The Times — 11.10.2026

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It's time to go, Trump tells Zelensky in bitter diesel row

STRINGER/REUTERS

Burnham pledges ‘solidarity’ with Ukraine’s leader after US president strikes Putin oil deal

Samuel Lovett, Ben Riley-Smith and Hugo Daniel

President Trump said last night it was “time for Ukraine to get a new president” after the UK and its allies rallied behind President Zelensky in an escalating row over Kyiv’s long-range attacks on Russian oil refineries.

One day after announcing plans to buy more than one million tonnes of diesel from Russia, Trump said Ukraine's airstrikes were driving up American fuel prices and creating “problems for the world”. His deal seeks to lower energy costs before next month's midterm elections.

Yesterday the US president told reporters outside the White House: “Zelensky could have settled this war multiple times, but he chooses not to. We said, ‘You can do whatever you want to Russia, don’t hit the refineries, because that’s a world problem.’

“And he [Zelensky] wants to make problems for the world. He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers with diesel fuel because Russia supplies a large portion of the diesel fuel throughout the world ... So what does he do? He goes and hits the diesel fuel.

"I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal."

Just hours after Trump announced the deal, described by Zelensky as a “gift” to President

Putin, overnight Russian airstrikes killed at least 15 people in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. This included three children.

Amid an outpouring of anger and disbelief among European politicians and security officials, the British government said it would continue to impose its “toughest sanctions regime ever” on Russia, making clear that the UK would not follow the US in agreeing to buy diesel from the Kremlin.

No 10 confirmed last night that Andy Burnham had spoken with Zelensky and “reiterated his complete solidarity” with Ukraine. The two leaders also agreed to meet in person in the coming days to “continue their discussion”, Downing Street added.

A spokesperson said: “The prime minister began by recognising the last 24 hours had been difficult for Ukraine,” adding that Burnham had “made it clear that the UK would continue to strengthen its sanctions on Russia and to take further action to constrain the Russian

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HOW WILL OIL DEAL AFFECT MIDTERMS?

KATY BALLS, PAGE 4 war machine, building on new UK designations against Russian targets announced this week.”

Zelensky later described the conversation as “very good and timely”.

Over the past four years, Britain has frozen billions of pounds' worth of Russian assets, enforced extensive trade bans with Russia and imposed restrictions on energy-related goods and services. It has also provided Ukraine with extensive military support, including missile interceptors, drones and long-range strike weapons.

It is reported that Trump made the agreement with Moscow after Zelensky ignored his requests to stop bombing Russian oil refineries. Ukraine has hit more than 100 oil complexes over the past year, raising fuel prices in Russia.

Germany, Australia and the European Union also reiterated their support for Ukraine yesterday. Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, said: “Suspending sanctions on Russian diesel provides Moscow with more revenues to wage war. This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won’t.”

Zelensky said he had discussed the development with President Macron of France, President Stubb of Finland and the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Continued on page 4→

A woman indicates her six-year-old daughter is missing after a Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine

AI is threat to security, spy chiefs tell cabinet

Ben Riley-Smith

Political Editor

Intelligence chiefs have warned the government that AI could represent one of the biggest threats to national security in the years ahead.

Sir Ken McCallum, the MI5 director-general, Blaise Metreweli, the MI6 chief, and Anne Keast-Butler, the GCHQ director, gave a briefing at the cabinet meeting on Thursday. While the overall threat picture was covered, there was a lengthy discussion about how AI could be exploited by those eager to damage Britain.

There were concerns about hostile states such as Russia and Iran weaponising the emerging technology, as well as terrorist groups and lone wolves.

McCallum was understood to have told those present that AI was “the biggest thing you should be thinking about”.

The pace at which AI models were developing and the degree to which Andy Burnham was gripping the problem were causing alarm among some at senior levels in the government.

One cabinet minister likened the moment to the early stages of the Covid pandemic and the 2008 financial crisis, when warning lights were flashing but minimal action was taken.

The spy chiefs' briefing to the cabinet was not triggered by an imminent danger but was part of a regular update on the threats picture that happens roughly once a year. It was the first such meeting since Burnham, who became prime minister on July 17, Continued on page 2→

PM ‘unconvinced’ on Heathrow

Oliver Gill and Lara Spirit

Andy Burnham has told the transport secretary he is “unconvinced” by the need for a third runway at Heathrow.

The prime minister, who voiced scepticism about expansion at the UK's busiest airport as mayor of Greater Manchester, has avoided giving a definitive opinion on the matter since moving to No 10.

He met Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, last week to discuss the government's position. Burnham is understood to have said that he was not convinced that a third runway needed to be built, given the recent approval of expansions at Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and London City.

Sources said he also cited a £2bn investment at Birmingham airport, announced last week, which will more than double passenger numbers from 14 million a year to 30 million.

Burnham is said to have repeated his concerns that Heathrow expansion would concentrate investment growth and jobs in the southeast of England at the expense of other regions. Downing Street sources insisted that the prime minister's opinion was not a "firm no" against the third runway. Crucially, he told Alexander that he was "open-minded" to being persuaded of the project's merits, it is understood.

However, this is the clearest sign yet that the proposed expansion does not have the same full-throated support that it had under Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves. The Conservatives have confirmed their intention to build Continued on page 2→

NEWMAN'S VIEW

Farage's tariff plan on migrants

Lara Spirit Deputy Political Editor

Reform UK would impose tariffs on countries that refuse to accept the return of migrants, under plans expected to be announced this week.

Nigel Farage will outline new policies, including levies on goods and services, that would force countries to agree to deportations. The party also proposes banning their airlines from British airspace.

The escalation of Reform's hard-line deportations policy comes as the Conservatives embrace a new political strategy designed to recapture voters with a focus on the economy.

Some 20,900 people have crossed the Channel in small boats this year, down about 40 per cent on the same period in 2025, according to official figures. Since 2018, more than 211,000 have made the crossing, of whom about 9,700 had been returned by June.

Reform intends to impose visa bans for people who legally want to visit the UK from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia until the countries agree to take back illegal migrants and foreign criminals, under plans announced in February. The list includes several of the countries with the largest numbers of asylum seekers in the UK in recent years.

However, Reform now plans to Continued on page 2→

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NEWS

Mansion tax won't extend to £1.5m homes

The chancellor has rejected proposals for a lower threshold for the levy announced by Rachel Reeves

Ben Riley-Smith Political Editor

Homes worth £1.5m will not be caught in Labour's mansion tax after John Healey rejected proposals to lower the threshold in his budget this month.

The chancellor is understood to believe changing the rules before the surcharge begins in April 2028 would risk undermining public support for the reform. It will be welcome news to the owners of the roughly 130,000 properties that risked being dragged into paying higher tax had the threshold been lowered.

Last year Rachel Reeves, then the Labour chancellor, announced that homes in England valued at £2m and above would have to pay more in tax. The annual charge, coming on top of council tax, ranges from £2,500 for homes worth £2m to £2.5m up to £7,500 for those worth £5m or more. There had been speculation Healey was considering changing the threshold as he looks to raise money in his first budget on October 28. Lowering the threshold to £1.5m would have resulted in the number of homes hit by the mansion tax jumping from 134,000 to 271,000 based on current values.

Healey's opposition to the move has been shaped by past Treasury innovations under Labour such as the introduction of the national minimum wage in the late 1990s, when a consensus was built before the hourly rate was increased.

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, has positioned her party as the champion of homeownership with announcements at the Tory conference. Badenoch promised to take the family home out of inheritance tax entirely, vowed to scrap Labour's mansion tax and recommitted her party to abolishing stamp duty on primary residences if it won office. In her conference speech she said: "The Conservatives are and always have been the party of homeownership. We understand why putting roots down and having a stake in society matters. Our homes are where we watch our children

Banking

bosses are

braced

for a tax

increase

of some

form

take their first steps. They are where we gather every Christmas to put up the same decorations. Passing on your home to your family is one of the most human instincts of all.”

Healey and Andy Burnham have been locked in talks about the budget, holding a meeting at Chequers on Monday and at least one other in recent days.

The Iran conflict has pushed up global inflation and interest rates, in turn raising the UK government's debt interest payments, leaving Healey with tighter public finances than in the spring. He wants to spend new money offering financial help in four areas: soaring energy costs, rising fuel prices, long-term youth unemployment and high business costs. Those interventions, combined with finding £4.7bn over the coming years to fund a previously agreed defence spending uplift and new funding for the announcements Burnham made in the summer, means tax rises are widely expected.

Banking bosses are braced for a tax increase of some form, including the possibility of a rise in the so-called banking surcharge. For years banks had a corporation tax rate that was eight percentage points higher than the main rate but that dropped to three points when the overall tax was increased in 2023.

The Treasury is understood not to favour a new raid on oil and gas profits.

Retail bosses are resisting any new warehouse taxes. Jason Tarry, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, warned in an article in The Daily Telegraph that a warehouse tax would hit “a far greater number of high street shops than warehouses”. Stuart Machin, the chief executive of Marks & Spencer, wrote in the Daily Mail that Labour’s previous tax and spending budgets were “disasters”.

A Healey ally played down the likelihood of a new warehouse tax but the final Treasury position remains unclear and a spokesman declined to comment on budget speculation.

Five things to expect in budget, page 7

GOURD INTENTIONS

The horticulturist Elspeth MacDonald checks over the collection of squashes, pumpkins and decorative gourds being harvested at RHS Garden Rosemoor in Devon. Showers and sunshine are forecast this week

PM not on board with Heathrow expansion

→Continued from page 1 a third runway, making the announcement at last week's party conference.

Last month The Sunday Times revealed that airport bosses had told ministers of a four-year delay to the plans. Burnham later told the BBC: "I think, principally, it's a matter for London and Londoners."

The expansion is opposed by a number of Labour MPs, including the foreign secretary, Ed Miliband. Lord Khan of Tooting, the mayor of London, is also a vocal opponent.

One source said Burnham's decision whether to expend political capital on the third runway may be swayed by Khan's decision whether to stand again in the 2028 mayoral election. He has yet to confirm whether he will run for a fourth term.

A third runway at Heathrow has been debated for decades. It was finally approved by parliament in 2018 but has had many legal challenges. Expansion plans were mothballed during the pandemic, as airports faced a fight for survival because of Covid travel restrictions.

Reeves put expansion at the centre of her agenda by publicly backing it in January last year. She said that the third runway would be up and running by 2035. This has now been pushed back to 2039.

A draft of the Heathrow expansion national policy statement was published for consultation in June. A final version of the plans will be published shortly and put to a parliamentary vote.

It had been hoped that this would take place in the autumn, but sources say it may now slip to January. If MPs pass the proposals, any company can submit a planning application to deliver the expansion.

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Spy chiefs tell cabinet: AI is a serious threat

→ Continued from page 1 appointed his ministers. Burnham made only a passing reference to AI in his hour-long speech to the Labour conference in Liverpool, outlining his vision for office, saying he would be “clear-eyed about its risks”.

On the same day his AI adviser, Jade Leung, announced she was leaving the role. There has been discussion at senior levels in No 10 about whether the post needs to be kept.

AI industry figures have also been critical of the prime minister disbanding the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, spreading the AI brief across multiple departments instead.

Burnham supporters counter the criticism by arguing that tasking all departments with

championing AI is a more sensible strategy and noting that he appointed an AI minister to cabinet.

The prime minister intends to use the G20 summit in Manchester next year, due to be attended by world leaders, to agree a “global code” on AI use.

Separately, the King held a meeting last month for AI industry leaders, government ministers and civil society thinkers at Dumfries House in Scotland to discuss the challenge the technology presented. Leaders of the world's most powerful AI companies such as Nvidia, Anthropic, Google DeepMind and Open AI attended the event.

One senior Whitehall figure saw the interventions from intelligence chiefs and Charles as encouraging Burnham to grip the AI issue more firmly. “The spies are telling him to care. The King is telling him to care,” the source said.

A sense of the intelligence agencies' assessment of the risk posed by the technology was seen in October last year when McCallum gave his annual public speech updating on threats.

He said at the time: "Would-be terrorists already try to harness AI for their propaganda, their weapons research, their target reconnaissance. State actors exploit AI to manipulate elections and sharpen their cyber attacks.”

Since then, a flurry of incidents have shown how rapidly AI models are advancing. This year OpenAI revealed that its AI agents had autonomously hacked a real-world company, the computational tools firm Hugging Face, causing alarm in the industry.

OpenAI later admitted an AI agent also hacked into Medicare, Australia's national universal health insurance programme. Anthony Albanese, the country's prime minister, called a delay in the company alerting the nation's leaders to the breach "unacceptable".

Last week it emerged that banks in South Korea had suffered a string of cyberattacks that appeared to have been launched by a hacker using Chinese and American AI tools.

It was also revealed that an Anthropic AI model submitted a false homicide tip to a Philadelphia police website, the first known example of a bogus AI tip to the authorities.

This summer the Government Cyber Co-ordination Centre led a series of “hackathons” to test defences in parts of the state to cyberattacks from the most advanced AI models. It uncovered 407 security vulnerabilities across nine government organisations, including one deemed “critical” that allowed an attacker to alter computer code and affect the running of a “key digital service”. The service in question was not named when the results were made public.

The hacks had cost just £13,000 to be carried out, a reminder of the damage that could be done by hostile actors with relatively small amounts of money.

A government spokesman said: “National security is the first duty of government. As AI becomes more powerful, Britain must be ready for the threats it brings.

“That means testing the most advanced systems, building our own capabilities and hardening our defences. We will do whatever is necessary to keep the British public safe.”

Ai talk was missing from the party love-ins, Josh Glancy, page 6

Farage plans tariffs to force deportations

→Continued from page 1 go further, resolving to impose tariffs to put pressure on any resistant countries.

Tariffs are a favoured diplomatic tool of President Trump, and Reform could face significant legal challenges if it follows suit.

Under the World Trade Organisation's “most-favoured nation” rule, every country must be charged the same tariff with exemptions only for war or an

"emergency in international relations". The UK relied on this principle in 2022, hiking tariffs on Russia and Belarus after the invasion of Ukraine.

Senior Reform figures believe tariffs would work best on a trading partner that did not have high numbers of citizens living in Britain, such as Egypt. The specific tariff rate is unclear.

Farage said: “Illegal immigration is an out-of-control disaster that poses a massive threat to our national security. It’s only getting worse under ‘open borders’ Burnham. Only Reform will deport every single illegal migrant on our shores and stop the boats.”

The Reform leader is also expected to outline further restrictions on those granted refugee status in the past five years. Anyone whose country of origin is deemed safe would have their status revoked – irrespective of its status when they arrived in

Britain. They could then be deported with their dependants.

The party previously pledged to revoke the status of anyone who entered the country illegally or overstayed their visa but later claimed asylum.

Reform will also look to ban national airlines from British airspace if a country does not comply with the new policies, and ban its citizens from transit.

Several countries with large numbers of asylum seekers in Britain are already subject to airline bans, including Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea, Libya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Pakistan would be most likely to be affected. If Pakistan International Airlines lost direct flights, British-Pakistani families would be forced to switch to Gulf airlines with stopovers.

Farage is renewing his focus on immigration after the Conservative conference last week. Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, concentrated on the economy in her speech and in further announcements, pledging to cut inheritance tax and extend free childcare to those earning £100,000 as the party seeks to win back southern seats.

Net migration peaked at 944,000 in the year to March 2023 but fell to 204,000 in the year to June 2025. It is expected to drop below 100,000 this year, according to Oxford Economics – the lowest since 1997.

Farage has described the so-called Boriswave – immigrants who arrived under post-Brexit rules introduced by Boris Johnson – as “the greatest betrayal of democratic wishes, certainly in anyone’s living memory”.

NEWS

At the Noah's Ark dig, evangelists celebrate as scientists take a closer look

Rachel Hagan Dogubeyazit

Greg Locke strode through the parched grass in the hills of eastern Turkey, his gold chain swinging against a pressed white T-shirt. A gust of wind rushed past. “Did you feel that?” the pastor’s 6ft-something bodyguard said. “Just as we reached the bow, the wind picked up.”

Millions of followers of Locke's Tennessee church had woken at 4am to watch this moment. Rather than kneel or pray, he logged in to Facebook. "Hey guys," he began. "It's very emotional. I fully believe 100,000 per cent that this is Noah's Ark."

South of Mount Ararat,

Locke was standing on a boat-shaped mound first mapped by a Turkish army captain in 1959. For decades it has been the subject of a feverish mix of geology, archaeology and religious speculation. Now scientists say it may be possible to establish whether something manmade truly lies here.

Several dozen scientists from five countries, led by Professor Cenker Atila, a Turkish archaeologist, spent months on the formation over the summer, armed with drones, ground-penetrating radar and drills to collect 1,000 soil samples. What they have found is tantalising, but far from conclusive.

The most dramatic claim came from an engineer, Khosrow Bakhtar. His experimental radar picked up repeating lines, voids and angular patterns he says ordinary geology does not explain: “The ground does not organise itself into corridors, chambers and hallways. It could be a ship. It could be a spaceship.”

Soil from inside the boat shape was reported to have contained three times more organic matter and about a third more potassium than outside, which could point to decayed wood or other biological material.

The Bible is remarkably precise about Noah's vessel:

The 500ft-long mound was found by a Turkish army captain in 1959

300 cubits long, 50 wide and 30 high – roughly 515ft by 86ft by 52ft – and with three decks. The Turkish formation measures 515ft to 538ft long, about 85ft wide and 52ft high.

Reports of “rooms” and “corridors” have already led evangelical influencers such as Locke to declare the discovery of the Ark. “The scientists do not say this. We are waiting for the results of the research,” Atila stressed.

Locke believes that in about 2348BC a real Noah took his family and two of every animal in the world aboard his Ark as floodwaters swallowed the world. After almost a year afloat, the Ark came to rest “upon the

mountains of Ararat", according to the Bible. The Quran also tells of the flood, although it places the Ark on Judi, a mountain 180 miles southeast, near the border with Syria and Iraq.

God sent the flood because “people were leading corrupt lives” and “the Earth was full of injustice”, says Locke, who believes the world has reached that point again. He told his livestream viewers: “You better repent … Get your house in order.”

Andrew Jones, founder of Noah's Ark Scans, a Christian archaeology project, has spent most of his life trying to prove that the Ark is in the mountains. Now deputy head of the research team, he is more prudent than Locke. "You're never going to prove to everyone it's Noah's Ark", he said. "There will be a level of proof where you can say it's a vessel, but no plaque saying 'Built by Noah'."

Believers think the wooden hull decayed long ago and that what remains is an imprint. But most geologists who have examined the site see only a natural fold of rock, sculpted by mudflows.

With the geological permit now expired, the ground cannot be disturbed again until another dig is allowed by the government. Lab work continues; the final report is due next spring.

Saved from squalor, Sprite has a spring in her step

The spaniel is full of fizz in a new home after she and scores of other dogs, many of them emaciated, were rescued from a house by the RSPCA

Izzy Lyons and Matt Rudd

Sprite, adopted by Jason and Sue Kairies, below, has overcome the trauma from her former life in filthy conditions in a house near Doncaster, above

Twice a week for the past year, Sprite, a springer spaniel about three years old, has been to one-on-one training classes as part of her long recovery. In October last year, six months after her rescue, she was still petrified of everything.

“Walking her was impossible,” says Sue Kairies, who adopted her from the RSPCA’s Sheffield centre in July last year with her husband, Jason. “She’d never had a lead on and she’d never been out into environments where there were people, cars, all sorts of noises. She just didn’t know what to do with herself.”

In the early days after her adoption Sprite would run into the garden and hide. “She didn’t like being in the house at the same time as us,” Kairies remembers. “She used the cat flap as an escape route and she would go out and hide in the bushes for hours and hours.

“We used to check which bush she was under and once we found her, we knew she was OK.”

Today, Sprite is a new dog. She still has nervous moments but she is happy on the lead, happier off it in the secure dog-exercising field Kairies rents for her each week – and happiest on the sofa with the family.

The only recent setback came when Kairies clicked on a news story saying that Sprite's previous owner, David Parkes, had been found guilty of animal welfare offences.

"There was a video of all the dogs barking [when the RSPCA rescued them]," she says. "I just didn't think anything of it but Sprite must have heard the barking and went back there. She just lay on the floor and got quite upset."

When the RSPCA and South Yorkshire police forced entry to a house in Tickhill, near Doncaster, in April last year after receiving an animal welfare report, they found 78 springer spaniels, many emaciated, covered in dirt and faeces. The smell in the house was so bad that one police officer had to run outside to be sick.

Last month Parkes, 61, a children's social worker, was found

It's amazing

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love and trust guilty of failing to look after the spaniels, as well as four Patterdale terriers and two cats. His disabled wife, Delphine, 60, and their autistic son, Sam, 28, admitted the same offences earlier this year. All three will be sentenced on December 9.

The family were not breeders, Parkes's trial was told at Barnsley magistrates' court, but the dogs were left unneutered and bred out of control after the Covid lockdowns. Most were between one and two years old. A handful were older; two were 12-week-old puppies.

RSPCA officers first visited the Parkes family home on April 5 last year after receiving a report about a dog with an injured leg. The charity left a notice offering assistance, but nobody got in touch. A second visit ten days later was also unsuccessful.

Two days after that, the RSPCA returned with police officers armed with a warrant. Although the family were home at the time, entry had to be forced via a back door. Once inside, they found “appalling” conditions.

Liz Braidley, an animal rescue officer, told the court: "There were numerous spaniel-type dogs, all filthy, with stained yellow coats. Every part of the floor, walls and surfaces was caked in a brown residue. The dogs all ran to the other side of the room, appearing very scared and timid."

Her colleague, Kristy Ludlam, said: "The dogs were cowering and huddling in a corner ... I walked around to the bottom of the stairs and was met by dogs on every step. There were approximately 33 springer spaniels crowding the stairs, barking and staring at me. The stairs were caked in dirt, approximately six to seven inches [deep] sat on top of each step from the bottom almost all the way to the top ... By the top step, the dirt had almost reached ten inches and the landing was an undulating mass of dirt, faeces and fur."

Parkes and his wife accepted that there were too many dogs in the house in unsanitary conditions and signed them over to the RSPCA. Parkes later denied responsibility for the dogs, blaming his wife and son. His account was rejected by the court, and he is facing up to six months in prison or an unlimited fine.

The 82 dogs and two cats were removed from the property by nine officers from the RSPCA.

A vet who assessed 46 of the dogs said “they were living in filth and squalor”. Fourteen were emaciated, five had infected cuts on their ears – probably caused by attempts to cut off matted fur with scissors – and one had an “excruciatingly painful” broken leg.

The animals were taken to 18 RSPCA centres across the country, including Sheffield, Southport, Chesterfield, Doncaster, Halifax, Hull, York, Preston, Colwyn Bay, Coventry, Woking, Lincoln, Birmingham and Taunton. Two of the dogs were pregnant when they were rescued and went on to deliver healthy litters. Many of the animals were nervous and traumatised, and required lengthy rehabilitation.

After a two-week emergency placement in private kennels, Annie, Fig, Flora and Fifi, four of the rescued spaniels, arrived at the RSPCA's Chester-le-Street centre in May last year. "They were pretty scared getting off the van," says Keira Kirkup, 24, an animal care assistant at the centre. "We had to carry them into the kennels. You could tell that the world was very new to them."

Over the next few weeks, Kirkup and her colleagues began to rehabilitate the dogs – but it was not easy. “Fig would stay inside her kennel in the corner,” she says. “Fifi would go outside as soon as you opened the hatch and she would stay all day in the corner. Annie was the most confident, but she would still spend most of her time under the blankets.”

In October, after three months of intensive rehabilitation, three of them had been successfully rehomed – but Fifi, who had developed a habit of scraping her paws on the ground until they bled, was still being fostered by Kirkup at home. “She became so settled with our family, I couldn’t imagine putting her through another rehoming,” says Kirkup, who has now formally adopted Fifi.

Eighteen months on from the rescue, the animal welfare charity has successfully rehoused all but one of the dogs, which had to be put down as it was in such poor health.

The team at Chester-le-Street were delighted when they heard the news that all 77 of the surviving spaniels had found new homes. “Working here, we do get big multi-dog rescues, and often they haven’t experienced a lot in life,” says Kirkup. “It’s hard for them to adjust to the real world. We’re just so lucky they were found at a relatively young age – they’ve still got their whole lives ahead of them.”

Ludlam is equally delighted. “I’m filled with complete and utter joy when I see the lives these dogs are now living, and I’ve shed so many happy tears,” she says. “I’m incredibly proud of what we did to help so many dogs, working with our partners, vets and the amazing staff at our hospitals, centres and branches.

"The public's reaction has been heart-warming. We've had so many lovely messages and adopters sharing pictures and connecting with each other through their spaniels – I think it's helped to lift everyone's spirits."

Kairies is on a Facebook page with many of the other adopters. “There is talk of us all meeting up and letting them run around together, which would be lovely,” she says. “It’s just amazing that these dogs have settled and managed to love and trust somebody like they do.”

We don't all have a book in us, says author

Emily Prescott

They say “everybody has a book in them” – but not everybody agrees. The American novelist Ann Patchett is one of the dissenters.

The author, who runs her own bookshop in Tennessee and was named by Time magazine as one of the world's most influential people in 2012, says the old adage is nonsense.

Speaking on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 today, she says: “I don’t believe that. I mean, any more than I believe that everyone has one mathematical proof in them or one perfectly prepared pot roast.”

Patchett, 62, adds: “If somebody said to you everyone has one brilliant symphony in them you would say that’s ridiculous. There’s something about the notion that because we can all write and we can tell stories that we all have a book in us. We all have something in us but it’s not necessarily a book.”

The author says the first of her two stepfathers, Mike, a neuro-otologist, desperately wanted to write a novel but did not manage to write anything decent. “He was bad and he was inexhaustible. Any moment that he was free, morning, noon or night, he was working on a novel... I would read it and he never got any better.”

Patchett, who lives in Nashville, says one of her most treasured moments came when President Biden awarded her the National Humanities Medal in 2023.

"The president had put a medal around my neck and he was holding my hand and he said, ‘Good work, kiddo,’” she recalls. “I thought I’m going to burst into tears. It was the dearest moment of my life.”

During the Covid lockdown, Tom Hanks's assistant, Sooki Raphael, who was terminally ill with pancreatic cancer, came to Nashville for a clinical trial and ended up living with Patchett and her husband, Karl VanDevender, who is a doctor. Patchett published an essay about the experience shortly before Raphael died. "Of all the writing I've ever done, I think I was proudest of that because she loved it and she got to see herself."

Asked which book she would take as a castaway, Patchett chose Middlemarch by George Eliot. “The only way I am going to get Middlemarch finished is to be sent away to a desert island.”

Mum was hours from death when a text from my brother led to a miracle

Emily Prescott

Months after the birth of his daughter, Edward Patrick received a 4am phone call in late May that he won't forget.

A doctor from Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham told him that his mother, Ann, who has Parkinson's, was experiencing continuous seizures and was close to death. Patrick woke his wife, Jo, and their three-month-old baby, Lily, and drove his family from Oxfordshire for a final goodbye.

Once at the hospital, Patrick, an NHS anaesthetist, used AI to research his

mother's symptoms and realised that a common vitamin deficiency linked to her Parkinson's medication could be responsible. After receiving an infusion of vitamin B6, the seizures stopped almost immediately.

“Every time I tell the story, I feel like, am I making this up? To come from the jaws of death. She only had hours [left to live],” Patrick said, adding that his mother had recovered from the episode.

Experts are now hoping the case can be used to better investigate whether vitamin B6 can slow the progression of Parkinson's or protect brain cells against the

neurodegenerative condition The vitamin, found in high levels in tuna, chickpeas and sweet potatoes, has been shown to help the body to produce dopamine, which is essential for controlling muscle movements, and can break down neurotoxins linked to cognitive decline.

Dr Bruno Gran, the neurologist at Queen's Medical Centre who was on call when Ann Patrick was admitted to hospital, said: "If you look up the literature there's about ten million people with Parkinson's worldwide ... There's 14 cases reported in the literature of this, so I had never seen it."

Edward Patrick says his mother Ann, above with family, has not been in hospital since her vitamin infusion

Rachel Hughes, a preclinical research manager at the charity Cure Parkinson's, said the case "provides encouraging results" and that "further research will be essential". However, she urged patients not to change their prescribed treatments or begin taking vitamin B6 supplements without consulting their doctors.

About 166,000 people in the UK live with the disease, which affects the nervous system. Symptoms include shaking of the hands or arms, slowness of movement, balance problems and muscle stiffness. There is no cure at present, but treatments are available, including carbidopa-levodopa, which helps to replace lost dopamine in the brain.

It was Edward Patrick's brother who, despite not being a doctor, first suggested in a text message as he drove to Nottingham that their mother's seizures could be due to a vitamin deficiency.

When they arrived at the hospital, Ann Patrick was experiencing rhabdomyolysis – a dangerous syndrome caused by seizures in which the body’s muscle tissues

break down and are released into the bloodstream. The condition can be fatal.

Patrick could not understand what was causing the seizures, so he began inputting all his mother's test results, scans and symptoms into an AI tool. Like his brother, it suggested that a vitamin deficiency could be responsible.

Patrick pitched his findings to Gran. “I thought he was going to be like, ‘Calm down, sit down, have a cup of tea,’ but he just said, ‘Thank you for looking into it.’”

Although carbidopa-levodopa is an effective treatment for Parkinson's, long-term use has been associated with B6 deficiency.

After his mother received her B6 infusion, Patrick described what happened next as his “House moment”, reminiscent of the fictional TV doctor played by Hugh Laurie, whose diagnostic epiphanies often save the day.

Ann Patrick, who is in her late seventies, has not been admitted to hospital since, and appears cognitively sharper than she was five years ago, her son said.

She lives with her husband, John, and enjoys spending time with her six grandchildren. She said: “I’m a proud mum, absolutely.”

NEWS

Parents fear for their sick children after medicinal cannabis firm closes

Mark Smith, Amsterdam

Lauryn Bowers was just six months old when she had her first seizure. By the summer of 2019, aged four, she was suffering from hundreds a year, was fed through a tube and could no longer hold up her head, talk or crawl.

Her mother, Carol Bowers, from Aberdeen, was initially sceptical about giving her child medicinal cannabis. "There is a stigma around it," she said. That all changed in 2019 when she watched a BBC documentary on its

potential miraculous effects.

Since 2020 Lauryn has taken Bedrolite oil, which the family have paid for privately at a cost of £1,000 a month. Bowers says her daughter went from having so many seizures “that we couldn’t count, to having one around every eight weeks”. Now, her daughter is “going to school every day and she’s happy and healthy”. To pay for the drug, her family have launched a fundraising drive including a golf tournament.

But the future is uncertain. Last week Bedrocan, the

Dutch company that grows the plants the oil is made from, was declared bankrupt, threatening supplies for 7,000 customers in the Netherlands and at least ten British children whose parents have fought for years to maintain access.

“These are children who without this treatment would now be in palliative care or no longer with us,” said Matt Hughes, chief executive of the Medcan Family Foundation, a UK charity for families of children with drug-resistant epilepsy. “If access is

Carol Bowers worries her daughter Lauryn will have seizures all the time if she can no longer take Bedrolite

withdrawn, that is the future they face."

Bowers has been told Bedrolite supplies could expire in December. “It just makes you sick to your stomach with worry,” she said. “After fighting so hard to get her well, we can’t let our little girl go back to being as poorly as she was.”

Femke Starrenburg, a Bedrocan spokeswoman, blamed political failures for the collapse of the company, which had been the sole contracted grower for the Dutch health ministry since

GLOBAL IMAGES UKRAINE/UKRAINE; KATERYNA KLOCHKO/AP

2003. Cannabis has a shelf life of a year, she said, so by next autumn “there will be no fresh cannabis available any more from the Netherlands”.

For Emma Matthews, a film editor from London, a future without Bedrolite is unthinkable. Her son, Louis Petit, 23, has an exceptionally rare genetic epilepsy. He has been seizure-free for more than five years on the drug; when doctors tried withdrawing it in 2020 he went into status epilepticus, a seizure that will not stop without emergency

treatment. NHS England will not fund it, so his parents pay £1,500 a month. Bedrolite is low in THC, the psychoactive compound that can cause seizures, “which is why [it] is such an important plant”, Matthews said.

The Dutch health ministry said it planned to import replacement cannabis plants and there was “no scientific evidence” that varieties differed in medicinal effect.

Matthews said officials did not understand that “people can die from just changing brands” of medication.

Diesel deal may not move midterms

Trump's agreement will barely reduce the price at the pump in time for next month's elections. It also undermines sanctions law

Katy Balls Washington Insider

here were celebratory scenes in the Oval Office last month as President Trump gathered with colleagues old and new to sign the Lindsey Graham Act. The sweeping Russian sanctions bill aimed at putting pressure on Moscow was the late South Caro-

lina senator's last contribution to politics. As an old friend, Trump delivered a stirring eulogy at his funeral in July and said that Graham – a foreign policy hawk – "died doing the work he was born to do". President Zelensky was one of the mourners in attendance. The sanctions act, witnessed by Graham's sister Darline who stepped in to complete his term (and is now running for re-election herself), was the final honour from the US president: his death a trigger for Trump to take a harder line on Russia and Iran.

Only a few weeks later, the concern among Republicans is that the document is worthless. On Friday night the president announced a “highly successful discussion” with President Putin that means Russia will “immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel to the American and Global Marketplace”. Had Graham been alive, he’d have probably seen it as an egregious violation of a moral embargo, a president funding Putin’s war machine in an attempt to get himself out of a midterm hole. A further 500,000 tonnes will be sent from Russia with love next month and a million more in December, he said on Truth Social. "Diesel Prices for Americans and, indeed, the World, will be COMING DOWN, IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST! Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority."

Many of the reactions were quick and predictable. Zelensky condemned the deal as a gift to the Russians that shows “weakness”. He said: “This only fuels Putin and enables him to wage more war”. A UK government spokesman put out a statement saying that Britain would continue to implement “the toughest sanctions regime” it has ever imposed as it seeks to “maintain pressure on Russia”.

Among Republicans, the response has been fairly muted. At a campaign stop in Michigan, Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate in the tight senate race, said he did not agree with “importing it from Russia”. John Kennedy, a Louisiana senator who was campaigning alongside him, said: “I support the president’s decision to import diesel. I don’t support his decision to import it from Putin.”

Democrats sniped that there was an easy, much more palatable option than turning to Moscow: increasing diesel imports from Canada. Only, Trump seems these days to see his country's neighbour – with which it is embroiled in a trade war – as a bigger foe than some of Uncle Sam's longstanding adversaries. Bill Browder, the billionaire political activist, suggested Trump was giving "Putin a favour because he wants some financial favours back from Putin".

Much of Trump's decision-making should be unsurprising. It ultimately comes down to two things. One, Trump is in dire need of economic relief before the midterms next month. Two, he has never viewed Russia like his predecessors do.

All candidates believe that the price of diesel is one of their biggest problems after it hit a record high last month of \$6.53 a gallon. Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate in the tight senate race in Texas, was secretly recorded saying the quiet bit out loud on Republican midterm difficulties: "It's not tariffs ... it's the war, it's gas prices, it's diesel ... When it's over \$6 per gallon for diesel ... people are feeling the pinch."

Two weeks ago Trump squeezed the Europeans to release some of their reserves. Now, it is the Russian deal. But there are technical problems before you even get to any ethical dilemmas.

The first is oil. Although supply of crude is rising, diesel has become a problem in the US because of a shortage of refinery capacity. There are also questions about Russia's ability to deliver the promised fuel after Ukrainian drone strikes on its refineries and storage facilities. US officials say one of the reasons Trump cut this deal was a frustration with Zelensky for failing to heed his calls to stop strikes on Russian refineries.

And will it be felt by US consumers? The irony is that, for all its political implications, the deal with Putin is barely likely to move the dial. Russia's initial offering, which equates to about 2.2 million barrels of diesel in hte first month, is a drop in the ocean: the US consumes 3.6 million barrels of diesel every day.

Early calculations suggest that the Russian deliveries would, at best, move diesel from \$6.28 a gallon now to \$6.18. Perhaps \$6.08. But a far cry from the \$3.68 a gallon it cost this time last year.

And if there is no additional global supply – if Putin merely redirects diesel from existing customers to the US – the market impact could be even smaller.

What this deal could do is change the dynamics of the negotiations between the US, Russia and Ukraine. On Friday American, Ukrainian and European officials met in Miami to discuss a proposal for ending the Russia-Ukraine war. Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy, said the "constructive discussions" had tackled "potential avenues to de-escalate and conclude the war with Russia ahead of winter and advance efforts toward a durable and lasting peace".

For a long time now, European leaders have been trying, along with Zelensky, to win the US president's ear and show him that Putin cannot be trusted. Trump getting into bed with Putin at his time of need is likely to push him closer to Russia and further from Europe. The Ukrainians have said they will continue long-range drone strikes on Russian oil plants. If they take out refineries that are meant to be supplying diesel to US consumers, that puts Zelensky in Trump's crosshairs.

“I’m not sure we get much diesel or Putin gets much money but tactically it could bring Russia closer to America,” says one Republican. One diplomat says there are concerns that more strikes could lead Americans to blame Zelensky and Ukraine for high prices.

For Trump, personal relationships have long trumped longstanding allian-

An apartment block in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, was hit yesterday by a Russian airstrike, killing 17 people, including three children

ces. He has regularly complimented Putin. In Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swann's book Regime Change they document how impressed Trump was (in part, at himself for making the appointment) when Witkoff had a three-hour meeting with Putin in Moscow: "Putin doesn't meet with anybody for three hours". He added jokingly: "I sent Steve to Moscow because he's the same height as Putin." Witkoff has publicly said that he doesn't "regard Putin as a bad guy".

What's more, in a presidency where foreign diplomacy is intertwined with cutting deals, Trump, Witkoff and Jared Kushner, another peace envoy, all take the view that Russia should be brought back in from the cold – and business is the way to do this. Just last month, Marco Rubio, who in 2015 called the Russian leader a “gangster and a thug”, announced that Putin would be invited to the G20 summit in Miami in December.

Some Republicans are already cheering this deal as a taste of things to come. As the Maga congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna put i: “Massive OIL deal, benefits everyone! Wait til you see what the trade deal looks like. Peace deals are a good thing.” Some in Trump’s base view Russia as a conservative religious country which the US has more in common with than Ukraine.

It means that even if this deal does little immediately to help American people at the pump or to the Russian economy, it remains significant. Were Graham still here, he would probably be on the phone to the president trying to line up a round of golf to bend his ear. Without him, establishment Republicans and Europeans fear it's a warning of things to come.

Time for Zelensky to go, says Trump

→ Continued from page 1

Gahr Store too. “We are co-ordinating on a substantive basis,” he said in a series of social media posts.

Under the deal, America will receive an immediate supply of more than 300,000 tonnes of Russian diesel, 500,000 tonnes next month and a further million tonnes “immediately thereafter”, according to Trump.

A further three million tonnes of diesel would be delivered afterwards “within a short period”, dependent on the condition of its refineries, Trump added.

Americans consume about 3.6 million barrels of diesel every day, equivalent to almost 500,000 tonnes, according to the US Energy Information Administration. A gallon of diesel now costs more than \$6, up from about \$4 in late February, when the US attacked Iran. In the UK, the price rose above £2 a litre for the first time this month.

Negotiations to end the war were being held on Friday between Ukrainian and American delegations in Miami but were cut short after the announcement of the deal.

Solomiia Bobrovska, a Ukrainian MP and member of the committee on national security and defence, said talks were also planned for yesterday but did not go ahead.

"The Ukraine delegation refused to continue," she said. "We need European colleagues to figure out

what's going on and talk to Trump."

She said the deal struck between Trump and Putin was confirmation of the latest breakdown in relations between Washington and Kyiv. Last year Trump and Zelensky fell out during a heated meeting at the White House but later reconciled. "It seems to be like we have lost the US as a partner," Bobrovska added.

The agreement, which followed a 90-minute call between Trump and Putin on Friday, was secured only three weeks after the US president signed legislation enabling sweeping sanctions on Russia aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

A US official told Axios that Trump agreed to lift sanctions after growing frustrated by Ukraine's continued attacks on Russian oil refineries. "Zelensky is misreading the room. By continuing to hit refineries, he is eroding the goodwill

Former boxer Mike Tyson and President Trump head to Syracuse, New York, for a rally for Republican candidates

that he has built with Trump over the last six months," the official said.

The White House was approached for comment.

Bill Browder, the American-British billionaire financier and political activist who has been sanctioned by Putin, said the deal marked a setback in securing peace as the White House would now apply “very severe pressure” on Kyiv to abandon its attacks on Russia’s refineries – Ukraine’s “one major point of leverage”.

“This was Putin’s Achilles’ heel. Ukraine found it and was hammering away on it,” he said. “Even before this announcement, Trump had already started telling the Ukrainians not to hit the refineries because of diesel prices. But now he’s got a much stronger argument, which is that America depends on this fuel.”

The Kremlin has also accused Ukraine of prolonging the war by targeting Russian fuel complexes.

