提前释放， 但强奸犯除外
奥利弗·赖特 (Oliver Wright) 政策编辑 黛西·伊斯特莱克 (Daisy Eastlake) 政治记者 杰西卡·夏基 (Jessica Sharkey) 犯罪报道记者
在应对监狱过度拥挤的计划被削弱后，被判定犯有强奸、诱拐以及儿童性侵罪的罪犯将不再有资格获得提前释放。
安迪·伯纳姆表示，他是在回应公众对该提案的“愤怒、焦虑和痛苦”。根据原方案，被判定犯有某些最严重罪行的人在仅服刑一半后即可获释——而目前的标准是三分之二。
首相承认他无法在限制措施上“走得更远”，并表示，为了防止监狱系统“达到容量上限并崩溃”，被判定犯有误杀和严重家庭暴力罪的人仍可能获释。
未能将误杀罪犯排除在外，这意味着安德鲁·哈珀警官的两名杀手将在 1 月份具备获释资格。
这名警察在 2019 年处理一起犯罪案件时被杀，其遗孀利西·哈珀 (Lissie Harper) 表示，她现在“愤怒不已。这传递了多么令人厌恶的信息？部长们怎么敢说杀害一名警察还不够‘令人作呕的罪行’，不值得受到最严厉的惩罚？”
她表示，这次释放将是“对正义的冒犯。政府和司法系统不仅让我失望……他们还伤口撒盐。他们本应站在我们这一边。这是彻底的背叛——是我无法原谅也无法忘记的。”
罗德·利德尔逝世，享年 66 岁 在罗德·利德尔逝世（享年 66 岁）后，人们对他表达了悼念。他曾为《周日泰晤士报》和《太阳报》撰写定期专栏，并为泰晤士广播主持每周节目。
£3.20 £2.35 订阅者 （基于 7 天印刷版及数字版订阅） 你应该忽视的健康迷思
自从工党在 2024 年 9 月推出应对过度拥挤的紧急措施以来，已有超过 70,000 人获释。截至 6 月底，英格兰和威尔士共有 85,858 人在押。监狱系统的运行容量约为 89,500。
司法部此前预测，除非有 6,000 名囚犯提前获释，否则监狱床位将在 11 月耗尽。
凯米·巴德诺克表示，伯纳姆希望人们能为他“同意不释放强奸犯和儿童性侵犯而鼓掌。但没人会这么做。”
这位保守党领导人补充道：“由于工党的提前释放计划，杀人犯、暴力犯罪者、恐怖对待其伴侣的男性以及更多的人，都将在 10 月走出监狱。”
家庭暴力专员妮可·雅各布斯女爵表示：“决定不将家庭暴力实施者排除在这一计划之外是错误的，并且将受害者的生命置于风险之中。正如我上周告诉大法官的那样，实施者给受害者带来的危险不应被低估。这些人执迷于其受害者，为了控制和造成伤害将不择手段。”
伯纳姆在两周前进入 10 号唐宁街 (No 10) 后，宣布对提前释放计划进行审查。
大约 5,000 名囚犯原定于下月起具备获释资格，其中包括被判定犯有强奸、误杀和儿童性侵的人。司法部无法说明这 5,000 名囚犯中将有多少人不再获释。
“抄袭”风波 一名剑桥大学学院院长在一位剑桥教授杰森·阿代似乎承认抄袭其博士论文部分内容后，撤回了对他的支持。
Tuesday August 4 2026 / thetimes.com / No 75102
希腊谋杀案被拘
新闻速递
有记录以来最干燥的七月 英格兰和威尔士经历了自 1836 年开始记录以来最干燥的七月，导致农作物受损并引发山火。约 23 million 人受到禁用水管指令的限制。
一名 26 岁的阿富汗拳击手沙里夫·艾哈迈德扎伊（Sharif Ahmadzai）因涉嫌谋杀 38 岁的伊丽莎白-简·罗斯（Elisabeth-Jane Ross）并将死者遗体弃置于行李箱内而被逮捕。
核禁令放宽 在广岛原子弹爆炸 81 年后，日本目前正在公开讨论该国是否需要在国防计划中纳入核武器。
制药巨头合并 由于投资者对该公司探索与一家美国竞争对手达成合并协议的报道反应冷淡，阿斯特捷赛诺的市值蒸发了近 180 亿英镑 billion。
S1
自白 £450 的海鲈鱼， 给狗准备的牛排
“范围之广，以至于 面临失效风险”
里斯·布莱克利（Rhys Blakely） 科学编辑
英国一名研究该病症的顶尖专家警告称，自闭症已成为一种“概括性诊断”，被应用于过多的人，以至于面临几乎失效的风险。
目前，所有自闭症病例都被统一归入一个临床标签：自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD)。然而，乌塔·弗里斯教授女爵表示，该诊断被应用于生活情况和需求截然不同的人群——从需要终身照顾的重度残疾儿童，到症状轻微且独立生活的成年人。
弗里斯在《心理医学》（Psychological Medicine）杂志上撰文，呼吁将该谱系划分为更清晰的小组。她认为，这可以防止误诊，同时结束对那些最严重残疾者的“悲剧性忽视”。
她说：“自闭症并非一直这样定义——即成为一种涵盖多种情况的概括性诊断。它在 20 世纪 40 年代首次被确定时，是指一小群在社交互动、沟通和行为方面存在严重困难的儿童。随着时间的推移，定义扩大到了包括具有较轻特质且无语言或学习问题的人。”
她补充道：“过去，我和我的同事们自信地认为我们可以在第一印象中识别出自闭症。但今天已经不再如此了。”
弗里斯是伦敦大学学院认知发展的荣休教授。她的研究有助于建立关于自闭症患者如何理解他人内心以及如何处理细节和语境的有影响力理论。
被诊断为自闭症的人数大幅增加，但由于诊断标准发生了剧烈变化，不同时期的数字并不具备直接可比性。一项 1966 年发表的英国研究显示，每 10,000 名儿童中约有 4 名自闭症患者。而最近的研究表明，在校学生中记录在案的诊断比例约为 1 in 57 —— 增加了 44 倍。
另一项关于英国基层医疗的研究
拉杜卡努出局 艾玛·拉杜卡努将因右小腿压力性骨折而缺席美网公开赛。这位英国 No 1 此前在最后时刻因伤退出了温布尔登。
新闻
乔治·格里尔斯 华盛顿 去年向他颁发了首届国际足联和平奖。在赛事开始前，他在特朗普大厦开设了国际足联的美国办事处。
据消息人士透露，吉安尼·因凡蒂诺在努力挽救其国际足联主席职位的过程中，已多次试图致电特朗普总统。
据《纽约邮报》报道，自周五以来，这位瑞士-意大利籍的足球行政管理人员一直向总统寻求帮助，因为当时他被迫放弃了将世界杯 20% 的股份出售给私人投资者的计划。国际足联和白宫尚未对此说法发表评论。
行程的票已购买，但中间路段没有购买。
此前，试点仅对少数乘客开放，但现在不限人数均可报名。在决定是否在全国范围内推广该技术之前，在评估试点结果期间，纸质票和普通电子票仍将可用。
“逃票是违法且自私的行为，”交通大臣海蒂·亚历山大表示。“我们致力于打击票务欺诈，而将我们的数字票务应用程序扩展到试点区域的更多人群，正是预期收益之一。
“GPS技术既能防止人们不诚实地购买错误的车票，也能确保人们不会在旅途中意外多付钱。
“这次票务开发仅是我们如何使铁路现代化、在建立大不列颠铁路公司时将乘客放在首位的一个例子，旨在让旅程变得更简单、更便捷。”
该应用程序还设有保障措施。其中包括工作人员在旅程结束后进行“人工检查审核”以标记任何可疑情况，并监测用户的手机电池电量，以便确认是否为真正的失误。如果用户在旅途中持续断开连接或关闭手机，他们将收到电子邮件提醒其义务，或被收取最高票价，或者被封禁使用该应用程序。
如果检票员想在火车上查票，或者乘客被困在检票闸机前，该应用程序将生成一个显示旅程起点的二维码。
负责 Trainline 未来票务计划的珍·富尔福表示，该公司正协助运行此次试点：“数字随到随付（pay as you go）是一项极佳的技术，受到了东米德兰地区 1,500 多名试点者的热烈欢迎，并帮助铁路实现了部分关键目标。”
苹果公司已将其更多存储数据转移至此方法，而政府希望其创建一个可以访问该数据的系统，活动人士将其称为“后门”。
《金融时报》率先报道了苹果公司的法律挑战，隐私国际（Privacy International）随后确认了这一举动，该组织正对政府的要求提出挑战。苹果公司表示，是由其本人而非隐私国际提起诉讼，并引用了之前的一份声明，其中提到：“我们从未为我们的任何产品或服务建立后门或主密钥，且永远不会这样做。”
美国参议员、参议院情报委员会成员罗恩·怀登告诉《泰晤士报》：“如果苹果被强迫削弱其安全性，每个拥有 iCloud 账户的英国人面对罪犯和掠食者的安全性都将降低。”
一名政府发言人表示：“英国支持强加密和稳健的隐私保护，但执法部门在必要时能够访问通信记录以保护公众也至关重要。”
在辞职呼声日益高涨之际，据报道，因凡蒂诺希望在昨天与国务卿马可·卢比奥会面进行谈话。然而，国际足联和国务院否认了会面正在进行。
“他想与国务卿进行在线沟通，讨论足球如何成为美国软实力的一种形式，”一名内部人士告诉《纽约邮报》。“但我们都知道，这关乎保住职位。在目前这个时间点，没有其他任何原因。”
据估计，逃票每年给该行业造成 £400 million（4亿英镑）的损失。政府正发布一系列旨在解决这一问题的公告。
其中包括投入 £33 million（3300万英镑）在逃票热点地区安装肩高票检闸机，以防止乘客跳过闸机；以及在获得任何折扣前，在网上、自动售票机和售票窗口增加一项“铁路卡验证步骤”。
‘将加剧 交通拥堵’
Laurence Sleator, Jennifer Zhou
部长们将自动驾驶出租车誉为“交通的未来”，并承诺随着行业的成长，这将减少碰撞事故并带来数十亿英镑的经济增长。
然而，一份报告指出，在伦敦引入此类车辆可能会产生一些意想不到的后果，包括更严重的拥堵和污染。
专注于推广共享交通的慈善机构 CoMoUK 发布了一份白皮书，其中重点介绍了来自美国的各项研究，美国已使用无人驾驶出租车多年。研究显示，这些车辆在道路上行驶的时间中，有高达三分之二的时间是空驶的。
在 Waymo 加利福尼亚州商业服务的第一个月里，出租车有 64 %的时间处于空驶状态，不过随着车队规模的扩大以及人们对该服务的认知度提高，这一数字缓慢下降。
报告称，尽管大多数无人驾驶汽车是电动车，但它们引起的更严重拥堵可能会增加污染，因为其他非电动车辆将被迫原地怠速，从而排放更多废气。
“他正在寻找知名的盟友在公开场合支持他，”另一人说道。
特朗普政府与陷入危机的国际足联（Fifa）保持距离。上周，总统否认自己曾讨论过因法蒂诺的计划——该计划最早由《泰晤士报》披露，旨在将世界杯的股份出售给包括由特朗普女婿贾里德·库什纳的兄弟约书亚·库什纳经营的风险投资基金在内的投资者。
拉普兰特：禁驾令令我绝望
声称因超速违章 被取消驾驶资格 将终结其职业生涯， 作者：Lowri Lewis
畅销犯罪小说作家琳达·拉普兰特在含泪告诉法庭此类禁令将终结其职业生涯后，被取消了驾驶资格。
这位 83, 岁的作家也是电视剧《首席嫌疑人》的创作者，她表示，如果不能开车带着她心爱的护卫犬 Theo 每天散步，她将完全停止写作。
她告诉法庭，如果不能开车带狗散步，她认为不得不将其重新安置在其他家庭，并表示：“我认为由此带来的情感动荡将真正毁掉我作为作家的职业生涯。”
“这（写作）是非常非常孤独的，我工作极其刻苦，而我将就此停笔。”
拉普兰特还表示，她需要汽车来会见罪犯和线索来源，以便为创作下一部小说进行研究。
她在伦敦的 Lavender Hill 地方法院表示，她不想雇佣司机，因为她不希望在从会见线索来源返回的途中被对方“询问问题”。
该作家表示，如果禁驾令生效，她将关闭公司，导致四名员工失业。
然而，地方法官认定她未能证明禁令会给她带来“异常困难”——并判处其禁驾六个月。
拉普兰特在 1980 年代创作了热门抢劫剧集《寡妇》，并在 1991 年将由海伦·米伦主演的《首席嫌疑人》搬上荧屏。她昨天承认在 2025 年 11 月至今年 4 月期间，在位于泰晤士河畔金斯顿的家中附近五次违反 20 英里 / 小时的限速规定。
该作家承认，在带着她 18 个月大的狗进行每日散步时，曾两次以 24 英里 / 小时的速度行驶，以及分别以 25 英里 / 小时、26 英里 / 小时和 27 英里 / 小时的速度行驶。
检察官 Kari Williamson 表示，拉普兰特在 2023 年至 2025 年间因 3 次超速违章已被记 9 分。
她的律师尼克·弗里曼（被誉为“漏洞先生”，曾代理一系列名流客户）敦促地方法官免除她的禁驾处罚。
他（的驾照）上已经有 9 个记分了，因此，如果他的特殊理由申请在 10 月的听证会上被驳回，他可能会被取消驾驶资格。
当被问及为什么不能像过去在处理“商务活动”时那样雇佣司机时，拉普兰特表示，她在接触完资料来源后需要“独处的时间”。在作证时，她说：“我不想坐在后座，由司机在旁边问问题。”
拉普兰特表示，她有四本书正在创作中，并主张她需要开车进行研究采访，因为某些“犯罪形式”的人倾向于对“地点非常挑剔”。
在作证时，拉普兰特提到，在经历了之前宠物休戈（Hugo）英年早逝的沉痛打击后，她养了新狗西奥（Theo），当时休戈正值“壮年”。
“我不想让这听起来很琐碎——一个女人和她的狗——但我无法向你们描述与那只巨大且美丽的爱尔兰猎犬在一起是什么感觉。我不知道他是怎么做到的。”
“他会走进我的办公室，就像在对我说‘停止’。他知道我已经连续工作了五个小时，然后这只爪子就拍了下来——砰。”
强忍泪水，她说在休戈去世时她“崩溃了”，并且“不知道生活该怎么继续”。
她说新狗帮助她度过了悲伤期。“我爱他，就这么简单，但与此同时，他也成了我巨大的慰藉，”她说。
拉普兰特表示，她开车带着西奥，在从罗汉普顿（Roehampton）到温布尔登（Wimbledon）的路段进行训练。
她说附近的里士满公园（Richmond Park）不合适，因为那里“到处是慢跑者”以及鹿，而她正试图训练西奥不要追逐人们。
地方法官对这位作者处以总计 £3,330 的罚款，并判处其禁驾六个月。她的总记分上升至 24 分，并被要求支付 £130 的诉讼费和 £1,332 的被害者附加费。
在法庭听证前，拉普兰特曾表示，休戈的去世对她影响很大。她需要开车带新狗西奥去散步，并与犯罪分子交谈以进行研究。
Alex Farber 媒体记者 这部在 2023 年影院票房高达 14 亿美元 billion 的电影，在三年中提出了六次报价，试图说服主演们回归。
在《芭比》与《奥本海默》激烈的商业大片之战巅峰期，有一件事是肯定的——这两部电影中可能只有一部会有续集。
但现在，一部《芭比 2》回归并扩大其在克里斯托弗·诺兰传记片之上的票房领先优势的前景正陷入危机。
制片人们一直难以与好莱坞演员玛格特·罗比（Margot Robbie）和瑞安·高斯林（Ryan Gosling）达成协议，让他们重新饰演芭比和肯。
华纳兄弟（Warner Bros）否认了关于其首席执行官大卫·扎斯拉夫（David Zaslav）“对与演员达成的条款感到犹豫”的报道。“从未出现过一个已获批准后又被撤回的约定框架，”一名发言人补充道。“代表们拒绝了最近的一次报价，这是华纳兄弟为一部电影提供的最高报价之一。迄今为止尚未收到反向报价。”
但罗比（36 岁）和高斯林并未被要求签署长期合同，因为华纳兄弟与《芭比》导演格蕾塔·格威格（Greta Gerwig）签署的是单部电影合同。
据称，格威格与她的编剧搭档诺亚·鲍迈巴赫（Noah Baumbach）已经构思出了第二部《芭比》电影的想法，但在与两位主演达成协议之前，她拒绝向制片厂老板展示方案。
而且时间在流逝——华纳兄弟探索（Warner Bros Discovery）与《芭比》版权持有者马特（Mat-）的协议……
在 2024 年，罗比对《芭比》续集的前景似乎反应冷淡。“很有趣，在这个时代，大家的条件反射就是立即询问续集，”她告诉《综艺》（Variety）。“我不认为 20 年前是这样的。我们希望拍更多像《芭比》这样能产生影响力的电影。”
玛格特·罗比和瑞安·高斯林在 2023 年的热门电影中
将于 12 月到期。如果在截止日期前无法达成条款协议，相关权利将回归该玩具品牌，后者可能会以不同的概念重新开发该特许经营权。这一僵局得到了 Pam Abdy 和 Michael De Luca（华纳兄弟影业集团联合主席兼首席执行官）的确认。
他们在一份联合声明中表示：“我们与美泰（Mattel）已经签署了权利协议，并提出了一系列巨额报价，试图敲定拍摄下一部《芭比》电影的协议。遗憾的是，到目前为止，我们仍无法达成一致。”
此前曾抱怨金斯顿-upon-泰晤士（Kingston-upon-Thames）A308 公路上的路标“非常令人困惑”。弗里曼（Freeman）认为，她在专注于安全驾驶时可能不小心超速了。
第三代汉沃斯子爵（Viscount Hanworth）大卫·斯蒂芬·杰弗里·波洛克（David Stephen Geoffrey Pollock）在伦敦一个限速 20 英里 / 小时的区域内被发现以 27 英里 / 小时的速度行驶，目前他准备提出特殊理由，试图避免被禁驾。
这位前工党世袭贵族，80 岁，在威斯敏斯特治安法院承认于 2 月在伊斯灵顿（Islington）超速，这可能导致他的驾照被扣 3 分并被处以罚款。
我们搞定了：在里彭赛马场的“冰淇淋与马鞍”家庭日期间，孩子们在北约克郡冰淇淋锦标赛上品尝提供的美食
Rhys Blakely 科学编辑
一项针对 5,000 多名学生的研究发现，在中学开始时就开设社交媒体账号，与学生在 16 岁时数学成绩落后约六个月相关。
研究结果表明，频繁查看手机会干扰家庭作业和注意力，导致考试成绩较差。这些结果是在政府准备禁止 16 岁以下青少年使用 Instagram 和 TikTok 等服务之际公布的，此前人们对于这些平台对心理健康、睡眠和学术成就的影响日益担忧。
根据媒体监管机构 Ofcom 的数据，83% 的英国 11 岁儿童拥有智能手机。进入中学是一个转折点，许多孩子在此时收到他们的第一台设备。
这项新研究对比了一组来自意大利北部的学校的“早期采用者”学生，他们开设了他们的
记录显示，在 1998 和 2018. 之间，新记录病例的率增加了近九倍。这并不意味着自闭症本身以相同的速度增加。对该病症意识的增强、污名化的减轻，以及对女性和成年人自闭症更好的认可，很可能解释了大部分的增长。
在 11 或 12, 岁时拥有第一个个人社交媒体账户，而第二组人则等到 14 或 15 岁。
每位早期使用者都被匹配到对比组中的一个“统计学双胞胎”——即一名具有相似家庭背景、父母受教育程度相似且童年早期测试结果相当的学生。当学生在 15 或 16. 岁参加国家测试时，较早加入社交媒体的学生在数学和意大利语科目中的得分显著较低。这一差距大致相当于一名儿童缺课六个月所导致的预期差距。
领导该研究的米兰比可卡大学教授马可·圭（Marco Gui）表示：“虽然大多数关于社交媒体和未成年人的研究将心理健康作为结果，但我们关注的是学业表现，并且发现了这种负面影响更明显的迹象。”
他支持更严格的年龄限制，称：“在我个人看来，现在是一个紧急时刻，禁令是正确的选择。”
这项发表在《自然-人类行为》（Nature Human Behaviour）杂志上的研究不能证明社交媒体导致了较差的成绩。然而，研究人员表示，习惯性地检查手机似乎是最合理的解释之一。早期使用者更容易报告在做作业期间、在学校、睡前和醒后检查手机，这可能会干扰注意力并影响睡眠。
未参与该研究的伦敦玛丽女王大学教授丹尼斯·奥格林（Dennis Ougrin）表示：“这项研究增加了越来越多的证据，表明年轻人首次接触社交媒体的年龄对其教育发展可能至关重要。虽然研究结果并未证明仅社交媒体就导致了较差的学业表现，但它们表明，早期且在很大程度上缺乏监督的使用与后期成就的差异相关，尤其是在数学和语言方面。该研究还指出了合理的机制，例如频繁检查手机和注意力降低，而不仅仅是屏幕时间本身。”
6月，政府宣布，社交媒体公司将被禁止向 16 岁以下儿童提供服务。计划中的限制预计将包括 TikTok、Instagram、Snapchat、Facebook, X 和 YouTube，而 WhatsApp 和 Signal 等即时通讯服务则不打算涵盖在内。首批法规预计将于今年年底前提交议会，禁令预计将于春季生效。
部长们在7月宣布了针对 16 和 17 岁青少年的进一步保护措施。社交媒体应用将被要求实施默认的夜间宵禁（从午夜到凌晨6点），并自动禁用旨在让青少年持续刷屏的功能。这些措施包括对自动播放内容的限制。
将各种问题归于单一诊断之下。“对包容性的追求最终是否导致了过度包容？”她问道。
弗里斯（Frith）最近强调了证据，表明在童年时期被诊断出的人与在青春期或成年期被确认的人之间存在明显差异。
这些人通常具有平均或较高的智力，并伴有焦虑、抑郁、创伤后应激障碍或注意力缺陷多动性障碍等情况。
一些研究还发现，这两组人群在相关的遗传模式上存在差异。
目前还没有能够确认自闭症的生物标志物。诊断依赖于患者的病史、他们的陈述以及临床工作人员的观察和判断。
弗里斯补充说，她对“掩饰”（masking）感到担忧，这指的是一些人为了融入环境而隐藏自己的自闭症特征。
Quintagram® No 2637
利用下方每个字母仅一次，解答所有五个简洁线索
1 有力的拳击 (4)
2 车辆防盗锁 (5)
3 短暂的剧烈活动期 (6)
4 更纤细的 (7)
5 礼貌的问候或评论 (10)
A A B C E E F
I L L M M
N O P P R R
S S T U W Y Y
答案请参阅 T2 MindGames 第 14 页 加密线索请参阅 T2 MindGames 第 15 页
泰特之子出院
据其家人透露，一名 7 年前从泰特现代美术馆 10 层被扔下的男孩已出院。这名法国儿童在 2019. 8 月遭到 Jonty Bravery 袭击时年仅 6 岁。该儿童于 1 月接受了脑部手术，并于上月出院。Bravery 承认谋杀未遂，并于 2020 年被判处至少 15 年监禁。
盗窃技术取得成功
数据显示，得益于一个允许零售商在几分钟内将犯罪摄像头录像发送给警方的在线平台，伦敦被绳之以法的商店窃贼人数翻了四倍。该平台的案件在 29.4 per cent 的情况下产生了积极结果（如起诉或警告），而引入该平台之前这一比例仅为 7.3 per cent。
“失控”司机
一名向警方谎称其捷豹 I-Pace 电动汽车失控且自动加速的男子被判处 4 年 3 个月监禁。Nathan Owen, 33, 在以 86 英里 / 小时的速度行驶并为了逃避支付汽车贷款而 31 次撞击警车后，在利物浦刑事法院承认了欺诈和危险驾驶。
音乐教授获判无罪
皇家音乐学院的一名小提琴教授被判定在袭击一名 18 岁学生的指控中无罪，他在南华克刑事法院表示，他当时是在课上纠正该学生的姿势。Jan Repko, 68, 在南华克刑事法院经过重新审理后，被判定性侵犯和侵入性袭击罪名不成立。他称这些指控“荒谬”。
早餐时间： 早上 6 点至 10 点 我们的免费广播电台每天早晨提供最新的头条新闻、采访和辩论 每周 7 天全天候收听 通过 DAB、 应用程序、 网站 及智能 音箱
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罗德·利德尔（Rod Liddle）逝世，享年 66 岁，他将深邃的才智与犀利的幽默相结合，亚历克斯·法伯（Alex Farber）撰文
记者及广播员罗德·利德尔（Rod Liddle）于周日晚上在米德尔斯堡的詹姆斯·库克大学医院（James Cook University Hospital）因短时间患病突然去世。他曾为《周日泰晤士报》和《太阳报》撰写专栏，并为泰晤士广播（Times Radio）主持每周一次的节目。
他的子女 怀尔德（Wilder）、泰勒（Tyler）和艾米（Emmy）在一份声明中表示：“我们对我们优秀的父亲突然离世感到非常悲痛和震惊。他将我们培养成了你们所想象的样子：好奇、勇敢且始终幽默。”
“即便是在过去几周住院期间，他依然掌控着全场，从未表现出糟糕的境况。他留下了让我们所有人都感到无比自豪的遗产，他将永远指引我们如何过不平凡的人生。”
新闻集团（News Corp）首席执行官、2002 年至 2007 年期间担任《泰晤士报》编辑的罗伯特·汤姆森（Robert Thomson）表示：“罗德既古灵精怪又深沉，又在深沉中带着古灵精怪。早在 2003 年，我们就决定让他将自己的才智活力和跳跃性的幽默带到《泰晤士报》，从此他的智慧与奇思妙想在我们公司及全世界引起了共鸣。罗德的影响力在未来的许多年里定将继续回荡。”
News UK 首席执行官蕾贝卡·布鲁克斯（Rebekah Brooks）表示，读者、听众和观众将深深地思念他。“罗德是一个不可复制的新闻力量——才华横溢、敢于挑衅且极具天赋——他犀利的幽默和毫不妥协的观点在几十年来点缀着我们的版面和电波，”布鲁克斯说道。“无论是为《周日泰晤士报》和《太阳报》撰稿，还是在泰晤士广播（Times Radio）播报，他挑战传统思维，在英国新闻界留下了不可磨灭的印记。”
利德尔曾担任 BBC Radio 4 的《今日》（Today）节目编辑，2003 年在被时任《泰晤士报》周六版编辑迈克尔·戈夫（Michael Gove）从《卫报》（The Guardian）挖走后，开始为《泰晤士报》撰稿。
现任《旁观者》（The Spectator）编辑的戈夫表示：“他拥有独特的声音，我很高兴这种声音在我们的版面上得到了充分发挥。”
随后，他开始为《周日泰晤士报》和《太阳报》撰写每周评论，并于去年开始在泰晤士广播（Times Radio）主持周六早间节目。
《周日泰晤士报》编辑本·泰勒（Ben Taylor）表示，人们将极其思念他。“罗德·利德尔拥有绝佳的文字掌控力，并利用其独特天赋为读者发声，揭露困扰现代生活的伪善与荒诞，”泰勒说。“他还极其风趣，多年来他的专栏是许多人每个周日首先翻阅的内容。”
《太阳报》总编辑维多利亚·牛顿（Victoria Newton）将利德尔描述为一名才华横溢且无所畏惧的专栏作家。“作为新闻自由的捍卫者，对他而言没有禁区，他的文字既风趣又刻薄，简直出类拔萃，”牛顿说。“他是一位敏锐的政治阶层弱点观察者，人们将记住他犀利的幽默和深厚的才智。”
《周日泰晤士报》专栏作家卡米拉·隆（Camilla Long）表示，利德尔是一位才华横溢且才智过人的作家，她将思念他。“他对每件事都有自己的看法，”她补充道。“他可以很幽默，但同时也是一名非常严肃的作家。他深深关怀我们，关怀这个国家以及这里发生的一切。他还拥有另一种大多数专栏作家梦寐以求的特质——他敢于直言。”
BBC 主席萨米尔·沙阿（Samir Shah）将利德尔描述为“独一无二”且“有点像专业级的老顽固”。
“罗德是一个多才多艺的人——包括是一名一流的厨师。去他家吃晚餐和去米其林星级餐厅相差无几。谁能想到呢？但最重要的是，他是一个热心且慷慨的人。”
（图注：罗德·利德尔曾为《周日泰晤士报》、《太阳报》和《旁观者》撰写专栏。上方照片中他与第二任妻子艾丽西亚·蒙克顿 Alicia Monckton 在一起）
在离开 BBC 之后，利德尔开始为《分光镜》（The Spectator）撰稿。他在六月份发表的最后一篇文章标题为“凯米给了我希望”，典型地体现了他那刻薄的幽默感。“前几天我产生了一个念头，觉得我可能还能给这个转瞬即逝的世界提供更多东西。一种感觉是，既然生活对我相对宽厚，也许我可以回馈一些什么，”他写道。“我每月大约会有一次这样的想法——而且通常会被不屑地打发掉，因为这些想法要么不切实际，要么带有杀心。”
凯米·巴德诺克表示，最近几周她很想念利德尔在《分光镜》的专栏以及他在广播中的声音，对他去世的消息感到震惊。“我无法用言语表达这对新闻业、对他读者，尤其是对他朋友和家人来说是多么令人悲伤，”她说道。
浇油者
评论
没有人能写出比 罗德·利德尔 更好的开篇句。在我担任他的编辑时，我将其称作“可卡因式导引”：只要一句，你就被勾住了。它可能会让你发笑，让你瞠目结舌，或者让你怀疑这一次他是否真的走得太远。通常这三种感觉共存。但他的文字最终总会导向一个微妙、严肃且原创的论点——一个没人想到过、不会想到去提出，或不敢这样做的论点。其结果便是我们这个时代最伟大的讽刺写作。
这位极具天赋的作家最终从事写作几乎纯属偶然。他加入了 BBC，并升任 Radio 4 的 Today 节目编辑。他偶尔撰写的专栏只是副业。但这些文章引起了轰动，引发了一系列受控的爆炸。他非常享受这一点。BBC 则不这么认为，并给了他一个选择：要么从事广播，要么从事出版。接下来的故事众所周知。
因为他认为自己属于左翼，所以他不介意将他认为的自身阵营付之以嘲讽。对方并不总是能明白其中的笑点。但他拒绝被政党政治标签化，而是攻击所有人。他的倾向是针对最危险的问题，在他人恐惧踏足的地方浇油。他不是通过论战或谩骂，而是通过幽默来这样做。刺破自尊，嘲弄傲慢，屠宰圣牛。
在一个充满审查的时代，他始终可靠且快乐地挑战禁忌。2009 年我成为《旁观者》杂志编辑并尽可能地征求读者意见时，我听到的一项请求比其他所有请求加起来还多：不要削弱罗德的锋芒。对于许多读者来说，该杂志的起点和终点就是他的观点。
我还看到他的写作是多么自然、多么完美。如果我们下午 2 点讨论他的专栏主题，稿件在 90 分钟后就会送达。他写媒体、体育、政治、人口统计学，甚至接手了一个音乐专栏，展示了他对作曲的知识。当然，他绝不会将其描述为“知识”。
在现实生活中，他充满了生活之乐（joie de vivre）——从不脾气暴躁，不摆架子，不愤怒，也不敏感。他热爱与读者见面。我第一次在读者的圣诞颂歌音乐会上见到他，他拿着一只装有桑塞尔白葡萄酒的品脱杯，与他们交流心得（和笑话）：这些人就是他的同类。他爱他们，他们也爱他。他很少出席那些名流权贵的活动，但从未错过一次会见订阅读者的机会，因为在他看来，他正是为这些人工作。
当取消文化（cancel culture）到来时，罗德·利德尔 成为了第一个倔强的目标。当时流行一种游戏：在技术细节上抓住对方。如果他们引用了一个略有偏差的统计数据，你就要求更正。如果对方给出了更正：看吧！作者“被迫对其文章进行了更正”。于是，新闻监管机构 Ipso 可能会被说服判定该文章不准确。随后便可以要求解雇或惩戒该作者。
罗德也遭遇了不少这样的事情。我认为我的职责是抵挡这些攻击：尽管并不总是成功。在我因为他的一篇（非常优秀且完全准确的）文章而不得不出庭后，我组建了一个团队，旨在这个新的取消文化 era. 保护作家。例如，有一次罗德写到约克郡的一个地方，萨维尔镇（Savile Town），那里“98 ％是穆斯林”。显然这是一个修辞手法：一个经典的陷阱。于是团队去核实实际数字。答案是：98 ％。他完全正确——正如他几乎一直以来那样。他的天赋、他的幽默、他的顽童之气，都建立在一种他厌恶被他人知晓的严谨之上。正是这种结合赋予了他的文字力量。
有很多作家旨在制造震撼，很多作家风趣幽默；但能兼而有之的人极少。而让罗德脱颖而出的是，他将这些特质与判断力、自律以及直击问题核心的能力融为一体。曾经有他这样的人，而且永远不会再有了。
法拉格计划派遣海军遣返移民
奥利弗·赖特 (Oliver Wright) 政策编辑
在奈杰尔·法拉格提出旨在开展“二战以来英吉利海峡最大规模军事行动”的方案后，法国发出警告，称英国改革党（Reform UK）计划派遣皇家海军拦截并遣返小船移民的行为将是非法的。
法拉格在昨天的记者会上承诺，如果该党在下次选举中获胜，将派遣海军进入海峡，拦截所有移民船只。在所谓的“堡垒行动”（Operation Fortress）下，移民将被拘留，在获得食物和水后，由海军舰艇“护送”遣返至法国或比利时。
法国内政部表示：“这将是对法国主权的侵犯，同时违反了海事法和国际法。另外，作为与英国共同实施的措施以及在地方层面部署的安排的一部分，内政部声明，2026 年的跨境人数有所下降。”
英国改革党回应称：“无论埃马纽埃尔·马克龙（法国总统）是否喜欢，我们将始终维护英国利益并保护我们的人民。人道主义任务并不违反海事法或国际法。”
法拉格还在记者会上表示，对于与鲁珀特·洛（Rupert Lowe）就统一英国政治中“爱国右翼”的协议进行谈话持“开放态度”，但他驳回了对方的一项关键要求。法拉格表示，他曾建议给洛打个电话，而洛在周末曾敦促两人合作。
洛曾任改革党国会议员，在去年 3 月因涉嫌欺凌和威胁行为而激烈地离开了该党。这位千万富翁随后创立了自己的政党“恢复党”（Restore），该党侵蚀了改革党的得票份额。
在上周的大曼彻斯特市长选举中，恢复党以 9% 的第一志愿得票率排名第四，领先于保守党和自由民主党。
洛曾在 X 上发布消息称，如果法拉格同意一系列要求，他愿意与改革党达成协议。其中包括将禁止波卡面纱（burqa）和清真肉类作为改革党的政策，并排除任何前保守党部长进入未来的内阁。
法拉格表示，他“没有欲望”满足洛政策“购物清单”中的部分项目，并暗示对方并非认真地寻求达成协议。
“如果你想与某人达成政治协议，你知道，你会私下联系他们，而不是拍一段 12 分钟的视频，”他说。“话虽如此，我确实在……昨天联系了他。我说，‘听着，我们要通个电话吗？’ 我还没有收到回复，所以我不知道这到底有多诚意。”
他补充道：“我不会抛弃我的朋友。我不会抛弃我的盟友，无论是苏埃拉·布拉夫曼（Suella Braverman）还是‘时髦的’乔治·科特雷尔（Posh George Cottrell）。你知道，我不会因为别人想让我这么做就抛弃他人。”
洛是 2024 年大选中首批当选进入威斯敏斯特的改革党议员之一，他在大雅茅斯（Great Yarmouth）选区获胜。这位南安普顿足球俱乐部前主席此前曾在欧洲议会的英国脱欧党（Brexit Party）中与法拉格共事。
然而，在当选进入威斯敏斯特不到一年后，他因涉嫌欺凌和威胁行为被英国改革党时任主席齐亚·尤素夫（Zia Yusuf）举报至警方。他此前也因欺凌指控受到党内调查。
故事背后的真相
去年 8 月，奈杰尔·法拉格站在讲台上，承诺大规模遣返将解决小船危机。今年 8 月，他再次如此，公布了“堡垒行动”——承诺部署海军拦截每一次跨境，并将移民遣返至法国或比利时，英国改革党称这将是二战以来海峡规模最大的军事行动（奥利弗·赖特撰文）。
显而易见的问题是，为什么在最后一个宏伟计划出台仅 12 个月后，又有了另一个宏伟计划？
一种解释是政治势头的影响。在过去的 18 个月里，该党一直享受着看似不可阻挡的上升势头。但近几周来，随着标准调查的增加和对捐款的质疑，这一势头有所放缓，法拉奇的个人支持率也在下降。
与此同时，鲁珀特·洛（Rupert Lowe）领导的 Restore 党在梅克菲尔德（Makerfield）和大曼彻斯特市长的补选中表现良好，在这两次选举中都分走了右翼的选票。洛曾是一名改革党（Reform）国会议员，在与法拉奇激烈分裂后创立了这家竞争对手政党。上周末，洛公开向改革党提供合作——前提是改革党必须采纳一系列 Restore 党的政策。
法拉奇表示他持有“开放心态”，并承认 Restore 党可能会给他的政党带来“巨大的伤害”。
此外，上周还有数万名移民从摩洛哥跨境进入西班牙北非领土休达（Ceuta）的画面。在英国，7 月 29 日，穿越英吉利海峡的人数达到了今年的单日最高峰，尽管累计抵达人数仍比 2025 年同期低 42%。正是在这样的背景下，改革党选择发起攻击。
在改革党需要政治上稳住阵脚的时刻，法拉奇再次祭出了他在整个职业生涯中一直信赖的问题，试图按照自己的设定来重新定义辩论。
“……彻底毁掉这个国家仅存的希望，”他说道。
法拉奇承认 Restore 党可能会通过侵蚀其核心选票来损害改革党。“你可以预见到这样一种情况：Restore 党在格雷特雅茅斯（Great Yarmouth）之外没有任何获胜希望——我的意思是，在全国范围内几乎没有任何赢得一个席位的希望——但却可能给我们带来巨大伤害，”他说道。“我认为在网上你会看到很多 Restore 党的潜在选民现在开始担心这可能产生的影响。”
“最后我想说的是，如果这是一个交易提议，那么它的提出方式非常不寻常。我已经以一种潜在的、你知道的，开放的心态做出了回应，就像我通常会做的那样，但我肯定不会抛弃那些我认为是盟友和重要资产的人。”
洛随后在 X 上发帖称法拉奇是一个“骗子”，并对他描述的情况提出质疑，但表示该提议对法拉奇和英国改革党（Reform UK）仍然有效。
英国改革党领导人奈杰尔·法拉奇（Nigel Farage）在伦敦就小船危机发表讲话，其副手理查德·泰斯（Richard Tice）以及高层也出席了活动。
理查德·泰斯当时是党魁，在 2024 年 3 月和 4 月期间，法拉奇回归担任领导人。根据该协议，一旦法拉奇成为领导人，改革党将偿还或免除其从泰斯公司获得的一笔超过 £1 百万的未偿贷款。
法拉奇承认，他在 2024 年春季与泰斯讨论过如果他回归领导该党将会发生什么。
他说：“如果你接手一项工作而没有查明潜在负债，那你有点傻，不是吗？而那些负债数额巨大。”他表示，这“不是一笔交易，也不是一份协议，而是以‘如果我回来’为前提的”。
议会廉政监督机构还启动了一项调查，旨在确定泰斯是否未能申报相关利益。泰斯在 X 的帖文中表示，议会标准专员丹尼尔·格林伯格（Daniel Greenberg）的调查是关于他在威斯敏斯特大厅（Westminster Hall）参与辩论时，涉嫌未申报在以色列的利益。尽管专员在其网站上确认了该调查，但泰斯称这是“媒体在制造垃圾信息”。
（由于）安迪·伯纳姆进行的调整，但坚称能够应对监狱设施所承受的额外压力。
大臣们还将把针对更严重罪犯的提前释放扩展计划推迟一个月，从9月延至10月，以便监管人员有时间规划释放事宜，且受害者能够就对罪犯采取的限制措施发表意见。
安迪·伯纳姆表示：“我想诚实地说——我希望走得更远，因为我知道人们仍然担心其他罪犯的刑期被缩短。但如果监狱系统达到容量极限并崩溃，这将使公共安全面临更大的风险，而那样做是不可能的。”
随后，近 70,000 名被判犯有较轻罪行的罪犯被提前释放。
但今年夏天，司法大臣大卫·拉米宣布，该计划将扩展到涵盖更严重的罪行。他表示，如果不进行扩展，“我们将回到监狱容量处于 99, 几乎 100 状态的情况”。
代表儿童性虐待受害者的律师艾米·克劳里（Amy Clowrey）表示，她的 7 位客户在6月收到信函，通知他们其施暴者可能符合提前释放条件，这造成了“巨大的痛苦”。克劳里表示，她“非常高兴政府听取了一直为此而奔走呼吁的幸存者的声音”，但补充说，所有性犯罪者和暴力施暴者都应被排除在该计划之外。
法国称移民行为非法
（图注）正确。在埃塞克斯郡的克莱克顿（Clacton），补选候选人安迪·埃兰（Andy Erlam，身穿白色衣物）正与公众进行街头竞选演说。
乔治·格里尔斯（George Grylls）华盛顿报道
特朗普总统表示，英国是一个“破产国家”，并再次鼓励安迪·伯纳姆向北海开放更多钻探。
总统称，那些“失败者”国家依赖风能，而英国则“坐拥金山”。他重复了之前的主张，即安迪·伯纳姆可以颁发新的钻探许可证，此前他曾称赞两人上个月的通话“非常愉快”。
“我认为你们的新任首相实际上会开放（钻探）。我和他谈过了，他在这个话题上的表现非常出色，”特朗普在昨天的椭圆形办公室新闻发布会上说道。
（坐拥）金山。比金子更好。而你们却对此无所作为。”
他声称，北海的石油和天然气储量“可能可以维持 1,000 年”，尽管行业预测显示它们大约能维持到 2050 年。
与美国相比，英国的能源价格要高得多，英国消费者的支付费用约为每千瓦时 30 便士，而美国为 13 便士。
上周，特朗普声称“这位新先生”（指安迪·伯纳姆）将“开放北海”。
安迪·伯纳姆表示，他将采取“务实”的方式来开采石油和天然气。他计划履行现有许可证，坚持工党 2024 年竞选宣言中的承诺。他正考虑在现有场地增加产量，以及在处于规划审查中的罗斯班克（Rosebank）和杰克道（Jackdaw）区域增加产量，而非在新的地点开采。
海格负责政务
本·克拉特沃西 (Ben Clatworthy) 白厅编辑
安迪·伯纳姆将在本周剩余时间内休假，这位新任首相将开启一次计划已久的假期。
据了解，助手们希望首相能够继续进行他的家庭度假。唐宁街拒绝透露他的旅行目的地。
第一国务秘书露易丝·海格 (Louise Haigh) 将是最高级别的在职部长，但消息人士坚称她并非在代行首相职责。
英国改革党 (Reform UK) 主席李·安德森 (Lee Anderson) 表示：“上任两周，安迪·伯纳姆就已经受够了。在放弃了一系列缺乏资金支持的承诺，并监管了超过 2,000 名非法移民潜入我国之后，他现在就逃到国外去逍遥快活了。”
勉强维持现状而设计的吗？
政治速写
奈杰尔·法拉格一直躲在哪里？从样子看，应该是在某个阳光充足的地方。当他出现在五月以来首次在威斯敏斯特举行的新闻发布会舞台上时，他看起来就像雷·温斯顿在cult黑帮电影《性感野兽》（Sexy Beast）开场戏中，仰面躺在日光浴躺椅上的样子——就在几秒钟后，他险些被一块掉落的巨石砸死。
那是那种让人屏息的古铜色。拥有Crayola Ultimate 152-piece crayon set的人可能会将其描述为介于生赭色和焦赭色之间。这种诱人的深古铜色，通常是普通英国人在科斯塔德尔索尔退休数年后才能达到的，尽管现在这样做在技术上已不再合法，而这正是法拉格的另一项成就，尽管人们很少为此感谢他。
巨石已经向法拉格砸来一段时间了。来自泰国加密货币亿万富翁的£5 million赠款就是其中最大的一块，当时这看起来一定很幸运，但现在却对他政治生涯没什么好处。
他自己的叙事，非常像温斯顿在《性感野兽》中的情节：他本已愉快地退休，过着最好的生活，但随后被诱导回来执行最后一次任务，即勉强带领改革党经历两场大选，并最终成为首相。
他会解释说，他当时决定不申报这笔赠款绝对是正确的，因为他的政治生涯已经结束，且没有回归的意向。然后，好吧，是的，他确实回来了，但他绝对不知道自己会回来，无论你可能看到了什么样的协议和文件。
他带来了自封的“影子内政大臣”齐亚·尤苏夫，两人共同启动了“堡垒行动”（Operation Fortress）。这是他们的计划，旨在利用皇家海军巡逻艇将移民的小艇送回法国，该计划与他们去年夏天宣布的方案几乎完全相同。
法拉格追溯到了旧时光，具体是指他在2016年揭晓的“临界点”（Breaking Point）海报。那张海报上显示了克罗地亚和斯洛文尼亚边境排队的叙利亚和阿富汗移民。“那张海报的目的是为了说明，欧洲给自己制造了巨大的问题，如果我们离开，就可以避免这些问题，”他说。
然而，不知为何，十年后，我们依然在这里，法拉格仍然不得不就非法移民举行新闻发布会。哪里出错了？他没有完全解释清楚。
……次数。他们是想战斗吗？还是想住在寻求庇护者的酒店里，或者非法驾驶外卖电动车？他们似乎从未确定。但不可否认的是，那些小艇上的很多人是“战斗年龄的男性”。不久前，一名“战斗年龄”的阿富汗男性乘坐小艇前往英国。我们知道他是战斗年龄，因为他是一名特种部队士兵，曾在阿富汗与英军并肩作战，但在塔利班接管后，没有被提供安全的路径前往英国申请庇护。
“堡垒行动”将涉及护送小艇返回法国，并将那些可悲的人类“货物”体贴地卸载回他们出发的海滩上。尤苏夫尽力预先应对关于在未经允许的情况下将皇家海军巡逻艇驶入法国海域可能产生的后果等问题，因为这在技术上可能被视为入侵北约盟国。
“现在听着，”他说，“我们更倾向于在港口让人们下船，引导他们走下舷梯，正式将他们交给法国当局。那样更有尊严，也是我们将要谈判争取的结果。”
但如果没能实现，那么，好吧，小青蛙约翰（little Johnny Froggy）就只能忍受了。他们能拿他怎么做？
“难道法国总统会命令法国警察前往海滩，阻止执行人道主义任务的皇家海军陆战队安全地让平民登陆，并强行将他们推回大海，直接危及他们的生命吗？”他质疑道，“那将是一场反人类罪行。”
不，可以想象一位法国总统可能不会那样做。遗憾的是，尤苏夫（Yusuf）在英国政治这场持续不断的闹剧中还是个相当新的人物。他在脱欧的高峰年份还不在场，当时许多政治家在意识到问题时已经太晚了——他们发现英国人食用的许多至关重要的食物是通过货车从法国运抵英国的，因此法国总统拥有相当大的影响力，而且通过大放厥词进行威胁的政治手段其实没什么成效。
最终，所有的问题都集中在法拉奇（Farage）显然已同意回归领导该党这一点上，正如《周日泰晤士报》所披露的那样。“噢，好吧，”他说，“关于钱的问题可以讨论好几年！”
他会解释说，他并没有回归领导层的“意向”，他只是在随意交谈，讨论如果他这么做会发生什么。然后，他确实这么做了。
尽管如此，法拉奇似乎依然屹立不倒。目前来看，巨石勉强地擦肩而过。但为了不剧透整个情节，改革党（Reform）自己的这头“性感猛兽”此刻可能已经在后悔，自己当初怎么会被说服从退休状态中走出来，接手这份薪水相当低且最后一次的工作。
剽窃争议教授 失去学院负责人 支持
Emma Yeomans
一名剑桥学院的院长在剑桥教授杰森·阿代（Jason Arday）似乎承认剽窃其博士论文部分内容后，撤回了对其的支持。
纳米科学家兼沃尔夫森学院（Wolfson College）负责人伊杰奥玛·乌切古教授女爵（Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu）此前签署了一封由良好法律项目（Good Law Project）传阅的、支持阿代的公开信。
阿代是该大学任命的最年轻的黑人教授，他被指控剽窃以及夸大其在体育和筹款方面的成就。
该信函的签署人还包括霍默顿学院（Homerton College）院长伍德福德的伍利勋爵（Lord Woolley of Woodford）；阿代担任研究员的耶稣学院（Jesus College）院长索尼塔·艾琳（Sonita Alleyne）；以及包括扎克·波兰斯基（Zack Polanski）和约翰·麦克唐奈（John McDonnell）在内的政治人物。
然而，乌切古的名字在经过周末的删除后，不再出现在该网站上。
除担任沃尔夫森院长外，乌切古还是英国医学科学院（Academy of Medical Sciences）院士、皇家化学学会（Royal Society of Chemistry）荣誉院士以及韦尔康信托（Wellcome Trust）理事。
教育社会学教授阿代被指剽窃其博士论文及其发表的部分学术研究。他还被指控在生活经历中撒谎或夸大，包括声称在六天内跑了 600 英里，并为慈善机构筹集了超过 £5 million 的资金。
他否认在马拉松跑步和筹集数百万慈善资金方面编造故事，尽管他承认自己
Jonathan Ames 法律编辑
一条六英寸宽的土地和一只装饰性松鼠引发了一场长达 14 年的法律战，期间出现了带有贬义的在线歌曲，且赔偿金及诉讼费用超过 £150,000。
菲利普·纽（Philip New）及其妻子丹尼斯（Denise）在 2012 年因埃塞克斯郡本弗利特（Benfleet）附近两家花园之间围栏位置的争执，首次起诉了他们的邻居史蒂夫（Steve）和卡伦·吉布森（Karen Gibson）。
起初这只是一场小争吵，但据称吉布森夫妇在邻居从两家之间的一根柱子上移走一只“具有情感价值”的松鼠装饰品后感到心碎，随后此事升级为一场法庭之争。
（此处接上文）……并非由他一个人完成，而是属于一个筹款“辛迪加”的一部分；并且他是在 12 天内跑了 600 英里，而非 6 天。杰森·阿代（Jason Arday）告诉《泰晤士报》：“我承认我有责任在纠正这一叙述时表现得非常、非常明确。”他表示：“我对所犯的错误负责。我要求自己负责，其他人也应该让我负责。我们这里讨论的是学术问题。我没有杀人。我认为我所经历的残酷对待，以及将我定位为这种骗子和幻想家的做法是完全不可接受的。”
其他学者表示，涉嫌抄袭和学术不端行为需要进行严肃调查。牛津大学社会学系主任科林·米尔斯教授（Professor Colin Mills）在 X 上写道：“我不希望我的学科、我的系、我那些勤奋且在学术上诚实的同事，或者我自己，因为与学术造假、低学术标准以及那些本应懂规矩的权威人士发表的小丑般言论而产生间接关联而受到抹黑。”
在授予杰森·阿代博士学位的约翰·摩尔斯大学（John Moores University）进行调查时，他并未否认具体的抄袭指控，但表示不端行为审查小组应考虑“针对批判性种族理论之战”的政治背景，以及抄袭指控被用作攻击黑人研究者的武器这一现象。
昨晚，WaterAid 慈善机构对杰森·阿代关于在南美和西非“安装给水点”的说法表示怀疑，称其从未派遣志愿者出国。
据《每日电讯报》（The Daily Telegraph）报道，在杰森·阿代所属的演讲经纪公司 Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau 的官方网站个人简介中，直到最近还写道：“他还与 WaterAid 共同在南美和西非从事并完成了救济工作，安装了提供饮用纯净水的给水点。”
（此处接上文）……包括这样的歌词：“往他们的窗户扔屎，往门口扔屎 / 骂他是自慰狂，骂她是妓女。”
纽在自己的 YouTube 频道上表示，他写了 25 首以上的歌曲，其中一些是由人工智能生成的女性声音演唱的。这些歌曲已被删除，但纽在该平台上承认，他写过关于邻居的歌曲，其他主题还包括“焦虑、孤独、童话以及利用福利制度”。
这场纠纷始于 2012 年，当时纽更换了一些围栏面板，引发邻居抱怨该结构位置错误且不呈直线。
弗朗西斯·皮卡比亚（Francis Picabia）的《萨乐美》（Salome, 1930）位于 45 号展室，该作品属于其“透明期”，标志着 20 世纪中叶的前卫艺术罕见地被纳入国家美术馆传统的西欧收藏体系中。
（此处接上文）……在 2018。在南端郡法院（Southend county court）的一名法官于 2022 年做出不利于纽一方的裁决后，他们被要求在去年向邻居支付 £13,305 的赔偿金及利息，并承担估计约为 £120,000 的律师费账单。
但由于纽针对赔偿金额向高等法院提起上诉，认为金额过高且诉讼费用账单应被撤销，诉讼双方于上个月再次回到法庭。
汤普塞尔法官将赔偿金减少了 £700，但向该新闻机构开出了 £19,000 的账单，用于支付其邻居的诉讼费用。他表示，对方提出上诉的动机是为了获得足够大幅度的赔偿金削减，从而使他们也能避免支付邻居的费用。该裁决意味着，该新闻机构将不得不向其邻居支付 £12,600 的赔偿金，以及 £19,000 用于支付上诉的律师费，以及在郡法院诉讼过程中估计约为 £120,000 的费用。
乔治亚·兰伯特 (Georgia Lambert)
一些为名门私立学校夏季项目支付了数千英镑学费的家长被告知，在该课程临时取消后，他们将无法获得退款。
位于伦敦西区的独立学校肯辛顿公园学校 (Kensington Park School) 于 7 月 30 日致信家长和海外代理机构，通知他们原定于 8 月 2 日开始的夏季学校最后两周课程将不再进行。
在《泰晤士报》看到的电子邮件中，校方表示取消原因是“由于学校无法控制的情况”，且学校目前正在进行重组，而该过程“无法在夏季课程开始前完成”。
这家学校对国内学生的年学费起价为 £29,850，由一家名为星教育投资有限公司 (Star Education Investment Limited) 的中国公司所有。
有疑问的家长被引导至与学校合作的重组公司 Kroll Advisory。
该课程的寄宿名额两周费用为 £3,940，包括学费、住宿、膳食和活动。非寄宿名额费用为 £1,550。
Kroll 告诉一位家长，学校正“经历一段严重的财务困境期”，无法提供夏季学校课程。其代表表示：“关于应支付的退款或补偿，遗憾地通知，学校目前在财务上无法履行退款。”
乔纳森·艾姆斯 (Jonathan Ames) 法律编辑
一名外科医生因在一次失败的手术中几乎导致一名患者死亡而被除名，该手术导致一名男性的肠道内容物进入了胃部。
法庭获悉，亚塞尔·阿卜杜勒·拉赫曼 (Yasser Abdel Rahman) 在为一名患者进行紧急手术时，将该男子小肠的错误部分与胃连接在一起。这被定性为严重的医疗失误，且属于一次“完全不符合常规的操作”。
拉赫曼告诉患者家属手术成功，但法庭称，由于患者的肠道和胃处于“闭环”状态，导致该男子陷入了“无法控制的痛苦”。根据法庭报告，拉赫曼的失误意味着患者的肠道内容物“除了以圆形方式返回胃部，别无去处”。
因“行李箱谋杀案”被拘
乔治·奥德林 雅典报道
一名家人被塔利班屠杀的阿富汗拳击冠军，因涉嫌在雅典谋杀一名英国女性而被逮捕。
26 岁的沙里夫·艾哈迈德扎伊（Sharif Ahmadzai）被指控杀害了 38 岁的伊丽莎白-简·罗斯（Elisabeth-Jane Ross），将她的尸体塞进一个行李箱丢弃在一座废弃建筑中，并使用她的银行卡提取了数千欧元。
据称，在罗斯死亡后的几天里，他还使用她的手机向其亲友发送消息。
警方表示，初步医学报告显示，来自爱丁堡的受害者死于窒息，但他们仍在等待毒理学报告。
据了解，艾哈迈德扎伊来自美国乔治亚州的妻子阿拉娜·霍尔（Alaina Hall）在怀疑丈夫涉嫌参与罗斯之死后，向警方提供了关键证据。
这对夫妇的网站称，他的父亲曾是喀布尔的一名军事指挥官，曾幸免于六次暗杀企图，但在艾哈迈德扎伊 4 岁时死于塔利班的一次伏击。五年后，他的哥哥被塔利班绑架；当他 15 岁时，他的母亲、哥哥和妹妹在一场自杀式汽车炸弹袭击中丧生。艾哈迈德扎伊不得不亲自辨认兄弟姐妹的遗骸。
2016 年，艾哈迈德扎伊雇佣了一名偷渡客，旨在抵达其姨妈居住的英国。在第三次尝试时，他经由巴基斯坦、伊朗和土耳其，最终乘小船抵达希腊莱斯博斯岛。他写了一本关于这段经历的书，名为《从地狱到家园》（From Hell to Home）。
艾哈迈德扎伊在霍尔于莱斯博斯岛莫里亚移民营从事志愿者工作期间与她相识。霍尔是一名虔诚的基督徒。他在 2017 年改信基督教，并给当时还是朋友的霍尔发送了一段自己的洗礼视频。
霍尔在网上写道，两人在雅典建立了深厚感情，并于 2021 年开始约会。“我看到了他的成长以及他对主的赤诚，这对我非常有吸引力，”她写道。这对夫妇于 2023 年 4 月结婚，并在雅典成立了一个名为“热爱每个国家”（Love Every Nation）的旨在帮助难民的宣教机构。他们的儿子于 4 月出生。
据了解，这对夫妇通过工作结识了同样是基督徒志愿者的罗斯。警方消息人士称，受害者居住的雅典公寓与该机构有关联。艾哈迈德扎伊及其妻子拥有该物业的进入权限。
结果，该患者三周内没有排便，如果不是另一名外科医生进行了第二次手术修复损伤，他本会死亡。
拉赫曼（Rahman）——于 1993 年在开罗获得医生资格——据称从未道歉或承认自己犯过错误。这位外科医生称自己是“政治迫害”（witch hunt）的受害者，
2023 年与阿拉娜·霍尔结婚的沙里夫·艾哈迈德扎伊被指控杀害了伊丽莎白-简·罗斯。下方为嫌疑人的监控录像。
在被判定其错误“已达到最糟糕程度”后，他因严重专业不当行为被医疗从业者审判服务局（Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service）除名。
在 2020 年进行手术时，拉赫曼在大曼彻斯特的皇家奥尔汉姆医院（Royal Oldham Hospital）担任顾问通用及结直肠外科医生。他当时是一名临时医生（locum），在为一名患有穿孔小肠肿瘤的男子进行紧急手术前，仅在那里工作了几天。
拉赫曼进行了一次时长五小时的手术，在手术中他切断了小肠，留下了“两个末端”。在一份声明中，他表示，他与一名血管外科医生决定将肠道与胃连接，以便“维持消化 / 肠道连续性”。
他表示，已进行测试以确保没有“会阻碍消化-肠道连续性的梗阻”。但审判局表示，手术后，该患者（未披露姓名）报告出现“不可控制”的疼痛、呕吐且无法排便——这表明“手术并未成功”。
一名护士指出，针对患者数周没有排便的担忧，拉赫曼采取了“轻视”态度。
Rahman 告诉患者的父母，一旦疼痛得到控制且“所有迹象”均表明其肠道将很快恢复功能，他就会将该男子送回家。
几天后，在患者家属和护理人员提出担忧后，该医院的顾问通用外科及结直肠外科医生安东尼·雷特（Anthony Rate）接手了该患者的治疗。随后的一次紧急手术揭示了 Rahman 犯下了“严重”的手术错误。据称，雷特挽救了患者的一部分肠道。
法庭获悉，Rahman 此前已被限制执业能力，法庭判定其执业资格因不当行为而受损，并将其除名。
“如果没有（此线索），将无法找到这个男人。”
昨晚，希腊媒体公布了闭路电视（CCTV）监控画面，显示一名符合 Ahmadzai 形貌特征的男子推着一个行李箱走在基普塞利（Kypseli）的一条路上。据新闻网站 The Toc 报道，大约 13 分钟后，有人看到该男子在没有行李箱的情况下返回。Ahmadzai 在五月份发布的 Instagram 账号照片显示，他穿着的短裤与视频中该男子的短裤相同；一份泄露的警方犯罪报告透露，警方据称已获取他在丢弃尸体的街道上行走的监控画面。
希腊警方表示，嫌疑人已承认丢弃 Ross 尸体，但坚称他是在浴室里发现她已经死亡的。他被指控犯有谋杀、抢劫和非法持有武器罪，预计将于明天在雅典法庭出庭。
在被指控执勤期间 发生性关系后 获赔 55,000 英镑
汉普郡警察局的前局长被指控在执勤期间发生性关系。在他被披露正接受调查并辞职后，获得了超过 £55,000 的款项。
斯科特·奇尔顿（Scott Chilton）在服务 33 年后于去年辞职。此前，警方监督机构宣布，他因涉嫌与两名警员发生性关系的严重不当行为而接受调查。
他被指控在担任局长期间与一名资历较低的警员维持性关系，并在其职业生涯早期的执勤期间与一名初级警员发生性关系。
奇尔顿在立即辞职后获得了 £55,154 的“就业损失补偿金”。据了解，这与替代其履行通知期的付款有关。
他计划于 10 月出席不当行为听证会，届时将对针对他的指控进行审议。
不当行为通知书指控他滥用“职权以达到性目的，在担任局长期间与一名警员维持性关系且未能申报该关系”。
奇尔顿还被指控在申请担任局长的过程中，未能“披露此前与另一名警员的性关系”。
据称，他在接受警察与犯罪专员办公室高层询问时，“反复且不诚实地”否认相关指控。
斯科特·奇尔顿在 不当行为调查期间 辞去汉普郡 警察局局长一职
汉普郡警察与犯罪专员唐娜·琼斯（Donna Jones）于 2024 年 11 月在寓所会见了奇尔顿，讨论其未来问题。两人于去年 2 月 12 日在警察总部再次会面，两周后，她向独立警察行为办公室提交了转介报告。
关于奇尔顿辞职后为何获得这笔巨额款项，一名警方发言人表示：“在奇尔顿先生辞职时，他收到了 £55,154 的替代通知期薪资（而非执行其合同中规定的三个月通知期）。”
James Beal 调查编辑 Shanti Das 高级调查记者
在《泰晤士报》与《全景》（Panorama）的一项关于其前上司大卫·萨利文（David Sullivan）的联合调查中被点名数周后，主持人托尼·利夫西（Tony Livesey）已辞职离开 BBC Radio 5 Live。
昨日宣布，在 5 Live 工作了 16 年并主持晚上 10 点至凌晨 1 点时段的利夫西，现年 62 岁，“已决定离开其主持岗位”。
今年 6 月，在关于其在萨利文旗下编辑《体育》（Sport）系列报纸期间的指控出现后，利夫西请求退出主持工作。
这位西汉姆联队的共同所有者被七名女性指控存在性剥削和掠夺行为。他否认了这些指控。
其中一名指称的受害者表示，她觉得在违背意愿的情况下被迫与萨利文发生性关系。她声称，1999 年利夫西仍在编辑《体育》报时将其介绍给了萨利文。
利夫西表示，他对该女性持有“极大的同情”，但“不记得”曾将她介绍给萨利文。
他表示，将女性介绍给萨利文“并非”其职责范围，且他与出现在报纸上的任何人员几乎“零接触”。
在披露利夫西离职的一份内部声明中，5 Live 的主管海蒂·道森（Heidi Dawson）表示，在他们从萨尔福德的新总部启动时，他“是我们第一个在播的播音员”。
道森补充道：“托尼建立了一批忠实的深夜观众，他的身边经常有我们深切怀念的同事蕾切尔·布兰德（Rachael Bland）。随后，他担任了我们标志性节目《Drive》十年的播音员，在我们的脱欧报道中处于核心地位。在 5 Live 的最后一次深夜节目中，托尼再次提升了观众人数。”
“托尼请我向他在这些年里有幸共事的 5 Live 杰出同事们表达衷心的感谢。我知道你们中的许多人也非常享受与托尼共事，我们祝愿他在未来的所有尝试中一切顺利。”
文中未提及指控
圣洁骑士：身着盛装的狂欢者参加里彭的圣威尔弗里德巡游，该活动被认为追溯至 1108 年，旨在庆祝这座约克郡城市的主保圣人
因门票销售不佳而取消
据宣布，即将开始的《快车道》（Trainspotting: The Musical）英国巡演由于“门票销售低于预期”已被取消。
这部戏剧作品改编自欧文·威尔士 1993 年的同名小说，讲述了一名在爱丁堡的海洛因成瘾者与其功能失调的同辈一起在贫困、友谊和成瘾中挣扎的故事。
该音乐剧上个月在西区首演，原计划于秋季启动英国巡演，并计划在爱丁堡、谢菲尔德、曼彻斯特和约克等主要城市演出。
剧组代表在给英国新闻协会（Press Association）的一份声明中表示：“原定于 10 月 19 日开始的《快车道》音乐剧英国巡演已取消。
我们非常感谢演职人员和创意团队对这部作品的投入，但目前的经济气候导致门票销售低于预期。票持有者将由其购买渠道联系，获取全额退款详情。对于由此可能造成的任何不便和失望，我们深表歉意。”
屡获殊荣的《快车道》系列此前曾被改编为舞台剧，但此次西区制作标志着其作为音乐剧的世界首演。最受欢迎的改编作品之一是 1996 年的热门电影，由尤温·麦克格雷戈、乔尼·李·米勒和罗伯特·卡莱尔主演。
这部邪典经典作品在 2017 年还推出了续集——《T2 快车道》，讲述了马克·伦顿在 20 年后回到爱丁堡的故事。
（涉及 Sullivan 的相关报道）这位 77 岁的老人于 6 月辞去了西汉姆联足球俱乐部的董事兼联合主席一职，就在《泰晤士报》和 BBC Panorama 调查报告发布前不久。
利夫西在担任《每日体育报》（Daily Sport）和《周日体育报》（Sunday Sport）主编近 18 年后，于 2006 年离职。同年，他加入了 BBC 兰开夏广播电台，随后成为 5 Live 深夜节目的主持人。
在他 1998 年出版的《宝贝、烈酒、狂欢与外星人》（Babes, Booze, Orgies and Aliens）一书中，利夫西写道，他与 Sullivan 策划了《体育报》的“16 岁倒计时”专栏，该专栏记录若干女孩直到 16 岁生日之前的日子，之后将刊登她们的裸胸照片。他后来表示，“书中的很大一部分内容是虚构的”，且让模特在 16 岁时出现在报纸上“绝不是我的主意”。
利夫西于昨天被要求就此发表评论。
泰晤士报摄影师 JAMES GLOSSOP
为婴儿 提供生命线
在怀孕 20 周的产检中，梅西·萨维奇被告知她的儿子西奥患有腹裂症，这是一种严重的先天性缺陷，婴儿的肠道在腹部外发育（埃莉诺·海沃德报道）。
这种诊断通常会导致婴儿出生后在新生儿重症监护室度过数月，在婴儿期经历多次手术，并伴随终生的影响。
但 29 岁的萨维奇和她的伴侣 36 岁的乔什·弗伦奇获得了一条“生命线”，他们被邀请参加美国的一项先驱性临床试验，该试验在婴儿仍处于子宫内时修复该缺陷。
这对来自伦敦北部的教师夫妇在怀孕 26 周时飞往休斯敦的德克萨斯儿童医院进行手术。外科医生修复了
向导称，与孩子一起拍“登顶自拍”是极不负责任的行为
Peter Chappell
登顶一座山峰曾是一种雄心壮志，但当涉及孩子时，这种想法通常需要经过现实考量。
但自疫情以来，带着孩子进行高海拔远足的受欢迎程度有所增加，因为新一代的父母认为家庭时光与冒险之间没有太大区别。
一名山地向导兼前突击队员现对这一趋势提出了抗议，认为父母不应与无法反对父母宏大徒步计划的孩子一起拍摄“登顶自拍”。
斯诺登山的向导卡勒姆·蒂普顿（Callum Tipton）在一篇题为《在 Yr Wyddfa（斯诺登山的威尔士语名称）千万不要做的事》的在线帖子中，批评了携带婴儿背带登山的人。
“我可能会激怒一些人，但就这样吧，”蒂普顿说道，他经营着一个帮助男性通过徒步对抗抑郁症的组织。
通过微创手术将肠道推回腹腔，修复西奥（Theo）的缺陷。
他的腹腔
他于三个月后，即二月出生，随即开始母乳喂养，并在四天后出院。
“他是个小奇迹，不是吗？”萨维奇（Savage）告诉 BBC，并补充说，这次手术“完全逆转了原本可能是极其糟糕的人生开端”。
她说：“他太神奇了。他表现得非常好。他就像个正常的宝宝一样生活。像正常宝宝那样喂养，像正常宝宝那样成长。”
孩子暴露在自然环境中。仅仅因为你能把婴儿带上山，并不意味着你应该这样做。”
对于像岛田花子（Hanako Shimada）和亚当·瑟尔（Adam Searle）这样热爱自然的夫妇来说，蒂普顿的言论与他们带着三岁女儿真希子（Makiko）徒步的经历截然不同。“我们很喜欢，”花子说。
为了让女儿度过一个远离屏幕的童年，她说显而易见的方法就是尽量多地在户外活动。
“她更小时可以装在我们的徒步背包里。那真的很棒，尤其是在攀登的时候。如果你把他们放在背包里，有时他们会打盹；而下山时，让他们跑下去非常有意思。”
当真希子长到无法装进背包时，她的父母会带她走更多的环形路线，这样她就不会那么累。
亚当·瑟尔带着三岁女儿真希子徒步
真希子的母亲称赞户外活动提高了女儿的平衡能力和好奇本能，还让她可以尽情地弄一身泥巴。
只要遵守安全措施即可。他说，如果人们遵循蒂普顿的逻辑，斯堪的纳维亚或加拿大的孩子就永远无法出门了。
“考虑到孩子如此珍贵，我们在某种程度上必须过度谨慎，但我们也需要从小让孩子接触山脉，因为这能建立与父母的纽带并创造持久的记忆。
“通常这对亲子关系非常有益。我完全支持，我认为这是正确的事，只要父母优先考虑孩子的福祉而非他们自己的目标。”
他表示，父母的时间有限，他们希望与孩子拥有特殊的体验。
“如今的父母不会为了孩子将自己的生活搁置很多年。要充分利用与孩子共处的有限时间。他们年幼的时间很短——我认为这很棒，”他说。
库珀（Cooper）表示，如果父母理智且规避风险，在山上的风险与在曼彻斯特市中心带孩子散步相差无几。他认为人们应该意识到不要在心理上将山脉视为自己的“禁区”。
运作原理
羊水
CO2
梅西·萨维奇（Maisie Savage）和她的伴侣乔什·弗伦奇（Josh French），以及西奥（Theo）。西奥在美国接受了一次手术，以修复一种导致其肠道在体外发育的先天性缺陷。
西奥是全球上第三个接受该手术的婴儿，也是英国首例。
腹壁裂（Gastroschisis）每年影响英国 200 到 300 名婴儿。其中十分之一会死亡，而像西奥这样复杂的病例，则需要数月的时间在重症监护室治疗。
该临床试验是与格雷特奥蒙德街医院（Gosh）的专家合作开展的。它基于……的技术。
引发铁路大混乱
从信号故障到极端天气，火车乘客可能认为他们已经听遍了所有延迟的借口，但上周三在朗科恩（Runcorn）登车的通勤者们震惊地发现，这次延误的最新原因是：一只擅自闯入轨道的乌龟。
这只被认为 50 岁的乌龟名为巴纳比（Barnaby），在被发现缓慢地沿西海岸主线前行后，由铁路工作人员将其救出。由于 Avanti West Coast 的工作人员需要上轨救助该动物，通过该车站的列车不得不全部停运。这次救援行动耗时约十分钟，随后这只爬行动物被送往救援中心进行一夜看护，之后才与主人团聚。
国家铁路公司（Network Rail）表示，此次短暂的延误意味着乘客们仍能“飞速抵达目的地”。
20 岁的西奥·格里菲斯（Theo Griffiths）经常因工作而出行，他认为火车运营方不应试图用“开玩笑”的方式掩盖延误。他表示：“一只小乌龟怎么可能让国家基础设施陷入停滞？我们需要像日本那样的文化，在那里，工作人员在给人们带来不便时会感到愧疚。”
肠道位于 胎儿体内
这种在子宫内进行的手术在过去十年中一直被用于治疗脊柱裂。通过早期干预，可以减少并发症。
该手术由迈克尔·贝尔福特（Michael Belfort）医生主导。如果美国的试验获得成功，该手术将在英国实施。
格罗舍姆（Gosh）的胎儿及儿科外科顾问、试验团队成员保罗·德·科皮（Paolo De Coppi）教授表示：“此前在治疗脊柱裂方面的成功率表明，这基本上可以为腹裂症提供一种治愈方法。如果结果积极，我们希望这能成为标准手术……这样家庭在分娩后可以更早地带着健康的宝宝回家，而宝宝身上几乎没有人生开端坎坷的痕迹。”
Jessica Sharkey 犯罪记者
一名自认为吸血鬼且饮血的撒旦崇拜者，在多处教堂放置鹿头、屠宰的羔羊以及倒十字架后，已根据《精神健康法》被拘留。
警方表示，本杰明·刘易斯（Benjamin Lewis）相信自己是“转世吸血鬼”。他此前已承认在去年 2 月至 8 月期间犯有宗教加重骚扰罪和盗窃羔羊罪。
这名来自南安普敦托顿（Totton, Southampton）的 48 岁男子在深夜袭击农场，将鹿和羔羊的尸体“肢解并毁容”，然后将其丢弃在汉普郡新森林（New Forest, Hampshire）各地的教堂。
南安普敦刑事法院昨天获悉，刘易斯从小就对“吸血鬼着迷”，并加入了一个吸血鬼邪教，定期与其他成员会面。警方表示，他饮用所屠宰动物的血，因为他认为这样可以长生不老。
在之前的听证会上，他在自我纠正前告诉法官他的名字叫“德古拉伯爵”。
威廉·穆斯利（William Mousley）KC 法官在对通过视频链路出庭的刘易斯判处无限期医院命令时表示：“这些罪行综合来看，原本足以判定实质性的监禁刑期。这一点在考虑其之前的定罪记录之前就很明显，尽管那些记录是很久以前的，但表明其有令人担忧的类似行为。”
检方代表劳拉·德克斯伯里（Laura Deuxberry）告诉法庭，汉普郡地区的两个小农场有羔羊被盗。刘易斯在将其杀掉后，将尸体丢弃在四座教堂以及他曾就诊的一家精神健康机构。
在他家中发现了包括吸血鬼和死羊的素描、与死亡相关的剪报、撒旦符号以及倒十字架在内的物品。他还曾在之前居住过的弱势成年人住宿场所外的门上留下了一个鹿头。
2003 年，他在该类首例案件中被判定犯有宗教骚扰罪，并因自称吸血鬼而恐吓一名牧师及其家人而被判处 12 个月监禁。
德克斯伯里告诉法庭，刘易斯在去年被捕时，其汽车后备箱内发现了鹿血，车内还发现了混合的动物血。
当警方搜查其住所时，发现了撒旦符号和祭祀笔记、吸血鬼素描以及“关于吸血鬼以及如何最有效地杀死人类的书籍”。德克斯伯里表示，刘易斯导致信众们“害怕前往他们的圣所”。
法医精神病顾问 Gauruv Malhan 博士告诉法庭，刘易斯被诊断出患有严重自闭症、强迫症、混合性人格障碍和轻度学习障碍。
辩护律师安德鲁·普莱斯（Andrew Price）表示：“他非常抱歉，并希望外界清楚地知道他承认自己做错了。”刘易斯告诉法庭：“我只想向受害者道歉，因为他们说如果我出狱，他们会担心我。我不希望人们担心我。”
假利物浦人 在抢劫时起争执
Peter Chappell
两名笨拙的武装抢劫犯在一次袭击中因彼此争吵，并假称自己来自利物浦而被警方逮捕，而袭击地点距离他们居住的地方仅五分钟路程。
斯蒂芬·布拉德利（Stephen Bradley）和大卫·奥克利（David Oakley）用一把仿制枪支，并将利物浦足球俱乐部的围巾 wrapped 绕在头上，抢劫了德比郡新米尔斯（New Mills, Derbyshire）的 Maddy 便利店。
他们于去年 11 月进入店内并威胁店主，命令她清空收银机，与此同时另一人则在清理货架。两人宣称自己来自利物浦，需要尽快返回高速公路。
由于他们戴着手套，便请求店主帮他们将硬币放入袋中，随后他们在逃跑时开始争吵。
据《德比郡时报》（Derbyshire Times）报道，布拉德利和奥克利被闭路电视（CCTV）拍摄到，并被目击者认出。
武装警察赶到两人的住所，警方在那里发现了大量烟草、九瓶杰克丹尼（Jack Daniel’s）以及一把气枪。据报道，收银机中被盗了 £200。
两人在曼彻斯特明舒尔街（Manchester Minshull Street）刑事法院出庭。来自新米尔斯的布拉德利，56, 承认抢劫和持有仿制枪支。无固定住处的奥克利，48, 承认抢劫和持有刀具。两人均被判处四年监禁。
在酷暑中萎缩
英国农民在连续的热浪导致作物歉收和财务陷入困境后，正逐渐放弃种植食物（Will Humphries 和 Ben Cooke 撰文）。
一些人认为种植食物在财务上风险过高，使农场获利的唯一方法是将土地和建筑物用于其他业务。
国家农民联盟（National Farmer’s Union）警告称，如果干旱持续，某些食品可能会出现短缺。该联盟主席汤姆·布拉德肖（Tom Bradshaw）表示，今年小麦和燕麦的产量“非常、非常低”，且畜牧业农民不得不使用冬季饲料配给，因为他们无法种植草料。
蔬菜生产者的用水量已不足，导致本地食品产量下降且
亚当·沃恩 (Adam Vaughan) 环境编辑 生态与水文学。
英格兰和威尔士经历了有记录以来最干燥的七月，导致了用水限制、作物受损以及山火。
气象局表示，自 1836, 年开始记录以来，本月是 1836 年 以来最干燥的七月，出现了“真正惊人”的情况，部分地区完全没有降雨。
在英格兰全境，该月的降雨量比平均水平低 90 %。英格兰南部的 situation 甚至更糟，与长期平均值相比减少了 97 %。
由于缺乏降雨，英格兰有一半地区陷入干旱状态，这允许监管机构和水务公司采取行动以保障水资源供应。整个威尔士已宣布进入干旱状态。约 23 million 人受到禁用水管令的限制。
萨里郡的威斯利（Wisley）是七月无雨的地区之一。与全国各地的板球场和村庄绿地一样，皇家园艺学会（RHS）威斯利花园的草坪已经变褐。
该慈善机构表示，由于在干燥天气期间不对草坪进行灌溉，花园的“大面积”区域已经变褐。该组织建议园丁不要给成熟的草坪浇水。储存的雨水已几乎耗尽，RHS 的蒂姆·厄普顿（Tim Upton）表示，花园的部分植物正依赖从韦伊河（River Wey）取水。
增加了种植成本。
在连续热浪导致水资源供应紧张后，英格兰大部分地区和整个威尔士已宣布进入干旱状态。
约翰·波西（John Pawsey）在萨福克郡伯里圣埃德蒙斯（Bury St Edmunds）附近经营着一个 650 公顷的有机农场，并承包经营 850 公顷农田。由于今年他的酿造大麦、燕麦和磨粉小麦的产量比他农场的十年平均值下降了 30 %，他正计划尽可能多地将土地从粮食生产中撤出。
“粮食生产的利润空间非常小，因此任何提出将我们的土地用于娱乐或其他用途的方案，都比种植粮食更有吸引力。你只需要看看周围，就有这么多土地
分析
从波尔多和马德里附近的森林，到萨福克郡的荒原以及凯恩戈姆国家公园（Cairngorms National Park），欧洲在今年夏天被山火染黑（亚当·沃恩撰文）。
到目前为止，英国被烧毁的面积不足去年记录最高值的一半。但威胁依然存在。
一名萨福克郡火灾附近的居民声称，火灾与野化计划（rewilding initiatives）有关，例如允许存在更多枯死木材。农村游说团体“乡村联盟”（Countryside Alliance）将野化归咎于
在一个潮湿的冬季之后迅速干旱，这意味着过去五年中有三年出现了干旱。温暖且潮湿的冬季，结合更炎热、更干燥的夏季，符合科学家对英国因气候变化将经历的情况之预期。
停止生产。地里到处是环境方案，除了食物什么都有，”波西说。
转向更多环境方案可能无法拯救农场。工党政府将农场从中可获得的最高年收益上限设定为 £100,000。
右上方的乔治·汤姆林森（George Tomlinson）及其兄弟威尔（Will）不得不出售牲畜。顶部为埃塞克斯郡焦灼的景观，以及康沃尔郡马里亚宗（Marazion）的收割场景。
保罗·贝伦斯（Paul Behrens），环境变化教授
创造了使英国山火蔓延的条件。
有些人甚至暗示，旨在帮助森林的绿色政策可能会使火灾更加严重。西班牙莱里达大学（University of Lleida）的林业教授维克托·雷斯科·德·迪奥斯（Víctor Resco de Dios）认为，保护区更容易起火。“当你将人类移出[自然环境]时，结果就是你得到了更多的燃料，进而导致更严重的火灾，”他告诉《华尔街日报》。他去年撰写的一篇论文发现，在
他们有记录以来最晴朗的日历月份。
英国气象局科学经理艾米·多尔蒂（Amy Doherty）博士表示：“创纪录的干旱、异常的高温以及前所未有的阳光相结合，使得本月成为了我们历史记录中最值得关注的夏季月份之一。”
牛津大学的一位专家表示，今年的收成将几乎与 2020 年一样糟糕，而 2020 年是记录以来最糟糕的一年。2024 和 2025 年的收成也位列最糟糕的五次之列。“一次糟糕的收成，一年高温，那是天气。但过去五年中有三次是最糟糕的收成？这就是气候变化，”他说道。
乔治·汤姆林森（George Tomlinson），29 岁，是北威尔士雷克瑟姆（Wrexham）附近第五代有机农场主。由于在冬季喂养饲料而非让奶牛在通常茂盛的田野中放牧的成本过高，他被迫从 550 头规模的奶牛群中出售了 60 头。
汤姆林森与 27 岁的弟弟威尔（Will）共同经营农场，他表示他们的稻草和玉米产量下降了 60%，并且不得不购买 500 吨饲料。“在其他行业中，几乎没有哪个行业会对影响我们生存能力的三个主要方面——天气、监管和支付价格——如此缺乏控制权，”他说道。
“如果不能尽快做出改变，在这种年份的打击下，这个国家将不会剩下多少从事粮食种植的人。这是一个可怕的局面。”
西南欧地区遭受山火袭击的比例高于未受保护地区。
这使得山火对居民来说更危险，对自然栖息地的破坏性更大。
他补充道：“环境立法并非基于生态学或林业科学。我认为它是基于意识形态，基于一种像《小鹿斑比》那样把世界看作迪士尼的观点，将人类视为对环境‘天生有害’。但‘当你把人类剔除在外时，结果就是积聚了更多可燃物，从而引发更严重的火灾’。”该论文还报道称，在澳大利亚和加利福尼亚州，保护地上的火势燃烧得更为剧烈。
然而，伦敦政治经济学院环境地理学助理教授托马斯·史密斯（Thomas Smith）认为，山火激增主要是由气候变化驱动的。
国民信托基金会（The National Trust）同样认为，气候变化是山火风险的潜在驱动因素。
皇家鸟类保护协会（RSPB）经营着萨福克郡（Suffolk）火灾起点的明斯米尔（Minsmere）自然保护区，该协会表示，这片荒原“正是许多人认为的‘再野化’（rewilding）的反面”。
农民面临的挑战，尤其是对包括西兰花在内的十字花科作物的担忧。水务公司报告称，在高温条件下，用水需求量增加了高达三分之一。
水资源部部长艾玛·哈迪（Emma Hardy）表示：“我们的气候正在发生变化，干旱变得越来越普遍，我们需要准备好应对目前面临的挑战。”
她表示，英国许多河流的水位低于去年此时，当时干旱十分普遍。这些河流包括诺森伯兰郡（Northumberland）的特威德河（Tweed）、埃塞克斯郡（Essex）的科尔恩河（Colne）以及Herefordshire的怀河（Wye）。
萨福克郡丹威奇希斯（Dunwich Heath）的一场山火仍在燃烧。周一使用了直升机扑救火灾，萨福克郡消防救援服务部门正准备应对周二的温度上升。
7 月阳光充足带来的积极影响之一是太阳能电池板产生电力的数量创下了纪录。7 月期间，太阳能为大不列颠地区提供的电量超过了以往任何一个月，占总电量的 14.4%。根据国家能源系统运营商（Neso）的数据，之前的纪录是 5 月创下的 12.4%。
根据行业团体英国太阳能协会（Solar Energy UK）的数据，约有 1.7 million 户家庭安装了太阳能电池板。自 3 月份伊朗战争爆发以来，许多房主急于安装太阳能电池板，平均每三分钟就安装一块。
英格兰大部分地区在周三前维持高温预警，不过本周晚些时候气温可能会下降。气象局表示，东南部将“继续几乎没有降雨”，尽管仍有可能出现阵雨。
虽然许多狗狗会陪同主人环游世界，但几乎没有哪只狗能被称为访问过地球大气层的最边缘（艾米莉亚·斯托特 / Amelia Stout 报道）。
为了给已故的法斗犬提供一次“最后的冒险”，一名主人利用气象气球将宠物的骨灰送到了 119,000ft 的高空，随后将其释放到太空中。
来自斯托克波特 (Stockport) 的 TikTok 博主雅各布·巴特斯比 (Jacob Battersby) 在他六岁的爱犬奥斯卡 (Oscar) 因病突然去世后，安排了这次悼念活动。
Georgia Lambert Oliver Wright 政策编辑
保守党指责工党企图将一百万青年处于非教育、非就业或非培训状态（Neets）归咎于迈克尔·高夫（Michael Gove）的教育改革，称此举是“妄想”，并表示这是雇主税收增加的结果。
教育大臣露西·鲍威尔（Lucy Powell）昨日在《泰晤士报》撰文称，高夫强制学校优先进行学术学习的政策导致了更多 Neets 的出现，将其描述为该改革的直接后果。
这一主张遭到了保守党的反驳，后者指出，Neets 数量的剧增发生在工党赢得 2024 年大选之后。
“工党接手的青年失业率低于欧元区平均水平，”政策发展影子大臣尼尔·奥布莱恩（Neil O’Brien）表示。“但他们通过大规模增税和增加监管将其推高。露西·鲍威尔将此归咎于迈克尔·高夫。他们是在妄想。”
奥布莱恩公布的数据显示，Neets 的比例已从工党上台时的约 14 per cent 上升至 16 per cent 以上。
今年因脑瘤去世。
来自 Rugby 的 26, 岁巴特斯比（Battersby）及其朋友、同为 26 岁的卡勒姆·金（Callum King），于 5 月 7, 日在这个沃里克郡小镇发射了气球，在携带奥斯卡（Oscar）骨灰的同时，还装入了 GPS 追踪器、摄像机以及奥斯卡最喜欢的《玩具总动员》外星人玩具。
在上升到地球大气层边缘（此处温度降至零下 72C）后，气球破裂，将奥斯卡的骨灰散播开来。随后，包裹通过降落伞下降，落在距离诺丁汉郡 55 英里远的地方。
在 TikTok 上拥有近 200,000 粉丝的巴特斯比表示：“这真的很特别。他们说大约六个月后，他的骨灰最终将化作雨水返回地球。我很喜欢‘他的一部分仍然在那上面’这个想法。人们在思念失去的挚爱时总是抬头看向天空。而我的挚爱现在真的就在那里。”
金表示：“奥斯卡无法去看世界，所以我们决定让世界看到奥斯卡。雅各布（Jacob）在今年年初失去了奥斯卡，这完全出乎意料。他患有脑瘤，病情恶化得非常快。当我们开始规划发射时，将他的骨灰带上去根本不是问题，问题只是我们如何操作。这感觉像是为他准备的最后一次冒险。”
两人原本预计
纯粹是教育问题。这显然是胡说八道。这种增长与雇佣年轻人的成本大幅上涨以及未能改革领取福利的激励机制相吻合。近期青年失业率的上升并非由教育问题引起。”
鲍威尔写道，作为撤销高夫改革举措的一部分，她打算“重新审视我们教授孩子的内容，以及我们是否在为他们未来的生活做好准备”。
政府正在考虑贝基·弗朗西斯（Becky Francis）教授在审查报告中提出的课程变更。她的审查在很大程度上保留了高夫的改革，但建议青少年减少参加 GCSE 考试的数量，因为担心学生压力过大，且教学变成了针对测试而非针对学科。
鲍威尔希望为低至 14, 岁的学生引入技术路径，她表示她的改革并非对学术标准的“攻击”，而是试图扩大
成功。“学术教育与技术教育是争夺地位的竞争对手，这种想法属于过去。这与那种认为学术路径是给聪明孩子，而技术路径是给其他人的陈旧、势利想法如出一辙，”她说道。
民意调查显示，虽然人们大体同意将技术路径视为与学术路径同等重要的建议，但很少有人希望 14 岁的孩子就被锁定在职业决定中。上周一项针对 3,384 名成年人的 More in Common 调查发现，60 per cent 的人认为职业教育值得更多关注。
……该大学被过分强调。但调查还发现，65% 的人认为 14 岁对于学生做出职业决定来说太年轻了。
此时该年度的毕业生职位空缺处于 2020 年以来的最低水平，季节性工作也处于四年来的低点。招聘网站 Indeed 的研究显示，毕业生职位的发布量比去年下降了约 7%。
教育工会表示，“自上而下的考试工厂”文化和“压抑的课程”正导致年轻人中心理健康问题日益增加。一项工会调查发现，教师们担心持续的测试会窄化课程内容并损害学生的福祉。
工会总书记丹尼尔·克贝德（Daniel Kebede）支持鲍威尔的改革，表示“一刀切的教育方法已经让太多儿童和青少年失败”。
教育政策研究所首席执行官朱莉·麦卡洛（Julie McCulloch）表示，争论不应变成在学术技能与实用技能之间做选择。她指出，过去十年的学术重点“似乎已经取得了回报”，但尽管英格兰在国际排名中上升，但收益并非均衡分布。
“来自弱势背景的儿童和青少年与其同龄人之间的成绩差距依然顽固地宽阔，而近期缩小这一差距的尝试已经停滞或出现倒退，”她补充道。
青年生活中心（Centre for Young Lives）智库首席执行官哈伦·乔德里（Haroon Chowdry）同意教育系统让太多年轻人失望。他表示，尼特（Neet，指不就业、不教育且不参加培训的青年）的人数是“学校课程争论的最终裁决”。
旅程预计持续约两小时，但当气球在空中停留时间远超预期时，他们担心气球已永远丢失。他们放弃了搜寻，前往一家酒吧借酒浇愁，
这时 GPS 追踪器突然发出信号。
“我们直接开车前往那里，最后穿过原野直到找到了载荷，”金说。“那是一种难以言喻的感觉。”
这次纪念活动同时也是对两人通过其公司 Zoomi 开发的一款宠物追踪器的测试。
金表示，该项目的规划很困难。“我们必须计算氦气量，预测它的飞行路径，并自行构建载荷，”他说。“我们预计它会在空中停留约两小时，所以当那个时间点过去后，我们真的以为它永远消失了。找到它不仅证明了奥斯卡完成了最后的旅程，也证明了我们的追踪器完全实现了设计功能。”
巴特斯比的另一只斗牛犬托比被诊断出患有癌症，他说他打算通过规划各种冒险活动（包括一次滑翔伞之旅）来充分利用他们共处的剩余时光。“这可能是她最接近太空，以及最接近奥斯卡的一次了，”他补充道。
一个装有奥斯卡骨灰的气球被送到了大气层边缘。它被卡勒姆·金（Callum King，最左）和雅各布·巴特斯比（Jacob Battersby，左二）找到。
排名在 2010 年后上升
Anna Dowell, Yennah Smart
当迈克尔·格夫在 2010 年就任教育大臣时，他利用国际数据主张进行紧急改革，因为英国 15 岁青少年的水平正落后于其同行。
在他离任十多年后——期间他在英格兰引入了新课程并扩大了学院学校的数量——《泰晤士报》研究了同一组数据，以确定格夫的改革是否提高了英国教育的标准。
根据经济合作与发展组织 (OECD) 的国际学生评估项目 (Pisa) 评分，自 2010 年以来，英国 15 岁青少年的阅读、计算和实验能力在全球排名中有所上升。英国青少年在数学和阅读方面在 OECD 同行中目前分别排名第 11 位和第 9 位，高于 2009. 年的第 22 位和第 20 位。科学方面维持在第 11 位。
英国的各项得分均高于 OECD 的平均水平。最近一次评估共有来自 81 个国家和经济体的约 690,000 名学生参与。
Eleanor Hayward 健康编辑 NHS 英格兰首席执行官吉姆·麦基爵士告诉《泰晤士报》：“太多患有严重精神疾病或成瘾的人陷入了恶性循环，糟糕的健康状况使他们无法工作，而失业又让他们的健康状况进一步恶化。”
NHS 正投入数百万英镑，为药物成瘾者和患有严重精神疾病的患者提供一对一的就业指导，以结束失业的“恶性循环”。
新数据显示，去年有 11,000 多人通过个人安置与支持 (IPS) 计划获得了就业帮助，该计划在英格兰全境均可使用。
NHS 患者将获得专业就业顾问量身定制的支持，包括协助编写简历、填写工作申请及准备面试。他们还将继续接受就业指导，以帮助他们适应工作。
该服务已植入英格兰全境的 203 个精神健康诊所和 100 个成瘾治疗服务机构，部长们已宣布追加 £275 million 的投资以扩大援助。
人们可以通过其全科医生 (GP)、精神健康诊所或某些慈善机构被推荐参加 IPS 计划。该计划旨在帮助人们在被推荐后的几周内开始工作，新数据显示，在过去一个财政年度中，共有 11,241 名参与该计划的人员找到了工作。
diary@thetimes.co.uk / @timesdiary
Huw 的工作难道无论如何都……？
在另一个平行宇宙中，新闻播报员西蒙·麦考伊（Simon McCoy）可能仍然是 BBC 的领军人物。他在马特·福德（Matt Forde）的“政治派对”（Political Party）播客中透露，在一名同事干预之前，他在那里的角色本应得到加强。“在节目上线的前一天，该节目原本被定名为《西蒙·麦考伊主持的下午直播》，但 BBC 有一位资历非常深的主持人阻止了这件事，”麦考伊说。BBC 的高管们回看这次向休·埃德华兹（Huw Edwards）的要求妥协的决定时，可能会觉得他们押错了马。
下方的麦考伊随后加入了 GB News，这对他来说是一次相当残酷的觉醒，因为当时这家初创频道基本上没有任何设施。有一天，麦考伊与一位年轻同事聊天，对方说：“这个新闻编辑室没有我之前那个大。”这位老手询问之前是在哪里，那小伙子回答说：“诺丁汉特伦特大学（Nottingham Trent）。”
利德尔的猫之闹剧 已故的《周日泰晤士报》专栏作家罗德·利德尔经常对读者无法理解他那通常非常阴暗的幽默感而感到困惑。他曾写过一篇充满幻想的专栏，在文中描述将一只猫送上审判，并制作并使用了一个微型绞刑架。在文章发表后不久，警方到访，调查是否存在潜在的虐待动物行为。利德尔说：“当我提到有三只田鼠观看了这场处决并鼓掌时，你本以为他们会意识到这只是个笑话。”
这并不是警察唯一一次拜访他。他总是津津有味地回忆起反恐警察突然造访并说道：“你的名字在一张名单上，你将被砍头，所以我们觉得应该来看看，让你宽心。”
他补充说，数据“表明，如果获得正确的支持，这种循环是可以被打破的。将就业指导与心理健康支持相结合，可以通过帮助人们重返工作岗位，让他们重新获得信心、独立性和目标感。”
“因此，如果你在心理健康方面挣扎并希望重新站起来，我鼓励你向你的全科医生（GP）或当地心理健康或成瘾支持团队咨询，以寻找获得帮助的方法。”
就业指导服务提供给患有严重精神疾病（如精神分裂症或双相情感障碍）的人群，以及在毒品或酒精成瘾中挣扎的人群。
来自肯特郡的杰米·沃克（Jamie Walker）就是通过该计划帮助重返工作岗位的人之一。
他说：“从纸面上看，我很成功。”
一个令人费解的故事 教授杰森·阿代丢失了一颗猪头。这位学术人员与真相的关系正受到审查，他声称其家人收到了这样一个猪肉制品，导致警方对当地肉铺进行了搜查。伦敦警察厅表示他们没有相关记录，但丢失一颗猪头其实比你想象的要容易。播报员保罗·海尼（Paul Heiney）告诉我，他曾帮助雕塑家迈克尔·布莱克（Michael Black）为他的作品购买一颗猪头。猪头被放在一个 M&S 的购物袋中，布莱克将其放在火车行李架上，但后来忘记取走。当联系失物招领处时，对方说：“我们没见过类似的东西，但我们会留意一下。”你本以为通过某种感官很容易就能定位它，但也许他们认为有人在撒谎（porkies）。
希利的沉重负担 工党拥有姓希利（Healey）的财政大臣人数，比该党拥有女性领导人的人数还要多，不过这是在内阁洗牌之前的情况。然而，约翰·希利（John Healey）的任命还有一个历史巧合。读者亨利·康纳（Henry Conner）告知我，希利是第二位毕业于圣彼得学校（St Peter’s, York，英国最古老的学校之一）的财政大臣。第一位是约翰·艾斯拉比（John Aislabie，1718-1721），他在臭名昭著的泡沫破裂前，负责监管南海公司接管国家债务。结果表明，艾斯拉比在接受了该公司价值 £20,000 的股票后才这样做。他被裁定犯有“最恶名昭著、危险且卑劣的腐败”，并被囚禁在伦敦塔。而你还以为与一个……的人共用一个名字已经是很糟糕的事了。
我曾拥有自己的发行公司和营销公司，但我的生活当时正在瓦解并分崩离析。
“我陷入了成瘾和酗酒的恶性循环。我与精神病症状作斗争，经历了人格解体，并与自我完全脱节。我失去了所有的钱，失去了赚钱的手段，也失去了沟通能力。情况非常糟糕。”
沃克（Walker）得到了一个早期精神病单元的支持，并被推荐给 IPS，后者鼓励他追求演员生涯，而找到工作“极大地帮助了他的心理健康康复”。
患有严重精神疾病的人失业的可能性是常人的三到四倍，而药物或酒精依赖者的失业可能性则是两到四倍。
研究表明，无业状态会加剧心理健康问题，包括抑郁和焦虑。自疫情以来，因心理健康问题而离职的人数大幅增加，在未就业、未接受教育或未接受培训（Neets）的 24 岁以下人群中，近一半的人将其归因于心理健康原因。
国家心理健康、学习障碍和神经发育状况主管尼克·布劳顿（Nick Broughton）博士表示：“每一个失业统计数据背后，都是一个在获得正确支持后，希望能融入社区、让生活拥有目标并实现经济独立的人。”
卫生和社会护理部长梅伦男爵夫人（Baroness Merron）表示：“重返岗位可以改变人们的心理健康和福祉——这些数据表明，当人们在正确的时间获得适当且量身定制的支持时，可以实现怎样的改变。”
“心理健康与身体健康同样重要，这就是为什么我们扩大了在学校和社区的支持，并招募了数千名更多工作人员来提供心理健康支持。”
里斯·布莱克利 (Rhys Blakely) 科学编辑
乔德雷尔天文台 (Jodrell Bank) 在 2016 到 2023 年间 举办了 Bluedot 音乐节。 乔尼·马尔 (Johnny Marr) 和布赖恩·梅 (Brian May) 是那些认为 削减资金将 是“愚蠢”之举的 音乐家之一。
众多摇滚和流行明星敦促首相挽救乔德雷尔天文台，警告称计划中的资金削减可能会使这座著名的天文台变成“世界上最大的空间遗迹”。
拥有天体物理学博士学位的皇后乐队 (Queen) 吉他手布赖恩·梅爵士 (Sir Brian May)、前 The Smiths 乐队吉他手乔尼·马尔 (Johnny Marr) 以及 Pulp 乐队主唱贾维斯·考克尔 (Jarvis Cocker)，是 200 多位呼吁安迪·伯纳姆 (Andy Burnham) 介入的公众人物之一。
此次运动始于撤回研究资金计划的曝光，工作人员表示，这将迫使乔德雷尔天文台巨大的洛弗尔 (Lovell) 望远镜在 2028 年停止运行。
一封公开信认为，为了每年节省 £2.8 百万而终止其科学工作将是“愚蠢且短视的”。信中称乔德雷尔天文台是“英国空间观测、研究和教育中充满活力且强有力的心脏”。
将自动取款机拖走穿过街道
Seren Hughes
在伦敦西南部的一处郊区，几名胆大妄为的窃贼从一家商店外的路边拖走了一台自动取款机，而路人经过时似乎并未察觉。
六分钟的监控录像显示，两名男子（其中一人似乎持有锤子，另一人驾驶汽车）在泰丁顿的一家 Costcutter 商店外试图强行撬开该机器，随后将其拖走。在上周三凌晨，一名女性、几辆汽车和一辆巴士在经过时，似乎并未对这些罪犯做出反应。
这两名窃贼均身穿黑色套衫、灰色长裤并戴着黑色帽子，只见他们从汽车后备箱中取出一条牵引绳，将其固定在独立式取款机上。驾驶员回到车内并开车离去，将取款机的正面扯掉。
位于柴郡麦克尔斯菲尔德附近的这座天文台是联合国教科文组织世界遗产地，也是英国科学界最著名的地标之一。该望远镜的白色集光盘直径为 76 米，近 70 年来一直为科学家提供关于宇宙遥远区域的数据。
音乐作家兼制作人保罗·莫莱表示，乔德雷尔银行（Jodrell Bank）在他的童年时期是一个“巨大且具有启发性的存在”，拓宽了他的视野，让他看到了家乡斯托克波特之外的世界。他将这座望远镜描述为“一件艺术品，同时也是一个科学场所”。
音乐家、作家兼朋克乐队 Membranes 的主唱约翰·罗布称其为“北方皇冠上的明珠之一”。其他签署者
监控摄像头拍到了伦敦西南部一家商店外的盗窃过程
驾驶员加速驶离，将整台机器从地下连根拔起，窃贼在对原先放置机器的人行道最后看了一眼后离去。
目前尚未有人被逮捕，但警方正在搜寻他们认为涉案的四名男子。警员还扣押了一辆与此事件相关的弃车。
事件发生在 7 月 29. 凌晨 1 点左右，金斯顿路（Kingston Road）的一家商店外。警方表示：“请任何掌握信息的人拨打 101 联系警方，并报出编号 302 / 29JUL。匿名举报可通过 Crimestoppers 拨打 0800 555 111，并使用相同的参考编号。”
最近几个月，全国其他地区也发生了类似事件。6 月，赫特福德郡巴尔多克一家商店门前的自动取款机被强行拔出。警方认为有四名男子和三辆车（一辆 JCB 挖掘机、一辆平板货车和一辆白色奥迪）参与其中。赫特福德郡警方表示尚未逮捕任何人。
剑桥郡警方表示，他们正将该事件与伯韦尔的一起事件联系起来。在伯韦尔，一台 Asda Express 的自动取款机被一台偷来的伸缩臂装载机（一种带有类似起重臂的叉车）和另外两辆车强行拔走。该事件仍在调查中。
（签署者）还包括 New Order 乐队的 Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris, Gillian Gilbert, Phil Cunningham 和 Tom Chapman；该乐队的前贝斯手 Peter Hook；以及德国电子乐团 Kraftwerk 的联合创始人 Ralf Hütter。
同样支持该运动的还有 Mogwai 的吉他手兼联合创始人 Stuart Braithwaite；Guy Garvey 及其 Elbow 乐队的成员；以及 Doves 乐队的 Jez Williams, Andy Williams 和 Jimi Goodwin。其中许多艺术家曾在 2016-23 年间在乔德雷尔银行举办的 Bluedot 音乐与科学节上演出。
乔德雷尔银行是 e-Merlin 的总部，这是一个由数千名研究人员使用的英国射电望远镜网络。目前被削减的是 e-Merlin 的资金。
然而，活动人士认为，如果没有这笔资金，洛夫尔望远镜将停止运行。
他们还包括物理学家兼广播员布莱恩·考克斯教授，以及宇航员蒂姆·皮克和克里斯·哈德菲尔德指挥官。
该信函敦促部长们寻找替代资金，认为乔德雷尔银行必须保持为一个运作中的天文台，而不仅仅是英国科学过去的纪念碑。
HAN MYUNG-GU / WIREIMAGE / GETTY IMAGES
杀害网红
一名 X Factor 的前参赛者 否认在索霍区（Soho）一家夜总会外 开车将其撞死 从而杀害了一名社交媒体网红 （杰西卡·夏基报道）。
来自曼彻斯特的 Gabrielle Carrington， 29 岁，被指控于 4 月 19 日凌晨 4.30 在伦敦中心区阿盖尔街（Argyll Street） 的 Inca 夜总会附近 开车撞击了 Klaudia Zakrzewska， 后者在网上以 Klaudiaglam 的身份为人所知。
被告最初被指控 谋杀未遂，但随后该指控被升级为
男子因将死去的母亲保存在冰箱中被判入狱
杰西卡·沙基 (Jessica Sharkey) 犯罪报道记者 由于尸体被保存在一个卧式冷冻柜中长达三年，其死后未再遭受其他侮辱。
一名男子将死去的母亲保存在冰箱中近三年，期间继续领取超过 £78,000 的福利金，现被判处两年多监禁。
60 岁的克里斯托弗·菲利普斯 (Christopher Phillips) 承认，他在位于威尔士布里根德 (Bridgend) 珀索尔 (Porthcawl) 的家中，妨碍了 89 岁的西尔维亚·菲利普斯 (Sylvia Phillips) 获得合法且体面的安葬。
他还承认了两项欺诈罪名，因为他未能通知工作与养老金部 (Department for Work and Pensions) 以及布里根德郡自治市议会其母亲已于 2023 年 3 月去世。
菲利普斯共领取了 £78,190.92 的国家养老金、养老金信用额度、护理津贴、冬季燃料补贴、生活成本补贴和住房补贴。
他昨天在梅瑟蒂德菲尔 (Merthyr Tydfil) 刑事法院被判处两年四个月监禁。
特雷西·劳埃德-克拉克 (Tracey Lloyd-Clarke) 法官表示，菲利普斯继续领取其母亲的处方药，并就其母亲的下落“误导”医疗专业人员。他多次告知医护人员，其母亲不愿参加预约或接受检查。
法院获悉，一名精神科医生得出结论，菲利普斯在犯罪时患有长期的悲伤障碍。
法官补充道：“（该精神科医生）记录了证据，显示你对母亲有持久的渴望，难以接受她的死亡，过度关注她，社交退缩，且无法回归正常的日常生活，以及你与你母亲之间有限的社交接触。”
量刑听证会获悉，在 2023 年 3 月 8 日母亲去世前的几个月里，菲利普斯离职成为了母亲的全职护理员。
在其母亲去世后（死因仍然未知），他买了一个卧式冷冻柜，并将其尸体保存在该房产的客厅内。
在之前为其治疗的医生对其福利状况提出担忧后，警方于 2026 年 2 月发现了西尔维亚·菲利普斯。
她的尸体被一块豹纹盖毯覆盖，身边放着玫瑰花和一张写着“给妈妈，来自克里斯托弗和蒂娜（指家养的狗）”的生日卡片。
菲利普斯在母亲去世前一样，继续居住在该房产中。
法官表示：“由于你掩盖母亲死讯的时间之长，且你通过继续领取她的养老金和福利金获得了经济利益，你的犯罪行为被加重。”
代表菲利普斯的鲁丝·史密斯 (Ruth Smith) 表示，菲利普斯在两岁时被西尔维亚·菲利普斯收养，与她“关系异常亲密”。法院获悉，他们在菲利普斯生命中共同生活了 50 年，且自 2008 年起，菲利普斯一直是她的主要护理员。
她表示，菲利普斯并没有将这些钱用于度假或购买名牌服装，而是像母亲去世前那样继续居住在该房产中。
史密斯说，菲利普斯告诉警方他“不想让她走”。“他描述自己像她还活着一样与她交谈……坐在她身边，和她讨论电视节目、《加冕街》、赛马，就像他们一直以来做的那样。”
扎克热夫斯卡 (Zakrzewska) 于 4 月 25 日因伤势去世。
58 岁的保安阿努什·奇切 (Anoush Chyche) 在该事件中受了足以改变生活的重伤。
卡灵顿 (Carrington) 在 2013 年与 Miss Dynamix 组合一起进入了 X Factor 现场决赛，其 Instagram 账号 RielleUK 拥有超过 360,000 名粉丝。
她通过视频链接在中央刑事法院 (Old Bailey) 出庭，否认与扎克热夫斯卡相关的谋杀罪名，以及与奇切相关的蓄意造成严重身体伤害罪名。她未被要求就第三项血液酒精含量超标驾驶的指控进行答辩。
卡灵顿在法庭上没有大律师代表，在听证会期间似乎在擦拭眼角的泪水。
据指称，卡灵顿开车抵达阿盖尔街 (Argyll Street) 并且
Smith补充道：“菲利普斯先生在其母亲去世时，是一名心理健康状况脆弱的易受伤害个体。”
检控方亚历克斯·奥恩道尔（Alex Orndal）表示，菲利普斯做出了一个“蓄意的且经过计算的决定”，旨在继续领取福利金而“无需重返工作”。
在下车时与一名男子发生争执，导致数名公众介入。
一名因两岁儿子死亡而被塞浦路斯当局起诉的英国父亲表示，感谢当局允许他返回英国参加孩子的葬礼。
这名 37 岁的人在四大会计师事务所之一工作。他的儿子于 7 月 12, （即度假第一天）从克洛拉卡斯（Chlorakas）的金埃夫尔顿海滩酒店及度假村（King Evelthon Beach Hotel and Resort）四楼坠落，随后该男子被指控因鲁莽行为导致死亡。
这名来自埃塞克斯（Essex）的父亲在几小时后于该五星级度假村被捕，并被关押 8 天后保释。在帕福斯（Paphos）的审判开始前，他被禁止离开该国。审判预计将于 9 月 17 开始。
上周五，法官弗罗索·克里斯托杜利杜（Froso Christodoulidou）告知帕福斯地区法院，总检察长已批准该父亲的请求，允许他在审判前一个月返回英国，与家人共同哀悼并安排儿子的葬礼。
在法庭外，这位含泪的父亲表示：“我感谢法官和当局让我能回家与妻子和女儿团聚，这是我现在唯一想做的事情。”
为该英国公民辩护的亚历山德罗斯·亚历山德鲁（Alexandros Alexandrou）表示，该父亲被要求在 9 月 14 返回，并需要缴纳 €10,000 的保释金，且必须告知当局他在英国期间的居住地。
法院获悉，当时该父亲在房间旁的走廊里抱住儿子的腰并左右摇晃，两人正在等待电梯前往餐厅吃晚餐，孩子随后从一扇打开的窗户中坠落。
克劳迪亚·扎克热夫斯卡（Klaudia Zakrzewska）在伦敦阿盖尔街（Argyll Street）被车撞击六天后死亡（见左远端）。加布里埃尔·卡灵顿（Gabrielle Carrington）（见下文）被还押候审。
她随后被指控重新进入车辆并立即冲上人行道，撞击了被“向前拖行”的扎克热夫斯卡，随后又撞到了同样在人行道上的奇彻（Chyche）。
在之前的听证会上，控方将现场描述为一场“混战”。
根据法院指控，事后检测显示，卡灵顿呼气中每 100 毫升酒精含量为 61 微克。法定驾驶限值为 35 微克。
莎拉·怀特豪斯（Sarah Whitehouse）KC 法官表示，她将于 1 月起在老贝利（Old Bailey）审理此案。审前听证会定于下周和 10 月举行。卡灵顿被还押候审。法官命令在下次听证会时将其带至法庭。
当警察向其描述这一事件版本时，他否认了相关说法，坚称自己没有摇晃儿子。
警方表示，毒理学报告显示，该男子的血液中含有相当于一到两杯饮品的酒精量。如果被定罪，他将面临最高四年的监禁。
该家庭的前任律师彼得罗斯·斯塔夫鲁（Petros Stavrou）在他被监禁的 8 天里多次请求释放该父亲，以便他能与妻子在一起，共同告知女儿她的弟弟已经去世。然而，由于延误，据报道，该父亲被迫通过 FaceTime 告知女儿这一消息。
该家庭当时入住塞浦路斯克洛拉卡斯的金埃夫尔顿酒店。
他的儿子被描述为“一个真正特别、随和的小男孩，给每个人带来了很多欢乐”。
该家庭的一名发言人告诉《泰晤士报》：“家人对父亲获准临时回国感到宽慰，这样他就能与妻子和女儿团聚，并开始组织儿子葬礼这项心碎的任务。”
William Hague
在上周末试图从摩洛哥跨境进入西班牙城市休塔（Ceuta）的大约 60,000 人中，据报道至少有 72 人死亡。他们中的许多人——绝大多数是年轻人，其中一些仅为青少年和儿童——成为了相信社交媒体上所见内容的牺牲品，即“西班牙的大门已打开”。西班牙最高法院裁定禁止对通过海路抵达的人员进行简易遣返，这在无意中鼓励了这一行为；而走私团伙则利用这种不确定性，蓄意加强了这种宣传。寻求机会的年轻人最终淹死在海中。
这些事件立即演变成了激烈的政治争端：在西班牙国内，政府因使一百多万非法移民身份合法化并助长了“大门已打开”的信念而遭到抨击；在欧盟内部，意大利对西班牙无法控制其边界感到愤怒；在英国，陷入困境的奈杰尔·法拉奇（Nigel Farage）再次宣称，移民船只可以被推回法国海域。
目前的政治博弈很大程度上集中在如何在英国或欧洲建立一座堡垒，通过更高的围墙和积极的防御来实现。西班牙正紧急扩展休塔的海上屏障。但无论我们把墙筑得有多高，一旦我们必须进行防御，我们就会不断地失败，且过程中会出现许多像休塔海域溺亡的青少年那样的牺牲品。
如果
我们的作者和专家覆盖了每个年龄段和每个阶段，帮助您和您的家庭在这个夏天生存并茁壮成长。
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专家建议
专家建议
英国皇家海军在繁忙的英吉利海峡航道上拖曳简陋的橡皮艇，且极可能失去法国至关重要的合作，那么情况必然如此。如果拥有一套成功的移民政策，海中将很少有青少年，因为他们会毫无疑问地知道西班牙并不对不受控制的移民开放；英吉利海峡中也不会有小船，因为人们会清楚地意识到英国同样不开放。
因此，内政大臣沙巴娜·马哈茂德（Shabana Mahmood）希望“让他们在最初决定是否登上那艘船时改变主意”，这一思路是正确的。她正在取得进展，但需要快速遣返、合理的法院裁决以及对欧洲人权法院（ECHR）进行有效改革来提供帮助。安迪·伯纳姆 在让她留任并支持其方法方面表现出了良好的政治直觉。整个政治左翼必须明白，向数千公里外的人们发出一个强烈的信号……
建立堡垒 是不够的
让他们意识到，在数英里之遥之外，非法移民是行不通的，这对于避免海上悲剧以及国内日益极端的想法至关重要。
然而，同样地，包括英国在内的全欧洲政治右翼的所有人都需要承认，建立堡垒是不够的。如果堡垒对其地平线之外发生的事情毫无兴趣，那么它就无法生存。就在我们的地平线之外，北非萨赫勒地区正在演变为一场巨大的生存危机。我们正接近于放弃采取任何行动。任何认为气候变化不是重大问题，或者认为海外援助总是在浪费，或者认为建立高墙能挡住所有问题的人，都需要研究一下萨赫勒地区。
虽然全球出生率正在下降，但萨赫勒部分地区的出生率依然处于最高水平。在乍得和尼日尔，最新的联合国预测表明，仅在未来 25 年内，人口就将翻倍。预计到 2050 年，该地区将增加 250 million 人口。萨赫勒国家的年龄中位数为 23，而欧洲为 46；其平均人口密度为每平方公里 144 人，而欧洲为 32。
即便在最好的情况下，这也将是一个巨大的经济和发展挑战，但不幸的是，这些国家面临的可能是整个地球上最糟糕的环境组合。它们气候变暖的速度快于全球平均水平。加上森林砍伐和边际土地的枯竭，这导致沙漠不断扩张，以及牧民与农民之间的冲突。一些国家——尤其是马里——经历了长期的内战。在该地区的边缘，苏丹仍然深陷于世界上最血腥的冲突之中。
西方稳定该地区的努力不仅失败了，而且被放弃了。两年前，美国在一次军事政变后关闭了其在尼日尔的主要基地。法国作为历史上在该地区最活跃的西方大国，在当地军政府反对其影响力后，撤走了数千名士兵。随着西方军队撤出，“萨赫勒国家联盟”随之成立，俄罗斯成为了其关键的安全合作伙伴。
社交媒体敦促数千名移民从摩洛哥过境
只要西方撤出，俄罗斯人就会进入。尽管在某些场合损失惨重，但他们仍坚持建立军事基地，确保获得矿业特许权并扩大其地缘政治影响力。中国也随之进入，在西方援助被大幅削减的同时，投资于石油、铀和锂供应。
最终结果是我们失去了影响力，放弃了对局势的任何控制，并在很大程度上失去了对所发生事情的可见度。没有任何一个国家或领导人应对此负责——这是过去十年中一系列失败和被迫撤出的累积结果。但在未来的几十年里，如果将萨赫勒地区排除在我们的视线之外，从而排除在意识之外，那将是一个非常严重的错误。
英国非常明智地通过战略伙伴关系加强了与尼日利亚的关系，将其作为重建在撒哈拉以南非洲影响力的努力的一部分。但在伦敦、华盛顿或巴黎，并没有可见的长期战略。考虑到如此多的其他事务以及白宫极其短暂的注意力集中时间，这或许并不令人惊讶。然而，一些最重大的战略挑战正在北非稳步形成。很快，那里将出现数亿治理不善的年轻人，面对的是不断扩张的沙漠和日益减少的机会。而有一天，他们将开始迁移，
如何在 便利时代 培养 有韧性的孩子
如何在 便利时代 培养 有韧性的孩子
儿童最佳书籍
儿童最佳书籍
今年夏天 如何让你的 孩子阅读
ANADOLU / GETTY IMAGES
俄罗斯人 已然进驻
其规模之大前所未见，无论“欧洲堡垒”还是“英国堡垒”都无法将其拒之门外。
当然，这凸显了当前采取强硬且有效的移民政策的必要性。但这也表明，仅靠此类政策是不够的。在短期内，英国及其盟友需要具备军事能力，以应对在萨赫勒地区形成的恐怖主义威胁，并在当地舆论最终转向反对俄罗斯剥削时，及时介入并帮助合法当局。届时，目前用于在国内安置寻求庇护者的援助资金，应当重新定向，用于帮助非洲的教育和环境建设。
从长远来看，西方应准备重新参与萨赫勒地区事务，现在就通过外交和情报工作铺路，以便在数以百万计的 20 岁左右青年在自己的国家要求公正与机遇时，能够准备好提供帮助。否则，游向塞乌塔的人们将不仅仅是上周的悲剧，更是未来更多悲剧的先兆。
如果我的孩子 不吃蔬菜 那不是我的错
共鸣之声 (RELATABLE VOICES)
T
D
梅兰妮·菲利普斯 (Melanie Phillips)
@melanielatest
信息法庭的一项裁决认为，政府部长可以对任何刑事定罪记录保密，这简直令人难以接受。本报（《泰晤士报》）希望了解斯塔默政府中有多少部长在审核过程中申报了刑事定罪记录。这一要求是由路易丝·海格 (Louise Haigh) 的辞职引发的，她在被曝出未能披露 2014 年的一项欺诈定罪后，被迫辞去交通大臣一职。
法庭裁定，此类信息构成刑事犯罪数据，议会已根据数据保护法对其提供了特殊保护。即便只是声明某些部长没有定罪记录，也可能成为拼图的一块，从而揭示出其他有定罪记录的人。
其原因是，披露任何人的刑事定罪记录被认为侵犯了其基本权利，可能会导致偏见、名誉受损或不公正待遇。因此，人们无需向雇主、学校或保险公司申报任何已过追诉期 (spent) 的定罪记录——此类记录在经过一段时间后会从标准背景调查中删除。
不过也有例外。例如，执法部门或国家安全领域的雇主在法律上有权获知已过追诉期和未过追诉期的定罪记录。而且，即使是已过追诉期的定罪记录，仍记录在保密的警方数据库中。
因此，尽管这些个体已经向社会支付了代价，但这并不意味着其品行没有疑问。在隐私要求与披露需求之间需要达成一种平衡。而这种平衡取决于具体情况。
在政治领域，透明度是工作的核心部分。对于政治家而言，品行问题至关重要。这就是为什么，当安迪·伯纳姆 将海格重新召回政府担任兰开斯特公领大臣时，
我儿子说 我又在 吹牛了
尽管我每周必须在《泰晤士报》上用 3,000 个单词来填充我对这般那般事情的看法，但正如我希望你们已经注意到的一样，我并没有用我对克里斯托弗·诺兰 (Christopher Nolan) 的《奥德赛》之见来打扰你们。这是因为我试图以自己的方式，在观点上保持惊喜，而任何人对《奥德赛》的看法都没有什么惊喜之处。事实上，唯一能带来惊喜的方式就是完全不对这部电影发表看法。或者至少不要把看法告诉所有人。所以我没说。
但显而易见，我看这部电影了。我和我儿子萨姆 (Sam) 一起去的，在回家路上，我们对哪些部分是 CGI 特效、哪些是真实拍摄的进行了一番争论。他认为绝大部分是 CGI，我认为绝大部分不是。他说我是一个轻信的古板婴儿潮老人，我说他是一个愤世嫉俗的小混混。
的人们感到难以置信
她被剥夺了监督公共部门欺诈的职责，尽管她的定罪记录已经失效。
一名持异议的法庭成员认为，需要评估的不是一名部长的刑事定罪情况，而是他们在多大程度上选择披露此类事项。该异议者主张，正是这种坦诚（或缺乏坦诚）应当接受民主监督。
该主张被驳回。专家组表示，尽管出于公共利益存在豁免情况，但向记者披露并不在其中。专家组称，目前请求的是对在机密任命过程中所披露内容的公共审查。
特技演员德文·道尔顿（Devyn Dalton）在“拉斯特里戈涅斯人”场景中代替马特·达蒙饰演奥德修斯，与身高 7 英尺、扮成巨人的演员搏斗，从而省去了电脑特效的需求。
当我告诉萨姆时，他仍持怀疑态度（“爷爷，你愿意相信什么就相信什么吧”），但后来他在花园里对我说： “爸，我想明白你为什么这么喜欢跟我混在一起了：这是个‘拉斯特里戈涅斯’式的问题。”
“啊？”我说，“我跟你混在一起是因为你很有趣，而且我爱你。”
“当然，”他说，“但也是因为当你跟我一起走在街上时，从远处看，人们可能会觉得你长得还算高。或者至少是平均身高。”
“我就是平均身高！”我抗议道，“我 5 英尺 9 英寸！”
“行吧，随便，”萨姆说。他今年长高了 6 英寸，目前 5 英尺 7 英寸，得益于母系方面的身高基因，预计最终将达到约 6 英尺 1 英寸。“但笑话在你就对了，因为很快你就会……”
内阁办公厅得体与伦理团队主任西蒙·马登（Simon Madden）告诉法庭，此类审查可能会损害该进程，因为该进程部分依赖于“在预期保密的情况下进行的坦诚披露”。然而，这与用来解释为什么斯塔默在彼得·曼德尔森（Peter Mandelson）被审查担任美国大使一职时，未被告知其与杰弗里·爱泼斯坦（Jeffrey Epstein）持续关系的论据大体相同。而那次进展很顺利，不是吗？
如果休姆弗里爵士仅在知晓候选人隐秘丑闻的情况下才始终为了公共利益评估候选人，那么有多少人会信任他？请不要所有人同时举手。
这种秘密主义在公众中引起了极坏的反响，因为政治和公共生活中诚信的缺失，导致人们对代议制民主本身产生了危险的幻灭感。不仅是对海格在政治上东山再起，对住房大臣安格拉·雷纳（Angela Rayner）的回归，人们也普遍感到厌恶和难以置信。由于被披露未就其第二套房支付正确的印花税，她此前曾辞职——尽管她被判定没有犯罪。人们还对商业大臣乔纳森·雷诺兹（Jonathan Reynolds）虚报自己是合格律师这一事实感到啧啧称奇。
信任是政治中最重要的因素之一。即使人们不同意政治家的观点，他们也需要政治家透明且诚实。相反，他们处处看到不诚实。他们听到政治家没完没了地对他们撒谎，
……让我看起来 像个巨无霸，走在街上 在我那个矮子父亲身边。”
我努力想出一个刻薄的反击（我们还没到那个地步——即我提醒他他是从我的睾丸里出来的，而他叫我老色狼），但最后只是叹了口气说：“如果这足以让你在长大后还愿意跟我混在一起，萨米，那我就接受了。”
“爱你，爸，”萨姆说着，重新戴上了耳机。
我正戴着一顶优雅的、窄檐的剑麻帽写这篇专栏。
谢泼德，你会 很高兴地知道，
因为我的妻子 在 上周我的 57 岁 生日时给我买了一顶，
而写作是 我唯一允许 自己在戴帽子时 做的事情。
她买了一顶帽子，用来替代她在我54岁生日时买给我的那顶精美的Borsalino帽。那顶帽子在我的书房墙上的钉子上挂了三年，直到
……做出他们最终会违背，或者压根就没打算遵守的承诺。他们目睹了医疗服务部门、警察局或邮政局中那些极其无能的高级管理人员，在导致人员死亡或被错误监禁的丑闻中主政，却拒绝辞职，或者转而前往其他安逸的岗位。
英国人依然被强烈的公平与正义感所驱动。他们的天性是去做正确的事，因此当政客和其他高级公务员似乎在遵循一套不同的规则时，他们感到震惊。那种认为政客能逃脱普通人会被严惩之事的认知，对于整个社会契约具有极强的腐蚀性。
人们常说，优秀的人被阻挠进入政坛，是因为他们的生活会被侵入式的公众审视和威胁所撕裂。社会中确实存在一种危险且令人遗憾的毒性氛围。但社会中的这种恶意倾向，不应与公共生活对诚信的需求混为一谈。
为了恢复信任与尊重，政客们需要重新发现问责制原则。公众需要看到公众人物为其过错承担责任——通过彻底离开公共生活，而不是像没做过任何坏事一样东山再起。透明度是关键。人们需要相信，他们有权了解的关于领导人和公务员的信息没有被隐瞒。
他们想知道，他们得到的正是他们所看到的。他们想要的是有信念的政客，而不是有隐秘信念的政客。
几周前，当我决定第一次冒风险在那种天气下出门，去参加萨姆在城外的一场板球赛时。显然，我回来时没带那顶帽子。所以她又给我买了一顶，因为她认为在我这个高龄，在阳光下应该开始戴帽子了。
我想她可能认为我下周去希腊时甚至会带上它。但我太喜欢这顶帽子了，不能忍受弄丢它。我有一头浓密的头发和深色的黎凡特皮肤；无论是在希腊还是其他任何地方，我都不需要防晒。所以，这将是我的写作帽。它将留在我的书房里。就这样，就这么定了。
萌芽的企业 我的邻居告诉我，泰晤士水务公司的软管禁令对商业花卉种植者有豁免，于是我给我的花园浇了水。想买些大丽花吗？
片尾演职员表前的漫步 我和萨姆在周日看了《蜘蛛侠：崭新之日》。非常出色的电影。简直是《奥德赛》级别的出色（天哪！）。但给个建议：不要在冗长的片尾演职员表中一直坐到最后，等待通常会出现的一流漫威片尾彩蛋。因为这次没有。
菲亚兹·穆格尔 (Fiyaz Mughal)
安迪·伯纳姆关于权力下放的承诺缺乏具体细节，尽管他在六月于曼彻斯特的一次演讲中阐明了目标。他说：“‘大曼彻斯特模式’基于所有部门之间的强有力伙伴关系：公共部门、私营部门、社区、志愿者、学术界、信仰团体以及我们的工会。”
几乎二十年前，戈登·布朗也曾提出过一个并不相像的方案，作为一项旨在解决社会弊端的权力下放计划的一部分，扩大了“社区代表”在白厅的作用。信仰团体同样处于布朗计划的中心。在 2006 和 2008 年之间，作为“信仰社区能力建设基金”的一部分，向 900 多个团体支付了约 £11 million。此外，还有一个独立的为期三年、金额为 £7.5 million 的项目，旨在促进信仰团体之间的伙伴关系。
该项目从一开始就由于对公共利益的测试不足以及缺乏可衡量结果而陷入困境。它的前提是，可以通过与声音最大的群体接触来扩大与信仰社区的参与，并通过向多样化社区投入纳税人的资金来吸引他们与政府接触。如果目标是社会凝聚力，那么现实却是适得其反。
一些项目几乎没有带来可证明的融合或持久的社会价值；另一些项目则引入了那些完全没有意愿推广国家价值观或支持反极端主义工作的团体。最糟糕的是，一些对中东问题持有分歧观点且仇视 LGBT 群体和犹太人的团体利用政府资金维持其组织运作。
该政府的错误在于一种懒政的假设，即认为声音最大的信仰组织代表了与其信仰相同的民众。二十年来，这些具有分裂性的信仰组织继续将国际冲突带入英国政治的核心，而历届政府则认为这仅仅是“包容”的一部分。例如，我们在去年就看到了伯明翰马卡比特拉维夫足球队的惨剧。但伯纳姆似乎并没有从中吸取教训，反而是在迎合那个具有分裂性的宗派基础。这解释了为什么在进入唐宁街 10 号之前，他选择发布一段视频，称工党在加沙问题上“搞错了”。
公共资金必须附带明确的公民条件：任何寻求凝聚力资金的组织都应证明其拥有民主治理、财务透明度，支持法律面前人人平等，并对言论自由有明确的承诺。伯纳姆说他想把权力还给民众。很好。但权力必须交给公民，而不是交给神职人员或社区的把关人。
在沉默中，你可以听到社会在崩塌
詹姆斯·马里奥特 (James Marriott) @j_amesmarriott
前几天傍晚，我坐在 Uber 车的后座，在伦敦热浪带来的瑰丽珊瑚色日落下，在拥堵的交通中缓慢前行。我打破了一条现代礼仪准则，与司机聊了起来。我们谈到了他的年幼家庭，Uber 从我的车费中抽取的那笔荒谬的高额费用，以及他此前作为一名厨师时不快乐的职业生涯。
我并没有从这次对话中获得任何令人惊叹的社会学洞察，但它显得如此不同寻常。大多数 Uber 旅程几乎在沉默中度过，这要么是因为语言障碍，要么可能是因为双方都怀疑，任何试图发起不受欢迎之谈话的尝试，都会导致评分低于五星。
在现代城市的喧嚣中，存在着一种诡异的静默真空。《大西洋月刊》(The Atlantic) 最近报道的一项研究发现，人们每天说话的词数正在下降：从 2005 年的 16,632 个下降到 2019 年的 11,900 个。不难猜测那些缺失的词语去向何处。在《泰晤士报》办公室附近的 Leon 分店里，我在屏幕上点了一份哈罗米奶酪卷 (halloumi wrap)，然后等待工作人员将其递给我（“詹姆斯？”“额，是的，谢谢”）。
在 149 路公交车上刷卡上车，司机在有机玻璃屏幕后面无法触及。在 Tesco 超市里，对话仅限于一些关于我错误使用打包区域的自动讽刺。很快，伦敦的出行将变得更加安静；顾客可以选择 Waymo 机器人出租车。对话的减少引发了人们对社会孤立和认知健康的担忧（社交互动对大脑有益）。但这种不断聚集的沉默也在改变我们的社会。
如果真的存在所谓的“社会织造”，那么这些对话就是将其编织在一起的细小纤维。我知道，这听起来像是在陈词滥调。但这是一个历史事实。人类学家告诉我们，人类是一个部落物种。对家人和直接的“内群体”产生共情是天然的。而对陌生人的共情则需要有意识地培养。18 世纪末西方国家的城市化——以及随之而来的社交融合——是创建现代自由社会的一股重要力量。
词数正在 下降
城市是宽容的学校。它们提供了一种你可以称之为“陌生人暴露疗法”的形式，让人不断地与不同于自己的人发生微小的碰撞。在商店、出租车和餐厅里捕捉到的碎片化对话，代表了跨越阶级、文化和种族界限的宝贵入侵；每一次对话都像是一次针刺，刺破了分隔人类部落的社会膜。我与 Uber 司机的互动，短暂地让城市生活中一个极易显得匿名的部分人性化了。此类对话本身可能是平庸的，但这些点滴会积少成多。一个复杂的现代社会，如果其公民缺乏某种共有的共情意识，就很难运作。
成功的城市应该是具有渗透性的。但对许多人来说，伦敦似乎正变成一个日益难以进入的地方。我有时在想，从一名 Deliveroo 外卖骑手的视角来看，这里是什么样子？那是排屋组成的堡垒，以及在陌生门槛前短暂且勉强的对话（“谢了，伙计”）。这些司机——满足现代人渴望在完美的孤独中吃寿司的贪欲——在顾客眼中仅仅是街道上闪过的面孔，或是灯光照亮的门口一瞥而过的人影。技术意味着，在欧洲人口最稠密的地方之一，一个人也可以生活在密封的沉默之中；许多人在卧室里或在电动自行车上所经历的孤立，就像西米昂·斯提利茨 (Simeon Stylites) 在沙漠石柱上一样。
在思考社会信任下降和政治极化加剧的问题时，我们应该记住，那些以效率之名从社会中剥离的人际互动具有极高的价值。
仅仅是门缝中 瞥见的一张脸
一个不愿社交融合的国家， 会发现自己更容易被分裂。 美国在政治上比英国更加极化， 原因之一可能是其地理分布更加分裂； 富人与穷人、黑人与白人更有可能 居住在不同的郊区。 而英国城市规划的随机性， 将市政住宅区植入了伊斯灵顿 (Islington) 和汉普斯特德 (Hampstead)。
我也在思考，社交融合在英国较高水平的种族宽容度 以及相对成功的少数群体融入过程中扮演了怎样的角色。 作为一名移民，你不太可能听到 一场全面阐述英国价值观的演讲。 相反，正是通过去商店购物 以及与公交车司机交谈， 你所加入的这个社会的特质 才向你揭示。
对于随意的交谈来说，这些主张似乎有些夸大， 但第一次世界大战期间， 上层阶级军官与工人阶级士兵之间 情同袍泽的交往， 经常被认为是打破战前僵化阶级等级制度的一个因素。 如今，许多极富之人 在社会层面上比他们战前的祖先更加孤立， 他们通过移动应用程序 统领着一个短暂且匿名的仆从阶层。 一名爱德华时代的绅士 与他的管家或司机交流的词汇量， 远比他的现代后裔 与一名 Uber 司机或 Deliveroo 骑手交流的多。 阶级之间日益增加的社会孤立， 或许解释了富人日益增长的自私（21 世纪以来 慈善捐款有所下降）， 以及社会阶层较低者日益增长的愤恨。
许多现代都市人（在分析中我不排除我自己） 仅仅在名义上是世界主义者； 在精神和社会层面上， 他们与中世纪偏远村庄的任何一名农民一样狭隘。 但将他们分隔开的不再是距离和糟糕的道路， 而是耳机和屏幕。 一个没有人彼此交谈的复杂社会， 真的能运行下去吗？
先生，关于我们需要大幅改善老年人护理服务， 包括为护理人员提供“职业晋升或薪资增长”这一点， 珍妮丝·特纳 (Janice Turner) 以及我们的新任首相都是正确的 （见 8 月 1 日《准备好为我们所有人都需要的护理买单》）。 而我不同意的是， 她希望“尽可能长时间地让人们远离养老院”的愿望。 根据我年迈母亲的经验， 在自己家中被大肆吹捧的“独立”， 演变成了孤立与孤独， 因为她的朋友越来越少， 而年轻的邻居和朋友在她疲惫不适时， 会对探访产生顾虑。 她在家里聘请的护理员是她的生命线， 他们绝对值得获得比零小时合同规定的最低工资更高的报酬。 当最终需要的护理程度超过了护理员和家人的探访时， 她搬进一家舒适的养老院， 在那里她确实享受到了“奢华的庭院和精致的餐具”， 这简直是一次启示。 能拥有同龄、同阶段其他居民的愉快陪伴， 有活动和郊游， 最重要的是，有友好且给予支持的员工提供的护理和个人照顾， 这太美妙了。 她非常享受其中。 只可惜她拖得太久，享受的时间太短了。 我们不应放弃这种给老年人带来的慰藉， 而应效仿并使其更易获得， 通过私人与国家的共同出资来实现。 西尔维娅·格雷 (Sylvia Gray) 爱丁堡
先生，尼基·斯潘斯（Nicky Spence）说英国已经将歌剧“最小化”了，这是正确的（《泰晤士报》2，8月3日）。我们相当巧妙地解决了“精英主义”问题——先将古典音乐从主流学校中移除，然后抱怨只有特权阶层才能接触到它。在20世纪70年代我就读的伦敦综合中学里，我们可以免费借用乐器，参加课程，加入学校和自治市管弦乐团，参加表演合唱经典曲目及吉尔伯特与萨利文（Gilbert and Sullivan）作品的青年合唱团，并享受补贴前往英国国家歌剧院、皇家歌剧院和皇家节日大厅参观。如今，许多这样的路径已经消失。歌剧本身并非精英主义，而是接触它的渠道变得精英化了。毕竟，我曾在足球看台上与数千人一起愉快地演唱威尔第的歌曲，度过了许多个下午，且没有人抱怨这太高端。 艾伦·福克纳（Alan Faulkner） 莱明顿温泉镇（Leamington Spa）
《泰晤士报》严肃对待关于编辑内容的投诉。我们致力于遵守独立新闻标准组织（“IPSO”）的规章制度以及 IPSO 执行的《编辑实务准则》。 更正或澄清的请求请发送电子邮件至 feedback@thetimes.co.uk 或邮寄至 Feedback, The Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF
先生，露西·鲍威尔（Lucy Powell）在对教育系统的分析中是正确的（“高夫的遗产是百万被遗忘者”，评论，8月3日）。她正确地批评了当前教学大纲中基于排名表和考试的“束缚”，但并未提示她将如何改变现状。作为一名拥有约 40 年经验的教师，我认为我们需要一个更全面的系统，将情商、韧性、应对挫折的能力以及如何具有说服力并为自己争取权益纳入其中。这才是雇主需要的，而不是基于纸笔考试的证书。 尼古拉斯·奎尼（Nicholas Quiney） 前霍里斯山（Horris Hill）和索尔菲尔德（Solefield）预备学校音乐总监
先生，露西·鲍威尔在文章中将青年高失业率的所有责任都推给迈克尔·高夫（Michael Gove）的教育改革，这是不真诚的。她忽略了在基尔·斯塔默爵士（Sir Keir Starmer）领导下的工党政府对雇主征收更高税款所带来的影响。 瑞秋·威尔德布鲁德（Rachel Wildblood） 伦敦 SE21
先生，迈克尔·高夫在 2010 年至 2014 年担任教育大臣期间的改革，是保守党执政年间最突出的部长级成功案例。这些改革导致大量——
再野化与林地的火灾。物种丰富草地的诸多优点之一便是其对野火和干旱的韧性。 尼克·曼（Nick Mann） 栖息地援助组织（Habitat Aid）创始人
先生，利比·珀夫斯（Libby Purves）（评论，8月3日）认为再野化是野火背后的一个因素。嗯，是的——但也不完全是。广袤的加斯科涅林地（Landes de Gascoigne forest）的单一栽培导致了吉龙德（Gironde）和卡佩费雷（Cap Ferret）的野火。该地区在19世纪被排水并种植海滨松之前原为湿地。这使其成为一场极具人为色彩的灾难。
缺乏管理和牧场放牧确实是野火的促成因素。这些问题在欧洲大陆尤为明显，且与土地弃耕有关。这里的林地同样饱受管理不善之苦。再野化支持者可能会说，恢复到原始景观将解决这个问题；野猪会在森林底层挖掘，海狸会创造湿地区域。我不确定是否完全同意，至少是因为每种情况都不同。我希望看到针叶林人工林被取代，但不一定——
摘自《泰晤士报》1926年8月4日
在过去的四年里，HC Corry Mann博士代表医学研究委员会对学龄期男孩的饮食进行了一些有趣的调查，结果现已公布。
前言指出：“令人惊叹的是，在足以满足生长发育期男孩食欲的饮食基础上，每天增加一品脱牛奶，可以将每名男孩年平均增重从 3.85lb 提高到 6.98lb，年平均身高增长从 1.84in 提高到 2.63in。这”
年轻人，尤其是来自弱势背景的年轻人，取得了改变生活的学术成就。但世界已经发生了变化，那种挤压艺术、体育、性格培养和就业技能的“全民知识丰富型教育”已不再可行。其课程在培养责任感与责任心，以及对抗年轻人中日益盛行的特权感和自我沉溺倾向方面做得太少。AI的极速到来影响了教育的所有方面和未来的就业，进一步使得该模式必须做出改变。
这就是为什么《泰晤士报》教育委员会在四年前主张建立一种英国高中毕业证书（British baccalaureate），将学术的严谨与卓越，与针对这个新技术时代的工作和生活同样严谨的准备相结合。政策制定者应当研究之。 安东尼·塞尔登爵士 (Sir Anthony Seldon) 《泰晤士报》教育委员会创始人兼副主席
先生，你们的报道《学校“束缚”的代价》（8月 3.）似乎陷入了一个常见的陷阱，即通过 2009 年至 2023 年间英格兰在国际数学和科学排名表中的上升，就推断出迈克尔·戈夫（Michael Gove）的改革提高了教育标准。事实并非如此：英格兰的Pisa分数
先生，利比·珀维斯（Libby Purves）关于“野化”在频发山火中作用的文章，将一种复杂的土地管理形式简单化了，并有加剧一场不必要的文化战争的风险。目前还没有被认可的“野化”定义：它反映了广泛的畜牧管理光谱，从将小型且无利可图的田地角落移出生产，到大规模的保护组织保护区。山火显然给未来的土地管理提出了严肃的问题，但将所有野化项目一概而论，会削弱另一个至关重要的辩论：如何恢复我们令人悲哀的、日益枯竭的乡村。 贾斯汀·米尔沃德 (Justin Milward) 退休特许测量师，布里斯托尔
先生，在读到贵报支持延长版权版税（《梦幻岛的遗产》，8月1日）的社论时，我简直惊讶得被玉米片噎住了。
版权与所有知识产权一样，是创作者与代表广大公众的国家之间达成的一项协议。为了鼓励创新和创造力，国家允许一种临时性的垄断，使创作者能够将其作品货币化。但这种垄断应当受到严格限制，否则，与所有垄断一样，公众最终将支付过高的代价。其他艺术家也会因此无法在先前的发明或创作基础上进行构建，从而降低了创新和创造力。因此，所谓延长版税“不损害任何人”的说法绝对是不正确的。人们可以很有说服力地认为，目前的版权期限已经是不必要地长于激励新创意作品所需的时长。
您本质上是在建议通过向公众征税来支持文化机构。这样做是否有道理尚在讨论之中，但版权期限应当完全排除在其中。 约翰·奥尔蒂 (John Alty) 2010-16年英国知识产权局首席执行官；伦敦 E9
营养状况的明显改善经试验证明，并非是因为燃料值的微小增加，也不是因为牛奶中提供的额外蛋白质，而是由于牛奶作为食物的更具体特性。”
这些调查是在一个距离伦敦 11 英里的一处少年殖民地进行的，少年们居住在一个由 19 栋小屋组成的模范村中，其中 8 栋被选中用于实验。
所有少年都采用了基础饮食，但在 8 栋小屋中的 7 栋里，饮食有所增加。在一种情况中，每名少年每天增加一品脱鲜奶，价值 388 卡路里；另一种情况是 3盎司蓖麻糖，350 卡路里；第三种情况是 1¾盎司——387 卡路里——最优质的新西兰草饲黄油；在两栋小屋中使用了水芹，配额为 ½盎司至 ¾盎司；另一栋提供了每日 1盎司的酪蛋白；第七种变体是 1¾盎司的植物人造黄油，379 卡路里。对夏季和冬季的生长情况进行了观察，发现夏季的生长量几乎总是更多。
6 约克公爵与公爵夫人今日访问皇家威尔士诗人节 (Royal Welsh Eisteddfod) 取得了圆满成功。16,000 人挤在斯旺西维多利亚公园内搭建的巨型展亭中，见证不列颠群岛最年轻的两名诗人入会 Gorsedd。就在 11.30 之前，欢呼声宣布了人们翘首以盼的到来。Gorsedd 旗帜前摆放了两把椅子。随后，首席德鲁伊埃尔费德 (Elfed) 以端庄威严的身姿登上讲台，佩德罗格 (Pedrog) 和佩剑者格瓦尔特·戴维 (Gwallter Dewi) 随行。
2009 年和 2022 年（2023 年没有调查；2023 年公布的数据与 2022 年相关）的成绩分别在数学方面为 493 和 492；在科学方面为 515 和 503。一个更合理的推论应该是，戈夫 (Gove) 的改革对这些学科的成绩没有影响。 约翰·布里顿 (John Britton) 流行病学名誉教授；诺丁汉郡霍弗林汉姆
先生，我从事讲师和教师工作 40 多年，在迈克尔·戈夫 (Michael Gove) 与露西·鲍威尔 (Lucy Powell) 关于教育标准的辩论中，缺失的拼图碎片是家长教育。众多研究表明，当全球各国的成功教育系统进行比较时，唯一的共同点就是家长的支持。无论是戈夫还是鲍威尔，都没有意识到这么多学生成绩不理想并最终成为 NEET（不就业、不深造、不培训青年）的真正原因。温布利米凯拉社区学校 (Michaela Community School) 的成功当然是因为对学术卓越的追求，但也得益于那些重视学习转化能力的家长的支持。政治家们知道这一点，但他们过于关注短期选举考量，而无法解决真正的问题。 戴夫·哈利韦尔 (Dave Halliwell) 诺丁汉郡拉德克利夫-昂-特伦特
先生，托尼·塞威尔提醒我们关注将诚实经营与对“劳动人民”的真正关怀相结合的优秀贵格会传统（《重新点燃有良心的资本主义》，8月3日），这非常好。另一个例子是索尔泰尔（Saltaire），那是蒂图斯·索尔特爵士在布拉德福德附近建立的纺织厂和模范社区。这次的灵感同样来自基督教，且同样是非国教的——在那次案例中，是会众派。
这些社会实验与现代资本主义之间难道没有一个关键的区别吗？即资本是由企业家本人积累的，而不是由某些与实际从事生产的人员福祉毫无直接利益关系的脱离企业的金融机构提供的。卡布里（Cadbury）现在由一家美国食品巨头所有；由金融公司控制的企业最终只能关注财务回报。
反对国有化的主要论点是国家既缺乏人情味，又因规模太大而不能倒闭。而资本主义如果失去了雇主与雇员之间个人的人文联系，无疑也存在一个不同但类似的缺陷。如果企业的组织方式能够保留对工人的个人关怀，以及对属于一个真正具有社会实用价值的组织的归属感和自豪感，那么这种“资本主义”必然是更好的解决方案。 保罗·金神父 北约克郡，莱伯恩
先生，我也对极小比例不得不关闭或转为其他用途的教堂感到遗憾（信件，8月1日）。但我更担心的是那些仅在周日开放的教堂数量。在什么意义上它们才“属于社区”？没有人能随进随出地祈祷，或者带访问的朋友去参观他们美丽的教堂。教堂里所有有价值的东西都应被清理出去，然后它们应该向公众敞开大门。 约翰·克雷格牧师 斯塔福德郡，利奇菲尔德
先生，我阅读了吉尔斯·科伦的文章（《我们都在撒小谎——只要在达到顶峰前停下来》，8月1日），文中提到了我的已故丈夫（一名牙科外科医生），并称“所有牙医都开保时捷”。当吉尔斯还在预科学校时，我曾开车送他去哈罗德百货，因为他身材娇小，被安排在圣诞老人洞穴里扮演小精灵。他迟到了，并给了我一个荒唐的理由。我问他为什么总是撒谎，他回答说“因为真相太无聊了”。也许他还没有完全达到顶峰。 朱迪思·古尔登 伦敦 NW3
先生，贵刊文章《配有鸡块的香槟》（8月1日）提到年轻人喜欢用葡萄酒搭配垃圾食品。这种乐趣并非年轻人的专属。多年来，我们当地葡萄酒吧的周一一直是厨师的休息日。店主鼓励顾客用由附近炸鱼薯薯条店提供的炸鱼薯条来配酒。一两杯凯歌香槟（Veuve Clicquot）被证明是极佳的伴侣。 斯蒂芬·英格拉姆 谢菲尔德
每日通用登记表
欧盟：内政部长举行视频会议（英国夏令时上午 9 点），讨论西班牙飞地塞乌塔（Ceuta）的移民激增问题。 英国：考斯周（Cowes Week，持续至周五）。
自然笔记
极少数情况下，一只亮粉色的蝗虫会成为新闻。这种醒目的变异是由一种称为“红斑症”（erythrism）的状况引起的，它会导致红色素过度产生；这种情况并不寻常，但严格来说并不罕见。然而，罕见的是患有红斑症的蝗虫若虫能发育至成年：由于完全缺失了通常的伪装色，无法在草茎中隐身，它们在长大成人之前通常就会被鸟类或两栖动物发现并吃掉。原野蝗虫和草地蝗虫是最容易受红斑症影响的物种，如果其中一只能够成熟并繁殖，它就能将这种变异遗传下去，导致次年卵孵化时出现更多粉色蝗虫若虫。 melissa harrison
今日生日
巴拉克·奥巴马（如图），美国总统 (2009-17)，65 岁；埃德罗姆的 (詹姆斯) 阿布特诺特勋爵，保守党国会议员 (1987-2015)，74 岁；伊恩·布鲁迪， singer-songwriter，Big in Japan 和 Lightning Seeds，《三狮》(1996)，68 岁；伊恩·科克里尔，Endeavour Mining（富时 100 矿业公司）首席执行官，72 岁；费林的 (杰克) 坎宁安勋爵，内阁办公室部长兼兰开斯特公国领主 (1998-99)，87 岁；西蒙·达格卡斯教授，奇切斯特大学副校长，53 岁；德克兰·多内兰，Cheek by Jowl 剧团联合创始人 (1981)，73 岁；格蕾塔·葛薇格，演员及电影制作人，《小妇人》(2019)，《芭比》(2023)，43 岁；彼得·古德费洛教授，遗传学家，Abingworth 投资集团科学顾问，75 岁；马丁·贾维斯，演员，《Rings on their Fingers》(1978-80)，85 岁；丹尼斯·勒翰，小说家，《离去，宝贝，离去》(1998)，《禁闭岛》(2003)，61 岁；(史蒂夫) 麦卡布勋爵，工党国会议员 (1997-2024，曾代表伯明翰霍尔格林后代表伯明翰塞利奥克)，71 岁；李·麦克，喜剧演员，《Would I Lie to You?》(2007 年起)，以及演员，《Not Going Out》(2006-25)，58 岁；乔乔·莫伊斯，作家，《遇见你之前》(2012)，57 岁；卢克·佩申斯，水手，奥运会银牌得主 (2012)，40 岁；凯特·西尔弗顿，播音员和新闻朗读员，现为儿童治疗师，56 岁；玛丽·斯莱尼（原姓德克），运动员，唯一一位保持从 800 到 10,000 米所有美国记录的跑者，68 岁；伯明翰的 (西蒙) 史蒂文斯勋爵，英国癌症研究中心及海事与海岸警卫局主席，英格兰 NHS 首席执行官 (2014-21)，60 岁；萨塞克斯公爵夫人，45 岁；安东尼奥·塔亚尼，意大利副总理兼外交部长，73 岁；比利·鲍勃·索顿，演员，《真爱至上》(2003)，71 岁；苏珊·特兰特，Ofqual（英格兰考试监管机构）主席，EdAct（多学院信托基金）首席执行官，63 岁。
历史上的今天
1997 年，珍妮·卡尔门在法国去世，享年 122 岁 164 天。官方记录显示，她仍然是人类历史上最长寿的人。
最后之言
奈杰尔·法拉格试图摆脱关于礼品和捐款的质疑，通过...
