Salisbury-RTV, York-RTV

Saturday

• Football (2pm unless stated)
• Premier League
• Brentford v Tottenham (5.30pm) SSFL, Everton v Crystal Palace, Hull
• v Manchester Utd (12.30pm) TNT51, Ipswich v Sunderland, Nottingham Forest v Leeds
• Sky Bet Championship
• Birmingham v Bristol City (12.30pm) SS+
• Blackburn v Middlesbrough
• Derby v Cardiff, Lincoln v Portsmouth (12.30pm) SSF, Millwall v Norwich (12.30pm) SS+
• Preston v Wykes, QPR v Bolton, Southampton v Eton, Swansea v Sheffield Utd, West Ham
• v Charlton, Wroxham-Midford
• Sky Bet League One
• AFC Wimbledon v Reading, Bromley v Cambridge Utd, Doncaster v Barnsley (12.30pm) SS+
• Leicester v Barton, Luton v Netty Co (12.30pm) SS+
• BBC
• Dons v Huddersfield, Peterborough v Mansfield, Stowesbury v Oxford Utd, Stockport v Blackpool, Wigan
• v Leyton Orient, Weycester v Plymouth
• Sky Bet League Two
• Bristol Rovers v Newport (12.30pm)
• Colchester v Oldham, Crete
• v Northampton, Exeter v Avonington, Fleetwood v Gillingham, Port Vale

• v Tranmere, Rochdale v Coventry

• Rothesham v York, Salford

• v Chelmsfield (12.30pm) SS+
• Shrewsbury v Barnet, Swindon
• v Cheltenham, Walsall v Grimsby (12.30pm) SS+
• European National League
• (2pm unless stated) Bristol Utd
• v Altrincham (12.30pm); Carlisle
• v Hunchurch (12.30pm); Edinburgh
• Scanthorpe (12.30pm); Forest Green
• v Burnham Wood (12.30pm); Halifax
• v Tamesville (12.30pm); Harrogate
• v Staines (12.30pm); Ballymounder
• v Aldersfield (12.30pm); Salford
• Mourn v Southend (12.30pm);
• Salford v Harleysand (12.30pm);
• Woking v Fyld (12.30pm);
• Wembley v Westchester (12.30pm);
• Yonel v Gateshead (12.30pm)
• William Hill Scottish Premiership
• Dundee Utd v Dundee (5.45pm)
• Premier Sports 1, Hibernian
• v Kilmarnock, Motherwell v Aberdeen
• William Hill Scottish Championship
• Livingston v Dunfermline, Morton
• v Altrinath, Queen's Park
• v Stonbury-on-Sea, Hales
• v Willingham
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon
• Haldon

Sunday

• Football (2pm unless stated)
• Premier League
• Brighton v Aston Villa (2pm) SSFL, Manchester City v Bournemouth (2pm) SSW, Newcastle v Liverpool (4.30pm) SSFL
• Sky Bet Championship
• West Brom v Burnley (more) SSF
• Rugby league (more unless stated)
• Bedford Super League
• Warrington v Huddersfield (2pm) SS+
• York v Leeds (3pm) SS+
• Bedford Women's Super League
• Barnsley v Leigh, Huddersfield
• v Fodderstone (2pm), York v Leeds
• Cricket
• Second West v Test (first day of five)
• Sri Lanka v India, Colombo (5.30pm)
• Visalia, T20 Women's Country Cup
• Hampshire v Somerset, UHRA Bowl
• Norway Ground (2.30pm);
• Northamptonshire v Essex,
• Northampton (2pm); The Blaze
• v Lancashire, Nottinghamshire Sports Ground (2.30pm); Warwickshire
• v Derby, Edgbaston Community Sports Ground
• Formula One
• Dutch Grand Prix
• Zinderbad (3pm) Sky Sports F1
• Racing
• Brighton, Worcester

Sport Cricket

Women's Hundred

Dunkley's Rockets soar over Sunrisers in final

Raf Nicholson Lord's

Trent Rockets romped home with a maiden Hundred title in the final at Lord's yesterday, beating Sunrisers Leeds by eight wickets.

Rockets qualified automatically for this final after losing just one match in the group stages of the competition, and played with the appropriate level of swagger here. First, they bowled Sunrisers out for 91 - the lowest total by the Leeds-based franchise in six seasons of the Hundred. Then Sophia Dunkley and Beth Mooney put on a 69-run partnership from 40 balls for the first wicket, ensuring the game was all but over by the time Dunkley holed out to cover nine runs short of a half-century.

Nat Sciver-Brunt was trapped leg-before by Annabel Sutherland but two leg-side wides from Jess Jonassen and a couple of crisp boundaries from Ash Gardner saw Rockets over the line with a ridiculous 46 balls to spare.

Some have suggested that allowing four overseas players per team in the competition this year - up from three in previous seasons - has prevented English talent from performing on the big stage. But the 2-1 year-old seamen Charley Phillips, who has also been in red-hot form in this season's One-Day Cup for Nottinghamshire-based team The Blaze, enjoyed a day to remember at Lord's with figures of two for 12.

Hampshire's Georgia Adams, too, finished up with two wickets, a catch and a run-out and was named Player of the Match - not a bad return for a player who was ditched by Southern Brave despite captaining them to last year's final.

Adams said: "If I'm really honest it did feel strange after the auction, getting my head around going

somewhere else. I dedicated so much to Southern Brave, could I ever do that again for another team? But the Rockets has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever been a part of with a team.

"[Director of cricket] Mick Newell at the top made everyone feel so welcome and was really invested in making the club embrace that family ethos, and not feel like there's too much change. You're always learning. I'm 32 and I've learned so much."

Put in to bat, Sunrisers Leeds were always heading an under-par total after losing three wickets in the powerplay, including the leading run-scorer in the group

Scoreboard

Lord's Trent Rockets beat Sunrisers Leeds by eight wickets.

Position	Date	4s	6s
All South Sciver-Brunt & Garth ...	7	7	1
PSS Limerick Adams & Phillips ...	10	5	1
FS Mitchell Hill, Dunkley & Garth ...	8	1	0
AJ Sutherland St Mooney & Adams ...	23	27	2
SR Stanley Phillips ...	12	16	0
*DR Gibson Garth & Gardner ...	22	16	4
JL Jonassen son out (Adams) ...	8	1	0
DEM Carter v Bates ...	8	1	0
HC Crook Adams ...	7	10	0
HL Baker not out ...	4	6	0
CM McCarthy Bow & Bates ...	2	3	0
Return both ...	3	0	0

Total (55 tasks) ... 91

Fall: 7, 18, 24, 36, 58, 58, 62, 82, 98

Bowling Garth 15-9-10-2, Bates 15-9-17-2; Phillips 15-9-12-2, Gardner 15-9-23-1, Davis 15-9-12-0, Adams 15-7-9-2.

Dennis 15-9-12-0, Adams 15-7-9-2.

Event	Date	4s	6s
Shamrock ...	21	4	2
HR ...	21	4	0
NR Sciver-Brunt ...	4	2	1
*AK Gardner not out ...	9	8	2
Extra (52, 81, 94) ...	7	0	0
Total (57, 54 tasks) ...	92	0	0

Fall: 55, 74

To bat: SN-LHF, SMM Health, SL Adams, GA Davis, AC Garth, CK Phillips, SL Bates.

Bowling McCarthy 10-2-10-0, Cross 10-3-18-0; Jonassen 9-4-14-0, Satterland 9-2-0.

Sutherland 15-7-16-1, Gibson 5-1-9-1.

Tour: No wins elected to field.

Umpires: AP Harris and S Stannugam

stages, Phoebe Litchfield. Litchfield is renowned for her nifty ramps and switch-hitting, but on this occasion her lay-occasy ended up in the hands of Adams at short fine leg and she departed for just 10.

"I'm not the most athletic in the field, but I always try my hardest, and I'll always try and throw myself at everything, albeit it's never glamorous," Adams said of the catch. "It was pretty surreal. I had this sense that she was going to ramp. I thought if I see her go for it, I'm just going to charge, and thankfully stuck a hand out and it stuck in."

The slingy Phillips followed up that huge scalp by rattling the stumps of Deepit Sharma, while Adams had Player of the Tournament Sutherland stumped coming down the track and then pulled off a diving stop at cover in the next set which ensured the run out of Jonassen for a duck, leaving Sunrisers reeling at 58 for six.

Skipper Dani Gibson attempted to bail them out of trouble with a flurry of boundaries, but when her upper-cut failed to clear backward point the rest of her team collapsed in a heap underneath her.

Gibson admitted afterwards that her team had fallen significantly short with the bat. "I just don't think we played great," she said. "Not our best game at all."

Sunrisers had been described in some quarters as the reigning champions. Whether this is accurate for a team which has a) changed its name, b) changed its kit and c) retained only four players from 2025 is an open question. Gibson, one of the majority who made her way to Sunrisers from a different franchise last year, dismissed the suggestion that 2025's triumph had any role to play here.

"It's a completely new playing 15, and new coaches for us. We just wanted to focus on this season," she said.

In a year which has seen a run of low totals, and in which the women's competition has generally felt somewhat flat after the excitement of last month's T20 World Cup, a final as one-sided as this one was not quite what the doctor ordered.

The main event

Arsenal v Coventry City

Friday, Sky Sports Main Event

The Premier League returns with a classic season opener: the champions against the Championship winners.

---

●●●

23

Men's Hundred

Seifert's barrage of sixes fires Super Giants to first title

Taha Hashim Lord's

A new name has done the trick. The Manchester Super Giants - once known as the Originals, now part of the tournament's IPL-ification - triumphed in the final of the men's Hundred, surviving a late wobble to beat Trent Rockets by five wickets. Tim Seifert set up victory with 72 off 38 balls; Liam Dawson completed it with two balls remaining, a six to seal it.

New Zealand's Seifert turned Jos Buttler, his captain, into a support act in a chase of 159, his scarily high backlift producing seven sixes and a 23-ball half-century. The 31-year-old launched far higher than any of the Rockets, their innings defined by useful cameos. Noor Ahmad fizzed the ball down for the Super Giants, taking three for 33, but this was Seifert's night as the Manchester side won the tournament for the first time after two previous runners-up finishes.

The Rockets, who were going for a double after their women's side

▼ Liam Dawson (right) roars in delight after his six sealed the victory PAUL CHILDERS/EVENS

had triumphed earlier in the piece, did offer a scare at the close. Seifert departed with 22 balls remaining, 23 still required - and the Super Giants stumbled. Mohammad Amir removed Heinrich Klaasen and Michael Bracewell and, with three required off the last over, Dawson struck air with his first two balls. It would be third time lucky, Ben Sanderson sent over deep midwicked to finally finish it.

It closed a season defined by team reboots and a drop in overall attendance. There has been Jude Bellingham in the ground, the introduction of the illogical name that is M London and the persistence of a key problem: the cricket is yet to dominate conversation. Of course, a final allows the actual sport to breathe a little and a last-over end was welcome after Seifert had threatened to complete it much earlier. "It was a little bit [more] stressful than it needed to be," said a relieved Buttler.

Lord's was a psychedelic place before the start. Ella Eyre had the thankless task as musical guest while the two sides warmed up yards away, fireworks in full flow. This was a second consecutive men's final for the Rockets but they had just the one survivor from last year: Sanderson.

Ben Duckett's runs had helped on their progress to this point while the Super Giants had enjoyed the fruits of an England pace triumvirate: Josh Tongue, Sonny Baker and Gus Atkinson. With Buttler deciding to bowl, Duckett against the quicks - what felt like the key battle at the start of the day - was first up.

Duckett got the scoop out against Atkinson and Baker, and was grateful for a drop; the left-hander reverse-swept the ball to Tongue, who erred at short third. Duckett looked on for a big one, having hit 141 against India at this ground last month.

Ahmad decided otherwise. The

Scoreboard

Lord's Manchester Super Giants beat Trent Rockets by five wickets.
Trent Rockets	Balls	4s	6s
BM Duckett: Buttler b Lakewood	11	24	3 1
FM Allen: Du Plessy b Lakewood	15	13	2 0
AMT Donald b Dawson	10	19	3 2
*FM Billings run out (Buttler)	4	5	0 0
TM David: Buttler b Lakewood	0	1	0 0
MJ Santner cut out	20	16	1 1
L Gregory: Klaasen b Tongue	12	16	2 3
C Drayton: Klaasen b Baker	11	5	2 0
CS Harrison b Baker	0	1	0 0
Extras (0-3, 4-6)	7
Total (for 5, 10/16/26)	158
Fall 48, 52, 56, 61, 95, 128, 158, 158.
To bat Mohammad Amir, FW Sanderson.
Bowling: Atkinson 20-6-20-0; Tongue 20-9-27-1; Dawson 20-7-25-1; Baker 20-5-24-2; Noor Ahmad 20-9-23-3.
Manchester Super Giants	Balls	4s	6s
TL Seifert: Mshingh b Mohammad Amir	72	38	4 7
PI Walter: Duckett b Harrison	22	14	2 1
*JC Buttler: Donald b Harrison	23	14	0 3
JL du Plessy cut out	27	18	4 0
W Klaasen: Donald b Mohammad Amir	11	9	1 0
MS Bracewell: Dui b Mohammad Amir	0	2	0 0
LA Dawson cut out	6	3	0 1
Extras (4-7)	1
Total (for 5, 10/16/26)	182
Fall 66, 100, 136, 154, 156.
To bat CAF Atkinson, Noor Ahmad, 5 Baker, JC Tongue.
Bowling: Mohammad Amir 20-6-25-1; Drayton 20-7-44-0; Sanderson 18-6-30-0; Harrison 15-6-30-2; Santner 13-9-9-0; Gregory 10-9-23-0.
To bat Super Giants elected to field.
Umpires GD Lloyd and MA Gough.

left-arm wrist-spinner struck with his first ball, to Finn Allen, and the delivery to Duckett moments later would not have been out of place in a red-ball game. A wrong'un caught the inside-edge before finding Buttler's gloves, Duckett gone for 31. Another Ahmad googly later in the innings accounted for Australia's Tim David, whose difficult tournament - 90 runs from eight knocks - ended with a first-ball edge to the sharp Buttler, leaving the Rockets on 91 for four after 59 deliveries.

In a match packed with internationalists it was the uncapped Aneurin Donald who gave the Rockets their biggest lift. His 19-ball 38 included a mix-up with Sam Billings, prompting the captain's run-out, but the Rockets could call upon a strong lower order for the finish. Mitchell Santner's unbeaten 20 took him to a season's batting average of 146. Lewis Gregory was brutal with a 16-ball 52.

It looked like a decent score but Seifert was in a hurry, taking 14 off Amir's first over and pulverising the leg-side. He appeared a goner on 33 after finding Allen by the leg-side rope; the Rockets man leaped beyond the boundary before flicking it back into play for Calvin Harrison to complete the catch. The decision went upstairs and was adjudged not out due to Allen brushing the rope.

Seifert moved to his half-century by slopping Harrison into the Mound Stand, with the Super Giants reaching 87 for one off 50 balls. Their control grew when Buttler went stratospheric against Harrison with back-to-back sixes, but an attempt at a third cost him when he found long-off. Would this be a gamechanging moment? It was nearly the case, but Dawson got it right at the end.

▲ Mehidy Hasan Miraz played a key role with bat and ball for the tourists

First Test

Bangladesh crush Australia to spark wild celebrations

Bangladesh completed a stunning nine-wicket victory over Australia in the first Test, securing its first win on Australian soil and only its second over top-ranked Australia.

After making a vital half-century with the bat, Mehidy Hasan Miraz took five wickets for Bangladesh in the second innings to restrict Australia to a lead of 56 runs, as the hosts were bowled out for 284 midway through the afternoon session at the Marrara Oval in Darwin.

Bangladesh suffered some early nerves in knocking off the target when Josh Hazlewood dismissed first-innings centurion Tanzid Hasan for a duck, but Shadman Islam (25no) and Mominul Haque (30no) held their composure to seal victory in 14.2 overs sparking wild celebrations within the contingent of Bangladesh fans seated behind the team's dugout on the boundary.

"This is the biggest win so far for Bangladesh in any format," the captain, Najmul Hossain Shanto, said. "We will do something special in the future."

The victory was celebrated in Bangladesh too with Shanto taking a congratulatory video call from the prime minister, Tarique Rahman, in the dressing room.

Cameron Green scored his third Test century, and his first in Australia, making a composed 104 from 201 balls to lead Australia's resistance before being ninth man out when bowled by Hasan Mahmud.

It was a thoroughly deserved result for Bangladesh, which had outplayed Australia for much of the test after home captain Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat.

Australia managed just 198 in the first innings, with man-of-the-match Hasan Mahmud taking 6-55, before Bangladesh capitalised as the pitch flattened to post 426 and take a commanding 228-run lead.

For Australia, the result will rank as one of its most humiliating home defeats in Test history with pressure now on the selectors to make changes ahead of the second Test in Mackay, Queensland, starting on 22 August.

"I think every time there's a game like this, you always look at your match-ups and your make-up with the team for the next one," Cummins said. "We're pretty good at bouncing back, so no doubt the batters and every group will get together and have a good think about this one and where we can improve." AP

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10

...

Sport Athletics European Championships

Hunter Bell leaves rivals trailing to clinch 1500m glory

Emphatic display justifies the hype and keeps Briton on track for target of four golds

Sean Ingle Alexander Stadium

Georgia Hunter Bell's glorious summer continues to take her to fresh summits. The 32-year-old was simply sublime as she demolished a decent European 1500m field to add another title to her swelling collection.

It proved to be the final gold British medal of these championships, as Britain agonisingly missed out on coming top of the medal table to Italy by the slimmest margins.

First Jazmin Sawyers failed to win long jump gold by a centimetre to Larissa Iapichino of Italy. Then, in the final race of the championships, Italy's Lorenzo Benati held off Britain's Charlie Dobson by 0.03sec in the men's 4x400m relay.

It meant that Italy finished top with 10 gold medals, one ahead of the British team, but it still marked an excellent effort on a thrilling final day.

Hunter Bell led from the front. As expected, the women's 1500m turned

▲ Jazmin Sawyers secured a silver medal in the women's long jump

into a slow and tactical race. But in the last lap burn up, Hunter Bell truly ignited. Her 58.44sec final 400m took her 10 metres clear as she crossed the line in 4:07.78.

No wonder when she crossed the line she applauded herself for a job well done.

▼ Georgia Hunter Bell flies the flag for Great Britain after her 1500m success MARTIN HICKETTEN

"That last 150m is always my favourite part of the race, and it was really nice to come down the home stretch and know that I had it," said Hunter Bell, who finished a second clear of Poland's Klaudia Kazimierska, with Portugal's Patricia Silva taking a surprise bronze.

Over the past five months, Hunter Bell has won world indoor 1500m gold, 800m Commonwealth Games gold, and the European title. She now believes she can add a fourth to her collection at the Ultimate Championships in Budapest next month.

Soon afterwards Sawyers jumped an outdoor long jump personal best of 6.99m to win silver against a high-quality field. It was all the more impressive given that she sustained a serious achilles injury 18 months ago. But she fell tantalising short of Iapichino, who jumped seven metres. France's Hilary Kpatcha finished with a leap of 6.98m.

Two more silvers for Britain quickly followed in the women's and men's 4x400m as Britain finished with 19 medals.

As seven days of action in Birmingham came to an end with Mondo Duplantis taking pole vault gold in 6.15m, Jack Buckner, the chief executive of UK Athletics, hailed the European Championships as a huge success.

Buckner said that he was particularly pleased that Friday night's epic 800m final starring Keely Hodgkinson, Audrey Werro and Femke Broeders-Bol had attracted around four million viewers on BBC One as he insisted his sport had cut through into the mainstream.

"Everyone is absolutely delighted with the BBC numbers," he said. "I heard it was 3.8m but that was without iPlayer. So they've been talking over four million on Friday night, which is really strong. So we are absolutely delighted and everyone is buzzing.

"This is a big sport that cuts through with big stars and that's what we want. We want big heroes and big names doing amazing things."

"Another star emerged here in Amy Hunt, which is fantastic for the sport," he added. "Keely, in the way she conducts herself and the way she handles herself, is a role model. And then you look at all of them in the 4x100m relays and you just go 'that's what we want this country to be'."

Buckner also hinted that Britain was tempted to bid again in the near future, with the rebuilt stadium at Crystal Palace a potential option. "It's been absolutely fantastic," he said. "We loved doing it. We learn a lot. We think we could do it better and we're going to do it again."

Buckner also defended the struggles with ticket sales at the start of the week - and said that UKA had sold nearly three-quarters of all tickets in the 23,000-capacity Alexander Stadium.

"In the buildup we did work with schools and we did work with community groups, and overall we've sold 73% of the tickets," he said.

"In any other country in the world, if they've delivered that result in ticketing, they'd have been jumping up and down with excitement. But our expectations are higher and we're OK with that. We've sold out the last four days so it's been a world-class ticketing result, but we want better."

'Dream come true': Hunt seals fourth gold in mixed relay

Sprinter becomes first athlete to win four titles at a single European championships

Sean Ingle Alexander Stadium

If there was any remaining doubt that this has been Amy Hunt's summer, it was dispelled over 10 seconds of controlled fury at the European Championships, as Britain's newest sporting superstar completed an unprecedented quadruple.

When the baton was slapped into the 24-year-old's hand on the anchor leg of the mixed 4x100m relay, she was a fraction behind Gina Lückenkemper of Germany. But then Hunt became the hunter, and a record-breaker.

In no time those long legs began to whir, her vast stride started to

widen, and she found her wings. First Lückenkemper was chased down. Then Hunt ran into history.

As she crossed the line, she stuck her tongue out, stretched her arms in triumph, then held four fingers to the camera. And just like that the Cambridge graduate had completed the quadruple.

"It's just a dream come true - I'll remember this week for the rest of my life," said Hunt after becoming the first athlete in the 92-year history of the European Championships to win four gold medals in a single event.

To make things even sweeter, Britain's time was a European record 39.97sec, with Germany taking silver in 40.11 and Spain claiming bronze.

"I think it surpassed my expectations at these champs," Hunt said. "Not in terms of not just the goals, but how I've handled myself, how I've handled the pressure, the attention, the recovery, the discipline of it all."

---

●●●

10

Hunt secures first in last leg

Amy Hunt powers down the final straight of the 4x100m mixed relay ahead of Germany and Spain

"It was a bit like when you're queueing for a rollercoaster and you're a little nervous and you're seeing the drops and stuff," Hunt said when asked about the craziness of her past week. "Then when you get off you want to do it again. So it was that adrenaline kick certainly. I loved the event."

To run seven races in seven days is difficult enough. To win all seven, across heats and finals, not only takes talent and guts but a hefty dose of chutzpah too.

But while Hunt certainly has main character energy she quickly ensured that her teammates - Jeremiah Azu, Dina Asher-Smith and Zharnel Hughes - were hailed as well.

"To do it all together is incredible, especially because that was the first time we did that changeover about an hour ago in warm-up," said Hunt. "And look how smooth it was. Such professionals."

It was hard to argue with that. This was the first time the mixed 4x100m relay has taken place at these championships and with the men and women alternating changeovers the difficulty level was increased to the highest. No wonder the Netherlands and Italy were disqualified. But Britain looked smooth throughout - at least to the untrained eye.

"I'm going to be completely frank with you, I was absolutely terrified," said Asher-Smith. "When the gun was going, I was like 'Dina, please relax,

it's only going to go well if you relax'. When I gave that baton to Zharnel, I was so happy, I can't lie. That's exactly how I feel. Very unfiltered. I was just like 'get this out of my hand - bye'."

Hunt was not the only record holder on the night as Asher-Smith made it a record 11 European medals in total - surpassing Polish sprinter Irena Szewinska - with this victory.

"It hasn't sunk in at all," she said. "I just don't think it's something that when you start your career you ever think is going to be attached to you. Just want to run faster and get better. So I feel very humbled and blessed."

Medal table

	G	S	B	Total
1 Italy	10	6	6	22
2 GB & NI	9	8	2	19
3 Germany	6	10	5	21
4 Netherlands	5	3	6	14
5 Norway	4	0	2	6
6 Switzerland	3	3	1	7
7 Spain	2	2	4	8
8 Sweden	2	1	2	5
9 Ireland	2	1	1	4
10 Finland	2	1	0	3
11 Ukraine	1	1	2	4
12 Croatia	1	1	0	2
Greece	1	1	0	2
Hungary	1	1	0	2
15 Israel	1	0	1	2
16 Slovakia	1	0	0	1
Slovenia	1	0	0	1

"At this point in my career, I'm just having fun," Asher-Smith said. "I'm just seeing what can be maxed out because I'm fortunate enough to stand on the line, and I don't really have much to prove. I'd like an Olympic gold, but that's kind of the only thing that's on my bucket list."

Earlier yesterday there was more British success in the women's marathon, as Abbie Donnelly overcame bringing different sized running shoes to Birmingham to take a surprise bronze medal.

However her race was saved when her boyfriend Shane dashed up in the morning with the right shoe. "I actually bought two different size shoes by accident to this race," said Donnelly, who became the first British woman to win a European Championships marathon medal.

"I tried them on last night and I was like 'the right one does not feel right', added Donnelly, whose time of 2:27.33 was just over five minutes behind Finland's Alisa Vainio, who set a championship record.

"So then I had to call my parents and my boyfriend. It was half an hour beforehand that my boyfriend Shane put the [tracking] chip on because I was so flustered."

Britain also won the women's team event through Donnelly, Rose Harvey, Louise Small and Clara Evans-Graham, while Germany's Amanal Petros took the men's marathon in a championship record 2:09.11.

Security scare keeps athletes and fans stuck at stadium

Buses unable to leave until nearly midnight with man arrested on suspicion of fraud

Sean Ingle

Dozens of athletes and thousands of spectators were caught up in a massive security operation involving armed police at the European Athletics Championships on Saturday night.

One coach reported there were armed guards around the warm-up track and bus terminals, while police were seen searching buses.

Another leading British coach said they got on a 10.15pm bus that only left at 11.45pm and arrived back at 12.30am. "Fortunately they kept the kitchens open for the athletes," a team official said.

The West Midlands police said a man in his 30s was arrested and remains in custody for questioning following suspicious behaviour.

"A man was arrested following concerns of suspicious activity at the European Athletics Championships last night," a spokesperson said.

"At around 8.15pm, concerns were raised after a man was found in an area of Alexander Stadium with the wrong accreditation.

"As a precaution, security measures were put in place and transport for the championship staff and athletes were suspended.

"This then led to delays to transport from the stadium for the wider public.

"A man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion of fraud and remains in custody for questioning. We understand the concern this may have caused and can confirm there was no immediate risk to the public. As always, our priority is the safety of the public and we want to thank everyone for their patience."

The first indication that anything was amiss came during Saturday night's action when stadium announcers said that the six medal ceremonies scheduled to take place would be postponed.

After the capacity 23,000 crowd had witnessed both British 4x100m relay teams claim gold, fans were then unable to get on buses to leave the venue, which is about five miles from the centre of Birmingham.

Athletes, coaches and officials were told to return to the high-performance centre at the Alexander Stadium to stay warm, with many only leaving around midnight.