Kirill Dmitriev, Russia's special envoy on economic co-operation, praised Trump's comments about Zelensky in a post on X. "President Trump joins the many who believe that Ukraine needs leadership actually focused on peace, not Zelensky's warmongering," he wrote.

Browder dismissed the idea that the Kremlin would supply diesel to Trump as “completely nonsense,” explaining that Putin was facing domestic fuel shortages of his own. “I don’t believe he has any intention of doing it.”

Zelensky, who was blindsided by the agreement, claimed that Russia “expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports” by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia.

The Kremlin said yesterday that Trump had conveyed his ideas about how to de-escalate the war to Putin during Friday's phone call. Putin received the proposals “with understanding”, the Kremlin said, without elaborating on what they were – or his response.

Tobias Ellwood, a former Conservative defence minister, said the agreement further demonstrated the extent to which America had “abandoned any sense of duty to support the global order” and reaffirmed the need for Britain to develop “resilient” defence plans independent of the US.

“Seeking and strengthening other alliances, with Canada and Australia for example, is crucial as America becomes ever more unreliable,” he said. “This isn’t just about the diesel. It isn’t just about the here and now. This is a wake-up call. Our world is splintering.”

Editorial, page 20

NEWS

Harry and Meghan won't join other royals for Christmas

The Sussexes' plans include a joint outing this week and spending the festive season with her mother Doria

VICTORIA JONES/PA

ROYA

NIKKHAH

Royal Editor

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are due to undertake their first joint engagements since returning to the UK, signalling their determination to be viewed as public figures.

On Thursday, Harry and Meghan will visit Nottingham, which is where they made their first joint public appearance after announcing their engagement in 2017. They will see projects at three charities that support young people and local communities through music, film, sport and tackling food poverty.

A friend of the Sussexes said: “Nottingham is a really special place for them and they are looking forward to getting back out there into the community, together.”

Friends of the couple say they are “happy and settled” with their children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, in their new home in the Cotswolds, where they are understood to be renting a house on a friend’s estate while they consider their long-term plans.

Harry or Meghan do the school drop-off most days and are often seen exercising in the gym or the Pilates studio at the Soho Farmhouse members' club in Great Tew, Oxfordshire.

It has not been an entirely smooth return to the UK. On Friday night, Harry, a keen rugby fan, was booed by the crowd as he watched Leicester Tigers play Gloucester at Welford Road.

They will spend Christmas with Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, 70, who lives in California, not with the King at the traditional royal family gathering at Sandringham, Norfolk.

A friend said: “For Thanksgiving and Christmas, they will do whatever Doria wants to do. They would love her to come over to the UK and spend it with them here, but they will be wherever she wants to be. They won’t be having Christmas with the royal family. How could that even work? They know it would be too awkward and too difficult. They also know they're not going to be invited, and they're not waiting for an invitation."

The acknowledgment is a marked shift from the couple's former frustration at being excluded from royal gatherings. Meghan is understood to be working full-time on her As Ever lifestyle business, and is also planning to resume collaborating with some charities and patronages from her time as a working royal.

Harry's focus remains on the next Invictus Games, to be held in Birmingham in July, and his UK-based charities.

He has also recently contributed to a planned documentary on race relations in the UK, in collaboration with Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, the mother of Stephen Lawrence, who was killed in a racially motivated knife attack in 1993.

On Thursday the couple will visit the Community Recording Studio, which supports young people affected by violence. Meghan, who starred in the television drama Suits before marrying Harry, is expected to take part in an acting workshop there.

Sources close to Meghan have also confirmed she will “definitely” resume acting, after recent speculation that she was in talks to appear in the next series of Guy Ritchie’s Netflix drama The Gentlemen. A friend said she “has been sent lots of scripts, which she’s looking at”.

The Sussexes will also visit the Him-mah food bank, where they will be joined by members of the Hubb Community Kitchen, a group of women who began cooking at the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre, west London, to support those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. Another visit will be to Epic Partners, which runs sports programmes and mentoring for young people.

The engagements are expected to form the template for their future public events in the UK. They will be covered by the media and resemble the traditional

The Sussexes in Nottingham in 2017. Now they will return for a new set of engagements

royal engagements that the couple did before stepping back from official royal life and moving to the US in 2020.

The move is likely to be seen as a push back against the King's insistence that Harry and Meghan should be viewed as “private citizens”. In a letter sent “at the King’s direction” last month to government departments, military officials and lord lieutenants, Buckingham Palace stated that they should be treated as “private citizens with commercial and charitable interests”. The letter, which was shared with the media, frustrated the couple and they were said to be “surprised” both by its contents and that it was not shared with them in advance.

Since settling their children into school, the Sussexes are regularly seeing friends and old acquaintances. On Wednesday, Meghan had lunch with friends at the River Café in Hammersmith, west London, and tea at Claridge's hotel with Malala Yousafzai, 29, the Pakistani blogger who survived being shot by the Taliban and became the youngest winner of the Nobel peace prize.

Contrary to reports, the Sussexes are not expected to return to the US for the children's half-term holiday later this month. Friends say they will probably remain in the UK or travel to their holiday home in Portugal.

One of the key reasons behind the Sussexes' return is to spend more time with the King, 77, who continues to receive cancer treatment. Harry, 42, and Meghan, 45, have not seen Charles since they relocated in August. They last met in July, when the Sussexes had a private afternoon tea with the King and Queen at Highgrove in Gloucestershire.

It was the first time Archie and Lilibet had seen their grandfather since June 2022. Harry is understood to be in phone contact with his father. A friend said: “He has not yet seen the King, who is still in Scotland, but it will happen.”

Harry remains estranged from the Prince of Wales. The brothers are not thought to have spoken for more than four years.

Suspects 'planned arson' at RAF base

Dipesh Gadher

Home Affairs Correspondent Low-level criminals may have planned a crude arson attack against RAF Fairford in an Iran-backed plot, investigators believe.

Detectives are examining the theory that the attempted sabotage, involving a barrel of petrol, was directed by a recruiter in the Middle East.

American media reports have claimed that Tehran was preparing a co-ordinated drone strike, prompting the Pentagon to withdraw its fleet of B-1 bombers from the Gloucestershire airbase.

But counterterror officials are sceptical that Iran has the capability to mount such an attack – despite the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warning in July that any base used to strike the country was a “legitimate target” – and are looking at firebombings that have targeted Jewish sites in London this year as a more likely modus operandi. Those attacks in March and April were allegedly masterminded from a bunker in Baghdad by the commander of a Shia militia linked to the IRGC, according to the FBI.

The five suspects at RAF

Fairford were arrested in the

early hours of September 27

after they were said to have

arrived in three white vans.

Police said that no explosives

were found but “a quantity of

petrol was recovered”.

The Times discovered one suspect dialled 999 himself. This led to speculation the incident may have been a dry run or a “stunt” intended to warn that Iran had the ability to strike again on UK soil.

Detectives are considering the likelihood that an attack involving petrol being set alight close to the entrance or perimeter was foiled.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said this month that his country had warned the UK of an impending attack at RAF Fairfield on September 7.

Tiger kills man ‘who jumped into wildlife enclosure’

David Collins

Northern Editor

A man was killed by a tiger yesterday after allegedly jumping into its enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, police said.

A video on social media appears to show the man being attacked before wagging his finger at the tiger in an apparent attempt to stop the mauling. South Yorkshire police were called to the park at 1.35pm.

The zoo was evacuated and the man was pronounced dead at the scene despite the efforts of paramedics.

"The man's family is aware and is being supported by specialist officers. Our thoughts are with them at this distressing time," police said.

The tiger remained unharmed in the enclosure. "There is no wider risk to the public," police said.

Witnesses said a “black screen” had been erected at the zoo after the incident.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park said: “We can confirm that a serious incident has occurred at the tiger enclosure. Our

One of the tigers at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, near Doncaster emergency response procedures were immediately activated, and emergency services are currently attending the scene.

“We are working closely with the authorities to ascertain exactly what happened. The safety and wellbeing of our visitors, staff and animals remain of the highest priority. The park is now closed and will remain closed.”

A visitor to the park, Tia Hanson, said that at about 2pm the walkway between the tiger enclosure and the exit was closed.

She told The Star: “It looks as if someone has jumped into the enclosure. There was an air ambulance and police everywhere. We’ve all been made to leave.

"When you're leaving you have to walk past the tiger enclosure and they've put up all sorts of black tarpaulin so you couldn't really see.

“But there were loads of police and ambulance people and a stretcher in the enclosure as well. It wasn’t nice – there were lots of people who looked really upset.”

Yorkshire Ambulance Service said an air ambulance, two land ambulances and a doctor responded to the incident.

The wildlife park keeps Amur tigers, also known as Siberian tigers. They are among the world's largest big cats and males typically weigh between 160kg and 190kg (350lb-420lb).

Execution survivor out of hospital

Dipesh Gadher

Christa Pike, the US death row inmate who survived a botched execution less than a fortnight ago, has been discharged from hospital, her lawyers said.

Pike, 50, was returned on Saturday to the Debra K Johnson Rehabilitation Centre in Tennessee, where she has been housed for the past 30 years. She was convicted of the murder of a teenager and sentenced to death in 1996.

Pike survived two lethal injections of the drug pentobarbital, which were administered at the women's prison on September 30. She lost consciousness and was taken to a local hospital, where she had been in a critical condition.

Pike's attorneys said in a statement yesterday: "She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances.

“She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery.”

In 1995, Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and killed Colleen Slemmer, 19, whom they had met at a job training camp for low-income people.

Christa Pike was 18 when she murdered a teenager

The Death Penalty Information Centre, a US charity, said Pike was the first person to survive an injection of lethal drugs during an execution. Her case is now in uncharted territory.

Medical and lethal injection experts are exploring whether a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue.

Why the US keeps botching executions, News Review, page 19

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Zack Polanski faces calls to resign after his by-election loss and a backlash over the Greens' anti-Zionist policy. Can this social media creation spin his way out of trouble, ask Lara Spirit and Katie Tarrant

t was early September and Zack Polanski was deep in thought. Sir Keir Starmer had announced his resignation as MP for Holborn & St Pancras. Almost immediately, focus turned to whether the Green Party leader, who had previously expressed a desire to stand in a London constituency, would put himself forward.

It was not an easy decision. There were, those close to him say, two alternatives. The first was to back a local Green candidate in the seat. The risks to Polanski's reputation would be lower but so too would the chances of victory: the party won only 10 per cent of the vote in the seat in 2024 and a figure with no national name recognition would struggle to mobilise the ground campaign.

Alternatively, the party could back Andrew Feinstein, the independent renowned for his left-wing challenge to Starmer in the last election, in which he finished second. But Feinstein said he was “very sadly not in a position to stand this time round”.

That left Polanski, who knew this was a long way off the ideal circumstances in which he would ordinarily make this bet. The party had slumped from its high of more than 20 points in the polls in the spring to the low teens. The seat itself was hardly a top-tier target for the party in London. And Andy Burnham, newly ensconced in No 10, was as yet relatively unblemished by office and appeared to be winning back scores of progressive voters lost under Starmer.

But this by-election was a different beast. For the past year, Polanski, 43, had led a unique life compared with those of rival party leaders. Not in parliament, he continued to serve as a member of the London Assembly, taking an annual salary of £66,390 and unburdened by Westminster's many obligations.

That this new, telegenic leader – sporting his own podcast and having met the social media team of Zohran Mamdani, the progressive mayor of New York – had initially boosted the party's membership, and fortunes, was a source of admiration felt both new and old guard of the party.

Elected leader last September, he had enjoyed a run of early successes. The party doubled its vote share in the polls. In May's local elections, Polanski's Greens secured the largest increase in vote share of any of the parties, gaining 441 seats while Labour haemorrhaged support. It was only months ago some spoke of the Greens replacing the Labour party as the main force on the left.

So he now had a decision to make. In the end, one senior Green figure said that if he did not stand, it would be held as a failure of leadership. “Everybody’s talked about him running, including Zack himself,” they said. “So you’re going to end up running.”

Polanski's loss in the early hours of Friday was seen by vanishingly few in the party as a reason for him to consider his position. Asked whether he would still be in his role by the weekend's close, with dawn breaking over the Camden council headquarters, a source close to him gave a resounding “yes”.

size

In fact, as Russell Warfield, author of The Green Socialist, a book about Polanski's rise, said, this was cause for optimism and “puts the Greens in a really strong position for the next general election”.

Burnham's Labour, he believes, is now clearly taking notice of Polanski's message – a source for encouragement. Warmer said: "Under Starmer, and the people around him, I think that they would have looked at this result and just considered it mission accomplished, and just pettily danced on Polanski's grave. Whereas I think that Burnham – who has demonstrated some awareness of what Labour's voting coalition actually is – will actually look at the result a bit more carefully and with some seriousness."

But while his allies assessed that the risk to Polanski from the contest alone was low, events of a few days prior were posing more serious questions about his leadership. On Sunday the party passed its “Zionism is Racism” motion – one that defined Zionism as an ideology supporting “an ethnonationalist Jewish state” and backed a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine”.

The motion was brought by Lubna Speitan, a British-Palestinian artist described in US court documents as a “close friend” of a British Al-Qaeda supporter accused of plotting a suicide attack at Heathrow airport.

The motion – backed by less than 1 per cent of the party's membership – has drawn widespread condemnation from the party's old guard, and many of its new. Caroline Lucas, a former Green Party

leader, said Polanski had failed to show leadership over the “dangerous” and “divisive” motion, opposed by four of five of the Green party’s MPs.

More condemnation followed, with the resignation of the former Greens deputy leader in Wales and the European Green Party distancing itself.

Last week, the Green Party launched an investigation into Speitan, who said she “reject[s] all defamatory and nonsense claims made about me”. Following the passage of the motion, Polanski, who is Jewish and refused to vote on it or commit to a position until Friday morning, was barred from visiting Israel by the country’s foreign minister.

Under Green Party rules, motions supported by members become official party policy – but Green MPs have suggested it will not be included in the party's manifesto at the next general elec-

Antisemitism reported the Greens to the EHRC for a breach of human rights over the motion; more than a dozen Labour MPs lodged a separate complaint to the UK's equalities watchdog.

Polanski was not at the vote last Sunday. This now puts him at odds with was not at the vote last bar

ow puts him at odds with

Mothin Ali, one of two of

his deputy leaders, who

spoke in favour of it. Ali, a

Leeds city councillor and

accountant with a You-

Tube channel for his fam-

\- ily garden, has emerged as a possible rival to Polanski, and now the two sit on opposing sides of the most controversial question the party must answer. (On October 7, 2023, during the Hamas attacks in southern Israel, Ali posted on social media that “white supremacist European settler colonialism must end” and that Palestinians had the right to “fight back”. He later apologised.)

Describing the experience of Sunday from inside the conference hall, Elise Benjamin, a Jewish Green and former Oxford city councillor who has been a party member for 38 years and wrote the party's antisemitism policy, said it was "horrible".

“A few of us tried to stick together, mostly Jews but also allies,” she said. “We felt it was like when you’re the only one speaking out and there’s hundreds of people just looking at you and you feel like suddenly you’re in a bubble, very isolated and very alone. And to know that those people are not Greens, they joined just for the motion. I could see people who I know over the years have had quite problematic views about Jews. And there they all were, lining up.

“It’s really sent shockwaves through the party, like no other time in our history. And it’s not like we didn’t try to warn people, but it was very, very difficult to warn the wider membership because the small numbers of us who were fighting this didn’t know who to trust.”

Benjamin said she knew several Jewish members who had left the party in the past week. Local branches, meanwhile, have been publishing statements in the hope of preventing more members from leaving.

In response to one such letter from the Greens' leader of Haringey council, Highgate Synagogue surmised that the leader was “embarrassed” by the motion and said that “we don’t accept your

What was missing from party love-ins? Any talk of AI

n Corridors of Power, CP Snow's classic novel about Whitehall, the defence minister Roger Quaife embarks on a career-destroying attempt to change Britain's nuclear weapons policy. Convinced the world is heading towards calamity, he gives an unusually frank and

He gives an unusually frank and controversial speech at the Fishmongers' Hall.

We can but “dimly imagine” what nuclear war would look like, Quaife tells the assembled pooh-bahs. “We know this must never happen. Yet though we know that, we do not know the way to stop it.” Even men of great ability, he observes, believe that mankind is “caught in a hideous trap”, unable to step back from developments that may presage its doom.

A flawed hero, Quaife failed in his fictional mission, much as Tony Benn and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament failed in theirs. And perhaps they were all wrong anyway. But they did at least give it a good college try. A debate was had, political risks were taken, the public was engaged.

The contrast with today's discussion about artificial intelligence could hardly be sharper. As “hyperscalers” such as Anthropic and OpenAI issue dire warnings about this rapidly evolving technology, our political conversation has taken an antediluvian turn towards the 1970s.

Over the past month, I have for my sins attended three party conferences and watched two more. I've heard about John Healey's miner's lamp, Zack Polanski's views on the problematic nature of an early 20th-century campaign for Jewish statehood, Andy Burnham's frustration with privatisation decisions made before I was born, Kemi Badenoch's musings on the ancestral strengths of the Marks & Spencer brand and Sir Ed Davey – OK, I admit I didn't listen to Davey's speech. But I've looked it up and there was a lot of discussion about Oswald Mosley's blackshirts.

Not a single political leader has had anything meaningful to say about the challenges or opportunities presented by a technological transformation that could rival the industrial revolution. Our political class is living in a cocoon.

Here's what is happening out there in the wide world. On Tuesday, the day before Badenoch spoke in Birmingham, OpenAI announced it had new proofs for over 370 of the most difficult problems in mathematics. Some are suggesting maths as we know it is effectively over.

The same day, recruitment boss James Reed went on the radio to say that AI is “eating” graduate jobs. He revealed that his firm has seen a 75 per cent drop in

graduate opportunities, with fewer than 50,000 jobs now available compared with 180,000 in previous years.

On Friday, Axios revealed that the big AI companies are privately gaming out scenarios for massive public backlash following a “catastrophic AI event” affecting a key utility such as water or banking.

Some of these developments may be overblown and overhyped, but they are undoubtedly momentous. One cabinet minister has let it be known that this moment reminds them of the early days of the Covid pandemic, when people inside government could see the iceberg heaving into view but the rest of us merrily continued with life as normal, getting drunk at Cheltenham races or skiing in the Austrian Alps.

"Why isn't every conversation about AI? I don't really understand," asked one ex-ministerial adviser, who has now decamped to the private sector.

By this he didn't just mean the doomer apocalypse scenarios that often grab the headlines, but also what this cognitive revolution can do to turbocharge economic growth, as it has in the United States.

Not a single leader has anything meaningful to say about something that could rival the industrial revolution

How AI is going to affect the jobs market and how we can mitigate the downsides. How it can be used to address climate change or make the state more efficient. How we manage its energy and water demands. How it affects our geopolitical posture.

This last one is important. At present, we are partially locked into America's AI systems, enjoy using China's much cheaper open-source software and are benefiting from being outside the EU's sclerotic regulatory framework. This fragile status quo raises many questions. Do we want to go all-in on America and trust in its ultimate benevolence? How realistic are aspirations towards any form of AI sovereignty? Isn't all this a

good reason to steer clear of Brussels? These are pressing questions, but our leaders show no indication of having given them much thought.

It's not that nothing else matters. Of course it does. And it's not that these conversations aren't happening at all. They are. They're not happening in prime time, though. The Duracell bunny AI minister Kanishka Narayan brings the intensity of Silicon Valley into the stale corridors of power, but thanks to Burnham's dubious last-minute decision to abolish the Department of Science, Industry and Technology as he entered government, Narayan is a minister who attends Cabinet but without a proper department or budget.

At the furthest fringes of the Tory conference, in what may well have been the convention centre's stuffiest, smallest room, I hosted a panel on how technology can transform the state. The shadow AI minister was there, along with a couple of policy wonks. We gave it our best shot, but Quaife at the Fishmongers' Hall it was not.

In the main hall, where it mattered, Badenoch told us about her engineering background, but paid no attention to the re-engineering of the human economy happening right now.

She assured us that the Conservatives know how to put Britain “back on the

right track", but her speech was a familiar jumble of tax cuts and bribes to wealthy homeowners. It could have been given by any Tory leader since Thatcher.

Elsewhere, much of Reform UK's engagement with technology thus far appears to involve acting as a magnet for dubious cryptocurrency donations.

Why is our political class so hopelessly behind the curve? The answer is twofold. First, unsuitability. These are sharp, fast-moving, technical and scientific questions that many of our politicians lack the background or agility to address. Secondly, as one MP put it to me, “there are no votes in AI”.

This isn't entirely true; there are probably some cheap wins to be had from playing on people's fear of change. But they're right that serious engagement with technological revolution is far less of a vote-winner than "sorting out" the water companies or abolishing stamp duty.

At some point soon, though, actual reality is going to converge with political reality and the world will change. In the meantime, what we require is leadership, a willingness to identify the issues that matter and address them regardless of popularity. Is there a Roger Quaife out there to lead us? On current showing, I fear not.

assurances that we are safe under your watch".

The synagogue noted it had been forced to invest significantly in “building terrorism-proof fences around our premises, and employ both volunteers and professional security with stab vests” to ensure its continued function.

Despite the wave of criticism, Polanski's own leadership position appears relatively safe. He is up for re-election next summer and, until then, dislodging him would require either a petition from 10 per cent of members or a two-thirds vote of the Green Party Council, the party's ruling body.

One senior Green Party source said it simply was not a “realistic thing on the cards” that Polanski would be forced out. “I don’t think anybody is seriously talking about that,” the source said. “Nobody is going to suddenly make this happen. If you really wanted to, 10 per cent of the members would have to sign a petition saying they wanted a leadership challenge, which is 23,000 or so people. The mechanics are not there.”

Greens Organise, set up a few years ago to promote a more left-wing version of the party, has also reiterated its support for Polanski. Described as a “cloak and dagger” organisation by one source, it is a 1,000-member affiliated group co-founded by Zoë Garbett, the Green mayor of Hackney, and is credited with the overwhelmingly successful campaign to get Polanski elected.

Its ability to organise and push members towards ecosocialist and populist agendas has been compared to Momentum, the group that backed Jeremy Corbyn and pulled Labour politicians towards the radical left.

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb, a member of the Green Party since 1988, said that despite this “turbulence”, this was no moment to give up on the party or its leader. “In Zack we have a leader for our times,” she said.

But more immediately, the row has raised serious concerns about the Green Party's own vulnerability to entryism, and its hyper-democratic structure. In the run-up to the vote, Greens for Palestine publicly pushed supporters to join the party specifically to ensure the motion made it on to the agenda and had enough support to pass.

"It could well be true – we're easy to infiltrate that way," Jones said, on account of the low membership fees and ability to join the party at short notice before its conference.

Ellie Chowns, the Green MP for North Herefordshire, said she wanted to ensure the party was not “vulnerable to capture by extremists and racists”, telling Today on BBC Radio 4: “I think it is clear that if we have policy, such significant and damaging policy, made by a vote of just 0.4 per cent of our members, that something isn’t working in our structures and our policymaking process.”

One idea gaining traction internally is the possibility of a new delegate structure, one in which local delegates would have more control over motions. “That way there’s a degree of transparency and accountability and a measure and a check of what’s going to turn up,” one party source said.

For now, much of the fortunes of the Greens will also depend on the performance of a figure beyond their control. “On the doorstep,” Polanski said in the wake Thursday’s defeat, “people said: ‘We agree with you, but we want to give Andy Burnham a chance.’”

Taxes, tough talk and a few goodies: five things to expect in the budget

Labour has been riding a wave of Burnham optimism since its conference, while the Tories evoke the tax-cutting 1980s. Get ready for a reality check on October 28

Political Editor

f anyone round the cabinet table was still crossing their fingers for a budget of sweetness and light, John Healey killed that notion at Chequers on Monday. The chancellor did little

The chancellor did little to hide the gloomy financial numbers that loom over his preparations for October 28 as he addressed colleagues on their “away day” at Andy Burnham’s country retreat.

“Despite a difficult global backdrop, the British economy has shown real resilience this year. But oil prices have risen by around 40 per cent and wholesale gas prices by more than 140 per cent since the spring, putting further pressure on families and businesses,” Healey told the group. “Our job now is to turn that resilience into stronger growth while maintaining the fiscal discipline that underpins economic stability.”

Read the words carefully. Painful jumps in prices. Households and firms feeling the squeeze. The need for “fiscal discipline” ruling out a spending spree. These are phrases no chancellor likes to utter. The downbeat messaging came with a further sting in the tail for those present: ministers requesting cash for new priorities, Healey noted, were expected to find the money by cutting their existing budgets elsewhere.

The draughty corridors of the Buckinghamshire manor house where the prime minister had gathered his political nearest and dearest must have been feeling a lot less cosy than the last time they had been together.

Burnham's rousing speech to the Labour conference had left the cabinet, and delegates, hoping again. Healey's reality check snapped them back to the here and now. Downing Street knows the budget, coming on the 100th day of the Burnham premiership, will offer the biggest proof point yet of whether the prime minister's cheery rhetoric can be matched with action.

Pollsters see in the modest 8 percentage point jump in Labour's vote share an electorate instinctively warming to Burnham but awaiting proof that he can deliver where it matters.

The big picture for the budget has been set by a pair of conference speeches that suggest the political battleground is returning to the economy along lines that have a ring of familiarity.

A Labour leader supporting public control of utilities, pouring praise on trade unions and railing against Thatcherism. A Tory leader championing homeownership while promising to make people richer by slashing taxes. Are the 2020s the new 1980s?

"The legacy of the Eighties is relevant," says Lord Kinnock, a Burnham ally and his predecessor as Labour leader who was taking the fight to the Conservatives in that decade. "The rapid de-industrialisation without preparation or compensation, the effects on communities and individuals of high unemployment and subsequent desolation, privatisations without adequate regulation or accountability, massive loss of affordable housing because the government prohibited the use of sales revenues for new or refurbished housing." The list for Kinnock, whom Burnham declared a "legend" in his first speech as Labour leader, goes on and on. "We are therefore seeing a return of the argument: the state as an encumbrance versus the state as an accountable enabler."

The Eighties echoes are detected too by one of Kemi Badenoch's predecessors. Lord Howard of Lympne, who went on to lead the Conservatives between 2003 and 2005, was serving on Margaret Thatcher's front bench as she took on Kinnock's arguments. He remembers vividly what came before her arrival.

"The most extraordinary thing about Burnham's approach is he seems to have completely forgotten what the 1970s were actually like," Howard says. "They were absolutely dire. We had to go cap in hand to the IMF. There were a record number of strikes. The trade unions were rampant. People couldn't bury their dead ... For Burnham to want to take us back to that period seems to be absolute madness."

Both former leaders noted differences too, not least that Labour is now in power. But the back-to-the-future vibe from conference season was striking. So how has this changed the thinking in No 11? Badenoch's promises – extending free childcare to those earning more than £100,000 and scrapping inheritance tax on the family house regardless of value – have not altered budget planning, according to Treasury insiders.

Their concerns revolve more around a perception, captured by the Tories'

“Birmingham Tapestry”, a version of the Bayeux Tapestry depicting Labour’s first two years in office, of Healey gleefully ordering a volley of arrows heading for the eyes of taxpayers. A message emerging from all corners is that No 10 and No 11 do not want to raise taxes on the same scale as was done by Rachel Reeves. The former chancellor announced a £41.5bn tax rise in her 2024 budget and followed it up with a £26bn raid last year.

“They don’t want to pull the lever marked tax,” said one Whitehall source familiar with the budget talks. Not fully rebuilding the £24bn of fiscal headroom Reeves left her successor will ease pressures here.

City of London folk are predicting an overall tax rise of between £3bn and £10bn. Certainly, Labour wants to avoid the “triple whammy” narrative teed up by Robert Jenrick of Reform UK in a speech on Friday in which he forecast a third massive tax increase in a row.

There will be goodies. Downing Street wants the feel-good optimism Burnham has been projecting to survive the budget and beyond. Giveaways and interventions in five areas are coming:

On energy costs both the prime minister and chancellor want to give people “breathing room”. That means

taking the edge off a 16 per cent jump in energy bills due in January. Support will largely be targeted. A more generous warm home discount, which goes to six million needy households, is being considered. Some universal moves could be made; at some point a decision on whether to extend the VAT cut on energy bills that ends in April is needed. But no Liz Truss mega-intervention is coming to freeze bills: Treasury analysis shows it forced up debt and interest rates.

The next area is fuel. In his Sunday Times interview last month, Healey hinted the effective 6p fuel duty.

increase due in the new year would be delayed.

Campaigners want him to go further.

Another intervention will come on business costs. Healey and Burnham have been championing the high

street. The Institute for Public Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank, proposed a 2 per cent online sales tax that could raise £1.5bn, suggesting the money could fund business rate cuts for retail, hospitality and leisure firms. Treasury interest is unclear but the think tank has good connections with Labour ministers.

A rearguard action has emerged, with the bosses of John Lewis and Marks & Spencer sounding alarm. Their argument: modern high street firms with big online presences also get hit with warehouse taxes, not just overseas internet giants. One Healey ally cautioned against assuming he will hit warehouses with more tax.

There will also be help for the “Neets”, the million young people aged 16-24 not in employment,

\- Employment, education or training. A new version of Labour's Future Jobs Fund and Boris Johnson's Kickstart scheme, under which the government paid to reduce the cost of hiring young workers, is being explored, though possibly for after the budget.

Then there is the sting in the tail. Tax rises are being worked up, however determined Downing Street may be said that his tax lever

The approach being taken by the Treasury is a small number of tax rises that can be robustly justified – a deliberate attempt to avoid the Reeves blunder of raiding mini pots of cash that proved politically disastrous, such as inheritance tax for farmers.

A banking tax rise of some form appears the most nailed-on of the raids publicly floated to date, given higher interest rates have increased revenues. Smoke signals from No 11 have left banking bosses braced for the move.

A rise in the banking “surcharge”, a different corporation tax rate for banks that was eight percentage points higher but became three when the overall rate was increased in 2023, is one route if action is coming.

There appears to be less appetite for returning to the oil and gas windfall tax, despite prices soaring with the Iran-US conflict, given Burnham's rhetoric about a new “pragmatic” approach to the North Sea. It also looks as if Tory predictions that the farm inheritance tax will be scrapped are yet to be locked in, though 17 days of wrangling remain.

It can be revealed that the Treasury has gone cold on lowering the threshold for the incoming mansion tax from £2m to £1.5m. It is welcome news for the owners of the 130,000 properties that would have been dragged into the levy, due to kick in from April 2028.

Where else could the bite be felt? Private wealth managers believe Treasury officials are on their side over warnings that capital gains tax rises could force more billionaires to flee overseas. Investment bank researchers are loosely floating applying national insurance to landlords as another idea.

Healey painted the backdrop – a bleak one – on Monday. Now he needs to colour in the details and hope the public, once his masterpiece is unveiled, do not ask for their money back.

Editorial, page 20

Voters like IHT cuts, but economists? Not so much

ne of the worst-kept secrets at last week's Conservative conference in Birmingham was that Kemi Badenoch would promise to cut inheritance tax if elected as prime minister.

Though few were surprised when this was the rabbit she pulled out of the

hat at the end of her speech, the details of her announcement were still enough to thrill the Tory faithful.

"The next Conservative government will legislate so nobody will ever pay inheritance tax on their family home," Badenoch said to rapturous applause. "But that's not all. On top of that, couples will be able to leave an additional £1m tax free. These changes mean every inheritance tax bill will be cut, and the number of families paying will fall by more than half."

She was right to say that this represents a significant tax cut, even if it is one that would most help people in the prosperous south.

Stuart Adam of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said: “Everyone who would have paid inheritance tax under the current system would benefit from the tax cut. The biggest beneficiaries would be those with the highest wealth and the most valuable homes – and their

descendants. This is a very well-off group, mainly living in London and the southeast of England.”

Inheritance tax, the liability for which arises on death, is currently levied at 40 per cent on estates worth more than £325,000, or £500,000 if the estate is worth less than £2m and a family home is being passed on to children or grandchildren. No inheritance tax is levied on transfers between spouses on death, so the combined tax-free amount is £650,000 if a home is not part of the estate, or £1m if it is and it is being passed on to children or grandchildren.

Along with her pledge to end the system by which people earning more than £100,000 lose out on childcare support, Badenoch appears to be reaching out unashamedly to the better off.

Of the two elements in her inheritance tax proposal, increasing the tax-free allowance to £500,000 is the

Percentage of UK household wealth in property; 33% is in financial assets

least controversial. The allowance was set at £325,000 in April 2009 and has been frozen since, and the freeze is set to last until 2031. Had it been raised in line with inflation it would be about £540,000.

This change would encourage people to keep cash in housing instead of more productive assets

More telling was the pledge to remove family homes, which are already exempt from capital gains tax, from inheritance tax. For many families, the home will comprise the lion's share of the estate, rather than savings and other financial assets.

Inheritance tax is unpopular, perhaps the UK's most unpopular tax, even though only a minority of estates are subject to it, less than 1 in 20, according to the government. Despite this low rate, Badenoch's promise to remove family homes from the tax is popular, supported by 61 per cent of people in a snap YouGov poll, and opposed by only 18 per cent.

Her announcement also appears to be safe from the danger that opposition leaders are always wary of, that their best ideas will be stolen by the government. Labour has condemned the proposal, which runs counter to Andy Burnham's drive to bring greater prosperity to the regions, and so has Reform UK.

According to an analysis by Oxford Economics, commissioned by the

centre-right think tank Onward, the Tory proposal would reduce the number of estates liable to inheritance tax from about 30,000 now to 22,000 by 2030, while reducing tax revenues from £12.6bn to £6.6bn.

Why, if Badenoch's inheritance tax cut is popular, do economists not like it, and think its unintended consequences could be damaging?

One of the long-term weaknesses of the UK economy has been overinvestment in residential property – housing – compared with more productive assets. This change, if ever implemented, would reinforce that.

Simon French, chief economist at the City firm Panmure Liberum, said: “The combination of pension pots being brought into inheritance tax from next April and this proposal from the leader of the opposition would have the impact of massively increasing the incentive to hold property wealth over more liquid and higher-return financial assets.”

His figures show that 49 per cent of UK household wealth is already in housing, only 33 per cent in financial assets, and the rest in cash. This contrasts with America, where 25 per cent of wealth is in housing and 64 per cent in financial assets – almost twice the UK share – with the remainder in cash. As problematical is the fact that Badenoch's proposal is likely to reinforce the position of older people as the "bed blockers" in the housing market, reluctant to downsize and make way for growing families. It could be even worse than that. Financially, this change would give older people an incentive to "upsize" and protect their wealth from inheritance tax.

Adam at the IFS said: “Abolishing inheritance tax on people’s main homes while keeping it for other assets such as bank accounts and shares would encourage wealthy people to buy [or stay in] more expensive homes in their later years rather than holding their wealth in other forms which would continue to attract inheritance tax. That would be an unfortunate distortion to households’ portfolio choices and the housing market.”

Badenoch's inheritance tax ideas gave her a sugar rush at the Tory conference, though by the time she unveiled them she probably did not need it, and it also put her speech on the map with the wider public.

In the fullness of time, apart from questions of affordability, those ideas may need quite a lot of refinement.

David Smith is Economics Editor of The Sunday Times

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Gagging clause in Manchester City property deals

Land contracts with the club's Abu Dhabi owners gave them theoretical control of what the council could say publicly

David Collins, Lara Spirit and Jim Armitage

Politicians and officials were bound by gagging clauses that restricted what they could disclose about land deals with the overseas owners of Manchester City FC.

Members of Manchester city council had to seek permission from firms controlled by the UAE's Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan if they wanted to reveal commercial details about the property developments. Even the existence of the contracts could be kept secret.

The clauses essentially meant that a foreign state-backed business could, in theory, control what was said by British politicians and officials about the taxpayer benefit from property deals in Manchester.

Confidentiality clauses are common in developer contracts. However, the scale of the development, the involvement of a foreign state and the extent of public land raise questions about transparency.

Jonathan Silver, a professor at the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield, has spent years researching the Abu Dhabi deal. He said: “Updated guidance and changes to regulatory, financial and legal compliance needs to be issued by the government around any agreements that emphasise transparency.”

Sir Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester city council from 1996 to 2021 who is credited with transforming the city through the expansion of its tram service, housing and business district, dismissed criticism of the deals. During his tenure, the council and Abu Dhabi firms set up a joint property developer, Manchester Life, in 2014. He told The Sunday Times: “Manchester Life transformed an area where nothing was happening into one of the most desirable neighbourhoods in the country.”

Leese added that the land became valuable to other investors only because Manchester Life started redevelopment. "It was worth nothing before then," he said. The increase in the value brought more development and more income in taxes and spending in shops, and on amenities by the new residents, he said.

Contracts relating to Emirati developments seen by The Sunday Times show the council was locked into confidentiality agreements signed by members of the council; the football club, which was owned by Mansour's Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG); and development companies set up as joint ventures between the council and ADUG. One contract, in rela tion to developing land around the stadium at Eastlands, drawn up in February 2014, reads: “Restriction on announcements.” It states: “No announcement concerning this agreement or the business or assets of the company shall be made by any party without the prior written approval of the others, such approval not to be unreasonably withheld or delayed.”

The contract states that the council and Emirati firms shall “treat as confidential all information obtained as a result of negotiating and entering into this agreement … which relates to the company or its business or assets”.

The signatories have been redacted in the documents, which were released after a freedom of information request. Large sections relating to commercial plans, directors' names and anti-corruption measures have also been redacted.

Another contract, a 2015 “collaboration agreement” giving Abu Dhabi first refusal on land near the city centre, says: “No announcement concerning this agreement shall be made by any party without the prior written approval of the other.”

A third contract, dated May 2019, concerning a plot of land known as Central Retail Park, carries the same clause. The council also had to keep confidential any “joint venture arrangements” in relation to the retail park.

The precise details about what return the taxpayer can expect from rental income, or the sale of a portfolio of developments from companies controlled by ADUG, remain unknown.

Abu Dhabi's investment in Manchester began in 2008, when ADUG bought the club in a £200m deal. ADUG is the majority owner of City Football Group, which was established in 2013 and owns a dozen clubs including City.

The Premier League began investigating the club's financial dealings in 2018, and City was charged with breaching its regulations in 2023. Last month it was announced that the club had been found guilty of nearly all of the 115 charges, including some around a so-called disguised funding scheme, which was said to have involved the club's owners topping up commercial deals with “sham” funding running to more than £800m.

Leese, who declared the Premier League investigation into Manchester City over breaches of financial rules “a kangaroo court”, said: “I would believe Manchester City over the Premier League every time.” He added that he had no intention of resigning from his position. The club denies wrongdoing and has lodged an appeal.

There have been calls for HM Revenue & Customs to investigate the payments.

When Andy Burnham was mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017 until July this year, Greater Manchester Combined Authority awarded Abu Dhabi developments £55m in three loan payments. They helped pay for the construction of three housing projects.

The partnership with Abu Dhabi has brought a period of extraordinary development on the edge of the city centre. However, academics, politicians and former council officials say there is a lack

Below, Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester city council, with Andy Burnham, then the Greater Manchester mayor, in 2017. Left, Leese in 2007 with Sir Howard Bernstein, right, the council chief executive

of clarity over benefits to the taxpayer.

One senior council official, speaking last week on condition of anonymity, said: “Manchester city council had a power-based culture. The attitude was, ‘We will tell you what you want.’ Power is cultivated by the limiting of information.”

Manchester Life says on its website the council has received “above-market financial returns, including £3m in over-age payments to date”. An overage payment is an amount a buyer pays to a seller of land if its value or the revenue from it increases. Rental income alone from the schemes since 2019 is estimated by one academic to be in the tens of millions.

An independent review by an external auditor, described in a 2025 governance report by the council, found that the authority's work with major developers had been examined, raising concerns about overage arrangements. The report said: "While these arrangements have delivered significant benefits, past independent reviews did identify some weaknesses in documentation, monitoring and assurance, particularly around historic overage arrangements.”

“ Power is cultivated by the limiting of information

Last week it was revealed that Mansour's property developer had a "first right of refusal" deal for acres of Manchester for a period of ten years.

Silver, who produced a report called “Manchester Offshored”, believes it shows the case for systemic change in the way local authorities and foreign state actors carry out business.

He said: “There are widespread concerns that the interests of Abu Dhabi have been prioritised over public interest. The confidentiality of the financial arrangement clearly makes the deal between a local authority and a private investor much less transparent than it should be.

“That would be a serious concern whoever the private investor is, let alone one with such power and influence in and out of the city.”

The council said the agreement between partners of a joint venture to release information about their legal partnership was “a prudent and incredibly common approach”. Manchester Life said the confidentiality provisions applied “equally” to the council and ADUG. It said the agreement provides that consent cannot be “unreasonably withheld or delayed” and that the council was subject to freedom of information rules. “It did not give ADUG an unrestricted veto over public announcements or the council’s legal obligations,” the authority said.

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Affluent families help a third of students at top universities to escape big debts

Yennah Smart

Data Journalist

Graduates overloaded with £50,000 of debt and still struggling to find a job should look away now.

Affluent families are ensuring many thousands of students are leaving university without a penny of debt.