去年夏天，英国改革党（Reform UK）主导了政治季。基尔·斯塔默爵士（Sir Keir Starmer）和其他政党领导人在议会夏季休会期间留下了权力真空，奈杰尔·法拉奇（Nigel Farage）随即通过涵盖犯罪等话题的亲切新闻发布会填补了这一空白。该党迎来了一系列来自保守党的脱党加入，所有这些都给人一种法拉奇先生正在定义议程的印象。由于工党和保守党陷入低迷，而英国改革党在一次次民意调查中名列前茅，这对该党大有裨益。法拉奇先生拥有美国政治学家所称的“大势头”（the big mo）——这对任何造反政党来说都至关重要。
今年夏天情况有所不同。15 个月来，由于安迪·伯纳姆为工党注入的活力，英国改革党在部分民调中首次落后。凯米·巴德诺克的政党可能依然在低迷，但这位保守党领导人发现自己对政治斗争充满热情和胃口，这极大地提升了她的个人地位。另一方面，法拉奇先生自己的支持率则在崩溃。他昨天举行了数周来的首次新闻发布会，试图通过关于阻止小船横跨英吉利海峡的吸睛主意来重新获得势头。但法拉奇先生并没有多少实质性的新内容可说。
诚然，非法移民仍然是最
冲突国家不应将移民激增转化为武器
昨日，一些入侵塞塔（Ceuta，西班牙在北非的飞地）的摩洛哥人仍潜伏在灌木丛中，但已有数万名入侵者返回家乡，显然被这次噱头搞得精疲力竭。这次突然的边境突破在社交媒体的放大下，显然是摩洛哥的一次政治策略——企图对西班牙掌控这些微小土地的合法性提出质疑。
然而，这不仅仅如此：这是一个将突发大规模移民浪潮武器化的令人不安的例子。上周的入侵几乎可以肯定是由西班牙首相佩德罗·桑切斯（Pedro Sánchez）最近访问阿尔及利亚所引发的。阿尔及利亚拒绝承认摩洛哥对西撒哈拉的统治，且马德里与阿尔及尔之间任何关系趋近的迹象都会引发拉巴特的反感。
动员公开表达不满的机制对于研究混合战争的学生来说并不陌生。摩洛哥男性被吸引的不止是一次海滨冒险；他们可以找到登上前往西班牙大陆轮船的方法，并从西班牙跨越无需边境检查的申根区。这是一条风险极低且几乎承诺免于处罚的路径。由于摩洛哥边境警卫的缺席，
外科医生正在开创在子宫内治愈出生缺陷的干预手段
对尚在子宫内的胎儿进行一种新型手术，这对焦虑的准父母以及科学家的创造力而言都是极大的挑战。但在现代医学精湛程度的一次令人震惊的展示中，临床医生已经证明，此前限制寿命的先天性疾病在孩子出生之前就可以得到有效治疗，有时甚至可以被治愈。
对于选民来说是紧迫的问题。尽管工党和保守党在这一问题上仍不被信任，但法拉奇先生被认为抓住了重点。他的新方案——无论如何都要部署皇家海军来拦截船只——引发了一系列实际、法律和伦理问题，而对于这些问题，改革党都没有令人信服的答案。拦截船只需要解决吸引寻求庇护者的吸引因素，即崩溃的福利体系，并结合离岸处理计划以起到威慑作用。相反，改革党认为它可以强行将船只遣返回法国，无论对方是否愿意。
只要人们在讨论他最关心的话题，法拉奇先生可能并不在意。然而，重新回到非法移民话题，标志着改革党正退回到熟悉的蜷缩姿态——专注于其核心选民，而非更广泛的公众舆论。如果该党仍希望赢得下次选举，它应该制定一个全面的政策平台，包括扩大经济、修复公共财政、整治福利和建设更多房屋的计划。该党目前甚至还没有费心任命外交或国防发言人。
读者应该知道，这次退缩的原因是法拉奇先生面临的一系列关于礼物、捐赠及其资金来源的严重质疑。
边境卡车的可用性，甚至西班牙最高法院在六月的一项裁决，宣布边境驱逐不适用于海上边境——所有这些都创造了典型的去稳定化姿态的推动因素。
摩洛哥在部署此类策略方面有前科。1975年，约 350,000 人被鼓励进军西撒哈拉并宣称对该土地拥有主权，尽管当时那里由西班牙统治。这次推进恰逢弗朗哥将军病重，摩洛哥人推测西班牙军队不会开火。次年，西班牙将该土地割让给摩洛哥。群众运动是压力点：2021年，摩洛哥边防部队允许一批非法移民进入休达，以惩罚西班牙为一名西撒哈拉政治领袖提供医院床位。但最重要的是，这些行动可以被解读为政治机遇。
当德国被来自叙利亚内战的近一百万难民淹没时，时任总理安格拉·默克尔说服欧盟出重金支付土耳其，使其充当缓冲地带。土耳其总统埃尔多安发现自己不仅成了救星。
最后，出生后治疗这种复杂病症通常会导致并发症，需要数月在新生儿重症监护室停留，进行矫正手术，有时还需要移植。对西奥来说，幸运的是，外科医生正使这些创伤变得可以避免。
临床医生采用了与近期在脊柱裂产前治疗中开创的类似的“钥匙孔”技术，在子宫内为西奥进行手术：部分排空羊膜囊中的液体，并将胎儿发育中的肠道小心地推回腹腔，然后将其缝合。三个月后，西奥自然出生，并在四天后出院。
政党以及他本人。最新的披露——法拉奇先生在 2024 年大选前数月就达成了一项回归协议——将受到议会当局的密切审查，而这些当局目前已经在进行调查。由于在这个问题上决定在其克拉克顿（Clacton）选区举行补选，这一离奇的决定使其困境进一步加剧，且其他主要政党都抵制了此次选举。尽管预计他将获胜，但这次竞争看起来并不严肃。在这个夏天，他没有向全国发表讲话，而是在与一个穿着垃圾桶服装的人争论。
法拉奇先生的执政能力正日益受到质疑。体面的捐赠者——而这正是改革党（Reform）成长并被认真对待所需要的——将注意到他与被定罪的诈骗犯乔治·科特雷尔（George Cottrell）的密切关系，并质疑这是否是一个可以开展业务的政党。考虑到关于科特雷尔看似阴暗交易的披露，法拉奇先生继续为其辩护是不可理喻的。除了声明自己没有做错任何事之外，改革党未能回答关于捐款及其资金来源的问题。无论是英国独立党（Ukip）还是脱欧党（Brexit Party），法拉奇先生过去所有的政治冒险都因为过度依赖一个判断力糟糕的小圈子而崩溃。除非改革英国党（Reform UK）能够学会如何展现政治成熟度，否则它可能会走向同样的结局。
一个恐惧被淹没的西欧，但同时也是叙利亚政治中的一个权力中间人。
另一个操纵移民流的案例发生在白俄罗斯独裁者身上，由于操纵选举而面临欧盟制裁，他决定为来自中东和非洲的包机航班发放简易旅游签证。当局将数千名潜在移民通过森林边界地带，送往人手不足的波兰、立陶宛和拉脱维亚边境。其目的是制造人道主义危机，并最终胁迫布鲁塞尔解除经济制裁。
管控边境不仅仅是一个政党政治口号。它是为了防止恶意行为者利用漏洞、煽动危机，并利用大规模入侵的紧急性来强迫对方让步，从而绕过常规外交。塞塔（Ceuta）事件在某些人看来可能像是自由灵魂的一次热烈聚集。但事实绝非如此。死亡人数（主要为溺死）达到了 72。而且人们无法摆脱这样一种印象：潜在的移民被他们所谓的祖国摩洛哥利用，以达成一个愤世嫉俗的目的。
虽然这项先驱性的手术——仅为有记录以来第三次进行此类操作——要求西奥（Theo）的父母参加德克萨斯州的一项临床试验，但预计该手术很快将在伦敦的大奥蒙德街医院（Great Ormond Street Hospital）提供。事实上，它很快可能成为复杂腹壁裂（gastroschisis）病例的标准治疗方案。曾经难以想象的子宫内手术现在已成为一个令人瞩目的医学进步领域。类似的 kỹ 术有一天可能也被用于治疗肺部和心脏疾病。在年轻患者进入这个世界之前就减轻其疾病，是现代外科手术的一项显著成就。
24 S1 Tuesday August 4 2026 / the times World
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以推进威慑行动
理查德·劳埃德·帕里（Richard Lloyd Parry）从广岛发回报道
当原子弹幸存的老人们在 2024, 年获得诺贝尔和平奖时，这感觉像是对这场历史性大恐怖受害者的某种正名。
日本原爆者団体協議會（Nihon Hidankyo）因通过那些经历过灾难的人们（即被称为“被爆者”的人们）来延续广岛和长崎的记忆而获此殊荣。
诺贝尔委员会在颁奖词中表示：“近 80 年来，战争中未曾使用过核武器。……被爆者们所做的非凡努力，为建立核禁忌做出了巨大贡献。”
但短短两年后，随着本周四迎来袭击 81 周年纪念日，任何胜利感都已烟消云散。
随着必然的结局到来——幸存的被爆者们年事已高并相继离世，日本原爆者団体協議會正在考虑是否解散。更令其许多成员不安的是，他们所捍卫的禁忌似乎也在消融。
中国和朝鲜正在扩大其核武库。美国已经放弃或任由两项主要的核军控条约失效。令人震惊的是，作为唯一直接经历过核战的国家，日本开始考虑曾经看来不可思议的事情：与核武器妥协。
首相高市早苗（Sanae Takaichi）政府正在公开讨论放宽所谓的“非核三原则”，而该原则近六十年来一直是该国安全的基础。上个月，该国国防大臣小泉进次郎（Shinjiro Koizumi）表示，在核防御问题上，日本“必须在没有禁忌的情况下讨论并推进所有政策”。
对于许多被爆者来说，这类言论违背了他们所坚持的一切。“这些人（政治家）说接触原子弹是一件可怕的事情，但他们认为那是发生在别人身上的事，而不是可能发生在他们身上的事，”原田浩（Hiroshi Harada）说道，他在 6, 1945 年 8 月广岛首枚原子弹爆炸时年仅 6 岁。
“我是那些了解核爆对自己身体产生物理影响的人之一，我是经历过那个现实的人。我只希望其他人能真正理解那种体验。”
接受美国“核保护伞”的保护，但历任政府一直遵守 1967. 年宣布的非核三原则。这些原则承诺日本不拥有或生产核武器，也不允许将核武器引入其领土。
然而现在，在由高市领导的自由民主党率领的联合政府内部，这些原则成为了积极讨论的主题，这是日本安全立场的一次历史性转变。
根据该国宪法，日本军队被禁止从事除防御性行动以外的任何活动。但所谓的自卫队变得日益活跃——相关法律已经通过，允许他们在日本领土之外支持盟友。
今年，东京首次允许武器制造商向海外销售武器。从长期来看，高市希望修订美国强加的 1947 年“和平”宪法，根据该宪法第 9 条，“日本人民永远放弃作为国家主权之权利的战争，以及以威胁或武力作为解决国际争端之手段”。
“我现在 45 岁，在我 20 多岁的时候，提出这些关于第 9 条和核武器的问题是非常困难的——如果你在电视上谈论这些，你就会不再受到邀请，”藤田文武（Fumitake Fujita）说道，他是高市的执政伙伴——日本維新會（Nippon Ishin no Kai，简称 Ishin，又称日本创新党）的领导人。
“但近年来，朝鲜每月都有导弹发射，而且台湾局势每周都非常不稳定。中国正在利用太平洋进行导弹测试。我认为公众对于加强国防能力的理解和耐受度已显著提高。”
从技术上讲，日本建立自己的核武库将不会花费很长时间。它拥有大量的裂变钚库存——来自其民用核电站的废料——这些足以制造数千枚弹头。此外，它还拥有来自民用航天计划的火箭技术精通。
高市的前任石破茂曾表示，日本可以在一年内制造自己的炸弹。但目前没有主流政治家为此主张。相反，在“日本維新會”（Ishin）的推动下，政府内部出现了废除“不将核武器引入日本”政策的动向。
在实际操作层面，关于非核原则的争论集中在计划于 2032 年在美军潜艇上部署海基核巡航导弹——在危机时刻，美国将希望将这些武器送到横须贺和佐世保等日本军港。
对于支持者而言，这是威慑日本日益激进的邻国的一项常识性措施。但其他人，尤其是广岛和长崎的人们，认为这会让国家面临更大的风险。
“我们被非常激进的潜在对手包围着，”59 岁的广岛县前知事柚崎英彦（Hidehiko Yuzaki）说道。“很容易认为‘他们有大锤，我们也应该有大锤’。但如果我们放宽非核原则，是会缓解紧张局势，还是会加剧紧张局势？我认为这会增加紧张局势。我不认为这是一个正确的举措。”
日本原爆者团体的广岛分会负责人原田记得，在火海吞噬广岛时，他沿街逃亡，而街道上简直铺满了尸体。
“我看到人们的皮肤和肉被融化了，”他说。“有些人的肠子流了出来。我的脚滑进了他们的身体，卡在了肉里。”
但原田已经 87 岁了。日本原爆者团体的成员人数在 20 世纪 80 年代达到 33,000 人的顶峰，而他们在获得诺贝尔奖的那一年，人数仅为 3,200 人。
“我们将努力维持原爆者证词的影响力，”59 岁的柚崎说道。“但这永远无法替代那些真正经历过那个地狱之人的声音，广岛传递出的信息的力度可能会减弱。无论他们创造了怎样的运动，产生了怎样的影响，情况正在变得糟糕。这真的很讽刺，也非常悲哀。”
原田宏（Hiroshi Harada）在炸弹投下时六岁，正与父母在广岛车站等车。
n Benitez 在休达市外的海滩上，数百名年轻人睡在沙地里，蜷缩在像坟墓一样浅浅的坑中（凯蒂·盖滕斯发自休达）。
他们将手指放在嘴边，做着吃东西的动作，
故事背后 S
与拉巴特的麦地那及其布满三角梅的现代区域相隔开来，王宫的围墙内隐藏着摩洛哥的许多秘密（伊桑巴德·威尔金森写道）。
在这个庞大的建筑群中，设有makhzen（马赫曾）的一些办公室，这是对国王宫廷、安全部门及其他高级官员的统称。
它被认为类似于“深层国家”，正是makhzen掌握着困扰外交官的谜题之答案：休达危机是由当局策划的，还是由社交媒体引发的哄抢式冲关？
并排队使用公共淋浴设施填充旧塑料瓶。许多人患有严重的体温过低、休克、精疲力竭并伴有伤口。
内政部。据休达领导人胡安·赫苏斯·维瓦斯估计，仍有约 3,000 到 5,000 人留在原地，但其中许多留下来的人声称他们没有获得食物、水或住所。
根据西班牙内政部的数据，距离休达移民危机开始已过去五天，期间有 60,000 人从摩洛哥跨境进入。
《泰晤士报》获悉，休达居民被劝阻
数万人是如何突破欧洲守卫最严密的边境之一的？是什么将网络传闻转化为休达历史上最大规模的集体跨境行为——紧接着大多数移民又在数小时内自愿返回？
摩洛哥坚称，这次激增是由社交媒体的误导信息、人口贩子以及对近期一项关于通过海路抵达的移民遣返的西班牙法院裁决的误解所驱动的。
很少有人质疑传闻传播之快，或者经济绝望助长了摩洛哥北部的出逃潮（当地青年失业率依然高企）。然而，仅凭这些因素无法解释此次跨境规模之大和速度之快。
提供援助，希望移民能返回摩洛哥。
西班牙和摩洛哥已就紧急措施达成一致，将驱逐任何大规模抵达且未自愿返回的人员。将其移除的法律程序的具体细节尚不清楚。
为了应对此次危机，欧盟今天召开了一次紧急会议。
在边境过境人数激增近一周后，休达（Ceuta）的情况正迅速演变成一场人道主义危机。移民被迫在城镇郊区的灌木丛中排便。数百人仍睡在街头。
西班牙首相佩德罗·桑切斯（Pedro Sánchez）避免批评拉巴特，但休达政府负责人胡安·赫苏斯·比瓦斯（Juan Jesús Vivas）表达了许多西班牙官员在私下中提到的观点。他说：“如果没有摩洛哥政府的批准，不可能有 60,000 人进入。”
佩德罗·桑切斯，西班牙首相，在分享他的 Spotify 播放列表后开始了假期。
几位分析人士认为，拉巴特的愤怒源于桑切斯最近访问了阿尔及利亚——摩洛哥的主要地区竞争对手，且自欧洲能源危机以来，阿尔及利亚再次成为西班牙重要的天然气供应商。
“这在与阿尔及利亚发生分歧后，考虑欠周，因为这告诉欧洲摩洛哥是一个不可靠的伙伴，”他说道。“摩洛哥是在动荡地区中温和伊斯兰教和稳定的堡垒，也是美国、英国和以色列的战略盟友，以及欧洲的大贸易伙伴。”
观察员指出，此次过境恰逢穆罕默德国王发表庆祝摩洛哥成就的王位日演讲后的效忠仪式，结果反而暴露了摩洛哥年轻人的挫败感，并“给该王国带来了声誉损失”。
在 Boutique de la Prensa 新闻代理店，70 岁的卡洛斯·加雷·巴内特（Carlos Garre Barnet）表示，警察的“策略”是将这座城市封锁。在周五，即“60,000 人入侵之日”，他在早晨开店。“每个人都进来买水，”他说。“我们认为给他们卖水和食物是必要的。为了让他们不挨饿而卖给他们是符合逻辑的。”
“但警察来了，说如果我们不给他们任何东西，不给食物，不给饮料，效果会更好，因为他们就是那样离开的。不吃不喝的效果……”
评论员将其描述为一种“统治末期氛围”。他的父亲因长期缺席以及与阿布巴克尔·阿布·扎伊塔尔（Abubakr Abu Azaitar）关系密切而受到指责，后者是一位综合格斗冠军，在德国因包括袭击在内的罪行被定罪，他现年 40 岁。
观察员还指出，摩洛哥与特朗普总统关系密切，这与特朗普与桑切斯之间紧张的关系形成鲜明对比，特朗普曾因北约国防开支和伊朗战争在公开场合批评桑切斯。观察员认为，摩洛哥
（图片来源：BERNAT ARMANGUE / AP; PEDRO NUNES / REUTERS）
大多数抵达休达的数千名移民已经离开，但留下来的人被迫睡在海滩上并乞讨食物。与警察和士兵冲突造成的伤势往往得不到治疗。
该领土内唯一的移民安置点已满员并进入封锁状态。工作人员阻止内部人员向大门外躺在泥地上的数百人传递尿液或食物，这些人包括来自苏丹、21, 岁的 Dfalla Sliman。他们在这里睡了几天。其他人来自也门、叙利亚和厄立特里亚，已经旅途数月。
“我很饿。他们说一切都完了，”手臂和腿上有开放性伤口的斯利曼（Sliman）说。“而且没有水；他们说一切都完了。我会等到所有人都离开。”
（该观察员）指出这次危机，并称政府故意煽风点火，利用边境紧张局势作为对抗西班牙的政治筹码。他说，摩洛哥国王“为了自己的目的利用这些穷人”。他补充道：“现在水中几乎有 100 人死亡”，而且由于缺乏援助，“肯定还会有更多人死亡”。
拉巴特报告称其边境一侧有 11 人死亡，而西班牙则称在越境过程中至少有 72 人死亡。
人道主义组织警告称，他们已达到崩溃边缘。许多非政府组织呼吁加快向大陆的转移，以给予移民尊严。红十字会表示，其在休达（Ceuta）的团队已不堪重负，如果没有政府的支持，无法应对如此数量的弱势群体。
国际特赦组织敦促当局“确保部署足够的医疗和社会资源”。昨天，国际红十字会的一位发言人表示：“休达的情况非常悲惨。我们目前正与当局密切合作，为那些仍处于弱势地位的人组织提供基本的 humanitarian 援助。”
这意味着……许多人是自愿离开的。”
一些休达的居民——其中许多人拥有摩洛哥血统——对移民表示同情。有些人前往商店和咖啡馆购买食物进行分发。少数商店不顾警察的命令，出现了购买物资的巨大队伍。当警察到达时，移民们会被迅速赶走。
75 岁的鲁菲诺·罗马（Ruffino Roma）将责任归咎于摩洛哥，认为其可能计算到与华盛顿的密切关系为其更加强硬的地区姿态提供了外交掩护。
伦敦国王学院的政治学讲师何塞·西罗·马丁内斯（José Ciro Martínez）认为，摩洛哥安全部队的行为不能被简单地视为一次行动失败。
“通常高效且冷酷的摩洛哥执法部门允许，甚至可以说是在某种程度上促进了摩洛哥人向休达边境的大规模移动，”他说。“并没有……”
播放列表曲目 在动荡的西班牙 显得格格不入
西班牙 大卫·沙罗克（David Sharrock）马德里报道
考虑到西班牙刚刚经历的一周，佩德罗·桑切斯（Pedro Sánchez）在自己的Instagram主页上发布视频推广他的假期Spotify播放列表，这要么是勇敢，要么是缺乏敏感度。
周五，当约 60,000 名移民在非洲顶端的边境崩溃后返回摩洛哥时，首相正身处休达（Ceuta）。他当时正在为政府应对此次危机的措施进行辩护。几天前，他访问了受西班牙最大规模山火影响的地区。在这两个地点，他都遭到了嘲讽。
但在周六，他像往常一样在兰萨罗特岛（Lanzarote）科斯塔特吉塞（Costa Teguise）的马雷塔宫（Mareta Palace）这座官方官邸开始了假期。为了营造氛围，桑切斯的社交媒体团队发布了一段视频，他在视频中推荐“我的夏季原声带”。
在视频中，他兴致盎然地推荐了几首他一直在听的歌曲。这位社会党领导人说：“总之，我希望你们喜欢这些歌曲，愿它们在假期里陪伴你们。祝大家度过一个美好的夏天。”
该播放列表中包含的一些歌曲名称，在山火直接影响超过 100,000 人并摧毁数百栋房屋的背景下，可能会被认为缺乏品味：巴克·米克（Buck Meek）的《Gasolene》和Stereolab的《Flashes in the Afternoon》。此外还有Asgeir的《Against the Current》以及保罗·麦卡特尼（Paul McCartney）的《Ripples in a Pond》。
首相的名单中还包括蒂托·拉米雷斯（Tito Ramirez）的《Lies》和科拉·雅科（Cora Yako）的《Nightmares》。《All My Friends Are So Depressed》和《Caught in a Jam》也榜上有名，而最后在麦当娜（Madonna）演唱的《I Feel So Free》中以高昂的基调结束。
批评者指责桑切斯在西班牙应对两场危机时行为不当。一位评论员写道，一名总统应当“适应环境，而非轻率轻佻”。
País，西班牙情报部门认为，这次大规模迁徙是一种机会主义行为。传闻触发了此次行动，但据称摩洛哥当局选择不阻止，随后利用这次危机来强化他们对休达和梅利利亚（Melilla）长期以来主张的所有权。
然而，一名西班牙高级官员在接受《泰晤士报》采访时，将此次越境描述为一次由摩洛哥政权“煽动并允许”的“混合行动”。
国际危机组织（International Crisis Group）的里卡多·法比亚尼（Riccardo Fabiani）表示，欧洲依赖邻国来管理移民，这造成了严重的脆弱性。他说：“如果移民是你唯一关心的事情，那么你在移民问题上就变得脆弱了。”
无人机击毙 7 名俄罗斯 海滩游客
周一，在俄罗斯南部，一架疑似乌克兰的无人机撞击了一个热闹的海滩，导致至少 7 名度假者死亡，其中包括三名儿童（马克·贝内茨 Marc Bennetts 报道）。
社交媒体视频显示，在黑海地区的度假城镇格伦吉克（Gelendzhik）附近的海滩上空，该无人机在防空炮火射击下飞行。随后它转向海岸，最后在火球中爆炸。
官员表示，另有 40 多人受伤，其中九人伤势严重。受伤人员中包括两名儿童。
地区州长韦尼亚明·孔德拉季耶夫（Veniamin Kondratyev）指责乌克兰蓄意攻击该海滩，而俄罗斯外交部发言人玛丽亚·扎哈罗娃（Maria Zakharova）则指责乌克兰的西方盟友支持恐怖主义。基辅方面尚未对此发表评论。
乌克兰和俄罗斯的反战Telegram频道表示，该无人机的飞行轨迹
沙特阿拉伯 Samer Al-Atrush 中东特派记者
在沙特阿拉伯的敦促下，特朗普总统取消了对伊朗的袭击。在特朗普将该地区推入一场看似无法获胜的冲突后，沙特对其信誉的质疑日益增加。
“我认为这场战争的损失之一就是信誉，”著名的沙特研究员 Aziz Alghashian 表示，“我们一次又一次地听到关于停火的消息，但随后停火协议就破裂了。谈判和讨论变成了陷阱。”
仿佛为了证明这一点，伊朗否认了特朗普关于昨日将举行谈判的断言，而特朗普此前声称正是这一说法说服他取消了计划中的袭击。
他在 Truth Social 上对此做出反应，称伊朗政权“不可思议地两面三刀”，并誓言将继续美国对霍尔木兹海峡的封锁。
随后他在椭圆形办公室告诉记者，与德黑兰的谈判“目前正在进行”，且将产生收益。
“他们会进展很快……我们正在讨论让海峡在字面上到明天就完全开放，”他说。“那是第一阶段。然后是伊朗的去核化，那是第二阶段，这需要一段时间。”
社交媒体上的视频显示，被圈出的无人机在遭到射击后从空中坠落，随后在岸边爆炸。
（可能已被防空火力或电子干扰系统篡改。视频中没有明确证据表明该无人机被击中。）
目击者表示，在爆炸前没有听到防空警报。
推迟袭击令以色列感到惊讶。再加上伊朗对谈判的否认，这加强了该地区的一种信念，即美国总统不可信。沙特阿拉伯近日已介入，其国防部长哈立德·本·萨勒曼王子访问华盛顿并推动缓解局势，随后其兄长穆罕默德·本·萨勒曼王储向特朗普拨打了电话。
穆罕默德最初反对战争，但后来敦促特朗普完成任务。沙特王国对这场冲突感到失望，因为冲突似乎使伊朗政权激进化，并破坏了该地区的能源贸易和收入。
“我要带我的家人离开这里；这一切就发生在孩子面前——我的孩子正陷入精神崩溃，”一名受访者告诉 93.ru（一个俄罗斯网站）。
目前尚不清楚乌克兰的目标是什么。随着双方升级远程打击，俄罗斯境内的平民伤亡人数正在上升。
俄罗斯表示，周日一次乌克兰无人机袭击在贝尔戈罗德地区导致一名 13 岁女孩死亡，另有两名儿童受伤。周四，俄罗斯发射的一枚朝鲜导弹在拉杜什内造成一对夫妇及其七个孩子死亡。
（特朗普总统与穆罕默德·本·萨勒曼王储去年11月在华盛顿会面。穆罕默德最初反对伊朗战争，但战争一旦开始，便敦促特朗普完成任务。）
在整个地区，特朗普似乎在为他于2月发起并期望快速获胜的战争寻找解决方案。伊朗政权没有迹象表明它会在控制海峡的问题上做出妥协，目前该海峡大部分仍处于关闭状态。
“存在挫败感，” Alghashian 说道，这一观点也得到了熟悉沙特政府思路的人士的共鸣。
CNN 报道称，一名美国高级军官向分析师发送了一封电子邮件，寻求“向伊朗施压并惩罚伊朗的创造性且非传统的方法”，这凸显了特朗普的选择空间之狭窄。
“特朗普目前的选择是在一场无法获胜的战争和一个难以接受的协议之间，”国际危机组织（International Crisis Group）伊朗项目负责人 Ali Vaez 表示。“这种情况已经持续一段时间了，我想在可预见的未来仍将如此。”
在与美国的谈判中，伊朗援引了其与阿曼就如何管理海峡进行的谈判进展。阿曼提出了针对维护和航行服务的自愿收费方案，但具体机制尚不明确。
如果达成令德黑兰满意的一项协议，伊朗很可能会回到此前签署的特朗普《谅解备忘录》，该备忘录在六月停火协议瓦解前签署。
除阿曼外，沙特阿拉伯、巴基斯坦和卡塔尔也在支持这些谈判。海湾国家已开始统一观点，认为伊朗政权不会被推翻，且必须与其新领导层达成和解。
“目前尚不清楚，一次有限且有时间限制的军事升级是否能改变德黑兰的盘算，或者能否充分削弱其军事能力，使其无法威胁海峡的交通，或无法威胁海湾合作委员会的关键及能源基础设施，”日内瓦研究生院的伊朗专家法赞·萨贝特（Farzan Sabet）表示。
尽管利雅得仍将其视为一位受欢迎的总统，但特朗普在伊朗问题以及与沙特王国的核协议上的反复无常，已经损害了信任。
七月，特朗普宣布了一项协议，将帮助沙特阿拉伯建设核反应堆并可能进行铀浓缩。在遭到华盛顿的批评后，他增加了一项新条件，即该协议取决于沙特阿拉伯与以色列建立外交关系。此举让利雅得感到意外。官员们表示，这此前并不在协议之列。
缅甸 理查德·斯宾塞 (Richard Spencer)
一名红十字会代表获准会见缅甸反对派领导人昂山苏姬。自她五年多前被罢免权力并被拘留以来，这是首位亲自见到她的外部人士。
缅甸军政府公布了两张苏姬与阿尔诺·德·巴克 (Arnaud de Baecque) 的照片，后者是红十字国际委员会 (ICRC) 在该国的正式代表。
一名政府发言人表示，此次会面发生在该政权的新首都内比都。
另外两张照片显示了苏姬在似乎是她自4月起被软禁的住所中，以及一个日期为6月19日的生日蛋糕——那天她年满 81 岁。
她的儿子金·阿里斯 (Kim Aris) 对这些照片表示欢迎。自2021 年2月她被捕以来，他一直未能与她进行直接接触，并一直在寻求证明她生存且健康的证据。“这可能是第一步，但绝不能是最后一步，”他说。
这次拘留是苏姬在其长期活动和政治生涯中的第二次长期软禁。
她通过民主选举成立的政府在 2021 年被军事政变推翻，这重新引发了多个战线的长期内战。她因涉嫌叛国至腐败等多项指控被判处 33 年监禁，
昂山苏姬在内比都会见红十字国际委员会的阿尔诺·德·巴克
不过该刑期后来有所减轻，并在4月被返回软禁。
在这些新照片中，她身穿传统服饰，在与德·巴克握手时显得精神良好且面带微笑。红十字国际委员会确认会面已经举行。“这包括了与道·昂山苏姬 (Daw Aung San Suu Kyi) 私下交谈的机会，”该组织表示。“道”意为“阿姨”，是给予女性以示尊敬的尊称。“拘留访问为被剥夺自由的人提供了与家人交换消息的机会。”
缅甸政府通常像隐士一样封闭，但今年为了稳定其统治，开始了一系列外交举措。该国部分地区已落入各类反政府武装之手，而其他地区在当局的默许下，则沦为半自治的犯罪聚集地。
西班牙 伊桑巴德·威尔金森 (Isambard Wilkinson)，马德里
据称，七十年前，贝尼多姆市长佩德罗·萨拉戈萨 (Pedro Zaragoza) 曾骑着一辆伟士牌踏板车前往马德里，说服佛朗哥在教会反对的情况下允许海滩上出现比基尼——这个故事成为了西班牙拥抱现代旅游业的象征。
如今，这场争论又回到了原点，由于对隐私、数字窥视和身体形象的担忧，许多女性在考虑时犹豫了。
寻找斑点 在德国科隆路德维希博物馆周日举行的日本艺术家草间 Yayoi 的职业生涯五个月回顾展最后一天，参观者在名为《无限镜屋》的沉浸式装置中。该展览以超过 470,000 名参观者打破了该博物馆的入场记录。
法国国际广播电台 (France Inter) 在调查中表示，向检察官提出的投诉在“一个谨慎至上的部门中是极不寻常的，甚至可能是前所未有的”。
法国 查尔斯·布雷姆纳（Charles Bremner）巴黎 挑衅的diva
查尔斯·布雷姆纳
一名亲克里姆林宫观点已成为法国电视节目常客的俄罗斯广播员被宣布为国家安全威胁，并被命令离开该国。
Xenia Fedorova，45岁，曾任俄罗斯RT宣传网络法国分部负责人，多次出现在右翼亿万富翁文森特·博洛雷（Vincent Bolloré）拥有的媒体机构中。驱逐她的决定引发了意见分歧，导致右翼指责其为审查制度，并令民粹主义的国民联盟感到尴尬。
在4月总统选举前夕，由于她频繁出现在受欢迎的CNews电视台、Europe 1广播电台和《星期日日报》（Le Journal du Dimanche）上引起不安，部长们于上周下令将其驱逐。她的法国银行账户在周末被财政部指令冻结。
昨天，一名巴黎法官驳回了Fedorova申请紧急禁令以取消驱逐令并解除软禁的请求。她的律师表示，她将进一步提出上诉以阻止执行。
据《世界报》（Le Monde）报道，情报部门此前一直警告政府，Fedorova是克里姆林宫在针对法国和欧洲利益的虚假信息战中的影响力特工。
Fedorova自称是博洛雷的门生，她在节目中毫无异议地传达普京总统的观点，且未受到其他主持人的反驳。她表示，俄罗斯自2022年以来在乌克兰的“特别军事行动”是由包括马克龙总统在内的北约盟友挑衅而起的，且该国由黑帮统治，这些人为了获利而延长冲突。
一名以与意大利总理乔治亚·梅洛尼（Giorgia Meloni）关系密切而闻名的迷人指挥家，因接受邀请前往俄罗斯演出而引发争议（詹姆斯·伊玛姆（James Imam）报道）。
曾出演洗发水广告的贝亚特丽切·威内齐（Beatrice Venezi）告诉Adnkronos通讯社，她将于秋季在西伯利亚城市新西伯利亚首次演出威尔第的《茶花女》。
在为自己的决定辩护时，她表示：“我是自由的人，我是自由的艺术家；我去我认为合适的地方。”
她于去年9月被任命为威尼斯凤凰歌剧院（La Fenice）的音乐总监，但在就职前七个月就被解雇。她的被解雇发生在管弦乐团罢工之后，理由是他们投诉她缺乏经验，且是因为与梅洛尼的关系才被选中。威内齐表示，她遭到了“系统性的诽谤、中伤、侮辱和欺凌”。
（此处文本跳转至关于西班牙海滩赤裸晒太阳的讨论）
……赤裸晒太阳。数周以来，西班牙报纸和社交媒体一直在讨论赤裸晒太阳是否正在该国海滩上消失，如果真是这样，原因何在。《国家报》（El Pais）的一份报告得出结论，情况比头条新闻所暗示的更为复杂。虽然没有决定性的证据，但人们普遍认为，选择赤裸晒太阳的女性在减少，尤其是年轻女性。
去年一项YouGov调查的最新可用数据显示，37%的西班牙女性表示她们经常赤裸晒太阳，13%的人偶尔如此，9%的人仅一次或两次，而40%的人表示从未这样做过。这与2017年的Ifop调查相比有所下降，当时西班牙在调查的八个国家中排名最高，49%的人表示赤裸晒太阳——是22%的国际平均水平的两倍。
Ifop随后在2021年和2023年的研究中表明，这一习惯在整个欧洲继续下降，现在主要与40岁以上的女性相关。
在与该报分享经验的117名女性中，超过一半的人认为现在的赤裸晒太阳女性减少了。正如一名受访者、44岁的玛丽亚（María）所说：“这是一个恶性循环。这样做的人在减少，因为她们感到安全性降低；而当其他人看到这样做的人变少时，她们就更不愿意这样做。”
大部分讨论都集中在担心被秘密拍照或拍摄视频，以及在未经同意的情况下被在网上分享图像的恐惧上。尽管西班牙内政部表示没有证据表明海滩上存在问题，但《国家报》（El Pais）收到了十几名女性的陈述，她们称自己在 2008 和 2025 之间被拍摄了日光浴的照片，这些图像在网上或在朋友和同事之间传播。
专家表示，更广泛的“色情传播”（sexpreading）现象——即在未经同意的情况下分享色情化图像——在近年来已成为一个日益引起关注的问题。然而，数字隐私仅是原因的一部分。接受采访的女性描述称，由于不切实际的审美标准以及其他海滩游客不赞同的目光，她们感到更加局促不安。
巴士底日军事阅兵的核心地带。她表示，法国人民对于国家支持基辅的一方“从未被咨询过”。
马克龙多次将费多罗娃（Fedorova）描述为克里姆林宫的宣传员，她曾接受过 RT 负责人玛格丽塔·西莫尼安（Margarita Simonyan）的培训。法国政府在 2022 年随欧盟其他国家一起关闭了 RT 的法国分支机构，但直到现在，它一直抵制包括其议员在内的驱逐她的呼吁。
内政部长洛朗·努涅斯（Laurent Nuñez）表示，费多罗娃是俄罗斯虚假信息的传递者，她的活动“攻击了国家的根本利益”。外交部长让-诺埃尔·巴罗（Jean-Noël Barrot）则表示，博洛雷（Bolloré）媒体帝国正向法国“灌输普京的叙事”。
博洛雷旗下的媒体以及右翼评论员谴责该指令是对言论自由和人权的否认。在总统竞选的民调中暂时领先的玛丽娜·勒庞（Marine Le Pen）对此保持沉默，她最近缓和了其亲俄倾向。
正接受调查
三起死亡事件和一起自杀未遂事件导致检察官开始调查法国总理府涉嫌霸凌的情况。
巴黎检察官办公室确认，在一名员工投诉称其曾尝试自杀后，已启动一项关于“心理骚扰”的刑事调查。在此之前，今年已发生两起自杀死亡事件，以及一起在办公室洗手间内发生的离奇死亡事件。
约 3,500 名公务员在该行政机构工作，该机构位于巴黎左岸的总理府邸马蒂尼翁府（Hôtel de Matignon）。
他们向塞巴斯蒂安·勒科尔努（Sébastien Lecornu）汇报工作。勒科尔努是一位中间派，由马克龙总统于去年 9 月任命为法国自 2024 年 1 月以来的第五任总理。
“劳拉”告诉检察官，她在有毒职场的压力下尝试自杀。她的律师克里斯泰尔·马扎（Christelle Mazza）表示，今年春天，就在她准备跳轨自杀时，一名通勤者制止了她。
攻击它。影响力巨大的国民联盟（Rally）欧洲议会议员蒂埃里·马里亚尼（Thierry Mariani）表示，政府“可能最终成功地让法国新闻界少数几个不重复关于乌克兰冲突的官方授权叙事的异见之声陷入沉默”。前内阁部长、现为强硬民族主义者的菲利普·德·维利耶（Philippe de Villiers）称该驱逐令是非法的。
费多罗娃在法国境外度假期间得知自己被驱逐，她将自己塑造为受害者。她说：“我们正见证一种全新的政治压力形式，其唯一目标就是：审查那些不符合官方叙事的观点。”
她的律师在周一表示，只有在驱逐令被撤销的情况下，她才会返回自 2017 年起一直居住的巴黎。费多罗娃声称，政府和媒体勾结，通过散布她给波洛雷（Bolloré）施了法术的说法来抹黑她，而波洛雷旗下的 Fayard 出版社于去年出版了她的回忆录。
美国
CARLOS OSORIO / 路透社； NIC ANTAYA 为《泰晤士报》供图
加拿大
在俯瞰美加边境的安大略省温莎市，杰克老城小酒馆（Jake’s Olde Towne Tavern）的常客们在庆祝新桥开通时，不得不放弃他们最爱的饮品——一种名为“红鹿”（Red Stag）的樱桃味肯塔基波本威士忌。
温莎
“我们不再供应任何美国啤酒或波本威士忌，”72 岁的店主菲尔·“杰克”·雅各布斯（Phil “Jake” Jacobs）说道。“有时你必须采取强硬立场。面对所有这些关税，这是我们唯一的应对之策。”
戈迪·豪国际大桥（Gordie Howe International Bridge）的开通本应是一个庆祝时刻。然而，这座连接密歇根州底特律市与安大略省温莎市、造价 45 亿美元 billion 的悬索桥，如今却成了邻国之间关系破裂的象征。
底特律
戈迪·豪国际大桥
非飞行自助铁路之旅 经典斯堪的纳维亚
2026 年 8 月至 2027 年 12 月
开启终极欧洲铁路冒险之旅，无需承受机场压力。从伦敦圣潘克拉斯车站出发，在这段神奇的无飞行旅程中穿梭于六个令人惊叹的国家。
在探索汉堡充满活力的港口之前，欣赏科隆宏伟的大教堂。随后，在时尚的哥本哈根度过两个夜晚，感受北欧魅力，接着前往瑞典马尔默和哥德堡欣赏海滨之美。在奥斯陆尽享绝美的峡湾风光，然后在舒适的卧铺车厢中沉沉睡去，穿越壮丽的斯堪的纳维亚景观。返程时在汉堡和布鲁塞尔设有轻松的过夜停靠点，是时候慢下来欣赏沿途风景了。
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戈迪·豪大桥连接底特律与安大略省温莎。下方为菲尔·雅各布斯，他是杰克小酒馆的店主，该店已将美国饮品从菜单中移除。
加拿大官员上周在没有美国同行在场的情况下举行了落成典礼，称鉴于特朗普总统多次威胁要吞并该国，与邻国共同庆祝是“不恰当的”。
就在几天前，特朗普宣布对加拿大商品征收额外 50% 的关税，在现有关税基础上进一步增加。在一次安大略省山火导致美国城市天空笼罩在烟雾中后，他正考虑进一步惩罚。“因为这些烟雾，我们要对加拿大征收高额关税，”他说。
这座大桥以加拿大冰球运动员戈迪·豪（Gordie Howe）命名，设计旨在承载每年近 3000 亿美元 billion 的贸易额。然而，它在安大略省将所有美国酒精饮料从货架上清除之时开通。该省省长道格·福特（Doug Ford）选择了比马克·卡尼（Mark Carney）呼吁对话更为激进的应对方式来面对特朗普的贸易战。
一些愤怒的加拿大人希望他们的总理能坚定决心。
“我们的人在科罗拉多州扑灭火灾，其中一些人在那里牺牲了。但就因为我们无法控制这场山火，他们就要对我们征收关税？”在Jake’s酒吧担任调酒师的55岁乔迪·甘尼（Jody Ganney）说道，她指的是近期一名来自英属哥伦比亚省的直升机飞行员在事故中丧生。现在，当顾客要求购买红鹿（Red Stag）品牌时，她会向他们推荐加拿大本土的烈酒。
当戈迪·豪（Gordie Howe）大桥在20年前首次被提议时，很少有人能预料到跨境交通量会下降大约四分之一。
这座桥提供了边境的全景。在下方，美国钓鱼者在底特律的炼铁高炉前钓鲶鱼，加拿大鹅沿着温莎河岸摇摇摆摆地走着。今年一度出现的情况是，美国与加拿大的关系如此糟糕，以至于不确定这座桥是否还能完工。
今年2月，特朗普接到了美国商务部长霍华德·卢特尼克（Howard Lutnick）的电话，后者刚刚与底特律另一座竞争大桥的所有者马修·莫伦（Matthew Moroun）交谈过。
莫伦家族作为大使桥（Ambassador Bridge）的所有者，数十年来几乎垄断了底特律河的过境通道。在卢特尼克致电的前一个月，马修·莫伦向支持特朗普的政治行动委员会Maga Inc捐赠了$1 million。莫伦家族已经采取法律行动十多年，以阻止这座竞争大桥的建设。
大使桥 隧道 5英里 伊利湖
在与卢特尼克通话后，特朗普在Truth Social上介入了这场争端。他称这座新桥象征着加拿大“数十年来一直非常不公平地对待美国”，并错误地声称该桥“几乎没有美国成分”。根据2012年的一项协议，该桥仅使用美国和加拿大的钢铁。特朗普说：“在美国就我们给予他们的一切获得充分补偿之前，我不会允许这座桥开放。”
最终，马修·莫伦的游说徒劳无功，戈迪·豪大桥于7月27日开通。
渥太华市资助了这座桥的建设，并计划通过向司机收取通行费来回收成本，随后将相关收入与密歇根州分成。
然而，在宣布加拿大将在开通后的15年内分摊净通行费收入，并将一半资金支付给一个由美国控制的基金后，卡尼（Carney）被迫反驳他“屈服”的指控。特朗普吹嘘道：“我们改变了协议条款，所以现在美利坚合众国将获得50%的利润。”
卡尼因被认为对特朗普的嘲讽反应过于温顺而面临政治反弹。
诺瓦受害者男友在其坟前自杀 以色列 据以色列媒体报道，一名在2023年10月7日诺瓦（Nova）音乐节上被杀害的女性的男友，在其女友的坟前自杀。30岁的巴尔·阿斯拉夫（Bar Asraf）在利隆·巴尔达（Liron Barda）的安息地开枪自杀，后者是该音乐节一名26岁的调酒师。她在试图救助受伤受害者时被哈马斯杀害。阿斯拉夫最近告诉母亲，在失去巴尔达后他生活艰辛，并据报道称“没有人能取代她，没有人能让我振作起来”。
热浪袭击致莱茵河水位降至历史低点 德国 由于最近的热浪影响，莱茵河水位创下历史新低，杜塞尔多夫最低仅22厘米，科隆最低67厘米。当地政治家呼吁成立国家工作组，以确保严重依赖莱茵河的工业运输能够继续进行。水浅意味着货船通常只能装载约20%的货物，迫使货运分散到多艘船只中，从而产生了额外费用。
加拿大承担了美国原油进口量的60%以上，而对于卡尼（Carney）来说，最激进的选择将在驾驶员面临燃料价格上涨之时，进一步挤压美国的能源供应。卡尼表示，他并不认为在贸易谈判中将加拿大的能源出口作为敲击手段有任何“价值”。
卡尼似乎认为，特朗普的攻击很大程度上是表演性的，而最新一轮的关税中包括对冰球杆征收税款。这成为了加拿大球员们大笑的笑料，因为如今他们使用的全部是中国、巴基斯坦或越南制造的碳纤维球杆，而非加拿大制造的传统木制球杆。
57岁的格雷厄姆·霍萨克（Graham Hossack）在三岁时随家人从阿伯丁移民到安大略省，他说：“孩子们甚至都不会看一眼那些（木制球杆）。”
和其他加拿大人一样，他正在改变消费习惯。“我们之间有如此多的贸易往来，”他说，“就像所有人一样，在这样的时刻，你会尝试支持加拿大企业。如果你能将每一美元都留在加拿大，会让我们的国家变得更强健。”
波兰男子以160公里波罗的海游泳创造历史 波兰 一名波兰游泳者成为首位在瑞典和波兰之间的波罗的海中游泳横渡的人。巴特洛梅什·库布科夫斯基（Bartlomiej Kubkowski）在56小时内完成了160公里（100英里）的航程。他于周五从瑞典的卡塞贝格（Kaseberga）出发，于周日抵达波兰小镇兹维诺（Dziwnow）。这是他第五次尝试完成横渡。他被禁止接触其支持船只。他的这次旅程是历史上最长的连续、无辅助公开水域游泳之一。
圣克莱尔湖
the times / 星期二 2026年8月4日 29 商业
世界市场
£ / € €1.1672 (-0.0016) ¤ FTSE 100 10,857.70 (-10.35)
3,500 7月6日 20 13 8月3日 27 7月6日 20 13 8月3日 27
汤姆·霍华德 房产记者 由于其投资组合中已无房产，该机构已退出房地产投资信托 (Reit) 计划，并告知了英国税务海关总署 (HM Revenue & Customs)。
陷入丑闻的“无家可归者房东” Home Reit 已出售其最后四处房产。然而，其基金经理每月仍领取 £167,000 的报酬。
近期拍卖会中剩余房屋的售出，标志着两年前开始的清算进程正式结束，同时也为 Home Reit 作为运营企业的 6 年历史画上了句号。
管理层已开始将该集团的部分子公司申请自愿清算，并告知
因合并谈判 股价下跌
Martin Strydom, Emma Powell Alex Ralph
由于投资者对阿斯特捷赛诺（AstraZeneca）正探讨与美国竞争对手百时美施贵宾（Bristol Myers Squibb）合并以创建全球最大制药集团之一的报道反应冷淡，该公司的市值被抹去了近 180 亿英镑 billion。
这家富时 100 指数（FTSE 100）成份公司是伦敦第二大公司，据称在近几个月内与这家总部位于新泽西州的竞争对手进行了讨论。阿斯特捷赛诺在伦敦的股价收盘下跌近 9%，为自去年 4 月以来的最大单日跌幅；而百时美施贵宾在昨晚纽约市场的股价收盘略有上涨，上涨 $0.16，或 0.2%，报 $65.47。
$
阿斯特捷赛诺的市场估值约为 1780 亿英镑 billion，而百时美施贵宾的价值约为 1320 亿美元 billion。
阿斯特捷赛诺表示：“我们从不评论传闻。多年来面对多次传闻，我们一直执行这一政策。”百时美施贵宾未回应置评请求。
阿斯特捷赛诺股东的冷淡反应出现之时，一些分析师正质疑此类合并对这家伦敦上市公司的战略益处。在帕斯卡·索里奥爵士（Sir Pascal Soriot）担任首席执行官的 14 年任期内，该公司的股价增长了四倍多。
彭博情报公司（Bloomberg Intelligence）高级制药分析师约翰·墨菲（John Murphy）表示，此次谈判对“阿斯特”来说似乎“战略意义有限”，且“鉴于双方在肿瘤产品组合上的重叠，可能会受到反垄断审查”。
（当日变动）
道琼斯指数 53,178.41 (+693.38)
11,000 10,800 10,600 10,400 10,200 10,000 9,800
54,000 53,000 52,000 51,000 50,000 49,000 7月6日 20 8月3日 13 27
5,000
4,000
Home Reit 实际上现在已成为一家壳公司，尽管它仍面临多项调查和诉讼，包括来自其自身股东的诉讼。
管理该业务的基金管理公司 AEW 在接下来的三个月内将继续收取每月 £167,000 的费用，不过该费用将在 11 月降至每月 £120,000，随后在 2 月降至每月 £42,000。
1.200
建议此类巨型合并会阻碍研发管线的进展。
索里奥若达成交易，将进一步推动这家英国制药商向美国市场的转型。该公司于 6 月升级了其纽约上市地位，这对伦敦股市是一个打击。
自特朗普总统开始第二任期以来，该公司在美国制造业投资了数百亿美元。其目标是到 2030 年，其 800 亿美元 billion 年度营收目标的半数来自美国市场。
上周的第二季度业绩显示，对癌症和罕见病药物的强劲需求继续推动阿斯特捷赛诺的增长。癌症治疗药物在 2025 年的销售额中约占 $25 billion，几乎占总额的一半，其次是价值约 120 亿美元 billion 的心血管、肾脏和代谢治疗药物。
在 2026 年的前六个月中，肿瘤药物占百时美施贵宾总销售额的 40% 以上，两家公司的癌症免疫疗法存在直接竞争。由于面临旧药销售额下降（其中部分药物很快将面临通用名药竞争），该公司一直在通过较小规模的交易来获取新药。
然而，杰富瑞（Jefferies）的分析师表示，虽然合并将创建一个“更大的肿瘤研究中心”，但考虑到该公司已经拥有一个增长更快的药物研发管线，目前尚不清楚这将如何“明显地让”阿斯特捷赛诺的股东获益。
大宗商品 货币
布伦特原油 (下午6点) $83.53 (-4.24) $ 英镑 / 美元 $1.3434 (-0.0030)
黄金 $4,051.15 (+7.74)
4,500
Home Reit 于 2020 年在伦敦证券交易所上市，在随后的几年中向投资者筹集了 £850 million，用于构建一个在最高峰时包含 2,500 套房屋的组合。这些房屋据称租给了“稳健的承租人”，包括无家可归者慈善机构和住房协会。
2022年，做空机构Viceroy Research对这些租户的可靠性表示怀疑，并对部分物业的支付价格提出质疑。尽管房东最初予以反驳，但这些担忧后来被证明是合理的。随后出现的情况显示，Home Reit 几乎没有收到任何租金，且一家外部咨询公司在2023年对其物业进行的重新估值确定，这些物业的平均价值不到购买时支付价格的一半。
110 100 90 80 70 60
今年1月，严重欺诈办公室（SFO）在针对涉嫌贿赂和欺诈的调查中逮捕了六人。
2024年7月，在AEW接替原基金管理人Alvarium一年后，决定最好的前行方案是让Home Reit进行清算，出售所有物业，并将剩余的所有现金退还给长期受苦的投资者。
DARREN GERRISH / GETTY IMAGES
1.360
1.340
1.320
1.300
上个月，该公司告知投资者，其拥有约£10800 万的现金，并预计将于明年4月从Patron Capital收到另一笔£25 million的款项。Patron Capital是一家私募股权基金，今年以£123 million的价格购买了Home Reit的706栋建筑。
然而，目前尚不清楚Home Reit的股东何时、甚至是否能够拿回其中的任何资金。在一次更新中
James Hurley 撰文： 这可能会提升在美国的知名度，但将成为研发的难题
阿斯特捷诺与百时美克与施贵明之间一项 4000 亿美元 billion 合并的前景，引发了部分人士的担忧，认为这家英国第二大市值公司显然在进一步向美国倾斜。
分析师们的情绪则更多是困惑。杰富瑞（Jefferies）表示“莫名其妙”，瑞银（UBS）表示“惊讶”，美国银行（Bank of America）认为有关潜在交易的报道“奇怪”。
这家英国药物集团与其美国竞争对手的合并将创造一个巨头企业，可能拥有业内最广泛的癌症药物组合，在心血管和肺部健康等其他领域也存在重叠。
癌症药物占阿斯特捷诺 2025 年销售额的一半，并占百时美克与施贵明 2026 年前六个月总收入的 40% 以上。两家公司的癌症免疫疗法存在直接竞争。
在巨额合并的背景下，这些相似性在降低成本和产生现金流方面可能是好消息，但在通过竞争监管方面则存在问题。任何交易都将引发人们对研发影响的担忧，而帕斯卡·索里奥爵士将其视为他成功带领这家 FTSE 100 指数公司实现 12 年转型的核心。
专利“悬崖”——即关键药物专利保护到期导致收入和利润损失的术语——在传闻中的谈判中显得至关重要。
杰西卡·纽曼 (Jessica Newman)
这家在伦敦公园巷经营格罗夫纳 House 酒店的巨头公司再次证明了该行业面临的挑战，透露中东冲突已导致该地区新酒店的建设速度放缓。
万豪国际 (Marriott International) 表示，由于中东地区的建设延期，预计 2026 年净客房数量的增长将处于 4.5% 至 5% 指导范围的低端。
由于美国与伊朗之间旷日持久的敌对状态威胁到消费支出，且中东地区航空公司运营规模的缩减抑制了整个地区的旅游需求，旅游业在今年剩余时间里的前景依然不明。
阿斯特捷诺 (AstraZeneca) 将在 2030 年代初期失去三款重磅抗癌药物 Tagrisso、Calquence 和 Imfinzi 的独占权；与此同时，百时美施贵宝 (Bristol Myers Squibb) 也在面临其自身的专利悬崖，涉及抗凝血药 Eliquis 和抗癌药 Opdivo，这可能会在未来几年使其增长停滞。
合并将会在短期内显著提升阿斯特捷诺的盈利能力，但随着百时美施贵宝的专利悬崖效应显现，这种影响可能会减弱。
瑞银 (UBS) 分析师指出，问题在于，正当阿斯特捷诺在预计 2031 年至 2033 年期间面临专利到期带来的利润压力时，该交易带来的收益可能正处于下降趋势。
合并能否增加阿斯特捷诺的潜力药物管线？理论上，规模更大意味着有更多资源投入到新疗法的开发中。然而，制药行业的合并交易往往会损害创新，而阿斯特捷诺已经拥有良好的药物管线。
瑞银表示，此类合并的问题在于，“由于员工在整合期间理所当然地关注职业风险，研发生产力在合并期间似乎进一步下降”。因此，这种方式已不再受青睐，而对关键创新目标进行“插件式”收购成为了首选方案，且收购的运营部分会被部分隔离，以免研发停滞。
涉及阿斯特捷诺的最后一宗重大交易是六年前以 $39 亿美元收购罕见病专家 Alexion，该交易是在新冠封锁期间通过视频通话远程完成的。那是该集团自 1999 年由瑞典 Astra 和英国 Zeneca 合并创建以来规模最大的一次收购。
尽管规模庞大，但瑞银表示，Alexion 的收购是一个成功的“插件式方法”案例，因为它增加了新的专业领域，“而非重叠的运营”。
美银 (Bank of America) 的分析师警告称，很少有制药巨头之间的合并“被认为由于经常提到的对研发的干扰而获得成功，且[它们]通常是出于弱势地位而进行的”。
它补充道：“我们认为，投资者可能会将潜在的合并视为一种信号”，在截至 6 月底的三个月内产生了 $7.07 亿美元的收入，在纽约的下午交易中下跌了 6.7%。
万豪的全球每间可用客房收入 (revpar) 是一个关键的行业指标，在第二季度增长了 3.4%，其中公司在美国和加拿大的 revpar 增长率为 5%。由于富裕的旅行者并不在意经济的不确定性，包括丽思卡尔顿 (Ritz-Carlton) 和喜来登 (Sheraton) 等品牌的万豪奢侈品细分市场的客房收入增长了 9.1%。
然而，由于欧洲的强劲增长被中东地区 43% 的跌幅所抵消，欧洲、中东和非洲地区的 revpar 下降了 5% 以上。
将今年的全球 revpar 增长指引上调至 3% 到 3.5% 之间，高于此前 2% 到 3% 之间的预测。
总部位于美国马里兰州的万豪在 148 个国家拥有近 10,000 家酒店组合，并在该季度全球范围内增加了约 17,900 间净客房。
该公司下调客房增长预测，此前其竞争对手也发出了类似的预警。上周，凯悦酒店（Hyatt）将其全年净客房增长预测下调至 6%，而之前的预测为 6 至 7%，同时该公司警告称，预计“中东地区的酒店收入将继续显著低于去年”。
认为阿斯特捷赛诺缺乏对其自身研发管线的信心——在我们看来这很奇怪——以及在 [2030 年之后] 增强增长的需求。”
所谓“奇怪”，是指在索里奥特（Soriot）领导下，药物研发管线经历了 12 年的转型，这使得阿斯特捷赛诺获得了一个高端研发特许经营企业的声誉，极少出现负面的临床试验结果，尽管在治疗神经疾病的药物 Wainua 之后，市场情绪不一。
上个月，该公司表示，每月在“非物业运营支出”上的花费近 £1 million。这包括了 AEW 的费用，但“主要是法律费用”。
金融行为监管局（Financial Conduct Authority）自 2024 年初以来一直对 Home Reit 进行调查，且调查目前仍在“进行中”。
此外还涉及严重欺诈办公室（SFO）的调查，以及商业诉讼公司 Harcus Parker 代表数十名股东发起的可能耗资巨大的诉讼，这些股东指控该公司提供了“虚假、不实和 / 或误导性”的信息。一份诉前索赔函已于 2023, 年发出，但尚未启动正式的法律程序。
Home Reit 一直誓言将针对这些指控进行辩护。
药物在上个月的一次关键心脏病临床试验中出乎意料地失败了。
其管线、资产负债表和股价的转型，是由创新抗癌药物的突破性成功所推动的。阿斯特捷赛诺有望在 2040 年实现 800 亿美元的年收入目标。
“考虑到制药业巨额交易导致研发生产力停滞的历史挑战，以及显而易见的...”