Joanne Ray, from Hampshire, said that she had started queueing for the buses at 9.50pm but didn't get on one until 11.15pm. "There were mothers with babies strapped in carriers, disabled people in electric wheelchairs," she said. "They were absolutely frozen. And we were given no information."

Ray and her husband, Ian, said they had paid more than £100 for their tickets for four evening's worth of action, and estimated the pair had spent about £2,000 in total attending the championships.

"There was a drone above us all the time, so we knew there was something going on, but we didn't understand because we weren't given information," she added.

"When we got nearer to the bus, there were lots of police, fully armed, and there was an Irish family next to us. I said to them, 'This is not normal. We would normally see a policeman on the beat, a bobby, if you're lucky, not armed police.'"

On Sunday morning, Finland's Alisa Vainio won gold in the women's marathon in a championship record 2hr 22min 26sec, an impressive time particularly on such a hilly course, with Britain's Abbie Donnelly taking bronze in 2:27.33. Britain also won gold in the team event.

Germany's Amanal Petros won gold in the men's event, setting a new championship record of 2:09.11 after a solo breakaway. Italy's Pietro Riva crossed the line seven seconds back to take silver, with Israel's Gashau Ayale a further three seconds behind in third.

'When we got near the bus there were lots of armed police'

Joanne Ray Spectator

▲ Spectators complained of being given no information about the situation

---

10

Sport Tennis

Djokovic's malaise exposes the wane of ageing great's game

The 39-year-old's first-round exit raises further questions about possible retirement

Tumaini Carayol Lindner Family Tennis Center

Novak Djokovic walked from the stadium court in Cincinnati to the corridor reserved for post-match press interviews practically without breaking stride. The 39-year-old had been cruising up a set and well on his way to a seemingly comfortable victory when he began to feel the full force of the elements. Djokovic would devote much of his time during the final two sets to crouching on all fours between points, vomiting into towels and desperately struggling to perform.

Such was his disappointment with his ageing body failing him once again that Djokovic, who is usually one of the most loquacious on the tour, briskly answered four questions in about a minute before offering his thanks and striding to the locker room. He wanted nothing more than to get out of there.

There was once a time when an opening-round loss for Djokovic at the final Masters 1000 event would send alarm bells ringing, but perhaps the most interesting part of this defeat is how familiar such results have become. This year, his results in the paltry three non-slam events he has played were losses in his opening match at the Cincinnati and Italian Opens and a fourth-round defeat at Indian Wells. His last quarter-final at a Masters 1000 tournament came in October at the Shanghai Masters.

There have been numerous issues during those reverses, from injuries to other physical ailments or difficult preparation, but Djokovic's motivation in these tournaments has clearly been a factor. He has spent his entire career finding a way to drag himself through impossible situations, even when things have been physically or mentally awry. Such recoveries require an immense amount of commitment, something he clearly does not have in these tournaments

of less importance. Djokovic has long identified the grand slam tournaments and Olympics as his priorities at this point in his career, and his results have reflected those convictions. For the past year and a half, Djokovic has been the most consistent player at the grand slams beyond Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner. He has found his way through nearly every other obstacle.

Perhaps the most striking part of Djokovic's fleeting one-minute press conference came when he was asked whether he envisioned himself being back at Cincinnati. He issued a sober response: "I certainly hope so, but it looks more likely not, unfortunately. But let's see what the future brings."

The tennis world has spent the past few years trying to anticipate when Djokovic might retire, and his tendency to cast doubt on his future after tough defeats has often looked an indicator. In this case, it is totally reasonable that he never wishes to compete in the Ohio humidity again. Otherwise, as long as he remains competitive at the grand slams, it does seem like he is content with his

current life. While he stresses the importance of not looking too far forward at his age, when everything can change quickly, he has also been clear about wanting to compete in one final Olympics in Los Angeles, where he will be the defending champion.

For those reasons, it does not feel that much has changed for him ahead of the US Open, the final grand slam tournament of the year. Time and again, he has shown that he will raise his game and find a way through to the latter rounds at the majors, even when he is barely competitive elsewhere. At his age, it is only a matter of time before he also loses his edge in the biggest events, but it remains to be seen when that shift will occur.

In some ways, the final stretch of Djokovic's career has been quite a confusing time. He has never hesitated to recognise the superiority of Sinner and Alcaraz at this stage in

their careers, but he also remains one of the top four players in the world in both his own mind and according to the rest of the field.

He has repeatedly stressed that he is not fixated by the prospect of winning a 25th grand slam title and that pursuit is not the primary motivation for his longevity, but his standards have been high for so long that he still cannot help but feel the same amount of immense disappointment when he fails to live up to them as if he was still No.1. He knows that his performances and level are rare for a player of his age, that he should be proud of what he is achieving in the latter stages of his career, but he still wants more.

The one certainty, though, is his enduring love for this sport. Despite how much his reality has changed, he continues to show up, compete and find meaning and enjoyment in the success. Long may it continue.

◀ A struggling Novak Djokovic receives medical treatment during his opening round defeat against Thiago Agustin Tirante in Cincinnati SHARNA REINHITTOON/SPYISHITTERSTOCK

Tight schedule

Players call for changes to 2028 calendar

Tumaini Carayol

Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina and a number of top tennis players have called for changes to the calendar in light of the "crazy" and "ridiculous" news that the tennis competition in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will begin just three days after Wimbledon ends.

The LA28 Olympics announced last month that the tennis event will take place between 19 and 28 July. With the Wimbledon 2028 men's final on 16 July, the best performers at the tournament will have minimal time to fly to a different continent and adapt from grass to hard courts. This will be a far tighter turnaround than Paris in 2024, which began 13 days after the end of Wimbledon.

Asked whether she thinks adjustments should be made to the tennis calendar, Sabalenka said: "That's definitely something that we can consider doing because three days after the men's Wimbledon final, it's ridiculous," she said. "And an Olympics is something huge. It's something that you play once in four years. So I feel like we should try to like open up the schedule a little bit and make sure that we have a bit like at least a week."

Rybakina agreed: "It's just crazy to know that it's just a couple of days after Wimbledon. Hopefully something will change for next year so it's more convenient for everybody."

Daniil Medvedev said he was not aware of the tight schedule but he also believes there should be changes to the timetable: "It would be great if something can be done. You tell me three days, make it at least six. Even six is not good. But make it at least six, seven, try to do something."

Iga Swiatek, meanwhile, said this is just one example of many where player welfare is not prioritised: "You can see that the schedule is crazy. I've been talking about that for years. At the beginning, everybody said I'm just a crybaby, but now more players are talking about it. It's tough. This situation is going to be really difficult for the person that plays the final and then needs to get on hard courts and play on the other side of the world."

Cycling

Tarling family pay tribute to 'gentle, loving' son after death in Portugal

Tarling's death are now subject to a police investigation, but the Portuguese police stated that while "more evidence will be gathered," it is thought unlikely that the driver will face criminal charges.

The Volta a Portugal does not benefit from full road closures, as is the case with Grand Tours such as the Tour de France, and instead uses a rolling road closure, effectively a "bubble" of security that encloses the race convoy, from front to back.

Carlos Catamario, of the Portuguese police, told RTP that Tarling was racing to catch up on a downhill section, with the peloton ahead of him and

split into three groups. The broom wagon, the van signifying the rear of the convoy and the end of the rolling road closure, was further behind him.

Tarling's loss is the latest in a sport increasingly beleaguered by safety issues. As racing speeds increase, costs for event security rise, while the growth in traffic means race organisers are under increasing pressure to implement more effective measures.

"It's becoming increasingly expensive to organise races, and some organisers are abandoning the safety principles that govern the entire cycling bubble," Pineau said. "The Volta a Portugal is a second-tier

race; they have to find race officials, staff to organise it, and funds for the police."

Tarling's team, NSN Development, withdrew from the race on Saturday, but the race otherwise completed its final stages over the weekend as planned. Riders observed a minute's silence at the start of the ninth stage, the leader's jersey worn by Alexis Guérin was changed from yellow to black and the peloton wore black armbands. Tributes were paid and black armbands worn at other races including the Czech Tour and the Arctic Race of Norway.

Yesterday Tarling's father, Michael,

posted a message on social media. "This has been the hardest couple of days of our lives and it's taken us a bit of time to be able to post this. Hearing how lovingly and fondly Fin was thought of has been a huge help to us. We simply can't thank you all enough for the support we've had."

"I don't know how we carry on from here, but we'll figure it out with the support of all our family, friends, and community. Whilst our broken hearts will never be fixed, he was not only our son and brother but our best mate. Gentle, loving with the driest sense of humour, we will miss him terribly."

● Continued from back page

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7

Sport Football

League One

Leicester learn harsh rain, but youngsters offer hope

The 2016 Premier League champions are given an uncompromising welcome to the third tier by Notts County

Will Unwin

Meadow Lane

If Leicester thought this season was going to be the footballing equivalent of a gap year, visiting new places and learning some life lessons before returning home, then they were mistaken. Being unfought and outperformed by Notts County, a well-organised and energetic team promoted from the fourth tier, brought the reality of life to the fore on Saturday.

Russell Martin's desire to play out from the back provided the fragile foundation of a dispiriting performance for a team tipped to storm back up. Ollie Cooper charging down the ponderous Alex McCarthy before seeing the ball bounce back off the crossbar welcomed Leicester to League One within six minutes. McCarthy or the confused centre-back pairing of Caleb Okoli and Harry Souttar repeatedly gave the ball away in and around the penalty area as the team created their own problems. Things went so badly that a compilation of their slapstick defending quickly gained traction on social media.

Jayden Joseph gave Leicester an undeserved lead, but it did not ignite an improvement and they inevitably gave away an equaliser through further imprintable at the back as no one reacted quickly enough to a dangerous situation, allowing the unmarked Conor Grant to pounce in the six-yard box.

With most of the ball-out crowd of 17,172 celebrating their own uplift, and the rapid demise of their ranks, Leicester struggled to cope with the intensity. "We've got loads of learning to do and we'll be better for that, much better," Martin said.

This was the first league meeting between the clubs since 1994 because they have been on very different paths over the past 32 years. There was plenty of passion for this rare Rast Midlands derby with County back at this level for the first time since 2016-15 and Leicester fans making the short trip to prove devotion is not determined by trophies and success. They also showed displeasure at the ownership that has overseen the slide and earned the right to be as their viewing journey between subpar and unacceptable.

"A bit of anxiety crept in,

the atmosphere changed in the stadium, and that's the biggest learning for us," Martin said. "If we don't look after each other with the ball, like we didn't towards the end, then it doesn't suit us."

When Leicester won the Premier League a decade ago, County finished 17th in League Two and went on to spend four years in the National League. Leicester may think their reputation should mean they are playing on the other side of the River Trent at the City Ground, but that scenario is a long way off on this evidence.

A side brochure has been created to market the club for a takeover, but Martin has not received word that Leicester are officially for sale, despite reports of the owner, King Power, wanting more than £200m. It would seem difficult to reach such a figure based on the distressed nature of the asset, despite a £100m training ground and players such as Oliver Skipp, who cost £20m. For comparison, County train at the local university and their most expensive summer signing was £200,000.

Among the misery, the silver lining is that designing down the pyramid and selling off assets opens up opportunities for young players. Will Alves, Joseph and Sammy Braybrooke started and looked the most adept in difficult circumstances, while their more illustrious colleagues hid from battle. The trio spent last season on loan in either the third or fourth tier and that experience among those relegated from the Championship was an ideal fit. The expensive Premier League signings Okoli and Skipp were not representative of their CVs, while the forwards were blunt.

It cannot be easy being in the Leicester ranks, with their best players being quickly sold after relegation to bring in funds and questions remaining over others. Stephy Mavididi and Wout Faes missed the match after receiving bids, while the captain, Souttar, has interest from Championship sides. Given the unsettled and youthful nature of the squad, some pragmatism would not go amiss, but that is not Martin's style.

One of the club's key selling points is, according to the brochure, their "140-year storied history", but their efforts here will not even make a footnote. Leicester cannot assume either promotion or a quick sale.

▲ Russell Martin says Leicester must learn quickly in League One

Results

Football

FA COMMUNITY SHIELD

Arsenal	(2)3	Manchester City	(0)8
Culchert 1, Haverty 28
Beaumont 48

UEFA EUROPE LEAGUE

Friday, 19th/16th/17th round. Second leg: 0:0 (Lech) Poznan 5 Legs 0:42

SKY SKY CHAMPIONSHIP

Balcon	(2)2	Prodan	(0)1
Dolby 14		Eckle 96
Gala 25		26,262
Bristol City	(0)8	Milwall	(1)2
24,100		Coburn 41 50
Burnley	(0)2	West Ham	(1)2
Fenninga 8 Spec 90+2		Kilman 10
		Solomon 72

Cheltenham	(0)2	Derby	(1)1
Crown 51		Schroders 23
Campbell 80		21,131

Middlesbrough	(0)2	Lincoln City	(1)1
Leicester 52 90+1		Keath 12
St. 47
Newcastle	(0)1	West Brom	(0)2
Portsmouth		Hoggles 75
Devon 55		Morgan 87
Portsmouth	(1)1	QPR	(3)3
Devon 55		Chair 11 45+2
St. 47		Salto 40

Stamford One	(0)8	Birmingham	(0)8
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884

St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884

St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884

St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7, 884

St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7, 884

St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884

St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7,884
St. 7, 884
St. 7, 884

York	(0)3	Bristol Rovers	(1)2
Mostly 20		Mids 30
Bown 61 80		Leigh 70pen
8,156

ENTERPRISE NATIONAL LEAGUE

	P	M	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
Harrogate	2	2	0	0	3	+5	6
Hannibals	2	2	0	0	5	1	+4	6
Sutton	2	2	0	0	4	0	+4	6
Stafford	1	2	0	0	4	1	+3	6
Hartlepool	1	2	0	0	3	0	+3	6
Forest Green	2	2	0	0	5	3	+2	6
Bondham Wood	2	1	1	0	6	4	+2	4
Fylde	2	1	1	0	4	3	+1	4
Gateshead	2	1	0	1	3	2	+1	3
Boston	2	1	0	1	2	1	+1	3
Worthing	2	1	0	1	4	4	0	3
Eastleigh	2	1	0	1	2	2	0	3
Alderdell	2	1	0	1	1	1	0	3
Alderwater	2	1	0	1	1	3	2	3
Yeovil	2	0	2	0	2	2	0	2
Yarmouth	2	0	1	1	4	5	+1	1
Carlisle	2	0	1	1	3	4	1	1
Scambridge	2	0	1	1	3	5	2	1
Waddesbee	2	0	0	2	3	6	3	0
Waltham	2	0	0	2	1	4	2	0
Wells	2	0	0	2	4	4	0	0
Wells County	2	0	0	2	2	7	5	0
Wishing	2	0	0	2	0	5	5	0

Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0

Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0

Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0

Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0

Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0

Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0
Witching	2	0	0	2	1	4	3	0

---

Sport Football

Sky Bet Championship

Bravo finish for Watford sinks Southampton as 'Spygate' looms large

Watford

Bravo 12, Nidcata 29

Southampton

Latin 16

Paul MacInnes

Vicarage Road

Southampton will have to get used to being barracked as they travel the Championship this autumn, the 'Spygate' team set to be everyone's favourite box boys. Certainly that was the case in Hertfordshire, with Watford fans and players beside themselves after a hard-fought victory, decided by two memorable goals.

Tonda Eckert, the Southampton head coach, remains under inves-

tigation for his part in the Spygate affair and presented a subdued figure both during and after this contest. He insisted that his team were more united than ever after suffering the indignity of being removed from last season's playoffs, 'but it would be easier to say that after a victory', Eckert acknowledged.

Watford paid tribute to Kenny Jackett before the match, the one-club legend and local boy hailed with two minutes of applause. This celebration of longevity and connection, with a Panini-inspired tifo tumbling down the stands, cut a contrast with the current operation, where Alessio Dionisi is Watford's 12th full-time manager in the past five years.

'I am very tired and my team was too by the end,' said the Italian who

was coaching Empoli in Serie B last season. Dionisi praised the attitude of his team - 'I liked the mentality of my players, in every moment I saw one team working together,' he said. He also benefited from the Pozzo family's multi-club network and the local academy in digging out a victory.

The Spain attacker Iker Bravo was one of several signings to make the familiar trek from 'sister' club Udinese this summer, and he made his mark quickly, opening the scoring with a stunning solo goal in the 12th minute. It was all his own work and Bravo had to deploy a combination of skills to turn an innocuous situation into real danger. Looking to latch on to a long ball some 40 yards from goal, the playmaker won the first header then, crucially, got a second touch with an outstretched toe to get the ball under control. Bravo then span immediately and drove at goal, pushing his way into the box before chopping right and getting off a low shot that Daniel Peretz could not keep out.

A great way to start any season, the energy among the Vicarage Road crowd grew immediately and the home side went on to dominate the first half. They doubled their lead in the 29th minute with a moment

Premier League fans' previews: part 2 The top talents, worst weak links, and blasts from the past

Hull

Ant Northgraves To Hull & Back Podcast

I'm very optimistic. Sure, chances are that we'll get relegated but we'll certainly not be the pushovers that people are expecting. We thrive when we're being written off, as last season showed, and have a pragmatic manager who has us playing brilliant, transitional football which suits the Premier League. We could definitely upset a lot of teams and maybe, just maybe, even stay up.

Key players/weak links As the squad currently stands, Oli McBurnie, Mohamed Belloumi and Charlie Hughes will be the key faces. But with new signings expected to add some much-needed experience and necessary skill, that may change. Hidemasa Morita has been an absolute coup on a free, so he may be one to keep an eye on. Full-back is still a problem position for us: there's only Ryan Giles on the left and questions over Lewie Coyle and Cody Dromet at this level on the right.

We still need to sign ... We still really need depth in the full back areas and a forward or two to compete with McBurnie. We could do with some more experience across the back line, too, as well as another back-up goalkeeper thanks to Jack Butland's lengthy injury. Our cult hero is ... McBurnie. The kind of player you hate to be against but love to have in your team.

If we could sign two players from our past ... I would have Jarrod Bowen on the wing and Andy Robertson in at left-back. Strangely, they were two transfers I thought might actually happen this summer following West Ham's relegation and Robertson leaving Liverpool on a free. Alas, it wasn't to be.

Predictions We will finish 17th. Top four: 1. Arsenal; 2. Man City; 3. Liverpool; 4. Man United. Bottom three: 18. Crystal Palace; 19. Ipswich; 20. Coventry. First manager sacked Frank Lampard.

Ipswich

Craig Finbow @BlueMondayITFC; blumondayitfc.co.uk

Having endured the Premier League two years ago, the fans know what to expect: eyes are well and truly open. The momentum and hope we had two seasons ago was stopped in its tracks pretty swiftly once the season started. This time round, the summer's transfer business looks of a better quality, more robust, giving us half a chance of survival and a smidge of optimism.

Key players/weak links Sasa Lukic looks to be exactly the type of signing we need to be making. 30 years old, good Premier League experience to add some no-nonsense mettle and physicality. There will need to be more like him and Issa Diop through the spine of the team. We still need to sign ... A senior striker, to take the pressure off our new, young Brazilian Emerson, who was Gary O'Neil's first signing when he joined from Toulouse for £25m in July. I do wonder whether we'll get to the end of August and land Zian Fleming from Burnley.

Our cult hero is ... Marcelino Núñez is probably the closest. That said, Florentino Luis's early social media posts mean he has serious potential. We've already had Al farmers and Suffolk Patches on Insta & TikTok, although their appeal could wane in the winter if we're in the midst of a long losing run ... If we could sign two players from our past ... Paul Mariner for his all-round presence. He would be ideal as the central striker in the modern game. And Matt Holland as a box-to-box leader. Predictions We will finish 16th. Top four: 1. Arsenal; 2. Man City; 3. Man United; 4. Chelsea. Bottom three: 18. Fulham; 19. Coventry; 20. Hull. First manager sacked Álvaro Arbeloa.

Leeds

Daniel Chapman leedsista.com @leedsista.com (Bluesky)

At the end of last season Daniel Farke challenged the owners to move on from just surviving. So this summer Leeds broke our transfer record for goalkeeper James 'next Nigel Martyn' Trafford, paid £34m for defender Tarik Mahanmoo, and went back for Harry Wilson (2), one of last season's top creators. Over to you, Daniel. His challenge now is turning ambition into results fast enough to prove he's the manager to move Leeds on from just surviving.

A long-losted-for-new West Stand is under construction and the mood is good, which can be dangerous for a self-professed massive club in the bottom half of the Premier League.

Key players/weak links The main strength, and weakness, is Dominic Calvert-Lewin. He's our key goalscorer, but doesn't have much back-up. Left-back is similar, but Jayden Lienou is a promising teenage understudy for Gabriel Gudmundsson.

We still need to sign ... A striker to help Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha. Our cult hero is ... Anton Stach's YouTube channel is, thankfully, a delightful contribution to happiness in our world. He's been wandering the streets of Leeds incognito asking people what they have for breakfast, and filming himself buying EU plug adaptors in Boots. Good, wholesome stuff. If we could sign two players from our past ... The correct back-up for DCL would be Luciano Becchio. To add some suziveness to midfield, Gary McAllister. Predictions We will finish 12th. Top four: 1. Arsenal; 2. Aston Villa; 3. Liverpool; 4. Man City. Bottom three: 18. Sunderland; 19. Hull; 20. Coventry. First manager sacked Frank Lampard.

Liverpool

Steph Jones

I'm always optimistic about a new season, but this one feels very much like a new beginning and a real unknown. We start minus a few familiar faces alongside a new manager and some new signings, but that's balanced with Van Dijk and Alisson still being here. I'd put little store by the pre-season results or Iraola saying we can't run after 60 minutes - he didn't mean it - and we'll see how it goes when it all kicks off for real. We have top players, the boss comes with a style that fits and I believe we'll do well. The target is to be up there fighting for a top spot.

Key players/weak links At the back with all their experience, Van Dijk and Alisson will be crucial. There's a big gap to fill up front, but Isak now has the chance to stake his claim after a nightmare season for him last time around. Wirtz too will want to show he can adapt to the pace of the Premier League and be a force.

We still need to sign ... Defenders. We need a solid centre-back and right-back for the immediate and long-term future. Konsa or Murillo at Forest? Also a central midfielder to help out Gravenberch and a right-sided attacker - Ibrahim Mbaye has been mooted, though PSG might balk at the idea of us coming after two of their players, because Barcola is a done deal. Apparently.

Our cult hero is ... Not sure we have one right now. We need someone to step up. If we could sign two players from our past ... Alan Hansen to partner Van Dijk, and Steven Gerrard to inspire and work his magic all over the pitch. Predictions We will finish 1st. Top four: 1. Liverpool; 2. Arsenal; 3. Chelsea; 4. Manchester City. Bottom three: 18. Nottingham Forest; 19. Ipswich; 20. Hull. First manager sacked Pierre Sage.

Man City

Lloyd Scragg @lloyd_scragg (X) 9320pod.com

I'm excited; it's a new dawn under Enzo Maresca. Naturally, every City fan loved Pep's reign. We know we'll never have it as good again. But after 10 years, naturally, there's something exciting about a fresh start. The target is simple: we need to win the league back. The last team that weren't City to retain the title were United in 2008-09. It's our job to make it incredibly difficult for Arsenal.

Key players/weak links To temper the optimism slightly, losing Rodri, if it happens, is obviously massive. He's the best No 6 in the world so, by definition, he's irreplaceable. But in adding Anderson and Bouaddi it feels like Viana has done excellent business. The key players will be Haaland (2), Semenyo, Gvardiol, O'Reilly, Donnarumma, Cherki, Foden (if he can recover his level) and Doku. Youngster to watch? Ryan McAdoo. We still need to sign ... We're still lacking depth out wide. If Doku or Semenyo pick up an injury, then currently (pending the Spurs interest) we'd have to rely on Savinho. He'd burnt most City fans' heads out last season ... so much natural talent, but an infuriating lack of end product.

Our cult hero is ... Has to be Haaland, doesn't it? The bloke's dripping in aura. If we could sign two players from our past ... Raheem Sterling was ridiculously good in his prime. Just relentless. He'd be perfect for Maresca's system, with wingers isolated one-v-one. And Aymeric Laporte: I think he's still good enough to play for us! Predictions We will finish 2nd. Top four: 1. Arsenal; 2. Manchester City; 3. Chelsea; 4. Tottenham. Bottom three: 18. Fulham; 19. Ipswich; 20. Hull. First manager sacked Sergej Jakirovic.

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to remember for 19-year-old academy graduate Amin Nabizada who exploited the same gaps on the left of the Southampton defence to run with the ball from his own half before finishing precisely from a tight angle. "Nabizada was emotional but after the first 10 minutes he played well," Dionisi said. "When there is one mentality amongst the team, then it's better for him too."

Southampton had the better of the second half, taking advantage of a drop in tempo from the hosts. A spell of concerted possession in the 96th minute ended with midfielder Cam Bragg setting up Cyle Larin to poke home from 10 yards out.

Larin had a chance to equalise just two minutes later with a shot on the turn but Federico Ravaglia - another new signing to impress for the Hornets - turned the ball round the post. When Finn Azaz came on as a second-half substitute for the Saints he bought an inch to fire off a low drive that went just beyond the left hand post. As a succession of dangerous set pieces were sent over by Ryan Manning, Southampton fans were singing "we'll score when we want".

But as the game progressed Eckert's team were unable to gener-

ate enough momentum to truly unsettle Dionisi's men. Their only further chance came in added time and was scuffed wide by Taylor Harwood-Bellis.

Eckert said he had been happy enough with his team's performance beyond "two errors in possession". He insisted his squad are "very close and united" as a group. "We had a different expectation for the result but the group looks united and we now need to turn that into results."

Opening matches rarely offer much insight into how a season will pan out. But Watford fans were able to enjoy both temperate weather and a decent performance. If Southampton want to transform the negative energy of Spygate into something positive, meanwhile, they will have to start again next week.