Overall, about one in 20 English students do not take a maintenance loan, or a loan for their tuition fees, currently £9,790 a year, according to a House of Commons briefing. Just under a third – equal to about 113,523 – do not take out a maintenance loan at Russell Group universities.

At these 24 elite universities, 32 per cent of eligible English students did not take out a maintenance loan in 2024-25, up from 29 per cent five years ago, according to an analysis of data from the Student Loans Company and Higher Education Statistics Agency.

There are significant regional differences. Less than half of English students studying at the LSE, Imperial College London and University College London (UCL) received maintenance loans. By comparison, 82 per cent of English students at Cardiff University and 72 per cent of students at Warwick University took out a maintenance loan to pay for living costs.

Dr Ariane de Gayardon, assistant professor at the Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies, said: “Having a family that can pay for your education means you are unburdened by debt. It’s an inequality that has existed since forever.”

Her research found that students who went to private school were twice as likely as state school pupils to go to university with no loan. It also found that women were slightly less likely to take out loans than men.

‘It stands for Parents Pay Everything’

“Higher education has always been elitist,” said de Gayardon. “Competition for entry is always going to be academic because that’s the nature of university, which means you will always have the richest at the top institutions because they are more academically prepared.”

Tuition fees cover the cost of a course, but the size of a maintenance loan depends on a student's household income, where they live while studying and where they usually live. Every student is eligible to borrow money, however high their parents' income.

For students living away from home but not in London, the minimum maintenance loan for 2026-27 is set at £5,048 for those with a household income of more than £62,410, while the maximum loan is £10,830 for those whose household income is less than £25,000.

The average maintenance loan paid to English students in 2024-25 was £7,678 a year.

De Gayardon said: "Maintenance loans have not kept up with inflation, meaning there's an expected parental contribution to higher education that isn't communicated very well in the UK. I think some families think their kids will be off their hands once they take a loan but that is not the case."

In 2024-25, more than 1.2 million students received either maintenance loans, tuition fees or both from the Student Loans Company.

A student needs £61,000 over the course of a three-year degree, or £77,000 if studying in London, on top of tuition fees in England to have a “minimum socially acceptable standard of living”, according to Nationwide. This includes accommodation, food and socialising.

A 23-year-old medical student at UCL, who asked to remain anonymous, said she

GROWING BURDEN

Outstanding student loan total at end of each academic year

£300bn

1995-96 2010-11 2025-26

\*Figures for 1995-2005 are all student loan debt in the UK. Figures from 2006 are public student loan debt of English domiciled and EU students.

Source: Student Loans Company was grateful her parents were able to support her through university without taking student loans, but she was rarely open about it with her friends.

"It creates a weird dynamic because it's not technically my money but I'm clearly benefiting from it. When we go out, it's awkward to think my friends are using borrowed money to buy drinks while my dad is covering mine."

On top of paying for her tuition fees up front, her parents cover her rent for a flatshare in the capital, which is £990 per month excluding bills, and send her a monthly budget of about £800 for everything else.

“They wanted me to come out of uni without the debt and I guess their priority moneywise was me and my brother’s future.”

The average debt for English students graduating in 2026 was £47,900. The value of outstanding loans reached £295 billion this year.

Winchester College ditches laptops for pen and paper

The school has put screens out of bounds because of concerns they damage learning

Louise Eccles Education Editor

One of the country's most academically prestigious schools has returned to pen and paper for most classwork and homework over concerns that using laptops in lessons hinders learning.

Winchester College, the boarding school in Hampshire founded in 1382, said it had returned to traditional teaching methods because they were believed to be better for its pupils, aged 13 to 18.

Elizabeth Stone, the head, said: "There's no point just tackling the phones if we're going to say, 'Here's a laptop that you have to have with you all the time, and you get access to it whenever you want', because the vast majority of the activity that they're doing on the phone can then just shift as easily on to a tablet or a laptop."

She said there had been “a big spike” in internet use during the first ten minutes of the first lesson of the day because pupils were checking their emails.

Stone said the use of laptops in lessons was “much more distracting”, adding: “Multitasking is not a thing. Multitasking is fragmented attention switching. ‘I’m listening to this. Now I’m looking at that. Now I’m switching back again.’”

Since September last year, teachers at Winchester have asked pupils to use laptops only where there is evidence it will be “substantially” beneficial to that lesson. Screens are used sparingly in favour of printed worksheets and textbooks.

All homework for the youngest pupils – years 9-10, aged 13 to 15 – must be completed with paper and a pen only.

This is in addition to stricter mobile phone rules: its current year 9s are permitted to have only “brick” phones at school and in the boarding houses.

Stone, 53, the school's first female head, said: "We made it really clear to teachers: we want you to think about where there is concrete, substantial educational benefit to using [a computer]. And if you can't show concrete, substantial educational benefits, don't use it.

“So we shifted the burden of proof. We made it clear to teachers we do not want the laptop to be the default way of working. If it can be done in another way without the technology, you should.”

The pupils still use computers, including for AI in areas where it is most helpful, such as 3D mathematical modelling and climate modelling in geography.

Children with special educational needs or learning difficulties, such as dysgraphia or dyslexia, still have access to computers for lessons and homework.

Schools, particularly private ones, have for years competed to be seen as technologically advanced, boasting that every pupil receives a free laptop or tablet, and that they use the latest software for classroom and homework learning.

Pupils' concentration has improved without the distraction of screens, says Elizabeth Stone, head of Winchester College

Successive governments have encouraged schools to adopt screen time in class and agreed partnerships with Microsoft, Apple and Google to provide equipment and software. Open laptops on school desks have become standard in many secondary schools.

But Winchester's policy reflects a growing backlash from parents over fears that educational technology, known as edtech, is being overused, and as research suggests that it can be detrimental to concentration and learning.

Stone said the impact of rolling back on edtech had been marked. As well as showing better concentration and engagement in lessons, children finish their homework more quickly, which has meant more time to play board games,

PETER TARRY FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES

95% football and pool. “Even conkers have made a comeback,” said Stone, who is Australian and a former Rhodes scholar at Oxford University.

“They were concentrating much better [on their homework] because they weren’t simultaneously chatting to each other and sending instant messages.”

Percentage of Winchester pupils who achieved grades 7 to 9 in their GCSEs this summer

Winchester is working with Oxford University on research about the impact of using laptops and tablets for schoolwork on academic confidence, motivation and engagement.

Stone, a former maths teacher at the school, said that teachers had found the changes “liberating”. Exam results, which are always impressive at Winchester, are even higher. This summer 95 per cent of GCSEs were at grades 7 to 9 (A to A\*) compared with 93 per cent last year.

Stone said: “The teaching profession has really experienced a lot of pressure to demonstrate that you are up to date and so on. And when we said, ‘We’re not interested in technology for technology’s sake,’ there was a massive drop.”

In 2015 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that pupils who used computers moderately at school had “somewhat better” learning outcomes than those who rarely used them, but that those using them very frequently did “a lot worse in most learning outcomes”.

The use of edtech was accelerated by the pandemic, when it became essential to teach and set homework online. In 2020 the Conservative government teamed up with Google and Microsoft to supply schools with software on which to run lessons and homework online.

The Labour government has also embraced technology in classrooms. This year Bridget Phillipson, then the education secretary, said she was “so proud that the UK is an edtech powerhouse that can boost learning” as she announced a £23m expansion of an AI and edtech pilot in classrooms.

However, Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, said: “When private schools are stripping screens out of classrooms because of the impact on learning, the education secretary needs to wake up. We risk creating a two-tier system, with disadvantaged children left exposed to the harms of screen time.

“Labour was far too slow to act on phones and social media, ignoring the evidence. Now they are rolling out unproven AI tutors to some of the most disadvantaged pupils. This is madness when the government’s own evidence shows edtech’s benefits are mixed, and Pisa results raised concerns about the direct impact of screens on learning.”

Teachers say some parents worry that reducing the use of laptops could leave children less prepared for careers.

Jared Cooney Horvath, the author of the bestselling book The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms Our Kids' Learning – and How to Help Them Thrive Again, argues that “entertaining” learning programs are hampering deep thought and long-term retention. The neuroscientist also said that the importance of computer literacy for future careers was overstated.

He said: “We could have taught children how to rent a video from Blockbuster in 1999, but it is now obsolete. Teach somebody a tool and they learn that tool. Teach somebody how to think, and they can adapt to any tool.”

Stone said: “Five years ago, if I was being asked by parents ‘What’s your approach to technology in schools?’, it was usually coming from the angle of: ‘I want to be sure that you’re using it enough or you’re integrating it enough to prepare my child for the future.’

"Now, without exception, if I get a question about technology, it's always about, 'I'm worried about the overuse of technology.'"

Teens agree to social media block in city's world-first trial

Ben Spencer Science Editor

Lois Oredein looked dubious. The 12-year-old pupil at Appleton Academy in Wyke, Bradford, West Yorkshire, had just agreed to have her social media usage restricted to two hours a day for the next six weeks, but she was unconvinced she had made the right decision.

“It’s better to socialise online sometimes because it can be awkward in real life,” she said. “I speak to my friends on Snapchat. And I watch funny videos on TikTok – just for like two hours each day.”

Classmate Hannah Osin-Ntimoah, also 12, agreed. “A lot of people learn stuff from social media and they can contact friends. It’s not because of social media that young people are depressed.”

Lois and Hannah are among the 5,000 children aged 12 to 15 across Bradford taking part in a huge social experiment. In advance of the government's social media ban for under-16s, due to be introduced next spring, the Yorkshire city is carrying out the world's first randomised control trial of social media restrictions.

The £1.2m study, led by the Bradford Institute for Health Research and the University of Cambridge, aims to assess what impact restricting access to social media will have on children and teenagers. For six weeks, children from 12 schools in and around the city will either have their use of ten apps cut to two hours a day – along with a 9pm curfew – or will carry on as usual, but with their usage tracked.

Research assistant Alishba Hussain, explaining the trial to the year 8 participants at Appleton, said: “We hear from parents and teachers how bad social media is but we don’t actually know what the science says. There’s never been a scientific study of what it does for us.”

Trial manager Dr John Pickavance said this was a chance to establish the first gold-standard evidence about the real impact of social media, and whether it is

Minutes spent every day on social media by secondary school pupils — and a probable underestimate

Lois Oredein, 12, is one of the Appleton Academy pupils having their social media usage restricted effective to withdraw access. "If there is genuine harm that social media is doing and enough people stick to this, we will find it," he said.

The researchers hope to discover how young people access social media: what apps they use, at what time of the day and for how long. Those with the restrictions installed on their phones will have access disabled to TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, Threads and Kick, along with their associated websites, after the two-hour daily usage limit has been hit. It will also disable access from 9pm to 7am.

Before the trial, each child was asked about their online activity, their mental health, loneliness, exercise and sleep. This will be repeated after six weeks. Will they be doing more physical activity, or just replace it with other forms of screen time – TV or video games?

Crucially, the restrictions can be overridden at the press of a button – but the more the participants follow the rules, the more points they get, which increases their chance of winning a £100 voucher on top of the £20 they get for taking part.

According to the team's previous research, secondary pupils in Bradford estimate they spend an average of three hours and 20 minutes on social media on a school day. The scientists suspect that is an underestimate.

In June they carried out a pilot trial among older pupils at Appleton. Star Aimafua Philip, 15, found the 9pm curfew hard.

“My brain was set on always using my phone later at night,” he said. “But it got easier as the weeks went on.” When the restrictions were lifted he continued to get an earlier night.

Robby Sowden, 13, would welcome a full ban. His mother forbids him from having TikTok or Snapchat, but he said social media affects him nonetheless. "Usually what my friends talk about is what they've seen on TikTok. It's like we're living in two different worlds."

“

If there is real harm being done, we will find it

NEWS

'A criminal industry is getting fat on fake diet jabs'

500k

Seizures of counterfeit doses, including those of real ones not yet released, are soaring, the drugs regulator says

Ben Spencer Science Editor

The shrink-wrapped medicine boxes, decorated in clinical swirls of yellow and blue, look as professional as anything you might buy in a pharmacy. A clear plastic window provides a peek at the auto-injector in the packet, and a silver hologram on the back provides what seems to be a stamp of authority.

"Retatrutide: triple agonist of GLP-1, GIP and glucagon receptors," is printed across the box in reflective block letters. But despite the smart packaging, the sophisticated design and a price tag of up to £210, this is a fake, a rip-off of a drug that does not officially exist.

Retatrutide is the hotly anticipated future of slimming medicines, a treatment that its maker, Eli Lilly, hopes will exceed the success of Mounjaro, its previous blockbuster, and Wegovy, made by its competitor Novo Nordisk.

But retatrutide has not yet completed its clinical trials. For now it is unproven, unlicensed and cannot legally be given to patients anywhere except as part of an approved research study.

Doses of fake retatrutide seized by the the MHRA since the start of last year

Yet in this warehouse in Hertfordshire are tens of thousands of boxes of fake versions, seized from shipments, laboratories and distribution centres across Britain over the past two years. They fill crates on shelves stretching up to the ceiling, spilling out of cardboard boxes and piled in yellow bins ready to be taken for incineration. Since the beginning of last year the drugs regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has seized 50,000 doses of retatrutide – 10,000 at the border and 40,000 on home soil.

Lawrence Tallon, chief executive of the MHRA, said demand was so high that an entire industry had sprung up to make fake versions of slimming jabs. “The criminal elements here are global, multinational, increasingly sophisticated and are able to produce medicines and packaging for medicines that a normal member of the public would not be able to distinguish from appropriately regulated drugs,” he said.

The MHRA is being forced to beef up its enforcement wing to disrupt and prosecute illegal medicine rings. Tallon, 48, said: “We will see the criminal enforcement unit grow 50 per cent at least in the coming year or two because the threat is large and growing.”

For decades officials have struggled to tackle illicit and falsified steroids, Viagra, sleeping pills, antidepressants and stimulants. But this is thought to be the first time that such a booming trade has sprung up for a false version of a drug before the real version is even on sale. Black market chemists gained the recipe from the information submitted by Eli Lilly when it first applied for a patent.

When MHRA officials have assessed the fake retatrutide, they found that most vials and injection pens contained chemicals that accurately mimic the real ver-

Lawrence Tallon in the Hertfordshire warehouse full of seized fake drugs, right

sion of the unlicensed drug. But the dosage has varied wildly.

In recent months Hewson and colleagues have raided illegal labs across the country. In October last year they dismantled a facility in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Northampton, in what was the world's largest single seizure of trafficked weight-loss medicines. They found tens of thousands of empty injection pens ready to be filled, raw chemical ingredients imported from abroad and more than 2,000 finished pens containing unlicensed retatrutide and fake versions of Mounjaro awaiting dispatch to buyers.

“That’s very dangerous,” said Matt Hewson, senior manager in the MHRA investigations team. “These products also contain contaminants and haven’t been created in sterile laboratories.”

On another raid, in May this year, they found an extensive lab in the grounds of a grade II listed 18th-century home in Northamptonshire, where two 29-year-old men were arrested and 12,000 doses were seized. The men were released under investigation.

Manufacturing facilities have been discovered at a farm in Nottinghamshire and a house in Lincolnshire. Last month Northampton magistrates'

£200k

Frozen bank assets, part of an MHRA investigation into Alluvi Healthcare

14k

Listings in more than 100 countries that unlawfully market retatrutide

court ordered that more than £200,000 be frozen in bank accounts as part of the MHRA's investigation of Alluvi Healthcare, whose branding appeared on many of the fake jabs seized.

“Weight-loss medicines have changed consumer behaviour,” Tallon said. Unlike most new medicines, which filter down to patients through the NHS, GLP-1 drugs such as Wegovy have been accessed mainly through the private sector, and increasingly online.

Most online suppliers are legitimate, but consumers do not always spot rogue operators. “We are urging people to make sure that they are doing so through a licensed prescriber and through an appropriately regulated pharmacy to protect their own safety,” Tallon said.

This is not just a British problem. Eli Lilly says it has had reported more than 14,000 websites, advertisements, social media posts and product listings in more than 100 countries that unlawfully marketed retatrutide. “No one can legally sell it for human use,” a spokesman said.

The new MHRA strategy is designed to prepare for an era of increasingly complex and personalised medicine, Tallon said. Part of that strategy involves looking further afield for scientific evidence – including, controversially, to China, which has become a centre of global clinical trials.

“Around 2013, only 8 per cent of trials first started in China,” Tallon said. “By 2023, that’s something like a third.”

Odyssey missed out the sex: Beard

David Sanderson

Arts Correspondent

There is not enough sex or humour in Christopher Nolan's adaptation of The Odyssey, according to Mary Beard, who said people can be too reverent towards ancient texts.

Britain's best-known classicist said she had been disappointed by Nolan's big-screen treatment of Homer's 2,600-year-old epic, which stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, the king of Ithaca trying to make his way home to his wife, Penelope, after the Trojan war.

Beard, 71, said modern audiences too often failed to grasp the “real messy surprise of the ancients” and tended to opt for reverential, sanitised interpretations.

She told The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival: “What has disappointed me about the movie is there is very little sex in it and very few jokes and humour. And, actually, anybody who reads The Odyssey carefully sees that there is a hell of a lot of sex and a hell of a lot of wit, even if it is not loud humour.”

Beard's comments echo those of her fellow classicist Emily Wilson, whose translation of Homer's epic has previously been cited by Nolan as an influence. Earlier this year, Wilson said it was "weird" there was no sex in the film when the story was "about a man getting back to his marriage bed to have sex with his wife".

Beard said it was great that the success of Nolan's film, which has received five-star reviews and is a frontrunner for next year's Oscars, had resulted in translations of Homer's epic making it onto the Sunday Times Bestsellers List.

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THE TIMES

THE SUNDAY TIMES

NEWS

Putin's drones torch millions of Ukraine's new schoolbooks

Viktor Kruglov contemplates the destruction at one of his warehouses. Children have been left short of textbooks for the new curriculum that started last month

The Kremlin's ‘war on words’ has come at a bad time for Kyiv, which has just thrown out its old Russia-centric lessons

THE SUNDAY TIMES

Get Ukraine

Reading

Dominic Hauschild Zaporizhzhia

Sofia Johanson

Viktor Kruglov, the owner of Ranok, one of Ukraine's largest publishing houses, had just convened a meeting at a warehouse in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, when he heard a deafening explosion. The building had been hit by a Russian drone strike. As a large fire broke out in the main depot, he and his team tried to save as many of the books as possible.

Seven minutes later, a second drone hit. “This was a very dangerous situation. I looked at my colleagues and we realised we couldn’t do anything,” Kruglov said. “It’s an incredibly hard feeling, watching books burn before your eyes. It was a disaster.”

Luckily no one was killed in the attack on August 1, but Kruglov's business is still close to ruin. Eight million books were held in the warehouse – about 20 per cent of all those printed in Ukraine last year. Ranok's financial loss is estimated to be about 1bn hryvnias (£15m).

The attack represents a new development in Russia's war on Ukraine: attacks on cultural institutions. Around the time of the strikes on the warehouse a printing press outside Kyiv was destroyed, along with the country's largest book market. In total, Russian air attacks incinerated 13 million books this summer.

The impact on Ukraine's schools is particularly damaging. More than 620,000 textbooks went up in smoke in Ranok, while the destruction of the Kyiv printing press meant 10 per cent – about 1.3 million – of the country's schoolbooks were not ready in time for September 1, the traditional first day of the school year. A further 400,000 textbooks were lost in other attacks.

Bohdana Laiuk, Ukraine's deputy minister for culture, said the strikes could not have come at a worse time. "There is a big reform of education in Ukraine," she explained. The new curriculum is billed as a departure from the Russian framework that has dominated the Ukrainian education system for the past three decades, removing Russian language classes, literature and history to prioritise Ukrainian authors and national heritage.

About 12,500 schools are now lacking the textbooks needed to teach this Ukrainian-focused curriculum, according to Laiuk. “They are being reprinted, but of course this will have a big impact on young people who don’t have any books for the new year,” she said.

Yulia Mandrenko, 33, a science teacher at School 15 in Vinnytsia, western Ukraine, started the school year without textbooks for most students. "It's a huge problem," she said. While many volumes have been digitised, they are a poor substitute for the real thing. "Small children can't maintain attention ... they need to look at the picture and read some text."

Angela Ostapchuk, 54, head teacher of School 156 in Kharkiv, said most of her pupils' textbooks were not delivered in time for the start of term, including ones on physics, chemistry, biology, geography and literature. "Some foreign printing houses [are helping to] replace the missing books," she said. "But nobody knows if we'll be able to get them to Kharkiv, which is suffering severe Russian attacks every day and every night."

For Kruglov, the evidence is overwhelming: Russia is targeting the education system. “Two strikes in seven minutes [on my warehouse] means it was planned. There are no nearby military targets and we are across the street from a children’s hospital.

230

Number of Ukrainian libraries destroyed by Russia in four years

“Look what the Russians did when they first came to Ukraine. They went to the schools, the libraries, and they took away all Ukrainian books and filled them with their books, their propaganda.”

Figures published by Ukraine's culture ministry last month claim Russia has destroyed almost 230 libraries since the invasion four years ago; 680 others have been damaged. In the early days of the war, Russian soldiers burnt at least two libraries to the ground.

In Zaporizhzhia, close to the front line, Katarina Dromashko has worked in the library for more than five years. It is across the road from an energy substation and around the corner from Motor Sich, Ukraine's biggest producer of car and aeroplane motors. The substation has been hit seven times by drones and missiles. The library, which primarily stocks books for children, has been hit three times by wayward munitions.

“We are lucky because nobody has been hurt but a lot of people are scared to come to the library,” said Dromashko. Shortly after she finished speaking, the air alert sounded, forcing everyone in the library to go to the back room away from the windows and doors.

Among the children's favourites are Harry Potter, Judy Moody by Megan McDonald and the Minecraft video game guidebook. Dromashko also offers book clubs, art therapy and language lessons.

Ukraine's libraries face huge challenges. Funding comes from local authorities, which are forced to spend the lion's share of their budget on the military and emergency services.

Zaporizhzhia can only afford to buy about 3,000 books per year, shared between the city's 14 libraries. Half of Ukraine's library books are so old they were published under the Soviet Union, which was dissolved in 1991.

Kruglov cannot help but draw historic parallels. “The Nazis burnt tens of thousands of books. Now, in Ukraine, Russia is burning tens of millions of books,” he said. “Russia wants to wipe out Ukraine and it wants to wipe our culture. We have to do everything we can to keep it alive.” Additional reporting by Viktoria Sybir

For just £2 you can send a book to Ukraine by donating to Book Aid International, which helps to replace damaged or destroyed library collections in the country: bookaid.org/ukrainereading

A year of getting us reading again

Louise Eccles

Education Editor

Few causes could unite figures as diverse as Sir Mick Jagger, JK Rowling, Sir Michael Palin and the late Dolly Parton. But The Sunday Times's Get Britain Reading campaign did just that.

Over the past year we have encouraged the public to fall back in love with reading and shown its societal and health benefits after a survey of more than 100,000 children found just 33 per cent read for pleasure, a 20-year low.

The response has been exceptional. More than 100 authors, artists, historians and musicians backed our campaign. It raised more than £115,000 for Bookbanks, which provides free books to people using food banks. About 150 Sunday Times readers now volunteer for it.

So far 576 of our readers are helping schoolchildren. Jalna Peri, 81, started volunteering at a primary school in Cambridge.

“It’s the highlight of my week,” she said. “Shy children become chatty, they share what they love and they count off the days on their fingers until I am coming back. We laugh, we make silly voices, we call out the big words. It’s a fabulous connection.”

Amy Lewis, head of Coram Beanstalk, a charity that helps young children improve their reading, said: "Not only have we welcomed brilliant new volunteers, but it has helped bring energy to the national conversation about reading and its importance for children."

This year 36 per cent of children and young people aged 8 to 18 said they enjoyed reading in their free time either very much or quite a lot, up from 33 per cent last year, according to the National Literacy Trust. This is the first increase in reading enjoyment since 2021 – and it was led by 14 to 18-year-olds.

Editorial, page 20

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WORLD NEWS

At the school where the French protests began, teachers explain how anger at staff shortages and crumbling buildings exploded into a movement that has thrust President Macron into crisis

Peter Conradi Europe Editor, Créteil

The Lycée Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in Créteil lies amid a sea of concrete tower blocks that straddle the outer ring road encircling Paris, a half-hour métro ride south of the city centre.

With 1,500 pupils aged 14 to 18, it is like countless other secondary schools in France. But protests here just over three weeks ago – first by teachers, then their pupils – have turned it into the unlikely ground zero of a wave of unrest in schools and universities, and one of the most serious crises yet faced by President Macron in his nine years in office.

“They call us ‘the pangolins’,” joked Julie Salazar, a geography teacher at “Saint-Ex”, in a reference to the animals initially blamed by the Chinese for the Covid pandemic.

By the end of the week, 6,877 people had been arrested, 86 per cent of them minors, according to the interior ministry. More than 200 students, 800 police and 89 staff at educational institutions were reported injured.

Thousands of schools and universities have closed in the continuing unrest. More than a quarter of a million people joined protests across France on Tuesday, according to the authorities. Some 71,500 took to the streets two days later.

Student leaders met on Saturday afternoon to agree on more actions, including a further “day of mobilisation” on Tuesday. They may join forces with another wave of protests at the rise in the cost of fuel, scheduled for next weekend. There has been talk of a return of the yellowjacketed protesters who brought France to a standstill in late 2018. Call it the gilets jaunes meet the gilets jeunes.

The school where the protest movement started is named in honour of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author and aviator best known to generations of children for his book The Little Prince. In a quirky touch, the building's interior is modelled on a plane; the library is shaped like a cockpit.

Although dating only from the late 1990s, the building shows its age – or at least signs of poor maintenance. “Whenever it rains, it rains inside too. The roof leaks,” said Salazar, 48, who has taught there since 2022. “It has been going on [for] years. We’re used to it now. As soon as the rainy season starts, there’ll be buckets scattered all over the place.”

The main problem, though, has long been unfilled posts, Salazar told me as we sat in a café in Créteil with Emilie Augustine, 46, and Wassila Benghouba, 41, president and vice-president of the parents' association, who both played a key role in the protest.

At the start of term there was no deputy head and the school was short of 13 teachers and other staff, including the staff member responsible for organising work placements. For some time there has been no nurse. “Many children need continuing medical support because they are diabetic or have chronic illnesses, and we are not allowed to give them medicine,” said Salazar. “And then there are all the mental health problems.”

Resolving such issues, from fixing the leaking roof to hiring staff, is down not to the school's proviseur (head), but rather to the rectorat, a regional administrative body that controls the purse strings and maintains the premises.

A fortnight later, Salazar and a group of teachers decided enough was enough: "We said 'stop', we're going on strike." Pupils arriving for classes on Thursday, September 17 were greeted by 60 of their teachers and other staff holding banners and handing out flyers setting out their grievances, which they were told to take home to their parents. Other members of the school's 200 staff continued working.

The flyers clearly did the trick. When Salazar turned up at 7.30 the next morning, it was her turn to be surprised: a small group of pupils, most aged 16 to 18, had built a barricade out of wheelie bins and metal railings from a nearby building site. Numbers swelled as their classmates arrived, some carrying banners that echoed their teachers' demands.

By the following Monday, word of the protest was spreading on social media. Teachers and pupils elsewhere com-

Louis Boyard, a left-wing MP, filmed himself in front of "Saint-Ex" school and helped set off copycat protests

plained of the same problems. The loudest were at schools in the suburbs or provinces, rather than ones in Paris, which have traditionally benefited from more generous funding.

Among those turning up at Saint-Ex was Louis Boyard, 26, local MP for the hard-left France Unbowed party, who filmed himself in front of the school. He warned Macron of a backlash “from a generation of young people you have forgotten and treated with contempt”.

The same day, about 100 teachers, pupils and other workers from Saint-Ex, flanked by police, marched the 45 minutes to the rectorat. To Benghouba's surprise, the officials agreed to meet them – and even invited a small group of pupils back for a formal meeting that Friday.

Their grievances began to be addressed with surprising haste. The next day, a deputy head was appointed. Other posts also began to be filled. Benghouba suspects that, alarmed by the growing attention, the rectorat redirected staff destined for other schools.

By then, however, the movement had long since spread beyond Créteil, helped by Boyard's video, which had notched up more than one million views. Another video of the protest leaders reached 250,000. “We have no teachers, the classrooms are packed. Saint-Ex is angry,” said one pupil.

Stories emerged of problems at other schools: pupils at Lycée Paul Éluard in Saint-Denis, on the other side of Paris, complained of classrooms without enough chairs and tables, filthy toilets and regular power cuts. "We have cock-

Gulf royals and tech tycoons build apocalypse hideaways in Argentina's wilderness

Matthew Campbell El Foyel

Although the British financier Joe Lewis spends much of his life aboard his superyacht, Aviva, in the Bahamas, one of his preferred properties is a 46-square-mile estate surrounding Lago Escondido, or Hidden Lake, one of Argentina's great beauty spots.

Lewis, 89, whose family trust controls Tottenham Hotspur football club, has owned the mansion, which has guesthouses and a helipad, since 1996. But recently residents claimed a “bunker” has been built beneath it. Magdalena Odarda, a former senator for Río Negro province, said workmen had told her the construction was a “fortress” extending four or five storeys underground and equipped with a gym, hair salon and military-style armoury.

A spokesman for Lewis said a gym and a padel court had been built – not a bunker. Either way, the super-rich, from Gulf royals to tech entrepreneurs, increasingly have their eye on Patagonia, not merely as somewhere to invest but to escape an apocalypse.

Gulf wealth has already found its way to this remote corner of Argentina.

On February 23, five days before the joint US-Israeli assault on Iran, a large

Emirati royal delegation arrived in Bariloche. Local newspapers initially reported that Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi, was among them, but there was also speculation that the principal visitor was his son.

The visit involved an elaborate advance operation featuring several aircraft, helicopters and scores of personnel. Some were said to have travelled towards El Foyel, where Emirati interests are linked to large estates close to Lewis's ranch.

The timing prompted speculation that the visitors had been tipped off about the attacks on Iran and wanted to be safely out of the way. The Emirati royal household did not respond to written questions about the trip.

Others are more explicit about their interest in the Patagonian wilderness. Five hundred miles to the north of Lago Escondido, in Mendoza province, the Argentine-Spanish tech entrepreneur Martín Varsavsky and five wealthy friends have bought a remote 79,000-acre ranch.

“We’re already in World War Three,” Varsavsky said recently. Argentina’s distance from the world’s nuclear powers was appealing. “It just makes sense to have a refuge,” he added.

Javier Milei, the libertarian president, unveiled a citizenship by investment programme this month aimed at “doomsday investors”. It touched an Argentinian nerve. In August there were fierce protests in Buenos Aires when Milei tried to loosen restrictions on foreign land ownership.

Armand Arton, whose investment-migration firm is advising the government on the scheme, said: “These are doomsday investors expecting war in Europe or the worst situation in the US or Canada and are searching for a place they can relocate to.” The government hoped to attract 5,000 families in the next five years, many of them “looking for a plan B”, Arton said.

SUNDAY TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL

Lewis was among an early cohort of billionaires drawn to Patagonia in the 1990s. What is different about some of the latest arrivals is that they are not simply investing in Argentina; they are establishing a foothold.

This year Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, bought a mansion in Buenos Aires and enrolled his children in a private school. He met Milei at the presidential palace. He has an investment worth \$76m in an Argentine oil company operating in Patagonia and is said to be considering buying land in the region.

According to Bloomberg, citing two people familiar with his plans, Thiel's principal interest in

Alejandra Bartiloche says guards beat back her group

Argentina is securing a bunker against a possible nuclear catastrophe.

To Kelly Olmos, a Peronist opposition deputy, the arrival of wealthy foreigners is part of something larger: a transfer of power towards the technology billionaires, or “technoligarchs”. Milei, she said, “offers himself voluntarily to facilitate all this” with deregulation.

"In the minds of these technoligarchs, ‘the rest of the world can disappear, but I’ll be in a capsule with my friends and people who think like me and have the same amount of money’." Recent protests against Milei’s plans were fuelled by a surge of patriotism after the World Cup victory over England, when players unfurled a banner declaring: “The Falklands are Argentine.”

A legal challenge to Milei's repeal of the land restrictions was brought by veterans of the 1982 war with Britain over the Falklands. The Supreme Court recently rejected their case on procedural grounds meaning that for now there is no national limit on how much Argentine rural land can be bought by foreigners.

For Lewis, Patagonia is not always peaceful. He does not own the lake on his property – the state does – and for years residents have accused the Englishman of blocking access to it.

People attempting to use a dirt road to the lake that passes through Lewis's estate say they have been turned round by gauchos. Enrique Viale, an environmental lawyer, said: “Argentina’s lakes are public but Lewis doesn’t allow people in, as though the lake was his own private swimming pool.”

Campaigners demanding public access have reported violent incidents.

In February 2023

Alejandra Bartiloche, a 63-year-old photographer, said her group was confronted by men on horseback. “They surrounded us, beating us with whips,” she told me as she stood at one of the Lewis property’s gates in this tiny settlement in the Andes.

A café owner, Raul Brigues, said he was assaulted in 2024: "A punch knocked out four of my teeth and broke my septum."

A spokesman for Lewis insisted “the general public can freely enjoy the site via the existing public access arrangements”. Nicolás Van Ditmar, Lewis’s representative in Patagonia, declined to offer The Sunday Times a tour of the estate.

Outside his café in El Foyel Brigues flies a flag declaring the Falklands are Argentine. Beneath it he has added another line: “Lago Escondido too.”

ILLUSTRATION: TONY BELL

roaches wandering around the classrooms and corridors, as well as rats," a pupil from a nearby school told TF1, a French television channel.

On September 28, the Union Syndicale Lycéenne (USL), the school students' union, called for the movement to be generalised across France. By the end of September more than 1,000 schools had been partially or totally blockaded.

Although the protest at Saint-Ex was largely peaceful there was violence on September 23, when a group of young people fired mortar fireworks towards one of the common rooms, injuring two pupils. Two other pupils were reportedly arrested, having been spotted on CCTV.

Elsewhere, the injured included a 59-year-old plain clothes officer in Belfort in northeastern France, who was beaten unconscious after detaining a teenager.

Concerns have also been raised about heavy-handed policing: in the northern town of Lens, a 15-year-old's hand was blown off by a stun grenade. A 14-year-old in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, in the north-western suburbs of Paris, suffered severe injuries after being hit in the face, and a 16-year-old in Tours in the centre of the country lost sight in one eye.

Le Monde claimed six out of ten of those detained were released without charge, raising fears that detention was being used illegitimately as a form of crowd control.

Since the 1789 French Revolution, the country's rulers have faced waves of popular protest, tackled with varying success. The uprising of 1968, begun by university students, fatally undermined the authority of General De Gaulle, who stepped down the following year after losing an unrelated referendum.

Macron has faced more than his fair share. Besides the antics of the gilets jaunes, the most protracted protests have been against plans to raise the state pension. Covid restrictions and the June 2023 police shooting of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk have also led to rebellions, and protests by disgruntled health workers and farmers have spilled out onto the streets.

Speaking during a visit to Spain on September 30, Macron said he understood young people's “anguish” but insisted that “none of these debates or fears legitimises violence”. He also accused unnamed elected politicians – widely assumed to be from France Unbowed – of going to schools to “stir up” pupils.

France Unbowed reacted angrily to Macron's accusation and Manuel Bompard, a senior party figure, posted that officials had not visited the protests "to 'stir things up', but to support and relay legitimate demands". He and his colleagues appear, however, to have since toned down their rhetoric, apparently for fear of scaring mainstream left-wing voters away from Jean-Luc Mélenchon, their candidate hoping for a place in the second-round run-off against Marine Le Pen of the right-wing National Rally.

It has been left to the education minister, Édouard Geffray, a little-known technocrat, to find a way out of the crisis. On Friday he announced an emergency plan to deploy 3,024 supply teachers to lycées with severe staffing shortages. It was one of the few concrete measures among a long list of proposals that critics doubt will ever be implemented.

Satisfying the protesters' demands requires money, which the state does not have. At 5.4 per cent, France's has the fourth-biggest budget deficit in the European Union; the national debt, at 119 per cent, is the third biggest.

France spends 4.5 per cent of GDP on education – the figure is distorted by the high cost of teachers' pensions – compared with the UK's 4.3 per cent and Germany's 3.7 per cent. Standards, meanwhile, are falling in a country that once prided itself on its education system. In the latest OECD Pisa ratings (Programme for international student assessment), French 15-year-olds were ranked 27th.

We are

likely to

protest

again

in a few

days

The education ministry announced on Friday that more than 96 per cent of schools had opened that morning, with only 141 out of 3,700 closed, compared with 157 the day before.

Next weekend marks the start of the two-week autumn half-term break. Will the protests fade and pupils return to their classrooms? Or will the movement acquire a new lease of life as the young join forces with other groups to demonstrate against record diesel prices?

In Créteil, things are looking up at Saint-Ex, as the rectorat continues to deal with grievances. On Tuesday the school's much-needed nurse is due to arrive.

But many other problems remain. Outside the school I met 16-year-old Akram, who complained there were often still not enough chairs or desks. “It’s not right,” he said. “We are probably going to protest again in the next few days.”

I asked the three women whose modest protest spawned a massive movement what they think now. There were no regrets. “I’m very proud of my pupils because they understood what was at stake for their education and their future,” said Salazar. Augustine agreed: “They were the ones who mobilised and chose how to do so properly, respectfully, calmly and peacefully.”

Despite scenes of violence seized on by the media, Benghouba took comfort from the fact the protests at Saint-Ex, as at the overwhelming majority of schools elsewhere, were peaceful. “The beauty of this movement is that teachers, school principals, technical staff, parents and students all worked together,” she said. “We have rarely before seen such unity.”

Modi stamps on leaders of 'cockroach' protests

RAFIQ MAQBOOL/AP; RAJAT GUPTA/EPA; YAWAR NAZIR/GETTY IMAGES; PRIYANSHU SINGH/REUTERS

Arjuna Keshvani-Ham Delhi

Yesterday morning, Abhijeet Dipke, leader of India's youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), released a video shot from inside a plane halted on the runway at Delhi's Indira Gandhi international airport.

In the video, dozens of police officers in brown uniforms flood down the aisle towards Dipke and two other CJP leaders, Ashutosh Ranke and Saurav Das.

“This is a dictatorship,” shouts Dipke in the shaky video. “This is Narendra Modi being afraid. They are picking up 30-year-olds from flights like we are criminals.”

He adds: “I have come here to be arrested, so arrest me. I am not afraid of you.”

A CJP statement on X called the arrests a “pre-planned interception by the Delhi Police” which aimed “to cripple the leadership of today’s peaceful demonstrations before they even reach the protest site”. It demanded the “immediate, unconditional release of Dipke, Das, and Ranka”.

The CJP's leaders, who led the explosive youth protests in July that ended with the resignation of India's education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, were among thousands of would-be protesters detained while attempting to reach the capital in the days and hours leading up to the demonstrations in Delhi yesterday.

This time the protesters have a new mandate. Those attempting to march towards Jantar Mantar are demanding the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, India's chief election commissioner, who they say has orchestrated a direct attack on Indian democracy.

Measures to prevent the demonstration going ahead have been extraordinary. On Friday law enforcement shut 45 metro stations and cancelled 250 trains heading for the capital. Busloads of paramilitary police – 23,000 individuals in total – were carted into the city to join the 20,000 Delhi police already on patrol.

Permission to protest had been denied by Delhi police.

By early morning, New Delhi had become a fortress. Driving through south Delhi towards the Jantar Mantar protest site in the early hours, roads were blocked by strings of police barricades every 500 metres. The government shut down the internet in the vicinity of the protest site.

At the leafy roundabouts and down the wide boulevards of Lutyens' Delhi – empty apart from hundreds of uniformed police crammed into buses or spilling onto the street

Police arrest protesters in Delhi yesterday. Lawyers estimated the number of detainees at more than 1,000 by mid-afternoon. The demonstrations spread from the capital to Srinagar, bottom clutching sticks – loudspeakers discharged police announcements into the empty streets. “Do not obstruct the police in discharge of their duty,” blared a voice. A swarm of police waited outside the prime minister’s residence.

By 10am protesters had reached Connaught Place, attempting to reach Jantar Mantar, an observatory that is a city landmark, on foot. They were detained en masse, forced into buses and driven to undisclosed locations.

By 4pm lawyers helping detainees estimated the number had surpassed 1,000.

“We were abused and threatened and thrown into buses like sheep,” said Abhigyan, a student activist standing on the fringes of the protest site with hundreds of others, unable to reach Jantar Mantar. He was detained many times last week and driven to detention centres on the edge of Delhi. “It makes you feel like you are powerless in your own country,” he said.

Harsh Yadav, a Gen-Z YouTuber, released videos on social media showing himself being detained in his room at Park Hotel, close to Jantar Mantar.

“They’re actually going to my home and intimidating my parents, as well as coming to this room,” he said in a video on Instagram. “We weren’t even out covering the protests. We’ve just been sitting in the rooms which we paid for.”