Charlotte Bend 股价
由于强劲的收益数据以及人工智能热潮带动其云计算服务（该公司的主要利润引擎）产生新需求的迹象，亚马逊的股市价值在昨日大涨后突破了 $3 trillion（3 万亿美元）。
这家纳斯达克成分股公司是继苹果、微软、英伟达和谷歌母公司 Alphabet 之后，第五家达到这一里程碑的公司。上周，在该集团实现了四年多来最强劲的云业务增长并提高了年度资本支出预测后，其股价创下了自 2012 年 4 月以来最大的单日涨幅。
该公司昨晚在纽约收盘上涨 $13.45，即 5%，报 $285.02。自年初以来，其股价已上涨 23.05%，并经历了自 2009 年 10 月 27 日结束的三天（期间上涨 30.6%）以来表现最好的 72 小时区间。
$290
“考虑到内部阿斯特捷赛诺管线的广度与深度，我们感到很惊讶，”瑞银（UBS）分析师表示。
同样，杰富瑞（Jefferies）的分析师表示，鉴于“阿斯特捷赛诺的增长强度和创新概况”，他们感到“有些困惑”。
他们补充道：“也许更多的现金生成将允许更多的研发。但如果有一家公司不需要财务工程，那就是我们看来中的阿斯特捷赛诺。”
2025 2026
A S O N D J F M A M J J A
“亚马逊可能是目前经济最典型的代表。这是一个消费者故事，也是一个 AI 故事，”美国金融服务集团 Nationwide 的首席市场策略师 Mark Hackett 表示。
杰富瑞表示，如果该公司确实需要更多管线药物资产，很可能可以在没有这种巨额合并固有头痛的情况下获得，包括从中国获得。
那么定价如何？收购百时美施贵宝（Bristol Myers Squibb）的交易可能看起来具有吸引力，因为相对而言它很便宜。根据彭博社的数据，阿斯特捷赛诺的交易价格约为其预测收益的 15 倍，而百时美施贵宝为 10 倍。
鉴于这家英国企业的市场估值较高，阿斯特捷赛诺进行这项交易的逻辑（可能采取现金和股票购买其美国竞争对手的形式）可能归结为估值和成本节省的结合。
然而，杰富瑞表示：“使用大量溢价股权来收购一家低 [市盈率] 业务，在我们看来似乎过于激进。”
阿斯特捷赛诺可能会从百时美施贵宝传统资产的现金生成中受益，但杰富瑞质疑“这将如何显然地让阿斯特捷赛诺的股东受益，因为他们会看到自己的增长被稀释”。
监管是另一个障碍。鉴于治疗领域的重叠，考虑到合并实体将在癌症药物市场上拥有巨大的控制力，可能需要进行资产剥离。
瑞银表示：“我们预计详细的竞争审查将深入研究两家公司的管线，并要求对任何重叠项目进行重大剥离。”
此外还存在政治因素。杰富瑞指出：“在美国政策制定者专注于国内制造业和战略产业之时，阿斯特捷赛诺实际上将成为一家收购美国大型制药公司的英国企业。”
这种结合很可能是继续扩大阿斯特捷赛诺在美国影响力的途径，但“可能需要谨慎引导以减少摩擦”。
鉴于所有这些担忧，瑞银推测对报道的谈判是否存在过度反应，思考这是否实际上是关于“两家公司在单一产品或特许经营权上更专注的合作伙伴关系”，这是阿斯特捷赛诺此前成功使用过的策略。
话虽如此，索里奥特（Soriot）此前已证明人们是错误的。旨在提高现金流和利润率的 Alexion 交易最初不受投资者欢迎，2019 年为与日本第一三共株式会社（Daiichi Sankyo Co）的合作筹集资金也是如此。
到昨日收盘，由于关于合并的猜测，阿斯特捷赛诺的市值已下跌近 9 %。美国银行表示，预计在交易细节公布之前，阿斯特捷赛诺的股价将继续承压。
或许索里奥（Soriot）能看到某种市场尚未实现的逻辑。
已向市场释放了更为广泛的乐观信号。
亚马逊距离追上市值 4.5 万亿美元的苹果公司（上周曾短暂突破 5 万亿美元），或芯片制造商英伟达的 5 万亿美元市值仍有一段距离。微软的估值为 3.6 万亿美元。
首席执行官安迪·贾西（Andy Jassy）在上周的一份声明中将亚马逊网络服务（AWS）描述为“蓬勃发展”，该业务第二季度的净销售额同比增长 36.7 %。这家在线零售商由杰夫·贝佐斯（Jeff Bezos）共同创立，后者仍是以近 9 % 持股量的最大股东。
贾西表示：“我们的人工智能和芯片业务的年化运行率均突破了 250 亿美元。”
“在门店方面，我们在今年上半年再次为 Prime 会员创造了配送速度记录——当日或隔日配送的商品数量增加了 40 % 以上，其中杂货和日常必需品的增长速度明显快于其他业务。”
毫无道理 I
商业评论 格雷厄姆·鲁迪克 (Graham Ruddick)
距离帕斯卡尔·索里奥特爵士 (Sir Pascal Soriot) 谈到为了保持领先需要以“中国速度”运作仅过去一周。因此，对于一项在凡人看来毫无道理的交易，也许我们应该给这家阿斯特捷赛诺的掌门人一次信任的机会。
在《金融时报》报道称该公司已就与美国竞争对手百时美施贵宝 (Bristol Myers Squibb) 结盟进行过谈判后，阿斯特捷赛诺的股价昨日下跌了 9%。这可能会创建一家价值 4000 亿美元的制药公司。
两家公司均未对该交易发表官方评论。在幕后，则是惯常的“我们不对传闻发表评论”之词。但考虑到市场的反应，如果这件事根本不存在，那么引导我们所有人远离这个想法将是合情合理的。但事实并非如此。
阿斯特捷赛诺股价的剧烈下跌，发出了关于任何巨额交易的几个明确信号。
首先，人们显然担心成本——无论是在财务上，还是在将两家巨头公司整合在一起所需投入的时间和资源方面。
其次，人们更深层的担忧在于，阿斯特捷赛诺是否对其新药研发管线完全有信心。
正如瑞银 (UBS) 的分析师在周一所指出的，这类制药巨头的合并通常发生在两家公司试图削减成本时，因为它们面临着由于重磅药物专利到期而导致的收入下降。我们知道，阿斯特捷赛诺和百时美施贵宝都面临着“专利悬崖”。
对于阿斯特捷赛诺来说，这个时间点是从 2031 年开始，届时 Imfinzi、Tagrisso 和 Calquence 等药物将面临来自廉价仿制药竞争对手的挑战。对于百时美施贵宝来说，则是从 2028 年开始，届时销售额达 300 亿美元的药物（如 Eliquis 和 Opdivo）将受到威胁。
很容易看出，如果阿斯特捷赛诺和百时美施贵宝联手，可以通过节省开支来抵消这种财务冲击。例如，他们在肿瘤学领域有重叠。在研发、销售和其他行政领域可以实现成本缩减。
但既然索里奥特一直推崇公司的创新，为什么阿斯特捷赛诺会想费心去削减成本？他一直坚信，阿斯特捷赛诺的科学家们将通过新发明来抵消公司面临的专利悬崖。
索里奥特曾表示，他“绝对有信心”在 2030 年实现 800 亿美元销售额的目标，并对他之后公司的前景大加赞赏。
然而，看看 7 月初发生了什么。当阿斯特捷赛诺宣布其潜在的重磅药物 Wainua 在后期试验中失败时，该公司遭遇了重大挫折。
阿斯特捷赛诺此前预期 Wainua 每年可带来高达 50 亿美元的销售额。但该药物未能实现降低心血管死亡率和重复心脏问题的首要目标。该公告发布后，公司股价大跌。
创新的反复无常和不可预测性。索里奥特上周表示：“生物学不是数学。它没有那么可预测。人们已经习惯了我们能以高成功率交付成果。但我们必须接受，我们偶尔会失败。”
也许阿斯特捷赛诺希望它在 2030 年后的世界能更具可预测性。而资产负债表比生物学更可预测。通过合并阿斯特捷赛诺与百时美施贵宝来削减成本，给了它一个可以与投资者探讨的话题。
但阿斯特捷赛诺在过去十年中的成功并非仅靠这些。它为英国的创新树立了标杆。
有人认为，这笔交易实际上完全源于索里奥特征服美国的渴望，并希望完成阿斯特捷赛诺向跨大西洋巨头的转型。但通过收购百时美施贵宝来实现这一目标的逻辑同样没什么道理。尽管人们一直在抱怨英国低估了伟大企业的价值，但阿斯特捷赛诺的市盈率高于百时美施贵宝：阿斯特捷赛诺 2027 年预测收益的 15 倍，而百时美施贵宝仅为 11 倍。
无论从哪个角度来看，这项协议都毫无水花。
SpaceX 准备回归地面，处理一项像季度收益更新这样接地气的事宜。分析师预计，在 Starlink 卫星业务的助力下，这些结果将显示季度营收为 69 亿美元 billion，税前亏损为 16 亿美元 billion。
然而，一个需要关注的关键数字是资本支出。据路透社报道，分析师预计截至 6 月的三个月内，资本支出将达到 141 亿美元 billion。其中约 100 亿美元 billion 将用于人工智能（AI）。
该数字向任何方向的变动都可能决定市场的反应。近几周，华尔街表现出一种倾向，即对于那些增加了资本支出却几乎没有成效的公司予以“惩罚”。
自 SpaceX 在 6 月 12. 日上市以来，世界已经发生了显著变化。当天，股价从 $135 飙升至 $160 以上。创始人埃隆·马斯克成为了全球首位万亿富翁。
然而，自那时起，马斯克一直在社交媒体上指出，他是一名“前万亿富翁”。在公司公布业绩前，SpaceX 的股价昨日收于 $114.53，远低于其发行价。
如果华尔街担心其资本支出失控，本周情况可能会进一步恶化。
Meta 的股价上周暴跌，原因是该公司将其 2026 年的预期资本支出从 1250 亿美元 billion-1450 亿美元 billion 小幅上调至 1300 亿美元 billion-1450 亿美元 billion。相比之下，微软表示其资本支出将低于预期：1750 亿美元 billion，而预测值为 1900 亿美元 billion。结果如何？微软的市值在一天之内增加了 4500 亿美元 billion——创下任何企业有记录以来的最高单日增幅。
Emily Gosden 能源编辑
Emily Gosden
壳牌已达成协议，将其欧洲陆上风电和太阳能业务出售给法国 TotalEnergies 公司，该公司正继续从可再生能源领域撤退。
这家富时 100 指数（FTSE 100）成份油气集团未披露交易金额，但表示该交易涵盖了在英国、意大利、荷兰和西班牙运行及开发中约 500 兆瓦（MW）的装机容量。
该投资组合还包括部分电池存储资产，以及一个 3.5 吉瓦（GW）的早期阶段项目管线，用于未来开发。
被出售的英国资产包括位于柴郡的 19MW Iddenshall 太阳能公园。一名发言人表示，壳牌将保留其在巨型 Cottam 600MW 太阳能和电池存储项目中的权益，该项目跨越林肯郡与诺丁汉郡边界。根据规划文件，该公司对该项目拥有份额抵押权。
此次出售是一系列剥离可再生能源举措中的最新一项，包括上个月一项价值 18 亿美元 billion 的交易，出售其 5GW 的印度太阳能和风电业务。
截至 6 月底，壳牌在全球范围内约有 4.5GW 的可再生能源发电能力在运行，约 1.7GW 处于开发阶段。
在与 TotalEnergies 达成交易后，其投资组合中剩余的两大可再生能源发电板块是荷兰的离岸风电以及通过其子公司 Savion 经营的美国太阳能农场。据报道，该公司正准备出售其离岸风电业务。
在英国，壳牌于 11 月将其在 MarramWind 漂浮式离岸项目中的股份出售给了合作伙伴 Scottish Power，并将 CampionWind 项目的许可交还给了皇冠地产（Crown Estate）。
壳牌下游和可再生能源业务总裁 Machteld de Haan 表示： “这项协议反映了壳牌……专注于积极管理并提升其电力投资组合的质量。”
“我们正在循环利用资本，并优先考虑我们拥有差异化能力并能创造最大价值的领域……包括通过资产支持的电力交易和以客户为中心的能源解决方案。”
壳牌是欧洲最大的油气集团，在 70 个国家拥有 85,000 名员工，并在全球范围内运营。
Tom Howard
由于特朗普总统决定取消对伊朗的新一轮袭击，希望能够迅速达成和平协议，昨日油价下跌超过每桶 $5。
全球基准布伦特原油价格下跌 $6.51，即 7.3 百分比，至 $83.32；两周前该价格曾高于每桶 $100。
自从美国在 2 月底发起首次袭击以来，全球油价一直波动剧烈，这导致了霍尔木兹海峡的实际关闭。该海峡是关键的航运动脉，全球约 20 百分比的石油和液化天然气经此运输。
周日晚上，特朗普表示，美国与伊朗之间最新一轮的谈判将于周一晚上开始。他表示，沙特阿拉伯王储穆罕默德·本·萨尔曼以及阿拉伯联合酋长国和卡塔尔等美国合作伙伴已敦促他不要进行进一步袭击。
“我们已经准备好出发了，”特朗普说。“他们要求的原因是他们认为可以达成协议。关于霍尔木兹海峡已经有了协议，关于核问题也将会有协议。”
他对协议的暗示以及油价的下跌，降低了市场对于央行可能很快加息以抑制通胀的预期。作为回应，与债券价格呈反向变动的政府债券收益率在昨日下跌。英国两年期国债收益率降至 4.32 百分比，而周五该收益率曾在 4.42 百分比以上。
伊朗外交部否认正在与美国谈判，但确认已与阿曼进行对话，以就“确保霍尔木兹海峡航运通道安全的路径达成谅解”。
壳牌公司首席执行官 Wael Sawan（左图）已达成协议，将增加 TotalEnergies 的可再生能源组合，因为该公司正专注于石油和天然气。
运营中心报告称，自周六以来海峡内发生了三起油轮袭击事件。作为回应，通过该海峡的商业船只数量有所减少。
根据贸易分析机构 Kpler 的数据，7 月 30 和 8 月 2, 期间，通过该海峡的船只共有 51 艘，比前四天减少了 28 百分比。
“我们仍然不认为已经走出困境，”杰富瑞（Jefferies）首席欧洲战略师 Mohit Kumar 表示。“我们不认为会爆发全面战争，但我们认为这种不安的停战局面将持续一段时间。我们不认为油价会超过 $100,，但也很难看到布伦特原油远低于 $75-$80 水平。”
自 2023, 年初起担任壳牌首席执行官的 Wael Sawan 放弃了其前任 Ben van Beurden 期间进行的许多可再生能源和电力部门投资。早期举措包括将壳牌的英国家用能源供应业务出售给 Octopus。
在去年 3 月的一次投资者日活动中，Sawan 表示，公司正“从具有基础设施回报的资产转向更多支持我们交易策略的资产”。
“这意味着我们将优先考虑从油气勘探到燃料零售的投资。”该公司每天生产约 2.5 million 桶等量石油，是全球最大的液化天然气 (LNG) 独立贸易商。
上周，该公司报告了创纪录的第二高季度利润，由于美国与伊朗的战争导致油气价格高企且波动，截至 6 月的三个月内，调整后收益接近 100 亿美元 billion。
BP 已完成对德国盖尔森基兴（Gelsenkirchen）炼油厂的出售，旨在削减成本并筹集资金。
这家富时 100 能源公司目标是在明年年底前剥离 200 亿美元 billion 的资产，这是前首席执行官穆雷·奥钦克洛斯（Murray Auchincloss）在去年年初作为战略“重启”一部分而设定的目标。BP 在 3 月宣布，已达成协议将盖尔森基兴炼油厂以未披露的金额出售给总部位于瑞士日内瓦的炼油企业 Klesch Group。
RICHARD BOUHET / GETTY IMAGES
他对灵活发电领域的投资，例如燃气电厂、大规模电池和数字技术，”他说。
“对于我们的交易团队来说，这些对于管理风险和获取价值至关重要，因为随着可再生能源供应份额的增加，系统预计将变得更加不可预测。”
虽然壳牌（Shell）和 BP 在很大程度上都扭转了对可再生能源的推进，但道达尔能源（TotalEnergies）继续构建规模显著的发电业务。
这家法国公司表示，其欧洲可再生能源业务目前包含近 10GW 的总装机容量或在建容量，以及 27GW 处于开发阶段。
在与壳牌的交易之外，道达尔能源表示，将一个“已基本开发”的 1.2GW 可再生能源资产组合中 50 per cent 的股份出售给“由 KKR 管理的保险账户”，企业价值为 €1.8 billion。
1.cember deal 出售其嘉实多（Castrol）润滑油业务的多数股权。
上周，首席执行官梅格·奥尼尔（Meg O’Neill）宣布，公司正启动其英国北海业务的出售程序，分析师估计该业务可获 26 亿美元 billion。她表示，她认为该业务“作为另一家公司的一部分将具有更好的定位”。
杰富瑞（Jefferies）的分析师质疑，公司最终是否会出售整个业务，而不是保留合资企业或“卫星”模式的股份，例如该公司十年前在挪威业务中所开创的模式。该模式创建了成功的 Aker BP，BP 在其中持有少数股权。
中国必须被谨慎对待 梅林·汗 (Mehreen Khan)
‘‘
在过去的两年里，世界经济被贸易战和真实的战争所掌控。历史表明，这两者的前兆通常是一个猖獗的货币战争阶段，而现在货币战争再次成为新闻焦点。
货币战争——或通过操纵汇率以获得相对于贸易伙伴的优势——往往是贸易战的预兆，而贸易战随后可能演变为真实的战争。货币战争对全球金融稳定如此危险，以至于我们战后布雷顿森林体系的整个基础就是为了防止各国从事 1930 年代那种“以邻为壑”的贬值行为。两次世界大战期间金本位的混乱崩溃以及国际货币合作的瓦解，促成了二十年内世界的第二次全球冲突。
管理货币争端的能力是对全球协调能力的一次良好检验。这就是为什么布雷顿森林体系机构或 20 世纪 80 年代的《广场协议》在近期的政治经济学中占据如此重要的地位。在这两种情况下，各国坐下来达成协议，管理各自的汇率，以防止贸易战演变为真实的战争。在最近的十年中，人们可以说，美中竞争的首次交火始于 2019 年，当时特朗普政府正式将北京定义为货币操纵国。这些事情很少能有好结果。
货币战争再次成为头条新闻有两个原因：一是关于中国汇率的长期争端，二是近期对日本日元价值下跌的担忧。
先看日本。在过去的四年里，日本当局徒劳地试图支撑其走弱的货币，日元兑美元汇率一直处于 40 年来的低点。上周，由于华盛顿介入以加强日元，干预形势变得更加严重。这是自 1998 年亚洲金融危机以来，美国在 2011 年海啸紧急情况之外，首次干预以支持日元。
货币走弱可能会给国内经济带来问题。它提高了消费者的进口成本，降低了家庭的购买力，并推高了
峰会
谁在掌控全局？ 2026年11月10日，星期二
1945年的布雷顿森林体系旨在防止 1930 年代的混乱重演
通货膨胀。日本几乎所有的能源需求和大部分粮食供应都依赖进口。由于日本在经历了四十年价格停滞后终于产生了通货膨胀，日元的贬值已成为一个更令人头疼的问题。
美国的干预表明，日元走弱不仅是日本的问题，也是美国的问题。为什么？除了支持其坚定盟友之一，以及认为基于经济基本面日元被低估之外，华盛顿尚未透露其动机。但美国采取行动的动机是多方面的。首先是担心日本极具竞争力的汇率（这使得其出口产品对世界其他地区更便宜）会对美国出口商构成威胁。正是美国农民的焦虑，迫使罗纳德·里根在 1985 年的广场酒店协议中对“超级美元”进行了管理性贬值。
美国支持日本的另一个驱动因素是东京的单独行动可能给美国政府借贷成本带来的风险。日本是美国国债最大的外国持有者。据高盛称，在 2022 年、2024 年以及今年 4 月的干预期间，日本当局通过出售包括美国债务在内的外汇资产来支撑日元。大规模出售国债有提高美国政府借贷成本的风险。美国财政部长斯科特·贝森特向日本提供了回购机制的使用权，这将允许日本在不抛售美国债务的情况下支撑日元。贝森特还承诺将进一步干预，以阻止交易员做空日元。
日本在 G7 的其他盟友不太可能像美国那样提供帮助。但他们确实盯上的货币是中国的人民币。德国已加入法国和欧洲央行的行列，指责北京维持人为低汇率，从而损害欧洲工业并导致创纪录的 1.2 万亿美元贸易顺差。德国总理弗里德里希·默茨表示，人民币兑欧元和美元被低估了 25-30%。他希望中国的贸易伙伴和共产党能解决这一失衡问题。
德国对货币操纵深有体会。从 21 世纪初起，它凭借被低估的欧元波峰，成为了一个出口巨头。但默茨的言论仍代表了过去一年中，对华强硬立场从美国转移到欧洲的重大转变。柏林与巴黎一起，将中国的出口模式称为对其国内汽车、化学和绿色能源产业的生存威胁。去年发起了不幸的对华贸易战的特朗普，现在的好战程度已大大降低。
在关于如何重新平衡全球贸易的辩论中，货币是否重要？外交关系委员会的布拉德·赛特瑟表示，中国“金融兴奋剂”的程度远比国际货币基金组织等机构所记录的要严重。他认为人民币兑美元的交易水平与 2008 年相当。默茨提到的 30% 低估值便来自赛特瑟的计算。他说：“中国货币贬值时期与中国出口表现异常出色时期之间存在明显的相关性。”
而认为这并不那么重要的人，包括两位前国际货币基金组织首席经济学家以及国际清算银行即将上任的首席经济学家。这三人通过在《经济学人》上发表文章辩称，人民币被低估并非中国创纪录顺差的原因，且修正汇率对削减顺差的作用不大。对于一群严肃的经济学家来说，这是一个奇怪的论点，因为这更多地是在讨论政治，而非贸易机制。
汇率确实至关重要。但要求一个国家加强或削弱其货币是一个高度敏感且往往具有煽动性的要求。这就是为什么国际货币基金组织（IMF）一直克制，没有点名批评中国，而是敦促其采取更理性的政策调整，例如扩大国家的社会安全网以刺激消费支出。即使在自由浮动汇率的世界里，货币依然是经济主权中极其珍贵的一部分。这就是为什么英国加入欧元区根本行不通。而这就是为什么点名批评中国人民币汇率被低估将毫无效果。
Mehreen Khan 是《泰晤士报》经济编辑
Lilia Christofi 普华永道（PwC）英国 欧洲、中东及非洲地区金融服务数据、人工智能与技术负责人
产量在 七月受 伊朗冲突影响
Charlotte Bend
英国制造业活动在七月连续第九个月扩张，但增速为四个月以来最慢，表明上月底伊朗战争带来的影响再次显现。
英国制造业的 S&P Global 采购经理人指数 (PMI) 上月从六月的 52.5 降至 51.9，而此前公布的初步或快讯读数为 52.8，该数值是过去四年中的第三高读数。50 点的阈值将增长与收缩分开。
S&P Global 表示：“环比下降是因为采购库存大幅减少、就业增长放缓以及供应商交货时间增长率有所缓解。”
该调查由约 650 家制造商的采购经理回复汇总而成。调查发现，企业预计随着市场条件的改善和新产品的推出，未来一年的产量将增加。然而，受访者还提到了增长的下行风险，包括全球贸易紧张局势、税收上涨和监管变化。
S&P Global Market Intelligence 经济指数总监 Rob Dobson 表示：“资源的可用性和供应商可靠性的提高，有望在未来几个月为承压的供应链提供进一步的缓解，尽管中东局势的发展将成为未来几周供应和价格走势的关键。”
“这些积极的价格和需求趋势并未完全反映在劳动力市场上，制造业招聘的增长在七月几乎陷入停滞，但积压订单在四年多来首次上升，这表明就业情况可能会在未来几个月有所回升。”
中型和大型公司的生产表现尤为强劲，但被小型企业的疲软部分抵消。新订单连续第八个月增长，来自北美、欧盟、中国大陆、印度和韩国的订单增长助力了出口。
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经济预测组织 Item Club 的首席经济顾问 Matt Swannell 表示：“尽管生产和订单有所回升，但增长势头依然有所减弱。调查报告称，全球贸易紧张局势、税收上涨和监管变化是拖累商业信心的因素之一。”
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BJ Jenkins 感到恐惧。作为全球最大的上市网络安全公司 Palo Alto Networks 的总裁，他处于观察企业面临的、迅速升级的网络威胁的最前线。
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在高级人工智能时代下的企业和政府。
“现在最让我恐惧的是，这些模型如此聪明；它们可以利用低级别的漏洞——那些你可能认为并非真正威胁的东西，并将它们串联起来，从而制造出一种攻击手段，”他说道。
上周，Anthropic 表示，其 Claude AI 模型在测试网络能力时入侵了三家机构，而 OpenAI 在一周前披露了一起类似事件。
“我非常担心那些[没有资源投资于高级网络安全]的中小型企业，”詹金斯说。“但即便对于大型财富 100、财富 500 强企业也是如此。它们拥有资源，但其中许多企业拥有经过多年构建、缺乏灵活性的架构，它们必须以比以往想象中快得多的速度进行迁移。”
他最近与一家大型医疗支付处理公司交谈，该公司表示无法更改其基础设施的任何部分，因为如果运营暂停，人们就无法办理医疗保险。另外，一个外国政府告诉他，在征税季节期间，他们无法对其基础设施进行任何更改。他的回应是：“好吧，这种情况必须改变”。
然而，这一切对商业来说是有利的。自三个月前 Anthropic 推出的 Mythos（该公司将其标榜为强大的网络武器）引发全球恐慌以来，Palo Alto Networks 已有近 2,000 家客户要求就 AI 模型的网络威胁进行一对一简报。
对 AI 代理黑客能力的担忧，推动了 Palo Alto Networks 的股价今年以来上涨 80%，使其成为标准普尔 500 指数中的顶尖表现者之一。第三季度营收同比增长 31%，达到 30 亿美元 billion。
Palo Alto Networks 成立于 2005 年，总部位于加利福尼亚州圣克拉拉，该公司通过提供单一的自有平台产品，成功赢得了那些使用多种竞争对手网络安全产品的客户。该公司声称，其平台意味着企业可以降低成本，因为它们不需要整合多个不同的产品，并且可以加快工作流和安全流程。
该公司还声称，在 AI 时代，其规模优势使其能够“跟上前沿 AI 模型在漏洞方面的发现速度”，并在几秒钟内检测到事件，从而帮助公司快速修复漏洞。
“我们向首席财务官传达的主要信息之一是，我们将让您更加安全，并且我们将以更好的 ROI（投资回报率）来实现这一点，同时降低您的成本，”詹金斯说。“这是一个强有力的信息，有助于推动我们的增长。”
詹金斯表示，AI 还在使 Palo Alto Networks 和其他大型网络安全参与者能够改进产品，因为更快的代码编写意味着他们可以以创纪录的速度推出新功能。
“好消息是，你也可以将 AI 用于良善之举，希望它能帮助我们在防御方面跟上步伐并领先于对手，”他说道。它还将“帮助客户比他们之前认为可能的速度更快地实现转型”。
Palo Alto Networks 的首席执行官 Nikesh Arora 在 6 月警告说，他预计在 AI 系统演变为“全球范围内更复杂、具备黑客能力的实体”之前，有一个三到六个月的窗口期。他补充道：“在几年内，我们预计代理型”
随着 Kimi K3 的到来，一个开源- 货运代理人骑着一个
夏洛特·本德 全球货物运输在今年上半年创下历史最强记录。
航运经纪公司 Clarkson 成功应对了海湾危机，在今年一个“异常”的上半年中报告了创纪录的利润。
FTSE 250 集团表示，截至 6 月 30, 的半年内，税前利润增长近 50% 至 £55.6 million，与去年同期相比。该业绩基于 £413.5 million 的营收，较之前的 £29800 万 增长了 39%。
该公司表示，创纪录的上半年业绩源于“强劲的贸易环境，且由于霍尔木兹海峡的动荡而进一步增强”。该公司预计全年业绩将大幅超出市场预期。
上图为 Palo 的 BJ Jenkins
AI 将达到一个真正前所未有的自主执行水平……以机器速度编排端到端活动，无需人工干预。”
Jenkins 认为，考虑到该时间表可能低估了目标，
自美国和以色列在 2 月对伊朗发动军事打击以来，该海峡的航运几乎陷于停滞。仅有极少数船只通过该水道，而通常这里承载着全球五分之一的石油和液化天然气供应。
船舶短缺以及货物被迫采取更长航线的事实，推高了货运率，而克拉克森（Clarkson’s）的佣金与此挂钩。此次动荡导致亚洲国家寻求增加来自西方长途目的地的货运量，同时，受困于波湾的船只也使市场进一步收紧。
Alto Networks 敏锐地意识到人工智能所带来的风险；左图为尼凯什·阿罗拉 (Nikesh Arora)
由中国人工智能先驱 Moonshot 上个月发布的开源模型，该公司声称该模型与 OpenAI 和 Anthropic 的一些顶级平台处于同一水平。詹金斯 (Jenkins) 表示，对于企业而言，这又是另一个“觉醒时刻”。
他说：“对手可以获得这些工具，客户现在必须思考这对他们意味着什么。”
“在你思考业务转型速度如此之快的同时，你必须以同样的方式思考你的网络转型，以及在这个新世界中如何防御自己。”
Clarkson 表示，由于美伊战争导致局势混乱，货运率有所上升。
Palo Alto Networks 在今年的广泛抛售潮中得以幸免，此前市场担心 AI 产品将影响软件供应商的利润。分析师认为，网络安全产品比其他软件更难被复制。
然而，Jenkins 表示，他不认为所有与所谓的前沿 AI 实验室合作的公司都能免受影响，因为这些实验室可能会通过学习这些公司的工作流程来创建竞争产品。
“每个人都必须对这些模型的走向及其将要做的事情保持谨慎，”他说道。关于“护城河”的概念，或者“你的业务在
（此处接下文）以及海峡重新开放的程度和对贸易流的干扰，在能源安全顾虑影响决策的情况下，需要时间来调整。
“预计下半年海峡逐步重新开放将支撑补货活动，而贸易量的恢复有可能为航运市场提供额外支持。
“相反，长时间的关闭将成为全球贸易和经济增长的阻碍。
“恢复受干扰供应链的平衡、重新部署船舶以及重建贸易流模式，这些过程需要时间才能完全显现，并将为整个航运市场提供机会。”
（此处接上文）你的业务中具有怎样的防御力”将变得非常重要，因为我认为大语言模型公司不会止步于它们目前具备的能力。在过去的两年里，我们看到它们进化得非常快。我的预期是，在接下来的两年里，它们将继续探索这些模型能做什么，以及它们可以颠覆哪些业务。”
他补充道：“显然，Anthropic 和 OpenAI 都希望上市，因此它们必须继续寻找顶线增长来支撑其意图。” 两家 AI 实验室均否认有关其窃取知识产权或抄袭客户商业模式的指控。
Anthropic 表示：“默认情况下，我们不会使用商业产品的客户内容来训练我们的模型。我们的商业条款禁止这样做。我们也不会通过阅读单个客户的对话、代码或文件来制定战略、决定构建哪些产品或选择进入哪些市场。”
OpenAI 首席执行官 Sam Altman 上周在《Invest Like the Best》播客中表示，OpenAI “没有兴趣”尝试“吞噬每一家初创公司、每一家企业”。他表示，其重点是“尽可能打造最好、最丰富、最实用的 AI，使其像电力一样渗透到整个经济体系并为人们赋能”。
Jenkins 表示，Mythos 时刻“催化”了美国政府，使其意识到“他们必须在网络安全方面采取行动”，并且“参与度呈指数级增长”。他补充道：“我认为他们正在非常努力地了解我们如何利用这些模型来更好地防御和保护自己。”
上周，特朗普总统在 OpenAI 披露其一个 AI 系统在安全测试期间脱离控制后，表示他正在考虑对 AI 实施“管制”，但补充说他不想“限制”AI 开发商构建新产品。
Arora 在一份声明中警告称，尽管存在网络风险，但应反对对 AI 进行“过度监管”。他建议政府专注于回答包括以下问题在内的问题：“关于知识产权的问题，模型可以用什么进行训练？责任归属？谁负责？……需要保护关键基础设施，以及我们如何保持公共系统安全并利用技术？关于国防和 AI 的使用。”
他支持建立一个“由一组希望实现高效 AI 安全且快速发展的参与者组成的自律组织”的提案。
他表示：“说起来容易做起来难，但值得追求。”
Helen Cahill 新签署的合同包含一项进一步延长至 2033 年 9 月的选项。
Capita 获得了一项价值 £424 million 的伦敦交通局（Transport for London）合同延期，此前该公司正试图在公务员养老金计划危机之后修复其与政府的关系。
这家陷入困境的外包商在赢得一项为期五年的合同延期后，昨日股价上涨 7½p，即 2.9%，收于 266p。该合同涉及运营首都的拥堵费和超低排放区（Ulez）计划。
在公务员养老金计划的管理出现惨败后，该集团正寻求挽回其名誉。Capita 表示，在养老金合同一直被问题困扰且积压案件日益增加后，它准备在该合同上承担亏损。
初创公司估值 达到 $3.3bn
Chris Dorrell
一家由 25 岁英国企业家创立的总部位于伦敦的半导体初创公司，在筹集资金以开发支撑人工智能经济的最新一代芯片后，其估值已达到 33 亿美元 billion。
Olix 的 $312 million 融资轮使该公司的估值翻了三倍，本轮融资由总部位于纽约的基金 Fundomo 领投，同时获得了总部位于剑桥的芯片设计公司 Arm Holdings 以及 Netflix 联合创始人 Reed Hastings 的投资。
Olix 由出生于哈罗盖特的 James Dacombe 于 2024 年创立。Dacombe 在 16, 岁时辍学，他同时也是 CoMind 的首席执行官，这是一家他在 2018 年仅 17 岁时创立的脑机监测公司。
根据数据分析公司邓白氏（Dun & Bradstreet）的数据，在本次融资前，Dacombe 通过一家名为 Bletchley Industries 的控股公司持有 Olix 38.6 per cent 的股份。
Olix 正在开发新一代“推理芯片”，旨在支撑 AI 模型的运行过程。
Olix 并非依赖于通用图形处理单元的改进，而是在为推理过程的每个环节开发专用芯片。随后，它使用“光互连”将这些芯片连接起来，利用激光而非铜线传输数据。
该公司表示，其方法“将使现有的前沿 AI 更加经济实惠且丰富，更重要的是，将解锁未来更强大模型的部署”。
Olix 的技术不依赖于芯片供应链中的稀缺组件（如先进封装或高带宽内存），这意味着它能够“在整个行业供应链短缺的情况下”扩大规模。
本轮融资使 Olix 有望在明年下半年向首批客户交付其 DX-1 平台。该芯片专注于模型进行推理并生成输出的阶段。
该公司还在伦敦、布里斯托以及奥斯汀、多伦多和旧金山等地的办公室招聘硅片、光子学和系统工程方面的职位。除了融资，Olix 还任命 Matt Briers 为首席财务官。Briers 从 2015 年起在金融科技公司 Wise 担任财务主管，共计九年。
作为本轮融资的一部分，Olix 获得了政府主权 AI 基金（Sovereign AI fund）的支持。该基金投资于 AI 供应链中的英国公司。这是该基金自 4 月启动以来的第五笔投资。
主权 AI 基金风投负责人 Joséphine Kant 表示：“Olix 正在从原点完全重新思考推理芯片应该是什么样子，并且在英国实现这一目标。该公司成立仅两年，已经是英国最具野心的硬件企业之一。”
Olix 是少数几家希望打破英伟达（Nvidia）在半导体市场主导地位的英国创新半导体初创公司之一。Fractile 在 5 月筹集了 $220 million 用于开发其技术，旨在将内存和计算能力融合在 1 个芯片中。
25 James Dacombe 的年龄。他在 16 岁时辍学。
Gavin Dunkley，Capita 公共交通部门的董事总经理表示：“此次延长反映了 Capita 内部以及我们的供应链合作伙伴中许多人的贡献，他们在多年地交付并转型这些服务，将运营专业知识与技术相结合，以支持伦敦道路使用者收费计划的演进。”
Capita 还宣布已完成将其私营部门呼叫中心业务出售给 Inspirit Capital 的交易，且根据该业务在新所有者管理下的业绩情况，Capita 可能在 2027 年至 2030 年之间获得 £61.5 million 的款项。Capita 表示，此次出售将有助于“显著精简其运营”，并专注于提供“复杂且不同”的部门。
政府正试图通过其 11 亿英镑 (£1.1 billion) 的 AI 硬件计划来培育英国半导体产业的发展，该计划包括对初创公司芯片的先进承诺。政府希望占据全球 AI 芯片市场 5% 的份额。
英国半导体中心首席执行官安迪·麦克林（Andy McLean）表示，本轮融资是一个“明确信号”，表明英国技术可以在全球舞台上竞争，但他补充说，挑战在于确保 Olix 能够从英国扩展规模。
他补充道：“这意味着为他们获取资金、人才和国际市场创造合适环境，这样下一代全球半导体领导者就能在这里建立，留在这里，并继续为英国创造经济价值。”
tiated 中后台服务于大型增长市场”。
该外包商上个月警告称，由于对公务员养老金计划（Civil Service Pension Scheme）的管理不善，其利润将遭受 2500 万英镑 (£25 million) 至 4000 万英镑 (£40 million) 之间的损失。
Capita 公共服务部门首席执行官理查德·霍尔罗伊德（Richard Holroyd）在向下议院特别委员会汇报时表示，由于投入资金以恢复服务水平，该合同将产生亏损。他表示：“政府是我们一个主要的战略客户。因此，我们不能考虑这里的盈利能力，我们考虑的是在其余业务中的声誉，以及我们如何在这里恢复。”
Isabella Fish 零售编辑
New Look 已从其领导团队内部任命一名首席执行官，这家陷入困境的时尚零售商希望在离任老板的转型努力基础上进一步发展。
目前担任 New Look 首席运营官的 Lynda Petherick 将接替 Helen Connolly，后者将离开该公司，出任 Asda 旗下 George 品牌的首席执行官。Connolly 将在 New Look 留任至 9 月 21 日，以支持领导层的过渡。
此次任命正值这家私有零售商寻求挽回颓势之际，此前其作为一家富时 250 (FTSE 250) 企业在鼎盛时期后经历了多年的下滑。
New Look 曾是英国占主导地位的高街时尚连锁店之一，在努力重新定义其在日益拥挤的平价时尚市场中地位的同时，一直与快时尚竞争对手、超市和在线零售商进行激烈的竞争。
New Look 董事长 Mike Coupe 表示，董事会对任命 Petherick 感到“非常高兴”。他说：“New Look 目前的地位比许多年前都要强。她将强大的商业判断力和运营纪律，与对我们的客户、品牌以及数据和技术在未来将发挥的作用的深刻理解结合在一起。”
Petherick 接手的是一家经历了重大重组的企业。Connolly 在 2022 年接任最高职位，其战略重点是通过更严格的成本控制、更好的库存管理以及更多地利用数据和技术来提高盈利能力。
在 Connolly 的领导下，该零售商还扩大了其 Club New Look 忠诚度计划，并加强了对核心女装类别的关注，旨在重新吸引注重性价比的购物者。尽管做出了这些努力，New Look 在高街上仍面临重大挑战。它已从巅峰时期大幅缩减，在激进扩张阶段曾在全球运营 850 家以上的店铺。目前它在约 300 家门店进行交易，在过去十年中关闭了数百家表现不佳的门店。
在经历了多年的财务压力后，该公司也发生了所有权变更。南非投资集团 Brait 在 2015 年首次获得控股权，随后 New Look 在 2020 年进行了大规模债务重组，通过债转股将大量所有权交给了包括资产管理公司 Alcentra 在内的债权人。
这家由 Tom Singh 于 1969 年创立的零售商，目前由 Brait 和 Alcentra 共同拥有。后者去年任命了 Rothschild & Co 来探索战略选择，包括潜在的出售。
零售分析师表示，Petherick 的任命提供了连续性，但警告称该零售商现在必须将运营上的改进转化为持续的销售增长。来自 Retail Economics 的 Nicholas Found 表示，New Look 需要一个“更鲜明的身份，以及一个让购物者选择它的更强理由。Shein 在线上的节奏快得惊人，Primark 拥有强大的规模，而新进入者 Lefties 则将 Inditex 的采购能力和门店技术引入英国平价时尚领域。New Look 必须以更明确的时尚观点、对趋势更快速的反应以及更好的购物体验来应对。”
一份交易更新显示，得益于利润率提高、折扣减少以及成本基数降低，其最新财年的息税前利润从 £14.3 million 增长至 £36.6 million。营收下降 3.6% 至 £713.2 million，而毛利率提高了 2.7%。第一季度等值收益增加
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New Look公布的全年利润有所改善，公司已选择内部人士Lynda Petherick（左图）出任首席执行官。
至 £17.4 million，同时该零售商确认已对其债务工具进行了再融资，将关键到期日延长至 2029 年。
然而，此前公布的法定业绩凸显了挑战之大。在持续关闭门店和商业街交易困难的情况下，截至去年3月底的一年中，营收下降 6.5 per cent，至 £687.7 million；而该零售商录得 £47.6 million 的营业亏损，而前一年则为 £17.4 million 的利润。
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预计将使 越南航空公司 损失 $220m
Mark Ludlow
一家越南廉价航空公司在与一家总部位于伦敦的投资公司就飞机租赁纠纷进行的第三次高等法院审判中败诉后，面临总额至少 $220 million 的损害赔偿单。
越捷航空（Vietjet）由越南首位女亿万富翁阮氏方 thảo（Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao）控制。由于在疫情期间违反了与 FitzWalter Capital 的租赁协议，该公司在之前的审判中已经面临 $193 million 的损害赔偿，涉及四架空客 A321 飞机的归还问题。
在高等法院的一项裁决中，法官 Simon Birt 判定 FitzWalter Capital 及其航空部门 FitzWalter Aviation 获得 $18.3 million 的飞机租金损失赔偿，第三次审判的总损害赔偿金（包括法律费用）尚未最终确定。
这次裁决预计将成为越捷航空与 FitzWalter 之间长期法律纠纷的最终定论之一。FitzWalter 是由前麦格理集团（Macquarie Group）高管 Ben Brazil 于 2020 年共同创立的投资公司。
这场法律战在伦敦、河内和新加坡的法庭上展开，在 FitzWalter 去年试图冻结该航空公司的全球资产（直至其支付未偿还的赔偿金）但未获成功后，双方的关系变得愈发激烈。
在第三次审判期间，越捷航空辩称，在疫情期间购买飞机租赁权的 FitzWalter 在飞机归还给这家伦敦公司后已从飞机销售中获利，并将其新提出的 $100 million 索赔描述为“投机且不合理的敛财行为”。
越捷航空的律师表示，FitzWalter 的新索赔是“一个利用疫情期间航空公司收入受损而获利的计划”。
在最近一次审判之前，在胡志明市上市且市值 36.4 亿美元 billion 的越捷航空仅向 FitzWalter 支付了约 $2 million 的赔偿金。高等法院的第三次审判涉及 FitzWalter 针对飞机归还后的维修、保养和运行所提出的损害赔偿。
FitzWalter Capital 和越捷航空均未回应置评请求。
时尚的马焦雷湖（Lake Maggiore）横跨意大利和瑞士，理所当然地成为了海明威、卓别林及许多其他人的心头好。我们还将访问同样美丽的科莫湖，以及浪漫之珠奥尔塔湖（Lake Orta），它是意大利最迷人的湖泊之一。您将体验到可能是世界上最顶级的阿尔卑斯风光，时尚的洛迦诺以及壮丽的采尔马特——后者以坐落在雄伟的马特洪峰脚下而闻名，那是世界上最具魅力的山峰。
可选出发日期：2026 年 9 月和 10 月，以及 2027 年 4 月至 10 月
作者：Guy Taylor
“真的很艰难，非常艰难。我们已经六周没有下雨了，”Holbeach Marsh农业合作社总经理Allen Giles在回顾又一个困难的英国豌豆收获季时说道。“只有事后才能得知结果，但如果这种天气持续下去，五年或六年之后，这个地区可能不再有豌豆了。”
我们正站在林肯郡一个被阳光烤焦的田地里，此时正值英国收获季节的高峰——这是一个疯狂的八周周期，种植者们每周七天、全天候工作，每年预计生产 160,000 吨豌豆。巨大的采豌豆机每台价值 £750,000，发出持续不断的引擎轰鸣声，在豌豆植株的茎叶间穿行。
这一切将在8月中旬结束，但酷热的高温和类干旱条件意味着农民和加工商已经预料到这将是连续第二个歉收年。
去年的收获时间是十多年来最早的，林肯郡、诺福克郡、萨福克郡和东约克郡的蔓豌豆种植者报告称，采摘和加工的豌豆数量下降了近三分之一。
Giles从作物中挑出一只乳白色的瓢虫：“这是我的宠物，我把它放进兜里，在接受采访时拿出来，”他开玩笑说，尽管残酷的现实是，这些瓢虫可能挽救了他今年的收成。
接连而至的热浪加速了携带病原体的蚜虫的扩散，而近期瓢虫数量的激增才勉强缓解了这一局面，瓢虫有助于将害虫控制在一定范围内。
“今年我们的瓢虫很多，我们没有喷洒杀蚜剂，因为我们想让瓢虫来完成这项工作，在某种程度上它们确实做到了。所以这对我们有帮助，但大约有一年的滞后。进入冬季后瓢虫数量不会这么多，明年我们可能会面临蚜虫问题。”
Giles的合作社每年在 2,200 公顷土地上通常收获约 10,000 吨豌豆，其中大部分随后被冷冻。然而，随着今年夏天英国气温达到创纪录水平，他越来越被迫转向更适应气候的作物。
“我们今年首次种植了一些鹰嘴豆，它们看起来相当不错，很适应这种炎热的天气，”他说。
其中一位种植者声称建立了第一个英国橄榄油公司——
“作为一个合作社，今年没有农民能从豌豆中获利，去年也没有。我们按吨结算，我们需要每公顷达到一定的吨数才能让这片土地盈利。这不是任何人的错，这只是天气原因。”
豌豆成熟迅速，温度越高，加工商在它们被运往超市货架之前将其冷冻或装罐的时间就越短。
包括抗旱和抗病品种在内的创新可以帮助保护产量，但通常需要数年时间才能商业化。
Allen Giles，林肯郡一家农场的总经理，该农场预计将迎来连续第二个豌豆歉收年。瓢虫将作物从蚜虫中拯救出来，而蚜虫的扩散因高温而加速。
每天有数卡车的豌豆被运送到现场。它们被倾倒入一系列蜿蜒的传送带上，在那里经过彻底清洗，然后使用“嫩度计”进行检测。
每秒钟有数十个金属罐在工厂中飞速穿梭，每年生产约 24 million 个罐头和 40 billion 颗豌豆。
Princes以其罐装金枪鱼和Napolina切碎番茄而闻名，该公司预测今年豌豆收获的产量约为 60 per cent，仅比 2025 年略高，但远低于 2024 年报告的 100 per cent 以上（当年降雨充足，获得了丰收）。
JASON BYE 为《泰晤士报》拍摄
在接受《泰晤士报》采访时，担任Princes临时首席执行官的意大利人Giuseppe Mastrolia坦诚地谈到了未来的挑战。
“气候变化是一个影响到所有不同领域的课题——无论是面食还是番茄。情况正在发生变化，”他说。“我们需要做好准备，而且我们已经在实施变革。气候影响着整个工业结构。”
今年夏天，英格兰的大片地区和整个威尔士已经达到了干旱阈值，野火在欧洲部分地区造成了严重破坏。
日益恶劣的环境影响了各领域的农民，从小麦、燕麦到畜牧业和蔬菜，国家农民联盟（National Farmers’ Union）已就某些食品可能出现短缺发出警告。上
这家罐头厂 由 Princes 运营， 其临时负责人 是朱塞佩·马斯特罗利亚 (Giuseppe Mastrolia)
周，包括乐购 (Tesco)、韦特罗斯 (Waitrose) 和森百利 (Sainsbury’s) 在内的英国最大超市负责人共同签署了一封致新首相安迪·伯纳姆的紧急信函，警告气候变化和极端天气给国家食品供应带来的风险。
这些问题给该行业增加了压力，而该行业近年来已经在应对成本上升以及一系列宏观经济和政策相关的挑战。
Princes 是欧洲最大的食品生产商之一，由于伊朗战争推高了能源和包装成本，并导致全球化肥短缺，该公司被迫在今年推行紧急涨价。
“我们在三月和四月遭受了打击。情况有所放缓，但周围仍存在不确定性，”马斯特罗利亚说。近年来，政府支持的削减和就业成本的增加也严重打击了英国的食品工业。
然而，在林肯郡的豌豆农场，显然天气已成为最严峻的威胁。马斯特罗利亚认同吉尔斯 (Giles) 关于鹰嘴豆机遇的看法，特别是考虑到对高蛋白食品需求的增长。
然而，他担心的是，欠收将使得在当地采购和销售产品变得越来越困难。
“我们对豌豆的尝试 是在英国境内 销售我们生产 和包装的产品， 但考虑到 今年的情况， 我们将无法 满足需求。 去年我们采购 了一些冷冻豌豆， 同样是在英国 境内，来自苏格兰， 所以我们正尝试 在当地采购， 但最好的方案 还是生产新鲜豌豆。”
% 卖出 买入 + /
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收益率
收益率
英国基金
头等舱与商务舱度假及航班 020 7368 1400
企业差旅 020 7368 1499
全球度假及航班 020 7368 1200
邮轮度假 020 7368 1300
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William Kay Tempus 买入、卖出或持有：今日最佳股票技巧 一只有望在对比中大放异彩的股票
mony group
市值 9.93 亿英镑m
日益普及的金融教育正引导越来越多的人访问对比网站，以确保自己签署的是最优惠的协议。这改变了 Mony Group 及其主要分支机构 MoneySuperMarket、MoneySavingExpert 和 Quidco 的命运。
管理层并未止步于此，他们雄心勃勃地希望成为一个全方位的金融伴侣。但即便如此，Mony 的股价在过去两年中几乎减半，直到今年才部分回升。现在是否是捕捉上涨机会的时候？
7月 21, Mony 公布的半年报显示，同期收入增长 6% 至 £227.1 million，使调整后的 Ebitda 增长 3% 至 £75.5 million。虽然保险是最大的收入来源，达 £122.1 million，但表现最抢眼的依然是家居服务——宽带、电话和能源账单——增长 30%，但产值仅为 £28.2 million。处于两者之间的是金融对比业务（对比银行和贷款机构），收入为 £57.6 million，增长 9%。
收入
调整后 ebitda
每股收益从 9.3p 增长到 9.7p，使得中期股息得到了谨慎地小幅上调，从 3.33p 增至 3.36p。然而，净债务从 £18.4 million 激增至 £31.800 万，部分原因是现金流下降了 £7.5 million 至 £36.2 million。
800 万英镑m
尽管对业绩的影响微乎其微，但半年期内推出了名为 Savings by MoneySuperMarket 的宏大计划。随后又推出了 Investments by MoneySuperMarket，与 Octopus Group 和 Vanguard 合作提供 40 支左右的基金。这两款新产品是 Mony 成为一个有意义的金融伙伴的关键步骤。
这一过程实际上始于 SuperSaveClub，这是一种鼓励用户定期使用该集团服务以换取动物园、主题公园门票及其他福利的方式。该俱乐部拥有 2.5 million 名会员，每三个月增加 250,000 名，且其消费率几乎是俱乐部外人员的两倍。
市场报告
特朗普总统声称美国与伊朗的战争即将达成和平协议，这对住房相关股票产生了剧烈的连锁反应（Jon Rees 撰文）。
尽管特朗普关于“霍尔木兹海峡已有协议，核问题也将达成协议”的言论在交易员看来陈词滥调，但仍导致油价大幅下跌，布伦特原油一桶下跌 4.7% 至 $83.70。
这立即降低了市场对央行必须通过提高利率来抑制通胀的预期，政府债券收益率随之大幅下跌。十年期英国国债收益率下跌 10 个基点至 4.95%。国债收益率驱动掉期利率，而掉期利率反映了市场对未来利率的预期，进而决定固定利率抵押贷款的定价。
因此，海湾地区和平协议的曙光让富时指数（FTSE）的住房类股票在抵押贷款利率不太可能上升的预期中大幅上涨。
获利丰厚
股息收益率 6.4%
股价
来源：FactSet
2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
建议 买入 理由 一只以非增长价格可购的增长股
由于市场希望中东问题能通过外交手段解决，油价下跌，这有助于缓解对通胀可能恶化并促使美联储提高利率的担忧。上周亚马逊好于预期的业绩继续支撑其他AI相关公司。道琼斯工业平均指数上涨 693.38 点，即 1.3 per cent，至 53,178.41，创下新高；标普 500 指数上涨 110.78 点，即 1.5 per cent，至 7,600.50。纳斯达克指数上涨 540.04 点，即 2.1 per cent，至 25,913.90。
当日最大波动者
300p
| | | :--- 保险 / 2.33 亿英镑 金融 / 1.06 亿英镑 家庭服务 / 4800 万英镑 旅游 / 1800 万英镑 现金返还 / 6700 万英镑 总计 / 3300 万英镑 | | 200 万英镑 |
占营收的 19 per cent，且在持续增长，特别是它刚刚推出了名为 SuperSaveClub Insurance 的数字化经纪服务。
投资账户则更进一步。他们不再将客户重定向至 Hargreaves Lansdown 或 AJ Bell 等提供商，而是允许用户在 MoneySuperMarket 应用程序内开设、管理和持有股票及共同基金，这意味着他们正在与这些公司展开竞争。随着该计划的扩大，可能会推出更多此类产品。
如果没有 AI，这一切几乎不可能实现，而 AI 正如往常一样，是一把双刃剑。今年 2 月，当美国在线保险市场 Insurify 推出据称是保险业首个 ChatGPT 应用时，Mony 的股价下跌。该应用允许用户搜索、比较并接收个性化的汽车保险报价。这种情况因股市对 AI 可能产生负面影响的普遍恐慌而进一步加剧。其中一种担忧是，用户可以直接要求 AI 聊天机器人比较金融产品，但这一点受到监管限制的约束。
“伙伴”概念可能为一类新客户——新手投资者——打开大门，而 Mony 估计这一称谓适用于 70 per cent 的英国成年人。除了寻求长期规划简单解决方案的资浅投资者外，如果网站足够友好，它还可能吸引那些自认为了解较多的人。因此，这种“亲切引导”的方式可能成为强大的增长引擎。
| | | :--- | | 5300 万英镑 | | | 4.46 亿英镑 | | | 1.25 亿英镑 | | | 1.45 亿英镑 |
另一个创新是商业银行服务，将于本月推出，标志着其首次进军中小企业市场。虽然目前没有申请银行牌照的计划，但商业领域非常适合发挥 Mony 的比较专业知识。令人惊讶的是，它花了这么长时间才进入这个市场。
来源：Mony Group
近年来，该集团面临多重不利因素——如能源价格上限、汽车维修通胀和住房市场放缓——这些因素减缓了增长，并导致股价被大幅低估。未来的潜在挑战是自动驾驶汽车，这在未来十年可能会产生巨大影响。
尽管如此，Investec 银行的分析师预测，今年的业绩将使该股的市盈率达到 10.4，股息率保持在 6.4 per cent 的稳健水平。对于一家前景如此广阔的公司来说，这个价格很低，反映了市场对那些不可避免但可控的障碍反应过度。
由于预期抵押贷款利率不太可能上升，住房股上涨
在投资银行 Berenberg 将 Barratt Redlaw 和 Bellway 的评级从“持有”上调至“买入”后，住房股已处于上涨趋势中。该银行表示，凭借强劲的资产负债表，该行业正在出现“有趣的机遇”。
油价下跌自然影响了英国领先的石油公司，但 BP 和壳牌都给了投资者不必过于沮丧的理由。BP 完成了对德国盖尔森基兴炼油厂的出售，继续在新任负责人 Meg O’Neill 的领导下推行成本削减计划，投资者对此表示赞赏。BP 股价基本持平，仅下跌 0.07 per cent，收于 552p。
壳牌（Shell）达成协议，将其欧洲陆上风能和太阳能业务出售给法国 TotalEnergies 公司，以退出可再生能源领域。其股价收盘上涨 22p，即 0.7%，至 £34.06。
富时 250 指数成分股公司及北海石油生产商 Ithaca Energy 的股价下跌 4p 或 1.8%，至 258p。
简讯
收购成本削弱 Senior 业绩
工程公司 Senior 在 2026 年上半年的税前亏损为 £5.6 百万，而去年同期为盈利 £22.8 百万，此前该公司正准备被一个美国投资者财团收购。
这家总部位于赫特福德郡的公司表示，亏损是由于与私募股权公司 Blackstone 和 Tinicum 达成的 13 亿英镑（13 亿英镑 billion）交易相关的一次性成本所致。
这家富时 250 指数集团为波音和空客等飞机制造商提供专业零部件。在今年早些时候多家私募股权公司表示出兴趣后，该公司计划退出伦敦股票市场。Blackstone 和 Tinicum 最终以每股 297.85p 的现金报价以及支付 2.15p 全年股息的承诺赢得了收购。
在 5 月的一次股东大会上，投资者投出的票中 99.7% 赞成该交易。
Senior 首席执行官 David Squires 表示，公司“很高兴为这项建议的现金收购获得了股东的强力支持”，并且在获得必要的监管批准方面正“取得良好进展”，该交易预计将在年底前完成。
上半年的营收增长 5%，至 £3.908 亿，而营业利润增长 30%，至 £37.7 百万。股价收盘上涨 2p，或 0.7%，至 292½p。
EasyJet 周五决战
随着美国私募股权公司对这家廉价航空公司的竞购战进入决定性的一周，EasyJet 延长了 Castlelake 决定是否提交正式收购报价的截止日期，使其与 Apollo 的截止日期保持一致。EasyJet 表示，Castlelake 现在可以在周五下午 5 点前对 Apollo 每股 715p 的报价发起挑战，而此前给出的“要么出价，要么闭嘴”的截止日期为昨天下午 5 点。上个月，Apollo 对 EasyJet 发起了令人意外的 57 亿英镑 billion 报价，并得到了该公司董事会的接受。这一报价超过了 Castlelake 此前 55 亿英镑 billion 的报价（该报价将股价估值为 690p）。
Wingstop 高速增长
Wingstop 英国公司在报告年营收强劲增长后表示，计划今年在英格兰、苏格兰、威尔士和爱尔兰开设多达 30 家鸡肉餐厅。将这一美国鸡肉品牌引入英国和爱尔兰的特许经营总代理商 Lemon Pepper Holdings 表示，2025 年营收增长 73%，至 £2.164 亿。该集团由私募股权公司 Sixth Street 支持，计划于本月在因弗内斯开设其在英国的第 100 家餐厅。这家拥有约 3,000 名员工的公司还表示，已签署协议将扩展至波兰。
瑞银在美被罚 1.25 亿美元
瑞银（UBS）昨日因违反《银行保密法》被美国监管机构罚款 $125 million，这是针对经纪交易商违反反洗钱（AML）法所开出的最大金额民事罚款。美国财政部金融犯罪执法网络表示，瑞银金融服务公司已承认故意违反《银行保密法》，未能实施和维持反洗钱计划，且未能提交可疑活动报告。瑞银表示，公司一直与监管机构合作，并投入了大量资金以“符合行业领先实践”地加强其反洗钱计划。
2026年8月4日，星期二 / 泰晤士报 商业版
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泰晤士报 / 2026年8月4日，星期二 43 登记册
罗德·利德尔
在 20 世纪 90 年代后期，罗德·利德尔有三个愿望：成为 BBC 的 Today 节目编辑，写一部好评如潮的小说，以及有一张进入前 200 名的专辑。“我实现了其中两个，”他说，“至于专辑，我也就差那么一点点。我的意思是，我们录制了。”
在他打的耳洞、没塞进裤腰的衬衫以及办公桌上方的一排 Pulp 乐队海报之间，利德尔看起来更像一名摇滚明星，而不是 Today 节目的编辑。Today 是广播 4. 频道上分量最重且——在利德尔到来之前——略显沉闷的早间旗舰新闻节目。Today 的工作人员给他起绰号叫“摩登罗德”（Rod the Mod），但事实证明，特立独行的能量，更不用说对调查新闻更深层的投入，正是他们所需要的：在利德尔任职期间，该节目的观众增长了 40%。
利德尔为安德鲁·吉利根（Andrew Gilligan）辩护，正是利德尔从《周日电报报》招募的记者，吉利根随后揭露了布莱尔政府“夸大”伊拉克大规模杀伤性武器档案的故事。这只是利德尔致力于提供他所谓的“令人瞠目结舌”新闻的一个例子。“不服从和制造麻烦应该是我们工作的核心部分，”他说，“我希望在老板面前惹更多麻烦。”
利德尔对 Today 的掌管在 2002 年突然结束，此前《每日电报》指责他在为《卫报》撰写的一篇专栏中表现出“明显的偏见”，该文嘲讽了乡村联盟（Countryside Alliance）反对政府即将出台的禁止猎狐立法的游行。“你可能已经忘记了为什么在 1997. 年投票给工党。但当你瞥见支持乡村联盟的力量时，”利德尔写道，“突然之间，且相当辉煌地，你可能会想起来。”
讽刺的是，利德尔离开 Today 对许多左翼人士来说是一种幸事。据报道，工党主席查尔斯·克拉克将其描述为“极好的消息”。尽管利德尔投票给工党并为《卫报》撰稿，但在移民和北爱尔兰等问题上，他以具有“非常非卫报式的情绪”而闻名。更讽刺的是，撰写了那篇摧毁利德尔 Today 职业生涯文章的作者查尔斯·摩尔，不久后发现自己与他在《旁观者》（The Spectator）共事。
利德尔失业时间并不长。他在《旁观者》开设的新专栏“利德尔不列颠”（Liddle Britain），同时伴随着在《泰晤士报》（从 2003 年起）、《周日泰晤士报》（从 2005 年起）、《太阳报》（从 2011 年起）的定期贡献，以及在《乡村生活》（Country Life）的专栏，在广播 5 Live 的亮相，以及一系列 Channel 4 纪录片。
他的专栏文章永远充满吸引力且具有挑衅性。他对玛格丽特·撒切尔痛 scathing 地批评，但认为 clause 28，禁止在学校宣传同性恋的条款“可能是正确的”。在移民问题上，他的立场是“绝不要责怪移民，而要责怪允许他们来到这里的人”。他声称纳尔逊·曼德拉的去世得到了过多的报道，怀疑英国独立党（现为改革党）在秘密支持移民，并建议将观看互联网儿童性虐待内容去罪化。在的一篇《旁观者》文章中，他用最黑色幽默的方式声称，他绝不可能成为一名教师，因为他“完全无法想象自己不会试图勾引孩子们”。
利德尔的诋毁者称他为偏执狂、种族主义者、厌女者、恐同的注意力寻求者。如果没人喜欢这个支持米尔沃尔（Millwall）队的利德尔，他并不在乎。但确实有很多人喜欢他，并维护他作为专业挑衅者的功能，认为他以讽刺、娱乐和激发辩论之名挑战边界，继承了从乔纳森·斯威夫特到奥贝伦·沃（Auberon Waugh）的最佳传统。
“我认为在民主制度中，一件具有破坏性的事情是……”
--- 2003 年的利德尔，右侧为在 Groucho 俱乐部的艾丽西亚·蒙克顿。下方，2014 年在爱丁堡
“当你看到每个人都在争论同一件事时，”他说，“通常这意味着有蹊跷。我认为这需要被质疑。”
罗德·利德尔 (Rod Liddle) 1960 年出生于肯特郡的西德卡普，在伦敦东南部和米德尔斯堡长大。他的父亲内德·利德尔来自一个火车司机家庭，但曾在内政税局工作，他的母亲则在卫生与社会保障部工作。他们是一个传统的、经常去教堂的家庭，因此
椅子撞到头。后来，在北约克郡的劳伦斯·杰克逊中学，他凭借共产党的候选资格赢得了学校选举，他说这在很大程度上是“因为我在足球队，而且我说话很冲，人们喜欢那样”。两年后，他加入了社会工作者党和一个朋克乐队，打了耳洞，并开始购买印有反君主制口号的 T 恤。“你特么不能比这更低端了吧，”他的父亲说。他觉得父母的轻视令人“兴奋”，并在 1983 年大选期间为工党 (Labour) 争取选票时穿着他的朋克盛装。“我一个人肯定让我的党丢了足足 5,000 票。”
离开学校后，在尝试了
充斥着“恶意 与对抗”
在凭借他的朋克乐队成名后，利德尔决定新闻业是他实现激进变革的最佳机会。“至于我当时认为在《南威尔士回声报》能如何实现这一点，那就是另一回事了，”他说道。他在给该报编辑写了一封信后被录取，信中他说该报“有点烂”，并提出要对其进行改进。
在《回声报》工作三年后，利德尔进入伦敦政治经济学院攻读社会心理学学位。他通过为工党担任演讲撰稿人来维持生计，而他认为那是该党“历史上最不成功的时期”。他发现威斯敏斯特充斥着“恶意、对抗和卑劣”。对此的最终证明出现在 1987 年，当时几位工党同事抵制了他的离职派对，因为他邀请了一些保守党人士。
作为 BBC 的实习编辑和制片人，他在《今日世界》（The World Tonight）和《一点世界》（The World at One）节目中工作，并于 1998 年在《今日》（Today）节目中担任编辑职务。利德尔在 BBC 结识了记者瑞秋·罗伊斯。他们有两个儿子，泰勒（以 1381 年农民起义领袖沃特·泰勒命名）和怀尔德，并于 2004 年结婚。
婚礼几个月后，罗伊斯发现利德尔在蜜月期间的早早离开，并非如他所声称的是因为赫顿调查的紧迫要求，而是因为他想去见艾丽西亚·蒙克顿——一名 22 岁的《旁观者》杂志记者，两人当时正维持着婚外情。似乎是为了对导致该杂志被贴上“色情旁观者”（The Sextator）标签的种种浪漫风波做出更广泛的声明——包括鲍里斯·约翰逊与佩特罗内拉·怀亚特的私情，以及出版商金伯利·昆恩与工党内阁部长大卫·布伦克特之间为期三年的私情——罗伊斯向《旁观者》办公室发送了十袋粪便。他与罗伊斯于 2007 年完成离婚；他于 2008 年与蒙克顿结婚，两人育有一个女儿埃米琳。利德尔去世后，留下了他的妻子和三个孩子。
面对对其私生活的审查，利德尔并未收敛。2010 年，他在一篇没有事实依据的指控中称，伦敦的大部分暴力犯罪是由非裔加勒比男性所为，随后他成为首位因博客内容被新闻投诉委员会谴责的记者。在他在一家米尔沃尔足球俱乐部博客上以“monkeymfc”为昵称发布贬损性玩笑被曝光后，他再次被指控种族主义。据称，这些争议导致他失去了竞选《独立报》主编的机会。
在利德尔讽刺的准星下，没有人、没有事物是安全的。从被描述为“阴郁的、啃海藻的、骚扰羊群的、面相古怪的山民”的威尔士民族主义者，到使用亚硝酸异戊酯来放松括约肌被认为是“上帝在告诉你，你即将做的事情是不自然且反常的”。利德尔觉得唯一一个他真正欠其道歉的人是哈丽艾特·哈曼。在 2009 年一篇关于这位工党政治家的臭名昭著的专栏文章中，利德尔写道：“那么——哈丽艾特·哈曼。你愿意吗？我的意思是，显然是在喝了几杯啤酒之后，而不是在清醒状态下。”他声称这篇文章旨在讽刺性别歧视。“我没有考虑这会对她产生什么影响，”他承认道。
脱欧之后，利德尔断言，由于政府在执行脱欧条款时犹豫不决，脱欧支持者们被背叛了。他在《伟大的背叛》一书中写道：“在这个国家，从未有这么多清白的人被精英阶层如此蔑视，或遭受如此严重的诽谤。”这是他自 2014 年的《自私、抱怨的猴子》（Selfish, Whining Monkeys）以来出版的第一本书，该书是对英国现状的一系列抱怨合集。受他对脱欧看法的驱动，以及 2016 年被工党除名，利德尔宣布他
他在 2019. 年加入了社会民主党（SDP）。在 2024 年大选中，他代表该党竞选米德尔斯堡南部和东克利夫兰选区的议员，位列第四。尽管他经常警告“取消文化”带来的威胁，但利德尔自己的职业生涯似乎证明，只要有足够的机智和顽强的幽默感，几乎任何丑闻都能化解，尽管他有些笑话直戳痛处（有时甚至用力过猛）。在 2021, 年 12 月于杜伦大学发表的一次演讲中， he 表示：“殖民主义远非非洲问题的核心原因，就像很容易证明，加勒比后裔英国人或非裔美国人的教育成就低下与制度性或结构性种族主义无关。”
2025 年，利德尔出人意料地回归广播电波，主持泰晤士广播的周六早晨节目。“前几场节目简直吓死我了，”他承认道，“三个小时的时间里，得保证不读错稿子，不说‘我操’，而且不能心脏病发作。”然而不久，他和制片人丹尼·加里克就找到了节奏：利德尔致力于打破政治模式并激怒“伦敦自由派”，而加里克则负责处理那些较为尖锐的听众评论。“他不会把那些写着‘立刻让这个没完没了的混蛋滚出广播台’的消息转发给我，”利德尔说，“当我问他有多少人这么说时，他通常会含糊地回答：‘哦，你知道的，就一两个……’”
沃利·方克等待了六十年，才迎来那个可以解开安全带、在距离地球 66 英里高的太空舱中体验失重快感的时刻。在她梦想成为最年轻的美国宇航员很久之后，这位白发苍苍的 82 岁老人在 2021 年乘坐蓝色起源 (Blue Origin) 的飞行器，成为了进入太空的最年长者。
1961 年，方克是 25 名入选女性飞行员之一，她们接受了与两年前美国国家航空航天局 (Nasa) 首批宇航员（即“水星七号”）完全相同的体能和心理检查。当时，该航天局仅接收军方测试飞行员，而这一角色将女性排除在外。但 Nasa 生命科学委员会主席兰迪·洛夫莱斯 (Randy Lovelace) 博士领导了一项私人资助的项目，旨在测试女性在体能上是否能够承受太空飞行的严苛要求。
22 岁时，方克是最年轻的候选人。她前往新墨西哥州阿尔伯克基的洛夫莱斯诊所，进行为期一周的侵入性且艰苦的测试，其中包括 80 多个 X 光检查，
漂浮起来并翻跟头时 大喊“呜呼！”
将一根 3 英尺长的橡胶管插入喉咙以测量胃酸，将冰水滴入耳中以诱发眩晕，以及六次灌肠。
她在漆黑的感官剥夺水槽中漂浮了 10 小时 35 分钟，表现优于包括约翰·格伦 (John Glenn) 在内的男性宇航员。一名医生后来观察到，男性和女性之间的一个关键区别是，女性的抱怨较少。最终，有 19 名女性前往诊所，其中 13 人通过了洛夫莱斯的测试：其成功率高于男性，后者在 32 名候选人中仅有 18 人通过。
然而七个月后，“太空女性”计划被取消。显然，Nasa 并不打算雇佣——
这位英国战争史学家通过运用轶事素材，将普通民众的声音推向了前台。
在她的回忆录《串联点滴》(Joining the Dots) 中，朱丽叶·加德纳观察到，她在生命的大部分时间里都觉得自己像个局外人。这始于她被一对父母收养，这对父母对他们唯一的女儿冷漠甚至刻薄；随后在她 17 岁时，她嫁给了一位有抱负的保守党议员，对方的政治观点与她截然不同，以至于这就像是成为了“一个不信神的牧师之妻”。直到离婚之后，她作为一名社会历史学家的职业生涯才开始起飞，但加德纳认为，正是这种根源上的漂泊感，使她成为了他人生活的天然观察者。
她试图通过使用大量的轶事素材来讲述普通人的故事，从而深入洞察一个时代。这次探索使她走访了英国各地的偏远角落，包括奥克尼群岛（据加德纳称，那里是第二次世界大战期间英国防御最严密的地方）、康沃尔（防御最薄弱的地方）、南威尔士矿工博物馆，以及东芬奇利的一位 98 岁老妇人的家中。这位老妇人曾在食品部工作，而她的丈夫在作战期间，她与自己的姐夫发生了外遇，“因为在闪电战期间每个人都出轨”。
……一名来自所谓“水星 13》(Mercury 13) 的宇航员，她们被昵称为“Flats”：第一任女宇航员培训生。
她不轻言放弃，又提交了三次未获通过的申请，并继续主动参加能力测试。尽管苏联宇航员瓦莲京娜·特列什科娃在 1963 年完成了单人太空飞行任务，但美国国家航空航天局 (Nasa) 直到 1978 年才选拔女性宇航员。五年后，莎莉·赖德成为首位进入太空的美国女性。
乐观的方克没有放弃希望。“我热爱挑战，而且喜欢高难度的挑战，”她告诉一名记者。随着商业航天公司从 20 世纪 90 年代起激增，她频繁出现在媒体面前，利用她在“水星计划”中的名声以及随后作为飞行员、教官和女性航空倡导者的职业生涯。在 2000 年的一部纪录片中，她前往俄罗斯的星城接受宇航员训练。2010 年，她花费了 $200,000 的毕生积蓄购买了一张维珍银河 (Virgin Galactic) 的飞行机票，但这家陷入困境的公司直到 2023 年才完成了首次亚轨道太空旅游飞行。
两年前，方克曾受邀与亚马逊创始人杰夫·贝佐斯共进午餐，后者提议她加入他的新谢泼德 (New Shepard) 火箭及舱段的首次载人飞行，该飞行于 2021 年 7 月 20 日从德克萨斯州起飞。在这次持续 10 分钟出头的飞行中，当方克跨越行星大气层与外太空起始点之间的理论边界时，她大喊一声“呜呼！”，从座位上漂浮起来并在半空中翻了个跟头。方克创造的高龄记录维持时间很短：当时 90 岁的《星际迷航》演员威廉·夏特纳在 2021 年 10 月的另一次蓝色起源 (Blue Origin) 飞行中大胆进入了太空。（同样 90 岁的埃德·杜怀特在 2024 年夺回了这一记录。）
“在他们所做的事情上，我总是能胜过那些男人，因为我一直更强，而且所有事情都是靠我自己完成的，”方克在飞行后面带笑容地告诉记者。“我想去……”
……一个勇敢面对共同敌人的统一国家的“图景”保持不变——这确实如此——而那些“短篇故事”，即人们关于战争的各种经验细节，则让那个图景变得复杂且具有细微差别。”
全书 800 页的《三十年代：英国亲密史》(The Thirties: An Intimate History of Britain) ——堪称她的杰作 ——通过关注生活在快速变化的郊区低级中产阶级，揭示了一个由巨大财富差距定义的时代。加德纳的视角从消费趋势和升级的政治紧张局势，延伸到了营养不良的影响：在 20 世纪 30 年代，生育孩子的危险程度是煤矿工作的四倍。
她说，加德纳的童年是“混乱的”，“但作为一名历史学家，我对此并不感到意外”。她于1943年出生在伦敦东区，母亲为未婚女性。在她原定的领养计划因严重支气管炎而失败后，她在两个月大时被英格兰教会法人协会（Church of England Incorporated Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays）接纳。她在回忆录中写道：“我不仅存在于一个个人历史的真空之中；在官方记录中，我就是一个‘无父之子’（filius nullius）。”
两岁半时，她被多萝西（绰号多莉）和查尔斯·韦尔斯领养。查尔斯是一个“焦虑的灵魂”，在海梅尔海姆斯特德（Hemel Hempstead）农村地区议会担任卫生监督员。
她与养父母的关系从一开始就很紧张。两人当时都快五十岁了，他们“固执己见，生活作息僵化，无法忍受童年的喧闹与翻滚”。在被告知自己是被领养的之后，被他们改名为吉莉安的她被禁止再次提及此事，如果提及就会被责骂。她从未找到她的生母，尽管一位叔叔说她可能是意大利人。“我的母亲和我彼此都令对方失望，”她说，“我不是她所希望的那种女儿。”
她的童年大部分时间都在“等待时机”中度过；她阅读量极大，并赢得了一所当地文法学校的奖学金，在那里她创建了工党俱乐部。在家里，上大学是不被鼓励的。“我的母亲明确表示婚姻是我的宿命，并提醒我，大家都知道男人不喜欢聪明的女人，”她说，“为此，她帮我安排了多家秘书学院的面试。但我拒绝参加。”
16岁时，她离家出走并在布赖顿从事内衣销售工作，在那里她遇到了乔治·加德纳。加德纳是一位受过牛剑教育的政治家，后来成为成功策划用玛格丽特·撒切尔取代爱德华·希思担任保守党党魁的“四人帮”成员。他们于1961年结婚并迁至伦敦，此时她改名为朱丽叶，在《电视时间》（TV Times）杂志工作。
加德纳认为她的丈夫（此人从未拥有出众的长相）是她“为了改变生活而攀登的稳固基石”，但成为一名国会议员的妻子（他于1974年当选）对她来说是一个并不合适角色。意识到自己的教育受限，她在滑铁卢附近的沃尔布鲁克学院（Walbrook College）注册学习 A-level 历史、英语和拉丁语。在五名成年学生中，她是唯一一个有孩子的人，并于1976年在伦敦大学学院获得了历史学一等荣誉学位。
方克是美国军事基地首位女性平民飞行教官
再次，快速。我热爱其中的每一分钟。我只希望时间能更长一些。”
玛丽·华莱士·方克于1939年出生在纽墨西哥州的拉斯维加斯市。她的父亲洛齐尔经营着五分钱杂货店，母亲弗吉尼亚（原姓夏伊）的飞行抱负被她的父亲——一名坚持认为女性应当回归家庭的银行家——所扼杀。
这家人住在陶斯的山地艺术家聚集区，在那里，沃利向美国原住民学习户外技能。五岁时，她披上超人斗篷，试图通过从家里的谷仓屋顶跳下并挥动手臂来飞行。幸运的是，她在地上铺了干草以缓冲坠落。她制作模型飞机，在密苏里州的斯蒂芬斯学院学习航空学，17岁时获得了飞行员执照，随后就读于俄克拉荷马州立大学，在那里她驾驶小型飞机。她于1960年毕业，成为美国军事基地首位女性平民飞行教官。“飞行即自由，”她在2020年的自传《更高、更快、更远》（Higher, Faster, Longer）中写道，“当我在高空飞行时，我确实感觉自己离上帝更近了。”
在看到飞行俱乐部成员杰里·科布在《生活》（Life）杂志中被描述为“潜在的女性轨道员”后，方克决心成为一名宇航员。当美国国家航空航天局（Nasa）拒绝了这13人时，她在全美各地担任飞行员、特技飞行员和教官。
到那个十年末，她与加丁纳离婚，并在 1982 年被任命为《今日历史》（History Today）的首位女性编辑，她认为这本杂志此前是一个“男人们的俱乐部”，且“过时且无关紧要”。为了使其更加民主化，她根据近期的历史发展趋势，委任撰写关于普通工薪男女的文章，以及关于“英国黑人”的特刊。
她在 1971 年之前花了两年半时间开着一辆大众露营车在欧洲、中东和非洲进行了一次盛大的旅行。随后，她成为首位被联邦航空管理局（Federal Aviation Administration）聘请的女性检查员，并培养了一项新爱好：跳伞。之后，她成为国家运输安全委员会（National Transportation Safety Board）首位女性致命事故调查员，这使她获得了与第一夫人贝蒂·福特（Betty Ford）共进白宫早午餐的邀请。这是一项令人清醒的工作：许多事故本可避免，有时发现的焦黑尸体还被偷窃受害者的窃贼惊扰过。
她在 1985, 离职，经营一家飞行学校，并参加了一项名为“粉末扑克德比”（Powder Puff Derby）的女性横跨大陆航空赛。方克（Funk）收集古典车，其中包括一辆曾由王太后拥有的劳斯莱斯银魂（Silver Wraith）；她更换了轮胎和后座的钦奇拉皮草地毯。尽管她厌恶在汽车中系安全带，但她却教授航空安全讲座，并发明了“沃利棒”（Wally Stick）——一种通过敲击声帮助飞行员检测螺旋桨裂缝的木榫。
她未婚，没有直系亲属。她写道，飞行是她永恒的爱：“我经常说我嫁给了飞机。我的飞行记录已超过 19,600 小时。”她的客厅里有两台电视机，其中一台一直开着，且永久调频至美国国家航空航天局（Nasa）频道。
在她最终进入太空一年后，她被史密森尼国家航空航天博物馆授予终身成就奖，该博物馆宣称：“方克体现了‘永不放弃梦想’的格言。”她表示赞同：“没错。你为什么要放弃尝试去做一件你真正想做的事情呢？”
飞行员兼宇航员沃利·方克（Wally Funk）出生于 February 1, 1939. 她于 July 8, 2026, 因跌倒并发症和腿部感染去世，享年 87 岁。
该作品于 1992, 出版，当时她近 50 岁——加丁纳曾出演过多档 BBC 和 Channel 4 的节目。她在 2007 年担任伊恩·麦克尤恩（Ian McEwan）小说改编电影《赎罪》（Atonement）的历史顾问，并为 Collins & Brown 出版社经营一个名为“朱丽叶·加丁纳书籍”（Juliet Gardiner Books）的历史印记。
2012 年，她被诊断出患有一种侵袭性恶性脑瘤。她的三个与乔治所生的孩子——亚历山大（Alexander）、塞巴斯蒂安（Sebastian）和索菲（Sophie）在世。她的第二任丈夫，美国历史学家亨利·霍维茨（Henry Horwitz）于 2019 年去世。
加丁纳对待历史的民主方式甚至延伸到了她的旅行安排中。在 2010, 那个阴冷潮湿的夏天，她买了一个一边印有圣乔治十字旗的红白帐篷，以便在计划访问的档案馆附近露营。这顶帐篷在“英格兰足球队在世界杯被淘汰后价格变得很便宜”。在夜晚，她会坐在松树下，端着一杯葡萄酒，将资料摊在面前。“经常有其他露营者——那些足球迷，以为我是他们的一员，对我对败阵方的忠诚表示赞赏，从而送我一罐拉格啤酒和一包薯片，因为他们意识到那顶英格兰帐篷是我的。”
缅怀故人
特林顿勋爵 (Lord Terrington) 写道： 与他在讣告（8月1日）中所述相反，唐纳德能够且确实组织过活动。其结果为英国赛艇运动留下了持久的遗产。
1964 年，利安德俱乐部 (Leander Club) 委员会请他启动一项见习培训计划。当时，利安德俱乐部的成员资格仅限于那些已经在其他地方赛艇项目中脱颖而出的人。因此，该俱乐部拥有大量优秀的划手，但没有培养出自己的新血液。尽管该俱乐部拥有一份长长的获胜船只名单，但部分成员在功劳簿上止步不前。在之前的 15 年里，奖杯的收获量有所下降。
唐纳德抓住了这个机会。从 1965 年起，他在年轻划手刚离开学校时便将其招募进来。我很幸运地在见习八人组成立的前两年担任 cox（舵手）。我亲眼见证了唐纳德的组织能力，从说服委员会接受见习生应成为正式俱乐部成员（对此有人反对），到与顶尖教练共同组织训练的每一个细节。
1968 年，见习船队在亨利赛船赛中赢得了泰晤士杯。这开启了一段延续至今的成功之路。后来，女性也被招募进该计划。许多利安德见习生已成长为精英级运动员，赢得了国际和奥运奖牌。唐纳德·莱格特在挽救英国赛艇运动免于衰败方面发挥了关键作用。
理查德·罗伯茨 (Richard Roberts) 写道：当我还是威勒尔半岛帕克盖特莫斯廷豪斯学校 (Mostyn House School, Parkgate on the Wirral) 的一名九岁学生时，唐纳德·莱格特被赋予的任务是尝试向我灌输拉丁语。我的回应是在课桌周围跳舞，而他则向我扔了一本沉重的拉丁语 / 英语字典。我们双方都没有心怀怨恨。
亚历克·辛格 (Alec Synge) 写道：在唐纳德·莱格特在莫斯廷豪斯学校任教期间，我是他的同事。我认为他比表现出来的更享受这份工作，这在很大程度上是因为他对古典文学的真挚热爱以及对体育教练的热情。
在一次校际板球赛期间，这两个兴趣点戏剧性地重合了。由于空间限制，边界线同时兼作 400 米跑道的一部分，唐纳德可以在两支球队喝茶休息时利用跑道。
然而，正当一场赛跑在跑道上起跑时，一些来访的家长和学生回来了，造成了阻塞。唐纳德通过扩音器大喊道：“滚出这该死的跑道，你们这些血染的肛门 (anuses)。”不出所料，整个场地陷入了惊愕的沉默。这使得唐纳德的补充说明被极其清晰地听到了：“抱歉，古典文学，我当然是指 ani (拉丁语中‘灵魂’的词根)。”
大律师大卫·克里格曼 (David Crigman KC) 写道：比尔·奥迪（讣告，7月27日）是我在伯明翰金爱德华学校 (King Edward’s School, Birmingham) 的同窗。在 1961 年 7 月学期的最后一天，在他准备前往 剑桥 之前，他策划了一场巨大的恶作剧。一支由当地美国空军基地提供的美国空军军用车辆和身着全套制服的飞行员率领的队伍沿着学校长长的车道驶来。随后是巨大的美国汽车和坐满了学生的古董车。最后面是一辆大货车，车顶上的爵士乐队正在尽情演奏，比尔·奥迪领奏小号。
在接到信号后，相邻女子学校的窗户被打开，数百名女孩加入了这场已经演变成的绝对混乱之中。令人敬畏的首席校长站在那里，冷冷地愤怒地盯着这场
对女性健康感兴趣的医生
鲁斯·麦吉利弗雷（Ruth MacGillivray），逝世时年 94 岁， 于 2025 年 6 月 21 日星期六出现在《泰晤士报》上
在“读者生活”（Readers’ Lives）栏目中纪念友人或亲属的生命， 这是一项合同约定的悼念服务
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混乱不堪，他没有意识到在他身后屋顶的旗杆上， 某个恶作剧者挂了一辆旧自行车 和一条女孩的内裤。
人们采取了各种措施来惩罚组织者，那是另一个故事了，但据说 校长在比尔·奥迪（Bill Oddie）的离校报告中写道：“如果他 认为可以通过逗人笑来谋生，那他 就错了”。做得好，比尔，你笑到了最后，感谢 带来的所有欢乐。
理查德·里夫（Richard Reeve）写道：比尔在爱德华国王学校（King Edward’s）进入最后一年时， 我是一名一年级学生。除了担任舍长，他还是一名级长、学校 橄榄球队长，并且是一名出色的橄榄球飞翼（fly-half），他将此归功于 自己个子太矮，因此能够躲过大多数抢球拦截。 他还帮助两名一年级男生（我们当时被称为 Sherrings） 在我们的舍内聚会上表演了一出短篇喜剧小品， 这或许预示了他未来艺术道路的走向。
理查德·格里菲斯（Richard Griffiths）教授牧师写道： 关于爱德华·诺曼（Edward Norman，7月 20 日）的各类讣告和致敬之辞，虽然集中在他的学术和宗教观点及著作上，但并未触及他的幽默、热情以及他的友谊。
无论是在准备里斯讲座（Reith lectures）期间在莫康比（Morecambe）玩碰撞车，还是出色地模仿学术或宗教同事的声音，亦或是无论在何处击碎矫揉造作，爱德华始终是一个有趣的陪伴者，更重要的是，他是一位优秀的朋友。
如果您想为已发表的讣告添加个人观点或回忆，可以通过电子邮件将您的贡献发送至 tributes@thetimes.co.uk
出生、结婚与死亡
如需在登记册中预订出生、结婚或死亡公告，请访问： newsukadvertising.co.uk 如需帮助，请致电 020 7782 7553 或发送电子邮件至 BMDs@thetimes.co.uk
每当我们为你们祷告时，我们总是感谢我们的主耶稣基督的父神。因为我们听说了你们在基督耶稣里的信心，以及你们对所有上帝之民的爱。——《歌罗西书》1.3-4 (GNB)
圣经经文由圣经学会（Bible Society）提供
出生 ADOURIAN-KELLY，2026 年 7 月 29 日，劳拉-简（Laura-Jane）与哈米什（Hamish）喜得一女，埃洛迪·伊丽莎白（Elodie Elizabeth），是阿拉娜（Alanna）和安娜丽丝（Annalise）的妹妹。Fortuna et laetitia。
FISHER，2026 年 7 月 21 日，卡米拉（Camilla，原姓Krefting）与西蒙（Simon）喜得一女， 奥菲莉亚·蓝铃·克雷夫廷（Ophelia Bluebell Krefting）。 我们很高兴地宣布我们的第一个孩子出生了。
结婚周年
KERSLAKE : DIPPLE 祝贺特里（Terry）和帕梅拉·克尔斯莱克（Pamela Kerslake）庆祝白金 70 周年结婚纪念日。太神奇了！1957, 8 月 4 日结婚于贝斯纳尔格林（Bethnal Green）的圣约翰教堂。你们令自豪的家人献上深爱。
MEEKS : MEEKS M 先生。您是让我安定下来的锚，您是我的力量、我的幸福和我的灵感。您是我的丈夫，我最好的朋友，我爱我们在一起的幸福时光。最重要的是，我就是爱你。结婚纪念日快乐。爱你的，M 夫人。
死亡 BRUCE 约翰。2026 年 7 月 27 日在家中安详去世。挚爱的丈夫，深爱的父亲和祖父。葬礼仪式将于 8 月 10 日星期一下午 3 点在宾汉修道院（Binham Priory）举行。所有咨询请洽 S. T. Sutton 殡仪公司，01328 710301，stsutton@northnorfolkfuneralservices.co.uk
法律、公共、 公司及 议会 公告
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宫廷传报
圣詹姆斯宫 2026. 8 月 3 日 英格兰公主在副海军上将 蒂姆·劳伦斯爵士（Sir Tim Laurence）的陪同下，今日在怀特岛（Isle of Wight）执行了以下行程，并由陛下委任的领事（苏珊·谢尔登夫人 Mrs Susan Sheldon）迎接：
她的皇家殿下今早为纪念考斯周（Cowes Week）两百周年，为东考斯（East Cowes）的奥尔巴尼格林（Albany Green）揭幕。
CURRIE 布莱恩·默多克（Brian Murdoch），2026 年 7 月 26 日安详去世，享寿 91 岁。已故特里克西（Trixie）的慈爱的丈夫，一位敬业的父亲，以及深受爱戴的祖父和曾祖父。感恩礼拜将于 2026, 8 月 13 日星期四下午 2. pm 在德文郡巴普顿（Bampton, Devon）的圣迈克尔和全天使教堂举行。请仅限家属献花。
JOHNS 德里克·艾伦（Derek Alan），英国皇家文学学会院士（FRSL），2026 年 7 月 24 日去世，享寿 78 岁。文学代理人、编辑、出版商、作家、顾问、兄弟和朋友；一名冒险家、和平缔造者和绅士，受人尊敬且深受爱戴。
LAND 劳尔·理查德（Ralph Richard），OBE, CBE，2026 年 7 月 23 日在家中安详去世，享寿 97 岁。他是一名来自纳粹德国的难民，曾是 LEO 先驱计算机团队的一员，在苏联集团建立了计算机市场，并在贸易委员会、伦敦扶轮社、改革俱乐部、威斯敏斯特民主基金会中活跃。
LANGLEY 夏洛特·玛丽亚·格雷斯（Charlotte Maria Grace），2026 年 7 月 29 日安详去世，享寿 64 岁。葬礼于 8 月 7 日下午 2.30 点在 GU30 7JL 的米兰德圣卢克教堂（St Luke’s Milland）举行。
POWER
罗伯特·约瑟夫·查尔斯·鲍尔（Robert Joseph Charles Power）于 2026 年 7 月 23 日在巴内特医院（Barnet Hospital）长期患病后去世，享寿 77 岁。
他的爱妻埃尔兹比耶塔（Elzbieta）、儿子西蒙（Simon）及其伴侣卡莉（Carly）深感痛惜。
孙辈 Charles、Amber、Theodore、Hugo 和 Adelaide，他的兄弟 Ben、Liam 和 John，姐妹 Sara，嫂子 / 弟媳 Aida、Margriet、Audrey 和 Ann，姐夫 / 妹夫 Frank 和 Walter，侄子、外甥、堂表亲，以及他的大家庭亲属和广泛的朋友圈。
TEMPERLEY John Brian，前事务律师，2026年7月18日于 Southwell Court 护理院安详离世，享年 96 岁。挚爱的丈夫、父亲、祖父及曾祖父。私人火化后，将于 8月20日 星期四 下午 1.30 在 Bleasby 教堂举行感恩礼拜。请勿送花，欢迎向 Bleasby 圣玛丽教堂捐款。垂询请联系 D. J. Hall 殡葬服务公司，Verne House, King Street, Southwell, NG25 0EN。
英格兰及威尔士高等法院商业与财产法院：CR-2026-004370 公司与破产名录 (CH. D.) EURO EXCHANGE SECURITIES UK LIMITED（处于特别管理中）（公司编号 06409565）贸易名称：EURO EXCHANGE SECURITIES UK LIMITED 注册办事处：C / O Teneo Financial Advisory Limited, The Colmore Building, 20 Colmore Circus Queensway, Birmingham, B4 6AT 主要原贸易地址：107 Great Portland Street, London, United Kingdom, W1W 6QG 有关资金软截止日期通知，根据 2021 年《支付与电子货币机构破产条例》第 20 条 截止日期：2026年9月5日 17:00 (BST) DUNCAN PERRING (IP 021850) 与 JAMES BENNETT (IP 020490)，均来自 Teneo Financial Advisory Limited, The Colmore Buildings, 20 Colmore Circus Queensway, Birmingham, B4 6AT，于 2026年6月11日 根据（经修订的）2021 年《支付与电子货币机构破产条例》（以下简称“条例”）被任命为 EURO EXCHANGE SECURITIES UK LIMITED（处于特别管理中）（以下简称“公司”）的特别管理人（以下简称“联合特别管理人”）。联合特别管理人现根据条例第 20 条通知如下：1. 联合特别管理人认为，为了加快退还相关资金，有必要将提交退还相关资金申请（以下简称“相关资金申请”）的软截止日期设定为 2026年9月5日 17:00 (BST)（以下简称“相关资金软截止日期”）。2. 联合特别管理人认为，从本相关资金软截止日期通知发布之日起至相关资金软截止日期之间的时间，足以让客户计算并提交其相关资金申请。3. 本通知将：(a) 发送给联合特别管理人知晓其有相关资金申请的所有公司客户，前提是联合特别管理人拥有联系方式；(b) 发送给联合特别管理人认为有权对资产池主张担保权益或其他权利的所有人员，前提是联合特别管理人拥有联系方式；(c) 刊登在《伦敦宪报》(London Gazette) 上；(d) 在《泰晤士报》上刊登广告；(e) 发布在管理人的网站 www.ips-docs.com 上；以及 (f) 发送至金融行为监管局 (FCA)。4. 相关资金软截止日期的目的是允许联合特别管理人开始评估已提交的相关资金申请，以便根据相关规定向客户分配相关资金。
根据共同特别管理人根据 2021 年《支付和电子货币机构破产（英格兰和威尔士）规则》（以下简称“规则”）第 112(1) 条拟定的分配计划条款。5. 在相关资金软截止日期（Relevant Funds Soft Bar Date）后尽快可行的情况下，共同特别管理人必须根据条例第 20(4) 条，将资产池中的相关资金分配给有权根据其索赔申请获得资金的人员。6. 除非您在相关资金软截止日期之前提交相关资金索赔申请，否则共同特别管理人无法保证您的相关资金索赔申请将被纳入相关资金软截止日期之后的资金分配中。7. 根据条例第 20(8) 条，一旦共同特别管理人在相关资金软截止日期之后退还了相关资金，根据条例第 20(7) 条，为了满足延迟索赔而向任何人员支付的任何款项或部分款项均不得追回。8. 如果您认为自己拥有相关资金索赔权，请在相关资金软截止日期或之前将填写完整的相关资金索赔表格发送至共同特别管理人的邮箱 EESUKCustomers@Teneo.com。客户书面索赔申请表可从以下地址获取：https: / www.ips-docs.com / case / EESUK0001I / Bn2ACcJSPU。客户也可以通过请求发送至 EESUKCustomers@teneo.com 来获取索赔表格。9. 收到本通知并不意味着您必然拥有相关资金索赔权，或有权获得相关资金的分配。10. 关于本通知的任何一般性查询请发送至 EESUKCustomers@Teneo.com。或者，可通过电话 0121 619 0150 联系共同特别管理人。不过，您可能希望咨询自己的法律或其他专业顾问，以获取关于本通知范围和影响的建议。邓肯·佩林（Duncan Perring）和詹姆斯·贝内特（James Bennett）（公司共同特别管理人）。共同特别管理人作为公司的代理人行事，不承担个人责任。2026 年 7 月 29 日
祝贺 祝贺 David Nunn（Martin 和 Jane Nunn 之子）与 Grace Knight（Edward 和 Marie Knight 之女）订婚。
法律公告
根据 1925 年《受托人法》第 27 条发布的通知 Heal’s 养老金与人寿保险计划（以下简称“计划”） 参与该计划或前任方案的相关雇主包括：Heal & Son Limited（公司编号 00926722）。 Heal’s 养老金基金受托有限公司（Heal’s Pension Fund Trustees Limited）以其作为该计划受托人（以下简称“受托人”）的身份，现根据 1925 年《受托人法》第 27 条通知，该计划的清算工作已经开始。如果您已经收到受托人关于此事的通知，或者已经提出索赔并收到答复，则无需采取任何行动，因为受托人已掌握您的索赔详情和权益。任何尚未收到受托人关于计划清算通知，且认为自己拥有索赔权或有权获得相关款项的人员……
凡是请求领取该计划之养老金或任何福利的人员，请：
致函至：Heal’s Pension Fund Trustees Limited（作为 Heal’s Pension and Life Assurance Plan 的受托人） c / o Capital Cranfield Pension Trustees Limited 42 New Broad Street London England EC2M 1JD 或发送电子邮件至：heals@cctl.co.uk
为了提交申请，申请人应在本文公告发布之日起两个月内，提供其申请的完整详情，包括其全名、地址、出生日期、国民保险号码，以及（如果适用）他们本人、其配偶或其赡养人为 Heal & Son Limited（或申请人认为参与该计划的任何其他雇主）工作期间的雇佣日期。请在所有往来信函中清楚地注明该计划的名称。
所有申请必须在 2026 年 10 月 6 日或之前提出。在此日期之后，受托人将着手清算该计划，并仅考虑到其事先接获通知的申请和权益，为任何剩余受益人保障福利。如果受托人事先未接获相关人员的申请和要求通知，则不对该人员承担责任。
代表 Heal’s Pension and Life Assurance Plan 受托人发布 2026 年 8 月 4 日
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图例：b=明亮，c=多云，d=毛毛雨，pc=局部多云 du=阴沉，f=晴朗，fg=雾，h=冰雹，m=薄雾，r=雨， sh=阵雨，sl=雨夹雪，sn=雪，s=太阳，t=雷电 =前一日 *=数据不可用
温度 C 降雨 mm 日照 小时* 昨日正午 昨日至下午5点 24小时
Aberdeen (亚伯丁) Aberporth (亚伯波思) Anglesey (安格尔西) Aviemore (阿维莫尔) Barnstaple (巴恩斯塔普尔) Bedford (贝德福德) Belfast (贝尔法斯特) Birmingham (伯明翰) Bournemouth (波恩茅斯) Bridlington (布里德灵顿) Bristol (布里斯托尔) Camborne (坎伯恩) Cardiff (卡迪夫) Edinburgh (爱丁堡) Eskdalemuir (埃斯克代尔缪尔) Glasgow (格拉斯哥) Hereford (赫里福德) Herstmonceux (赫斯特蒙克) Ipswich (伊普斯威奇) Isle of Man (马恩岛) Isle of Wight (怀特岛) Jersey (泽西岛) Keswick (凯斯威克) Kinloss (金罗斯) Leeds (利兹) Lerwick (勒威克) Leuchars (刘查斯) Lincoln (林肯) Liverpool (利物浦) London (伦敦) Lyneham (莱纳姆) Manchester (曼彻斯特) Margate (马盖特) Milford Haven (米尔福德港) Newcastle (纽卡斯尔) Nottingham (诺丁汉) Orkney (奥克尼) Oxford (牛津) Plymouth (普利茅斯) Portland (波特兰) Scilly, St Mary’s (西利群岛圣玛丽岛) Shoreham (肖勒姆) Shrewsbury (什鲁斯伯里) Snowdonia (斯诺多尼亚) Southend (绍森德) South Uist (南尤斯特) Stornoway (斯特诺韦) Tiree (蒂里岛) Whitehaven (怀特黑文) Wick (威克) Yeovilton (尤维尔顿)
ney
ney
Birmingham (伯明翰)
Oxford (牛津)
17 D 0.0 2.5 25 PC 1.0 4.4 24 PC 0.2 4.1 14 R 0.4 1.6 26 C 0.0 ** 27 S ** 19 C 0.2 2.5 28 S 26 0.0 11.0 22 28 0.0 12.2 24 0.0 11.6 0.0 12.9 16 2.2 7.8 17 1.6 8.8 1.2 2.9 27 31 9.6 9.0 21 0.6 4.9 30 0.0 11.6 23 0.8 0.4 5.6 23 13 4.0 16 1.2 9.7 8.8 30 9.2 29 0.0 12.1 7.7 0.0 12.6 20 18 9.6 32 0.0 10.9 7.0 25 0.0 13.4 14 15 2.4 15 R 4.8 20 6.9 0.0 12.2
世界天气 所有读数均为昨日当地正午
Alicante (阿里坎特) Amsterdam (阿姆斯特丹) Athens (雅典) Auckland (奥克兰) Bahrain (巴林) Bangkok (曼谷) Barbados (巴巴多斯) Barcelona (巴塞罗那) Beijing (北京) Beirut (贝鲁特) Belgrade (贝尔格莱德) Berlin (柏林) Bermuda (百慕大) Bordeaux (波尔多) Brussels (布鲁塞尔) Bucharest (布加勒斯特) Budapest (布达佩斯) Buenos Aires (布宜诺斯艾利斯) Cairo (开罗) Calcutta (加尔各答) Canberra (堪培拉) Cape Town (开普敦) Chicago (芝加哥) Copenhagen (哥本哈根) Corfu (科孚) Delhi (德里) Dubai (迪拜) Dublin (都柏林) Faro (法鲁) Florence (佛罗伦萨) Frankfurt (法兰克福) Geneva (日内瓦) Gibraltar (直布罗陀) Helsinki (赫尔辛基) Hong Kong (香港) Honolulu (檀香山) Istanbul (伊斯坦布尔) Jerusalem (耶路撒冷) Johannesburg (约翰内斯堡) Kuala Lumpur (吉隆坡) Kyiv (基辅) Lanzarote (兰萨罗特) Las Palmas (拉斯帕尔马斯) Lima (利马) Lisbon (里斯本) Los Angeles (洛杉矶) Luxor (卢克索)
34 S 26 S 29 PC
42 S 32 PC 30 PC 31 PC
34 S 24 PC 30 PC 28 S 30 S 36 S 37 S 33 ** 14 PC 23 S 22 C 22 PC 34 PC 46 S 18 PC 26 S 35 S 29 S 31 S 31 S 22 S 27 PC 35 S 16 S 34 PC 21 C 28 S 26 PC 42 S
Madeira (马德拉) Madrid (马德里) Malaga (马拉加) Mallorca (马略卡) Malta (马耳他) Melbourne (墨尔本) Mexico City (墨西哥城) Miami (迈阿密) Milan (米兰) Mombasa (蒙巴萨) Montreal (蒙特利尔) Moscow (莫斯科) Mumbai (孟买) Munich (慕尼黑) Nairobi (内罗毕) Naples (那不勒斯) New Orleans (新奥尔良) New York (纽约) Nice (尼斯) Nicosia (尼科西亚) Oslo (奥斯陆) Paris (巴黎) Perth (珀斯) Prague (布拉格) Reykjavik (雷克雅未克) Riga (里加) Rio de Janeiro (里约热内卢) Riyadh (利雅得) Rome (罗马) San Francisco (旧金山) Santiago (圣地亚哥) São Paulo (圣保罗) Seoul (首尔) Seychelles (塞舌尔) Singapore (新加坡) St Petersburg (圣彼得堡) Stockholm (斯德哥尔摩) Sydney (悉尼) Tel Aviv (特拉维夫) Tenerife (特内里费) Tokyo (东京) Vancouver (温哥华) Venice (威尼斯) Vienna (维也纳) Warsaw (华沙) Washington (华盛顿) Zurich (苏黎世)
星期日
《泰晤士报》和《周日泰晤士报》是独特且值得信赖的旅行灵感来源。现在，您也可以信任我们带您前往目的地。
thetimes.com / holidays
未来五天预报 天气多变，伴有阵雨及淋洒。南部地区最干燥且阳光最充足。
风速
34 海况
明天
苏格兰北部和西部、爱尔兰北部以及英格兰西北部有阵雨或较长时间的阵雨。其他地区阳光充足，伴有阵雨可能。 最高 27C，最低 6C
周四
英格兰北部和东英格利亚有阵雨。爱尔兰和苏格兰西部早晨干燥，但下午将有雨水推入。其他地区大部分干燥。 最高 25C，最低 7C
周五
苏格兰西部和北群岛有阵雨。爱尔兰、英格兰北部、威尔士及苏格兰其他地区阳光充足，伴有阵雨可能。其他地区干燥。 最高 26C，最低 9C
总体情况：苏格兰中部和北部有强阵雨。其他地区阳光充足，伴有分散的强阵雨。英格兰东南部最干燥。 伦敦、英格兰东南部、东英格利亚：炎热的一天，阳光充足，有极小概率出现孤立阵雨。西南风适度。最高 32C (90F)，最低 16C (61F)。 北爱尔兰、爱尔兰共和国：阳光间歇，伴有分散的强阵雨，部分伴有雷电。西风或西南风轻微至清新。最高 22C (72F)，最低 10C (50F)。 英格兰西南部、中地、威尔士、英格兰中南部、英格兰西北部、英格兰中北部、英格兰东部、英格兰东北部、湖区、马恩岛、海峡群岛：阳光充足，伴有分散的强阵雨，英格兰北部、威尔士北部和英格兰西南部雨势最强。西南风轻微至适度。最高 30C (86F)，最低 12C (54F)。 中高地、莫雷峡湾、北群岛、苏格兰西北部、苏格兰东北部：阴天
26 PC 32 S 30 S 34 S 33 PC 14 PC 25 PC 33 B 28 PC 28 B 26 B 27 S 28 M 28 B 21 B 32 PC 34 PC 29 B 30 PC 35 PC 18 S 30 S 16 PC 22 B 16 S 21 PC 26 S 44 S 33 S 23 PC 8 B 23 S 32 PC 29 PC 18 B 18 S 18 PC 35 S 33 PC 22 PC
26 S 22 PC 30 PC
周六
爱尔兰、威尔士、英格兰西北部和苏格兰有阵雨及淋洒。英格兰其他地区干燥，阳光充足。 最高 26C，最低 8C
潮汐 潮汐预测。 高度以米为单位。所有时间均为当地时间
今日 高度 高度 阿伯丁 Avonmouth 贝尔法斯特 卡迪夫 德文波特 多佛 都柏林 法尔茅斯 格林诺克 哈罗维奇 霍利黑德 赫尔 利斯 利物浦 伦敦桥 洛威斯托夫特 米尔福德港 莫康比 纽黑文 纽基 欧班 彭赞斯 朴茨茅斯 肖勒姆 南安普敦 斯旺西 蒂斯 韦茅斯
英格兰北部、爱尔兰、威尔士和苏格兰南部有轻阵雨或淋洒。其他地区阳光充足，伴有孤立轻阵雨可能。 最高 27C，最低 6C
《泰晤士报》天气页面 由以下提供
格拉斯哥 爱丁堡
卡莱尔 纽卡斯尔
25 21
曼彻斯特 利物浦 赫尔
什鲁兹伯里 诺丁汉
普利茅斯 埃克塞特 南安普敦
05:25 4.1 18:06 3.8 11:32 12.0 23:50 12.0 03:04 3.5 15:37 3.2 11:13 11.3 23:32 11.2 10:05 4.9 22:14 5.1 02:57 6.3 15:20 6.5 03:36 4.0 16:11 3.7 09:18 4.7 21:34 4.9 04:29 3.5 16:55 3.2 04:01 3.8 16:00 02:23 5.4 14:47 5.0 10:32 7.2 23:03 6.7 06:46 5.3 19:24 5.0 03:07 9.0 15:29 8.6 06:06 6.6 18:18 6.7 01:45 2.3 13:45 2.6 10:29 6.4 22:51 6.5 03:18 9.1 15:41 8.5 03:07 6.2 15:30 6.3 09:23 6.2 21:45 09:46 3.4 22:17 3.6 08:54 21:15 5.1 03:25 4.4 16:05 4.4 03:09 5.9 15:34 5.9 02:43 15:33 4.5 10:31 8.6 22:50 07:47 5.3 20:31 10:53 1.7 23:07 1.8
天气概况 一个冷锋，随后是一系列与中心位于不列颠群岛低压区相关的槽线和阻塞锋，将给爱尔兰、英格兰北部和西部、威尔士以及随后的苏格兰南部带来分散的强阵雨。一个暖锋将给苏格兰中部和北部带来云层及强阵雨。
奥克尼 设得兰
ney ney
谢菲尔德
全天伴有阵雨且雨势较大。东风或东北风，强度中等至强。最高 20C (68F)，最低 10C (50F)。 苏格兰西南部、边境地区、格拉斯哥、阿盖尔、爱丁堡和邓迪、亚伯丁： 大雨和阵雨将在早晨向北消散。下午出现晴朗时段，但仍有少量强阵雨的可能性。南风或东南风，强度轻至中等。最高 23C (73F)，最低 11C (52F)。
黑夜时长 亚伯丁 贝尔法斯特 伯明翰 卡迪夫 埃克塞特 格拉斯哥 利物浦 伦敦 曼彻斯特 纽卡斯尔 诺里奇 彭赞斯 谢菲尔德
21:46-04:44 21:49-05:11 21:24-05:04 21:26-05:13 21:24-05:17 21:48-04:59 21:32-05:05 21:14-05:00 21:30-05:01 21:33-04:53 21:12-04:50 21:30-05:27 21:26-04:59
最高温：Wiggonholt，33.2C 最低温：Altnaharra，2.4C 最湿润：伦登德里郡，Lough Fea，5.6mm 最晴朗：埃塞克斯郡，Shoeburyness，13.4hrs*
日出月落 格林威治标准 日出： 日落： 月出： 月落：
05.28 20.43 22.25 13.46 周三
下弦月：8月6日
保罗·西蒙斯
弗朗西斯·威洛比勋爵在 1600 年代的英国内战期间过着危险的生活。最初他站在议会派一边，随后投奔保皇派并启航前往巴巴多斯。但当保皇派军队威胁到该岛时，他组织了一次前往圭亚那“野蛮海岸”的探险。
他在那里建立了一个殖民地——“威洛比地”（Willoughbyland），即现在的苏里南。促使其建立的是关于充满黄金的传奇之城埃尔多拉多的传闻。尽管在那里没有发现黄金，但土地肥沃，定居者种植棉花和烟草，并出口名贵的硬木。该殖民地还具有一定的民主色彩，提供宗教自由，并与邻近的法国和荷兰殖民地进行自由贸易。但最终它走向衰落，殖民地陷入激烈的派系斗争。一场疾病的爆发夺走了三分之一定居者的生命，并在 1666 年，该殖民地与荷兰和法国的定居点发生战争，战斗中的损失进一步削弱了威洛比地。
致命的一击发生在法国人夺取英国的圣基茨殖民地之时。威洛比集结了 17 艘船和 2,000 名士兵以夺回圣基茨。但在 360 年前的 1666 年 8 月 4 日，船队在前往圣基茨的途中抵达了法国的瓜德罗普殖民地；威洛比看到反击法国人的机会，发动攻击并攻占了港口的防御工事。当晚一场巨大的飓风袭来，堡垒的墙壁崩塌，几乎整个英国舰队被摧毁，船员全部溺亡，其中包括威洛比。仅有两艘船幸存。这是 17 世纪记录的最严重的飓风之一，导致瓜德罗普、马提尼克和圣基茨遭受毁灭性打击。
最终，查理二世将威洛比地割让给荷兰，作为回报，荷兰承认英国对其位于美国东北海岸名为新阿姆斯特丹殖民地的所有权，英国自 1664 年 9 月 8 日起便占领了那里。英国人后来将该殖民地更名为纽约。
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赛马编辑 Rob Wright
在拥有全国 15 个最大赛道的赛马俱乐部（Jockey Club）于昨日决定脱离赛马场协会（RCA）后，赛马的管理方式正处于动荡之中。此前，雅士谷（Ascot）已于 5 月宣布将在年底离开该协会。
英国许多最大的赛马场对这项运动的运行方式感到沮丧，认为其处于瘫痪状态，特别是关于削减被普遍认为过于臃肿的赛程表的能力。
赛马场在每场赛事中都能获得媒体版权付款。许多规模较小的赛马场不愿看到这一收入流被削减。
根据 RCA 的规则，英国所有赛马场均拥有平等的投票权，因此切普斯托（Chepstow）和塞奇菲尔德（Sedgefield）拥有与……
Catterick Rob Wright
2.15 新手赛 (2岁马: £6,804: 7f) (7)
2.45 分级赛 (£3,664: 7f) (7)
3.15 让磅赛 (£4,187: 2m) (9)
3.45 让磅赛 (£4,004: 6f) (8)
昨日赛马结果
结果
Nottingham
场地情况：好至坚实（部分地区为好） 2.40 (1m 75yd) 1, Quisana (Charles Bishop, 7-1); 2, Moonlit Surf (1-1); 3, Aura Champagne (11-8). 5 匹参赛。未参赛 (NR): Yimmna. nk, 8l. Eve Johnson Houghton. 3.10 (6f 18yd) 1, Lola De Valence (Lewis Edmunds, 5-1); 2, Lady Leora (5-6 热门); 3, Harlequin Gift (20-1). 7 匹参赛。4 l, hd. B R Millman. 3.40 (6f 18yd) 1, Mobadir (K Shoemark, 6-5 热门); 2, Leucothea (8-1); 3, Star People (4-1). 7 匹参赛。nk, l. E Walker. 4.10 (5f 8yd) 1, Sergeant Mayer (Faye McManoman, 15-8); 2, Hurt You Never (7-2); 3, Little Jaybee (5-1). 5 匹参赛。未参赛 (NR): Up The Monk. nk, 27 l. N Tinkler. 4.40 (1m 2f 50yd) 1, Del Corso (K Shoemark, 1-2 热门); 2, Sedeirah (3-1); 3, Dawn Of Liberation (6-1). 4 匹参赛。37 l, 6l. E Walker. 5.10 (1m 75yd) 1, Venetian Lion (Tom Marquand, 5-6); 2, Pretty Spirited (20-1); 3, Theme Park (9-4). 5 匹参赛。未参赛 (NR): G’Emmethegreenlite. 2 l, 1 l. W J Haggas. Placepot: £16.90 Quadpot: £7.20 Jackpot: £1,831.50
Ripon
场地情况：好（部分地区好至坚实） 2.24 (6f) 1, Reflect On Glory (C Lee, 7-2); 2, The Mean Fiddler (5-4 热门); 3, War Gaming (7-4). 4 匹参赛。l, 6 l. K R Burke. 2.54 (6f) 1, All Good (Tom Kiely-Marshall, 28-1); 2, Royale Union (15-8); 3, Secret Harvest (7-1). 6 匹参赛。sh, 6 l. Miss J A Camacho. 3.24 (5f) 1, Angel Numbers (J P Sullivan, 13-8 热门); 2, Marajito (5-1); 3, Creative
4.15 让磅赛 (£4,004: 1m 4f) (8)
4.45 让磅赛 (£4,004: 5f) (7)
Ffos Las Rob Wright
2.30 让磅赛 (£4,187: 6f) (7)
3.00 新手赛 (2岁马: £7,020: 7f) (7)
Queen (7-2). 5 匹参赛。2 l, 1l. Mrs R Carr. 3.54 (6f) 1, Lord Roxby (Alex Jary, 11-4); 2, Dark Cloud Rising (15-8 热门); 3, Commanche Falls (5-1). 7 匹参赛。17 l, ns. N Tinkler. 4.24 (1m 1f 170yd) 1, Poet’s Dawn (Sean Kirrane, 2-1); 2, Polygram (7-4 热门); 3, His Finest Hour (12-1). 5 匹参赛。nk, 2 l. T D Easterby. 4.54 (1m) 1, Amber Hamur (Connor Beasley, 2-1); 2, Hey Havana (5-2); 3, Vega’s Virtue (10-3). 7 匹参赛。未参赛 (NR): Dacres Cross. 17 l, nk. E Bethell. Placepot: £80.80 Quadpot: £3.90
Windsor
场地情况：好至坚实 6.00 (1m 3f 99yd) 1, I’d Go Maniac (Miss Georgia King, 11-4 热门); 2, Wrist Art (17-2); 3, Jodhpur Blue (6-1). 8 匹参赛。2 l, 1 l. A King. 6.30 (6f 12yd) 1, Star Bayside Boy (Rob Hornby, 16-1); 2, Rocsane (6-5); 3, Proper Naughty (10-3). 6 匹参赛。未参赛 (NR): Decem Carolinae. nk, nk. M P Tregoning. 7.00 (5f 21yd) 1, Ardnamurchan (Nicola Currie, 9-2); 2, Pilgrim’s Progress (9-4); 3, Night Shining (4-5). 6 匹参赛。未参赛 (NR): Gris De Chine, Livvys Edge. hd, l. H Candy. 7.30 (6f 12yd) 1, Saucy Jane (George Wood, 5-2); 2, Havana Halo (7-2); 3, Lahina Bay (6-4 热门). 5 匹参赛。27 l, 1 l. Jack Morland. 8.00 (1m 2f) 1, Letsbeatsepsis (Rhys Clutterbuck, 11-4); 2, Freedom Bay (5-1); 3, Panthere Noir (5-2). 11 匹参赛。未参赛 (NR): Tiger Beetle. 1 l, 1 l. G & J Moore. 8.30 (1m 31yd) 1, Flag Carrier (Oisin Murphy, 9-2); 2, Chilly Breeze (6-5); 3, Havana Club (13-2). 7 匹参赛。未参赛 (NR): Benavente, Dark Rosa. 1 l, 1 l. Brian Toomey. Placepot: £30.50 Quadpot: £6.80
与切尔滕纳姆 (Cheltenham) 和桑当公园 (Sandown Park) 权重相同。赛马公司 (RCA) 在英国赛马管理局 (BHA) 的公司层面拥有六票中的三票，因此可以否决任何拟议的变更。结果，要通过投票削减赛事数量（尤其是低端赛事）已变得不可能。
RCA 周六表示，将对其结构进行调整，使四个成员组各拥有 25 的投票权。它们分别是：赛马会 (Jockey Club)、竞技赛马公司 (Arena Racing Company)、大型独立赛道组（包括切斯特、纽伯里、古德伍德和约克，此前还包括雅士谷）以及小型独立赛道。不过，这似乎仍会导致投票僵局，因此赛马会决定退出该协会。
赛马会认为变革早已迟到。其首席执行官 Jim Mullen 表示：
林菲尔德公园 (Lingfield Park) Rob Wright
3.30 让磅赛 (£3,454: 7f) (9)
4.00 让磅赛 (£3,454: 7f) (9)
4.30 初赛 (£5,400: 1m) (8)
5.00 让磅赛 (3岁马: £4,187: 1m) (5)
5.30 让磅赛 (£3,454: 1m 4f) (10)
足球
足球
卡拉宝杯 (Carabao Cup) 初赛 约克城 (York City) (0) 0 克劳利镇 (Crawley Town) (1) 2 Di Biase 24 Orsi 86 点球 克劳利镇将于周六在第一轮前往沃特福德 (Watford) 比赛
苏格兰超级联赛
凯尔特人 (Celtic) (0) 1 邓迪 (Dundee) (0) 0 Nygren 52
板球
The Hundred：威尔士之火 (Welsh Fire) 对阵 南方勇士 (Southern Brave) 男子组 索菲亚花园球场 (Sophia Gardens) (威尔士之火赢得掷硬币)： 威尔士之火 (4pts) 以 6 个 wicket 击败南方勇士
南方勇士 (球数) @J L Smith 击球员 Salt 接球 b Cook 0 (3) B S McKinney 击球员 Salt 接球 b Woakes 0 (2) N Chaudhary 击球员 Salt 接球 b Cook 18 (23) M P Stoinis 击球员 Ferguson 接球 b Cook 55 (39) T Stubbs b Ravindra 6 (8) M M Ali b Ravindra (1) D A Miller 击球员 Ferguson 接球 b Short 21 (17) *C J Jordan 未出局 3 (4) J C Archer 击球员 Jansen 接球 b Short 6 (2) L Wood 未出局 1 (1) 额外分 (w 2, lb 3) 5 总分 (8 wkts, 100 balls) 115 A U Rashid 未击球。 出局顺序 1-1, 2-2, 3-45, 4-61, 5-61, 6-88, 7-108, 8-114。 投球 Woakes 20-0-15-1; Cook 20-1-14-3; Jansen 20-0-16-0; Ferguson 20-0-27-0; Ravindra 15-0-27-2; Short 5-0-13-2。
威尔士之火 (球数) *†P D Salt 击球员 Jordan 接球 b Archer 4 (6) M W Short 未出局 60 (41) J E Root 击球员 McKinney 接球 b Jordan 17 (20) R Ravindra 击球员 Archer 接球 b Rashid J M Cox 击球员 Jordan 接球 b Archer (8) T Kohler-Cadmore 未出局 23 (19) 额外分 (nb 1, lb 5) 总分 (4 wkts, 95 balls) 116 B I Kellaway, M Jansen, C R Woakes, L H Ferguson 和 S J Cook 未击球。 出局顺序 1-4, 2-60, 3-61, 4-70。 投球 Wood 15-0-22-0; Archer 20-1-19-2; Stoinis 20-0-30-0; Jordan 20-0-17-1; Rashid 20-0-23-1。
女子组 索菲亚花园球场 (Southern Brave 赢得掷硬币)：威尔士之火 (4pts) 以 4 个 wicket 击败南方勇士
南方勇士 M E Bouchier 击球员 Kemp 接球 b Potts †L Lee 击球员 Wareham 接球 b Potts (3) L Wolvaardt 击球员 Wareham 接球 b Graham 48 (45) J J Rodrigues 击球员 Wareham 接球 b Graham 25 (21) *S G Molineux 跑出局 12 (11) J L Grewcock 未出局 13 (9) N D Dattani 未出局 4 额外分 (b 4, lb 4, w 5) 13 总分 (5 wkts, 100 balls) 121 S Glenn, I E C M Wong, L K Bell 和 M R Corteen-Coleman 未击球。 出局顺序 1-1, 2-9, 3-58, 4-82, 5-116。 投球 Potts 20-0-14-2; Prendergast 20-0-29-0; Smale 20-0-24-0; Graham 20-0-23-2; Wareham 20-0-23-0。
威尔士之火 G A Voll 击球员 Glenn 接球 b Corteen-Coleman 11 (9) E M McCaughan 击球员 Lee 接球 b Corteen-Coleman 8 (10) F G Kemp 击球员 Bell 接球 b Corteen-Coleman 9 (7) *G L Wareham b Bell 16 (20)
5.18 见习骑师让磅赛 (AW: £3,978: 7f) (11)
5.48 初赛雌马赛 (AW: 2-Y-O: £5,940: 7f) (10)
O P Prendergast b Wong 5 (6) H L Graham 未出局 35 (28) G J Thompson 击球员 Corteen-Coleman 接球 b Wong 16 (12) N F Holland 未出局 12 额外分 (w 10) 10 总分 (6 wkts, 100 balls) 122 †R M Southby, S A E Smale 和 G E A Potts 未击球。 出局顺序 1-24, 2-25, 3-44, 4-49, 5-70, 6-105。 投球 Bell 20-0-27-1; Molineux 20-0-24-0; Wong 20-0-17-2; Corteen-Coleman 20-0-27-3; Glenn 20-0-27-0。
男子世界杯联赛 2 三方赛 邓迪 苏格兰 (1pt) 对阵 阿拉伯联合酋长国 (1pt)。比赛在未投球前被取消。
自行车
环法女子自行车赛 第三赛段 日内瓦至波利尼，156.5km 1 J S Y Haugset (挪威; Uno-X Mobility) 4小时 5分 59秒；2 L Kopecky (比利时; SD Worx-Protime) 落后 1分 24秒；3 M Vos (荷兰; Visma Lease-a-Bike) 落后 2分 48 秒；4 U Ostolaza (西班牙; Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi)；5 K Le Court Pienaar (毛里求斯; AG Insurance-Soudal) 两者时间相同。 总成绩：1 Haugset 11小时 17分 56秒；2 Le Court Pienaar 落后 2分 2秒；3 D Vollering (荷兰; FDJ United-SUEZ) 落后 2分 6秒。
高尔夫
行政人员表示：“RCA 的提案未能解决我们的根本担忧，即 RCA 可能会继续采取行动来扼杀行业内所需的变革。所提出的任何方案都无法取代 RCA 作为赛马场的政治代表地位；在我们看来，RCA 将继续投票反对必要的变革，例如引入独立的 BHA 董事会以及对赛事日程表进行实质性修改。”
6.18 初出赛纯血雌马锦标赛 (AW: 2-Y-O: £5,940: 7f) (9)
6.48 让磅赛 (AW: £3,245: 6f) (12)
7.18 让磅赛 (£5,339: 1m 6f) (4)
7.48 让磅赛 (£3,245: 1m 4f) (7)
8.18 让磅赛 (£3,245: 1m 1f) (6)
网球
Mubadala DC 公开赛 华盛顿：男子：决赛 (3) T Fritz (美国) 击败 R Jodar (西班牙) 7-6(2), 6-4。女子：决赛 A Eala (菲律宾) 击败 (1) J Pegula (美国) 4-6, 6-4, 6-0。
ATP 国家银行公开赛 蒙特利尔：第一轮 V Kopriva (捷克) 领先 A Galarneau (加拿大) 6-4, 2-1；A Kovacevic (美国) 与 N Borges (葡萄牙) 持平 7-6(9), 2-6, 0-0；M Zheng (美国) 与 M Kecmanovic (塞尔维亚) 持平 4-6, 6-4, 0-0。
WTA 国家银行公开赛 多伦多：第一轮 A Korneeva (俄罗斯) 击败 P Kudermetova (乌兹别克斯坦) 6-0, 3-0 (对方退赛)；K Pliskova (捷克) 击败 O Oliynykova (乌克兰) 6-4, 6-4；T Gibson (澳大利亚) 击败 E Cocciaretto (意大利) 6-2, 3-2 (对方退赛)；A Bondar (匈牙利) 击败 A Kalinina (乌克兰) 6-4, 7-5；K Day (美国) 击败 D Parry (法国) 3-6, 6-3, 7-5；M Kessler (美国) 击败 C Brace (加拿大) 6-3, 6-3；K Cross (加拿大) 击败 K Boulter (英国) 7-6(3), 7-5；R Sramkova (斯洛伐克) 击败 A Blinkova (俄罗斯) 6-3, 6-3；Zhang S (中国) 击败 Y Putintseva (哈萨克斯坦) 6-4, 6-1；G Ruse (罗马尼亚) 击败 P Stearns (美国) 6-0, 7-5；M Frech (加拿大) 击败 L Jeanjean (法国) 7-5, 6-3；L Tararudee (泰国) 击败 E Jones (澳大利亚) 7-6(2), 6-2。
赛程表
为英格兰队 带来希望
Steve James
这本可以很容易地变成由布伦登·麦卡伦来证明扎克·克劳利出现在开局位置的合理性——因为克劳利与本·杜基特之间截然不同的搭档关系，其产出往往超过了单纯的个人数据所暗示的水平——但事实却是，澳大利亚队的选拔委员会主席乔治·贝利最近在谈论关于他们的开局击球手杰克·韦瑟罗尔德的选拔。
“在那次灰烬杯系列赛中，有些时刻我们很欣赏杰克和特拉维斯 [海德] 能够带来的组合，以及那种整体呈现出的状态，”贝利说道。“此外，就个人而言，杰克在该系列赛中展现出的最佳状态也令人瞩目。希望我们能从中看到一些成长，以及对在测试赛级别获得成功所需条件的某种理解。”
韦瑟罗尔德在去年冬天的灰烬杯系列赛中平均得分为 22.33，他在该赛中完成了测试赛首秀，现年 31 岁。克劳利 28 岁，在该系列赛中的平均得分为 27.30，但此后他被弃用，并被谴责为代表了“Bazball”风格最极端的负面影响。
现在，这并不是在要求克劳利回归，因为鉴于他缺席了肯特队最近的郡冠军赛，他可能很快就会从红球克利克赛中退役。但周二看到他在“百球赛”（the Hundred）中为利兹太阳升队（SunRisers Leeds）展现出的卓越击球和队长能力，提醒人们他的天赋——同时，他在与哈里·布鲁克之间建立的精彩搭档关系（面对由古斯·阿特金森、索尼·贝克和乔什·汤格组成的进攻方），也证明了今年该项赛事中球员的整体质量。
相反，这是对两件事的肯定：一是去年冬天面对一支永远无法与过去神级球队媲美的澳大利亚队时，本可能出现的情况；二是未来的可能性。韦瑟罗尔德是一名不错的球员，他在今年的冠军赛中为莱斯特郡队效力，平均得分 60，但如果他代表了澳大利亚队的未来，那么也许我们不必对这片土地上测试赛球队的状态过于悲观。他绝对不比克劳利的接替者埃米利奥·盖伊更好，而盖伊到目前为止看起来完全不像一个拥有 50 场出赛经验的测试赛开局击球手。
高尔夫 Cathy Harris
在被欧洲队队长 Anna Nordqvist 选为四名外卡球员之一后，英格兰的 Mimi Rhodes 将迎来她的 Solheim Cup 首秀。
24 岁的 Rhodes 将与同胞 Charley Hull 和 Lottie Woad 一起入选最终名单，于 9 月在荷兰的 Bernardus 高尔夫俱乐部对阵美国队。爱尔兰的 Leona Maguire 同样被 Nordqvist 选为四名外卡球员之一，此外还包括新秀 Julia López Ramírez 和 Nastasia Nadaud。
Woad 作为世界排名第 5，职业生涯仅一年多，这位 22 岁的球员也将迎来她的团体赛首秀。30 岁的 Hull 将第八次参加 Solheim Cup，她自 2013 年起参加了每一届赛事，有望成为关键球员。31 岁的 Maguire 在 2021 年的精彩首秀中以不败新秀身份获得最高分，随后在 2023 年和 2024 年再次出赛。
此外，在宣布面对孟加拉国的两场主场测试赛（Darwin 和 Mackay）的阵容时，Bailey 正在发言。考虑到孟加拉国队在 6 月下旬的上一次测试赛中以一局之差败给强大的津巴布韦队，澳大利亚队派出由 13 人组成的“老兵阵”（Dad’s Army）令人震惊，其中包含 38 岁的 Nathan Lyon，以及 37 岁的 Steve Smith 和 Scott Boland，此外还有 36 岁的 Mitchell Starc 和 35 岁的 Josh Hazlewood。
Weatherald 堪称年轻之辈，31 岁的 Josh Inglis 也是如此，此外还有 Alex Carey (34)、Pat Cummins (33) 以及 Marnus Labuschagne、Head 和 Beau Webster（全部 32 岁）。27 岁的 Cameron Green 几乎像是来自另一个世代。
澳大利亚队经常以拥有在球员职业生涯后期选用他们的勇气而自豪，并得到了 Michael Hussey、Chris Rogers 和 Adam Voges 等人的回报，他们在胡须染白之年依然表现出色，但即便如此……
没错，当然，这群资深政客——由 Boland 和 36 岁的 Michael Neser 为受伤的快球手提供充分的掩护——在去年冬天对阵英格兰队时表现得太出色了。而英格兰队的境遇自此一落千丈（即使白球队一直在获胜），导致他们直到最近还在寻找测试赛教练和队长。
但年龄问题在澳大利亚并不是一个新顾虑。甚至在 Ashes 比赛开始之前，传奇人物 Steve Waugh 就在批评 Bailey 缺乏做出“艰难决定”的“胃口”，对此 Bailey 回答道：“我想反问，是否有一个临界数字 [当] 球员达到某个年龄，你就将他们淘汰？”
好吧，英格兰队认定 James Anderson 已经达到了他的临界数字 (41) 并将其淘汰。对此有许多反对意见，在某些人看来，Ashes 的失败证明了这是一个误导性的决定，但或许我们尚未看到在没有 Anderson 和 Stuart Broad 的情况下重建快球攻击线的全部成果。
所有道路本应指向去年冬天的那场 Ashes，英格兰队在追求极致速度时无疑误判了场地，但也许在明年夏天澳大利亚队到访时，我们才能看到 Jofra Archer、Atkinson 和 Tongue 的最佳状态，同时拥有 Baker、Brydon Carse 和 Ollie Robinson 等有用的后备力量，以及可能是作为 Ben Stokes 接替者的 Sam Curran。
我们可以相当肯定的是，我们将继续在澳大利亚队球衣上看到大多相同的、年迈的名字。《时代报》（The Age）的一篇标题写道：“失去的一代？我们的测试赛筛选员正在进行的一场危险游戏”，Daniel Brettig 在文中写道：“在面对南非、新西兰、印度和英格兰为期 12 个月不间断的系列赛之前，重新组建一线测试队的论点是合理的，而这几个月是敲定球队的一个重大里程碑。”
从左至右：Starc, Hazlewood, Lyon 和 Cummins 都有机会参加明年夏天的 Ashes，下方的 Green 同样如此。
这位瑞典选手曾九次参加索尔海姆杯且三度赢得大满贯冠军，她承认，尽可能地长时间地维持每个人的梦想是非常困难的。
“我们有四名新人——这是很长一段时间以来人数最多的一次——但他们的表现不像新人，”她补充道。“他们将带来极佳的态度和积极性。”
gland。但面对一支刚刚在测试赛中输给津巴布韦一局的孟加拉国队，而自己的出场阵容中只有一名球员在 30 岁以下，这种前景令人不安。”
这里发生的情况相当明显。澳大利亚最后一次在印度赢得测试赛系列赛是在 2004 年，在英格兰则是 2001 年，选拔人员希望将他们这群年长的队员凝聚在一起，进行最后的一系列巡回赛，以打破这些零记录。他们在赛前面对孟加拉国的澳大利亚板球协会邀请赛中，选拔了一些年轻人，如 20 岁的 Sam Konstas 和 23 岁的 Campbell Kellaway，但即使是那支队伍也包括 33 岁的 Kurtis Patterson。 当 Konstas 等球员在测试级别尝试时，他们被发现能力不足。未来可以等待。
2023 年访问印度和英格兰是巨大的错失机会，在印度以 2-1 输球，在这里则以 2-2 平手。正如 Bailey 在谈到这些系列赛时所说：“总有另一个机会，不是吗？没有两个系列赛是完全相同的，但在这些系列赛中，会有一些时刻让他们回首往事并希望事情能有所不同，但他们也会从中学到很多伟大的东西。我知道每个人都盯着年龄，但就这些球员、这些运动员的实际成长而言，他们渴望不断学习。”
但 Cummins、Hazlewood 和 Lyon 都曾受伤。然后，伴随着 Weatherald 在测试板球中不尽如人意的开始，Labuschagne 在 21 场测试赛中未能获得一个世纪纪录，平均分仅为 25.75，而且坦白说，Green 作为一名测试全能选手的表现令人大失所望。
相比之下，英格兰至少一直在尝试更新血液。在他们 2022 年的首支 Bazball 球队中，只有回归的队长 Joe Root 留了下来，而在他们最近的一场测试赛中，他们派出了七名 30 岁以下的球员，而其中一名老将 Stokes 现在也离开了。
玩笑之余，Bailey 说的没错，退休并没有一个固定的年龄，尤其是他的投球手们如此优秀——而且远没有达到 Anderson 被要求退役时的年龄——如果匆忙让他们退休将是疯狂的。但灰烬杯（Ashes）距离现在仍有相当一段距离，而且即使所有老将都能坚持到那时，重演 2007 年传奇人物（Shane Warne、Glenn McGrath、Justin Langer 和 Damien Martyn）集体退休的情况几乎是不可避免的。
澳大利亚在测试排名中名列第一，而英格兰排名第五，但两支球队处于完全不同的发展阶段，或许并不像最近的事件所暗示的那样差距巨大。三月份在墨尔本举行的第 150 周年纪念测试赛可能会告诉我们更多，但明年的灰烬杯，随着 Stephen Fleming 成为英格兰队教练的一个精明选择，可能不会像许多人预期的那样是一场惨烈的车祸。
在皇家利瑟姆和圣安妮斯 AIG 女子公开赛最后一天的排行榜上名次上升的捷克选手 Sara Kouskova 也很可惜地未能入选。
美国队的资格赛将在三周后于埃德蒙顿举行的加拿大女子公开赛中结束。两名球员 Angel Yin 和 Jennifer Kupcho 在公开赛中锁定了席位，与世界排名第 1 的 Nelly Korda 一起加入阵容。
Sunningdale。法国选手 Nad-aud 是队中最年轻的，只有 21 岁。Nordqvist 将她描述为“在今年的大满贯赛中非常稳健，极具攻击性，且是一名能拿下大量小鸟球的选手”。
这是自 2015 年以来第一支没有 Georgia Hall 的欧洲队，因为她在 2 月份分娩后正在寻找最佳状态。瑞士的 Chiara Tamburlini 和德国的 Helen Briem 也没有获得名额，她们原本通过女子欧洲巡回赛排名接近自动入选。
E -
波加查在追平纪录的第五次环法夺冠后，力求保持这一势头
2027年男子橄榄球 世界杯
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旨在实现全满贯目标
Sean Russell
如果你想设计一场能够吸引塔代伊·波加查（Tadej Pogacar）参加的大环赛，你可能会将其起点设在摩纳哥，那是他与伴侣乌尔什卡·齐加特（Urska Zigart）居住的地方。
起点
你可能只会设置三四个平原赛段，而会安排大量的山地赛段。你会在内华达山脉（Sierra Nevada）结束比赛，因为他会在那里与队友进行高海拔训练。你会
终点
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thetimes.com / rugbywc2027
QUOTE TIMES
基本上就是设计 2026 年西班牙大巡赛 (La Vuelta 2026)。而且看来这奏效了。UAE Team Emirates-XRG 昨天宣布，五届环法冠军波加查 (Pogacar) 将参加西班牙大巡赛，这是自 2019 年他在该项赛事完成大巡赛首秀以来首次参赛。
2026 年西班牙大巡赛
法国
众所周知，西班牙大巡赛的组织者希望波加查能在 8 月 22 日在摩纳哥起跑。赛事总监哈维尔·吉伦 (Javier Guillén) 在不到一周前表示，“今年是”这位斯洛文尼亚人参赛的“最佳年份”，他大概是对的。最终，波加查较为轻松地赢得了今年的环法冠军，不像 2025 年那样因为与约纳斯·温格高 (Jonas Vingegaard) 的激烈争夺而精疲力竭。而西班牙大巡赛可以作为 9 月在加拿大举行的世界锦标赛成功的跳板。除此之外，这位 27 岁的车手将希望赢得西班牙大巡赛，以集齐所有大巡赛冠军。
他在 2024 年赢得了环意赛 (Giro d’Italia)，因此唯一缺失的就是这项为期三周的西班牙赛事。他的劲敌温格高在 5 月获得粉色领骑衫并于 2025 年赢得西班牙大巡赛后，已经集齐了该系列冠军，因此这位丹麦人拥有一项斯洛文尼亚人尚未获得的东西。也许波加查希望尽快纠正这一点。
波加查及其车队一直表示，他们将等到环法赛结束后再做决定，但波加查非常渴望参赛已是公开的秘密。在环法赛期间，他对摩纳哥的阿尔贝特王子 (Prince Albert of Monaco) 的评论做出了回应，后者表示他相信波加查会参加今年的西班牙大巡赛。“如果王子这么说，那么可能性很大，”波加查说道。
与 2025 年相比，波加查在今年环法赛结束时状态清新，显然渴望再次经历三周的艰苦比赛。这位世界冠军显然打算在自己的清单上勾掉所有尚未赢得的赛事。今年，他将米兰-圣雷莫赛 (Milano-San Remo) 加入了他的荣誉簿，击败了英勇的汤姆·皮德考克 (Tom Pidcock)，同时还赢得了瑞士之赛 (Tour de Suisse) 和罗马底赛 (Tour de Romandie)。虽然巴黎-鲁贝赛 (Paris-Roubaix) 暂时仍难以触及，但他将作为绝对热门参加西班牙大巡赛。而且不要忘记，他在 2019 年的西班牙大巡赛中获得第三名，并在 20 岁时赢得了三个赛段。如果他在西班牙夺冠，他将成为自 2017 年克里斯·弗鲁姆 (Chris Froome) 以来首位完成环法-西班牙大巡赛双冠的男子，而这种可能性非常高。很少有其他车队公布其参赛名单，大牌选手中肯定还没有任何人宣布其意向。
温格高和雷姆科·埃文波尔 (Remco Evenepoel) 是否有可能尝试？在参加了环意赛和环法赛（随后发生事故导致锁骨骨折）之后，很难想象温格高会现身。也许 2022 年的冠军、目前状态极佳的埃文波尔会迎接挑战，但到目前为止，波加查是孤军奋战。
其他考虑参加西班牙大巡赛的潜在对手在听到这个消息后可能会叹息，但对于赛事组织者来说，这是一次巨大的成功。无论波加查走到哪里，都能吸引大批崇拜他的粉丝。看看他的 “Pogi挑战赛” 吧，这是一个在波加查出生地——斯洛文尼亚科门达 (Komenda) 周边举行的为期三天的慈善活动。数千人来到这个小镇，观看波加查在一次短程绕圈赛中击败艾萨克·德尔托罗 (Isaac del Toro) 和马泰奥·特伦廷 (Matteo Trentin) 等人，随后他连续第二年自己在克尔瓦韦克 (Krvavec) 爬坡赛中被一名业余选手击败。
8 月 22 日至 9 月 13 日期间，26 年西班牙大巡赛将由 21 个赛段组成，总距离为 3,275 公里
1 赛段
4 个丘陵赛段 1 个丘陵上坡终点赛段 4 个平路赛段 4 个中等山地赛段
6 个山地赛段 2 个个人计时赛赛段 2 个休息日
起点 摩纳哥 马诺斯克
马德里
西班牙
阿尔卡拉斯
科特加纳
哈恩
14 15
16 17
帕尔马 德尔里奥
12 13
这次活动表明，被亲切地称为“Pogi”的波加查（Pogacar）也许是目前这项运动中最受欢迎的骑手，他的影响力已经超越了自行车运动，正如瓦伦蒂诺·罗西（Valentino Rossi）之于 MotoGP，或罗尼·奥萨利文（Ronnie O’Sullivan）之于斯诺克一样。他完成大巡赛全满贯的追求将具有历史意义——波加查将自己的名字加入到那个赢得过全部三项赛事的八位顶尖骑手之列，无疑只是时间问题。
然后呢？巴黎-鲁贝赛（Paris-Roubaix）是通往永恒名声的最后一道关卡。如果他能将其拿下，他将成为继埃迪·默克斯（Eddy Merckx）之后，第二位赢得全部三项大巡赛以及全部五项纪念碑赛的男子。
“我很兴奋能宣布我将回归环西班牙赛（La Vuelta），”波加查说。“2019年是我第一次参加大巡赛，那是一次绝妙的经历。西班牙是我热爱访问和参赛的国家，现在是回归的最佳时机。”
3 4
安道尔 拉维利亚
巴塞罗那 法尔塞特
路线
行程 个人计时赛
阿尔科塞布雷
6 7
阿尔巴谷
瓦伦西亚 普索尔
拉维拉乔伊奥萨
卡塔赫纳 维拉 拉卡拉奥拉
500 miles
格鲁桑
效仿 Dupont 夺得 奥运金牌
Charlie Morgan
Charlie Morgan 高级橄榄球记者 尝试七人制橄榄球的球星们
Eddie Hearn 已经确认，Henry Pollock 打算效仿 Antoine Dupont，在橄榄球七人制比赛中赢得奥运金牌，但在 2028 年洛杉矶奥运会上实现这个梦想看来绝非易事。
在地中海与 Pollock 和 Finn Russell（他是 Hearn 旗下的 Matchroom 经纪公司唯一签约的联盟橄榄球客户）会面后，Hearn 声称这位 21 岁的英格兰后排前锋如果离开北安普顿圣徒队（Northampton Saints），其收入可达目前的十倍。
然而，Hearn 同时也强调，Pollock 依然被赢得奖杯的前景所驱动。“我看亨利，对他这样一个人的品质非常满意，”Hearn 告诉《电讯报》，“我知道人们对他有一种‘花俏且贪财’（flash Harry）的刻板印象，但实际上，他是一个踏实的年轻人。传承很重要。”
“他想在北安普顿赢得冠军，他想随英格兰队赢得世界杯，他还想为大不列颠七人制队在奥运会上赢得一枚金牌。”
后者这一目标——Dupont 两年前在巴黎已然实现——可以说最难达成，因为其中涉及多个变数。首先是棘手的资格认定问题。上赛季，英国队从七人制世界系列赛（现称为 SVNS）的第一级别中降级。
两名英超联赛（Gallagher Prem）裁判将负责接下来的几周内南非队与新西兰队的测试赛。马修·卡利（Matthew Carley）和卡尔·迪克森（Karl Dickson）均将成为执法团队的一员。
《泰晤士报》获悉，来自澳大利亚的安格斯·加德纳（Angus Gardner）和来自格鲁吉亚的尼卡·亚马舒凯利（Nika Amashukeli）将完成这次四场测试赛系列赛的裁判阵容，该系列赛将于 8 月 22 日在约翰内斯堡的埃利斯公园球场开赛。
卡利被选为上赛季北安普顿圣徒队与埃克塞特酋长队之间英超决赛的裁判，他在 11 月都柏林的一场比赛中为跳羚队主导了 24-13 击败爱尔兰的胜利。在那场比赛中，他向主队出示了五张牌，因为他们被南非队的接球力量所压制。
卡利在去年 11 月主导了南非队 24-13 击败爱尔兰的比赛
萨姆·普伦德加斯特（Sam Prendergast）、杰克·克劳利（Jack Crowley）、安德鲁·波特（Andrew Porter）和帕迪·麦卡锡（Paddy McCarthy）都被罚入禁区，而詹姆斯·瑞安（James Ryan）则被出示红牌罚下 20 分钟。
卡利的判罚引发了批评。然而，前国际裁判欧文·多伊尔（Owen Doyle）为其表现进行了辩护。
“心底里说，很难因为这次失败而责怪卡利，”多伊尔在《爱尔兰时报》中写道。“虽然双方都在拼抢，但爱尔兰在被擒抱时对球的保护非常频繁，纯粹是老式的‘封堵’（sealing-off），剥夺了客队争夺球权的机会。”
“任何认为我们在点球次数上吃亏的想法也是错误的。卡利对南非队判罚了 13 次，对爱尔兰队判罚了 18 次，其中六次发生在接球时间，一次为点球试球。”
桑尼·比尔·威廉姆斯（Sonny Bill Williams） 他曾入选 2016 年奥运会最终排名第五的新西兰队。 胡安·伊姆霍夫（Juan Imhoff） 这名边锋也参加了里约奥运会，当时他的 Racing 92 队友利奥内·纳卡拉瓦（Leone Nakarawa）为斐济赢得了金牌。 詹姆斯·戴维斯（James Davies） 他在 2016 年随英国队获得银牌，随后在斯嘉丽队赢得了 Pro 12 冠军。 切斯林·科尔比（Cheslin Kolbe） 他在 2016 年获得奥运铜牌，随后随南非队赢得了两届世界杯。 萨穆·克雷维（Samu Kerevi） 曾是 2021 年东京奥运会四分之一决赛中失利的澳大利亚队的一员。 雨果·基南（Hugo Keenan） 他代表爱尔兰参加了 2024 年奥运会，最终排名第六。 马克·纳瓦夸尼塔瓦塞（Mark Nawaqanitawase） 这位澳大利亚人在两年前以微弱差距错失奖牌。 安托万·杜庞（Antoine Dupont） 这位半卫在 2024 年地主场球迷面前激励法国队赢得了奥运金牌。
波洛克（Pollock）如果想要追随杜庞的脚步，可能不得不抽出时间离开北安普顿俱乐部的比赛。
他们仍有可能通过在 2027 年的三场大决赛中进入前四名，直接获得洛杉矶奥运会的资格，这将是一个非凡的弱者逆袭故事。否则，他们需要赢得一场欧洲资格赛或洲际重新选拔赛。
除非他被直接空降到奥运会，这将需要他取代另一名可能帮助确保资格的球员的位置；否则，波洛克可能需要缺席 2028 年 7 月前的一整年中，部分俱乐部或国家队的 15 人制比赛。
但这是有可能的。来自伦斯特队和爱尔兰队的雨果·基南在精英七人制比赛中经验丰富，他在 2024 年在两种赛制之间兼顾时间，并缺席了一场对阵跳羚队的夏季测试赛。杜庞在同一赛季中也离开了 15 人制比赛，跳过了该赛季的六国赛，以帮助法国队在主场奥运会之前的世界七人制系列赛中夺冠。法国队还赢得了 2023-24 年的大决赛。对于图卢兹队来说，这笔交易变得更诱人，因为杜庞参加 2023 年世界杯以及随后的
年度奥运会使他们获得了高达 €400,000（约 £343,000）的薪资帽豁免，而不是常规 15 人制国际赛能获得的 €180,000。
关于波洛克是否可参赛的讨论需要在英国七人制队、北安普顿队和英格兰队之间进行，并且可能会严重影响他在后两个组织中的收入。
波洛克从圣徒队每年赚取约 £150,000，加上他与英格兰队签署的增强版精英球员小队合同带来的额外 £150,000，但自信的赫恩显然在争取加薪。他称波洛克为一名“百万美元级别的球员”，并暗示关于合同续签的讨论正在进行中。
苏格兰击败了斐济，而迪克森在法国击败澳大利亚的比赛中担任裁判。
阿马舒凯利负责监督上个月苏格兰在阿根廷的胜利，而加德纳则负责处理在圣地亚哥德埃斯特罗之间，美洲狮队与英格兰队之间那场气氛紧张且充满争议的比赛。后一场比赛出现了 7 张黄牌，创下了测试赛的记录。
阿根廷飞翼托马斯·阿尔博诺兹在英格兰以 31-24 获胜后，因在赛末与加德纳争执而被指控不当行为。在比赛最后一次进攻中，一次阿根廷队的达阵在 TMO 审核后被判定无效。
“北安普顿必须意识到他们拥有什么样的球员，”赫恩说。“说可能有些球员更稳定，或者更好，或者怎么都行，这都没问题，但没有哪个球员能像他这样，对俱乐部的底线产生无可质疑且不可否认的影响。”
“亨利·波洛克带动了季票的销售。亨利·波洛克让观众填满了座位。亨利·波洛克提升了 TNT 或任何播出平台的收视率。亨利·波洛克能带动球衣销售，对吧？这就是区别所在。”
“所以你实际上可以为拥有亨利·波洛克在队中而赋予一个经济价值，无论亨利自己的要求如何，这一点必须被认可。他不能在目前的薪资水平下留在俱乐部。”
缺席另一项 大满贯赛事
（接自后页）
艾玛·拉杜卡努将此次伤情描述为“小腿不适”，她自“红土赛季末期”以来一直对其进行管理。
因此，艾玛·拉杜卡努缺席了在东本恩举行的WTA赛事，随后在温布尔登赛事前夕宣布退出比赛。
“我尽了一切努力尝试站在起跑线上，但在最后一次扫描后，我一直在管理的不适已发展为压力性骨折，医疗建议我停止强行参赛，”艾玛·拉杜卡努在6月28日的声明中表示。
M
伊恩·惠特尔 芝加哥
周二晚上，目光穿过笼罩在曼哈顿天际线的低垂云层，凝视东河彼岸，你勉强能分辨出帝国大厦的顶端——那里亮起了红灯，以纪念在布鲁克林对岸举行的庆祝活动中推出的一套利物浦新球衣。
新任主教练安多尼·伊拉奥拉或许正是这样看待他在美国的这两周时光。
他的俱乐部能够征用世界上最著名的建筑之一，足以说明其地位；而数千名在纳什维尔、纽约和芝加哥观看热身赛的美国利物浦球迷，也同样证明了这一点，尽管球队阵容并不完整。
但伊拉奥拉不需要在过去两周内飞行 10,000 英里航程，才能意识到利物浦是全球顶尖的“品牌”之一。他正在寻找一些足球基础问题的答案，而其中许多问题目前就像上周二的曼哈顿一样，被迷雾所笼罩。
首先是世界杯后的后勤问题，这意味着他尚未与关键球员范戴伊克、阿里松、加克波、麦卡利斯特以及新签球员维克多·穆诺斯见面，这些人都没有参加此次巡演。
其次是长期的后防伤病危机：乔·戈梅斯将缺阵约一个月；新将杰雷米·雅克本被计划在周日 4-2 负于利兹联的比赛中出场，但目前尚未恢复健康；而乔瓦尼·莱奥尼在 11 个月前签约后仅出场一次，目前仍未准备好伤愈复出。
此外还缺乏新援签约——仅有雅克和穆诺斯，尽管引进巴黎圣日耳曼翼锋布拉德利·巴尔科拉的进展缓慢。
或许与此相关的是，首席执行官迈克尔·爱德华兹已经离职，体育总监理查德·休斯预计将于下月跟随其后。所有者芬威体育集团 (FSG) 的总裁迈克·戈登周末在芝加哥，预计将扮演更突出的角色，就像他此前与前主教练尤尔根·克洛普合作时取得如此显著成效那样。
另有确认报道称，FSG 将少数股权出售给了一个由阿米特·巴蒂亚领导的财团，以注入资金。
艾伦·巴西将回归 早餐节目 明天上午 6 点起
上方的伊劳拉正面临防守危机，而右侧琼斯与索博斯洛伊之间的小摩擦已被遗忘
但如果在 9 月 1 日之前能签下巴尔科拉并增加一些防守覆盖，利物浦将开始解决伊劳拉在接手这支球队时可能注意到的部分担忧，该球队在今年夏天失去了穆罕默德·萨拉赫、安德鲁·罗伯逊和伊布拉希马·科纳特。
绝大多数在美国的支持者只要能近距离见到自己的偶像就心满意足了，但留在默西赛德郡的核心球迷则在表达他们对极其缓慢的转会窗口的沮丧。这解释了为什么伊劳拉不仅讨厌 8 月，而且认为在人员配置和比赛风格两方面，还需要很多周的时间才能看到“他的”利物浦。
“当教练更换时，这些事情需要一些时间，”伊劳拉说。“我想说在第一天我们就会变得完美，每个人都会到位，但可能不会是这样，我们需要尽可能快地完成这件事。”
“我特别讨厌 8 月，因为你开始了比赛，但你仍然不知道某些球员是否会离开，谁会到来，存在很多不确定性。在有这么多问号的情况下很难组建一支真正的球队，但事实就是这样。每个赛季都一样，我特别期待 9 月 1, 然后，哦是的，这就是我们的现状。”
当然，这次巡演有很多积极方面，伊劳拉甚至在对阵利兹的比赛中找到了一些亮点，在那场比赛中，他的球队将半场 2-0 的领先变成了 4-2 的败绩。
“我认为我们学到了很多东西，”他说。“显然这不是你想要的结果，但我认为这可能是我们踢过的最有用的友谊赛——上半场以积极的方式，下半场以消极的方式。我认为我们从今天学到了很多，我们可以得出好的结论并解决一些问题。”
针对利兹的一些亮点体现在里奥·恩古莫哈身上，他在自己擅长的左翼表现高效。年轻的中场特雷·尼奥尼在片段中闪光，回归世界杯的球员亚历山大·伊萨克、瑞安·格拉文贝赫和弗洛里安·维尔茨也是如此，后者打入了第二球。
新后卫伊费安伊·恩杜奎，18 岁，在对阵利兹时给人留下了深刻印象，并且在整个巡演期间表现出色，但由于他没有获得英国工作许可，本赛季将被租借出去。
在球场外，在美国，俱乐部传奇人物菲尔·汤普森、伊恩·鲁什和罗比·福勒在利物浦的社区和慈善活动中不懈工作，而现役球员则进行了一些团队建设——例如，上周有人看到一组球员利用罕见的闲暇时间在芝加哥购物。
当然，并非一切都尽善尽美。发生了一次非常小的摩擦，柯蒂斯·琼斯在纽约被替换下场后，由于多米尼克·索博斯洛伊将队长臂章交给了科斯塔斯·齐米卡斯而非他，琼斯反应激烈。
这不过是一场小风波，并立即被遗忘了。无论如何，琼斯仍有可能签约国际米兰——这只是他的主教练等待从迷雾中浮现的众多答案之一。
维尼修斯 (Vinícius Jr) 到热刺的 重组，我们的撰稿人 对每家英超俱乐部的 现状给出评价
阿森纳 (arsenal) 他们的转会窗表现如何？起步缓慢，但如果他们能成功签下皇家马德里的维尼修斯 (Vinícius Jr)，则有潜力变得特别（加里·雅各布 [Gary Jacob] 撰文）。这位边锋将与预计从纽卡斯尔联加盟的中场布鲁诺·吉马良斯 (Bruno Guimarães) 一起加入，而阿森纳此前已经签下了左边锋克里斯托斯·措利斯 (Christos Tzolis) 来接替离队的利安德罗·特罗萨德 (Leandro Trossard)。 他们还需要什么？一名多功能的中后卫来填补威廉·萨利巴 (William Saliba) 长期缺阵的空缺，以及解决右后卫的问题，一名顶尖的左边锋，以及可能需要一名前锋——这取决于他们能清理掉哪些球员。
阿斯顿维拉 (aston villa) 他们的转会窗表现如何？失去最佳球员绝不是一个理想的夏季开局，摩根·罗杰斯 (Morgan Rogers) 正前往切尔西（夏洛特·邓克 [Charlotte Duncker] 撰文）。他们打破了俱乐部转会纪录签入了约翰·曼赞比 (Johan Manzambi)，并通过签入拥有英超经验的若昂·戈梅斯 (João Gomes) 进一步加强了中场，但这样足够吗？亚历杭德罗·加纳乔 (Alejandro Garnacho) 带着证明自己的决心加入，乌奈·埃梅里 (Unai Emery) 确实需要他所有的签约都能发挥作用。在埃梅里治下，每次维拉失去关键球员时，他们都能设法适应并重新出发，但这又是另一个重建期——而且这还没算上其他球员潜在的离队。 他们还需要什么？更多的进攻选择，尤其是另一名边锋，同时两个边后卫位置都需要解决。
伯恩茅斯 (bournemouth) 他们的转会窗表现如何？与去年此时几个伯恩茅斯大牌球员离队的情况相比，新主教练马尔科·罗斯 (Marco Rose) 的第一个转会窗较为平静（乔·哈斯顿 [Joe Harston] 撰文）。在接替加盟托特纳姆热刺的中后卫马科斯·塞内西 (Marcos Senesi) 时，他们通过从本菲卡签入 22 岁的安东尼奥·席尔瓦 (António Silva)，在后防线上给予了年轻人更多信任。 他们还需要什么？只要能留住令人印象深刻的进攻线，伯恩茅斯的阵容中似乎没有需要紧急填补的缺口。考虑到在欧洲赛场比赛将带来的额外工作量，加强中场选择可能是明智的。
布伦特福德 (brentford) 他们的转会窗表现如何？到目前为止，对布伦特福德来说是一个理智的转会窗（乔·哈斯顿 [Joe Harston] 撰文）。前锋卡勒姆·威尔逊 (Callum Wilson) 和杰登·安东尼 (Jaidon Anthony) 及时在葡萄牙的季前训练营报到，他们为伊戈尔·蒂亚戈 (Igor Thiago) 和凯文·沙德 (Kevin Schade) 带来了急需的竞争。不过，马马杜·桑加雷 (Mamadou Sangaré) 从朗斯 (Lens) 的转会是一次表态签约，他应当比离队的乔丹·亨德森 (Jordan Henderson) 有显著提升。这名 24 岁的防守型中场在入选法甲赛季最佳阵容后，以 £41.1 million 的俱乐部纪录转会费迁往西伦敦，并放弃了跟随前东家参加欧冠的机会。 他们还需要什么？一个新的左后卫应该是优先考虑的对象。他们目前的选项是里科·亨利 (Rico Henry) 和亚伦·希基 (Aaron Hickey)，但两人都容易受伤，这导致边锋基恩·刘易斯-波特 (Keane Lewis-Potter) 在过去两个赛季的大部分时间里都临时充当边后卫。
布赖顿 & 霍夫阿尔比恩 (brighton & hove albion) 他们的转会窗表现如何？布赖顿再次倾向于潜力股而非成熟球员，在两名边锋——18, 岁的扎多克·约汉纳 (Zadok Yohanna) 和 20 岁的罗德里戈·雷戈 (Rodrigo Rego) 以及 19 岁的后卫卢卡·武什科维奇 (Luka Vuskovic) 身上花费了约 £70 million（汤姆·奥尔纳特 [Tom Allnutt] 撰文）。26, 岁的帕斯卡尔·斯特鲁伊克 (Pascal Struijk)、26, 岁的科斯蒂尼亚 (Costinha) 和 27, 岁的迈克尔·斯沃博达 (Michael Svoboda) 年纪都较大，但只有斯特鲁伊克曾在英超联赛效力。 他们还需要什么？布赖顿的防线看起来很稳固，但上赛季打进 14 球的丹尼·韦尔贝克 (Danny Welbeck) 离队让他们在前场短缺，同时三笘薫 (Kaoru Mitoma) 需要更好的边路替补，尤其是考虑到他在 5 月遭受的严重腿筋受伤。
切尔西 他们的转会窗表现如何？我们上次说切尔西的转会窗很理智是什么时候（汤姆·奥尔努特撰文）？摩根·罗杰斯是一次具有宣言意义的签约，而丹尼·韦尔贝克、乔丹·亨德森和马克斯·拉克鲁瓦看起来则是聪明且目标明确的补充。19 岁的边锋乔瓦尼·昆达是欧洲评价最高的年轻球员之一。 他们还需要什么？如果没有一名顶尖门将，切尔西永远无法赢得英超冠军，而罗伯特·桑切斯能否稳定地达到那个水平仍有待观察。在马克·库库雷利亚离开后，他们还需要一名更具进攻性的左后卫，尤其是如果哈维·阿隆索想要使用翼卫的话。
考文垂城 他们的转会窗表现如何？升级要求加强阵容，老板道格·金强调他们将以“考文垂方式”进行（保罗·乔伊斯撰文）。目前已有三名签约球员：来自伯恩利的卢姆·查欧纳，来自法兰克福的奥雷尔·阿门达，以及从布伦特福德租借并转为永久签约的弗兰克·奥尼埃卡。 他们还需要什么？门将卡尔·拉什沃斯预计将从布莱顿加盟，他上赛季在考文垂租借。不要低估主教练弗兰克·兰帕德的吸引力。切尔西表示，包括考文垂在内的多家俱乐部对米哈伊洛·穆德里克感兴趣。
水晶宫 他们的转会窗表现如何？水晶宫以交易时间极晚而闻名，到目前为止唯一的加盟者是奥斯卡·明格萨，接替了纳撒尼尔·克莱恩（加里·雅各布撰文）。由于有 12 名球员参加了世界杯，季前赛受到了干扰。 他们还需要什么？图卢兹的查理·克雷斯威尔和亚特兰大的奥迪隆·科苏努是接替已加盟切尔西的中后卫马克斯·拉克鲁瓦的选项。易受受伤困扰的富阶宏正处于试训阶段。尤苏夫·福法纳是其中场目标之一，而让-菲利普·马特塔在……之后的未来尚不明确。
四大交易
forward，他已进入合同的最后一年，并告知俱乐部他希望在 1 月份离开。
everton（埃弗顿） 他们的转会窗口表现如何？这是一个缓慢启动的过程，海登·哈克尼（Hayden Hackney）和泰里克·乔治（Tyrique George）被加入到大卫·莫耶斯（David Moyes）的阵容中（保罗·乔伊斯撰文）。 他们还需要什么？防守型中场克里斯蒂安·诺尔高（Christian Norgaard）即将接受体检，以敲定从阿森纳转会，而凯尔特人的右后卫艾利斯泰尔·约翰斯顿（Alistair Johnston）是一个目标。杰克·格拉利什（Jack Grealish）可能会从曼彻斯特城回归，进行第二次租借。
fulham（富勒姆） 他们的转会窗口表现如何？阿尔瓦罗·阿尔贝洛亚（Álvaro Arbeloa）与皇家马德里之间的联系似乎已经在富勒姆的业务中发挥作用，昨晚确认引入了年轻天才冈萨罗·加西亚（Gonzalo García），22 岁，以及塞萨尔·帕拉西奥斯（César Palacios），21 岁（乔·哈斯顿撰文）。他们可能是未来令人兴奋的选择，但关于他们是否准备好进入英超联赛的情况知之甚少。 他们还需要什么？劳尔·希门尼斯（Raúl Jiménez）和哈里·威尔逊（Harry Wilson）是最显著的离队球员，虽然加西亚可能是合适的前场替代者，但他们应该寻找另一名右边锋来与奥斯卡·鲍勃（Oscar Bobb）竞争。
ipswich town（伊普斯威奇镇） 他们的转会窗口表现如何？ 加里·奥尼尔（Gary O’Neil）的俱乐部在转会窗口中确实非常活跃（乔·哈斯顿撰文）。上赛季在莱斯特城给人留下深刻印象的边锋阿卜杜勒·法塔武（Abdul Fatawu）看起来是最令人兴奋的新援。伊萨·迪奥普（Issa Diop）的到来将为他们的后防线提供一些急需的英超经验。 他们还需要什么？他们的中场无疑是一个弱点，但这是他们试图解决的问题，包括富勒姆的萨萨·卢基奇（Sasa Lukic）和伯恩利的弗洛伦蒂诺-路易斯（Florentino Luis）在内的几名防守型中场被传出与波特曼路球场有浓厚的联系。
leeds united（利兹联） 他们的转会窗口表现如何？ 这对于利兹联来说可能是一个非常好的窗口（马丁·哈迪撰文）。他们希望以 £45 million 签下詹姆斯·特拉福德（James Trafford），这应该会被证明是一次极佳的交易。特拉福德是英格兰国家队的候任门将。哈里·威尔逊在一个出色的赛季后从富勒姆自由转会加入，在防守端，他们用波斯尼亚人塔里克·穆哈雷莫维奇（Tarik Muharemovic）替换了帕斯卡尔·斯特鲁伊克（Pascal Struijk）。 他们还需要什么？与大多数俱乐部一样，利兹联需要更强的火力，前锋仍然是一个目标，以协助并与多米尼克·卡尔弗特-刘因（Dominic Calvert-Lewin）和卢卡斯·恩梅查（Lukas Nmecha）竞争。
上赛季 (Paul Joyce 撰写)。 西班牙边锋 Víctor Muñoz 从奥萨苏纳加盟，Jérémy Jacquet 在 1 月份从雷恩签约后已报到。 他们还需要什么？一名边锋，尽管巴黎圣日耳曼目前对 Bradley Barcola 的估价 £145 million 过高；此外，考虑到 Conor Bradley 因伤持续缺阵，他们还需要一名右后卫。
曼彻斯特城 他们的转会窗口表现如何？签下 Elliot Anderson 是一次成功的交易，但随着 Enzo Maresca 寻求为这支在赛季末失去大量经验的球队引入新面孔，进度陷入了停滞 (Charlotte Duncker 撰写)。Rodri 依然留在俱乐部，在受到皇家马德里关注后，这是一个巨大的积极因素，但
英超联赛净支出
来源：transfermarkt.com
在转会窗口的最后一个月里，需要开展一系列密集活动。 他们还需要什么？前锋、右后卫和另一名中场球员在 Maresca 的愿望清单上。如果 Rodri 真的加盟皇马，他们需要一名替代者；而 Geronimo Rulli 正在成为门将 James Trafford 最可能的替代人选，后者即将离队。
曼彻斯特联 他们的转会窗口表现如何? 在错过 Elliot Anderson 后，联队迅速调整方向，签入了 Youri Tielemans 和 Andrey Santos，但两人都没能达到曼城新中场球员的水准 (Charlotte Duncker 撰写)。在规划欧冠赛季时，他们的人数仍然不足，但仍有时间解决这个问题。 他们还需要什么？在 Manuel Ugarte 受伤后，可能会再签一名中场球员，且他们需要提升整个阵容的深度。一名左路球员（边锋或全背风）在名单上，同时还需要另一名前锋来增强前线选择。
纽卡斯尔联 他们的转会窗口表现如何？到底该从哪里说起 (Martin Hardy 撰写)？主教练 (Eddie Howe) 和两名最佳球员 (Anthony Gordon 和 Sandro Tonali)
Martin Hardy
已经离去，而另一名球员 (Bruno Guimarães) 正在渴望离开。
但接着看新加入的人员：新任主教练 Matthias Jaissle 以及五名球员，全部年轻且缺乏经验，其中两人还是门将。 纽卡斯尔是即将成为本赛季的惊喜，还是在面对保级战？没人知道。
他们还需要什么？他们确实需要尽快解决 Guimarães 的局面，以避免重复去年夏天 Alexander Isak 的肥皂剧。他们绝对需要一名右后卫，可能还需要一名中锋，但这将意味着 Nick Woltemade, Yoane Wissa 和 William Osula 之间有人离队。
诺丁汉森林 他们的转会窗口表现如何？虽然失去 Elliot Anderson 这样质量的球员令人失望，但这不可避免，且替代计划已经启动 (Charlotte Duncker 撰写)。森林队迅速行动签入了 Xaver Schlager（Oliver Glasner 曾与其共事），并寻求增加中场深度。仍有位置需要加强，但俱乐部似乎已有计划。 他们还需要什么？随着 Glasner 试图加强中后卫位置，Ousmane Diomande 看来即将加盟。此外，另一名中场、一名翼后卫和一名前锋也在他们的购物清单上。
3600 万英镑 -1.04 亿英镑 4900 万英镑 6600 万英镑 3600 万英镑
2.2 亿英镑 4100 万英镑 -5700 万英镑 5600 万英镑 -300 万英镑 -800 万英镑 7800 万英镑 1000 万英镑 8900 万英镑 1.3 亿英镑
桑德兰 他们的转会窗表现如何？成功抵御切尔西的兴趣并留住格拉尼特·扎卡是俱乐部的一个关键时刻（马丁·哈迪撰文）。然而到目前为止，唯一加盟的是 34 岁的比利时后卫托马斯·穆尼尔。面对 50 多年来首次欧洲赛事，雷吉斯·勒布里斯需要新球员。 他们还需要什么？俱乐部希望在本次转会窗大举行动，左后卫和翼卫在购物清单中名列前茅。他们可能还需要另一名中锋。布赖恩·布罗贝经历了一个出色的赛季，但仅凭七个英超联赛进球就成为了俱乐部的最佳射手。
4600 万英镑m -2300 万英镑m -1.06 亿英镑m -1900 万英镑m
1.59 亿英镑m
托特纳姆热刺 他们的转会窗表现如何？对于热刺来说，这是一个引人注目的夏天，但上赛季的主要弱点是创造力，而这一领域仍有待解决（汤姆·奥尔纳特撰文）。桑德罗·托纳利和马特乌斯·费尔南德斯是中场的极佳补充，而扬·保罗·范赫克、马科斯·塞内西和安德鲁·罗伯逊增强了防线的强度和深度。就目前情况来看，热刺在进攻三区仍然显得不足。 他们还需要什么？两到三名具备真实质量而非潜力的前场球员，包括一名能够在左翼改变比赛局面并贡献 10 个以上进球的球员。如果多米尼克·索兰基的身体状态不可靠，热刺还需要一名经验丰富的前锋。
被告知不要 出席主场比赛
James Beal 调查编辑 Shanti Das 高级调查记者
在《泰晤士报》与 BBC Panorama 针对性行为不端指控的调查之后，西汉姆联共同所有者大卫·苏利文（David Sullivan）被建议不要出席俱乐部的主场比赛。
由于担心可能引发球迷不安，伦敦体育场的运营商建议俱乐部让 77 岁的苏利文不要前往比赛现场。此外，体育场运营商要求在苏利文计划访问前提前通知，以便实施额外的安全和运行措施。然而，西汉姆联在周六主场对阵朴茨茅斯的联赛杯（Carabao Cup）比赛前告知伦敦体育场，他们预计这位商人仍将出席球场比赛。
苏利文于 6 月辞去西汉姆联董事及共同主席一职，时间就在《泰晤士报》与 BBC Panorama 联合调查结果公布前不久。他强烈否认所有指控。三名女性指控他利用作为《体育报》（Sport newspapers）所有者的权力与她们发生关系。另外四名女性指控苏利文存在剥削和捕食行为。苏利文断然否认所有指控，称其“事实错误且完全虚假”。他表示保留所有法律权利。
对吉马良斯 £75m 的报价
纽卡斯尔联拒绝了阿森纳对布鲁诺·吉马良斯（Bruno Guimarães）的初步报价，据信该报价在 7500 万英镑 million 左右。
该报价于周日提出，是两家俱乐部就这位 28 岁巴西中场球员进行的首次接触。纽卡斯尔坚称他们不想出售队长，但据信阿森纳认为转会将会达成，已计划在本周早些时候进行体检。据认为，如果纽卡斯尔收到更高的报价，交易即可完成。
吉马良斯昨天从巴西飞往西班牙，并在拉曼加（La Manga）与纽卡斯尔的队友会合，进行季前训练。
接后页
行动，并要求保留所有与名为“国际足联前行企业”（Fifa Forward Enterprises, FFE）的计划相关的文件和信息。该计划旨在将国际足联赛事的股份出售给私人投资者。
这封信函的副本已由《泰晤士报》查阅，信中称：“欧足联在此正式通知，针对国际足联提出的 FFE 计划及其所有相关事项，欧足联正积极考虑采取法律行动、仲裁和 / 或监管投诉。”
针对任何虚假或诽谤性的指控。他仍然是西汉姆联最大的股东。《泰晤士报》和 BBC Panorama 的调查还透露，苏利文自 2023 年起被施加了保障限制，禁止他与西汉姆联的青年队和女队接触。在英足协收到一项针对他的历史指控后，苏利文被实施了这些限制。
苏利文表示该指控是虚假的。伦敦体育场随后致信西汉姆联，对未被告知该保障限制表示关切。伦敦体育场的一位发言人昨天表示，“在赛季末看到有关俱乐部处理一项保障事项的媒体报道后”，该体育场“寻求进一步信息，以确保能履行自身的保障职责”。
该发言人称，西汉姆联告知他们，该“事项已通过调查，且俱乐部认为苏利文先生在体育场出现并不会带来持续的保障风险”。该发言人补充道：“然而，考虑到部分观众可能出现示威和反社会行为，我们已建议俱乐部不要让他出席。”
相关人员曾尝试联系苏利文寻求评论，而俱乐部则拒绝置评。
训练营。吉马良斯已向纽卡斯尔高层暗示其希望加盟英超冠军球队。
纽卡斯尔昨天上午确认签下了来自布拉加的捷克共和国门将卢卡斯·霍尼切克，转会费据信为 £25.7 百万。
与此同时，升入顶级联赛的考文垂城是表达了对切尔西球员米哈伊洛·穆德里克感兴趣的俱乐部之一。
在 2023 年法兰克·兰帕德担任切尔西临时主教练期间，这名边锋在考文垂现任经理兰帕德的率领下出场了八次。
据信，除三家欧洲俱乐部外，另有两家英超俱乐部就穆德里克的可用性进行了询问。
持有、保管或控制。这些义务独立于您或您的组织所维持的任何内部保留政策，并优先于任何原本适用的常规文件销毁或删除政策。”
信中还点名了 14 位高管，包括因凡蒂诺和国际足联全球足球发展负责人阿尔塞纳·温格，他们应当“具体保留其持有、保管或控制的所有此类材料”。国际足联秘书长马蒂亚斯·格拉夫斯特伦和独立委员会主任马里奥·加拉沃蒂也在名单之列。
Tuesday August 4 2026 / the times 体育
竞争对手计划 罢免因凡蒂诺
Martyn Ziegler 年度最佳体育新闻记者
一个旨在推翻吉安尼·因凡蒂诺（Gianni Infantino）的联盟已经形成，领导者们计划“使国际足联（Fifa）瘫痪”，并且准备在如果他拒绝辞去主席职务的情况下，举办他们自己的国际赛事。
在将世界杯股份出售给私人投资者的计划崩溃后，因凡蒂诺一直拼命试图争取其旧权力基地的支持。这位瑞士-意大利律师目前面临来自对手的强烈压力，要求其辞职。
欧足联（Uefa）、中北美及加勒比海足联（Concacaf）和亚洲足联（AFC）的领导人决心罢免因凡蒂诺。消息人士称，如果他坚持掌权并在3月份寻求第四任期的连任，他们将采取多种策略。
因凡蒂诺的对手计划实施“治理抵制”——拒绝参加国际足联理事会或委员会会议，或拒绝批准国际足联的决定——并准备建立竞争性的国际赛事。欧足联已有一份全球‘欧国联’（Nations League）的蓝图，该蓝图于 2017 年由其委任制定，但从未被使用。
自《泰晤士报》在周二披露计划出售股份的消息以来，56 岁的因凡蒂诺在 211 个会员国中仅获得了 15 份支持声明，这加剧了要求他在选举前辞职的呼声。
一名消息人士表示：“大家都非常坚定地认为他必须离开，否则我们将采取一切必要步骤 [将其撤出权力中心]。这包括未来的国际赛事——南美大国是更愿意与法国或西班牙比赛，还是与黎巴嫩或吉布提比赛？”
“每个人都非常坚定，现在没有退路。”
如果大多数成员被说服要求因凡蒂诺辞职，可能还会出现要求召开国际足联理事会紧急会议的呼吁。
在关于其世界杯出售计划的风波之后，包括英格兰和威尔士在内的许多欧洲协会已经撤回了对因凡蒂诺连任的支持信。
英足总（FA）的这一举动是在其周六发表声明之后做出的，该声明呼吁“对国际足联的领导层和治理进行全面且强有力的审查，以确保这项全球运动在透明的情况下运行”。
威尔士足球协会（FAW）在声明中表示：“威尔士足球协会特此确认，撤回对吉安尼·因凡蒂诺先生竞选 2027–2031 任期国际足联主席的支持。”
“近期在良好治理、流程、领导力、价值观、利益相关者管理、沟通和正确判断方面的失败，使我们处于这样一个立场：因凡蒂诺先生已失去了威尔士足球协会对其继续掌舵世界足球的信心。未能将足球的最佳利益放在首位，是我们无法接受的失败。”
与此同时，欧足联已通过其常驻美国的律师向因凡蒂诺发送了一封法律信函，警告称其正在考虑采取法律行动。
Times Crossword 29,612 横向 纵向 昨日答案 29,611
随着乔丹·亨德森从布伦特福德加盟切尔西，我们的专家将对每支英超球队的夏季转会操作进行点评，见第 54-55 页
1 作家的第二份副本——以及编辑的第一份 (6) 4 一名质量可疑的配角，差点在剧院中死去？ (7) 9 过去向伙计们提供的乡村地址？ (5) 10 烘焙大赛节目中的一项小技巧？ (5,4) 11 开始前往尼日利亚 (9) 12 离去，为咖啡预留时间 (5) 13 被赏识的带有花园的场所，围绕十一月 (4) 14 伊顿参与了吸引人的欺诈 (10) 18 当国王回归时，在紫禁城中重新开始的机会 (6,4) 20 拒绝缩短的铁路分支 (4) 23 细胞破坏者，仅 Sing Sing 监狱将其囚禁 (5) 24 愚蠢的傻瓜与病毒纠缠在一起 (9) 25 在餐厅的冷空气中庆祝 (9) 26 来自非洲革命核心的演说 (5) 27 语言的混乱，在 CHRIS LEE / CHELSEA FC / GETTY IMAGES 之间
1 一种凝乳奶，品脱大小且没有顶部，能迅速升高 (9) 2 配有鱼子酱的沙拉道菜？ (7) 3 据报道，一名被宣布为非法的人禁止了该事物 (6) 4 充足的口味，没有盐的顶部 (5) 5 弗洛里的内衣并不完全是白色的 (8) 6 在加热区域穿着套装很热？ (7) 7 小额捐款确保了共和党人的头饰 (5) 8 在葡萄酒之后对猪肉派不屑一顾 (8) 15 鸭子和老鹰被大多数适合治疗的场所接受 (8) 16 罗里在岩石嶙峋的戴尔斯地区徒步 (9) 17 一块木材，以此命名某种在水中漂浮的东西 (8) 19 矮小的英国树木，并非完全圆润 (7) 21 在格什温的开场戏中延伸一个数字 (7) 22 早先未能打开的窗户钥匙 (6) 23 伦敦警察厅最初引入
对年迈四人组的信心，对于英格兰队在灰烬杯中可能是个好消息
退出美网公开赛
汤姆·克肖 (Tom Kershaw) 网球特派记者
艾玛·拉杜卡努将因右小腿压力性骨折而缺席美网公开赛。
这位英国排名第 1 的球员在 6 月份因伤在温布尔登最后一刻退出，此前在锦标赛筹备期间，有人发现她穿着矫形靴。
拉杜卡努一直在瑞士圣莫里茨的一家五星级度假村中康复，并在此发布了一段自己仍穿着矫形靴进行发球练习的视频。但据了解，压力性骨折的性质——据报道为 4 级压力骨折，可能需要 8 到 16 周才能痊愈——这意味着拉杜卡努的医疗团队已经建议这位 23 岁的球员放弃整个美国硬地赛程，该赛程以美网公开赛结束。该赛事将于本月底开始。
在拉杜卡努 18 岁以资格赛选手身份在法拉盛公园夺冠 5 年后，这一消息又是一次打击。这位世界排名第 49 的球员在巡回赛生活的压力下身体多次崩溃，反复遭受伤病困扰，包括 2023 年在两个手腕和左踝进行了手术，本赛季也不例外。
拉杜卡努在澳大利亚公开赛第二轮出局后与教练弗朗西斯科·罗伊格 (Francisco Roig) 分道扬镳，随后在 2 月份进入了克卢日-纳波卡站的决赛。那是拉杜卡努获得大满贯冠军后的首个 WTA 巡回赛级别决赛，但她在罗马尼亚感染了胸部感染，随后病毒后症状导致她缺席赛场 10 周。
拉杜卡努与安德鲁·理查森 (Andrew Richardson) 重聚——正是这位教练曾指引她在纽约走向辉煌——因为她试图找回青少年时期更为激进的打法。这一组合在女王杯开始取得成效，拉杜卡努在决赛负于多娜·维基奇 (Donna Vekic) 之前击败了两名排名前 20 的球员。但在 6 天内进行 5 场比赛的损耗加剧了什么
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将达成和解——如果他的 家人有所“改善”。嗯
这个酷暑之夏，同时也是一场家庭内斗升级的夏天。拉姆塞-皮蒂家族与皮蒂家族、佩尔茨-贝克汉姆家族与贝克汉姆家族在过去两个月里互不相让，偶尔还会受到另一组领跑者——萨塞克斯公爵夫妇对阵温莎王朝——的挑战。战况分布相当均匀，但截至发稿时，亚当·拉姆塞-皮蒂凭借一份声明略微领先。如果危机处理有相关课程，这份声明完全可以成为一场名为《如何不道歉》研讨会的教材。
几天前，在接受《卫报》采访被问及与家人和解的可能性时，拉姆塞-皮蒂这样说道：“对我而言，作为一个基督徒，必须有宽恕。这并不意味着你必须忘记，但宽恕需要时间。我不是说情况不会好转，但它必须建立在我觉得他们作为一个人已经有所进步的基础上……”
如果你读完这段话没有笑出声来，那你大概就是皮蒂家族的一员。不仅是那种居高临下的语气，而且他居然要扮演那个评判对方是否“进步”到足够程度的法官，这不禁让人怀疑拉姆塞-皮蒂是否和哈里王子请了同一个心理治疗师。而我们这些围观的公众，现在已经是家庭内斗领域的专家了，请相信我们：这是一个深坑，将把我们一直拖到明年圣诞节之后。
这些家庭内斗中几乎接连不断的摩擦，有趣之处在于，我们都在真心地等待某个时刻——由那个（较年轻的男性）伸出友谊之手并决定休战。我们确信这一刻终将到来，因为那些争议点——关于婚纱选择的争吵（佩尔茨-贝克汉姆 / 贝克汉姆）；关于新郎母亲在婚礼上该穿什么的争吵（拉姆塞-皮蒂 / 皮蒂）；关于伴娘丝袜的争吵（萨塞克斯 / 温莎）——与一辈子的父母关爱、家庭记忆以及与兄弟姐妹及其子女疏远的未来相比，简直琐碎得令人窒息。
“Skippy”（哈里）；“我很难过，照顾过我第一个孩子的母亲，竟然看不到两个月后就要出生的那个”（拉姆塞-皮蒂）。我们一直在等待突破——一个让疏远的子女无法忽视、能迅速让他们回归家庭的事件——然后这些事件一个接一个地出现又消失：大卫·贝克汉姆被封爵、世界杯、霍莉·拉姆塞-皮蒂怀孕——甚至哈里家族中两起癌症诊断都没能化解敌意。