Montreal

4-2-3-1

Rangels, Tsami, Pablicki, Ader, Biki (Danas 24), Boro (Franville 41), Ryuvanchi, Muenouil (Hou 77), Boro (Payers 61), Nabizadi (Hou Phu 61), Doumba (Bell 60) and Rathmann, Cartridge, Rynsengard, Comes

Referee Matt Donohoe Attendance 19.542

Southampton

4-2-3-1

Perez, Borei, Harwood-Bellis, Stephen, Manning (Bragg Elduo 70), Deanech, Mofali (Donahue Alas 59), Sicena, Debbie (Azaz 57), Larrie (Melanes 70) (Salton 60), Long, Wood, Fellows, Archer, Malington

Football In brief

Scottish League Cup McInnes breaks duck with Rangers victory

Derek McInnes got off the mark at Rangers with a 5-1 last-96 win against St Mirren at Ibrox. Failure to win any of his first four fixtures had the new manager under pressure and he celebrated vigorously when Ryan Naderi put the home side ahead in the ninth minute with a close-range finish. Vanja Dragicevic fired in an unstoppable shot from 25 yards in the 18th minute for his first Rangers goal since signing from Partizan Belgrade but Saints' Chris McGride reduced the deficit on the half-hour mark with an equally terrific drive. Two goals in two minutes from Djeidi Gassama and debutant James Penrice had the home side cruising before the Rangers goalkeeper Ivor Pandur saved a twice-taken penalty from Killian Phillips. Substitute Ross

McCausland made it five in the 74th minute as the home side stylishly sealed a place in the quarter-finals, where they will host Celtic. PA Media

Arsenal Jenkinson retires with advice for young players

The former Arsenal defender Carl Jenkinson has retired from professional football after being released by League Two side Bromley at the end of last season. Jenkinson, born to an English father and Finnish-Swede mother, played at youth level for Finland and won one England cap. He had two seasons on loan at West Ham and also played for clubs including Charlton and Newcastle Jets in the Australian A-league. In a social media post Jenkinson admitted he suffered from a loss of confidence throughout his career and urged some young players to work harder. "Confidence without application and having that fire in your belly to improve everyday won't get you far," he wrote. Guardian sport

▲ Carl Jenkinson won one England cap after switching from Finland

Ligier PSG swoop for Godts shortly after Torres deal

Paris Saint-Germain have added to their attacking options by signing the forward Mika Godts from Ajax on a five-year deal. PSG announced the transfer late on Saturday without giving any details, but L'Équipe estimated the fee to be €5bn (£46.9m). It was PSG's second signing of the day after the forward Ferran Torres joined from Barcelona for €5bn (£42.7m). "I can't wait to pull on this shirt and experience the Part des Princes and its supporters," Godts said. "I'll give my all on the pitch to repay the faith placed in me." AFP

Man Utd

Shaun O'Donnell

Newcastle

David and Richard Holmes

Michael Carrick is getting the best out of a group who were spectacularly mismanaged for a couple of years. The difference he made in six months was ridiculous. After the longest goodbye in recent history, Casemiro has gone, replaced by midfielders who can actually run - but we could still be reliant on keeping injury-prone Mount fit. I hope it's not a case of Glazernomics repeating itself, where we spend to qualify for the Champions League, then go shopping in the bargain bin once we've qualified. Give Carrick another couple of decent signings and I genuinely think we could challenge. As it is I think we'll finish third.

Key players/weak links We are looking forward to the link-up play between Bruno and Tielemans (Q), whose eye for a pass will be a boon. I can see Sesko building on a decent first season but if to compete on four fronts we need another striker. The weak spot is still left-back. Luke Shaw being fit was almost a miracle last season: we can't build a season around hoping his body holds together.

We still need to sign ... Lewis Hall would be my choice. Up front, we'll probably get last-resort Watkins on the last day of the window. Straight swap for Rashford? Our cult hero is ... Carrick. He went from being the quiet bloke in the background to dragging us into the Champions League. If we could sign two players from our past ... Bryan Robson to run midfield and peak Wayne Rooney: everything you want from a modern forward.

Predictions We will finish 3rd. Top four: 1. Arsenal; 2. Man City; 3. Man United; 4. Liverpool. Bottom three: 18. Sunderland; 19. Leeds; 20. Ipswich. First manager sacked Oliver Glasner.

We're hurting. We've lost our most successful manager in decades, plus his talismanic captain. A-listers have departed and we've been humiliated in the transfer market for the second summer running. Yes, a reset was needed, but we weren't expecting it to be like this. At least, in Matthias Jaisle, we have a hungry, passionate young manager whose intensity will be welcomed. According to CEO David Hopkinson, this is "Newcastle United 2.0". We guess we'll know what that means in a few months' time.

Key players/weak links Lewis Miley is "one of our own" and, with Tonali gone, can fulfil his potential. We'll also be expecting improvements between the posts, with Lukas Horroick and Ewen Jessen competing for the keeper's jersey. And if Yoane

Wissa and Anthony Elanga can replicate their World Cup form, we might have a strike force on our hands. We still need to sign ... A replacement for Bruno Guimarães, leaders on and off the field, high-grade cover at both full-back positions, a centre-half ... so not too much to ask ... Benfica's versatile full-back Amar Dedić and Milan's centre-half Fikayo Tomori would be a start. Our cult hero is ... Big Dan Burr. A giant of a man, with a heart to match.

If we could sign two players from our past ... Alan Shearer and of course, the much-loved, and much-misced, Kevin Keegan. Both knew what it meant to wear the black-and-white shirt.

Predictions We will finish 12th. Top four: 1. Arsenal; 2. Manchester City; 3. Liverpool; 4. Chelsea. Bottom three: 18. Ipswich; 19. Coventry; 20. Hull. First manager sacked Álvaro Arbeloa.

Nottm Forest

Rich Ferraro 1865: the Nottingham Forest Podcast; eighteenslxtylive.football

If nothing else, it can't be as chaotic as last season. We survived fairly comfortably in the end - thanks Vitor! - then sacked him in favour of Glasner, with the rationale being that the Austrian has won silverware. So the target this time isn't only a decent league finish, but also something in the cabinet.

Key players/weak links The key, like last season, will be Morgan Gibbs-White: the talisman, the on-pitch leader, and the guy who makes things happen for the Reds. After being overlooked for Tommy T's England squad, he will be keen to continue to show his worth.

We still need to sign ... Getting Ousmane Diomande feels important; Murillo and Milenkovic make a great pair but we were still vulnerable in defence last season, and the new guy should balance with the attributes of the established duo. For all that we have loads of wingers, we do desperately need a reliable striker: we can't continue to rely on a 35-year-old with a chronic knee problem.

Our cult hero is ... For all the controversies, our owner Marinalis has been great for Forest and for English football: ruthlessly ambitious, aware that decision-making carries risk as well as reward, and unwilling to shrink in the face of so-called "big clubs" or the authorities. And, of course, as Palace fans are aware (along with most of Greece), the Big Guy will also stand up for what he thinks is right and proper, and doesn't care what other people think.

If we could sign two players from our past ... Stan Collymore and Des Walker: pace, power, brilliance.

Predictions We will finish 12th. Top four: 1. Chelsea; 2. Arsenal; 3. Liverpool; 4. Man United. Bottom three: 18. Crystal Palace; 19. Coventry; 20. Hull. First manager sacked De Zerbi.

Sunderland

Eleanor McCabe @WiseMenSayPod wisemensay.co.uk; X: @eleanor_amc

I'm optimistic - but definitely cautiously optimistic. Last season completely exceeded our expectations and finishing seventh with Europa League football on the horizon was incredible. However, Europe changes things. The biggest challenge will be managing the extra games without losing the spark that made us so enjoyable to watch. I'd be very happy with a comfortable mid-table finish and a decent European run.

Key players/weak links Khaka is still absolutely pivotal - he brings so much leadership and control - while Le Fée is probably the player I most enjoy watching. I'm also really excited to see what Talbi does this year. He was managed really well last season without too much pressure being put on him, but this feels like his season to really kick on. We still need to sign ... Another attacking option, ideally someone who can play on the right and offer genuine end product. Gery Czamo is an interesting link, but I know the club won't move unless the figures line up. More than anything, I want quality depth. We could play a ridiculous number of games this season.

Our cult hero is ... Wilson Isidor without question. His "football is life, Sunderland is life" clip probably summed it up perfectly. He gets the club and we genuinely love him. He'll go viral several times this season.

If we could sign two players from our past ... Put Amad on the wing with peak Kevin Phillips alongside Brodney through the middle and I'd be getting dangerously carried away very quickly.

Predictions We will finish 12th. Top four: 1. Arsenal; 2. Man City; 3. Liverpool; 4. Man United. Bottom three: 18. Fulham; 19. Coventry; 20. Hull. First manager sacked Sergej Jakirovic.

Tottenham

Spooky The Fighting Cock podcast; Filthy Shambles podcast on Spotify

Nothing screams more "Tottenham Hotspur" than stating we're going to have an outstanding season having just finished 17th twice in succession and narrowly avoided relegation. We probably should have gone down. Roberto De Zerbi and Eric's personality change (spending money on end products) is why I'm flirting with the idea of a top-five finish. Absolute greed on my part, but it's fun to believe. Top eight would be grand.

Key players/weak links Still won to do, but the backline has been rebooted and Micky van de Ven has signed a new contract. In midfield, with Tonali and Fernandes (two of the best mids available to sign) and with Kudus and Deki to return, we finally have depth and quality. The aim will be to galvanise and rejuvenate our home form and regain some swagger. The key is De Zerbi (Q). His appointment has changed everything.

We still need to sign ... We'll need plenty done over the next few windows, but ideally, we could do with a winger, a No 10 and a forward. We need more than just Solanke up top, with Ricky likely to leave.

Our cult hero is ... If we hadn't just sold him, it would have been Djed Spence for his World Cup heroics. So it has to be the Spurs social media team, the togetherness vibe is the feelgood cleansing we need.

If we could sign two players from our past ... Harry Kane up top and Gareth Bale on the wing (or any position he wants).

Predictions We will finish 17th/1st. Top four: 1. Tottenham; 2. Man City; 3. Liverpool; 4. Man United. Bottom three: 18. N Forest; 19. Newcastle; 20. A Villa. First manager sacked Mikel Arteta.

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Sport Football

Sky Bet Championship

Flemming's dramatic double denies West Ham on Championship return

Burnley

Flemming 8.3 pers 90+2

West Ham

Kilman 16. Solomon 72

Will Unwin

Turf Moor

There are many good reasons why Burnley and West Ham are performing as Premier League tribute acts, slumming it in the Championship with the hope of a shot at the limelight once more. They are two flawed teams, relegated because of chronic defects, and plenty were on show as West Ham blew a two-goal lead to start life on the second-tier circuit with an entertaining draw.

Zian Flemming's late double secured a thoroughly deserved point for the hosts, who showed promise

going forward but took far too long to find a clinical finish. Despite going two goals ahead through Maximilian Kilman and Manor Solomon, West Ham rarely looked comfortable as they sat back, something that eventually cost them.

"We did a very good first half," Nuno Espirito Santo said. "We created a lot of situations we were able to control and stop Burnley. Not so good in the second half, but after we scored the second goal, I think we should have done better to keep the result."

Nuno continued his career-long love of conservatism and his side were put under pressure early on, only surviving through Burnley's inept finishing. In addition to continuity in the dugout, West Ham can boast their captain, Jarrod Bowen, who committed to the club rather than seek a quick return to the top flight this summer. It was his corner

that found Kilman at the back post after he lost Aaron Ramsey in the box. Considering West Ham are favourites to go back up, this lead should have been a foundation to build on, but little attempt was made to seek a second. They were passive for long periods, composed in possession, but Burnley were able to counter at speed through the midfield and cause problems, only to lack the composure to make the most of those situations.

Nuno tried to rectify the faltering midfield by sending on James Ward-Prowse for the anonymous Pablo, a player who is yet to find his level in England. It made no difference as Burnley came out the better side, pinning West Ham back repeatedly, but Flemming appeared destined to not score, finding the fans, goalkeeper, the inside of the post and Ollie Scarles on the line rather than the net. West Ham reminded everyone

Premier League fans' previews: part 1 Our club-by-club guide, from bold predictions to cult heroes

Arsenal

Bernard Azulay @GoonerNS OnlineGooner.com

Having finally got the title monkey off our back, and with many rivals in a state of flux, there's plenty of optimism. Obviously the target is for Arteta to sustain the same appetite and intensity to mount a credible defence. The big questions are whether we can reproduce the same resilience at the back with Saliba out, and will the introduction of Guimarães be the catalyst for the sort of midfield chemistry we'll need to carve open opponents who park the bus?

Key players/weak links On the evidence of our pre-season outings we urgently need the return of our remaining World Cup stars - Rice, Zubimendi and Saka should provide a renewed sense of purpose, both to counter any defensive fragility and to increase our goal threat.

We're all hoping for a breakthrough season for a beefed-up Max Downman, and are anxious to discover if Tzolis is an upgrade on Trossard.

We still need to sign ... Our friendly outings have shown the need for more attacking options, such as Atlético's Julián Álvarez, and cover for Saliba - Quanseh and Konsa are linked. But presumably any further arrivals will be dependent on some astute pruning of those who've failed to cut the mustard, such as Vieira and Nelson.

Our cult hero is ... Benny Blanco's off-the-ball shenanigans ensure that he's a firm favourite, but it's the demeanour of Declan Rice that will set the tone.

If we could sign two players from our past ... Who wouldn't want to add the artistry of Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp to any team?

Predictions We will finish 1st. Top four: 1. Arsenal; 2. Chelsea; 3. Manchester City; 4. Liverpool. Bottom three: 18. Coventry; 19. Ipswich; 20. Hull. First manager sacked Sergej Jakirovic.

Aston Villa

Jonathan Pritchard

It would be daft to not be optimistic when each year under Emery we've created great memories, regardless of the previous summer's transfer merry-go-round. Top six and a cup run of any flavour would count as a good season, and it may be that our best moments are back-end weighted as we integrate some exciting new talent. I understand that Manzambi is the best thing to come out of Switzerland since the cuckoo clock, and any 22-year-old with 187 appearances (Garnacho, CA) must be all right. Personally, the financial regulations that are holding us back should prevent too much moaning if we don't get off to a flyer, and having a ground with only three sides might even help us make VP a fortress. In all, I'm fired up.

Key players/weak links The senior pros all need to keep drinking the Emery Kool Aid, but why wouldn't they? Konsa remains a colossus and the purple prose around McGinn is fully deserved. If Kamara plays 40 games and not his usual 25 it will improve our finishing spot by two. Normally naming a 'young player to watch' in these pages guarantees them a loan move to Lincoln, but Brian Madjo has looked immense in pre-season.

We still need to sign ... Marcus Rashford. Our cult hero is ... McGinn must already have done enough to have a hospitality suite named after him. Another two years and it could be a stand.

If we could sign two players from our past ... Dwight Yorke from 1995-96, and Gareth Barry: the complete midfielder.

Predictions We will finish 6th. Top four: 1. Arsenal; 2. Manchester City; 3. Manchester United; 4. Chelsea. Bottom three: 18. Fulham; 19. Ipswich; 20. Hull. First manager sacked Roberto De Zerbi.

Bournemouth

Jeff Hayward Back of the Net podcast youtube.com/dafcbpodcast

We're so looking forward to this: our first ever season in a European club competition. It's going to be monumental. And, with arguably our strongest ever squad to call on, we expect to be competitive in the Europa League too. We're excited to see Marco Rose in charge and a continuation of the fast, attacking, no-fear brand of football that earned us our highest ever finish last season. In view of the extra games we have on the schedule, then a mid-table Premier League finish would be very respectable, but winning a trophy feels we're a achievable. Why not a European one?

Key players/weak links António Silva has big Senesi-sized shoes to fill at centre-half but we expect big things. We're also looking forward to the impact that new striker Álvaro Rodríguez and the attacking right-back Juanlu will bring. Watch out too for a fully fit Ben Gannon-Osak.

We still need to sign ... Business is pretty much done. We're in a good place, with maybe one or two to go out on loan. Our cult hero is ... Long-serving veteran Adam Smith continues to perform, an incredible 16 years after his debut. He epitomises the journey we've been.

If we could sign two players from our past ... It would be hard to turn down a peak Nathan Aké or Callum Wilson, but with Junior Kroupi out for a few months, there might be a place for a natural finisher like Jermaine Defoe. Better still, prime Ted MacDougall would score haffals every week in this team.

Predictions We will finish 12th. Top four: 1. Manchester City; 2. Arsenal; 3. Liverpool; 4. Manchester United. Bottom three: 18. Hull; 19. Ipswich; 20. Leeds. First manager sacked Xabi Alonso.

Brentford

Billy Grant Beesitted podcast and blog X: @BillyTheBee99

Twelve months ago we had Yoane Wissa refusing to train to force a move and the footballing world was convinced that our free-kick coach turned manager would get us relegated. Fast forward a year and things feel very different. We've had a proper pre-season, there's a clear tactical approach and, importantly, we've signed players who can actually execute it. The target? Keep improving. If we can get a European spot this season, that would be another sign that we're moving forward year-on-year. For a club like Brentford, that's pretty exciting.

Key players/weak links There's a lot of excitement around new signing Mamadou Sangaré. Callum Wilson is a shrewd signing too, while our explosive front three of Ouattara, Thiago and Schade have had time to get. As for youngsters, 11 players aged 21 or under are vying for a place in the 25-man squad.

We still need to sign ... If there's one position to strengthen, left-back would be a good option. El Hadji Malick Dauf from West Ham has been rumoured.

Our cult hero is ... Michael Kayode (ca): Cemented his status by singing his own terrace chant on camera: "He eats spaghetti, he drinks Moretti, he hates Queens Park Rangers."

If we could sign two players from our past ... We're a bit too "nice". So for some old-school fire, fight and chaos, Terry Evans from our 1992 Division One-winning side and Terry Hurlock from that incredible 80s Kamara, Bowles, Hurlock midfield.

Predictions We will finish 6th. Top four: 1. Man City; 2. Arsenal; 3. Man United; 4. Bournemouth. Bottom three: 18. Fulham; 19. Ipswich; 20. Hull. First manager sacked Oliver Glasner.

Brighton

Scott McCarthy WeAreBrighton.com, X: @wearebrighton

Having seen West Ham, Chelsea and even Palace go all the way in the Conference League, the main target is doing well in that and winning a first cup since the 1910 Charity Shield. But the competition looks tougher this year and even the playoff against Tromsø is a banana skin. I'm old enough to remember some pretty horrible trips to Carlisle when Brighton could never win north of Lake Windermere. Let alone inside the actual Arctic Circle.

Key players/weak links The key player will be whoever Fabian Hürzeler uses to fill the void left by selling Danny Welbeck. Not only did Welbeck score 13 goals last season, but most were vital equalizers or important winners worth 13 points. Allowing him to join Chelsea is a huge risk. There are big questions over all three potential replacements: Rutter looks lost as a number 9 compared to when he plays as a 10. Tzimas is coming back from an ACL. Kostoulas started two games last season and was dropped at one point because Hürzeler was not happy with his attitude in training.

We still need to sign ... Danny Welbeck from Chelsea would be a good signing for his goals record and the experience he would bring to a young squad.

Our cult hero is ... Rutter. Nothing says cult hero quite like having one. Instagram account about your football career and another about your racehorses. If we could sign two players from our past ... I'll spare you another Welbeck answer and say Glenn Murray and Bobby Zamora instead.

Predictions We will finish 13th. Top four: 1. Arsenal; 2. Man United; 3. Man City; 4. Chelsea. Bottom three: 18. Sunderland; 19. Ipswich; 20. Hull. First manager sacked Oliver Glasner.

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Monday 17 August 2025 The Guardian

▼ Zian Flemming sweeps home Burnley's equaliser in added time at Turf Moor ROBBIE JAY BARRATTANMA/SATTY

that they possess Premier League quality as Mohamadou Kanté made light work of Marcus Edwards on the right wing before pulling the ball back to Solomon to slam home from close range. Despite being second best, the visitors must have believed they were out of sight, by accident rather than design.

Flemming had other ideas as things finally clicked, aided by Scarles crudely taking out Edwards in the box, allowing the striker to settle his nerves after 83 minutes of near misses and create tension in the West Ham ranks. It worked as the visitors failed to clear a corner which Flemming swept home in the second minute of added time, further explaining why he has attracted transfer interest. Asked if Flemming will stay the Burnley manager, Nicky Hayen, said: "It does not help that he scored twice today."

Nuno will want more action in the transfer market after the signing of Arne Engels from Celtic on Saturday. A striker is much needed as Taty Castellanos made little impact, while Pablo does not give the impression of a man who will fire West Ham to promotion. The bench featured five academy graduates, none of who

Nuno felt comfortable bringing on, which says a lot. "The club knows the targets and the needs of the team. [We are] working very hard and trying to get the bodies in as soon as possible," Nuno said.

Hayen, celebrating his 46th birthday, took his team on a lap of honour after his first league game in charge as he aims to build a relationship with supporters, who suffered through plenty of unwatchable football under his predecessor. "We showed resilience and that's why I'm really satisfied for these boys because they worked really hard to change this game around," Hayen said. "I'm pleased with the fans, how they supported us for 95 minutes. We invested a lot of time before this game into them because what we wanted was really to find the connection with them."

Burnley 4-3-3 Mons, Soree, Walker, Alleyne, Humphreys (Phw 76), Mader, Gumbas (77), Righdader (Gambas 77), Rooney (Phw 76), Edwards, Flemming, Boush-Jane (Phw 82), Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho, Saksho

Scotland name Pocognoli as new manager

Ewan Murray

The Scottish Football Association has appointed the Belgian Sébastien Pocognoli as the successor to Steve Clarke as manager. The 39-year-old, who was sacked by Monaco in June, will become the country's first non-Scottish manager since Berti Vogts, who was in charge from 2002 to 2004.

Clarke's abrupt departure came after Scotland were knocked out of the World Cup at the group stage. He had signed a four-year contract extension immediately before the tournament. Clarke was in position for a generally successful seven years, including appearances at three major tournaments, but was often criticised for a pragmatic style.

Pocognoli, a left-back who played for Brighton and West Brom, will probably be welcomed by Scotland

fans seeking a fresh approach. Craig Mulholland, the SFA's chief football officer, said Pocognoli "will bring an aggressive, front-foot style of play that will excite supporters".

After a period in youth coaching, Pocognoli enjoyed a successful time in charge of Union Saint-Gilloise in his homeland, where they won their first title in 90 years in 2025.

"When I first heard of the interest, I was immediately excited about the opportunity," Pocognoli said. "Scotland's supporters are famous for their passion ... I will do everything I can to give them a team to be proud of."

Scotland begin their Nations League campaign with a trip to Slovenia on 26 September. Pocognoli's first home game will be Switzerland's visit to Glasgow three days later.

▲ Sébastien Pocognoli is the second non-Scottish coach of Scotland

Part 2 Hull to Spurs Pages 38-39 →

Chelsea

Paul Baker In memory of Trizia Fiorellino

A new top manager, some decent new signings and a feelgood factor in the squad - it's hard not to be optimistic. We're finally brought some experienced players who should take our younger ones to the next level. With no Champions League football, the target has to be top four and some cup runs.

Key players/weak links Palmer and Colwill will hopefully have fully recovered and will hit the floor running. Really looking forward to seeing Morgan Rogers (C), and Marco Palestra looks promising. I still worry with Sánchez in goal, though, and Penders might be a bit green for the Premier League. I'd also add young Reggie Watson to the squad as a wild card. He gave off real John Terry vibes in pre-season. How is he only 16? We still need to sign ... If Enzo Fernández goes he'll need replacing, either Alex Scott or Adam Wharton would be a good choice, adding to the English spine of the team. Otherwise, at this stage of the window, it's more about trimming the squad to a manageable level.

Our cult hero is ... In a team with few real characters I'm hoping some of the new signings will shake it up a bit. I've a feeling Pep Chavarria could become a fan favourite with some dark arts. Cole Palmer will continue to entertain on and off the pitch with his great interviews. If we could sign two players from our past ... John Terry and Frank Lampard would grace any team in any era. Predictions We will finish Fourth. Top four: 1. Arsenal; 2. Man United; 3. Man City; 4. Chelsea. Bottom three: 18. Newcastle; 19. Ipswich; 20. Hull. First manager sacked Sergei Jakirovic.

Coventry

Neil Allison Nil Lamptey Show Podcast; X: @skylbuesblog

There's no downside to choosing optimism, so yes, we're optimistic. I don't expect a top-half finish but I do believe in our ability to compete. Clearly the target is to survive, but within that, if we can showcase what's good about us, that would be a very acceptable return.

Key players/weak links Matt Grimes connects everyone in the team so we're relying on him doing that again, else we'll have to develop a completely new way to function. Signing keeper Carl Rushworth also gives assurance at the back and new midfielder Caleb Yirankyi looks very special. But there are questions about our strikers (which feels barmy for a team that scored 99 goals last season). We simply don't know if Wright and Simms have what it takes at the highest level. And aside from signing Aurèle Amende, we haven't touched our defence either. It's a bold strategy.

We still need to sign ... A dynamic, high-status striker. Is Tawes Awaniyi able to be that guy? Let's hope so. And the rumours about Fikayo Tomori are exciting. If we could bring him in, good lord.

Our cult hero is ... While the returning Gus Hamer is clearly our cult hero, Milan van Ewijk is the joker of the team. But don't let the daftness fool you; he's a serious, serious player.

If we could sign two players from our past ... The original version of James Maddison, and Viktor Gyökeres. He functions far better when he believes he's the star man. Come home Vik and bash your way to upwards of nine Premier League goals for Coventry.

Predictions We will finish 17th. Top four: 1. Man City; 2. Chelsea; 3. Arsenal; 4. Man United. Bottom three: 18. Ipswich; 19. Fulham; 20. Hull. First manager sacked Daniel Farke.

Crystal Palace

Chris Waters X: @Clapham, Grand

What are we expecting? Right now, it's really difficult to say. The only key player to have exited (so far) is Maxence Lacroix, but we have to strengthen so the squad can cope with Europe without risking our league campaign - a lesson learned from last season. Lots of signings seem close, but not yet over the line.

Key players/weak links Ismaila Sarr and J-P Mateta will once again be essential, given the lack of goals in the rest of the squad. Adam Wharton will show how insane it was for Tuchel to leave him out of the World Cup, and Jaydee Carroll, 20, is destined to be a superb centre-back. We still need to sign ... There's been some solid business - US teenager Zavier Gozo and right-back Anan Khalali look exciting, and Evann Guessand is welcome back. But we still need to replace Lacroix, and to add strength in the middle - we had a £15m bid for Monaco's Lamine Camara rejected. Plenty still to do. Meanwhile, the decision to swap Dwight McNeil for Brennan Johnson has split opinion: Johnson - all £35m of him - was only here a few months.

Our cult hero is ... A few contenders. Mateta, obviously, chant-leader Dean Henderson and, potentially, Matheus França (C). He's not there yet, but he's had a strong pre-season. Some Brazilian flair would go down very well at Selhurst.

If we could sign two players from our past ... Michael Olise without a doubt, and Matt Jansen, from the late 90s - such incredible talent at such a young age. He'd shine in the modern era.

Predictions We will finish 14th. Top four: 1. Arsenal; 2. Manchester City; 3. Chelsea; 4. Tottenham. Bottom three: 18. Newcastle; 19. Ipswich; 20. Hull. First manager sacked Matthias Jaissle.

Everton

Paul Quinn X: @theesk, www.theesk.org

Despite the £327m the Friedkins have provided there are still doubts about the scale of their ambition. Recruitment is tough, the process (Moyes or committee as decision makers) is uncertain.

Realistically, eighth (and European qualification) is the likely limit. Does that make Blues feel optimistic? Unlikely. The 31-year wait for a trophy hangs heavy.

Key players/weak links Midfield is looking stronger but can Beto/Barry score 20 goals between them? Tyrique George is a key signing, but the right side of the pitch remains problematic. A couple of youngsters to watch: Harrison Armstrong, 19, who made his breakthrough last season, and, even younger at 18, Braiden Graham.

We still need to sign ... A right-back. Jake O'Brien, who has been covering there, is a fabulous centre-back and would be perfect in the middle alongside Branthwaite. A proven goalscorer would be a bonus, as would a right-winger.

Our cult hero is ... Jordan Polford. We're blessed to have such a dedicated player who loves playing for his country, the club and his fans.

If we could sign two players from our past ... Alan Ball, the club's best ever outfield player. Never stopped running, commanded midfield and

was a great passer and had a tremendous shot. He had it all, and would walk into any Premier League side of any generation. What would he be worth today? And a 17-year-old Wayne Rooney.