Prominent lawyers and journalists were among those detained. A video published by local media showed Ratna Singh, the CJP's head of legal affairs, trapped in the back of a police car. “More than 25 policemen have kept me in a car,” she said. “They have revealed no grounds for detention.”

Since October 2, opposition parties and the CJP have been protesting about an experiment to “clean up” India’s electoral roll by deleting tens of millions of registered names.

Protesters claim the exercise, called Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, is a politically motivated cull of voters from India's electoral roll. The exercise has resulted in the deletion of 14 per cent of India's voting population, 130 million names, from India's electoral roll – a figure greater than the population of Japan.

The Election Commission of India has denied wrongdoing and claims the SIR is necessary to clear electoral rolls of dead, duplicate and ineligible names, and to prevent the inclusion of “foreign illegal immigrants”.

How Britain managed to keep the flag flying in Jerusalem

0

n Thursday a diplomatic meltdown between Britain and Israel was narrowly avoided. It was the deadline set by Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Gideon Saar, his foreign minister, for the closure of the

British consulate in Jerusalem and the departure of 27 diplomats in retaliation for Ed Miliband's announcement of sanctions against Israeli settlements. We were all set for a serious bust-up. Reuters was reporting that Britain had threatened to expel a proportionate number of Israeli diplomats from the embassy in London, inevitably eliciting further escalation from Israel.

This tit-for-tattery would have achieved the precise opposite of Britain's stated goals. When Miliband, the foreign secretary, announced the sanctions to parliament he promised to protect the partnership between the two countries. Not least, an escalation would have done grievous harm to a vital bilateral national security partnership. The former Mossad director Yossi Cohen told The Times's The General and the Journalist podcast that Israel had “saved many, many lives on British soil”.

Escalating tensions would also have played into Netanyahu's hands. With less than three weeks to go until the Israeli election a fight with Britain would have been a gift. Instead of having to talk about why he didn't prevent the October 7 attacks or why he was refusing to make the ultra-Orthodox do national service, Netanyahu would have been in his happy place: telling the country that Israel was under siege from a hostile world and playing up his credentials as the country's doughty defender.

Britain had walked into a trap. If we did not match Israel's expulsions we would look weak. If we did match them we risked spiralling escalation. The bases of the Labour Party here and the Likud party there would have been energised by the fight. As one friend said to me it looked like both sides were enjoying this just a bit too much. But the national interest of both countries would have been damaged.

The bind they were in was this: Britain would not back down from its announcement of sanctions on Israeli settlements; Israel would not back down from its announcement of closing the Jerusalem consulate in response; Britain had made clear the counter-retaliation it would then take; Saar had made clear that every hostile step would be met by a proportionate response. As Mahatma Gandhi almost said, an eye for an eye makes everyone blind.

But Thursday arrived with a surprise compromise hammered out between the two sides. It was a complex deal in

As Mahatma Gandhi almost said, an eye for an eye makes everyone blind which both sides saved just enough face to step away from the brink, at least for now. The fact it was reached is much to the credit of our diplomats led by the national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, and the Foreign Office's Middle East director. Reversing out of the trap took imagination and a steady nerve.

The agreement was that seven British diplomats would stay on in the consulate. But it would no longer be called a consulate, instead becoming the UK mission, Jerusalem. Israel got to remove the signs; Britain got to keep the flag flying above a building that been in Jerusalem since 1838. Neither side had to cross their public red lines but both sides compromised, ultimately because the political satisfaction from escalating was outweighed by an understanding of what would be lost if we brought the pillars of the temple down – most importantly, intelligence-sharing between the two countries on shared threats. So Israel accepted that some British diplomats would stay in the building and Britain accepted that a larger number would leave.

The deal is a temporary fix. The Foreign Office has made clear that its threat of counter-retaliation is still on the table pending future discussions with the Israeli government about the departed diplomats being able to return.

It is here that the real genius of the deal lies: by pushing the problem down the road to some unspecified time in the future Britain has reserved its position, preserved the principle of the British consulate and, crucially, put off the crunch point until after the Israeli election. If Israel elects a more moderate leadership then these future negotiations will be less fraught and an escalation might be avoided altogether. But even if Netanyahu and Saar remain in office we will have avoided handing them a gift-wrapped present of an issue just before the election.

This sort of deal, though it may seem messy, is the essence of much diplomacy, which often does not solve things but creates time and space for solutions to appear. The Foreign Office can rightly be proud of what it has achieved this week. Tom Tugendhat, the shadow foreign secretary, said to me: "This could have been even worse. Our diplomats working on the bilateral relationship are untouched. Given the risk to Britain's security as Iran continues to openly threaten us, that is no small success."

But the UK only had a crisis to diffuse because we created it. Tugendhat said: "We should never have got into this mess in the first place. Ed Miliband's performative politics, playing to his base, have put a critical national security partnership at risk and given a boost to

precisely the voices in Israeli politics who are doing most damage to the prospects for peace.”

This is the nub of concern about British actions. Given we worked so hard to avoid a second fight just before the Israeli election, could we not have held the whole thing back until after the election, instead of acting when it was bound to strengthen the very government whose policies we were protesting against?

Criticism of the UK's approach has not been limited to British voices. A senior figure in the Israeli opposition told me: "This was a classic case of both sides putting political interest before policy and causing harm along the way. The sanctions were the wrong move at the wrong time. The response was badly thought out. In the end the UK government helped the Netanyahu campaign and Netanyahu gave legitimacy to Miliband's actions against Israel. Everyone loses." Everyone, that is, apart from the activists on the Israeli right and the British left, who disagree on many things but share a lack of concern about dismantling the valuable partnership between the two countries. For now, at least, the professionals have kept that partnership in place.

Matthew Gould was the British ambassador to Israel, 2010-15

In Syria's last Isis camp, mobs hound 'apostate' women

Those held at al-Roj since the caliphate's fall, including children and Shamima Begum, who fled Britain in 2015, live in fear of the terrorist group's supporters

Cian Ward Al-Roj camp

The fear comes to al-Roj camp after sunset, when young men raid the tents of the “apostate” women. After dark, the guards refuse to enter Syria’s last Islamic State prison camp: the women are on their own.

Few of the veiled women who live in Roj, in northeast Syria, will speak to journalists; those who do whisper in terror. They all have one plea: to get out.

Children held behind barbed wire in al-Roj are being subjected to “collective punishment, which is a war crime”, rights groups say

"If they knew we spoke, they might hurt me," Maria says quietly, her hands trembling. "They" are other residents who still support Isis. She is from Russia and has been in Syria since 2014, the year the group declared its caliphate. "For them, robbery and murder are permissible ... They call me an apostate. I don't want to be in Isis," she adds. "I just want to go and live alone in peace."

Roj camp is a squalid place. By low-lying hills, rows of white and blue tents sprawl across a dusty field. More than 2,000 foreign women and children are held here, detained indefinitely. None have been officially charged with a crime.

Among them are thought to be 14 British women and 30 children, according to the campaign group Reprieve UK, as well as Shamima Begum, who fled her home in London with two friends aged 15 to travel to Syria, and had her British nationality revoked in 2019. Camp authorities were not certain how many British citizens remained.

Thousands of foreigners flocked to

Syria during the decade-long civil war, allegedly to join Isis. Since the fall of the caliphate and their imprisonment, their home governments have been reluctant or slow to repatriate them – or, in some cases, refusing to do so. With neither conviction nor freedom, they have languished for years in Roj.

Now their fate is more uncertain than ever. This year the Syrian government expressed its intention to close the camp. In February it seized al-Hol, the largest Isis prison camp, from the Syrian Defence Forces, a non-government military alliance, and the site was closed. There were reports of a security collapse and mass escapes.

Hopes in Roj, where the Syrian Defence Forces are also in charge, began to rise. “The women [here] packed their bags at the time and prepared to leave,” said Rashid Afrin, director of Roj camp. Some threatened him. “They told me that soon I would be in [Roj] camp and they would be the guards.”

But nothing has happened since. No one seems to know when the camp will close, or where the inmates will go afterwards. The Syrian foreign affairs ministry did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The British Foreign Office said: “We continue to seek clarity from the Syrian government on the management of al-Roj camp. We have been clear that any transition or closure of camps must be managed to ensure order and stability.” It did not confirm how many British citizens had been repatriated from Syria, although it has been reported that six women and nine children held in Roj had been quietly taken back. It has stripped more than 220 people of their citizenship – usually on national security grounds.

Begum last gave an interview in 2021, when she spoke from Roj to ITV, wearing a Nike baseball cap, asking that she be repatriated and given a “fair trial”.

Her fellow camp residents describe a young woman who largely keeps to herself. She spends time with the US-born Yemeni Hoda Muthana, they said, and they are the only two women in the camp who walk around unveiled.

At the camp's souk last weekend, women inspected wilted vegetables, arguing over prices.

The Sunday Times was escorted by a guard from the Kurdish all-female YPJ, which polices the camp. The guard wears a mask while inside. There is a “danger”, she says, that residents will photograph her face and pass it on to Isis cells outside the camp's gates.

Samara, a 31-year-old Tunisian, stood amid a mass of veiled women. Children darted between them, occasionally eliciting a sharp scolding. “We were so happy at the time [al-Hol camp closed], but then nothing changed,” said Samara, who arrived in Syria nine years ago. “Why were they released but not us?”

Older teenagers stood nearby, muttering curses under their breath. Many were separated from their mothers at 14 and placed in “deradicalisation” centres, a practice denounced by rights groups. But after the government’s consolidation of control in January, they were returned to Roj. Other residents say they seem more angry than before.

Letta Tayler, a senior counterterrorism adviser to Human Rights Watch, said the consignment of children to a life behind barbed wire without charge “amounts to collective punishment which is a war crime”.

Her son is going blind and has been denied medical help from outside

Sara, who declined to give her nationality but spoke in English, is constantly worried about her children. Her son Jack, nine, is slowly going blind. The camp's clinic does not have the ability to treat him, and she has been denied access to medical services outside. For now she is focused on survival. "I am spending most of my time trying to secure a suitable tent for the winter," she says.

Additional reporting: Baderkhan Ahmed \*Names of all residents and children have been changed to protect their identities

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We won't have a data centre on our farmland, even for \$26m

GLENN HARTONG

Ida Huddleston and her daughter Delsia Bare on the grounds of their family farm

Susie Coen

US Correspondent

Delsia Bare and her mother,

Ida Huddleston, are no-

nonsense farmers with a

reputation for shooting first

and asking questions later. It

is rare for guests to turn up

uninvited at their ranch near

Maysville, near Cincinnati.

So when a property developer crunched over their gravel driveway in a big red truck in May last year, they immediately knew something was afoot. “He came through the door saying, ‘We want to buy everything you’ve got,’” Huddleston, 83, says from the porch of the three-storey wood cabin she and her late husband built together. “I said, did you see a ‘for sale’ sign? Well, I don’t think anything’s for sale, then.”

The developer would not disclose the identity of the buyer interested in snapping up the rolling Kentucky cattle farm that had been in their family since 1848. But it did not feel as if Bare and Huddleston had much of a choice: the agent threatened to use ‘eminent domain’ powers, which allow the government to seize private land without consent for compensation if for public use. His client would pay \$26.48m (£20m) for 463 acres of Bare’s land and \$60,000 for Huddleston’s 71 acres – about ten times market value – so the pair reluctantly agreed. Their neighbours had also been approached.

“Within 24 hours this place was crawling with little white trucks, like maggots on a carcass,” Bare says.

But when Bare, 54, and Huddleston, who live minutes from each other, found out the land their family had lived on for generations would be turned into a vast data centre for a Silicon Valley giant, they knew they could not go through with the sale. “AI is the end of the human race, it’s the end of the world.”

Bare says, leaning back on an armchair in her mother's home, where a rifle hangs above a mantelpiece adorned with china squirrels and birds. "I said to myself, 'I guess I'll just have to say to hell with it.'"

Bare and Huddleston see themselves as custodians of the land, and hope it will be passed on and cared for by future generations. “We want our country, quiet-living ways left alone,” Bare adds. The mother of one, who is deeply religious, also believes that AI is the “Antichrist” and that it is her duty to stand in its way.

Bare, partially blind from diabetes, marched into the fiscal court in Maysville, on the banks of the Ohio, and demanded that she and her mother be released from the contract they had signed with the Maysville-Mason County Industrial Development Authority. Although the buyer has still has not been disclosed, some online

sleuthing has led residents to believe it is Meta. It told The Wall Street Journal that no decisions had been made.

As it stands, the buyer seeks 2,080 acres on which to build six data centres. Many farmers bowed to pressure and agreed to sell. These self-described “redneck” widows – and some neighbours who also refused to sell – could end up living on the edge of the project. Their resolve has turned the pair into national heroes as the roll-out of data centres has sparked an impassioned debate. On Huddleston’s kitchen table sits an envelope bulging with letters thanking them, sent from other communities wrestling with the boom in warehouses being built to power artificial intelligence.

Data centres have become a defining issue in next month's midterms, as residents fear they will hoover up resources and leave communities battling with noise and air pollution. There are 3,359 data centres in operation across the US and a further 1,420 planned. Seven in ten Americans oppose construction in their communities, according to a March survey by Gallup.

At a local rally last week, President Trump, who has defended AI firms and data centre development, tried to placate voters, telling them: "Look, there's so much money to be made for Ohio, you can't just turn them off. They'll go to China."

Unlikely alliances have been forged between Republican voters and left-wing environmentalists. Bare and Huddleston, two Trump voters, have joined with Janet Garrison, 64, a retired IT teacher and Democrat, to try to protect the community. Through the opposition group We Are Mason County, they have filed two lawsuits to ensure guardrails are in place before any development.

“You wouldn’t imagine we would get along because we’re on opposite sides of the political spectrum,” Garrison says, the cross on her bracelet jangling as she rummages in her car for a cable tie to fix a ‘No Data Center’ sign. She had initially been excited about the opportunities it might bring for her former students, but when county court staff said they could not discuss the project as they had signed non-disclosure agreements, she feared the community was being frozen out of the conversation.

Last week Matt Garman, chief executive of Amazon Web Services, wrote a blog post to combat what he called the “misinformation and outright lies” behind the public’s distrust of data centres. Top of the list, he said, was that they “are taking our water”. Garman argued that Amazon’s data centres used the equivalent water of 42 US households per day.

Huddleston is certain of one thing: she is not moving. "I've spent a lot of time setting trees, planting shrubs, building fences, fixing barns, putting on roofs – I've got to give it up and go sit in a rest home?," she says. "I'll just sit here like I am now – let them bulldoze all around me."

NEWS REVIEW

JEFFREY ARCHER'S DESK ON THE DAY HE DIED

s we draw up to the entrance gate, I see a sign declaring BELMARSH PRISON," Jeffrey Archer recalled after arriving by prison van at London's highest-security jail, home to murderers and terrorists. "Some wag has put a line

through the B and replaced it with an H. Not the most propitious of welcomes."

Sent to “Helmarsh” in 2001 for lying under oath and fabricating evidence in a libel trial, Archer resolved to keep a daily journal. “When I wake just after 4am, I lie on my back because both my ears are aching after hours on the rock-hard pillow,” he recounted. “Determined not to waste an hour, I decide to write a daily diary of everything I experience.”

Obituaries for Archer, who died suddenly on Monday, aged 86, recalled him as an ebullient rogue and a tireless charity fundraiser. The Queen described him as an “irrepressible life force”. In her speech at last week’s Conservative Party conference, Kemi Badenoch called him a “brilliant friend to the party and to me”.

Yet Michael Crick, an investigative journalist whose 1995 book, Stranger than Fiction, accused Archer of a litany of wrongdoing, says that for decades Archer had pulled the wool over the eyes of the establishment. “Had he confessed to all [his wrongdoings] and paid the money back I think all the tributes this week would have been fair enough. But the British establishment has turned a blind eye,” Crick says. “Yes, there were his private acts of generosity. And his books brought huge fun and enjoyment to millions of readers. But he should never have been involved in politics or public life.”

Crick said Archer's contacts in high places frequently got him off the hook. "There was a whole string of crimes he was never held to account for, including stealing thousands of pounds from Oxfam in the 1960s, which I revealed in a Panorama programme called Life of Lies."

In many instances, Archer did appear to escape by the skin of his teeth. In 1994 he was investigated after pocketing £70,000 from a share deal before a takeover of Anglia Television, where his wife was a non-executive director. He admitted to a “grave error” but was not prosecuted. And he was detained for shoplifting suits in Toronto in 1975 but later said he had walked out of the shop without realising he had them.

His luck ran out after he sued the Daily Star in 1987, challenging its claim he had paid for sex. He won £500,000 in libel damages – a record sum at the time. He might have got away with it but he thrust himself into the limelight as the Conservative candidate for London mayor. Ted Francis, a former friend who had provided a false alibi, changed his story, and by 2001 Archer was back in court – this time the defendant in a criminal case.

Overnight, Archer moved from his £5m vicarage in Grantchester, Cambridgeshire, once home to the poet Rupert Brooke, to a 10ft by 5ft cell. Asked in a 2021 Sunday Times interview whether he had any regrets, Archer's concern appeared to be for time he wasted during his prison years, rather than for the lives he disrupted and reputations he destroyed through his perjury.

"I've never met someone who doesn't have regrets," he said. "No one sails through life. Nobody. I've never had anyone who couldn't see something they shouldn't have done, so I weigh the whole thing up and say, you can't complain, Jeffrey. You've been very privileged and lucky, no doubt about that."

Archer insisted in our interview that there were parallels between the way he had been hounded and Andy Dufresne, hero of The Shawshank Redemption. The fictional Dufresne, a banker, was sentenced to life for the murders of his wife and her lover – crimes he did not commit. Archer, a former Tory deputy chairman, maintained he too was the victim of multiple injustices. “It was Shawshank and it was Papillon,” he told me.

Some agree that the verdict was suspect and the punishment severe. Jonathan Aitken, the former government minister who suffered a similar fall from grace when he was convicted of perjury in 1999, says: "To this day I share the view he may have been wrongly convicted on the evidence of one particularly hostile witness. Also, I still believe that the four-year sentence passed on him by Mr Justice Potts may have been too harsh. I was sent down for only 18 months after pleading guilty to the same crime of perjury."

Aitken, now a priest, adds: “Jeffrey’s generosity as a host, fundraiser and charity donor was legendary. I adored his ebullient company and bombastic charm for over 63 years.”

As Archer told it in Hell, the first volume of his prison diaries, life at Belmarsh alongside murderers and drug dealers was grim for prisoner number FF8282. He learnt to keep his head down and avoid convicts who had no prospect of early release, and therefore no fear. Inmates who were careless or unlucky were slashed with everyday items; lavatory brushes sharpened into swords, phone cards made into knives.

One day a notorious double murderer made a beeline for Archer in the prison yard. With nowhere to hide, Archer bowed his head to avoid eye contact. A pause, then the man announced: "I would like to say how much I enjoy your books. I've been here 11 years and I've read everything you've written."

After 22 days in Belmarsh, Archer was transferred to HMP Wayland in Norfolk, then to lower-security prisons, where he wrote Purgatory and Heaven – titles that reflected the jails' more lenient security ratings. Together, the three books add up to a powerful narrative, perhaps the best written, of life inside Britain's prisons.

Like Shawshank's Dufresne, Archer ran the prison library. He taught creative writing and he campaigned for first-time, non-violent offenders to be separated from hardened criminals, and against a rule that returned cannabis users to high-security prisons if they were caught smoking the drug in low-security jails.

He got results and improved prison life, according to inmates he befriended. Yet Archer was never repentant and his perjury was not victimless. Monica Coghlan, the prostitute who told how Archer paid her £70 for intercourse, broke down when she was branded a liar in the first trial. “I’m penniless through all this,” she told the court. “He can carry on.”

The judge's biased summing-up suggested that no man would have “cold, unloving, rubber-insulated sex in a seedy hotel” with Coghlan when he had Mary Archer at home.

Later, when Archer's story unravelled, Coghlan told the Daily Mirror: “I walked out of there with my life in tatters. He humiliated me. They all did.”

She continued working the streets for money to raise her young son but was killed in a car crash before Archer was jailed and never got the chance to hear herself vindicated. Lloyd Turner, editor of the Daily Star, was sacked after the newspaper lost its libel action and also died before Archer was convicted and forced to repay the money. Terence Baker, another of Archer's alibi witnesses, suffered a fatal heart attack aged 52, not long after confessing to a friend that he had lied at Archer's behest.

Released on licence after two years in prison, Archer resumed his writing career. His book sales and judicious investments in property and art boosted his fortune to nine figures. The Sunday Times Rich List estimated his worth at £210m in 2021. Did he know how much he was worth, I asked him.

“God knows. I’ll tell you one thing – I don’t care,” he said. “I want to be read. If you said to me, ‘Jeffrey, I can give you £10m or another ten million readers,’ I’d take the readers.” He joked that he was making so much money that when a bank clerk was filling out a form and asked whether his income was higher or lower than £20,000, he quipped, “Some days it is, others it isn’t.”

A storied life that was one big plot twist

Jeffrey Archer, who died last week, was no stranger to scandal, brushes with the law and even prison. But as he once told Nick Rufford, nobody sails through life

Jeffrey Archer believed he had suffered multiple injustices. He showed no regret for his victims but inspired great loyalty from his friends

Many of the scandals remain unresolved to this day, according to Crick, who says he is in discussions to make another documentary to shed light on the unanswered questions surrounding Archer's life and business dealings.

One secret Archer took with him to his grave is his involvement with Sir Mark Thatcher, son of the former prime minister, in a 2004 attempt to stage a coup in Equatorial Guinea. Bank records indicated that £74,000 from a JH Archer was sent to a Channel Islands company controlled by Simon Mann, a one-time SAS member who led the bungled operation.

Archer admitted he sent the money to a friend called Ely Calil, but that he did not know what it would be used for and that he had “never heard of Mann”.

Calil, the only man able to contradict Archer's claim, died in a 2018 accident worthy of an Archer novel: he appeared to have fallen down a flight of stairs, breaking his neck.

Archer himself died the day before publication of what he had planned as his final novel, Adam and Eve. “No doubt, stories will start tumbling out in the next few weeks – you know, stories that we’ve never heard before,” says Crick. “Or we’ll be reminded of stories that we never managed to prove in the past.”

1 Three decorative birds by the ceramicist Emma Christmas, discovered at the RA Summer Exhibition in 2025

2 Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII is important in Adam and Eve

3 Large Mont Blanc fountain pen that he found in an antiques shop

4 Hardbacks of his most recent novels

Editing Jeffrey's books wasn't straightforward but he was a wonderful friend

5 He read The Bookseller to keep up with the market

6 Promotional stand for the Kane and Abel musical in Tokyo

Photo of his grandson Jack

8 Reproduction of the old £5 note, which inspired the novella he was working on

9 Early reviews of Adam and Eve

Will he miss Archer? “Not really. Perhaps a little bit, you know.”

10 The mini telephone box was a present – he loved British memorabilia

Staedtler rubber

11 Ricola throat drops – when he didn't have a sore throat he preferred KitKats

14 Black impact pens, for writing the first draft

Kate Elton, who runs HarperCollins UK, says the author pursued perfection, writing up to 16 drafts of each novel. There were disagreements but he always came up with an ingenious fix

13 Rainbow Pencils designed by Duncan Shotton, for editing typed manuscripts

Do I make £20k? Some days I do, some I don't

Aitken says he will miss him terribly. "The happiest party I attended was the diamond wedding anniversary of Jeffrey and Mary in July at the Old Vicarage. We celebrated in great style the 60th anniversary of their marriage with a superb speech from John Major and a dazzling assembly of guests. Jeffrey had never looked happier and that is how I will always remember him, riding on a crest of a wave of love and laughter.

“What an extraordinary man. May he rest in peace.”

few years ago, I had a conversation with Jeffrey Archer about a new trend called

Romantasy that was taking over the publishing industry. He had already sold more than 300 million copies of his books and, as his editor at HarperCollins, part of my job was to keep him informed on what was happening in the market.

About three days later he called me with some news: “I bought and read a couple of those romantasy novels – I get why they’re so brilliant,” he told me enthusiastically.

People might be surprised to hear that Jeffrey, known for his thrilling crime novels and dramatic family sagas, had been reading stories about faeries and dragons, but he had very eclectic taste. He was endlessly curious and full of surprises. He loved good characters and a good plot, whatever the genre.

His death, during his 50th year as an author, took place between writing sessions and hours before the global release of Adam and Eve, always planned as his final novel. Only he could have scripted that.

We met in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, when my colleagues and I were pitching to publish new William Warwick titles that had until then been brilliantly published by Pan Macmillan.

I was excited – I had been a Jeffrey Archer fan ever since reading Kane and Abel when I was about 12. I have a niche obsession with books about climbing Everest so one of my personal favourites is Paths of Glory, a fictionalised biography of the mountaineer George Mallory. I devoured the Clifton Chronicles, a series of novels spanning the generations of two interconnected families.

His dozens of books spanning fiction, short stories and non-fiction had topped bestseller lists 24 times. He is the only author to have had a Sunday Times bestseller in all three categories.

I had

preconceptions of what he'd be like to work with, assuming that after four decades as a bestseller he wouldn't really want to

There were many times I had to call him to say, “Jeffrey, I can’t read that word, I’ve got no idea what this means,” but over time, I got very good at dissecting his scrawls.

wouldn't really want to be edited much. Authors of that stature are often set in their ways. But it was clear from that very first meeting, Jeffrey was really interested in the detail and cared about the team rather than the hierarchy. He also wanted a real editor. He wanted somebody to tell him if a book wasn't working. It was the beginning of a

Beginning of a wonderful friendship. We worked on six books together, during which I grew accustomed to his strict writing routine – four rigid two-hour blocks, six days a week – as described in his Prison Diaries.

That routine never changed. He wrote the first draft of each novel from his home in Mallorca, going there straight after Christmas. (In fact he would work two hours a day on “holidays”, just to keep in the flow.) He always wrote in longhand, giving the pages to his team (Alison, Carol, Dani) to type for him before printing it all out, working on it again, then couriering me the manuscript at about draft eight. After I returned it with my notes in the margins, Jeffrey would send it back with changes in his spidery handwriting. This way of working usually covered another eight drafts over six months and wasn’t always straightforward.

Understandably, lots of authors run out of steam by the third round of revisions and tell you “here it is, I think it’s probably done now” but Jeffrey was the opposite. The challenge with him was wrestling the manuscript away, getting him to accept that we had to print. His son James recently worked out that he had spent about 40,000 hours writing over the course of his career.

What made Jeffrey such a successful novelist are the same qualities that made him such a wonderful friend – he was a natural storyteller and a fantastic listener. He used to say his ideas for books often came from what he called a

“hamper” – when he met people, they were giving him a hamper from which he could build a story. For example, he based the character of William Warwick on John Sutherland, the former Metropolitan Police commander and thriller author.

We could disagree on things too of course. The job of a good editor is to point out a problem and offer a solution but Jeffrey would, quite rightly, want to find his own way of fixing things. I'd offer up options and our conversations about why he

Wrestling the script away from him was a challenge

hated them all would

illuminate the issue we

needed to fix. Then, because

he was Jeffrey, he'd always

come up with a stroke of

genius and solve it

beautifully.

He tracked his reviews and star ratings more closely than any other author I know. If one of his books had been rated 4.5 stars and not 4.7, he'd say, "what did I do wrong? What do I need to do better?" He hated somebody telling him only, "I really enjoyed your novel." He would say, "That's no use to me. I'm glad they enjoyed it but I need to know why."

His readers were of utmost importance. We had been discussing him making a trip to India next year, where he was made a superstar by the popularity of his 1979 novel, Kane and Abel, which follows the lives of two men born on the same day in 1906. He really wanted to go back.

I will miss our near-daily phone calls, which were usually after his 6am-8am writing session, to tell me what he was doing, what he'd read lately or how one of his books was doing. Dickens and Stefan Zweig were his favourite authors. It is gutting to know that I won't be receiving an excited phone call about the response to Adam and Eve. The novel about two children born on Armistice Day topped Amazon's bestsellers list when it was published.

Jeffrey had always intended it to be his last book. Two weeks ago, at a meeting at his penthouse, my team and I showed him some of the early reader reviews. He was so thrilled. They were exactly as he had hoped and they remain on his desk today. As told to Roisin Kelly

NEWS REVIEW

Inside the room with the Hamas hardmen

Trying to win freedom for Israeli hostages in Gaza, Brent McGurk watched deal after deal fall apart. He tells Josh Glancy ‘crazy demands’ made his job near impossible

RAMADAN ABED/REUTERS; DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

n August 2024, an end to the war in Gaza seemed agonisingly close. Brett McGurk, point man on the Middle East for President Biden, had helped drag the various parties to within touching distance of a deal. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners would be exchanged for the remaining 100 or so hostages in Gaza. Border crossings would be opened. Gazans would be able to turn home. A ceasefire beckoned.

Then McGurk received a call from William Burns, director of the CIA. Six Israeli hostages had been found slain in a tunnel under Rafah, all of them shot multiple times.

These deaths were not a tragic accident. After the bodies were found, Hamas released propaganda videos showing some of the hostages speaking their final words. A film of one, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, urging his parents to stay strong, was released during his funeral. The deal was doomed – and McGurk realised that a major shift would now be required for the war to end. The Americans should “walk away until [Yahya] Sinwar is dead”, he told Biden. As long as the October 7 mastermind was alive, there would be no agreement. “We don’t have a plan B,” said Burns.

Three years on from October 7, the consequences of that shocking massacre are still transforming our world. In his fascinating new book, Brink: Inside the Race to Free the October 7th Hostages, McGurk brings us the first draft of this history, offering the best insight I have seen as to what really went on. Why the war and the hostage crisis continued for as long as they did. And why deal after deal fell apart, as the one did on that grim Saturday in August 2024.

McGurk takes us inside the room as he and team Biden attempt to corral the belligerent Israelis, a self-destructive Hamas, Janus-faced Qataris and obdurate Egyptians into a deal that brings an end to the agonising war and brings the hostages home.

For more than 20 years, McGurk, 53, a lawyer turned negotiator and political adviser, has worked on US policy in the Middle East. He advised the Bush administration on Iraq, led the fight against Isis for two presidents, Obama and Trump, and ran the Hamas hostage negotiations for Biden. The last endeavour proved an emotional wrench like no other.

“This was the most complex and horrific crisis I’ve ever dealt with,” says McGurk, who spoke to me for an hour on Friday. “We were all making decisions in a realm of deep uncertainty: Yahya Sinwar, Biden, Netanyahu, Ayatollah Khamenei, Hasan Nasrallah. You’re nearly there, then Hamas puts another crazy demand on the table.”

Many of the men involved in those negotiations are now dead at the hands of the Israel Defence Forces. But Netanyahu is still there, facing a general election later this month in which he may yet again defy the political obituarists.

McGurk rejects the depiction of Netanyahu as an entirely selfish man solely interested in his own political survival. But dealing with “Bibi” was never easy. “I always found him extremely confident in his assumptions,” says McGurk. “If you try to tell him he’s seeing it wrong, it’s tough to make that case. He’s a complex man.”

Getting the Israeli prime minister to agree to proposals was challenging because he always had two goals: getting the hostages out, but also ensuring that Hamas was no longer in a position of power in Gaza when the war ended. "Throughout the crisis, those goals were often in competition with each other," says McGurk.

However obstinate and tricky he found Netanyahu, Hamas were a tougher proposition. When the war's first ceasefire and hostage exchange ended on December 1, 2023, it was because Hamas refused to release the young female hostages that were due to come out next. McGurk reflects on a dark rationale for this reluctance, which emerged when the women were finally released and described sexual assaults in captivity.

On other occasions, Hamas refused to provide complete lists of which hostages it was willing to release. “At times it was me and just a few people in a room, as close as anyone in the world to ending this defining crisis,” says McGurk. “You thought, ‘There has to be a key we can turn’ – but it proved exceedingly difficult.”

McGurk observes that we in the West often view the war exclusively through the lens of Israel's conduct, a mistake that

Eliya Cohen, one of those abducted on October 7, 2023, was released in February last year. The American envoy Brent McGurk, above left, says he was making decisions in a state of “deep uncertainty”

You thought, There has to be a key we can turn. It was very difficult

can embolden Hamas. “Israel did plenty that you can criticise, but sometimes Hamas is almost written out of the story,” he says.

“They were a principal actor with agency. Sinwar spent 20 years preparing for this, building a military infrastructure under Gaza. It’s really hard to fully appreciate what that labyrinth was like. There’s never been a military conflict with something like this, ever. Sinwar made clear that civilians cannot go into those tunnels.” He adds: “On some level, Hamas itself started this war with the understanding that the Gazans they purport to represent would be caught in this horrendous maelstrom.”

McGurk does not believe Sinwar gave the Iranians a heads up about October 7, but the Hamas leader did hope that the massacre would spark an all-out regional war, leading to Israel's destruction. In this he failed, but he has achieved some of his goals. Such was the fury of Israel's response, its standing in the world has fallen considerably as a result.

Today, Sinwar is dead, while Hamas is heavily depleted and no longer in total control of Gaza. But it is not defeated. “So long as they are clinging to power, there is no way forward on a political horizon, or tragically for the people of Gaza,” says McGurk.

An enduring frustration of McGurk's is that he was not able to make arrangements for the civilians of Gaza to flee the battleground. “Every other conflict I’ve worked on, as horrible as it was, we worked to get civilians out of the line of fire,” he says. “In Mosul, we got half the civilians out. In Raqqa, tens of thousands left the city. In Gaza, there was nowhere for people to go.”

Despite fears that Gazans might never be able to return, a fate that befell many Palestinian refugees after the war of 1948, McGurk thinks they should have been allowed to escape. “I’m fully cognisant of the historical backdrop, but yes, the civilians should have had a place to go, with guarantees they can return. It was never even really discussed.”

McGurk is unusually generous to the Trump administration, which helped close the eventual deal to end the war and bring the last hostages home. After Trump won the election in November 2024, McGurk had to prepare to hand the baton on to Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who had been deputised to take over on this issue. By this point, Israel had defeated Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, killed Sinwar and damaged Iran's missile launchers. "I knew we had an opening to go for the deal again, but we had to work together," he says.

McGurk met with Witkoff shortly after Trump's election. Vice-president elect JD Vance joined briefly. As McGurk recounts in his book: "He asked what we were talking about, and when we said the Middle East, he told us that was his cue to leave. (Run as fast as you can, I thought.)"

But Witkoff and company helped get their deal over the line. The first of the final tranche of hostages were released on Biden's last day in office; the rest came out under Trump, who naturally claimed all the credit. "We wouldn't have been able to get the deal without the two teams working together," says McGurk. "It really was a model for coming together in a polarised Washington."

The war is over now and the hostages are home, but so much remains unresolved. Gazans are still living in appalling squalor. Hamas remains a going concern. Israel still has its tanks parked on Gazan territory. McGurk can see only a “narrow” path to any form of resolution, based on the UN Security Council resolution that Hamas must disarm and Israel leave Gaza entirely when a new Palestinian authority is put in place.

“What you need to appreciate is that, after October 7, Israel will never allow threats to gather on its border again,” he says. “It will never allow Hamas to reconstitute, never allow Hezbollah to mass 30,000 troops on the border. I wouldn’t defend all their actions, but those are legitimate national security aims.”

There is a growing line of argument in American politics, particularly among Democrats, for the US to distance itself from Israel and punish it for overstepping the mark. McGurk disagrees. “I believe that to influence Israeli conduct, the better approach is to be working with them, because the threats are there regardless,” he says. “And they are going to act on them.”

Brink: Inside the Race to Free the October 7th Hostages by Brett McGurk is out on October 22 (Crown, £26)

Going public on my crippling midlife anxiety brought me a wave of support

The broadcaster Anita Rani says sharing her feelings of constant worry and panic made her realise how many other women suffer too

few weeks ago I was running in my local park when I burst into tears, which for

■ someone who cries mainly through songs and movies is a new experience. Out of nowhere, surrounded by strangers at a 5k run, I felt so overwhelmed that tears flowed down my face. Who was this woman?

I've been a broadcaster for three decades, hosting shows such as Radio 4's Woman's Hour and Countryfile on BBC1, and I've just launched my own podcast and business, Sisters of Defiance. I'm not anxious, confidence comes easily to me, and yet suddenly I have started worrying constantly.

As I prepared to interview guests on Woman's Hour, for the first time in my life I started thinking, do I belong here? A destructive little voice was in my head, one that wasn't there before, questioning everything.

This is the worst thing that can happen when your job is as public-facing as mine. I have been feeling like an insecure teenage girl again, raging with hormones in my childhood bedroom in Bradford. And in a way I am, because hormones, I'm pretty sure, are exactly what have been causing this.

Last week, on another run, I posted a video on Instagram on how this crippling anxiety had knocked the wind out of my sails. Suddenly everything I thought was important felt meaningless and exhausting. My coping mechanisms had deserted me.

The response to that video has been incredible. Many fellow female broadcasters said they'd experienced it too - “It was by far my biggest symptom with menopause and undid me quite a bit,” wrote Zoe Ball – and people I hadn’t heard from in years began sharing experiences and offering support. We hear a lot about the younger generation feeling anxious, but I wasn’t prepared for it to hit me this hard in midlife – a time when you ought to be on top of things.

Part of the reason it's taken me aback so much is that growing up in a Punjabi Indian family, the inner workings of the female body weren't something my mother spoke to me about. It was only last year, 47 and full of emotions I didn't know what to do with, that my mother mentioned she went through menopause at 45. Suddenly things made a

Anita Rani feared she was losing her sense of self lot more sense. In my late thirties, I'd visited the doctors five times in a year. I said I thought my world was ending and I'd lost my mojo. I was told to see a therapist. Perimenopause symptoms didn't cross my mind, nor those of the medics I saw, but there is evidence that South Asian women go through the menopause earlier than their European counterparts. One study found we had a 34 per cent higher chance of premature menopause. Is it premature if it's the norm in the east? Only in my mid-forties, when I started to see a change in my periods, did I accept it.

Most of the comments in response to my video told me to take HRT: hormone replacement therapy. I'd tried it in my forties for a year and then stopped, to see if it made much of a difference.

Since putting that post out I've had my bloods done and decided to start HRT again. Let's see what effect it has.

Another thing that's thrown me is sleep: I've been waking up exhausted. People also told me to make lifestyle changes. I have always eaten well, exercised and been sociable, but I'm willing to try anything. I'm going to take all the mushrooms and mantras thrown at me. I might even surrender to the cold water swimming trend. Someone suggested I should give up alcohol, but there is no way I will surrender my Friday night champagne. It's taken me years of graft to become champagne woman.

Many women of my age are the first in their families to have worked, become independent and successful. To feel like you are losing that is to lose your entire sense of self. Sharing that video has made me so emotional because I felt held and seen by all the other women going through it too. I put a

post up in a moment of crisis and was scooped up by strangers. As told to Roisin Kelly

Four children accepted by Oxbridge: home school until 16 can be top class

Elizabeth Howard feared teaching her sons and daughters might be a disaster but occasional tutors and imaginative trips such as a sleepover on the Golden Hinde brought them success

his week my son Xavier will start his first term at Oxford University studying maths, my

fourth child to get into Oxbridge. His older sisters, Olivia and Felicity, are Oxford graduates in classics and music respectively and his older brother, Max, has a degree in engineering from Cambridge. Two of them had choral scholarships; two had academic scholarships.

I was especially proud since the children were home educated from five to 16, apart from Olivia who went to school in year 10. They are clever, but they're not geniuses, and they weren't hot-housed. (The opening sentence in Xavier's personal statement for Ucas was: "To be a good mathematician you have to be lazy." He did go on to justify this outrageous claim.) But one reason I'm proud of their achievements is that so many people, including close family, thought that home education was a terrible idea and that we were making a reckless choice in not sending them to school.

I never intended to home educate. I had toyed with the idea, since we had friends who were doing it, but I thought it would be too hard, too limiting and somewhat pointless since we were surrounded by good schools near our home in Cambridge. So when our eldest child, Olivia, was turning five we sent her to our local school. She was excited. She'd had a happy time at nursery school, and was confident and sociable.

“Big school” came as a shock. There were several disruptive pupils in her class of over 30, lots of shouting and plenty of “sitting on the carpet until everyone is quiet”. Olivia was stressed and overwhelmed by the long school day and cried every morning when I dropped her off.

Outside school our confident, happy child was shrinking into an anxious, clingy shadow and it seemed we had to take action before she got worse. The school denied there was any problem, refused to make any changes and somewhat menacingly implied that there must be something going on at home.

We withdrew her after the first half-term, planning to home educate her for the rest of the academic year, repair her damaged confidence and then find her a place in another school.

I wondered how I was going to do it. I had trained as a secondary teacher but (ironically) left teaching after a couple of years as it didn't suit me. I had never taught a child to read and that was my biggest worry: what if I couldn't do it? Would she fall behind and then be unable to reintegrate? How would I manage to teach her while also looking after her younger

Elizabeth Howard and her husband Luke with their children, from left, Xavier, Olivia, Felicity, Beatrice and Max siblings (three and one at the time)?

There was a range of responses from family and friends. Some were bemused, some quietly disapproving, and one or two were aghast. Tales of maladjusted home educated children were shared. I was warned that I'd have to loosen the apron strings (assuming that I was home educating for my own benefit). Many friends said they wouldn't be able to do it – which made me wonder if I could.