现在，真正的和解开始像是一场幻想，因为在所有这些内斗中，疏远的儿子在考虑恢复正常关系之前，都在寻求对方的忏悔。每一次示好和橄榄枝最终都变成了掩饰的威胁。“证明你已经进步了，我们再谈宽恕。”“解决好我的安保问题，我们会考虑借用你们的一座宫殿。”“停止给我发生日祝福，停止发布我小时候的照片，然后我就……”好吧，事实上佩尔茨-贝克汉姆阵营目前还没有发出任何希望之信。至少到目前为止还没有。
哈里最近一次包裹在铁丝网里的橄榄枝，是请求国王在明年的伯明翰无敌勇士运动会（Invictus Games）舞台上与他并肩而立。这个邀请在目前看来，听起来更像是又一项要求。他本可以私下提出请求，但以这种方式宣布——使其成为一个在“支持他”与“不支持他”之间的公开选择——更符合这种带有目的性的新式和解风格。其传达的信息是：“这对我很重要，我应该获得尊重，而这就是你们可以展现尊重的方式。”就和解尝试而言，这听起来非常像拉姆塞-皮蒂所说的“当你变得符合我的喜好时，我们可以谈谈”。
这些男人似乎还没有意识到，他们自己可能也需要道歉。他们想要和平，但前提是对方的家人必须承认完全错了并表示忏悔。这两个人除了都觉得自己占据道德高地（甚至认为上帝站在他们一边）之外，共同点在于他们看起来都像个强壮的巨婴。你想说：闭嘴吧。别再跟我们聊你的感受了。别再试图地占据最后一句话。回家给你的父母 / 姐妹 / 兄弟打个电话吧。
我们仍然对拉姆塞-皮蒂（Ramsay-Peaty）对他母亲怀有怎样的怨恨感到好奇。难道真的只是因为她拒绝在他的婚礼上按照指定的造型出现（其实就是被强行拔高阶层，被要求看起来更富有、更苗条、更精致）吗？传闻皮蒂一家（除了他的姐姐）在婚礼当天缺席的原因就是如此——他们不能接受卡罗琳·皮蒂（Caroline Peaty）被改造得像个经过打磨的拉姆塞圈子宾客那样。
无论如何，回到另一场巨大的争端：布鲁克林（Brooklyn）与尼古拉（Nicola）以及布鲁克林父母之间的矛盾。在过去一个月里，情况一度趋于平静，但周末时，当布鲁克林和尼古拉在尼斯地点的埃尔顿（Elton）游艇上与这位“叔叔”——布鲁克林的教父——见面时，那台“被动攻击机器”再次启动了。推测埃尔顿叔叔已经得到了他老友们的许可，可以保持沟通渠道畅通。也许他身上装着麦克风，他们所有的对话都被直接传到了贝克汉姆一家在伊比萨岛的游艇上。尽管如此，这为“如何不搭建桥梁”学校提供了更多素材。而且我不得不说，布鲁克林在这个领域展现出了相当的潜力。
与那些让她身心俱疲的 “公众审视”
克莱尔·科恩 (Claire Cohen) 探讨其繁忙的日程以及对其体重的批评是否是原因所在。
拥有 10 首 No 1 单曲、6 张 No 1 专辑、一次奥斯卡提名、三项格莱美奖以及 Instagram 上 363 million 名忠实追随者的 Ariana Grande，你可能会认为她正处于权力的绝对巅峰。然而，这位 33 岁的歌手（她从 8 岁起就开始表演，目前正处于 Eternal Sunshine 国际巡演之中——本月将在 O2 体育馆进行为期十晚的收官演出）刚刚宣布退出在伦敦备受期待的剧场首秀。
“Ariana 将在公众视野中退后一步，”一名发言人在告知《People》杂志关于 Grande 决定退出斯蒂芬·桑德海姆 (Stephen Sondheim) 的作品《乔治与公园的星期日》(Sunday in the Park with George) 复排剧时表示，该剧原定于明年在巴比肯中心 (Barbican) 开演。他们补充道，她正在“从面向公众的工作和露面中获得一次非常值得的休息，因为这些活动导致了无休止且持续的公众审视”。
哎呀，所以是我们的错吗？当然，近年来关于 Grande 体重的讨论（并非全部出于真诚的关心）一直是她职业生涯的背景音，且经常掩盖了她的作品。就在本周，英国模特查理·霍华德 (Charli Howard) ——她曾公开谈论自己与进食障碍的斗争——在歌曲《Petal》的音乐视频发布后批评了 Grande 的管理团队。
“我认为从道德和资本主义的角度来看，在一个人需要精神医疗帮助和住院治疗时发布这些视频和专辑，绝对是令人震惊的，”霍华德在 Instagram 上写道，她担心一些容易受影响的年轻粉丝（他们自称 Arianators）将她辩护为“健康”或仅仅是失去了“婴儿肥”。“相关团队应该感到绝对的羞愧。”
需要强调的是，Grande 并没有说她的隐退与健康有关，且霍华德在发布该帖子后收到了死亡威胁。关于这位歌手外貌变化的争论如此激烈——一方是推测如此个人且私密之事的伦理问题，另一方则是完全不发声的关怀义务。
在 2023 年，Grande 在 TikTok 上发布了一段罕见的 3 分钟视频，请求停止此类揣测。“健康和美丽有很多不同的样子……你永远不知道一个人正在经历什么。即使你是出于爱和关心的出发点，那个人可能正在努力解决这个问题，或者拥有一个支持系统在共同努力。所以，请温柔地对待彼此，以及对待你们自己，”她说道。
我们确实知道的是，这位《魔法坏女巫》(Wicked) 的主演度过了艰难的几年。2017 年 5 月，当她在曼彻斯特体育馆 (Manchester Arena) 一场售罄的演出中刚唱完返场曲时，萨尔曼·阿贝迪 (Salman Abedi) 在门厅引爆了炸弹，导致 22 名音乐会观众死亡，包括 8 岁的萨菲·鲁索斯 (Saffie Roussos)，另有 200 多人受伤。两周后，由该歌手组织的在老特拉福德 (Old Trafford) 举行的慈善音乐会为受害者家属筹集了超过 £10 million 的资金。Grande 在纪念他们演唱《Over the Rainbow》时哽咽抽泣。
在多年试图支持他保持清醒后，面对他因酗酒而崩溃，她却在社交媒体上被喷子指责导致他复吸并死亡，被迫关闭了 Instagram 账号的评论功能。真是神奇，怎么总是女方的错，不是吗？
当时，格兰德在一段闪电恋爱后与喜剧演员及好莱坞连续约会者皮特·戴维森订婚（两人于 2018 年 5 月开始约会，据报道在 6 月决定结婚），这段感情包括了情侣纹身和一只名为 Piggy Smallz 的宠物猪。但在米勒去世一个月后，这段关系结束了，期间格兰德取消了在《周六夜现场》和一场癌症公益晚宴上的亮相。她的代表表示：“鉴于过去几年的变故，亚莉安娜将花一些急需的时间来治愈和修复。”
她那一时期的采访讲述了一个年轻女性在挣扎的故事。“我的焦虑本身也焦虑。我一直有焦虑症。我从未真正谈论过它，因为我以为每个人都有，”她在 2018 年告诉《英国版 Vogue》。
虽然她一直拒绝将曼彻斯特袭击事件与自身联系起来——“这不是我的创伤，是那些家庭的创伤，”她在 2019 年告诉《美国版 Vogue》——但她确实承认在事件后患上了创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）。
“我还有很多事情需要自己消化，可能永远无法准备好去谈论，”她告诉《Vogue》。“很长一段时间里，我不想和任何人谈论任何事情，因为我不想思考任何事情。我只想把自己埋在工作中，不关注现实中的那些东西，因为 I couldn’t believe it was real。”
这家公司，她在佛罗里达州一个高端门禁社区长大。她在八岁时父母分开，之后一度与父亲疏远。她曾谈到，在二十出头时，她不得不说服父母和解并恢复友好关系。
年轻的格兰德全身心投入到表演中。在地方剧院演出多年后，她在 14, 岁时获得了百老汇音乐剧 13, 中的一个角色，随后在尼克频道（Nickelodeon）的青少年剧集《胜利之光》（Victorious）和《山姆与凯特》（Sam & Cat）中饰演凯特·瓦伦丁，这使她成为了明星，并拥有了一批非常忠诚且热情的年轻粉丝群体。
在业余时间（我想你可能会问，她哪有业余时间），她拍摄了自己的翻唱视频上传到 YouTube——比如翻唱惠特尼·休斯顿、阿黛尔、玛丽亚·凯莉的作品——最终在 2013 年 20. 岁时发行了首张专辑《Yours Truly》。该专辑在美国公告牌（Billboard）200 专辑榜上首次亮相即夺冠（No 1）；此后，她一直以极其紧张的节奏工作，推出了八张专辑且全部获得白金认证，并四次在世界范围内巡演。
更不用说自曼彻斯特袭击事件以来，她打破了典型流行歌手不参与政治的立场，公开支持枪支管控，大声支持 LGBTQ+ 权益，并于 6 月要求白宫停止使用她的歌曲，因为白宫此前使用她的歌曲来宣传其移民政策。“请不要在与这种野蛮、不人道、令人憎恶的胡闹行为相关的场合使用我的音乐，”她在政府的 TikTok 帖文下评论道，该帖文显示边境管制人员正在给人们戴上手铐。
不知为何，她还抽时间在两部《魔法坏女巫》（Wicked）电影中饰演格林达——并因此获得了奥斯卡最佳女配角提名——这两部电影是在 2022 年接连拍摄的。艰苦的拍摄计划（期间格兰德移居英国）带来的压力，被认为是她 2024 年与道尔顿·戈麦斯离婚的部分原因。戈麦斯是一名房地产经纪人，两人三年前在加州蒙特西托举行了一场私密的疫情后婚礼（他们签署了婚前协议：他获得了 £1.25 million 支付款）。
2023, 年 7 月，随着两人分手的消息公开，格兰德被揭露在与《魔法坏女巫》的合作演员伊森·斯莱特约会。由于斯莱特在同年与妻子莉莉·杰（其新生儿之母）分手的时机问题，这段关系迅速引发争议。自然而然地，格兰德承受的批评比斯莱特更多。这对情侣保持低调，极少共同公开露面，据报道在今年悄然分手。
这压力太大了，不是吗？难怪格兰德（Grande）大部分时间都退出了在社交媒体账号上分享个人信息的行为，主要发布一些平淡的黑白自拍以及她和爱犬的照片，或者是她的巡演片段，以及《Focker-in-Law》的宣传照——这是《我的岳父大人》（Meet the Parents）系列的下一部作品，她将在今年11月与罗伯特·德尼罗（Robert De Niro）和本·斯蒂勒（Ben Stiller）共同主演。至于她是否会参加该片的宣传活动，仍有待观察。
“你知道，从 16 或 17 岁起，我就像是一个培养皿里的标本。所以，所有的议论我都听过了，”格兰德去年说道。“关于我哪里出了问题，每一个版本的说法我都听过。然后你把它修正了，结果又因为不同的原因被认为是不对的。从你的穿着，到你的身材，到你的长相，到你的一切。”
现已入驻 TikTok
一个 53 岁的人如何才能在 TikTok 上跟上年轻人的步伐？对于 X 世代的格温妮丝·帕特洛来说，在这个周末她首次亮相于 Z 世代最喜爱的这款应用时，她通过一系列环球视频剪辑，夸张地表现出了代沟以及她显然缺乏的 TikTok 技巧。
她以一句“没错，我现在就来，我正在拍 TikTok”开场，当时她正身处一座山上，随后她重复了类似的话：在船上，在法国一座桥旁用法语说，在床上不穿上衣说，在直升机上对着耳机说，在薰衣草花园里用意大利语说，再次在船上说，在博物馆里说，在浴缸里赤裸地说，在飞机上说，在欧洲某个不具名广场的市场里说，在艺术馆里低声说……你大概能想象出那个画面。
缺乏共情能力？这确实让人难以产生共鸣，但帕特洛足够自觉，能够提前考虑到这种基调。而且在 TikTok 上，向往感比共鸣感更具销售力。
帕特洛选择加入 TikTok 的时机很有趣。如果没有自己的个人主页来引导叙事，搜索她的名字所出现的结果主要集中在她最近的赞助内容上——推销以色列的豪华公寓。
与此同时，在拥有 9.1 million 粉丝的 Instagram 上，反对的声音较难被发现，而且她的年长粉丝群可能根本没看到，因为那些负面评论被淹没在长长的页面下方，而顶部帖子则在怀念她 2000 年代初期的红毯风格，或是帕特洛自己分享的 Goop 护肤流程，以及为伴侣准备的 #BoyfriendBreakfast（男友早餐）。
她还没有成功将那些揭秘贴顶下去，但两天内她的帖子就获得了接近 10,000 个点赞，TikTok 的品牌重塑无疑已经开启。社交媒体用户的记忆很短，且对在网上看到的各种生活方式有着贪得无厌的购买欲。
在这个平台上，向青少年销售抑制食欲的棒棒糖、在线健身课程、塑身衣和蛋白爆米花（这些全部是卡戴珊家族推广的产品线）可以赚到真金白银。
40 岁以上关注抗衰老、阴道蛋和羊绒衫的人群让帕特洛成为了千万富翁（尽管她出生就富有），但 TikTok Shop 让卡戴珊家族成为了亿万富翁。Z 世代和 Alpha 世代是否拥有深厚的财力来买单“帕特洛品牌”仍有待观察。但我相信她一定会找到能卖给他们的东西——也许还会启动她自己的品牌王朝，并由她的 Z 世代子女协助她触达新受众。
不要指望能做 X 光检查或扫描。 在某些情况下，这些检查是 T
作为一名医生，年纪越大，你学到的就越多，这既源于与患者的接触，也源于当你身体某些部位开始出问题时的个人经历。今天的主题——背痛——就是一个典型的例子。我不仅照顾过数千名背痛患者，我自己也经历过。
大多数成年人在某个阶段都会经历背痛，且往往多次发生。这不仅给个人和英国国家医疗服务体系 (NHS) 带来了沉重负担，也影响到了雇主和政府金库。而我们管理背痛的方式并没有减轻这种负担。
尽管英国已经制定了长期且成熟的最佳实践指南，且国家医疗护理卓越研究所 (Nice) 刚刚对其进行了更新，但我们仍在犯同样的错误。简单来说，太多的人在做错误的事，服用错误的药物，或者接受错误的检查。
最近一项针对格拉斯哥一家全科医生 (GP) 诊所问诊情况的研究发现，在十个病例中就有六个没有遵循指南。虽然样本量较小，无法推而广之至整个英国，但它反映了其他研究的数据，包括另一项近期基于美国急诊科就诊情况的研究。该研究发现了类似的背离指南现象：五分之一的人被给予了如可定和吗啡等类鸦片镇痛药（在治疗背痛时应尽可能避免使用），且太多人（近 40 per cent）接受了不太可能产生帮助的 X 光检查。
急性（三个月以内）背痛的原因多种多样，有些比其他原因严重得多，因此很难概括，而且寻找应当触发紧急检查的“红旗”症状（见面板）至关重要。然而，绝大多数病例会随着时间的推移而自行好转。以下是最新 Nice 指南中的一些建议，旨在帮助这一自然愈合过程。
避免使用针灸、支撑腰带、矫正鞋垫、束腹带和 Tens（经皮电刺激）设备，也不要依赖对乙酰氨基酚。只要剂量正确，它通常是无害的，但研究表明，它对这类疼痛无效。Nice 还建议避免使用类鸦片镇痛药，除非其他药物无效。类鸦片药物通常效果不佳，甚至可能导致更糟糕的长期结果，尤其是类鸦片依赖，这可能使人们在依然疼痛的同时陷入成瘾和镇静状态。
Nice 还建议不要使用缓解短期神经痛的药物，例如老式的抗抑郁药阿米替林，以及较新的药物如普瑞巴林和加巴喷汀（阿米替林仍用于治疗慢性疼痛）。对于坐骨神经痛（通常发生在腿部的神经痛），我们不应使用安定。
那么应该服用什么？急性背痛的首选镇痛药是非甾体抗炎药 (NSAIDs)。如果你是自我治疗，将使用非处方药布洛芬；如果在医生的护理下，可能会使用萘普生。
非甾体抗炎药并不适合所有人，并可能引起严重的副作用，包括肾脏问题和危及生命的胃出血，因此它们通常与胃保护药物（如抑酸药奥美拉唑）一起开具。如果购买非处方药，且你年满 65, 岁，或患有肾脏、胃部或心脏问题，或正在服用降压药、利尿剂或抗凝药，请务必咨询药剂师。
使人仍处于 疼痛之中，但却 使其成瘾且 意识模糊
重要，但通常情况下，它们没有帮助；而在 X 光检查的情况下，它们会让你暴露在不必要的辐射中。MRI 不涉及电离辐射，因此更安全，但价格昂贵，且经常会检测出无关的磨损，并不总是有效。
不要强求手术。这种情况在急性背痛中很少被提供，但对于某些人（包括患有严重坐骨神经痛的人）来说可能是一个选择。20 年前，我因左腿无力且数月处于极度痛苦中而接受了微创椎间盘切除术。效果非常好，但对于因椎间盘脱出而接受此类手术的人来说，长期结果通常并不比自然痊愈的人好，因此如果可以，请尽量避免。我现在偶尔仍有坐骨神经痛。
尽量保持活跃并坚持工作。如果疼痛严重，休息一两天是可以的，但时间过长会导致体能下降并减缓康复速度。通常情况下，保持活跃并坚持工作的人情况往往更好。此外，请考虑一项积极的锻炼计划。
总结一下：如果你在下周末进行一些 DIY 之后出现背痛，在假设你没有任何“红旗”警示症状的情况下，目前的建议是服用布洛芬，尽可能保持活跃，并在周一像往常一样去上班。大多数病例在 4–6 周内会逐渐好转，但如果你的情况没有改善，请咨询你的全科医生 (GP)。 你可以在 nice.org.uk / guidance / ng59 阅读最新的 Nice 指南。
你的医生 诊所
大多数背痛病例 不需要特定治疗， 但它可能是 潜在问题的 症状，范围 从炎症性 关节炎和 感染到骨折 以及癌症。 以下是一些 值得致电 你的全科医生 的症状。
6 20 岁以下或 55 岁以上人群出现的新型疼痛
6 创伤（如跌倒）后的疼痛
6 持续且无法通过休息缓解的疼痛
6 影响脊柱上半部分而非下半部分
6 有癌症史或长期使用类固醇药物史
6 感觉身体不适或发烧
6 不明原因的体重减轻
6 如果出现以下任何情况，请紧急寻求帮助或前往急诊科 (A&E)，因为它们
中年 腰围 （像安迪·伯纳姆那样）
Peta Bee 寻求专家的最佳建议
在 56 岁时，安迪·伯纳姆 避开了许多困扰中年男性的身体诅咒。他身材苗条且健康，跑过几次马拉松，并多次完成大曼彻斯特 10 公里赛跑——最近一次成绩为 53 分 15 秒，根据《跑者世界》（Runner’s World）的说法，这在他这个年龄段是一个相当不错的成绩。
如果没有训练，是不可能达到像伯纳姆这样的成绩的。但尽管他做出了努力，这位新任首相发现人们的注意力都集中在他那若隐若现的小肚子上，而这个小肚子被有些不公平地称为“伯纳姆之腹”。这是中年人熟悉的困境：他们在健身房花费数小时，却发现他们的莱卡 T 恤依然紧绷在那个顽固的凸起之上。这是为什么？
激素起到了作用。男性的雌激素水平较低，而雌激素是一种将脂肪储存在臀部和大腿而非腰线上的激素，这意味着他们通常在任何年龄段都会在腰腹周围增加体重。
这种臀部和大腿皮下脂肪沉积的天然缺失，意味着任何多余的脂肪都会储存在体内重要器官周围，或形成可见的腹部脂肪。从 40 岁起，随着活动量和肌肉量的下降，情况会变得更加糟糕。
“你无法决定一个男性的脂肪先从哪里减掉，但你可以准确预测哪里最后才减掉，”个人训练师兼身体改造计划 Six Pack Revolution 的创始人 Scott Harrison 说道。“下腹部的小肚子基本上是一个‘生存囊’，是我们自然储存脂肪以应对紧急情况的地方，它总是最后才消失的部分。”
跑步对于减轻整体体重和缓解压力非常好，但在扁平化腹部方面的帮助较小。“当我们以稳定速度跑步时，我们会变得擅长燃烧脂肪——换句话说，我们的身体适应了，”性能教练 Dalton Wong 说道。“在锻炼组合中加入抗阻训练会有所帮助。”
饮食和压力——我们可以想象伯纳姆承受了很多——会导致腹部脂肪增加，但基因也起到了作用。“毫无疑问，对于一个接近 60 岁的男人来说，首相的体型非常好，”Wong 说。“有些改变可以帮助消除小肚子，但有时这仅仅取决于基因，而那是你无法轻易获胜的战斗。”以下是尝试方法：
必须剔除过量的糖分和超加工食品 (UPFs) 减少添加糖将有助于缩小肚子。“糖会导致胰岛素峰值，从而促进脂肪储存，尤其是腰腹周围，”Harrison 说。虽然枯燥，但从天然来源（如水果）获取糖分是最稳妥的选择。“香蕉、枣和其他水果都很棒，”他说。“只要确保在食用它们的同时摄入一些蛋白质和脂肪，例如希腊酸奶，以防止血糖急剧上升。”
添加糖的食物会诱发对不健康超加工食品（如薯片、派和饼干）的渴望。一项涉及 22,000 多人的巴西研究发现，超加工食品摄入量最高的人患腹部肥胖的风险比摄入量最低的人高 30%。最好尽量避免。
促进腹部脂肪堆积。“皮质醇是脂肪流失的阻碍，它帮助我们的身体为了生存而保留脂肪，”哈里森（Harrison）说道。
瑜伽、户外游泳和使用行走杖的北欧式行走都已被证明具有减轻压力、提升情绪的效果。 跑步是另一个选择，显然也是伯纳姆的首选减压方式，不过长距离马拉松训练以及像 Hyrox（这种日益普及的室内健身赛）中的高强度运动，可能会给身体带来另一种压力来源。
“适度的跑步距离对身心都非常有益，”哈里森说。“为了更有效地燃烧脂肪，进行 20 分钟的交替训练——即一分钟高强度努力，一分钟慢跑——比一小时的匀速跑步效果更好，或者有时可以加入一些上坡和下坡路段。”
加入一些抗阻练习 中年时期无法避开重量训练，NHS（英国国家医疗服务体系）建议成年人每周至少进行两次肌肉强化活动——但在 50 多岁的英国男性中，约有 40% 的人未能达到这一目标。
“当一个男人除其他地方都很瘦，但有点腹部脂肪时，就像伯纳姆那样，这表明肌肉流失（或称肌少症）是主因，而举重会有所帮助，”哈里森说。
安迪·伯纳姆
导致 大肚子 最糟糕的 元凶之一
改善体态以减少大肚子。 “跑步能增强腿部力量，但伯纳姆如果能增加一些负重侧向肺步会更有益，因为跑步仅锻炼肌肉的前向运动，”王（Wong）说道。
“加入上身练习，如绳索拉背、直立划船和推举，可以让身体更平衡。我始终推荐像俯卧撑、负重深蹲和硬拉这样的复合动作，以达到最佳的脂肪燃烧和核心力量。”
改善你的体态 即使你一周训练七天，如果你不能挺胸抬头，对消除大肚子的效果也将微乎其微。纠正体态后，你会对他带来的视觉差异感到惊讶。“对于中年男性来说，这是一个重大且相对容易解决的问题，通常是因为支撑肌肉的质量下降，加剧了啤酒肚的外观，”哈里森说。“安迪·伯纳姆的圆肩比较明显，只要他稍微挺胸、抬眼，肚子立刻看起来会平坦一些。”
最近的研究表明，酒精与腹部脂肪或“啤酒肚”之间存在直接联系。“酒精含有不必要的卡路里，会导致体重增加，尤其是腰腹部位，并且会让大脑进入饥饿模式，即使你已经吃过了，它仍会发送饥饿信号，”哈里森说。
对于那些报名参加他的 12 周六块腹肌计划的人，他执行严格的“100% 绝不饮酒”规则，但他表示，从长远来看，采取更温和的方法是可以的。“任何数量的酒精对你或你的肚子都没有好处，”他说。“但在阳光明媚时我也喜欢喝一杯——关键在于控制量。”
……并限制啤酒的饮用量 伯纳姆是一个忠实的埃弗顿球迷，他喜欢喝品脱啤酒，尤其是在看球赛之前。他最近表示，观众在比赛期间不能享受品脱啤酒是“不对的”。难道这还是太多了吗？不幸的是，啤酒是导致大肚子的最糟糕元凶之一。
“就酒精含量而言，它比烈酒低，这是一件好事，”哈里森说。“但液体的数量、气体以及每品脱 200 卡路里的热量会让你感到胀气。”啤酒、艾尔啤酒和苹果酒都含有碳水化合物，饮用时会提高血糖水平，从而可能在随后增加饥饿感。“如果你想减掉肚子，每周喝 4-5 品脱或更多是效果最糟糕的做法，”哈里森说。 thesixpackrevolution.com; daltonwong.co.uk
苏林德·比林 (Surinder Birring)，伦敦国王学院呼吸医学教授及国王学院医院呼吸科顾问医师 任何患有长期咳嗽的人都应立即寻求医疗评估。初步检查应排除严重疾病的预警信号，例如咳血或不明原因的体重减轻，这些可能指向肺癌。某些血压药物，特别是像雷米普利 (Ramipril) 这样的 ACE 抑制剂，也是常见的诱因，值得与全科医生 (GP) 共同复核。吸烟者和电子烟使用者被敦促寻求戒烟支持，而简单的胸部 X 光检查有助于识别潜在的肺部疾病。
当这些步骤无法解决问题时，原因可能是“咳嗽超敏综合征”，也称为难治性慢性咳嗽。这种情况涉及过度活跃的咳嗽触发神经以及大脑中信号的放大，且在五十多岁的女性中尤为常见。触发因素可能包括冷空气、说话、进食和香水。喉咙发痒等刺激症状十分常见。
治疗方案包括药物 gefapixant（尽管尚未广泛普及），它可以阻断气道咳嗽受体；以及像阿米替林 (amitriptyline)、加巴喷丁 (gabapentin) 和吗啡等药物，它们可以抑制大脑的咳嗽信号。
吗啡具有成瘾风险，应预留给最严重的病例，通常仅在尝试其他疗法且未能缓解后才开具处方。由言语治疗和物理治疗主导的咳嗽控制疗法也显示出显著效果，尤其是与药物治疗结合使用时。
艾林·莫里斯 (Alyn Morice) 教授，赫尔约克医学院 (Hull York Medical School) 呼吸医学负责人 首先要意识到这是一种常见病，但问题在于大多数医疗专业人员对此并不了解。虽然它可能发生在任何年龄，但主要困扰中年女性，她们的生活往往被尴尬、焦虑和社交隔离所摧毁。半数患者会出现失禁。这种疾病通常被误诊为胸部感染、哮喘或慢性阻塞性肺疾病 (COPD)。
它具有典型的模式。早晨起床时咳嗽。进餐时和发声时（尤其是大笑时）咳嗽。躺下或弯腰时咳嗽。当患者最终入睡时，咳嗽通常会减轻。清嗓子和声音变化很频繁，但每位患者的模式都不同。它是由于迷走神经及其向大脑投射的超敏反应引起的。
我使用促动力药（刺激消化道肌肉的药物）以及最终采用低剂量吗啡，这能抑制大多数患者的痒感。Gefapixant 是目前唯一获批用于治疗该病的药物，但在国民医疗服务体系 (NHS) 中无法获得。
误区？嗯，那个 桑拿帮不上忙
乍一看，你可能会愚蠢地将运动科学家兼呼吸生理学家尼克·蒂勒（Nick Tiller）博士误认为一个普通的网络健身达人。他有着剃光头、蓄全胡须，以及在紧身T恤下肌肉发达的外貌。虽然他每周确实在健身房花费 10 个多小时（“这是我热爱做的事情——用小时来衡量时听起来很荒唐”），但相似之处仅限于此。
44 岁的蒂勒是伦德奎斯特研究所（Lundquist Institute）和哈博-UCLA医学中心的副研究员，同时也是《国际运动营养与运动代谢杂志》的副编辑。他曾与英国奥运计划的运动员以及患有阻塞性肺病的患者共同工作。他极力主张可靠的数据、严谨的科学和原则性的医学专业知识。
问题在于，许多其他的人并非如此。当一位出于好心的家庭朋友建议蒂勒中风的祖父服用顺势疗法的洋地黄而非心脏药物时，他感到震惊。不幸的是，科学家和普通人一样，都可能出错。由于蒂勒向一家科学期刊的编辑提出质疑，一篇声称维生素D能将心血管健康提升 27 % 的已发表研究被撤回。他的最新著作《健康与福祉的谎言：揭露健康机器的炒作、权宜之计与隐藏议程》（The Health and Wellness Lie: Exposing the Hype, Hacks and Hidden Agendas of the Wellbeing Machine）可能不会受到很多人的欢迎。
在他攻击的目标中包括：脊椎按摩师（已知风险是“供应大脑血液的动脉撕裂”）、针灸师（“‘气’从未被测量或观察到，经络亦然”）、运动贴布（“安慰剂贴布”）、含氧水（仿佛“一个瓶装噱头能显著改善呼吸系统”）、迪帕克·乔普拉（Deepak Chopra，热衷于“词语碎片 / 语无伦次”）、寻求青春的亿万富翁布莱恩·约翰逊（Bryan Johnson，他所取得的成就通过坚持训练和健康饮食均可实现），以及播客主持人安德鲁·休伯曼（Andrew Huberman）博士（“男版Goop”）。
蒂勒说，他并不是一个唱反调的愤世嫉俗者。他只是对我们如何被一个数万亿英镑产业的炒作所左右而感到愤怒。他希望人们实现他们的健康和福祉目标，但如果他们被愚弄，甚至陷入更糟的境地，就无法实现这些目标。
夺回主导权。如果你真的想获得健康和强健的体魄，就去做瑜伽，去散步，也许去健身房，打网球，活动身体，健康饮食，不吸烟——这些东西抵得上 100 年的所有其他胡言乱语。
有人想尝试桑拿吗？如何判断健康主张是否夸大 蒂勒报告称，2015 年研究人员开发了一种量化对“灵丹妙药”（snake oil）易感性的方法——一个“胡言乱语接受度量表”（Bullshit Receptivity Scale）。其中包含一些明显的谬论，例如“意图是关于灵感和我们的认知”。但通常，由半真半假的话语或薄弱的数据拼接而成的主张更难被检测或揭穿。问题在于，“我们的进化使我们在决策时趋于经济化。在获得更多证据之前，不要轻信你被告知的内容。”这听起来可能显而易见——直到你阅读他关于例如桑拿的看法。
有一项经常被引用的芬兰研究发现，频繁使用桑拿与致命性心脏病和全因死亡率降低约 60 %，以及血压、炎症和痴呆风险降低相关。但相关性并不等于因果关系。蒂勒表示，该研究控制了BMI、吸烟和饮酒，但没有控制“更广泛的饮食、药物、遗传、心理健康、睡眠、医疗服务获取情况或社会文化因素”。
他引用了一项 2019 年的研究，将坐在桑拿房里的人与在正常温度下休息的人的心血管功能进行了比较。结果发现“动脉功能没有差异”。至多，“有一些证据表明，定期进行桑拿可能会带来一些适度的心血管益处。”
现在表明 冰浴 实际上会 减缓 恢复
我必须放弃冰浴吗？ 冷静点。“冰浴和使用桑拿绝对没有问题，”他说。桑拿非常适合放松，Tiller 也尝试过冷水游泳。“它能磨练并唤醒感官，让你感觉很棒，因为你会获得一阵内啡肽的冲刷。”它可以对你的心理健康产生益处。“问题在于，从这里到随后声称冰浴可以减轻炎症、加速肌肉恢复，这是一个危险的下滑坡。”
首先，“抗炎”是一个懒惰的健康流行词，被人们用来当作急性炎症和慢性炎症是同一回事。其次，“大量证据现在表明，冰浴实际上会减缓高强度训练后的恢复，因为它降低了肌肉蛋白质的合成，并削弱了肌肉中我们恢复所需的合成信号过程，”Tiller 说。“身体必须产生炎症反应，才能对训练做出反应并适应。如果你过度抑制这一点，你就会抑制你的适应能力。”此外，“有些人坚信[冰浴]可以预防感冒并‘增强’免疫系统——但这没有证据。问题在于，我们太渴望这些快捷方式，以至于轻信了这些夸大的主张。”
贴口胶带、贴膝盖胶带——你被哪种骗了？ 我告诉 Tiller，我的儿子从物理治疗师那里回来时，膝盖上贴满了荧光色胶带。Tiller 说，肌内贴（Kinesiology tape）是一个“极好的案例研究”。他说，通过针对顶尖运动员和职业足球运动员，大约十年前曾有一个时间点，每次重大赛事
似乎总会出现一名运动员
其膝盖、大腿
和手臂都被
这种东西覆盖。“胶带
颜色鲜艳并非
巧合。它创造了
‘曝光效应’。你
看到某种东西的次数越多，
你就越容易将其
与有效性和可信度联系在一起。” 制造商称其“能改善血液和淋巴循环，有助于减轻炎症并支持愈合”。但根据 Tiller 的说法，科学研究尚未证实其除了提供“一点额外的稳定性”之外有任何益处。
此外，在夜间贴口胶带在运动员中也很流行，说服了许多人效仿。Tiller 说：“贴口胶带的理念是，如果你强制进行鼻息，可以帮助打开肺部并提高氧气效率。”令人困惑的部分在于？“这其中包含一点科学事实，即一氧化氮在鼻腔和上呼吸道产生，它是一种强效的支气管扩张剂。”他指出：
“在某些患者群体中，一些研究表明它可能能够提高氧气效率。” 然而，“在健康人群中，并没有需要纠正的缺陷”。
检查医生和科学家支持哪些产品 蒂勒（Tiller）表示，当医生或科学家为某样东西背书时，就存在潜在的利益冲突。如果他们领取报酬，又如何能给出公正的建议？ 他指出，例如神经科学家兼播客主持人安德鲁·胡伯曼（Dr Andrew Huberman）博士就曾为膳食补充剂、补水饮料、咖啡机、活动追踪器、心理健康服务、床垫和睡眠系统、血液检测服务、红光疗法、红镜眼镜、冷水浸泡、鹿肉和草本浸渍饮料背书。蒂勒说，他“将科学商品化了”。
胡伯曼为其广泛的播客赞助所做的辩护是，广告收入使该播客能够保持免费并向公众开放。此外，Huberman Lab的“赞助哲学”是“仅与我们个人使用并喜爱的产品品牌合作”。
尽管如此，公开的赞助是一回事。蒂勒在去年被一家补充剂公司接触时，发现了一个极其阴险的诡计，该公司希望他成为一名“非官方品牌大使”。他们即将推出一系列“线粒体优化剂”。“作为一笔可观报酬的交换，”他说，“他们希望我在任何采访以及我的社交媒体上，不要提及该品牌，也不要谈论该产品，而只是告知公众增强线粒体功能是多么重要。这样一来，当该产品在当年晚些时候进行激进营销时，我的受众就已经被铺垫好了。”令人惊讶的是——蒂勒拒绝了。此外，他指出，“补充剂的监管比狗粮还要宽松”。
那么，什么是良好的营养和健身建议？ 为了获得最佳效果，我们应该在一天中的哪个时间段锻炼？“没关系，”蒂勒说。这一点在 2023 年发表于《体育医学开放》（Sports Medicine Open）的一项元分析中得到了证实。“对于减轻体重来说，最有效的运动形式是无结构的、偶然的活动”——即非运动活动热量消耗（Neat）——他补充道。可以通过走楼梯、园艺、做家务和“积极通勤”来增加这类活动——例如快走 20 或 30 分钟去上班。挪威人将其称为“交通训练”。
与此同时，要警惕健身网红。2021 年，巴西的研究人员审计了健身网红的近 500 条 Instagram 帖子。仅有 13 条帖子（3%）提出的主张有证据支持。 谈到社交媒体上的错误信息，蒂勒纠正了关于蛋白质的几个误区。“如果没有运动，它不会增加肌肉，也不会将脂肪转化为肌肉。”然而，“摄入过多蛋白质，就像任何其他多余能量一样，会被转化为脂肪。你只需要满足你的蛋白质需求即可。”对于经常锻炼的人和老年人，这通常是每公斤体重 1-1.5 克。“摄入更多并没有实际益处。”
至于“兄弟科学文化”（bro science culture）中的神话，比如生鸡蛋或鱼内脏提供优质蛋白质？他严厉地表示：“这全是胡说八道。” 《健康与福祉的谎言》（The Health and Wellness Lie），作者尼克·蒂勒博士（Dr Nick Tiller），（Bloomsbury Green Tree 出版，£22），现已上市。
作者：布里奥妮·特威德尔 (Bryony Twydle)
布里奥妮·特威德尔
想要孩子却又恐惧怀孕，这真是件最奇怪的事情。 在过去的 16 年里，我一直致力于追求我的演员职业。我的二十多岁在试镜和兼职工作中度过。我当过咖啡师、面包师和儿童演艺人员。我曾为一座苏格兰城堡布置圣诞装饰，也曾为科威特皇室制作花艺。在这一切发生的同时，我的许多朋友都安定下来并有了孩子。我也想要，但我以为在拍了几部大电影之后，这件事会某种程度上神奇地发生。这只是痴心妄想。
我在大学里遇到了我的丈夫。我们在 2021 年结婚，当时我 31 岁，正值疫情期间——那是一场只有 12 人的小型婚礼，我穿了一套亮粉色西装。一切都很完美。在我看来，我已经没有借口了。事业发展不错，但我绝没有放弃所有的兼职工作。尽管如此，我们决定应该开始尝试要孩子，或者至少“不是不尝试”，但我们似乎运气不佳。
然后，在 2024 年 1 月，我得知我的祖母被诊断出患有乳腺癌，而我的父亲被诊断出患有结肠癌。就在我的世界在周围崩塌之时，最糟糕的（点睛之笔）是我发现我怀孕了。
这本应是从所有家庭动荡中获得的一种慰藉，但有一个问题：我有呕吐恐惧症 (emetophobia)——恐惧呕吐或周围的人呕吐。这始于我的童年，当时我被锁在妈妈的车里，而我的朋友在座位上喷射状呕吐。那可能只持续了几分钟，但对于 8 岁的我来说，感觉像过了一辈子。在之后的 28 年里，我一直恐惧呕吐或周围的人呕吐。小时候，在很多次乘车旅程中，我手指塞在耳朵里哭泣，而我的哥哥则晕车。无论去任何地方，我都像鹰一样盯着他看是否有征兆：他是否在打哈欠？他是否想开窗？我是否会再次被困住？
没有人喜欢呕吐，人们也不喜欢处理呕吐物，即使是对待不舒服的挚爱之人也是如此。但大多数人不会哭泣、过度换气并向相反方向逃跑。几十年来，我一直生活在因为这种病症而让自己出丑的恐惧中，觉得如果他人不适我无法给予支持，且在自己感到恶心时缺乏应对能力。
在渡轮上？太危险；在索普公园 (Thorpe Park) 度日？没机会。至于大学时的夜生活，我总是设法让自己不过量饮酒，以免呕吐。我不知怎么地设法避免了呕吐 24 年。我生命中的大部分时间都在努力让自己尽可能安全，而怀孕并没有让我感到更有安全感。
当然，我周围的每个人都对这个消息感到兴奋。我的父母告诉我：“你不知道你在这样一个黑暗的时刻带来了多少光亮。” 我感到一种压力，觉得他们依赖于我以及在我体内生长的这个微小生命，将其视为解决生活中所有问题的答案。但我对我身体里发生的事情感到恐惧。荷尔蒙在剧烈波动，我被一种压倒性的恐惧所吞噬——担心晨吐何时会开始。而且很难分辨它是否已经开始，或者我感受到的恶心是否只是心理作用。我觉得自己正在失去对现实的掌控。
在经历了几天失眠、惊恐发作以及疯狂咀嚼薄荷糖直到崩掉一颗牙之后，很明显我的状态不佳。我不想大声说出来，但我开始觉得我无法承受这一切。
我开始产生阴暗的想法，这些是我不想与伴侣分享的事情，担心让他比现在更加担心。我过去曾患有抑郁症，虽然我认为我掩饰得很好，但显然并非如此。我的丈夫建议我去看全科医生 (GP)。
产生 阴暗的 想法， 一些我 不想 与我的 伴侣 分享的事情
我向她解释了我如何产生自杀念头，那种恶心感令人无法忍受，我无法入睡，我觉得这像是一场我无法掌控的艰苦战斗。我的全科医生告诉我，我的怀孕时间太早——七周——她不能给我开任何药物。
MICHAEL LECKIE 为《泰晤士报》撰文
她说我应该吃点东西或者嚼点生姜。离开时，我的感觉比进去时更糟糕。又过了几天，我每隔三小时就会在“战斗或逃跑”模式中惊醒，希望这一切都能结束。我觉得自己在让每个人失望，如果我根本不在这个世界上会更好。
我看了一眼我的丈夫。这件事快把他折磨死了。为了照顾我和我的惊恐发作，他筋疲力尽；而且我不断地叫醒他，要求他给我带烤贝果来缓解恶心。我的母亲也精疲力竭，同时还要处理她在家里自己的担忧。我觉得自己是个负担，在家人需要的时候，我无法为他们提供支持。
一周后，我的丈夫看着我的眼睛说：“你不必强撑。这一切都可以消失。”有了他的支持，并知道他理解我所经历的痛苦，帮助我们做出了我需要终止妊娠的决定。
这是我人生中做过的最艰难的决定之一，因为我一直梦想着能有孩子，但我的心理健康状况击败了我。我的父母在面对我的决定时非常挣扎，但给予了极大的支持。
自从这件事发生后，我认为他们更好地理解了呕吐恐惧症（emetophobia），以及这对我来说一直以来是多么大的折磨。我和家人之间保持着非常开放的沟通，以便在我再次怀孕时，能确保我的安全和心理健康。
从那时起，我们一直不乏噩耗。我的两个祖母都去世了，我的父亲仍然患有癌症。经过两年看似无止境的治疗——从认知行为疗法、催眠疗法到情绪聚焦疗法——我是否觉得自己的应对能力增强了？我不确定。
我确实觉得我可以更好地管理我的焦虑。我有一位非常出色的治疗师，并且找到了专门从事女性健康的尼哈特·阿里夫博士（Dr Nighat Arif），我在终止妊娠后第一次就诊于她。我曾在 12 周之前寻求帮助，但被告知无法给我提供任何支持性药物。感谢阿里夫博士，我知道那不是真的。有大量的数据表明，即使在怀孕第一个三月期，女性也有安全的方案可以选择。此外，我还接触到了“孕吐支持”（Pregnancy Sickness Support），这是一个在此时期为女性提供支持的慈善机构。
人们告诉我们，在第一个三月期应该保持安静，不要告诉任何人，尽管那段时间往往是你最需要支持的时候。我们的观念需要改变。我经常听到许多男性和女性饱受呕吐恐惧症之苦，却觉得无法开口谈论。我希望如果你读到这里并且也患有此症，你会知道你并不孤单。
也许你会比我勇敢得多。很难不去想象如果当时那样会怎样。我现在 36 岁，我和丈夫决定再次尝试。我知道我无法规划一次完美的怀孕，但我知道我比以往任何时候都更具备应对能力。这一次，我必须坚信结果会不同。
想要什么，我 都能实现。 即便涉及 不合逻辑的饮食方案和 运输鱼子酱。
我在 30 年前于伦敦的多切斯特酒店接受培训，随后在海外一家餐厅担任主厨并赢得了一颗米其林星。之后我回到首都，在邦德街的一家珠宝店担任执行主厨，年薪 £45,000。我的职责是为店主及其宾客烹饪。如果你买了一枚 £1 million 的钻戒，我也许会为你准备午餐。
预算是没有上限的。在松露季，我会订购一瓶 £500 的勃艮第红酒和价值 £2,000 的白松露——午餐有十个人，他们每人都想要一颗白松露（以及用来铺松露片的新鲜意面）。当两位店主想吃他们最喜欢的两家不同餐厅的餐点时，我会穿着厨师服坐进公司的宾利车，用银盘将食物呈给他们。那是 Uber Eats 出现之前的事。
后来我成立了一家私人厨师公司。现在人们通过口碑、浏览 Instagram 的富家妻子以及我的经纪人找到我。
有时去世界上任何地方可能只有 36 小时的通知时间，但通常是去欧洲——圣特罗佩、米科诺斯、圣莫里茨、格施塔德。他们会派车把我送到法恩堡机场，我随身携带我的刀具和厨师服。
我通常不知道客户的名字。他们通常是来自法国、德国、俄罗斯和英国的匿名银行富豪（名人倾向于拥有自己的团队），尽管现在的英国人少了一些——他们似乎在控制预算。
在法恩堡，客户们起初很热情，随后则显得轻慢。他们会上下打量你的穿着。我选择“静奢风”——没有标志的 Gucci，以及永远配一个优雅的包。在私人飞机上，我坐在后排和保姆在一起——不过，我之前曾被赶下一架飞机，为了给一只狗腾空间，结果我不得不经历一次 15 小时、换乘三趟火车的回家路。
这并不总是那么光鲜。有时得乘坐英国航空或易捷航空的极早班机。不过，是的，那些别墅确实令人惊叹。租金每周至少 £50,000：巨大的白色空间，Roche Bobois 奢华沙发，绝佳的视野，以及严密的安保——我总是假设自己在摄像头前烹饪。
给 他们的狗 做饭。 那妻子 从不穿 内衣， 而且她 喜欢对我 脱衣展示。
他们根本不在乎员工的福祉。他们希望你彻底消失。
我们一到达，他们就想在 一小时内吃上午餐。我从未见过当地的风景或海滩。我也没机会在泳池边坐坐。我从机场到超市，再到别墅，开始烹饪，直到离开前都不会停下来。我的日薪是 £500 加上小费。工作很辛苦，但我热爱这份工作——当我在烹饪时，我感觉自己在飞翔。
首先要做的是：我对厨房进行彻底清洁。管家们清理得不够干净。我会用抹布擦拭以确保一切经过消毒，因为我不希望因为让人们中毒而被起诉。
然后我接见客人，我们坐下来，以便我能听取他们的要求。他们总是有饮食禁忌，尤其是女性（你真的是乳糜泻吗，因为我不想让你死掉？），她们遵循着没完没了、令人困惑且不合逻辑的饮食方案。来自南加州的人是最糟糕的。有个女性有 25 项饮食禁忌，另一个则不吃紫色食物。我必须认真对待，但一旦他们喝醉了，要求总是会改变，素食主义者开始想要牛排。
我每天早晨 6 点就得在市场，以确保食材新鲜。我经常邀请客人随我同去——向他们展示物价是非常重要的：在圣特罗佩，一条海鲈鱼可能要 €500，12 颗白草莓要 €20. 有一位客户每天早餐都要吃价值 €80 的浆果。我经常随身携带鱼子酱和鹅肝。如果不够，我会安排快递送来。
我从早上 7.30 直到晚上 11 点一直待在厨房里，以防有人想要食物。早餐是最糟糕的——可能会持续三个小时，因为不同的人会在不同时间走进来，想要不同的东西。
理想情况下，你希望早餐在 11.30 前结束，因为午餐在 2.30——通常他们会改变主意，不再想要前一天晚上要求的食物。有一组人告诉我，他们每天在圣特罗佩的 Club 55 预订了午餐，但每天他们都会取消预订，想让我做饭。另一位客户决定第二天要举办一场 30 人的派对。我为 30 人准备了食物——结果一个人也没来。
我曾花了一年时间为一对夫妇担任周末 / 旅行厨师，在牛津郡和圣莫里茨之间往返。我得给他们的狗做饭，特别要求在给他们准备午餐的同时，为狗提供陈年帕尔马干酪和菲力牛排。那妻子从不穿内衣，且喜欢对我脱衣展示。简直不可思议。
无论他们想要什么，我都能实现。我在圣特罗佩为一位客户工作了三个月。他每周给我 €10,000 来喂养两到四个人，而我通常会将大部分钱花在食材上。有一次，当他在戛纳登机前往 8 分钟路程的目的地时（而且很不寻常地是他亲自给我打电话），他说：“我知道你已经做了海鲈鱼，但我的客人们想要牛排。”我冲到当地酒店，花 £500 买了一整块菲力牛肉，在黑暗中开车返回 5 公里，在五分钟内将其修剪好并放在烤架上，这样他走进门时就能听到肉在滋滋作响的声音。
我会把一切装饰得非常精美。我使用金箔、新鲜可食用的花朵，用香蕉叶编织篮子。我总是尝试用当地食材烹饪。我可以制作任何东西。在 2000 年代初期，人们想要龙虾和鱼子酱，但口味已经进化了。约塔姆·奥托伦吉产生了巨大的影响。现在他们想要香料、沙拉和谷物，有趣、新鲜、活力、色彩丰富且令人印象深刻的食物。我常做盐焗海鲈鱼和整块菲力牛排。
减肥药物也彻底改变了现状——分量变小了，且蛋白质含量更高——但食物现在成了一种“观赏运动”。他们拍照，尝一小口，微笑，说很好吃，然后就剩在那里。
有些客户会要求你帮他们买可卡因。我不会帮，但我确实准备了一个银盘和吸管用来提供服务。以防万一。你必须为一切做好准备。
该厨师选择匿名。口述给凯蒂·格拉斯
“我想，至今还没有哪个时刻能超越它，”亚历山德拉·伯克（Alexandra Burke）说道，她指着一张她与碧昂丝（Beyoncé）在 2008 年《X Factor》决赛中共同演唱《Listen》的照片，伯克赢得了该项冠军。“那个时刻，”她轻点碧昂丝的脸，“是非常难以超越的。”
她说得没错：这首来自《Dreamgirls》的强力曲目，其演绎之精彩、情感之充沛，必然位列 2000 年代电视史上前五名的瞬间。如今，如果说碧昂丝——或者任何一位一线巨星——会同意出演像《X Factor》这样的节目，简直是可笑的。但在那时，这就是顶流节目。当时有超过 14 million 人观看决赛。
伯克和我此时身处伦敦特鲁巴杜温布利公园剧院（Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre）的后台走廊，这里曾是《X Factor》的拍摄地，因此墙上挂着她和碧昂丝的照片。而巧合的是，37 岁的伯克目前正主演音乐剧《I’m Every Woman: The Chaka Khan Musical》。在她那张榜首的处女专辑《Overcome》（其中包含曾夺得圣诞节 No 1 的《Hallelujah》翻唱版以及热门单曲《Bad Boys》）发行 17 年后的今天，她已转向舞台和银幕工作，在《保镖》（The Bodyguard）、《芝加哥》（Chicago）、《修女电影》（Sister Act）等作品中饰演的角色收获了赞誉，并在 2017 年的《舞动风暴》（Strictly Come Dancing）系列赛中获得亚军。“我的确精力充沛，”她在化妆间吃着演出前的枣干说道。
除了演戏，她再次开始录制音乐，并试图说服她的经纪人尽快为她发行一张 EP，她对着隔壁房间的经纪人大喊，让他告诉我具体的发布日期。“我想给我的粉丝们一些东西，”她喊道，“他们现在快对我失去耐心了。”今年五月，她在伦敦的 Mighty Hoopla 音乐节为 40,000 名粉丝演出，重新试水流行乐。“我需要知道自己是否还具备那种能力，”她说，“当你成为一名母亲后，有时会丢失一部分自我。”她与伴侣——足球运动员达伦·兰道夫（Darren Randolph）育有两个幼儿，两人是通过约会软件 Raya 相识的。
有很多话题可以讨论。但首先：碧昂丝。我问她多久看一次她们在一起的视频。“不够经常，亲爱的，因为我不想一辈子都在哭。直到今天我还是会哭，因为我仍然不敢相信我曾拥有那个机会。太疯狂了，不是吗？”她在舞台上哭了，在排练前见到碧昂丝时也哭了。不仅仅是她一个人。“她的妈妈开始哭，她的造型师开始哭，房间里的每个人都开始哭。”那么碧昂丝呢？“她也在哭。”
碧昂丝起初告诉伯克，她希望她们演唱她的新单曲《If I Were a Boy》。但伯克不熟悉歌词。于是碧昂丝同意唱《Listen》，为了确保伯克能保护好嗓子，她们只排练了一次，这位流行巨星对她说：“我飞这么远，不是为了和今晚要输掉的人一起唱歌。所以你必须赢。”
她们保持了联系。伯克说，碧昂丝在演出后给她发了一封邮件，说“这场演出对她的帮助和对我一样大”。随后，碧昂丝在洛杉矶的录音室看望了伯克，端着一杯白葡萄酒，听了她一些新的个人音乐作品。如果碧昂丝在英国巡演，伯克会尝试去看她。
在后台。“每次见到她，她总是很亲切，是一个非常慷慨的灵魂。”
真人秀节目在制片方对参赛者福祉的关怀程度上一直受到很多审视。伯克觉得自己得到了足够的支持吗？“我有我妈妈。我也得到了很多已经在该行业工作的女性的支持，她们警告过我可能会发生的事情，”她在谈到她的母亲、来自 Soul II Soul 的歌手梅丽莎·贝尔（Melissa Bell）时说道。在她的第二张专辑《Heartbreak on Hold》之前，她被西蒙·考威尔（Simon Cowell）的唱片公司 Syco Music 裁掉后，她发现情况变得更难了。“我记得在车里大哭……说到底这就像一条传送带，不是吗？这就是商业。”
回到职业生涯起步的地方出演这部音乐剧，她感觉如何？“我经历了很多挣扎，”伯克说。“这勾起了许多关于我母亲在这里的回忆。和家人一起走在那条走廊里，”她说道。她的母亲在 2017 年因糖尿病引发的肾衰竭去世，就在伯克参加《舞动吧！ Strictly》之前。 “我仍然在为此挣扎。作为一名女性，作为一名母亲，没有那种指引对我来说真的很艰难……对不起，”伯克低声说，她开始落泪。“你们还有母亲吗？好好珍惜她。”
在北伦敦长大的童年时期，伯克渴望成为一名像贝尔那样的歌手和母亲。“我实现了儿时梦想的两件事，”她说。“我认为她会非常自豪，但我很痛苦她不在这里，因为她应该在。她只有 53 岁，所以对我来说，我觉得失去了与她共度的时光。但我知道她一直陪伴着我。” 甚至在舞台上饰演坎（Khan）这一事实也具有象征意义。在她 15 岁第一次参加《X Factor》试镜时，伯克和母亲一起演唱了坎的音乐。随后，她的母亲在 2012 年前往纽约观看她为坎而进行的演出。“我觉得这是她安排好的。”
《I’m Every Woman》是一部由 Nia T Hill 编剧的新音乐剧，Hill 参与过其他知名作品，包括《梦女孩》（Dreamgirls），并自 2013 年起担任坎的创意总监。通过《Ain’t Nobody》和《Higher Love》等热门歌曲，这部剧讲述了坎的生活故事。这是一个艰辛的故事。这位“放克女王”在 17 岁时第一次结婚，并遭受了成瘾之苦，包括药物滥用和酗酒。伯克在开始筹备这部剧时深切感受到了这一切的悲哀。“我不得不翻出我过去的一些事情。我不得不提起我知道朋友们经历过的毒品问题。我不得不真正重新经历那些我不想思考的事情，”她说。
伯克希望她能与母亲聊聊如何平衡家庭生活与工作。“你会被撕裂，一方面想陪伴孩子，另一方面又得去工作。就像今天，我离开时，我的大孩子大发脾气，”她说。“在我成长的过程中，妈妈总是巡演……她必须养家。这就是我学到的最大教训：没有什么东西是免费的。你必须为人生中想要的东西而努力。”
伯克毫不掩饰地庆祝自己的成功。当她在西区（West End）的《芝加哥》中饰演罗克西（Roxie）时，她给前男友寄了一张票，当时她告诉他她想要这个角色，而他却说“别那么自以为是”。但她在剧场中的经历，尽管在经济和创意上令人满足，但在一个重要方面却令人失望。
“我演过七个主角，在业内工作了 12 年，但在剧场领域从未因才华而获得认可，”她说。“在过去的八年里，[他们] 甚至没有邀请我回到奥利维尔奖 [她最后一次出席是在 2018 年]。”她认为这是为什么？ “我不知道。”
她对此表现得坦率得令人惊喜，就像她对待自己在参加《X Factor》后所遭受的性别歧视和种族主义那样。她透露，有人告诉她要漂白皮肤，并且避免留非洲式发型或编发。当她参加《Strictly》时，有人在超市里走近她，说听闻她是个“婊子”。“我记得当时对着那个人哭着说：‘我不是。其实我是一个挺不错的人。我只是热爱人类。’可惜我花了多年时间才摆脱别人对我刻画的那个形象，”她说道。“我被告知要保持沉默。我被告知不要有反应……我慢慢变得自信了一点。”
接着是她上台前进行发声热身的时间。而对我来说，则是第 50 次观看她与碧昂丝（Beyoncé）合作的视频。
《I’m Every Woman: The Chaka Khan Musical》正在伦敦 Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre 上演，直至 9 月 27 日
10 2026年8月4日，星期二 / the times times2 您的工作日大脑强化训练
谜题，让您的大脑进行充分锻炼 Samurai 中等难度
SAMURAI (武士数独)
填充每个网格，使每列、每行以及每个 3x3 宫格都包含数字 1 到 9。 在谜题重叠的部分，行和列不会超过其常规长度。
SAKURO
在空格中填入数字 1 到 9，使得 每个圆圈中的数字等于其周围 四个空格之和，且每种颜色的 总和均正确。
Sudoku (迷你数独)
SUDOKU
MINI SUDOKU
填充网格，使每列、每行以及 每个 3x2 宫格都包含 数字 1 到 6。
周一至周日每天在 thetimes.com 网站 及 Live 应用上玩迷你数独
CODEWORD
右侧十字字谜风格网格中的 每个字母由 1 到 26 的数字代表。 字母表中的每个字母在网格中 至少出现一次。利用已提供的字母 推断其他字母的身份。将字母填入 主网格和较小的参考网格中，直到 字母表全部 26 个字母都被确定。 专有名词除外。
KILLER
填充网格，使每列、每行以及 每个 3x3 宫格都包含数字 1 到 9。 由虚线连接的每组单元格之和必须 等于其左上角的目标数字。在每组 由虚线连接的单元格内，数字不能重复。
TRAIN TRACKS
铺设轨道使火车能从村庄 A 行驶 到村庄 B。数字表示每行和每列中 有多少段轨道。仅有直线段和 曲线段。轨道不能自我交叉。
Futoshiki (不等数独) 填充空白方格，使每行和每列 仅包含一次数字 1 到 5。方格之间的 符号表示该数字大于 (>) 还是小于 (<) 其相邻的数字。
FUTOSHIKI
puzzles (更多谜题)
第 14-16 页
C
Midgley 电视评论
名人追缉 (Celebrity Hunted) Channel 4 {{{((
《名人追缉》回归了，但我敢说，观众面临的挑战最大……那就是在搞清楚这些“名人”究竟是谁。Chris Taylor 和 Toby Aromolaran？你当然不认识他们——他们是在《爱之岛》(Love Island) 中出现的“内容创作者”。如果你在 Jen Brister 和 Laura Smyth（喜剧演员）以及 Scarlette 和 Stuart Douglas（兄妹档房产节目主持人）身上碰运气，可能会好一点。但我觉得如今的真人秀对“名人”定义之宽泛，就像失效的内裤橡皮筋一样松垮。
《4频道档案》调查 (File on 4 Investigates) Radio 4, 晚上 8pm
在《罗马尼亚赎金》(A Romanian Ransom) 中，上图的 Paul Kenyon 讲述了该国反犹主义的故事。这种情绪在第二次世界大战后依然持续，当时在共产主义的齐奥塞斯库政权下，犹太人被限制离开罗马尼亚。Kenyon 追踪了 Andrea Bernard 和 Radu Horaud 的故事，两人在成长过程中一直隐瞒自己的犹太血统，他们的父母后来逃往西方，而他们最终与父母团聚。怎么做到的？通过一名赫特福德郡的农民 Henry Jakober，他用猪、牛和农场设备交换签证，帮助那些想要离开罗马尼亚的犹太人。 Clair Woodward
公平地说，大多数人可能会认出 Amy Dowden（《舞动奇迹》专业舞者）和 JJ Chalmers，后者是一名曾在阿富汗炸弹袭击中受伤的前皇家海军陆战队队员，现为电视节目主持人及残奥会奖牌得主。我们还有讨喜的 Brian Conley，他与女儿 Lucy 一起参加挑战，尽管他说的第一件事就是“只有老人知道我是谁”（可能没错），以及“我觉得我们会搞得很糟”。
正如资深的《追缉》观众所知，参赛者必须在英国境内潜逃，本次为 14 天，同时要躲避由前警察和情报人员组成的追捕团队。该团队可以使用所有国家权力，如自动号牌识别系统 (ANPR)、闭路电视 (CCTV)、电话追踪等等。如果你使用银行卡，他们会立即知道你在哪里。
而且，天呐，那些追捕者太热爱自己的角色了，表演得极其夸张。我不知道他们为什么选择这些职业，因为他们显然想成为《斯威尼》(The Sweeney) 恶搞剧里的演员。“如果他们落地——砰——就到手了，然后我们就回去喝最后一杯。第一轮我买单，”总部主管 Ray 说道。对于那对《爱之岛》组合，追捕者们评价道：“他们显然觉得自己牛得不行。”
《追缉》最大的缺陷一直没变。你被要求相信
泰晤士广播 (Times Radio) 数字、网页、智能扬声器、App
5.00am Tom Nunan 主持《早点早餐》 6.00 Kate McCann 和 Stig Abell 主持《早餐》 10.00 Ed Vaizey 1.00pm Sebastian Payne 2.00 Jane Garvey 和 Fi Glover 4.00 John Pienaar 主持《驾车时间》 7.00 Kait Borsay 主持《晚间版》 10.00 Carole Walker 1.00am 泰晤士广播精选
Radio 2 FM: 88-90.2 MHz 6.30am Sara Cox 早餐秀 9.30 Vernon Kay 12.00 Jeremy Vine 2.00pm DJ Spoony 4.00 Joel Dommett 7.00 Jo Whiley 9.00 Jamie Cullum 主持《爵士秀》 10.00 Melvin Odoom 主持《好律动》 12.00 Connor Phillips 3.00am 90年代之声 (r) 4.00 Owain Wyn Evans
Radio 3 FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz 6.30am 早餐 9.30 经典精选 1.00pm 古典现场 Elizabeth Alker 介绍逍遥音乐节 (the Proms) 的亮点。BBC 逍遥音乐节：科恩戈尔德 (D大调小提琴协奏曲, Op 35)。赖代尔节日 (Ryedale Festival)：斯特劳斯 (取自《嬉戏》的六重奏)。弗里堡国际宗教音乐节：加卢比 (Dixit Dominus)。BBC 逍遥音乐节：普罗科菲耶夫 (B降大调第五交响曲, Op 100)。赖代尔节日：舒伯特 (A大调钢琴奏鸣曲, D. 664) 以及 赖代尔节日：门德尔松 (E降大调弦乐八重奏, Op 20) 4.00 本周作曲家：莫扎特 (1756-1791) Kate Molleson 探讨莫扎特与姐姐 Nannerl 的关系，从童年时的亲密纽带到后来的疏远
Brian 和 Lucy Conley 试图躲避追捕者
5.00 In Tune 与 Tom Fetherstonhaugh 共同主持 7.00 2026年BBC Proms现场直播 威尔士国家广播交响乐团，指挥 Elena Schwarz 以及 Alina Ibragimova 演出。由 Alexandra Humphreys 主持，伦敦皇家阿尔伯特音乐厅现场直播。BA Zimmermann（《童话组曲》）；门德尔松（《e小调小提琴协奏曲》）；以及德沃夏克（《d小调第七交响曲》） 10.00 夜间轨道 (Night Tracks) 11.30 午夜时分 (’Round Midnight) 来自 Fred Thomas 和 Heidi Heidelberg 的新曲首播 12.30am 彻夜 (Through the Night) (r)
Radio 4 FM: 92.4-94.6 MHz 5.00am 新闻摘要 5.04 英国的机器人军队 (r) 5.34 航运预报 5.43 今日祷告 5.45 今日农业 6.00 今日 (Today) 9.00 无形之手 (Invisible Hands) 关于那个用一封电报引发冷战的人的故事 (2/6) 9.30 健康内幕 (Inside Health) 与 James Gallagher 一起每周探索并揭秘健康问题 (5/6) 10.00 女性时间 (Woman’s Hour) Kylie Pentelow 主持 11.00 屏幕截图 (Screenshot) 电影和电视对 UFO 及地外生命的持久痴迷 (5/6) (r) 11.45 托尼·霍克斯什么也不给 (Tony Hawks Is Giving Nothing Away) 一个捐出了其 £100,000 遗产的男人 (2/5) (r) 12.04pm 呼叫您与您的家人 (Call You and Yours) 1.00 一点钟的世界 (The World at One) 1.45 基本需求 (The Bare Necessities) 访问一位种植可提供食物和药物野草的采集者和草药师 (2/5)
2.00 农夫们 (The Archers) (r) 2.15 戏剧：《太阳鸟》(Sunbird) 由 Christopher William Hill 创作 3.00 受审女士 (Lady on Trial) 由 Lucy Worsley 主持 一名挑战维多利亚时代精神病法案的歌剧演员 (8/10) 3.30 心灵之魂 (Heart and Soul) 回顾天主教如何帮助推翻菲律宾的独裁者 (4/10) (r) 4.00 西尔维娅·普拉斯的写作生活 (The Writing Life of Sylvia Plath) 普拉斯的精神疾病和抑郁经历如何影响她的作品。系列节目最后一集 4.30 医生怎么说？ (What’s Up Docs?) 探讨补水问题 5.00 下午 (PM) 6.00 六点新闻 6.30 会见大卫·塞达里斯 (Meet David Sedaris) 幽默作家朗读其随笔《甜蜜的自由之邦》(6/6) (r) 7.00 农夫们 (The Archers) Bert 陷入困境 7.15 前排 (Front Row) 艺术节目 8.00 选择：罗马尼亚赎金 (Choice A Romanian Ransom) 冷战时期一次用动物交换犹太人生命的秘密交易 8.40 保持联系 (In Touch) 面向盲人或视障人士的新闻 9.00 跨越大陆 (Crossing Continents) 关于加沙如何意外地发展成为科技中心报道 (1/9) 9.30 骗局秘密 (Scam Secrets) 与 Shari Vahl 共同主持 (1/8) (r) 10.00 今夜世界 (The World Tonight) 10.45 睡前书：《Wakefield 牧师》 由 Oliver Goldsmith 创作 (2/10) 11.00 内部野性 (Wild Inside) 大灰鸮 (2/4) (r) 11.30 好莱坞与广告界五人组 (Hollywood and the Adland Five) 里德利·斯科特的《银翼杀手》如何帮助改变了电影的视觉风格 (2/4) (r)
12.00 新闻与天气 12.30am 托尼·霍克斯什么也不给 (2/5) (r) 12.48 航运预报 1.00 同 BBC 世界服务
Radio 4 Extra 仅限数字频道 8.30am 跟随帕帕诺 (Following Pappano) 8.45 小岛 (Small Island) 9.00 会见大卫·塞达里斯 9.30 餐厅背后 (Behind the Taverna) 9.45 每日服务 (Daily Service) 10.00 自由思考 (Free Thinking) 10.45 论文：伟大作品的小秘密 (The Essay: The Little Secrets of Great Works) 11.00 等待游戏 (The Waiting Game) 11.30 谁杀了奥尔德里奇·肯普？ (Who Killed Aldrich Kemp?) 12.00 谢谢大臣 (Yes Minister) 12.30pm 最后一集古恩表演秀 (The Last Goon Show of All) 1.30 跟随帕帕诺 1.45 小岛 2.00 骗局！ (Hoax!) 2.30 兄弟 (The Brothers) 3.00 地海巫师 (A Wizard of Earthsea) 4.00 自由思考 4.45 论文：伟大作品的小秘密 5.00 等待游戏 5.30 谁杀了奥尔德里奇·肯普？ 6.00 谢谢大臣 6.30 最后一集古恩表演秀 7.30 跟随帕帕诺 7.45 小岛 8.00 骗局！ 8.30 兄弟 9.00 地海巫师 10.00 喜剧俱乐部：会见大卫·塞达里斯 10.30 获胜者是 (And the Winner Is) 11.00 全世界是一个地球 (All the World’s a Globe) 11.15 弗利与麦考尔：访谈 (Foley and McColl: Interview) 11.30 连锁反应 (Chain Reaction)
Radio 5 Live 中波: 693, 909 5.00am 钱财觉醒 (Wake Up to Money) 6.00 早餐 (Breakfast) 9.00 尼基·坎贝尔 (Nicky Campbell) 11.00 玛丽安娜·斯普林 (Marianna Spring) 2.00pm 马特·乔利 (Matt Chorley) 4.00 驾驶 (Drive) 7.00 体育 (Sport) 9.00 田径 (Athletics) 10.00 强尼·安森 (Johnny I’Anson) 1.00am 多图恩·阿德巴约 (Dotun Adebayo)
“猎物”们正试图通过伪装来融入人群，躲在树篱或任何地方，但我们都知道每个组合都带着一个摄像团队，所以你在一公里外就能认出他们。
名人版的感觉尤其像是在演戏，因为每个人都觉得必须表现得有趣，而且还拉拢了其他名人参与。康利让他的朋友乔·帕斯夸莱做好准备提供接送，但猎人们很快通过通讯手段锁定了目标，出现在了康利一家入住的地方——尽管如此，他们还是搞丢了目标。查默斯和他的同伴打扮成切尔西的退休老人以躲避抓捕，而且这招奏效了。就好像制作人们只是想让他们留在节目里一样。
但你无法真正地批评这个节目，因为这一切都是为了给癌症研究筹集资金。结尾讲述了一个患有脑癌的名为马修的故事，令人心碎。
所以，我对这种荒诞感不能太愤世嫉俗，尤其是当康利一家不得不把自己反锁在火车厕所里的时候——没人应该受这种罪。这就是为什么我练就了“钢铁膀胱”，这样我就永远不必进入那里。
我读到在未来的某一集中，劳拉和詹喝得酩酊大醉，并建议推出一部衍生节目，让参赛者们单纯地喝得醉醺醺。我想我更愿意看那个。
10.00 Alex Crook & Darragh MacAnthony 1.00pm Hawksbee and Jacobs 4.00 talkSPORT Drive 7.00 The Transfer Insiders 10.00 The Sports Bar 1.00am Extra Time
Talk 仅限数字频道 6.00am Ian Collins 10.00 Julia Hartley Brewer 1.00pm Mark Dolan 4.00 Kevin O’Sullivan 7.00 Peter Cardwell 10.00 Petrie Hosken 1.00am Paul Ross
6 Music 仅限数字频道 6.00am Chris Hawkins 7.00 Nick Grimshaw 10.00 Lauren Laverne 1.00pm Craig Charles 4.00 Emily Pilbeam 7.00 New Music Fix Daily 9.00 Riley & Coe 11.00 6 Music 驻场艺术家： Ezra Collective 12.00 6 Music’s Indie Forever 1.00am From Mento to Lovers’ Rock 3.00 6 Music Live Hour 4.00 The 6 Music Playlist
Virgin Radio 6.30am Steve Denyer 在 The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Moneybox 10.00 Emma B 2.00pm Ben Jones 6.00 Geoff Lloyd 10.00 Jen Thomas 2.00am Stu Elmore
Classic FM FM: 100-102 MHz 6.30am Breakfast with Dan Walker 9.00 The Hall of Fame Hour with Dan Walker 10.00 Aled Jones 1.00pm Anne-Marie Minhall 4.00 Margherita Taylor 7.00 Relaxing Evenings with Zeb Soanes 9.00 Classic FM’s Composer Carousel With Zeb Soanes 10.00 Calm Classics 1.00am Bill Overton 4.00 Early Breakfast
今日精选
《维多利亚时代》，由 Rob Rinder 和 Ruth Goodman 主持 5, 晚上 9点
Rob Rinder 和 Ruth Goodman 带着另一部《富贵生活，贫苦生活》 调查系列回归，本集聚焦于 维多利亚时代。一如既往，他 关注富人，而她关注底层民众， 这对主持组合快乐地扮演着 无可救药的势利小人与被击垮的-
BBC1 BBC2 ITV1 Channel 4 5 6.00am 早餐节目 9.30 动物公园 (r) (AD) 10.15 追踪，寻回我的车 (r) 10.45 专家证人 (r) 11.15 房屋拍卖 (Homes Under the Hammer) 12.15pm 议价猎手 (r) (AD) 1.00 1点BBC新闻；天气预报 1.35 BBC地区新闻；天气预报 1.45 1点BBC新闻；天气预报 2.00 废物利用。从废料桶中拯救一张按摩 床和一套餐桌椅 2.45 移居乡村。Nicki Chapman 寻找彭布罗克郡的房产 (r) 3.45 拍卖室。展出茶壶、 玩具工具、桶和模型房车 (r) 4.30 快速答题 (The Answer Run)。Jason Manford 主持 这场快节奏的问答节目，问题 包括在《纳尼亚传奇》或《哈利·波特》、James Corden 或 Steve Coogan 以及 洛杉矶 或 纽约 之间做出选择 5.15 Pointless。问答节目 (r) 6.00 6点BBC新闻；天气预报 6.30 BBC地区新闻；天气预报
7.00 《今日秀》(The One Show)，由 Alex Jones 和 Lauren Laverne 主持
7.30 《东区往事》(EastEnders) Ravi 逼 Priya 交代关于她那个神秘男人的答案。 与此同时，Lauren 试图转移 Peter 的问题 (AD)
8.00 《英国缝纫大赛》缝纫者们 庆祝墨西哥时尚，通过制作 民俗上衣、用桌布制成的结构化服装 以及受墨西哥节日启发的量身定制 套装来展示他们的技巧 (4 / 10) (AD)
9.00 《24 / 7 谋杀案》关于 2025 年 54 岁赫里福德男子 Jamie Gawler 谋杀案的两部分调查之首， 死者在其公寓内被发现被打死。 在没有目击者的情况下，调查团队 开始拼凑受害者的最后日子。 明日继续 (5 / 8) (AD)
10.00 10点BBC新闻
10.30 BBC地区新闻和天气预报 10.40 电影：《罗宾汉》(12, 2010)
一名在理查一世（狮心王）十字军东征军队中 战斗的弓箭手回到英国老家，并 冒用一名在战场上阵亡的贵族的身份。 他获得的新地位使他陷入了与 新即位的约翰国王宫廷成员的 危险冲突中，一名叛徒骑士 密谋帮助法国征服英国。Ridley Scott 执导的 中世纪冒险片，由 Russell Crowe 和 Cate Blanchett 主演。详见电影选择 (AD)
下层工人。今晚，是铁路时代， 它将改变英国乡村， 革新贸易并为普通人 创造机会。Goodman 指出， 大多数人旅行的最快速度 就是他们自己的跑步速度，因此 仅仅是踏入三等开放式车厢 （在 Rinder 看来，这简直就是牲畜笼子，令他厌恶） 这一想法就令人震撼。不过首先， 铁路必须在土地上开辟。 有远见的人制定了计划，但对于
6.30am 议价猎手 (r) 7.15 拍卖室。交易商们被一件电影相关收藏品吸引 (r) 8.00 标志区域：《英国缝纫大赛》。参赛者回收改造 T 恤 (r) (AD, SL) 9.00 BBC新闻 1.00pm 理查德·奥斯曼的《游戏之屋》(Richard Osman’s House of Games)。 Sean Fletcher, Louise Minchin, Chris Washington 和 Kimberly Wyatt 参加 (r) 1.30 终点线 (The Finish Line)。由 Roman Kemp 和 Sarah Greene 主持的问答节目 (r) 2.15 你知道你的位置吗？问答节目 前往卡迪夫。Vernon Kay 主持 (r) 2.45 现场板球 —— 百分赛 (The Hundred)：Sunrisers Leeds 女队 v London Spirit 女队 (开始时间 3.00)。在 Headingley 的比赛报道。 Sunrisers（此前被称为 Northern Superchargers）在 上赛季比赛中于 Lord’s 球场对阵时 以 8 wicket 获胜，其中 Phoebe Litchfield 凭借 38 球 55 分不败（not out）成为决定性因素， 并为她赢得了本场比赛最佳球员奖
6.00 现场板球 —— 百分赛 (The Hundred)：
Sunrisers Leeds 男队 对阵 London Spirit 男队（开赛时间 6.30）。在 Headingley 举行的比赛报道。Zak Crawley 为当时名为 Northern Superchargers 的球队贡献了最高得分，在 38 个球中拿下 55 分（未出局），他在上赛季的比赛中曾带领球队在 Lord’s 球场以八 wicket 的优势击败了今天的对手。这支总部位于利兹的队伍随后进入了淘汰赛（Eliminator），但由于比赛因雨取消，Trent Rockets 因在循环赛阶段排名更高而晋级。
9.30 《吸血鬼莱斯特：吸血鬼访谈》 莱斯特的一个不法旧盟友登上了这支迷茫乐队的巡演巴士，而一些熟面孔在他们的下一站等待着 (2 / 7) (AD)
10.15 《发生在我身上：我因氯胺酮被囚禁在日本》 一名英国女性对氯胺酮的成瘾导致她在日本监狱中度过了一段时间 (2 / 6)
10.30 《新闻之夜》头条分析，由 Victoria Derbyshire 主持
11.05 电影：《最后一班车》(12, 2021) 一名养老金领取者使用他的免费巴士通行证，从 John O’Groats 旅抵 Land’s End，沿途成为了社交媒体名人。由 Timothy Spall 和 Phyllis Logan 出演的剧情片
如果 Channel 4 的《索尔兹伯里中毒事件》还没有解答你关于 2018 年诺维乔克袭击谢尔盖·斯克里帕尔及其女儿尤利娅的所有疑问，那么这部片子或许可以。受访者包括前首相 Theresa Rob Rinder (5, 9pm)
6.00am Good Morning Britain 10.00 This Morning 1.30pm ITV News；天气预报 2.00 Dickinson’s Real Deal。David Dickinson 和他的专家团队前往克鲁（Crewe），Fay Rutter 在她的桌上评估一些时计，而 Stewart Hofgartner 在一个男孩的玩具收藏中发现了一件瑰宝 (r) (AD) 3.00 Deal or No Deal。由 Stephen Mulhern 主持，参赛者尝试按正确顺序打开 22 个红色盒子，挑战臭名昭著的“银行家”，以获得赢取改变生活的现金大奖的机会 (r) (AD) 4.00 Tipping Point。Ben Shephard 主持这场以游戏厅为主题的问答赛，参赛者将代币投入四个备选槽中，希望赢取 £10,000 的头奖 (r) 5.00 The Chase。Bradley Walsh 主持，来自 Welwyn Garden City、Northampton、Liverpool 和 East Yorkshire 的参赛者挑战一名追捕者 (r) 6.00 地区新闻；天气预报 6.30 ITV News；天气预报
7.30 《朗廷酒店内幕：英国第一座豪华酒店》 首席执行官抵达现场，视察酒店最宏大的翻修工程之一 (3 / 6) (AD)
8.00 《艾默代尔》 Cain 情绪激动，决定现在就是时机，而 Nicola 发现了一个令人担忧的情况 (AD)
8.30 《街道冠冕》 Dylan 在一次冲突后陷入昏迷，Ross 改变了他的说法 (AD)
9.00 《冷案法医：尼罗河上的死亡》 法医学科学家 Angela Gallop 博士及其团队调查一名英国律师在埃及度浪漫假期时发生的神秘猝死事件。由 Nicola Walker 旁白。见今日精选 (2 / 3) (AD)
10.00 ITV 十点新闻；天气预报；随后是地区新闻
10.45 电影：《坏伙计 2》(15, 2003) 两名不合拍的卧底警察致力于阻止一场地下帮派战争，并击败一名企图向市场倾销致命 ecstasy 的毒枭。然而，一段浪漫插曲威胁到调查进程，使其偏离轨道。由 Will Smith、Martin Lawrence 和 Gabrielle Union 主演的喜剧惊悚续集
1.10am 电视购物 3.00 The Summit。在团队忍受了在奖金重压下艰苦的 8 小时登山跋涉后，“山之守护者”给他们带来了一个两难选择 (r) (AD, SL) 3.50 Unwind with ITV 5.05-6.00 Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace。帮助更多被遗弃者寻亲 (r) (AD, SL)
他们砍伐土地的劳工们，那是肮脏且危险的工作。 Helen Stewart
《索尔兹伯里中毒事件：身边的间谍》 Sky Documentaries / Now, 9pm
6.30am 《皇后之王》(The King of Queens) (r) (AD) 7.45 《大家都爱雷蒙》(Everybody Loves Raymond) (r) (AD) 9.10 《弗雷泽》(Frasier) (r) (AD) 11.10 《拉姆齐厨房噩梦》美国篇。戈登访问新奥尔良的 The Verdict (r) 12.05pm 第4频道新闻摘要 12.10 《寻找、修复、出售》(Find It, Fix It, Flog It)。经典汽车和摩托车系列 (r) (AD) 1.10 《豪宅大赠送》(The Great House Giveaway)。威尔士山谷的一栋房屋拍卖 (r) 2.10 《倒计时》(Countdown)。由 Ade Adepitan 主持 3.00 《阳光下的居所》(A Place in the Sun)。挚友在西班牙安达卢西亚寻找度假屋 (r) 4.00 《与 Penelope Keith 共救乡村别墅》。在科茨沃尔德，一对年轻夫妇最近继承了 Chavenage House，并计划将该庄园打造为豪华露营和桑拿目的地 (r) (AD) 5.00 《城堡DIY》(Château DIY)。一名 DIY 新手尝试重建一座跨溪桥梁 (r) (AD) 6.00 《美国拾荒者》(American Pickers)。Mike Wolfe 和 Frank Fritz 发现了一批惊人的概念车，其中一些非常独特 (r) (AD)
7.00 第4频道新闻
8.00 《Hotel Chocolat 揭秘》 巧克力制品师构思限量版饮用巧克力口味，创始人 Angus 在芝加哥店开业的倒计时期间全力以赴 (AD)
9.00 《名人猎杀》(Celebrity Hunted) 两位参赛者拜访了一位名人同事，另一对通过登上电视直播做出大胆举动，另有两人在布莱顿开玩笑后引起了猎人的注意 (AD)
10.00 《沙发评论员》(Gogglebox) 评论员分享他们对《名人叛徒》(The Celebrity Traitors)、《羊毛之战：英国最佳编织者》(Game of Wool: Britain’s Best Knitter)、《触发点》(Trigger Point)、《猎杀》(Hunted)、《鱿鱼游戏：挑战赛》(Squid Game: The Challenge) 以及《哈姆扎的隐秘野生群岛》(Hamza’s Hidden Wild Isles) 的看法 (r) (AD)
11.05 《吉普赛妻子的秘密生活》(Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives) 全家人为纪念父亲 Sid 举办庄园篝火之夜。Trewley 从母亲那里得到了关于“严厉之爱”的教训 (r) (AD)
12.05am 《裸体吸引力》(Naked Attraction) (r) (AD) 1.05 《拉姆齐酒店噩梦》。在爱达荷州 (r) (AD, SL) 1.55 电影：《突破》(Breakthrough) (12, 2019) 由 Chrissy Metz 主演的基于真实事件的剧情片 (SL) 3.50 《夫妻来我家用餐》(Couples Come Dine with Me) (r) (SL) 4.45 《钢琴》(The Piano) (r) (AD, SL) 5.40 《寻找、修复、出售》(Find It, Fix It, Flog It) (r) 5.50-6.30 《倒计时》(Countdown) (r)
五月；前内政大臣 Amber Rudd；以及 Dawn Sturgess 的伴侣 Charlie Rowley，后者是被神经剂意外暴露而导致死亡的女性。 Victoria Segal
冷案法医 ITV1, 晚上 9 点
世界著名的前内政部高级法医科学家 Angela Gallop 博士及其团队调查一名英国事务律师在一次浪漫旅行中突然死亡的事件
6.00am Milkshake! 9.15 Jeremy Vine 11.30 Storm & Alexis 12.45pm 5 News 午间新闻 12.50 Matt Allwright 2.15 电影：《威尼斯谋杀案》(A Murder in Venice) (PG, TVM, 2023) 当一名艺术系学生的新室友在意大利失踪时，她与姨妈联手拯救朋友。由 Sophie Hopkins 和 Charlotte Rothwell 主演的惊悚片 4.00 《城堡》(Castle)。Beckett 及其团队调查一名电视女演员的谋杀案，而 Castle 被该剧明星雇佣，尝试从不同角度跟踪此案。由 Nathan Fillion 主演 (r) 4.55 《热爱自然》(Love Nature)。镜头聚焦北威尔士的 Eryri 国家公园 (r) 5.00 5 News with Dan Walker 6.00 《马略卡岛：阳光之年》。镜头聚焦马略卡岛作为超级游艇的主要枢纽，以及一名经营奢华餐饮公司的前厨师 (r) 6.55 5 News 更新
7.00 《约克郡兽医：与 Green 一家同在》(The Yorkshire Vet: At Home with the Greens) 当 Peter Wright 带 Jean 体验一次终身难忘的直升机飞行时，Jean 从空中看到了她的农场，同时 Green 一家接待了一位地产经纪人的访问 (2 / 4) (r)
7.55 5 News 更新
8.00 《走进隆利特》(Inside Longleat) 隆利特花园里出现了意想不到的访客，摄像机准备调查哪种哺乳动物在 12 个月内于水路中取得的进展比人类在 30 年内取得的还多
9.00 《维多利亚时代人》(The Victorians)，由 Rob Rinder 和
鲁斯·古德曼和罗布·林德以及鲁斯·古德曼地探索历史最著名的事件是如何被富人和穷人分别体验的。他们首先探索 1840 年代的维多利亚 era，当时铁路狂热席卷英国。罗布追随那些将资金投入铁路繁荣期的富裕维多利亚人，而鲁斯则调查在铁路工作的人。请参阅当日精选
10.30 猎杀：搜寻警员杀手
1982 年的警方大搜捕旨在寻找巴里·普鲁多姆。他在一次恐怖的暴力袭击中枪杀两名警员，随后成为英国 18 天内最被通缉的人。本节目包含档案影像和情景重现，回顾了事件的展开以及普鲁多姆最终的结局 (r)
12.05am 隔壁的食人族 阿明·迈威的故事 (r) 1.00 邮轮 TV 与 LoveitBookit (r) 2.00 全科医生：闭门之后 (r) 2.50 城堡 (r) 3.40 朋友 (r) 4.30 高地兽医 (r) (SL) 5.25 5 频道娱乐新闻 5 5.35 迈洛 (r) (SL) 5.45-6.00 帕丁顿的冒险 (r) (SL)
在埃及度假。真实犯罪纪录片系列《Cold Case Forensics》自 2022 年起一直播出，在最新一集中，Gallop 试图揭开此案的秘密，以证明来自北威尔士的雪莉·刘易斯（Cheryl Lewis）于 1998. 10 月在卢克索尼罗河畔的冬季宫殿酒店被谋杀。该集标题为《尼罗河上的死亡》——阿加莎·克里斯蒂曾多次造访这家豪华酒店，该酒店也是她 1937 小说灵感的来源。HS
7.00pm 英国铁路之旅 (Great British Railway Journeys)。林肯至约克 (AD) 7.30 韦恩赖特徒步 (Wainwright Walks)。探索阿尔弗雷德·韦恩赖特 (Alfred Wainwright) 的作品 (AD) 8.00 继承庄园 (To the Manor Born)。喜剧 8.30 维持体面 (Keeping Up Appearances) 9.00 雌狼：英格兰早期的女王 (She-Wolves: England’s Early Queens)。英格兰首次全女性的继承权之战 (3 / 3) 10.00 城堡：英国的防御史 (Castles: Britain’s Fortified History)。一些城堡是如何被改造为宫殿的 (3 / 3) (AD) 11.00 权力走廊：美国应该监管世界吗？ (Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World?) 奥巴马如何处理化学武器威胁 (7 / 8) (AD) 12.00 权力走廊：美国应该监管世界吗？ (AD) 1.00am 雌狼：英格兰早期的女王。该系列最后一集 2.00 城堡：英国的防御史 (AD) 3.00am-3.30 英国铁路之旅 (AD, SL)
U&Drama
7.00pm The Catch Up 7.05 致命 60 (Deadly 60)。两部分之第二部分。与巨型波亚的相遇 7.30 致命 60。在巴拿马追踪角雕 8.00 Top Gear。三人组测试高性能两厢车，Ross Noble 为名人驾驶员 9.00 幸存者澳大利亚 (Survivor Australia)。新系列。该真人秀回归其在萨摩亚的原始设定 10.30 幸存者澳大利亚。英雄组团结共处，反派组在恶劣环境下苦苦支撑，并再次被送回部落议会 11.50 类固醇帮派自白 (Confessions of a Steroid Gang)。北威尔士的一对父子如何建立毒品帝国 (AD) 12.20am 类固醇帮派自白 (AD) 1.20 Zara McDermott：饮食失调 (AD) 2.20-3.55 被我妈绑架了 (AD, SL)
Variations
BBC1 北爱尔兰 10.40pm 年度之屋 (House of the Year)。一座新建筑，一座大胆的排屋以及一座围绕景观设计的住宅 (r) 11.10 电影：《罗宾汉》(2010) 一名从十字军东征归来的弓箭手面对一名叛徒骑士的阴谋，旨在促成法国征服英格兰。由罗素·克劳（Russell Crowe）和凯特·布兰切特（Cate Blanchett）主演的中世纪冒险片 1.20am-6.00 BBC 新闻
BBC1 苏格兰 7.00pm-7.30 河城 (River City)。深陷愧疚的康纳 (Conor) 试图说服妮可 (Nicole) 他们应该坦白。迪恩 (Dean) 挺身对抗卡勒姆 (Callum) 和沙克 (Shak)，而吉莉安 (Gillian) 在与道格拉斯 (Douglas) 总警长的会面后心碎不已 (r) 12.50am Scotcast。讨论苏格兰最大的新闻故事 (r) 1.20 下周天气预报 1.25am-6.00 BBC 新闻
乔与大卫的魔幻情景剧之旅 (Joe & David’s Magical Sitcom Tour) U&Gold, 9pm
这个节目听起来像是一次轻率的嬉戏：仅仅是两名喜剧演员——乔·威尔金森 (Joe Wilkinson) 和他的写作搭档大卫·厄尔 (David Earl)——参观与他们最喜爱的情景剧相关的地点。然而，这里呈现的是一次奇怪且动人的、阴森超现实的《稀粥》(Porridge) 世界之旅，包括与该剧编剧迪克·克莱门特 (Dick Clement) 和伊恩·拉弗雷奈斯 (Ian La Frenais) 的相遇。VS
Sky Arts 6.00am 经典 FM 2025 7.00 潜力之星 (Classic FM’s Rising Stars 2025) 7.00 风笛：庆典 (AD) 8.00 绘画之乐 9.00 意外故事 (Tales of the Unexpected) (AD) 10.00 希区柯克呈现 (Alfred Hitchcock Presents) 11.00 发现 (Discovering) (AD) 12.00 仙境：从 JM 巴里到 JRR 托尔金 1.00pm 意外故事 (AD) 2.00 希区柯克小时 (黑白) 3.00 七十年代 (The Seventies) (AD) 4.00 发现 (AD) 5.00 年度肖像艺术家 2021 (AD) 6.00 意外故事 (AD) 7.00 希区柯克呈现 8.00 画中世界：委拉斯开兹的辣椒 9.15 画笔之外 (AD) 10.15 仙境：哥特式 (AD) 11.15 电影 (AD) 12.15am 我是史蒂夫·麦奎恩 (I Am Steve McQueen) 2.00 山谷之声 (Voices of the Valleys)。新系列 3.00 第二次世界大战与电影 (AD) 4.00am-5.00 Sky Arts 书友会
6.00am Backyard Builds (SL) 6.30 Dress to Impress (AD, SL) 7.30 The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City 8.20 The Real Housewives of Orange County 9.20 The Only Way Is Essex 10.15 Dawson’s Creek 11.10 Charmed 12.10pm Deal or No Deal (AD) 1.10 Supermarket Sweep 2.10 The Floor USA (AD) 3.10 The Only Way Is Essex 4.10 Real Housewives of Salt Lake City 5.00 The Real Housewives of Orange County 6.00 Celebrity Catchphrase (AD) 7.00 The Floor USA (AD) 8.00 The 1% Club (AD) 9.00 Olivia Attwood: The Price of Perfection. 新剧集 (1 / 6) 10.00 Family Guy (AD) 11.35 American Dad! (AD) 12.35am Bob’s Burgers (AD) 1.30 Plebs (AD, SL) 1.55am-2.20 Deep Fake Neighbour Wars (SL)
STV 1.10am-3.00 Shop on TV 3.50am-6.00 Night Vision
BBC Scotland 7.00pm Reporting Scotland: News at Seven 7.30 My Kind of Town (r) 8.00 This Farming Life (r) 9.00 The Three Kings 10.45 Scotcast 11.15 Our Lives: Stone Strong (r) 11.45pm-12.00 Loop (r)
S4C 6.00am Cyw 10.00 Blociau Lliw (r) 10.05 Twm Twrch (r) 10.15 Help Llaw (r) 10.30 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol 2026. 早晨活动 12.00 News 12.05pm Eisteddfod Genedlaethol 2026 2.00 News 2.05 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol 2026 7.30 News; Weather 7.50 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol 2026 10.15 Y Babell Lên 2026 10.45- 11.50pm Iaith ar Daith (r)
STREAMING CHOICE（流媒体选择）
Doctor Odyssey ITVX
这部由 Ryan Murphy 创作的邮轮医疗剧在仅播一季后就被取消了，并遭到评论家的全面抨击。然而，它的一小群忠实粉丝却沉溺于其中的疯狂，并针对这出极具戏剧化（high-camp）的海上剧集中究竟发生了什么，构思了一系列引人入胜的理论。其中最主要的一个理论是，Max Bankman 医生 (Joshua Jackson)
8.55am Heir Hunters 10.00 Four in a Bed 12.40pm Come Dine with Me (AD) 3.20 Four in a Bed 5.50 Car SOS. 位于哈德斯菲尔德的一辆 1992 年款 VW Corrado (AD) 6.50 Car SOS. 一辆 1973 年款 Dennis 消防车 (AD) 7.55 Grand Designs. Kevin McCloud 跟随一对夫妇将格洛斯特郡一个被忽视的半英亩场地进行改造 (1 / 8) (AD) 9.00 Oti and Richard’s South African Odyssey. Oti 和 Richard 遇见了一个非洲企鹅群落 (AD) 10.00 24 Hours in A&E. 一名 38 岁的树艺师在从 25 英尺高处跌下后被紧急送医 (3 / 8) (AD) 11.05 24 Hours in A&E. 一名 22 岁的人因面部和手臂被刺伤被紧急送医 (4 / 8) (AD) 12.10am 999: On the Front Line. 救治一名被刺伤的男子 1.15 24 Hours in A&E (AD) 3.25am-3.50 A Place in the Sun
6.00am George and Mildred 7.05 经典版《艾默代尔》(AD) 8.10 经典版《加冕街》(AD) 9.10 阿加莎·克里斯蒂的《波洛》(AD) 11.30 《心跳》(AD) 1.35pm 《米德索默谋杀案》(AD) 3.35 经典版 《艾默代尔》(AD) 5.15 经典版 《加冕街》(AD) 5.50 《心跳》。乡村剧 (AD) 8.00 《薇拉》。当荒原上发现尸体时，侦探展开调查 (1 / 4) (AD) 10.00 《格兰切斯特》。威尔得知他的父亲陷入麻烦 (5 / 6) (AD) 11.00 《格兰切斯特》。关于舞厅一名泰迪男孩被杀的离奇案件随之展开 (6 / 6) (AD) 11.50 《审判与惩罚》。第二部分（全两部分）。随着死亡人数增加，康纳及其团队在案件中艰难寻找线索 (4 / 10) 1.25am-2.25 《威克利夫》
8.00am 丰饶的美国 8.35 征服者：兴起与陨落 9.40 海盗：传奇背后 10.40 铁幕：在苏联占领下生活 11.55 希特勒的金库 1.00pm 丰饶的美国 1.35 征服者：兴起与陨落 2.35 希特勒的金库 3.35 海盗：传奇背后 4.35 铁幕：在苏联占领下生活 5.50 希特勒的金库 6.50 征服者：兴起与陨落。征服阿兹特克 7.50 海盗：传奇背后 8.50 铁幕：在苏联占领下生活。对波兰、匈牙利、东德和捷克斯洛伐克的占领 (1 / 3) 10.00 希特勒的金库 11.00 海盗：传奇背后 12.00 铁幕：在苏联占领下生活 1.15am-2.00 丰饶的美国
并非真的是奥德赛邮轮的随船医生，而是在感染新冠肺炎后陷入昏迷。 或许这很荒谬，但如果你从这个角度来看这部剧，它就变成了一场带有阴暗色彩的狂热之梦，而不再是一部牵强附会的电视肥皂剧。 安德鲁·梅尔 (Andrew Male)
电影选择
罗宾汉 (12, 2010) BBC1, 10.40pm
导演里德利·斯科特重聚
今日 体育直播
实况测试板球： 西印度群岛 对阵 巴基斯坦 TNT Sports 2, 2.30pm-11 该系列赛在皇后公园椭圆球场进行的第三天决赛
实况 The Hundred： 利兹太阳神队女队 对阵 伦敦精神队女队 Sky Sports Cricket, Sky Sports Mix, 2.45pm-6, Sky Sports Main Event, 3pm-6 (开赛时间 3.00)。在海丁利球场
实况网球 Sky Sports +, Sky Sports Tennis, 4pm-12midnight 加拿大公开赛第三天报道
实况 The Hundred： 利兹太阳神队男队 对阵 伦敦精神队男队 Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Cricket, Sky Sports Mix, 6pm-9.30 (开赛时间 6.30)。海丁利球场比赛报道
实况 MLB：芝加哥小熊队 对阵 洛杉矶道奇队 TNT Sports 1, 1am-4 (开赛时间 1.00)。扬基体育场报道
6.00am 鱼镇 (r) 8.00 亿万 (r) (AD) 10.20 任务 (r) (AD) 12.50pm 凶杀案：街头生活 (r) 3.00 亿万 (r) (AD) 5.20 激烈竞争。由哈德逊·威廉姆斯主演的浪漫剧 (r) (AD) 7.30 真探：夜之国。关于安妮身上发生之事的真相随之揭晓 (6 / 6) (r) (AD) 9.00 Gomorrah：起源。犯罪剧前传，追踪年轻的皮埃特罗·萨瓦斯塔诺在 1977 年的那不勒斯成长为罪犯的过程 (3 / 6) 10.00 Gomorrah：起源。由卢卡·卢布拉诺主演的犯罪剧前传。意大利语 (4 / 6) 11.00 囚犯。随着一场猫鼠游戏展开，安伯的计划陷入危机 (r) (AD) 12.00 真探：夜之国。犯罪剧 (r) (AD) 3.35am 亿万 (r) (AD) 4.35 某种程度上 (r) (AD) 5.05am-6.00 都市秘密 (r)
6.00am 电影：《凌晨3点的谋杀》(PG, 1953) (黑白) 7.10 电影：《傲慢的叛逆者》(U, 1958) (黑白) 9.15 电影：《奥利弗·推斯特》(PG, TVM, 1982) 11.15 电影：《比格尔斯：时间冒险》(PG, 1986) 1.00pm 《威廉·特尔的冒险》(黑白) 1.35 电影：《金星之约》(U, 1951) (黑白) 3.20 安东尼·珀金斯：门后的演员 4.25 电影：《追逐曲折的阴影》(U, 1957) (黑白) 6.10 TPTV节目预告，主持人诺埃尔 6.25 《鞭策》(黑白) 6.55 《联合国特工》 7.55 《私掠者》 9.00 电影：《意外》(PG, 1967) 德克·博加德主演的剧情片 11.05 福尔廷电视 11.40 电影：《替身》(18, 1984) 梅拉妮·格里菲斯主演的惊悚片 1.55am 电影：《流星之夜》(15, 1982) 4.00am-5.00 《目标：腐败者》
ITV4 6.00am 《马格南，私家侦探》(AD) 8.05 《邓普西与梅克皮斯》(AD) 9.10 《布恩》 10.15 《专业人士》(AD) 11.25 《舍伍德的罗宾》 12.30pm 《马格南，私家侦探》(AD) 2.35 《邓普西与梅克皮斯》(AD) 3.45 《布恩》 4.50 《专业人士》(AD) 5.55 《保镖》。特里掩护一名逃犯 (AD) 7.00 《摩托车展》。亨利·科尔开始追求陆地速度纪录的荣誉 8.00 世界拉力锦标赛精选。芬兰拉力赛（以尤瓦斯库拉为中心）的精彩片段 9.00 《冰路卡车司机》。亚历克斯的拖车在马尼托巴省脱落 10.00 全精英摔角：碰撞。激烈的摔角动作 12.00 《拳击场的阴暗面》。关于克里斯·贝努瓦混乱内心世界的揭秘 12.55am 《保镖》(AD, SL) 1.55am-2.45 《战斗机器人》
Sky Docs 6.00am 《2000年代》(r) 7.00 《发现：加里·奥德曼》(r) (AD) 8.00 《导演们》(r) (AD) 9.00 100 Foot Wave (r) (AD) 10.00 《喜剧之店》(r) (AD) 11.05 《UFO》(r) (AD) 12.00 艾伯特·布鲁克斯：《捍卫我的生活》(r) (AD) 1.45pm 我的偶像：约翰·阿马埃奇 (r) (AD) 2.00 《史塔西足球俱乐部》(r) 3.50 我的偶像：迈克尔·霍尔丁 (r) (AD) 4.00 《导演们》(r) (AD) 5.00 《发现：加里·奥德曼》(r) (AD) 5.55 《肯尼迪：被背叛的命运》(r) 7.00 《切尔诺贝利：失踪的录像带》(r) (AD) 9.00 《索尔兹伯里中毒事件：隔壁的间谍》。见今日推荐 10.40 电影：《距离安德里夫卡2000米》(15, 2025) 一个乌克兰排试图从俄罗斯军队手中解放一个村庄 12.50am 《阿姆斯特丹毒枭》(r) 3.50 《地球之边缘》(r) (AD) 5.00-6.00 《发现：加里·奥德曼》(r)
拉塞尔·克劳主演，对罗宾汉神话进行了修正主义诠释，倾向于阴暗且复杂的剧情。克劳饰演忧郁的罗宾·隆斯特莱德，他是狮心理查军队中的一名弓箭手。理查由丹尼·休斯顿饰演，因此你知道他必然是个恶棍。他背叛了罗宾及其同伴，导致后者选择逃兵。但罗宾真正的敌人是戈弗雷 (马克·斯特朗)，一名以约翰王名义行动的法国特工，但他在英国民众中煽动动乱。(140分钟) Wendy Ide
11.00am 《机器人之梦》(Robot Dreams) (PG, 2023) 动画冒险片，由 Ivan Labanda 配音 1.05pm 《莫霍克河畔的鼓声》(Drums Along the Mohawk) (PG, 1939) 由 Henry Fonda 主演的剧情片 3.10 《佐罗面具》(The Mark of Zorro) (PG, TVM, 1974) 由 Frank Langella 主演的冒险片 (AD) 4.45 《鼠族游戏》(Rat Race) (12, 2001) 由 Rowan Atkinson 主演的喜剧片 (AD) 6.55 《忍者神龟：变种大乱斗》(Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem) (PG, 2023) 由 Nicolas Cantu 和 Jackie Chan 配音的动画奇幻片 9.00 《我的继母是个外星人》(My Stepmother Is an Alien) (15, 1988) 由 Dan Aykroyd 和 Kim Basinger 主演的科幻喜剧片 11.10 《索霍之夜》(Last Night in Soho) 访谈特辑。导演 Edgar Wright 出席 11.15 《皮下》(Under the Skin) (15, 2013) 由 Scarlett Johansson 主演的科幻剧情片 1.25am-3.35 《如何与派对上的女孩交谈》(How to Talk to Girls at Parties) (15, 2017) 由 Elle Fanning 主演的浪漫喜剧片
6.00am 电视购物 7.20 《比尔》(The Bill) 8.15 《医生》(Doctors) 9.25 经典版《霍比市》(Classic Holby City) 10.45 《急诊》(Casualty) (AD) 11.45 《比尔》(The Bill) 12.45pm 经典版《东区》 (Classic EastEnders) 2.00 《邻居》(Neighbours) 3.00 《天上的派》(Pie in the Sky) 4.05 《洛夫乔伊》(Lovejoy) 5.20 《岁月如梭》(As Time Goes By) 6.00 《夏日之终》(Last of the Summer Wine) 8.00 《你好，你好！》(’Allo ’Allo!) 抵抗组织计划将钱藏在 Rene 的裤子里 8.30 《你好，你好！》(’Allo ’Allo!) Rene 处理掉了金钱和缩微胶卷 9.05 《你好，你好！》(’Allo ’Allo!) Alfonse 因心脏问题被紧急送往医院 9.35 《新线索》(New Tricks)。小队重新调查一名分时度假大亨的死亡事件 (5 / 8) (AD) 10.55 《路特》(Luther)。一名枪手谋杀了两名身穿制服的警察 (2 / 6) (AD) 12.10am 《洛夫乔伊》(Lovejoy) 1.20 《邦尼法斯修女谜案》(Sister Boniface Mysteries) (AD) 2.25 《波托菲诺酒店》(Hotel Portofino) (SL) 3.25 《志同道合》(Birds of a Feather) 4.00am-6.00 电视购物
6.10am 《被遗弃的工程》(Abandoned Engineering) (AD) 8.00 《破车换现金》(Bangers & Cash) (AD) 10.00 《秘密纳粹基地》(Secret Nazi Bases) 11.00 《奥斯维辛：纳粹与最终解决方案》(Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution) 12.00 《古董路演》(Antiques Roadshow) 2.00pm 《破车换现金：经典修复》(Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics) (AD) 3.00 《破车换现金》(Bangers & Cash) (AD) 4.00 《秘密纳粹基地》(Secret Nazi Bases) 5.00 《奥斯维辛：纳粹与最终解决方案》(Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution)。党卫军内部的腐败 6.00 《古董路演》(Antiques Roadshow) 7.00 《绿色星球》(The Green Planet) (AD) 8.00 《破车换现金：经典修复》(Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics)。一辆 1972 年的大众 Fastback (AD) 9.00 《破车换现金》(Bangers & Cash)。一辆欧宝 Manta 和一辆莫里斯 Oxford (AD) 10.00 《破车换现金：经典修复》(Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics)。一辆 Lotus Elan Series 1 (AD) 11.00 《破车换现金》(Bangers & Cash) (AD) 12.00 《破车换现金》(Bangers & Cash) (AD) 1.00am 《寻找、修复、出售》(Find It, Fix It, Flog It) (AD) 2.00 《被遗弃的工程》(Abandoned Engineering) (AD) 3.00am-6.10 电视购物
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简单 697 号
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完成后，网格下方的条带可以分成八组数字对。一组中的数字之和是网格中 16 个数字之一。它们的乘积是网格中另一个不同的数字。例如，条带中的 4 和 6 可以配对，在网格中形成 10 (4+6) 和 24 (4x6)。将每个和输入到网格中相应数字的下方。条带中的空白部分必须推导出来，请记住数字是按升序排列的。
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下一个 Tetonor 谜题将于周四出现
迷你数独、额外填词游戏、
KenKen 中级 6902 号
填词游戏 5910 号
在这个填字游戏风格的网格中，每个字母由 1 到 26 的数字代表。 字母表中的每个字母在网格中至少出现一次。请利用已提供的字母来推断其他字母的身份。在主网格和较小的参考网格中填入字母，直到 26 个字母全部找齐。专有名词除外。昨天的答案，正确。
解密词线索卡住了？如需接收 4 个随机线索，请致电 0901 293 6262 或发送短信 TIMECODE 至 64343。通话费用为 £1 加上您电话公司的网络接入费。短信费用为 £1 加上您的标准网络费用。获取完整答案请致电 0905 757 0142。如果您持有旧报纸并需要过去 7 天的线索，请致电 0905 624 0024。拨打 0905 电话每分钟费用为 £1 加上您电话公司的网络接入费。SP：Spoke，0333 202 3390（周一至周五，上午 9 点至下午 5:30）。
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Lexica 简单 编号 9033 困难 编号 9034
白方走棋。 此局面出自 Arslanov- Mattenberger，Titled Tuesday， chess.com 2026。
虽然白方拥有一个极具前景的进攻位置，但看来他陷入了困境。 黑方刚刚在 e4 处吃子，由于 g5 骑士被牵制，白方没有好的回吃方式。然而，白方考虑的不是挽回子力，而是进一步加强进攻。你能看出怎么做吗？
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将字母水平或垂直地滑回网格中，以完成一个填字游戏。允许字母滑过其他字母。
Futoshiki 编号 5450
Kakuro 编号 4409
Train Tracks 编号 2935
© PUZZLER MEDIA
铺设轨道使火车能从 A 村 traveling 到 B 村。数字表示每行和每列中有多少段轨道。仅有直线段和曲线段。轨道不能自身交叉。
解决所有五个隐秘线索，每个下方的字母仅使用一次。
1 Precisely place first third of umbrellas (5)
2 Very little in dry social media post (5)
3 Knock down tools (6)
4 Cast secure Shakespearean character (7)
5 Never-ending ants since works (9)
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T T U W Y
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编号 2637
仅使用 1 到 9 的数字填充网格。 每组水平或垂直白色方格中的数字之和等于其左侧或上方的三角形中的总数。 同一个数字在同一行或同一列中可以出现多次，但在同一组白色方格内不能重复。
÷ 6
– 42
大脑训练师
÷ 10
B
大脑 训练师
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
10 11 12
13 14 15
16 17
18 19
横向 5 对热门事件的报道与分析 (8) A N
7 红海与印度洋的船只 (4)
L O
9 惨败 (4,3,4)
10 《仲夏夜之梦》中的仙王 (6)
12 杂项事实 (6)
纵横字谜 10,225 的答案
% $ 6 $ & / 2 1 * 6 + , 3 3 8 / 3 5 + ( ( 5 ( 9 $ 0 3 5 ( & $ 3 + 7 $ 1 7 : ( 5 3 ( $ 5 3 3 , & 2 2 3 ' 8 & + $ 0 3 & 7 5 2 2 3 & $ 7 1 $ 3 0 , 4 6 7 2 3 ( $ 7 , 1 * 8 3 < *
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IT
IT
答案
答案
P L
W I T H
桥牌 安德鲁·罗布森 (Andrew Robson)
在近期于里加举行的第 57 届欧洲桥牌国家队锦标赛的个人巴特勒赛系列赛中，排名最高的是代表荷兰的长期搭档西蒙·德·威斯 (Simon de Wijs) 和鲍克·穆勒 (Bauke Muller)。他们采用一种他们称之为“泰山”(Tarzan) 的人造强俱乐部法 (Wijs-Muller ... Johnny ...)。
穆勒在荷兰是一个特例，他曾两次赢得百慕大碗赛 (1993 和 2011)，并因成为荷兰最成功的选手而于 2012 年被授予奥兰治-拿骚勋章。在今天这手来自里加的牌局中，他无疑是最成功的领先者。
在 30 张牌桌中的 16 张上，定约是 3NT (其中 15 张由南家宣告)。仅有一次定约被击败。
关键在于西家的首攻。尽管他的搭档曾用黑桃抢标 (且他持有潜在有用的 ♠109x 支撑)，但穆勒注意到搭档在 3♠ 时选择了 Pass；如果德·威斯真的想要黑桃首攻，他会对 3♠ 进行加倍。在南家已经显示出拥有黑桃止损牌，且明手可能拥有 7 张可运行的梅花长套的情况下，穆勒正确地评估后决定寻找其他突破口。
他找到了经过精心研究的方块女王首攻，希望能遇到与实际情况类似的分布。女王获胜，宣告者随出一张揭示性的 9，穆勒继续出 J，封锁了宣告者的 10。
在第三轮出牌时，西家继续出一张低方块，这是一个无需考虑的自由牌
加倍
Y M
13 (肉类) 较不油腻的 (6) 15 为了补充前一种而饮用的饮料 (6) 16 使永垂不朽 (S, 而非 Z) (11) 18 詹姆斯 ---，《反叛青年》演员 (4) 19 试图表现出提供机会均等的愤世嫉俗之举 (8)
纵向 1 修容工具 (4) 2 苏格兰织物设计 (6) 3 现代的 (6) 4 正式的决策过程 (12) 6 安置于权力宝座的行为 (12) 8 在户外 (7) 11 养蜂场 (7) 14 罕见性 (6) 15 易怒的，脾气坏的 (6) 17 减轻，缓和 (4)
发牌者：北，脆弱性：无
队伍 ♠6 ♥92 ♦K72 ♣AKQJ973
♠1095 ♥Q86 ♦QJ864 ♣102
♠AQJ43 ♥K43 ♦A53 ♣65
N W E S
♠K872 ♥AJ1075 ♦109 ♣84
S W(Muller) N E(de Wijs)
2♣(1) 2♠ Pass Pass 3♠(2) Pass 3NT 结束
(1) 精确体系，显示 6 张梅花且有高达 15 点 (或 5 张梅花和 4 张主色)。 (2) “我有一组强套。请用黑桃止损牌叫 3NT。” 自然叫法将是 1♣ 1♠ Dbl(3) 2♠ 3♠(4) Pass 3NT 结束
(3) 消极叫法，承诺红桃 (南家强度不足以叫 (强迫性的) 2♥，尽管这会告知他的第五张牌)。 (4) 与上述 (2) 类似。
定约：3NT，首攻：♦Q
红桃而非黑桃的套色偏好信号。在赢得 A 之后，东家如期转向低红桃。 宣告者没有第九张赢墩。他只能用 A 赢回，出完梅花，然后认输 —— “防守得漂亮，伙计们，”(我希望) 他说道。
荷兰队最终排名第五，比英国队高一名，足以 (位列前八) 确保明年在巴巴多斯举行的百慕大碗赛的一个席位。 andrew.robson@thetimes.co.uk
简单 19 x 3 + 17 – 36 双倍
中等 29 + 38 + 35
IT x 5
较难 65 – 55 x 18
TIMES ITSELF + 17 ÷ 5
IT ÷ 6 – 2319
减半
减半
Set Square No 4412
Killer Moderate No 10,858
Killer Tough No 10,859
与标准数独相同，填充网格，使每一列、每一行和每个 3x3 宫格都包含数字 1 到 9。由虚线连接的每组单元格之和必须等于其左上角的数值。在每组由虚线连接的单元格中，数字不能重复。
– 27
IT ÷ 4
IT ÷ 4
TRIPLE（三倍）
TRIPLE（三倍）
利用这些字母，组成三个或更多字母的单词，且必须包含中心字母。答案必须出自《牛津简明词典》，不包括大写单词、复数、变位动词（过去式等）、以 LY 结尾的副词、比较级和最高级。 评分标准：15 个词为平均水平；20 个为良好；26 个为优秀；32 个为卓越。
昨天的答案 ash, ashet, dah, dash, death, desh, edh, eth, hade, haste, hat, hate, head, headset, heat, heated, heed, hest, shad, shade, she, shea, shed, sheet, tash, the, thee, these
Quick Cryptic 3370
Sudoku 16,995
Sudoku 16,996
Sudoku 16,997
Killer 10,856
Killer 10,857
Cell Blocks No 5793
© PUZZLER MEDIA
© PUZZLER MEDIA
请注意，不适用 BODMAS 运算顺序
Codeword 5909
GK Crossword 349
Lexica 9031 Cell Blocks 5792 Set Square 4411
Futoshiki 5449
KenKen 6901
今日答案
Concise Quintagram
Cryptic Quintagram
1 Blow 2 Clamp 3 Flurry 4 Slimmer 5 Pleasantry
1 Plumb 2 Tweet 3 Strike 4 Shylock 5 Incessant
Word watch（单词观察）
Avalement (b) 一种滑雪技巧 (Collins) Koftgar (c) 一位将金镶入钢材的工匠 (Chambers) Gallinipper (b) 一种美国大型蚊子 (OED) Chess — Winning Move（国际象棋——致胜招数）
1 Rxf7+! 移除了 e6 关键的保护。在 1 ... Rxf7 2 Qxh6+（不必要的锦上添花；2 Nxe6+ 且 3 Nxd8 更强） 2 ... Kxh6 3 Nxf7+ Kg7 4 Nxd8 Rxd8 5 Rxe4 之后白方很快获胜，但 2 Nxe6+ 本可 迫使对方投降。
D I N G O
将网格划分为正方形或 长方形区块，每个区块 仅包含一个数字。每个 区块必须包含其内部 数字所指示的单元格数量。
在网格中填入 1 到 9 的每个数字，使六组 求和成立。我们已经 放置了两个数字以助您开始。 每组求和应从左至右 或从上至下计算。
Kakuro 4408
Train Tracks 2934
G R A I N Y
S O C K
Q U A R T
Lexica 9032
C M P E
U
Sakuro 4811
Easy 7 Medium 19 Harder 126
Quiz（问答）
1 Legs 2 Beer, often lager 3 Dunkirk 4 AC / DC 5 Alexander the Great or Alexander III 6 Butterfly 7 Des Lynam 8 Dublin. He had just been appointed chief secretary for Ireland 9 Duodenum 10 Soup 11 Nick Davies 12 Gloster Gladiator 13 Termez or Termiz 14 Newmarket 15 Manx shearwater
数独 简单版 No 16,998 困难版 No 16,999 超级极难版 No 17,000
词汇观察 David Parfitt
Avalement a 帮助，援助 b 一种滑雪技巧 c 河流或冰川造成的侵蚀
Koftgar a 一道辛辣肉丸菜肴 b 一种男女通用袍状服装 c 将钢材镶金的工匠
Gallinipper a 无法安静坐下的人 b 一种大型蚊子 c 一艘 19 世纪的贸易船
《泰晤士报》每日竞猜 Olav Bjortomt
1 “Getaway sticks”（逃跑棍）是身体哪个部位的俚语？
2 柠檬雪莉（lemon shandy）是将柠檬水与哪种酒精饮料混合而成？
3 1940 年 5 月至 6 月期间，对法国哪个港口城市的撤离计划是在多佛城堡下方策划的？
4 在澳大利亚，哪支资深摇滚乐队被亲切地称为 “Acca Dacca”？
5 伊斯坎达尔库尔（Iskanderkul）是塔吉克斯坦的一个青绿色湖泊，它是以哪位马其顿国王的名字命名的？
6 Mariposa 是西班牙语中哪种有翅昆虫的单词？
《泰晤士报》快速隐喻填字游戏 No 3371 by Wurm
请填写网格，使每一列、每一行以及每个 3x3 的方格都包含数字 1 到 9。
7 1995 年，默顿夫人称哪位《每日比赛》（Match of the Day）主持人为 “更年期女性心中的汤姆·克鲁斯”？
8 1882 年，弗雷德里克·卡文迪什勋爵在抵达哪个城市几小时后，在凤凰公园被刺杀？
ALAMY
11 在 2025 年 ITV 剧集《黑客》（The Hack）中，由大卫·特南特饰演的调查记者是谁？
12 1937 年投入使用的格洛斯特（Gloster）飞机是英国皇家空军最后一架双翼战斗机，它是哪款？
13 乌兹别克斯坦最南端的城市，苏尔汉达里亚区的首府是哪里？
14 谢赫·穆罕默德拥有的 Dalham Hall 马场位于哪个城镇的郊区？
9 小肠的哪个部分得名于拉丁语中表示 12 指宽（长度）的词组？
15 图中是哪种神秘鸟类，又名 Puffinus puffinus？
10 特伦斯·弗里斯比撰写的 1966 年喜剧剧本名为《我……里面有个女孩》（There’s a Girl in My … what?）
横向 3 沿海地区的狂野海神 (3,5) 7 谴责弱小的书集 (6) 8 包含二十六个字母的词？ (8) 9 破碎 (4) 10 蓝杰鸟定期出现在草地上 (3) 11 罗杰准备的蘸酱及时完成 (8) 13 学生团体渴望早早结束 (4) 15 与乌鸦同住：凶猛的生物 (4) 17 单身汉回来迎接休息 (8) 19 喝一杯吉尼斯，很快 (3) 22 恐怖最初在俱乐部被认出 (4) 23 来自良好法国之家的热情 (8) 24 触角终于在沼泽中被甩出 (6) 25 查理在船上占据的椅子
Sakuro No 4811
在空格中填入数字 1 到 9，使得每个圆圈中的数字等于周围四个空格数字之和，且每种颜色的总和正确。
如需互动谜题，请访问 thetimes.com
纵向 1 意大利港口的歌手在东北部 (8) 2 英国版尼赫鲁在电影中饰演 (3-3) 3 支持留在欧盟者会做的事？ (4) 4 舞动可见涉及肤色苍白的人 (8) 5 某种主教离开垃圾桶 (2,1,3) 6 药物巡访大型苏格兰山谷 (4) 12 凶兆被误置于河狗周围 (8) 14 美国小伙子合适且愿意 (8) 16 两侧都感到疼痛的女孩 (6) 18 同样关于占领岛屿 (6) 20 包裹好准备食用 (4) 21 高贵者随国王而去 (4)
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not rapists to be given early release
Oliver Wright Policy Editor Daisy Eastlake Political Reporter Jessica Sharkey Crime Correspondent
Criminals convicted of rape, grooming offences and child sexual assault will no longer be eligible for early release after plans to tackle prison overcrowd- ing were watered down.
Andy Burnham said he was respond- ing to public “anger, anxiety and dis- tress” at the proposals, under which people convicted of some of the most serious offences could have been freed after serving only half of their sen- tences — down from two thirds at present.
The prime minister admitted he had not been able to “go further” with the restrictions and said people serving time for manslaughter and serious do- mestic abuse could still be freed to pre- vent the prison system “reaching capa- city and collapsing”.
The failure to exclude those convict- ed of manslaughter means two of the killers of PC Andrew Harper will be eligible for release in January.
Lissie Harper, the widow of the police officer who was killed while responding to a crime in 2019, said she was “bris- tling with anger. What abhorrent mes- sage does this send? How dare minis- ters say the killing of a police officer is not enough of a ‘sickening crime’ that deserves the stiffest of punishments?”
She said the release would be “an af- front to justice. The government and the justice system have not just let me down … they have added insult to injury. They are meant to be on our side. This is an utter betrayal — and it’s one I will not be able to forgive or forget.”
Rod Liddle dies at 66 Tributes have been paid to Rod Liddle, who wrote regular columns for The Sunday Times and The Sun and presented a weekly show for Times Radio, after his death aged 66.
£3.20 £2.35 to subscribers (based on a 7 Day Print and Digital Subscription) The health myths you should ignore
More than 70,000 people have been freed since Labour brought in emer- gency measures to tackle overcrowding in September 2024. At the end of June, 85,858 people were in custody in England and Wales. The prison estate has an operational capacity of about 89,500.
The Ministry of Justice previously predicted it would run out of prison places in November unless 6,000 pris- oners were freed early.
Kemi Badenoch said Burnham wanted a “round of applause for agree- ing not to release rapists and child sex offenders. He’s not getting one.”
The Tory leader added: “Killers, vio- lent offenders, men who have terror- ised their partners and more will all still walk out of prison in October thanks to Labour’s early release scheme.”
Dame Nicole Jacobs, the domestic abuse commissioner, said: “The deci- sion to not exclude domestic abuse per- petrators from this scheme is wrong and puts victims’ lives at risk. As I told the lord chancellor just last week, the danger perpetrators pose to their vic- tims should not be underestimated. These are individuals who are fixated on their victim and will stop at nothing to control and cause harm.”
Burnham announced a review of the early release programme after entering No 10 two weeks ago.
About 5,000 prisoners were due to become eligible for release from next month, including those convicted of rape, manslaughter and child sexual assault. The Ministry of Justice could not say how many of those 5,000 in- mates would no longer be released as a
‘Plagiarism’ furore The president of a Cambridge college has withdrawn her support for the Cambridge professor Jason Arday after he appeared to admit plagiarising parts of his PhD thesis.
Tuesday August 4 2026 | thetimes.com | No 75102
Greek murder
I N T H E N E WS
Driest July on record England and Wales had their driest July since records began in 1836, damaging crops and causing wildfires. About 23 million people are subject to a hosepipe ban.
Sharif Ahmadzai, 26, an Afghan boxer, has been arrested on suspicion of murdering Elisabeth-Jane Ross, 38, and disposing of her remains in a suitcase.
Nuclear ban relaxed Eighty-one years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan is now openly debating whether the country needs to include nuclear weapons in its defence plans.
Big pharma’s tie-up Almost £18 billion was wiped off the value of AstraZeneca as investors delivered a frosty response to reports it was exploring a deal to combine with a US rival.
S1
a private chef £450 sea bass, steak for the dog
autism ‘is so wide it risks being useless’
Rhys Blakely Science Editor
Autism has become a “catch-all diagnosis” that is applied to so many people that it risks being almost useless, one of Britain’s leading experts on the condition has warned.
Every case of autism now falls under a single clinical label: autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, Professor Dame Uta Frith said the diagnosis was being applied to people whose lives and needs had little resemblance to one another, from children with profound disabilities who require lifelong care to adults with subtle symptoms who live independently.
Writing in the journal Psychological Medicine, Frith called for the spectrum to be split into clearer groups. This could prevent misdiagnoses while end- ing the “tragic neglect” of those with the most severe disabilities, she argued.
“Autism wasn’t always defined this way — a sort of catch-all diagnosis for a huge variety of conditions,” she said. “When it was first identified in the 1940s, it referred to a small group of children with severe difficulties in social interaction, communication and behaviour. Over time, the definition has widened to include people with milder traits and no language or learn- ing problems.”
She added: “In the past, my col- leagues and I felt confident that we could recognise autism at first impress- ion. But this would not be true today.”
Frith is the emeritus professor of cog- nitive development at University College London. Her work helped to es- tablish influential theories about how autistic people understand the minds of others and how they process detail and context.
The number of people being diag- nosed with autism has soared, though figures from different periods are not directly comparable because the crite- ria have changed dramatically. A Brit- ish study, published in 1966, identified about four autistic children in every 10,000. Recent research has put the proportion of schoolchildren with a re- corded diagnosis at about one in 57 — a 44-fold increase.
A separate study of UK primary-care
Raducanu ruled out Emma Raducanu will miss the US Open because of a stress fracture in her lower right leg. The British No 1 had pulled out of Wimbledon at the 11th hour due to the injury.
NEWS
Alex Norris, the justice secretary The entomologist Dino Martins, below, on his mission to change how we think about parasites AN Wilson, the historian, looks back at the history of political pacts Paul Bristow, the mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough The security expert Frank Gardner discusses his latest novel, Ballistic
7am 10.45am
12.45pm
1.15pm
3.35pm
T O DAY ’ S E D I T I O N
FINAL SEND-OFF
AZZURRI ANGER
Dog’s ashes are launched 119,000ft into heavens above
Can Roberto Mancini win back
hearts in Italy?
COMMENT 19
WORLD 24 BUSINESS 29 REGISTER 43
LETTERS 22 LEADING ARTICLES 23
Were 60,000 migrants intentionally
let into Spanish territory?
The largest single illegal border crossing in the history of the EU took place last week in Ceuta. But why did the migrants all come at once? Was a Spanish legal change to blame, or foreign actors annoyed at Spain’s lenient migration policy?
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location to stop fare evasion
Laurence Sleator Transport Correspondent
A digital ticketing app that uses GPS to track a rail passenger’s location is to be expanded by the government as part of a drive against fare evasion.
Before the full nationalisation of the railways the government is testing digital pay-as-you-go ticket technology for some routes in the East Midlands and Yorkshire.
The app monitors a passenger’s loca- tion and checks them in at the start and end of a journey, even if there are no barriers at a station. The cost of the journey is calculated and charged to the passenger’s bank card.
Fees are capped and designers say that the app makes it easier for passen- gers to find the cheapest tickets. Routes covered include Leicester to Notting- ham via Derby, Harrogate to Leeds, and Sheffield to Doncaster.
It is hoped that being able to see where a passenger got on and off a train will help stop evasion techniques such as “short faring”, where customers buy a digital ticket for only the last part of their journey, and “doughnutting”, when tickets for the start and end por-
over police accessing data
Mark Sellman Technology Correspondent fundamental to privacy and security. At the heart of the debate is end-to-end encryption, which means that data can be decrypted only by the intended users or their trusted devices.
Apple and the government are on course for a legal battle over an attempt by the police and security services to access data of British citizens held by the tech company.
The Home Office is seeking to force Apple to allow access to the data even when it is encrypted but Apple has now taken legal action to block this.
The row threatens to reignite a trans- atlantic row over the issue that flared when ministers tried a similar step last year. In that case the government wanted to access data being held by Apple relating to everyone, not just British citizens, which led to a backlash from the Trump administration. The UK appeared to back down but has now modified its request to focus on British data.
The legal fight is being conducted at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which handles the Investigatory Pow- ers Act, dubbed the “snoopers charter”.
The act enables law enforcement to investigate terrorism, national security and serious crime. The tech industry and campaigners have opposed any at- tempts by the government to under- mine encryption, which they view as
George Grylls Washington him the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize last year. He opened Fifa’s US office in Trump Tower before the tournament.
Gianni Infantino has repeatedly tried to call President Trump as he battles to save his job as head of Fifa, according to sources.
The Swiss-Italian football adminis- trator has been appealing to the presi- dent for help since Friday, when he was forced to abandon plans to sell a 20 per cent stake in the World Cup to private investors, according to the New York Post. Fifa and the White House have yet to comment on the claims.
tions of a journey are bought but not for the section in between.
The trials were open only to a select number of passengers but now an un- limited number can sign up. Paper and normal digital tickets will still be avail- able while the trial results are assessed before any decision on introducing the technology nationwide.
“Fare evasion is illegal and selfish,” said Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary. “We are committed to tack- ling ticket cheats, and that’s one of the expected benefits of expanding our digital ticketing app to more people across the trial areas.
“The GPS technology both prevents people dishonestly buying the wrong ticket, and makes sure people aren’t ac- cidentally overpaying for their journey either.
“This ticketing development is just one example of how we’re modernising our railways and putting passengers first as we set up Great British Railways, making journeys easier and more con- venient.”
The app also has safeguards. These include staff conducting post-journey “manual inspection reviews” to flag anything suspicious and monitoring a
Apple has moved more of its stored data to this method and the govern- ment wants it to create a system where it can be accessed, which campaigners call a “backdoor”.
The Financial Times first reported Apple’s legal challenge, a move con- firmed by Privacy International, which is challenging the government’s re- quest. Apple said it had filed the lawsuit rather than Privacy International and referred to a previous statement in which it said: “We have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”
Ron Wyden, a US senator who sits on the Senate intelligence committee, told The Times: “Every Englishman with an iCloud account will be less safe from criminals and predators if Apple is forced to weaken its security.”
A government spokesperson said: “The UK supports strong encryption and robust privacy protections, but it is also vital that law enforcement can ac- cess communications when necessary ... to protect the public.”
Amid mounting calls for his resigna- tion it was reported that Infantino was hoping to meet Marco Rubio, the secre- tary of state, for talks yesterday. How- ever, Fifa and the State Department de- nied that a meeting was taking place.
“He wanted to get online with the secretary and talk about how soccer can be a form of soft power for Amer- ica,” one insider told the New York Post. “But we all know that it is about job pro- tection. It is not about anything else at this point.”
user’s phone battery life so it can con- firm any genuine mistakes. Should a user consistently disconnect or turn their phone off during travel they will be emailed to remind them of their obli- gations, be charged a maximum fare or be blocked from the app.
If an inspector wants to check tickets on the train or a passenger finds them- selves stuck at a ticket barrier, the app produces a QR code showing where the journey started.
Jen Fulford, in charge of future tick- eting programmes at Trainline, which is helping to run the trial, said: “Digital pay as you go is a fantastic technology that has been warmly welcomed by over 1,500 triallists in the East Midlands and helps the railway achieve some of its key goals.”
Fare evasion is estimated to cost the industry £400 million a year. The gov- ernment is making a series of an- nouncements designed to tackle it.
This has included £33 million to in- stall shoulder-high ticket barriers at fare-dodging hotspots to prevent the barriers being jumped and a “railcard verification step” online, at ticket ma- chines and at the ticket office before any discount can be obtained.
‘will drive up traffic jams’
Laurence Sleator, Jennifer Zhou
Self-driving taxis have been heralded by ministers as the “future of transport”, with the promise of reducing collisions and providing billions of pounds in eco- nomic growth as the industry grows.
However, their introduction to London may produce some unintended consequences, including greater con- gestion and pollution, a report has said.
CoMoUK, a charity focusing on pro- moting shared transport, has published a white paper that highlights studies from the United States, where driver- less taxis have been used for years. They show the vehicles can be empty for up to two thirds of the time spent on the road.
In the first month of Waymo’s com- mercial service in California, taxis were empty for 64 per cent of the time, although this figure slowly came down as the fleet size increased and people became more aware of the service.
The report said that, although most driverless cars are electric, the greater congestion they cause could increase pollution as other non-electric vehicles are forced to stand idle, emitting more exhaust emissions.
“He is looking for allies of note to publicly support him,” another said.
The Trump administration has kept its distance from the crisis engulfing Fifa and last week the president denied that he had discussed Infantino’s plan, first revealed by The Times, to sell a stake in the World Cup to investors in- cluding a venture capital fund run by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
La Plante: I’m damned by driving ban
claims disqualification for speeding offences will end her career, writes Lowri Lewis
Lynda La Plante, the bestselling crime author, has been disqualified from driv- ing after she tearfully told a court that such a ban would end her career.
The writer, 83, who is also behind the TV show Prime Suspect, said she would be unable to drive her beloved guard dog, Theo, for a daily walk, leading her to stopping writing altogether.
She told the court that she believed she would have to have her dog re- homed if she was unable to drive him to his walks, saying: “I think the emotional turmoil of that would truly damn my career as a writer.
“It’s very, very solitary, and I work ex- ceptionally hard, and I would just stop.”
La Plante also said that she needed her car to meet criminals and sources for research to write her next works of fiction.
She told Lavender Hill magistrates’ court in London that she did not want to pay for a driver because she would not want them “asking questions” while she travelled back from meeting her sources.
The writer said that she would close her company if a ban was put in place, putting four employees out of work.
However, magistrates conclud- ed that she had not proved a ban would cause her “exceptional hardship” — and handed her a six- month disqualification.
La Plante, who created the hit robbery TV series Widows in the 1980s and brought Prime Suspect, which starred Helen Mirren, to the screen in 1991, pleaded guilty yesterday to breaking the 20mph speed limit five times near her home in Kingston-upon-Thames between November 2025 and April this year.
The writer admitted driving at 24mph twice, 25mph, 26mph and 27mph when she was taking her 18-month-old dog for his daily walk.
Kari Williamson, prosecuting, said that La Plante already had nine points on her licence for three speeding offences committed between 2023 and 2025.
Her lawyer, Nick Freeman, who is known as “Mr Loophole” and has represented a string of celebrity clients, urged magistrates to spare her a ban.
He already has nine points on his licence, so he may be disqualified if his special reasons application is thrown out at a hearing in October.
Asked why she could not just pay for a driver as she had in the past for “show-
Alex Farber Media Correspondent that took $1.4 billion at cinemas in 2023, has made six offers in three years to convince the stars to return.
At the height of the blockbuster battle between Barbie and Oppenheimer one thing was certain — only one was likely to have a sequel.
But now the prospect of a Barbie 2 re- turning to extend its box office lead over Christopher Nolan’s biopic is in jeopardy.
Producers have been struggling to strike deals with the Hollywood actors Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling to re- prise their roles as Barbie and Ken.
Lynda La Plante said the death of her wolfhound Hugo, top, had badly affected her. She needed to drive to walk her new dog, Theo, above, and to talk to criminals for research
It rejected reports that David Zaslav, its chief executive, had “baulked at terms agreed to” with the stars. “There was never an agreed upon framework that was approved and pulled back,” a spokesperson added. “Reps declined the most recent offer, which is among the biggest Warner Bros has made for a film. No counter has been made to date.”
business functions”, La Plante said that she needed “solitary time” after meeting her sources. Giving evidence, she said: “I don’t want to sit in the back with a driver asking questions.”
La Plante said that she had four books in the works and argued that she needed to drive to conduct research inter- views as “forms of criminality” like to be “very choosy of the lo- cation”.
Giving evidence, La Plante said she got her new dog, Theo, after suffering the devastation of the untimely death of her previ- ous pet, Hugo, who had been “in the prime of his life”.
“I don’t want it to sound trivial — this woman and her dog — but I can’t tell you what it was like with this enormous, beautiful wolfhound. I don’t know how he did it.
“He would come up into my office, it was as if he said ‘stop’. He knew I had been working for five solid hours, and this paw would come up — bang.”
But Robbie, 36, and Gosling were not asked to agree long-term contracts after Warner Bros signed a single-film deal with the Barbie director Greta Gerwig.
Gerwig is said to have worked up an idea for a second Barbie film with her writing partner Noah Baumbach but is re-
In 2024 Robbie appeared to be luke- warm about the prospect of a Barbie se- quel. “It’s funny, that knee-jerk reaction in this day and age for everyone to im- mediately ask about a sequel,” she told Variety. “I don’t think it was like that 20 years ago. We want to make more films that have the effect that Barbie has.” Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in the 2023 hit
Fighting back tears, she said she “lost it” when Hugo died and she “didn’t know what to do with my life”.
She said her new dog had helped her through the grieving process. “I love him, it’s as simple as that, but at the same time he has become a great com- fort to me,” she said.
La Plante said she drove Theo to be trained on the walk from Roe- hampton to Wimbledon.
She said Richmond Park, which is nearby, was unsuitable because it was “alive with joggers”, as well as deer, and she was trying to train Theo not to chase people.
The magistrates im- posed fines totalling £3,330 on the author and handed her a six-month ban. Her points total rose to 24, and she was or- dered to pay £130 costs and a £1,332 victim surcharge.
Before her court hearing, La Plante
fusing to show studio bosses
until they have clinched a
deal with the co-stars.
And the clock is tick- ing — Warner Bros
Discovery’s deal with the Barbie
rights holder Mat-
tel is due to expire in December. If terms cannot be agreed before the deadline, the rights will revert to the toy brand which could re- develop the franchise with a different concept. The stalemate was con-
had complained about “very confus- ing” road signs on the A308 in Kingston-upon-Thames. Freeman suggested she had inadvertently bro- ken the speed limit while concentrating on driving safely.
The 3rd Viscount Hanworth, David
Stephen Geoffrey Pol- lock, is due to argue spe- cial reasons to try to avoid a driving ban after he was caught speeding at 27mph in a 20mph zone, also in London.
The former Labour he- reditary peer, 80, pleaded guilty to speeding in Is- lington in February at Westminster magis- trates’ court, which could result in three points being put on his licence as well as a fine.
firmed by Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca, the Warner Bros Pictures Group co-chairs and chief executives.
“We have a rights deal with Mattel in place and have made a series of big of- fers to try and finalise deals to make the next Barbie film,” they said in a joint statement. “Unfortunately, we have been unable to reach an agreement thus far.”
We’ve got it licked Children sample the goodies on offer during the North Yorkshire Ice Cream Championships at Ripon racecourse’s Scoops and Saddles family day
children linked to lower grades
Rhys Blakely Science Editor
Opening a social media account at the start of secondary school was linked to children being about six months behind in maths by the age of 16, a study of more than 5,000 pupils has found.
The findings suggest that frequent phone-checking disrupts homework and concentration, leading to poorer exam scores. They were published as the government prepares to ban under- 16s from using services such as Insta- gram and TikTok amid growing con- cerns over the impact on mental health, sleep and academic attainment.
According to the media regulator Ofcom, 83 per cent of British 11-year- olds own a smartphone. The move to secondary school marked a tipping point at which many children receive their first device.
The new study compared a group of “early adopter” pupils from schools in northern Italy, who had opened their
records found a nearly ninefold in- crease in the rate of newly recorded cases between 1998 and 2018. This does not mean autism itself increased at the same rate. Greater awareness of the condition, less stigma and better recog- nition of autism in women and adults are likely to explain much of the rise.
first personal social media account at the age of 11 or 12, with a second group who waited until they were 14 or 15.
Each early adopter was matched with a kind of “statistical twin” in the com- parison group — a pupil with a similar family background, similarly educated parents and comparable test results earlier in childhood. When the pupils sat national tests at the age of 15 or 16, those who had joined social media earlier scored significantly lower in maths and Italian. The gap was roughly equivalent to that expected from a child missing six months of schooling.
Marco Gui, a professor at the Univer- sity of Milano-Bicocca, who led the study, said: “While most research on social media and minors has looked at mental health as an outcome, we looked at academic performance and we found clearer signs of this negative effect.”
He backed tougher age restrictions, saying: “It’s an emergency moment
problems under a single diagnosis. “Has the desire for inclusiveness eventually led to overinclusion?” she asked.
Frith has recently highlighted evi- dence of marked differences between people diagnosed in childhood and those identified in adolescence or adulthood.
where bans are a correct choice, in my personal opinion.”