Predictions We will finish 10th. Top four: 1. Arsenal; 2. Liverpool; 3. Man United; 4. Aston Villa. Bottom three: 18. Tottenham; 19. Coventry; 20. Hull. First manager sacked Oliver Glasner.

Fulham

David Lloyd @OMLTOOFIF (X)

I'm always optimistic at this stage of the summer - but there's a bit of trepidation mixed in this time round. How on earth do you make an informed judgment on our chances when so much has changed? It's farewell (and thanks) to Marco Silva and a warm welcome to Álvaro Arbeloa, who brings with him a new set of backroom staff and a fresh approach. Seems we're set for a new, dynamic strategy, one that'll keep us on the edge of our seats. In a good way, hopefully.

Key players/weak links We expect striker Gonzalo Garcia (22) and versatile midfielder César Palacios (21) to hit the ground running. The Spanish duo have followed their former boss from Real Madrid knowing that running hard is part of the deal. Another midfielder, Shea Charles (22), also joined the fold; the trio will be eager to discard their "promising" tags and excel. And 19-year-old winger Macaulay Zepa is one to watch.

We still need to sign ... If Arbeloa gets his way there'll be further additions, probably to freshen up the back four. And maybe a younger keeper who's good with his feet to take over from Leno.

Our cult hero is ... For humour, the Naija Boys - leads and Bassey - who will no doubt continue their comedic Instagram stories. But captain Tom Cairney remains the main man, still capable of scoring match-winning worlders after parking his antique bath chair at the side of the pitch.

If we could sign two players from our past ... Obvious goal-getter up front would be Louis Saha. And the super-strong Mousa Dembélé bossing things in midfield would suit AA's style perfectly.

Predictions We will finish 14th. Top four: 1. Arsenal; 2. Man City; 3. Man United; 4. Chelsea. Bottom three: 18. Coventry; 19. Ipswich; 20. Hull. First manager sacked Matthias Jaissle.

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Sport Football Community Shield

Calafiori gives Arsenal lift-off to leave post-Pep City deflated

Arsenal 3 Calafiori 1, Havertz 28, Ødegaard 48 Manchester City 0

Ben Fisher Principality Stadium

For Enzo Maresca, a miserable first meaningful game in charge of Manchester City ended with Mikel Arteta's side lifting the Community Shield. Arsenal eviscerated City, Riccardo Calafiori's smart early opener after Myles Lewis-Skelly's brilliant pass seemingly leaving their opponents with irrecoverable damage. Kai Havertz doubled Arsenal's lead on 28 minutes and Martin Ødegaard in effect sealed the win three minutes into the second half, taking great pleasure in fooling Gianluigi Donnarumma in the City goal before

finishing. On this evidence, the post-Pep Guardiola era could be trickier than widely envisaged.

Christos Tzolis shone on the left, playing the whole game in Cardiff. He was involved in all three goals, assisting two. No Arsenal player played more passes into the final third. It was Tzolis's cross to switch play to Noni Madueke, one of 10 passes before Calafiori rippled the City net. Between Lewis-Skelly rolling the ball to Martin Ødegaard at kick-off and Calafiori peeling off Abdulkadir Khusanov to finish, City had a single touch of the ball; Elliot Anderson intercepted Calafiori's pass aimed at Ødegaard in the City 18-yard box. But then Madueke cushioned a header for Ben White, who tucked into midfield, and Lewis-Skelly rolled Phil Foden before releasing Calafiori goal-side of Rúben Dias with a sumptuous reverse ball.

Just like that, Arsenal were away.

▲ Riccardo Calafiori gave Arsenal the lead after just 24 seconds

Calafiori was mobbed by his teammates but wagged his finger in the direction of Lewis-Skelly, highlighting the teenager's part in the goal. Lewis-Skelly has been offered to clubs this summer but played a central role before being replaced by Martin Zubimendi.

Bruno Guimarães, wearing the No 39 shirt, a nod to his father's taxi number in Rio de Janeiro while growing up, was busy on his debut before being replaced by Declan Rice in a

planned half-time departure. Tzolis, though, was the undoubted pick of the new faces on show. Anderson was unusually overwhelmed on his first appearance since the World Cup.

Arsenal were game but City seemed to treat the contest as an inconvenience. Maresca felt the reaction to Calafiori's goal was encouraging and they did carve out a couple of chances. David Raya got a strong right palm to an Erling Haaland shot from distance and then White made a magnificent block to prevent Haaland a simple finish after Antoine Semenyo's cross took a deflection. Gabriel Magalhães celebrated wildly after a clean tackle on Jérémy Doku. As Arsenal cavorted around the pitch presenting their latest trophy to their supporters, squiggles of confetti in the sky, Haaland trudged down the tunnel, hands clasped behind his back.

The importance of this victory

will be debated, but by winning this competition, back at the Principality Stadium for the first time since 2006 owing to The Weeknd's gig at Wembley, Arsenal put down an impressive marker as they look to build on last season's success. City, without Rodri amid doubts over his future, with Barcelona pushing to sign the midfielder, lacked any semblance of control.

City had been lightly raced in comparison to their opponents - they played the first of their three pre-season matches this month in Hong Kong, while this represented Arsenal's sixth outing since the World Cup - and how it showed. Arsenal were crisp in possession, clever in the way they pulled an ominously open City apart. Maresca's side were exposed across the pitch but Donnarumma was particularly unconvincing in goal, at fault for Arsenal's second, making a hash of his attempt to keep out Havertz's header, and embarrassed for the third. Ødegaard delighted in feinting to shoot, sending Donnarumma seesawing to his left, and then promptly firing in a simple finish.

For Arsenal, who begin their Premier League title defence at home to Coventry in Friday's curtain-raiser, this impressive display will only heighten hopes of another blockbuster season. They seem well-

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9

1

Gunners underline their title credentials

Kai Havertz heads Arsenal's second goal past a despairing Gianluigi Donnarumma in the Cardiff sunshine KICK POTTS/PA

equipped to fight on several fronts, though remain in the market for a centre-back, with Iarell Quansah and Ezri Konsa of interest. For City, who host Bournemouth next Sunday, there was little to what the appetite. Semenyo was muted. Haaland's only real sight of goal, towards the end of the first half, ended with the Norway striker sending a wayward shot wide of Raya's net after the ball bobbled.

It was not supposed to be this easy for Arsenal. The previous three Community Shield matches had gone the distance, penalties deciding the winners. That was never on the agenda this time. Instead, Arsenal cruised to the biggest win in the competition since they beat City in 2014, when Arteta captained the side from midfield. "We want to build on what we achieved and continue to have the ambition to win major trophies," Arteta said before the game. "That starts today."

Arsenal 4-2-3-1 Raya, White, Gabriel, Manganini, Calafioriti (Mecapil 60), Guimara (Munich), Lewis-Skelly (Zabinewski 71), Madanie (Sika 60), Börsgaard (Eve 54), Tade, Havertz (Gardens 75) Sub-rat used: Anisakulaya, Meren, Dinesan

Manchester City 4-2-3-1 Donnarumma, Khazanov, Dine, Gawashchi, O'Kelly (Gulfs 54), Kovacic (Gundar 75), Anderson (Lewis 60), Semenyo, Fadzini (Chor 60), Isaka (Gandh 60), Haaland (Mannas 53) Sub-rat used: Ralli, Alf-Haari, Reis

Referee: Sam Barrett Attendance: 18,056

Analysis

Ed Aarons Principality Stadium

Guimarães and Tzolis shine to suggest champions may be even stronger this time

If this was a glimpse of the Premier League's new order then the rest had better watch out. By the time Martin Ødegaard sat Gianluigi Donnarumma down to make it 1-0 to the champions, the Arsenal party was in full swing. "Can we play you every week?" their supporters gleefully taunted their counterparts in sky blue.

Those in red and white who had made the journey to south Wales could barely believe what they were watching, even if winning the Community Shield is unlikely to spark the same kind of celebrations that were seen on the streets of north London in May after ending a 22-year wait to win the title. Having been forced to settle for three successive second-place finishes before finally reaching the summit, this time it was Manchester City's fans who had to face the reality of being humbled by their closest rivals. As Viktor Gyökeres had put it beforehand: "Against City? In a friendly? We want to win." That much was clear from the opening whistle at the Principality Stadium.

It was fitting that the first match of the post-Pep Guardiola era should pit two of his former assistants and pretenders to his crown against each other. On this evidence Mikel Arteta's powerful Arsenal squad, which looks deeper than this time last year after the additions of Bruno Guimarães and Christos Tzolis, will head into the new season as clear favourites to defend their crown after blowing away Enzo Maresca's City in the space of 48 minutes.

The Italian had barely taken his seat for his first meaningful match since replacing Guardiola when his new side found themselves trailing. Myles Lewis-Skelly was a major factor in Arsenal finally getting over the line in May after being brought into the midfield engine room for the run-in when Martin Zubimendi had run out of gas. The teenager needed little more than 20 seconds to remind Thomas Tuchel what England were missing this summer with his brilliant pass for Riccardo Calafiori's opener.

Lewis-Skelly doesn't turn 20 until next month but already looks a match physically for most - including City's £116m new signing, Elliot Anderson. Lewis-Skelly's future has been the subject of speculation this week, with reports that he had been offered to Manchester United and Chelsea. But after dominating Anderson and the veteran Mateo Kovacic in partnership with the outstanding Guimarães, Arteta will surely not allow him to depart.

As for Guimarães, one typically aggressive challenge from the Brazil midfielder to dispossess Phil Foden was all it took for Arsenal's supporters to fall in love. The chants of "Bruno, Bruno" only amplified when he sprayed a crossfield pass perfectly into the path of Noni Maduke and City will have been relieved to see the back of him at half-time.

By then, Kai Havertz had already made it 2-0 after a beautifully crafted goal involving Ødegaard and Tzolis, and City were hanging on for dear life. Seeing Declan Rice emerge for the second half was another reminder of Arsenal's

plethora of options, although the wisdom of Bukayo Saka returning so soon after England's World Cup exploits remains to be seen in the long term. "He said it's not done," sang the Arsenal fans in reference to Rice's post-match team talk at the Etihad Stadium after they were beaten in March, when he was introduced.

The re-emergence of Ødegaard as an attacking force is yet another reason for Arsenal to feel optimistic. The captain's campaign was severely hampered by injury last season but, after excelling for Norway at the World Cup, he was at the heart of Arsenal's best moves and capped an excellent performance with a cool finish to round off the scoring. That was also greeted with chants of "you're getting sacked in the morning" directed towards Maresca, who was seen deep in conversation with his players and staff at the full-time whistle.

With Rodri due to depart for Barcelona, recruiting at least one more central midfielder to partner Anderson must be a priority. Lille's Ayyoub Bouaddi would provide youthful energy, although given Arsenal's strength in that department more experience will be required if they are going to mount a serious title challenge. Chelsea's Enzo Fernández may fit the bill.

There was a brief moment last autumn when Maresca's former side looked most capable of challenging Arsenal before his squabbles with the hierarchy brought an end to the Italian's tenure. It will take some time to make his imprint on a squad that was so heavily devoted to Guardiola, although Arteta said this week that he believes his newest rival has "the personality, the character and, especially, the knowledge" to be successful. For the Arsenal manager, the question is now whether he can build a legacy that could one day rival Guardiola's. This was a good way to start.

◀ Martin Ødegaard runs to the fans after outwitting Gianluigi Donnarumma with a fine goal that signalled the Arsenal captain may be back to his best GOBERD PETT/ACTIVIN PILOT/SHUTTERSTOCK

City in market

Maresca calm but wants new signings soon

➔ Continued from back page

said: "Because we want to go straight again. The desire comes [because] I want to live that moment again. I want to live other moments, even bigger than them... we know what it's going to take. We know the difficulty of the task, to win it again. We know that it's going to demand something special and we are ready for it."

Arteta praised the performance of Christos Tzolis, who was involved in all three goals. "He is a really intelligent boy and he has a massive quality, which is when he is in the last 20-30m [of the pitch] he is so composed to pick people out in and around the box," said the Arsenal manager. "And also to finish actions and he has shown that again two or three times. He was decisive."

Ødegaard said the team's performance was evidence they are capable of winning back-to-back titles. "We played some brilliant football," said Arsenal's captain. "[It was a] great performance and a great way to start the season. I always want to help the team as much as possible with goals and assists. I want to score more goals. We showed our level today. We've shown we're ready. We're serious and we want to do it again. We want to attack it. We want to do it again. When you get a taste of how nice it is you want to do it again. We want to win everything."

Maresca acknowledged City would welcome new arrivals before their league opener at home to Bournemouth on Sunday. Elliot Anderson started in midfield, and Jack Grealish arrived from the substitutes' bench for his first City appearance since May 2025. "Any new signing, the sooner they arrive the better because we are starting the Premier League in one week and if they start to work with us as soon as possible it's better that they can also understand the way we want to play," he said.

Maresca said he was not alarmed by the manner of the defeat. "In general I'm always concerned, even when we win games so imagine how [concerned] that we didn't win the game," said the Italian. "It's just the beginning, we have many things that we need to do better, I think the reaction was good after conceding the first goal and now try to reset and analyse the game and think from Tuesday about the next game."

"In general I'm always concerned, even when we win games. It's just the beginning, we need to do better"

Enzo Maresca Manchester City manager

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Amy's awesome foursome

Hunt takes historic fourth gold in mixed relay as Hunter Bell wins 1500m

European Championships Page 34 →

Sport

'Catastrophic' levels of safety criticised after Tarling's death

Jeremy Whittle

The professional cycling community has reacted with fury to the death of the teenage Welsh rider, Finlay Tarling, in the Volta a Portugal, with a leading former professional describing the race's safety measures as "catastrophic".

Tarling, the younger brother of the Netcompany Ineos professional Josh Tarling, was in collision with a non-race vehicle driving towards the peloton while he competed in the Portuguese race's eighth stage. The 19-year-old's death on Friday has led to a surge of anger across professional cycling, with the riders' union, the CPA, describing itself as "furious".

"We are speechless and filled with anger after the news of Finlay Tarling's death at the Tour of Portugal," the CPA posted. "It is not right that a young athlete's life should end this way, and we are furious that even today it is still not possible to prevent such serious accidents."

The former French professional Jérôme Pineau was one of those to criticise the levels of security in place at the race, which he labelled "catastrophic".

Pineau described the lack of other incidents in the race as "a constant miracle" and added that "the finishes are not worthy of a race of this level".

"It's the result of the lack of resources to organise major cycling races which are becoming increasingly expensive," Pineau said.

"All of this should primarily concern the authorities in charge," he said, referencing the sport's governing body, the UCI. "They must implement approval processes, and if security is not guaranteed, if the organisers are not capable of it, they should not be authorised to organise the event."

Both the Volta a Portugal organisers and the UCI have been contacted for further comment.

The circumstances of

▲ Finlay Tarling, aged 19, died on Friday in the Volta a Portugal

Arsenal

3

Calafiori 1, Havertz 28, Ødegaard 48

Manchester City

0

'That's the standard'

Arteta hails team desire on blue day for Maresca

▲ Martin Ødegaard, who scored Arsenal's third goal, lifts the Community Shield after a dominant victory SGAIN POTTERILL/ GETTY IMAGES

Ben Fisher Principality Stadium

Mikel Arteta said his Arsenal players demonstrated their hunger to defend the Premier League title in their Community Shield triumph over Manchester City. Arsenal, who ended their 22-year wait last season and are seeking to win back-to-back top-flight titles for the first time since 1934-35, beat City 3-0 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff in Enzo Maresca's first significant match in charge.

Riccardo Calafiori opened the

scoring after 24 seconds, the fastest goal in the competition since Bobby Owen's strike for City in 1968, before Kai Havertz doubled Arsenal's lead and their captain, Martin Ødegaard, completed the scoring on 48 minutes. The 3-0 defeat represented the joint-heaviest loss for a City manager in their first game in charge, with Harry Newbould the most recent to suffer a three-goal opening defeat - 4-1, also to Arsenal, in 1906. It is also Maresca's joint-heaviest defeat as a manager in England.

City have accepted a bid of up to £65.4m from Barcelona for their Ballon d'Or-winning Spain midfielder

▲ Enzo Maresca is keen for new signings as Rodri prepares to depart

Rodri after seven years at the club and Maresca signalled he was keen for the club to move ahead with new signings. They are closing on a deal to sign Lille's Ayyoub Bouaddi.

Arteta was delighted with Arsenal's convincing display. "I am obviously extremely happy with the performance, the result and winning the first trophy," he said. "We talked about the desire we have to start the season and to show ourselves how much we want it and I saw a lot of positive things against a top opponent. I'm very impressed in the manner that we played, in the manner that we competed. That's the standard for us. If we drive the standards at this level, I'm sure that we're going to be really, really competitive."

Asked about the desire displayed by his team, he

Premier League 26-27 Fans predict what lies ahead Pages 38-41 →

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Meet the second-most dangerous man in the US Simon Tisdall, page 3

Welcome to the summer of female rage Natalie Haynes, page 4

Cheryl Hall, actor best known for her role in Lucky Feller Obituaries, page 6

G2 Daily pullout life & arts section Inside

Opinion and ideas

Journal

John Harris

I don't think I have ever written before about a British strike directly related to the climate emergency. But that's exactly what began late last week in north London, with picket lines outside bus depots and massed walkouts, while the temperatures in the relevant parts of the capital hovered at about 34C. Last Friday, more than 1,500 drivers employed by the transport giant Arriva began a planned run of 26 stoppages. Everything is being led by the union Unite, whose recent grievances include alleged company union-busting and assaults by the public on staff. But the fundamental basis of the dispute is at the heart of the national condition: the near-impossibility for millions of people of working through another insanely hot summer.

Most of Arriva North London's buses, says Unite, have old-fashioned air cooling systems rather than air conditioning. On other such vehicles, it insists, the air-con is broken. The cabs where drivers sit are essentially compact greenhouses, and can easily reach 40C or higher. And there is another grim twist: union members complain of a shortage of toilets on too many routes, meaning they refrain from drinking water. Unite has been warning about all this throughout the phases of intense heat that began back in May; its

members, the union says, have experienced "heat exhaustion, heatstroke and dehydration".

Arriva insists that it has "introduced short-term measures to protect drivers", and is now also spending money on "longer-term fixes, including cab air-conditioning upgrades and our ongoing investment in new fleet". But the root of its current problems seem clear. There is a longstanding failure, which runs across the UK's public and private sectors, to understand the mounting everyday effects of global heating, and to engage in what so many 21st-century companies and institutions remain so bad at: protective investment, focused not just on the searing inevitabilities of the future, but realities that are already here.

Mo, who has worked for another London bus operator for more than 15 years, had come to a picket line to show the Arriva strikers his support. "When it's very hot, it's very difficult to concentrate," he told me. What, I wondered, had happened when these problems were raised with management? "Sometimes, we don't want to raise this stuff, because they don't want to hear it. If you say, 'I've got a hot cab, I want to come out,' they're like, 'Well, we're going to lose mileage; we're going to get penalised by TfL [Transport for London].' I know the mayor's put the

A worker in London shields himself from the sun during the May heatwave PHOTOGRAPH: JACK TAYLOR/REUTERS

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2Unlike the PM, British workers can't ignore the climate crisis

← Continued from front

●→ message out” - in June, Sadiq Khan said he was committed to improving working conditions for drivers - “but the company says, ‘He doesn’t employ you. We do.’”

There are no end of similarly unsettling reports from other occupations. The Royal College of Nursing says some of its members have recently collapsed. Research into the building trade showed 44% of the construction workers contacted had experienced a heat-related illness, such as heatstroke, heat exhaustion or dehydration. Moreover, 57% said they had received no compulsory training on how to deal with heat.

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote about the tragic story of Montse Aguilar, a 55-year-old woman who worked as a street cleaner in Barcelona, and returned home from a working day in which the city’s temperatures had reached 35C, only to collapse, hit her head and die. Soon after, people marched carrying banners that read “Extreme heat is also workplace violence”, and street cleaners demanded better summer workwear and more breaks. Much to her family’s distress, the city council has still not recognised her death as a workplace accident.

This year, Barcelona’s authorities handed out about 1,400 bracelets for staff working outdoors that measure workers’ body temperatures and go into alert mode if they sense that the wearer is at risk: as and when that happens, the person concerned has to stop working. But despite Spain’s reputation for comparatively stringent heat regulations, unions continue to draw attention to a supposed system of protection still full of gaps. Late last month, the CGT union filed official complaints with Barcelona’s labour inspectorate about what it deems deficient management of those wristbands, a lack of air-con in working vehicles and pledges from the city council being applied “late and halfway”.

Around the world, every hot season inevitably brings more victims. In the US, more than 550 workers die annually from heat exposure. One recent story is that of Umeshkumar Thakkar, a 58-year-old postal worker who lived in Little Elm, Texas. Amazingly, Texas has barred its cities and counties from passing local heat protections - while, to quote the New York Times, “The Trump administration is moving to rewrite Biden-era rules that would mandate breaks and access to water and shade for workers.” Hydration, it seems, is that bit too woke.

The UK’s position, it is a relief to say, is not nearly as dreadful, though there is still much work to do. For people working indoors, official guidance suggests a minimum temperature of 16C, which falls to 13C for “physical work”, but there are no maximum temperatures for either indoor or outdoor labour. Things do finally seem to be moving: the Health and Safety Executive will soon launch a public consultation on improvements to safety-at-work rules that will cover levels of heat at work. There again, the official line from the prime minister’s spokesperson sounds bleak: “We have no plans to introduce a mandatory maximum workplace temperature.”

In the wake of the Green MP Hannah Spencer’s private member’s bill to establish exactly that, Unite is loudly making the case - as are the TUC and the independent advisory Climate Change Committee, which wants employers to “ensure that workplaces and working practices are safe for employees, including for those working outside”. Meanwhile, having planned for a late summer talking about the cost of living, Andy Burnham did not mention the climate crisis until last Friday, in a country where fields are turning a scorched yellow, homes have been engulfed by wildfires, and far too many workers are finding the once-simple business of earning a living physically impossible. Like many people - including, I would imagine, plenty of those bus drivers - my guarded optimism about the new prime minister and his government endures. But the last of those issues needs as much urgent action as the others, before another boiling summer takes an even grimmer toll.

The Guardian

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Employment

The changing world of modern job interviews neglects the human factor

Almost half of UK jobseekers have found themselves pitching to an AI bot, according to recent research, leading many to give up in frustration. As one despairing applicant lamented in the pages of the Guardian a few months ago: “The hiring process has become so mechanised, both figuratively and literally, that it’s hard to believe that the people who end up getting hired aren’t merely the best at gaming the system.” For young people especially, experiencing repeated rejection without interacting with a single human being is alienating as well as disappointing.

It was encouraging, therefore, to hear Andy Burnham voice concerns about online recruitment processes on a recent employment-focused podcast. Describing the jobseeking environment for young people as “harsh”, the prime minister criticised the widespread use of interviews on Zoom and Microsoft Teams, and questioned whether applicants could properly convey their personal qualities without a face-to-face meeting.

There is another side to the story, as Zoom executives were swift to point out. Online interviewing cuts out travel costs, for example, giving a chance to applicants who may not be able to fund long journeys and possible overnight stays. But Mr Burnham is right to identify a dangerous drift towards selection processes that undervalue the worth of conversations between people in the same room at the same time.

The increasingly used “one-way” video interview - in which applicants are given fixed periods of time to plan and deliver responses to prerecorded questions

• seems to offer a particularly disorientating experience. Interviewees, in effect, speak into a void, unable to process feedback or interpret body language.

The sorting processes deployed in AI interviews have been rightly criticised for their opacity, and susceptibility to algorithmic bias. A lack of transparency in relation to the programming of recruitment software means that an unlevel playing field may be suspected but difficult to prove. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission settled an age discrimination case with a company that came to light only when a failed applicant reapplied, changing just her age, and miraculously passed through to the next round.

It could hardly be claimed that traditional recruitment processes were bias-free. Used in the right way, new technologies can play their part in opening up possibilities for applicants rather than simply screening them out with minimal explanation or feedback. But while it may be convenient for businesses to rely on tech to do the work, the struggle even to present one’s credentials to another human being is adding insult to injuries already inflicted by an exceptionally unforgiving labour market. A recent report from the Institute for Public Policy Research found that young people in England were increasingly “losing faith in their futures”.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has been tasked by parliament with producing a code of practice on AI and automated decision-making. In a recent report it found that when companies claimed that AI-generated hiring recommendations were subjected to human review, that was often only partially true, if at all. Applicants deserve better. The use of digital technologies is already changing the face of the entry-level jobs market. Interviewees should be protected from the downsides of their growing dominance in the recruitment process.

Society

Social housing isn’t charity - it is pumping billions into England’s economy

London’s city centre has long been a place where rich and poor live side by side, while so many other metropolitan equivalents - Paris, New York, San Francisco - remain the preserve of the rich. It maintains its mix today: in many inner London boroughs, between 20% and 40% of households live in social housing. A small but steady decline in social housing in these areas leaves many fearing that the city’s diversity is under threat.

What happens when cities become less socially mixed? The G15 group of housing associations, which provide social and affordable homes for about one in 10 Londoners, commissioned research recently on the economic contribution of those living in social housing. It found that they contributed £27.8bn to London’s economy in 2024, even after housing benefit was taken into account. Its methodology involved comparing the lives of people in social housing with those without a stable and affordable place to live. The conclusion was that stable and affordable housing reduces spend and demand on public services, promotes better physical and mental overall health, and results in a higher likelihood that tenants stay in work and contribute economically.

The idea that social housing is an economic investment is not new. England’s municipal housing was designed in recognition that a city could not function without healthy employees living nearby. Gordon Brown and Tony Blair revisited this idea in the early 2000s, arguing that England’s public services would deteriorate if hospital workers and police

officers were pushed out of major urban centres. They framed social housing not as a charitable act, but as critical economic infrastructure.

The G15 report finds that key workers such as nurses and care and retail workers account for about 65% of London’s social housing population (compared with 40% of London’s population). Not so long ago, these same workers were clapped in the streets for keeping cities functioning during the Covid-19 pandemic; they were the reason that people could buy milk and elderly people remained cared for while others had to stay at home. But many such workers would not be able to afford to live in big cities without the help of social housing. Even moving to the outer bounds of the city would add thousands to their commuting bill, as well as hours to their working days, according to the research.

Viewed through that lens, housing that average-wage earners can afford becomes a vital asset for the country’s resilience. Social rents are proof that housing costs need not be a key driver of poverty - and yet our current building targets aren’t being pursued urgently enough to fix the problem. Housing charities say that 90,000 social homes a year are needed in England. No major party has plans for anything like that number.

Mr Blair shifted social housing from councils towards housing associations, and the coalition commercialised that model. Andy Burnham now appears to want to put councils back at the centre. In an interview with the London Review of Books in 2024, Mr Burnham said: “If you read Nye Bevan’s speeches, as I do, if you read his speech that was the postwar Housing Act, second reading, he talked about how housing needs to be thought of as a service, not a commodity to be traded and sold, a wealth creator. Everybody needs it, it’s an essential service. And it was interesting how he positioned it like the NHS. And so that’s the philosophy that we need.” Amen to that.