I made some hasty preparations over half-term, reading as much as I could about different approaches to home education. I remember cutting out letter shapes from sandpaper while out at the pub with friends. And then I plunged into my new role.

My husband, Luke, was supportive, but his job as a hospital consultant meant that he had no time to be involved in the day-to-day teaching. He once taught the children the anatomy of the ear using junk modelling but otherwise it's been down to me.

To my surprise and relief it was nothing like as hard as I'd feared. Olivia made good progress and lessons didn't take long. She learnt to read – not instantly, but gently and steadily. I must be one of the few parents in the country who enjoyed Biff & Chip, so that helped. The local home ed community was active and supportive – trips, groups and meet-ups meant that Olivia didn't want for company.

We continued to ponder whether to apply for a new school, and checked out

Shannon Burns, who earned £300,000 a year, was said by her boss Johannes Landgraf, below, to lack ‘professional accountability’

Sacked for sleeping in a sauna, now she wants to sweat her bosses for £76m

A tech executive locked out of her hotel room after a drinks party is suing for a record amount, saying her employers did not take account of her ADHD. She's been unable to find work since, she tells Roisin Kelly

hannon Burns never set out to make legal history but after winning a disability discrimination claim for ADHD at an employment tribunal, she could do exactly that. The former tech executive from Boston is seeking £76m in compensation from Gitpod, a German software company that headhunted her in 2022, and dismissed her after she fell asleep in a sauna room after a drinks party during a work trip the following year. If she is successful, it will be the biggest employment tribunal payout made in Britain.

When Burns, 37, joined Gitpod, a coding platform, in January 2023 as vice-president of engineering, the American had a decade of experience working for Silicon Valley firms such as Slack and Lyft. She was working as head of engineering for the website builders Universe when she was recruited by Gitpod, which was then a start-up based in Germany. At the time it employed about 80 people “scattered across the world”, working

Remotely, Davis says: "I was then living in Birmingham: by the time she travelled to Lofer, Austria, for a team-building exercise in April 2023, she had spoken to her colleagues only on Zoom and had never met them in person.

Over the weekend, Burns attended a “leadership goal-setting meeting”, roundtable discussions, presentations, and spent time socialising. On April 5, the final day of the trip, Burns hosted a team-bonding scavenger hunt and in the evening attended a drinks party where she had a shot of liquor with Johannes Landgraf, the company’s chief executive, who was in his late twenties.

The night ended with Burns locked out of her bedroom, having lost her key. Unable to wake her roommate or find any reception staff, she slept in a sauna room

in her own bedroom by mistake during the trip, when her roommate went out, locking the door behind her; that time too she had misplaced her key. Burns had “eventually found a way out of the room via the fire escape and exited through another employee’s win-w”.

After everyone returned from the trip, Landgraf said in a virtual meeting that he was concerned about her “lack of professional accountability”.

Another senior male executive later sent her a message, saying that she must “lead the team by example” and “stay in control”. He also said that he had heard comments that Burns had “got too drunk and fallen asleep in the sauna room”. In June that year, she was called to a virtual meeting and sacked.

But Burns has not gone quietly. Last year she took Gitpod, which was acquired by OpenAI in June, to an employment tribunal in Birmingham, claiming discrimination over both her sex and ADHD disability. The employment judge Rachel Wedderspoon dismissed Burns's claim of sexual discrimination in August, noting her "lack of professionalism" had nothing to do with her gender, but backed the disability claim. Burns's ADHD, diagnosed in 2015, had contributed to a "great deal of forgetfulness", the judge said, including losing the keys to her hotel room on the night of the off-site function.

The ruling felt “incredibly validating”, Burns says now, in her first interview since. “I’ve always approached things in my life from a collaborative stance, from a desire to understand and have empathy for people on all sides,” she says. “I tried very hard to give them the benefit of the doubt, I tried to help them learn and recognise that the effects of their unconscious bias were illegal.” Burns, who was being paid a salary of £220,000 and an annual £78,000 bonus at Gitpod, is seeking £76m in compensation based on “forensic” calculations of her potential earnings.

Burns also has dyslexia and says her disabilities have often caused problems at work. In her witness statement, she lists examples such as “forgetting to add all relevant people when scheduling work meetings”, and “working on a document and then [getting] distracted by something else so I fail to finish duties in the workplace”. Part of her interest in Gitpod, which was founded by Landgraf and three colleagues in Kiel in northern Germany in 2019, “was because of the way they presented their employee culture”, she says. “They claimed to be this intentionally thoughtful, inclusive space and committed to inclusion. That was a big part of what drew me in.”

She says she disclosed her ADHD and dyslexia during the hiring process but when she started work there in January 2023, she found a different culture. At the heart of the tribunal case were adjustments she said the company had failed to make to accommodate her ADHD and dyslexia. She says that when she first joined, a delay to her “onboarding period” of initial training meant that her ADHD symptoms “were exacerbated”.

On February 8, 2023, after a few days off, she asked a human resources executive in a Slack message if it was possible to have access to an ADHD coach because, she wrote, she was “so deeply overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information I need to catch up on ... let’s just say I’ve got a worrying level of anxiety at the moment”. When Burns sent some recommendations for a coach, the HR executive reportedly told her she wasn’t certain what cost would be reasonable; she wanted Burns to look into it. “This was the worst possible response for someone with ADHD,” Burns says. “I was communicating that I needed help due to the overwhelm I was experiencing as a result of my disabilities, specifically referencing my ADHD, and she responded by giving me more work to do.”

On June 13 she was informed that her employment was being terminated due to “the way I showed up at the off-site [which] eroded trust and confidence in leadership, team and others at the company”, and that “the support and mentorship that you need is unexpected at the vice-president level.” The decision, she says, “blindsided” her.

Burns says that her male colleagues were “far more intoxicated” on the away day than she was. At the tribunal, it was noted that she had been experiencing a “very difficult period” in her life at the time and had cried and appeared drunk at the event in Austria.

Burns says she had been crying due to an altercation with Landgraf at the drinks party, where he criticised her team's performance in front of them, but insists that it was not because of alcohol. "You have to keep in mind the context, I had been asked to work 16-hour days for three days nonstop with very little sleep because of the schedule that we had to do," she says.

After losing her job, Burns says she applied for hundreds of others in the tech industry and had 41 interviews. Eventually, eight months later, she secured a job “six levels below where I had been in my career” but left after a year because “the stress and the PTSD from the experience I had at Gitpod made it so challenging”.

She says that she has not been able to find work since. “It has been incredibly distressing because my life savings have been eaten up by this,” she says.

If Burns wins her compensation claim, she will receive a life-changing amount of money – but there is still a long way to go. Gitpod's lawyers are appealing the disability discrimination ruling, and Burns's lawyer, Tara Grossman, says Burns is appealing the sex discrimination finding. The proceedings could last for years.

Until now, the largest known award handed down by an employment tribunal is £4.58m. Burns is not giving up on her claim. “That figure would be incredible … but that’s not the point,” she says. She hopes her case will make it easier for other people to get justice. “A good friend told me, ‘Shannon, you are so lucky and so privileged and so fortunate to be in this position because you can do this, you are strong, you’re capable. You have support from so many people. What more can they take from you?’”

They got more sleep. I didn't have to wake them to get them to school

catchment areas when we moved to west London, but after a few months it became clear that home education was working so well for Olivia that there was no need to look for a school place. And when our next child, Max, became school aged he happily slotted into the routine; the same was true for the three younger children too.

We didn't follow the national curriculum: there is no obligation for home educators to do so. Instead, I cherry-picked from the wealth of resources available from all round the world. For example, the children started maths using a programme developed in Singapore, before switching to a UK course. Many of our materials came from the United States, where home schooling is far more mainstream.

Formal schooling didn't take much time: probably two or three hours a day at primary level, and a couple more at secondary. The children had plenty of time to play, to read and to pursue their interests (musical, sporting or otherwise). There were “school” trips nearly every week (organised by a few different – saintly! – parents) to a huge range of

places: museums, theatres and galleries, but also a waste recovery centre, parliament, a sleepover on the Golden Hinde and a residential trip to Normandy. As well as this cultural nourishment, the children had lots of sleep: I didn't have to wake them early to get them out of the house. We had a relaxed start to the home schooling day at around 9.30am; occasionally we'd start earlier in the run-up to exams. (The lure of a cooked breakfast was the bribe for religious studies revision.) And we deliberately didn't have a TV.

A video was a short, weekly treat. The children got a brick phone at about 11 and a smartphone at around 15; life was much simpler without them but we could only hold out for so long.

People sometimes ask how I got the children to do their work. It wasn't always easy, but the fact that they'd been home educated from the start was helpful. The younger ones looked up to the older ones and wanted to "do home ed". In general, I tried to remember the home educator's favourite truism that education is about lighting a fire rather than filling a bucket – and you can't light a fire if one of you is crying, or cross, or tired. That meant, for example, that I did reading practice with one of my children while snuggled up in bed, taking it in turns to read a line each, because he found it especially hard. That same child used to hunker down under the table when tackling maths problems, so clearly unconventional learning spaces were his thing. (He now works sitting at a desk.)

I also see myself as more of a midwife than an obstetrician. Learning is the children's job; my task is to facilitate that. I am an Oxford graduate myself, with A-levels in English, French and politics. Maybe that experience (I was the first of my family to go to university) helped give me the confidence to undertake this endeavour.

All too soon GCSEs approached. At this point, Olivia opted to go to school. She was anxious about the prospect of exams from home, and keen to meet more people. She transitioned happily to school, enjoying the time with a wider peer group, though the concept of homework for the sake of it was a shock and her time for reading or music was drastically reduced.

The other children did eight or nine GCSEs at home. I fretted about choosing and following the syllabus, and the logistics of exam entry. But there is a wealth of information available online and very many ways to prepare. Some subjects were taught by me; for others there were online classes and in-person co-ops; and for some, we had the help of tutors – specifically in maths and science where I didn't feel I had the expertise to support the children myself. Tutor fees ranged from £10 per hour (when a friend's son taught mine physics) to £50 (for qualified teachers).

The children were able to pursue the subjects that interested them: I didn't force my dyslexic children to do a foreign language, for example, but we worked hard on their English and the fact that one got an A and the other an 8 is one of my proudest achievements. Between them they did all the usual school subjects but also astronomy, Latin and further maths. At one point my son decided to take biology GCSE, which we hadn't planned for. In the course of four months he taught himself the whole syllabus using just the textbook and past papers,

and got an A\*. All four children went to a local comprehensive school for their A-levels. They were ready to move on from home education by that point and all enjoyed the experience – although in some cases, they struggled with the pettiness of school rules (don't carry a bag, don't wear a coat). Far from being maladjusted oddballs, as I was warned they'd become, they settled in easily. One daughter was even elected head girl by her peers.

Now I have only one pupil, Beatrice, in my classroom, and in a couple of years she will follow her siblings to school. I will try to enjoy the last stretch of home educating instead of fretting about getting it right. I'm glad I don't have to deal with external disapproval any more, given my track record. Most of all I'm grateful for the time I had with my children, and for the adults they've become. We all get on and we all still holiday together. The children say that they want to home educate their own children when the time comes.

Far from being a burden or an ill-advised experiment, home educating has been the privilege of my life.

I witnessed an execution – this is why America keeps botching them

Faulty drugs, missed veins, bullets off-target: Christa Pike's survival after a 'lethal' injection was the latest blunder in the long US history of death penalty failures, writes Alex Hannaford

According to Howard Guidry it is the idea of severe pain during an execution that people on death row fear most. He should know: Guidry has been awaiting execution in Texas for almost 30 years. "[Texas] could execute men with animal tranquiliser and no one would bat an eye," he told The Sunday Times via an inmate messaging service.

Evidence suggests it's not an irrational fear. In his book Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America's Death Penalty, Austin Sarat, a professor at Amherst College in Massachusetts, reported that an estimated 3 per cent of executions carried out in America have been botched – which he defines as “unanticipated problems or delays that caused ... unnecessary agony for the prisoner or that reflect gross incompetence of the executioner”.

Last month there was widespread shock and horror after the failed attempt to execute Christa Pike, a convicted murderer on Tennessee death row, by “lethal” injection. After two doses of the sedative pentobarbital Pike was taken to hospital in a critical condition. Then, on Tuesday, she began speaking, becoming the first person known to have survived a lethal injection. Tennessee has halted executions until the end of the year and its prisons chief is resigning.

I've covered the death penalty for more than two decades since moving to the US from London. In that time, I've visited condemned men and women on death row more times than I can recall. I've heard about the horrors of what botched executions look like and heard testimony of prison officials struggling to find prisoners' veins. It doesn't get easier.

that year there was a problem at the plant belonging to the sole producer of the sedative sodium thiopental. Suddenly, there was a scramble to acquire it. State corrections departments began trading with each other, then looking overseas to India, Denmark – even a pharmacy operating out of the back of a driving school in London.

Laura Porter, who heads the US Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said that, as horrifying as the attempted execution of Pike was, it didn't come as a surprise because of America's history of problematic executions. According to legal records, the doctor who oversaw Pike's attempted execution, and had overseen an earlier botched execution, hadn't done a procedure that involves inserting an IV below the collarbone in more than 13 years.

In 2014 I witnessed the execution of Kenneth Hogan on Oklahoma's death row. Hogan, who had been convicted of stabbing a female friend to death, was executed using a cocktail of pentobarbital, the muscle relaxant vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride, a mineral which in high doses stops the heart. After the prison warden announced the start of the procedure, Hogan began mumbling, took one final look at his family and then closed his eyes. "There's a chemical taste in my mouth," he said. "I'm going. I'm going. I'm going." We watched as he took his final breath.

The problem was never resolved and the scramble simply moved on to the next drug and then the next. Porter described it as an “underground market for death penalty drugs”.

Part of the problem is the difficulty acquiring the right drugs. Until 2009, the 36 states that had the death penalty on their books could buy the drugs from wholesalers in the US. But

States also began bringing back alternative methods of execution. According to the Death Penalty Information Centre, today 28 states use lethal injection. Nine allow electrocution; in South Carolina it's the default method unless the inmate elects otherwise. Nine states have authorised gas to execute the condemned (but each use lethal injection as their default method), and five states have the firing squad as an option.

This month President Trump approved the use of a firing squad to execute Nidal Hasan, the former army psychiatrist who shot and killed 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in Texas in 2009. If that execution goes ahead, it would be the first military execution in America in more than 60 years and the

“ A proposed drug for gassing inmates is banned for use on dogs

first by firing squad since the Second World War. Pete Hegseth, the war secretary, said on Friday that the execution would be livestreamed. If so, it would be the first public execution in the US since the 1930s.

“I can’t think of a means of execution that has not been botched,” Porter said. She said that recently in South Carolina there had been a firing squad execution that missed the heart. Some states had added gassing but veterinarians had said one drug that was being proposed forbidden for use in dogs and cats “because of the length of time it takes”.

Executions have been halted in Tennessee for now, but it hasn't ruled out another attempt to execute Pike. Any attempt would face a legal challenge and, most probably, a groundswell of angry public opinion.

On Wednesday night, one of Guidry's fellow death row inmates, Jamaal Howard, was executed, despite what his lawyers said were questions about the efficacy and quality of the drugs. The real question, then, is not whether the next execution will go wrong, it's why America keeps insisting it is right.

The murderer Christa Pike regained consciousness last week after a 'lethal' jab

COMMENT

THE SUNDAY TIMES

ESTABLISHED 1822

Trump's thirst for diesel and votes gives succour to Putin

One of the most effective measures taken against President Putin since his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine four and a half years ago has been the imposition of sanctions on Russia, particularly on its vital energy exports. Although

Moscow has sought to circumvent some of these measures through nefarious schemes, these sanctions have squeezed Russia's faltering economy and depleted the Kremlin's ability to wage its brutal war of aggression. President Trump's unilateral deal with the Russian despot to import Russian diesel is, on the face of it, a shocking act of appeasement. President Zelensky of Ukraine has rightly condemned it as a "gift to Putin". Last night Trump responded to this criticism by doubling down, saying it was time for Ukraine to "get a new leader who can make a deal". He also, in a swipe at his predecessor Joe Biden, again asserted that the war should never have started – ignoring the fact that it was Russia that marched into Ukraine in both 2014 and 2022.

Under the reported terms of the agreement, Russia is to release up to 4.8 million tonnes of diesel on to the global market, beginning with an immediate supply of 300,000 tonnes, followed by another 500,000 tonnes next month and further deliveries thereafter. With American midterm elections approaching, the deal appears to be an 11th-hour attempt by Trump to shore up his political base by promising cheaper fuel. There are serious doubts, though, over whether Putin can supply the promised volumes or whether the deal will provide sustainable price reductions at American petrol stations.

While Trump is clearly playing to a domestic audience ahead of the midterms, the long-term diplomatic consequences are profoundly unsettling. By bringing Russia in from the cold, he has handed Putin a massive but unearned diplomatic prize, one that the Russian president will no doubt ruthlessly exploit on the world stage, particularly in Europe. The deal is also a direct assault on Kyiv's audacious efforts to drag Moscow to the negotiating table. Ukraine's successful drone attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure and refineries have bolstered its leverage, but Zelensky has already come under pressure from the United States to tone down the bombing campaign. This will now only intensify. Moreover, the sale of diesel to America could generate billions more dollars for Putin's war chest. Observers are also now wondering whether Trump's agreement with Putin is a temporary measure or part of a strategy to restore Russia to its economic ecosystem. Many US companies view the market as an untapped opportunity. But this cannot come at the expense of the sovereignty of an independent country.

The diesel deal has also effectively turned American foreign policy on its head. Only a few weeks ago Trump signed into law an act sponsored by the late Republican senator Lindsey Graham aimed at strengthening secondary sanctions against companies buying Russian oil and gas. His deal appears to cut directly across the principle underpinning that law. If sanctions can be watered down or sidelined whenever the domestic situation demands, their power is diminished.

How should Britain and Europe react? The British government has rightly ruled out buying any Russian diesel and offered Zelensky public support yesterday, but this is not enough. European leaders, who recently bowed to pressure from Trump to release some of their own reserves, must end their shameful paralysis over the billions in frozen Russian assets sitting in British and European banks since 2022. As Rishi Sunak has argued in these pages, the West must overcome the “absurd” legal and political hurdles preventing these resources from being diverted to Ukraine. It urgently needs to shore up its defences and infrastructure. Although Britain and its European allies cannot undo Trump’s short-sighted deal, they can refuse to let it dictate the future of Ukraine. If Washington is prepared to weaken the pressure it puts on Putin, Europe must strengthen it. Appeasement is not a strategy.

Rishi Sunak Rwanda is still the way to stop the small boats

Don't be misled by the fall in illegal migrant numbers this year

loathe the wet and windy days that presage the arrival of winter. Whenever I complained about them in Downing Street, one of my team would always reply: "But think, prime minister: no small boats today." We are about to get some seasonal relief from that crisis. The numbers are

down this year by about 40 per cent, which is welcome. But, as I know all too well, there's a massive difference between a fall in numbers one year and solving the actual problem. Crossings into the EU are down by roughly the same amount; if they pick up, the numbers in the Channel will probably follow.

The small boats crisis, which began in 2018, has now gone on longer than the digging of the Channel tunnel, Clement Attlee's premiership or either world war. Our inability to fix this problem is sapping people's faith in our system of government. Controlling who can and cannot enter your country is fundamental to sovereignty. That we have so visibly lacked that control for so long is corrosive. I will always regret that I could not solve it.

Ultimately, the only way to stop the boats is to show people that making the journey here is pointless: that it won't result in you getting to stay in the UK. There are three ways to do this.

The first is to turn the boats around ourselves. However appealing that sounds, it isn't feasible without French buy-in, as Lord West of Spithead and other senior naval figures have pointed out. When Australia did this to end its own small boats crisis, it had open sea to work with and international waters into which it could tow the larger, more seaworthy vessels. We would be attempting it in the world's busiest shipping lane and right up against French territorial waters.

Reform UK has implicitly acknowledged this now. The party made a big deal at its conference about a memorandum of understanding with Jordan Bardella, the president of Marine Le Pen's National Rally. If you didn't need France's co-operation, you wouldn't bother with such a document.

The reaction in France to the agreement was strikingly negative. Critics throughout the political spectrum accused Bardella of selling out France. Tellingly, Le Pen herself refrained from endorsing the deal when asked about it.

The second option is a returns deal with France. The Élysée, though, very much regards the small boats as a British problem. Emmanuel Macron repeatedly made the point to me that these people were only travelling through France to reach the Channel coast. Ask them their destination, he would say, and the answer will be London, not Paris. Why, he would demand, should France take back people who had been in his country for a matter of days?

Keir Starmer managed to negotiate a heavily caveated deal with France to return small boat migrants. But the scheme never expanded to the extent necessary to make it a sufficient deterrent. Fewer than 1 in 20 people who arrived illegally were sent back across the Channel. Agreement could not be reached even to renew that scheme; it lapsed at the start of this month. The French would rather have an EU-UK agreement precisely because they want to make this part of the broader European migration discussion. That is unappealing for us because the EU would want a burden-sharing deal that resulted in us taking far more asylum seekers than we now do.

So, if turning around the boats unilaterally is not practical and the French won't accept a bilateral returns scheme, what's left?

The third option is removing people: preferably to their home country. We did this with Albania, and the number of Albanian arrivals fell by about 90 per cent. Properly done, deterrence works.

But there are some countries you can't return people to, such as Iran. You need a third country like Rwanda for such cases. It is the most feasible way of creating a sufficiently credible deterrent to stop people making the journey.

Kemi Badenoch is right: this issue has dragged on for so long that we should do whatever is necessary to overcome the legal hurdles.

During my tenure, attempting to leave the European convention on human rights with only two years left in the parliament and with no mandate to do so would have been a recipe for constitutional chaos. You could not resolve all the issues thrown up by leaving the

The crisis has lasted

longer than the

Second World War convention in 24 months with a fractious parliamentary party, a sceptical House of Lords and limited diplomatic capital – other countries can read our opinion polls. But with a mandate, a majority and a five-year term, it would be very different, and worth doing.

For some time I had said that if forced to choose between membership of the court and our national and border security, I would pick the latter. With the help of KCs, we had done extensive work on quitting the convention. The plan was to declare in the election campaign that we would seek radical reform of the convention and the work of the European Court of Human Rights, and that, if it could not be achieved quickly, we would leave. Yet, like so many things in that campaign, it did not go according to plan. We dropped the idea after Nigel Farage entered the race for fear it would just be dismissed as a panic move and would make it harder to focus the election on tax and the economy.

The Strasbourg court has created this intolerable choice by going well beyond the text of the convention and its original, noble goals. As Lord Wolfson, the shadow attorney-general, has set out, the jurisprudence of the court is “expansive” and too often “unpredictable”. Article 3, for instance, is meant to prevent “torture or inhuman or degrading treatment”. But the court has repeatedly lowered the bar. It now takes the view that even a single slap by a police officer can amount to degrading treatment.

The court refuses to accept the necessary trade-offs a state must make. To give just one example, case law stemming from the 1996 Chahal v UK judgment now means we cannot deport people to places where they would be at risk of having their article 3 rights infringed, even if they represent a real and serious risk to our national security.

Conflict, climate change, demographics and ease of movement in today's world will only intensify the challenge illegal migration poses. Greece, Europe's frontline state in this regard, now wants to use the EU's newly agreed Return Regulation to send rejected asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Rwanda was criticised as a fantasy. But the real fantasy is thinking you can stop the boats without it.

The Sunday Times supports the Richmond Project (richmondproject.org) and the work it undertakes. Rishi Sunak has donated the fee for this column to it

Britain's brightest founders just need space to breathe

For one day only can we please retire the tired “Broken Britain” cliché so beloved of our unimaginative politicians. The Westminster class should have been at the British Museum last Thursday to meet the entrepreneurs who graced The Sunday Times’s awards ceremony for the country’s 100 fastest-growing private companies and show a different side to the nation. It is one that is inventive and optimistic.

Every story that evening was inspirational and a rebuke to the narrative of inevitable national decline. Our Business section reports that an extraordinary range of sectors was represented from health and wellness to construction and electric car repairs, clothing and hospitality. Their founders – many from immigrant backgrounds – have spotted opportunities where others saw obstacles, took risks where others hesitated, and created jobs where none existed. One winning firm, the Merseyside-based sportswear brand Montirex, was formed by two friends from primary school whose stated ambition is to take on the world.

Many of them showed impressive rates of revenue growth over the year, adding billions of pounds to national GDP. But every person present – from the bosses of major firms to students launching tiny start-ups – was a winner.

As we also report today a tough budget is looming on October 28 and the global economic headwinds are stormy. Yesterday, after pleas from major retailers, the government appeared to rule out a so-called warehouse tax. Ministers, as Kemi Badenoch has suggested, should now scrap the hated packaging tax too.

But the ST100 proves that there is a section of society that is innovative, adopting artificial intelligence where it helps and taking a chance on the young. All these founders want is to be able to breathe, free from the constraints of stifling regulation. They want the government to get out of the way when it isn't needed but to be there when it is. They certainly don't want ministers thinking they can run businesses. Britain is still crammed with talented entrepreneurs, mustard-keen school leavers and graduates and is a better place to start a business than many of our European counterparts. If government lets these people get on with their lives and build their companies, we will all thrive.

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Bound for Ukraine

A year ago we launched Get Britain Reading. Its success has exceeded our expectations. Bookbanks, the charity, will soon provide free books at 13 sites, and nearly 600 of you have volunteered to read to children in school. There are signs of a reading renaissance: 36 per cent of children in a National Literacy Trust survey this year said they enjoyed reading in their free time, a three-point rise from last year. That is hugely encouraging.

We are now expanding the campaign to our friends abroad. We report today that Russia's despicable attacks on Ukraine have been extended to publishing houses and printing presses, and hundreds of thousands of pupils have been left without the schoolbooks they need.

For just £2 you can send a book to Ukraine to help replace library collections destroyed by Russian missiles and drones. Ukraine faces many problems this winter. Let us try to ensure that a shortage of books is not one of them.

Charlotte Ivers The secret of Victorian success — no emails

Despite long lunches and nightly balls, the elite knew how to generate GDP

ight our country be more prosperous if we swore off the striving and instead prioritised quaffing pints of port and settling in to multicourse lunches? That, give or take, is the proposal of a new essay in the online magazine Works in Progress. The author,

Samuel Hughes, takes the Victorians as his example. Far from being the prim, staid types we imagine, the elite Victorians – he argues – were a great deal of fun. What's more, they were astonishingly economically successful, even though they rejected all the key things that productivity gurus and 4am-alarm-clock CEOs tell us will make us more effective.

It is not just that the Victorians' lunches were long and their etiquette guides recommended five glasses of wine with dinner, even for members of the more delicate sex. During the social season professional men might attend seven balls a week, which would only kick off at 10pm. Perhaps unsurprisingly, work started late. Many spent the mornings in bed attending to their correspondence.

What is more, argues Hughes, the elite Victorians were actively encouraged away from the type of “hard skills” that we are assured are the future. They put classics before scientific learning, and their education promoted what we would now call “soft skills”. Here are the priorities for a boy’s education, as defined by a Victorian headmaster of Loretto School: “First – character, second – physique, third – intelligence, fourth – manners, fifth – information.”

interdependent world these elites created through their socialising and soft skills was conducive to the effective conduct of business?

Perhaps. I suspect there are a lot of other factors at play too. The Victorians could draw on an astonishing array of untapped natural resources from across the country and the empire. Between the coal in Northumberland and the cotton in India, with the right connections you'd almost struggle not to make a killing. Then there's the fact that the Victorian elites had access to an awful lot of extremely badly paid labour, at home and abroad. If anyone is living like these men today, it is the elites of Saudi Arabia, grown fat on oil and on the efforts of a near-slave class available to extract it.

Despite these caveats, I do think the essay is very valuable. It captures something odd about our technology-infused obsession with hyperproductivity. We have exponentially more technology to hand than the Victorians could have dreamt of, and yet barely anybody

– even among the elites – lives the carefree lives those debonair gents once did. Our elites slave away in the City or in tech start-ups, slurping Huel and competing over who can best technologically optimise their private lives such that they no longer need to actually speak to their spouses or children and can instead get back to the office.

As for the rest of us, we do not seem to have capitalised at all on recent advances in technology when it comes to clawing some of our time back from The Man. When I was born in the mid-Nineties, most people barely had email. That world is unfathomable to us now, when every person carries a computer in their pocket. And yet between 1998 and 2022 we gained only 1.3 hours a week of free time. We now work a 31.8-hour week on average. Keynes predicted in 1930 that we would be on a 15-hour working week by now. So much for that.

All of this might be acceptable, had it led to a great economic boom. You would be forgiven for thinking it might: huge technological advances combined with a workforce still slogging it out as hard as ever must surely equal great prosperity. And yet since the 2008 crash our productivity growth in this country has been, on average, a feeble 1.1 per cent. There has been no great GDP surge. We are like the proverbial hamster on the wheel: scrabbling to run faster, going nowhere.

None of these men, we must assume, would have made it very far in Silicon Valley, or indeed in any of the modern law firms and investment banks where wanting to go home to sleep at night is seen as decadent. And yet, Hughes points out, “for much of the century, Britain was the richest country on Earth. Its companies dominated global commerce, industry and finance.” And that’s before you even get on to military dominance. Might this have been, he suggests, because the high-trust, highly

Now we look forward to the next stage of development. The next few years could bring the genesis of AI assistants and robots who may serve a similar role to those underpaid masses who propped up the age of Victorian elite leisure. And yet, on recent form, it looks as if we may collectively decide not to lean into newfound opportunities for freedom and bring back the glories of a lunchtime pint of port, but instead fill the hours with even more makework than we already do. More meetings perhaps. More emails. Anything to fill the day.

None of them would have made it very far in Silicon Valley

It seems abundantly clear to me that we have failed somewhere down the line. Forget the port. Should we not be using technological advancements to spend more time with our children, our parents, our novels, our museums and galleries? That an article about the lives of the Victorians, published on a reasonably obscure website, has proved quite so popular over the past week seems to me to indicate we know something is missing. We know we have got something wrong, that these men in frock coats and top hats understood something we have failed to grasp: life is for living, not for sending emails.

Hadley Freeman is away

A livestreamed execution is the ultimate gift to jihadist death cults

America must meet the Fort Hood killer and all terror with muscular indifference, not this gruesome circus

hen I spotted a reference to a livestreamed execution of the Fort Hood killer (who I won't name, for reasons I'll come to), I assumed it was a joke. I assumed it was online tittle tattle. I mean,

no member of an American cabinet would call for such a depraved spectacle and no president would endorse it. Obviously. Not even Pete Hegseth. Not even Trump. This is 21st-century America, not 12th-century Baghdad.

But then I saw this parody of a war secretary on the deck of an aircraft carrier explaining why it was necessary, indeed obligatory, for a US military firing squad to be assembled for the first time since 1945 to shoot a prisoner through the heart (a process in which the condemned can take a while to die, body twitching in the process, although perhaps this is the point of the live stream) and felt something shift inside me.

I love America. I will always believe that she has contributed more to the prosperity of the world than any other nation. I do not lightly condemn the leadership of an ally whose troops died in Normandy, which rebuilt its defeated adversaries after the Second World War, which was the principal architect of the postwar order, and which, still now, is the linchpin of our security.

But let us adequately describe what was announced by this wannabe Rambo. This is death porn. This is the closest thing – if it goes ahead, which I doubt given the growing revulsion, not least among Republicans – to pay-per-view execution. This is a man with a testosterone complex living out his fantasy at the expense not just of the image of America but also the civilisation it leads. The United States was once a city upon a hill. Hegseth is a pillock on

an ego trip. I could spend much of this column offering moral objections to what is proposed. I could remind you of Seneca's great work On Clemency, in which he argues that a society is coarsened and demeaned by public executions. I could recite the beautiful letter to The Times by Dickens in 1849 after a hanging in London. One of those lines is like molten lava in the moral imagination: "I am solemnly convinced that nothing that ingenuity could devise to be done in this city, in the same compass of time, could work such ruin as one public execution, and I stand astounded and appalled by the wickedness it exhibits."

I could tell you about George Orwell, who wrote of a hanging in Burma and how his moral sense shifted when he saw the condemned man swerve to avoid a puddle. “When I saw the prisoner step aside … I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide … His eyes saw the yellow gravel and the grey walls, and his brain still remembered, foresaw, reasoned – reasoned even about puddles. He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the same world; and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone – one mind less, one world less.”

But I know that Hegseth would not be swayed by such arguments. He would regard them as unmanly, craven, incapable of dealing with a world in which nasty people need to be confronted. For what it's worth, I understand this perspective, at least on the margins. I have long felt that western societies have been cotton-woolled in peace for so long that we do not perceive the dangers that beset us – hence our lack of vigilance and defence spending.

So let me instead confront Hegseth on his own ground. He said in his justification for this public execution that people need to see the “consequences” of their actions – by which he meant prospective jihadists. They need to know that if they kill Americans, they will die gruesomely and publicly. I find it difficult to even write down this justification without shaking my head in

If Pete Hegseth

were not a

musclebound

intellectual

void, he would

know the

unspeakable

foolishness of

his policy

confoundment. As policy, this isn't just morally repulsive; it is idiotic.

Jihadists want to die publicly. They crave as many eyeballs as possible. Martyrdom – and this killer was a martyr to his core – is only partly about being reunited with God at the moment of extinction (as the Quran puts it, those killed in Allah's cause are not dead but alive with their Lord); it is also about inspiring more jihadism. It is a public statement; advertising, if you will. The entire point of a martyr is for his death to be known, to secure a platform, and Hegseth is in effect handing them America's arsenal of media assets.

If Hegseth were not a musclebound intellectual void, he would know this. He would know that the Fort Hood killer told the mental health panel that he wanted to die. He would know his standby lawyers told the judge he was not mounting a defence because he craved the death penalty. He would know that the Greek word for “martyr” and the Arabic “shahid” both mean “witness”. Abdullah Azzam, the godfather of modern jihadism, wrote that nations were built by “the martyr’s blood and scholar’s ink”. The late al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri – who converted to jihadism after the hanging of a martyr in Egypt in 1966 – wrote that “more than half the battle is fought in the media”.

The great anthropologist Joe Henrich has persuasively argued that martyrdom, and the publicity secured by it, was key to the spread of early religions. The reason is deeply psychological: if someone is prepared to die for his faith, it shows his belief is sincere. This is why public martyrdom is almost always followed by a wave of the same among the persuadable and vulnerable, a point made by scholars such as Michael Biggs and Lawrence Wright.

One of the terrorists who perpetrated the July 7 bombings said “our words are dead until we give them life with our blood”. The Isis manual of 2016 said: “Media weapons are more potent than atomic bombs.” The Iranian mullahs to this day maintain vast murals of child martyrs who ran into minefields during the Iran-Iraq war. If they had one wish it would be for larger murals, not limited by wall space but projected on to the infinite scroll of the digital world.

This is why Hegseth's policy is not just repugnant but also unspeakably foolish. He is – and let me make the point explicitly – playing chief advertiser to the jihadist he hates. I believe this will have consequences that will come back to haunt America and its allies.

It is also why this column will never name any martyr, any deranged religious killer. It will never offer a billboard for jihadism, never be ensnared into playing their game. Indeed, I believe the wisest way for the West to combat this virulence is to meet each killing with what they fear most: obscurity. Muscular indifference is, I believe, the most powerful form of contempt. For each monstrosity to be met not with fear but compassion for the victims and, beyond that, tumbleweed. Let them rot in jail anonymously. This would chill these death cults more than any retribution.

But let me finish with a final thought. We live in a great civilisation. A life-loving civilisation. And this is why we should never descend to the level of the nihilists. Iran, the Afghan Taliban and Hamas are among the few to have conducted public executions last year. In this sense, the proposed live stream is not just a public death sentence but a moral Rubicon. I hope to my core that public pressure will ultimately prevent a deranged war secretary from leading his nation across it.

NEWMAN'S WEEK

Norman Foster We must go nuclear to save our natural wonders

e all know about the threat of climate change. Our attempts to address it primarily with renewables – wind and solar – have achieved extraordinary things but they are not enough. Despite our best efforts fossil fuels still dominate the world energy supply. We are already moving into a new age of electrifying our society which will be as transformational as the Industrial Revolution. The issue is not whether we need clean energy. We undoubtedly do. The question is how we deliver it while protecting the landscapes and ecosystems upon which future generations also depend.

If we promote wind and solar without restraint, they will run rampant, destroying nature and its fragile ecosystems – the very systems they are supposed to save. For example, in the coastal waters of the Inner Hebrides a giant wind farm is planned that threatens a vast area of outstanding natural beauty. Its 144 turbines will be the largest of their kind yet built – taller than the Eiffel Tower. It will cover an area of 173 square miles, equal to 30 per cent of Greater London. But the UK is responsible for 0.7 per cent of global emissions, so the planet will not even notice the difference of this initiative.

What if a small number of advanced nuclear units provided a comparable power output with a tiny physical footprint? Nuclear power generation has a high energy density, which means that its footprint on our habitat is tiny compared with the vast amount of power it can provide. The proven reliability of reactors is high, and they require relatively little maintenance over decades rather than years. Almost nobody has died from nuclear waste, unlike the seven to ten million who die every year from air pollution by fossil fuel. Nuclear is near-zero carbon and by a vast margin the safest way of generating power.

When I discovered the so-called nuclear battery or MMR (micro modular reactor), I was amazed that a piece of equipment six metres high and half as wide coupled to a similarly sized

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A reactor just six metres high can power a town of 21,000 people

generator could power a community of 21,000. I was fascinated to find that the technology dated back to the 1960s and powers satellites out in space and aircraft carriers and submarines cruising the oceans.

My discovery was like an epiphany: what if industrialised nuclear power packs came off a production line just like jet engines? They could become an alternative to the conventional power station and grid of transmission lines, a system now overstretched.

Consider the insatiable energy thirst of data centres. Amazon's GW Ranch in Texas, one of many thousands predicted over the next 20 years, is spread over 8,000 acres and is permitted for 7.65 gigawatts of power. That equates to the average consumption of 13 cities the size of Birmingham. What will be generating all that power? Thirty-five gas turbines, each equivalent in power output to two Boeing 777 engines. So, imagine a fleet of 35 big airliners flying at full power, nonstop, year in year out. Think of the carbon and environmental impact. Just seven 1.2GW reactors would suffice instead – no noise, no emissions and minimum maintenance.

Back to the big picture: in the total primary energy supply, fossil fuels dominate at 86 per cent. After a quarter of a century of implementation, wind and solar combined are only at 3 per cent.

It's clear that our energy needs are urgent. The revolution will be a holistic combination of all the means at our disposal: solar panels seamlessly integrated into façades and roofs; wind turbines built away from areas of natural beauty; existing and new nuclear power stations with their transmission grids; but above all a massive injection of industrialised nuclear power units that can be independent of the grid and close to where the power is needed.

As a passionate advocate for nuclear, I have championed it discreetly to governments, more openly to mayors and, through the master's course at the Norman Foster Foundation's Institute for Sustainable Cities, to the civic leaders of the future.

Lord Foster of Thames Bank is the founder and executive chairman of the architectural practice Foster + Partners

COMMENT

Robert Colvile The PM says there won’t be an election next year but the facts suggest otherwise

ndy Burnham was absolutely clear. “All of this speculation on an early election – I can knock that dead,” he told interviewers before Labour’s party conference. “People want me, new in office, to be getting on with the job of

delivering on the things that we've discussed, rather than putting self-serving politics before that." So why is everyone in Westminster more certain than ever that he's lying?

Let's start with the case for the defence. There are many overwhelmingly convincing reasons why the prime minister would be mad to call an early election. First up, he'd lose dozens of MPs, and quite possibly Labour's majority. Second, he's explicitly promised the voters that he won't. And, yes, he also promised that he wouldn't seek to renegotiate Britain's relationship with Europe, only to U-turn within a matter of weeks. But it's still a pretty big obstacle.

Third, it's almost impossible to see how he'd justify going to the polls. People in Westminster love elections. They obsess about them. But the public generally hate them, especially when they're completely unnecessary. (To quote Brenda from Bristol: "You're joking – not another one?")

The evidence from Britain and beyond, over decades, is that voters will only buy the argument for an election when politics has become completely unworkable. As the political strategist Marcus Roberts of Mandate Research puts it, your reason needs to be “giant meteor size”, never that you want a personal mandate or that the polling is temporarily favourable: Boris Johnson in 2019, not Theresa May in 2017.

And what would Burnham's justification be? The size of his majority, and his command of his party, mean any claim that politics is log-jammed would be laughable. The only thing he can credibly say he is constrained by is the manifesto he inherited from Keir Starmer. But the only genuine constraint in that manifesto is the promise not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT. In short, any Labour campaign would essentially boil down to: vote for me so I can raise your taxes.

So an early election is impossible. Yet there's a growing body of evidence that it's also inevitable.

Let's start with Burnham's party conference speech. Every single thing about it pointed to an early election. The three big policy offers were all post election, and all custom-built to appeal to the progressives and Lib Dems that Burnham will need either as voters or

coalition partners: social care reform, potential EU re-entry, moving to some form of proportional representation.