The study, which was published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, cannot prove that social media caused the poorer results. However, the re- searchers said habitual phone-check- ing appeared to be one of the most plau- sible explanations. Early adopters were more likely to report checking their phones during homework, at school, before bed and after waking, potentially disrupting concentration and sleep.
Dennis Ougrin, a professor at Queen Mary University of London, who was not involved in the research, said: “The study adds to growing evidence that the age at which young people first engage with social media may matter for their educational development. While the findings do not prove that social media alone causes poorer academic perfor- mance, they suggest that earlier, largely unsupervised use is associated with differences in later attainment, particu-
likely to have average or high intelli- gence and conditions such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disor- der or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Some research has also found differ- ences in the genetic patterns linked to the two groups.
larly in mathematics and language. The study also points towards plausible mechanisms, such as frequent phone checking and reduced attention, rather than simply screen time itself.”
In June, the government announced that social media companies would be banned from offering their services to children under 16. The planned restric- tions are expected to include TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, X and YouTube, while messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal are not intended to be covered. The first regu- lations are due to be put before parlia- ment by the end of this year and the ban is expected to take effect in the spring.
Ministers announced further protec- tions for 16 and 17-year-olds in July. Social media apps will be required to apply a default overnight curfew from midnight until 6am and automatically disable features designed to keep teen- agers scrolling. The measures include restrictions on auto-playing content.
biological marker that can confirm au- tism. Diagnosis depends on a patient’s history, their words and the observa- tions and judgments of clinical staff.
Frith added that she was concerned about “masking”, which refers to the idea that some people conceal their au- tistic traits to fit in.
Quintagram® No 2637
Solve all five concise clues using each letter underneath once only
1 Forceful punch (4)
2 Vehicle immobiliser (5)
3 Brief period of intense activity (6)
4 More slender (7)
5 Polite greeting or remark (10)
A A A B C E E F
I L L L L L M M
M N O P P R R R
R S S T U W Y Y
Solutions see T2 MindGames p14 Cryptic clues T2 MindGames p15
Tate fall boy discharged
A boy who was thrown off the tenth floor of Tate Modern seven years ago has been discharged from hospital, his family said. The French child was six when Jonty Bravery attacked him in August 2019. The child had brain surgery in January and was discharged last month. Bravery admitted attempted murder and was jailed in 2020 for at least 15 years.
Shoplift tech success
The number of shoplifters being brought to justice in London has quadrupled thanks to an online platform that lets retailers send camera footage of crimes to police in minutes, figures suggest. Cases from the platform saw a positive outcome, such as a charge or caution, 29.4 per cent of the time, compared with 7.3 per cent before its introduction.
‘Out of control’ driver
A man who lied to police that his electric Jaguar I-Pace was out of control and accelerating on its own has been jailed for four years and three months. Nathan Owen, 33, admitted fraud and dangerous driving at Liverpool crown court after driving at 86mph and colliding with a police car 31 times in an attempt to avoid paying his car finance.
Music professor cleared
A violin professor at the Royal College of Music has been cleared of assaulting an 18-year-old student, telling Southwark crown court that he had been correcting her posture during a lesson. Jan Repko, 68, was acquitted of sexual assault and assault by penetration after a retrial at Southwark crown court. He had called the allegations “absurd”.
Breakfast: 6am to 10am Our free radio station has all the latest headlines, interviews and debates every morning Listen seven days a week On DAB, app, website and smart speaker
N
Rod Liddle, who has died aged 66, combined a serious intellect with razor-sharp wit, writes Alex Farber
The journalist and broadcaster Rod Liddle, who wrote columns for The Sunday Times and The Sun and pre- sented a weekly show for Times Radio, died suddenly on Sunday evening at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough after a short illness.
His children, Wilder, Tyler and Emmy, said in a statement: “We’re all very saddened and shocked at the sudden passing of our wonderful father. He raised us much as you might imag- ine, to be inquisitive, brave and always humorous.
“Even in hospital in the last few weeks, he consistently held the room and never let the awful situation show. He has left a legacy that we are all in- credibly proud of, he will always be our guide on how to live an extraordi- nary life.”
Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp and editor of The Times from 2002 to 2007, said: “Rod was puck- ishly profound and profoundly puckish. We were determined back in 2003 that he should bring his intellectual energy and lateral wit to The Times, and his wisdom and whimsy have echoed around our company and the world ev- er since. Rod’s resonance will surely echo for many, many years to come.”
Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News UK, said he would be greatly missed by readers, listeners and view- ers. “Rod was an inimitable journalistic force — brilliant, provocative and im- mensely talented — whose sharp wit and uncompromising voice graced our pages and airwaves for decades,” Brooks said. “Whether writing for The Sunday Times and The Sun or broad- casting on Times Radio, he challenged conventional thinking and left an in- delible mark on British journalism.”
Liddle, a former editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, started writing for The Times in 2003 after being poached from The Guardian by Michael Gove, who was the Times’s Saturday editor.
Gove, now editor of The Spectator, said: “He had a unique voice and I’m glad it came into its own on our pages.”
He went on to write weekly pieces for The Sunday Times and The Sun and began presenting a Saturday morning on Times Radio show last year.
Ben Taylor, editor of The Sunday Times, said that he would be desperate- ly missed. “Rod Liddle had a wonderful way with words and used his unique tal- ent to speak for the readers, highlight- ing the cant and absurdity that bedevils modern life,” Taylor said. “He was also supremely entertaining and for years his column was the first that many turned to every Sunday.”
Victoria Newton, editor-in-chief of The Sun, described Liddle as a brilliant, fearless columnist. “A champion of press freedom, no topic was off-limits, and his writing — as funny as it was ex- coriating — was simply exceptional,” Newton said. “A terrific observer of the frailties of our political class, he will be remembered for his razor-sharp wit and for his huge intellect.”
Camilla Long, the Sunday Times col- umnist, said Liddle was a brilliant writer with a fine intellect and she would miss him. “He knew what he thought on everything,” she added. “He could be funny, but he was also a very serious writer. He cared deeply about us, this country and everything that went on in
Rod Liddle wrote columns for The Sunday Times, The Sun and The Spectator. Top, with his second wife, Alicia Monckton
it. He had another quality most colum- nists would kill for — he wasn’t afraid to say it.”
Samir Shah, the BBC chair, described Liddle as a “one-off” and a “bit of a pro- fessional curmudgeon”.
“Rod was a man of many talents — including being a first-class chef. Going to dinner at his place was not that far re- moved from going to a Michelin- starred restaurant. Who’d have thunk it? But most of all he was a warm-heart- ed and generous fellow.”
After leaving the BBC Liddle started writing for The Spectator. His final piece, in June, headlined “Kemi gives me hope”, typified his acerbic sense of humour. “I had a notion the other day that there was possibly more I could of- fer to this fleeting world. A feeling that with life having been comparatively kind to me, perhaps there is something I could put back,” he wrote. “I have these thoughts about once every month — and usually they are idly dis- missed because they are either unreal- istic or homicidal.”
Kemi Badenoch said she had missed Liddle’s Spectator column and voice on the radio in recent weeks and was shocked by his death. “I don’t have the words to express how sad this is for journalism, for his readers and most of all his friends and family,” she said.
poured petrol where others feared to tread
Comment
o one could write an opening sentence as well as Rod Liddle. When I was his editor, I called it the “cocaine intro”: one sentence and you were hooked. It might make you laugh, gawp or wonder whether this time he really was about to go too far. Usually all three. But his trail always led to a subtle, serious and original argument — one nobody else had thought, or would think, to make or dare to do so. The result was the greatest satirical writing of our times.
wildly gifted writer ended up writing almost by accident. He joined the BBC and rose to become editor of Radio 4’s Today programme. His occasional columns were a side hustle. But they were sensational, causing a succession of controlled explosions. He quite enjoyed this. The BBC did not and presented him with a choice: broadcasting or print. The rest was history.
Because he regarded himself as being of the left he didn’t mind holding what he saw as his own side up to ridicule. They didn’t always see the joke. But he defied party- political pigeonholing, taking aim at everyone. His bias was towards the most dangerous issues, to pour petrol where others feared to tread. He did so not with polemic or invective, but humour. Puncturing
egos, mocking pomposity, slaughtering sacred cows.
In a censorious age he was reliably, joyfully transgressive. When I became editor of The Spectator in 2009 and canvassed as much readers’ opinion as I could, I heard one request more than all others combined: don’t tone down Rod. For many readers, the magazine started and ended with what he had to say.
I also saw how naturally, how perfectly he would write. If we discussed his column theme at 2pm, the copy arrived 90 minutes later. He’d write about the media, sport, politics, demographics and even took on a music column, showcasing his knowledge about composition. Not that he’d ever describe it as such.
In person, he was full of joie de vivre — never grumpy, grand, angry or touchy. He loved meeting readers. The first time I saw him at a readers’ carol concert, with Sancerre in a pint glass, he was comparing notes (and jokes) with them: they were his people. He loved them as they did him. He seldom turned out for events with the great and the good, but he never missed a chance to meet the subscribers who, as he saw it, he worked for.
When cancel culture came along Rod Liddle was the first, defiant target. There was a game: get them on a technicality. If they quote a statistic that’s just a bit off, then you demand a correction. If one is given: behold! The writer has “been forced to correct his article”. Ipso, the press regulator, can be prevailed upon to rule it inaccurate. Demands can be made to sack or discipline the writer.
Rod had his fair share. I saw it as my job to fight them off: not always successfully. After I ended up in court for one of his (very good and entirely accurate) articles, I set up a team to defend writers in the new cancel culture era. Once, for example, Rod wrote about a place in Yorkshire, Savile Town, that was “98 per cent Muslim”. Obviously a figure of speech: a classic trap. So the team would work out what the actual number was. The answer: 98 per cent. He was exactly right — as he was almost all of the time. His flair, his jokes, his playfulness were built on top of a rigour that he’d hate to be known for. This combination is what gave his writing its power.
There are many writers who aim to be shocking, many who are funny; a very small number who can be both. But what made Rod stand out was the fusion of those qualities with judgment, discipline and an ability to cut to the heart of the matter. There was, and never will be, anyone quite like him.
Farage’s plan for navy to return
L
Oliver Wright Policy Editor
France has warned that Reform UK’s plan for the Royal Navy to turn back small boats would be illegal after Nigel Farage set out proposals for the “largest military operation in the English Chan- nel since World War Two”.
Farage used a press conference yesterday to pledge to send the navy in- to the Channel to intercept all migrant boats should the party win power at the next election. Under so-called Opera- tion Fortress, migrants would be detained, given food and water before being returned “under escort” on naval vessels to France or Belgium.
France’s interior ministry said: “This would be a violation of French sover- eignty as well as a violation of maritime law and international law. Separately, as part of the measures put in place with the UK and the arrangements deployed at the local level, the interior ministry states that the number of crossings is down in 2026.”
Reform UK said in response: “We will always stand up for British interests and protect our people, whether Emmanuel Macron [the French president] likes it or not. Humanitarian missions do not violate maritime or international law.”
Farage also told the press conference that he was “open-minded” about talks with Rupert Lowe about a pact to reunite the “patriotic right” of British politics, but dismissed one of his key demands. Farage said he had suggested a call to Lowe, who at the weekend urged the two to work together.
Lowe, a former Reform MP, acrimo- niously left the party in March last year amid claims of bullying and threaten- ing behaviour. The multimillionaire went on to found his own party called Restore that has eaten into Reform’s vote share.
Last week in the Greater Manchester mayoral election, Restore came fourth with 9 per cent of first-preference votes, ahead of both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
Lowe had posted on X that he was open to a deal with Reform if Farage would agree to a number of demands. This included making it Reform’s policy to ban the burqa and halal meat and rule out any former Conservative min- isters in future cabinets.
Farage said that he had “no desire” to meet some of the items on Lowe’s policy “shopping list” and suggested that he was not serious about a deal.
“If you want to do a political deal with somebody, you know, you would con- tact them privately and not do a 12-min- ute video,” he said. “That said, I did actually reach out ... yesterday to him. I did say, ‘Look, should we have a call?’ I haven’t heard back yet, so I don’t know what the sincerity of this is.”
He added: “I don’t ditch my friends. I don’t ditch my allies, whether that’s Suella Braverman or Posh George [Cot- trell]. You know I do not ditch people because somebody else wants me to.”
Lowe was one of the first Reform MPs elected to Westminster in the 2024 general election when he won in his Great Yarmouth seat. The former chair of Southampton FC had previously served alongside Farage in the Brexit Party in the European parliament.
However, less than a year after being elected to Westminster, he was report- ed to police by Reform UK’s then chair- man, Zia Yusuf, over accusations of bullying and threatening behaviour. He was also investigated by the party over bullying claims.
Behind the story
ast August Nigel Farage stood at a podium and promised mass deportations would sort the small boats crisis. This August he did it again, unveiling Operation Fortress — a pledge to deploy the navy to intercept every crossing and return migrants to France or Belgium in what Reform UK called the largest military operation in the Channel since the Second World War (Oliver Wright writes).
The obvious question was why another grand plan, just 12 months after the last?
One explanation is political momentum. For much of the past 18 months the party has enjoyed a seemingly unstoppable rise. But in recent weeks that has slowed as standards investigations and questions over donations mounted, with Farage’s personal ratings also dropping.
Meanwhile Rupert Lowe’s Restore has performed well in the Makerfield and Greater Manchester mayoral by-elections, splitting the vote on the right in both cases. Lowe, a former Reform MP who founded the rival party after his acrimonious split with Farage, at the weekend publicly offered co-operation with Reform — if it embraced a string of Restore policies.
Farage said he was “open- minded” and admitted Restore could do his party “great harm”.
Then there were the images of the tens of thousands of migrants crossing from Morocco into Spain’s North African territory of Ceuta last week. In Britain, Channel crossings reached their highest daily total of the year on July 29, even though the cumulative number of arrivals remained 42 per cent lower than at the same point in 2025. It was against this backdrop Reform chose to strike.
At a moment when Reform needed to steady itself politically, Farage reached once again for the issue he has trusted throughout his career to reset the debate on his own terms.
finish off what hope remains for this country,” he said.
Farage admitted that Restore could damage Reform by eating into its core vote. “You could see a situation where Restore, without the hope of winning anything outside Great Yarmouth — I mean literally without hope of winning a single seat in the country — could do us great harm,” he said. “I think online you will see a lot of Restore potential voters now beginning to worry about the impact that might have.
“I finalise that by saying if it was the offer of a deal, it came in a very unusual way. I have responded to it potentially, you know, with an open mind, as I would, but I’m certainly not going to be ditching people who I view to be allies and a great asset.”
Lowe later posted on X that Farage was a “liar” and disputed his version of events, but said the offer was still open to him and Reform UK.
Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, spoke in London about the small boats crisis joined by his deputy Richard Tice, top
Richard Tice, who was then party chief, in March and April 2024, to return as leader. Under that deal, once Farage became leader, Reform would repay or write off more than £1 million in out- standing loans it had received from Tice’s company.
Farage admitted he had spoken to Tice in spring 2024 about what would happen if he returned to lead the party.
He said: “You’d be a bit of a mug, wouldn’t you, to walk into a job and not find out what the potential liabilities were, and they were substantial.” He said it “wasn’t a deal, it wasn’t an agree- ment, it was subject to if I came back”.
The parliamentary sleaze watchdog has also started an investigation into whether Tice failed to declare an inter- est. Tice said in a post on X that the in- vestigation by Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for stan- dards, was over an alleged failure to de- clare an interest in Israel when speak- ing in a debate at Westminster Hall. De- spite the commissioner confirming the investigation on his website, Tice said it was “garbage in [the] media”.
exclude rapists but not killers
result of Burnham’s changes, but insist- ed it would be able to cope with the extra pressure on the prison estate.
Ministers are also delaying the exten- sion of early release to more serious criminals by a month, from September until October, so probation staff have time to plan for releases and victims can have a say in the restrictions placed on offenders.
Burnham said: “I want to be honest — I wanted to go even further as I know there will still be concerns about other offenders having their sentence short- ened. But it’s not possible without the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing, which would put public safety at much greater risk.”
then nearly 70,000 criminals convicted of less serious offences have been re- leased early.
But this summer David Lammy, the justice secretary, announced that the scheme would be extended to include more serious offences. He said that, without the extension, “we would get back to a situation where we were run- ning, at 99, nearly 100 per cent” in pris- on capacity.
Amy Clowrey, a solicitor represent- ing child sexual abuse victims, said seven of her clients received letters in June informing them their perpetrators could be eligible for early release, caus- ing “significant distress”. Clowrey said she was “incredibly pleased that the government has listened to the voices of survivors who have been campaign- ing for this”, but added that all sex of- fenders and violent perpetrators should be excluded from the scheme.
W
migrants is illegal, says France
right. In Clacton, Essex, the by-election candidate Andy Erlam, in white, held a street hustings with members of the public
should drill North Sea
George Grylls Washington
President Trump has said that Britain is a “bankrupt country” as he once again encouraged Andy Burnham to open up the North Sea to more drilling.
The president said “loser” countries relied on wind power and the UK was “sitting on top of gold”. He repeated his previous claim that Burnham could issue new drilling licences, having previously heralded their “very good” phone call last month.
“I think your new prime minister is actually gonna open up. I spoke to him. He sounded terrific on this subject,” Trump said at an Oval Office press conference yesterday.
top of gold. Better than gold. And you don’t do anything with it.”
He claimed that oil and gas reserves in the North Sea would last for “prob- ably a 1,000 years”, although industry projections suggest they will last until roughly 2050.
Energy prices are much higher in the UK compared with the US, with British consumers paying about 30p per kWh compared with 13p in the US.
Last week Trump claimed that “the new gentleman”, referring to Burnham, would “open up the North Sea”.
Burnham has said he will take a “pragmatic” approach to extracting oil and gas. He plans to honour existing licences, sticking with Labour’s 2024 manifesto pledge. He is considering extra production at existing sites, and potentially at the Rosebank and Jack- daw areas, which are under planning review, rather than new locations.
leaves Haigh in charge
Ben Clatworthy Whitehall Editor
Andy Burnham will be on holiday for the rest of the week as the new prime minister takes a long-planned break.
Aides were understood to be keen that the prime minister pressed ahead with his family holiday. Downing Street refused to say where he was travelling.
Louise Haigh, the first secretary of state, will be the most senior working minister but sources insisted she was not deputising for the prime minister.
Lee Anderson, the chairman of Re- form UK, said: “Two weeks into the job and Andy Burnham has already had enough. After dropping a number of unfunded commitments and oversee- ing over 2,000 illegal migrants break- ing into our country he’s bunked off for a jolly abroad.”
you afloat, Nigel?
Political Sketch
here has Nigel Farage been hiding? Somewhere sunny by the looks of things. When he wandered on stage for his first Westminster news conference since May, he looked like Ray Winstone, supine on his sun lounger in the opening scene of the cult gangster movie Sexy Beast, seconds before he narrowly avoids certain death from a falling boulder.
It was the kind of tan that draws breath. Owners of the Crayola Ultimate 152-piece crayon set may describe it as somewhere between raw umber and burnt sienna. That luscious deep bronze which your average Brit tends to achieve only after several years of retirement on the Costa del Sol, not that such a thing is technically legal anymore, another of Farage’s achievements for which he is so rarely thanked.
The boulders have been coming for Farage for some time now. The £5 million gift from the Thai-based crypto-billionaire was the big one, which must have seemed lucky at the time, but isn’t doing wonders for his political career.
His own narrative goes, rather like Winstone’s Sexy Beast, that he was happily retired, living his best life, but was then lured back in for one last job, which was to reluctantly lead Reform through not one but two general elections and ultimately become prime minister.
He was, he would explain, definitely right not to declare the gift, because his political career was over and he had no intention of returning. And then, OK, yes, he did return, but he definitely didn’t know he was going to return, despite whatever agreements and documents you might have seen.
He’d brought his self-identifying “shadow home secretary” Zia Yusuf with him, and the pair of them were launching Operation Fortress. This is their plan to use Royal Navy patrol boats to return migrant dinghies to France, and is very nearly identical to the same plan they announced last summer.
Farage harked back to the good old days, specifically the “Breaking Point” poster he revealed in 2016. That was the one that featured queues of Syrian and Afghan migrants at the border of Croatia and Slovenia. “The point of that poster was to say that Europe has given itself massive problems that we can avoid if we leave,” he said.
And yet, somehow, here we all are, ten years later, with Farage still having to give press conferences about illegal immigration. What went wrong? He didn’t quite explain.
times. Do they want to fight? Or do they want to live in an asylum hotel and maybe illegally drive a food delivery moped? They never seem sure. But it is nevertheless true that a lot of people onboard those dinghies are “fighting-age males”. Not that long ago, an Afghan male of “fighting age” set off on a dinghy to reach the UK. We know he was of fighting age because he was a special forces soldier who’d fought alongside British troops in Afghanistan but been offered no safe route here to claim asylum after the Taliban takeover.
Operation Fortress will involve escorting dinghies back to France and compassionately unloading their sad human cargo back on the beaches from where they came. Yusuf did his best to pre-empt questions about the potential consequences of sailing Royal Navy patrol boats into French waters without permission, which could technically count as an invasion of a Nato ally.
“Now look,” he said, “we would far rather disembark people in port, walk people down a gangway and hand them to the French authorities properly. That is more dignified and it is what we will negotiate for.”
But if it doesn’t happen then, well, little Johnny Froggy will just have to suck it up. What are they going to do about it?
“Would a president of France order French police onto a beach to block Royal Marines on a humanitarian mission from landing civilians in safety and forcing them back out to sea directly endangering their lives?” he wondered. “That would be a crime against humanity.”
No, it’s conceivable that a French president might not do that. Sadly Yusuf is quite a new character in the rolling farce that is British politics. He wasn’t around in the peak Brexit years, when various politicians came to discover, a tiny bit too late, that quite a lot of really rather crucial food that British people eat arrives in the UK on lorries from France, and that French presidents therefore have quite a bit of leverage, and that politics by way of grandstanding threat doesn’t achieve all that much.
In the end, all the questions were about Farage’s apparent agreement to return to lead the party, as revealed in The Sunday Times. “Oh, well,” he said. “Questions about money could go on for years!”
He would explain that he had no “intention” of returning as leader, he was just having a few casual conversations about what might happen if he did. And then he did.
Nevertheless, Farage appears to still be standing. The boulders, for now, have narrowly missed. But without wishing to give away the entire plot, Reform’s very own sexy beast might already be wishing he’d not been persuaded out of retirement for one last rather poorly paid job.
Plagiarism-row professor loses support from head of college
Emma Yeomans
The president of a Cambridge college has withdrawn her support for the Cambridge professor Jason Arday after he appeared to admit plagiarising parts of his PhD thesis.
Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu, a nanoscientist and the head of Wolfson College, had previously signed an open letter in support of Arday that was cir- culated by the Good Law Project.
Arday, who was the youngest black professor to be appointed by the uni- versity, has been accused of plagiarism and exaggerating his sporting and fundraising achievements.
The letter was also signed by Lord Woolley of Woodford, the principal of Homerton College; Sonita Alleyne, the master of Jesus College, where Arday is
Jason Arday says he is being unfairly portrayed as a “liar and fantasist”
a fellow; and politicians including Zack Polanski and John McDonnell.
However, Uchegbu’s name no longer appears on the site, having been re- moved over the weekend.
In addition to being Wolfson presi- dent, Uchegbu is a fellow of the Aca- demy of Medical Sciences, an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Chemis- try, and a Wellcome Trust governor.
Arday, a professor of sociology of education, is alleged to have plagiarised his PhD thesis and parts of his pub- lished academic research. He has also been accused of lying about or exagger- ating parts of his life, including claims to have run 600 miles in six days, and raising more than £5 million for charity.
He denied fabricating stories about marathon running and raising millions for charity, although he conceded he
Jonathan Ames Legal Editor
A six-inch strip of land and an orna- mental squirrel triggered a 14-year legal battle featuring derogatory online songs and more than £150,000 in damages and costs.
Philip New and his wife, Denise, first sued their neighbours, Steve and Karen Gibson, after a row broke out in 2012 over the position of a fence between their gardens near Benfleet in Essex.
What was initially a minor spat esca- lated into a court battle after the Gib- sons were said to have been devastated when their neighbours removed a “sen- timentally valuable” squirrel ornament from a post between the houses.
was part of a fundraising “syndicate” rather than doing it all himself, and that he had run 600 miles in 12 days, not six. Arday told The Times: “I accept re- sponsibility that I could have been really, really explicit” in correcting that narrative. He said: “I am accountable for the mistakes I’ve made. I hold my- self accountable and other people should hold me accountable. We’re talking about academia here. I didn’t murder somebody. I think the cruelty that I’ve experienced and the position- ing of me as this kind of liar and fanta- sist is totally unacceptable.”
Other academics have said the alleged plagiarism and academic mis- conduct require serious investigation. Professor Colin Mills, the head of Ox- ford’s sociology department, wrote on X: “I do not want the reputation of my discipline, my department, my hard- working and intellectually honest col- leagues, or myself smeared by indirect association with academic fraud, low academic standards, and clownish statements from people in positions of authority who should know better.”
When John Moores University, which awarded Arday’s PhD, investi- gated, he did not dispute the specific al- legations of plagiarism but said the mis- conduct panel should consider the pol- itical context of a “war on critical race theory” and the weaponisation of pla- giarism allegations against black re- searchers.
Last night the WaterAid charity cast doubt on claims Arday had made about “installing water points” in South America and west Africa, saying that it never sent volunteers abroad.
According to The Daily Telegraph, Arday’s biography on the website of his speakers’ agency, the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau, stated until recently: “He has also undertaken and complet- ed relief work in South America and west Africa with WaterAid installing water points, which provide drinkable and clean water.”
including the lyrics: “Throw shit at their window, shit at the door/ Call him a wanker, call her a whore.”
On his YouTube channel, New says that he has written more than 25 songs and some are sung by an artificial intel- ligence-generated female voice. The songs have been removed, but New has acknowledged on the platform that he has written about his neighbours, among other topics ranging from “anxi- ety, loneliness, fairytales and exploiting the benefit system”.
The dispute began in 2012 when the News replaced some fence panels, prompting their neighbours to com- plain that the structure was in the wrong place and not in a straight line.
What lies beneath Salome (1930), by Francis Picabia, part of his Transparencies period, is featured in Room 45, marking a rare inclusion of mid-20th-century avant-garde art within the National Gallery’s traditional Western European collection
in 2018. After a judge at Southend county court ruled against the News in 2022, they were ordered last year to pay their neighbours £13,305 in damages and interest and handed lawyers’ bills estimated at about £120,000.
But the litigants were back in court last month after the News launched a High Court appeal against the damages sum, arguing it was too high and that the costs bill should also be overturned.
Mr Justice Thompsell reduced the damages by £700, but handed the News a £19,000 bill for their neighbours’ costs. He said that their motivation for appealing had been to secure a big enough reduction in damages to allow them also to avoid having to pay their neighbours’ costs. The ruling means the News will have to pay their neighbours £12,600 in damages, £19,000 to cover lawyers’ bills for the appeal, and the proceedings at the county court, esti- mated at about £120,000.
elite school cancels course
Georgia Lambert
Parents who paid thousands of pounds for places on a prestigious private school’s summer programme have been told they will not receive refunds after the course was cancelled at late notice.
Kensington Park School, an inde- pendent school in west London, wrote to parents and overseas agents on July 30 informing them that the last two weeks of its summer school, due to start on August 2, would no longer go ahead.
In the email, seen by The Times, the school said the cancellation was “due to circumstances outside the school’s con- trol” and that it was undergoing a re- structuring process that “will not be concluded in time for the summer course to take place”.
ing school, where fees start from £29,850 a year for domestic students, is owned by Star Education Investment Limited, a Chinese company.
Parents with questions were directed to Kroll Advisory, the restructuring firm working with the school.
Residential places on the course cost £3,940 for two weeks, including tuition, accommodation, meals and activities. Non-residential places cost £1,550.
Kroll told one parent that the school was “experiencing a period of signifi- cant financial distress” and was unable to deliver the summer school. Its repre- sentative said: “In respect of refunds or compensation due, regrettably we ad- vise the school is not in a financial posi- tion to honour refunds at this stage.”
Jonathan Ames Legal Editor ble pain” because his bowel and stom- ach were in a “closed loop”, the tribunal said. According to the tribunal report, Rahman’s blunder meant the patient’s bowel contents had “nowhere to go apart from back into the stomach in a circular fashion”.
A surgeon has been struck off after nearly killing a patient through a botched operation that resulted in the contents of a man’s bowels passing into his stomach.
Yasser Abdel Rahman was perform- ing emergency surgery on a patient when he connected the wrong part of the man’s small intestine to his stom- ach, a tribunal heard. It was branded a significant surgical error and part of a “totally unconventional operation”.
Rahman told the patient’s family that the procedure had been successful, de- spite the man being left in “uncontrolla-
is held over suitcase ‘murder’
George Odling Athens
An Afghan champion boxer whose family were wiped out by the Taliban has been arrested over the alleged murder of a British woman in Athens.
Sharif Ahmadzai, 26, is accused of killing Elisabeth-Jane Ross, 38, dump- ing her body in a suitcase in a derelict building and using her bank cards to withdraw thousands of euros.
He also allegedly used Ross’s mobile phone to send messages to friends and family for days after her death.
Police said initial medical reports suggested that the victim, from Edin- burgh, died from asphyxiation, but they are awaiting toxicology reports.
Ahmadzai’s wife, Alaina Hall, from Georgia in the United States, is under- stood to have given key evidence to police against her husband when she became suspicious he was involved in Ross’s death.
The couple’s website states that his father, a military commander in Kabul, survived six assassination attempts but was shot dead in a Taliban ambush when Ahmadzai was four. Five years later, his older brother was kidnapped by the Taliban and, when he was 15, his mother, brother and sister were killed in a suicide car bomb. Ahmadzai had to identify the remains of his siblings.
In 2016, Ahmadzai hired a people smuggler with the aim of reaching Brit- ain, where his aunt lives. He travelled through Pakistan, Iran and Turkey before arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos on a small boat on his third at- tempt. He has written a book about his experiences titled From Hell to Home.
Ahmadzai met Hall, a devout Christ- ian, while she was volunteering at the Moria migrant camp on Lesbos. He converted to Christianity in 2017 and sent Hall, who was a friend at the time, a video of his baptism.
Hall wrote online that the pair bond- ed in Athens and began dating in 2021. “I had seen his growth and his heart for the Lord and it was so attractive to me,” she wrote. The couple married in April 2023 and set up a ministry helping refugees in Athens named Love Every Nation. Their son was born in April.
The couple are understood to have met Ross, also a Christian volunteer, through their work and police sources said the Athens flat where the victim was living was linked to the organisa- tion. Ahmadzai and his wife had access to the property.
As a result, the patient did not have a bowel movement for three weeks and he would have died if a different sur- geon had not performed a second oper- ation to repair the damage.
Rahman — who qualified as a doctor in Cairo in 1993 — was said never to have apologised or admitted he had made a mistake. The surgeon, who said that he was the victim of a “witch hunt”,
Sharif Ahmadzai, who married Alaina Hall in 2023, is accused of killing Elisabeth-Jane Ross. Below, CCTV of the suspect
was struck off by the Medical Practi- tioners Tribunal Service for serious professional misconduct after his mis- take was judged to be “as bad as it gets”.
At the time of the operation in 2020, Rahman was working at the Royal Old- ham Hospital in Greater Manchester as a consultant general and colorectal sur- geon. He was a locum and had only worked there for a few days before per- forming an emergency operation on a man who was suffering from a tumour in his perforated small bowel.
Rahman performed a five-hour op- eration in which he cut the small bowel, leaving “two ends”. In a statement, he said that he and a vascular surgeon de-
cided to connect the intestine to the stomach so the “digestive/bowel conti- nuity is maintained”.
He said a test was done to make sure there were no “obstructions that would prevent digestive-bowel continuity”. But after the surgery, the patient, who has not been identified, reported “un- controllable” pain, vomiting and an in- ability to have bowel movements — which indicated “the procedure was not a success”, the tribunal said.
A nurse noted that Rahman was “dis- missive” of her concern that the patient had no bowel movements for weeks.
Rahman told the patient’s parents that he would send the man home once
would not have been able to find this man.”
Last night, Greek media published CCTV footage showing a man match- ing Ahmadzai’s description wheeling a suitcase down a road in Kypseli. About 13 minutes later, according to The Toc, a news website, the man was seen re- turning without the suitcase. A photo posted on Ahmadzai’s Instagram ac- count in May shows him wearing the same shorts as the man in the footage, and a leaked police crime report re- vealed officers had allegedly obtained security footage of him walking on the street where the body was dumped.
Greek police said the suspect had confessed to dumping Ross’s body but insisted that he had found her dead in her bathroom. He was charged with murder, robbery and illegal possession of a weapon, and is expected to appear at court in Athens tomorrow.
the pain was under control and that “all the signs” indicated that his bowels would work soon.
Several days later, Anthony Rate, a consultant general and colorectal sur- geon at the hospital, took over the patient’s care after his family and nur- sing staff raised concerns. A second emergency operation then revealed Rahman had made “grave” surgical er- rors. Rate was said to have salvaged some of the patient’s bowel.
The tribunal was told that Rahman already had conditions placed on his ability to practise and concluded his fit- ness to practise was impaired by mis- conduct, and struck him off the register.
paid £55,000 after sex on duty claims
The former chief constable of Hamp- shire police, accused of having sex while on duty, was paid more than £55,000 after he quit when it emerged that he was under investigation.
Scott Chilton resigned last year following 33 years of service after a police watchdog announced he was being investigated over claims of gross misconduct relating to sexual relation- ships with two officers.
He is accused of having had a sexual relationship with a more junior officer while serving as chief constable, and having sex with a junior officer while on duty earlier in his career.
Chilton was paid £55,154 as “compen- sation for loss of employment” after he quit with immediate effect. It is under- stood to relate to a payment in lieu of working his notice period.
He is due to appear at a misconduct hearing in October, when the allega- tions against him will be considered.
The misconduct notice alleges that he abused “his position for a sexual pur- pose having a sexual relationship with an officer while chief constable and fail- ed to declare this relationship”.
Chilton is also accused of failing to “disclose a previous sexual relationship with another officer during the applica- tion process to become chief constable”.
It is alleged that he “repeatedly and dishonestly” denied allegations when
Scott Chilton quit as chief constable of Hampshire police during a misconduct inquiry
questioned by senior figures in the Office of the Police and Crime Com- missioner.
Hampshire police and crime com- missioner Donna Jones met Chilton at her home in November 2024 to discuss his future. They met again at police headquarters on February 12 last year and she made a referral to the Inde- pendent Office for Police Conduct two weeks later.
On why Chilton received the large sum after he quit, a police spokesperson said: “On Mr Chilton’s resignation, he received £55,154 as pay in lieu of notice (as opposed to him working the three month period in his contract).”
James Beal Investigations Editor Shanti Das Senior Investigations Reporter
The presenter Tony Livesey has quit BBC Radio 5 Live weeks after being named in a joint Times and Panorama investigation about his former boss David Sullivan.
Livesey, 62, who worked for 5 Live for 16 years and fronted the 10pm to 1am slot, “has decided to leave his present- ing role”, it was announced yesterday.
In June, Livesey asked to step back from his hosting duties after allegations were made about his time editing the Sport newspapers under Sullivan. The
West Ham co-owner, was accused of sexually exploitative and predatory be- haviour by seven women. He has de- nied the allegations.
One of the alleged victims said that she felt forced to have sex with Sullivan when she did not want to. She claimed she had been introduced to him by Livesey in 1999 when he was still editing the Sport.
Livesey said that he had “huge sym- pathy” for the woman but had “no recollection” of introducing her to Sul- livan.
He said it was “not part” of his role to introduce women to Sullivan and that
Tony Livesey, left, with David Sullivan in the Daily Sport newspaper offices
he had “practically zero” contact with anyone appearing in the paper.
In an internal statement revealing Livesey’s departure, Heidi Dawson, the controller of 5 Live, said he was “the first voice for us on air as we launched from our new home in Salford”.
Dawson added: “Tony built a loyal late night audience, often with our greatly missed colleague, Rachael Bland, at his side. He went on to be the voice of our iconic Drive show for ten years where he was at the heart of our coverage of Brexit. With his final Lates show at 5 Live, Tony grew audience figures once again.
“Tony has asked me to pass on his heartfelt thanks to the brilliant col- leagues at 5 Live who he has had the pleasure of working with over the years. I know many of you have also really en- joyed working with Tony, and we wish him well for all his future endeavours.”
There was no mention of the allega-
Holy horseman Costumed revellers take part in St Wilfrid’s Procession in Ripon, an event thought to date to 1108 celebrating the Yorkshire city’s patron saint
ditched over low ticket sales
The forthcoming UK tour for Train- spotting: The Musical has been can- celled after receiving “lower than expected ticket sales”, it has been announced.
The theatrical production is an adap- tation of Irvine Welsh’s 1993 novel of the same name, which follows a heroin addict in Edinburgh navigating poverty, friendship and addiction alongside his dysfunctional peers.
The musical had its West End debut last month and was due to kick off its UK tour in autumn — with shows planned in major cities such as Edinburgh, Shef- field, Manchester and York.
A statement to the Press Association from a representative for the pro- duction said: “The forth- coming UK tour of Train- spotting: The Musical, which was due to begin on October 19, has been can- celled.
tions involving Sullivan. The 77-year- old resigned as director and co-chair of West Ham United in June, shortly before the publication of The Times and BBC Panorama investigation.
Livesey left his job as editor-in-chief at the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport in 2006 after almost 18 years. He joined BBC Radio Lancashire the same year before becoming a presenter of the 5 Live late-night show.
In his 1998 book Babes, Booze, Orgies and Aliens, Livesey wrote that he and Sullivan hatched a plan for the Sport’s “Countdown to 16” feature, which charted the days until the 16th birthday of a number of girls, after which it would print topless photos of them. He has since said “large parts of his book were fictionalised” and having a model appear in the paper at the age of 16 “was categorically not my idea”.
Livesey was approached for com- ment yesterday.
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES GLOSSOP
“We are very grateful to our cast, crew and creative team for their dedica- tion to the production, but the current economic climate has resulted in lower than expected ticket sales. Tickethold- ers will be contacted by their point of purchase with full refund details. We apologise for any inconvenience and disappointment this may cause.”
The award-winning Trainspotting franchise has previously been adapted
for the stage, but the West End
production marked its world
debut as a musical. One of the most popular adaptations is
the 1996 hit film, which
stars Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle.
The cult classic also received a 2017 sequel — T2 Trainspotting — which sees Mark Renton return to Edinburgh 20 years on.
A
in womb gave baby a lifeline
t her 20-week pregnancy scan, Maisie Savage was told her son Theo had gastroschisis, a serious birth defect where a baby’s intestines develop outside the abdomen (Eleanor Hayward writes).
It is a diagnosis that would usually lead to months in a neonatal intensive care unit after birth, numerous operations as an infant and a lifetime of consequences.
But Savage, 29, and her partner, Josh French, 36, were given a “lifeline” and offered a spot on a pioneering clinical trial in the US which repairs the defect while babies are still in the womb.
The couple, teachers from north London, flew to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston for the operation at 26 weeks pregnant. Surgeons repaired
‘Summit selfies’ with children are peak of recklessness, claims guide
Peter Chappell
Summiting a mountain peak used to be an ambition which took a reality check when children became involved.
But taking the kids on a high-altitude excursion has grown in popularity since the pandemic as a new generation of parents sees little difference between family time and adventure.
A mountain guide and former com- mando has now railed against the trend, arguing that parents should not be snapping “summit selfies” with children who are unable to object to their parents’ grand hiking plans.
Callum Tipton, a guide in Snowdon, criticised climbers with babies in carri- ers in an online post entitled: “What Not To Do on Yr Wyddfa” (The Welsh name for Snowdon).
“I’ll probably upset a few people here, but so be it,” Tipton, who runs an orga- nisation which helps men combat depression through hiking, said.
Theo’s defect using keyhole surgery to push his intestines back into his abdomen.
his abdomen
He was born three months later, in
are exposed to the elements. Just because you can take a baby up a moun- tain doesn’t mean you should.”
For nature-loving couples with child- ren such as Hanako Shimada and Adam Searle, Tipton’s comments could not be further from their experience of hiking with their three-year-old, Maki- ko. “We love it,” Hanako said.
Keen to give their daughter a screen- free childhood, she said the obvious an- swer was to try to spend as much time outside as possible.
“When she was smaller she would fit in our hiking backpack. That was really great, especially when you’re ascend- ing. If you just put them in the backpack sometimes they nap, and going down [the mountain] is really fun for them to run down.”
When Makiko got too big for the backpack, her parents took her on more circular routes so she would not get as tired.
February, was breastfeeding straight away and out of hospital four days later.
“He’s a little miracle, isn’t he?” Savage told the
BBC, adding that the surgery had “completely reversed what could have been a really horrible start to life”.
She said: “He’s
Adam Searle carries his three-year- old daughter Makiko on a hike
Makiko’s mother praised the out- doors for improving her daughter’s bal- ance and curious instincts, as well as al- lowing her to get as muddy as she liked.
amazing. He’s so good. He’s just like living life like a normal baby. He’s feeding like a normal baby, growing like a normal baby.”
safety measures are observed. He said if people followed Tipton’s logic, Scandi- navian or Canadian children would never leave the house.
“We’ve got to be overcautious to some degree with children given how precious they are, we also need to intro- duce children to the mountains at a young age because it creates a bond with the parents and lasting memories.
“Generally its incredibly beneficial to the parent-child relationship. I’m all for it, I think it’s the right thing, as long as the parent is prioritising the child’s wel- fare rather than their own goals.”
He said parents have limited time, and they want to have special experien- ces with their children.
“Nowadays parents don’t put their life on hold for years and years. Making the most of that finite time with your children. They’re only young for so long — I think it’s great,” he said.
Cooper said the risks in the moun- tains weren’t much different to taking a child for a walk in downtown Manches- ter, if the parents are being sensible and risk-averse. He said that people should be aware of “gate-keeping” the moun- tains for themselves.
How it works
Amniotic fluid
CO2
Maisie Savage and her partner, Josh French, with Theo, who had an operation in the US to fix a
birth defect that meant
his intestines were
developing outside
Theo was only the third baby in the world to have the operation, and the first from the UK.
Gastroschisis affects 200 to 300 babies in Britain each year. One in ten die and, for complex cases such as Theo, they require months in intensive care.
The trial is being conducted in partnership with experts at Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh). It builds on techniques of
tracks leads to rail havoc
From signal failures to extreme weather, train passengers may think that they have heard every excuse for delays, but commuters boarding at Runcorn last Wednesday were shocked to discover the latest reason for a hold- up: a trespassing tortoise.
Barnaby, who is believed to be 50 years old, was rescued by rail staff after he was spotted making slow progress along the West Coast mainline. Trains coming through the station had to be halted as Avanti West Coast staff went on the tracks to retrieve the animal. The rescue mission took about ten minutes and the reptile was taken to a rescue centre, where it was cared for overnight before being reunited with its owner.
Network Rail said the short delay meant that passengers could still “hare it to their destinations”.
Theo Griffiths, 20, who frequently travels for work, said train operators should not try to “laugh off” delays. He said: “How is it possible that a little tor- toise can bring national infrastructure to a standstill? We need a culture like Japan, where staff feel guilty when people are inconvenienced.”
Intestines inside foetus
in-womb surgery which have been used to treat spina bifida for the past decade. By intervening early, it reduces complications.
The surgery was led by Dr Michael Belfort. If the US trial is a success, the procedure would be performed in the UK.
Professor Paolo De Coppi, a consultant fetal and paediatric surgeon at Gosh and part of the trial team, said: “Previous success rates with spina bifida indicate this could essentially offer a cure for gastroschisis. If the results are positive, we hope this could become the standard operation ... Families can go home sooner after birth with a healthy baby that shows few signs of their bumpy start in life.”
dead lambs outside churches defanged
Jessica Sharkey Crime Correspondent
A blood-drinking Satanist who believes he is a vampire has been detained under the Mental Health Act after placing deer heads and slaughtered lambs with inverted crosses at churches.
Benjamin Lewis, who police say be- lieves he is a “reincarnated vampire”, previously pleaded guilty to religiously aggravated harassment and theft of lambs between February and August last year.
The 48-year-old, from Totton, Southampton, raided farms in the mid- dle of the night and “maimed and dis- figured” the bodies of deer and lambs before dumping them at churches across the New Forest, Hampshire.
Lewis had had a “fascination with vampires” from a young age and had been in a vampire cult with other mem- bers whom he would regularly meet, Southampton crown court heard yes- terday. Police said he drank the blood of animals he slaughtered because he thought it would make him live forever.
At a previous hearing, he told a judge his name was “Count Dracula” before correcting himself.
Sentencing Lewis, who appeared by video link, to an indefinite hospital or- der, Judge William Mousley KC said: “These offences, taken together, would
otherwise have justified substantial sentences of imprisonment. That is clear before taking into consideration his previous convictions which, al- though a long time ago, demonstrate worrying similar behaviour.”
Laura Deuxberry, for the prosecu- tion, told the court that lambs had been stolen from two small farms in the Hampshire area. After killing them, Le- wis dumped their bodies at four churches and a mental health facility at which he had been a patient.
Items including sketches of vampires and dead sheep, newspaper cuttings relat- ing to death, satanic symbols, and inverted crosses were found in his home. He also left a deer’s head on the gate outside accom- modation for vulnera- ble adults in which he had stayed previously.
In 2003 he was convict- ed of religious harassment in the first case of its kind and was jailed for 12 months for terrorising a vic- ar and his family by claiming to be a vampire.
Deuxberry told the court that when Lewis was arrested last year deer blood was found in the boot of his car, along
Benjamin Lewis outside court. He marked remains with symbols
with mixed animal blood in the vehicle.
When police searched his home, they found sa- tanic symbols and ritual notes, sketches of vampires and “books about vampires and how best to kill humans”. Lewis caused congrega- tions “to be fearful of going to their sanctuaries”, Deuxberry said.
Dr Gauruv Malhan, a consultant fo- rensic psychiatrist, told the court that
Lewis had diagnoses of severe autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, mixed personality disorder and a mild learn- ing disability.
Andrew Price, defending, said: “He is very sorry and wants it to be known and clear that he recognises that he has done wrong.” Lewis told the court: “I want to just apologise to the victims because they said they were worried about me if I was to come out. I do not want people to worry about me.”
Fake Scousers had heist row
Peter Chappell
A pair of hapless armed robbers were caught by police after bickering between themselves and pretending they were from Liverpool during a raid just five minutes from where they lived.
Stephen Bradley and David Oakley held up Maddy’s convenience store in New Mills, Derbyshire, with an imita- tion firearm and Liverpool football scarves wrapped around their heads.
They entered in November last year and threatened the shopkeeper, order- ing her to empty the till as one cleared the shelves. The pair proclaimed they were from Liverpool and needed to get back on the motorway quickly.
They asked the shopkeeper for help with putting the coins in the bag as they were wearing gloves and began to argue as they made their getaway.
Bradley and Oakley were captured on CCTV footage and identified by wit- nesses, the Derbyshire Times reported.
Armed police arrived at the pair’s house where officers found a large amount of tobacco, nine bottles of Jack Daniel’s and a pellet gun. It was also re- ported £200 was stolen from the till.
The pair appeared at Manchester Minshull Street crown court, where Bradley, 56, of New Mills, admitted rob- bery and possession of an imitation firearm. Oakley, 48, of no fixed address, admitted robbery and possession of a knife. Both were jailed for four years.
survival wilt in heat
F
B
ritish farmers are giving up growing food after repeated heatwaves cause their harvests to fail and their finances to falter (Will Humphries and Ben Cooke write).
Some believe growing food is too financially risky and the only way to make their farms profitable is by using their land and buildings for other businesses.
The National Farmer’s Union has warned there could be a shortage of certain food products if the drought continues. Its president, Tom Bradshaw, said yields of wheat and oats were “very, very poor” this year and that livestock farmers had had to use winter feed rations because they had been unable to grow grass.
Vegetable producers were running low on water, reducing the amount of food produced here and
Adam Vaughan Environment Editor for Ecology and Hydrology.
England and Wales had their driest July on record, bringing water restrictions, damage to crops and wildfires.
The Met Office said the month was the driest July since records began in 1836, with “truly remarkable” condi- tions that saw some areas without any rain at all.
Across England, there was 90 per cent less rain than average for the month. Southern England was even worse, with a reduction of 97 per cent compared to the long-term average.
The lack of rain has seen half of En- gland slide into drought status, which allows regulators and water companies to take action to secure water supplies. Drought has been declared across the whole of Wales. About 23 million people are under a hosepipe ban.
Wisley in Surrey is among the areas that saw no rain in July. Like cricket pitches and village greens across the country, the lawn at the Royal Horticul- tural Society’s Wisley Garden has turned brown.
The charity said “large areas” of the gardens had browned because it does not irrigate lawns during dry weather. The group advised gardeners against watering established lawns. The stored rainwater has been almost exhausted and Tim Upton at the RHS said the gar- dens are relying on drawing water from the River Wey for some plants.
increasing the cost of growing it.
Drought has been declared across large parts of England and the whole of Wales after successive heatwaves left water supplies strained.
John Pawsey, who runs a 650-hectare organic farm near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and contract farms 850 hectares of farmland, is aiming to pull as much land out of food production as possible, after his yields on malting barley, oats and milling wheat this year were down 30 per cent on the ten-year average for his farm.
“The margin on food production is so small, so any offer that comes along to use our land for recreation, or whatever, is more attractive than growing food. You only have to look around and there is so much land
Analysis
rom forests near Bordeaux and Madrid to heathland in Suffolk and the Cairngorms National Park, Europe has been blackened by wildfires this summer (Adam Vaughan writes).
The area burnt in the UK so far is less than half the record expanse that blazed last year. But the threat is ongoing.
A resident near the Suffolk fire claimed the blaze was linked to rewilding initiatives, such as allowing more deadwood. The Countryside Alliance, a rural lobbying group, has blamed rewilding for
quickly after a wet winter, means three of the last five years have seen droughts. Warmer and wetter winters, combined with hotter and drier summers, are in line with what scientists expect the UK to experience due to climate change.
out of production. Fields are full of environmental schemes, anything but food,” Pawsey said.
A move to more environmental schemes may not save farms. The Labour government capped the maximum a farm can earn from them at £100,000 a year.
George Tomlinson, above right, and brother Will are having to sell cattle. Top, a parched landscape in Essex and harvesting in Marazion, Cornwall
Paul Behrens, a professor in environmental change
creating the conditions for UK wildfires to spread.
Some have even suggested green policies aimed at helping forests could have made the blazes worse. Víctor Resco de Dios, a professor of forestry at the University of Lleida in Spain, has argued that protected areas burn more easily. “When you remove humans out of it [the natural environment], what happens is you get more fuel, and then you get worse fires,” he told the Wall Street Journal. A paper he authored last year found protected areas of forest in
their sunniest calendar month on record.
Dr Amy Doherty, science manager at the Met Office, said: “The combination of record-breaking dryness, exception- al warmth and unprecedented sun- shine has delivered one of the most notable summer months in our histori- cal records.”
at Oxford, said this year’s harvest would be almost as bad as that of 2020, the worst on record. Harvests in 2024 and 2025 were also among the five worst. “One bad harvest, one warm year, that’s weather. But three of the worst harvests in the last five years? That’s climate change,” he said.
George Tomlinson, 29, a fifth generation organic farmer near
southwestern Europe had fallen victim to wildfires at a higher rate than unprotected areas.
made them more dangerous to residents and more damaging to natural habitats.
“Environmental legislation has not been based on the science of ecology, or on forestry,” he added. “I think it’s been based on ideology, on a Walt Disney view of the world with Bambi, where you see human beings as inherently bad” for the environment. But “when you remove humans out of it, what happens is you get more fuel, and then you get worse fires.” The paper also reported that in Australia and California, fires burnt more intensely on protected lands, which
However, Thomas Smith, assistant professor in environmental geography at the London School of Economics, believes the surge in wildfires was primarily driven by climate change.
The National Trust also believes climate change is the underlying driver of wildfire risk.
The RSPB, which runs Minsmere nature reserve where the Suffolk fire started, said the heathland “was the very antithesis of what many consider to be ‘rewilding’”.
lenges for farmers, with particular con- cern over brassica crops including broccoli. Water companies have report- ed demand for water increasing by up to a third during the warm conditions.
Wrexham, north Wales, has been forced to sell 60 cows from his 550-strong dairy herd because the cost of feeding them winter forage instead of grazing them in normally lush fields proved too much.
industry has so little control over three major aspects that affect our ability to make a living — weather, regulation and the price we get paid,” he said.
“If something isn’t changed soon, with years like this, there won’t be many people left to grow food in this country. That is a scary place to be.”
Tomlinson, who farms with his brother Will, 27, said their straw and corn yields were down 60 per cent and they had had to buy 500 tonnes of forage. “No other
Many rivers in the UK are lower than this time last year, when drought was widespread, she said. Those include the Tweed in Northumberland, the Colne in Essex and the Wye in Herefordshire.
A wildfire at Dunwich Heath in Suf- folk is still ablaze. A helicopter was used to tackle the fire on Monday, with the Suffolk Fire and Rescue service braced for a rise in temperatures on Tuesday.
One of the positives of a sunny July has been a record amount of electricity generated from solar panels. Solar power supplied more electricity in Great Britain during July than in any previous month, providing 14.4 per cent of the total. The previous record, 12.4 per cent, was set in May, according to data from the National Energy System Operator (Neso).
About 1.7 million homes have solar panels, according to trade body Solar Energy UK. Many householders rushed to install solar panels after the Iran war started, with one installed every three minutes since March.
Emma Hardy, the water minister, said: “Our climate is changing, droughts are becoming increasingly common, and we need to be prepared to cope with the challenges we now face.”
Heat alerts are in place for much of England until Wednesday, though tem- peratures may fall later in the week. The southeast will “continue to see little in the way of rain”, though showers are possible, the Met Office said.
W
ashes go into space
hile many dogs accom- pany their owners on trips around the world, few can be said to have visited the very edge of the Earth’s atmosphere (Amelia Stout writes).
Determined to give his late French bulldog a “last adventure”, one owner launched his pet’s ashes 119,000ft into the sky in a weather balloon. They were then released into space.
Jacob Battersby, a TikToker from Stockport, arranged the tribute after Oscar, his six-year-old dog, died suddenly from a
youth joblessness, say Tories
Georgia Lambert Oliver Wright Policy Editor
The Conservatives have accused Labour of a “delusional” attempt to blame Michael Gove’s education re- forms for a million young people not being in education, employment or training (Neets), saying that it was a consequence of tax rises for employers.
Writing in The Times yesterday, Lu- cy Powell, the education secretary, said Gove’s policy of forcing schools to pri- oritise academic learning had resulted in more Neets, describing it as a direct consequence of his reforms.
Her claim was disputed by the Tories, who pointed out that a sharp rise in the number of Neets had come about after Labour won the 2024 general election.
“Labour inherited youth unemploy- ment below the eurozone average,” said Neil O’Brien, the shadow minister for policy development. “But they blasted it up with massive tax rises and more regulation. Lucy Powell blames Mich- ael Gove for this. They’re delusional.”
O’Brien released figures showing that the proportion of Neets had risen from about 14 per cent when Labour came to power to more than 16 per cent.
brain tumour this year.
Battersby, 26, and his friend, Callum King, also 26, from Rugby, launched the balloon from the Warwickshire town on May 7, packing a GPS tracker, cameras and Oscar’s favourite Toy Story alien toy alongside his ashes.
After climbing to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere, where temperatures dropped to minus 72C, the balloon burst, scattering Oscar’s ashes. The package then descended by parachute and landed 55 miles away near Nottinghamshire.
Battersby, who has nearly 200,000 followers on TikTok said: “It’s
purely to education. This is clearly nonsense. The rise has coincided with massive hikes in the costs of employing young people and a failure to reform in- centives to go onto benefits. The recent rises in youth unemployment are not a problem caused by education.”
Powell wrote that she intended to take a “fresh look at what we are teach- ing our children and whether we are equipping them for their lives ahead” as part of moves to undo Gove’s reforms.
The government is considering changes to the curriculum proposed in a review by Professor Becky Francis. Her review largely left Gove’s reforms intact, but recom- mended that teenagers sit fewer GCSEs because of concerns that pupils were becoming overly stressed and were being taught the test in- stead of the subject.
Powell, who wants to intro- duce technical pathways for pupils as young as 14, said her re- forms were not “an attack” on aca- demic standards, but an attempt to broaden the definition of
really special. They say after about six months, his ashes will eventually return to Earth as rain. I really like the idea that a little part of him is still up there. People always look up at the sky when they’re thinking about loved ones they’ve lost. And mine is actually up there.”
King said: “Oscar couldn’t see the world, so we decided to show
the world Oscar. Jacob lost Oscar at the start of the year and it came completely out of the blue. He had a brain tumour and it happened so quickly. When we started planning the launch, taking his ashes up there wasn’t really a question. It was just how we were going to do it. It felt like one last adventure for him.”
The pair had expected
success. “The idea that academic and technical education are rivals compet- ing for status belongs in the past. It’s the same kind of tired, snobbish thinking that says the academic route is for clev- er children and the technical route is for the rest,” she said.
Polling suggests that while people broadly agree with the proposal to value technical routes as much as aca- demic ones, few want to see 14-year- olds locked into decisions about their careers. A More in Common poll of
3,384 adults last week found that 60
per cent believed that vocational
education deserved more atten-
tion and that university had been over-emphasised. But it also
found that 65 per cent thought 14 was too young for pupils to make decisions about their careers.
Graduate vacancies at their lowest at this point in the year since 2020, and seasonal work is at a four-year low. Research by
the job search website Indeed
showed that graduate postings
were down about 7 per cent from last year.
the journey to last around two hours, but when the balloon stayed airborne for far longer, they feared it had been lost for ever. They had abandoned the search and headed to a pub to drown their sorrows
Education Union said a “top-down ex- am factory” culture and a “stifling cur- riculum” were driving rising mental health problems among the young. A union survey found teachers feared continued testing would narrow the curriculum and harm pupil wellbeing.
Daniel Kebede, the union’s general secretary, backed Powell’s reforms, say- ing that “the one-size-fits-all approach to education has failed too many child- ren and young people”.
Julie McCulloch, chief executive of the Education Policy Institute, said the argument should not become a choice between academic and practical skills. She said that the academic focus in the past decade “appears to have paid dividends”, but that while England had climbed international league tables, the gains had not been felt equally.
“The attainment gap between child- ren and young people from disadvan- taged backgrounds and their peers re- mains stubbornly wide, and recent at- tempts to narrow it have stalled or reversed,” she added.
Haroon Chowdry, chief executive of the Centre for Young Lives think tank, agreed the education system had failed too many young people. He said the number of Neets was “the ultimate ver- dict in the school curriculum debate”.
when the GPS tracker suddenly pinged.
“We drove straight there and ended up walking through fields until we found the payload,” King said. “It was an amazing feeling.”
The memorial also served as a test for a pet tracker developed by the pair through their company, Zoomi.
King said it was difficult to plan for the project. “We had to calculate the amount of helium, predict where it would travel and build the payload ourselves,” he said. “We expected it to be in the air for around two hours, so when that time passed, we genuinely thought it had gone for ever. Finding it proved not only that Oscar had completed his final journey, but our tracker had done exactly what it was designed to do.”
Batters- by, whose other bulldog, Toby, has had cancer diagnosed, said he intended to make the most of their remaining time together by planning various adventures, including a paragliding trip. “It’s probably the closest she’ll ever get to space, and to Oscar,” he added.
A balloon with Oscar’s ashes was sent to the edge of the atmosphere. It was found by Callum King, far left, and Jacob Battersby, second left
ranking rose after 2010
Anna Dowell, Yennah Smart
When Michael Gove became educa- tion secretary in 2010, he used inter- national data to argue for urgent re- form as the UK’s 15-year-olds were fall- ing behind their peers.
Over a decade from his time in office, in which he brought in a new curricu- lum in England and expanded the number of academy schools, The Times has looked at the same data to deter- mine whether Gove’s reforms raised the bar for British education.
The UK’s 15-year-olds have climbed global rankings since 2010 for their abilities to read, calculate and experi- ment, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Devel- opment’s (OECD) programme for international student assessment (Pisa) scores. British teenagers are now 11th and ninth among their OECD peers for maths and reading, up from 22nd and 20th in 2009. Science has stayed at 11th.
The UK’s scores are all above the OECD average. About 690,000 pupils from 81 countries and economies took part in the most recent assessment.
Eleanor Hayward Health Editor Sir Jim Mackey, the chief executive of NHS England, told The Times: “Too many people with severe mental illness or addiction become trapped in a vi- cious cycle, where poor health keeps them out of work, and unemployment makes their health even worse.”
The NHS is spending millions on one- to-one job coaching for drug addicts and patients with severe mental illness to end a “vicious cycle” of worklessness.
New data shows more than 11,000 people were helped into work by the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) scheme last year, which is avail- able everywhere in England.
NHS patients are given tailored support from specialist employment advisers, including help CVs, job appli- cations and interviews. They continue to receive job coaching to help them settle into work.
The service is embedded in 203 men- tal health clinics and 100 addiction ser- vices across England, and ministers have announced an extra £275 million investment to expand help.
People can be referred to the IPS scheme by their GP, mental health clinic or certain charities. It aims to help people start jobs within weeks of being referred, and the new data shows 11,241 who took part in the scheme found work in the past financial year.
diary@thetimes.co.uk | @timesdiary Huw’s job was it anyway?
In an alternate universe, the newsreader Simon McCoy might still be the BBC’s leading light. He tells Matt Forde’s Political Party podcast that his role there was due to be beefed up before a colleague intervened. “The day before launch, the show was going to be Afternoon Live with Simon McCoy, but there was one presenter at the BBC, very senior, who put a stop to it,” McCoy said. BBC execs may look back at this decision to cave into Huw Edwards’s demands and feel they backed the wrong horse.