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Opinion

3

Meet the second most dangerous man in Trump's administration

Simon Tisdall

Viewed from the state department in Washington DC, the world is on fire - but record heatwaves are not to blame. The unresolved Iran war has badly burned Donald Trump. His military campaign conclusively failed, energy and food prices are still rising, and a Republican rout in November's midterm elections looms. Israel last week flatly rejected his latest Gaza peace proposals, days after Trump congratulated himself on a "historic breakthrough". In Europe, Russia's attacks on Nato allies grow increasingly brazen, threatening a wider escalation. The Ukraine war, which Trump vowed to end, is now well into its fifth year, with civilians on both sides caught in the killing fields. And these are just the bigger firestorms. There are plenty more.

Rarely has the need for effective, professional diplomacy been more pressing. So step forward Marco Rubio, US secretary of state and chief American diplomat. These are challenges that, if successfully tackled, could propel him into pole position in the 2028 Republican presidential nomination race. Now is Rubio's opportunity to go big, be brave and prove he's a winner. Or maybe not.

Rubio is unlike recent US secretaries of state - heavyweights such as Hillary Clinton and Antony Blinken. He has little time for "peace processes". Instead, he projects brute US power to impose take-it-or-leave-it "solutions" that advance US interests, as defined by Trump. It's a modern form of imperialism. Speaking in Munich in February, Rubio aired his hawkishly retro doctrine of US primacy. He lamented the decline of "the great western empires ... accelerated by godless communist revolutions and anti-colonial uprisings" and warned Europe faced "civilisational erasure". It sounded a death knell for diplomacy.

Rubio's reluctance to get personally involved in peacemaking may be partly explained by his other, contradictory role, as Trump's national security adviser. He has accepted the White House's outsourcing of negotiations over Ukraine and Palestine to amateur envoys of limited ability - namely Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and business crony Steve Witkoff. Broadly speaking, Rubio has avoided direct

Donald Trump and Marco Rubio in Washington DC earlier this month PHOTOGRAPH: KENT NISHIMURA/ AFF/GETTY

• Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

The tragedy of the Rubio conundrum is that he has the power to do great good, if only he would stand up and be counted

involvement in the Iran talks, too, leaving JD Vance, his main potential rival in 2028, to take the flak. Rubio's arm's-length approach smacks of calculation. Or maybe he's just out of his depth. Maybe he has no idea what he thinks and simply does Trump's bidding.

This perception of a political chameleon lacking firm principles, consistent opinions and a strong moral compass is reinforced by his record. His biographer, Manuel Roig-Franzia, believes Rubio's personal and political slipperiness is rooted in a childhood need to belong, to be on the winning side. Senator Rubio was a China hawk. Now he toes Trump's ingratiating line on Beijing. He used to castigate Russia; now he's an appeaser. He championed overseas assistance but, in office, has gutted USAID and seeks to dismantle the international criminal court. He blasted Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal. Now he backs an accord that would offer additional concessions to Tehran. Accused by the Vatican of waging an immoral, unjust war, he travelled to Rome and set the pope straight.

The irony, or tragedy, of the Rubio conundrum is he has the power to do great good, if only he would stand up and be counted. Vladimir Putin, losing on the battlefield and at home, is weaker than at any time since 2022. Ukraine is short of missile interceptors, soldiers and political support. A ceasefire deal freezing the conflict is there for the making. Likewise, in Israel, the architect of the Gaza genocide and disastrous wars with Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah - Benjamin Netanyahu - faces defeat in October's elections. Here's a rare opportunity to quietly shelve Trump's Board of Peace idiocies, halt Jewish settler violence in the West Bank and make a fresh start based on UN resolutions.

Rubio could also do the Middle East, the global economy, American consumers and himself a power of good by taking charge of moribund peace talks with Iran and resuscitating the June memorandum of understanding that Tehran insists is the only route out of the strait of Hormuz logjam. In doing so, he would have the enthusiastic backing of most Americans, European and Gulf state governments, energy producers and businesses, and Maga supporters who rightly fear Trump has dragged the US into another forever war. Even Trump may be grateful. He knows he's in a hole. He needs someone to dig him out.

The fact that Rubio, despite his ostensibly uniquely powerful position, is unlikely to do any of the above marks him out as the most dangerous man in the US administration after Trump himself. He is dangerous because he enables and facilitates Trump's worst instincts - and neglects his duty. Because he provides pseudo-intellectual respectability to far-right fantasies about unfettered US supremacy. More so than the impetuous Vance, indulging in puerile name-calling on social media, and the "secretary of war" Pete Hegseth, a ranting ultra-nationalist, Rubio is dangerous because he can look and sound reasonable. He stands a fair chance of becoming Trump's chosen successor and heir to the Maga brand.

Maybe, before that happens, he will change again. Maybe he will rediscover a few principles, find a diplomatic backbone, extinguish a few fires. He has shown repeatedly that his views are infinitely fungible. Rubio could yet do great things. Or he could become a problem as great or greater than Trump.

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4

Opinion

Natalie Haynes

Welcome to the summer of female rage

Natalie Haynes

It feels like a very Greek summer here in the UK. The ground is scorched, it last rained months ago, and the giant publicity machine for Christopher Nolan's $1bn-grossing The Odyssey is a Charybdis, swallowing all other cultural events in its gaping maw. Mere Mortals - San Francisco Ballet's astonishing work inspired by the story of Pandora - runs in Edinburgh this month. And Greek tragedy continues to fill London's theatres.

Last week, I went to see Simon Stone's reworking of Aeschylus's Oresteia at the Bridge theatre in south London, and it was packed. Even on a Thursday afternoon, there was a huge audience for the story of a family who turn on one another, wreaking intergenerational violence until their

whole house lies in tatters and madness. Partly that is because of the excellent cast: David Morrissey and Mary-Louise Parker play Christopher and Montie, a modern Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, their marital squabbles fizzing back and forth until he cracks and she snaps. Their children are the ones who will have to try to reconcile the impossible: duty to their murdered father, respect to their murderous mother.

Partly it is because Stone has earned his audience for Greek tragedy. His adaptation of Euripides's Medea, starring Marieke Heebink at the Barbican in 2019, remains one of the best things I have ever seen. This modern-day version began with Medea leaving the asylum where she has spent the past year, after attempting to kill her ex-husband for his infidelity to her and their children. The dread piled up like bodies as the play moved to its wrenching conclusion. These very different plays posed a similar question: what do women do with their rage, if speaking it goes unheard?

The hottest Greek ticket of the year, though, is surely for Cate Blanchett in the upcoming Electra/Persona by Benedict Andrews. Electra is a fascinating choice, not least because we have three different versions of her story: Sophocles and Euripides each wrote one, and Aeschylus's Choephoros covers the same part of the myth. There are plenty of variations between the three, not least because Euripides takes potshots at Aeschylus's version, mocking a recognition scene that depended on Electra identifying her long-absent brother from a lock of hair and a footprint, both of which (implausibly) resemble her own.

But the essential beats of her story are these: Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus. Clytemnestra feels wholly justified in her actions, because Agamemnon had killed her older daughter 10 years earlier. But her surviving children - Electra and Orestes - cannot forgive her for

killing their father, no matter the reason. Orestes has grown up away from home, biding his time.

Sophocles's Electra has nowhere else to go: she cannot leave home, because she is a young woman and ancient Greek mores require that she live in her father's house until she marries. Which she cannot do, because Aegisthus and Clytemnestra know she hates them, so any husband (or son she may have) would be turned against them. Electra is essentially imprisoned in the home of the people who killed her beloved father, with no hope of parole.

This is the role that was being performed by Elisabet (played by Liv Ullmann) in Ingmar Bergman's 1966 psychological drama, Persona, before she has a breakdown and stops speaking. Alma (Bibi Andersson) is the guileless young nurse tending to her, sharing stories of her own life to fill the silence, until she finds that Elisabet is studying her. It is a film that has perplexed critics, unable to decode the women's strange, strained relationship.

But Electra is always a perplexing character, with warring emotions: love for her father, disregard for her late sister, loathing of her mother, and her pulsing heartbeat of rage. One reason these Greek tragedies keep finding an audience is that they give voice - and terrible action - to unheeded female anger. Medea doesn't accept her abandonment, she destroys everything her husband has and wants in a single day. Clytemnestra doesn't accept her daughter's murder, she avenges it. And Electra doesn't accept her father's killing, but (like Hamlet) she doesn't have the strength to act alone against her mother. These women are extremists - like many characters in Greek tragedy - but their rage is more powerful because they have been silenced and ignored. If modern theatre audiences are anything to go by, their days of silence are behind them.

*

Natalie Haynes is presenter of Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics on Radio 4, and author of books including Stone Blind and Pandora's Jar

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Letters

guardian.letters@theguardian.com

5

Established 1906

Country diary

Lisnabreny, County Down

"Eclipses be - predicted - / And Science bows them in -" wrote the poet Emily Dickinson. As last Wednesday's solar eclipse was bowed in across my news apps, those lines resonated with me. Dickinson's masterly use of dashes to suspend the word "predicted" mirrored my experience of the Met Office's forecast, which kept me teetering between hope and dismay all day and for days before.

Ahead of the appointed time, we had scouted the hills for a commanding view of the western horizon, and to get a sense of it on an ordinary sunlit evening. There were swallows skimming over the stubble grass and rooks clamouring in the trees. At that stage, the few people I encountered were unaware that a deep partial eclipse was even going to happen.

But predicted events - as a dash might suggest - can surprise us. When we got to the field on Wednesday evening, the sun was merely glancing through the clouds. Yet people kept arriving. Solitary figures. Couples. Parents with children. Herds of teenagers. Elderly ladies. They brought colanders and cardboard boxes as makeshift pinhole cameras. They spread blankets and garments or simply sat straight down on the grass. They lifted mobile phones and donned solar-eclipse glasses.

As we all faced the lowering sun, together we made a scattered amphitheatre of uplifted faces staring, like our ancestors, into mysterious vastness. There were blurry glimpses of a crescent sun. But our eclipse was mostly a dulling of light and a chilling of breeze. Then a falling quiet. Then a dusk-dark.

Eventually it brightened and warmed again; rooks cawed. Two teenage girls danced silently to their propped-up phones as if to shrug off any remnant moon-shadow. People began to drift away, and a child, already focused on the next thing, rushed to give her parents sprigs of white clover. A man joked in passing: "Where can you apply for a refund?" I laughed but, to my surprise, I realised that I wouldn't trade my experience. I may not have seen much of the eclipse. But I'd felt all of it. Mary Montague

We do not publish letters where only an email address is supplied; please include a full postal address, a reference to the article and a daytime phone number. We may edit letters. Submission and publication of letters is subject to our terms and conditions: see theguardian.com/letters-terms

Women have to travel for hours to give birth

The situation facing pregnant women in Devon and Cornwall following the closure of North Devon district hospital is not unique ('Babies will be born in laybys'). Women face two-hour drive to give birth after maternity cuts, 10 August). Many rural areas have already seen the distances traveled in labour increase due to the closure of local units over the past two decades. In south Cumbria, first-time deliveries are only available at Lancaster or Barrow-in-Furness. If you live in Ambleside, the distance to Royal Lancaster infirmary could be done in an hour, but you can face long delays due to traffic.

An ambulance may do it quicker, but there is often a two-hour delay before one becomes available. As someone who had to drive their partner to hospital following a heart attack, I am more than aware of ambulance delays in Cumbria.

Once upon a time Kendal had a wonderful maternity unit, sadly now closed. It was midwife-led, so now possibly deemed unsafe. But being supported by an experienced midwife was the best outcome for me - certainly far better that being

How surrogacy helped my sister and our friends

I wish to respond to Lexi Ellingsworth's letter (Regulation can't eliminate surrogacy risks, 24 July). I gave birth to a baby for my friends in January. While the baby is living with its parents, my husband and I are the legal parents. We are waiting for our family court date in September to recognise the baby's biological parents as legal parents.

My surrogacy story started when my sister suffered complications following the birth of her first child. After a second difficult birth, the doctors told her that it wouldn't be safe for her to carry any more children. I became an auntie via surrogacy when my sister's friend carried her third child. Now my niece is a determined five-year-old, just as much a part of the family as her older siblings, and I see no evidence that her origins have any impact.

In 2023, some friends confided they had joined SurrogacyUK as they hoped to start a family, but needed some help. David had been my husband's best friend since primary school, and my friend

in the second stage of labour on the hard shoulder of the M6. Pat Gibson Kendal, Cumbria

● This is an issue experienced at the other end of the UK too, where for over a decade mothers-to-be in Caithness have had to travel for more than two hours to give birth at Raigmore hospital, as services were downgraded at Caithness general hospital. This is an issue that makes young professionals think twice about accepting posts in teaching and healthcare in the north Highlands.

At the other end of the scale, that distance from a major hospital led me and other colleagues who had lived and worked in Caithness for four decades to decide not to retire in the far north.

Julie Adams Arbroath, Angus

● My parents lived in Lynton in north Devon when my mother was pregnant in 1978, and she hoped to give birth in the local cottage hospital where my father was born. However, she was told that she would have to travel to Barnstaple.

since university, and is now our daughter's godfather.

They were very surprised when I offered to be their surrogate. I was aware of the risks, but I was surrounded by support. During the pregnancy, our friends recorded children's stories. I played these through little speakers on my belly so the baby would recognise their parents' voices from birth.

The legal challenges were highlighted when their baby became extremely unwell at only 11 days old. My husband and I - as legal parents - were glued to our phones in case the hospital needed us to consent to medical tests. His parents were at his bedside, ready to make those decisions. The law is not acting in the best interests of the children.

To those who wish to protect me by denying me the choice to use my body to help my friends, your concern is misguided. Susan Golombok, professor emerita of family research at the University of Cambridge, wrote in April that a 20-year study of UK surrogacy families had "found no evidence of widespread psychological harm to children, parents, or surrogates".

Our friends' baby will grow up knowing where they came from, how much they were wanted and how much they are loved.

Hazel Davis Trustee, SurrogacyUK Foundation

Now, 46 years later, women in north Devon are being told that they need to travel to Taunton or Exeter for "spontaneous" births. Or they can stay at home and hope for the best. It's horrifying.

Cars may be radically different compared with the 1970s, but congestion on the local roads only gets worse. What next? Plymouth? Bristol? Working-age people are already being priced out by holiday lets and second homes, and now they can't give birth safely either.

Name and address supplied

● Although it is good news that Yvette Cooper, our new health secretary, plans to reintroduce binding national maternity standards (Journal, 7 August), I was dismayed to discover while on a visit to my old home town of Barnstaple, north Devon, that women will have to travel to Exeter, 40 miles away along narrow country roads, while in labour to deliver their babies. To anyone who knows north Devon this is sheer madness. Women might well end up having to have their babies by the roadside.

I had quick labours and one of my children had the cord around his neck. He would not have survived if we had not been safely in hospital. I hope Cooper can act quickly to address the chronic shortage of midwives in this country.

Sarah Sheils York

I was terrified by emergency alert

On Friday evening, with two passengers in my car, I was reversing into a tight parking space while an SUV close to me waited till I was done. I was inched from the other cars when a terrifyingly loud noise cut through the car, from both my passengers' phones and presumably also mine, frightening all of us.

I thought someone on the road was trying to warn me of something immediately dangerous, and looked around desperately trying to see if I'd killed someone. If I'd been in travelling at speed, this could have caused a bad accident. And all to tell us not to buy disposable barbecues? How much of an emergency is that?

Surely a better way can be found for genuine alerts - one that doesn't put people at risk - and things like telling us of changes in the law can be put across in a gentler way?

Elspeth Christie Kirkhaugh, Northumberland

● So, the outcome of the belated Cobra meeting in reaction to the extreme heat is a ban on portable barbecues and an emergency alert telling us what we already know. The headline writes itself: "Burnham fiddles while Britain burns".

Alan Murphy London

Corrections and clarifications

● It was the writer and campaigner Guy Shrubsole who submitted a freedom of information request about people working on climate adaptation within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, not the Guardian (PM views to tackle climate as nurses warn of heat toll, 13 August, p1).

● The new Shahazz Palaces song, Ahh World II Won the Alpha Belt, does not feature Ishmael Butler's son Lil Tracy as an article stated (Add to playlist, 14 August, G2, p2).

Editorial complaints and corrections can be sent to guardian.readers@theguardian.com or 'The readers' editor, King Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GG. You can also leave a voicemail on 020 3353 4736

Sex doll with bruises is worse than creepy

I find it disturbing that this sex doll "had hair, a nose piercing and markings that resembled bruises and grazes" (A 'body' found in a suitcase was actually a sex doll. How did NSW police get it so wrong?, theguardian.com, 12 August). I suppose it could be said that at least these injuries weren't inflicted on a real woman, but what does it say about the (presumed) man who owned it - or the manufacturer that created it? "Creepy" is too mild a word for this.

Rosemary Fletcher-Jones New Milton, Hampshire

● Boris Johnson once hid in a fridge and now Donald Trump hides in an airline meals container (Trump 'switched jets by hiding in airport catering container to dodge Iran threat', 12 August). I wonder who will be the next head of government to seek refuge in something designed to store food?

William Ward London

● I understand that I am too late to make a nomination for Invertebrate of the Year (Environment, 15 August). But perhaps you will consider an honorable mention for Nigel Farage. He showed a distinct lack of backbone in his refusal to attend the announcement of the Clacton byelection result.

Helen Ryan London

● So Nigel Farage didn't turn up for the declaration, but Count Binface did. Have they ever been seen in the same room at the same time?

Lois Newell Llandudno

● A piece on the death of kissing yet no mention of the cinema back row (13 August)? Times have changed.

Martin Cooper Bromley, London

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6

Obituaries

Cheryl Hall

Actor who appeared in Lucky Feller and had roles in Citizen Smith, EastEnders, Doctor Who and The Bill

The actor Cheryl Hall, who has died aged 76, was best known for her roles in 1970s sitcoms. As Shirley Johnson in Citizen Smith, she was the girlfriend of Wolfie, the would-be revolutionary leading the Tooting Popular Front with the battle cry "power to the people".

Wolfie Smith, played by Hall's then husband, the actor Robert Lindsay, and his small "army" of self-styled urban guerrillas, are simply inept, concocting plans such as stealing a Scorpion tank in order to mount an attack on the House of Commons, only to discover that parliament is in recess. Nevertheless, Shirley supports her boyfriend's ideals while

wishing they could settle down together in something resembling her parents' middle-class lifestyle. Her father, initially played by Artro Morris, and then by Peter Vaughan, is less damning of Wolfie's Marxist revolutionary politics than of his unemployed status and unkempt hair.

The sitcom, beginning in 1977, was written by John Sullivan shortly before he created Derek "Del Boy" Trotter, another south London antihero, in Only Fools and Horses. Citizen Smith ran for four series, finishing in 1980, but Hall left at the end of the second run in 1979, reportedly frustrated at her character's lack of comic dialogue.

Although it did not help Hall's career, Sullivan later admitted that she was right to be dissatisfied with her Citizen Smith role, and went on

Hall as Kathleen Peake, with David Jason as Shorty Mepstead, in Lucky Feller, 1975 ITV/AMUTTERSTOCK

to prove he could write comedy for female characters with Just Good Friends (1983-86).

Hall's departure also coincided with the end of her marriage, and she and Lindsay divorced in 1980. Later, in a 2022 interview with Zoe Williams in the Guardian, Lindsay said it was a result of his obsession with achieving success. "That single-mindedness broke up my first marriage," he said.

Born in Whitechapel, east London, Cheryl was the daughter of Lilian (nee Cole), a civil servant at the Royal Courts of Justice, and George Hall, a woodworker and market trader. She was brought up in Bethnal Green and attended Coborn school for girls, Bow, where she appeared in school plays.

While studying at the Corona Theatre School in London, she worked as a cleaner to supplement her grant. One day, she glanced up from her work and saw Stewart Granger, the British Hollywood film star, looking down at her. "Starstruck is the only way to describe how I felt," she recalled. "But, when he heard that I was a drama student, he made me some tea and spent the rest of the afternoon talking about acting."

Her early stage appearances included the role of Helen, a schoolgirl, in a 1971 revival of Barry Reckord's groundbreaking drama Skyvers, set in a London comprehensive, at the Royal Court's Theatre Upstairs.

In her television career she clocked up almost 100 parts in 40 years

She was already in demand on television by then. Between 1968 and 1971, she appeared as a jobseeker in the ITV schools series You and the World. Then came roles in both dramas and comedies, from Special Branch (in 1969) and On the Buses (in 1971) to Callan (two parts, in 1970 and 1972), Sykes (in 1972) and Albert (also 1972), in which she played Doreen Bissell, the fiancee of Rodney Bewes's factory worker of the title.

Hall lost out to Katy Manning for the part of the Doctor Who companion Jo Grant, alongside Jon Pertwee, but the programme's producer, Barry Letts, gave her a guest role as Shima, the assistant to a travelling showman, who rescues Jo in the 1973 adventure Carnival of Monsters. A year later, in the prison drama Within These Walls, Hall played an inmate in the drugs unit.

Back in sitcoms, she played Sid James's secretary in 1974 episodes of Bless This House. Then came Kathleen Peake, the girlfriend of a shy plumber, Shorty Mepstead (David Jason), who lives with his mother and drives a red bubble car, in both series of Lucky Feller (1975-76). As Shorty's girlfriend, she also has eyes for his elder, more worldly-wise, brother, Randolph (Peter Armitage), and at one stage fears she is pregnant by him.

Hall's other roles, in a television career in which she clocked up almost 100 parts in 40 years, included Mrs Jackson in the children's foster home series Dodger, Bonzo & the Rest (1985); a short run in EastEnders (1988) as Christine, who provided a safe house to Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) - and was seduced by him - when he was on the run from the police; and seven different characters in The Bill (between 1984 and 2007). The most prominent of her film roles in the early 1970s came in No Sex Please - We're British, starring Ronnie Corbett (1973).

Although she kept busy, starring roles remained elusive and Hall was able to focus on her interest in local politics. In 1993, she ousted a sitting Conservative on Kent county council to give Labour its first win in the Ramsgate South ward. She eventually became leader of the party's group, in opposition, on the council. At the 1997 election she stood as a parliamentary candidate for Canterbury. Although she gained 31% of the vote, the Conservative MP retained the seat. She lost her county council seat in 2001 and, from 2010, spent much of her retirement in Greece.

Before her marriage to Lindsay (1974-80), Hall was in a three-year relationship with the actor Robin Askwith. In 1985, she married Robert Potter; they divorced four years later. She is survived by their sons, Benjamin and Joshua.

Anthony Hayward

Cheryl Georgette Hall, actor, born 23 July 1950; died 9 August 2026

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obituaries@theguardian.com

7

Other lives

Geoffrey King

Scientist whose research in the UK, US and France revolutionised earthquake forecasting

My father, Geoffrey King, who has died aged 82, was a prolific research scientist whose papers on geophysics have been cited more than 30,000 times. His most influential contribution was a 1994 paper, published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, that revolutionised earthquake forecasting.

After early work at Cambridge University, he moved to the US in 1987 to work at the US Geological Survey in Colorado, and then in 1990 to France, where he spent 20 happy years as a research professor at the Institut de Physique du Globe in Paris. He became a naturalised Frenchman and greatly enjoyed telling me how much better France was than the UK.

Born in Kampala, Uganda, Geoffrey was one of the four children of Peggy (nee Wells) and Basil King, both British geologists. Basil was working with the Uganda Geological Survey, mapping the Rift Valley. When Basil was appointed to the staff of Glasgow University, the family returned to the UK. Geoffrey went to school in Glasgow, and then Haberdashers' boys' school in Elstree, Hertfordshire. There his final school report ominously said that he "must appreciate that the future is shaped in the present: it would be a great pity if his ambitions were not realised through a want of determined application."

But at Durham University, my father found himself, albeit by way

of all the exciting new freedoms the 1960s offered. He loved ideas and exploring the new; asking questions was exciting, questioning orthodoxy essential. He went on to gain a first in applied physics and then a Cambridge PhD spent in a disused railway tunnel in Yorkshire designing better instruments to record earthquakes.

Geoffrey and his father may remain the only people to have had a (terrible, but scientifically accurate) poem published in the scientific journal Nature. About plate tectonics, it appeared in 1971 - the opening lines read "They put a girdle around the Earth / And named it the Worldwide Rift / It helps explain the ocean floor / And Continental Drift".

The work possibly closest to his heart came later, when he explored how seismically active landscapes gave early humans a survival advantage - the cliffs and rocky features provide natural places to hide, hunt and farm.

Geoffrey King in 1968 in the Bullard Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, working on his laser strain meter, which records earthquakes

Nell Whittingham

Churchwarden and tireless fundraiser for All Saints church in Aughton, East Yorkshire

My friend Nell Whittingham, who has died aged 96, relished adventure. When her husband Barrie's career took their family to Zambia in the 1960s they had a Piper Tri-Pacer aircraft and flew the Flying Doctor service - Nell also helped with weather reports and logistics. In the 70s they lived in Swaziland and Sudan, then Nigeria, where Nell set up a weather station to monitor wind for the Savannah Sugar Factory. During a stint in Papua New Guinea, she renovated a dug-out canoe and sailed in shark-infested waters.

In 1980 Nell and Barrie moved to Foggathorpe, East Yorkshire, where she discovered the 11th-century Norman church of All Saints, Aughton, of which later she became churchwarden for more than 30 years.

In the 80s Nell gained a certificate in social studies at Hull University, then a degree in social policy and administration, and master's degrees in care for the elderly, and managing change. She then worked (1989-91) as unit manager for Bridlington Mental Health Resource Base, and resource manager (1991-92) for Grimsby Mental Health Resource Base. She won the East Riding of Yorkshire council chairman's community award, and in 2020 was awarded Maundy money from Queen Elizabeth II.

Born in Ipsitones, Staffordshire,

Nell was the daughter of George and Ella Clowes, silk-mill workers who later ran a greengrocer's in Leek. Times were hard for Nell and her sister, Lilian. Nell had a strong Christian faith, loved writing letters and had a fantastic memory for people's interests and families. Her family called her "annoyingly positive".

Gaining a scholarship to Leek high school for girls, she then attended Stoke Technical College studying public health, becoming the first female public health inspector for Stoke council. In 1952 she married Barrie Whittingham, a civil engineer, and they settled first in Wiltshire then in Essex, in the town of Corringham, where Nell built a sailing dinghy in the kitchen, and was hands-on with house building tasks, before they set off for Zambia.

Nell loved reading, long-distance walking, gardening, singing and went on a pilgrimage to Iona.

She was tireless in her fundraising for Aughton - to provide a stained-glass window consecrated by John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, electricity installation, and mains water for a much-needed toilet and kitchen. She also undertook huge amounts of research into the Catholic rebel Robert Aske from Aughton, the Pilgrimage of Grace, the uprising against Henry VIII and the Suppression of Religious Houses Act in 1535. Aske was subsequently executed by Henry VIII. Nell's supreme efforts kept Aughton church alive, and her annual Pilgrimage of Grace evenings and afternoon teas are still going.

Barrie died in 1993, and Lilian in 2017. Nell is survived by three sons, David, Mark and Nichols, five grandchildren and a great-grandson.