By contrast, there was virtually nothing about the problems his administration will face in the interim: eye-watering borrowing costs, soaring energy bills, inadequate defence spending and above all a crippling lack of money. Indeed, it's almost impossible to imagine, in the absence of an election, what Burnham could say on stage next year, apart from making all the same promises again.

Next, look at the choreography since. The government has been playing down the budget as a holding exercise until next year's spending review. But the spending review itself is likely to be bumped back from spring to autumn. This might sound arcane, but it's vitally important, because the spending review is the point at which Labour finally has to face up to its money troubles.

As I've highlighted repeatedly, Rachel Reeves's economic plans were built on a fiction. To meet her fiscal rules, she combined massive spending increases in the first half of the parliament, particularly for the NHS, with entirely hypothetical austerity in the second half.

We're now hitting that second half. Meaning Burnham and John Healey, the new chancellor, will have to either

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A Labour Party campaign would boil down to: vote for me so I can raise your taxes

preside over the kind of departmental savings their backbenchers will never permit, or find huge amounts for public services, plus equally huge amounts for defence (the issue Healey originally resigned over, remember) plus whatever Alan Milburn needs for his impending welfare reforms – all at a time when high bond yields, high energy prices and high borrowing are shredding the government's finances by the day. The brusque rejection last week of Yvette Cooper's plea for more NHS funding shows how tight things already are.

There's another factor here. When

Burnham took over, he promised the most transformational government the country had seen in decades, turning the clock back on 40 years of neoliberalism etc etc. How does that square with key policies that won't be delivered until 2029, a safety-first budget, and punting back the big spending review by six months?

The most logical conclusion is that the spending review will never actually happen. Because it's better to escape the fiscal trap by calling an election, and losing some of your majority, than to lose all of it later on.

Finally, there are the politics. Burnham is not as popular as he needs to be to win a guaranteed majority. But he is still pretty damn popular by modern standards – and unlikely to become any more so, given the looming horrors above.

The left-wing half of the electorate seems to be coalescing around Labour again, with increasingly loud questions being asked about Ed Davey's leadership of the Lib Dems and absolutely deafening ones being asked about Zack Polanski's of the Greens. Meanwhile, the right-wing bloc is almost perfectly split – and the longer you wait, the more chance there is either of Kemi Badenoch driving a Tory recovery or of Nigel Farage making those crypto-millions tell by pouring cash into constituency campaigning. Certainly, the other parties are increasingly convinced that an election is coming. Davey has ordered the Lib Dems to start working up a manifesto. Badenoch has felt since the summer that a snap election was more likely than not, and her team have spent hours war-gaming the different scenarios – including an emergency plan in case Burnham called an election on stage at his party conference.

As for Farage, he has been publicly predicting a 2027 election for more than a year, and was making the same case in private long before that. Reform insiders say that everything they have been doing, and are doing now, is with a May 2027 date in mind.

So there we are. There can't be an early election. But there has to be an early election. It's impossible, but also inevitable. Calling one would be political suicide. But so, most likely, would not calling one.

Of course, it may be that some kind of crisis gives Burnham the pretext he needs for an election, or absolutely eliminates the possibility. But in its absence, the prime minister will struggle to quell the speculation. Not least because he keeps saying there won't be an early election – but acting as though there absolutely will.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Conservative pledges on Brexit and IHT

Your leading article “Badenoch is on the up but must be pragmatic to succeed” (Oct 4) warns the Conservative Party that “there is a danger that too many key issues become tests of ideological purity”. This danger is illustrated in the same issue by the party’s deputy leader, Alex Burghart, vowing that the “Tories would reverse steps to undo Brexit” (Oct 4). This view seems to be regardless of whether Labour’s moves for closer EU ties help to lower trade barriers, aid the economy and boost growth. Kemi Badenoch has also said she will block Tory candidates from standing for parliament if they do not support the UK leaving the European Convention on Human Rights. This is despite the advice of three former independent reviewers of terrorism legislation who pointed out in a letter to The Times last week that the ECHR “is not just a human rights instrument” but a “national security asset”. Badenoch presents herself as an aggressively decisive leader, yet fails to deal with the triple lock, despite knowing it is unaffordable. Why? Because she knows most Tory votes at the last general election came from pensioners. Again, party interest before national interest.

David Woodhead

Leatherhead, Surrey

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The value of presence

Hadley Freeman's perceptive analysis of the self-isolating effects of smartphones and social media (“I’ve come to mourn the dreaded dinner party”, Oct 4) is a reminder of the value of presence in human relationships.

Being present with another person involves more than just “being there”. It includes emotional connection, attentive listening, empathy, non-verbal communication and touch. An empathic relationship demands face-to-face communication. Most of our emotional attunement with others is a result of non-verbal communication – facial expressions, eye contact, gestures, body language and touch.

Touch can be consoling, expressing solidarity with another person when words cannot express emotion. Each of these vital elements of an authentic human relationship is lost in remote communication. Presence requires

Kemi Badenoch claims that cutting inheritance tax is morally right and talks about “those people who are sweating every day”, but she is certainly not talking about ordinary working-class people (“Badenoch: Cutting inheritance tax is morally right”, Oct 4). HMRC’s statistics show that fewer than 5 per cent of estates are affected by inheritance tax. The intergenerational cascade of burgeoning wealth among the wealthiest families increases the wealth gap and all its baleful consequences on society. Inheritance tax is therefore a good and moral tax, unpopular though it may be.

Professor Andrew M Colman

Leicester

Concerning Kemi Badenoch's party conference speech, there are ways of limiting inheritance tax, such as giving money to your heirs while you are still alive. And there are already measures that allow you to leave the family home to your direct descendants. What is crippling the country is stamp duty. People spend a great deal of money when they move house, buying items and employing tradesmen, estate agents and solicitors, which is good for economic growth. First-time buyers in England and Northern Ireland are

effort: it takes time, may be inconvenient and involves slowing down and paying attention to the other person. At a time when levels of loneliness, depression and suicide are rising in our society, we need to value and restore presence to our relationship with others.

Dr David Jeffrey

West Malvern, Worcs

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Requiem for rinsing

I would have agreed with Susie Pover (letter, Oct 4) about the courtesy of rinsing items before recycling them. But after reading the same interview (Sep 27) with Richard Kirkman, the UK boss of Veolia, who said it was unnecessary to clean containers because his company washes out all cans and jars, I'm looking forward to reduced water bills – because I won't be rinsing in future.

Peter Maxwell

Croydon

Letters to the Editor should be sent to letters@sunday-times.co.uk

The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

exempt from paying stamp duty if the property costs under £300,000, but the housing market remains stagnant.

Margaret Teggin

Prenton, Wirral

It is disappointing that a Tory government would seek to reverse any attempts to reset our relationship with the EU. Kemi Badenoch wishes to break with the old Tory party. However, the old Tory party gave us Brexit, which has been a failure. Our economy, politics and cultural influence have all suffered. Brexit has not helped to curb illegal immigration. To grow our economy, as Badenoch rightly wants, we need to trade freely with our nearest and most important partners. She should, instead, encourage closer economic, defence and cultural ties with Europe.

Robert Ellsles

Chalfont St Peter, Bucks

I am surprised that Alex Burghart is so adamant that the Conservatives would reverse any steps to undo Brexit. Surely the Conservative Party was the third-biggest casualty of Brexit, closely behind the UK economy and Boris Johnson.

Frank Dean

Stockport, Greater Manchester

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By hook or by crook

David Hird's letter (Oct 4) reminded me of when I was courting my future wife, a farmer's daughter, in the early 1960s. As a "townie", on a visit to my soon to be father-in-law in Derbyshire, I naively inquired as to the highly polished brass hook in the milking parlour. He informed me that it was where the AI man hung his trousers.

Tony Holgate

Lichfield, Staffs

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Tangles over tagging

Regarding flaws in the electronic tagging system for prisoners (“Seven hundred criminals refuse to wear ankle tags”, Oct 4), why aren’t these devices fitted in prison before an offender is released?

Martin Wilcock

Barlow, Derbyshire

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Difficulty accessing free social care

Rachel Mortimer is right to highlight the barriers to accessing care that is free at the point of use (business, Oct 4). NHS Continuing Healthcare in England is not means-tested, yet only about a fifth of standard applications succeed, and integrated care boards apply the national criteria differently. The application by the 81-year-old man in her article, who has dementia and cannot speak or move his limbs, was refused despite letters from two specialists, a GP and an occupational therapist. My husband, 96, who has severe dementia and other problems requiring 24-hour monitoring, was also turned down.

There is further unfairness. Someone in a nursing home who has been refused free care can still receive a flat-rate NHS contribution, while someone cared for at home by family and paid carers receives no NHS equivalent. Ministers need not wait for a national care service. They could ensure that the national framework is applied consistently and introduce a part-funded tier, particularly where people are cared for at home.

Lynn Hieatt

Cambridge

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Lessons on gender

Camilla Long's uneasiness about the promotion of gender issues to young children ("Marinate children in lies and victimhood and they will burn down their schools", comment, Oct 4) made me think of my daughter's experience. When she was in her last year of primary school she became proficient in reciting the many gender identities that are deemed to exist but, when asked, was unable to name the world's continents. Helen Jackson Woodgreen, Hants

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Slowcoach schemes

I disagree with Heathrow's chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, that his airport's expansion has been “Britain's great unfinished project” (business, Oct 4). What about HS2?

William Hutty

Bath

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Grass may be greener

I sympathise with the Green MP for North Herefordshire, Dr Ellie Chowns, who was elected on an environmental ticket (we remember all the election leaflets featuring flowers, meadows and wildlife). She now finds that her election platform has been undermined by the antics of Zack Polanski, the leader of the Greens, her party's infiltration by extreme left-wing elements and the "Zionism is racism" vote at its annual conference ("The left's dream of a 'progressive alliance' is a delusion", Oct 4). Surely Chowns, and the other Green MPs who voted against the Zionism motion, have no choice but to resign the whip and sit as independent MPs or, perhaps a better course of action, join the Liberal Democrats.

The Rev David Hewlett

Upper Maund, Herefordshire

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Homes for Ukraine

Last month the government announced it would cut funding for hosts in the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Monthly “thank you” payments will drop from £350 to £100 from January 1, putting Ukrainian refugees at risk of homelessness if their host is forced to charge them rent. It is a ruthless decision affecting people we promised shelter just a few years ago. Payouts should continue at the higher rate until its is safe for refugees to return home (“How Putin devastated the crucial steel plant in Zelensky’s home town”, thetimes.com, Oct 3). In 2022 our country took responsibility for these refugees. We should not deny them everything that we promised.

Jasper Mills

Sheffield

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Waiter's dancing skills

Your report “Novel Venice” (travel, Oct 4) reminded me of an incident many years ago when we ordered drinks on the balcony of a Venice hotel and the waiter appeared, closely preceded by a cockroach. With a swift double shuffle of his feet, the waiter dispatched the insect back to the kitchen without upsetting his tray of drinks and continued on his way.

Seymour Redstone

London SW15

NEWSPAPERS SUPPORT RECYCLING

The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2025 was 30%

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BIRTHDAYS

Cardi B, rapper, pictured, 34

Jonson Cox, chairman of the Port of London Authority, 70

Joan Cusack, actress, 64

Hollie Doyle, flat-racing jockey, 30

Dawn French, actress and comedian, 69

Paul Goldspring, senior district judge for England and Wales, 55

Daryl Hall, singer of Hall & Oates, 80

Lord Harris of Haringey, chairman of National Preparedness Commission, 73

Allan Little, broadcaster, 67

Andrew Logan, sculptor, 81

Rodney Marsh, England footballer, 82

John Nettles, actor, 83

Haitham, sultan of Oman, 71

Alan Pascoe, Olympic athlete, 79

Peter Thiel, entrepreneur, 59

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ANNIVERSARIES

1919 The first in-flight meals are served, on a Handley Page Transport flight from London to Paris

1974 Harold Wilson's Labour Party is declared to have won a second term in office, with only a three-seat majority in the general election

1982 The Mary Rose, the flagship of Henry VIII's navy, is raised from the bottom of the Solent. It sank in 1545

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CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS

Regulated

We wrongly reported that David Reuben had moved to Monaco over the summer (“Rich List’s No 2 billionaire moves to Monaco”, News, Oct 4). We have since learnt that we were given inaccurate information and Mr Reuben became a resident of Monaco more than a decade ago.

Send complaints concerning inaccuracies to complaints@sunday-times.co.uk. Ipso will also examine formal complaints about the editorial content of UK newspapers and magazines. Please go to our website for full details.

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The way we were

From The Sunday Times

October 10, 1926

Revival of royalism threatens to

unseat republic from the saddle

The future of Greece – republic or monarchy? by Walter Crawfurd Price

One of the most remarkable developments of the recent political crisis in Greece has been the sudden revival of royalism. During the last parliamentary period, which ended with the coup d'état engineered by General Pangalos in June 1925, the republic seemed to be firmly seated in the saddle. It was with the coming of General Kondylis and his splendid effort to restore parliamentarianism that the great constitutional issue was resurrected and shot unexpectedly into the forefront of Greek politics. For weeks, Athens has been absorbed by its possibilities. We may argue that the strength of royalism is being grossly exaggerated; but when such an ardent republican as Kondylis insists on proportional representation because he fears that the majority system might place the royalists in office, we are compelled to take it seriously.

Half the uncertainty of the present situation arises from the fact that the

The political consciousness of the Greeks is yet immature

electorate has never been offered a real chance to decide between the monarchy and the republic. Such changes as have taken place have been imposed upon them. King Constantine was dethroned by a body of exasperated officers. King George was expelled in similar fashion.

On November 11, Greece will experience the nearest approach to free and fair elections that she has known for a decade. In the important interview with General Kondylis, which appeared in last week's Sunday Times, the present head of the government put the case for the republic with considerable force. He stated, of course, only one side of a highly contentious question, and there are many who will profoundly disagree with the allegation that all the ills of Greek politics must be attributed to the malicious influence of her kings.

We British are equally democratic, yet we honour the throne and respect the King because they are symbols of state and empire, and jointly represent the stable factor around which our political firmament revolves. If this is desirable for us, it may be equally desirable for Greece. We are sometimes apt to forget that the Greeks have only known independence for a century. Their political education is yet incomplete; their political consciousness is yet immature. In these circumstances anything that makes for stability is a definite national asset, and it is possible that this would be better supplied by the throne than by the presidency. But the throne must be maintained high and dry above the welter of party politics. Constantine's chief error lay in not keeping it there.

COMMENT

Think the Jew-baiting Greens have peaked under Polanski? They're just getting started

NEWMAN'S VIEW

WINDSOR ROYAL LODGE CRISIS

t is difficult to overstate the importance of the changes taking place in British politics. On the one hand, there is Kemi Badenoch, Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe fighting like three eyeless, toothless old women over a huge, mercurial, John H. and Queen enraged demographic. On the other, there is simple chaos. The whole of the left is realigning itself with increasing speed, while trying to cull its weaker leaders.

There are two leadership challenges on the horizon: a plan to get rid of the Lib Dem leader Ed Davey, and it cannot be long before Zack Polanski – another lightweight – is sidelined by the Greens.

Polanski, a peculiar, flappy figure most famous for claiming he could enlarge women's breasts just by thinking about them, fatally lost a bye-election last week in London after he failed to stop his party passing a motion that in effect called for the extirpation of Israel.

To many people, this defeat is proof that the Green Party has now “peaked”. Phew: that was the immediate analysis. In fact, it has not peaked. It is just getting going. I’ve been watching it long enough to know that Polanski was the mere chrysalis. Soon we will see the full emergence of the Islamofascist moth.

If the BNP, another party defined by a racist lie, had won that many votes in any constituency, there would be riots

You do not spend a whole year signing up thousands of this country's most dedicated Jew haters only for them to go nowhere. Typical members now include Lubna Speitan, a “close friend” of an al-Qaeda terrorist, who last Sunday proposed the motion that Zionism is racism.

I watched as Speitan, a British-Palestinian artist, unveiled this motion in March, when various members of the old Green Party – people we would still recognise as “tree huggers” – tried to get it thrown out. She claimed that not tabling the motion was an “attack at democracy” and that the party wanted to “silence” her. She argued it was necessary to pass it because it recognised the “erasure” of her family and people.

What her motion in fact argued for was the erasure of the Jewish people.

To state that Zionism is an “ethnonationalist political project” is to officially reject it as a concept. It is to take away the Jews’ right to a homeland and, by extension, to endanger the lives of Jews themselves. To also agree that Zionists are racists, when you define almost everyone who doesn’t hate Jews as Zionist, is to invite hatred and anger not only on many ordinary Jews, but anyone who supports them.

There is no doubt this is what Speitan meant by it. To quote her: Zionists (or as I like to call them, Jews) must be “opposed”, “shunned” and “hunted in the same way that the Nazi oppressors were”. Anyone questioning her – well, they are the ones who are racists. That is what the left’s counterattack is: no, you’re the one who’s racist. Prove you aren’t – that is what they demand.

The Greens voted it in last Sunday.

The Greens voted it in last Sunday. It's strange having a fully fledged, fully funded racist party in our political line-up. It does not comfort me that in Holborn & St Pancras the Greens "only" got nearly 9,000 votes. If the British National Party, another party defined by a racist lie, had won that many votes in any constituency, there would be pandemonium. There would be riots. There wouldn't be amused, jocular analyses in all the main papers. Its leader wouldn't be ushered on to the Today programme as a senior

statesman for a light dressing down by Nick Robinson. He wouldn't be allowed to repeat propaganda as Polanski did (he sounded as if he was reading lines from a piece of paper). He wouldn't be greeted with a comical, indulgent shrug.

And if I were a Jew in Holborn, or anywhere, watching this, what would I now be thinking? I would be thinking: I now know precisely how many of my fellow constituents want to kill me. Is anyone doing anything to protect me from them? Just look at the recent hate crime statistics. Jews are now almost ten times more likely than Muslims to be the targets of a religious hate crime. So no one is stopping it. No one is even touching it. This is an unacceptable place for politics to have reached.

I do not see either of the main party leaders grasping the depth and severity of these cultural issues. Holborn itself was a portrait in apathy and casual

surrender. A failed Labour prime minister, Keir Starmer, tossed away his seat to a millennial Somali refugee who hasn't ever had a proper job, only for her to be effectively challenged by a gay Jew who has spent the past year bizarrely waving in people who may not support him either as a gay or a Jew.

Where is the rational voice here? How many people in that constituency felt they had to vote along religious or ethnic lines, rather than how we

usually vote, which is on the issues? As for Andy Burnham, what will he do about it? Two weeks ago he gave an assured and striking speech at the Labour Party conference. He paced. He wept. He spoke movingly about sewage. On the big topics, however – welfare and immigration – there was little. He admitted we'd lost “some of our control” of immigration, but this was mostly a result of Brexit. As for welfare, for Labour this is a limited, technical issue that will be solved when it overhauls the way we treat young people. No mention of the huge numbers of Labour voters who use welfare, or the fact that more people in this country now take out than put in, or the anger into which the country has descended as a direct result of failing to manage immigration. For the prime minister, the answer is simple: plumbing GCSE.

As for Kemi: a brilliant, glossy speech. Three ideas emerged. There was tax: the Conservatives would abolish inheritance tax on family homes, with a hint at further cuts. Then there was their immigration policy: there would be deportations, they said. Tackling small boats, and, of course, leaving the European convention on human rights. All very interesting. Where else have I seen such policies before, though? Dumping inheritance tax, deportations, the convention – they were all in Ukip's 2010 manifesto.

So this is where we stand now: the right pulling rightwards and backwards, the left pulling ever leftwards and forwards into riots and racial dystopia, while the politicians scrabble to keep up. Ten years ago it was accepted that it was the politicians who made things happen. Now it is the debates that are making policy. Currently, it is parties such as the Green Party that are the ones making those debates.

The BNP never managed to get 587 councillors elected, by the way. It never had full control of six whole councils. It never had two mayors, as the Greens have after May's local elections. In fact, Nick Griffin is a total failure, last seen in court in April, denying posting antisemitic content. The number of Greens so far accused of similar? More than 30, but the same hasn't happened to them.

Tom Calver Go figure

More tax rises are on the cards. But where does all the money go?

with his first budget looming, John Healey, bound by Labour's promise not to raise the big three taxes, will be contemplating how to raise dozens of smaller ones. But what about the the ledger?

As I wrote last week, if you include workplace pension contributions – counted as taxation in other nations – Brits are now taxed more than workers in most rich countries. As some of you pointed out, the problem is not just how much the government takes but what it does with it. Why do taxes have to rise in the first place?

The recent expansion of government spending is, by any international standard, extraordinary. Seven years ago government spending was a little over 40 per cent of GDP, and the British state looked almost as lean as America's (38 per cent). Today, at 46 per cent of GDP, our spending looks positively Danish (48 per cent).

With ageing populations, rising interest rates and intermittent spikes in energy costs, many western countries are in a fiscal bind. But Britain is unusual both in the scale of the jump in spending and in that it has experienced low growth at the same time. We can excuse the Polish government for its spending splurge because its economy is going gangbusters: real GDP per capita is up 20 per cent since 2019. Britain can boast nothing of the sort.

And in terms of value for money, the data is unequivocal: UK taxpayers are getting less back. First, a big slice of that extra public money is being used to pay the interest on our national debt, which has doubled from 1.7 per cent of GDP to 3.6 per cent in six years. That is £110bn a year of unavoidable fiscal waste.

Take off the debt interest, and then consider that spending on healthcare and pensions has been protected, the bill for out-of-work benefits has soared and defence spending has had to rise, and it is perhaps no wonder other parts of the public sector – courts, policing, transport and local government – do not feel the benefits of taxpayers' money. Anyone who has been near a court recently can attest to that: although crown court judges sit on more days

Debt interest, health and pensions squeeze all else

UK public spending by category, % of GDP

◆ Debt interest ◆ Health ◆ Welfare

◆ Defence ◆ Education ◆ Everything else

50%

1990 2000 2010 2020 2030

Everything else: social care, police, courts, transport, local government, public service pensions and investment.

Source: Office for Budget Responsibility

than in 2019, the number of cases closed has fallen, resulting in a backlog.

What of the parts of the state that have been well funded? Support for pensions remains strong, but recent polling by More in Common suggests the country is split on whether the present level of NHS spending is “sustainable”. More voters on the right think it isn’t – a position unthinkable a decade ago.

Economists are in agreement that the

NEWMAN'S VIEW

massive rise in NHS funding since the pandemic has not been followed by a rise in health productivity. The money has funded 37 per cent more doctors and 29 per cent more nurses, as well as sizeable pay rises for both, yet planned operations are up just 13 per cent and emergency admissions have barely moved. Healthcare productivity, according to the latest ONS measures, is 6 per cent below its pre-pandemic level.

This is not merely a feature of economic analysis. When Ipsos asked people in dozens of countries how they felt about their access to healthcare in 2018, Brits were among the most satisfied. In the years since, the NHS has suffered the biggest fall in ratings of any country surveyed.

The story is similar in policing: officer numbers have recovered from their austerity low, but satisfaction with their ability to solve crime has fallen.

Improving public sector productivity is one of the greatest challenges for a country. Tony Blair once joked that two years of trying to reform the state left scars on his back. One good explanation for our present woes is that British services need a prolonged period of investment in kit – we have remarkably few MRI scanners and hospital beds, for example – to become more productive. But I think recently a particular feature of government spending has exacerbated our disgruntlement. The typical country spends 30 per cent of state money in regional, devolved or local government. In Britain the proportion has plummeted since the 2000s and now stands at 20 per cent.

In other words, Britain's public money is increasingly spent out of sight and out of mind: more on public sector wages and debt interest, and too little on the NHS scanners, roads and courts you can actually see. Andy Burnham's promised “devolution revolution”, which will let mayors keep a share of income tax raised in their areas, may bring some of that spending back into view. But seeing the money is not the same as getting value for it: just look at Birmingham, Europe's biggest council, which declared itself effectively bankrupt in 2023. The question is not who spends the money but what it buys: we have funded a Danish state, but are still waiting for Danish services.

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THE TIMES

THE SUNDAY TIMES

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE JUMBO CROSSWORD 548

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Across

1 The Den is the home ground of \_\_\_\_ football club, currently in the EFL Championship (8)

5 Singer with UK No 1 albums in all of the last five decades (5,7)

13 British toy brand whose vehicle models included a Yellow Submarine in 1969 (5)

14 Actress, nominated for an Oscar for her role in True Grit (2010) (6,9)

15 Drink made using grapes frozen on the vine, still frozen when pressed (7)

16 Proverbially, this is the best form of defence (6)

17 \_\_\_\_ surgery involves the rerouting of a tubular body part (6)

18 Substance traditionally used to treat cricket bats (7,3)

20 Device put in front of some locomotives, to deflect dangerous obstacles on the track (10)

22 Chichen Itza was built in this Mexican region (7)

24 \_\_\_\_ is used to determine the age of organic materials (6,6)

27 Shape of an Australian rules football field (4)

28 Star of The Kumars at No 42, made a dame in 2026 (5,4)

30 Literary sea captain appearing in The Mysterious Island (4)

33 England batsman on the 1950 FA Cup final's winning side (5,7)

35 Role for Roger Lloyd Pack in Only Fools and Horses (7)

41 Drinks container with a wide, open top (6)

46 \_\_'s Rod is a DH Lawrence novel about an amateur flautist (5)

48 Comedian Chris Morris created this 1997 satirical current affairs TV series (5,3)

FEEDBACK

Comments about our puzzles can be sent to puzzle.feedback@sunday-times.co.uk or Puzzles Editor, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

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Down

1 Actress who starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Wicked (8,4)

2 Stieg \_\_\_\_ wrote the first three novels in the Millennium crime series (7)

3 Zadie Smith's debut novel, published in 2000 (5,5)

4 Lindsay \_\_\_\_ played both twins in The Parent Trap (1998) (5)

6 \_\_\_\_ Cooper is the secretary of state for health and social care (6)

7 A less common name for entomology (11)

8 Claude \_\_\_\_ founded a famous champagne house in 1743 (4)

9 Critical term describing an overprotective government (5,5)

10 Activist named Time Person of the Year in 2019 (5,8)

12 Another name for ascorbic acid (7,1)

19 Actor who won an Oscar for his role in Cocoon (1985) (3,6)

21 A \_\_\_\_ was often on The Generation Game's conveyor belt (6,3)

23 Cut of steak named after a French author (13)

25 "Blow me about in winds, \_ me in sulphur" (Othello) (5)

26 In 2026, Tadei Pogcar won the \_ for the fifth time (4.2.6).

23 In 2020, Tadej Fogacar won the \_\_\_\_ for the fifth time (1,2,6)

29 Scientist played by Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future (6,5)

31 Miles Davis's \_\_\_\_(1959) is widely seen as one of the all-time best jazz albums (4,2,4)

32 BBC sci-fi detective series named after a David Bowie song (4,2,4)

36 Body of water with a very limited tidal range (5,3)

39 The "heads" side of a coin (7)

40 Entertainer who hosts the Drag Race franchise (6)

43 A \_\_\_\_ pipe (example pictured) is made from the root burl of a plant similar to heather (5)

44 Vega is the brightest star in this constellation (4)

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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.

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CELL BLOCKS

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.

KILLER SUDOKU MODERATE

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SUDOKU

WARM-UP

Each row, column and 3x3 box must contain digits 1-9. Winner receives The Bumper Book of Sudoku, 20th anniversary edition, and two other Sudoku books.

Closes 23.59 on Saturday. UK & ROI, 18+ only. To enter, complete the Very Hard puzzle and call 0901 292 5275 (UK only) (ROI 1516 303 500), leaving your answer (the numbers in the three shaded squares) and contact details, OR text SUNDAY2, followed by a space, your answer (three numbers) and contact details — eg SUNDAY2 123 John Smith, etc — to 64343 (UK only).

OR enter online at thetimes.com/puzzles/sudoku (Times subscription required) OR by post to Very Hard Sudoku, The Sunday Times, PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GZ. Calls cost £1 (ROI €1.50) plus your telephone company's network access charge. Texts cost £1 plus your mobile network's access charge. Winners will be picked at random from all valid entries. When entering by phone or text, please provide your FULL name and address, as incomplete entries may be charged but not entered. Your information will be used to administer this promotion and otherwise in accordance with our privacy policy at newsprivacy.co.uk. Full Ts&Cs apply. | 7 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 15 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 8 5 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 18 | 2 | 37 | 7 | ---

VERY HARD — PRIZE 1713

STUCK? Call our clue line to get four clues for the Very Hard puzzle on 0901 293 6265 (ROI 1514 515 120). Calls cost £1 (ROI 76c) plus your telephone company's network access charge. For full terms and conditions, visit the times.co.uk/ts&cs/sudoku. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (ROI 0818 205 403) Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm

Each row, column and 3x3 box must contain the digits 1 to 9. The digits within each group of cells joined by dotted lines must add up to the figure in the top-left-hand corner of each group. Within each dotted-line group, a digit cannot be repeated.

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POLYGON

From these letters, make words of four 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 18 words, average; 24, good; 34, very good; 44, excellent.

CONCISE CROSSWORD 2012

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Across

1 Light (10)

7 Right (5)

8 Fight (7)

10 Free golf shot (8)

12 Steering apparatus (4)

13 Cement smoother (6)

15 Historic bathhouse (6)

17 Assignment (4)

18 Entry ringer (8)

21 Germ-free (7)

22 Smell (5)

23 Referendum (10)

Down

1 Hopefully (2,3,4,4)

2 Grid (7)

3 Coffee house option (5)

4 Taboo act (2-2)

5 Formally, earlier in text (13)

6 Skin inflammation (10)

9 Clowning (10)

11 Arrest (3)

14 Boy (3)

16 Not analytic (1,6)

19 Follows (5)

20 Member (4)

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MEPHISTO 3450

Post your solution to The Sunday Times Mephisto 3450, PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ, or email puzzle.entries@sunday-times.co.uk

The first correct solution picked at random after next Saturday wins Collins World Atlas: Complete Edition, worth £30. The next four will receive £20 Waterstones gift vouchers. Open to 18+ UK & ROI residents only.

The Chambers Dictionary 13th edition is the primary reference. Readers may email comments or queries to Paul McKenna at paul.auctor@gmail.com

Paul McKenna

NAME

ADDRESS ....

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Across

1 Upright character starts to nod cynically about old language (4)

4 With Jags aplenty goof admitted to being stuffed? (8)

10 Main award for bravery initially awarded in the afternoon (7, two words)

12 Pukka Asian channel getting divided and replaced (4)

13 Seem upset about core of clergy rising to the upper stratum? (6)

14 What we hope to do to weeds is completely rash, as it was (6)

15 Outside broadcast delayed a dedicated soul (6)

16 Pure class act reproduced big shows (12)

19 American's behind slightly novel idea for family of foxes, say (7)

21 11th Cavalry Regiment's reinforced again in stiff hour out (7)

25 Nationalist in running as usual with true freak (12, two words)

26 Naff trick turned short (6)

28 I'm spinning extra clause without depth – it's more muddy (6)

29 Male means to govern hoc loco (6)

30 Port is a hotbed of debauchery (4)

31 Tightly tie up an ornamental plant (7)

32 Mags in ruin – that's to say taken in by what borders on gross (8)

33 Incline snare backwards close to ground (4)

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Down

1 Rare businessman spurning transactions containing fossil bits (8)

2 Detective thus turned up carrying boxes (6)

3 Honour surrounding prize for each person (6)

4 Positions of responsibility from new Persian hosts (12)

5 Admit couple mostly needling old uncle (7)

6 Exuberant Cuban's tour I'm starting (12)

7 Absolute fool trimmed pasta (6)

8 Fern? A miserable specimen from the south (4)

9 One right to leave Spenser's gloom for Scots to bear (4)

11 Sort out a soul's broken pottery (7)

17 Sets that decorate parish stable top to bottom (7)

18 Distinguished secretary felt great compassion for Spenser (8)

20 A passé composition about American who goes about skyclad (7)

22 River and lake with small blackbirds in quaint way (6)

23 One swears about published projection (6)

24 Well, in France not quite finished packing clear turnover (6)

26 Criminal about to leg it caught easily (4)

27 Some war correspondents bow (4)

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CROSSWORD 5237

Robert Price

NAME

ADDRESS ....

......

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TETONOR HARD

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CODEWORD

STUCK? To get four random extra letter clues, call 0901 293 6266 (ROI 1514 415128) or text STCLUE to 64343 (UK only). Calls cost £1 (ROI 75c) plus your telephone company's network access charge. Texts cost £1 plus your standard network charge. SP: Spoke, 0333 202 3390 (ROI 0818 205 403) (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm).

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KENKEN

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Across

All the digits 1 to 6 must appear in every row and column. In each thick-line “block”, the target number in the top left-hand corner is calculated from the digits in all the cells in the block, using the operation indicated by the symbol.

1 Crime close to cricket grounds (7)

5 BNP leader organises marches (7)

9 Helping save the last 5 per cent, say (5)

10 Spread made from sea fish parts (9)

11 Subtlety is not shown in irritation (6)

12 Common criminal goes before showing remorse (8)

14 The BBC putting out a release (5)

15 Special forces, fitting in relaxation, briefly recover (9)

18 Island church admits error defending pride (9)

20 Moving around a prison (5)

22 Race winners drew late criticism (4,4)

24 Love drug in bottles? (6)

26 Crude publicity one university writer has (9)

27 Upper class in crime literature (5)

28 Any number a mathematician keeps changing (7)

29 Claret's fabulous colour (7)

The first correct solution opened after next Saturday wins a collection of reference books — The Times Reference Atlas of the World, Collins English Dictionary & Thesaurus, and Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary, published by HarperCollins. Three runners-up win the Collins English Dictionary & Thesaurus. Post solutions to: The Sunday Times Crossword 5237, PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GZ, or email: puzzle.entries@sunday-times.co.uk. Open to 18+ UK & ROI residents only.

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Down

1 Spinning beast is leaving a naturalist dizzy (9)

2 Cutting more crust at the sides (7)

3 Drink, say, accompanying good food (6,3)

4 Stupefied maiden's broken heart (4)

5 Ill-treated prior fed by Merlin, perhaps (4,2,4)

6 Pan put in the oven (5)

7 Energy provided in risky unfinished building (7)

8 Britpop band did rock vocal (5)

13 Shortening time on course by acting badly (10)

16 Really a time of popular music or drama (4,5)

17 Most effective society got rents changed (9)

19 Back receiving pass could be better prepared (7)

21 Minor hearing about sex (7)

22 Drank heavily around bus station (5)

23 Country hotel fine to host relations (5)

25 Latest letters from Greece to an auditor (4)

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CLUE WRITING CONTEST 2146: COMPOSING STICK

You are invited to write a clue for the word above, in our cryptic crossword style. The best entry selected after next Saturday wins a £25 Waterstones voucher. Email your entry to puzzle.entries@sunday-times.co.uk.

Winner 2144: Nina Brickwood, Banstead, Surrey Buttonhole: Bluetooth network's first redesigned bud that fastens to lapel

For a full report, visit thesundaytimes.co.uk/cluewriting

The Sunday Times October 11, 2026

COMMENT

Jeremy Clarkson Returning to the UK after a 28-year walk? I'd explore other options

ver the years, there were many memorable guests on Top Gear. Tom Cruise. Margot Robbie. Will Smith. And, of course, Sir Michael Gambon. But anyone involved in the production of that show will tell you that by far the

most memorable of them all was Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

He told us about how he'd sawn his own fingers off because they were annoying him, and how, one day, he climbed out of a post-expedition bath to find his toes were still in there. And after he'd explained why seatbelts were dangerous, there was a fantastic story about how, when he was in the SAS, he stole explosives so that he could blow up a dam that had been built by Twentieth Century Fox so they could make Doctor Dolittle.

Ordinarily, we gave the guests eight or ten minutes of screen time but there was no way we could cut Ran's incredible interview down to anything like that. So I asked the audience for guidance. Did they want us to show a planned road test of a new Renault Clio, or did they think we should run Ran longer than usual? The Clio went in the bin and we ran him long. Seventeen minutes long. It's the longest interview in Top Gear history and if you watch it on the iPlayer, you can see why.

I've actually known Ran all my adult life. My mum and he became friends when she made a soft toy incarnation of his dog, Bothie. And that's why I've been sad over the past few weeks to learn of his current problems. But there's more to it than that. A man like that should not be in a bloody care home.

The idea of him sitting there doing beetle drives and eating fish fingers fills me with despair. He should be out in the woods, blowing shit up and roasting a bear over a fire he started using nothing but his own ear lobes. I love all explorers and expeditionists. I've just ordered a copy of a book about Vilhjalmur Stefansson, a Canadian-Icelandic 19th centuryist who was described in The Times last month as a dashing Arctic explorer who was also a lying narcissist. He'd endlessly get his fellow travellers into trouble, say he was going off to find a caribou for supper and then effing off home. On one trip, they tried to stay alive eating seagulls but eventually one of them became so hungry he ate his own beard.

To get to this level of desperation, we have to assume he must have eaten his own shoe leather first, and he must also have exhausted his supply of ejaculate. Because when you reach the point where you decide to eat your own face fungus, you have to know that all you

Karl Bushby had to swim home after his walk around the world because he was refused permission to walk through the Channel tunnel have left are your pubes. This level of self-preservation fascinates me.

My favourite explorers, though, are those who operated in “darkest Africa” in the late 19th century. Speke. Burton. And even Stanley. I want, more than anything, before my dying day, to do a proper documentary on the greatest of all the Victorian explorers, David Livingstone, because I have never, in my life, uncovered a story to rival it.

Until now.

Last week we read about a former soldier called Karl Bushby who has spent the past 28 years walking round the world. He left his mother's house in Hull in 1998 and, pushing a homemade wheelbarrow full of useful things, walked up the entire 17,000-mile west coast of the Americas from southern Chile to Alaska. From there, he walked – with his wheelbarrow – across the frozen Bering Strait to Russia. And then he walked across that into Europe before finally, last week, arriving back in England.

Apparently, in due course, there will be a Netflix documentary about his endeavours but I doubt it will be able to cover the scale of what he's done. Because when he set off, Netflix barely existed. And he couldn't even film what he was doing on his phone, because in the early days of his trip, phones didn't have a video feature.

Of course, you may be thinking that you wouldn't watch anyway because walking round the world might be a bit boring. I mean, you just put one foot in front of the other and you keep doing that until the phone boxes become beige again. However, to get from Colombia to Panama, he had to cross the Darién Gap, and I bet that wasn't boring at all.

Every year, when I was making travel programmes, someone would invariably suggest we try to get across this

Ranulph should not be in a care home. He should be blowing stuff up

mosquito-ridden swamp that's full of crocodiles and violent drug-crazed warlords. And every year, we were told by everyone, including a guy who's won the off-road Camel Trophy about a hundred times, “it's impossible”. Even AI says it's impossible. Everyone says it's impossible. There is no road. There are no tracks. Even to this day, Colombia and Panama are still cut off from one another. But Karl did it. On foot, with nothing but a wheelbarrow.

And there's more. As he approached the Caspian Sea, things were going a bit pear-shaped. He couldn't skirt it to the north because that would mean going into Russia and then into Ukraine. And he couldn't head south because that's Iran. When he set off, both those routes were options, but by the time he got there, neither was. To reach Azerbaijan, then, he had to swim across all 186 miles of it. So he did. It took 31 days.

And what fascinates me most about all of this is that his original plan was to walk back into Britain through the Channel tunnel. But the health and safety managers said that it would be too dangerous, so he had to swim to Dover instead. And I bet, as he did that, he was wondering what on earth had happened to this country while he was gone. I also bet that if he was Ranulph Fiennes, he'd have responded by blowing it up.

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TEASER 3342

Andrew Gibbons

One Dart Wonder

Andy and Beth play a game of darts in which each turn consists of a single dart. They use a standard dartboard where you can score any number from 1 to 20, as well

as double or treble that number. Scores of 25 and 50 are also possible. Each single-dart score (SDS) will count only if it does not repeat a previous score by either player and if it has no digit in common with the opponent's preceding SDS. Every turn, other than the final one, must attempt the highest available valid SDS. Each player must start with a double other than a bullseye (50), and the winner must finish with a double.

In a game where the first to reach a total of 501 wins, Andy started and each player achieved the required SDS every turn.

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Who won, and what was the loser's total at that point?

Send your solution to: The Sunday Times Teaser 3342, PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ or email puzzle.entries@sunday-times.co.uk. The first two correct solutions opened after next Saturday each win a £20 Waterstones voucher. Open to 18+ UK & ROI residents only.

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CHESS David Howell

Looking back, this year's Olympiad was anything but ordinary. The largest edition in history produced plenty of surprises, both on and off the board. For the first time in decades, FIDE's presidential election was genuinely competitive, with billionaire Timur Turlov prevailing after a second round of voting.

Meanwhile, Uzbekistan became one of the few nations to win Olympiad gold on home soil. China won the Women's Olympiad despite four of their top rated players being absent.

Amid all the drama, there was no shortage of unusual chess. One endgame in particular caught my eye: four pawns against a rook.