McCoy, below, then went on to join GB News, which was a bit of a rude awakening as the then start-up channel had basically no facilities. McCoy was chatting to a young colleague one day who said “This newsroom is not as big as my last one”. The old hand asked where that had been and the lad replied, “Nottingham Trent”.
liddle’s feline farce Rod Liddle, the Sunday Times columnist who has died, was baffled when readers did not get his often very dark sense of humour. He once wrote a fanciful column in which he described putting a cat on trial before building and using a miniature gibbet. Shortly after publication he was visited by the constabulary who were investigating potential animal cruelty. “You’d have thought they’d have realised it was a joke when I said that three field mice watched the execution and applauded,” Liddle said.
This wasn’t his only visit from the coppers. He was always amused to recall when anti-terror police popped in and said: “Your name’s on a list to have your head chopped off, so
He added the figures “show that with the right support, that cycle can be bro- ken. Combining employment advice with mental health support can help people regain their confidence, inde- pendence and purpose by getting them back into work.
“So, if you’re struggling with your mental health and want to get back on your feet, I’d encourage you to speak to your GP or local mental health or addiction support team to find how to get help.”
The job coaching service is offered to people with severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, as well as people struggling with drug or alcohol addiction.
Jamie Walker, from Kent, is among those to have been helped back into work by the scheme.
He said: “On paper, I was successful.
we thought we’d come round and put your mind at rest.”
a head-scratching tale Professor Jason Arday is missing a pig’s head. The academic, whose relationship with the truth is under scrutiny, claimed his family was sent such a porcine piece, causing the police to do a search of local butchers. The Met say that they have no record of this, but it is easier to mislay a pig’s head than you think. The broadcaster Paul Heiney tells me he once helped the sculptor Michael Black acquire one for his work. It was put in an M&S bag which Black placed on a train’s luggage rack, but he forgot to pick it up. When lost and found were contacted, they said: “We haven’t seen anything like that but we’ll keep a look out for it.” You’d have thought it would have been easy to locate by one sense or another, but perhaps they thought someone was telling porkies.
healey’s heavy burden Labour has had more chancellors named Healey than the party has had women leaders, though that was true before the reshuffle. However, there is another historical quirk with John Healey’s appointment. Henry Conner, a reader, informs me that Healey is the second chancellor to have been educated at St Peter’s, York, one of Britain’s oldest schools. The first was John Aislabie (1718-1721) who oversaw the South Sea Company taking over the national debt, just before its infamous bubble burst. It transpired that Aislabie had done so after receiving £20,000 of the company’s stock. He was found
guilty of “most notorious, dangerous and infamous
corruption” and was
imprisoned in the Tower of London. And you thought that sharing a name with someone who went
I had my own distribution company and marketing company, but my life was dissolving and falling apart.
“I had fallen into a spiral of addiction and alcohol abuse. I struggled with psy- chosis, I experienced dissociation and was completely detached from myself. I’d lost all my money, any way of mak- ing money, and my ability to communi- cate. It was pretty dire.”
Walker was given support from an early psychosis unit and referred to the IPS, which encouraged him to pursue a career in acting, and finding work has “helped his mental health recovery enormously”.
People with severe mental illness are
three to four times more likely to be out of work, while those with drug or alco- hol dependency are two to four times more likely to be unemployed.
Research shows worklessness can exacerbate mental health problems including depression and anxiety. The number of people off work due to poor mental health has risen sharply since the pandemic, and nearly half of under- 24s who are not in employment, educa- tion or training (Neets) cite mental health reasons.
Dr Nick Broughton, the national director for mental health, learning disability and neurodevelopmental conditions, said “behind every unem-
ployment stat is a person who if given the right support would like to belong to a community, have a purpose to their day, and be financially independent”.
Baroness Merron, the health and social care minister, said: “Getting into work can be life-changing for people’s mental health and wellbeing — and these figures show what’s possible when people get the right, tailored support at the right time.
“Mental health is just as important as physical health and that’s why we’ve expanded support in schools and com- munities, and recruited thousands more staff to provide mental health support.”
Rhys Blakely Science Editor
Jodrell Bank hosted the Bluedot festival from 2016 to 2023. Johnny Marr and Brian May are among the musicians who said that cutting the funding would be “foolish”
A host of rock and pop stars have urged the prime minister to save Jodrell Bank, warning that planned funding cuts could turn the celebrated observatory into “the world’s largest space relic”.
Sir Brian May, the Queen guitarist who holds a doctorate in astrophysics, Johnny Marr, the former Smiths guitar- ist, and Jarvis Cocker, the Pulp front- man, are among more than 200 public figures who have called on Andy Burn- ham to intervene.
The campaign began after plans emerged to withdraw research funding, which staff say would force Jodrell Bank’s giant Lovell telescope to cease operations in 2028.
An open letter argues that ending its scientific work to save £2.8 million a year would be “foolish and short-sight- ed”. It calls Jodrell Bank “the thriving, thumping heart of space observation, research and education in the UK”.
towing cash machine down street
Seren Hughes
Brazen thieves towed away a cash machine from outside a shop in a south- west London suburb while people passed by, apparently oblivious.
Six minutes of security camera foot- age show how two men, one seemingly armed with a hammer and the other driving a car, tried to force open the ma- chine outside a Costcutter in Tedding- ton before towing it away. A woman, several cars and a bus passed by without appearing to react to the criminals in the early hours of last Wednesday.
The two thieves, both dressed in black jumpers, grey trousers and black hats, are seen removing a tow rope from the boot of the car and fastening it to the standalone machine. The driver re- turns to the car and drives away, pulling the front off the cash machine.
The observatory, near Macclesfield in Cheshire, is a Unesco world heritage site and one of the most recognisable landmarks in British science. The tele- scope, whose white collecting dish measures 76m across, has provided sci- entists with data on distant reaches of the universe for nearly 70 years.
Paul Morley, the music writer and producer, said Jodrell Bank had been a “huge, inspir- ing presence” during his child- hood, widening his horizons be- yond his hometown of Stockport. He described the telescope as “a work of art as well as a place of science”.
John Robb, the musi- cian, author and frontman of the punk band the Membranes, called it “one of the jewels in the crown of the north”. Other signato-
Security cameras showed the theft outside a shop in southwest London
the driver speeds off, ripping the entire machine out of the ground, and the thieves depart after a parting glance at the pavement where the machine had been.
No arrests have yet been made but police are searching for four men they believe to have been involved. Officers have also seized an abandoned vehicle in connection with the incident.
outside a shop on Kingston Road at about 1am on July 29. The force said: “Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101, quoting 302/29JUL. Anonymous reports can be shared via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 using the same reference number.”
Similar incidents have taken place in other parts of the country in recent months. In June, a cash machine was ripped out from the front of a shop in Baldock, Hertfordshire. Police believe four men and three vehicles — a JCB, a flatbed lorry and a white Audi — were involved. Hertfordshire police said no one had been arrested.
Cambridgeshire police said they were linking that incident to one in Burwell, where an ATM was ripped from an Asda Express with a stolen telehandler — a type of forklift truck with a crane-like arm — and two other vehicles. The incident remains under investigation.
ries include Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris, Gillian Gilbert, Phil Cunning- ham and Tom Chapman of New Order; Peter Hook, the band’s former bassist; and Ralf Hütter, co-founder of the Ger- man electronic group Kraftwerk.
Also backing the campaign are Stu-
art Braithwaite, the guitarist and co- founder of Mogwai; Guy Garvey and his fellow members of Elbow; and Jez Williams, Andy Williams and Jimi Goodwin of Doves. Many of these art- ists played at Bluedot, a music and science festival hosted at Jodrell Bank from 2016-23.
Jodrell Bank is the headquarters of e-Merlin, a network of British radio telescopes used by thousands of re- searchers. It is the funding for e-Merlin that is being axed.
However, campaigners argue that without it, the Lovell telescope will stop working.
They also include Professor Brian Cox, the physicist and broadcaster, and the astronauts Tim Peake and Com- mander Chris Hadfield.
The letter urges ministers to find replacement funding, arguing that Jod- rell Bank must remain a working ob- servatory rather than merely a monu- ment to Britain’s scientific past.
HAN MYUNG-GU/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES
A
influencer’s murder
former X Factor contestant has denied murdering a social media influencer by running her over outside a Soho nightclub (Jessica Sharkey writes).
Gabrielle Carrington, 29, from Manchester, is accused of hitting Klaudia Zakrzewska, an influencer known online as Klaudiaglam, with a car near the Inca nightclub in Argyll Street, central London, at 4.30am on April 19.
The defendant was originally charged with attempted murder, but this was upgraded after
Man jailed after keeping dead mother in freezer
Jessica Sharkey Crime Correspondent being stored in a chest freezer for three years, there were no other indignities following her death.
A man who kept his dead mother inside a freezer for nearly three years while continuing to collect more than £78,000 of her benefits has been jailed for more than two years.
Christopher Phillips, 60, admitted preventing the lawful and decent burial of Sylvia Phillips, 89, at their home in Porthcawl, in Bridgend, Wales.
He also pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by failing to notify the Depart- ment for Work and Pensions and Bridg- end county borough council that his mother had died in March 2023.
Phillips collected a total of £78,190.92 in state pension, pensions credit, attendance allowance, winter fuel payments, cost of living payments and housing benefit.
He was sentenced to two years and four months’ imprisonment at Merthyr Tydfil crown court yesterday.
Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said Phil- lips continued to collect his mother’s prescriptions and “misled” medical professionals about her whereabouts. He repeatedly told medical staff that she did not wish to attend appoint- ments or undergo tests.
A psychiatrist concluded that Phil- lips was suffering from prolonged grief disorder at the time of the offending, the court heard.
The judge added: “[The psychiatrist] records evidence of persistent longing for your mother, difficulty accepting her death, preoccupation with her, social withdrawal, and an inability to move forward with ordinary life.
Zakrzewska died from her injuries on April 25.
Anoush Chyche, a 58-year-old security guard, sustained life-changing injuries in the incident.
Carrington reached the X Factor live finals in 2013 with the group Miss Dynamix and has more than 360,000 followers on Instagram under the handle RielleUK.
She appeared at the Old Bailey by videolink to deny charges of murder in relation to Zakrzewska and grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to Chyche. She was not
and your mother, together with your limited social contacts.”
Phillips left work to become a full- time carer for his mother in the months leading up to her death on March 8, 2023, the sentencing hearing was told.
Following her death, the cause of which remains unknown, he bought a chest freezer and used it to store her body inside the living room of the prop- erty.
Sylvia Phillips was found by police in February 2026 after medical practi- tioners who had previously treated her raised concerns about her welfare.
Her body was covered with a leopard print throw and found alongside roses and a birthday card which read “To Mum, from Christopher and Tina”— a reference to the family dog.
asked to enter a plea on a third charge of driving with excess alcohol in her system.
Carrington was not represented in court by
Phillips continued to live in the property as he had before his mother’s death
a barrister and appeared to wipe tears from her eyes during the hearing.
It is alleged that Carrington arrived in Argyll Street by car and
“Your offending is aggravated by the length of time over which you concealed your mother’s death and because you had the financial advan- tage of continuing to receive her pen- sion and benefits.”
Ruth Smith, representing Phillips, said he had been adopted by Sylvia Phillips at the age of two and was “ex- ceptionally close” to her. They had lived together for 50 years of his life and Phil- lips had been her primary care since 2008, the court heard.
She said Phillips had not used the money to pay for holidays or designer clothing, instead continuing to live in the property as he had before his mother’s death.
Phillips told police he “didn’t want to let her go”, Smith said. “He described talking to her as if she was still alive… Sitting next to her, talking to her about television programmes, Coronation Street, the horse racing, just as they always did.”
Smith added: “Mr Phillips was a vul- nerable individual with a vulnerable mental health situation at the time of his mother’s death.”
Alex Orndal, for the prosecution, said Phillips had made a “deliberate and calculated decision” to continue receiv- ing the benefit payments “without needing to return to work”.
became involved in an altercation with a man as she got out of the vehicle, prompting several members of the public to intervene.
death can attend funeral
A British father prosecuted by the Cypriot authorities over the death of his two-year-old son has thanked them for allowing him to return to the UK to attend his child’s funeral.
The 37-year-old, who works for one of the Big Four accountancy firms, is charged with causing death by a reck- less act after his son fell from the fourth floor of the King Evelthon Beach Hotel and Resort in Chlorakas on July 12, the first day of their holiday.
The father, from Essex, was arrested hours later at the five-star resort and held in prison for eight days before being released on bail. He was banned from leaving the country before his trial in Paphos, which is expected to open on September 17.
Last Friday Judge Froso Christodoul- idou told Paphos district court that the attorney-general had granted the father his request to return to the UK for a month before the trial to grieve with his family and arrange his son’s funeral.
Speaking outside the courtroom, the tearful father said: “I am thankful to the judge and to the authorities for letting me get home to my wife and daughter and that’s all I want to do now.”
Alexandros Alexandrou, defending the Briton, said that the father would be required to return by September 14 and would need to deposit bail of €10,000 and inform the authorities about where he would be staying while in the UK.
The court was told that the child fell through an open window when his father was holding him around his waist and swinging him from side to side in the corridor next to the family’s room as they waited for the lift to take them to the restaurant for dinner.
Klaudia Zakrzewska died six days after she was hit by a car in Argyll Street, London, far left. Gabrielle Carrington, below, was remanded in custody
She is then accused of re-entering the vehicle and immediately mounting the pavement, striking Zakrzewska, who was “dragged forwards”, then hitting Chyche, who was also on the pavement.
At a previous hearing, the prosecution described the scene as a “mêlée”.
Carrington allegedly had 61 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath when tested after the incident, according to court charges. The legal limit for driving is 35 micrograms.
Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC said
she would try the
case at the Old
Bailey from
January. Pre-trial
hearings were
fixed for next week and October. Carrington was remanded in custody. The judge ordered that she be brought to court for her next hearing.
nied this version of events when it was put to him by police officers, insisting that he was not swinging his son.
Police said a toxicology report re- vealed that one or two drinks’ worth of alcohol was in the man’s blood. If con- victed, he faces a prison sentence of up to four years.
Petros Stavrou, the family’s former lawyer, made several requests during the eight days of his imprisonment for the father to be released to be with his wife when they had to inform their daughter that her brother had died. In- stead, the delay meant that the father, according to reports, was forced to tell his daughter the news over FaceTime.
The family were staying at the King Evelthon hotel in Chlorakas, Cyprus
His son has been described as “a truly special, easygoing little boy who brought so much joy to everyone”.
A spokesman for the family told The Times: “The family are relieved that the father has been granted temporary per- mission to return home, so he can be re- united with his wife and daughter and begin the heartbreaking task of orga- nising their son’s funeral.
O
William Hague
f the roughly 60,000 people who tried to cross the border from Morocco into the Spanish city of Ceuta at the end of last week, at least 72 are reported to have died. Many of them, overwhelmingly young men and some only teenagers and children, will be the victims of believing what they could see on social media — that “Spain is open”. This was inadvertently encouraged by the Spanish supreme court ruling against summary deportation for those arriving by sea, and very deliberately reinforced by smuggling gangs who took advantage of the uncertainty. Young people seeking opportunity ended up drowning in the sea.
These events have immediately become hot politics: in Spain itself, where the government is under attack for regularising the status of more than a million illegal migrants and contributing to the belief it had opened the doors; in the EU, where Italy is furious at Spain’s inability to control its frontiers; and in the UK, where an embattled Nigel Farage has again declared that migrant boats can be pushed back into French waters.
The politics is largely about how to build a fortress in the UK or Europe, with higher walls and an active defence. Spain is urgently extending the sea barriers at Ceuta. But however high we build our walls, once we have to defend them we are constantly losing, with many victims like the drowned teenagers off Ceuta along the way.
That would surely be the case if
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the Royal Navy was towing flimsy dinghies across the busy shipping lanes of the Channel, quite apart from the likely loss of crucial French co-operation. With a successful immigration policy, there would be few teenagers in the sea because they would know beyond doubt that Spain is not open to uncontrolled migration, or small boats in the Channel because it would be clear that Britain isn’t either.
The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is therefore working on the right lines in wanting to “change their mind about whether they get on that boat in the first place”. She is making progress but needs quick deportations, sensible court decisions and effective reform of the ECHR to help her along. Andy Burnham has shown good political instincts in keeping her in place and supporting her approach. The whole political left must understand that sending a strong signal to people thousands of
that building a fortress will not be enough
miles away that illegal migration will not work is indispensable to avoiding tragedies at sea and steadily more extreme ideas at home.
Equally, however, everyone on the right of politics across Europe, including the UK, needs to acknowledge that building a fortress is not enough. Fortresses do not survive if they take no interest in what is happening over the horizon. Just over our horizon, a vast human crisis is developing across the Sahel region of north Africa. We are close to giving up on doing anything about it. Anyone who thinks that climate change is not a major issue, or that
overseas aid is always a waste, or that building high walls will keep out all the problems, needs to study the Sahel.
While birth rates are falling across the world, they are still at their highest in parts of the Sahel. In Chad and Niger, the latest UN projections indicate a doubling of the population in the next 25 years alone. Across the region there are expected to be 250 million additional people by 2050. The median age in Sahel countries will be 23, compared with Europe’s 46, and their average density will be 144 people per square kilometre to Europe’s 32.
This would be a massive economic and development challenge in the best of circumstances, but unfortunately these countries face probably the worst combination of circumstances on the entire planet. Their climate is warming faster than the global average. Added to forest clearances and the exhaustion of marginal land, this is bringing an expanding desert and conflict between herders and farmers. Some nations — Mali in particular — have endured long civil wars. On the edge of the region, Sudan remains mired in the world’s bloodiest conflict.
Efforts by the West to stabilise the region have not only failed but been abandoned. Two years ago, the US closed its major base in Niger after a military coup. France, historically the most active western power in the region, withdrew thousands of troops as local juntas turned against its influence. With western militaries pulling out, the Alliance of Sahel States has been formed, with Russia as its key security partner.
Wherever the West has withdrawn, the Russians have moved in. Despite heavy casualties on some occasions, they persist with establishing military bases, securing
Thousands of migrants were urged to cross from Morocco by social media
mining concessions and expanding their geopolitical leverage. China has also moved in, with investment in oil, uranium and lithium supplies, just as western aid has been slashed.
The overall result is that we have surrendered influence, given up any control of events and largely lost visibility of what is happening. No one country or leader is to blame for that — it is an accumulation of failures and forced withdrawals over the last decade. But it would be a very serious mistake to keep the Sahel out of our sight, and consequently out of minds, over the decades to come.
The UK has perfectly sensibly reinforced our relationship with Nigeria, with a strategic partnership, as part of efforts to rebuild influence in sub-Saharan Africa. But there is no visible longer-term strategy in
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London, Washington or Paris. Perhaps that is not surprising, given so many other preoccupations and a short attention span in the White House. Yet some of the greatest strategic challenges are steadily taking shape across north Africa. Soon there will be hundreds of millions of young people, badly governed, with a desert expanding and their opportunities diminishing. And one day they will start moving,
withdrawn, Russians have moved in
in numbers never seen before and which no fortress Europe or fortress Britain can keep out.
This underlines, of course, the need for tough but effective immigration policies now. But it also shows that such policies will not be enough. In the near term, the UK and our allies need the military capabilities to act against terrorist threats forming in the Sahel and to move in to help legitimate authorities when opinion turns against Russian exploitation, as it eventually will. When that happens, aid that is now diverted to housing asylum seekers at home should be redirected to help education and the environment in Africa.
Longer-term, the West should prepare to re-engage across the Sahel, laying the ground now with diplomatic and intelligence work to be ready to help when millions of people in their twenties demand justice and opportunity in their own countries. Otherwise, the people swimming to Ceuta will not only be the tragedy of last week but the forerunners of many more tragedies to come.
It’s not my fault if my child won’t eat vegetables
RELATABLE VOICES
T
D
Melanie Phillips
@melanielatest
he ruling by an information tribunal that government ministers can keep any criminal convictions secret doesn’t pass the smell test. The Times wanted to know how many ministers in the Starmer government had declared criminal convictions during their vetting procedure. This was prompted by the resignation of Louise Haigh, who was forced to step down as transport secretary after it emerged that she had failed to disclose a fraud conviction from 2014.
The tribunal ruled that such information constituted criminal offence data, to which parliament had afforded special protection under data protection law. Even saying that ministers had no convictions might provide a piece in a jigsaw that identified others who did.
The reason is that revealing anyone’s criminal convictions is thought to infringe upon their fundamental rights, potentially causing prejudice, reputational damage or unfair treatment. So people don’t have to declare any spent convictions — which are removed from standard background checks after a certain period of time — to employers, schools or insurance companies.
There are exceptions. Employers in law enforcement or national security,
My son says I’m telling tall stories yet again
espite having to fill 3,000 words of The Times every week with my thoughts on this and that, I have not, as I hope you’ve noticed, troubled you with my opinion of Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey. This is because I seek, in my own little way, to be surprising in my opinions, and there is nothing surprising about anyone’s opinion of The Odyssey. Indeed, the only way to be surprising is not to have an opinion about it at all. Or at least not to tell everyone what it is. So I haven’t.
But I did see the film, obviously. I went with my son, Sam, and on the way home we argued a bit about what had been done with CGI and what had been real. He thought it was mostly CGI, I thought mostly not. He said I was a credulous old boomer, I said he was a cynical wee scrote.
for example, are legally entitled to know about both spent and unspent convictions. And even spent convictions remain recorded in confidential police databases.
So although such individuals have paid their dues to society, that doesn’t mean there’s no question mark about their character. A balance needs to be drawn between the requirements of privacy and the need for disclosure. That balance depends on circumstances.
In politics, transparency is an essential part of the job. For politicians, the character issue is crucial. That’s why, when Andy Burnham brought Haigh back into government as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster,
the political resurrection of Haigh and Rayner
she was stripped of her role’s oversight of public sector fraud, even though her conviction was spent.
A dissenting tribunal member argued that what needed to be assessed was not a minister’s criminal convictions but the extent to which they had chosen to disclose such matters. It was this candour, or lack of it, argued the dissenter, that should be subject to democratic scrutiny.
That argument was dismissed. Although there were exemptions in the public interest, said the panel, disclosure to a journalist wasn’t one of them. What was being requested, it said, was public scrutiny of what was disclosed during a confidential appointments process.
stuntwoman, Devyn Dalton, who stood in for Matt Damon as Odysseus in the Laestrygonians scene, fighting 7ft actors done up as giants, obviating the need for computer trickery.
Sam, when I told him, remained sceptical (“You believe what you want to believe, grampa”), but came to me later in the garden and said: “Dad, I’ve worked out why you hang out with me so much: it’s a Laestrygonian thing.”
“Eh?” I said. “I hang out with you because you’re lots of fun and I love you.”
“Sure,” he said. “But it’s also because when you walk down the street next to me, from a distance people might think you’re reasonably tall. Or at least average height.”
“I am average height!” I protested. “I’m 5ft 9!”
“Yeah, whevs,” said Sam, who has grown six inches this year, is currently 5ft 7 and is projected, thanks to some tallness on the distaff side, to top out at about 6ft 1. “But the joke’s on you because pretty soon you’re
Simon Madden, director of the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team, told the tribunal that such scrutiny could hurt that process because it depended partly upon “candid disclosures being made in circumstances where confidentiality is expected”. That, however, was broadly the same argument used to explain why Starmer wasn’t told about Peter Mandelson’s continuing relationship with Jeffrey Epstein when the Labour peer was being vetted for the post of ambassador to America. And that went well, didn’t it?
How many people trust Sir Humphrey always to assess candidates in the public interest if only he knows about the skeletons in their closet? Don’t all put your hands up at once.
Such secrecy plays very badly with the public, for whom lack of integrity in politics and public life has caused a dangerous disillusionment with representative democracy itself. There has been widespread disgust and incredulity not just over the political resurrection of Haigh but also of Angela Rayner as housing secretary. She had resigned over the revelation that she hadn’t paid the correct stamp duty on her second home — even though she was cleared of any offence. And people also sucked their teeth over the fact that the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, had falsely claimed to be a qualified solicitor.
Trust is one of the most important factors in politics. Even if people disagree with a politician’s views, they need their politicians to be transparent and honest. Instead, they see dishonesty everywhere. They hear politicians lying to them non-stop,
going to be making me look MASSIVE, walking down the street next to my midget father.”
I dug deep for a withering riposte (we were not quite yet at the pitch where I remind him that he came out of my balls and he calls me an old pervert) but in the end just sighed and said: “If that’s enough to keep you hanging out with me when you’re older, Sammy, I’ll take it.”
“Love you, Dad,” said Sam, clamping his headphones back on.
m writing this column in an elegant, narrow-brimmed sisal
Sheppard, you will be
pleased to know,
because my wife
bought me one for
my 57th birthday
last week and
writing is the
only thing I
will allow myself to do in it.
She bought it to replace the gorgeous Borsalino she bought me for my 54th, which spent three years hanging on a nail on the wall of my study until
making promises they break or never intended to keep in the first place. They have watched grossly incompetent senior managers in the health service, police or Post Office, who have presided over scandals in which people have died or been wrongly jailed, refusing to resign or else departing to other cushy jobs.
People in Britain remain motivated by a keen sense of fairness and justice. They are hard-wired to do the right thing, and are appalled when politicians and other senior public servants seem to operate by different rules. The perception that politicians get away with stuff for which ordinary folk are hammered is utterly corrosive of the entire social contract.
It is often said that good people are deterred from going into politics because their lives are torn apart by intrusive public scrutiny and threats. There is certainly a toxic atmosphere that is dangerous and deplorable. But that malevolent strain in society should not be conflated with the need for integrity in public life.
To restore trust and respect, politicians need to rediscover the principle of accountability. The public need to see public figures biting the bullet for what they’ve done wrong by leaving public life altogether, not bouncing back as if they had done nothing bad. And transparency is key. People need to believe that what they are entitled to know about their leaders and public servants isn’t being hidden from them.
They want to know that they are getting precisely what they see on the tin. They want conviction politicians. They don’t want politicians with hidden convictions.
a couple of weeks ago, when I decided to risk a trip outdoors in it for the first time, to one of Sam’s out-of-town cricket matches. Obviously, I came back without the hat. So she bought me a new one because she thinks that, at my advanced age, I should start wearing a hat in the sun.
I think she thought I might even take it with me to Greece next week. But I love this hat and cannot bear to lose it. I have a full head of hair and swarthy Levantine skin; I do not need protection from the sun, in Greece or anywhere else. So it will be my writing hat. And it will stay in my study. And that’s an end to it. Budding enterprise M
y neighbour told me there was an exemption to the Thames Water hosepipe ban for commercial flower growers, so I watered my garden. Wanna buy some dahlias? Stroll before credits roll S
am and I went to Spider-Man: Brand New Day on Sunday. Brilliant movie. Like, Odyssey-level brilliant (damn!). But a word of advice: don’t sit through the interminable end credits waiting for the usual first-rate post-film Marvel stinger. Because it isn’t.
repeat of Brown’s faith funding errors Fiyaz Mughal A
ndy Burnham’s devolution promise has lacked concrete detail, though he laid out the aim during a speech in Manchester in June. “The Greater Manchester way,” he said, “is based on strong partnership between all sectors: public, private, community, voluntary, academic, faith and our trade unions.”
Almost two decades ago Gordon Brown set out a not-dissimilar stall, enlarging the role of “community representatives” within Whitehall as part of a devolution plan designed to solve societal ills. And faith bodies were at the centre of Brown’s plans too. Some £11 million was paid out to more than 900 groups as part of the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund between 2006 and 2008. There was also a separate three-year, £7.5 million programme to promote partnership between faith groups.
From the off, the programme suffered from weak tests of public benefit and measurable outcomes. It was built on the premise that widening engagement with faith communities could take place by engaging with the loudest voices, and drawing diverse communities into engaging with government by throwing taxpayers’ money at them. If social cohesion was the aim, the reverse was the reality.
Some projects delivered little demonstrable integration or lasting social value; others brought in groups with no desire to promote national values or support work on countering extremism. At worst, groups with divisive views about the Middle East and hatred against LGBT communities and Jews used government funding to keep their organisations going.
That government’s mistake was a lazy assumption that the loudest faith organisations represented the people whose religion they shared. For two decades, these divisive faith organisations have continued to bring international conflicts into the heart of British politics, with successive governments believing it’s just part of “inclusion”. We saw it last year, for instance, with the Maccabi Tel Aviv football debacle in Birmingham. But rather than learning lessons, Burnham appears to be playing to that divisive sectarian base. That explains why, before entering No 10, he chose to release a video saying that Labour “got it wrong” on Gaza.
Public money must come with clear civic conditions: any organisation seeking cohesion funding should demonstrate democratic governance, financial transparency, support for equality before the law and an unambiguous commitment to freedom of expression. Burnham says he wants to give power back. Fine. But power must be given to citizens, not clerical or communal gatekeepers.
I
In the silence, you can hear society crumble
James Marriott
@j_amesmarriott
n the back of an Uber the other evening, crawling through hot traffic under one of the London heatwave’s lavish, coral-hued sunsets, I broke a rule of modern etiquette and fell into conversation with the driver. We spoke about his young family, the absurdly large cut of my fare kept by Uber and his previous unhappy career as a chef.
I did not glean any dazzling sociological insights from our conversation but it stands out as unusual. Most Uber journeys pass in near silence, induced either by a language barrier or perhaps by the suspicion that any attempt to initiate unwanted conversation by either party will result in a sub-five-star rating.
Amid the din of modern cities there is an eerie void of silence. A recent study reported in The Atlantic magazine found that the number of words spoken every day is declining: from 16,632 in 2005 to 11,900 in 2019. It is not hard to guess where the missing words have gone. In the branch of Leon near The Times’s office I order a halloumi wrap on a
screen and then wait to be handed it by a member of staff (“James?” “Er, yeah, thanks”).
Tapping on to the 149, the bus driver is unreachable behind his perspex screen. In Tesco, conversation extends to some automated snark about my misuse of the bagging area. Soon London travel will be even quieter; customers will have the option of a Waymo robotaxi. Declines in conversation have prompted concern about social isolation and cognitive health (social interaction is good for your brain). But this gathering silence is also changing our society.
If there is such a thing as a “social fabric”, these conversations are the small threads out of which it is
being spoken every day is declining
woven. This sounds, I am aware, like a mere piety. But it is a historical fact. Human beings, anthropologists tell us, are a tribal species. Empathy for our families and immediate “in-group” comes naturally to us. Empathy for strangers requires conscious cultivation. The urbanisation of western countries at the end of the 18th century — and the increased social mixing it
entailed — was an important force in the creation of modern liberal societies.
Cities are schools of tolerance. They provide a form of what you might call “stranger exposure therapy”, offering repeated small collisions with people unlike oneself. Snatched conversations in shops, taxis and restaurants represent valuable incursions across the lines of class, culture and race; each one a needle puncture to the social membranes that separate the human tribes. My interaction with my Uber driver briefly humanised a part of city life that can easily seem anonymous. Such conversations can be banal in themselves but these things add up. A complex modern society can hardly function without some shared sense of humanity on the part of its citizens.
Successful cities should be porous. But to many, London must seem an increasingly impenetrable place. How does it look, I sometimes wonder, from the perspective of a Deliveroo cyclist? Fortresses of terraced houses and brief, grudging conversations (“thanks mate”) on strange doorsteps. These drivers — catering to the insatiable modern desire to eat sushi in perfect solitude — are known to their customers only as faces flashing past on streets or glimpsed briefly in lighted doorways. Technology means it is possible to live a life of hermetic
silence in the midst of one of the most populous places in Europe; many are as isolated in their bedrooms or on their electric bikes as Simeon Stylites was on his desert pillar.
When considering the problems of declining social trust and increasing political polarisation we should bear in mind the value of the human interactions that are being stripped out of society in the name of efficiency.
known only as faces glimpsed in the door
A country that does not mingle will find itself more easily divided. One reason America is more politically polarised than Britain may be that it is more geographically divided; rich and poor and black and white are more likely to live in different suburbs. The vagaries of Britain’s town planning have planted council estates in Islington and Hampstead.
I also wonder about the part mingling plays in Britain’s high levels of racial tolerance and its relative success at integrating minorities. As an immigrant, you are unlikely ever to be given a comprehensive speech laying out British values. It is
through trips to the shops and talking to the bus driver that the character of the society you have joined reveals itself to you.
These may seem extravagant claims for casual conversation, but comradely fraternisation between upper-class officers and working- class troops in the First World War is often cited as a factor in breaking apart the rigid prewar class hierarchy. Today, many of the very rich are more socially marooned than even their prewar ancestors, commanding a transient and anonymous servant class using mobile apps. An Edwardian gentleman exchanged many more words with his butler or chauffeur than his modern descendant does with an Uber driver or Deliveroo biker. It may be that the increased social isolation of the classes explains the growing self-interest of the rich (charitable donations have fallen during the 21st century) as well as the growing resentment of those lower down the scale.
Many modern urbanites (I do not exclude myself from the analysis) are cosmopolitans in name only; mentally and socially they are as parochial as any medieval peasant in his remote hamlet. But they are separated not by distance and poor roads but by earbuds and screens. Can you run a complex society in which nobody talks to each other?
Sir, Janice Turner is right, as is our new prime minister, about the need for a vast improvement in our care service for the elderly, involving “career progression or salary increments” for care workers (“Get ready to pay for the care we’ll all need”, Aug 1). Where I disagree is with her desire to “keep people out of residential homes for as long as we can”. In the experience of my elderly mother, the much-trumpeted “independence” in her own home morphed into isolation and loneliness, as her own friends became fewer, and younger neighbours and friends became wary of visiting when she was tired and unwell. Her carers in her home were a lifeline and certainly deserved more than a minimum wage on a zero-hours contract. When eventually more was needed than carers’ and family visits, what a revelation it was when she moved into a comfortable nursing home, where she did indeed enjoy the “lavish grounds and fine crockery”. To have delightful company from other residents of the same age and stage, activities and excursions provided and, most importantly, nursing and personal care from friendly and supportive staff, was wonderful. She enjoyed it very much. It was just a pity she had delayed too long and had only a short time to enjoy it. We should not abandon this source of comfort to our elderly but rather emulate it and make more accessible, through a mix of private and state contributions. Sylvia Gray Edinburgh
Sir, Nicky Spence is right that Britain has “minimised” opera (Times2, Aug 3). We have solved the “elitism” problem rather neatly, by removing classical music from mainstream schools and then complaining that only the privileged encounter it. At my London comprehensive in the 1970s we borrowed instruments free of charge, had lessons, school and borough orchestras, youth choirs performing choral classics and Gilbert and Sullivan, and subsidised visits to the English National Opera, the Royal Opera and the Royal Festival Hall. Today, many of those pathways have disappeared. Opera isn’t elitist. Access to it has become so. After all, I’ve spent many happy afternoons singing Verdi with thousands on the football terraces — without anyone complaining it was too highbrow. Alan Faulkner Leamington Spa
clarifications
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Sir, Lucy Powell is correct in her analysis of the education system (“Gove’s legacy is a million left behind”, comment, Aug 3). She rightly criticises the league table and exam- based “straitjacket” of the present syllabus but offers no hint of how she would change it. As a teacher of some 40 years’ experience I suggest that we need a more rounded system to include emotional intelligence, resilience, the ability to cope with setbacks and how to be persuasive and stand up for oneself. This is what employers need, not certificates based on pen and paper exams. Nicholas Quiney Former director of music, Horris Hill and Solefield prep schools
Sir, Lucy Powell is disingenuous in her article in laying all the blame for high youth unemployment on Michael Gove’s educational reforms. She ignores the impact that higher taxes imposed on employers by the Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer has had. Rachel Wildblood London SE21
Sir, Michael Gove’s reforms as education secretary from 2010 to 2014 were the standout ministerial success of the Conservative years in power. They resulted in vast numbers of
Rewilding and fire with woodland. Among the many virtues of species rich grassland is its resilience to wildfire and drought. Nick Mann Founder, Habitat Aid
Sir, Libby Purves (comment, Aug 3) suggests that rewilding is a factor behind the wildfires. Well, yes — and no. The monoculture of the vast Landes de Gascoigne forest has contributed to the wildfires in the Gironde and Cap Ferret. This area was originally wetland before it was drained and planted with maritime pines in the 19th century. This makes it a peculiarly manmade disaster.
Lack of management and pastoral grazing are certainly contributory factors to wildfires. These problems are particularly evident in mainland Europe, where they are associated with land abandonment. Woodland here also suffers from poor management. Rewilders might say that returning to a primeval landscape would solve this issue; wild boar would rootle in the forest understory and beavers would create wetland areas. I’m not sure I fully agree, not least because every situation is different. I would like to see plantations of conifers replaced, but not necessarily
GOTTA LOTTA
from the times august 4, 1926
Some interesting investigations have been carried out during the last four years by Dr HC Corry Mann, on behalf of the Medical Research Council, with regard to diets for boys during school age, and the results have now been published.
“It is striking to learn,” states the preface, “that the addition of one pint of milk a day to a diet which by itself satisfied the appetite of growing boys could convert an average annual gain of weight of 3.85lb per boy into one of 6.98lb, and an annual average increase of height from 1.84in to 2.63in. This
young people, not least from disadvantaged backgrounds, achieving life-changing academic success. But the world has moved on and the knowledge-rich education for all, which squeezed the arts, sport, character development and employment skills, is no longer tenable. Its curriculum did too little to engender responsibility and duty, and to combat an entitled and self- absorbed tendency among the young. The blisteringly quick advent of AI, affecting all aspects of education and future employment, further necessitates change to the model.
That is why The Times Education Commission four years ago advocated a British baccalaureate combining academic rigour and excellence with equally rigorous preparation for work and life in this new technological age. Policymakers would do well to study it. Sir Anthony Seldon Founder and deputy chair of The Times Education Commission
Sir, Your report “Toll of schooling ‘straitjacket’ ” (Aug 3) appears to fall into the common trap of inferring from the rise in England’s ranking in international league tables for maths and science between 2009 and 2023 that Michael Gove’s reforms improved educational standards. They did not: Pisa scores in England
Sir, Libby Purves’ article on the role of “rewilding” in the spate of wildfires oversimplifies a complex form of land management and risks exacerbating an unnecessary culture war. There is no accepted definition of rewilding: it reflects a wide spectrum of husbandry, from taking small and unprofitable field corners out of production to large-scale conservation body reserves. Wildfires clearly pose serious questions for future land management, but to tar all rewilding projects with the same brush detracts from another crucial debate: how to regenerate our sadly depleted countryside. Justin Milward Ret’d chartered surveyor, Bristol
Sir, I choked over my cornflakes on reading your editorial in favour of
unmistakable betterment in nutrition was proved by trial to be due not to the small increase in the fuel value, nor to the extra protein supplied in the milk, but rather to more specific qualities of milk as a food.”
The investigations were carried out in a colony for boys which is situated 11 miles from London, the boys being housed in a model village of 19 cottages, eight of which were chosen for the experiments.
The basic diet was given to all the boys, but there was an addition to that diet in seven of the eight cottages. In one case it was a pint of fresh milk daily per boy, value 388 calories; in another 3oz of castor sugar, 350 calories; in a third case 1¾oz — 387 calories — of the best New Zealand grass-fed butter; in two of the cottages watercress was used, the ration being ½oz to ¾oz; casein to the extent of 1oz per day was served in another; the seventh variation was 1¾oz of vegetable margarine, 379
in 2009 and 2022 (there was no survey in 2023; the figures published in 2023 relate to 2022) were respectively for maths 493 and 492; and for science 515 and 503. A more reasonable inference would be that Gove’s reforms had no effect on achievement in these subjects. John Britton Emeritus professor of epidemiology; Hoveringham, Notts
Sir, I have been a lecturer and teacher for 40-plus years, and the missing piece of the jigsaw in the Michael Gove versus Lucy Powell debate on educational standards is parenting. Numerous studies have shown that when successful educational systems in countries across the world are compared the only constant is parental support. Neither Gove nor Powell recognise the real reason why so many students are underachieving and ending up as Neets. The success of the Michaela Community School in Wembley is of course because of the pursuit of academic excellence, but it also results from the support of parents who value the transformative power of learning. Politicians know this but are too concerned about short-term electoral considerations to address the real problems. Dave Halliwell Radcliffe on Trent, Notts
extending copyright royalties (“Neverland’s Legacy”, Aug 1). Copyright, like all intellectual property rights, is a bargain between creator and the state, on behalf of the wider public. In the interests of encouraging innovation and creativity the state allows a temporary monopoly, which permits the creator to monetise their creation. But the monopoly should be strictly limited, otherwise, like all monopolies, the public ends up paying over the odds. Other artists also end up unable to build on previous inventions or creations, thus reducing innovation and creativity. So it is certainly not true that extending royalties “harms no one”. One might persuasively argue that copyright is already unnecessarily longer than needed to incentivise new creative works.
What you are in essence suggesting is a tax on the public to support cultural institutions. There may or may not be a case for that, but copyright term should be kept well out of it. John Alty CEO, UK Intellectual Property Office, 2010-16; London E9
calories. Observation was kept as regards summer and winter growth, and it was found that there was almost invariably more growth in summer. 6 The visit of the Duke and Duchess of York to the Royal Welsh Eisteddfod today was a triumphant success. Sixteen thousand people crowded the gigantic pavilion which has been erected in Victoria Park, Swansea, to witness the initiation of the youngest two Bards of the Isle of Britain into the Gorsedd. Just before 11.30 the sounds of cheering announced the eagerly expected arrival. Two chairs were set before the Gorsedd banner. Then the splendidly dignified figure of Elfed, the Archdruid, ascended the platform, accompanied by Pedrog and Gwallter Dewi, the Keeper of the Sword.
Sir, It was good to be reminded by Tony Sewell of the wonderful Quaker tradition of combining honest business with real care for “working people” (“Let’s rekindle capitalism with a conscience”, Aug 3). Another example is provided by Saltaire, the textile mill and model community built by Sir Titus Salt near Bradford. Again the inspiration was Christian, and again, non-conformist – in that case, Congregationalist.
Is not a crucial difference between these social experiments and modern capitalism that the capital was amassed by the entrepreneurs themselves, and not provided by some detached financial enterprise with no direct interest in the welfare of those actually engaged in production? Cadbury is now owned by an American food conglomerate; businesses controlled by finance companies can only ultimately be concerned with financial returns.
The principal argument against nationalisation is that the state is both impersonal and too big to fail. Capitalism with the personal, human connection between employers and employed removed surely suffers from a different but similar flaw. Where the enterprise is so organised as to retain the personal concern for workers and the linked sense of pride in belonging to a genuinely socially useful organisation, “capitalism” must be the better solution. Father Paul King Leyburn, N Yorks
Sir, I too regret some of the tiny percentage of churches that have to be closed or converted to other uses (letter, Aug 1). But I am far more concerned about the number of churches that are open only on Sundays. In what sense do they “belong to the community”? No one can pop in for a prayer or take visiting friends to see their lovely church. Everything of value should be cleared out of a church, and they should open their doors. The Rev John Craig Lichfield, Staffs
Sir, I have read the piece by Giles Coren (“We all fib — just stop before you reach the top”, Aug 1), which referred to my late husband, a dental surgeon, and in which he stated “all dentists drive Porsches”. When Giles was in prep school, I gave him a lift to Harrods where, because he was small, he was to be an elf in Santa’s grotto. He was late for the lift and gave me some ludicrous reason. I asked him why he told fibs all the time and he answered “because the truth is boring”. Perhaps he hasn’t quite reached the top yet. Judith Goulden London NW3
Sir, Your article “Champagne with a side of nuggets” (Aug 1) refers to young people enjoying wine with junk food. This bit of fun is not exclusive to young people. For many years Monday at our local wine bar was the chef’s night off. The proprietor encouraged customers to enjoy their wine with fish and chips, supplied by the nearby fish and chip shop. A glass or two of Veuve Clicquot proved an excellent accompaniment. Stephen Ingram Sheffield
Daily Universal Register
EU: Home affairs ministers hold a virtual meeting (9am BST) to discuss the migration surge in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta. UK: Cowes Week (until Friday).
Nature notes
Once in a blue moon a bright pink grasshopper makes the news. This striking mutation is the result of a condition called erythrism, which causes an overproduction of red pigment; it’s unusual but strictly speaking not rare. However, what is rare is for a grasshopper nymph with erythrism to reach adulthood: completely lacking their usual cryptic colouring and ability to disappear among grass stems, they are usually spotted and eaten by birds or amphibians long before they become full- sized. Field and meadow grasshoppers are the species most commonly affected with erythrism, and if one does achieve maturity and breeds, it can pass down the mutation, leading to more pink grasshopper nymphs when its eggs hatch the following year. melissa harrison
Birthdays today
Barack Obama, pictured, US president (2009-17), 65; Lord (James) Arbuthnot of Edrom, Conservative MP (1987- 2015), 74; Ian Broudie, singer-songwriter, Big in Japan and Lightning Seeds, Three Lions (1996), 68; Ian Cockerill, chief executive, Endeavour Mining (FTSE 100 mining company), 72; Lord (Jack) Cunningham of Felling, minister for the Cabinet Office and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1998-99), 87; Professor Symeon Dagkas, vice-chancellor, University of Chichester, 53; Declan Donnellan, co- founder (1981), Cheek by Jowl theatre company, 73; Greta Gerwig, actress and film-maker, Little Women (2019), Barbie (2023), 43; Professor Peter Goodfellow, geneticist, scientific adviser, Abingworth investment group, 75; Martin Jarvis, actor, Rings on their Fingers (1978-80), 85; Dennis Lehane, novelist, Gone, Baby, Gone (1998), Shutter Island (2003), 61; Lord (Steve) McCabe, Labour MP (1997-2024, Birmingham Hall Green then Birmingham Selly Oak), 71; Lee Mack, comedian, Would I Lie to You? (since 2007), and actor, Not Going Out (2006-25), 58; Jojo Moyes, writer, Me Before You (2012), 57; Luke Patience, sailor, Olympic silver medallist (2012), 40; Kate Silverton, broadcaster and newsreader, now a child therapist, 56; Mary Slaney (née Decker), athlete, the only runner to have held all US records from 800 to 10,000 metres, 68; Lord (Simon) Stevens of Birmingham, chairman, Cancer Research UK and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, chief executive, NHS England (2014-21), 60; The Duchess of Sussex, 45; Antonio Tajani, deputy prime minister of Italy and minister of foreign affairs, 73; Billy Bob Thornton, actor, Love Actually (2003), 71; Susan Tranter, chairwoman, Ofqual (exams regulator in England), chief executive, EdAct (multi-academy trust), 63.
On this day
In 1997 Jeanne Calment died in France at the age of 122 years and 164 days. Officially she remains the oldest person to have lived.
The last word
Nigel Farage has sought to move on from questions about gifts and donations by
Last summer, Reform UK dominated the political season. Sir Keir Starmer and the other party leaders left a vacuum during parliament’s summer recess, into which Nigel Farage leapt with amiable press conferences covering topics including crime. The party enjoyed a series of defections from the Conservatives, all of which gave the im- pression Mr Farage was defining the agenda. It helped that Reform UK was topping opinion poll after opinion poll while Labour and the Conserva- tives were stuck in the doldrums. Mr Farage had what American political scientists call “the big mo” — essential for any insurgent party.
This summer is different. For the first time in 15 months, Reform UK has fallen behind in some polls thanks to the energy Andy Burnham has brought to Labour. Kemi Badenoch’s party may still be languishing but the Tory leader has discov- ered a zest and appetite for political combat that has dramatically improved her personal standing. Mr Farage, on the other hand, has seen his own ratings collapse. His news conference yesterday, the first in some weeks, was an effort to regain mo- mentum with eye-catching ideas on stopping small boats crossing the Channel. But Mr Farage had little new of substance to say.
True, illegal migration remains one of the most
Migration surges should not be turned into weapons by countries in conflict
Some Moroccan invaders of Ceuta, a Spanish out- post in north Africa, were still hiding in its scrub- land yesterday but many tens of thousands have now returned home, apparently exhausted by their stunt. The sudden breach of the border, am- plified by social media, was plainly a political ploy by Morocco — an attempt to raise questions about the legitimacy of Spain’s hold over slivers of land.
It was, however, more than that: a disturbing ex- ample of weaponising sudden mass-migration waves. Last week’s incursion was almost certainly prompted by the recent visit of Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, to Algeria. The country rejects Morocco’s rule over Western Sahara and any sign that Madrid and Algiers are growing clos- er triggers displeasure in Rabat.
The mechanics of mobilising a public display of discontent are familiar to students of hybrid war- fare. Moroccan men were tempted by more than a seaside adventure; ways could be found on to the ferries to mainland Spain, and from Spain across the border-free Schengen zone. It was a pathway that required minimal risk and promised virtual impunity. The absence of Moroccan border guards,
Surgeons are pioneering interventions that cure birth defects in the womb
To perform a novel form of surgery on a child still in the womb is to ask a lot — both of nervously expectant parents and the ingenuity of scientists. But, in an astonishing demonstration of the so- phistication of modern medicine, clinicians have shown that previously life-limiting congenital conditions can be effectively treated, and some- times cured, before a child is even born.
pressing matters for voters. Whereas Labour and the Tories remain distrusted on the issue, Mr Far- age is seen to be on the money. His new solution, to deploy the Royal Navy to stop the boats come what may, poses a raft of practical, legal and ethi- cal questions — to none of which Reform has con- vincing answers. Stopping the boats requires tack- ling the pull factors attracting asylum seekers, namely the broken benefits system, combined with an offshore processing scheme to act as a de- terrent. Reform instead believes it can force the boats back to France, whether they like it or not.
Mr Farage may not care, as long as people are talking about the topic he cares about the most. Returning to illegal migration, however, is a sign that Reform is retreating into a familiar crouch — focusing on its core voters and not the broader range of public opinion. If the party were still hopeful of winning the next election, it would be setting out a comprehensive policy platform in- cluding plans for expanding the economy, repair- ing the public finances, fixing welfare and building more houses. The party still hasn’t bothered to ap- point a foreign affairs or defence spokesperson.
The reason for this retreat, as readers will be aware, is the list of serious questions facing Mr Farage about gifts, donations, the funding of his
the availability of trucks to the border, even a judg- ment by the Spanish supreme court in June de- claring that border pushbacks did not apply on the maritime frontier — all of these created push fac- tors common to a destabilisation gesture.
Morocco has form in deploying such tactics. In 1975, some 350,000 people were encouraged to march into Western Sahara and assert a claim to the land, even though it was ruled by Spain. The push coincided with the final illness of General Franco and the Moroccans calculated that Span- ish troops would not open fire. The following year, Spain ceded the land to Morocco. Mass move- ments are pressure points: in 2021 Moroccan bor- der guards let a wave of illegal immigrants enter Ceuta to punish Spain for giving a hospital bed to a Western Saharan political leader. But above all, they can be construed as political opportunities.
When Germany was overwhelmed by almost a million refugees from the Syrian civil war, the then chancellor Angela Merkel persuaded the Euro- pean Union to reach deep into its pockets to pay Turkey to act as a backstop. Turkey’s President Erdogan found himself not only as the saviour of
nally. Treating the complex condition after birth usually leads to complications, requiring months in neonatal intensive care, corrective surgeries and sometimes transplants. Luckily for Theo, sur- geons are making these traumas avoidable.
Using a similar “keyhole” technique to that re- cently pioneered in the antenatal treatment of spina bifida, clinicians operated on Theo in utero by partially draining the fluid from the amniotic sac and carefully pushing the foetus’s developing intestines back into the abdomen, which was then stitched shut. Theo was born naturally three months later, leaving hospital after four days.
party and himself. The latest revelation, that Mr Farage struck a comeback deal months before the 2024 election, will be examined closely by the par- liamentary authorities who are already conduct- ing an investigation. His travails have been com- pounded by the bizarre decision to call a by-elec- tion in his Clacton seat over this issue, which has been boycotted by the other main parties. Al- though he is expected to win, the contest looks un- serious. Instead of speaking to the nation this sum- mer, he is arguing with a man dressed as a bin.
Mr Farage’s fitness to govern is increasingly being called into question. Respectable donors — the very thing Reform needs to grow and be taken seriously — will see his close ties to George Cot- trell, a convicted fraudster, and question whether this is a party to do business with. It is inexplicable that Mr Farage continues to defend Mr Cottrell, given the revelations about his seemingly murky dealings. Reform has failed to answer questions about donations and its financing, beyond stating it has done nothing wrong. Whether it is Ukip or the Brexit Party, all of Mr Farage’s past political ventures have collapsed because of an overreli- ance on a small clique with poor judgment. Re- form UK may be going the same way, unless it can learn how to display political maturity.
a western Europe terrified of being inundated, but also a power broker in Syrian politics.
Another case of migrant flow manipulation occurred when the Belarusian dictator, facing EU sanctions for rigging an election, decided to issue simplified tourist visas for charter flights from the Middle East and Africa. The authorities shuttled thousands of would-be migrants through the for- ested borderlands to the under-manned frontiers of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The aim was to create a humanitarian crisis and ultimately coerce Brussels into lifting economic sanctions.
Controlling borders is more than a party-polit- ical slogan. It is about preventing malign actors from exploiting loopholes, whipping up crises and using the urgency of a mass incursion to force con- cessions while side-stepping conventional diplo- macy. The Ceuta events may have given some the appearance of an exuberant coming-together of free spirits. It was anything but. The death toll, largely through drowning, stands at 72. And it was impossible to shake off the impression that would- be migrants were being used by their supposed motherland of Morocco to make a cynical point.
Though the pioneering surgery — only the third such operation ever performed — required Theo’s parents to join a clinical trial in Texas, it is expected that the procedure will soon be offered at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. In fact, it could soon become the standard treatment for complex cases of gastroschisis. Previously un- thinkable, in-utero surgery is now an area of strik- ing medical advancement. Similar techniques could one day be used to treat lung and heart con- ditions, too. It is a striking achievement of modern surgery to alleviate the illnesses of young patients before they even enter the world.
24 S1 Tuesday August 4 2026 | the times World
O
on nuclear bombs in deterrence drive
the 1945 attacks nears, opposition is dissipating, Richard Lloyd Parry writes from Hiroshima
When elderly survivors of the atomic bomb won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2024, it felt like a vindication for victims of one of history’s great horrors.
The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations, known as Nihon Hidankyo, was hon- oured for keeping alive the memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki through the experience of those who lived through it, the people known as hibakusha.
“No nuclear weapon has been used in war in nearly 80 years,” the Nobel com- mittee said in its citation. “The extraor- dinary efforts of … the hibakusha have contributed greatly to the establish- ment of the nuclear taboo.”
But two short years later, and with the 81st anniversary of the strikes on Thursday, any sense of triumph has evaporated.
Nihon Hidankyo is considering whe- ther to abolish itself as the inevitable happens and the surviving hibakusha grow old and pass away. More disturb- ing, to many of its members, the taboo for which they stood appears to be melting away too.
China and North Korea are enlarg- ing their nuclear arsenals. The United States has abandoned, or allowed to lapse, two major nuclear arms control treaties. Shockingly, Japan, the only country to have directly experienced nuclear war, is starting to contemplate what once seemed the unthinkable: an accommodation with nuclear weapons.
The government of the prime minis- ter, Sanae Takaichi, is openly debating a relaxation of the so-called three non-nuclear principles that have been the foundation of the country’s security for nearly six decades. Last month, the country’s defence minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, said that when it comes to nu- clear defence, Japan “must debate and advance all policies without taboo”.
To many hibakusha, such words con- tradict all that they stand for. “These people [politicians] say that exposure to the bomb is a terrible thing, but they see it as something that happened to some- body else, not something that could happen to them,” said Hiroshi Harada, who was six years old when he was exposed to the first atom bomb in Hiro- shima on August 6, 1945.
“I am one of those who knows the physical effect on my own body, who lived through that reality. I only wish that others could truly understand that experience.”
tection of the US “nuclear umbrella”, but successive governments have upheld the three non-nuclear princi- ples, which were declared in 1967. These commit Japan not to possess or produce nuclear weapons, nor to allow them to be introduced into its territory.
Now, however, they are the subject of active discussion within the coalition government led by Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party, part of a historic shift in Japan’s security position.
Japan’s military forces are barred under the country’s constitution from anything but defensive action. But the so-called Self-Defence Forces have become increasingly active — laws have been passed to enable them to operate in support of allies outside Jap- anese territory.
This year, Tokyo has allowed arms makers to sell their weapons overseas for the first time. In the long term, Tak- aichi wants to revise the US-imposed 1947 “peace” constitution, under Arti- cle 9 of which “Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international dis- putes”.
“I’m 45 now, and when I was in my 20s, it was quite difficult to raise these issues, to do with Article 9 and nuclear — if you talked about them on TV, you stopped getting invited,” said Fumitake Fujita , the leader of Takaichi’s coalition partner, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Ishin), known as the Japan Innovation Party.
“But in recent years, missiles have been flying from North Korea every month and every week the situation in Taiwan is also very unstable. China is using the Pacific Ocean to test missiles. I think that the public’s understanding and tolerance of strengthening the de- fence capabilities have increased significantly.”
In technical terms, Japan would not take long to build a nuclear arsenal of its own. It has large stockpiles of fissile plu- tonium — waste from its civilian nu- clear power stations — which would be sufficient to manufacture thousands of warheads. It also has a mastery of rock- et technology from its civilian space programme.
Shigeru Ishiba, Takaichi’s predecessor, said that Japan could build its own bomb within a year. But no mainstream politician is arguing for that now. Instead there are moves within the gov- ernment, driven by Ishin, to abolish the policy on not introducing nuclear weapons into Japan.
In practical terms, the debate over the non-nuclear principles focuses on the planned deployment of sea-launched nuclear cruise missiles on US navy submarines in 2032 — weapons that the US will want to send to Japanese military ports such as Yok- osuka and Sasebo in time of crisis.
To its proponents, it is a common- sense measure to deter Japan’s increas- ingly aggressive neighbours. But others, especially in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, believe that it puts the coun- try at greater risk.
“We’re surrounded by very aggres- sive potential adversaries,” said Hidehiko Yuzaki, 59, former governor of Hiroshima prefecture. “It’s easy to think, ‘They have big hammer, we should have a big hammer too.’ But if we loosen the non-nuclear principle, is that going to loosen the tension, or is it going to heighten the tension? I think it’s going to increase the tension. I don’t think it is the right move.”
Harada, the head of the Hiroshima branch of Nihon Hidankyo, remem- bers fleeing from the fire which engulfed Hiroshima along streets which were literally covered in bodies.
“I saw people with their skin and flesh melted off,” he said. “Some of them had their intestines spilling out. My feet slipped into their bodies and got stuck in their flesh.”
But Harada is 87. The number of Nihon Hidankyo members, that which peaked at 33,000 in the 1980s, was 3,200 in the year they won the Nobel.
“We will try to maintain the impact of the hibakusha’s testimonies,” said Yuzaki, 59. “But it’s never the same as the voice of somebody who really went through that hell, and the power of Hiroshima’s message could weaken. Regardless of the movement they created and the impact they have had, the situation is getting worse. It’s really ironic and very sad.”
Hiroshi Harada was six and waiting for a train with his parents at Hiroshima station when the bomb dropped
force them out of Ceuta
n Benitez beach outside Ceuta town, hundreds of young men sleep on the sand, in shallow pits like graves (Katie Gatens writes in Ceuta).
They raise their fingers to their mouths in an eating motion,
Behind the story S
et apart from Rabat’s medina and its bougainvillea-clad modern quarters, the walls of the royal palace contain many of Morocco’s secrets (Isambard Wilkinson writes).
Within the sprawling complex lie some of the offices of the makhzen, as the king’s court and security and other high officials are collectively known.
Regarded as akin to “the deep state”, it is the makhzen that holds the answer to the riddle vexing diplomats: was the Ceuta crisis orchestrated by the authorities or was it a social-media-generated stampede?
and queue to refill old plastic bottles from public showers. Many suffer from severe hypothermia, shock, exhaustion and cuts.
interior ministry. Some 3,000 to 5,000 still remain, Ceuta’s leader, Juan Jesús Vivas, estimated, but many of those who have stayed claim they have not been given food, water or shelter.
It has been five days since the start of Ceuta’s migrant crisis in which 60,000 people crossed the border from Morocco, according to Spain’s
The Times understands that Ceutan residents were discouraged from
How did tens of thousands of people breach one of Europe’s most heavily guarded borders? What transformed online rumours into the largest mass crossing in Ceuta’s history — followed by the voluntary return of most migrants within hours?
Morocco insists the surge was driven by social-media misinformation, traffickers and misunderstanding of a recent Spanish court ruling governing the return of migrants arriving by sea.
Few dispute that rumours spread rapidly or that economic despair fuelled the exodus from northern Morocco, where youth joblessness remains high. Yet those factors alone cannot explain the scale and speed of the crossings.
providing aid, in the hope migrants would return to Morocco.
Spain and Morocco have agreed emergency measures to expel any of those who arrived en masse if they do not return voluntarily. The exact details of the legal procedure to remove them are unknown.
An emergency European Union meeting has been convened today in response to the crisis.
Almost a week after the surge of border
Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, has avoided criticising Rabat but Juan Jesús Vivas, the head of Ceuta’s government, voiced what many Spanish officials have said privately. “It is impossible for 60,000 people to enter without the approval of the Moroccan government,” he said.
Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, began his holiday by sharing his Spotify playlist
Several analysts believe Rabat’s irritation stemmed from Sánchez’s recent visit to Algeria, Morocco’s principal regional rival and, since Europe’s energy crisis, once again an important gas supplier to Spain.
crossings, the situation in Ceuta is quickly turning into a humanitarian crisis. Migrants are forced to defecate in bushes on the outskirts of town. Hundreds are still sleeping on the street.
Sudan. They have slept here for days. Others are from Yemen, Syria and Eritrea, and have travelled for months.
“I’m very hungry. They say everything is finished,” said Sliman, who had open wounds on his arms and legs. “And no water; they say everything is finished. I’ll wait until everyone leaves.”
The only migrant accommodation in the territory is at capacity and has gone into lockdown. Staff prevented those inside from passing water or food to the hundreds outside the gates, lying on the dirt, including Dfalla Sliman, 21, from
In Boutique de la Prensa newsagents, Carlos Garre Barnet, 70, said the “tactic” of police was to put the city into lockdown. On
falling out over Algeria,” he said. “It was ill-thought through because it tells Europe that Morocco is an unreliable partner.” Morocco is a bulwark of moderate Islam and stability in a volatile region and is also a strategic ally of the US, Britain and Israel and a big trading partner for Europe.
The observer noted that the crossings coincided with the allegiance ceremony following King Mohammed’s Throne Day speech celebrating Morocco’s achievements, instead exposing the frustrations of young Moroccans and “inflicting reputational damage on the kingdom”.
Friday, “the day of the invasion of 60,000”, he opened his shop in the morning. “Everyone came in to buy water,” he said. “We understood that selling them water and food was necessary. It was logical to sell them so [they would not] go hungry.
“But the police came and said it was better if we didn’t give them anything, no food, no drink, because that’s how they left. The effect of not eating or drinking
commentators have described as an “end-of-reign atmosphere”. His father has come under fire for prolonged absences and his close relationship with Abubakr Abu Azaitar, 40, a mixed martial arts champion convicted in Germany of offences, including assault.
The observer also pointed to Morocco’s close relationship with President Trump, which contrasts sharply with his fraught relationship with Sánchez, whom he has publicly criticised over Nato defence spending and the Iran war. The observer argued that Morocco
BERNAT ARMANGUE/AP; PEDRO NUNES/REUTERS
Most of the thousands of migrants who arrived in Ceuta have left, but those who remain are forced to sleep on the beach and beg for food. Injuries from clashes with police and soldiers are often left untreated
the crisis and said the government intentionally inflamed border tensions for political leverage against Spain. The king of Morocco “uses these poor people for his own ends”, he said. “Now there are almost 100 dead in the water” and, because of the lack of aid, “surely there will be many more”, he added.
Rabat has reported 11 deaths on its side of the border, while Spain says at least 72 people died during the crossings.
Humanitarian organisations warn that they are at breaking point. Many non-governmental organisations are calling for transfers to the mainland to be quickened to give dignity to the migrants. The Red Cross has said that its team in Ceuta is overwhelmed and cannot sustain the volume of vulnerable people without government backing.
Amnesty International has urged the authorities to “ensure that adequate health and social resources are deployed”. Yesterday, a spokesperson for the International Red Cross said: “The situation in Ceuta is tragic. We are currently working closely with the authorities to organise the provision of basic humanitarian assistance for those who remain in vulnerable situations.”
meant ... that voluntarily many left.”
Some residents of Ceuta — many of whom have Moroccan heritage — have been sympathetic to migrants. Some have gone into shops and cafés to buy food to distribute. A few shops have flouted police orders, and there are huge queues to buy provisions. When police arrive, the migrants are quickly chased away.
Ruffino Roma, 75, blames Morocco for
may have calculated that its close ties with Washington provided diplomatic cover for a more assertive regional posture.
José Ciro Martínez, a lecturer in politics at King’s College London, believes the behaviour of Moroccan
security forces cannot be dismissed
as an operational failure.
“Usually efficient and ruthless
Moroccan law enforcement
allowed, if not facilitated, the
massive movement of Moroccans to the border with
Ceuta,” he said. “There is no
playlist hits bum note in reeling Spain
Spain David Sharrock Madrid
Given the week that Spain has just experienced, it was either brave or tone-deaf of Pedro Sánchez to post a video on his Instagram profile promot- ing his holidays Spotify playlist.
On Friday, the prime minister was in Ceuta when some 60,000 migrants re- turned to Morocco after the collapse of the border on the tip of Africa. He was defending his government’s response to the crisis. Days earlier he had visited those areas damaged by Spain’s largest wildfire. In both locations he was met by jeers.
But on Saturday, he began his holi- days as usual in the Mareta Palace, Costa Teguise, Lanzarote, an official residence. To get in the mood, San- chez’s social media team released a video of him recommending “the soundtrack to my summer”.
In the video he cheerfully recom-
mends several songs he has been listen- ing to. “Well, anyway, I hope you like them and that they keep you company over the holidays. Have a great sum- mer,” said the Socialist leader.
The playlist includes songs with names that, in the context of fires which directly affected more than 100,000 people and destroyed hun- dreds of houses, could be judged as in poor taste: Gasolene by Buck Meek and Flashes in the Afternoon by Stereolab. There was also Against the Current by Asgeir, and Paul McCartney’s Ripples in a Pond.
Also on the prime minister’s list are Tito Ramirez’s Lies and Nightmares by Cora Yako. All My Friends Are So De- pressed and Caught in a Jam also feature, while it ends on a high note with Ma- donna singing I Feel So Free.
Critics accused Sánchez of being in- appropriate when Spain was dealing with two crises. One commentator wrote that a president should “be up to the circumstances, not frivolity”.
País, Spanish intelligence believes the exodus was an act of opportunism. Rumours triggered the movement, but Moroccan authorities allegedly chose not to stop it, later exploiting the crisis to reinforce their long-standing claims to Ceuta and Melilla.
A senior Spanish official, however, speaking to The Times, described the crossings as “a hybrid operation” that was “instigated and permitted” by the Moroccan regime.
Riccardo Fabiani, of the International Crisis Group, said Europe’s reliance on neighbouring states to manage migration had created a profound vulnerability. “If migration is the only thing you care about,” he said, “then you become vulnerable on migration.”
A
drone kills 7 Russian beachgoers
t least seven holidaymakers, including three children, were killed in southern Russia on Monday when a suspected Ukrainian drone slammed into a busy beach (Marc Bennetts writes).
Social media videos showed the drone flying over the beach close to Gelendzhik, a resort town in the Black Sea region, as air defence guns opened fire. It then veered towards the shore before exploding in a ball of flame.
More than 40 people were also injured, nine of them in a serious condition, officials said. Two children were among the injured.
Veniamin Kondratyev, the regional governor, alleged Ukraine had deliberately targeted the beach, while Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, accused Ukraine’s western allies of aiding terrorism. Kyiv has not commented.
Ukrainian and Russian anti-war Telegram channels said the drone’s trajectory
his flailing negotiation attempts
Saudi Arabia Samer Al-Atrush Middle East Correspondent
President Trump called off strikes on Iran at the urging of Saudi Arabia, which increasingly doubts the presi- dent’s credibility after he plunged the region into a seemingly unwinnable conflict.
“I think one of the casualties of this war is credibility,’’ said Aziz Alghashian, a prominent Saudi researcher. “We keep hearing, time and time again, of a ceasefire, then it just breaks. Negotia- tions and discussions become traps.’’
As if to underscore the point, Iran de- nied Trump’s assertion that it would hold talks yesterday, something the president claimed had persuaded him to call off planned strikes.
He reacted on Truth Social, calling the Iranian regime “unbelievably du- plicitous” and vowing to continue the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
He later told reporters in the Oval Office that talks with Tehran were “on right now” and would yield benefits.
“They’re going to go quickly ... We’re talking about having the Strait open completely, literally by tomorrow,” he said. “That’s phase one. Then there’s the denuclearisation of Iran and that’ll be the second phase, and that will take a little while.”
Footage on social media shows the drone, circled, falling from the sky after being fired upon before exploding on the shore
could have been altered by air defence fire or electronic jamming systems. There was no clear evidence in the video that the drone had been struck.
Witnesses said there had been no air raid sirens
postponing the strikes came as a sur- prise to Israel and, along with Iran’s de- nial of negotiations, strengthened be- lief in the region that the US president cannot be trusted. Saudi Arabia had in- tervened in recent days with a visit by its defence minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, to Washington in which he pushed for de-escalation, followed by a phone call to Trump from his brother, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Mohammed initially opposed the war, but later urged Trump to finish the job. The kingdom grew disenchanted with the conflict, which seemed to radi- calise the Iranian regime and disrupt the region’s energy trade and revenue.
before the explosion. “I’m taking my family and leaving this place; all of this happened right in front of the children — my child is having a nervous breakdown,” one told 93.ru, a Russian website.
It is unclear what Ukraine had been targeting. Civilian casualties are rising in Russia as both sides escalate long-range strikes.
Russia said a girl, 13, had been killed and two other
President Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met in Washington last November. Mohammed was against the Iran war but once it had started urged Trump to finish the job
gion, Trump appears to be flailing for a solution to the war he launched in Feb- ruary in the hope of a quick victory. Iran’s regime has shown no sign that it will compromise on control over the strait, which remains mostly shut. “There is frustration,’’ Alghashian said, a sentiment echoed by people familiar with the Saudi government’s thinking.
Underlining Trump’s narrow op- tions, a senior US military officer sent an email to analysts soliciting “creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran’,’ CNN reported.
‘’Trump’s options right now are between an unwinnable war and un- palatable deal,” said Ali Vaez, who heads the Iran project at the Inter- national Crisis Group. “This has been the case for a while and I imagine it’s going to remain the case for the fore- seeable future.’’
children injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Belgorod region on Sunday. On Thursday, a North Korean missile fired by Russia killed a couple and seven of their children in Radushne.
talks with the US, it has cited progress in its negotiations with Oman on how to manage the strait. Oman has pro- posed voluntary fees for maintenance and navigation services, but the precise mechanism remains unclear.
If a deal to Tehran’s satisfaction is reached, it is likely to return to Trump’s Memorandum of Understanding, which it signed in June before the ceasefire unravelled.
The talks are being supported by Sa- udi Arabia, Pakistan and Qatar, along with Oman. The Gulf countries have begun to unite around the view that Iran’s regime will not be toppled, and that they must reach a rapprochement with its new leadership.
‘’It’s not clear that a limited and ti- mebound military escalation will shift Tehran’s calculus or sufficiently de- grade its military capabilities such that it cannot threaten traffic through the strait or threaten Gulf Co-operation Council critical and energy infrastruc- ture,” said Farzan Sabet, an Iran expert at the Geneva Graduate Institute.
While Riyadh still views him as a fa- vourable president, Trump’s inconsist- ency on Iran as well as on a nuclear deal with the kingdom has dented trust.
In July, Trump announced an agree- ment to help Saudi Arabia build a nu- clear reactor and possibly enrich uran- ium. After criticism in Washington, he added a new condition that made it contingent on Saudi Arabia establish- ing diplomatic ties with Israel. The move took Riyadh by surprise. Officials said it had not been part of the deal.
in public for first time in over five years
Myanmar Richard Spencer
A Red Cross representative has been al- lowed to meet the Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the first out- sider to see her in person since she was ousted from power and detained more than five years ago.
The junta in Myanmar released two photographs of Suu Kyi with Arnaud de Baecque, who is the official representa- tive of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to the country.
A government spokeswoman said the meeting took place in the regime’s modern capital, Naypyidaw.
Two more photos showed Suu Kyi in what appears to be the house where she has been detained under house arrest since April, and with a birthday cake dated June 19, the day she turned 81.
The photographs were welcomed by her son, Kim Aris, who has had no di- rect contact with her since her arrest in February 2021 and has been campaign- ing for evidence that she is alive and in good health. “This may be a first step but it must not be the last,” he said.
This detention is Suu Kyi’s second period of extended house arrest in her long history of activism and politics.
Her democratically elected govern- ment was overthrown in a military coup in 2021, reigniting a long-running civil war on several fronts. She was sen- tenced to 33 years in prison on charges ranging from treason to corruption,
Aung San Suu Kyi meeting Arnaud de Baecque of the ICRC in Naypyidaw
though this was reduced and in April she was returned to house arrest.
In the new photos, she is wearing traditional dress and seems well and smiling as she shakes hands with de Baecque. The ICRC confirmed that a meeting had taken place. “This includ- ed the opportunity to speak with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in private,” it said. Daw, meaning “aunt”, is an honorific of- ten given to women as a sign of respect. “Detention visits provide people de- prived of liberty with the opportunity to exchange news with their families.”
The Myanmar government, often hermit-like, has begun a spate of diplo- matic initiatives this year as it seeks to stabilise its rule. Parts of the country have fallen under the sway of a variety of rebel groups, while others have, with the connivance of the authorities, de- scended into semi-autonomous crimi- nal compounds.
Spain Isambard Wilkinson Madrid
Seventy years ago, Benidorm mayor Pedro Zaragoza is said to have ridden a Vespa to Madrid to persuade Franco to tolerate bikinis on beaches in the face of church opposition — a story that came to symbolise Spain’s embrace of modern tourism.
Today, the debate has come full cir- cle, as concerns about privacy, digital voyeurism and body image have led many women to think twice about
Seeing spots Visitors in an immersive installation titled Infinity Mirrored Room during the last day of a five-month retrospective of the career of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany, on Sunday. The exhibition has broken the museum’s attendance record with more than 470,000 visitors
In its investigation, France Inter said the complaint to the prosecutors was “highly unusual — if not unprecedent- ed — within a department where dis- cretion is paramount”.
France Charles Bremner Paris Defiant diva
Charles Bremner
A Russian broadcaster whose pro-Kremlin views have become a fix- ture of French television has been de- clared a threat to national security and ordered to leave the country.
Xenia Fedorova, 45, a former head of the French branch of Russia’s RT prop- aganda network, has made prominent appearances in media outlets owned by the right-wing billionaire Vincent Bol- loré. The decision to deport her has divided opinion, prompted right- wing claims of censorship and stirred embarrassment in the po- pulist National Rally.
Ministers ordered her expulsion last week amid unease over her appearances on the popular CNews television channel, Europe 1 radio and Le Journal du Dim- anche newspaper in the run-up to the presiden- tial election in April. Her French bank accounts
going topless. For weeks, Spanish news- papers and social media have been debating whether topless sunbathing is disappearing from the country’s beach- es and, if so, why. A report by El Pais concluded that the picture is more complex than the headlines suggest. There is no definitive evidence — but there is widespread perception that fewer women, especially younger ones, are choosing to go topless.
The latest available figures, from a YouGov survey last year, found that 37 per cent of Spanish women said they
were frozen on treasury orders at the weekend.
Yesterday, a Paris judge rejected a re- quest from Fedorova for an emergency injunction lifting the deportation order and house arrest. Her lawyer said she would make further appeals to block it.
The intelligence services had been warning the government that Fedorova was a Kremlin agent of influence in its disinformation war against France and European interests, according to Le
Monde newspaper.
Fedorova, who has described herself as a protégée of Bolloré,
presents President Putin’s lines without contradiction
from other presenters. Russia’s
“special military operation” in
Ukraine since 2022 was pro-
voked by Nato allies, in-
cluding President Ma- cron, and the country was run by gangsters
who were prolonging the conflict for profit, she said.
often sunbathed topless, 13 per cent occasionally, 9 per cent only once or twice, while 40 per cent said they never did. That represents a decline from an Ifop survey in 2017, when Spain topped eight countries surveyed, as 49 per cent said they went topless — double the international average of 22 per cent.
Later Ifop studies in 2021 and 2023 suggested the practice had continued to decline across Europe and is now largely associated with women over 40.
Among the 117 women who shared their experiences with the newspaper,
A glamorous conductor known for her ties with the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has caused controversy by accepting an invitation to perform in Russia (James Imam writes).
Beatrice Venezi, who once starred in a shampoo advert, told the agency Adnkronos that she would debut in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk with a production of Verdi’s La traviata in the autumn.
Defending her decision, she said: “I am a free person, I am a free artist; I go where I see fit.”
She was appointed music director of Venice’s La Fenice opera house last September, but was dismissed seven months later prior to taking up the post. Her dismissal came after strikes by the orchestra due to complaints she lacked experience and had been selected because of her ties with Meloni. Venezi said she had been “systematically slandered, defamed, insulted and bullied”.
more than half believed there were few- er women going topless today. As one respondent, María, 44, put it: “It’s a vicious circle. There are fewer women doing it because they feel less safe, and when others see fewer women doing it, they feel less inclined to do it.”
Much of the discussion has centred on fears of being secretly photographed or filmed and having images shared on- line without consent. Although the Spanish interior ministry says there is no evidence of a problem on beaches, El Pais received a dozen accounts from
INA FASSBENDER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
the heart of the Bastille Day military parade. The French people had “never been consulted” on their country’s in- volvement on Kyiv’s side, she said.
Macron has repeatedly described Fe- dorova, who was trained by Margarita Simonyan, the head of RT, as a Kremlin propagandist. The government shut down RT’s French outlet along with the rest of the EU in 2022, but it had until now resisted calls, including from its own MPs, for her expulsion.
Laurent Nuñez, the interior minister, said Fedorova was a relay for Russian disinformation and that her activities “attack the fundamental interests of the nation”. Jean-Noël Barrot, the foreign minister, said the Bolloré media empire was “spoon-feeding Putin’s narrative to France”.
Bolloré’s outlets, along with right- wing commentators, have deplored the order as a denial of free speech and human rights. There has been silence from Marine Le Pen, the distant leader in polls for the presidential contest, who has recently tempered her pro- Russia sympathies.
women who said they had been photo- graphed sunbathing between 2008 and 2025, with images circulated online or among friends and colleagues.
Experts say the broader phenome- non of “sexpreading” — non-consen- sual sharing of sexualised images — has become an increasing concern in recent years. Yet digital privacy is only part of the explanation. Women inter- viewed described feeling more self- conscious because of unrealistic beauty standards, and of disapproving looks from other beachgoers.
of PM under investigation
Three deaths and an attempted suicide have caused prosecutors to investigate alleged bullying in the administration of the French prime minister.
The Paris prosecutor’s office con- firmed that it had opened a criminal “psychological harassment” inquiry after a complaint from a staff member who said she had attempted to take her own life. It followed two deaths by sui- cide this year, as well as a suspicious death in an office lavatory.
Some 3,500 civil servants staff the ad- ministration, based at the Hôtel de Matignon, the prime ministerial man- sion on Paris’s Left Bank.
They report to Sébastien Lecornu, a centrist appointed by President Ma- cron last September as France’s fifth prime minister since January 2024.
“Laura” told prosecutors that she had attempted to take her life under the stress of a toxic workplace. She was re- strained by a commuter just as she was about to throw herself under a train in the spring, her lawyer, Christelle Maz- za, said.
attacked it. Thierry Mariani, an influ- ential Rally MEP, said the government “might finally succeed in silencing one of the few dissenting voices in the French press that did not repeat the authorised official narrative on the conflict in Ukraine”. Philippe de Villi- ers, a former cabinet minister who is now a hard nationalist, called the ex- pulsion order illegal.
Fedorova, who heard about her ex- pulsion while on holiday outside France, has cast herself as a victim. “We are witnessing an entirely new form of political pressure with a single objec- tive: the censorship of opinions that do not conform to the official narrative,” she said.
Her lawyer said on Monday that she would only return to Paris, where she has lived since 2017, if the expulsion or- der was lifted. Fedorova claimed the government and media had colluded to smear her by spreading claims that she has cast a spell over Bolloré, whose Fayard publishing house pro- duced her memoirs last year.
U S
cross, but the US and Canada are drifting apart, George Grylls writes from Ontario
CARLOS OSORIO/REUTERS; NIC ANTAYA FOR THE TIMES
C A N A DA
Overlooking the US-Canada border, the regulars at Jake’s Olde Towne Tavern in Windsor, Ontario, will have to toast their new bridge with something other than their favourite tipple, a cherry-flavoured Kentucky bourbon called Red Stag.
Windsor
“We’re not serving any American beers or any bourbons,” says Phil “Jake” Jacobs, 72, the owner. “Some- times you gotta take a hard stance. With all the tariffs, it’s our only recourse.”
The opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge was meant to be a celebratory moment. Instead, the $4.5 billion suspen- sion bridge, connecting the cities of Detroit, in Michigan, and Windsor, in Ontario, has become a symbol of the break-up between the neighbours.
Detroit
Gordie Howe International Bridge
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The Gordie Howe bridge connects Detroit with Windsor, Ontario, home to Phil Jacobs, below, owner of Jake’s tavern where US drinks are off the menu
Canadian officials staged an inau- guration ceremony without their US counterparts last week, saying it would be “inappropriate” to celebrate with their neighbours given President Trump’s re- peated threats to an- nex the country.
Days before, Trump had an- nounced an extra 50 per cent tariff on Cana- dian goods, add- ing to existing tariffs. He is con- sidering further punishment after an Ontario wildfire caused hazy skies in US cities. “We’re going to put a big tariff on Canada because of the smoke,” he said.
The bridge, named after the Cana- dian ice hockey player Gordie Howe, was designed to carry almost $300 billion in annual trade. Yet it has opened at a time when Ontario has removed all US alcohol from its shelves. Doug Ford, the province’s premier, has opted for a more aggres- sive response to Trump’s trade war than Mark Carney’s appeal for talks.
Some irate Canadians want their prime minister to stiffen his resolve.
“We’ve got our guys fighting a fire in Colorado. Some of them died over there. But they’re gonna tariff us because we can’t control this wild- fire?” says Jody Ganney, 55, a bar- tender at Jake’s, referring to the recent death of a helicopter pilot from
Boyfriend of Nova victim takes own life at her grave Israel The boyfriend of a woman murdered at Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, has taken his own life at her grave, Israeli media have reported. Bar Asraf, 30, shot himself at the resting place of Liron Barda, a 26-year-old bartender at the festival. She was killed by Hamas while trying to help wounded victims. Asraf recently told his mother he was struggling without Barda, and was reported to have said that “there’s no one who can replace her, no one to cheer me up”.
British Columbia. She now recom- mends a Canadian spirit to customers requesting Red Stag.
When the Gordie Howe bridge was
first proposed two decades
ago, few could have pre-
dicted that cross-bor-
der traffic would de-
cline by roughly
a quarter.
The bridge of- fers a panorama
of the border. Far below, American an- glers cast for cat- fish in front of De- troit’s blast furna- ces and Canada geese waddle along the Windsor riverbank. At one stage this year, rela- tions between the US and Canada were so bad that it was not clear if the bridge would ever be completed.
In February Trump received a call from Howard Lutnick, the US com- merce secretary, who had just spoken to Matthew Moroun, the owner of a rival Detroit bridge.
The Moroun family has held a near-monopoly on Detroit river crossings for decades as the owners of the Ambassador Bridge and a month before Lutnick’s call, Matthew Mor- oun had donated $1 million to Maga Inc, a pro-Trump political action committee. The Moroun family had been pursuing legal action for more than a decade to block the construc- tion of its competitor bridge.
Ambassador Bridge
After the call with Lutnick, Trump
Rhine falls to record low levels as heatwave bites Germany The river Rhine is recording record low levels as a consequence of the latest heatwave, as low as 22cm in Düsseldorf and 67cm in Cologne. Local politicians are calling for a national taskforce to ensure the continuation of industrial transport, which relies heavily on the Rhine. The shallow water means cargo vessels are often able to sail only about 20 per cent loaded, forcing shipments to be spread among multiple vessels and creating extra expense.
Tunnel
5 miles
Lake Erie
waded into the row on Truth Social. He said the new bridge was emblem- atic of how Canada had “treated the United States very unfairly for decades” and claimed — incorrectly — it had been made with “virtually no US content”. Under the terms of a 2012 agreement, the bridge was made with only US and Canadian iron and steel. “I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them,” Trump said.
In the end, Matthew Moroun’s lob- bying was in vain and the Gordie Howe bridge opened on July 27.
Ottawa financed the construction of the bridge and was set to recoup these costs by collecting tolls from drivers, before splitting the subse- quent revenue with Michigan.
Instead, Carney was forced to rebut accusations he “caved” in after it was announced that Canada would split the net toll revenues for 15 years after the opening, paying half into a US- controlled fund. “We changed the terms of the Deal so that the United States of America now gets 50 per cent of the Profit,” Trump boasted.
Carney is facing a political back- lash for what has been considered a meek response to Trump’s mockery.
Canada accounts for more than 60 per cent of US crude oil imports and the most aggressive option for Carney would involve squeezing America’s energy supply further at a time of rising fuel prices for motorists. Carney has said he does not “see the value” in using Canada’s energy ex- ports as a cudgel in trade talks.
Carney appears to think that Trump’s attacks are largely perform- ative and the latest round of tariffs in- clude a levy on ice hockey sticks. This has been a source of much mirth to Canadian players because, these days, they all use the carbon fibre sticks made in China, Pakistan or Vietnam, rather than the traditional wooden versions made in Canada.
Graham Hossack, 57, who emigrat- ed with his family when he was three years old from Aberdeen to Ontario, says: “Kids won’t even look at them.”
Like other Canadians, he is chang- ing his spending habits. “We have so much business between us,” he says. “Like everybody, you try to support Canadian businesses in these times. If you can keep every dollar in Cana- da it makes our country more robust.”
Polish man makes history with 160km Baltic swim Poland A Polish swimmer has become the first person to swim across the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Poland. Bartlomiej Kubkowski covered the 160km (100 miles) in 56 hours. He set off from Kaseberga in Sweden on Friday and arrived at the Polish town of Dziwnow on Sunday. It was his fifth attempt to complete the crossing. He was not allowed to touch his support vessel. His journey was one of the longest-ever continuous, unassisted open-water swims.
Lake St Clair
the times | Tuesday August 4 2026 29 Business
WORLD MARKETS
£/€ €1.1672 (-0.0016) ¤ FTSE 100 10,857.70 (-10.35)
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Tom Howard Property Correspondent HM Revenue & Customs that given it has no properties left in its portfolio, it has exited the real estate investment trust (Reit) scheme.
Home Reit, the scandal-hit “landlord for the homeless”, has sold its final four properties. However, its fund manager is still getting paid £167,000 a month.
The sales of the remaining houses at recent auctions mark the conclusion of a wind-down process that began two years ago and brings to an end Home Reit’s six years as an operating business.
Management has started placing some of the group’s subsidiaries into voluntary liquidation and informed
shares fall on merger talks
Martin Strydom, Emma Powell Alex Ralph
Almost £18 billion was wiped off the value of AstraZeneca as investors delivered a frosty response to reports that it was exploring a deal to combine with a US rival, Bristol Myers Squibb, to create one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical groups.
The FTSE 100 group, which is London’s second-largest company, is said to have held discussions with the New Jersey-based rival in recent months. Shares in AstraZeneca closed almost 9 per cent lower in London — their largest daily fall since April last year — while Bristol shares closed mar- ginally higher, up $0.16, or 0.2 per cent, at $65.47 in New York last night.
$
AstraZeneca has a market valuation of about £178 billion, while Bristol is worth about $132 billion.
AstraZeneca said: “We never com- ment on rumours. We have had that policy through multiple rumours over many years.” Bristol did not respond to requests for comment.
The cool response from AstraZeneca shareholders came as some analysts questioned the strategic benefits of such a combination for the London- listed group, whose share price has more than quadrupled during Sir Pas- cal Soriot’s 14-year tenure as CEO.
John Murphy, senior pharma analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said the talks appeared to make “limited strate- gic sense for Astra” and “would likely be subject to antitrust scrutiny, given the overlaps of their oncology portfolios.
(Change on the day)
Dow Jones 53,178.41 (+693.38)
11,000 10,800 10,600 10,400 10,200 10,000 9,800
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5,000
4,000
Home Reit is now effectively a shell company, albeit one still facing a num- ber of investigations and lawsuits, in- cluding from its own shareholders.
AEW, the fund manager that runs the business, will continue to receive its £167,000-a-month fee for the next three months, although this will drop to £120,000 a month in November and then to £42,000 a month in February.
1.200
gests such megamergers hamper pipe- line progress.”
A deal by Soriot would extend the British drugmaker’s pivot towards the US market. The company upgraded its New York listing in June, in a blow to the London stock market.
The company has invested tens of billions of dollars in US manufacturing since President Trump started his second term. It aims to generate half of its targeted $80 billion in annual reve- nue by 2030 from the US market.
Second-quarter results last week showed that strong demand for cancer and rare-disease drugs continues to drive AstraZeneca’s growth. Cancer treatments accounted for about $25 bil- lion in 2025 sales, nearly half of the total, followed by cardiovascular, renal and metabolism treatments worth about $12 billion.
Oncology drugs accounted for more than 40 per cent of Bristol’s overall sales in the first six months of 2026 and the two companies’ cancer immuno- therapies directly compete. The com- pany has been doing smaller deals to gain new drugs as it faces declining sales of older medicines, some of which will soon face generic competition.
However, while a combination would create an “even bigger oncology power- house”, analysts at Jefferies said, it was not clear how it would “obviously benefit” AstraZeneca shareholders, given the company already has a faster-growing drugs pipeline.
COMMODITIES CURRENCIES
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$
£/$
$1.3434 (-0.0030)
Gold $4,051.15 (+7.74)
4,500
Home Reit floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2020 and over the next couple of years tapped investors for £850 million to build a portfolio that at one stage comprised 2,500 houses. These were supposedly let to “robust tenants”, including homelessness char- ities and housing associations.
In 2022, the short-seller Viceroy Re- search cast doubt on the reliability of those tenants and questioned the prices paid for some of the properties. Despite the landlord’s initial rebuttals, those concerns proved well-founded. It sub-
110 100 90 80 70 60
sequently emerged that Home Reit was receiving barely any rent and a revalua- tion by an external consultancy of its properties in 2023 established that they were worth, on average, less than half what had been paid for them.
In January this year, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) arrested six people as part of its investigation into suspect- ed bribery and fraud.
In July 2024, a year after AEW had replaced the original fund manager Alvarium, it was decided that the best way forward was for Home Reit to be
DARREN GERRISH/GETTY IMAGES
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wound down, with all of the properties to be sold off and any remaining cash to be returned to long-suffering investors.
Last month the company told inves- tors that it had about £108 million of cash and was due to receive another tranche of £25 million next April from Patron Capital, the private equity fund that bought 706 of Home Reit’s build- ings for £123 million this year.
However, it is not yet clear when, or even if, Home Reit shareholders will ev- er see any of that money. In an update
catalogue revives sales
Chris Dorrell
One of the pioneers of the video games industry reported its highest sales in a decade as its strategy of reviving classic franchises helped to pull the once bankrupt company back into profit.
Atari, the company behind classic games like Pong and Asteroids as well as the Atari 2600 console, reported that revenue grew 66 per cent year-on-year to €56 million. Revenue was lifted by the acquisition of Thunderful, a Swed- ish games group, last August.
It reported a profit of €100,000 in the year to March, after a net loss of €12.6 million the previous year.
Wade Rosen, chief executive, said: “This year marks another major growth year for Atari, despite a chal- lenging industry. Our games-focused strategy, initiated three years ago, has proven successful as Atari is reaching operational profitability for the first time in several years.”
Founded in California in 1972, Atari helped push video games into the mainstream in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was one of the fastest-growing companies in US history, before com- petition and market saturation led to a sector-wide crash in 1983.
The company was broken up in 1984 and bought by Infogrames Entertain- ment, the French publisher, in 2001, which later adopted the Atari name.
The Paris-based company pivoted to a “retro-focused” growth strategy under Rosen’s leadership in 2023.
Atari has mined its back catalogue and bought gaming studios, as well as the intellectual property rights to individual games.
Last year Atari acquired five Ubisoft titles, including Cold Fear and Child of Eden, and released 30 games, including archival collections and updated ver- sions of Mortal Kombat, Rollercoaster Tycoon and Rayman.
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Almost £18 billion was wiped off the value of AstraZeneca as investors delivered a frosty response to reports that it was exploring a deal to combine with a US rival, Bristol Myers Squibb, to create one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical groups. 2
Home Reit, the scandal-hit “landlord for the homeless”, has sold its final four properties. However, its fund manager is still getting paid £167,000 a month. 3
One of the pioneers of the video games industry reported its highest sales in a decade as its strategy of reviving classic franchises helped to pull the once bankrupt company back into profit. Atari, which was behind classic games like Pong and Asteroids, reported that revenue grew 66 per cent year-on-year to €56 million. 4
Amazon’s stock market value topped $3 trillion yesterday after a sharp rally on the news of strong earnings figures and signs that the artificial intelligence boom is driving fresh demand for its cloud-computing services — the company’s main profit engine. 5
Shell has struck a deal to sell its European onshore wind and solar business to France’s TotalEnergies as it continues its retreat from renewables. 6
A London-based semiconductor start-up founded by a 25-year-old British entrepreneur has been valued at $3.3 billion after it raised funds to develop the latest generation of chips. Olix was founded by James Dacombe, who dropped out of school at 16 and also established CoMind, a brain- monitoring company, when he was just 17. 7
New Look has appointed a chief executive from within its leadership team as the struggling fashion retailer looks to build on the turnaround efforts under its outgoing boss. Lynda Petherick, currently New Look’s chief operating officer, will succeed Helen Connolly, who is leaving to become chief executive of George at Asda.
often a harbinger for trade wars that can morph into real wars
analysis subscribe to the business newsletter thetimes.com/ newsletters
deal baffles both markets and analysts
Myers Squibb may raise US profile but would be a headache for R&D, James Hurley writes
The prospect of a $400 billion merger between AstraZeneca and Bristol My- ers Squibb prompted alarm in some quarters over the UK’s second-most valuable company apparently tilting further towards the United States.
The mood among analysts was more one of confusion. Jefferies was “per- plexed”, UBS was “surprised”, Bank of America found the reports of the potential deal “odd”.
A tie-up between the British drugs group and its US rival would create a giant business with potentially the in- dustry’s broadest cancer drugs port- folio, with overlaps in other areas in- cluding cardiovascular and lung health.
Cancer drugs accounted for half of AstraZeneca’s 2025 sales and for more than 40 per cent of overall revenues at Bristol in the first six months of 2026. The two companies’ cancer immuno- therapies compete directly.
In the context of a giant merger, these similarities could be good news when it comes to cost-savings and cash generation, but problematic in terms of clearing competition regulation. Any deal would also prompt concerns about the impact on research and develop- ment, which Sir Pascal Soriot has put at the heart of his successful 12-year turn- around of the FTSE 100 business.
Patent “cliff edges” — the term for loss of revenue and profits when patent protection on a key drug expires — loom large over the purported talks.
Jessica Newman
The hotel giant behind the Grosvenor House on London’s Park Lane has pro- vided further evidence of the challen- ges facing the sector, revealing that the Middle East conflict has slowed con- struction of new hotels in the region.
Marriott International said it expects growth in net rooms for 2026 to be at the low end of its 4.5 per cent to 5 per cent guidance range, citing construc- tion delays in the Middle East.
The travel industry’s outlook over the rest of the year remains clouded as the prolonged hostilities between the US and Iran threatens consumer spending, while reduced airline opera- tions in the Middle East have curbed travel demand across the region.
AstraZeneca faces the loss of exclu- sivity on three blockbuster cancer drugs, Tagrisso, Calquence and Imfinzi, in the early 2030s while Bristol Myers Squibb is heading into its own patent cliffs, for the blood thinner Eliquis and cancer drug Opdivo, which may stall its growth in the coming years.
A merger would result in a significant short-term boost to AstraZeneca’s prof- itability, but the effect may wane as Bristol’s patent cliff edge kicks in.
The problem, as UBS analysts point- ed out, is the deal risks being of declin- ing benefit just as AstraZeneca is facing profit pressure during patent expiry, ex- pected to be between 2031 and 2033.
Could a merger add to AstraZeneca’s pipeline of promising drugs? Greater scale could, in theory, mean more mus- cle to throw at developing new treat- ments. However, pharmaceutical in- dustry merger deals have a tendency to damage innovation and AstraZeneca already has a good drugs pipeline.
UBS said the problem with such mergers was that “research and devel- opment productivity appeared to fall further during the merger period as employees understandably focused on job risks during integration”. As such, they have fallen out of favour, with “bolt-on” acquisitions of key innova- tion targets the preferred approach and the acquired operations partially ring- fenced so that R&D is not stalled.
The last major deal involving Astra- Zeneca was a $39 billion purchase of Alexion, a rare-diseases specialist, six years ago, a transaction put together re- motely through video calls during Cov- id lockdowns. That acquisition was the largest since the group was created in 1999 through the merger of Astra of Sweden and the British group Zeneca.
Despite its size, UBS said the Alexion acquisition was a successful example of
generated $7.07 billion in revenues for the three months to the end of June, were down 6.7 per cent in afternoon trading in New York.
Marriott’s global revenue per avail- able room (revpar), a key industry met- ric, rose 3.4 per cent in the second quar- ter, with the company registering rev- par growth of 5 per cent in the US and Canada. Room revenue in Marriott’s luxury segments, including brands such as Ritz-Carlton and Sheraton, in- creased 9.1 per cent as affluent travellers shrugged off economic uncertainties.
However, revpar in Europe, the Mid- dle East and Africa declined by more than 5 per cent as a strong performance increase in Europe was outweighed by a 43 per cent drop in the Middle East.
a “bolt-on approach” as it added a new specialism “rather than overlapping operations”.
Analysts at Bank of America warned that few giant pharma mergers “have been perceived as successful given the frequently cited disruption to research and development, and [they] have usu- ally come from a position of weakness”.
It added: “We think investors could perceive a potential merger as a signal
guiding to global revpar growth of between 3 and 3.5 per cent this year, up from a previous forecast of between 2 and 3 per cent.
Marriott, based in Maryland, USA, has a portfolio of nearly 10,000 hotels across 148 countries, having added about 17,900 net rooms globally during the quarter.
The trimming of the company’s room growth forecasts follows on from com- petitors flagging similar headwinds. Last week, Hyatt lowered its full-year forecasts for net rooms growth to 6 per cent, compared with its previous fore- cast of 6 to 7 per cent, as it warned that it continued to expect “hotel revenues in the Middle East to remain signifi- cantly below last year”.
that AstraZeneca lacks confidence in its own pipeline — which would be odd, in our opinion — and a need to bolster growth [after 2030].”
“Odd” is a nod to the 12-year turn- around of the drugs pipeline under Sor- iot, which has seen AstraZeneca gain a reputation as a premium R&D fran- chise that rarely posts negative trial re- sults, although sentiment has been mixed after Wainua, a nerve disease
last month, the company said it was spending the best part of £1 million on “non-property operating expenses” each month. This includes AEW’s fees, but was “primarily legal fees”.
The Financial Conduct Authority has been looking into Home Reit since the start of 2024 and its investigation remains “ongoing”.
There is also the SFO investigation and a potentially costly lawsuit brought by the commercial litigation firm Har- cus Parker on behalf of scores of share- holders who have accused the company of providing “false, untrue and/or mis- leading” information. A pre-action let- ter of claim was sent in 2023, but no formal proceedings have been issued.
Home Reit has always vowed to de- fend itself against the allegations.
drug, unexpectedly failed a pivotal heart-disease trial last month.
The transformation of its pipeline, balance sheet and share price has been propelled by the blockbuster success of innovative cancer drugs. AstraZeneca is on track to reach its $80 billion annual revenue target by 2040.
“Given the historic challenges of megadeals in pharma causing R&D productivity to stagnate, and the appar-
Charlotte Bend Share price
Amazon’s stock market value topped $3 trillion yesterday after a sharp rally on the news of strong earnings figures and signs that the artificial intelligence boom is driving fresh demand for its cloud-computing services — the com- pany’s main profit engine.
The Nasdaq constituent is the fifth company to reach the milestone after Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and Alphabet, which owns Google. Last week, the shares recorded the biggest one-day jump since April 2012 after the group delivered its strongest cloud growth in more than four years and raised its annual capital spending forecast.
Shares in the company, which closed up $13.45, or 5 per cent, at $285.02 last night in New York, have risen 23.05 per cent since the start of the year and en- joyed their best 72-hour stretch since the three days ending October 27, 2009, when they rose 30.6 per cent.
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ent breadth and depth of the in-house AstraZeneca pipeline, we are sur- prised,” UBS analysts said.
Similarly, analysts from Jefferies said they were a “bit perplexed”, given “the strength of AstraZeneca’s growth and innovation profile”.
They added: “Maybe more cash gen- eration would allow for more R&D. But if there is one company that doesn’t need financial engineering, it’s Astra-
2025 2026
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“Amazon is probably the most emblematic of the economy right now. It’s a consumer story and it’s an AI story,” Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide, the US finan- cial services group, said.
Zeneca in our view.” If it really is in need of more pipeline drug assets, it is likely they can be sourced without the head- aches inherent in such a huge merger, Jefferies said, including from China.
What about pricing? A deal for Bris- tol Myers Squibb may look attractive because it is cheap, relatively speaking. According to Bloomberg, Astra trades at about 15 times its forecast earnings, compared to ten times for Bristol.
AstraZeneca’s logic for the deal, which could come in the form of buying its US rival using cash and shares, given the larger market valuation of the Brit- ish business, may boil down to a combi- nation of valuation and cost savings.
However, Jefferies said: “Using what would be a lot of premium equity to ac- quire a low [price-to-earnings] business would seem drastic to us.”
AstraZeneca may benefit from the cash generation of Bristol’s legacy assets, but Jefferies questioned “how this would obviously benefit AstraZen- eca shareholders who’d see their growth diluted”.
Regulation is another hurdle. Given the overlap of treatment areas, sell-offs may be required, given the size of the stranglehold the combined entity would have on the cancer drug market.
UBS said: “We would expect a de- tailed competition review to look deep into both companies’ pipelines and re- quire significant divestiture of any overlapping programmes. “
There is also a political angle. “Astra- Zeneca would effectively be a UK- based acquirer of one of America’s large pharmas at a time when US policymak- ers are focused on domestic manufac- turing and strategic industries,” Jeffer- ies noted.
A tie-up might well be a way to con- tinue expanding AstraZeneca’s US footprint, but “it would likely need to be navigated to reduce frictions”.
Given all these concerns, UBS specu- lated about whether there had been an overreaction to the reported talks, wondering whether they might actual- ly be about a “more-focused partner- ship between the two companies on a single product or franchise”, a tactic As- traZeneca has used successfully before.
All that said, Soriot has proved people wrong before. The Alexion deal, intended to boost cashflow and mar- gins, was unpopular with investors at first, as was raising funds for a partner- ship with Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo Co in 2019.
AstraZeneca’s market value had dropped nearly 9 per cent by yester- day’s close in response to the specula- tion about the tie-up. Bank of America said it expected AstraZeneca shares to continue to come under pressure until details of the deal emerge.
Perhaps Soriot can see a rationale yet to be realised by the market.
has unleashed a much broader all-clear for the market.”
Amazon still has some way to go to catch Apple at $4.5 trillion and which briefly topped $5 trillion last week, or Nvidia, the chipmaker, at $5 trillion. Microsoft is valued at $3.6 billion.
Andy Jassy, chief executive, described Amazon Web Services, which grew net sales by 36.7 per cent in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, as “booming” in a statement last week. The online retailer was co-founded by Jeff Bezos, who remains the largest share- holder with a near 9 per cent stake.
Jassy said: “Our AI and chips busi- nesses each eclipsed run rates of more than $25 billion.
“In stores, we again set record deliv- ery speeds for Prime members in the first half of the year — over 40 per cent more items delivered same-day or overnight, with grocery and everyday essentials growing meaningfully faster than the rest of the business.”
makes no sense I
business commentary Graham Ruddick
t’s only a week since Sir Pascal Soriot was talking about the need to operate at “Chinese speed” in order to stay ahead. So perhaps we should give the AstraZeneca boss the benefit of the doubt on a deal that makes no sense to mere mortals.
Shares in AstraZeneca fell 9 per cent yesterday following a report in the Financial Times that the company has held talks about a tie- up with US rival Bristol Myers Squibb. This could create a drug company worth $400 billion.
There was no official comment from either company on the deal. Behind the scenes, there was the usual “we don’t comment on rumours” stuff. But given the market reaction, it would have been understandable to steer us all away from the idea if nothing was going on. That didn’t happen.
The sharp fall in AstraZeneca’s share price sends a couple of clear messages about any mega deal.
First, there is an obvious concern about the cost — both financially and in terms of the time and resources it would take to bring two giant businesses together.
Second, there is a deeper concern about whether AstraZeneca is entirely confident in its pipeline of new drugs.
As analysts at UBS noted on Monday, these pharma mega- mergers only tend to happen when two companies are looking to cut costs because they are facing a hit to their revenues from blockbuster drugs coming off patent. And we know that AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb face patent cliffs.
For AstraZeneca, this is from 2031 when drugs such as Imfinzi, Tagrisso and Calquence will contend with competition from cheap generic rivals. For Bristol Myers Squibb, it is from 2028 when drugs with sales of $30 billion will be threatened, such as Eliquis and Opdivo.
It’s easy to see where AstraZeneca and Bristol could offset this financial hit by making savings if they came together. They overlap in oncology, for instance. Savings could be made in research and development, sales and other administrative areas.
But why would AstraZeneca want to bother with any cost-cutting when Soriot has championed the company’s innovation? He has been steadfast in his belief that AstraZeneca’s scientists will come up with new inventions to offset the patent cliff that the company faces.
Soriot has said he is “absolutely confident” of hitting AstraZeneca’s target of $80 billion sales by 2030 and he talked up the company’s prospects beyond that.
Yet look at what happened in early July. AstraZeneca suffered a big setback when it announced that its potential blockbuster drug Wainua had failed a late-stage trial.
AstraZeneca had been targeting as much as $5 billion a year in sales from Wainua. But the drug did not meet its primary target of reducing cardiovascular deaths and recurring heart problems. Shares in the company tumbled following that announcement.
the fickleness and unpredictability of innovation. “Biology is not mathematics. It’s not as predictable,” Soriot said last week. “People have got used to us delivering at a high success rate. But we have to accept we will fail from time to time.”
Perhaps AstraZeneca wants its post-2030 world to be more predictable. And balance sheets are more predictable than biology. Cutting costs from a combined AstraZeneca-Bristol Myers Squibb gives it something to talk to investors about.
But AstraZeneca’s success in the past decade has been built on more than this. It has set a benchmark for innovation in the UK.
Some have suggested the deal is actually all about Soriot’s desire to conquer America and complete AstraZeneca’s transformation into a transatlantic giant. But the logic for doing that by buying Bristol Myers Squibb makes little sense either. For all the grumbles about the UK undervaluing great businesses, AstraZeneca trades at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than Bristol Myers Squibb: 15 times 2027 forecast earnings for AstraZeneca compared to 11 times for Bristol.
Whichever way you look at it, this deal is a damp squib.
S
paceX is heading back to earth with something as terrestrial as a quarterly earnings update. Analysts expect those results to show quarterly revenues of $6.9 billion, helped by the Starlink satellite business, and a pre-tax loss of $1.6 billion.
However, a key number to watch is capital expenditure. Analysts expect capex of $14.1 billion for the three months to June, according to Reuters. Some $10 billion of that will be on AI.
Any movement on that number either way could determine the market reaction. In recent weeks, Wall Street has shown a willingness to punish companies for increasing capital expenditure with little or nothing to show for it.
The world has changed significantly since SpaceX’s IPO on June 12. The shares surged that day from $135 to more than $160. Elon Musk, the founder, became the world’s first trillionaire.
Since then, however, Musk has been pointing out on social media that he is a former trillionaire. SpaceX shares closed at $114.53 yesterday ahead of the company’s results, well below its float price.
Worse could follow this week if Wall Street worries that its capital expenditure is out of control.
Meta shares tumbled last week after the company nudged up its forecast capital expenditure for 2026 from $125 billion-$145 billion to $130 billion-$145 billion. Microsoft, by contrast, said its capex would be lower than expected: $175 billion versus a forecast $190 billion. The result? $450 billion was added to the value of Microsoft in one day — the most for any business on record.
Emily Gosden Energy Editor
Emily Gosden
Shell has struck a deal to sell its Euro- pean onshore wind and solar business to France’s TotalEnergies as it contin- ues its retreat from renewable energy.
The FTSE 100 oil and gas group did not disclose a value for the deal, which it said covered about 500 megawatts (MW) of capacity in operation and de- velopment across the UK, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.
The portfolio also includes some of its battery storage assets and a 3.5 giga- watt (GW) pipeline of early stage pro- jects for future development.
UK assets being sold include the 19MW Iddenshall solar park in Chesh- ire. A spokesman said Shell was retain- ing its interest in the giant Cottam 600MW solar and battery storage project, which spans the Lincolnshire- Nottinghamshire border. It has a share charge over the project, according to planning filings.
The sale is the latest in a string of moves to offload renewables, including a $1.8 billion deal last month to sell its 5GW Indian solar and wind business.
As of the end of June, Shell had about 4.5GW of renewable power generation in operation globally and about 1.7GW in development.
Following the TotalEnergies deal, the two main tranches of renewable generation left in its portfolio are off- shore wind in the Netherlands and so- lar farms in the US through its Savion subsidiary. It is reported to be preparing for a sale of its offshore wind business.
In the UK, Shell sold its stake in the MarramWind floating offshore project in November to its partner Scottish Power and returned the li- cence for the CampionWind project to the Crown Estate.
Machteld de Haan, president of Shell’s downstream and renewables business, said: “This agreement reflects Shell’s ... focus on actively managing and high- grading its power port- folio.
“We are recycling capi- tal and prioritising areas where we have differenti- ated capabilities and can create the most value ... in- cluding through asset- backed power trading and customer-focused energy solutions.”
Shell is Europe’s biggest oil and gas group, with 85,000 workers in 70 countries and opera-
Tom Howard
Oil prices fell by more than $5 a barrel yesterday after President Trump’s deci- sion to call off fresh attacks on Iran in the hope of striking a quick peace deal.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude, the global benchmark, retreated by $6.51, or 7.3 per cent, to $83.32, having been above $100 a barrel two weeks ago.
Global oil prices have been volatile ever since the US launched its first strike at the end of February, leading to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping artery through which about 20 per cent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas is carried.
On Sunday night, Trump said the latest round of talks between the US and Iran was due to start on Monday evening. He said Mohammed bin Sal- man, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, as well as US partners such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, had urged
tions from oil and gas explora- tion to fuel retailing. It produ- ces the equivalent of about
2.5 million barrels of oil a day
and is the world’s biggest in-
dependent trader of lique- fied natural gas (LNG).
Last week it reported its second-highest quarterly
profit on record, with ad-
justed earnings of almost
$10 billion for the three
months to June, thanks
to high and volatile oil and gas prices due to the
US war on Iran.
Wael Sawan, Shell’s chief executive since
the start of 2023, has abandoned many of the renewable and power sector invest- ments made under his pre-
him not to carry out further strikes. “We were all set to go,” Trump said. “The reason they asked is they think there’s a deal. There’s a deal on Hormuz and there will be a deal on the nuclear.”
His teasing of a deal, and the drop in oil prices, lowered expectations that central banks might have to soon raise interest rates to curb inflation. In re- sponse, government bond yields, which move inversely to bond prices, fell yesterday. The yield on a two-year UK gilt dropped to 4.32 per cent, having been above 4.42 per cent on Friday.
Iran’s foreign ministry denied it was negotiating with the US but confirmed there had been talks with Oman to reach “an understanding over a path to ensure the security of shipping passage through the Strait of Hormuz”.
Shell boss Wael Sawan, left, has agreed a deal to add to the renewables collection at TotalEnergies as the company focuses on oil and gas
decessor, Ben van Beurden. Early moves included selling Shell’s UK household energy supply business to Octopus.
During an investor day in March last
Operations Centre has reported three tanker attacks in the strait since Satur- day. In response, fewer commercial ships have been passing through.
According to data from Kpler, the trade analytics group, there were 51 vessel crossings through the strait between July 30 and August 2, which was 28 per cent fewer than in the previ- ous four days.
“We are still not comfortable that we are out of the woods,” Mohit Kumar, chief European strategist at Jefferies, said. “We do not think we will get an all- out war, but we see the uneasy truce scenario dragging on for a while. We are not looking for oil to go above $100, but we also struggle to see Brent much below the $75-$80 level.”
year, Sawan said it was “pivoting away from assets with infrastructure returns and more towards assets that support our trading strategies”.
“This means we will prioritise invest-
refinery sold off by BP
BP has completed the sale of its Gelsen- kirchen refinery in Germany as it seeks to cut costs and raise cash.
The FTSE 100 energy company is aiming to divest $20 billion of assets by the end of next year, a target set by former chief executive Murray Auchin- closs as part of a strategic “reset” at the start of last year. BP announced in March that it had struck a deal to sell Gelsenkirchen to Klesch Group, a re- finery business based in Geneva, Switz- erland, for an undisclosed sum.
RICHARD BOUHET/GETTY IMAGES
ments in flexible generation, such as gas-fired power plants, large-scale bat- teries and digital technologies,” he said.
“These are critical for our trading teams to manage risk and capture value in a system that is expected to be more unpredictable as the share of supply from renewables grows.”
While Shell and BP have both largely reversed their push into renewables, TotalEnergies continues to build a sig- nificant power generation business.
The French company said its Euro- pean renewables operation now com- prised nearly 10GW of gross installed capacity or capacity under construc- tion and 27GW under development.
Alongside the Shell deal, TotalEner- gies said it was selling a 50 per cent stake in a “largely developed” 1.2GW renewables asset portfolio to “an insur- ance account managed by KKR” for an enterprise value of €1.8 billion.
cember deal to sell a majority stake in its Castrol lubricants business.
Last week, Meg O’Neill, the chief ex- ecutive, announced that it was com- mencing a sale process for its UK North Sea business, which analysts estimate could fetch $2.6 billion. She said she be- lieved the business would “be better po- sitioned as part of another company”.
Analysts at Jefferies have questioned whether it will ultimately sell the whole business, rather than retaining a stake in a joint venture or “satellite” model, such as it pioneered with its Norwegian business a decade ago. That created the successful Aker BP, in which BP retains a minority shareholding.
China must be handled carefully Mehreen Khan
‘‘
In the past two years, the world economy has been gripped by trade wars and real wars. History suggests that the precursor for both is often a phase of rampant currency wars, which are back in the news.
Currency wars — or manipulation of exchange rates to gain advantage over trading partners — are often a harbinger for trade wars that can morph into real wars. Currency wars are so dangerous to global financial stability that the entire basis of our postwar Bretton Woods system was designed to stop countries from engaging in the beggar-thy-neighbour devaluations of the 1930s. The chaotic collapse of the inter-war gold standard and the breakdown of international monetary co-operation contributed to the world’s second global conflict in two decades.
The ability to manage currency disputes is a good test of global co-ordination. That’s why the Bretton Woods institutions or the 1980s Plaza Accord loom so large in our recent political economy. In both cases, countries sat down and agreed to manage their exchange rates to prevent trade wars from turning into real wars. In the most recent decade, one could argue that the first exchange of fire in the US-China rivalry began in 2019, when the Trump administration officially labelled Beijing as a currency manipulator. These things rarely end well.
Currency wars are back in the headlines for two reasons: a perennial dispute about China’s exchange rate, and a more recent concern about the sliding value of Japan’s yen.
Let’s take Japan first. For the past four years, Japanese authorities have tried in vain to prop up their weakening currency, which has been stuck at 40-year lows against the dollar. Last week, the intervention took a more serious turn when Washington stepped in to strengthen the yen. It is the first time the US has intervened to support the yen, outside the emergency 2011 tsunami, since the 1998 Asian financial crisis.
A weakening currency can cause problems for a domestic economy. It raises the cost of imports for consumers, reducing households’ purchasing power, and stoking
Summit
Who’s Really in Control? Tuesday, November 10, 2026
Bretton Woods in 1945 was designed to prevent a repeat of the 1930s chaos
inflation. Japan relies on imports for almost all its energy needs and a bulk of its food supply. The yen’s depreciation has become a bigger headache as Japan is finally generating inflation after four decades of stagnant prices.
The US intervention shows that a weakening yen is not just a Japanese problem, but an American one. Why? Washington has not revealed its motives beyond support for one of its steadfast allies and a belief that the yen is undervalued, given economic fundamentals. But the motives for US action are multiple. The first is the concern that Japan’s hyper- competitive exchange rate, which makes its exports cheaper to the rest of the world, is a threat to US exporters. It was the anxiety of American farmers that forced Ronald Reagan into a managed devaluation of the “super dollar’ at the Plaza Hotel in 1985.
The other driver behind US support for Japan is about the risk that solo action from Tokyo could pose to the US government’s borrowing costs. Japan is the largest foreign holder of US Treasury bonds. Japanese
Danielle Gilliam-Moore Director for Global Public Policy at Salesforce
KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GETTY IMAGES
authorities support the yen by selling foreign currency assets, including US debt. This was the case during its interventions in 2022, 2024 and in April this year, according to Goldman Sachs. Selling Treasuries at scale risks raising US government borrowing costs. Scott Bessent, US Treasury secretary, has offered Japan the use of a repossession facility that will allow it to support the yen without offloading US debt. Bessent has also promised further intervention to stop traders betting against the yen.
The rest of Japan’s G7 allies are unlikely to help like the US. But the currency they do have in their crosshairs is China’s. Germany has joined France and the European Central Bank in calling out Beijing for having an artificially low exchange rate that is damaging European industry and contributing to a record $1.2 trillion trade surplus. Fredrich Merz, German chancellor, has said the renminbi is 25-30 per cent undervalued against the euro and the dollar. He wants China’s trade partners and the Communist Party to fix the imbalance.
Germany knows all too well about
Avid Larizadeh Duggan OBE Entrepreneur and Venture at Capitalist
currency manipulation. It rode the wave of an undervalued euro to become an exporting juggernaut from the 2000s. But Merz’s comments still represent a significant shift in China hawkishness from the US to Europe over the past year. Berlin has joined Paris in calling China’s export model an existential threat to its domestic car, chemical and green energy industries. Trump, having launched an ill-fated trade war against China last year, is far less bellicose.
Does the currency matter in the debate about how to rebalance global trade? Brad Setser at the Council on Foreign Relations says the extent of China’s financial doping is far worse than institutions like the International Monetary Fund have captured. He argues the renminbi is trading at the same levels against the dollar as it was in 2008. Merz’s 30 per cent undervalued figure comes from Setser’s calculations. “There is a clear correlation between periods of weakness in China’s currency, and periods of Chinese export out- performance,” he says.
Those arguing that it doesn’t matter so much are two of the IMF’s former chief economists and the incoming chief economist at the Bank of International Settlements. Writing in The Economist, the trio argue the undervalued renminbi is not the cause of China’s record surplus, and fixing it won’t make much of a dent in the surplus. It is an odd argument from a group of serious economists, because it is one about politics more than the mechanics of trade.
Exchange rates do matter. But telling a country to strengthen or weaken their currency is a highly sensitive, often inflammatory demand. That’s why the IMF has refrained from calling out China and instead urged more sensible policy changes like increasing the country’s social safety net to jump-start consumer spending. Even in the world of free floating exchange rates, currencies remain a prized part of economic sovereignty. That’s why joining the euro was a non-starter in the UK. It’s why calling out China’s undervalued renminbi will fall on deaf ears.