Shirley Davies

Rachel Downey

Social affairs journalist who became head of public relations at the Office of the Patient Safety Commissioner My wife, Rachel Downey, was a health and social affairs journalist who went on to become a communications strategist at the Department of Health. There she worked at the heart of health policy, translating complex and often sensitive issues into communications that the public could understand. It was demanding, important work and she was exceptionally good at it.

Most recently Rachel, who has died of renal failure aged 60, was head of public relations at the Office of the Patient Safety Commissioner. It was a role that felt, in many ways, made for her, as the Office exists to amplify the voices of patients who have been harmed, to hold systems to account and to drive change.

Rachel led the Office's public

communications on Martha's Rule - the landmark initiative giving patients and families the right to request an urgent review if they believe their condition is deteriorating and their concerns are not being heard - and was equally central to publicising the Hughes

report on financial redress for those harmed by the prescription drug sodium valproate, and by pelvic mesh implants.

More recently she led communications for the Safety Gap report - an examination by the commissioner into the disparity in patient safety outcomes experienced by

different groups, allied to a call to close the gap between what patients are promised and what they receive.

Rachel was born in Dublin to the political journalist James Downey, of the Irish Times and later the Irish Independent, and his wife, Moira (nee Stevenson), a secretary. During school holidays from St Laurence college in Loughlinstown, County Dublin, Rachel did work experience at Southside People, a Dublin paper, and found that she loved the excitement of a deadline.

After studying English at University College Dublin she completed a journalism course at Dublin City University and moved to London in 1987.

Starting out as a reporter on the now defunct London Irish News, she covered stories such as the campaigns for the release of the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four.

In 1990 she moved into social

affairs journalism as a reporter on Social Work Today magazine and later as news editor and later executive editor at Community Care. She was then appointed editor of Nursing Times (2002-2008).

Rachel left the world of journalism in 2009 and worked at the Department of Health until September 2025, when she became seriously ill, having lived with type 1 diabetes all her adult life.

She had a special relationship with her father, who died in 2016, and she honoured his legacy by posthumously publishing his book, The Legacy of Gombeen Ireland (2020), a lament about the failures of successive Irish governments after independence.

Rachel and I met through mutual friends and were married in 1999. She is survived by me, our sons, James and Colm, and her sister, Vanessa.

Sean Canning

Birthdays

Sir Ian Blatchford, director and chief executive, Science Museum Group, 61; Belinda Carlisle, singer and songwriter, 68; Jim Courier, tennis player, 56; Robin Cousins, ice skater, 69; Edward Cowie, composer, 83; Robert De Niro, actor and producer, 83; Larry Ellison, co-founder, Oracle, 82; Lord (Julian) Fellows, screenwriter and actor, 77; Jonathan Franzen, novelist, 67; Margaret Hamilton, computer scientist and software developer, Nasa, 90; Thierry Henry, footballer, 49; Dame Mary Marsh, former chief executive, NSPCC, 80; Jane Millichip, chief executive, Bafta, 61; Sean Penn, actor and director, 66; Nelson Piquet, racing driver, 74; Jonathan Ruffer, fund manager and philanthropist, 75; Kirk Stevens, snooker player, 68; Guillermo Vilas, tennis player, 74.

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8

Puzzles

Saturday's solutions

Sandwich sudoku

1	7	8	5	4	6	3	2	9	35
3	2	9	1	7	8	4	6	5	0
5	6	4	3	2	9	8	1	7	8
6	3	1	8	5	7	9	4	2	20
7	4	2	6	9	3	5	8	1	16
8	9	5	2	1	4	6	7	3	7
4	8	7	9	3	1	2	5	6	3
2	1	3	4	6	5	7	9	8	25
9	5	6	7	8	2	1	3	4	28
35	8	4	19	0	14	20	24	14

Killer Sudoku 1035

7	4	6	5	9	1	2	8	3
2	1	5	6	3	8	7	4	9
9	8	3	7	4	2	1	6	5
8	7	4	9	2	5	3	1	6
5	3	1	4	8	6	9	2	7
6	9	2	3	1	7	4	5	8
3	6	9	1	5	4	8	7	2
4	5	8	2	7	3	6	9	1
1	2	7	8	6	9	5	3	4

Cryptic crossword

Solution No. 30,080

This week's winners of The Language Lover's Puzzle Book are: Drew Shotliff, Sedbergh; Carys Evans, Carswell; Mrs R J C Shapland, Ilkeston; N White, Woodford Green; Boy Smith, Great Sankey

Please allow 28 days for delivery

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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.

Medium

Guardian cryptic crossword No 30,087 set by Dice

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.

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.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26

Across

9 Not the first to risk travel at a leisurely pace (5) 10 Rocks falling and getting into dell is ruinous (9) 11 Old nip of rum I drink too, without finishing first shots (9) 12 Space put by, but oddly nothing inside (5) 13 Turned and ran away, clutching Zippo but dropping case (7) 15 Part in test regarding the way planets travel (7) 17 Snow leopard jumps without limits (5) 18 Harsh fightback (3) 20 Central pub evacuated earlier (5) 22 Be taken the wrong way during rendezvous, creating arguments (7) 25 Naturally produced grain ruined through company backtracking (7) 26 Pitman's system finally starts to introduce new, easy recording (5) 27 Devout priest, German, in South American city with us (9) 30 Commanding Officer had info about who's hunting whom? (4,5) 31 Constructed crowns of bronze using intricate latticework techniques (5)

Down

1 Mexican snack stack - hot, without any wrappers (4)

2 Forgetfulness leads to open bolts - then four being eaten by wild cat (8) 3 Still one imagined terrifying creature from the Himalayas (4) 4 Sister Edna eloped, heading north, carrying flowering plant (8) 5 In France a supermarket sacking head to become international organisation (6) 6 Absolute chaos, upset jewellery - piecing it all together? (10) 7 Floppy elephant with no stuffing for clingy type (6) 8 Tax bill came at last - virtually cleared out (4) 13 Scourge of old? (5) 14 Our copter's flying around island territory (6,4) 16 Inadvertently Rickrolled - but only part of the words! (5) 19 An odd owl disturbed some trees (8) 21 Safe 'n' sound? Two extinct every second! (3-5) 23 Welsh city's non-governmental organisation gathered by bar (6) 24 Flow of vapour engulfing opening of railway (6) 26 Greek character with very loud furry garment (4) 28 Desert old boy, captured by US soldier (4) 29 Place, place and, finally, place (4)

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Life & Arts

Monday 17 August 2026

Hi-de-hi!!!

Su Pollard on royal bosoms, famous friends, the Blair-Brown Granita pact and her very special sense of style

Emma Beddington My husband the Brit

page 3

Funny peculiar Two shows about comedy critics

page 9

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The Guardian G2 Monday 17 August 2026

2

THE ONE CHANGE THAT WORKED

I sent myself a letter and realised what's missing in modern life

I've started writing to my sister, my mum and my friends. Not everyone writes back to me, but when we do connect, it's on a deeper level than any WhatsApp chat

Mabel Banfield-Nwachi

Iast January, I received a letter. Most of my post was predictably boring - a statement from the water company, my credit card bill, the occasional update about my pension contributions - but this letter was different. The envelope felt heavier than the run-of-the-mill ones I was used to. It was postmarked Paris, a place I had little connection to, and, most strikingly, it was addressed in messy handwriting - my own.

I had completely forgotten I'd written it until it turned up on my doorstep. On a trip to Paris the year before, I had visited a letter-writing cafe. The idea was simple: you wrote a letter (usually to yourself), the cafe kept it safe and sent it a year later. So, alongside trying escargots for the first time, I wrote a letter filled with questions about my not-so-distant future and addressed it to my home, in London. What will you be doing? Where will you be living? Do you have a boyfriend?

The questions weren't especially profound, but receiving the letter felt strangely comforting. It was from me, but I felt removed from the person who had written it. It was like opening a time capsule of my thoughts and feelings that photos from that time, or even journal entries, hadn't quite captured.

I started writing to other people. At first, it was small - a monthly letter to my mum in London, updating her on my new life abroad in Madrid. Sometimes I would

▼ 'It became a ritual I grew to treasure' ... Mabel Banfield-Nwachi in Madrid

include a ticket or receipt, explaining which museums or galleries I had been visiting, or proving that I really had found the ripest avocado for 40p. Although we spoke on the phone every week, I loved the space it gave me to say things I wouldn't otherwise.

After a few months, I was writing even more letters. At least once a week, I'd be in the queue at the post office with a letter for my sister, a friend from home, or my little cousins. Not everyone wrote back, but just sending them felt cathartic. It became a ritual I grew to treasure, and one that quietly added up.

The feel of pen on paper, or even the taste of the gummed envelope flap, couldn't be replicated by a FaceTime call or a message in the family WhatsApp group. More than that, the urge to constantly be in touch started to feel less pressing, because I found I was saying more in those letters than I could ever convey even in person. And while I got a lot out of writing and sending them, much of the joy came from anticipating one in return.

I loved the weight of a letter, my name written out in someone else's handwriting. I wouldn't open it straight away. I would let my imagination dance around who it might be from, what it might say, all while making my way up the stairs to my flat. At my desk, I would read it slowly, deliberately, savouring it. Small details would start to stand out - a pen running out, a crossed-out word or phrase. The words people repeated again and again.

We don't often pay attention in that way any more. Even finishing a book can feel like a stretch. Messages are written quickly, sent in a hurry and forgotten just as rapidly: glanced at, replied to and moved on from. A letter doesn't work like that. You have to slow down, think about what you're reading, what you're saying. That was what I liked about it. So, just as the new commute to work had become part of my life away from Britain, so, before long, had checking the letterbox in the entrance to the apartment building on the way out.

I haven't stopped messaging or suddenly sworn off my phone, but it does feel less urgent. I've muted some group chats, archived others, and no longer get that sinking feeling if I forget to reply straight away. I have found myself slowing down in other ways too - thinking a little more before replying, choosing my words more carefully, calling when a planned catch-up has drifted into text.

This routine has given me something stable to return to, wherever I am living. This January, I sent another letter to myself, back to my childhood home in London, where it will be waiting for me. I wonder if I'll still recognise the person who wrote it.

PHOTOGRAPHS: PARLO GARCIA/THE GUARDIAN

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THE PET I'LL NEVER FORGET

Darwin, the high-maintenance tortoise

We adopted Darwin, a 21-year-old Greek tortoise, on a whim. It was 2024. His owners were no longer able to provide proper care, so a concerned family member (and friend of ours) brought this football-sized wriggling reptile down on the train from Glasgow to London in a bucket.

The friend offered Darwin to my then boyfriend, Jacob, who knew nothing about tortoises and everything about spontaneity. I agreed to help foster him, begrudgingly, as long as Jacob would do "all the work". I also didn't think "all the work" would be that much work. How high-maintenance could a tortoise really be?

After we took Darwin back to our flat in an old cardboard box, it became immediately clear that he was, actually, a lot of work. A real piece of work, to be honest. He bit toes. He defecated and urinated endlessly, and everywhere. He climbed everything he could get his claws on (backpacks, bookshelves, potted cacti). This posed a significant health risk because if a tortoise flips over, it can be fatal. But that didn't stop Darwin! He flipped regularly, and with aplomb.

Sometimes we'd come home to find him on his back, his little legs flailing, in the middle of an empty space with no nearby object from which he could have flipped. He also needed weekly "soaks" (half-hour baths) in the communal bathroom, during which he would often relieve himself, much to the delight of our housemates.

I worried about Darwin constantly. I threw money at him, spending silly amounts at bougie greengrocers buying cavolo nero, radicchio and endive, only for him to turn up his nose at them. We spent hundreds on X-rays and vet visits because of a bone disease problem.

Whenever I took a break from worrying about his bones and his diet, I had so much fun with him. Some of my favourite memories are our trips to Hackney Downs, the local park, where we'd take him out of his cardboard box, tie a red ribbon to his shell so he wouldn't blend into the grass and let him roam about to feast on dandelions. Kids loved him. Adults found it hilarious.

Jacob and I went our separate ways in late 2025. Darwin lives with him in a lovely house with his own garden - a better choice than my pony flat, as much as it pans me. I still think about him every time I walk past dandelions. He taught me so much about myself. I discovered a newfound patience, and an unexpected, endless well of love for a being that was essentially a sentient rock. Maddy Mussen

Emma Beddington

My husband's British citizenship ceremony moved me to tears

I haven't felt great about asking my husband to become British. There was the idiotic Life in the UK test that every applicant has to pass; the cost; the fact; and the uncertainty, which still hasn't ended. I found out his application had been accepted when he came into the kitchen in June with a face like thunder. "But that's brilliant! You'll never need to know how many Scottish ski resorts there are again!" I said, puzzled. He explained that, because we're going on holiday before he can get a British passport to go with his French one, he'll be in an immigration grey area that could mean he gets refused re-entry. He should, theoretically, be OK, but it's confusing.

Why would he even want to come back to this place with its threadbare services, toxic waterways, obsession with "picky bits" and ridiculous politics? His Home Office email arrived just after the Makerfield byelection and that night the news showed the returning officer's poker-faced declaration again: our future prime minister flanked by a politely clapping Binface and an oversized, blank-eyed fox. I started laughing, hysterically, guiltily. What have I done to him? "Will the world go a different colour when I'm British?" he asked on the train to the ceremony. "Yeah, reverse Wizard of Oz - everything goes grey."

But if you are becoming British, because you really love your wife or for any other reason, Leeds Civic Hall is a good spot for it. We admired the outside, embellished with large, golden owls, from the terrace of Wetherspoons, where another set of ceremony attenders - a south Asian couple our age, smartly dressed, finishing up an appropriate full English - were taking a "before" pic. We exchanged congratulations, then headed inside, where there was dark wood and stained glass, a proper sense of historical gravitas and a brief panic about the travel issue.

An inadequate fan moved stifling air around feebly as the registrar explained people shouldn't plan trips abroad before getting their British passports, to some overheated consternation. An intensive-care doctor decided to

defec, unwilling to risk missing her shifts, but after some shrugging and a few fingers-crossed gestures, everyone else went ahead.

I'm so glad we did. It was kind, laid-back and gently funny in a way that almost made me feel patriotic. There was a warning from the registrar not to laminate citizenship certificates ("You do not want to give the Home Office any more money!"), plus one for my husband that she'd probably say his name, Olivier, "with a Yorkshire twang" (she did, it was lovely). At one point, the whole team decided to move the table with the draped union jack for better photos, propping King Charles, in his clip frame, against the speaker used for a single mumbled verse of the national anthem.

The business part of becoming British was very brief. Olivier had practised affirming allegiance ("No, you're not pledging loyalty to his hair - its heirs"), worried about speaking solo, but it was a group effort. Everyone swore or affirmed, then pledged, then the registrar said simply they were all citizens now - and I found myself crying.

It had been such an act of love for us - I hugged him, whispered my thanks - but also it was impossible not to be moved by everyone else. The frail, stooped woman who left her walker to go up, proudly unaided, for her certificate. The radiant teen in a white mindless who was getting her A-level results the same day, adulthood unfolding in the dazzling sunshine. The tiny mother photographed by her giant, hazful teenage son in a sharp suit and blinding-white trainers. The grey-haired Chinese woman in wire-rimmed glasses, attending alone, who asked me to take her beaming picture. The guy who ducked out apologetically before group photos, saying he had to get to work. The 20 people from Spain, Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Eritrea, France, Ghana, India, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Poland, Romania and South Africa, who had done something hard for love, safety or a different life.

An hour later, we were back on the train. The world hasn't gone grey for my husband, he says - wait until he finds himself stranded in a foreign airport - and, for a moment, for me, it felt quite golden.

Do we really want to live in a world of silence?

Are we becoming too quiet? As a joyless, intolerant shrew, my kneejerk answer is a predictable "if only". But am I wrong? I find myself confronted with evidence that people are taking the expression "say less" literally. A study recently reported in the Atlantic found that daily spoken word counts declined by around 300 every year between 2005 and 2019. A sample group of 2,197 participants, aged between 10 and 94, wore devices that randomly recorded them as they went about their lives; each year, they spoke on average 338 fewer words than the year before. For under-25s, the decline was even steeper: 451 fewer words.

Even I can see that's worrying. Spending time with other people is good for our brains, health and mood, while, as the US surgeon general put it so starkly in 2023, "lacking social connection can increase the risk for premature death as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day".

But silence is seen as a desirable self-improvement tool; healthy even. "Silent walking" is a wellness hack, we're noise cancelling like never before and Hilton's trend report this year has introduced me to the horrid concept of "hushpitality". Claiming "sometimes the best travel companion is silence", Hilton reported on the (depressing) rise of digital and AI-enabled tools - virtual check-ins, text communication, bots - that allow travellers to "protect their peace". We seem convinced we need quieter lives, but maybe we actually need more chat?

It's further evidence that knowing what's good or bad for us has become baffling, labyrinthine, probably impossible. Lettuce is potentially deadly now and New Scientist informs me lightbulbs are "wrecking your metabolism". So, should people wear their headphones more or less, and is silence something to gorge on, or enjoy in moderation? Maybe we need a version of Michael Pollan's brilliantly simple dictum on food - "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" - but for talking. How about: "Speak words, mostly in person, not too loud (and never on speakerphone)"? I'm open to other - quietly voiced - suggestions.

▼ Emma and Olivier after the ceremony

OTHER PHOTOGRAPH: ALICIA CARTER/THIS GUARDIAN THIS PAGE - COURTESY OF MADDY BRISHER

3

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4

'It was barbaric. I was crying my

Every year there are more than 70,000 hysteroscopies in England alone. Most of these womb examinations should be routine. So why do so many patients complain of unbearable pain?

Anna Moore

In February this year, Beth Harris sat in the day surgery waiting room of her local hospital and tried to steady her nerves. She was there for a hysteroscopy, in this case to remove a fibroid. A thin surgical instrument with a lens, a light, a blade and an irrigation system for pumping saline solution would be inserted through her vagina and cervix, into her womb. The saline solution would widen the womb and the fibroid would be shaved away. Her hospital had advised taking paracetamol or ibuprofen an hour before the appointment, which Harris had done. However, the appointment was for 1pm, and by 4pm, she was still waiting in her hospital gown, surrounded by other patients.

Hystereoscopies are common procedures - classed by the NHS as 'high volume, low complexity'. In 2021, 71,000 took place in England alone. This was Harris's third. 'I'd been shocked by how painful the first two were,' she says. They had been 'diagnostic' only - examinations of the inside of the womb - because years of breast cancer medication had led her womb lining to thicken. When she learned that she had a fibroid that needed removing, Harris's first question was: 'Will it be painful?' Her gynaecologist assured her that she would be given local anaesthetic and 'wouldn't feel anything'. He compared it to 'going to the dentist'.

Any doubts Harris harboured while awaiting that procedure were multiplied by the two patients treated ahead of her. 'The first woman was hysterical when she came out,' she says. 'The nurse had to get the consultant to talk to her. The second collapsed in the recovery room. Nobody came to her, so a little old man in his gown and slippers, a random patient, got involved and found a nurse. They took her away on a trolley.'

When Harris was finally called in, there were several people in the theatre. 'There was the gynaecologist, nurses, an anaesthetist behind me, although he didn't do anything. They were

talking to each other throughout - no one was sitting with me. It was very casual.' The gynaecologist administered local anaesthetic - a small injection near the cervix - but there was no pause to see if it had worked. 'There was no gap, no questions,' she says. 'The injection itself was painful, but the procedure, with this spinning blade inside you, was unbelievable. The pressure, the pushing of the machine, the manipulation - it was barbaric. I've never experienced anything like it in my life. I felt as if I'd been assaulted. By the end, I was crying my eyes out.' A nurse led her, sobbing, to the recovery room. 'There was no dignity, no privacy,' says Harris. 'I said to her: 'There must be a better way of doing this.''

Katharine Tylko, a founder member of the campaign group Hysteroscopy Action (HA), has been saying the same thing for 16 years. HA was formed in 2010 to demand that all hysteroscopy patients are fully informed about the procedure, including the risk of severe pain, and given a full range of pain-relief choices - local anaesthesia, gas and air, conscious sedation, epidural, and, for those who need it, general anaesthetic. 'In short, we want parity with colonoscopy patients, half of whom are men,' says Tylko. In April, the renewed Women's Health Strategy set out by the then health secretary Wes Street seemed a major breakthrough. Action 7 of the strategy called for informed consent and a choice of pain relief for hysteroscopies. 'We were thrilled,' says Tylko, 'but there's been nothing since. Just silence.'

Many conditions might require a hysteroscopy. By far the most common is heavy or unexplained bleeding. In 2018, guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence made them the primary diagnostic tool for this. A hysteroscopy's 'inside view' of the womb makes them the gold standard for ruling out any sinister pathology such as endometrial cancer. They are also used to investigate cases of unexplained infertility or recurrent miscarriage, to remove uterine fibroids, polyps or scar tissue.

Once hysteroscopies required a general anaesthetic, but this

changed through the 2000s and 2010s after clinical audits and trials established that outpatient hysteroscopies were safe, much faster and more cost-effective. (Present NHS targets are that 90% of diagnostic and 50% of operative hysteroscopies take place in an outpatient setting.) Pain relief

options vary wildly across the country. Too often, says Tylko, there is nothing beyond a nurse to hold your hand and supply a constant stream of 'hairdresser chitchat'.

Tylko, 71, a musician and translator, required a hysteroscopy 23 years ago, because of unexplained bleeding. 'It was late-

stage womb cancer which took two years to be diagnosed,' she says. 'By then, I was bleeding so much, I was sleeping on bath towels.' After numerous GP appointments, Tylko asked why she wasn't being referred for investigation. 'My GP told me that I would 'freak out' at an NHS gynae clinic,' says Tylko.

The GP had reached this conclusion partly because Tylko hadn't had a baby, so her cervical canal had not been stretched, and also because she found smear tests difficult (she now knows this was almost certainly because of undiagnosed endometriosis).

'That was probably the worst night of my life,' says Tylko. 'I thought: 'She thinks I've got something - and that I probably won't be able to stand the test for it.' I went privately and still had to jump through lots more hoops, but I finally got a hysteroscopy under general anaesthetic.'

'The first woman was hysterical when she came out. The next collapsed'

ILLUSTRATION: HELENE BLANC, PHOTOGRAPHS: FUSED BY MUSEOLOGIST

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Monday 17 August 2026 The Guardian G2

5

eyes out'

Through her subsequent cancer treatment, Tylko met many women who had been traumatised by their hysteroscopies. 'I'd been told that only 2% of women had problems with them,' she says. 'I was given the message that if I was 'normal', if I'd had children, I wouldn't be complaining. Then I met women who'd had children with no pain relief but who'd fainted after their hysteroscopies.' The penny finally dropped that she wasn't the only one who struggled with gynecological procedures.

More than 13,000 women have completed HA's online survey, which set out to learn more from women's experiences, and its petition is nearing 70,000 signatures. The comments make harrowing reading. In 2020, a benchmark multicentre study found that mean pain scores for outpatient hysteroscopies were 5.2 (that's 'moderate' on a hospital

ward and would merit codeine) and 35% of women had a 'severe' pain score of seven and above.

'As a campaign, we've had real difficulty treading a rational path between trying to effect change but not putting women off something that can predict cancer,' says Tylko. 'We've always put the caveat that two-thirds of women do not experience severe pain.' Equally though, outpatient hysteroscopies have a failure rate of around 10%, with pain as the predominant reason, points out Richard Harrison, lecturer and co-lead of pain research at Reading University. 'That, too, can lead to a whole lack of engagement with future medical procedures, which could be lifesaving.'

Harrison worked on a recently published study that analysed data from nearly 5,000 women who had undergone hysteroscopies. For Harrison and his co-authors, the issue sits within a wider body of research on the gender pain gap - it's already well established that women presenting in health care settings with pain are prescribed less analgesic than men, and are more likely to be given antidepressants instead. In this hysteroscopy study, they identified a 'gynaecological pain gaslighting' where women were repeatedly told: 'It can't be that bad' and: 'Most women tolerate this procedure well.'

Helen Garnett, 56, from North Lincolnshire, was so certain that she would be 'gaslit' that she secretly recorded her outpatient hysteroscopy and later released it online (with voices altered). 'I'd already had two hysteroscopies for heavy bleeding which had been so horrendous, I'd almost passed out,' she says. This time, she called her GP and clinic in advance to request pain relief - and was told her consultant would discuss it on the day. The recording is excruciating to hear. Garnett is nervous, clearly but apologetically asking for pain relief - 'I'm not wimpy but this I find so painful' - but is swept through with none. Instead she was left with patronising chatter from nurses: 'Do you think we should have some music in here? I could sing to you!'; 'You're doing amazing!'; 'Well done you!'

'It feels as if someone is sweeping a knife around inside you,' says Garnett. 'I have three daughters, I run my own business, I thought I'd be able to advocate for myself more, but I just couldn't. It's crazy. You lose all sense of being an adult as they treat you in such a childlike manner. I'm surprised they don't give you sweets and a sticker on the way out. As soon as I got away, I burst into tears. I didn't want them to see me crying like a baby.'

Some gynaecologists are determined to make changes.

'I will not undergo any more tests or procedures. I have reached my red light'

Dr Gail Busby, a consultant gynaecologist for 26 years, admits it has been a 'learning curve'. 'A long time ago, I don't think we were aware how painful an outpatient hysteroscopy can be,' she says. 'As a gynaecologist, you're so focused on the procedure. We thought it was period-like, crampy pain, which is the case for a lot of women, but it is absolutely undeniable that some women have severe pain and they need to be listened to.'

Two incidents forced Busby to reevaluate. The first was learning through a patient about HA and its campaign. The second was her own experience of a colonoscopy. 'It was with sedation, but it was the most hideous, painful thing ever. Some people have no problems with them. I had tears running down my face.' Busby has had a hysteroscopy, too, with no pain relief, and for her, that was fine. 'People are wired differently and there's no way you can predict if you're going to fall into the one-in-three women who have severe pain,' she says. Busby now offers deep sedation - administered by an anaesthetist, the patient will sleep through most of the procedure - to her hysteroscopy patients at

▼ 'There was no dignity, no privacy,' said one patient

her private Spire clinic and her NHS practice at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester. 'Not everyone needs it, but the women who say they need it really need it.'

Consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Richard Flint offers conscious sedation - a combination of analgesia and sedative via a needle in your arm - at his clinic in Chelsea and Westminster hospital. 'I've been performing hysteroscopies for eight years now, and though many patients are fine with outpatient hysteroscopies, there is a large proportion for whom it is agonising,' he says. 'From my point of view, I stop immediately and those procedures are really heart-sink moments. You feel you've failed the patient.'

In 2023, Flint introduced conscious sedation at C&W, one day a week. They are now expanding it to a five-day service (the only hospital currently offering it for hysteroscopies). They also offer it for other outpatient procedures such as cystoscopies (examinations of the bladder), IUD insertions and manual vacuum aspirations after miscarriage. At the same time, the clinic is trialling the Wid-easy test, a vaginal swab that checks for womb cancer in women with abnormal bleeding. It is already in routine

use in Austria and Switzerland, has been introduced in Germany, and is on trial for NHS use in various clinics across the UK.