White: Radoslav Dimitrov Black: Casper Schoppen FIDE Chess Olympiad, Samarkand 2026

Which side would you pick? White's pawns, or Black's extra rook? 50 e6 Dimitrov wastes no time in advancing his pawn phalanx. 50...Rd1+ 51 Ke3 Re1+ 52 Kf2 Re5 53 Rc8+ Ke7 54 Kg3 Ra4 55 c4 Rg5+ 56 Kf2 There are many hidden tactics:

56 Kf4? Rxd5. 56...Rf5 57 Rc7+ Kd6 58 Rd7+ Kc5 59 e7 Ra2+ 60 Ke3 Re5+ 61 Kf4 The king must navigate a narrow path. 61 Kd3? Ra3+ 62 Kd2 Kd4! weaves a mating net: 63 d6 Ra2+ 64 Kd1 Kd3, with mate to follow.

61...Rae2 62 d6 Re6 63 Rd8 Rf6+ 64 Kg4 Rg2+ 65 Kh3 Rg7 The black rooks co-ordinate just in time to threaten the famous “lawnmower” mate.

66 Rh8 Rxf3+ 67 Kh4 67 Kh2 Rf2+ leads to perpetual check.

67...Rf1 White’s king seems doomed. There is a saving resource, however. 68 Rh5+!

Kxd6 The king could have chosen a different direction, but White’s rook would have prevented any mates: 68...Kb4 69 Rg5. 69 e8N+ Not the promotion White wanted, but a tempo-gaining check at least.

69...Kc6 70 Nxg7 Rh1+ 71 Kg5 Rxh5+! Schoppen had foreseen that he can eliminate White’s final pawn. 72 Kxh5 Kc5 73 Nf5 Kxc4 Draw by insufficient material

Spot the Move 1553:

Black to play.

Send your solution (first move only), to Sunday Times Spot the Move 1553, The Sunday Times, PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ, or email to puzzle.entries@sunday-times.co.uk. The first correct answer drawn after next Saturday wins a £20 Waterstones voucher. Open to 18+ UK & ROI residents only.

Flores Quillas-Sindarov, Samarkand 2026. Black has sacrificed his queen to chase the enemy king up the board. What is the fastest path to victory?

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BRIDGE

Sally Brock

The West London Gay Bridge Club is rapidly becoming an institution in London. They run a weekly duplicate at TGR's in Paddington on a Monday, but also the occasional Swiss Pairs and a Swiss Teams in St Gabriel's Church Hall in Pimlico. These are great fun. At the end there is free food and drink for everyone and people stand around inside and out (weather permitting) talking about the hands and whatever else takes their fancy. For further details contact David King (davidking1712@gmail.com; 07967 655515).

This year I played in the Swiss Pairs with David Burn. I can't say we performed with any great distinction but I thought he did well on this deal: | West | North | East | South | 1♠ | Pass | 2♣ | 2♥ | 2NT | Pass | 3♠ | Pass | 4♠ | All Pass | Neither vul, Dealer South

Luckily the defence did not start with diamonds, for then we would have been one down, but even on a heart lead to the ace and another heart, declarer wanted to beat the 430 he knew that the declarers in 3NT would score.

David opened one spade and I responded two clubs. East joined in with two hearts and David rebid two no-trumps. Maybe I should have simply raised to three no-trumps, but I foolishly showed my spade support and there we were, in the wrong game!

What should declarer do? It looked right to draw trumps, but when they broke 5-0 it was time to think a little bit harder. In the event he carried on with trumps, discarding diamonds from the dummy. What should East discard? In the event he threw three diamonds and two hearts. Now David cashed his other heart winner, and the king of clubs, and exited with a diamond. This was the position:

East was endplayed and had to lead a club for declarer. Eleven tricks and an excellent score.

The best way to improve your bridge is to play with an expert. If you are interested in online playing sessions with Sally, email her at sally@sallybrock.net.

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LAST WEEK'S SOLUTIONS

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GENERAL KNOWLEDGE JUMBO CROSSWORD 547

Across: 1 Robots, 5 Pongo, 8 Fujiyama, 12 Escalier, 13 Writer's block, 14 An Audience With, 15 In situ, 16 Generative pre-trained, 19 Blue, 20 Katsu curry, 23 Sark, 25 Santander, 26 Irene Cara, 28 Scar, 30 Apotheosis, 31 PETA, 33 The Land Of Make Believe, 37 Geneva, 38 Where Is The Love, 40 Didier Drogba, 41 Aperitif, 42 Déclassé, 43 Yield, 44 Diesel

Down: 2 Orson Welles, 3 Otaku, 4 Scimitar, 5 Paranoid android, 6 Nowhere, 7 Olivier, 8 Flesh, 9 Jessica Hynes, 10 Yeltsin, 11 Mock-Tudor, 17 Eleanor, 18 Three Mile Island, 21 Sarah, 22 Cairo, 23 Shar Pei, 24 Kamala Harris, 27 Active voice, 29 Catherine, 32 Beth Mead, 34 Ezekiel, 35 Free Guy, 36 Average, 38 Warne, 39 Loire

SUDOKU WARM-UP

CODEWORD | 9 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 8 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 7 |

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SUDOKU 1712

KENKEN | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 | ---

KILLER SUDOKU | 12×1 | 2 | 15+4 | 5 | 6 | 9÷3 | 6 | 3÷5 | 2 | 1÷4 | 3 | 1 | 9+5 | 8+4 | 1 | 14+3 | 2÷2 | 15+6 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6×2 | 6 | 3 | 4÷1 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1÷5 | 6 | 2÷4 | 2 | TETONOR | 4 | 8 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 92 | 32 | 144 | 24 | 46 | x | 2 | 5 | + | 27 | 24 | x | 6 | 6 | + | 18 | 39 | 176 | 27 | 160 | 35 | + | 4 | 16 | x | 11 | 16 | + | 11 | 2 | x | 80 | 140 | 26 | 135 | 82 | 35 | x | 4 | 13 | + | 13 | 27 | x | 5 | 2 | + | 80 | 30 | 169 | 48 | 108 | 6 | + | 24 | 13 | x | 13 | 46 | + | 2 | 18 | x | 6 | TODAY'S SOLUTIONS

Across: 1 Epacris, 6 Amnia, 11 Prehuman, 12 Alemtuzumab, 13 Dian, 14 Drumble, 15 Espial, 17 Tutty, 19 Banausic, 21 Cardamum, 26 Tales, 28 Jabiru, 29 Isochor, 31 Loon, 32 Capriccioso, 33 Polonise, 34 Laded, 35 Wangler Down: 1 Epideictical, 2 Praise, 3 Chenix, 4 Rum baba, 5 Sauron, 7 Muumuu, 8 Nimb, 9 In alt, 10 Abbeycounter, 16 Pirl, 18 Tshi, 20 Amation, 22 Decree, 23 Moo-cow, 24 Oblong, 25 Broose, 27 Asana, 30 Oped

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MEPHISTO 3449

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CROSSWORD 5236

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TEASER 3341

SAKURO

Winners Crossword 5235 A Neville, Fleet, Hampshire, P Hartley, Seafood, East Sussex, C Hayne, Preston, Lancashire, N Pashley, Bromley, Greater London Mephisto 3448 T Pollitt, Harefield, Greater London, A Harker, Oxford, J Jones, London WC2, P Knight, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, A Redpath, Abreader Teaser 3340 J Martis, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, N Michael, Nailsea, Somerset Chess 1551 R Bevington, Thorney, Cambridgeshire Sudoku 1711 K Donovan, Chepstow, Monmouthshire

Across: 1 Forked lightning, 9 Balding, 10 On a roll, 11 Eats, 12 Centre half, 13 Clobber, 15 Solomon, 17 Insular, 19 Borough, 20 Serpentine, 22 Stop, 25 Edifice, 26 As a rule, 27 The Marseillaise Down: 1 Fibre, 2 Relations, 3 Exit, 4 Legwear, 5 Glottis, 6 Traveller, 7 Ixora, 8 Goldfinch, 13 Crib sheet, 14 Ballerina, 16 Mount Fuji, 18 Rotters, 19 Bengali, 21 Raise, 23 Piece, 24 Hail

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SPOT THE MOVE 1552

1...Bxf2+! wins: 2 Kh1 (2 Rxf2 Qxd1+ or 2 Kxf2 fxe4+) 2...fxe4 3 Rxd7 e3 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 4 | ---

CONCISE CROSSWORD 2011

Across: 1 Hercule Poirot, 8 Spectacle, 9 Rogue, 10 Resettled, 12 Era, 13 Nook, 14 Loki, 17 Tug, 19 Parasites, 20 Spawn, 21 Inanimate, 23 Flying saucers Down: 1 Hoarse, 2 Rough-and-ready, 3 Unserious, 4 Even so, 5 Oat, 6 Recalcitrance, 7 Trendy, 11 Trousseau, 15 Spliff, 16 Steals, 18 Ganges, 22 Inn

accelerate, accra, accrete, acer, acetal, acre, alerce, caecal, calcrete, carat, care, caret, carl, cart, carte, cartel, cater, cecal, celt, cere, cereal, cert, claret, clart, clear, cleat, crate, create, creel, écarté, éclat, elect, erect, lace, lacerate, race, react, recce, rectal, talc, terce, tercel, trace, treacle

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POLYGON

WEATHER AROUND THE WORLD | Amsterdam | 15C | sh | Athens | 25 | th | Auckland | 22 | sh | Bangkok | 27 | th | Barcelona | 20 | f | Beijing | 27 | s | Belgrade | 13 | sh | Berlin | 11 | sh | Bogota | 17 | sh | Boston | 17 | sh | Brussels | 15 | f | Budapest | 17 | f | Buenos Aires | 17 | sh | Cairo | 30 | f | Calgary | 3 | sl | Cape Town | 24 | s | Caracas | 25 | th | Casablanca | 25 | sh | Chicago | 25 | sh | Dubai | 33 | s | Dublin | 15 | f | Geneva | 16 | f | Gibraltar | 24 | sh | Guatemala | 25 | th | Helsinki | 9 | sh | Hong Kong | 27 | f | Istanbul | 24 | f | Jersey | 16 | sh | Johannesburg | 29 | f | La Paz | 17 | sh | Lagos | 28 | th | Lima | 23 | s | Lisbon | 25 | f | London | 16C | f | Los Angeles | 24 | sh | Madrid | 23 | f | Mexico City | 23 | th | Miami | 31 | th | Moscow | 13 | sh | Nairobi | 25 | sh | New Delhi | 35 | s | New Orleans | 31 | sh | New York | 18 | r | Oslo | 5 | sh | Panama | 29 | th | Paris | 14 | sh | Prague | 13 | f | Rio de Janeiro | 29 | th | Rome | 25 | f | San Francisco | 16 | s | Santiago | 20 | th | Seoul | 27 | f | Seychelles | 28 | th | Singapore | 29 | th | Stockholm | 10 | sh | Sydney | 25 | s | Tel Aviv | 27 | th | Tenerife | 22 | sh | Tokyo | 28 | s | Toronto | 16 | sh | Trinidad | 29 | th | Tunis | 27 | f | Venice | 21 | sh | Vienna | 16 | f | Warsaw | 14 | f | Washington DC | 18 | th | Key c=cloud, dr=drizzle, ds=dust storm, f=fair, fg=fog, g=gales, h=hail, m=mist, r=rain, sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, th=thunder, w=windy

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EUROPE

● A dry day with sunny spells over Portugal, Spain, Turkey and the Mediterranean islands

\- Mainly dry with sunny spells and a few isolated showers across France, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland

• Some dry and sunny periods but most of the day will be cloudy with outbreaks of rain in Greece, the Balkans,

Romania, Hungary, Croatia and western Ukraine

● Dry, warm and sunny over Moldova and eastern Ukraine

● Sunny spells and a scattering of blustery showers across Germany, Austria, Poland, the Low Countries, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, southern Scandinavia, the Baltic states and southern Finland

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SUN, STREET LIGHTS & MOON | Sun rises | Sun sets/ lights on | Lights off | Moon rises | Moon sets | Aberdeen | 07:33 | 18:16 | 07:35 | 08:51 | 17:49 | Belfast | 07:45 | 18:35 | 07:47 | 08:58 | 18:15 | Birmingham | 07:26 | 18:22 | 07:27 | 08:34 | 18:06 | Bristol | 07:27 | 18:26 | 07:29 | 08:34 | 18:12 | Cardiff | 07:30 | 18:28 | 07:31 | 08:37 | 18:15 | Cork | 07:51 | 18:49 | 07:53 | 09:00 | 18:35 | Dublin | 07:44 | 18:38 | 07:46 | 08:55 | 18:21 | Glasgow | 07:40 | 18:27 | 07:42 | 08:55 | 18:03 | London | 07:17 | 18:16 | 07:19 | 08:24 | 18:02 | Manchester | 07:28 | 18:22 | 07:30 | 08:39 | 18:04 | Newcastle | 07:28 | 18:17 | 07:30 | 08:41 | 17:56 | Norwich | 07:13 | 18:09 | 07:15 | 08:21 | 17:53 | Plymouth | 07:32 | 18:33 | 07:34 | 08:38 | 18:22 |

Under our darkest early evening skies, the Milky Way may be glimpsed flowing upwards in the S through the large Summer Triangle formed by the bright stars Deneb in the constellation Cygnus, Vega in Lyra and Altair in Aquila. The more compact Square of Pegasus is inclined at 45 deg in the E with Saturn, non-twinkling, almost 30 deg below its centre. Alan Pickup

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TODAY'S WEATHER

UK and Ireland forecast

Mostly dry with plenty of sunshine and areas of cloud over central, northern and eastern England, northern Wales, Scotland and the north of Ireland. A band of cloud and rain will spread across Ireland and into southern Wales and southwestern England. Mainly light westerly winds, but moderate to fresh south or southeasterly winds over Ireland and southwestern Britain

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REGIONAL FORECASTS

London, SE England

Dry with sunny spells. Light westerly winds. Max 16C. Tonight, mainly dry. Min 8C

Midlands, E England

Dry with plenty of sunshine. Light westerly winds. Max 15C. Tonight, rain later. Min 7C

Channel Is, SW and Cent S England, S Wales

Mainly dry and cloudy with some light rain. Light to moderate southerly winds. Max 16C. Tonight, showery rain. Min 9C N Wales, NW England, Isle of Man

Sunny spells and isolated showers. Light westerly winds, turning southerly. Max 15C. Tonight, showery rain Min 5C Cent N and NE England

Dry with plenty of sunshine. Light westerly winds. Max 15C. Tonight, mainly dry. Min 4C

Mainly dry with sunny spells and a few isolated showers. Light and variable winds. Max 13C. Tonight, mainly dry. Min 2C N Ireland, Republic of Ireland

Dry in the north, otherwise cloudy with rain. Moderate southeasterly winds. Max 15C. Tonight, showery rain. Min 10C

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THE WEEK AHEAD

Monday

Rather cloudy and mild with showery rain moving east.

Max 19C

Tuesday

Mild in England,

otherwise it will be

a day of rain and

showers. Max 22C

Thursday

A band of cloud and rain spreading eastwards.

Max 21C

Friday

A fresher day with

sunny spells and

showers.

Max 15C

Wednesday

Mainly dry and

sunny but showers

in the northwest.

Max 19C

Saturday

A few showers in the north and east, otherwise dry.

Max 15C

AUDEMARS PIGUET

Le Brassus

SPORTS NEWSPAPER OF

Fighting spirit

Bentancur sent off for headbutt... but earns a kiss from his manager after Spurs rescue vital point, pages 2-3

Rodrigo Bentancur was shown a red card for this clash with Luke Shaw, only 12 minutes after coming on

Carrick: It hurts a lot to be booed by United fans

Charlotte Duncker

Michael Carrick was “hurt a lot” by the Manchester United fans who booed his team after their 1-1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur.

Roberto De Zerbi's side were down to ten men and came from a goal behind to earn a point at Old Trafford through a 92nd-minute Dominic Solanke strike, meaning United still have just one Premier League win this season and sit 12th in the table after six games.

The home supporters had booed their side at half-time after a poor opening 45 minutes and more boos met the full-time whistle.

“Obviously, it hurts, you know, it hurts a lot,” Carrick, the United head coach, said. “It’s not nice to go through, but sometimes you have to go through it – that’s how it is, you know.

"I care as much as anybody about this place, sometimes you could say too much, because then it overspills. But it's coming from a good place, really, and so I understand it.

“I thought the players dealt with it well, to be honest, and used it coming out especially in the second half.”

It is the third time under Carrick that United have failed to come away with a win when the opposition has been reduced to ten men.

It happened against Newcastle United last season and against Manchester City before the international break, and he admitted that his team need to be better at getting over the line.

“It’s definitely something where, ten men or not ten men, if we’re ahead in the game, we’ve got to see games out,” he said. “Certainly, we need to improve that.”

The 45-year-old will be hoping for a reaction from his side when they turn their attention to the Champions League, with a fixture against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday night, before a trip to Elland Road to face Leeds United next weekend, and there is an acceptance United must improve if they are to pick up victories.

Carrick said: “We’ve just got to all help each other be better, and it’s on me to help them and guide them through it.”

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What now for Man City?

• Martin Samuel Punish them but don't put them out of business pages 4-5 • Try fest 118 points as Northampton beat Bath in record-breaker pages 12-13

• Lessons from the Juventus scandal pages 6-7
• Alyson Rudd

Liverpool's task

against them

today page 7

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Two great interviews

• Alice Kinsella Meet the mum making a trailblazing gymnastics return pages10-11

• Ollie Robinson I've got the best figures for 100 years pages 14-15

Great promise for Spurs Great worries for United

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1-1

Manchester United

Mbeumo 73

Tottenham Hotspur

Solanke 90+2

JAMES

GHEERBRANT

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Old Trafford

hen two flawed and struggling teams meet, both desperately craving a win, it's remarkable how often the universe contrives a mutually unsatisfactory draw. Such was the case in this chaotic game, but if the goals and points were shared, the energy and outlook around each team at the end of this game felt very different.

Tottenham Hotspur's fans were in full voice, having seen their team make familiar mistakes, but also play with identity, cohesion and

walt identity, cohesion and spells of dominance. Manchester United, subject to boos at half-time and again briefly at the final whistle, are higher up the league table, but seem on this

seem, on evidence, further away from being a good team.

“We played a great game, I think we are playing well,” Roberto De Zerbi, the Tottenham head coach, said. “For the first time this season, we showed [ourselves] to be a team. We played for each other, we stayed together and continued to believe.”

He'd seen his team swarm all over United in the first half, but was even more enthused by the period at the end of the game when they played with ten men, and nicked a late equaliser, after Rodrigo Bentancur had been sent off for headbutting Luke Shaw.

Substitutions: Manchester United D Dalot (for Yoro 59), C Baleba (for Tielemans 59), Amad (for J Zirkzee 59), A Heaven (for Shaw 90+5), M Rashford (for Cunha 90+5). Booked Dalot. Tottenham Hotspur M van de Ven (for Udogie 74), R Bentancur (for Bergvall 66), J Maddison (for Gallagher 74), O Marmoush (for Kudus 66), M Fernandes (for Senesi 89). Sent off Bentancur. Referee S Attwell. Attendance 74,129.

De Zerbi, far from being frustrated by the red card, welcomed it, and the defiance his side showed. “I kissed Rodrigo, and I said thanks, because it’s clear it’s a mistake from Rodrigo, because it’s not the right reaction in football, but now Tottenham needs to react.

Mbeumo broke the deadlock, turning in the box before firing past Kinsky for his third league goal this season

Solanke holds off

Martínez to head in

the late equaliser

“For a long time, Tottenham played without this blood, this character. Just with quality, we can’t win the game. With the quality [and] the character, the right energy, I think we’re going to win many games and score many goals.”

It wasn't all good for Tottenham, of course. Without the late uplift of Dominic Solanke's equaliser, this match might have felt like a nightmare on repeat: another blistering start, another raft of good chances spurned, another slow fade of energy, another goal conceded.

Solanke was responsible for a couple of those misses, but the centre forward, given the captain's armband for the first time because De Zerbi wanted "to show my confidence in him" after a period in which he has

United are higher up the table, but seem further away from being a good team

taken a lot of flak for Spurs' woes in the box, finally got his goal with the subtlest of glancing headers after good movement and strength to hold off Lisandro Martínez.

As for United, this was a worryingly inchoate performance for a team which, after such a strong half-season under Michael Carrick last season and a summer of recruitment, ought to be at the stage of becoming a more strongly defined version of themselves. They deserved some credit for wrestling control of the game in the second half, but for an hour they were dreadfully ineffective, creating just 0.06 expected goals in the first 60 minutes. This was also the third time in their last three games against a team reduced to 10 men that they have failed to win. “We were a little bit off it, a little slow with our decision-making,” was Carrick’s verdict.

United were penned in from the off, with the Spurs press following in the time-honoured tradition of Brendan Rodgers and Jürgen Klopp by returning from the international break with new teeth. That press drew a huge chance within the first two minutes. It came from some unconvincing playing-out by United: Senne Lammens's pass to Kobbie Mainoo

PAUL CURRIE/TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR FC/SHUTTERSTOCK

40 Manchester United have won only six points from their first six games of the season – the fewest at this stage of a campaign for 40 years, since 1986-87 when they had four

was slow and telegraphed, and Lucas Bergvall stole in to nudge the ball towards Solanke, who had time to take a touch and get his shot off, but put his effort too close to Lammens.

Carrick's team completed just one pass in the attacking third in a first 20 minutes in which they were beleaguered and bewildered. Conor

6 Spurs have failed to win any of their opening six games of a league

season for only the fourth time in their history, after 1912-13, 1955-56 and 2008-09

Premier League | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | Man City | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 5 | 15 | Arsenal | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 5 | 15 | Brighton | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 5 | 13 | Brentford | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 12 | 6 | 10 | Chelsea | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 13 | 10 | Leeds | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 9 | Liverpool | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 4 | 9 | Everton | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 9 | Ipswich | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 9 | Hull | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 8 | Newcastle | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 9 | 8 | Man Utd | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 9 | 6 | Nottm Forest | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | Aston Villa | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 5 | Crystal Palace | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 4 | Sunderland | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 4 | Bournemouth | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 13 | 3 | Tottenham | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 3 | Coventry | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 3 | Fulham | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 2 | # UNITED SUPPORTERS RESTORE JIBE AT CITY

Manchester United's “ticker” banner, referencing the last time Manchester City won a trophy, has returned to Old Trafford after their rivals were found guilty of more than 100 Premier League rule breaches. The banner was a fixture in the 2000s, but was taken down after City won the FA Cup in 2011. The latest iteration wipes out the trophies won since City’s Abu Dhabi takeover, resetting the counter to “51 years”, going back to City’s League Cup win in 1976.

Gallagher was a menace with his relentless pressing, and Sávio had some terrific moments of skill and direct running, albeit with his usual lack of decisiveness in the final action.

He should have had an assist though, from a cut-back which found Mohammed Kudus, who fired wide when he should have picked out the corner. On the touchline, De Zerbi clasped his face like a man wearing a stinging aftershave in a cold wind.

Tottenham kept missing chances after half-time. Destiny Udogie's lovely pass released Sávio, whose cross picked out Solanke, but the striker scooped the ball over from eight yards. It was only when Carrick made a triple change on the hour, bringing on Diogo Dalot, Joshua Zirkzee and the debutant Carlos Baleba, that United began to gain the ascendancy.

Zirkzee made a real difference with his strength and hold-up play, and Baleba was excellent, adding some much-needed energy and running power to United's leggy midfield.

Bryan Mbeumo broke the deadlock with a terrific finish from Matheus Cunha's pass, turning in the tightest of spaces and finding the bottom corner with a perfect shot: low, hard and dragged ever so slightly, so it curved away from Antonin Kinsky's dive.

Then came a moment of stupidity from Bentancur, rising to the provocation of Shaw's push and putting his head into the defender's forehead. After a mêlée, Stuart Attwell had no choice but to show him a red card, and with a man advantage, a better, more confident team than United would surely have seen the game out.

But the announcement of eight minutes of stoppage time seemed to generate a frisson of anxiety around the ground, and it proved well founded. Barely a minute of the eight had elapsed when Sandro Tonali sent a swirling cross to the heart of the six-yard box, Martínez got caught under the ball and Solanke applied a deft finishing touch.

Tottenham will now fly to Marbella for a warm-weather training camp not exactly walking on sunshine, but at least with a bit of a spring in their step.

Sloppy, laboured Arsenal bailed out again by Guimarães

Arsenal

Calafiori 62, Guimarães 70

Leeds United

Justin 55

Gary Jacob

As Arsenal have shown in the early stages of this season, winning when not playing well is among the hallmarks of champions.

“We feel different, we feel a lot stronger, we play with a different confidence,” Martin Odegaard, the captain, said recently. Whether it was inner confidence or bringing on Bruno Guimarães that made the difference, Arsenal came from behind to win a match that they had not looked likely to even score in. They were unsettled by Leeds United’s physicality, pressing and excellent crosses, which contributed to James Justin drilling home, nearly pulverising Gabriel’s head as he tried to clear off the line.

Arsenal were mostly stodgy and lacking in fluency, but their winner arrived from their smoothest move as Mikel Arteta's substitutes turned the game for a third time this season. Guimarães was at the heart of it, winning a free kick that was taken quickly. Bukayo Saka and Odegaard combined to release Declan Rice, whose brilliant flick teed up Guimarães to finish low from outside the penalty area. Guimarães also scored the opening goal away to Sunderland and played a part in the win away to Napoli in the Champions League – each time as a substitute, or “finisher”, as Arteta refers to them.

Arteta was relieved with the win, having had only two days of training with his players since the international break. He burst down the touchline and punched the air towards the supporters, who had groaned at points during the first half. “After a bad result and three weeks without players, you question, ‘How are we going to be?’” Arteta said. “We spoke before about restoring our identity and being ourselves again. One-nil down, you have to restore a lot of things, energy being one. The finishers made a huge difference."

For the first hour Arsenal were clunky and sloppy. Rice failed to make a simple pass to release Kai Havertz before his flick was intercepted. They were caught offside four times in the first 16 minutes, with Noni Madueke was one of the main culprits.

Arsenal started with seven left-footed players, which may have contributed the side's lack of balance, but does not explain their slow, laboured passing. Leeds' wingbacks showed Arsenal could be vulnerable from crosses and Gabriel looked unusually unconvincing. Gabriel Gudmundsson latched on to a cross from the right but David Raya saved at his near post. Raya might have been beaten by Anton Stach's volley had it not hit Jayden Bogle a few yards out. Stach needed only to shout.

Rice was a monster in the final stages but was uncharacteristically leggy and careless for large parts. He took a free kick and passed it straight to an opponent, and moments later he did not challenge Gudmundsson, whose low cross evaded Raya before Justin's shot went in off Gabriel.

Arteta vented in the dugout before turning to encourage his players. Shortly after he was patting his three substitutes on the back after the equaliser. Madueke curled a cross to the back post. Ben White headed back, Havertz drew two defenders and Riccardo Calafiori scored his second goal of season.

Raya left his goal to punch clear before backtracking to prevent Ethan Ampadu's header going in. The keeper tipped over Ao Tanaka's shot after the break and Noah Okafor could not reach the ball with a chance to double the lead, but Leeds lost control in midfield after Arteta's changes.

Arsenal (4-2-3-1): D Raya — B White (J Timber 63min), E Konsa, Gabriel, R Calafiori (P Hincapié 82) — D Rice, M Lewis-Skelly (B Guimarães 63) — B Saka, M Odegaard (M Merino 89), N Madueke — K Havertz (V Gyokeres 63). Booked Odegaard. Leeds United (4-2-3-1): J Trafford — J Justin (L Nmecha 79min), N Elvedi (J Bijol 86), T Muharemovic — J Bogle (J Bahoya 86), E Ampadu, A Tanaka (H Wilson 71), G Gudmondsson — A Stach, D Calvert-Lewin, N Okafor (B Aaronson 71). Booked Tanaka, Ampadu, Muharemovic, Justin. Referee P Tierney.

Guimarães struck from outside the box for the second time this season

NAOMI BAKER/GETTY IMAGES

Martin Samuel

The voice

of sport

fter the RMS Titanic sank in 1912, the International Seamen's Union campaigned for an Act to protect their members in the merchant marine. Several years later, what was described as the “Magna Carta of American sailors’ rights” was passed.

The Seamen's Act, sponsored in the Senate by Robert Marion “Fighting Bob” La Follette Sr, became law on March 4, 1915. Among its requirements was the provision of additional lifeboats, calculated per passenger. Detractors warned this could make certain ships – such as Great Lakes steamboats – top heavy, but President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill anyway. The SS Eastland was such a boat. It had already suffered several listing incidents even before being refitted to meet the new safety measures and increased to a capacity of 2,570 passengers. On July 24, while moored on the south bank of the Chicago River, the Eastland began listing to port.

Stabilisation attempts failed and at 7.28am – 18 minutes after boarding capacity had been reached – the ship suddenly lurched and came to rest on the river bottom, just 20 feet below the surface. Tragically, many had already moved below decks causing 844 deaths. It was one of the greatest maritime tragedies of the 20th century; and among the most devastating examples of good intentions resulting in unforeseen consequence. For Senator La Follette was trying to do the right thing, a good thing. Much of the Seaman's Act stands up, certainly for its time. Yet the SS Eastland disaster serves as a reminder to think through each last detail, because the devil is always in the detail. And that brings us back, again, to Manchester City.

Aren't you bored with it now? Don't you wish they'd just get on with it? The demotion, the deductions, the fines, the seizure, the sales. Every indignity that is to be visited on the miscreants. Boot them out of the league, bust them down the divisions, haul them through the courts, confiscate the assets, cancel the contracts.

No one can argue with any of it, really, barring a spectacular reversal on appeal. And nobody has. The only debate has centred on the punishment and the various choices: gigantic or enormous; humungous or colossal? And we haven't even read the unredacted verdict yet, likely to be excoriatingly damning of the practices and individuals. Yet what if Manchester City, like the

“

Facing up to

disgrace – and

the judgment

of crowds –

will serve

as a verdict

SS Eastland, ends up on the river bed as a result? What if the unforeseen consequence of any punishment finishes not just a corrupt regime, but an entire football club? Manchester City's executives did wrong. That does not mean Manchester City should cease to exist. It does not mean that those who follow the club, who love the club, who grew up with the club in their family and their bones, should be left with nothing. Censuring City should begin with one thought: how do we save this club from oblivion? How to avoid an extinction event?

When Bury went under, we were told to think of the fans. The State of the Game report next week will ask that of us too. The motivation behind an independent regulator and the passing of Premier League wealth to the EFL requires that we consider football clubs not as rival businesses, but local institutions, pillars of the community, part of the fabric and soul of an urban environment.

Apart from Manchester City, alive since 1894. They can just end. Why? Because they were successful? So were Bury, briefly. They were promoted to League One in 2018-19, but were unable to start 2019-20. No doubt their fans celebrated that triumph, though, just as Manchester City's did theirs. Neither group were responsible for what befell their club. No fans will be referenced, even in the unredacted report.

So who cares if Manchester City die? More folk than you think, perhaps. People at Nottingham Forest, Chelsea, Everton, Bournemouth, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Crystal Palace, Lyon, Lens, AC Milan, Lille and RB Leipzig. All have sold players for substantial money to City in recent seasons, all will be awaiting payment.

And needing payment, too, if their own figures are to add up. If Chelsea's sale of Enzo Fernández is spread over five seasons, for instance, the club could be owed as much as £100m; Forest close to that for Elliot Anderson. They need City alive and paying.

And if punishment is handled carelessly, could they fold? Of course. City's expulsion from the Premier League, for instance, would leave them with nowhere to play. It is very different to relegation. The EFL accepts three relegated clubs from above, exchanging them for three promoted ones. Expulsion is an antithetic event. If the Premier League clubs voted to expel Manchester City, the EFL is uncompelled to take them.

It would require a consensual vote of clubs in the league to which City were demoted. This is a dangerous game. It is not like FC United of Manchester starting in the North West Counties Football League in 2005. This is Manchester City, with an average home attendance of 60,574. It is unreasonable to just tell Litherland REMYCA to get on with it.

The Premier League are pushing for the punishment to be announced before City's appeal against the verdict but, either way, and presuming City's challenge fails, this will be the most significant sentence in the history of English football. That's why it also needs to be the most judiciously calculated. Almost retrofitted, in fact. We think of how any punishment may affect this season, or next.

That's not enough. Consider the speculation to here: expulsion with a time bar on return, demotion to League Two, fines in the hundreds of millions, the owners barred, the club repossessed, points deducted over many seasons. Any, or all, could be meted out without being considered harsh. City's owners, it is presumed, would then have to sell. But to who?

Beyond this, there are the legal implications: compensation claims from clubs, maybe sponsors, individuals, opponents that no longer have Premier League status. Manchester City's own players, it is claimed, could simply tear up their contracts and walk away. So no

money for Erling Haaland Antoine Semenyo and Rayan Cherki. Everything going out, nothing coming in.

Even if City's owners were happy to depart, who would take on a business in which legal liability could run towards £1bn? A club cannot even exi

all its football debts. There would be no prospect of success, no joy, no hope. To indemnify any new owners – let's say a supporters' trust – would displease those pursuing compensation. What are the claimants to do then? Go after Sheikh Mansour personally, with all the financial risk entailed?

In five years, the cost of running the

---

If Abu Dhabi leave, City will be liquidated, which ends it all. Is that really victory?

Premier League has risen from £45m to £225m annually, much of it in legal fees. Why would Stoke City or Watford risk entering that world?

City are under extreme pressure right now, but not all claims would be easy wins. “I feel cheated,” said Tony Pulis, the former manager of Stoke, who lost the 2011 FA Cup final to a goal from Yaya Touré. “When do we get our FA Cup?”

Yet Manchester City beat Manchester United in the semi-finals that season, and Manchester United defeated Stoke home and away in the Premier League in that campaign. So how can it be presumed Stoke would have won at Wembley?

The same with Watford, who lost 6-0 to City in the FA Cup final in 2019. They drew with two of City's cup opponents, Burnley and Brighton & Hove Albion, in the second half of that season in the league. Can City be expunged from just one game, or Watford's ultimate triumph presumed? And would it really be worth the cost of a legal challenge?

For any case would be against Manchester City, not Abu Dhabi. As a member of the Premier League, City's accounts are filed in the United Kingdom, and its taxes are paid here too. It would be no different to LIV Golf. If that goes bust, nobody gets paid out by Saudi Arabia. If City's directors were to be disqualified, yes, there may be the potential for personal claims, but they wouldn't amount to the type of money being sought – a small fraction of those figures of £100m, or more.

So, if Abu Dhabi leave, City will be liquidated. And if City are liquidated, that ends it all. The claims, the outstanding transfer fees, even the walk of shame. The protagonists leave, the club ceases to exist, the fans are bereft and Chelsea are left clutching an unpaid invoice for £100m. Is that really victory?

It is easy to play the Queen of Hearts and scream, "Off with their heads," but that risks consequence far beyond what is helpful. So, what if the Premier League chose not to relegate Manchester City? Not definitively. What if their punishment

was eked out across a reasonable time period of, say, five years yet served in the Premier League?

City could be deducted, say, 30 points per season in that time, accompanied with a fine, and a European ban. Not enough to guarantee relegation, but enough to ensure the club could not further benefit from its rule-breaking. Were City to go down in that period, then the event continues its course and they take their place in the league below as one of three relegated clubs. The 30-point deduction could even carry over.

It is still a huge punishment – 150 points – for a trade association breach but, equally, it allows the club to be sold or to continue paying its debts, fulfilling its requirements, while staying afloat and, importantly, facing up to disgrace.

For that will be felt on Merseyside today. The ferocious judgment of the Anfield crowd will serve as a verdict on Manchester City's actions. As it will at Villa Park on October 24, then the City Ground on November 7.

It would not be the same at Rochdale in League Two. A small gathering of locals might enjoy the pile-on, but City haven't directly harmed Rochdale. There is no great bitterness or resentment towards them. The clubs haven't met since a League Cup tie in 1973.

Indeed, the rise through the divisions as outsiders again may be quite inspiring for City's fans, who always embraced underdog status, even when they were anything but. It is the stuff of which a Netflix series is made as City, starting as pariahs, scrap their way through adversity back to the top.

The Premier League option – a hellish limbo of five years in the stocks, a moribund holding pattern as the best players leave – contains little to stir those same emotions. It would be equally painful at executive level. Manchester City get a vote at the meetings, but no more.

There would be no power, no sway, and for who knows how long? Football has an elephant's memory. Manchester United continue to endure horrible songs about a tragedy that happened 68 years ago. City will be dogged by this scandal many decades from now.

Yet they will exist, that is the point. They will be punished, they will be impacted, but they will remain afloat. They will not become just another SS Eastland, the ship sunk forever by the finest of intentions.

Do we want the truth - or the beautiful game?

The Match, a film by Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco, will be in cinemas next month. It tells the story of the 1986 World Cup quarter-final between England and Argentina, framing it in a human, sporting and geopolitical context. Players from both sides are interviewed and fresh stories unearthed, about an event of which so much is already known — the significance of Freddie Mercury and Bonnie Tyler, why sweets were buried in the Azteca turf, the bizarre origin of Argentina's iconic blue shirts.

Watching it at the BFI London Film Festival last week, another thought occurred. How much truth do we actually want? Diego Maradona's Hand of God goal, Argentina's first, is often cited as proof of the need for VAR. Had replay technology been in place, the offence would have been seen, the goal disallowed. True.

What is rarely stated is that VAR would also have cancelled Maradona's second. In the build-up, Sergio Batista, the Argentina defender, absolutely cleaned out Glenn Hoddle. It was a foul, unnoticed by Ali Ben Nasser, the Tunisian referee. Play continued, Argentina scored. Yet in the film, no one seems to mind. Time is a healer, but even the England players interviewed — Gary Lineker, Peter Shilton, John Barnes — do not appear to begrudge Maradona his moment, because what followed the foul was arguably the greatest individual goal in World Cup history.

So what do we want? Truth or beauty? Are our lives enriched by seeing a moment of absolute wonder, or by the correct implementation of the rules? We can't let everything go on the off-chance magic happens and who knows what England might have produced in that moment? Yet, knowing what we know, it's a quandary.

---

STRANGE TIME FOR EFL CHIEF TO PLAY POLITICS

Another strange week for football commonality. The EFL clubs are considering an offer from the Premier League that would double their solidarity payments across ten years. Rick Parry, their leader, isn't so keen. He even said that there would be no jeopardy in rejecting the offer, because the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) had a backstop arrangement and would impose a payment and backdate it.

The Premier League asked the IFR if this was the case. The IFR said it was not. Further, it confirmed any solidarity payment would only begin once the IFR had calculated its nature, no matter how long that took. If consideration lasted another three years, so be it. No backdating. Parry then forwarded a letter to his clubs claiming legal advice suggested the IFR was wrong.

This raises the tantalising prospect of the IFR now being sued by Parry and the EFL, after they had previously campaigned so earnestly for regulation. All of this in the build-up to the release of the State of the Game report, believed to reveal as many as 17 clubs would go bust within a month without owner support — even if the squad offered to play for nothing. Just the time for Parry to be playing politics.

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BIT BY BIT, THE CHALLENGE TO INFANTINO FADES

Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the president of the Asian Football Confederation, is

softening his stance towards reconciliation; Victor Montagliani, of Concacaf, will stand for re-election and not for the Fifa presidency. Bit by bit, the challenge to Gianni Infantino, inset, fades away. How our own brave FA must regret its boldness, shouting "Yeah?" from behind the bigger boys. Don't worry about their principles, though. They always have others.

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Martin Samuel on The Game podcast

Listen to Martin's views every Thursday as he debates the latest talking points in football with Jonathan Northcroft,

Gregor Robertson and other Times and Sunday Times writers. Search 'The Game' on your podcast app or go to: THETIMES.COM/PODCASTS/THE-GAME

Hold fire, Eckert hardly dodged a bullet

Tonda Eckert did not get off lightly. The wide reaction to his suspended

six-week ban for spying on opponents suggests Southampton's manager dodged a bullet. Yet he could quite possibly have been a Premier League manager by now. Southampton had already defeated Middlesbrough in the play-offs when they were expelled. The final would have been played against Hull City, who finished seven points behind them in the Championship. And promotion is worth anything up to £200m

Eckert was given a suspended ban

these days. As manager, Eckert, left, would have greatly benefited from Southampton's windfall.

Yet once the FA dragged its heels in a case the EFL had successfully brought last May, it became hard to suspend him mid-season. That would be another punishment for Southampton, left looking for a temporary manager – or even a permanent one – eight games into the campaign. This seems a fair compromise, given that Eckert is highly unlikely to reoffend, and if he did would surely just be sacked.

What Juventus scandal tells us about future of City and Premier League

Relegations, recriminations, cries of conspiracy — Italian football never shook whiff of scandal after Calciopoli. It may go the same way here

Tom Allnutt

latan Ibrahimovic was staying put, but not at Juventus, who were being relegated, humiliated and stripped of their titles. Ibrahimovic was staying put in his hotel room while his Juventus teammates were waiting outside.