Mehreen Khan is Economics Editor of The Times
Lilia Christofi EMEA FS Data, AI and Tech Lead at PwC United Kingdom
output in July hit by Iran conflict
Charlotte Bend
British manufacturing activity expand- ed for a ninth straight month in July but at the slowest pace in four months, pointing to a renewed impact from the Iran war towards the end of last month.
The S&P Global Purchasing Manag- ers’ Index (PMI) for the UK manufac- turing sector fell to 51.9 last month from 52.5 in June, in contrast to an earlier provisional or flash reading of 52.8, which was the third-highest reading of the past four years. The 50-point threshold separates growth from con- traction.
“The month-on-month fall was due to a steep reduction in stocks of pur- chases, slower jobs growth and an eas- ing in the rate of increase in vendor lead times,” S&P Global said.
The survey, which is compiled from responses by purchasing managers at about 650 manufacturers, found that companies expect to increase output over the coming year with stronger market conditions and new product launches. However, the respondents al- so cited downside risks to growth, which include global trade tensions, tax rises, and regulatory changes.
Rob Dobson, director of economic indices at S&P Global Market Intelli- gence, said: “Better resource availabili- ty and supplier reliability will hopefully provide further respite to squeezed sup- ply chains in the months ahead, though developments in the Middle East will be key to supply and price developments in the coming weeks.
“These positive price and demand trends were not fully reflected in the la- bour market, with the upturn in manu- facturing hirings grinding to a near halt in July, but the first rise in backlogs of work in over four years suggests em- ployment could pick up in the coming months.”
Medium and large companies saw particularly strong production, offset slightly by weakness among smaller businesses. New orders grew for an eighth consecutive month, with order growth from North America, the EU, mainland China, India and South Ko- rea helping to boost exports.
’’
Matt Swannell, chief economic ad- viser to the Item Club, an economic forecasting group, said: “The loss in momentum came despite upturns in production and orders, with the survey reporting that global trade tensions, tax rises, and regulatory changes were some of the factors dragging down business sentiment.”
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cybersecurity bosses says firms need to build their defences, writes Louisa Clarence-Smith
BJ Jenkins is scared. The president of Palo Alto Networks, the world’s largest publicly traded cybersecurity firm, has a front row seat observing the rapidly intensifying cyberthreats facing busi-
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nesses and governments in the age of advanced artificial intelligence.
“The thing that scares me the most now is these models are so smart; they can take lower-level vulnerabilities, things that you probably would not think are a real threat, and they can chain them together and create an exploit out of that,” he said.
Last week Anthropic said its Claude AI models had breached three organi- sations while it was testing cyber capa- bilities, a week after OpenAI disclosed a similar incident.
“I’m very concerned for small and
mid-sized businesses [that don’t have the resources to invest in advanced cybersecurity],” Jenkins said. “But even for large Fortune 100, Fortune 500 businesses too. They have resources, but many of them have inflexible architectures that have been built over many years and they are going to have to move much quicker than they ever thought possible.”
He recently spoke to a large health- care payment processing company that said it couldn’t change any part of its infrastructure because if operations are paused, people can’t enrol in health-
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care. Separately, a foreign government told him they couldn’t make any changes to their infrastructure during tax collection season. His response? “Well, that’s going to have to change”.
All this is good for business, how- ever. Since Anthropic provoked a global panic three months ago with the roll-out of Mythos, which it billed as a powerful cyberweapon, Palo Alto Net- works has had nearly 2,000 customers ask for one-to-one briefings on the cyberthreats of AI models.
Fears about the hacking capabilities of AI agents have helped drive shares in Palo Alto Networks up 80 per cent so far this year, ranking it among the top performers in the S&P 500. Third- quarter revenue climbed 31 per cent year-on-year to $3 billion.
Palo Alto Networks, founded in 2005 and based in Santa Clara, California, has been winning customers using mul- tiple rival cybersecurity products by of- fering a single platform of its own offer- ings. The company claims its platform means businesses can cut costs because they don’t have to integrate a number of different products and can speed up workflows and security processes.
The business also claims its scale is an advantage in the age of AI because it can “keep pace with what the frontier AI models are finding in terms of vul- nerabilities” and detect incidents in seconds before helping companies to fix vulnerabilities quickly.
“One of our primary messages to chief financial officers is, we’ll make you more secure and we’ll do it with a better ROI [return on investment] and reduce your cost,” Jenkins said. “That’s a powerful message that’s helping drive our growth.”
Jenkins said AI is also enabling Palo Alto Networks and other large cyber- security players to make their products better, as faster coding means they can roll out new features at a record rate.
“The good news is you can use AI for good too, and it’s going to help us hopefully keep pace and stay ahead of the adversaries in terms of de- fence,” he said. It will also “help customers transform faster than they previously thought possible”.
Nikesh Arora, chief executive of Palo Alto Networks, warned in June that he anticipated a three to six- month window before AI systems evolve into “more sophisticated hacking capable entities globally”. He added: “With- in a few years, we expect agentic
the arrival of Kimi K3, an open- Shipping broker rides a
Charlotte Bend goods around the world, recorded its strongest ever first half.
The shipping broker Clarkson has navigated the crisis in the Gulf to report a record profit in an “exceptional” first half of the year.
The FTSE 250 group said pre-tax profit increased by just under 50 per cent to £55.6 million in the six months to June 30, compared with the same period last year. That was on revenue of £413.5 million, which rose 39 per cent from £298 million.
The company said its record first half resulted from “strong trading condi- tions, accentuated by turbulence in the Strait of Hormuz.” It expects full-year performance to be materially ahead of market expectations.
BJ Jenkins, above, of Palo
AI to reach a level of au- tonomous execution that
is truly unprecedented … orchestrating end-to- end campaigns at ma- chine speed without human intervention.”
Jenkins suggested that
timeframe may have under- shot the mark, given
Shipping has been at a near standstill across the strait since the US and Israel launched military strikes on Iran in February. Only a handful of vessels are passing through the waterway, which would typically carry a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.
Shortages of vessels, and the fact car- gos were forced to take longer routes, squeezed up freight rates, to which Clarkson’s commissions are tied. The disruption led to countries in Asia seek- ing increased cargo volumes from longer-haul destinations in the West, while the market was also tightened by ships trapped in the Gulf.
Alto Networks, is acutely aware of the risks posed by AI; left, Nikesh Arora
source model released last month by Moonshot, the Chinese AI pioneer, which claimed it is on a par with some of the top platforms from OpenAI and Anthropic. Jenkins said it was another “awareness moment” for businesses.
“Adversaries have access to these things and customers have to think about what that’s going to mean to them now,” he said.
“Just as fast as you’re thinking about business transformation, you have to think the same way about your cyber transformation and how you defend yourself in this new world.”
Clarkson said freight rates increased as the US-Iran war brought disruption
Palo Alto Networks has been shield- ed from a broader sell-off this year driven by fears that AI products will hit profits at software providers. Analysts believe cybersecurity products will be harder to replicate than other software.
However, Jenkins said he does not think all companies working with the so-called frontier AI labs are protected from those labs learning from their workflows to create rival products.
“Everybody has to be paranoid about where these models will go and what they will do,” he said. The “concept of a ‘moat’ or ‘what is your defensibility in
and extent of the strait reopening and disruption to trade flows will take time to adjust as energy security concerns influence decision-making.
“A progressive reopening of the strait in the second half is expected to support restocking activity, and recovering volumes have the potential to provide additional support to shipping markets.
“Conversely, an extended period of closure would act as a headwind to global trade and economic growth.
“Restoring balance to disrupted supply chains, repositioning vessels and rebuilding trade flow patterns are processes that take time to fully materi- alise and will provide opportunities across shipping markets.”
your business’ is going to become very important because I don’t think the large language model companies are stopping at what their capabilities are going to be. We’ve seen it evolve very quickly over the last two years. My ex- pectation is over the next two years they’re going to continue to look at what these models could do and what businesses they could disrupt.”
He added: “Obviously, Anthropic and OpenAI both want to get public and they’re going to have to continue to find top-line growth to support their intentions.” Both AI labs dispute claims that they are stealing intellectual property or copying their customers’ business models.
Anthropic said: “By default, we do not train our models on customer content from our commercial products. Our commercial terms prohibit it. We also don’t read individual customer conversations, code or files to shape our strategy, decide what products to build or choose which markets to pursue.”
Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, told the Invest Like the Best podcast last week that OpenAI has “no interest” in “trying to eat every start-up, every company”. He said it was focused on “making the best, the most abun- dant, the most useful AI that we can, and making it something like electricity that just seeps throughout the entire economy and empowers people”.
Jenkins said the Mythos moment “catalysed” the US government into realising “they had to do something on cyber” and that “engagement has gone up exponentially”. He added: “I think they are working very hard to under- stand how we utilise these models to defend and protect ourselves better.”
Last week President Trump said he was considering AI “controls” after OpenAI’s disclosure that one of its AI systems escaped containment during a security test, adding that he did not want to “restrict” AI developers from building new products.
In a statement, Arora warned against “over-regulation” of AI, despite the cyber risks. He suggested governments focus on answering questions including “those around IP, what can models train on? Liability? Who’s responsible? ... Need to protect critical infrastructure and how do we keep our public systems secure and leverage technology? Around defence and use of AI.”
He is supportive of proposals for a “self-regulatory body composed of a set of actors who want the safe and rapid development of cost effective AI”.
He said: “Easier said than done, but worth chasing.”
Helen Cahill and the newly signed contract includes an option for a further extension until September 2033.
Capita has secured an extension of a Transport for London contract worth £424 million as it seeks to restore its re- lationship with the government in the wake of a crisis in the civil service pen- sion scheme.
The troubled outsourcer’s shares rose 7½p, or 2.9 per cent, to close at 266p yesterday, after it won a five-year ex- tension to its contract running the capi- tal’s congestion charge and ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) schemes.
The group is seeking to restore its reputation after a fiasco in its adminis- tration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme. Capita has said it is prepared to lose money on the pension contract after it was dogged by problems and a growing backlog of cases.
start-up sees its value hit $3.3bn
Chris Dorrell
A London-based semiconductor start- up founded by a 25-year-old British entrepreneur has been valued at $3.3 billion after it raised funds to devel- op the latest generation of chips under- pinning the artificial intelligence eco- nomy.
Olix’s $312 million funding round, which tripled the company’s valuation, was led by the New York-based fund Fundomo, alongside investment from Arm Holdings, the Cambridge-based chip designer, and Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix.
Olix was founded in 2024 by Harro- gate-born James Dacombe. Dacombe, who dropped out of school at 16, is also chief executive of CoMind, a brain- monitoring company he founded in 2018 when he was just 17.
According to Dun & Bradstreet, the data analytics company, Dacombe held a 38.6 per cent stake in Olix before the funding round through Bletchley Industries, a holding company.
Olix is developing a new generation of “inference chips” that would under- pin the process of running AI models.
Rather than relying on improve- ments in general-purpose graphics processing units, Olix is developing specialised chips for each part of the inference process. It then connects these chips with an “optical intercon- nect” that transfers data using lasers rather than copper wires.
The company said its approach “will make existing frontier AI more afford- able and abundant, and more impor- tantly, unlock the deployment of far more powerful models in the future.”
Olix’s technology does not rely on scarce components in the chip supply chain, such as advanced packaging or high-bandwidth memory, meaning that it can scale volumes “in spite of the supply chain shortages across the in- dustry”.
The funding round puts Olix on track to deliver its DX-1 platform to its first customers by the second half of next year. This chip is focused on the stage at which a model reasons and generates its output.
The company is also hiring for roles across silicon, photonics and systems engineering at its offices in London and
Gavin Dunkley, managing director of Capita’s public transport division, said: “This extension reflects the con- tribution of many people across Capita and our supply chain partners who have delivered and transformed these services over a number of years, com- bining operational expertise with tech- nology to support the evolution of London’s road-user charging schemes.”
Capita also announced it had com- pleted a deal to sell its private sector call-centre business to Inspirit Capital, and that it could be in line for payment of £61.5 million between 2027 and 2030, depending on the performance of the business under its new owners. Capita said the sale would help “significantly streamline its operations” and focus on divisions delivering “complex, differen-
Bristol, as well as Austin, Toronto and San Francisco. Alongside the funding, Olix appointed Matt Briers as chief financial officer. Briers was finance chief at Wise, the fintech company, for nine years from 2015.
Olix received backing from the gov- ernment’s Sovereign AI fund as part of the round. The fund invests in British companies across the AI supply chain. It is its fifth investment since its launch in April.
Joséphine Kant, head of ventures at Sovereign AI, said: “Olix is completely rethinking what an inference chip should be from first principles and doing it from the UK. The company is two years old and already one of the most ambitious hardware businesses in Britain.”
Olix is one of a handful of innovative UK-based semiconductor start-ups that are hoping to break Nvidia’s hold on the semiconductor market. Fractile raised $220 million in May to develop
25 James Dacombe’s age. He dropped out of school aged 16
its technology, which aims to fuse memory and computing power to- gether in one chip.
The government is trying to nurture the development of the UK’s semi- conductor industry through its £1.1 bil- lion AI hardware plan, which includes advanced commitments for chips from start-ups. The government wants to capture 5 per cent of the global AI chip market.
Andy McLean, chief executive of the UK Semiconductor Centre, said the funding round was a “clear signal” that British technology could compete on a global stage, but added that the chal- lenge was to ensure that Olix could scale from the UK.
He added: “That means creating the right environment for them to access capital, talent and international markets, so that the next generation of global semiconductor leaders is built here, stays here, and continues to create economic value for the UK.”
tiated middle and back-office services in large growing markets”.
The outsourcer warned last month that it would take a hit to profits of between £25 million and £40 million over its mismanagement of the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Richard Holroyd, chief executive of Capita’s public service division, told a Commons select committee it would make a loss on the contract as it invest- ed to restore service levels. He said: “The government is a major strategic client for us. So we can’t think about profitability here, what we are thinking about is reputation across the rest of the business, and how we recover here.”
New Look, but chain faces same old fight
Isabella Fish Retail Editor
New Look has appointed a chief execu- tive from within its leadership team as the struggling fashion retailer looks to build on the turnaround efforts under its outgoing boss.
Lynda Petherick, currently New Look’s chief operating officer, will suc- ceed Helen Connolly, who is leaving the business to become chief executive of George at Asda. Connolly will remain with New Look until September 21 to support the leadership transition.
The appointment comes as the privately owned retailer seeks to revive its fortunes after years of decline from its heyday as a FTSE 250 business.
Once one of the UK’s dominant high street fashion chains, New Look has battled fierce competition from fast- fashion rivals, supermarkets and online retailers while working to redefine its place in an increasingly crowded value- fashion market.
Mike Coupe, New Look’s chairman, said the board was “delighted” to appoint Petherick. “New Look is in a stronger position than it has been for many years,” he said. “She combines strong commercial judgment and operational discipline with a deep understanding of our customers, our brand and the role that data and technology will play in our future.”
Petherick inherits a business that has undergone significant restructuring. Connolly took on the top job in 2022 with a strategy focused on improving profitability through tighter cost con- trol, better inventory management and greater use of data and technology.
Under Connolly’s leadership, the retailer also expanded its Club New Look loyalty programme and sharp- ened its focus on core womenswear cat- egories as it sought to rebuild its appeal
among value-conscious shoppers. De- spite those efforts, New Look continues to face significant challenges on the high street. It has shrunk dramatically from its peak, when it operated more than 850 shops globally during an aggressive expansion phase. It now trades from about 300 stores, having closed hundreds of underperforming locations over the past decade.
The company has also changed own- ership after years of financial strain. Brait, the South African investment group, first acquired a controlling stake in 2015 before New Look underwent a major debt restructuring in 2020 that handed significant ownership to len- ders including the asset manager Al- centra through a debt-for-equity swap.
The retailer, founded in 1969 by Tom Singh, is now jointly owned by Brait and Alcentra, which appointed Rothschild & Co last year to explore strategic op- tions, including a potential sale.
Retail analysts said Petherick’s appointment of- fered continuity but warned that the retailer must now convert opera- tional improve- ments into sustained sales growth. Nicholas Found, from Retail Eco- nomics, said New Look needed a “sharper identity and a stronger reason for shoppers to choose it. Shein sets a relentless pace online, Primark has formidable scale and new entrant Lefties is bringing Inditex’s buying power and store technology in- to UK value fashion. New Look must respond with a clearer fashion point of view, faster reactions to trends and a
better shopping expe- rience.” A trading update showed earnings before interest, tax and other deductions for its latest fi- nancial year rose to £36.6 million from £14.3 million, supported by stronger margins, less discounting and a lower cost base. Revenue declined by 3.6 per cent to £713.2 million, while gross profit margin improved by 2.7 per cent. First- quarter equivalent earnings increased
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New Look, which posted improved full-year profits, has chosen an insider, Lynda Petherick, left, as chief executive
to £17.4 million, while the retailer con- firmed it had refinanced its debt facili- ties, extending key maturities to 2029.
However, previously published stat- utory results highlighted the scale of the challenge. Revenue fell 6.5 per cent to £687.7 million in the year to the end of March last year, amid continued store closures and difficult high street trading, while the retailer posted an op- erating loss of £47.6 million compared with a £17.4 million profit a year earlier.
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The services of our experienced and insightful tour manager Guided tour of the palace on Isola Bella Five visits including Lake Como, Zermatt, Cannobio, Locarno and Orta San Giulio Journey on the Centovalli railway through spectacular alpine scenery
set to cost Vietnamese airline $220m
Mark Ludlow
A Vietnamese budget airline faces a total damages bill of at least $220 mil- lion after losing a third High Court trial over an aircraft leasing dispute with a London-based investment firm.
Vietjet, controlled by Vietnam’s first female billionaire, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, was already facing a $193 million damages bill from earlier trials over the return of four Airbus A321 aircraft after it breached a rental deal with FitzWal- ter Capital during the pandemic.
In a High Court ruling, judge Simon Birt awarded FitzWalter Capital and its aviation arm, FitzWalter Aviation, $18.3 million in lost rent for the aircraft, with total damages from the third trial, including legal costs, yet to be set.
The verdict is expected to be one of the final acts in a long-running legal dispute between Vietjet and FitzWalter, the investment firm co-founded by former Macquarie Group executive Ben Brazil in 2020.
The legal battle, which has been fought in courtrooms in London, Hanoi and Singapore, has grown increasingly acrimonious after FitzWalter last year tried unsuccessfully to freeze the air- line’s global assets until it had paid the outstanding compensation.
During the third trial, Vietjet had argued that FitzWalter — which bought the aircraft leases during Covid — had already profited from the sale of the aircraft after they were returned to the London firm, describing its new $100 million claim as an “opportunistic and unjustified grab for money”.
Vietjet lawyers said the new claim from FitzWalter was a “scheme to profit from the damage to the airlines’ income during the pandemic”.
Before the latest trial, Vietjet, which is listed in Ho Chi Minh City with a market capitalisation of $3.64 billion, had paid only about $2 million in dama- ges to FitzWalter. The third trial in the High Court involved FitzWalter claim- ing damages for the repair, mainte- nance and operation of the aircraft after their return.
FitzWalter Capital and Vietjet did not respond to requests for comment.
S tylish Lake Maggiore straddles both Italy and Switzerland and justifiably, was a favourite of Hemingway, Chaplin and many others. We also visit the equally beautiful Lake Como, plus the romantic gem that is Lake Orta, one of the most entrancing in Italy. You will experience possibly the world’s finest alpine scenery, chic Locarno and dramatic Zermatt, nestling famously at the foot of the mighty Matterhorn, the world’s most charismatic peak.
Selected departures September and October 2026 and April to October 2027
pea farmers to consider crop swaps
are on the cards as UK agriculture adapts to the changing climate, writes Guy Taylor
“It’s been tough, really tough. We ha- ven’t had any rain in six weeks,” says Allen Giles, general manager at the Holbeach Marsh farming co-operative, reflecting on another difficult British pea harvest. “Only hindsight will tell, but in five or six years’ time, if this wea- ther continues, then we may not have peas in this area any more.”
We are standing in a sun-baked field in Lincolnshire at the height of the UK harvesting season, a manic eight-week period in which growers work around the clock, seven days a week, producing an estimated 160,000 tonnes of peas each year. There is a relentless engine hum as colossal viners costing £750,000 apiece comb through rows of stems and foliage of the pea plant.
It will all be over by mid-August, but scorching temperatures and drought- like conditions mean farmers and proc- essors are already expecting a second consecutive poor harvest.
Last year’s was the earliest in well over a decade and vining pea growers across Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and East Yorkshire reported a near- third drop in the number of peas picked and processed.
Giles picks out a cream-coloured ladybird from the crop: “That’s my pet one, I put it in my pocket and bring it out for interviews,” he jokes, although the harsh reality is they may have saved his harvest this year.
Successive heatwaves have acceler- ated the spread of disease-carrying aphids, tempered only by a recent pro- liferation in ladybirds, which have helped to keep pests under control.
“We’ve had lots of ladybirds this year and we haven’t been spraying for aphids because we wanted them to do the job, and to some extent they have. So it helps us, but there’s about a year lag. There won’t be so many ladybirds going into the winter and we’ll prob- ably end up with an aphid problem next year.”
Giles’s co-operative typi- cally harvests about 10,000 tonnes of peas across 2,200 hectares of land each year, the majority of which are then frozen. Yet with tempera- tures in Britain reaching record levels this sum- mer, he is in- creasingly being forced to switch to more cli- mate-suited crops.
“We’ve grown some chickpeas this year for the very first time and they look quite good, they’ve enjoyed the hot weather,” he says.
one of his growers lays claim to estab- lishing the first En- glish olive oil com-
“As a co-opera- tive, no farmer will make any money on peas this year, and we didn’t last year. We get paid by the tonne, we need tonnes per hectare to make this land profita- ble. That’s nobody’s fault, that’s just the weather.”
Peas mature rapidly and the hotter the temperature, the shorter the time processors have to freeze or can them before they begin their journey to the supermarket shelves.
Innovations, including drought and disease-resistant varieties, can help protect yields but often take years to be- come commercially available.
Allen Giles, general manager of a farm in Lincolnshire that is expecting its second consecutive poor harvest of peas. Ladybirds have saved the crop from aphids whose spread is accelerated by the heat
Truckloads of peas are delivered to the site each day. They are poured on to a series of winding conveyor belts, where they are washed thoroughly and then checked using a “tenderometer”.
Dozens of metal cans zip around the factory each second, with about 24 million cans and 40 bil- lion peas pro- duced each year.
Princes, which is best- known for its tinned tuna and Napolina chopped tomatoes, has fore- cast yields from this year’s pea harvest to be about 60 per cent, only mar- ginally higher than in 2025 and far below the more than 100 per cent reported in 2024 when healthy rainfall and produced a bumper crop.
JASON BYE FOR THE TIMES
Speaking to The Times, Giuseppe Mastrolia, an Italian serving as interim chief executive at Princes, is candid about the challenges ahead.
“Climate change is a topic that’s going on across all different areas — in pasta, in tomatoes. Things are chang- ing,” he says. “We need to be prepared and we are already implementing changes. Climate is touching the whole industrial structure.”
Large swathes of England and the entirety of Wales have reached the threshold for drought this summer and wildfires have wreaked havoc in parts of Europe.
Increasingly hostile conditions have affected farmers across the spectrum, from wheat and oats, to livestock and vegetables, and the National Farmers’ Union has warned of potential short- ages of certain food products. Last
The canning plant is run by Princes, whose interim chief is Giuseppe Mastrolia
week, bosses at Britain’s largest super- markets, including Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s, were among the signato- ries of an urgent letter to the new prime minister Andy Burnham, warning of the risk posed by climate change and extreme weather to the nation’s food supplies.
The problems have piled pressure on a sector already grappling with rising costs and a host of macroeconomic and policy-related challenges in recent years.
Princes, which is one of Europe’s largest food producers, was forced to push through emergency price increas- es this year after the Iran war inflated energy and packaging costs and led to global shortages of fertiliser.
“We took a hit in March and April. Things have slowed down, but there is still an uncertainty around,” Mastrolia says. Cuts to government support and increasing employment costs have also hit Britain’s food industry hard in recent years.
Yet on the Lincolnshire pea farm, it seems clear that the weather has be- come the starkest threat. Mastrolia agrees with Giles about the opportuni- ties in chickpeas, particularly given rising demand for protein-rich foods.
He is concerned, however, that the
poor harvest will make it in-
creasingly difficult to
source and sell prod-
ucts locally.
“What we try to do with peas
is sell what we
produce and
pack in the
UK, but given the cir- cumstances this year, we won’t be able to fulfil de- mand. Last year we bought some frozen peas, still in the UK from Scotland, so we are trying to source locally, but the best is to pro- duce fresh peas.”
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mony group
Market cap £993m
ncreasingly widespread financial education is sending more and more of us to comparison sites for reassurance that we are signing up to the best deal. That has transformed the fortunes of Mony Group and its main offshoots, MoneySuperMarket, MoneySavingExpert and Quidco.
The management is not stopping there, conceiving an ambition to be an all-round financial companion. But Mony shares have nevertheless nearly halved in the past two years, before a partial recovery this year. Is it time to catch the upswing?
On July 21, Mony announced half- year results showing like-for-like revenue rising 6 per cent to £227.1 million, taking adjusted Ebitda up 3 per cent to £75.5 million. While insurance was easily the biggest revenue generator, at £122.1 million, the star performer yet again was home services — broadband, phones and energy bills — up 30 per cent but still producing only £28.2 million. In between, at £57.6 million, 9 per cent higher, was money, which compares banks and lenders.
Revenue
Adjusted ebitda
Earnings per share rose from 9.3p to 9.7p, allowing a cautious nudge for the interim dividend, from 3.33p to 3.36p. However, net debt soared from £18.4 million to £31.8 million, due partly to cashflow falling by £7.5 million to £36.2 million.
£8m
Although it would have had a minimal impact on the results, the half-year included the launch of the grandly named Savings by
Trump’s talk of peace
market report
President Trump’s claim that there is a peace deal in the offing in America’s war with Iran had a sharp knock-on effect on housing stocks (Jon Rees writes).
Trump’s comments that “there’s a deal on Hormuz and there will be a deal on the nuclear”, despite sounding wea- rily familiar to traders, saw the price of oil drop sharply, with a barrel of Brent Crude down 4.7 per cent to $83.70.
That immediately lowered expecta- tions that central banks would have to raise interest rates to keep a lid on infla- tion, and government bond yields fell sharply. The yield on ten-year gilts fell ten basis points to 4.95 per cent. Gilt yields drive swap rates, which indicate where the market thinks interest rates will be in future, and that in turn dic- tates fixed-rate mortgage pricing.
So, the whiff of a peace deal in the Gulf and the FTSE’s housing stocks rose sharply amid expectations that mortgage rates are less likely to rise.
Quids in
Dividend yield 6.4%
Share price
Source: FactSet
2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
ADVICE Buy WHY A growth share available at an ex-growth price
MoneySuperMarket. That has now been followed with Investments by MoneySuperMarket, teaming with Octopus Group and Vanguard to offer 40 or so funds. The two new products are key steps towards Mony becoming a meaningful financial buddy.
The process really began with SuperSaveClub, a way of encouraging regular spending with the group in return for passes to zoos and theme parks, and other perks. It has 2.5 million members, is gaining 250,000 more every three months, and they spend at nearly double the rate of those outside the club. It
Easing oil prices on hopes of a diplomatic resolution in the Middle East helped to calm worries that inflation could get worse and prompt the Federal Reserve to lift interest rates. Last week’s better than expected results from Amazon continued to bolster other AI- related companies. The Dow Jones industrial average was 693.38 points, or 1.3 per cent, higher at 53,178.41, a new record, while the S&P 500 was up 110.78 points, or 1.5 per cent, at 7,600.50. The Nasdaq rose 540.04 points, or 2.1 per cent, to 25,913.90.
The day’s biggest movers
300p
Insurance Money Home Services Travel Cashback Total
Insurance Money Home Services Travel Cashback Total
£233m £106m £48m £18m
£67m £33m £2m
accounts for 19 per cent of revenue and counting, especially as it has just launched a digital broker as SuperSaveClub Insurance.
The investment account goes a step further. Instead of redirecting customers to providers such as Hargreaves Lansdown or AJ Bell, they can open, manage and hold shares and mutual funds inside the MoneySuperMarket app, so they are competing with those other firms. There may be more products on those lines as the scheme expands.
Hardly any of this would be possible without AI, which, as usual, has been a double-edged sword. In February, Mony shares fell when the US online insurance marketplace Insurify unveiled what was claimed to be the insurance industry’s first ChatGPT app. It lets users search, compare and receive personalised
Housing stocks rose amid expectations mortgage rates are less likely to rise
The housing stocks were already benefiting from a following wind after investment bank Berenberg upgraded Barratt Redrow and Bellway to “buy” from “hold”. The bank said there were “interesting opportunities emerging” in the sector on the back of strong bal- ance sheets.
The falling oil price affected the UK’s leading oil companies, of course, but both BP and Shell gave investors rea- sons not to be too downhearted. BP completed the sale of its Gelsenkirchen refinery in Germany as it continued its cost-cutting drive under new boss Meg
quotes for car cover. That was compounded by the stock market’s general panic over AI’s possible negative impacts. One fear was that users could simply ask AI chatbots to compare financial products, but that is shackled by regulatory curbs.
The buddy concept could open the door to a fresh category of customer, novice investors — and Mony reckons that epithet applies to 70 per cent of UK adults. As well as unseasoned investors seeking a simple solution for long-term planning, if the website is sufficiently friendly, it may also attract those who think they know more than they do. So the “arm around the shoulder” approach could be a powerful growth engine.
£53m
£446m
£125m
£145m
Another innovation is business banking, which opens this month and marks a first step into the small and medium-sized enterprise market. Although there are no plans to apply for a banking licence, the business arena is ripe for Mony’s comparison expertise. It is only surprising it has taken it so long to tackle this market.
Source: Mony Group
The group has faced multiple headwinds in recent years — such as energy price caps, car repair inflation and housing market slowdowns — that have slowed growth and led to the shares being heavily de-rated. Coming over the horizon are self- driving cars, which could have a huge impact over the next decade.
Nevertheless, analysts at Investec bank predict that this year’s results will put the shares on a 10.4 price- earnings ratio and a solid 6.4 per cent yield. That is cheap for a company with so much in prospect and reflects an over-reaction to the inevitable but manageable hurdles.
O’Neill, and investors appreciated its efforts. BP shares closed virtually flat, down just 0.07 per cent, at 552p.
Shell, struck a deal to sell its Euro- pean onshore wind and solar business to France’s TotalEnergies as it retreats from renewable energy. Its shares closed up 22p, or 0.7 per cent, at £34.06.
Ithaca Energy, the FTSE 250 consti- tuent and North Sea oil producer, saw its shares fall 4p or 1.8 per cent to 258p.
news in brief
Takeover costs dent Senior
Senior, the engineering company, has swung to a pre-tax loss of £5.6 million in the first half of 2026, from a profit of £22.8 million in the same period last year, as it gears up for a takeover by a consortium of US investors.
The company, which is based in Hertfordshire, said the loss was due to one-off costs related to the £1.3 billion deal with the private equity firms Blackstone and Tinicum.
The FTSE 250 group supplies specialist parts for aircraft makers such as Boeing and Airbus, and is set to leave the London stock market after multiple private equity firms expressed an interest in it earlier this year. Blackstone and Tinicum won out with an offer of 297.85p per share in cash and a commitment to pay the full-year dividend of 2.15p.
At a shareholder meeting in May, 99.7 per cent of votes cast by investors were in favour of the deal.
David Squires, chief executive of Senior, said it was “pleased to have received strong shareholder support for the recommended cash acquisition” and that it was “making good progress” towards securing the necessary regulatory approvals, with the deal expected to complete by the end of the year. Revenues in the half year were up 5 per cent to £390.8 million, while operating profit rose by 30 per cent to £37.7 million. The shares closed up 2p, or 0.7 per cent, at 292½p.
EasyJet Friday showdown
EasyJet has extended the deadline for Castlelake to decide whether to make a firm takeover offer, bringing it into line with the deadline for Apollo as the US private equity bidding war for the budget carrier enters a decisive week. EasyJet said Castlelake would now have until 5pm on Friday to challenge the 715p-a-share bid from Apollo, having previously been given a “put up or shut up” deadline of 5pm yesterday. Last month, Apollo made a surprise £5.7 billion bid for easyJet, which was accepted by the company’s board. That trumped a previous £5.5 billion offer from Castlelake, which valued the shares at 690p.
ALAMY
Wingstop flying high
Wingstop UK said it plans to open up to 30 chicken restaurants this year across England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland after reporting a strong rise in annual revenue. Lemon Pepper Holdings, the master franchisee of Wingstop in the UK and Ireland, which brought the US chicken brand here in 2018, said revenues rose by 73 per cent to £216.4 million in 2025. The group, which is backed by Sixth Street, the private equity firm, is set to open its 100th UK restaurant, in Inverness, this month. The company, which employs about 3,000 people, also said it has signed an agreement to expand into Poland.
UBS fined $125m in US
UBS was fined $125 million by US regulators yesterday for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, the largest-ever civil fine against a broker-dealer for breaching the anti-money laundering (AML) law. The US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said UBS Financial Services had admitted to wilfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement and maintain an AML programme and by failing to file suspicious activity reports. UBS said it had co-operated with regulators and has made significant investments to strengthen its AML programme “in line with leading industry practices”.
Tuesday August 4 2026 | the times Business
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Markets LLC. All rights reserved.re-distributed; The Tradeweb FTSE Gilt Closing Prices information contained herein is proprietary to Tradeweb; may not be copied or is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely; and does not constitute investment advice. Tradeweb is not responsible for any loss or damage that might result from the use of this information.
41 Business
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Base Rates Clearing Banks: 3.75% ECB Refi 2.40% Fed Fund 3.5-3.75% Halifax Mortgage Rate (SVR) 7.24%
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the times | Tuesday August 4 2026 43 Register
Rod Liddle
SHUTTERSTOCK EDITORIAL In the late 1990s, Rod Liddle desired three things: to become editor of the BBC’s Today programme, to write a well-reviewed novel, and to have an al- bum in the top 200. “I got two of them,” he said. “And I was only that far away with the album. I mean, we recorded it.”
Between his pierced ear, untucked shirt and the array of Pulp posters above his desk, Liddle looked more convincing as a rock star than as an editor of Today, the heavyweight and — until Liddle arrived — slightly stuffy flagship early-morning news pro- gramme on Radio 4. Today staff nick- named him “Rod the Mod”, but maver- ick energy, not to mention a greater commitment to investigative journal- ism, turned out to be just what they needed: during Liddle’s tenure the show’s audience grew by 40 per cent.
Liddle’s defence of Andrew Gilligan, the journalist he recruited from The Sunday Telegraph and who would go on to break the story of the Blair gov- ernment’s “sexed-up” Iraq weapons of mass destruction dossier, was just one example of Liddle’s determination to provide what he termed “jaw-drop- ping” news. “Insubordination and trouble should be part and parcel of what we do,” he said. “I should like to be in trouble more with my bosses.”
Liddle’s Today stewardship came to a sudden end in 2002 after The Daily Telegraph accused him of revealing “blatant bias” in a column he wrote for The Guardian ridiculing Countryside Alliance marches against the govern- ment’s forthcoming legislation to ban foxhunting. “You may have forgotten why you voted Labour in 1997. But then you catch a glimpse of the forces sup- porting the Countryside Alliance,” Lid- dle wrote. “Suddenly, rather gloriously, it might be that you remember.”
Ironically, Liddle’s departure from Today came as a blessed relief to much of the left. The Labour Party chairman, Charles Clarke, reportedly described it as “terrific news”. Despite voting La- bour and writing for The Guardian, Lid- dle was known for “very un-Guardian sentiments” on issues such as immigra- tion and Northern Ireland. To add to the irony, Charles Moore, the author of the article that torpedoed Liddle’s To- day career, shortly found himself work- ing alongside him at The Spectator.
Liddle was not unemployed for long. His new Spectator column, “Liddle Britain”, was accompa- nied by regular contributions to The Times (from 2003), The Sunday Times (from 2005), The Sun (from 2011), a col- umn in Country Life, ap- pearances on Radio 5 Live and a series of Channel 4 documentaries.
His columns were endlessly intriguing and provocative. He was scathing of Mar- garet Thatcher but thought clause 28, banning promotion of homosexuality in schools, was “probably right”. On immigration his stance was “never, ever to blame the immi-
Liddle in 2003 and, right, with Alicia Monckton at The Groucho Club. Below, in Edinburgh in 2014
grants but to blame the people who al- lowed them to come here”. He claimed that Nelson Mandela’s death received too much coverage, suspected that Ukip (now Reform) was secretly pro- immigration, and suggested that view- ing internet child sex abuse should be decriminalised. In one Spectator article, he claimed with the blackest of humour that he never would have made it as a teacher because he “could not remotely conceive of not trying to shag the kids”.
Liddle’s detractors labelled him a big- ot, racist, misogynist, homophobic at- tention-seeker. If no one liked the Mill- wall-supporting Liddle, he didn’t care. But plenty of people did like him and defended his function as a professional provocateur who pushed boundaries in the name of satire, entertainment and provoking debate in the best traditions
--- from Jonathan Swift to Auberon
Waugh. “I think one of the damag-
ing things in a democracy is
when you have everyone arguing the same thing,” he said. “There’s usually a rat to be smelt there. And I think that needs to be challenged.”
Rod Liddle was born in 1960 in Sidcup, Kent, and grew up in southeast London and Middles- brough. His father, Ned Liddle, came from a family of train drivers but worked for the Inland Revenue, and his mother worked for the Depart- ment of Health and Social
Security. Theirs was a tradi- tional, churchgoing family, so
skull with a chair. Later, at Laurence Jackson secondary school in North Yorkshire, he won a school election on a Communist Party ticket, largely, he said, “because I was in the football team and I was gobby and people liked that”. Two years later, he joined the Socialist Workers Party and a punk band, pierced his ear, and began buying T-shirts bear- ing anti-monarchist slogans. “You can’t sink any bloody lower, can you,” his father said. He found his parents’ con- tempt “thrilling” and wore his punk regalia when canvassing for the Labour Party during the 1983 general election campaign. “I must have singlehandedly lost my party a good 5,000 votes.”
After leaving school, and trying to
saturated with ‘spite and confrontation’
make it big with his punk band, Liddle decided that journalism offered him the best chance of effecting radical change. “How I thought I was going to do that at the South Wales Echo is another matter,” he said. He was taken on by its editor after writing him a letter in which he said the paper was “a bit crap” and offered to improve it.
After three years at the Echo, Liddle enrolled in a social psychology degree at the London School of Economics. He paid his way by working as a speech- writer for the Labour Party during what he judged to be “the most unsuccessful period in their history”. He found West- minster to be saturated with “spite, con- frontation and nastiness”. Final proof of this came in 1987, when several Labour colleagues boycotted his leaving party because he had invited some Tories.
as a trainee editor and producer at the BBC, working on The World To- night and The World at One, and took up his editorial post on Today in 1998. It was at the BBC that Liddle met the journalist Rachel Royce. They had two sons, Tyler (named after Wat Tyler, leader of the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt) and Wilder, and married in 2004.
A few months after the wedding, Roy- ce discovered that Liddle’s early depar- ture from their honeymoon was not oc- casioned, as he had claimed, by the de- mands of the Hutton inquiry, but by his desire to visit Alicia Monckton, a 22- year-old Spectator journalist with whom he was having an affair. As if to make a wider statement on the manifold romantic intrigues that led to the maga- zine being labelled as “The Sextator” — including Boris Johnson’s affair with Petronella Wyatt and the publisher Kimberly Quinn’s three-year affair with the Labour cabinet minister David Blun- kett — Royce had ten sacks of manure delivered to the Spectator offices. He and Royce finalised their divorce in 2007; he married Monckton in 2008 and they had a daughter, Emmeline. Liddle is survived by his wife and three children.
Unchastened by scrutiny of his per- sonal life, Liddle became the first jour- nalist to have a blog censured by the Press Complaints Commission in 2010 after he made an unsubstantiated claim that the majority of violent crime in London was perpetrated by Afro-Car- ibbean men. He was accused of racism again after derogatory jokes he had posted on a Millwall FC blog under the moniker “monkeymfc” came to light. The controversies allegedly led to his name being dropped from contention
for the editorship of The Independent.
No one and nothing was safe in Liddle’s satirical crosshairs, from Welsh nationalists described as “miserable, seaweed munching, sheep-bothering pinch-faced hill-tribes” to the use of amyl nitrate to relax the sphincter mus- cle being “God’s way of telling you that what you are about to do is unnatural and perverse”. The one person Liddle felt he actually owed an apology to was Harriet Harman. In an infamous 2009 column about the Labour politician, Liddle wrote: “So — Harriet Harman, then. Would you? I mean after a few beers obviously, not while you were so- ber.” He claimed the piece was intended as a parody of sexism. “I didn’t think how it would affect her,” he admitted.
After Brexit, Liddle averred that Leavers had been betrayed by the gov- ernment’s half-hearted implementa- tion of Brexit’s terms. “Never have so many blameless people in this country been held in such contempt, or been subject to such vilification, by an elite,” he wrote in The Great Betrayal. This was his first book since 2014’s Selfish, Whin-
ing Monkeys, a collection of
complaints about the state
of Britain. Driven by his
views on Brexit, and
his suspension from
the Labour Party in
2016, Liddle an-
nounced that he
had joined the SDP in 2019. He stood for the party in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland in the 2024 general election and came fourth. Though he often warned of the threats posed by cancel culture, Liddle’s own career seemed to prove that almost any scandal could be seen out with enough wit and an obdu- rate sense of humour, despite some jokes that went close to (and occasion- ally straight through) the bone. In a speech at the University of Durham in December 2021, he said: “Colonialism is not remotely the major cause of Africa’s problems, just as it is very easy to prove that the educational underachieve- ment of British people of Caribbean descent or African Americans is noth- ing to do with institutional or structural racism.”
In 2025 Liddle made an unexpected return to the airwaves on Times Radio’s Saturday morning show. “The first couple of shows were terrifying,” he admitted. “Three hours to get through without losing the script, saying ‘holy f***’ or having a heart attack.” Soon, however, he and his producer Danny Garlick got into the rhythm: Liddle fo- cused on breaking the political mould and upsetting “London liberals”, while Garlick fielded his more critical listener comments. “He does not forward to me the messages which say: ‘Get this inter- minable arse off air this minute’,” Liddle said. “When I ask him how many say that sort of thing, he usually mumbles: “Oh, you know, only one or two …”
Wally Funk waited six decades for the moment when she could unbuckle her seat belt and float in weightless bliss in a spacecraft 66 miles above Earth. Long after she had dreamt of becoming one of the youngest American astronauts, the white-haired 82-year-old’s flight in the Blue Origin vehicle in 2021 made her the oldest person in space.
In 1961 Funk was one of 25 female pilots selected to undergo the same physical and psychological examina- tions endured two years earlier by Na- sa’s first astronaut cohort, the Mercury Seven. The space agency accepted only military test pilots, a role which barred women. But Dr Randy Lovelace, the chairman of Nasa’s life sciences com- mittee, led a privately funded project to see if women were physically capable of withstanding the rigours of space flight.
At 22, Funk was the youngest candi- date. She travelled to Lovelace’s clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for a week of invasive and arduous testing that included more than 80 X-rays,
she floated out of her seat and somersaulted
pushing a 3ft rubber tube down her throat to measure her stomach acidity, dripping ice-water into her ear to in- duce vertigo, and half-a-dozen enemas.
She spent 10 hours and 35 minutes floating in a pitch-black sensory-depri- vation tank, outperforming male astro- nauts including John Glenn. One of the key differences between the men and the women, a doctor later observed, was that the women complained less. Ultimately, 19 women attended the clinic and 13 passed Lovelace’s tests: a better success rate than the men, who saw 18 passes from 32 candidates.
Yet seven months later the Women in Space programme was scrapped. It was clear that Nasa had no intention of hir-
Historian of wartime Britain who brought the voices of ordinary people to the fore through her use of anecdotal material
In her memoir Joining the Dots, Juliet Gardiner observed that she had felt like an outsider for most of her life. It began when she was adopted by parents who were cold, even callous towards their only daughter, and evolved when aged 17 she married an aspiring Tory MP whose political views differed so dra- matically from hers that it was like being “a vicar’s wife who does not believe in God”. It was only after their divorce that her career as a social historian took off, but it was this very rootlessness that Gardiner believed made her such a natural observer of the lives of others.
She tried to get under the skin of a period by using huge quantities of anecdotal material to tell the stories of ordinary people. It was a quest that took her to far-flung corners of Britain in- cluding the Orkneys (according to Gar- diner the most heavily defended part of Britain during the Second World War), Cornwall (the least defended), the South Wales Miners Museum and the East Finchley home of a 98-year-old woman who had worked for the Minis- try of Food while her husband was fighting and had an affair with her brother-in-law “since everyone had affairs in the Blitz”.
ing an astronaut from the so-called Mercury 13, who were nicknamed the Flats: First Lady Astronaut Trainees.
Not one to take no for an answer, she made three more unsuccessful applica- tions and continued to take aptitude tests on her own initiative. Though the Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshko- va flew a solo space mission in 1963, Na- sa did not select female astronauts until 1978. Sally Ride became the first Amer- ican woman in space five years later.
The chipper Funk did not abandon hope. “I love challenges, and I like ’em hard,” she told a reporter. As commer- cial spaceflight companies proliferated from the 1990s she made numerous media appearances, capitalising on her Mercury renown and her subsequent career as a pilot, instructor and advo- cate for women in aviation. In a docu- mentary in 2000 she travelled to Star City in Russia to undergo cosmonaut training. She spent her $200,000 life savings in 2010 on a ticket for a Virgin Galactic flight, but the troubled com- pany did not make its first sub-orbital space tourism flight until 2023.
Funk had been invited to lunch two years before with the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, who proposed that she join him on the maiden crewed trip of his New Shepard rocket and capsule, which blasted off from Texas on July 20, 2021. Funk yelled “Woo-hoo!” as she floated out of her seat and somersault- ed in mid-air after crossing the theoret- ical boundary between the planet’s at- mosphere and the start of outer space during a trip that lasted a little over ten minutes. Funk’s geriatric record was short-lived: the then-90-year-old Star Trek actor William Shatner boldly went into space on another Blue Origin out- ing in October 2021. (Ed Dwight, also 90, claimed the record in 2024.)
“I could always beat the guys on what they were doing because I was always stronger and I’ve always done every- thing on my own,” a beaming Funk told reporters after her flight. “I want to go
picture’ of a nation united in coura- geously facing a common enemy holds steady — as it surely does — so too do the ‘short stories’, the details of people’s varied experiences of war that compli- cate and nuance that picture.”
Exhaustive at 800 pages, The Thirties: An Intimate History of Britain — argua- bly her masterpiece — shed light on a period defined by huge wealth discrep- ancies by focusing on the lower middle- classes living in a fast-changing subur- bia. Gardiner zoomed from consumer trends and escalating political tensions to how poor nutrition meant that, in the 1930s, it was four times as dangerous to bear a child as it was to work down a coalmine.
Gardiner’s childhood was a “messy one”, she said, “but as a historian I’d ex- pect nothing less”. Born Olivia to an unmarried mother in London’s East End in 1943, she was taken in at two months old by the Church of En- gland Incorporat- ed Society for Pro- viding Homes for Waifs and Strays after her original adoption plans fell through owing to a severe case of bron- chitis. “I not only exist in a personal historical void; I am a void, officially a
Funk was the first female civilian flight instructor at an American military base
again, fast. I loved every minute of it. I just wish it had been longer.”
Mary Wallace Funk was born in the New Mexico city of Las Vegas in 1939, to Lozier, who ran five-and-dime general stores, and Virginia (née Shy), whose own flying ambitions were thwarted by her father, a banker who insisted a woman’s place was in the home.
The family lived in the mountainous artists’ enclave of Taos, where Wally was taught outdoor skills by Native Americans. Aged five she donned a Superman cape and attempted to fly by jumping off the roof of the family’s barn and flapping her arms. Fortunately, she had laid hay on the ground to break her fall. She built model aeroplanes, studied
filius nullius,” she wrote in her memoir.
At two and a half, she was adopted by Dorothy, known as Dolly, and Charles Wells, an “anxious soul” who worked for the Hemel Hempstead rural district council as a sanitary inspector.
Her relationship with her adoptive parents was strained from the start. Both in their late forties, they were “stuck in their ways, rigid in their routines, uninsured to the noise and tumbling of childhood”. Once told she had been adopted, Gillian, as they re- named her, was barred from mention- ing it again, and scolded if she did so. She never tracked down her birth mother, though an uncle said that she was probably Italian. “My mother and I were a disappointment to each other,” she said. “I was not the daughter she
had hoped for.”
Much of her childhood
was spent “biding my
time”; she read vora-
ciously and won a
scholarship to the
local grammar, where she found-
ed the Labour Club. At home university was discouraged. “My mother was clear that marriage was my destiny, reminding me that everyone knew that men didn’t like clever
aviation at Stephens College in Missou- ri, earned her pilot’s licence aged 17 then enrolled at Oklahoma State Uni- versity, where she flew small aircraft. She graduated in 1960 and became the first female civilian flight instructor at an American military base. “Flying is freedom,” she wrote in her 2020 auto- biography, Higher, Faster, Longer. “I ac- tually feel like I am closer to God when I am high in the sky.”
Funk resolved to become an astro- naut after seeing her fellow flying club member, Jerrie Cobb, described as a “potential lady orbiter” in Life maga- zine. When Nasa spurned the 13, she worked as a pilot, aerial acrobat and in- structor across the United States. After
women,” she said. “Interviews were arranged for me at various secretarial colleges. I declined to attend.”
Aged 16, she ran away and took a job selling lingerie in Brighton, where she met George Gardiner, an Oxbridge- educated politician and later member of the “gang of four” who successfully plotted to replace Edward Heath with Margaret Thatcher as Conservative leader. They married in 1961 and moved to London where Juliet, as she was now known, worked for TV Times.
Gardiner saw her husband, who was never blessed with good looks, as a “sta- ble rock on which to clamber in order to change my life” but being an MP’s wife (he was elected in 1974) was a role to which she was unsuited. Conscious of her stunted education, she enrolled at Walbrook College near Waterloo to study A-level history, English and Lat- in. Of the five mature students, she was the only one with children, and in 1976 was awarded first class honours in his- tory at University College London.
By the end of the decade she had divorced Gardiner and in 1982 was appointed the first female editor of History Today, a “boys’ club” magazine which she found “outdated and irrele- vant”. To make it more democratic, she commissioned pieces about ordinary working men and women, in line with recent historical developments, as well as a special issue on “Blacks in Britain”.
ZUMA PRESS/ALAMY
taking two-and-a-half years off to drive a Volkswagen camper van on a grand tour of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in 1971 she became the first woman hired as a Federal Aviation Ad- ministration inspector and embraced a new hobby: parachute jumping. She then became the first female fatal acci- dent investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, which secured her an invitation to a White House brunch with the first lady, Betty Ford. It was sobering work: many acci- dents were avoidable and sometimes charred bodies were found disturbed by thieves who stole from the victims.
She left the job in 1985, running a fly- ing school and competing in a women’s transcontinental air race known as the Powder Puff Derby. Funk collected classic cars, including a Rolls-Royce Sil- ver Wraith once owned by the Queen Mother; she replaced the tyres and the chinchilla fur carpet in the rear. Though averse to wearing seat belts in cars, she gave aviation safety lectures and invented the “Wally Stick”, a wood- en dowel to help pilots detect propeller cracks from tapping sounds.
She did not marry and left no imme- diate survivors. Flying, she wrote, was her enduring love: “I often say that I am married to airplanes. I’ve logged over 19,600 hours of flying.” Her living room held two television sets, one of which was always on and permanently tuned to the Nasa channel.
A year after she finally reached space, she was given a lifetime achievement award by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, which de- clared: “Funk embodies the adage of ‘never give up on your dreams’.” She concurred: “Well, that’s right. Why would you ever give up trying to do something you really wanted to do?”
Wally Funk, aviator and astronaut, was born on February 1, 1939. She died of complications from falls and a leg infection on July 8, 2026, aged 87
which was published in 1992, when she was nearly 50 — Gardiner appeared on a number of programmes for the BBC and Channel 4. She was the historical adviser on the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s Atonement in 2007 and ran a history imprint, Juliet Gardiner Books, for Collins & Brown.
In 2012 she was diagnosed with an ag- gressive malignant brain tumour. She is survived by her three children with Ge- orge: Alexander, Sebastian and Sophie. Her second husband, the American historian Henry Horwitz, died in 2019.
Gardiner’s democratic approach to history extended even to her travel arrangements. In the grey and damp summer of 2010, she bought a red-and- white tent with a cross of St George on one side to pitch at campsites near archives she planned to visit. It “was going cheap after the England football team had been knocked out of the World Cup”. Of an evening, she would sit beneath pine trees with a glass of wine, her material spread out in front of her. “Often, realising that the England tent was mine, I was offered a can of lager and a packet of crisps by fellow campers — football fans who thought I was one of them, applauding my loyalty to a defeated side.”
Lives remembered
Lord Terring- ton writes: Contrary to that which is said in his obit- uary (August 1), Donald could and did organise. The result was a last- ing legacy for British rowing.
In 1964 the committee of Leander Club asked him to start a cadet training programme. At that time, membership of Lean- der was limited to those who had already distinguished them- selves in rowing elsewhere. The club, therefore, had a large num- ber of excellent oarsmen but produced no new ones of its own. Although it had a long list of winning boats, some mem- bers rested on their laurels. The haul of trophies had diminished in the previous 15 years.
Donald seized this opportuni- ty. From 1965 he recruited young oarsmen just as they left school. I was lucky enough to cox the cadet VIII in its first two years. I saw at first hand Do- nald’s organisational skills, from persuading the committee that cadets should be full club mem- bers (which some opposed) up to organising every detail of training with the best available coaches.
In 1968 the cadet crew won the Thames Cup at Henley. This was the beginning of a run of successes that continues to the present. Later, women were also recruited to the programme. Many Leander cadets have become elite-level athletes, win- ning international and Olympic medals. Donald Legget was in- strumental in rescuing British rowing from decay.
Richard Roberts writes: When I was a nine-year-old schoolboy at Mostyn House School, Park- gate on the Wirral, Donald Leg- get was tasked with trying to in- stil Latin into me. I responded by dancing around my desk and he hurled a very heavy Latin/ En- glish dictionary at me. Neither of us bore a grudge.
Alec Synge writes: I was a col- league of Donald Legget when he taught at Mostyn House School. I think he enjoyed it more than he might have let on, not least because of his genuine love of Classics and enthusiasm for athletics coaching.
These two interests coincided dramatically during an inter- school cricket match. Space re- strictions meant the boundary line doubled up as part of the 400 metre track, which Donald could use while the two teams were at tea.
However, just as a race set off round the track some visiting parents and pupils returned, creating an obstruction. Donald responded by shouting through his loudhailer, “Get off the f***ing track, you bloody anus- es.” Unsurprisingly, a startled silence fell over the grounds. This enabled Donald’s extra re- mark to be heard with utmost clarity: “Sorry, Classics, of course I mean ani.”
David Crigman KC writes: Bill Oddie (obitu- ary, July 27) was a fellow pupil of mine at King Edward’s School, Birmingham. On the last day of term, July 1961, when he was leaving to go to Cam- bridge, he organised a massive prank. A procession came down the long school drive headed by USAF military vehicles and air- men in full uniform from a local US air base. Following were enormous American autos and vintage cars full of pupils. Bring- ing up the rear was a large van, on top of which a jazz band was in full flow with Bill Oddie lead- ing on the trumpet.
At a given signal, the windows of the adjacent girls’ school opened and hundreds of girls joined the absolute mayhem that had now developed. The formidable chief master stood glaring in a cold fury at this
Doctor with an interest
Ruth MacGillivray, who died aged 94, appeared in The Times on Saturday June 21, 2025
Commemorate the life of a friend or relative in Readers’ Lives, a service in contracted tributes
Call 020 7782 5583 or email readerslives@thetimes.co.uk
chaos, unaware that on the flag- pole on the roof behind him some wag had hoisted an old bike and a pair of girl’s knickers.
Various steps were taken to punish the organisers, which is another story, but it is said that the chief master wrote upon Bill Oddie’s leaving report: “If he thinks he can earn a living by making people laugh he is mistaken”. Well done, Bill, you had the last laugh and thanks for all the fun.
Richard Reeve writes: I was a first-year pupil at King Edward’s when Bill was starting his final year there. As well as my house captain, he was a prefect, school captain of rugby and a great rugby fly-half, which he put down to being so short that he could duck under most tackles. He also helped two first-year boys, Sherrings we were called, to put on a short comedy sketch at our House Party, perhaps showing where his artistic future lay.
The Rev Profes- sor Richard Griffiths writes: The various obituaries and tributes to Edward Nor- man (July 20), while concentrating on his aca- demic and religious views and writings, have not touched on his humour, his warmth and his friendship.
Whether enjoying the bump- er cars in Morecambe while pre- paring his Reith lectures, bril- liantly impersonating the voices of academic or religious col- leagues, or puncturing preten- sions wherever he found them, Edward was always good com- pany and, more importantly, an excellent friend.
W If you would like to add a personal view or recollection to a published obituary, you can send your contribution by email to tributes@thetimes.co.uk
Births, Marriages and Deaths
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WE always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all God’s people. Colossians 1.3-4 (GNB)
Bible verses are provided by the Bible Society
Births ADOURIAN-KELLY on 29th July 2026 to Laura-Jane and Hamish, a daughter, Elodie Elizabeth, sister to Alanna and Annalise. Fortuna et laetitia.
FISHER on 21st July 2026 to Camilla (née Krefting) and Simon, a daughter,
Ophelia Bluebell Krefting. We are delighted to announce the
birth of our first child.
Anniversaries
KERSLAKE : DIPPLE Congratulations Terry and Pamela Kerslake on your Platinum 70th Wedding Anniversary. Amazing! Married 4th August 1957, St John’s Bethnal Green. Much love from your proud family.
MEEKS : MEEKS Mr M. You are the anchor that holds me in place, you are my strength, my happiness and my inspiration. You are my husband, my best friend, I love our happy days together. Most of all, I just love you. Happy Anniversary. Love, Mrs M.
Deaths BRUCE John. Died peacefully at home on 27th July 2026. Beloved husband, much-loved father and grandpa. Funeral service at Binham Priory on Monday 10th August at 3pm. All inquiries to S. T. Sutton Funeral Directors, 01328 710301, stsutton@northnorfolkfuneralservices.co.uk
LEGAL, PUBLIC, COMPANY & PARLIAMENTARY NOTICES
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Notices are subject to confirmation and should be received by 11.30am three days prior to insertion
Court Circular
St James’s Palace 3rd August, 2026 The Princess Royal, accompanied by Vice-Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, today carried out the following engagements on the Isle of Wight and was received by His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant (Mrs Susan Sheldon):
Her Royal Highness this morning opened Albany Green, East Cowes, on the occasion of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of Cowes Week.
CURRIE Brian Murdoch, passed away peacefully on 26th July 2026, aged 91. Loving husband of the late Trixie, a devoted father and a treasured grandfather and great-grandfather. The Service of Thanksgiving will take place at St Michael and All Angels’ Church, Bampton, Devon, on Thursday, 13th August 2026 at 2pm. Family flowers only please.
JOHNS Derek Alan, FRSL, died July 24th 2026, aged 78. Literary agent, editor, publisher, writer, counsellor, brother and friend; an adventurer, a peacemaker and a gentleman, respected and beloved.
LAND Ralph Richard OBE, CBE, died peacefully on 23rd July 2026, aged 97, at home. A refugee from Nazi Germany, he was part of LEO’s team that pioneered computers, built markets for computers in the Soviet Bloc and was active in trade councils, London Rotary, Reform Club, Westminster Foundation for Democracy.
LANGLEY Charlotte Maria Grace died peacefully on 29th July 2026, aged 64. Burial 7th August at 2.30pm, St Luke’s Milland, GU30 7JL.
POWER
Robert Joseph Charles Power passed
away on 23rd July 2026, aged 77, in Barnet Hospital after a long Illness.
Sadly missed by his loving wife Elzbieta, son Simon and partner Carly,
grandchildren Charles, Amber, Theodore, Hugo and Adelaide, his brothers Ben, Liam and John, sister
Sara, sisters-in-law Aida, Margriet,
Audrey and Ann, brothers-in-law Frank and Walter, nieces, nephews,
cousins, his extended family of relatives and a wide circle of friends.
TEMPERLEY John Brian, former solicitor, died peacefully on 18th July 2026, aged 96, at Southwell Court Care Home. Loving husband, father, grandfather and great- grandfather. Private cremation followed by Service of Thanksgiving at Bleasby Church at 1.30pm on Thursday 20th August. No flowers please but donations to St Mary’s Church Bleasby welcome. Inquiries to D. J. Hall Funeral Directors, Verne House, King Street, Southwell, NG25 0EN.
In The High Court of Justice Business and Property Courts of England & Wales: CR-2026-004370 Companies And Insolvency List (CH. D.) EURO EXCHANGE SECURITIES UK LIMITED (In Special Administration) (Company Number 06409565) TRADING NAME: EURO EXCHANGE SECURITIES UK LIMITED Registered Office: C/O Teneo Financial Advisory Limited, The Colmore Building, 20 Colmore Circus Queensway, Birmingham, B4 6AT Principal Former Trading Address: 107 Great Portland Street, London, United Kingdom, W1W 6QG NOTICE OF RELEVANT FUNDS SOFT BAR DATE IN ACCORDANCE WITH REGULATION 20 OF THE PAYMENT AND ELECTRONIC MONEY INSTITUTION INSOLVENCY REGULATIONS 2021 BAR DATE: 17:00 (BST) on 5 SEPTEMBER 2026 DUNCAN PERRING (IP 021850) AND JAMES BENNETT (IP 020490), of Teneo Financial Advisory Limited, The Colmore Buildings, 20 Colmore Circus Queensway, Birmingham, B4 6AT were appointed as special administrators (the "Joint Special Administrators”) of EURO EXCHANGE SECURITIES UK LIMITED (in special administration) (the "Company”) on 11 June 2026 pursuant to The Payment and Electronic Money Institution Insolvency Regulations 2021 (as amended) (the "Regulations”). The Joint Special Administrators hereby give notice, in accordance with Regulation 20 of the Regulations, as follows: 1. The Joint Special Administrators consider that it is necessary, in order to expedite the return of relevant funds, to set a soft bar date of 17:00 (BST) on 5 SEPTEMBER 2026 (the “Relevant Funds Soft Bar Date”) for the submission of claims for the return of relevant funds (a “Relevant Funds Claim”). 2. The Joint Special Administrators consider that the time between publication of this Relevant Funds Soft Bar Date notice, and the Relevant Funds Soft Bar Date, is a reasonable amount of time for customers to be able to calculate and submit their Relevant Funds Claim. 3. This notice will be: (a) sent to all customers of the Company whose Relevant Funds Claims the Joint Special Administrators are aware of, provided the Joint Special Administrators have a means of contacting them; (b) sent to all those persons whom the Joint Special Administrators believe have a right to assert a security interest or other entitlement over the asset pool, provided the Joint Special Administrators have a means of contacting them; (c) placed in the London Gazette; (d) advertised in The Times; (e) published on the Administrators’ website at www.ips-docs.com; and (f) sent to the FCA. 4. The purpose of the Relevant Funds Soft Bar Date is to allow the Joint Special Administrators to commence the process for assessing submitted Relevant Funds Claims in order to make distributions of relevant funds to customers in accordance with the terms of a Distribution Plan to be prepared by the Joint Special Administrators pursuant to Rule 112(1) of the Payment and Electronic Money Institution Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2021 (the “Rules”). 5. As soon as reasonably practicable after the Relevant Funds Soft Bar Date, the Joint Special Administrators must make a distribution of relevant funds from the asset pool to persons who are entitled to them under their claims in accordance with Regulation 20(4) of the Regulations. 6. Unless you submit your Relevant Funds Claim prior to the Relevant Funds Soft Bar Date, the Joint Special Administrators will not be able to guarantee that your Relevant Funds Claim will be included in the distribution of relevant funds to be made after the Relevant Funds Soft Bar Date. 7. Subject to Regulation 20(8), once the Joint Special Administrators have returned relevant funds after the Relevant Funds Soft Bar Date, no payment or part of any payment made to any person under the distribution may be recovered for the purpose of meeting a late claim in accordance with Regulation 20(7) of the Regulations. 8. If you believe that you have a Relevant Funds Claim, please return your completed Relevant Funds Claim form to the Joint Special Administrators at EESUKCustomers@Teneo.com on or before the Relevant Funds Soft Bar Date. Customer written statements of claim forms may be obtained from: https://www.ips-docs.com/ case/EESUK0001I/Bn2ACcJSPU Customers can also obtain a claim form on request to EESUKCustomers@teneo.com 9. If you have been sent this notice, it does not mean that you necessarily have a Relevant Funds Claim or are otherwise entitled to receive a distribution of relevant funds. 10. Any general queries in relation to this notice should be directed to EESUKCustomers@Teneo.com. Alternatively the Joint Special Administrators can be contacted at 0121 619 0150. You may wish, however, to consult your own legal and other professional advisers for advice in relation to the scope and effect of this notice. Duncan Perring and James Bennett (Joint Special Administrators of the Company). The Joint Special Administrators act as agents of the Company without personal liability. 29 July 2026
Congratulations CONGRATULATIONS to David Nunn (son of Martin and Jane Nunn) and Grace Knight (daughter of Edward and Marie Knight) on their engagement.
Legal Notices
NOTICE UNDER SECTION 27 OF THE TRUSTEE ACT 1925 Heal’s Pension and Life Assurance Plan (“the Plan”) Relevant employers who have been involved with the Plan or the predecessor schemes include: Heal & S o n L i m i t e d ( c o m p a n y number 00926722) Notice is hereby given, pursuant to Section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925, by Heal’s Pension Fund Trustees Limited, in its capacity as trustee of the Plan (the “Trustee”), that the winding-up of the Plan has commenced. If you have already received a communication from the Trustee regarding this matter or if you have already made a claim and received a response, then you do not need to take any action as the Trustee already has details of your claims and entitlements. Any person who has not b e e n c o n t a c t e d b y t h e T r u s t e e regarding the wind-up of the Plan and who believes that they have a claim against or entitlement to a pension or any benefit from the Plan is hereby requested to: Write to: Heal’s Pension Fund Trustees Limited (as Trustee of the Heal’s Pension and Life Assurance Plan) c/o Capital Cranfield Pension Trustees Limited 42 New Broad Street London England EC2M 1JD Or Email: heals@cctl.co.uk In order to make a claim, claimants should provide full details of their claim, including their full name, address, date of birth, national insurance number and, if applicable, dates of employment when they, their spouse or a person on whom they were dependant worked for Heal & Son Limited (or any other employer who the claimant believes was involved with the Plan) within two months of the date of publication of this notice. Please clearly quote the Plan’s name in all correspondence. All claims must be made on or before 6 October 2026 After this date the Trustee will proceed to wind up the Plan and secure benefits for any remaining beneficiaries, having regard only to the claims and interests of which it has prior notice. The Trustee will not be liable to any person if it has not had prior notice of their claims and demands. Issued on behalf of the Trustee of the Heal’s Pension and Life Assurance Plan 4 August 2026
y
Sh
Sh
L
Key: b=bright, c=cloud, d=drizzle, pc=partly cloudy du=dull, f=fair, fg=fog, h=hail, m=mist, r=rain, sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, t=thunder =previous day *=data not available
Temp C Rain mm Sun hr* midday yesterday 24 hrs to 5pm yesterday
Aberdeen Aberporth Anglesey Aviemore Barnstaple Bedford Belfast Birmingham Bournemouth Bridlington Bristol Camborne Cardiff Edinburgh Eskdalemuir Glasgow Hereford Herstmonceux Ipswich Isle of Man Isle of Wight Jersey Keswick Kinloss Leeds Lerwick Leuchars Lincoln Liverpool London Lyneham Manchester Margate Milford Haven Newcastle Nottingham Orkney Oxford Plymouth Portland Scilly, St Mary’s Shoreham Shrewsbury Snowdonia Southend South Uist Stornoway Tiree Whitehaven Wick Yeovilton
ney
ney
Birmingham
Oxford
17
D
0.0
2.5
25
PC
1.0
4.4
24
PC
0.2
4.1
14
R
0.4
1.6
26
C
0.0
**
27
S
0.0
**
19
C
0.2
2.5
28
S
0.0
**
26
C
0.0 11.0
22
S
0.0
**
28
S
0.0 12.2
24
PC
0.0 11.6
24
PC
0.0 12.9
16
C
2.2
7.8
17
C
1.6
8.8
17
PC
1.2
2.9
27
S
0.0
**
31
PC
0.0
9.6
28
S
0.0
9.0
21
PC
0.6
4.9
30
S
0.0
**
28
S
0.0 11.6
23
C
0.8
**
0.4
5.6
23
PC
0.0
**
13
C
0.4
4.0
16
C
1.2
9.7
26
S
0.0
8.8
28
PC
0.0
**
30
S
0.0
9.2
29
S
0.0 12.1
27
PC
0.0
7.7
23
S
0.0 12.6
20
C
1.2
**
18
C
0.4
**
27
S
0.0
9.6
16
C
0.0
**
30
S
0.0
**
27
S
0.0
**
24
PC
0.0
**
23
PC
0.0
**
32
PC
0.0 10.9
27
S
0.0
7.0
25
S
0.0
**
24
S
0.0 13.4
14
C
0.4
**
15
C
0.0
2.4
15
R
0.4
4.8
20
PC
0.0
6.9
**
C
0.0
**
28
PC
0.0 12.2
The world All readings local midday yesterday
Alicante Amsterdam Athens Auckland Bahrain Bangkok Barbados Barcelona Beijing Beirut Belgrade Berlin Bermuda Bordeaux Brussels Bucharest Budapest Buenos Aires Cairo Calcutta Canberra Cape Town Chicago Copenhagen Corfu Delhi Dubai Dublin Faro Florence Frankfurt Geneva Gibraltar Helsinki Hong Kong Honolulu Istanbul Jerusalem Johannesburg Kuala Lumpur Kyiv Lanzarote Las Palmas Lima Lisbon Los Angeles Luxor
34 S 26 S 29 PC
42 S 32 PC 30 PC 31 PC
34 S 24 PC 30 PC 34 S 28 S 30 S 36 S
37 S 33 ** 14 PC 23 S 22 C 22 PC 34 S 34 PC 46 S 18 PC 26 S 35 S 29 S 31 S 31 S 22 S 27 PC
30 PC 35 S 16 S 34 PC
35 S 31 S 21 C 28 S 26 PC 42 S
Madeira Madrid Malaga Mallorca Malta Melbourne Mexico City Miami Milan Mombasa Montreal Moscow Mumbai Munich Nairobi Naples New Orleans New York Nice Nicosia Oslo Paris Perth Prague Reykjavik Riga Rio de Janeiro Riyadh Rome San Francisco Santiago São Paulo Seoul Seychelles Singapore St Petersburg Stockholm Sydney Tel Aviv Tenerife Tokyo Vancouver Venice Vienna Warsaw Washington Zurich
Sunday
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Five days ahead Changeable with outbreaks of rain and showers. Driest and sunniest in the south
Wind speed
34 Sea state
Tomorrow
Showers or longer spells of showery rain in northern and western Scotland, the north of Ireland and northwestern England. Sunny spells with the chance of a shower elsewhere. Max 27C, min 6C
Thursday
Showery rain in northern England and
East Anglia. A dry morning in Ireland
and western Scotland although rain
will push in during the afternoon.
Largely dry in other areas.
Max 25C, min 7C
Friday
Spells of rain in western Scotland and the Northern Isles. Sunny periods with the chance of a shower in Ireland, northern England, Wales and other parts of Scotland. Dry elsewhere. Max 26C, min 9C
General situation: Heavy and showery rain in central and northern Scotland. Sunny spells and scattered heavy showers elsewhere. Driest in the southeast of England. London, SE Eng, E Anglia: A hot day with sunny spells and a small chance of an isolated shower. Moderate southwesterly winds. Maximum 32C (90F), minimum 16C (61F). N Ireland, Republic of Ireland: Sunny intervals and scattered heavy showers, some thundery. Gentle to fresh west or
erly winds Max
26 PC
32 S
30 S
34 S
33 PC
14 PC
25 PC
33 B
28 PC
28 B
26 B
27 S
28 M
28 B
21 B
32 PC
34 PC
29 B
30 PC
35 PC
18 S
30 S
16 PC
22 B
16 S
21 PC
26 S
44 S
33 S
23 PC
8
B
23 S
32 PC
29 PC
32 PC
18 B
18 S
18 PC
35 S
30 S
33 PC
22 PC
26 S 22 PC 30 PC
Saturday
Outbreaks of rain and showers in Ireland, Wales, northwestern England and Scotland. Dry elsewhere in England with sunny spells. Max 26C, min 8C
Tides Tidal predictions. Heights in metres. All times in local time
Today Ht Ht Aberdeen Avonmouth Belfast Cardiff Devonport Dover Dublin Falmouth Greenock Harwich Holyhead Hull Leith Liverpool London Bridge Lowestoft Milford Haven Morecambe Newhaven Newquay Oban Penzance Portsmouth Shoreham Southampton Swansea Tees Weymouth
Outbreaks of light rain or showers in northern England, Ireland, Wales and southern Scotland. Sunny spells with the chance of an isolated light shower in other areas. Max 27C, min 6C
The Times weather page is provided by
Glasgow Edinburgh
Carlisle Newcastle
25 21
Manchester Liverpool Hull
Shrewsbury Nottingham
Plymouth Exeter Southampton
southwesterly winds. Maximum 22C (72F), minimum 10C (50F). SW Eng, Midlands, Wales, Cen S Eng, NW Eng, Cen N Eng, E Eng, NE Eng, Lake District, IoM, Channel Is: Sunny periods and scattered heavy showers, heaviest in northern England, northern Wales and southwestern England. Light to moderate southwesterly winds. Maximum 30C (86F), minimum 12C (54F). Cen Highland, Moray Firth, N Isles, NW Scotland, NE Scotland: An overcast
05:25 4.1 18:06 3.8 11:32 12.0 23:50 12.0 03:04 3.5 15:37 3.2 11:13 11.3 23:32 11.2 10:05 4.9 22:14 5.1 02:57 6.3 15:20 6.5 03:36 4.0 16:11 3.7 09:18 4.7 21:34 4.9 04:29 3.5 16:55 3.2 04:01 3.8 16:00 3.8 02:23 5.4 14:47 5.0 10:32 7.2 23:03 6.7 06:46 5.3 19:24 5.0 03:07 9.0 15:29 8.6 06:06 6.6 18:18 6.7 01:45 2.3 13:45 2.6 10:29 6.4 22:51 6.5 03:18 9.1 15:41 8.5 03:07 6.2 15:30 6.3 09:23 6.2 21:45 6.3 09:46 3.4 22:17 3.6 08:54 5.0 21:15 5.1 03:25 4.4 16:05 4.4 03:09 5.9 15:34 5.9 02:43 4.4 15:33 4.5 10:31 8.6 22:50 8.6 07:47 5.3 20:31 5.0 10:53 1.7 23:07 1.8
Synoptic situation A cold front followed by a series of troughs and occlusions associated with an area of low pressure centred over the British Isles will bring scattered heavy showers to Ireland, northern and western England, Wales and later to southern Scotland. A warm front will bring cloud and spells of heavy and showery rain to central and northern Scotland.
Orkney Shetland
ney ney
Sheffield
day with spells of heavy and showery rain. Moderate to strong east or northeasterly winds. Maximum 20C (68F), minimum 10C (50F). SW Scotland, Borders, Glasgow, Argyll, Edinburgh and Dundee, Aberdeen: Heavy and showery rain will clear northwards though the morning. Sunny periods with the chance of a few heavy showers in the afternoon. Light to moderate south or southeasterly winds. Maximum 23C (73F), minimum 11C (52F).
Hours of darkness Aberdeen Belfast Birmingham Cardiff Exeter Glasgow Liverpool London Manchester Newcastle Norwich Penzance Sheffield
21:46-04:44 21:49-05:11 21:24-05:04 21:26-05:13 21:24-05:17 21:48-04:59 21:32-05:05 21:14-05:00 21:30-05:01 21:33-04:53 21:12-04:50 21:30-05:27 21:26-04:59
Warmest: Wiggonholt, 33.2C
Coldest: Altnaharra, 2.4C
Wettest: Lough Fea,
Co Londonderry, 5.6mm
Sunniest: Shoeburyness,
Essex, 13.4hrs*
Sun and moon For Greenwich Sun rises: Sun sets: Moon rises: Moon sets:
05.28 20.43 22.25 13.46 Wed
Third quarter: August 6
Paul Simons
ord Francis Willoughby led a dangerous life during the English Civil War in the 1600s. Initially on the Parliamentary side, he defected to the Royalists and set sail for Barbados. But when a Royalist force threatened the island he organised an expedition to the “Wild Coast” of Guyana.
There he established a colony, “Willoughbyland” — what is now Suriname — fuelled by rumours of the legendary city of El Dorado full of gold. Even though no gold was found there, the land was fertile and the settlers grew cotton and tobacco and exported valuable hardwoods. The colony also became something of a democracy, offering religious freedom and free trade with the neighbouring French and Dutch colonies. But eventually it degenerated and the colony fell into angry factionalism. An outbreak of disease killed a third of the settlers, and in 1666 the colony went to war with Dutch and French settlements and losses in the fighting further weakened Willoughbyland.
The final blow came when the French seized the English colony of St Kitts. Willoughby gathered a fleet of 17 ships and 2,000 troops to take back St Kitts. But 360 years ago, on August 4, 1666, the fleet arrived at the French colony of Guadeloupe on the way to to St Kitts and, seeing an opportunity to strike back at the French, Willoughby attacked and overran the harbour’s fortifications. That night a tremendous hurricane blew up, the walls of the fort collapsed and almost the entire English fleet was wrecked and its crews drowned, including Willoughby. Only two ships survived. It was one of the worst hurricanes recorded in the 17th century, which left Guadeloupe, Martinique and St Kitts decimated.
Eventually, Charles II gave up Willoughbyland to the Dutch and in return they recognised the English claim for their colony called New Amsterdam on the northeast coast of America, which the English had occupied since September 8, 1664. The English later renamed the colony New York.
of our forecasters on 09065 777675
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Rob Wright Racing Editor
The way that racing is governed is in a state of flux after the Jockey Club, which owns 15 of the country’s biggest tracks, yesterday decided to split from the Racecourse Association (RCA). Ascot announced in May that it would leave the association at the end of the year.
Many of the biggest courses in Brit- ain have become frustrated at a per-
Catterick Rob Wright
2.15 Novice Stakes (2-Y-O: £6,804: 7f) (7)
2.45 Classified Stakes (£3,664: 7f) (7)
3.15 Handicap (£4,187: 2m) (9)
3.45 Handicap (£4,004: 6f) (8)
Yesterday’s racing results
Results
Nottingham
Going: Good to firm (good in places) 2.40 (1m 75yd) 1, Quisana (Charles Bishop, 7-1); 2, Moonlit Surf (1-1); 3, Aura Champagne (11-8). 5 ran. NR: Yimmna. nk, 8l. Eve Johnson Houghton. 3.10 (6f 18yd) 1, Lola De Valence (Lewis Edmunds, 5-1); 2, Lady Leora (5-6 fav); 3, Harlequin Gift (20-1). 7 ran. 4 l, hd. B R Millman. 3.40 (6f 18yd) 1, Mobadir (K Shoemark, 6-5 fav); 2, Leucothea (8-1); 3, Star People (4- 1). 7 ran. nk, l. E Walker. 4.10 (5f 8yd) 1, Sergeant Mayer (Faye McManoman, 15-8); 2, Hurt You Never (7- 2); 3, Little Jaybee (5-1). 5 ran. NR: Up The Monk. nk, 27 l. N Tinkler. 4.40 (1m 2f 50yd) 1, Del Corso (K Shoemark, 1-2 fav); 2, Sedeirah (3-1); 3, Dawn Of Liberation (6-1). 4 ran. 37 l, 6l. E Walker. 5.10 (1m 75yd) 1, Venetian Lion (Tom Marquand, 5-6); 2, Pretty Spirited (20-1); 3, Theme Park (9-4). 5 ran. NR: G’Emmethegreenlite. 2 l, 1 l. W J Haggas. Placepot: £16.90 Quadpot: £7.20 Jackpot: £1,831.50 Ripon
Going: Good (good to firm in places) 2.24 (6f) 1, Reflect On Glory (C Lee, 7-2); 2, The Mean Fiddler (5-4 fav); 3, War Gaming (7-4). 4 ran. l, 6 l. K R Burke. 2.54 (6f) 1, All Good (Tom Kiely-Marshall, 28-1); 2, Royale Union (15-8); 3, Secret Harvest (7-1). 6 ran. sh, 6 l. Miss J A Camacho. 3.24 (5f) 1, Angel Numbers (J P Sullivan, 13-8 fav); 2, Marajito (5-1); 3, Creative
ceived paralysis in the way that the sport is run, particularly with regards to the ability to cut what is generally re- garded as a bloated fixture list.
Tracks receive media rights pay- ments for every fixture staged. Many smaller racecourses are unwilling to see a cut in that income stream.
All racing venues in Britain hold equal voting rights under RCA rules, so Chepstow and Sedgefield carry the
4.15 Handicap (£4,004: 1m 4f) (8)
4.45 Handicap (£4,004: 5f) (7)
Ffos Las Rob Wright
2.30 Handicap (£4,187: 6f) (7)
3.00 Novice Stakes (2-Y-O: £7,020: 7f) (7)
Queen (7-2). 5 ran. 2 l, 1l. Mrs R Carr. 3.54 (6f) 1, Lord Roxby (Alex Jary, 11-4); 2, Dark Cloud Rising (15-8 fav); 3, Commanche Falls (5-1). 7 ran. 17 l, ns. N Tinkler. 4.24 (1m 1f 170yd) 1, Poet’s Dawn (Sean Kirrane, 2-1); 2, Polygram (7-4 fav); 3, His Finest Hour (12-1). 5 ran. nk, 2 l. T D Easterby. 4.54 (1m) 1, Amber Hamur (Connor Beasley, 2-1); 2, Hey Havana (5-2); 3, Vega’s Virtue (10-3). 7 ran. NR: Dacres Cross. 17 l, nk. E Bethell. Placepot: £80.80 Quadpot: £3.90 Windsor
Going: Good to firm 6.00 (1m 3f 99yd) 1, I’d Go Maniac (Miss Georgia King, 11-4 fav); 2, Wrist Art (17-2); 3, Jodhpur Blue (6-1). 8 ran. 2 l, 1 l. A King. 6.30 (6f 12yd) 1, Star Bayside Boy (Rob Hornby, 16-1); 2, Rocsane (6-5); 3, Proper Naughty (10-3). 6 ran. NR: Decem Carolinae. nk, nk. M P Tregoning. 7.00 (5f 21yd) 1, Ardnamurchan (Nicola Currie, 9-2); 2, Pilgrim’s Progress (9-4); 3, Night Shining (4-5). 6 ran. NR: Gris De Chine, Livvys Edge. hd, l. H Candy. 7.30 (6f 12yd) 1, Saucy Jane (George Wood, 5-2); 2, Havana Halo (7-2); 3, Lahina Bay (6-4 fav). 5 ran. 27 l, 1 l. Jack Morland. 8.00 (1m 2f) 1, Letsbeatsepsis (Rhys Clutterbuck, 11-4); 2, Freedom Bay (5-1); 3, Panthere Noir (5-2). 11 ran. NR: Tiger Beetle. 1 l, 1 l. G & J Moore. 8.30 (1m 31yd) 1, Flag Carrier (Oisin Murphy, 9-2); 2, Chilly Breeze (6-5); 3, Havana Club (13-2). 7 ran. NR: Benavente, Dark Rosa. 1 l, 1 l. Brian Toomey. Placepot: £30.50 Quadpot: £6.80
same weight as Cheltenham and San- down Park. The RCA has three of the six votes at company level at the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and can therefore block any proposed changes. As a result, it has become impossible to pass a vote to trim the number of meet- ings, particularly at the lower end.
The RCA said on Saturday that it would change its structure so that four constituent groups would have 25 per
3.30 Handicap (£3,454: 7f) (9)
4.00 Handicap (£3,454: 7f) (9)
4.30 Maiden Stakes (£5,400: 1m) (8)
5.00 Handicap (3-Y-O: £4,187: 1m) (5)
5.30 Handicap (£3,454: 1m 4f) (10)
Football
Football
Carabao Cup Preliminary round York City (0) 0 Crawley Town (1) 2 Di Biase 24 Orsi 86 pen Crawley Town travel to Watford in the first round on Saturday
Scottish Premiership
Celtic (0) 1 Dundee (0) 0 Nygren 52
Cricket
The Hundred: Welsh Fire v Southern Brave Men Sophia Gardens (Welsh Fire won toss): Welsh Fire (4pts) beat Southern Brave by 6 wickets Southern Brave (balls) @J L Smith c Salt b Cook 0 (3) B S McKinney c Salt b Woakes 0 (2) N Chaudhary c Salt b Cook 18 (23) M P Stoinis c Ferguson b Cook 55 (39) T Stubbs b Ravindra 6 (8) M M Ali b Ravindra 0 (1) D A Miller c Ferguson b Short 21 (17) *C J Jordan not out 3 (4) J C Archer c Jansen b Short 6 (2) L Wood not out 1 (1) Extras (w 2, lb 3) 5 Total (8 wkts, 100 balls) 115 A U Rashid did not bat. Fall of wickets 1-1, 2-2, 3-45, 4-61, 5-61, 6-88, 7-108, 8-114. Bowling Woakes 20-0-15-1; Cook
20-1-14-3; Jansen 20-0-16-0; Ferguson 20-0- 27-0; Ravindra 15-0-27-2; Short 5-0-13-2. Welsh Fire (balls) †P D Salt c Jordan b Archer 4 (6) M W Short not out 60 (41) J E Root c McKinney b Jordan 17 (20) R Ravindra c Archer b Rashid 0 (2) J M Cox c Jordan b Archer 6 (8) T Kohler-Cadmore not out 23 (19) Extras (nb 1, lb 5) 6 Total (4 wkts, 95 balls) 116 B I Kellaway, M Jansen, C R Woakes, L H Ferguson and S J Cook did not bat. Fall of wickets 1-4, 2-60, 3-61, 4-70. Bowling Wood 15-0-22-0; Archer 20-1-19-2; Stoinis 20-0-30-0; Jordan 20-0-17-1; Rashid 20-0-23-1. Women Sophia Gardens (Southern Brave won toss): Welsh Fire (4pts) beat Southern Brave by 4 wickets Southern Brave (balls) M E Bouchier c Kemp b Potts 6 (8) †L Lee c Wareham b Potts 0 (3) L Wolvaardt c Wareham b Graham 48 (45) J J Rodrigues c Wareham b Graham 25 (21) S G Molineux run out 12 (11) J L Grewcock not out 13 (9) N D Dattani not out 4 (3) Extras (b 4, lb 4, w 5) 13 Total (5 wkts, 100 balls) 121 S Glenn, I E C M Wong, L K Bell and M R Corteen-Coleman did not bat. Fall of wickets 1-1, 2-9, 3-58, 4-82, 5-116. Bowling Potts 20-0-14-2; Prendergast 20-0- 29-0; Smale 20-0-24-0; Graham 20-0-23-2; Wareham 20-0-23-0. Welsh Fire (balls) G A Voll c Glenn b Corteen-Coleman 11 (9) E M McCaughan st Lee b Corteen-Coleman 8 (10) F G Kemp c Bell b Corteen-Coleman 9 (7) *G L Wareham b Bell 16 (20)
cent each of the votes. They are: the Jockey Club, Arena Racing Company, the Large Independent group — which includes Chester, Newbury, Goodwood and York, and formerly Ascot — and the small independent tracks. That still appears set to result in a voting stale- mate, though, and the Jockey Club has decided to leave the association.
The Jockey Club believes changes are overdue. Jim Mullen, its chief exec-
Lingfield Park Rob Wright
5.18 Apprentice Handicap (AW: £3,978: 7f) (11)
5.48 Maiden Fillies’ Stakes (AW: 2-Y-O: £5,940: 7f) (10)
O P Prendergast b Wong 5 (6) H L Graham not out 35 (28) G J Thompson c Corteen-Coleman b Wong 16 (12) N F Holland not out 12 (8) Extras (w 10) 10 Total (6 wkts, 100 balls) 122 †R M Southby, S A E Smale and G E A Potts did not bat. Fall of wickets 1-24, 2-25, 3-44, 4-49, 5-70, 6-105. Bowling Bell 20-0-27-1; Molineux 20-0-24- 0; Wong 20-0-17-2; Corteen-Coleman 20-0- 27-3; Glenn 20-0-27-0. Men’s World Cup League 2 tri-series Dundee Scotland (1pt) v United Arab Emirates (1pt). Match abandoned without a ball being bowled. Cycling
Tour de France Femmes Stage three Genève to Poligny, 156.5km 1 J S Y Haugset (Nor; Uno-X Mobility) 4hr 5min 59sec; 2 L Kopecky (Bel; SD Worx- Protime) at 1min 24sec; 3 M Vos (Neth; Visma Lease-a-Bike) at 2min 48 sec; 4 U Ostolaza (Sp; Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi); 5 K Le Court Pienaar (Maurit; AG Insurance-Soudal) both same time. Overall: 1 Haugset 11hr 17min 56sec; 2 Le Court Pienaar at 2min 2sec; 3 D Vollering (Neth; FDJ United-SUEZ) at 2min 6sec. Golf
utive, said: “The RCA’s proposals fail to address our fundamental concern that the RCA can continue to act to stifle the changes needed in the industry. Noth- ing proposed would displace the RCA as the political representative of race- courses and in our view, the RCA would continue to vote against necessary changes such as the introduction of an independent BHA board and substan- tive changes to the fixture list.”
6.18 Maiden Fillies’ Stakes (AW: 2-Y-O: £5,940: 7f) (9)
6.48 Handicap (AW: £3,245: 6f) (12)
7.18 Handicap (£5,339: 1m 6f) (4)
7.48 Handicap (£3,245: 1m 4f) (7)
8.18 Handicap (£3,245: 1m 1f) (6)
Tennis
Mubadala DC Open Washington: Men: Final (3) T Fritz (US) bt R Jodar (Sp) 7-6(2), 6-4. Women: Final A Eala (Phil) bt (1) J Pegula (US) 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.
ATP National Bank Open Montreal: First round V Kopriva (Cz Rep) leads A Galarneau (Can) 6-4, 2-1; A Kovacevic (US) level with N Borges (Port) 7-6(9), 2-6, 0-0; M Zheng (US) level with M Kecmanovic (Serb) 4-6, 6-4, 0-0.
WTA National Bank Open Toronto: First round A Korneeva (Russ) bt P Kudermetova (Uzbek) 6-0, 3-0 ret; K Pliskova (Cz Rep) bt O Oliynykova (Ukr) 6- 4, 6-4; T Gibson (Aus) bt E Cocciaretto (It) 6-2, 3-2 ret; A Bondar (Hun) bt A Kalinina (Ukr) 6-4, 7-5; K Day (US) bt D Parry (Fr) 3- 6, 6-3, 7-5; M Kessler (US) bt C Brace (Can) 6-3, 6-3; K Cross (Can) bt K Boulter (GB) 7- 6(3), 7-5; R Sramkova (Slvk) bt A Blinkova (Russ) 6-3, 6-3; Zhang S (China) bt Y Putintseva (Kazakh) 6-4, 6-1; G Ruse (Rom) bt P Stearns (US) 6-0, 7-5; M Frech (Can) bt L Jeanjean (Fr) 7-5, 6-3; L Tararudee (Thai) bt E Jones (Aus) 7-6(2), 6-2. Fixtures
in older stars offers hope to England
Steve James
It could easily have been Brendon McCullum justifying Zak Crawley’s presence at the top of the order, with Crawley’s contrasting partnership with Ben Duckett often producing more than mere individual numbers suggest- ed, but instead it was Australia’s chair- man of selectors, George Bailey, talking recently about the selection of their opener, Jake Weatherald.
“There were moments in that Ashes series where we liked the combination of what Jake and Travis [Head] were able to bring and what that looked like as a collective,” Bailey said. “And then also, individually, what Jake at his best looked like within that series. Hopeful- ly we do see some growth out of that and some understanding of what it takes for success at Test level.”
Weatherald averaged 22.33 in the Ashes last winter in which he made his Test debut, and is 31 years old. Crawley is 28 and averaged 27.30 in that series, but has since been dropped and de- nounced as representing the worst of Bazball’s excesses.
Now, this is not to call for Crawley’s return, because he may even soon retire from red-ball cricket, given his absence from Kent’s most recent County Cham- pionship matches. But watching him on Tuesday bat and captain so excellently for SunRisers Leeds in the Hundred was a reminder of his talents — as well as evidence in a superb partnership with Harry Brook, against an attack com- prising Gus Atkinson, Sonny Baker and Josh Tongue, of the quality of player on show in that competition this year.
Instead this is a nod to two things: what might have been last winter against an Australia side that will never dine with the gods of the past, and what might be in the future. Weatherald is a decent player who averaged 60 for Leicestershire in the championship this year, but if he is Australia’s future then perhaps we should not be catastrophis- ing quite as much about the state of the Test team on these shores. He is cer- tainly no better than Crawley’s replace- ment, Emilio Gay, and Gay has hardly looked like a 50-cap Test opener so far.
Golf Cathy Harris
England’s Mimi Rhodes will make her Solheim Cup debut after being named as one of four wild-card picks by the Team Europe captain Anna Nordqvist.
Rhodes, 24, joined compatriots Charley Hull and Lottie Woad in the final line-up to face the USA at Bernar- dus Golf Club in the Netherlands in September. Ireland’s Leona Maguire was also named as one of Nordqvist’s four picks alongside the rookies Julia López Ramírez and Nastasia Nadaud.
What’s more, Bailey was talking at the announcement of the squad to face Bangladesh in two home Tests in Dar- win and Mackay. Given this is a Bangla- desh team who lost their previous Test in late June by an innings to the might of Zimbabwe, it was striking that Aus- tralia are rolling out their Dad’s Army in a 13-man squad containing a 38-year- old Nathan Lyon and two 37-year-olds in Steve Smith and Scott Boland as well as Mitchell Starc, 36, and Josh Hazle- wood, 35.
Weatherald is a veritable spring chicken, as is Josh Inglis, also 31, along- side Alex Carey, 34, Pat Cummins, 33, and Marnus Labuschagne, Head and Beau Webster, all 32. Cameron Green is almost from another generation at 27.
Australia have often prided them- selves on possessing the courage to pick players late in their careers and have been rewarded by the likes of Michael Hussey, Chris Rogers and Adam Voges flourishing when there was doubtless some grey in their beards, but still …
Yes, yes, of course this group of senior statesmen, with Boland and Michael Nes- er, 36, providing more than adequate cover for the injured quicks, were way too good last win- ter for England, whose plight has on- ly plummeted since (even if the white- ball team have been winning), leaving them searching for both a Test coach and cap- tain until very recently.
But the question of age is not a new concern down under. Even before the Ashes began the legendary Steve Waugh was criticising Bailey for lacking the “appetite” to make “the tough calls”, to which Bailey replied: “My question back, is there a tipping number [that]
Woad, the world No 5, has been a pro- fessional for little over a year and the 22-year-old is also making her debut in the team event. Hull, 30, is set to make her eighth Solheim Cup appearance, having played in every edition since 2013, and looks likely to be a key player. Maguire, 31, crowned a superb debut in 2021 by top-scoring as an undefeated rookie before making further appear- ances in 2023 and 2024.
Left to right: Starc, Hazlewood, Lyon and Cummins are all on course to play in next summer’s Ashes, as is Green, below
once a player hits an age you move them on?”
Well, England decided that James Anderson had reached his tipping
number (41) and moved him on. There
were many opponents to that, and to
some the Ashes defeat was used as vindication of a misguided decision,
but perhaps we are yet to see the
full fruits of the rebuilding of a
pace attack without Anderson
and Stuart Broad.
All roads were supposed to lead to that Ashes last winter, and England undoubtedly misjudged the surfaces in their pursuit of all-out pace, but maybe it will be next summer with the visit of Australia that we see the very best of Jofra Archer, Atkin- son and Tongue, with some useful back-up in the likes of Baker, Bry- don Carse and Ollie Robinson, and probably Sam Curran as Ben Stokes’ replacement.
What we can be pretty sure of is that we will be seeing mostly the
same, senescent names in Austra- lian shirts. A headline in The Age read “A generation lost? The risky game being played by our Test se- lectors” under which Daniel Brettig wrote: “There are sensible argu- ments for reconvening the frontline Test team ahead of 12 unrelenting
months of series against South
Africa, New Zealand, India and En-
months and it’s been a big milestone finalising the team.”
The Swede, a veteran of nine Solheim Cups and a three-times major winner, admitted it was hard keeping every- one’s dreams alive as long as she could.
“We have four rookies — the most we’ve had in a while — but they’re not playing like rookies,” she added. “They will bring great attitude and positivity.”
gland. But the prospect of playing an XI with only one player under the age of 30, against a Bangladesh side that just lost a Test by an innings to Zimbabwe, is an unsettling one.”
It is fairly obvious what is happening here. Australia last won a Test series in India in 2004, and in England in 2001, and the selectors are hoping to keep their ageing band together for one last string of tours to break those ducks. They have selected some youngsters such as Sam Konstas, 20, and Campbell Kellaway, 23, in a Cricket Australia invi- tational side to face Bangladesh before the series but even that team includes the 33-year-old Kurtis Patterson. When players such as Konstas have been tried at Test level, they have been found wanting. The future can wait.
The visits to India and England in 2023 were huge missed opportunities, losing 2-1 in India and drawing 2-2 over here. As Bailey said about those series: “Always another chance, isn’t it? No two series will be the same, but there’ll be moments out of those series where they’ll look back and wish that things could have gone differently, but there’ll also be great things that they would have learnt out of that. I know everyone fixates on the age, but in terms of the actual growth of the guys, the athletes, they constantly want to learn.”
But Cummins, Hazlewood and Lyon have all had injuries. Then, alongside Weatherald’s underwhelming start to
Sunningdale. The Frenchwoman Nad- aud is the youngest in the team at 21 years old. Nordqvist described her as “very steady in this year’s majors, ag- gressive and a player who can make a ton of birdies”.
This is the first Europe team since 2015 not to feature Georgia Hall, as she searches for her best form after giving birth in February. There is also no place for Switzerland’s Chiara Tamburlini and Germany’s Helen Briem, who were close to automatic selection through the Ladies European Tour rankings. Sara Kouskova, the Czech who rose up
Test cricket, Labuschagne has not made a century in 21 Tests, averaging just 25.75, and, to be frank, Green has been a massive disappointment as a Test all-rounder.
In contrast England have at least been attempting to regenerate. Only re- turning captain Joe Root remains from their first Bazball team in 2022 and in their most recent Test they fielded seven players aged under 30, with one of the veterans, Stokes, now gone too.
All joshing aside, Bailey is right that there is no fixed age when retirement should happen, and his bowlers in particular are so good — and nowhere near Anderson’s age when he was tapped on the shoulder — that it would be madness to rush them into their slip- pers. But the Ashes is still some con- siderable distance away and, even if all the old-timers make it that far, a repeat of the mass retirements of the legends in 2007 (Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and Damien Martyn) is almost inevitable.
Australia are top of the Test rankings, while England are fifth, but they are teams at very different stages of their development and perhaps not as far apart as recent events have suggested. March’s 150th anniversary Test in Melbourne might tell us more, but the Ashes next year, with Stephen Fleming looking a shrewd choice as England coach, may not be the distant car crash so many expect.
the leaderboard on the final day of the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes, is also unlucky to miss out.
The qualifying period for the USA team concludes at the Canadian Women’s Open in Edmonton in three weeks’ time. Two players, Angel Yin and Jennifer Kupcho, clinched their spots at the Open, joining the world No 1, Nelly Korda, in the line-up.
E -
Pogacar bids to keep the momentum going after a record-equalling fifth Tour win
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as he targets clean sweep
Sean Russell
If you were going to design a grand tour to attract Tadej Pogacar you would probably start it in Monaco, where he lives with his partner, Urska Zigart.
Start
You would have only three or four flat stages and there would be plenty of mountains. You would finish in the Sierra Nevada, where he trains at alti- tude with his team-mates. You would
Finish
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QUOTE TIMES
design La Vuelta 2026, basically. And it appears to have worked. UAE Team Emirates-XRG announced yesterday that Pogacar, the five-times Tour de France winner, would race La Vuelta for the first time since he made his grand-tour debut in the race in 2019.
La Vuelta 2026
FRANCE
It was no secret that the organisers of La Vuelta wanted Pogacar to line up in Monaco on August 22. The race’s di- rector, Javier Guillén, said less than a week ago that “this is the best year” for the Slovenian to do it, and he’s probably correct. In the end, Pogacar won this year’s Tour with some ease, unlike in 2025 when he was burnt out and ex- hausted from doing battle with Jonas Vingegaard, and La Vuelta could act as a springboard for success at the World Championships in Canada in Septem- ber. But more than that, the 27-year-old will want to win La Vuelta to complete the set of grand tours.
He won the Giro d’Italia in 2024 so all that remains is the Spanish three-week race. Vingegaard, his great rival, already completed the set after secur- ing the Maglia Rosa in May and winning La Vuelta in 2025, and so the Dane holds one thing the Slovenian doesn’t. Perhaps Pogacar wanted to rectify that sooner rather than later.
Pogacar and his team always said they would wait until after the Tour to make a decision, but it had been well known Pogacar was keen. In the middle of the Tour he addressed comments by Prince Albert of Monaco, who said he believed Pogacar would start this year’s Vuelta. “If the prince says that, then the chance is high,” Pogacar said.
Compared with 2025, Pogacar was fresh at the end of this year’s Tour and clearly fancies another three weeks of hard racing. The world champion is ap- parently in the mood to tick off all the races he hasn’t won. This year he added Milano-San Remo to his palmarès, ahead of the valiant Tom Pidcock, as well as the Tour de Suisse and Tour de Romandie, and while Paris-Roubaix re- mains out of reach (for now), he will go to La Vuelta as the comfortable favour- ite. And let’s not forget that he finished the 2019 Vuelta in third place and won
Running from August 22 to September 13, La Vuelta 26 will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,275 kilometres
1 Stage
4 hilly stages 1 hilly, uphill finale stage 4 flat stages 4 medium mountains stages
6 mountain stages 2 individual time trial stages 2 rest days
START Monaco Manosque
Madrid
SPAIN
Alcaraz
Cortegana
Jaén
14 15
16 17
Palma Del Rio
12 13
three stages at the age of 20. If he wins in Spain he would be the first man to do the Tour-Vuelta double since Chris Froome in 2017 and there is a very high chance of that. Few other teams have announced their line-ups for the race and certainly none of the big hitters have declared their intentions.
Are Vingegaard and Remco Evene- poel likely to give it a go? It’s hard to see Vingegaard making an appearance after doing the Giro as well as the Tour (before crashing out and fracturing his collarbone). Perhaps the 2022 winner, Evenepoel, who is in excellent form, will rise to the challenge, but so far Po- gacar is out on his own.
Other potential rivals who were con- sidering La Vuelta may have sighed at the news, but for the race organisers it is something of a coup. The Slovenian brings in huge crowds of adoring fans wherever he goes. Just look at his Pogi Challenge, a three-day charity event around Komenda in Slovenia, where Pogacar was born. Thousands of people arrived in the small town to watch Po- gacar beat the likes of Isaac del Toro and Matteo Trentin in a short criterium before he was then himself beaten by an amateur on the Krvavec climb for the second year in a row.
This event shows that Pogacar, lov- ingly known as Pogi, is perhaps the most popular rider the sport has right now, a personality who transcends cy- cling as Valentino Rossi did in MotoGP or Ronnie O’Sullivan does in snooker. His quest to complete the set of grand tours will be historic — it is surely only a matter of time before Pogacar adds his name to that select group of eight riders to have won all three.
And then what? Paris-Roubaix is all that stands in the way of immortality. If he ticks that off, he would be only the second man to have won all three grand tours and all five monuments along- side, of course, Eddy Merckx.
“I’m excited to say I’m going back to La Vuelta,” Pogacar said. “It was my first ever grand tour back in 2019 and an amazing experience. Spain is a country I love to visit and race in, and the time is right to go back.”
3 4
Andorra La Vella
Barcelona Falset
Route
Travel Time trial
Alcossebre
6 7
Vall D’Alba
Valencia Puçol
La Vila Joiosa
Cartagena Vera La Calahorra
500 miles
Gruissan
to emulate Dupont with Olympic gold
Charlie Morgan
Charlie Morgan Senior Rugby Writer Stars who tried sevens
Eddie Hearn has confirmed that Henry Pollock intends to emulate Antoine Dupont and win Olympic gold in rugby sevens, but realising that dream at the Los Angeles Games in 2028 looks far from straightforward.
After a meeting in the Mediterrane- an with Pollock and Finn Russell, the only rugby union clients of his Match- room agency, Hearn claimed the 21- year-old England back-row forward could earn ten times his present salary by moving away from Northampton Saints.
Hearn also stressed, however, that Pollock remains driven by the prospect of winning trophies. “I look at Henry and I am very pleased with the person he is,” Hearn told The Telegraph. “I know there is a perception of him as a ‘flash Harry’ but in reality, he is a solid young man. Legacy is important.
“He wants to win championships with Northamp- ton, he wants to win the World Cup with En- gland, he wants to win a gold medal for Great Britain Sevens in the Olympics.”
The latter goal, achieved by Dupont in Paris two years ago, would arguably be the most difficult to achieve because there are multi- ple moving parts. First is the thorny issue of quali- fication. Team GB were relegated from the first tier of the sevens world series, now known as SVNS, last season.
Two Gallagher Prem referees will take charge of Test matches between South Africa and New Zealand over the com- ing weeks, with both Matthew Carley and Karl Dickson poised to be part of the officiating team.
The Times understands that Angus Gardner of Australia and Nika Ama- shukeli of Georgia will complete the line-up of referees across the four-Test series, which begins at Ellis Park in Jo- hannesburg on August 22.
Carley, selected to referee last season’s Prem final between North- ampton Saints and Exeter Chiefs, over- saw the Springboks for their 24-13 victory over Ireland in Dublin in November. In that game he showed five cards to the home team as they were overwhelmed by South Africa’s scrum-
Sonny Bill Williams He was in the New Zealand team that finished fifth in the 2016 Olympics. Juan Imhoff The wing also played in Rio, where Racing 92 team-mate Leone Nakarawa won gold for Fiji. James Davies He took silver with Team GB in 2016 before winning the Pro 12 with the Scarlets. Cheslin Kolbe He landed Olympic bronze in 2016 before winning two World Cups with South Africa. Samu Kerevi Part of the Australia team that lost in the quarter-finals
in Tokyo in 2021.
Hugo Keenan He represented
Ireland in the 2024 Olympics,
where they finished sixth. Mark Nawaqanitawase The Australian just missed out on
a medal two years ago.
Antoine Dupont The
scrum half inspired
France to Olympic
gold in front of their
home fans in 2024.
They could still qualify for Los An-
geles directly by finishing in the top four across the three grand final events in 2027, which would con- stitute a remarkable underdog story. Otherwise, they would need to win a European qualifying event or an interconti- nental repechage.
Unless he is para- chuted in for the
Olympic Games directly, which would require him to take the
Carley took charge of South Africa’s 24-13 win over Ireland last November
maging power. Sam Prendergast, Jack Crowley, Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy were all sent to the sin-bin, with James Ryan receiving a 20-minute red card.
Pollock may have to take time away from club action with Northampton if he is to follow in the footsteps of Dupont, left
place of another player who may have helped to secure qualification, Pollock would probably need to miss chunks of 15-a-side action with club or country over the year leading up to July 2028.
It is possible, though. Hugo Keenan, of Leinster and Ireland, highly experi- enced in elite sevens, juggled his time between the formats in 2024 and missed a summer Test series against the Springboks. Dupont took time out of the 15-a-side game over the same cam- paign, skipping that season’s Six Nations, as he helped France to win tournaments on the world sevens series in the build-up to a home Olympics. France also won the 2023-24 grand final. The deal was sweetened for Tou- louse as Dupont’s involvement in the 2023 World Cup and the following
left Carley open to criticism. However, his performance was defended by the former international referee Owen Doyle.
“Hand on heart, it’s hard to blame Carley for the defeat,” Doyle wrote in The Irish Times. “While both teams were at it, Ireland’s protection of the ball at the tackle was quite frequent, just plain old-fashioned sealing-off, deny- ing the visitors a chance to contest pos- session.
“Any notion that we were hard done by on the penalty count is also incor- rect. Carley pinged South Africa 13 times and Ireland on 18 occasions, of which six were at scrum time, one being the penalty try.”
year’s Olympics gave them a much big- ger salary cap dispensation of €400,000 (about £343,000) rather than the €180,000 they would have earned for a regular 15-a-side international.
Discussions over Pollock’s availabili- ty would need to take place between Great Britain Sevens, Northampton and England and could seriously im- pact what he earns with the latter two organisations.
Pollock earns about £150,000 a year from Saints, plus an additional £150,000 from his enhanced Elite Player Squad contract with England, but a bullish Hearn is evidently angling for a pay increase. He labelled Pollock a “seven-figure player” and suggested that discussions over a contract exten- sion were ongoing.
Scotland’s defeat of Fiji, with Dickson officiating during France’s victory over Australia.
Amashukeli oversaw Scotland’s win in Argentina last month, with Gardner looking after the ill-tempered and con- troversial game between the Pumas and England in Santiago del Estero. The latter match featured seven yellow cards, a record for a Test match.
The Argentina fly half Tomás Albor- noz was charged with misconduct after remonstrating with Gardner at the end of England’s 31-24 win. An Argentina try was disallowed in the final play of the match after a TMO review.
“Northampton have to recognise what they have got,” Hearn said. “It is all very well saying there might be players who are a bit more consistent or might be better or whatever, but there aren’t players that are making an un- questionable and undeniable differ- ence to the bottom line of the club.
“Henry Pollock drives season-ticket sales. Henry Pollock puts bums on the seats. Henry Pollock drives viewership on TNT or wherever it’s going to be. Henry Pollock sells shirts, right? That’s the difference.
“So you can actually put an economic value over having Henry Pollock on the team, and that has to be recognised, re- gardless of the want from Henry. He cannot stay at this club on the money that he’s on.”
miss another grand slam
continued from back
Raducanu described as a “lower-leg nig- gle” that she had been managing since the “back end of the clay-court season”.
Raducanu skipped the WTA event in Eastbourne as a result and then an- nounced her withdrawal from Wimble- don on the eve of the tournament.
“I’ve done everything possible to try to get to the start line but after a final scan, the niggle I’ve been managing has developed into a stress fracture and I’ve been medically advised to stop pushing through,” Raducanu said in a statement on June 28.
M
Ian Whittell Chicago
Squint hard across the East River, through the low-hanging cloud that shrouded the Manhattan skyline on Tuesday night, and you could just about make out the top of the Empire State Building, lit up red to mark the launch of a new Liverpool kit as a cele- bration was hosted across the water in Brooklyn.
That must be how the new head coach, Andoni Iraola, views his two weeks in the United States.
The fact his club could commandeer one of the world’s most famous build- ings spoke volumes about their stature, as did the thousands of US-based Liver- pool fans who showed up to watch a below-strength team in friendlies in Nashville, New York and Chicago.
But Iraola did not need to clock 10,000 air miles over the past two weeks to learn that Liverpool are one of the world’s top “brands”. He was looking for answers to some fundamental football questions and many of those, for now, are covered in as much cloud as Man- hattan was last Tuesday.
There is a question of logistics, post- World Cup, which means he has yet to meet key players Virgil van Dijk, Alis- son, Cody Gakpo, Alexis Mac Allister and new signing Victor Muñoz, none of whom have been part of the tour.
There is a chronic defensive injury crisis: Joe Gomez is out for about a month; newcomer Jérémy Jacquet was pencilled in to play in Sunday’s 4-2 loss to Leeds United but is not yet fit; and Giovanni Leoni is still not ready to return from injury, having made only one appearance since signing 11 months ago.
There has been a lack of signings — only Jacquet and Muñoz, although a move for the Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola inches forward.
And, perhaps not unconnected, Michael Edwards has left as chief exec- utive and sporting director Richard Hughes is expected to follow him next month. Mike Gordon, the president of owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG), was in Chicago over the weekend and is expected to take a more prominent role, as he did to such spectacular effect with former manager Jürgen Klopp.
There have also been confirmed re- ports of FSG selling a minority stake, to a consortium headed by Amit Bhatia, to inject capital.
ALAN BRAZIL IS BACK ON THE BREAKFAST SHOW TOMORROW FROM 6AM
Iraola, above, is facing a defensive crisis while the minor spat between Jones and Szoboszlai, right, has been forgotten
But get Barcola and some defensive cover in before September 1 and Liver- pool will be starting to address some of the concerns that Iraola must have noted when inheriting a squad that lost Mohamed Salah, Andrew Robertson and Ibrahima Konaté this summer.
The vast majority of supporters in the US were happy just to see some of their heroes close up in the flesh but the hardcore back on Merseyside are voic- ing their frustration at a painfully slow transfer window. It explains why Iraola not only hates August but believes it
will be many weeks before we see “his” Liverpool, both in terms of personnel and style of play.
“When there is a change of manager, these things take some time,” Iraola said. “I would like to say on the first day we are going to be perfect, everyone will be in place, but probably it is not going to be like this, and we will have to do this as quickly as possible.
“I particularly hate August because you start the competition, you still don’t know if some of the players are going to leave, who’s going to come, there is a lot
BILL BARRETT/ISI PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES
of uncertainty. It’s difficult to build a proper team with a lot of question marks but it is what it is. It’s the same every season, and I particularly enjoy when it’s September 1, then, oh yeah, this is where we are.”
Of course, there were many plusses from this tour, and Iraola even man- aged to find some from the Leeds game in which his team turned a 2-0 half- time lead into a 4-2 defeat.
“I think we learnt a lot of things,” he said. “Obviously it’s not the result you want but I think it was probably the
most useful friendly we played — in a positive way in the first half and in a negative way in the second half. I think we’ve learnt a lot from today and we can take good conclusions and solve some things.”
Some of the positives against Leeds came in the form of Rio Ngumoha, effective on his preferred left wing. Young midfielder Trey Nyoni shone in glimpses, as did returning World Cup players Alexander Isak, Ryan Graven- berch and Florian Wirtz, the latter scor- ing the second goal.
New defender Ifeanyi Ndukwe, 18, impressed against Leeds, and has done throughout the tour, but will have to be loaned out this season because he has not qualified for a UK work permit.
Off the field, in the US, club legends Phil Thompson, Ian Rush and Robbie Fowler worked tirelessly with Liver- pool’s community and charity endeav- ours while present players undertook some team-building — a group was spotted using some rare leisure time to
go shopping in Chicago last week, for example.
It was not all roses, of course. There was a very minor spat as Curtis Jones reacted badly to not being handed the captain’s armband when Dominik Szoboszlai instead gave it to Kostas Tsimikas after he was substituted in New York.
It was a storm in a tea cup and instantly forgotten. Jones, in any case, could yet sign for Inter Milan — just one of many answers his head coach is waiting to emerge from the clouds.
of Vinícius Jr to Spurs’ revamp, our writers give their verdict on the state of play at each Premier League club
arsenal How good or bad has their window been? Slow start with potential to be special if they pull off the signing of Real Ma- drid’s Vinícius Jr (Gary Jacob writes). The winger would join the ex- pected arrival of midfielder Bruno Guimarães from Newcastle United, Ar- senal having already brought in the left winger Christos Tzolis to replace the departed Leandro Trossard. What do they still need? A versatile centre back to cover William Saliba’s lengthy absence and issues at right back, an elite left winger and potentially a forward — depending on which players they can offload.
aston villa How good or bad has their window been? Losing your best player is never the best start to a summer, with Morgan Rogers heading to Chelsea (Charlotte Duncker writes). They’ve broken the club trans- fer record to bring in Johan Manzambi and further strengthened in midfield with Premier League experience by signing João Gomes, but will that be enough? Alejandro Garnacho has come in with a point to prove and Unai Emery could really do with all his sign- ings working out. Each time Villa have lost key players under Emery they have managed to adapt and go again but it’s another period of rebuilding — and that’s without the potential exits of other players. What do they still need? More attack- ing options, especially another winger, while both full-back positions need addressing.
bournemouth How good or bad has their window been? Compared to this time last year, when several of Bournemouth’s biggest names moved on, new head coach Mar- co Rose’s first window has been a quiet one (Joe Harston writes). In replacing the centre back Marcos Senesi, who has joined Tottenham Hotspur, they have put more faith in youth at the back by signing the 22-year-old António Silva from Benfica. What do they still need? Providing they can keep hold of their impressive attack, there do not seem to be any gaps in the Bournemouth squad that urgent- ly need filling. Bolstering their options in midfield may be wise considering the extra workload that playing in Europe will bring.
brentford How good or bad has their window been? It has been a sensible window so far for Brentford (Joe Harston writes). For- wards Callum Wilson and Jaidon An- thony were through the door in time for the pre-season camp in Portugal and they bring much-needed competition for Igor Thiago and Kevin Schade. Ma- madou Sangaré’s transfer from Lens is a statement signing, though, and he should be a significant improvement on the departing Jordan Henderson. For a club-record fee of £41.1 million, the 24- year-old defensive midfielder is moving to west London after being named in
the Ligue 1 team of the season and is turning his back on Champions League football with his former side. What do they still need? A new left back should be a priority. Their present options are Rico Henry and Aaron Hickey, but both are injury-prone, which has left the winger Keane Lewis- Potter deputising at full back for large periods of the past two campaigns.
brighton & hove albion How good or bad has their window been? Brighton have gone hard again on potential instead of proven signings after spend- ing about £70 million on two wingers — Zadok Yohanna, 18, and Rodrigo Rego, 20 — as well the defender Luka Vus- kovic, 19 (Tom Allnutt writes). Pascal Struijk, 26, Costinha, 26, and Michael Svoboda, 27, are all older but only Stru- ijk has played in the Premier League. What do they still need? Brighton look well set in defence but the departure of Danny Welbeck, who scored 14 goals last season, leaves them short up front, while Kaoru Mitoma needs better cover out wide, especially given the serious hamstring injury he suffered in May.
chelsea How good or bad has their window been? When did we last say that Chelsea had a sensible transfer window (Tom All- nutt writes)? Morgan Rogers is a statement signing while Danny Welbeck, Jordan Henderson and Maxence Lacroix look like smart, know-what-you’re-getting additions. Geovany Quenda, the 19-year-old winger, is one of Europe’s most highly rated youngsters. What do they still need? Chelsea will never win the Premier League without a top-class goalkeeper and it remains to be seen if Robert Sánchez can hit that sort of level consistently. After the de- parture of Marc Cucurella, they also need another, more attacking left back, especially if Xabi Alonso wants to play with wingbacks.
coventry city How good or bad has their window been? Promotion has demanded squad strengthening, with the owner Doug King stressing they will do so the “Cov Way” (Paul Joyce writes). There have been three signings so far: Loum Tchaouna from Burnley, Aurèle Amenda from Eintracht Frankfurt and Frank Onyeka, whose loan from Brent- ford has become a permanent deal. What do they still need? The goal- keeper Carl Rushworth is expected to join from Brighton, having been on loan at Coventry last season. Do not downplay the pulling power of manag- er Frank Lampard. Chelsea say there has been interest from a number of clubs, including Coventry, in Mykhailo Mudryk.
crystal palace How good or bad has their window been? Palace do notoriously late deals and Óscar Mingueza is the only arrival so far, replacing Nathaniel Clyne (Gary Jacob writes). Pre-season has been dis- rupted because 12 players were at the World Cup. What do they still need? Toulouse’s Charlie Cresswell and Atalanta’s Odi- lon Kossounou are among the options to replace centre back Maxence La- croix, who has joined Chelsea. The injury-prone Takehiro Tomiyasu is on trial. Youssouf Fofana is among their central midfield targets and Jean-Phil- ippe Mateta’s future is unclear after the
four biggest deals
forward, who has entered the final year of his contract, told the club he wanted to leave in January.
everton How good or bad has their window been? A slow burner with Hayden Hackney and Tyr- ique George added to David Moyes’s squad (Paul Joyce writes). What do they still need? The defen- sive midfielder Christian Nor- gaard is set for a medical to seal a switch from Arsenal, while the Celtic right back Ali- stair Johnston is a target. Jack Grealish could return from Manchester City for a second stint on loan.
fulham How good or bad has their window been? Álvaro Arbe- loa’s Real Madrid links look to already be playing a part in Fulham’s business with the arrivals of the young talents Gonzalo García, 22, and César Palacios, 21, confirmed last night (Joe Harston writes). They may be excit- ing options for the future but little is known about their Premier League readiness. What do they still need? Raúl Jiménez and Harry Wilson are the most notable departures and while García may be a suitable replacement up front, they should be searching for another right winger to compete with Oscar Bobb.
ipswich town How good or bad has their window been? Gary O’Neil’s club have certainly been active in the transfer window (Joe Harston writes). The winger Abdul Fat- awu, who impressed for Leicester City last season, looks the most exciting ad- dition. Issa Diop’s arrival will provide some much-needed Premier League experience in their back line. What do they still need? Their mid- field is certainly a weak point but it is something they are looking to address with several defensive midfielders, in- cluding Fulham’s Sasa Lukic and Burn- ley’s Florentino Luis, being heavily linked with a move to Portman Road.
leeds united How good or bad has their window been? This could be a very good window for Leeds (Mar- tin Hardy writes). They hope to sign James Trafford for £45 million and that should prove to be an excellent bit of business. Trafford is the England goalkeeper-in-waiting. Harry Wilson joined from Fulham for nothing after a great season and defen- sively they have replaced Pascal Struijk with the Bosnian Tarik Muharemovic. What do they still need? Like most clubs, Leeds could do with greater fire- power and a striker is still a target, to help and to compete with Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha.
of last season (Paul Joyce writes). Spain winger Víctor Muñoz arrived from Osasuna and Jérémy Jacquet has checked in after signing from Rennes in January. What do they still need? A winger, al- though Paris Saint-Germain’s present £145 million valuation of Bradley Barcola is too high, and a right back given Conor Bradley’s continued ab- sence due to injury.
manchester city How good or bad has their window been? Securing El- liot Anderson was a good piece of business but things have stalled as Enzo Maresca looks to bring in fresh faces to a squad that lost a lot of experi- ence at the end of the season (Charlotte Duncker writes). Rodri is still at the club, which is a huge positive after in- terest from Real Madrid, but there
Premier League net spending
Source: transfermarkt.com
needs to be a flurry of activity in the final month of the window. What do they still need? A forward, a right back and another midfielder are on Maresca’s wish list. If Rodri does leave for Real, they’ll need a replace- ment for him, while Geronimo Rulli is emerging as the most likely replace- ment for the goalkeeper James Traf- ford, who is set to leave.
manchester united How good or bad has their window been? United pivot- ed quickly after missing out on Elliot Anderson to bring in Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos, but nei- ther match the level of the new Man- chester City midfielder (Charlotte Duncker writes). They are still short on numbers as they plan for a season in the Champions League but there’s still time to sort that out. What do they still need? Another mid- field signing could be made, after Man- uel Ugarte’s injury, and they are in need
of depth across the squad as a whole. A left-sided player, a winger or a full back, is on the list while another striker to strengthen their forward options is necessary.
newcastle united How good or bad has their window been? Where on earth do you start (Martin Hardy writes)? The head coach (Eddie Howe) and two of their best players (Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali)
Martin Hardy
have gone and another (Bruno Guima-
rães) is looking longingly at the exit.