'That is massively reducing the number of hysteroscopies we need to do,' Flint says. He now has data on more than 300 hysteroscopies performed under conscious sedation, which he is releasing shortly. 'The pain scores are so much better. The average is two out of 10,' he says. 'What has sealed it for me is seeing patients whose previous hysteroscopies had to be abandoned. They usually say: 'Why didn't I have this before?''

There are other small signs of progress. The British Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy has recently appointed a female president - the first in decades - consultant gynaecologist Rebecca Mallick. This month, Mallick and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) president Dr Alison Wright met with members of HA. 'Alison and I were shocked and have a lot to think about,' says Mallick. At present, RCOG guidelines state that outpatient hysteroscopy patients should be fully informed about the procedure first, and 'made aware' there are other settings and pain relief offerings, including a general anaesthetic or IV sedation.

'We could do a deep dive into why best practice isn't always happening,' says Mallick. 'We've got half a million people on the gynae waiting list, so clinics want to see as many people as possible. Are we giving enough time to talk through all the options or just trying to firefight numbers? We need to look at how we can support hysteroscopists to offer all types of analgesic. We also need to advocate for more funding and resources so we can tackle the backlog and improve care.'

Tylko sees this as part of a much bigger picture. 'We're a gathering snowball made up of all sorts of gynae-women's groups,' she says. 'Endometriosis UK, Sling the Mesh, women fighting for better maternity care, better IUD fittings. We are getting together and saying, 'This has to end!'

For Harris, any hard-won changes will come too late. She has chosen to have a hysterectomy. 'I've found a gynaecologist I trust and she is the only one I will let do it,' she says, 'but I'm on the waiting list to see a psychologist first to help me get through it. At the moment, since that last hysteroscopy, every medical appointment makes me cry and panic.' Harris is taking this route partly so that she will never need another one. 'I will not undergo any more tests, no more procedures, no more examinations, I've reached my red light. This is how I'll bring it to a close.'

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6

The big interview

'I saw Cliff Richard dressed as a leek!'

Even after 50 years in the limelight, actor Su Pollard can still surprise. She talks Hi-de-Hi!, the Aids crisis and her amazing celebrity encounters

Emine Saner

A quick run-through of some of the 20th-century icons that Su Pollard has met. Pau McCartney? 'Absolutely fabulous,' Pollard says. 'He was sat leaning against a wall, next to Linda.' She does a great impression of McCartney's accent. 'Hey Su, how are you? Love the show. Can I have your autograph? For my mother.' The show was, of course, the hugely successful BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi!, set on an Essex holiday camp and for which Pollard, playing chalet maid Peggy, will for ever be best known.

Queen Elizabeth, after a Royal Variety Performance? 'She was absolutely marvellous. What struck me - I've always said this - was her skin. It was all peachified. And beautiful smile, her own teeth. Very regal, very straight-backed, not very tall, and quite a voluptuous bosom.'

Diana, Princess of Wales, did a little tap-dance with Pollard at a function. 'I found her very charming. Although she was classed as quite shy, I don't think she was. She was very open to meeting people, but perhaps it was a slow burn with her.'

At a club in Earl's Court in London, Pollard was 'having it large', she says, when a man approached her and asked if he could join in. 'I went: 'Stop! It's never you, is it?' It was - Queen

singer Freddie Mercury. She does an impression of him too, overbite protruding. 'He went: 'I could be anybody, dear.' His teeth were fantastic. Another wonderful smile. His friend took a picture of us.'

At various Downing Street functions, Pollard met Margaret Thatcher - 'marvellous, but it was very fleeting' - and Theresa May. 'She went: 'Hi de hi.' I said: 'Ho de ho.' She was fabulous - I liked her. She was very warm. Getting on with the job the best she could.' Tony Blair? Gordon Brown? No, she says. 'But I did see Tony and Gordon in ... what's that lovely restaurant?' Might it have been Granita? (Blair was a near-neighbour at the time in north London.) Pollard looks astonished. 'That's it! How do you know that?'

Granita was, you may remember, the venue of the 1994 pact, where Brown agreed Blair would run for the Labour leadership. 'That's the first I've heard of that,' says Pollard. 'God, I feel a shiver. That's what they were talking about!' I mean, we don't know that's what they were discussing at that precise moment, but let's go with it. 'I gawked at them through the window and waved.'

Much has been written about that fateful night, and to it we can perhaps now add the mental image of Pollard - wearing, I like to think, bright owlish glasses, maybe a feather boa, and manic grin - excitedly waving at the two serious men, history in their hands,

'A lot of producers think it's time for you to go. No! I never mention retirement'

through the window. 'They just kind of went' - she gives a harassed smile - 'and then hurried back to talking. I bet they thought: 'It's that Hi-de-Hi! person.'

We meet in London at the Club for Acts and Actors, the social and support organisation of which Pollard is president. Pollard, 76, has just written her memoir, Fully Charged, hoofing through her 52-year career, which has spanned theatre, musicals and TV. She is such funny company and her book has some gems. On changing her name from Sue to Su: 'I can't prove it, but I maintain that losing

that vowel gave me some kind of momentum.' And on spotting a pop superstar, not known for his sense of humour, at the infamous 1987 It's a Royal Knockout TV event, which she co-hosted: 'I saw a sight I never expected to witness - Cliff Richard dressed as a leek.'

It was 'lovely', she says, to write the book (with her friend and collaborator Paul Boyd), 'because it reminded me, and gave me time to reflect, going: 'God, that was funny.' Then it makes you think, 'I've had far more ups than downs', and that's what you've got to be in life, I think - positive.'

PHOTOGRAPHS: ALICIA CARTER/THY-GUARSHAN; TIGER ASPECTS; YU IMAGES/ALAN; TIM OCHENHEN/PA

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7

▲ 'I've had far more ups than downs' ... Su Pollard

It has been an extraordinary life. Pollard grew up in Nottingham, an only child until she was eight. Her parents both worked in a cigarette factory, but Pollard discovered an interest in the stage while taking part in her school nativity. She was playing an 'assistant' angel and when she stood to deliver her lines, on a cardboard box that had been taped together, she fell through it. The audience laughed and Pollard was hooked. When she was about 14, writing a school essay about where she hoped to be in 10 years, 'I wrote: 'I see myself at the Palladium.' And funnily enough, I was.'

What did her parents make of her? She laughs and does an impression of her mother, Hilda (she started calling her by her name as a teenager, 'because I was a hippy' and she thought her mother deserved more than to be identified only as 'Mum'). 'Su, if you don't mind, do you think you could walk behind me?'

She thinks she was wearing a full-length fur coat that day, but it could have been any number of outlandish outfits. Clothes had become her costume, and gave her a sense of permission to be bold, visible and fun (today she's wearing a black sequined dress, sparkly red waistcoat, maroon specs, beads and a portrait of Frida Kahlo around her neck, with a pair of miniature Ferrero Rocher chocolate packets for earrings). 'I was creating my own style, albeit I looked like a morris dancer at one point because I had scarves round my knees and ankles. No wonder my poor mother ...' She laughs. 'It was fabulous. Just be yourself in life.'

Sometimes people would stare at her so hard they'd walk into a lamp-post. People would comment but it never bothered her. 'You think: 'Why are you so pathetically feeble-minded?' And then you think: 'Oh, it's not their fault - forget it.' Her headteacher reprimanded her for wearing her school coat 'like an opera cape' but also introduced her to a friend who ran the local amateur dramatic group.

Pollard was off - in am-dram roles, and performing in local working men's clubs. In 1974, she appeared on the TV talent show Opportunity Knocks, but came second to a 'singing' jack russell (she alleges the owner would insert a finger into its bottom to make it howl on cue). 'I've never liked jack russells ever since,' she says with a laugh. 'I cross the road to avoid them.'

Her first big professional job was in a touring production of Godspell, produced by a young Cameron Mackintosh, who would go on to become a titan of theatre. Did she ever feel out of place as a working-class actor? 'No, because I met several that were very similar to me.' Now, she says, 'there's more privately educated people. But I didn't feel out of place, whether I was with my peers or with people that had been to 'radar'.' She hoots at herself. People would assume she was so uneducated that she didn't know how to pronounce Rada, the acronym for the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

'The queen was marvellous. She had quite a voluptuous bosom'

'It used to make me laugh. I used to do it, just for fun.'

Impostor syndrome never plagued her. She was lucky, she says, to have been supported by her parents and teachers. 'I tried never to get above myself, but I thought: 'Su, you've got enough talent, just as much as anyone else.'

Pollard had been working in theatre for five years and approaching 30 when she got the role in Hi-de-Hi! (She had appeared in another sitcom just before that, Two Up, Two Down.) 'I was just beside myself. I was the luckiest person - we all were - in the world at that time.' Did they know it would become so big? 'No, but we had an inkling that it was on the right track when we did the pilot and the whole crew were killing themselves laughing.'

She still loves talking about the show, she says, and never feels resentful about being asked about it, especially by fans. 'People have loved it and you have to respect that you were part of somebody's life. I think it's rotten to disrespect your audience.' The cast, or at least those that are still around, continue to get together. 'We call ourselves 'the Undead', the ones that are still here. We go: 'Weren't we lucky to have brought people all that joy?'

In 1984, Pollard married Peter Keogh, whom she met when he was working as a stagehand on the Hi-de-Hi musical. She knew that he'd had boyfriends, but when the tabloids found out, it unleashed years of homophobic coverage. 'It's not a very nice thing [to be hounded by reporters], especially when you've got to work,' she

◀ 'I'm not going to be waiting for the phone to ring' ... Pollard in the Benidorm Christmas Special in 2010

▲ With Lionel Blair

says. There were constant stories alleging he had continued to have affairs with men.

It was also around the time of the HIV and Aids crisis, which made the tabloids even more rabid. Pollard, a longtime ally of the gay community, watched with horror as friends started becoming ill. She remembers doing an early fundraiser at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, the iconic London LGBTQ+ venue. 'I didn't know enough about it at the time; I don't think anyone did. People were great, giving money. But then, people I knew started dying. One of the first was a friend from Godspell. That was a really tragic thing - he was amazing. Then a very close friend. It was devastating, really.' She would hear about friends of friends. 'There was no real consolation.'

Pollard is still great friends with her ex-husband - they divorced in 1992 - and his husband. 'You can't regret things in your life. You might

◀ 'I was the luckiest person in the world at that time' ... Pollard, far left, with Simon Cadell, Michael Knowles and Ruth Madoc in Hi-de-Hi!

feel sad that things didn't turn out the way you initially hoped, but no grudges, no regrets.' She had another long-term relationship. 'But since then, I can't be bothered. I'm more passionate about showbiz than a man.'

This was the reason she never wanted to have children. 'Why would I want to be a mother? How can I learn my lines if I'm going: 'Stop that, Carol - eat your dinner.' I don't know how people do it, darling.' It's hard enough for women who choose to remain child-free now; was she judged for it in the 80s? 'No, because I think people knew better than to actually be ... And you know the greatest thing! Hilda and me dad never once said: 'When are we going to be grandparents?' Jean, her sister, also didn't have children. 'It was not at all because of bad parenting - they were marvellous - we just never thought to go down that route. No thank you.'

About 25 years ago, when Pollard had just turned 50, she had a bit of a career lull. 'At the time, you think: 'Oh, flippin' 'ek, here I am, middle-aged.' I thought: 'I'm not going to be proud, waiting for the phone to ring.' She wrote to writers and directors, reminding people she was around and wanting to work. 'I wrote to Jonathan Harvey, who I liked.' The playwright had been writing the BBC comedy Gimme Gimme Gimme, and offered Pollard a guest spot. 'That sort of kickstarted my career again, so I was really fortunate. Then I got offered more musicals.' She went into the touring production of Annie, and continued for many years. 'I think a lot of producers, and even writers, probably think, 'Well, they've had a good innings', and it's time for you to go. Not I'm too young. I never say the R-word.' Campy, she stage-whispers: 'Retirement.'

This year, Pollard will do her 43rd panto, playing a fairy in Sleeping Beauty in Crewe, and she continues with her one-woman show. She has enviable energy - the work helps. 'If you like the piece, you're energised by it.' But she also does sensible things: walks a lot, sees friends, eats healthily, sleeps well. 'My favourite sleep time is 2am till nine.' What does she do until 2am? Read mostly, she says.

She is so irrepressible; does she ever have down days? 'I wouldn't say down. I would describe it as dissatisfied. I'm more likely to get irritable. But then I go: 'Oh, forget it, Su.' She used to dwell on things, she says. 'I've learned over the years you've better not to. I get sad for other people sometimes. I get very sad about losing mates. But I still talk to them and say, 'just thinking of you, babe', and then that moment passes.'

To use the theatre cliche, the show must go on, of course. And I think - as she reapplies lipstick, grins and adjusts her sequin mindress - that to be Su Pollard must be like being in one glorious, joyful show that runs and runs. Su Pollard: Fully Charged is published by Mirror Books (£22). To order a copy for £19.80, go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

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8

Arts

'I've seen Elvis, Hank - all of 'em. None of them blew me away like Gary'

in, so I didn't feel unsafe. But, looking back, I realise it was an insane situation.' A handful of aficionados - Dylan, Willie Nelson, John Waters, Tanya Tucker - maintained that Stewart was one of the 20th century's most expressive vocalists, but it seemed unlikely he would generate the exalted posthumous cult status of Nick Drake or Karen Dalton.

But now, after his chaotic life and overlooked death, Stewart is finally getting rediscovered thanks to Gary Stewart: I Am from the Honky Tonks, a biography that was an unexpected critical and commercial hit in the US when it was published last November. Its author Jimmy McDonough, whose biographies of Neil Young, Tammy Wynette and Russ Meyer have marked him as a brilliantly unconventional commentator on American lives, chuckles at his good fortune when I call him at home in Oregon. 'Of all my books this one proved the most difficult to find a publisher for,' he says, 'yet it's getting the best response of any of them.'

Meanwhile, reissue label Delmore Recording Society has released One Track Mind, a collection of Stewart's early-1970s demos, and rising country and indie-rock stars such as Ella Langley, Zach Top, Wednesday frontwoman Karly Hartzman, Charley Crockett and Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band sing Stewart's praises - and songs.

'Gary Stewart is a superhero,' says Davis, the Kentucky-born singer-songwriter whose 2025 album New Threats from the Soul won wide acclaim. 'He was, as his music still is and always will be, unfathomably real. And of near-ish my own geographic origins, making him simultaneously both realer and yet somehow even more fantastical.' Davis compares Stewart to 'a natural disaster from an earlier time, one that the older

Honky-tonk hellraiser

Worshipped by everyone from Bob Dylan to Joe Strummer, country star Gary Stewart imploded in a blaze of guns, knives, drugs and infidelities. What's behind his posthumous rediscovery?

Garth Cartwright

He sings like a man arguing with destiny. It sounds like the ache is real, that the ruin is real,' Bob Dylan tells me. 'There's a cracked truth there. What's unsettling about him is that he sounds like he's already living in the aftermath.' Dylan is talking about the late US singer-songwriter Gary Stewart. He was one of the few people to speak highly of this country music maverick.

Even while still alive, Stewart was a ghostlike figure. He had a period in the Nashville spotlight in the mid-1970s, but his death in December 2003 aged 59 barely registered. Stewart had been forgotten after he cast aside stardom in order to hunker down in a Florida trailer park where he and his wife Mary Lou consumed quailades, meth, marijuana and cocaine in industrial quantities.

'Growing up with parents who were drug addicts meant I just took this as normal,' says Shannon Ashburn, the couple's daughter. 'I loved them and they loved me and they never let any predators

▲ Spent his last 25 years in a blacked-out trailer ... Stewart

◀ 'I didn't feel unsafe' ... Mary Lou, Gary, Shannon and Joey in the 1970s

▶ On stage ... Stewart scored a No 1 with She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)

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folks still talk about outside of the bait shop".

Stewart was born in Kentucky in 1944, one of 12 children, his family shifting to Florida in 1956 after his coal-miner father suffered a debilitating injury at work. From his early teens Stewart, a prodigy who absorbed rockabilly, country and R&B, was playing in bands and writing songs. He moved to Nashville, playing piano in Charley Pride's band while seeking publishing and recording deals. Established singers sang Stewart's songs but solo success was elusive until producer Roy Dea convinced RCA to sign Stewart in 1973.

Dea understood Stewart's strengths - "I never knew anyone who blew me away like Gary," Dea told an interviewer, "and I've seen Elvis, Hank Williams, all of 'em" - and in 1974 Stewart scored US hits with Drinkin' Thing and Out of Hand. His 1975 debut album, also titled Out of Hand, won critical accolades and She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles) topped the country charts in the same year.

Stewart's albums over the next three years - Steppin' Out, Your Place or Mine, Little Junior - feature some of the most exciting American music of the 1970s. As a vocalist Stewart was without artifice; he would sing ballads Quits and Ten Years of This with intense emotional eloquence, then crank out Little Junior and Your Place or Mine with the gusto of a man hungry for the wild side of life. While punk rock made zero initial impact on Nashville, Stewart, with his raucous swagger and distaste for Music City's establishment, embodied punk's spirit; Joe Strummer was a fan.

Often likened to Jerry Lee Lewis - the fierce intensity of his rockabilly-flavoured country numbers marked them out as kindred spirits - and Hank Williams, Stewart shared with Williams a warm yet self-destructive character, addiction flattening his talent and leading to his exile from the music business. Stewart's last 25 years were spent hiding from the world with Mary Lou in a Florida trailer home with blacked-out windows, taking drugs.

Ashburn maintains that it didn't seem abnormal at the time. "The only thing I resented was not being allowed to have sleepers. I did have one of my girlfriends over once, and then dad OD'd. The ambulance was called and she started panicking and I was like: don't worry, this happens all the time! She called her mom to come and collect her ..." Ashburn laughs in disbelief at what was her daily reality. "Once when dad was on tour my mom OD'd and I had to drive her to the hospital - I was only 12!"

Stewart and Mary Lou Taylor met when he was 16 and she 21. They shared an appetite for wild, destructive hedonism. As well as the drugs there were car wrecks, guns, knives, infidelities and mental illness. In his biography, McDonough sees the pair as exemplars of a white working class who swapped Kentucky's hills for Florida's coast - and moonshine for cocaine.

▶ Exuberant ... Adam Riches in The Critic's Way; below, Andrew Doherty in Reviewers Welcome ... to Die! PHOTOS: MORDI MACLEOD; MUDSON HUGHES

Stewart's addictions ended his run on the country charts. He had an opportunity to start afresh after McDonough sought out the reclusive singer in 1987 and wrote an 11,000-word profile for the Village Voice. It briefly resurrected Stewart's career, and he signed to Californian indie label HighTone Records the following year and released three new albums. Yet these failed to match Stewart's best RCA recordings. His voice sounded worn-down, his energy dissipated - and the interest around his return soon faded.

Why did a musician who once sounded so furiously alive choose to stupef his senses? No one has an explanation, beyond the fact that Stewart just loved to get high. "People were rooting for Gary to make a successful comeback," says McDonough, "but by then he didn't really care." Dea once wryly observed that "you get hooked on Stewart ... he's like a damn drug" - yet drugs snuffed out Stewart's own spark.

The darkness that emended Gary and Mary Lou would end up overwhelming their family with the couple's son. Joey taking his own life in 1988, aged 25, depression and family dysfunction having been contributing factors. Ashburn says that it was when her parents started taking the opioid painkiller OxyContin that "things really spun out of control". She says: "Gary was first prescribed it after he broke his leg in a car crash, and they didn't know it was so addictive." After being raised by addicts, and later enduring her own struggle with addiction, Ashburn is now helping others who are dependent on drugs.

The necessity of earning a living occasionally forced Stewart to venture outside the trailer to perform, and on a good night he could still leave audiences howling. "Dad loved playing honky-tonks and juke joints," says Ashburn, "down-home places where people came to dance to his music. He'd tasted stardom, played arenas and didn't like it - he liked the funky, backwoods places. And people loved him. In Texas he was a legend, could pull 2,000 to Billy Bob's in Fort Worth."

Stewart also commanded a loyal following on reservations; McDonough believes this is because "Native Americans live a hard life and, in Gary, they heard someone who sang of that life. There was nothing fake about him."

Mary Lou died on 26 November 2003. A despondent Stewart killed himself three weeks later. "They were Bonnie and Clyde, Romeo and Juliet," says Ashburn. "One couldn't live without the other." Few noted Stewart's death at the time but Ashburn never stopped believing her father's music would again be recognised. "I'm determined to get Gary into the Country Music Hall of Fame," she says. "Things are looking up. I have so many great recordings of him that I'd love to share with the world, because Gary Stewart was unique."

Gary Stewart: I Am from the Honky Tonks is published by Wolf & Salmon. Samaritans in the UK and Ireland can be contacted on freephone 116 123

A critical mauling

What does our comedy critic make of two shows in Edinburgh that hit out at horrible, preening, snobbish comedy critics?

Brian Logan

No one ever built a statue to a critic, they say - but plenty of art gets made about them. There was Wild Bore at the Traverse a few Edinburgh fringes back, an eye-catching performance-art attack on the notion of critical authority. There was Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound, Sheridan's The Critic, and the 70s horror movie (later a play) Theatre of Blood, in which critics are subjected to gruesome murder at the hands of a deranged thesp. And while we're talking unspeakable gore, one feature of Sarah Kane's queasy play Cleansed, currently enjoying a revival, is that (in a wanton act of literary vengeance) its sadistic torturer antagonist is named after a theatre critic, Jack Tinker, who'd panned Kane's work.

Runts of the reviewing litter though we are, there's even a sub-genre of art about comedy critics. The comic Russell Kane wrote a novel about one who was unable to laugh. Ex-critic Charlotte Runcie wrote another about a journey giving a woman a one-star review for her standup, then sleeping with her.

So there's a precedent for the two shows on this year's fringe that take comedy reviewing as their subject, one of them in direct response to so-so notices at last year's festival. That show is Andrew Doherty's Reviewers Welcome ... to Die! It's a folk-horror spoof about an up-himself critic obliged by demons to learn the error of his ways. It springs from Doherty's dismay at receiving a three-star crit ("one of the three worst scores you can get!") for his sophomore show Sad Gay Aids Play - after critical hosannals greeted his debut the year before. So where does Reviewers Welcome fall on the all-important

five-star spectrum? Happily, given that this is not a review, I am under no obligation to rate his show, which characterises those in my profession as preening, nepotistic snobs, scorning the talent they purport to judge while nursing their own thwarted artistic delusions. "How sad, lonely and pathetic I am," trills Doherty's anti-hero Felix Chatelier, at least until popular and sexy playwriting genius "Andrew Doherty" shows up to shepherd our critic towards redemption. This happens at a fringe festival in the fictional town of Billington, a name that long-time readers of Guardian theatre reviews may recognise.

All of this unfolds in the spoof scary-movie style familiar from Doherty's hit Gay Witch Sex Cult, another Wicker Man-ish affair pitting a dopey outsider against yokel locals and dark forces beyond everyone's ken. Just as it trades in genre stereotype, so the show's take on critics seldom outpaces cliché - although I did enjoy the closing gag about Chatelier's constitutional inability to dole out that final, fifth star. But we critics get off lightly here, in that Reviewers Welcome is as much a mickey-take of thin-skinned artists bearing grudges as of those arbiters of taste who decorate or dismiss them with a swish of our pen.

And now to the second show. When Adam Riches bounds on stage in character as eminent comedy critic Caliban Monroe, it looks like his show The Critic's Way might land

uncomfortably closer to the bone. Scottish accent? Replica Scottish football sportswear? Why do I feel like I've seen this (stylish, smooth-talking) guy before? But The Critic's Way soon devolves into another of Riches' familiar burlesques on swaggering but shallow masculinity (ah, so it can't be me then) with strictly limited insight into Caliban's critical calling. The persona makes Chatelier look multidimensional, as Riches loudly deplores comedians, claims to have invented star ratings and reads from his now-remaindered titular treatise on the art of what he calls "the 'tique".

There's little of the promised "razor-sharp satire", although - like most of Riches' uproarious interactive work - his show is never less than a hoot. "Who wants to be a comedy critic?" he barks, eyeballing the audience as I shrink in my seat. Inevitably, behind the arrogant veneer, Monroe is another "sad, lonely and pathetic" individual. The "voice of a veneration" no longer, he's out of a job after a victim of his hatchet work hits back against one particularly indelicate review. You could just about read this as an exploration of a changing climate for criticism, in which speech is neurotically policed, and ideas like objective judgment and the single authoritative voice are both critically (as it were) out of fashion.

Or you could enjoy Riches' exuberant faux-workshop for what it is: a 50-minute piece of nonsense revelling in the archetype of the cultural snob, in love with his supposed erudition, swelling with resentment that to deploy it he must piggyback on the work of mere comedians. Considering these two shows together as a critique of the service we comedy reviewers render - well, there's ridicule (fair enough) but perhaps grudging affection too. It's probably a three-star review then for me and my counterparts - but I like to think it reads like a four.

PHOTOGRAPHS: GRUNDAL STEWART; MICHAEL OCHS GETTY

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TV and radio

REVIEW BY PHIL HARRISON

25 Years in Afghanistan

An extraordinary, harrowing update on a family's life under the Taliban

★★★★☆

ITV1

Mir Hussain remembers the first time he saw a video camera: "I looked at it and it looked straight back at me." His relationship with this all-seeing eye has deepened in the years that followed. Since 2002, when Phil Grabsky and Shoaib Sharif started documenting his story, Mir has lived an extraordinary life: grinding poverty and hard work, eking out a living in the mountainous Bamiyan province and then in urban Afghanistan, combined with a remarkable level of exposure to the world, via modern media.

Mir and his family first appeared on our screens in 2021, in the Bafta-winning film My Childhood, My Country - 20 Years in Afghanistan. This updated reversion of that film contains plenty of the same footage but also hits very differently in the light of what happened that year. In April 2021, US president Joe Biden announced the withdrawal of American soldiers from Afghanistan. Essentially, the US (and their allies, including Britain) abandoned the country to Taliban extremists. The knowledge of this incipient horror looms unavoidably large; the whole film now feels like foreshadowing.

"This is the story of my country," says Mir. "A country that, despite everything, I love." As even casual students of modern history will know, the word "everything" is doing a lot of work in that sentence - Afghanistan's recent history has included invasions and occupations by the USSR and the US, and military engagements with other countries in the region, too. Afghanistan has gained a reputation for being unconquerable, but every decade or so, someone feels the need to test this.

An insight into life at the sharp end sees Mir, a bright kid, often missing school because he has to plough the fields, or drive his family's donkeys or work down

a coalmine. He's remarkably ebullient as a child: "We lived in a cave. It was quite good fun." The family gaze at the planes flying overhead, hoping they might represent salvation and progress. The grim details of their lives are interspersed with the airy pledges of politicians including George W Bush, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. In this new film, every public proclamation by a foreign leader feels like pitch-rolling for the betrayal to come. Meanwhile, the poverty gets worse. "I never thought I'd end up eating grass," says Mir's mother, Murvarid.

Eventually, Mir marries a woman called Shukria, starts a family and moves to Mazar-i-Sharif and then to Kabul searching in vain for work. Then he has a brainwave. "I grew up being filmed," he says. "So I asked the film-makers if they could help me." There's a subtle, entirely understandable bending of the rules of documentary-making here. Should the directors alter the trajectory of the story they are telling? But if they can help, how could refusing be morally justified? And in any case, doesn't their constant presence in Mir's life mean they are influencing it anyway?

Soon, Mir is a camera operator. The film-makers find him work in Kabul and the story gains a dimension. Now, Mir is its subject and, in another context, a professional observer himself. He turns out to be brave and resourceful, specialising in recording the aftermath of suicide bombings. He also diversifies into filming live sport. In a less turbulent country than Afghanistan, we'd be hoping for a happy ending.

But no - in 2021, the western forces rolled out and the Taliban rolled back in. For women in particular, life became brutally circumscribed by religious dogma. Fittingly, therefore, in the 2026 recordings, Shukria is given more space to speak. The couple have had a fourth child, a girl. Shukria regrets this. Mir's television work has dried up and he's been forced to return to manual labour. Her husband "doesn't think that deeply" about anything much, she says. "Mir has gone backwards. He has no plans." It's incredibly sad. Even in their moments of greatest adversity, Mir and Shukria always kept a twinkle in their eyes. But now, they seem hesitant and lost.

When this film was documenting an instinctively cheerful boy and his embattled family, it managed to sidestep grinding misery. It was geopolitics with cleverly small, but love and laughter were able to find their place alongside struggle. It's undeniable that Mir has a remarkable capacity for optimism. For that reason, this 25th anniversary update casts a darker shadow altogether. From the moment he first looked at a video camera, Mir has been central to a remarkable story. Let's hope it's not over yet - and that any future instalments might have a happier tale to tell.

WHAT TO WATCH

Buried with Michael Sheen

9pm, BBC2

Increasingly as much an activist as an actor, Michael Sheen (above) draws attention to a grim pollution scandal several decades in the making in this enraging two-part TV take on the award-winning podcast he co-hosted. Are parts of Wales contaminated with the toxic "forever chemical" PCB? As Sheen speaks to reporters, visits the towns and villages affected and journeys to Anniston, Alabama, in the US to hear of a connected outrage, his anger grows.

Phil Harrison

My Life Is Murder 8pm, U&Alibi

Fishy puns are guaranteed in the latest episode of this quirky, funny crime drama. This time, Alexa (Lucy Lawless) is searching for the murder of an aquarium owner who has beef with a marine biologist - and has been killed by a sting from a rare jellyfish. PH

Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace - What Happened Next 9pm, ITV1

In a 2024 episode of the moving documentary series, Susanne - who was left in a phone box as a baby - met her older brother. This follow-up sees another life-changing update, this time about her birth mother. Meanwhile, Tom - found at a train station - meets a cousin with a shockingly similar backstory. Hannah J Davies

Celebrity Hunted 9pm, Channel 4

As the chase-'em-up in aid of Stand Up to Cancer reaches its halfway stage, Ray Howard's supposedly elite team of manhunters still have five fugitive

duos at large across the UK. After a flurry of near misses, the net does seem to be finally closing in - particularly as celebrities love doing live TV. Continues Tuesday. Graeme Virtue

Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives 10pm, Channel 4

The reality TV show you didn't know you needed is packed with warmth, humour and glamour. This week, Trewley Presh drops her first rap track, but is the world ready? Meanwhile, Mummy offers a poignant insight into married life before the girls all head out to a speed dating event. Hannah Verdier

Walter Presents: Everybody Lies 12.05am, Channel 4

This French crime drama introduces Vince Verner, a cop turned maverick outlier who has been fired for getting too close to bringing down a rich, corrupt and well-connected man. He's now part of a new unit charged with investigating organisations whose power and influence makes them too big to fail. PH

◀ Mir Hussain

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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) 11.35 Homes Under the Hammer (T) (R) 12.15 Bargain Hunt (T) 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) 3.30 The Repair Shop (T) (R) 4.30 The Answer 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)	6.45 Beechgrove Garden (T) (R) 7.15 The Answer Run (T) (R) 8.0 Sign Zone: The Repair Shop (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) 5.15 Flog It! (T) (R) 6.0 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 6.30 Bear Grylls: Wild Reckoning (T) (R) 7.0 Global Eye (T) 7.30 Mastermind (T)	6.0 Good Morning Britain (T) 10.0 This Morning (T) 1.30 News and Weather (T) 1.55 Local News and Weather (T) 2.0 Dickinson's Real Deal (T) (R) 3.0 Deal Or No Deal (T) (R) 4.0 Tipping Point (T) (R) 5.0 The Chase (T) (R) 6.0 Local News and Weather (T) 6.30 News and Weather (T) 7.30 Fletchers' Family Farm (T) (R)	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&B 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 BBC An Affair to the For (Tamar Halpern, 2023) (T) 4.0 Castle (T) (R) 4.55 Love Nature (T) (R) 5.0 News (T) 6.0 Cyprus: Jewel of the Med (T) (R) 7.0 Traffic Cops (T) (R)	7.0 The Architecture the Railways Built (T) (R) Tim Dunn visits King's Cross, 7.40 The Flying Gardener (T) (R) A visit to Norfolk.
8.0 Panorama: Child Maintenance Parents Under Pressure (T) Krupa Padhy investigates the child maintenance system. 8.30 Scam Interceptors (T) (R) Jim Browning catches scammers at work on their own CCTV. 9.0 Death in Paradise (T) (R) A reggae rap artist is shot dead at a soundcheck.	8.0 Only Connect (T) Victoria Coran Mitchell hosts. 8.30 University Challenge (T) Bath takes on City St George's. 9.0 Buried With Michael Sheen (T) Two-part documentary in which the actor investigates allegations of toxic chemical contamination in south Wales, beginning at Brofscin Quarry near Cardiff.	8.0 Emmerdale (T) Charity keeps to her false confession. 8.30 Coronation Street (T) Sarah refuses to use her contacts to help another prisoner. 9.0 Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace - What Happened Next (T) Following up the stories of foundlings Susanne Barrow and Tom Yeo.	8.0 Martin & Roman's Irish Road Trip (T) The Tampa explore Meath and Dublin, from the Boyne Valley tombs and the Hill of Tara to the Hellfire Club ruins and Slane Castle. 9.0 Celebrity Hunted (T) Two contestants drop in at a show bar in Leeds, while a couple of the fugitives pop up live on the BBC.	8.0 Street Cops: Catching the Yoke (T) Officers chase a teen after finding a studded baseball bat, and cops execute a warrant on a suspected drug dealer. 9.0 Fare Dodgers: At War With the Law (T) In London, investigators hunt for a woman thought to owe more than £2,300 in unpaid fares.	7.55 The Art of Spain (T) (R) Andrew Graham-Dixson is in northern Spain, where art by Picasso and Dalí flourished. Last in the series. 9.0 Mastermind (T) (R) Magnus Magnusson hosts. 9.30 Call My Bluff (T) (R) With panelists André Previn, Tina Brown, Tom Conti and Barbara Kellerman.
10.0 News (T) 10.30 Regional News (T) Weather 10.40 News I Got News for You (T) (R) David Tennant hosts. 11.10 BBC Mission: Impossible (R) (L) Abrams, 2006) (T) Action thriller sequel, starring Tom Cruise and Philip Seymour Hoffman. 1.05 Weather for the Week Ahead (T) 1.10 News (T)	10.0 Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing (T) (R) 10.30 Newsnight (T) Weather 11.05 Dictionary: Welcome to Glasgow (T) Myles Bonner investigates claims that parts of Scotland's biggest city are no-go zones. 12.05 A House Through Time (T) (R) 1.05 Sign Zone: Countryville (T) (R) 2.0 Bergerac (T) (R)	10.0 News (T) Weather 10.30 Local News (T) Weather 10.45 Cold Case Forensics: In the Blood (T) (R) How blood helped solve two crimes. 11.40 The Assembly (T) (R) Innovative interview show. 12.05 Shop on TV 3.0 The Staircase (T) (R) 4.05 Unwired With ITV (T) 5.10 Dickinson's Real Deal (T) (R)	10.0 Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives (T) Timothy makes a rap song. 11.05 Surgery Secrets of the Super Rich (T) (R) 12.05 Walter Presents: Everybody Lies (T) 1.0 Hotel Hall (T) (R) 1.50 BBC Blue Bayou (Justin Chen, 2021) (T) Drama. 3.45 Levison Wood: Walking With Polar Bears (T) (R) 4.40 Hollyaks Omnibus (T) (R)	10.0 Police Interceptors: Taking Down the Shoplifting Gangs (T) (R) 11.05 Traffic Cops (T) (R) 12.05 Car Pound Cops (T) (R) 1.0 Cruise TV (T) (R) 2.0 GPs Behind Closed Doors (T) (R) 2.50 Castle (T) (R) 3.45 Friends (T) (R) 4.35 Cruising With Susan Calman (T) (R) 5.35 Paw Patrol (T) (R)	10.0 Michelangelo: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (T) (R) 11.0 Arena: Art & Design - The Journey (T) (R) 11.25 Wainwright: The Man Who Loved the Lakes (T) (R) 12.25 The Flying Gardener (T) (R) 12.40 The Art of Spain (T) (R) 1.40 Arena: Art & Design - The Journey (T) (R) 2.05 Michelangelo (T) (R)

Other channels

BBC Three 7.0pm The Catch Up 7.05 Deadly 60 7.30 Deadly 60 8.0 The Great British Seating Box 9.0 Top Gear 10.0 Silent Witness 11.0 Silent Witness 12.0 BBC Brief (2005) 1.15 OnlyFans: Inside the Machine 2.15 My Insta Scammer Friend 3.0 Vigil USDave 6.0am Teleshopping 7.25 Top Gear 8.15 Border Force: America's Gatekeepers 9.15 Border Force: America's Gatekeepers 10.20 Rick Stein's Cornwall 10.30 Rick Stein's Cornwall 11.20 Yukon Gold 12.20 Top Gear 1.20 Top Gear 2.20 Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing 3.0 Guy Martin: Proper Jobs 4.0 Harry Bikers: Best of British 5.0 Rick Stein's Cornwall 6.0 Rick Stein's Cornwall 6.25 Rick Stein's Cornwall 7.05 Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing 7.40 Would I Lie to You? 8.20 Would I Lie to You? The Unseen Bits 9.0 Have I Got a Bit More News for You 10.0 Q: 9.15 10.0 Scammer 12.0 Miss the Week 12.40 Would I Lie to You? 1.30 Would I Lie to You? The Unseen Bits 2.0 Q: 9.15

XL 3.0 Richard Osman's House of Games 3.30 Parks and Recreation 4.0 Teleshopping E4 6.0am Hollyaks 6.55 Rude(ish) Tube Shorts 7.0 Couples Come Dime 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 3.0 Modern Family 5.0 The Simpsons 5.30 The Simpsons 6.0 The Simpsons 6.30 Hollyaks 7.0 Hollyaks 7.30 The Simpsons 8.0 Vanderpump Rules 9.0 Below Deck Down Under 10.0 Goggles 11.0 First Dates 12.05 Naked Attraction 1.10 Below Deck Down Under 2.10 Vanderpump Rules 3.0 Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA 3.55 The Simpsons 4.20 The Goldbergs 4.45 The Goldbergs 5.10 Brooklyn Nine-Nine Film4 11.0am BBC The Son of Robin Hood (1958) 12.40 BBC The Comanches (1961) 2.50 BBC Man in the Saddle (1951) 4.35 BBC Charade (1963) 6.50 BBC Fisherman's

Friends: One and All (2022) 9.0 BBC Blessed Off (1996) 11.10 BBC Glass (2019) 1.45 BBC Urban Fury (2014) PBS America 6.0am Teleshopping 8.0 Weathered Earth's Extremes 8.35 Digging Up Britain's Past 9.35 The Stuarts 10.40 Franco: The Last Inquisitor 11.55 The Truth About Franco: Spain's Forgotten Dictatorship 1.0 Weathered: After the LA Fivepower 2.10 Digging Up Britain's Past 3.10 The Stuarts 4.15 Franco: The Last Inquisitor 5.25 The Truth About Franco: Spain's Forgotten Dictatorship 10.35 The Stuarts 12.0 Franco: The Last Inquisitor 1.15 Weathered: Earth's Extremes 2.0 Teleshopping Sky One 6.0am Warnings With Ridge and Frost 8.0 Stargate 5G-1 10.0 Will & Grace 11.0 The Simpsons 11.30 The Simpsons 12.0 Africa's

Hunter 1.0 Hawaii Five-O 3.0 S: W: A: T: 5.0 The Simpsons 6.0 Rob & Ramesh vs Usain Bolt 7.0 The Simpsons 8.0 Agatha Raisin 10.0 Last Week Tonight With John Oliver 10.45 Frank Skinner: 30 Years of Dirt 11.45 Grimm 12.40 Evil 1.30 Road Wars 2.0 Best Medicine 3.0 Hawaii Five-O 4.0 L: W: A: T Sky Arts 6.0am Musical Masterpieces 7.0 Battle of the Irish Dancers 8.0 Artist of the Year: Masterclass 8.30 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 Janet Leigh 12.0 The Art of Film With Ian Nathan 12.0 Tales of the Unexpected 1.30 Tales of the Unexpected 2.0 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour 3.0 The Eighties 4.0 Discovering: Red Slinger 5.0 Perfect Artist of the Year 2023 6.0 Tales of the Unexpected 6.30 Tales of the Unexpected 7.0 Alfred Hitchcock Presents 8.0 André Rios: Skull We Share! 11.0 Academy of Ancient

Music: Vivaldi's Four Seasons 12.30 Notre-Dame: The Renaissance 2.05 National Theatre Live: Under Milk Wood 4.0 My Week With Maggi Handling 5.0 The Art of Film With Ian Nathan Sky Atlantic 6.0am Richard E Grant's Hotel Secrets 8.0 Billiam 10.15 House of the Dragon 12.35 Homicide: Life on the Street 2.30 Billiam 3.35 Billiam 4.40 The Last of Us 5.45 The Last of Us 6.45 House of the Dragon 7.50 House of the Dragon 9.0 BBC Promising Young Woman (2020) 11.0 Possession 11.55 Possession 12.50 Dune: Prophecy 2.0 Little Bird 3.0 Little Bird 4.0 Urban Secrets 5.0 Urban Secrets A Mission: Impossible III, BBC One

Radio

Radio 3 6.30am Breakfast 9.30 Essential Classics 1.0 Classical Live: From the BBC Priors, Graham Doddard conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in Beethoven's Symphony No.7 in A major. Plus, from the Edinburgh International Festival, Ethel Smyth's Three Roots of the Sea, with mezzo Bath Taylor and pianist Harish Brown. 4.0 Composer of the Music: Felix Mendelssohn (1/5) 5.0 In Tom 7.0 BBC Prams 2026. Live from the Royal Albert Hall, Ryan Bancroft conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and clarinettist Anthony McGill in Caddo's Bills the Kid Suite, Gabriel Kishore's Content Concerts, "If Love Will Not Swing Wide the Guns", and Strassley's Polynika (1/94) version. 10.0 Night Tracks 11.30 'Round Midnight: With singer Gretchen Parlato. 12.30 Through the Night Radio 4 6.0am Today 9.0 The Great Crime Mystery. Public perceptions of the crime rate. (1/2) 9.30 How Did We Get Here: No World Order. The Beijing Olympics,

the financial crash and the Arab spring. (4/6) 10.0 Woman's Hour 11.0 Behind the Crime. How gummy almost led to 100 years in a US prison. (1/2) 11.45 Book of the Week: The Fire in the Mountain. By Helena Attila. (1/5) 12.0 News 12.04 You and Yours 12.57 Weather 1.0 The World of One 1.45 Human Intelligence. Naomi Alderman discusses ancient Roman statesman Cicero. (1/10) 2.0 The Archers: (R) 2.15 Alone: Comedy, by Moray Hunter. Elite tries wild swimming, much to Mitch's initial dismay, and Will takes in a boozy delivery for Morris. (8/6) (R) 2.45 Opening Lives (R) 3.0 Great Lives! Pauline Black of the Galactan on Poly Styrone of X-Ray Spas. (2/9) 3.30 You're Dead to Me (R) 4.0 Pride Before the Fall (R) 4.30 Soul Music (R) 5.0 PM 5.57 Weather 6.0 News 6.30 Just a Minute. With Paul Martin, Zoe Lyons, Catherine Bohart and Paterson Joseph. (5/6) 7.0 The Archers 7.15 Front Row 8.0 The Briefing Room (R) 8.30 Inside Actress (R) 9.0 The Great Crime Mystery (R) 9.30 How Did We Get Here: No

World Order (R) 9.59 Weather 10.0 The World Tonight 10.45 Book at Bedtime: Mr Sidhu's Post Office. By Ammon Brar. (1/10) 11.0 Intimacy. Live confronts the past. (4/4) 11.30 Poetry Please (R) 12.0 News 12.30 Book of the Week (R) 12.48 Shipping Forecast 1.0 As World Service 5.0 News 5.04 Pride Before the Fall (R) 5.32 Weather 5.34 Shipping Forecast 5.43 Prayer for the Day 5.45 Farming Today Radio 4 Extra 6.0am The Wolf Far Hence (4/6) 6.30 The Senior Partner (5/8) 7.0 The Adventures of John and Tony (1/4) 7.30 Dad's Army (14/20) 8.0 Or Phil's Bedside Manner (4/6) 8.30 Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (6/10) 8.45 Agnes Grey (1/5) 9.0 Just a Minute (4/6) 9.30 The Essay: British Film Comedians (1/5) 9.45 Daily Service 10.0 Sounds Natural 10.20 The Pleasures of Brecht 11.0 The Wolf Far Hence (4/6) 11.30 The Senior Partner (6/8) 12.0 The Adventures of John and Tony (1/4) 12.30 Dad's Army (14/20) 1.0 Or Phil's Bedside Manner (4/4) 1.30 Adrian Mole (6/10) 1.45 Agnes Grey (1/5) 4.0 Mendelsohn (5/6) 4.30 A Whole 'Nother Story (5/6) 5.0 The Growing Summer 5.45 Short Works

(1/5) 2.0 Wendelsohn (5/6) 2.30 A Whole 'Nother Story (5/6) 3.0 The Growing Summer 3.45 Short Works 4.0 Sounds Natural 4.30 The Pleasures of Brecht 5.0 The Wolf Far Hence (4/6) 5.30 The Senior Partner (6/8) 6.0 The Adventures of John and Tony (1/4) 6.30 Dad's Army (14/20) 7.0 Or Phil's Bedside Manner (4/4) 7.30 Adrian Mole (6/10) 7.45 Agnes Grey (1/5) 8.0 Wendelsohn (5/6) 8.30 A Whole 'Nother Story (5/6) 9.0 The Growing Summer 9.45 Short Works 10.0 Just a Minute (4/6) 10.30 Truly, Medly, Bletchley (2/6) 10.45 Quando, Quando, Quando (2/6) 11.0 The People Have Spoken (1/3) 11.30 The In Crowd (1/5) 12.0 Sounds Natural 12.30 The Pleasures of Brecht 1.0 The Wolf Far Hence (4/6) 1.30 The Senior Partner (6/8) 2.0 The Adventures of John and Tony (1/4) 2.30 Dad's Army (14/20) 3.0 Or Phil's Bedside Manner (4/4) 3.30 Adrian Mole (6/10) 3.45 Agnes Grey (1/5) 4.0 Wendelsohn (5/6) 4.30 A Whole 'Nother Story (5/6) 5.0 The Growing Summer 5.45 Short Works

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12

Friday's solutions

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Sudoku no 7,416

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Saturday's Quick crossword

Solution no 17,559

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Puzzles

Quick crossword no 17,560

Across

1 Adrenal, sebaceous etc (6) 4 Part of footwear, often protective (6) 9 Young Italian child (7) 10 Butterfly or punctuation mark (5) 11 Spanish coastal city (5) 12 Weekly 5k event (7) 13 Go first - strip roof illegally (4,3,4) 18 Formicary - all thin (anag) (7) 20 Web portal - Swift brute (5) 22 First world war plane, Sopwith _ (5) 23 Where beans often found (2,5) 24 Deny connection with (6) 25 West wind - old Ford (6)

Down

1 Return (2,4) 2 Intended - lined up in direction of target (5) 3 Lemon _ cake - light rain (7) 5 Happen (5) 6 Lake District county (7) 7 Tiger, Dublin Bay and Atlantic (6) 8 Complete a vertical, circular turn (4,3,4) 14 Greek goddess - moon-exploration programme (7) 15 Baby's set of clothing (7) 16 Spoiled, sour (as with fats or oils) (6) 17 Medic (6) 19 Relative by marriage (2-3) 21 Ledger, row or cliff? (5)

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Sudoku no 7,420

Easy. 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 Thai food ingredients 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: 10. Very good: 12. Excellent: 14.

Trivia corner

Sunny Dancer's Daniel Quinn-Toye was understudy to whose Romeo in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet?

a. Kit Connor b. Tom Holland c. Noah Jupe d. Orlando Bloom Answer top right

TODAY'S TRIVIA CORNER ANIMED TOM HOLLAND

制度与权力批判深度研判：The Guardian (2026-08-17)

▌ 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 2 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. 【米尔本青年就业审查报告】 [F1_5-F1_14]

   • 事件简述：前部长艾伦·米尔本领导的青年就业审查报告建议大规模扩大"支持性实习"项目，以应对英国100万尼特青年（16-24岁）的就业危机。该项目可将特殊教育需求青年就业率从5%提升至70%，但政府体系对其准备不足。
   • 思想文化深思切入点：触动了技术理性与生命政治的张力——现代福利国家如何通过"可计算的实习项目"将脆弱主体纳入资本循环，同时掩盖结构性失业的真实根源（如金融化导致的制造业空心化）。米尔本"诊断即无法工作"的驳斥，实则暴露了新自由主义对"异常"主体的规训逻辑。

2. 【霍尔谋杀案与缓刑系统崩溃】 [F3_49-F3_58, F4_59-F4_68, F5_69-F5_76]

   • 事件简述：米凯拉·霍尔被前科累累的家暴者李·肯德尔杀害，缓刑署因"可怕工作压力"将其误判为"中等风险"并提前释放。英国政府计划从10月起提前释放5,000名囚犯以缓解监狱拥挤，但家暴犯被排除在外。
   • 思想文化深思切入点：风险社会与司法去责任化*——贝克（Ulrich Beck）意义上的"风险分配"如何在司法实践中转化为对受害者的二次伤害？缓刑官员的"压力说"与政府的"效率说"共谋，揭示了新管理主义如何将公共安全转化为成本-收益核算的对象。

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▌ 精选核心专题深度思想论证 (In-Depth Dialectical Monograph)

专题一： 《风险社会的司法幽灵：从霍尔谋杀案看新管理主义如何合谋杀戮》

（一）现实困境深描（The Concrete Dilemma）

米凯拉·霍尔的谋杀案是一起典型的制度性失败：缓刑署将李·肯德尔误判为"中等风险"，警方在接到34次家暴报警后仍未及时介入，最终导致受害者被谋杀。更荒谬的是，英国政府计划从10月起提前释放5,000名囚犯以缓解监狱拥挤，但家暴犯被排除在外——这暴露了司法系统的选择性效率：对"经济犯"的宽松与对"社会犯"的严厉形成鲜明对比。霍尔父母的控诉--"他们全都没有正确履行职责"--直指现代福利国家的去责任化机制：缓刑官员以"工作压力"为借口推卸责任，政府以"效率优先"为名规避安全投入。[F3_51-F3_54, F5_69-F5_71]

（二）博弈机制与话语策略剖析（Mechanisms & Discourse）

1. 风险评估的技术化掩盖：缓刑署将肯德尔评估为"中等风险"，实则是将复杂的社会-心理因素简化为量化指标的结果。这种"去情境化"的风险评估忽略了家暴的结构性根源（如性别权力关系），将责任转嫁给受害者--"如果她不自救，我们又能做什么？"[F4_67 🔍] 这一话语策略通过施事者模糊化（"系统无法应对"）将个体责任与制度责任分离。
2. 监狱拥挤的政治经济学：政府以"监狱人满为患"为由提前释放囚犯，但排除家暴犯的决定体现了选择性人道主义：经济犯（如金融欺诈）的"可改造性"被高估，而社会犯（如家暴）的"危险性"被夸大。这种区分背后是新自由主义对人力资本的投资逻辑：只有能为GDP增长做出贡献的主体才值得"救赎"。[F3_55-F3_56]

（三）历史思想资源的平等对话（Theoretical Resonance）

1. 贝克的风险社会理论：霍尔案是贝克（Ulrich Beck）《风险社会》（1986）的活生生案例。贝克指出，现代社会通过风险分配制造不安全感，而司法系统正是这种分配的执行者。缓刑署的"风险评估"不是中立的技术，而是将社会不平等转化为个体责任的机制。[F3_52, F5_72]
2. 福柯的生物政治与安全机制：福柯在《必须保卫社会》（1976）中分析了现代国家如何通过"安全"话语（如监狱、缓刑）对主体进行规训。霍尔案展示了安全机制的失败：当缓刑系统无法保障公众安全时，它实际上成为了一种虚假安全的生产者。[F3_56 🔍]

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专题二： 《技术理性的幽灵：米尔本青年就业审查与生命政治的隐形规训》

（一）现实困境深描（The Concrete Dilemma）

艾伦·米尔本的青年就业审查报告建议大规模扩大"支持性实习"项目，以应对英国100万尼特青年的就业危机。该项目可将特殊教育需求（Send）青年就业率从5%提升至70%，但政府体系对其准备不足。米尔本驳斥了"脆弱一代"的神话，指出问题不在于青年是否努力，而在于机会与支持的缺失。[F1_7-F1_14]

（二）博弈机制与话语策略剖析（Mechanisms & Discourse）

1. 实习项目的资本化逻辑：支持性实习项目由政府与企业合作推进，企业通过廉价劳动力获利，而政府则通过"就业率"数据证明政策有效。这种公私合作的模式将青年就业问题转化为人力资本投资的问题，掩盖了劳动力市场的结构性矛盾。[F1_12 🔍]
2. 媒体叙事的技术化：米尔本的报告在《卫报》头版被呈现为"解决方案"，但其叙事策略是技术化的：通过量化数据（5% vs 70%）制造政策有效性的假象。这种数据主义的叙事忽略了青年主体的复杂性，将其简化为可计算的"就业率"。

（三）历史思想资源的平等对话（Theoretical Resonance）

1. 哈贝马斯的生活世界殖民化：哈贝马斯在《交往行动理论》（1981）中分析了现代社会如何通过系统世界（如资本、国家）对生活世界进行殖民。支持性实习项目正是这种殖民的典型表现：青年的生活世界被简化为"就业率"，而他们的主体性被技术理性所压制。[F1_13 🔍]
2. 福柯的生命政治与异常主体：福柯在《生命政治的诞生》（1978-79）中指出，现代国家通过规训与惩罚对异常主体进行规训。Send青年被视为"需要救助"的对象，而支持性实习项目则是将他们纳入正常化轨道的机制。这种生命政治的逻辑将青年视为可塑造的对象，而非平等的主体。[F1_8 🔍]

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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. 【制度暴力的算法化】：在霍尔案中，风险评估算法如何成为新的制度暴力形式？这种算法暴力如何与性别、阶级等结构性不平等交织？
2. 【生命政治的资本化】：支持性实习项目将Send青年视为"可雇佣"的主体，这种生命政治的资本化如何重新定义了青年的主体性？