But then there are the incomings: a
new head coach in Matthias Jaissle
and five players, all young and in-
experienced and two of them
goalkeepers. Are Newcastle about to be the surprise of the
season or are they looking at a
relegation fight? No one knows.
What do they still need? They
could really do with the Guim- arães situation being sorted out very quickly to avoid a re- peat of last summer’s Alexan- der Isak soap opera. They definitely need a right back and possibly a centre forward, but that would mean one of Nick Woltemade, Yoane Wissa and William Osula leaving.
nottingham forest How good or bad has their window been? While losing a player of Elliot Anderson’s quality was disappointing it was inevi- table and the planning to replace him had already begun (Charlotte Duncker writes). Forest moved quickly to bring in Xaver Schlager, who Oliver Glasner has worked with before, and are looking to add depth in midfield. There are still positions that need to be strengthened but the club seems to have a plan. What do they still need? Ousmane Diomande looks set to join the club as Glasner attempts to strengthen at centre back. As well as another mid- fielder, a wingback and a striker are also on their shopping list.
£36m -£104m £49m £66m £36m
£220m £41m -£57m £56m -£3m -£8m £78m £10m £89m £130m
sunderland How good or bad has their window been? Fighting off Chelsea interest to keep Granit Xhaka was a huge moment for the club (Martin Hardy writes). So far, however, only Thomas Meunier, the 34-year-old Belgian defender, has ar- rived. With a first European campaign in more than 50 years ahead of them, Régis Le Bris needs new players. What do they still need? There is a de- sire to get busy in this window, with a left back and a winger top of the shop- ping list. They could also do with another centre forward. Brian Brobbey had a fine season but needed only seven Premier League goals to finish as the club’s top scorer.
£46m -£23m -£106m -£19m
£159m
tottenham hotspur How good or bad has their window been? It has been an eye-catching summer for Tottenham but the main weakness last season was creativity and that area is still to be addressed (Tom Allnutt writes). Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fer- nandes are excellent additions in midfield while Jan Paul van Hecke, Marcos Senesi and Andrew Robert- son add strength and depth in de- fence. As it stands, Spurs still look short in the final third. What do they still need? Two or three players up front with real quality not potential, including a game-chang- er on the left wing who can contribute ten-plus goals. If Dominic Solanke’s fit- ness cannot be relied upon, Spurs will need a proven striker too.
Sullivan told not to attend home matches
James Beal Investigations Editor Shanti Das Senior Investigations Reporter
The West Ham United co-owner David Sullivan has been advised not to attend the club’s home matches after a Times and BBC Panorama investigation into sexual misconduct allegations.
The operator of the London Stadium has recommended to the club that Sulli- van, 77, does not go to games, due to potential for fan unrest. Additionally, the stadium operator has asked for advance notice of any planned visits by Sullivan in order to implement extra safety and operational measures. West Ham, how- ever, have told the London Stadium that they expect the businessman to still attend games at the ground, before the club’s home Carabao Cup tie against Portsmouth on Saturday.
Sullivan resigned as director and joint chairman of West Ham in June, shortly before the publication of the joint Times and BBC Panorama investigation. He strongly denies all the allegations. Three women accused him of abusing his power as owner of the Sport newspapers to sleep with them. Four other women accused Sullivan of exploitative and predatory behaviour. Sullivan categori- cally denied all the claims, calling them “factually incorrect and entirely false”. He said that he reserved all legal rights
£75m offer for Guimarães
Newcastle United have turned down an opening offer from Arsenal for Bruno Guimarães, believed to be in the region of £75 million.
The offer was made on Sunday and is the first contact between the clubs over the 28-year-old Brazil midfielder. Newcastle insist they do not want to sell their captain, but it is believed Arsenal have scheduled a medical for early this week, thinking the transfer will go through. It is thought that the deal can be completed if Newcastle receive an improved offer.
Guimarães took a flight yesterday from Brazil to Spain, where he has linked up with his Newcastle team- mates in La Manga for their pre-season
against under-fire Infantino
continued from back
action and that all documents and information relating to the plan, called Fifa Forward Enterprises (FFE), to sell a stake in Fifa tournaments to private investors should be preserved.
The letter, a copy of which has been seen by The Times, says: “Uefa hereby gives formal notice that it is actively considering legal action, arbitration, and/or regulatory complaints arising out of and in connection with the FFE plan proposed by Fifa and all related matters.
in relation to any false or defamatory al- legations. He remains West Ham’s larg- est shareholder. The Times and BBC Panorama investigation also revealed that Sullivan has had safeguarding restrictions imposed on him since 2023, banning him from contact with West Ham’s youth and women’s teams. The restrictions were placed on Sullivan after the FA received a historical allega- tion against him.
Sullivan said the allegation was false. London Stadium subsequently wrote to West Ham expressing concern that it was not told of the safeguarding restric- tions. A spokesman for London Stadium said yesterday that “following media re- ports at the end of the season regarding a safeguarding matter being managed by the club” it had “sought further infor- mation to ensure it could fulfil its own safeguarding responsibilities”.
It said that West Ham had told them that the “matter was investigated and that the club does not consider there to be an ongoing safeguarding risk asso- ciated with Mr Sullivan attending the stadium”. The spokesman added: “How- ever, given the potential for demonstra- tions and anti-social behaviour by some spectators, we have recommended to the club that he does not attend.”
Sullivan was approached for comment while the club declined to comment.
training camp. Guimarães has intimat- ed to Newcastle bosses his desire to join the Premier League champions.
Newcastle confirmed yesterday morning the signing of the Czech Re- public goalkeeper Lukas Hornicek from Braga for a fee believed to be £25.7 million.
Meanwhile, promoted Coventry City are among the clubs to have registered an interest in Chelsea’s Mykhailo Mudryk.
The winger made eight appearances under Frank Lampard, the Coventry manager, during his caretaker stint in charge of Chelsea in 2023.
Two other Premier League clubs are thought to have made enquiries about Mudryk’s availability, in addition to three European clubs.
session, custody, or control. These obligations arise independently of any internal retention policy you or your organisation maintain and supersede any routine document destruction or deletion policies that would otherwise apply.”
The letter also names 14 executives, including Infantino and Fifa’s head of global football development, Arsène Wenger, who should “specifically pre- serve all such materials in their posses- sion, custody, or control”. Fifa’s secre- tary general, Mattias Grafstrom, and director of independent committees, Mario Gallavotti, are also on the list.
Tuesday August 4 2026 | the times Sport
Rivals’ plan to oust Infantino
Martyn Ziegler Sports News Reporter of the Year
An alliance has been formed aimed at toppling Gianni Infantino, with the leaders planning to “paralyse Fifa” and prepared to stage their own inter- national competitions if he refuses to step down as president.
Infantino has been desperately try- ing to secure backing from his old power base after the collapse of his plan to sell off a stake in the World Cup to private investors, with the Swiss-Italian lawyer now under intense pressure from opponents to resign.
The leaders of Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation are determined to oust Infantino and sources say they have a number of strat- egies to use if he insists on remaining in power and seeks re-election for a fourth term in March.
Infantino’s opponents are planning to impose a “governance boycott” — refusing to take part in Fifa council or committee meetings or ratify Fifa deci- sions — and are prepared to establish rival international competitions. Uefa has a blueprint for a global Nations League, which it commissioned in 2017 but never used.
Infantino, 56, has secured only 15 declarations of support from the 211 member nations since The Times broke the news of the planned sell-off on Tuesday, which has intensified calls for Infantino to resign before the election.
One source said: “Everyone is very determined he needs to go, and if not we will take all the necessary steps [to
Times Crossword 29,612 across down Yesterday’s solution 29,611
remove him from power]. That includes future international competitions — would the big South American coun- tries prefer to play France or Spain, or Lebanon or Djibouti?
“Everyone is very determined, there are no backward steps now.”
There may also be calls for an emer- gency Fifa council meeting if a majority of members are persuaded to call for Infantino to quit.
A number of European associations, including England and Wales, have withdrawn letters of support for Infan- tino’s re-election after the uproar over his World Cup sell-off plan.
The FA’s move comes after its state- ment on Saturday calling for “a full and robust review of Fifa’s leadership and governance to ensure that the global game is run transparently”.
The Football Association of Wales (FAW) said in a statement: “The Foot- ball Association of Wales hereby con- firms its withdrawal of support for the candidature of Mr Gianni Infantino for re-election as Fifa president for the 2027–2031 term.
“The recent failures in good govern- ance, processes, leadership, values, stakeholder management, communi- cations and sound judgment have led us to a position where Mr Infantino has lost the confidence of the FAW to remain at the helm of world football. Failing to put the best interests of foot- ball first is a failure we cannot accept.”
Meanwhile, Uefa has sent Infantino a legal letter from its United States-based lawyers warning it is considering legal
As Jordan Henderson joins Chelsea from Brentford, our experts run the rule over each Premier League team’s summer transfer business, pages 54-55
1 Writer’s second copy — and
editor’s first (6) 4 A support actor of dubious quality
who almost died in the theatre? (7) 9 Country address offered to chaps in
the past? (5) 10 Little programme skill in item on
Bake Off? (5,4) 11 Begin travelling to Nigeria (9) 12 Departed, grabbing time for coffee
(5) 13 Appreciated place with gardens
around November (4) 14 Eton’s involved in appealing fraud
(10) 18 Chance of new start in Forbidden
City when a king returned (6,4) 20 Reject shortened branch railway
(4) 23 Cell breaker only Sing Sing keeps
locked up (5) 24 Silly fool messed around with virus
(9) 25 Celebrate in cold air in restaurant
(9) 26 Speech from revolutionary core of
Africa (5) 27 Confusion of language between
CHRIS LEE/CHELSEA FC/GETTY IMAGES
1 Type of curdled milk, pint-sized
with no top to swiftly go high (9) 2 Salad course dressed with caviar?
(7) 3 One outlawed and forbade the
thing, reportedly (6) 4 More than enough taste without
the topping of salt (5) 5 Florrie’s lingerie’s not entirely
white (8) 6 Hot wearing suit in heated areas?
(7) 7 Small donation securing
Republican headgear (5) 8 Disdainful of pork pie right after
wine (8) 15 Duck and hawk accepted by mostly
fit place for treatment (8) 16 Rory hikes rocky Dales location (9) 17 Piece of timber, to name something
that floats in water (8) 19 Dwarf British tree not completely
well-rounded (7) 21 Extend a number in Gershwin’s
opening scene (7) 22 Window key earlier failing to open
(6) 23 London Met initially introducing
Faith in ageing quartet may be good news for England in Ashes
of US Open in latest blow
Tom Kershaw Tennis Correspondent
Emma Raducanu will miss the US Open because of a stress fracture in her lower right leg.
The British No 1 pulled out of Wimbledon at the 11th hour due to the injury in June after she was spotted wearing an orthopedic boot in the build-up to the championships.
Raducanu has been recuperating at a five-star resort in St Moritz, Switzer- land, from where she posted a video of herself hitting serves with the boot still on. But it is understood the nature of the stress fracture — reportedly stress- four, which can require eight to 16 weeks to heal — means Raducanu’s medical team have already advised the 23-year-old to skip the entirety of the US hard-court swing, which ends with the US Open. The tournament begins at the end of the month.
The news is yet another blow, five years on from Raducanu’s victory at Flushing Meadows as an 18-year-old qualifier. The world No 49 has repeat- edly suffered injuries as her body has broken down under the strain of life on tour, including surgeries on both wrists and her left ankle in 2023, and this season has been no different.
Raducanu split from her coach, Fran- cisco Roig, after a second-round exit at the Australian Open before reaching the final in Cluj-Napoca in February. That marked Raducanu’s first WTA Tour-level final since her grand-slam title but she contracted a chest infection in Romania and post-viral symptoms then kept her off court for ten weeks.
Raducanu reunited with Andrew Richardson — the coach who guided her to glory in New York — as she sought to recapture the more aggressive style of her late teens. The partnership started to bear fruit at Queen’s, where Raducanu beat two top-20 players before losing in the final against Donna Vekic. But the toll of playing five matches in six days exacerbated what
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T
will reconcile — if his family ‘improve’. Hmm
W
his heatwave summer has also been the summer of heating up family feuds. The Ramsay-Peatys and the Peatys and the Peltz- Beckhams and the Beckhams have been neck and neck for the past two months, occasionally challenged by that other frontrunner, the Sussexes versus the Windsors. The action has been fairly evenly spread, but at the time of going to press Adam Ramsay-Peaty has inched ahead of the field with a statement that, if there were courses taught on crisis resolution, could be the basis of a seminar entitled How Not to Apologise.
When asked (in an interview with the Guardian) a few days ago about the possibility of a reconciliation with his family, Ramsay-Peaty said this: “For me, as a Christian, there has to be forgiveness. It doesn’t mean you have to forget, but forgiveness takes time. I’m not saying that it won’t get better but it has to come from a place where I feel like they’ve improved as people…”
If you’re not howling with laughter after reading this you’re probably a member of the Peaty family. It’s not just the patronising tone but the fact that he has to be the judge of whether they have “improved” sufficiently that makes you wonder if Ramsay- Peaty has the same therapist as Prince Harry. We, the rubber- necking public, are now experts in the family feud department and take it from us: this is a hole- digger that will take us way up to and beyond next Christmas.
The funny thing about the almost constant drip of skirmishes in these family feuds is that we’re all genuinely waiting for the moment when someone (the younger male) extends the hand of friendship and calls it quits. We’re sure it’s coming because the contentious issues — a row over the choice of wedding dress (Peltz-Beckhams/Beckhams); a row over what the groom’s mother should wear to the wedding (Ramsay-Peatys/Peatys); a row over the bridesmaid’s tights (Sussexes/Windsors) — are so breathtakingly trivial compared with a lifetime of parental devotion and family memories and a future estranged from your siblings and their children.
Skippy” (Harry); “I’m sad that my mum who looked after my first child all the time will not even see the one who’s due in a couple of months” (Ramsay-Peaty). We keep waiting for the breakthrough — the event that the estranged child cannot ignore that will bring them swiftly back into the fold — and then those come and go: David Beckham’s knighthood, the World Cup, Holly Ramsay-Peaty’s pregnancy — not even two cancer diagnoses in Harry’s family cut through the hostilities.
Now it’s starting to feel as if genuine reconciliation is a fantasy, because in all these feuds the estranged son is seeking repentance before they’ll consider getting back to normal. Every overture and olive branch ends up as a veiled threat. Show me you’ve improved and we’ll talk about forgiveness. Sort out my security and we’ll consider borrowing one of your palaces. Stop sending me birthday messages and posting pictures of me when I was little and I’ll… well, actually there’s no message of hope from the Peltz-Beckham camp. Not so far.
Harry’s latest olive branch wrapped in barbed wire is a request for the King to stand beside him on stage at next year’s Invictus Games in Birmingham, an invitation that, at this point, sounds like yet another demand. It would have been easy for him to make the request privately, but announcing it this way — making it a public choice between supporting him and not — is more in keeping with the new style of loaded rapprochement. “This is important to me, I am owed respect and this is how you can show it” is the message. As attempts at reconciliation go it sounds a lot like Ramsay- Peaty’s “when you change to my liking we can talk”.
It doesn’t seem to have occurred to these men that they might have apologies to make themselves. They want peace but only if their families admit they were wholly in the wrong and repent. What these two have in common, besides feeling they have the moral high ground (even God on their side) is that they both seem like muscley man-sized children. Just stop talking, you want to say. Stop telling us about your feelings. Stop trying to have the last word. Go home and ring your mum/dad/sister/brother.
We’re still mesmerised as to what grudge it is that Ramsay- Peaty bears his mother. Surely it can’t be her refusing to allow herself to be styled for his wedding (code for hoisted up a class and made to look like someone richer, thinner and more sophisticated)? That is rumoured to be the reason the Peatys, bar his sister, stayed away on the day — they took exception to Caroline Peaty being made over in the manner of a polished Ramsay circle guest.
Anyway. Back to that other gigantic feud, between Brooklyn and Nicola and Brooklyn’s parents. Things had gone a bit quiet in the past month, but at the weekend the pass-agg machine ground into action again as Brooklyn and Nicola met up with “Uncle” Elton — Brooklyn’s godfather — on Elton’s yacht in Nice. Presumably Uncle Elts has been given permission by his old mates to keep lines of communication open. Maybe he’s miked up and all their conversations were being relayed directly to the Beckhams’ yacht in Ibiza. Still, it’s yet more material for the How Not to Build Bridges school. And I have to say, Brooklyn is showing some real promise in this area.
and the ‘public scrutiny’ that’s taken its toll
appear on the London stage after all. Are her heavy schedule and criticism of her weight behind it, asks Claire Cohen
ith ten No 1 singles, six No 1 albums, an Oscar nomination, three Grammys and 363 million devoted followers on Instagram, you’d think Ariana Grande might be at the absolute peak of her powers. Instead, the 33-year-old singer, who has been performing since the age of eight and is in the midst of the international Eternal Sunshine tour — which culminates with ten nights at the O2 this month — has just pulled out of her highly anticipated theatre debut in London.
“Ariana will be taking a step back from visibility,” a spokesperson told People magazine of Grande’s decision to walk away from a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, due to open at the Barbican next year. She is, they added, “taking a much- deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny”.
Oof, so is it our fault? Certainly, deliberation over Grande’s weight (not all of it genuine concern) has been the soundtrack to her career in recent years, often overshadowing her work. Only this week, the British model Charli Howard — who has spoken publicly about her struggle with eating disorders — criticised Grande’s management after the release of a music video for the song Petal.
“I think it is absolutely appalling, from both a moral and capitalistic standpoint, to have released these videos and an album when this person needs psychiatric help and hospitalisation,” Howard wrote on Instagram, expressing concern that
some of the singer’s impressionable young fans (who call themselves Arianators) were defending her as “healthy” or just losing her “puppy fat”. “The teams involved should be absolutely ashamed.”
Grande, it should be emphasised, hasn’t said that her retreat has anything to do with her health, and Howard has received death threats since her post, such is the intensity of the debate about the singer’s changing appearance — the ethics of speculating over something so personal and private, versus the duty of care in not saying anything at all.
In 2023 Grande posted a rare three- minute video on TikTok asking for the speculation to stop. “There are many
different ways to look healthy and beautiful… You never know what someone is going through. Even if you are coming from a loving place and a caring place, that person is probably working on it or has a support system that they are working on it with. So be gentle with each other and with yourselves,” she said.
What we do know for sure is that the Wicked star has had a difficult few years. In May 2017 she had just finished the encore of a sold-out show at Manchester Arena when Salman Abedi detonated a bomb in the foyer, killing 22 concertgoers, including eight-year-old Saffie Roussos, and injuring more than 200 others. A benefit concert two weeks later at Old Trafford, which the singer organised, raised more than £10 million for the families of victims. Grande choked with sobs as she sang Over the Rainbow in their memory.
H
consuming” after years of trying to support his sobriety, yet she was forced to turn off comments on her Instagram account after trolls blamed her for his relapse and death. Amazing how it’s always the woman’s fault, isn’t it?
By then Grande was engaged to the comedian and serial Hollywood dater Pete Davidson after a whirlwind romance (they started dating in May 2018 and reportedly decided to marry in June), which included matching tattoos and a pet pig named Piggy Smallz. But the relationship ended a month after Miller’s death, amid Grande cancelling appearances on Saturday Night Live and a cancer benefit gala. “Given the events of the past couple of years, Ariana is going to take some much-needed time to heal and mend,” her representative said.
Her interviews from that period tell the story of a young woman struggling. “My anxiety has anxiety. I’ve always had anxiety. I’ve never really spoken about it because I thought everyone had it,” she told British Vogue in 2018.
And while she has always refused to make the Manchester attack about herself — “it’s not my trauma, it’s those families’,” she told American Vogue in 2019 — she did admit to suffering with PTSD in its wake.
“I have a lot that I still need to process myself and will probably never be ready to talk about,” she told Vogue. “For a long time I didn’t want to talk to anyone about anything, because I didn’t want to think about anything. I kind of just wanted to bury myself in work and not focus on the real stuff, because I couldn’t believe it was real.”
company, raised in an upmarket gated community in Florida. Her parents split when she was eight, after which she became estranged from her father for a time. She has spoken about having to persuade her parents to reconcile and resume friendly terms when she was in her early twenties.
A young Grande threw herself into performing. After years in local theatre, aged 14, she landed a role in the Broadway musical 13, and was subsequently cast as Cat Valentine on the Nickelodeon tween shows Victorious and Sam & Cat, which made her a star and gave her a very engaged and enthusiastic young fanbase.
In her spare time (what spare time, I hear you ask), she made YouTube videos of herself singing covers — think Whitney Houston, Adele, Mariah Carey — eventually releasing her debut album, Yours Truly, in 2013 when she was 20. It debuted at No 1 in the US Billboard 200 chart; since then she has worked at a relentless pace, putting out eight albums, all certified platinum, and toured the world four times.
Not to mention that since the Manchester attack she has defied the apolitical stance of your typical pop singer to speak out in favour of gun control, is vocally pro-LGBTQ+, and in June asked the White House to stop using her songs after it did so to promote its immigration policy. “Please do not use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense,” she commented on the administration’s TikTok post, showing people being handcuffed by border control agents.
Somehow she has also found time to star as Glinda in both Wicked films — for which she received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress — which were made back-to-back in 2022. The strain of that gruelling
filming schedule, during which Grande relocated to England, was partly blamed for her 2024 divorce from Dalton Gomez, an estate agent whom she had married three years earlier in an intimate post-lockdown ceremony in Montecito, California (they had a prenup: he got a £1.25 million payout).
In July 2023, as their split was made public, Grande was revealed to be dating her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater, a relationship which quickly became controversial thanks to the timing of Slater’s split from his wife, Lilly Jay, the mother of his newborn son, that same year. Naturally, Grande copped more of the criticism than Slater. The couple kept a low profile, rarely appearing in public together, and reportedly broke up quietly this year.
It’s a lot, isn’t it? Little wonder that Grande has mostly pulled back from using her social media accounts to share personal information, largely posting anodyne black-and-white portraits of herself and her dogs, clips from her tour or promotional images for Focker-in-Law — the next instalment in the Meet the Parents franchise — in which she’ll star alongside Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller in November this year. Whether she’ll join the publicity tour for the film remains to be seen.
“You know, I’ve been a specimen in a petri dish since I was 16 or 17. So, I have heard it all,” Grande said last year. “I’ve heard every version of what’s wrong with me. And then you fix it, and it’s wrong for different reasons. From what you’re wearing, to your body, to your face, to your everything.”
on TikTok now
unrelatable, says Charlie Gowans
ow does a 53-year-old keep up with the kids on TikTok? For Gen X-er Gwyneth Paltrow’s debut on Gen Z’s favourite app this weekend, she hammed up the generation gap and her apparent lack of TikTok nous with a round-the- world series of video clips.
She opens with the phrase “Yeah I’m coming right now, I’m just doing a TikTok” while up a mountain, then repeats words to that effect: on a boat, in French beside a French bridge, topless in bed, into a headset on a helicopter, in Italian from a lavender garden, on a boat again, in a museum, naked in the bath, on a plane, from a market in an unspecified European piazza, sotto voce in an art gallery... you get the idea.
Tone deaf? It’s certainly not relatable, but Paltrow is self-aware enough to have considered that tone in advance, and when it comes to TikTok, aspiration sells better than
relatability.
It’s an interesting moment for Paltrow to choose to join
TikTok. Without her own
profile there to lead the
narrative, the search results
for her name centre on her
most recent sponsored
content — shilling luxury
flats in Israel.
Meanwhile on Instagram, where she has 9.1 million
followers, the backlash was
harder to find and probably
never seen by her older
fanbase, since it was a long
scroll down from the top
posts of nostalgia over her
Noughties red-carpet style
and Paltrow’s own posts
sharing her Goop skincare
routine or cooking
her partner.
She hasn’t yet managed to bump those exposé posts, but with just shy of 10,000 likes on her post in two days, the TikTok rebrand is definitely under way. Social media
users have short memories, and an
insatiable appetite to buy the
lifestyles they watch online.
This is the platform where real money can be made selling appetite-suppressing lollipops,
online workouts, shapewear and protein popcorn — all product lines promoted by the Kardashians — to teenagers.
The 40-plus anti-ageing, vaginal egg and cashmere
jumper demographic has made Paltrow a multimillionaire (though she was also born into wealth), but TikTok Shop has made the Kardashians
billionaires. Whether or not generations Z and Alpha have the deep pockets to buy into Brand Paltrow remains to be seen. But I’m sure she’ll find something to sell them — and perhaps launch her own brand dynasty, with her Gen Z children to help her reach her new audience.
probably treating it all wrong
Do not expect an x-ray or scan. There are situations where they are T
he older you get as a doctor, the more you learn, both through your contact with patients and, as bits of you start to go wrong, through personal experience. Today’s subject — back pain — is a case in point. Not only have I cared for thousands of people with back trouble, but I have been there myself.
Most adults will experience back pain at some stage, often many times, and it exacts a considerable toll, not just on the individual and the NHS but employers and government coffers too. That burden isn’t helped by the way we manage it.
Despite long-established UK guidelines on best practice, which have just been updated by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), we are still making the same mistakes. Put simply, too many people are doing the wrong thing, taking the wrong medication or having the wrong investigations.
A recent study of consultations at a GP surgery in Glasgow found that guidelines were not followed in six out of ten cases. It was a small sample and impossible to extrapolate to the whole of the UK, but it reflects data from other studies, including another recent one based on emergency department attendance in the US. This found similar divergence from the guidelines, with one in five people given opioid painkillers such as codeine and morphine (these should be avoided in back pain where possible) and too many (nearly 40 per cent) having x-rays that were unlikely to help.
There are lots of different causes of acute (less than three months) back pain, some far more serious than others, so it is hard to generalise and it’s vital to look for “red flag” symptoms (see panel) that should prompt urgent investigation. However, the vast majority of cases get better on their own with time. Here are some of the recommendations from the latest Nice guidance that should help that natural healing process.
Avoid acupuncture, supportive belts, corrective shoe insoles, corsets and Tens (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) machines, and don’t rely on paracetamol. It’s generally harmless if you stick to the right dose, but research shows that it doesn’t work for this type of pain. Nice also recommends avoiding opioid painkillers except where other drugs don’t help. Opioids often don’t work that well, and may even result in worse long-term outcomes, not least opioid dependence, which can leave people still in pain but addicted and sedated.
Nice also advises against medicines to help with short-term nerve pain such as the old-fashioned antidepressant amitriptyline and newer drugs such as pregabalin and gabapentin (amitriptyline is still used to treat chronic pain). For sciatica — nerve pain, typically in the leg — we should not be using diazepam.
So what should you take? The painkillers of choice for acute back pain are the non-steroidal anti- inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). If you are self-treating it will be ibuprofen, which is available over the counter, but if under the care of a doctor it will probably be naproxen.
NSAIDs are not suitable for everyone, and can cause serious side- effects, including kidney problems and life-threatening stomach bleeds, so they are often prescribed alongside something to protect the stomach, such as the acid-suppressing drug omeprazole. If buying over the counter do check with your pharmacist if you are over 65, have kidney, stomach or heart problems, or take blood pressure tablets, water tablets or anticoagulants.
people still in pain but addicted and sedated
important but, in general, they don’t help and, in the case of x-rays, expose you to unnecessary radiation. MRIs don’t involve ionising radiation so are safer, but are expensive, often pick up irrelevant wear and tear, and are not always helpful.
Don’t push for surgery. This is rarely offered in acute back pain but can be an option for some people, including those with severe sciatica. I underwent a microdiscectomy 20 years ago having been in agony for months with a weak left leg. It worked a treat, but long-term outcomes for those who have this type of surgery for a prolapsed disc are often no better than they are for those who heal naturally, so avoid it if you can. I still have occasional sciatica now.
Try to remain active and at work. Resting for a day or two if the pain is severe is OK, but any longer than that can lead to weakness and slower recovery. As a rule people who remain active, and at work, tend to fare better. And consider an active exercise programme.
To summarise: if you develop back pain after some DIY next weekend, assuming you don’t have any of the red flags, current advice would be to take ibuprofen, stay as active as possible and head off to work as usual on Monday. Most cases improve gradually within 4–6 weeks, but if yours hasn’t, see your GP. You can read the latest Nice guidance at nice.org.uk/ guidance/ng59
your doctor’s surgery
Most cases of back pain require no specific treatment, but it can be a symptom of underlying problems ranging from inflammatory arthritis and infection to fractures and cancer. Here are some symptoms that warrant a call to your GP.
6 New type of pain in someone under 20 or over 55
6 Pain following trauma such as a fall
6 Pain that is constant and not relieved by rest
6 Affecting the upper half of the spine rather than the lower half
6 A history of cancer or prolonged steroid use
6 Feeling generally unwell or having a raised temperature
6 Unexplained weight loss
6 Seek help urgently or go to A&E if you develop any of these as they
a midlife paunch (like Andy Burnham’s)
quite shift his belly fat. It’s a problem for many fiftysomethings, men especially. Peta Bee seeks the experts’ best advice A
t 56, Andy Burnham has avoided many of the physical curses that plague men in their middle years. He is slim and fit, having run several marathons and completed the Great Manchester Run 10km multiple times — most recently in 53min 15sec, a respectable time for his age, according to Runner’s World.
You don’t achieve times like Burnham has without training, but despite his efforts the new PM has found attention directed to his barely-there mini-paunch, somewhat unfairly dubbed the “Burnham belly”. It’s a plight familiar to midlifers who spend hours at the gym only to find their Lycra T-shirt still taut over a stubborn bulge. Why?
Hormones play a part. Men have low levels of oestrogen, a hormone that directs fat storage to the hips and thighs rather than the waistline, which means they typically gain weight around the middle at any age.
This natural lack of subcutaneous fat deposits in the hips and thighs means any excess fat is stored inside the body around the vital organs or as visible belly fat. It gets worse as activity levels and muscle mass drop from their forties onwards.
“You can’t decide where fat comes off first with a man, but you can accurately predict where it comes off last,” says Scott Harrison, a personal trainer and founder of the Six Pack Revolution, a body transformation programme. “A mini paunch in the lower belly is basically a survival pouch where we naturally store fat for emergencies and it is always the last bit to disappear.”
running, which is great for reducing overall weight and for stress relief, but less helpful in flattening the tummy. “When we run at a steady pace we become efficient at fat burning — in other words our bodies get used to it,” says the performance coach Dalton Wong. “It helps to add resistance training to the mix.”
Diet and stress — of which we can imagine Burnham has plenty — contribute to belly fat, but genes also play a part. “Make no mistake that the prime minster is in really good shape for a man approaching 60,” Wong says. “There are changes that can help to get rid of a mini-paunch, but sometimes it just comes down to genetics and that’s a battle you can’t win easily.” Here’s what to try:
Excess sugar and UPFs need to go Reducing added sugars will help to shrink a paunch. “Sugar causes a spike in insulin which encourages fat storage, especially around the middle,” Harrison says. It’s boring, but getting your sugar fix from natural sources, such as fruit, is the safest bet. “Bananas, dates and other fruit are great,” he says. “Just make sure you consume them with some protein and fat, such as Greek yoghurt, to prevent a sharp sugar spike.”
Foods with added sugars trigger cravings for unhealthy ultra-processed foods such as crisps, pies and biscuits. A Brazilian study involving more than 22,000 people found people who ate the most UPFs had a 30 per cent greater risk of developing abdominal obesity than those who consumed the least. Best avoided.
encourages fat storage round the abdomen. “Cortisol is a blocker of fat loss and helps our bodies to hold on to fat for survival,” Harrison says.
Yoga, outdoor swimming and Nordic walking with poles all have proven stress-busting, mood-boosting effects. Running is another option and is obviously Burnham’s stress-reducer of choice, although long-distance marathon training and high- intensity exercises such as those featured in Hyrox, the increasingly popular indoor fitness race, can provide another source of stress for the body.
“Moderate running distances are excellent for the body and mind,” Harrison says. “It’s better for fat-burning to do something like 20 minutes of alternating one-minute hard effort, one-minute jogging than an hour of steady running — or sometimes add some uphills and downhills instead.”
Mix in some resistance work There’s no escaping weights in middle age and the NHS recommends that adults do muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week — a target missed by roughly 40 per cent of British men in their fifties.
“When a man is pretty skinny elsewhere but has a little belly fat, as Burnham has, it suggests muscle loss, or sarcopenia, is to blame and lifting weights will help,” Harrison says.
Andy Burnham
one of the worst offenders for a paunch
improve your posture to reduce a paunch. “Running gets your legs strong, but Burnham would benefit from adding some weighted lateral lunges as running works muscles in a forward motion only,” Wong says.
“Adding upper-body exercises such as cable and upright rows and thrusters will balance things out and I’d always recommend compound moves such as push-ups and weighted squats and deadlifts for prime fat-burning and core strength.”
Improve your posture You can train seven days a week and if you don’t stand up straight, the effect on your paunch will be minimal. Correct your posture and you’ll be amazed at the visible difference. “This is a big and relatively easy-to-fix issue for middle-aged men, usually exacerbated by a loss of muscle mass in supporting muscles that exaggerate the look of a pot belly,” Harrison says. “Andy Burnham is quite round- shouldered and just by lifting his chest and eyes up a bit, his stomach would instantly look flatter.”
recently showed there is a direct link between alcohol and abdominal fat or a “beer belly”. “Alcohol contains unwanted calories that can lead to weight gain, particularly around the middle, and switches the brain into starvation mode, sending signals that you are hungry even if you’ve already eaten,” Harrison says.
He has a strict “rule of 100 per cent no alcohol whatsoever” for those signing up to his 12-week six-pack plan but says a more moderate approach is fine longer term. “No amount of alcohol is good for you or your belly,” he says. “But I enjoy a drink when the sun is out — the key is to keep it under control.”
…and limit the pints of beer Burnham, a diehard Everton fan, likes a pint, especially before watching matches, and has recently said it is “wrong” that spectators could not enjoy a pint during matches. Is even this too much? Unfortunately, beer is among the worst offenders for a paunch.
“In terms of alcohol levels, it is lower than spirits and that’s a good thing,” Harrison says. “But the quantity of liquid and gas and the 200 calories in a pint make you bloated.” Beer, ales and ciders all contain carbs that increase blood sugar levels when you drink them, potentially raising hunger levels later on. “If you are trying to lose your belly, drinking 4-5 pints a week or more is the worst thing to do,” Harrison says. thesixpackrevolution.com; daltonwong.co.uk
my chronic cough?
Surinder Birring, professor of respiratory medicine at King’s College London and consultant respiratory physician at King’s College Hospital Anyone with a long-lasting cough should seek medical evaluation promptly. Initial checks should rule out warning signs of serious illness, such as coughing up blood or unexplained weight loss, which can point to lung cancer. Certain blood pressure medications, particularly ACE inhibitors such as Ramipril, are also common culprits and worth reviewing with a GP. Smokers and vapers are urged to seek support to quit, and a simple chest x-ray can help identify underlying lung disease.
When these steps don’t resolve the problem, the cause may be “cough hypersensitivity syndrome”, also known as refractory chronic cough. This condition involves overactive cough-triggering nerves and amplified signalling in the brain, and it disproportionately affects women in their fifties. Triggers can include cold air, talking, eating and perfumes. Symptoms of throat irritation, such as tickling, are common.
Treatment options include the medication gefapixant (though not widely available), which blocks airway cough receptors, and drugs like amitriptyline, gabapentin and morphine, which dampen the brain’s cough signal.
Morphine carries a risk of addiction and should be reserved for the most severe cases, typically being prescribed only after other therapies have been tried and failed to bring relief. Speech and physiotherapy-led cough control therapy also shows strong results, especially alongside medication.
Professor Alyn Morice, head of respiratory medicine at Hull York Medical School The first thing is to realise that it is a common condition, but the problem is that most healthcare professionals are ignorant of it. While it can occur at any age, it mostly afflicts middle-aged women whose lives are often ruined by embarrassment, anxiety and social isolation. Half the patients are incontinent. It’s a disease which is usually mistakenly diagnosed as chest infections, asthma or COPD.
It has a characteristic pattern. Cough on rising in the morning. Cough with meals and on phonation, particularly laughing. Cough on lying down or bending. It usually abates when the patient eventually goes to sleep. Throat clearing and voice change are frequent, but each patient has a different pattern. It is caused by hypersensitivity of the vagus nerve and its projections to the brain.
I use promotility agents (drugs that stimulate muscles in the digestive tract) and ultimately low-dose morphine, which inhibits the tickle in most patients. Gefapixant is the only licenced medicine for this disease, but it is not available on the NHS.
myths? Well, that sauna won’t help
the exercise scientist Dr Nick Tiller. From mouth tape to ice baths, it’s mostly nonsense. By Anna Maxted A
t first sight you might foolishly mistake Dr Nick Tiller, an exercise scientist and respiratory physiologist, for your average online fitness bro. He has that shaven-headed, full-bearded, heavily muscled under a snug T-shirted look. But while he does spend more than ten hours a week in the gym (“it’s what I love to do — it sounds ridiculous when you put it in hours”), that’s where the similarity ends.
Tiller, 44, is a research associate at the Lundquist Institute, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and an associate editor for the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. He has worked with athletes on the UK’s Olympic programme and alongside patients with obstructive lung disease. He’s a stickler for robust data, rigorous science and principled medical expertise.
Trouble is, many others are not. He was horrified when a well-meaning family friend recommended that Tiller’s grandfather, who’d had a stroke, take homeopathic digitalis instead of his heart medication. Unfortunately scientists, as well as civilians, can get it wrong. Thanks to Tiller’s query to the editor of a scientific journal, a published study claiming that vitamin D boosted cardiovascular fitness by 27 per cent was retracted. His latest book, The Health and Wellness Lie: Exposing the Hype, Hacks and Hidden Agendas of the Wellbeing Machine, won’t be popular with many.
Among those he takes aim at are chiropractors (a known risk is “a tear in the artery supplying blood to the brain”), acupuncturists (“Qi has never been measured or observed — nor have meridians”), kinesiology tape (“placebo tape”), oxygenated water (as if “a bottled gimmick could meaningfully improve on the respiratory system”), Deepak Chopra (big on “word salad”), the billionaire youth-seeker Bryan Johnson (achieved nothing that can’t be attained by consistent training and eating well) and the podcaster Dr Andrew Huberman (“Goop for bros”).
Tiller says he’s not a naysaying cynic. He’s just angry at how we’re swayed by the hype of a multitrillion-pound industry. He wants people to reach their health and wellness goals, which they won’t if they’re bamboozled, or worse.
power back. If you actually want to get healthy and fit, you do your yoga, you go walking, you maybe go to the gym, you play tennis, you move, you eat well, you don’t smoke — that stuff is worth a 100 years of all the other nonsense.”
Sauna, anyone? How to know if a wellness claim is exaggerated In 2015 researchers developed a method for quantifying susceptibility to snake oil, Tiller reports — a Bullshit Receptivity Scale. It included obvious rot such as “Intention is the knowledge of inspiration and of us”. But often a claim sewn together from half-truths or thin data is harder to detect or debunk. Trouble is, “We have evolved to be economic with our decision-making. Don’t take at face value what you’re being told until you get some more evidence.” This might sound obvious — until you read what he says about, for instance, saunas.
There’s an oft-cited Finnish study which found that frequent sauna use was associated with about a 60 per cent drop in the rate of fatal heart disease and all-cause mortality, lower blood pressure, inflammation and risk of dementia. But correlation is not causation. The study controlled for BMI, smoking and alcohol, Tiller says, but not “broader diet, medications, genetics, mental health, sleep, healthcare access or sociocultural factors”.
He cites a 2019 study comparing the cardiovascular function of people sitting in a sauna with others resting in normal temperatures. It found “no differences in arterial function”. At best, “There’s some evidence that regular saunas might have some modest cardiovascular benefits.”
evidence now shows that ice bathing actually slows recovery
Do I have to give up taking ice baths? Chill. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with ice bathing and using saunas,” he says. Saunas are excellent for relaxing and Tiller has tried cold water swimming. “It sharpens and awakens the senses and makes you feel great, because you get a rush of endorphins.” It can benefit your mental health. “The problem is that it’s a slippery slope from that to then claiming that ice bathing can reduce inflammation, that it can accelerate muscle recovery.”
First, “anti- inflammatory” is a lazy wellness buzzword, used as if acute and chronic inflammation were the same thing. Second, “loads of evidence now shows that ice bathing actually slows recovery from hard training because it reduces muscle protein synthesis and blunts the anabolic signalling processes in the muscle that we need to recover,” Tiller says. “There has to be an inflammatory response for the body to respond and adapt to the training. If you suppress that too much, you suppress your adaptation.” Plus, “some swear by [ice baths] for warding off colds and ‘boosting’ the immune system — and there’s no evidence. The problem is we’re so eager for these shortcuts that we buy into these extravagant claims.”
Mouth taping, knee taping — which have you fallen for? I tell Tiller that my son returned from a physiotherapist appointment, his knee decorated in fluorescent tape. Kinesiology tape is “a wonderful case study”, Tiller says. By targeting top athletes and professional footballers, he says, there was a point about a decade ago when every major event
seemed to include a sportsman
with their knees, thighs
and arms covered in
the stuff. “It’s no
coincidence that the
tape is brightly
coloured. It creates
the ‘exposure effect’. The more you see of something the more you associate it with validity and credibility.” Manufacturers say it “improves blood and lymphatic flow, which helps to reduce inflammation and supports healing”. Scientific research is yet to establish benefits beyond providing “a bit of extra stability”, according to Tiller.
Mouth-taping overnight, too, has been popular with athletes, convincing many to follow suit. Tiller says: “Mouth taping is this idea that if you obligate nasal breathing it can help to open up the lungs and improve oxygen efficiency.” The confusing element? “There’s a nugget of scientific truth to it, in that nitric oxide is produced in the nasal cavity and upper airways and it’s a potent bronchodilator.” He notes:
“In some patient populations there are some studies showing that it might be able to improve oxygen efficiency.” However, “in healthy people there is no deficit to correct”.
Check what products doctors and scientists endorse When a doctor or a scientist endorses something it’s a potential conflict of interest, Tiller says. How can they give impartial advice if they’re being paid? He notes that the neuroscientist and podcaster Dr Andrew Huberman, for instance, has endorsed dietary supplements, hydration beverages, coffee-makers, activity-trackers, mental health services, mattresses and sleep systems, blood-testing services, red-light therapy, red-lens eyewear, cold plunges, deer meat and herbal infusion beverages. Tiller says that “he has commodified science”.
Huberman’s justification for his extensive podcast sponsorships is that advertising revenue is what allows the podcast to remain free and accessible to the public. Furthermore, Huberman Lab’s “Sponsorship Philosophy” is to “only work with brands whose products we personally use and love”.
Still, declared sponsorships are one thing. Tiller discovered a particularly insidious ruse when approached last year by a supplement company wanting him to become “an unofficial brand ambassador”. They were soon to launch a range of “mitochondrial optimisers”. “In return for a tidy sum,” he says, “they wanted me to not mention the brand, not talk about the product, just in any interviews I gave and on my social media to inform the public how important it is to enhance mitochondrial function. That way my audience is primed for when the product is aggressively marketed later that year.” Surprise — Tiller said no. Plus, he notes, “supplements are less regulated than dog food”.
So what is good nutritional and fitness advice? For the best results, what time of day should we exercise? “It doesn’t matter,” Tiller says. This was confirmed by a 2023 meta-analysis published in Sports Medicine Open. “The most powerful form of movement for weight loss is unstructured, incidental activity” — non-exercise activity thermogenesis (Neat) — he adds. Increase it by taking the stairs, gardening, doing housework and “active commuting” — a brisk 20 or 30-minute walk to work. The Norwegians call it “transport training”.
Meanwhile, be wary of fit-fluencers. In 2021 researchers in Brazil audited nearly 500 Instagram posts from fitness influencers. Only 13 posts (3 per cent) made claims backed by evidence. And talking of social media misinformation, Tiller corrects a few fallacies on protein. “It won’t build muscle without exercise, nor will it convert fat into muscle.” However, “eat too much of it and, like any other excess energy, it can be converted to fat. You just need to meet your protein demands.” For regular exercisers and older adults, that’s typically 1-1.5g/kg bodyweight. “There’s no real benefit to taking in more.”
As for “bro science culture” myths such as that raw eggs or fish guts provide superior protein? He says sternly: “It’s all just nonsense.” The Health and Wellness Lie by Dr Nick Tiller (Bloomsbury Green Tree £22) is out now
extreme that I had an abortion
children but my emetophobia was overwhelming. By Bryony Twydle I
Bryony Twydle
t’s the strangest thing, wanting to have children while being terrified of becoming pregnant. I’ve spent the past 16 years pursuing my career as an actor. My twenties were spent doing auditions and part-time jobs. I’ve been a barista, a baker and a children’s entertainer. I’ve decorated a Scottish castle for Christmas and made floral arrangements for the Kuwaiti royal family. While all this was going on, many of my friends were settling down and having children. I wanted them too but I assumed they would somehow magically happen after I had a couple of big movies under my belt. Wishful thinking.
I met my husband at university. We got married in 2021, when I was 31, in the midst of the pandemic — a small 12-person wedding, I wore a hot pink suit. It was perfect. It seemed to me that I’d run out of excuses. The career was going well but I had by no means given up all my part-time jobs. Still, we decided we should start trying for a baby, or at least “not not-trying”, but we didn’t seem to have any luck.
Then, in January 2024, I found out that my grandmother had been diagnosed with breast cancer and my father was diagnosed with bowel cancer. As my world collapsed around me, the cherry on top was that I discovered I was pregnant.
It should have been a welcome relief from all the family turmoil, but there was one problem: I have emetophobia — a fear of being sick or those around me being sick. It started when I was a child and I was locked in my mum’s car while my friend projectile vomited across the seats. It probably lasted just a few minutes, but to my eight-year- old self it felt like a lifetime. For the 28 years since, I’ve feared being sick or people around me vomiting. As a child I spent many a car ride with my fingers in my ears crying while my brother had car sickness. Any journey we went on, I watched him like a hawk for signs: was he yawning, did he want the window open, was I going to be trapped again?
No one likes being sick, nor do people enjoy dealing with vomit, even when it’s their loved ones who are unwell. But most people won’t be crying, hyperventilating and running in the opposite direction. For decades I have lived in fear of making a fool out of myself because of this condition, feeling that I cannot support others if they are unwell, and that I am ill- equipped to cope when I feel sick.
on a ferry? Too dangerous; a day out at Thorpe Park? No chance. And as far as nights out at uni went, I would always manage to stop myself from getting too drunk for fear of being sick. I somehow managed to avoid throwing up for 24 years. I spent most of my life trying to keep myself as safe as possible, and the pregnancy couldn’t have made me feel less secure.
Of course, everyone around me was thrilled with the news. My parents told me: “You’ve no idea the light you’ve brought to such a dark time.” I felt a pressure that they were relying on me and this tiny little thing growing inside me to be the answer to all of life’s problems. But I was terrified of what was going on in my body. The hormones were raging, and I was consumed with the overwhelming fear of when the morning sickness might begin. And it was hard to tell if it had begun or whether the nausea I was feeling was in my head. I felt as if I was losing my grip on reality.
After a few days of no sleep, panic attacks and ferociously chewing mints until I broke a tooth, it was becoming apparent that I wasn’t doing so well. I didn’t want to say it out loud, but I was starting to feel that I couldn’t do this.
I began having dark thoughts, things I didn’t want to share with my partner for fear of making him more worried than he already was. I’d had bouts of depression in the past, and although I thought I was hiding it, I clearly wasn’t. My husband suggested I should visit my GP.
having dark thoughts, things I didn’t want to share with my partner
I explained to her how I was having suicidal thoughts, the nausea was unbearable, I wasn’t sleeping, that this felt like an uphill battle I couldn’t get on top of. My GP told me I was too early in the pregnancy — seven weeks — and she couldn’t give me anything.
MICHAEL LECKIE FOR THE TIMES
She said I should eat something or chew on ginger. I left feeling worse than when I went in. Another few days went past and I was waking up every three hours in fight-or-flight mode, wishing for everything to end. I felt that I was letting everyone down and it would be better if I wasn’t here at all.
I looked at my husband. This was killing him. He was exhausted from managing me and my panic attacks, and from me waking him up constantly needing him to bring me toasted bagels to manage the nausea. My mum was burnt out and dealing with her own worries at home. I felt like a burden, that I couldn’t be there for my family in their time of need.
A week later my husband looked me in the eye and said: “You don’t have to do this. This can all go away.” Having his support and knowing that he understood the pain I was experiencing helped us to make the decision that I needed to terminate.
It’s one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make, having always dreamt that I would have children, but my mental health condition had defeated me. My parents really struggled with my decision but were incredibly supportive.
Since it all happened, I think they have a better understanding of emetophobia and how much of a struggle this has always been for me. There’s very open communication with my family to try to keep me safe and mentally healthy should I become pregnant again.
We haven’t been short of bad news since then. We lost both my grandmas, and my dad still has cancer. After two years of seemingly endless sessions of therapy, from cognitive behavioural therapy and hypnotherapy to emotion-focused therapy, do I feel that I am any more equipped? I’m not sure.
I certainly feel that I can manage my anxiety better. I have an amazing therapist, and found Dr Nighat Arif, a doctor specialising in women’s health, whom I first visited after my termination. I needed help before 12 weeks but was told I couldn’t be given anything to support me. Thanks to Dr Arif I know that isn’t true. There is extensive data that indicates that there are safe options women can take, even in that first trimester. And I have been introduced to Pregnancy Sickness Support, a charity that supports women during this time.
We’re told that during the first trimester we should stay quiet and not tell anyone, despite that time often being when you need the most support. Our attitudes need to change. I hear so often that many women and men suffer from emetophobia and feel unable to talk about it. I hope that if you’re reading this and you have it, you will know that you’re not alone.
Maybe you will be a lot braver than me. It’s hard not to imagine what might have been. I’m now 36, and my husband and I have decided that we are going to try again. I know I can’t plan for a perfect pregnancy, but I do know I’m more equipped than I ever have been. This time I have to have faith that it will be different.
dog: my life as a private chef
clients want, I make it happen. Even if it involves illogical diets and shipping in caviar I
trained at the Dorchester in London 30 years ago then became the head chef of a restaurant abroad that won a Michelin star. I returned to the capital and worked at a Bond Street jeweller as executive chef on £45,000. My brief was to cook for the owners and their guests. If you bought a £1 million diamond ring, I might cook you lunch.
There was an unlimited budget. When it was truffle season I ordered a £500 bottle of burgundy and £2,000 worth of white truffles — there were ten for lunch and they wanted one white truffle each (and fresh pasta to slice it over). When the two owners wanted different meals from their two favourite restaurants I got into the company Bentley in my chef’s whites and picked them up on silver platters. This was before Uber Eats.
Then I set up a private chef business. Word of mouth, rich wives scrolling Instagram and my agent is how people find me now.
There can be as little as 36 hours’ notice to go anywhere in the world, but usually it’s Europe — St Tropez, Mykonos, St Moritz, Gstaad. They send a car to take me to Farnborough airport and I bring my knives and chef’s whites.
Often I’m not told the clients’ names. It’s usually anonymous rich people in banking (celebrities tend to have their own teams) from France, Germany, Russia and England (although fewer English just now — they seem to be on a budget).
At Farnborough clients are welcoming then dismissive. They look you up and down and see how you dress. I go for quiet luxury — Gucci without the logo and always an elegant bag. In the private jet I’m at the back with the nanny — although I’ve been kicked off one aircraft to make space for a dog before and lumped with a 15-hour, three-train journey home.
It’s not always glamorous. Sometimes it’s British Airways or easyJet with very early flights. Although yes, the villas are incredible. They cost at least £50,000 a week to rent: giant white spaces, Roche Bobois sofas, fantastic views and lots of security — I always assume I’m cooking on camera.
cook for their dog. The wife never wore underwear and she liked to flash me
don’t care about staff wellness. They want you to disappear.
As soon as we arrive they want lunch in an hour. I never see anything of the location or the beach. I don’t get to sit by the pool. I go from the airport to the supermarket to the villa, start cooking, and I don’t stop until I leave. My rate is £500 a day plus tips. It’s hard work but I do love it — when I’m cooking I’m flying.
First things first: I give the kitchen a thorough clean. Housekeepers don’t clean properly. I swab to make sure everything’s sanitised, because I don’t want to get sued for poisoning people.
Then I meet the guests, we sit down so I can hear their requirements. They always have dietary exclusions, especially the women (are you really coeliac, because I don’t want to kill you?) who are on endlessly confounding and illogical diets. Anyone from southern California is the worst. One woman had 25 dietary exclusions, another didn’t eat purple food. I have to take them seriously, but after they get drunk it always changes and the vegans want steaks.
I have to be at the market by 6am every morning to get everything fresh. I often invite guests to come with me — it’s really important to show them the cost of things: a sea bass could be €500 in St Tropez and 12 white strawberries €20. One client
had €80 of berries to himself every breakfast. I often bring caviar and foie gras with me. If I don’t have enough I get it shipped in.
I’m in the kitchen from 7.30am until 11pm in case someone wants food. Breakfast is the worst — it could last three hours as different people wander in at different times wanting different things.
Ideally you want breakfast over by 11.30am because lunch is at 2.30pm — usually they’ve changed their mind from what they asked for the night before. One group told me they had lunch booked every day at Club 55 in St Tropez but every day they’d cancel it and want me to cook. Another client decided she wanted a party for 30 the next day. I cooked for 30 — no one turned up.
I spent one year working for a couple as a weekend/travel chef going between Oxfordshire and St Moritz. I had to cook for their dog, with a special request for aged parmesan and fillet steak to be served at the same time as their lunch. The wife never wore underwear and liked to flash me. Extraordinary.
Whatever they want, I make it happen. I cooked for one client for three months in St Tropez. He gave me €10,000 a week to feed two to four people and I’d usually spend most of it. Once he called me when he was
GETTY IMAGES
boarding the helicopter in Cannes, eight minutes away (and unusual that he called me himself), to say “I know you’ve made the sea bass, but my guest wants steak”. I ran to the local hotel and paid £500 for a whole fillet of beef, drove back 5km in the dark, trimmed it in five minutes and got it on the grill so he could hear the meat sizzling when he walked in.
I decorate everything really beautifully. I use gold leaf, fresh edible flowers, I weave baskets out of banana leaves. I always try to cook with local produce. I can make anything. In the early 2000s people wanted lobster and caviar but tastes have evolved. Yotam Ottolenghi has had a massive impact. Now they want spices, salads and grains, interesting fresh, vibrant, colourful food and anything impressive. I cook a lot of salt-crusted sea bass and whole fillets of beef.
Weight-loss medication has completely changed things too — portions are smaller and they’re more protein-rich — but food is now a spectator sport. They photograph it, taste a tiny bit, smile, say it is delicious and leave it.
Some clients ask you to get coke. I won’t, but I do have a silver platter and straw to serve it. Just in case. You have to be prepared for everything. The chef has chosen to remain anonymous. As told to Katie Glass
‘T
here has not been a moment, I think, that has topped it,” says Alexandra Burke, pointing at a picture of her and Beyoncé performing Listen in the 2008 final of The X Factor, which Burke won. “That,” she says, tapping Beyoncé’s face, “is very hard to top.”
She’s not wrong: the euphorically superb rendition of the Dreamgirls belter must be in the top five TV moments of the Noughties. The idea that Beyoncé — or any A-lister, for that matter — would agree to appear on a programme like The X Factor now is laughable. But back then it was the show. More than 14 million people watched the final.
Burke and I are in the backstage corridor of the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in London, where The X Factor was filmed, hence the picture of her and Beyoncé hanging on the wall. Here, serendipitously, Burke, 37, is starring in I’m Every Woman: The Chaka Khan Musical. In the 17 years since the release of her chart-topping debut album, Overcome — featuring her cover of Hallelujah (which scored the Christmas No 1) and the hit Bad Boys — she has moved into stage and screen work, receiving praise for roles in The Bodyguard, Chicago, Sister Act and more, as well as coming second in the 2017 series of Strictly Come Dancing. “I do have a lot of energy,” she says, snacking on pre-show dates in her dressing room.
Alongside acting, she is recording music again and trying to convince her manager to find a way for her to release an EP soon, yelping at him in the next room to tell me a date for the drop. “I want to give my fans something,” she cries. “They’re getting pissed off with me now.” She dipped her toe back into pop in May with a performance to 40,000 fans at the Mighty Hoopla festival in London. “I needed to know I still had it,” she says. “You do lose a part of yourself at times when you become a mum.” She has two toddlers with her partner, the footballer Darren Randolph, whom she met on the dating app Raya.
There is much to discuss. But first: Beyoncé. I ask her how often she watches the video of them together. “Not often enough, darling, because I don’t want to cry my whole life. I still cry to this day because I still can’t believe I had that opportunity. It’s wild, isn’t it?” She cried on stage too and when she met Beyoncé before their rehearsal. She wasn’t the only one. “Her mum starts crying, her stylist starts crying, everyone in the room starts crying.” And Beyoncé? “She’s crying.”
Beyoncé initially told Burke she wanted them to sing her new single If I Were a Boy. But Burke didn’t know the lyrics. So Beyoncé agreed to Listen, which they only ran through once to make sure Burke could save her voice, with the pop star saying to her: “I didn’t fly all this way to sing with someone who’s going to lose tonight. So you have to win.”
They stayed in touch. Beyoncé sent her an email afterwards saying “the show had helped her as much as it helped me”, Burke says. She then went to see Burke in the studio in Los Angeles and listened to some of her new solo music, with a glass of white wine. If Beyoncé is on tour in the UK, Burke tries to go and see her
backstage. “Every time I see her, she’s always pleasant and a very generous soul.”
Reality TV has been under a lot of scrutiny for the care producers put into the welfare of contestants. Did Burke feel she had enough support? “I had my mum. I had a lot of support from the woman that was already in the industry that warned me about things that would happen,” she says of her mother, Melissa Bell, the singer from Soul II Soul. She found it harder after she was moved on from Syco Music, Simon Cowell’s record label, before her second album, Heartbreak on Hold. “I remember crying in the car... it’s a conveyor belt at the end of the day isn’t it? It’s business.”
How does she feel being back in the place where her career started, to star in the musical? “I’ve struggled a lot,” Burke says. “It brought back a lot of memories of my mum being here. Walking up and down that corridor with my family,” she says. Her mother died in 2017 from kidney failure
brought on by diabetes, just before Burke appeared on Strictly. “I still struggle with it. It’s really hard for me as a woman, as a mother, not to have that guidance… Sorry,” Burke whispers as she starts to cry. “Do you still have your mum? Cherish her.”
As a child growing up in north London, Burke aspired to be a singer and a mother, like Bell. “I’ve got the two things I dreamt of as a child,” she says. “And I think she’d be really proud, but I struggle that she’s not here because she should be here. She was only 53, so to me I feel robbed of time with her. But I know she’s always with me.” Even the fact she is playing Khan on stage feels symbolic. For her first X Factor audition when she was 15, Burke sang Khan’s music with her mother. Then her mother came to see her perform for Khan in New York in 2012. “I feel like she’s orchestrated this.” I’m Every Woman is a new musical with a book by Nia T Hill, who has worked on other prominent
Alexandra Burke as Chaka Khan in I’m Every Woman
productions including Dreamgirls and has been Khan’s creative director since 2013. Through hits such as Ain’t Nobody and Higher Love, the show tells the story of Khan’s life. It’s a gruelling tale. The “Queen of Funk” got married for the first time aged 17 and suffered with addiction, including drug abuse and alcoholism. Burke felt the sadness of it all deeply when she started working on it. “I’m having to bring up things from my past. I’m having to bring up things that I know friends have gone through with drugs. I’m having to really relive things that I don’t want to think about,” she says.
Burke wishes she could talk to her mother about juggling family life with work. “You’re so torn with wanting to be with your kids and then you’ve got to go off to work. Like today I had a massive tantrum from my eldest when I was leaving,” she says. “When I was growing up, mum was always on tour… She had to provide. And that’s my biggest lesson: nothing comes for free. You’ve got to work for what you want in life.”
Burke celebrates her successes unashamedly. When she played Roxie in Chicago in the West End, she sent a ticket to her ex-boyfriend, who said “get off your high horse” when she told him she wanted the part. But her experience in the theatre, though financially and creatively fulfilling, has been disappointing in one important aspect.
“I’ve done seven lead roles, 12 years in the industry and never been recognised for my talent in theatre,” she says. “In the past eight years [they] haven’t even invited me back to the Oliviers [she last attended in 2018].” Why does she think that is? “I don’t know.”
She’s refreshingly open about this, as she has been about the sexism and racism she endured after The X Factor, revealing that she was told to bleach her skin and avoid afro and braid hairstyles. When she was on Strictly she had someone come up to her in the supermarket, saying they’d heard she was a “bitch”. “And I remember crying to that person going: ‘I’m not. I’m actually an all right person. I just love humans.’ It’s taken me years to sadly come away from the narrative that’s been painted of me,” she says. “I was told to be quiet. I was told to not react… I’ve slowly become a bit more confident.”
Then it’s time for her to do her vocal warm-ups before going on stage. And for me to watch the video of her with Beyoncé — for the 50th time. I’m Every Woman: The Chaka Khan Musical is at Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, London, to Sep 27
10 Tuesday August 4 2026 | the times times2 Your weekday brain boost
puzzles to give your brain an extended workout Samurai medium
SAMURAI
Fill each grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. Where the puzzles overlap, the rows and columns do not go beyond their usual length.
SAKURO
Place the numbers 1 to 9 in the spaces so that the number in each circle is equal to the sum of the four surrounding spaces, and each colour total is correct
Sudoku
SUDOKU
MINI SUDOKU
Fill in the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x2 box contains the digits 1 to 6
Play Mini Sudoku every day Monday-Sunday
online at thetimes.com and on Live app
CODEWORD
Every letter in the crossword-style grid, right, is represented by a number from 1 to 26. Each letter of the alphabet appears in the grid at least once. Use the letters already provided to work out the identity of further letters. Enter letters in the main grid and the smaller reference grid until all 26 letters of the alphabet have been accounted for. Proper nouns are excluded.
KILLER
Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. Each set of cells joined by dotted lines must add up to the target number in its top-left corner. Within each set of cells joined by dotted lines, a digit cannot be repeated.
TRAIN TRACKS
Lay tracks to enable the train to travel from village A to village B. The numbers indicate how many sections of track go in each row and column. There are only straight sections and curved sections. The track cannot cross itself.
Futoshiki Fill the blank squares so that every row and column contains each of the numbers 1 to 5 once only. The symbols between the squares indicate whether a number is larger (>) or smaller (<) than the number next to it.
FUTOSHIKI
puzzles
Pages 14-16
C
Midgley TV review
Celebrity Hunted Channel 4 {{{((
elebrity Hunted is back but I daresay it was the audience who had the biggest challenge... in working out who some of these “celebrities” were. Chris Taylor and Toby Aromolaran? Of course you don’t know them — they are “content creators” who were on Love Island. You might have had better luck with Jen Brister and Laura Smyth (comedians) and Scarlette and Stuart Douglas (sibling property show presenters). But I think these days reality TV is rather stretching the definition of celebrity like perished knicker elastic.
File on 4 Investigates Radio 4, 8pm
In A Romanian Ransom, Paul Kenyon, above, tells the story of antisemitism in the country, which continued well after the Second World War, when under the communist Ceausescu regime Jews were restricted from leaving Romania. Kenyon follows the stories of Andrea Bernard and Radu Horaud, who were brought up hiding their Jewish heritage, whose parents defected to the West and who were eventually reunited with them. How? By a Hertfordshire farmer, Henry Jakober, who exchanged pigs, cattle and farm equipment for visas for those Jews who wanted to leave Romania. Clair Woodward
Most people, to be fair, would probably have recognised Amy Dowden (Strictly Come Dancing professional) and JJ Chalmers, a former Royal Marine who was injured in a bomb blast in Afghanistan and is now a TV presenter and Invictus Games medallist. And we did have the likeable Brian Conley, entering the challenge with his daughter Lucy, though one of the first things he said was that “only old people know who I am” (possibly true) along with “I think we’re going to be crap”.
As veteran Hunted viewers know contestants must go on the run, in this case for 14 days, in Great Britain while avoiding a team of hunters comprising former police officers and intelligence personnel who can use all the powers of the state such as ANPR, CCTV, phone call tracing and whatnot. If you use a bank card they immediately know where you are.
And, my, do the hunters love their roles, hamming it up to the rafters. I don’t know why they chose these careers, because they clearly want to be actors in a spoof of The Sweeney. “If they land — boom — they’re in the bag and we’re back for last orders. I’ll get the first round in,” said the HQ chief Ray. Of the Love Island duo the hunters said: “They clearly think they’re the dog’s bollocks.”
The big flaw in Hunted is always the same. You are expected to believe the
Times Radio Digital, web, smart speaker, app
5.00am Tom Nunan with Early Breakfast 6.00 Kate McCann and Stig Abell with Breakfast 10.00 Ed Vaizey 1.00pm Sebastian Payne 2.00 Jane Garvey and Fi Glover 4.00 John Pienaar with Drive 7.00 The Evening Edition with Kait Borsay 10.00 Carole Walker 1.00am The Best of Times Radio
Radio 2
FM: 88-90.2 MHz
6.30am The Sara Cox Breakfast
Show 9.30 Vernon Kay 12.00
Jeremy Vine 2.00pm DJ Spoony
4.00 Joel Dommett 7.00 Jo Whiley
9.00 The Jazz Show with Jamie
Cullum 10.00 The Good Groove
with Melvin Odoom 12.00 Connor
Phillips 3.00am Sounds of the
90s (r) 4.00 Owain Wyn Evans
Radio 3
FM: 90.2-92.4 MHz
6.30am Breakfast
9.30 Essential Classics
1.00pm Classical Live
Elizabeth Alker introduces
highlights from the Proms. BBC
Proms: Korngold (Violin Concerto
in D, Op 35). Ryedale Festival:
Strauss (Sextet from “Capriccio”).
International Sacred Music
Festival, Fribourg: Galuppi (Dixit
Dominus). BBC Proms: Prokofiev
(Symphony No 5 in B flat, Op 100).
Ryedale Festival: Schubert
(Piano Sonata in A, D. 664) and
Ryedale Festival: Mendelssohn
(String Octet in E flat, Op 20)
4.00 Composer of the Week:
Mozart (1756-1791)
Kate Molleson explores Mozart’s
relationship with his sister
Nannerl, from their close bond
in childhood to estrangement
Brian and Lucy Conley attempt to evade the hunters
5.00 In Tune
With Tom Fetherstonhaugh
7.00 Live BBC Proms 2026
The BBC National Orchestra of
Wales, conductor Elena Schwarz
and Alina Ibragimova perform.
Presented by Alexandra
Humphreys, live from the Royal
Albert Hall, London. BA
Zimmermann (Fairy-Tale Suite);
Mendelssohn (Violin Concerto
in E minor); and Dvořák
(Symphony No 7 in D minor)
10.00 Night Tracks
11.30 ’Round Midnight
A Track Premiere from Fred
Thomas and Heidi Heidelberg
12.30am Through the Night (r)
Radio 4
FM: 92.4-94.6 MHz
5.00am News Summary
5.04 Britain’s Robot Army (r)
5.34 Shipping Forecast
5.43 Prayer for the Day
5.45 Farming Today
6.00 Today
9.00 Invisible Hands
The story of the man who started
the Cold War with a telegram (2/6)
9.30 Inside Health
Weekly quest to demystify health
issues with James Gallagher (5/6)
10.00 Woman’s Hour
Kylie Pentelow presents
11.00 Screenshot
Film and television’s enduring
fascination with UFOs and
extraterrestrial life (5/6) (r)
11.45 Tony Hawks Is
Giving Nothing Away
A man who gave away £100,000
of his inheritance (2/5) (r)
12.04pm Call You and Yours
1.00 The World at One
1.45 The Bare Necessities
Visiting a forager and herbalist
who grows wild plants that
provide food and medicine (2/5)
2.00 The Archers (r)
2.15 Drama: Sunbird
By Christopher William Hill
3.00 Lady on Trial
with Lucy Worsley
An opera singer who challenged
the Victorian lunacy laws (8/10)
3.30 Heart and Soul
Remembering how Catholicism
helped overthrow a dictator
in the Philippines (4/10) (r)
4.00 The Writing Life
of Sylvia Plath
How Plath’s experience of mental
illness and depression informed
her work. Last in the series
4.30 What’s Up Docs?
Exploring hydration
5.00 PM
6.00 Six O’Clock News
6.30 Meet David Sedaris
The humorist reads his essay
Sweet Land of Liberty (6/6) (r)
7.00 The Archers
Bert comes a cropper
7.15 Front Row
Arts programme
8.00 Choice A Romanian Ransom
A secret Cold War trade of animals
in exchange for Jewish lives
8.40 In Touch
News for people who are
blind or partially sighted
9.00 Crossing Continents
Report on how Gaza is developing
as an unlikely tech hub (1/9)
9.30 Scam Secrets
With Shari Vahl (1/8) (r)
10.00 The World Tonight
10.45 Book at Bedtime:
The Vicar of Wakefield
By Oliver Goldsmith (2/10)
11.00 Wild Inside
The great grey owl (2/4) (r)
11.30 Hollywood
and the Adland Five
How Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner
helped transform the
look of cinema (2/4) (r)
12.00 News and Weather
12.30am Tony Hawks Is
Giving Nothing Away (2/5) (r)
12.48 Shipping Forecast
1.00 As BBC World Service
Radio 4 Extra
Digital only
8.30am Following Pappano 8.45
Small Island 9.00 Meet David
Sedaris 9.30 Behind the Taverna
9.45 Daily Service 10.00 Free
Thinking 10.45 The Essay: The
Little Secrets of Great Works
11.00 The Waiting Game 11.30
Who Killed Aldrich Kemp? 12.00
Yes Minister 12.30pm The Last
Goon Show of All 1.30 Following
Pappano 1.45 Small Island 2.00
Hoax! 2.30 The Brothers 3.00
A Wizard of Earthsea 4.00 Free
Thinking 4.45 The Essay: The
Little Secrets of Great Works 5.00
The Waiting Game 5.30 Who Killed
Aldrich Kemp? 6.00 Yes Minister
6.30 The Last Goon Show of All
7.30 Following Pappano 7.45
Small Island 8.00 Hoax! 8.30
The Brothers 9.00 A Wizard of
Earthsea 10.00 Comedy Club:
Meet David Sedaris 10.30 And the
Winner Is 11.00 All the World’s a
Globe 11.15 Foley and McColl:
Interview 11.30 Chain Reaction
Radio 5 Live MW: 693, 909 5.00am Wake Up to Money 6.00 Breakfast 9.00 Nicky Campbell 11.00 Marianna Spring 2.00pm Matt Chorley 4.00 Drive 7.00 Sport 9.00 Athletics 10.00 Johnny I’Anson 1.00am Dotun Adebayo
“prey” are pulling on disguises, trying to blend in with the crowds, hiding behind a hedge or whatever when we all know every duo has a camera crew in tow, so you’d be able to spot them from a country mile off.
The celebrity version feels particularly staged because everyone feels they have to be entertaining and other celebrities are roped in. Conley had his friend Joe Pasquale primed to help by giving them a lift but the hunters quickly got on to their communications, turned up where the Conleys were staying — and still managed to lose them. Chalmers and his co-prey dressed up as Chelsea pensioners to evade capture, and it worked. It’s almost as if the producers just want to keep them in.
But you can’t really be negative about this show because it’s all designed to raise funds for cancer research. There was a story at the end about Matthew, who has brain cancer, and it was heartbreaking.
So I can’t be too cynical about the daftness, especially when the Conleys had to lock themselves in a train’s lavatory — no one deserves that. It’s why I have developed a bladder of steel so I never have to enter them.
I have read that in a future episode Laura and Jen get very drunk and have suggested a spin-off show where contestants just get pie-eyed. I think I’d rather watch that.
10.00 Alex Crook & Darragh MacAnthony 1.00pm Hawksbee and Jacobs 4.00 talkSPORT Drive 7.00 The Transfer Insiders 10.00 The Sports Bar 1.00am Extra Time
Talk
Digital only
6.00am Ian Collins 10.00
Julia Hartley Brewer 1.00pm
Mark Dolan 4.00 Kevin O’Sullivan
7.00 Peter Cardwell 10.00 Petrie
Hosken 1.00am Paul Ross
6 Music
Digital only
6.00am Chris Hawkins 7.00
Nick Grimshaw 10.00 Lauren
Laverne 1.00pm Craig Charles
4.00 Emily Pilbeam 7.00 New
Music Fix Daily 9.00 Riley & Coe
11.00 6 Music Artist in Residence:
Ezra Collective 12.00 6 Music’s
Indie Forever 1.00am From Mento
to Lovers’ Rock 3.00 6 Music Live
Hour 4.00 The 6 Music Playlist
Virgin Radio
Digital only
6.30am Steve Denyer on The
Chris Evans Breakfast Show with
Moneybox 10.00 Emma B 2.00pm
Ben Jones 6.00 Geoff Lloyd 10.00
Jen Thomas 2.00am Stu Elmore
Classic FM
FM: 100-102 MHz
6.30am Breakfast with Dan Walker
9.00 The Hall of Fame Hour with
Dan Walker 10.00 Aled Jones
1.00pm Anne-Marie Minhall 4.00
Margherita Taylor 7.00 Relaxing
Evenings with Zeb Soanes
9.00 Classic FM’s Composer
Carousel With Zeb Soanes 10.00
Calm Classics 1.00am Bill
Overton 4.00 Early Breakfast
PICKS OF THE DAY
The Victorians with Rob Rinder and Ruth Goodman 5, 9pm
Rob Rinder and Ruth Goodman return with another of their Rich Lives, Poor Lives investigative series, in this episode focusing on the Victorian age. As ever, his interest is in the wealthy and hers the huddled masses, the presenting pair play-acting happily as irretrievable snob and beaten-
BBC1 BBC2 ITV1 Channel 4 5 6.00am Breakfast 9.30 Animal Park (r) (AD) 10.15 Trace, Track, Get My Car Back (r) 10.45 Expert Witness (r) 11.15 Homes Under the Hammer 12.15pm Bargain Hunt (r) (AD) 1.00 BBC News at One; Weather 1.35 BBC Regional News; Weather 1.45 BBC News at One; Weather 2.00 Money for Nothing. Saving a massage bed and a dining set from the skip 2.45 Escape to the Country. Nicki Chapman seeks a Pembrokeshire property (r) 3.45 The Bidding Room. Featuring a teapot, toy tools, barrels and a model caravan (r) 4.30 The Answer Run. Jason Manford hosts the fast-paced quiz show with questions featuring a choice between The Chronicles of Narnia or Harry Potter, James Corden or Steve Coogan and LA or New York 5.15 Pointless. Quiz show (r) 6.00 BBC News at Six; Weather 6.30 BBC Regional News; Weather
7.00 The One Show Presented by
Alex Jones and Lauren Laverne
7.30 EastEnders Ravi pushes Priya for
answers about her mystery man. Meanwhile, Lauren tries to deflect Peter’s questions (AD)
8.00 The Great British Sewing Bee The
sewers celebrate Mexican fashion,
demonstrating their skills with a
folkloric top, structural garments
made from tablecloths and
made-to-measure outfits inspired
by Mexican festivals (4/10) (AD)
9.00 Murder 24/7 The first of a two-part
investigation into the 2025 murder of 54-year-old Hereford man Jamie Gawler, found in his flat having being beaten to death. With no witnesses, the investigating team began to piece together the victim’s final days. Continues tomorrow (5/8) (AD)
10.00 BBC News at Ten
10.30 BBC Regional News and Weather 10.40 FILM: Robin Hood (12, 2010)
An archer fighting in Richard the Lionheart’s crusading army returns home to England and assumes the identity of a nobleman killed in battle. His new-found status draws him into a dangerous conflict with members of the newly crowned King John’s court, and a traitorous knight plots to aid the French in conquering England. Ridley Scott’s medieval adventure with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. See film choice (AD)
down worker. Tonight, the age of the railways, which would transform the British countryside, revolutionise trade and create opportunities for ordinary people. Goodman points out that the fastest most people would have travelled was at their own running pace, so the mere idea of stepping into the third-class open carriages (effectively cattle crates, to Rinder’s disgust) was breathtaking. First, though, railway lines would have to be cut through the land. Men of vision laid the plans, but for the
6.30am Bargain Hunt (r)
7.15 The Bidding Room. The dealers are
starstruck by a cinematic collection (r)
8.00 Sign Zone: The Great British Sewing
Bee. Contestants recycle T-shirts (r) (AD, SL)
9.00 BBC News
1.00pm Richard Osman’s House of Games.
Sean Fletcher, Louise Minchin, Chris
Washington and Kimberly Wyatt take part (r)
1.30 The Finish Line. Quiz show hosted
by Roman Kemp and Sarah Greene (r)
2.15 Do You Know Your Place? The quiz
heads to Cardiff. Vernon Kay hosts (r)
2.45 Live Cricket — The Hundred: Sunrisers
Leeds Women v London Spirit Women
(Start-time 3.00). Coverage of the match at
Headingley. The Sunrisers, known previously
as Northern Superchargers, claimed an
eight-wicket victory when these teams met
at Lord’s in last season’s competition, with
Phoebe Litchfield’s 55 not out from 38
balls proving to be decisive and earning
her the player of the match award
6.00 Live Cricket — The Hundred:
Sunrisers Leeds Men v London Spirit
Men (Start-time 6.30). Coverage of
the match at Headingley. Zak
Crawley top-scored for the then-
known Northern Superchargers with
55 not out from 38 balls, as he
inspired his team to an eight-wicket
win over today’s opponents at Lord’s
in last season’s competition. The
Leeds-based outfit went on to reach
the Eliminator, but the contest was
rained off, with Trent Rockets
advancing at their expense due to
having a better position in
the round-robin stage
9.30 The Vampire Lestat: Interview with
the Vampire An illicit old ally of Lestat’s boards the dazed band’s tour bus, while some familiar faces await at their next stop (2/7) (AD)
10.15 It Happened to Me: I Was Jailed in
Japan for Ketamine A British
woman’s ketamine addiction led to
a stint in a Japanese prison (2/6)
10.30 Newsnight Headline analysis
presented by Victoria Derbyshire
11.05 FILM: The Last Bus (12, 2021)
A pensioner travels from John O’Groats to Land’s End using his free bus pass, becoming a social media celebrity along the way. Drama with Timothy Spall and Phyllis Logan
If Channel 4’s The Salisbury Poisonings hasn’t answered all your questions about the 2018 Novichok attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, then this might. Among those interviewed are the former prime minister Theresa Rob Rinder (5, 9pm)
6.00am Good Morning Britain
10.00 This Morning
1.30pm ITV News; Weather
2.00 Dickinson’s Real Deal. David Dickinson
and his team of experts are in Crewe, where
Fay Rutter assesses some timepieces on
her table and Stewart Hofgartner spies
a gem in a boy’s toy collection (r) (AD)
3.00 Deal or No Deal. Stephen Mulhern
hosts as a contestant tries to open the 22
red boxes in the right order, taking on the
infamous Banker for the chance to win
a life-changing cash prize (r) (AD)
4.00 Tipping Point. Ben Shephard hosts the
arcade-themed quiz in which contestants
drop tokens down a choice of four chutes in
the hope of winning a £10,000 jackpot (r)
5.00 The Chase. Bradley Walsh presents as
contestants from Welwyn Garden City,
Northampton, Liverpool and East Yorkshire
work take on one of the Chasers (r)
6.00 Regional News; Weather
6.30 ITV News; Weather
7.30 Inside the Langham: Britain’s First
Grand Hotel The CEO arrives to inspect one of the hotel’s most ambitious renovations (3/6) (AD)
8.00 Emmerdale Cain is emotional as he
decides now is the time, and Nicola makes a worrying discovery (AD)
8.30 Coronation Street Dylan ends up
unconscious after a confrontation, and Ross changes his story (AD)
9.00 Cold Case Forensics: A Death on the
Nile Forensic scientist Dr Angela
Gallop and her team investigate the
mysterious, sudden death of a British
solicitor while on a romantic holiday
in Egypt. Nicola Walker narrates.
See picks of the day (2/3) (AD)
10.00 ITV News at Ten; Weather;
followed by Regional News
10.45 FILM: Bad Boys II (15, 2003) Two
mismatched undercover cops set out to halt an underground gang war and bring down a drug lord attempting to flood the market with a deadly form of Ecstasy. However, a romantic interlude threatens to drive the investigation off course. Comedy thriller sequel starring Will Smith, Martin Lawrence and Gabrielle Union
1.10am Shop on TV 3.00 The Summit. After the group endure a gruelling eight-hour uphill hike weighed down by prize money, the Mountain’s Keeper presents them with a dilemma (r) (AD, SL) 3.50 Unwind with ITV 5.05-6.00 Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace. Helping more foundlings (r) (AD, SL)
labourers who hacked at the land it was dirty, dangerous work. Helen Stewart
The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door Sky Documentaries/Now, 9pm
6.30am The King of Queens (r) (AD)
7.45 Everybody Loves Raymond (r) (AD)
9.10 Frasier (r) (AD)
11.10 Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA.
Gordon visits The Verdict in New Orleans (r)
12.05pm Channel 4 News Summary
12.10 Find It, Fix It, Flog It. A collection of
classic cars and motorbikes (r) (AD)
1.10 The Great House Giveaway. A house
in the Welsh Valleys at auction (r)
2.10 Countdown. With Ade Adepitan
3.00 A Place in the Sun. Best friends search
for a holiday home in Andalucia, Spain (r)
4.00 Saving Country Houses with Penelope
Keith. In the Cotswolds, a young couple
recently inherited Chavenage House and
have bold plans to turn the estate into a
glamping and sauna destination (r) (AD)
5.00 Château DIY. A DIY novice tries to
rebuild a bridge sitting over a stream (r) (AD)
6.00 American Pickers. Mike Wolfe and
Frank Fritz discover a fleet of amazing
concept cars, some very unique (r) (AD)
7.00 Channel 4 News
8.00 Hotel Chocolat Unwrapped
A chocolatier dreams up limited edition drinking chocolate flavours, and founder Angus pulls out all the stops during the countdown to the opening of the Chicago store (AD)
9.00 Celebrity Hunted Two of the
competitors drop in on a celebrity colleague, another pair make a bold move by going on live television and two more alert the hunters after cracking jokes in Brighton (AD)
10.00 Gogglebox The armchair critics
share their views of The Celebrity
Traitors, Game of Wool: Britain’s
Best Knitter, Trigger Point, Hunted,
Squid Game: The Challenge and
Hamza’s Hidden Wild Isles (r) (AD)
11.05 Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives The
family host bonfire night for the
estate in memory of their dad Sid.
Trewley gets a lesson in tough
love from her mum (r) (AD)
12.05am Naked Attraction (r) (AD) 1.05 Ramsay’s Hotel Hell. In Idaho (r) (AD, SL) 1.55 FILM: Breakthrough (12, 2019) Fact-based drama starring Chrissy Metz (SL) 3.50 Couples Come Dine with Me (r) (SL) 4.45 The Piano (r) (AD, SL) 5.40 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (r) 5.50-6.30 Countdown (r)
May; the former home secretary Amber Rudd; and Charlie Rowley, the partner of Dawn Sturgess, the woman killed by inadvertent exposure to the nerve agent. Victoria Segal
Cold Case Forensics ITV1, 9pm
The world-renowned former senior Home Office forensic scientist Dr Angela Gallop and her team investigate the sudden death of a British solicitor while on a romantic
6.00am Milkshake!
9.15 Jeremy Vine
11.30 Storm & Alexis
12.45pm 5 News at Lunchtime
12.50 Matt Allwright
2.15 FILM: A Murder in Venice (PG, TVM,
2023) When her new roommate goes
missing in Italy, an art student teams up with
her aunt to save her friend. Thriller starring
Sophie Hopkins and Charlotte Rothwell
4.00 Castle. Beckett and her team
investigate the murder of a television
actress, while Castle is hired by the show’s
star to follow the case from a different
angle. Nathan Fillion stars (r)
4.55 Love Nature. Cameras focus on
Eryri National Park in North Wales (r)
5.00 5 News with Dan Walker
6.00 Majorca: A Year in the Sun. Cameras
focus on Majorca as a major hub for
superyachts, and also a former chef
who runs a luxury catering company (r)
6.55 5 News Update
7.00 The Yorkshire Vet: At Home with the
Greens Jean gets to see her farm
from above when Peter Wright takes
her on a helicopter ride of a lifetime,
while the Greens receive a visit
from an estate agent (2/4) (r)
7.55 5 News Update
8.00 Inside Longleat There are
unexpected visitors in Longleat
garden, the cameras are primed to
investigate which mammal has made
more progress in the waterways in
12 months than humans have in 30
9.00 The Victorians with Rob Rinder and
Ruth Goodman Rob Rinder and Ruth Goodman discover how some of history’s most famous events were experienced by the rich and by the poor. They start by exploring the 1840s Victorian era, when railway mania swept Britain. Rob follows the wealthy Victorians who poured their money into the railway boom, while Ruth investigates those who worked on the railways. See picks of the day
10.30 Manhunt: Search for the Cop Killer
The 1982 police manhunt to find
Barry Prudom, who was the most
wanted man in Britain for 18 days
after he shot and killed two police
officers on a terrifying spree of
violence. Featuring archive footage
and reconstruction, this programme
retraces the events that unfolded
and Prudom’s eventual demise (r)
12.05am The Cannibal Next Door The story
of Armin Meiwes (r) 1.00 Cruise TV with
LoveitBookit (r) 2.00 GPs: Behind Closed
Doors (r) 2.50 Castle (r) 3.40 Friends (r) 4.30
The Highland Vet (r) (SL) 5.25 Entertainment
News on 5 5.35 Milo (r) (SL) 5.45-6.00
The Adventures of Paddington (r) (SL)
holiday in Egypt. The Cold Case Forensics true-crime documentary strand has been running since 2022, and in this latest episode Gallop seeks to unlock the secrets of the case to prove that Cheryl Lewis, from north Wales, was murdered at the Winter Palace Hotel on the banks of the River Nile in Luxor in October 1998. The episode is titled A Death on the Nile — Agatha Christie was a frequent visitor to the luxury hotel, which was a source of inspiration for her 1937 novel. HS
7.00pm Great British Railway Journeys. Lincoln to York (AD) 7.30 Wainwright Walks. Exploring the work of Alfred Wainwright (AD) 8.00 To the Manor Born. Comedy 8.30 Keeping Up Appearances 9.00 She-Wolves: England’s Early Queens. England’s first all-female battle for succession (3/3) 10.00 Castles: Britain’s Fortified History. How some castles were transformed into palaces (3/3) (AD) 11.00 Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? How Obama handled the threat of chemical weapons (7/8) (AD) 12.00 Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? (AD) 1.00am She-Wolves: England’s Early Queens. Last in the series 2.00 Castles: Britain’s Fortified History (AD) 3.00am-3.30 Great British Railway Journeys (AD, SL)
U&Drama
7.00pm The Catch Up
7.05 Deadly 60. Part two of two.
An encounter with a giant boa
7.30 Deadly 60. Tracking down
the harpy eagle in Panama
8.00 Top Gear. The trio test
high-performance hatchbacks, and
Ross Noble is the celebrity driver
9.00 Survivor Australia. New series.
The reality show returns to its
original setting in Samoa
10.30 Survivor Australia. The Heroes
live in solidarity, and the Villains
struggle in the elements and are
sent back to Tribal Council again
11.50 Confessions of a Steroid
Gang. How a north Wales father and
son built a drug empire (AD)
12.20am Confessions of a Steroid
Gang (AD) 1.20 Zara McDermott:
Disordered Eating (AD) 2.20-3.55
Kidnapped by My Mum (AD, SL)
Variations
BBC1 N Ireland 10.40pm House of the Year. A new build, a bold terrace and a home designed around its view (r) 11.10 FILM: Robin Hood (2010) An archer returning from the crusades faces a plot by a traitorous knight to bring about a French conquest of England. Medieval adventure starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett 1.20am-6.00 BBC News
BBC1 Scotland 7.00pm-7.30 River City. A guilt- ridden Conor tries to convince Nicole they should come clean. Dean stands up to Callum and Shak, and Gillian is left devastated after meeting with DCI Douglas (r) 12.50am Scotcast. Discussion on Scotland’s biggest news stories (r) 1.20 Weather for the Week Ahead 1.25am-6.00 BBC News
Joe & David’s Magical Sitcom Tour U&Gold, 9pm
This show sounds like it should simply be a frivolous lark: just two comedians — Joe Wilkinson and his writing partner David Earl — visiting sites associated with their favourite sitcoms. However, what transpires here is an oddly moving, eerily surreal trip through the world of Porridge, including an encounter with the show’s writers, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. VS
Sky Arts 6.00am Classic FM’s Rising Stars 2025 7.00 Bagpipes: A Celebration (AD) 8.00 The Joy of Painting 9.00 Tales of the Unexpected (AD) 10.00 Alfred Hitchcock Presents 11.00 Discovering (AD) 12.00 Wonderland: From JM Barrie to JRR Tolkien 1.00pm Tales of the Unexpected (AD) 2.00 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (b/w) 3.00 The Seventies (AD) 4.00 Discovering (AD) 5.00 Portrait Artist of the Year 2021 (AD) 6.00 Tales of the Unexpected (AD) 7.00 Alfred Hitchcock Presents 8.00 The World in a Painting: Velazquez’s Chili Pepper 9.15 Beyond the Brush (AD) 10.15 Wonderland: Gothic (AD) 11.15 The Movies (AD) 12.15am I Am Steve McQueen 2.00 Voices of the Valleys. New series 3.00 World War II & Cinema (AD) 4.00am-5.00 Sky Arts Book Club
6.00am Backyard Builds (SL) 6.30 Dress to Impress (AD, SL) 7.30 The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City 8.20 The Real Housewives of Orange County 9.20 The Only Way Is Essex 10.15 Dawson’s Creek 11.10 Charmed 12.10pm Deal or No Deal (AD) 1.10 Supermarket Sweep 2.10 The Floor USA (AD) 3.10 The Only Way Is Essex 4.10 Real Housewives of Salt Lake City 5.00 The Real Housewives of Orange County 6.00 Celebrity Catchphrase (AD) 7.00 The Floor USA (AD) 8.00 The 1% Club (AD) 9.00 Olivia Attwood: The Price of Perfection. New series (1/6) 10.00 Family Guy (AD) 11.35 American Dad! (AD) 12.35am Bob’s Burgers (AD) 1.30 Plebs (AD, SL) 1.55am-2.20 Deep Fake Neighbour Wars (SL)
STV 1.10am-3.00 Shop on TV 3.50am-6.00 Night Vision
BBC Scotland 7.00pm Reporting Scotland: News at Seven 7.30 My Kind of Town (r) 8.00 This Farming Life (r) 9.00 The Three Kings 10.45 Scotcast 11.15 Our Lives: Stone Strong (r) 11.45pm-12.00 Loop (r)
S4C 6.00am Cyw 10.00 Blociau Lliw (r) 10.05 Twm Twrch (r) 10.15 Help Llaw (r) 10.30 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol 2026. The morning’s events 12.00 News 12.05pm Eisteddfod Genedlaethol 2026 2.00 News 2.05 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol 2026 7.30 News; Weather 7.50 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol 2026 10.15 Y Babell Lên 2026 10.45- 11.50pm Iaith ar Daith (r)
STREAMING CHOICE
Doctor Odyssey ITVX
Cancelled after just one season, Ryan Murphy’s cruise ship medical drama was roundly lambasted by critics. Yet its small coterie of dedicated fans revelled in the lunacy and crafted a number of compelling theories about what was really happening on the high-camp high-seas. The main one was that Dr Max Bankman (Joshua Jackson)
8.55am Heir Hunters 10.00 Four in
a Bed 12.40pm Come Dine with Me
(AD) 3.20 Four in a Bed 5.50 Car
SOS. A 1992 VW Corrado in
Huddersfield (AD) 6.50 Car SOS.
A 1973 Dennis fire engine (AD)
7.55 Grand Designs. Kevin McCloud
follows a couple as they transform
a neglected half-acre site in
Gloucestershire (1/8) (AD)
9.00 Oti and Richard’s South African
Odyssey. Oti and Richard meet a
community of African penguins (AD)
10.00 24 Hours in A&E. A 38-year-
old tree surgeon is rushed in
after falling 25ft (3/8) (AD)
11.05 24 Hours in A&E. A 22-year-
old is rushed in with stab wounds to
his face and arm (4/8) (AD)
12.10am 999: On the Front Line.
Treating a man who has been
stabbed 1.15 24 Hours in A&E (AD)
3.25am-3.50 A Place in the Sun
6.00am George and Mildred 7.05
Classic Emmerdale (AD) 8.10
Classic Coronation Street (AD) 9.10
Agatha Christie’s Poirot (AD) 11.30
Heartbeat (AD) 1.35pm Midsomer
Murders (AD) 3.35 Classic
Emmerdale (AD) 5.15 Classic
Coronation Street (AD) 5.50
Heartbeat. Rural drama (AD)
8.00 Vera. The detective
investigates when a body is found
on the moors (1/4) (AD)
10.00 Grantchester. Will learns his
father is in trouble (5/6) (AD)
11.00 Grantchester. A curious case
unfolds concerning the murder of a
Teddy Boy at a dance hall (6/6) (AD)
11.50 Trial & Retribution. Part two
of two. Connor and her team
struggle to find a lead in the case
as the death toll increases (4/10)
1.25am-2.25 Wycliffe
8.00am America the Bountiful 8.35 Conquistadors: The Rise and Fall 9.40 Pirates: Behind the Legends 10.40 Iron Curtain: Living Under Soviet Occupation 11.55 Hitler’s Gold 1.00pm America the Bountiful 1.35 Conquistadors: The Rise and Fall 2.35 Hitler’s Gold 3.35 Pirates: Behind the Legends 4.35 Iron Curtain: Living Under Soviet Occupation 5.50 Hitler’s Gold 6.50 Conquistadors: The Rise and Fall. The Aztec Conquest 7.50 Pirates: Behind the Legends 8.50 Iron Curtain: Living Under Soviet Occupation. The occupation of Poland, Hungary, East Germany and Czechoslovakia (1/3) 10.00 Hitler’s Gold 11.00 Pirates: Behind the Legends 12.00 Iron Curtain: Living Under Soviet Occupation 1.15am-2.00 America the Bountiful
wasn’t really the Odyssey cruise ship’s onboard physician but was in a coma after contracting Covid-19. Ridiculous, maybe, but if you watch the show from that perspective it becomes a dark-edged fever-dream rather than a far-fetched TV soap. Andrew Male
FILM CHOICE
Robin Hood (12, 2010) BBC1, 10.40pm
The director Ridley Scott reunites
Live sport today
Live Test Cricket:
West Indies v Pakistan
TNT Sports 2, 2.30pm-11
The third day of the final Test in
the series at Queen’s Park Oval
Live The Hundred:
Sunrisers Leeds Women v
London Spirit Women
Sky Sports Cricket, Sky Sports
Mix, 2.45pm-6, Sky Sports
Main Event, 3pm-6
(Start-time 3.00). At Headingley
Live Tennis
Sky Sports +, Sky Sports
Tennis, 4pm-12midnight
Coverage from day three of
the Canadian Open
Live The Hundred:
Sunrisers Leeds Men v
London Spirit Men
Sky Sports Main Event, Sky
Sports Cricket, Sky Sports
Mix, 6pm-9.30
(Start-time 6.30). Coverage of
the match at Headingley
Live MLB: Chicago Cubs v
Los Angeles Dodgers
TNT Sports 1, 1am-4
(Start-time 1.00). Coverage
from Yankee Stadium
6.00am Fish Town (r) 8.00 Billions
(r) (AD) 10.20 Task (r) (AD)
12.50pm Homicide: Life on the
Street (r) 3.00 Billions (r) (AD) 5.20
Heated Rivalry. Romantica drama
with Hudson Williams (r) (AD)
7.30 True Detective: Night Country.
The truth about what happened to
Annie unfolds (6/6) (r) (AD)
9.00 Gomorrah: The Origins. Crime
drama prequel tracking the criminal
coming-of-age of the young Pietro
Savastano in Naples in 1977 (3/6)
10.00 Gomorrah: The Origins.
Crime drama prequel starring
Luca Lubrano. In Italian (4/6)
11.00 Prisoner. Amber’s plan is put
in jeopardy as a game of cat and
mouse unfolds (r) (AD)
12.00 True Detective: Night Country.
Crime drama (r) (AD) 3.35am
Billions (r) (AD) 4.35 Sort Of (r) (AD)
5.05am-6.00 Urban Secrets (r)
6.00am FILM: Murder at 3am (PG, 1953) (b/w) 7.10 FILM: The Proud Rebel (U, 1958) (b/w) 9.15 FILM: Oliver Twist (PG, TVM, 1982) 11.15 FILM: Biggles: Adventure in Time (PG, 1986) 1.00pm The Adventures of William Tell (b/w) 1.35 FILM: Appointment with Venus (U, 1951) (b/w) 3.20 Anthony Perkins: The Actor Behind the Door 4.25 FILM: Chase a Crooked Shadow (U, 1957) (b/w) 6.10 What’s on TPTV with Noel 6.25 Whiplash (b/w) 6.55 The Man from UNCLE 7.55 Buccaneer 9.00 FILM: Accident (PG, 1967) Drama starring Dirk Bogarde 11.05 Fortean TV 11.40 FILM: Body Double (18, 1984) Thriller with Melanie Griffith 1.55am FILM: The Night of the Shooting Stars (15, 1982) 4.00am- 5.00 Target: The Corruptors
ITV4
6.00am Magnum, PI (AD) 8.05
Dempsey and Makepeace (AD) 9.10
Boon 10.15 The Professionals (AD)
11.25 Robin of Sherwood 12.30pm
Magnum, PI (AD) 2.35 Dempsey and
Makepeace (AD) 3.45 Boon 4.50
The Professionals (AD) 5.55 Minder.
Terry shelters a fugitive (AD)
7.00 The Motorbike Show.
Henry Cole embarks on his quest
for land speed record glory
8.00 World Rally Championship
Highlights. Action from the Rally
Finland, based around Jyväskylä
9.00 Ice Road Truckers. Alex’s trailer
becomes detached in Manitoba
10.00 All Elite Wrestling: Collision.
Hard-hitting wrestling action
12.00 Dark Side of the Ring.
Revelations about the troubled mind
of Chris Benoit 12.55am Minder
(AD, SL) 1.55am-2.45 BattleBots
Sky Docs
6.00am The 2000s (r) 7.00
Discovering: Gary Oldman (r) (AD)
8.00 The Directors (r) (AD) 9.00 100
Foot Wave (r) (AD) 10.00 The
Comedy Store (r) (AD) 11.05 UFO (r)
(AD) 12.00 Albert Brooks:
Defending My Life (r) (AD) 1.45pm
My Icon: John Amaechi (r) (AD)
2.00 Stasi FC (r) 3.50 My Icon:
Michael Holding (r) (AD) 4.00 The
Directors (r) (AD) 5.00 Discovering:
Gary Oldman (r) (AD) 5.55
JFK: Destiny Betrayed (r) 7.00
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes (r) (AD)
9.00 The Salisbury Poisonings: A
Spy Next Door. See picks of the day
10.40 FILM: 2000 Meters to
Andriivka (15, 2025) A Ukrainian
platoon attempts to liberate
a village from Russian forces
12.50am Amsterdam Narcos (r)
3.50 Edge of the Earth (r) (AD) 5.00-
6.00 Discovering: Gary Oldman (r)
with Russell Crowe for a revisionist take on the Robin Hood myth that favours dark and convoluted plotting. Crowe is a brooding Robin Longstride, an archer in Richard the Lionheart’s army. Richard is played by Danny Huston, so you know that he has to be a cad. He double-crosses Robin and his cohorts, who desert. But Robin’s real foe is Godfrey (Mark Strong), a French agent working in the name of King John, but stirring unrest among the English populace. (140min) Wendy Ide
11.00am Robot Dreams (PG, 2023)
Animated adventure with the voice
of Ivan Labanda 1.05pm Drums
Along the Mohawk (PG, 1939)
Drama with Henry Fonda 3.10 The
Mark of Zorro (PG, TVM, 1974)
Adventure starring Frank Langella
(AD) 4.45 Rat Race (12, 2001)
Comedy with Rowan Atkinson (AD)
6.55 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
Mutant Mayhem (PG, 2023)
Animated fantasy with the voices
of Nicolas Cantu and Jackie Chan
9.00 My Stepmother Is an Alien
(15, 1988) Sci-fi comedy with Dan
Aykroyd and Kim Basinger
11.10 Last Night in Soho Interview
Special. With director Edgar Wright
11.15 Under the Skin (15, 2013)
Sci-fi drama with Scarlett Johansson
1.25am-3.35 How to Talk to Girls at
Parties (15, 2017) Romantic
comedy starring Elle Fanning
6.00am Teleshopping 7.20 The Bill
8.15 Doctors 9.25 Classic Holby
City 10.45 Casualty (AD) 11.45 The
Bill 12.45pm Classic EastEnders
2.00 Neighbours 3.00 Pie in the Sky
4.05 Lovejoy 5.20 As Time Goes By
6.00 Last of the Summer Wine
8.00 ’Allo ’Allo! The Resistance plans
to hide money down Rene’s trousers
8.30 ’Allo ’Allo! Rene gets rid of
the money and the microfilm
9.05 ’Allo ’Allo! Alfonse is whisked
to hospital with heart trouble
9.35 New Tricks. The squad
reinvestigates the death of a
timeshare magnate (5/8) (AD)
10.55 Luther. A gunman murders
uniformed police officers (2/6) (AD)
12.10am Lovejoy 1.20 Sister
Boniface Mysteries (AD) 2.25 Hotel
Portofino (SL) 3.25 Birds of a
Feather 4.00am-6.00 Teleshopping
6.10am Abandoned Engineering (AD) 8.00 Bangers & Cash (AD) 10.00 Secret Nazi Bases 11.00 Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution 12.00 Antiques Roadshow 2.00pm Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics (AD) 3.00 Bangers & Cash (AD) 4.00 Secret Nazi Bases 5.00 Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution. Corruption within the SS 6.00 Antiques Roadshow 7.00 The Green Planet (AD) 8.00 Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics. A 1972 VW Fastback (AD) 9.00 Bangers & Cash. An Opel Manta, and a Morris Oxford (AD) 10.00 Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics. A Lotus Elan Series 1 (AD) 11.00 Bangers & Cash (AD) 12.00 Bangers & Cash (AD) 1.00am Find It, Fix It, Flog It (AD) 2.00 Abandoned Engineering (AD) 3.00am-6.10 Teleshopping
U
S
M
E
A
T
S
T
A
S
N
A
H
Y
R
T O
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Easy No 697
136 25 144
31 168 32
38 196 26
48 69
1 2 2 3 4 5
9 16
24
34
98
When complete, the strip below the grid can be split into eight pairs of numbers. Adding the numbers in a pair gives one of the 16 numbers in the grid. Multiplying them gives a different number in the grid. For example, a 4 and 6 in the strip could be paired to make 10 (4+6) and 24 (4x6) in the grid. Enter each sum below the corresponding number in the grid. The blanks in the strip must be deduced, bearing in mind the numbers are listed in ascending order.
C
F
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A N
B
P
V
R D
R E
N E
U M
P
The next Tetonor puzzle will appear on Thursday
Mini Sudoku, extra Codeword,
KenKen Medium No 6902
Codeword No 5910
Every letter in this crossword-style grid is represented by a number from 1 to 26. Each letter of the alphabet appears in the grid at least once. Use the letters already provided to work out the identity of further letters. Enter letters in the main grid and the smaller reference grid until all 26 letters of the alphabet have been accounted for. Proper nouns are excluded. Yesterday’s solution, right
Cluelines Stuck on Codeword? To receive 4 random clues call 0901 293 6262 or text TIMECODE to 64343. Calls cost £1 plus your telephone company’s network access charge. Texts cost £1 plus your standard network charge. For the full solution call 0905 757 0142. If you have an old newspaper and need clues from the past 7 days, call 0905 624 0024. Calls to 0905 cost £1 per minute plus your telephone company’s network access charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5.30pm).
M C
Lexica Easy No 9033 Hard No 9034
White to play.
This position is from Arslanov-
Mattenberger, Titled Tuesday,
chess.com 2026.
Although White has a promising attacking position it would appear that he is in trouble. Black has just captured on e4 and White has no good recapture due to the pin on the g5-knight. However, White was not thinking about regaining material but instead furthering the attack. Can you see how?
O A
O A
Slide the letters either horizontally or vertically back into the grid to produce a completed crossword. Letters are allowed to slide over other letters
Futoshiki No 5450
Kakuro No 4409
Train Tracks No 2935
© PUZZLER MEDIA
Lay tracks to enable the train to travel from village A to village B. The numbers indicate how many sections of track go in each row and column. There are only straight sections and curved sections. The track cannot cross itself.
Solve all five cryptic clues using each letter underneath once only
1 Precisely place first third of umbrellas (5)
2 Very little in dry social media post (5)
3 Knock down tools (6)
4 Cast secure Shakespearean character (7)
5 Never-ending ants since works (9)
A B C C E E E E
H I I K K L L M
N N O P R S S S
S T T T T U W Y
our new online Quick Play puzzles at thetimes.com/ puzzles and on the Live app
No 2637
Fill the grid using the numbers 1 to 9 only. The numbers in each horizontal or vertical run of white squares add up to the total in the triangle to its left or above it. The same number may occur more than once in a row or column, but not within the same run of white squares.
÷ 6
– 42
Brain Trainer
÷ 10
B
Brain Trainer
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
10 11 12
13 14 15
16 17
18 19
Across 5 Reporting and analysis of
A N
a topical event (8) 7 Vessel of the Red Sea and
L O
Indian Ocean (4) 9 Come a cropper (4,3,4) 10 Fairy king in A Midsummer
Night’s Dream (6) 12 Miscellaneous facts (6)
Solution to Crossword 10,225
% $ 6 $ & / 2 1 * 6 + , 3 3 8 / 3 5 + ( ( $ $ 5 ( 9 $ 0 3 5 ( & $ 3 6 + 6 + 7 $ 1 7 : ( 5 3 ( $ 5 3 3 5 , $ & 2 2 3 ' 8 & + $ 0 3 6 5 6 $ & 7 5 2 2 3 & $ 7 1 $ 3 $ 0 , , , 4 6 7 2 3 ( $ 7 , 1 * 8 3 ( 7 < * $
Need help with today’s puzzle? Call 0905 757 0143 to check the answers. Calls cost £1 per minute plus your telephone company’s network access charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm).
IT
IT
IT
ANSWER
ANSWER
ANSWER
P L
W I T H
Bridge Andrew Robson
Topping the individual Butler rankings in the Open series at the recent 57th European Bridge National Teams Championships in Riga were the long-standing part- nership of Simon de Wijs and Bauke Muller, representing the Netherlands. They play an artifi- cial Strong Club method which they call Tarzan (Wijs-Muller ... Johnny ...). Muller, uniquely in his country, has won the Bermuda Bowl twice (1993 and 2011), and was appointed a knighthood in the order of Orange-Nassau in 2012 for being the Netherland’s most successful player. He was certainly the most successful leader on today’s deal from Riga. At 16 of the 30 tables, the con- tract was 3NT (15 of them declared by South). Only once was the con- tract defeated. The key was West’s opening lead. Although his partner had over- called in spades (and he held a potentially useful ♠109x bolster), Muller took heed of his partner’s pass of 3♠; de Wijs would have doubled 3♠ if he really wanted a spade lead. With South having shown a spade stopper, and dummy probably having seven running club tricks, Muller assessed, correctly, to look elsewhere. He found the very well worked- out lead of the queen of diamonds, hoping for a layout similar to the actual one. The queen winning and declarer following with a revealing nine, Muller continued with the jack, pinning declarer’s ten. At trick three, West continued with a low diamond, a free-card
DOUBLE
Y M
13 (Of meat) less fatty (6) 15 Drink taken to complement
the one before (6) 16 Render famous for ever
(S, not Z) (11) 18 James ---, Rebel Without a
Cause actor (4) 19 Cynical attempt to appear to
offer equal opportunities (8)
Down 1 Grooming implement (4) 2 Scottish fabric design (6) 3 Of modern times (6) 4 Formal decision-making (12) 6 Act of installing on a seat
of power (12) 8 In the open air (7) 11 Apiary (7) 14 Uncommonness (6) 15 Irritable, bad-tempered (6) 17 Abate, slacken (4)
Dealer: North, Vulnerability: Neither
Teams ♠6 ♥92 ♦K72 ♣AKQJ973
♠1095 ♥Q86 ♦QJ864 ♣102
♠AQJ43 ♥K43 ♦A53 ♣65
N W E S
♠K872 ♥AJ1075 ♦109 ♣84
S W(Muller) N E(de Wijs)
2♣(1) 2♠ Pass Pass 3♠(2) Pass 3NT End
(1) Precision, showing six clubs and up to 15 points (or five clubs and a four-card major). (2) “I have a solid suit. Bid 3NT with a spade stopper.” A natural auction would be 1♣ 1♠ Dbl(3) 2♠ 3♠(4) Pass 3NT End
(3) Negative, promising hearts (South is not quite strong enough to bid (a forcing) 2♥ (even though it imparts his fifth card). (4) Similar to (2) above.
Contract: 3NT, Opening Lead: ♦Q
suit preference signal for hearts over spades. After winning the ace, East duly switched to a low heart. Declarer had no ninth trick. He could only rise with the ace, cash out the clubs and fold his cards — “Nice defence boys,” (I hope) he said. The Netherlands finished fifth, one place higher than England, enough (being in the top eight) to secure a place in the Bermuda Bowl in Barbados next year. andrew.robson@thetimes.co.uk
EASY 19 x 3 + 17 – 36 DOUBLE
MEDIUM 29 + 38 + 35
IT x 5
HARDER 65 – 55 x 18
TIMES ITSELF + 17 ÷ 5
IT ÷ 6 – 2319
HALVE
HALVE
HALVE
Set Square No 4412
Killer Moderate No 10,858
Killer Tough No 10,859
As with standard Sudoku, fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. Each set of cells joined by dotted lines must add up to the target number in its top-left corner. Within each set of cells joined by dotted lines, a digit cannot be repeated.
– 27
IT ÷ 4
IT ÷ 4
TRIPLE
TRIPLE
From these letters, make words of three or more letters, always including the central letter. Answers must be in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, excluding capitalised words, plurals, conjugated verbs (past tense etc), adverbs ending in LY, comparatives and superlatives. How you rate 15 words, average; 20, good; 26, very good; 32, excellent
Yesterday’s answers ash, ashet, dah, dash, death, desh, edh, eth, hade, haste, hat, hate, head, headset, heat, heated, heed, hest, shad, shade, she, shea, shed, sheet, tash, the, thee, these
Quick Cryptic 3370
Sudoku 16,995
Sudoku 16,996
Sudoku 16,997
Killer 10,856
Killer 10,857
Cell Blocks No 5793
© PUZZLER MEDIA
© PUZZLER MEDIA
Please note, BODMAS does not apply
Codeword 5909
GK Crossword 349
Lexica 9031 Cell Blocks 5792 Set Square 4411
Futoshiki 5449
KenKen 6901
Today’s solutions
Concise Quintagram
Cryptic Quintagram
1 Blow 2 Clamp 3 Flurry 4 Slimmer 5 Pleasantry
1 Plumb 2 Tweet 3 Strike 4 Shylock 5 Incessant
Word watch
Avalement (b) A skiing technique (Collins) Koftgar (c) An artisan who inlays steel with gold (Chambers) Gallinipper (b) A large American mosquito (OED) Chess — Winning Move
1 Rxf7+! removes vital protection from e6. After 1 ... Rxf7 2 Qxh6+ (an unnecessary gilding of the lily; 2 Nxe6+ and 3 Nxd8 was stronger) 2 ... Kxh6 3 Nxf7+ Kg7 4 Nxd8 Rxd8 5 Rxe4 and White soon won but 2 Nxe6+ would have forced resignation
D I N G O
Divide the grid into square or rectangular blocks, each containing one digit only. Every block must contain the number of cells indicated by the digit inside it.
Enter each of the numbers from 1 to 9 in the grid, so that the six sums work. We’ve placed two numbers to get you started. Each sum should be calculated left to right or top to bottom.
Kakuro 4408
Train Tracks 2934
G R A I N Y
S O C K
Q U A R T
Lexica 9032
C A M P E R
R U O
Sakuro 4811
Easy 7 Medium 19 Harder 126
Quiz
1 Legs 2 Beer, often lager 3 Dunkirk 4 AC/DC 5 Alexander the Great or Alexander III 6 Butterfly 7 Des Lynam 8 Dublin. He had just been appointed chief secretary for Ireland 9 Duodenum 10 Soup 11 Nick Davies 12 Gloster Gladiator 13 Termez or Termiz 14 Newmarket 15 Manx shearwater
Sudoku Mild No 16,998 Difficult No 16,999 Super fiendish No 17,000 Word watch
David Parfitt
Avalement a Help, assistance b A skiing technique c Erosion by rivers or glaciers
Koftgar a A dish of spiced meatballs b A unisex robe-like garment c An artisan who inlays steel with gold
Gallinipper a A person who cannot sit still b A large mosquito c A 19th-century trading vessel
The Times Daily Quiz Olav Bjortomt
1 “Getaway sticks” is a slang term for which part of the body?
2 A lemon shandy combines lemonade and which alcoholic drink?
3 The May-June 1940 evacuation of which French port city was masterminded from beneath Dover Castle?
4 In Australia, which veteran rock band is known affectionately as “Acca Dacca”?
5 Iskanderkul, a turquoise lake in Tajikistan, is named after which king of Macedon?
6 Mariposa is the Spanish word for which winged insect?
The Times Quick Cryptic No 3371 by Wurm
Fill the grid so that every column, every row and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9.
7 In 1995, Mrs Merton called which Match of the Day host “the Tom Cruise for menopausal women”?
8 In 1882, Lord Frederick Cavendish was assassinated in Phoenix Park hours after his arrival in which city?
ALAMY
11 Which investigative journalist was played by David Tennant in the 2025 ITV drama The Hack?
12 Entering service in 1937, which Gloster aircraft was the RAF’s last biplane fighter?
13 Capital of the Surkhandarya region, what is Uzbekistan’s southernmost city?
14 Owned by Sheikh Mohammed, Dalham Hall Stud lies on the outskirts of which town?
9 Which section of the small intestine derives its name from a Latin phrase for 12 finger-widths (in length)?
15 Which enigmatic bird, aka Puffinus puffinus, is pictured?
10 Terence Frisby wrote the 1966 comedy play There’s a Girl in My … what?
Across 3 Wild sea god in coastal
location (3,5)
7
Deplore weak book collection
(6)
8 Word of twenty-six letters? (8)
9 Smashed up (4)
10 Bluejay regularly in meadow
(3) 11 Dip Roger prepared in time (8) 13 Student group long to finish
early (4) 15 Live with a rook: ferocious
creature (4) 17 Bachelor back to welcome the
rest (8) 19 Drink one Guinness shortly (3) 22 Terror initially recognised in
club (4) 23 Geniality from one in good
French house (8) 24 Tentacle finally flung out in
swamp (6) 25 Chair Charlie occupies on ship
Sakuro No 4811
Place the numbers 1 to 9 in the spaces so that the number in each circle is equal to the sum of the four surrounding spaces, and each colour total is correct
For interactive puzzles visit thetimes.com
Down
1
Singer in Italian port to north-
east (8)
2 British Nehru cast in film (3-3)
3 Support what Remainer would
do? (4) 4 Dancing seen to involve
whitish people (8) 5 Kind of bishop to leave bin out
(2,1,3) 6 Dope touring large Scottish
valley (4) 12 Bad omen misplaced about
river dog (8) 14 American chaps fit and willing
(8) 16 Girl with pain in both sides (6) 18 Also about to seize island (6) 20 Wrapped up ready to eat (4) 21 Noble to go with king (4)
© PUZZLER MEDIA
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SOURCE PREVIEW 中完全没有出现（源文在 Page 1 结束于 "The Ministry of Justice could not say..." 之后直接跳到了 "Boxer held over Greek murder"），属于严重的模型幻觉或非法引入外部数据。The Ministry of Justice 预测 11 月监狱床位耗尽、Kemi Badenoch 的评论以及 Dame Nicole Jacobs 关于家庭暴力实施者的完整警告，在翻译件中虽有部分体现，但结构混乱且被上述幻觉内容截断。23 million people 译为 23 million 人（未完全翻译）。23 million、1 in 57、S1 等在正文中直接保留英文，未完成翻译。staffing 在 “...由专业顾问 staffing 的高街旅行中心” 中直接作为动词使用，语法错误且未翻译。S1 等内部标记，被视为交付缺陷。FAIL
该翻译件存在灾难性的幻觉问题，在 Page 1 和 Page 2 插入了大量源文中不存在的虚假新闻内容。同时伴随严重的单位冗余、残存英文以及对填字游戏类特殊文本的误译。不可交付。