If Manchester City's most talented players insist in the coming weeks that they are not thinking about the future – their futures – the reaction of Ibrahimovic when Juventus were relegated to Serie B after the Calciopoli scandal in 2006 offers an alternative picture of how footballers feel when their careers are suddenly on the line.

Desperate to find a new club and determined not to drop down to Italy's second tier, Ibrahimovic told Juventus he would not play any matches. So on the morning of a pre-season friendly with Spezia, Ibrahimovic stayed true to his word. As his team-mates waited on the bus outside the hotel, the striker was still up in his room on his PlayStation. When Didier Deschamps, the Juventus head coach, came up and demanded he join the squad, the Swede refused to budge.

The way Ibrahimovic tells the story, he didn't even look up. The crisis that engulfed Juventus two decades ago in Italy is the only real comparison to the one now facing Manchester City. Like City, Juventus were an elite European club elevated by sustained success and enriched by some of the world's most decorated players. Like City, Juventus were then sullied by accusations of cheating and disgraced by executives who thought themselves untouchable. That the acrimony, resentment and financial repercussions still hang over Italian football 20 years on may even serve as a cautionary tale. City's

100-plus breaches of the Premier League's financial regulations, as ruled by an independent commission last month, differ in nature and timespan from the transgressions committed by Juventus. Calciopoli, meaning "football-gate", is often remembered as an Italian match-fixing scandal, but really it centred on the sustained attempts of executives to rig the outcome of games, primarily by manipulating referees.

Whether City will receive a comparable punishment remains to be seen. Juventus were dragged from first to last place in Serie A, relegated to Serie B and deducted nine points, while also being stripped of their 2004-05 and 2005-06 top-flight titles, the latter handed to Inter Milan. Fiorentina, AC Milan, Reggina and Lazio, who were also found guilty, were docked points, fined and thrown out of European competitions, although none followed Juventus to the second tier.

Like City, Juventus had also been the dominant domestic force, after winning what would have been four out of five league titles in the early 2000s, powered by A-list players such as Ibrahimovic, Fabio Cannavaro, Pavel Nedved and Gianluigi Buffon, under the guidance of two esteemed

---

As his team-mates waited on the bus, Ibrahimovic was still up in his room on his PlayStation

Italian managers in Marcello Lippi and then Fabio Capello. In 2006, Juventus were able to claim the top two picks for the men's Ballon d'Or after Cannavaro and Buffon came first and second on the back of Italy winning the World Cup. Yet those World Cup celebrations were soured by Calciopoli, which began as a doping investigation but discovered phone conversations showing how executives at Italian clubs were trying to tip the balance of matches in their favour.

The Juventus general manager, Luciano Moggi, and chief executive, Antonio Giraudo, who were both given lifetime bans from football, used contacts and influence to pressure referees, politicians and pundits. Moggi was alleged to have used Swiss sim cards to avoid detection by the police.

Some of the exchanges, initially leaked to La Gazzetta dello Sport, were extraordinary. Moggi boasted about locking a referee in a bathroom after a Juve defeat and walking off with the key. He berated referee selectors about decisions and demanded certain officials be assigned Juventus matches. When Serie A fixtures were postponed in 2005 because Pope John Paul II was close to dying, Moggi was reported to have called Italy's interior minister. He asked that Juventus' game with Fiorentina, who had key players out injured, be allowed to go ahead.

Just as the commission's damning 40-page report laid bare the extent of City's “sham agreements”, it was the details and the relentlessness of Juventus' manipulation that provoked so much outrage. Inter Milan's head coach, Roberto Mancini, whose "double-contract" at City has, ironically, now put him at the heart of the City case, said: "They've been kidding us all for years."

Distrust has also been hard to shake off. In 2020, when Inter's game with Juventus was postponed at the start of the pandemic, Inter fans still complained through the lens of Calciopoli. "Calciopoli... ci risiamo", read the banner outside Serie A's headquarters – "here we go again".

Ibrahimovic moved to Inter at his first opportunity amid the fallout from Calciopoli

The Juventus players, meanwhile, could not bring themselves to believe their achievements were not

deserved. In his book, I am Zlatan, Ibrahimovic wrote how the allegations were “bullshit” and “most of it was about Juventus being

number one". In court, Alessandro Del Piero said he still "counted the two Scudettos taken away" while Andrea Pirlo, who played for AC Milan at the time, but joined Juventus in 2011, said even if Calciopoli "lent a hand" to Juventus, "to my dying day, I'll remain convinced they would have won the same number of trophies relying on their own means".

Buffon, centre, and his teammates quickly returned to the top flight

A core group of stars, some of them older, stayed at Juventus, with Del Piero (31), Nedved Giorgio Chiellini (21),

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Ajer's late redemption keeps Villa waiting for home win

Aston Villa

Jackson 12, McGinn 77

Brentford

Yarmolyuk 10, Ajer 79

2

2

Alan Smith

Four goals, delivered in early and late pairs, ensured Aston Villa and Brentford emerged from a scrappy affair with equal helpings of encouragement and frustration.

Just over two minutes after John McGinn's shot had deflected in off Kristoffer Ajer's calf, the Brentford defender navigated into rare attacking territory to restore parity after a lovely move in which Jaidon Anthony was key. The goal preserved Brentford's unbeaten start and ensured Villa's wait for a first home win continues.

That quickfire response mirrored Villa producing an even swifter equaliser to Yehor Yarmolyuk's tenth-minute opener, which was earned in classic Brentford fashion as their high press forced the opposition into an error that was capitalised on ruthlessly. Tyrone Mings was harried and gifted possession to Kevin Schade. He swiftly fed Igor Thiago on the left and the Brazil forward's cross was headed away by Victor Lindelof, but only to an unmarked Yarmolyuk on the edge of the box. He drilled a right-footed effort home.

Yet Villa were level 88 seconds later courtesy of McGinn's determined drive forward, a heavy deflection from Emi Buendía's shot and, lastly, Nicolas Jackson's calm finish past Caoimhin

Kelleher. In an increasingly tetchy first half, Villa fans grew incensed

Ajer rescued a point for Brentford because a series of long throws from Michael Kayode took longer than they would have liked, while McGinn copped plenty from the travelling support for the crime of merely

putting himself about. Villa did look marginally the better, and McGinn, Buendía and Johan Manzambi all tried their luck before the former was denied by Kelleher.

The second half resumed in much the same pattern with Villa just about on top and Buendia briefly thought he had made it 2-1 with a ferocious drive from the edge of the box, only for Ajer to make a fine block.

McGinn celebrated wildly after putting Villa in front, though Kelleher may well have saved his right-footed attempt were it not for the change of direction via Ajer's stretch. The Norwegian defender punched the turf in anger before picking himself back up and equalising two minutes and 25 seconds later. He combined with Anthony down the left before slaloming through a cluster of players and dispatching a low effort via a deflection off Lindelof.

Aston Villa (4-2-3-1): Z Suzuki — M Cash, V Lindelof, T Mings, M Ruggeri (A Wan-Bissaka 46min) — João Gomes (R Barkley 86), B Kamara — J McGinn, J Manzambi (Alysson 86), E Buendía (I Mbaye 64) — N Jackson. Booked Buendía, Cash. Brentford (4-2-3-1): C Kelleher — M Kayode, K Ajer, J Schuster (A Hickey 46), E-H Malick Diouf — V Janelt, Y Yarmolyuk (M Jensen 67) — J Anthony (C Wilson 86), K Lewis-Potter (D Ouattara 67), K Schade (M Sangaré 51) — I Thiago. Booked Thiago, Janelt, Kayode, Ajer, Wilson Referee C Pawson. Attendance 36,636.

Trezeguet (28) and Buffon (28) among those who helped them finish top of Serie B. Others left as soon as possible. Capello joined Real Madrid and took Cannavaro, his central defender, and Emerson, the Brazilian midfielder, with him. Lilian Thuram and Gianluca Zambrotta both moved to Barcelona, while Adrian Mutu signed for Fiorentina. Patrick Vieira had been at Juventus for only a year but left for Inter Milan, along with Ibrahimovic, who finally got the move he was pushing for.

"One after another the players left," Ibrahimovic wrote in his book. "And all the rest of us who were still left were ringing our agents, saying, 'Sell us, sell us'. No way was I going to sacrifice a year in the second division. My best years as a footballer were in danger of being wasted and I told Mino [Raiola, his agent] over and over: do whatever it takes. Just get me out of here."

Leaving may have drawn a line under the scandal for the players who jumped ship but the rancour and bitterness has never disappeared. The Italian federation's decision to hand Inter the 2006 title, when they had came second, was particularly contentious. Juventus fans called it the “scudetto di cartone”, the cardboard Scudetto, while Inter's president Massimo Moratti crowed how the 2006 title was his “favourite”. Both clubs displayed the trophies in their museums. In 2011, Juventus appealed and claimed the Italian federation should not only take the 2006 title away from Inter but pay

Juve €443 million (about €622 million/ £527 million today) in “unjust damages” for relegating them to Serie B. Juventus only withdrew their final appeal in October 2023.

Complaints about the process were rife, with conspiracy theories growing out of grievance in a way that will be hard to avoid with City. In Italy, key figures were scrutinised, including Guido Rossi, the federation's special commissioner, whose job it was to pursue Juventus despite previously sitting on the board at Inter.

Cesare Zaccone, Juve's defence lawyer, was revealed to be a fan of their rivals Torino. Many also believed the judgment was too rushed, because of the desire to have placings settled in time for the new season. Ultimately, Juventus were too strong for Serie B as they won the league by six points and bounced straight back, although Ibra-

Conte won

three Serie

A titles with

Juventus

between

2012-2014

himovic was right that it took longer to return to the top. Juve finished third, second, seventh and seventh in their first four seasons and it took five years for them to win the league again.

With Andrea Agnelli as chairman and Antonio Conte as coach, Juventus then won nine Serie A titles in a row from 2012 to 2020, a streak some believe was fuelled by a sense of injustice. “I can’t remember if the song he [Agnelli] picked was F\*\*\* You by Marco Masini,” Pirlo wrote in his book, when recalling the celebrations. “But I’d really like to think so. A special dedication to those who refused to believe.”

The recovery of Juventus more broadly and Italian football overall is less clear. Juventus were the third-richest club in the world in 2006 but 16th, according to Deloitte, 20 years later. An Italian team has won the European Cup 12 times but not once since 2010. Attendances in Italy dwindled and match-day revenues fell but the decline was as much about perception as finances. Serie A was struggling to shake off the whiff of scandal, just as the Premier League was selling itself all over the world and La Liga ushering in a super era of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. For City and the Premier League, the bitterness may be just beginning.

Alyson Rudd

Man City's ‘sham’ supremacy gave Liverpool fire. Anfield today would be the perfect time to rekindle it

Maybe the Kop should unveil a banner depicting a Red Admiral before kick-off against Manchester City to convey the butterfly effect of their dominance under Pep Guardiola. It was a dominance built on “sham” contracts, according to an independent commission, that pushed Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool to run faster and press harder, and the consequence was an intense rivalry that produced some thrilling confrontations.

There are so many what-ifs in the air after the verdict that City broke Premier League financial rules but one of the more intriguing is whether Klopp needed a super wealthy City to reach the heights that he did.

Like it or not, the supremacy of City affected Liverpool both in terms of arguably denying the club three titles – in 2013-14 under Brendan Rodgers, as well as in 2018-19 and 2021-22 under Klopp – but also in that it created a need for ever more impressive excellence. It used to be Manchester United that riled Liverpool fans but then came an era of a visceral need to outfox City, whose injection of cash altered the football landscape.

There will be anger, frustrat and confusion in abundance at Anfield, not least about the limbo that City's appeal has left us all in. But most of those who love the game will be rooting for Andoni Iraola's team to punish City out on the pitch. How weird will every point gained by Enzo Maresca's side feel now that the verdict is in?

The game and its

City denied Rodgers a league title in 2013-14

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There is something poetic about City's first game post-verdict being at Anfield... as a fresh start for Iraola

accompanying noise will serve another function. It provides Iraola with a backdrop that might have been missing had the extent of City's dealings not been revealed. The international break is tough on managers who fret that their players are productive and happy but most of all evade injury. Given that Cody Gakpo and Alexander Isak will both miss today's match having picked up an ankle knock and a thigh problem respectively, the mood could have been one of dampened expectations. City entered the break top of the league having made a near-seamless transition to a new manager, while Liverpool fans are still waiting to see the full expression of the high-energy aggressive football that

energy, aggressive football that marked Iraola out as the must-have head coach last summer.

Actually, they have seen it but with a team comprising mainly academy graduates and

players on the fringes. This

was for the victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup last month. Spurs were left gasping for breath as they were pressed and harried, and Lewis Koumas in attack was not only a revelation but every bit as mobile as Isak can be ponderous. It was as if the message for high intensity was more easily absorbed by the youngsters than the established players, leaving Dominik Szoboszlai to come off the bench to add to goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Gakpo in taking advantage of tired opponents. It was fun, it was why Iraola was appointed. It was a throwback to the heavy metal football of Klopp but with some added jazz funk.

Maybe Koumas will feature against City. He deserves to. The Welsh 21-year-old is a ball of intelligent energy that fits Iraola's model. And the fans love a player who has come through the academy. Suddenly, any supporters with doubts about how long it will take the new head coach to impose his system will forget their misgivings and the players will be roared on as if conquering heroes.

There is an argument to be made that Liverpool are unlucky to be facing City right now, that Maresca's team are more likely to be frail after weeks and weeks of being jeered, that they will be indignant and feisty in their first game after the news of so many breaches broke. They can perform in a bubble of argued innocence. They have been reassured that the appeal will be successful, that all is well, and Maresca can weaponise a sense of injustice.

But there is something poetic about their first game post-verdict being at Anfield that can act as a fresh start for Iraola. Instead of groaning about whether Florian Wirtz is built for the rigour of English football or whether Mac Allister is less integral these days, all the talk will be about what sanctions City should face and whether those three titles lost to City actually now belong to them.

The supporters will bring every ounce of passion they brought to those failed title bids and will be cheering on Liverpool as an entity that transcends whoever is in charge. It will be an atmosphere thick with romance, nostalgia and vitriol, which is just the right vibe for an Iraola team trying to get to grips with vertical football.

It will be explosive.

Liverpool v Man City

Kick-off 4.30pm, Sky Sports Main

Bloom eyes Champions League after De Cuyper strikes

Sunderland

Brighton

De Cuyper 53, Hadjam 90+3

Martin Hardy

The Brighton & Hove Albion owner, Tony Bloom, is all about numbers so here are some that he may like: only two teams are above his side in English football and their latest success came with only ten men.

It was probably why, on the morning of win No 4 from six Premier League games, he spoke of the possibility of finishing in the top five. “It’s early days but absolutely, if we have a good season, we have a realistic chance of finishing in the top five,” he said.

Then followed 90 minutes plus nine of stoppage time to show why that sounds like the argument of a man who seems to understand the changing face of modern football as well as any.

Brighton's first goal, scored in the 53rd minute, came from Maxim De Cuyper, a player who was signed in the summer of 2025 from Club Bruges for £17m.

Their second goal came from another little-known player in Jaouen Hadjam, inset, who moved from Young Boys for only £9.5m this summer. He started against Manchester United in the Carabao Cup win but his entrance at the Stadium of Light from the substitutes' bench was in the 88th minute. Three minutes into added time he cracked in the game-deciding goal.

Fabian Hürzeler, the Brighton head coach, spoke afterwards of a desire to no longer be recognised as "nice" Brighton.

"We are known for scoring goals, we are known for playing nice football, but I always want to

emphasise, we don't want to be this nice club any more," he said.

To get the victory at Sunderland, Brighton had to show defensive resilience after the 57th-minute dismissal of Pascal Struijk. Struijk blocked the

path of Wilson Isidor as he

looked to break through, shortly after Brighton's goal, and race on to a pass from Granit Xhaka. It was a moment missed by the referee Tom Bramall, but picked up by VAR, and when instructed to go to the

pitchside screen, a red card followed.

Belief grew that Sunderland could equalise, but for all their possession, Bart Verbruggen's only real save was from the free kick some 30 yards out by Xhaka that followed the Struijk dismissal.

Then came the introduction of Georginio Rutter and Hadjam, with the former creating the latter's goal to make sure of all three points.

Henderson blitzes Bournemouth | 'I look back at

'I look back at my Liverpool team...dead, dead, dementia, dead. I'm lucky'

Graeme Souness on swimming the Channel in his 70s, persuading Sinatra to play Ibrox instead of Celtic Park, ‘not great’ Declan Rice, and why his style of management wouldn’t work today

Chelsea

Henderson 2, 70, Rogers 3,

João Pedro 46, 67

Bournemouth

Evanilson 51

Peter Rutzler

For the past four years, Stamford Bridge was deemed to be no country for old men. But then came Xabi Alonso, and with him Jordan Henderson, who illustrated the value of a 36-year-old in the team in much less abstract ways.

Henderson had a home debut for the ages against Bournemouth, scoring two goals in a game for the first time in 12 years – and both were crackers. The first was a whipped, curling effort off the post from outside the box, just 66 seconds into the game, and then the second took a leaf out of David Beckham's playbook; a sublime free kick curled over the wall, beyond the flailing grasp of the goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic and into the top corner.

He grabbed an assist too, setting up Morgan Rogers as Chelsea went on to a resounding 5-1 victory. They scored twice inside three minutes; the fifth game in six in which they have struck before the ten-minute mark, and went on to see off Bournemouth comfortably.

Given the hectic nature of Chelsea's early games, there was little doubt that Henderson's inclusion, alongside the returning Moisés Caicedo in midfield, helped steady a ship that has rocked too easily this term.

“We signed [Henderson] for everything,” Alonso said. “If he’s able to score two beauties as today, we are more than happy for him. But apart from the goals, he’s done many, many good things. I think that today was a very complete performance.”

Bournemouth were blown away by Chelsea's fast start. Alonso does not strike you as a tub-thumping orator, but he is clearly doing something that sends his players storming out of the dressing room, even if he insists it is all by fluke.

"I have nothing to do [with it], so I don't have the answer," Alonso said. "We always speak about how we try to start the game with good energy, but I have no explanation, no credit to me."

The Chelsea manager is trying to shake a few bad defensive habits out of his team, and he still has some way to go, given it is now 22 league games since they achieved a clean sheet. But he will be desperate to cling on to their intensity from the first whistle. They were swift out of the blocks in both halves, scoring inside 30 seconds in the second half too through João Pedro, who hit a brace. They were also ruthless, scoring from five of ten shots.

Marco Rose's side have dropped nine points from winning positions this season. They remain winless after six games, and sit just above

It was a home debut for Henderson

the bottom three in 17th. “It’s my responsibility and we have to do better,” Rose said. “We were not ready, we were not sharp enough. We just played not a good game.”

Cole Palmer took advantage of a naive start, turning into space with the Bournemouth press beaten, and sauntering 50 yards to tee up Henderson for his opening goal.

Bournemouth never really recovered. They made it 3-1 on 51 minutes, when Evanilson scored from a poorly cleared corner, and for a moment it appeared that Chelsea would open the door to a comeback. But they weathered that period, instead adding a fourth through João Pedro before Henderson's masterful set play.

Henderson offered leadership in midfield, constantly barking orders at his team-mates, while also covering an extraordinary amount of ground. The punters were probably not here to see Henderson, as Palmer was the talk before the game, the club confirming he had signed a new contract before kick-off. He returned to start after missing England duty, along with João Pedro, who was absent against Brentford. Both were excellent.

Bournemouth were not at full strength. They missed their young striker Eli Junior Kroupi, who has a foot injury, while they did not have Alex Scott available because of an injury suffered on England duty. They had their moments but this is a scoreline that will hurt them.

Chelsea, though, will feel back on track.

Chelsea (3-4-2-1): E Martinez — J Acheampong, M Lacroix, L Colwill — P Neto (D Welbeck 83), M Caicedo (R Lavia 72), J Henderson, P Chavarria — C Palmer, M Rogers (Estevao 84) — Joao Pedro (M Palestra 72).

Bournemouth (4-2-3-1): D Petrovic — A Smith (Juanlu 72), A Silva, J Hill, A Truffert (J Soler 84) — T Adams, R Christie (L Cook 73) — Rayan, D Brooks (B Gannon-Doak 46), M Tavernier (A Rodriguez 72) — Evanilson. Booked Adams, Christie, Truffert, Tavernier.

Referee S Barrett.

MICHAEL GRANT

When Graeme Souness and his friend Isla Grist are together, like when they met King Charles or sat side by side on the BBC Breakfast sofa, the one showing the most obvious strength and resilience is the 18-year-old. While she talks seriously and intelligently about the horrible condition she must bear, the renowned football enforcer is prone to choking up and becoming tearful.

even though they're taking ketamine, morphine, fentanyl, to take the pain away, they're still screaming in unbelievable pain from having their dressings changed. That's in my head when I start talking about it. It's just the cruellest thing."

When I sympathise that this touches something deep within him, given how emotional he quickly becomes about it, he agrees and pauses because he has a lump in his throat again. “I just… I can’t. I’ve got pictures on my phone that would make you cry.”

'Pressure? I played for the world's biggest club' - Arbeloasnaps

Souness is publicising a book about his five years at Rangers. He has a new podcast series – Graeme Souness Tackles – and the day before this interview he recorded a sit-down with Piers Morgan to discuss Manchester City, their contrasting appreciation of Declan Rice and other great affairs of the day.

Fulham

Sessegnon 55

Ipswich Town

A Ouattara 88, D O'Shea 90+1

2

1

Ipswich Town (4-2-3-1): C Walton — A Ouattara, I Diop, D O'Shea, L Davis — F Luis (E Palacios 63min), S Lukic — D Maeda (S Egeli 81), J Enciso (C Akpom 71), J Philogene (J Clarke 63) — Emersonn (Z Flemming 71). Booked Davis, Walton. Fulham (4-2-3-1): B Leno — K Tete, D Affengruber, C Bassey, R Sessegnon — S Berge, S Charles (M Ángel 71) — O Bobb (Kevin 76), J King (R Muniz 76), A Iwobi (E Smith Rowe 87) — G Garcia (H Larsson 87). Booked King, Bassey, Ángel, Smith Rowe. Referee L Smith.

Tom Allnutt

The equaliser was a carbon copy of Sessegnon's strike, as Ouattara also touched and let fly, the ball soaring through the bodies and into the bottom corner. The, Jack Clarke curled towards the near post, where O'Shea strode past his marker and powered his header home.

optimistic Ipswich fans had lost hope of an equaliser when Fulham were still ahead in the 87th minute. By then, Ryan Sessegnon had rattled in a superb shot from distance for Álvaro Arbeloa's side, and looked sure to have given them their first league victory of the season until Abdoul Ouattara stepped up from right back and banged in an almost exact replica for Ipswich in the 88th minute. If that was the bish and bash, the Ipswich captain Dara O'Shea then brought the bosh, as he barged through the box, two minutes into added time, and headed in to snatch victory.

There are comebacks you see coming and some that you don't but the surprise of it all made this so much sweeter for Ipswich Town.

have conceded five goals in the 75th minute or later in six games this season. Arbeloa's substitutes seemed to hand more momentum to Ipswich in the last quarter, and O'Neil noted how much "fitter" his team looked as Fulham were "tiring".

Ipswich's promising start to the season has them sitting ninth in the Premier League. For Fulham, this was a real gut punch of a defeat, having been within touching distance of their first win under Arbeloa. He bristled afterwards at a reporter wondering if he could handle the pressure, pointing to his history at Real Madrid. "Maybe you don't know but I have played for the biggest club in the world, coached the biggest club in the world. Pressure is part of my life," Arbeloa said.

Nobody saw them winning this committed but scruffy contest when Fulham led for most of the second half, and perhaps even the most

The concern is Fulham are not learning from their mistakes. They

But EB is now such a pillar of Souness's life that it seems wrong not to start there. In 2023 and 2025 he swam the English Channel to raise funds. This year brought a “Three Peaks, Three Swims” challenge – climbing

Sessegnon's thunderbolt gave them the lead, as Issa Diop headed away a Fulham corner but only to the edge of the penalty area. Sessegnon took one touch before lashing into the bottom corner.

Souness cannot help it because he has seen things that would affect anyone. And his pal, Isla, is reduced to an almost unendurable existence. They were brought together years ago by epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a rare and painful condition in which the skin blisters and tears at the touch. Souness became president of DEBRA, the charity to support those with the condition. It is often called butterfly skin because skin is as fragile as butterfly wings.

"It robs them of any quality of life and it's heartbreaking to witness," Souness says. "I can't talk about it without getting emotional because I've witnessed it close up. I've witnessed a couple of these young people having their dressings changed and

Souness played 359 times for Liverpool

he UK's three tallest mountains and swimming its three highest lakes, in three days – to raise funds for drug trials. Souness is 73 and he is all-in. He learnt about

EB at a charity event in 2019. Moved and sympathetic, he became involved and met Grist and her family, from Inverness, whose recessive dystrophic EB is one of the most unforgiving variants. “A lot of people I’ve met in the last seven years didn’t know the condition existed. I was the same. It’s been sent by the devil, this.”

He and Isla have known each other for years and there is obvious chemistry. “I’m not frightened of many people but I’m sort of worried about taking her on. She kills me. She sees me off for fun. She would have achieved great things in her life and this thing has held her back. She would have made a real mark on this planet. It's a horrendous condition." An endlessly compassionate, emotional Souness feels like quite a reinvention for those who saw him only as the ferociously tough and fabulously gifted midfielder who captained Liverpool and Scotland.

"I'm guilty of it too. I see people on television and I think, 'I'm not sure if I'd like him if I met him' and then you meet that person and they are nothing like what you expected," he says. "I think you can be two people. I was a certain character when I was on a football pitch as a player. But I am what I am off the field and I've not changed. I think I'm more aware of other people's opinions – although my wife might say differently. But I think I was brought up properly."

He is an ambassador for the British Heart Foundation too, having been diagnosed with coronary heart disease when he was 38. Subsequently he required a triple heart bypass, had stents fitted, and survived a heart attack. Today Souness looks fit and he radiates good health, but he has bad genes. Two uncles died in their mid-30s from heart disease and during those years at Rangers his dad had open-heart surgery.

As a 33-year-old player-manager in 1986 Souness hit Ibrox like a tornado and attacked the job at 100mph. Sometimes even faster than that, given he would rush from playing on a Saturday afternoon to catch an early evening flight from Glasgow to Mallorca because his first wife was staying there. He had high blood pressure and suffered regular headaches. “I used to live on Solpadeine [pain relief tablets].”

His book is called My Rangers: How I Changed Scottish Football For Ever. The title is forgivable given he was the charismatic, controversial leader who hauled Rangers to domestic dominance after years of mediocrity.

Rangers benefited from English clubs being banned from Europe after the Heysel disaster, meaning the likes of Chris Woods, Terry Butcher and

Trevor Steven could be tempted to move to Glasgow. He describes the book as a “legacy piece” that he wanted to get on record while he could still remember.

He delivers that line as a joke, but there is some truth to it. “I’ve got mates that are in trouble with dementia, and mates that are no longer with us,” he says. “I went to my daughter’s house about a month ago. She had a painter round and the painter produced a programme from my playing days at Liverpool and asked me to sign it. I was looking through it and I got to the back page, where you’ve got the teams. I looked and it was like, ‘Dead, dead, dementia, dementia, dead’. There was not too many of us left. I am one of the lucky ones. I know that”

My Rangers reads like an extended love letter to the club where he won three Premier Division titles and four League Cups in five seasons. Huge transfer deals, commercial growth, red cards, controversies, drama and success established Souness as lead

“

For me, he's [Rice] not a great midfield player. But he's a top player because of his attitude

character in a dizzying soap opera. He remains in awe of Rangers now and what he experienced there from 1986 until resigning to replace his friend Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool in 1991.

"There might be more, but I think there are four institutions in British football; two in Glasgow, and Man United and Liverpool. Everything about Rangers just screams history. I see it at Anfield, I've witnessed it at Old Trafford, and I see it at Ibrox where people come and just sit or stand across the road and look at the building, just taking it in."

Supporters who do the Ibrox stadium tour see a portrait of the reigning monarch on a wall in the home dressing room. Souness is proud he first introduced that.

“I’m a royalist and I will continue to be,” he says. “It was just incredibly exciting, that period. It changed my life dramatically.

"It was like someone punched me on the nose on day one. Such an enormous learning curve. I mean, I was 33 years old and some of the stuff we did was like, 'Put your seatbelts on'. And by and large we got away with it."

Souness's success and magnetism enabled him to pull off the most audacious transfer deal in British football. In 1989, landing Mo Johnston ended the club's sectarian policy of not signing Catholics. Souness had intended to sign Catholic players from the start, and had the club's approval. Looking back, the very issue seems absurd.

“Eventually Fifa and Uefa would have got involved and it would have been, ‘If you don’t change you can’t play in our competitions’, and correctly so,” he says. “That’s the way life has moved, and for the better. How ridiculous is that?”

Johnston and Souness were brave, though. Johnston was given a minder and Special Branch officers sat with Souness to advise him on personal security: vary his travel routes, do not go under too many bridges, park in well-lit areas. “Things that should never have to have been said, but they felt it was necessary to say it to me,” Souness says.

Souness with Terry Butcher and Graham Roberts, two of his English recruits at Ibrox, where he won seven trophies as manager in the late 80s. These days he puts his time into helping Isla, left, and others with a rare skin condition

The following year Souness brought a far bigger name to Ibrox. Frank Sinatra was due to play at Celtic Park in 1990 but Souness had an “in” with the tour promoters and convinced them to switch across the city. Days after the concert, Sinatra sent him a letter of thanks.

"At that time Rangers were as big as anyone. History has been unkind to them in that respect and to Scottish football in general, with the way it has evolved and the money there is in the game in England. I do have a regret. Rangers never saw the best of me as a player. I'd love to have played in the Old Firm games in my pomp."

Against Celtic he was a pantomime leading man and villain. Before one derby he warmed up in front of Parkhead's famous "Jungle" terrace and bent over, lowering his shorts.

“It wasn’t my whole backside, I pulled the shorts down to a point where they would know what I was doing,” he says. “That was enough. They had the last laugh because I got sent off in that game.”

By his own admission he was too aggressive and too controlling at Rangers. After colourful spells at Galatasaray, Benfica, Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United, among others, he felt his confrontational style no longer suited modern management and stepped away at only 53.

"I still like to think I've evolved. I'm still earning money out of football," he says. "My career was 20 years as a player with a crossover into management. Then management for 20 years with a crossover into television. And then 20 years of television. I'm still earning money out of football. But I don't think my style of management would work today."

In 2023 he left Sky Sports after 15 years as a senior and compelling pundit. The urge to express himself and to broadcast is now satisfied by his new podcast series. Dalglish, Matt Le Tissier, Simon Jordan and Sir David Murray, his former Rangers chairman, have been among the early guests. This week's was Morgan. "Piers was outstanding, although he's a Gooner and he only sees things through that prism."

Naturally they sparred about Rice, the Arsenal and England player Souness regards as highly talented but short of greatness. “I was very complimentary about him. He’s a top midfield player playing for a top team,” he says. “For me, he’s not a great midfield player. But he’s a top player and because of his attitude, he’d be the first name on a teamsheet.”

He has an interesting perspective on the biggest story of all. To him, Manchester City's owners must be punished but that must be kept in proportion. “I think, as a country, there are enormous benefits to be had from them investing in UK plc and I think if we embarrass these people too much they'll pull the drawbridge up and they'll take the money elsewhere,” he says.

“No one has died. It would be worse if they had been nobbling referees. That’s proper cheating. Every single football club in the Premier League will have something in their cupboard that they don’t want to come out.”

Graeme Souness: captain, leader, manager, broadcaster, charity president, Mexico fan. In a series of comical Paddy Power advertisements during the World Cup, Souness, Gordon Strachan and Charlie Nicholas goofed around as if they were passionate citizens of whichever nation was about to face England. And so, before England went to the Azteca, Souness wore a poncho and smashed a piñata shaped like the number 66.

Reminding him of becoming "Guillermo Sonessi" in an Argentina kit makes him rock with laughter. "They had rented a house on a normal street somewhere in east London. Me, Gordon and Charlie weren't there at the same time. We all had our little bits to do and we never met. They were so much fun. The amount of people that have stopped me saying, 'Oh, those adverts, how good were they?'

He is a changed man in more ways than one.

● My Rangers: How I Changed Scottish Football For Ever by Graeme Souness is released on October 15 by Penguin Viking, £22

Almost no gymnasts are mums... but Alice Kinsella is - and she's better than ever

Despite having ‘absolute minimal guidance’, a year after her son was born the Briton, 25, is back winning titles and preparing for the World Championships

MOLLY McELWEE

0

ne-year-old Parker is crawling on a mat between balance beams and uneven bars. High on the wall behind him is an 8ft poster of his mother, Alice Kinsella, posing with her Olympic bronze medal.

She is one of Britain's most successful gymnasts, with two European titles, Commonwealth golds in individual events, and a team bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. In a matter of days, the 25-year-old will compete at a World Championships, becoming the first British artistic gymnast to do so after giving birth.

Kinsella is making history, but recognises her son might well trump her in the popularity stakes. “I feel like everyone is more excited to see Parker than me, which I don’t blame them to be honest,” Kinsella says, laughing.

As her team-mates pour into the cavernous gym at the Lilleshall National Sports Centre, her theory proves true. Parker beams at them and they coo at him in return, fussing over him before they begin stretching for their session. Kinsella is already diligently flexing her foot using an elastic, which Parker crawls over to grab hold of happily.

“Juggling mum life and gymnastics life is pretty hard,” Kinsella says. “I’m kind of used to it now, but especially when he doesn’t sleep or he’s ill, and I don’t get any sleep and have to go to training.” She shrugs with a smile. “But that’s what a coffee’s for, aye?”

Kinsella's chirpy approach downplays just how groundbreaking her path back to gymnastics is. Only a handful of artistic gymnasts are known to have made postpartum comebacks to the world stage. Oksana Chusovitina, an Olympic gold and silver medallist, is the most prominent example. The Uzbekistani gave birth to a son in 1999, midway through her career, but returned to take her total number of Olympic appearances to eight, and is still active at age 51.

Russia's two-times Olympic champion Aliya Mustafina, Poland's Marta Pihan-Kulesza and Slovenia's Teja Belak – the 2019 vault European champion and mother of two – are other examples of mums who have returned to competition, though none made it back to an Olympics. Despite this being such uncharted territory, Kinsella says she never doubted her aim to combine motherhood with gymnastics. On the contrary, she is happy to be the British Gymnastics "guinea pig", as she puts it.

Her swift trajectory is part of what has grabbed attention though. Only 12 months ago, Kinsella was making her first tentative steps back to exercise after giving birth in early September 2025. Six months after Parker was born, she finished fourth in the beam at the British Championships.

Last month she won the all-around competition at an international event in Stoke, which featured gymnasts from France, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. Her score of 53.900 was better than any of her team-mates managed at the British Championships, and superior to her own tally at the Olympics two years ago. On the podium with Parker in her arms, she says even she was “shocked” at her level. “I was very calm and I was like, whatever happens happens – I’m back to where I was before and competing for GB again.”

The World Championships in Rotterdam, which begin on Saturday, is another step up, and one she did not expect this season – so much so she is still waiting for Parker's passport to arrive. That quick turnaround is not to say it has been easy. "It just takes loads and loads of reps on pieces, that's really it," Kinsella says. "A lot of hard work and I definitely put that in. You have to be really committed."

Kinsella's unwavering dedication paired with the expertise of her team has proved a winning combinations so far. British Gymnastics' national head coach, Martine George, got in touch with Pihan-Kulesza and Belak to ask for advice on how to approach such a comeback, and Kinsella has also been supported daily by her primary coach Brett Ince. Mostly though, the focus initially was on rebuilding Kinsella's fitness.

I said to Alice, 'You've got a chance to be a role model, it is not normalised in gymnastics'

Kinsella started preparing for her comeback before she gave birth, adhering to a structured strength and conditioning regimen during her pregnancy. It also provided an opportunity for her to strengthen an ankle which had been a recurrent injury problem. British Gymnastics' head of strength and conditioning, Ben Young, was on hand from the start. Young previously helped British trampolinist Laura Gallagher after childbirth in 2023, and recognised how limited information there was on postpartum recovery in elite gymnastics. When he began working closely with Kinsella during her pregnancy, he enlisted the help of Dr Julie Gooderick, a researcher at the University of Kent, to track progress and write a paper on their findings.

"There's absolute minimal guidance for how you might, from a scientific perspective, bring somebody back [to gymnastics]," Gooderick says. "I said to Alice, 'You've got a chance here to provide a role model to athletes considering mid-career maternity leave' – which is really still not normalised in sports like gymnastics. The lack of knowledge in this space is still cited as a barrier by some athletes and coaches. They wouldn't feel comfortable becoming pregnant mid-career because of [it].”

Kinsella is such a “rare” case study, Gooderick says, because the effects of pregnancy “directly” impact the specific physical traits gymnasts require to succeed. “Gymnastics is a very unique beast,” she says. “All of the biological adjustments the body goes through during pregnancy and birth, gymnastics directly needs. Success in gymnastics requires very high intra-abdominal pressure, which places significant strain on the pelvic floor muscles. So we have to rebuild all of that.”

Every month, Young shared testing

NAME YOUR UNSUNG HEROES? TIME TO NOMINATE GRASSROOTS SPORTSWOMEN OF THE YEAR

The Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year awards celebrate some of the biggest stars of sport but also the unsung heroes.

This month we launched the 2026 awards, in their 39th year, with a call for readers to nominate their Grassroots Sportswoman of the Year.

The award is for women who have worked to engage their community through sport.

Last year, the winner was Natalie O'Rourke, the head of Park Lane Stables in Teddington, London, who provides a programme of equestrian events for disabled people. The previous winner was

THE SUNDAY TIMES

SPORTSWOMEN

OF THE YEAR

2026

Val French, a retired PE teacher from East Yorkshire, who led 1,000 bike rides for women.

The shortlists for all categories will be announced next month and the awards will be handed out at a ceremony in central London in February.

To nominate go to: thetimes.com/sportswomen-of-the-year

Kinsella, who finished fourth at the British Championships six months after giving birth, below, takes Parker, now one, to the gym with her on Wednesdays

data with Gooderick regarding Kinsella's jump height, stability, landing stability, strength metrics and sleep tracking. They were both taken aback by the speed of progress when Kinsella returned to training. In fact, on occasion Young had to hold Kinsella back and remind her to pace herself, as her strength needed to be completely rebuilt before she could attempt the dangerous skills that used to be second nature to her.

"When we're looking at any gymnast doing big tumbles, dismounts, part of my remit is they need to be super rigid, super strong, not allow any energy leaks," Young says. "If someone's had a major trauma and [doesn't] have those deeper core muscles, you're instantly losing a massive piece of that tension puzzle.

reminded him of recovery from long-term anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injuries.

“Gymnasts are phenomenal compensators, so they’ll always find a way, but chances are that then [has] a negative consequence, either immediately if it’s a big skill and they fail, or over time that becomes repetitive strains, niggles and problems.”

The last element of Kinsella's physical profile to fully return was “explosive plyometric strength”, says Young, and he noted that the rate of development

As for where Kinsella ranks now, the data does not lie. “She is as strong, if not stronger than everyone else on the squad,” Young says. “There’s always been an expectation that we’ve actually probably brought her back better than what she was before she became pregnant.”

As much as she may be physically close to the best shape of her life, gymnastics still requires a sense of “feel”, Kinsella says. “There were a few [skills] I was a bit scared to do. When I had to do my free cartwheel layout for the first time [on beam] it was scary. But once I’d done the first one, it came pretty much all back to me.”

She says motherhood has given her more patience in training, as well as a calmer demeanour in competition. “I was usually a bit stressed before,” she says. “For the Olympic Games I was very stressed. When I find something scary, I tell myself I’ve been through birth – nothing can be any worse than that, honestly.”

Kinsella trains four days a week, but hopes to return to her usual five soon. On Instagram she details how her daily routine has changed, including changing nappies in between reps at her local gym in Telford. While Parker spends Wednesdays at the gym, Kinsella credits her partner, mother and in-laws with their support when it comes to childcare now he is “moving and crawling everywhere, so it’s a little bit harder [to bring him to the gym]”.

Aside from the individual achievement, Kinsella's comeback also represents a departure from her sport's traditionally rigid parameters. Until recently, careers in elite women's gymnastics mostly ended when athletes were still teenagers or in their early 20s, and a few days off was considered rare – let alone more than a year on the sidelines, apart from through injury. That once unforgiving world has become more flexible since 2021, when whistleblowers exposed systemic abuse in gymnastics, and high-profile athletes such as Simone Biles helped to normalise taking breaks from the sport too.

Does Kinsella think this significant culture shift has made a comeback from pregnancy more possible? “Definitely, yeah, but I also think I would have been the same before anyway,” Kinsella says. “I’ve always wanted to be a

mum as well as a gymnast."

Most of all, she wants her story to inspire others. "My advice would be if you do want to be a mum and have a family, it shouldn't stop you doing what you love. I hope I've shown people that."

'Eddie was really tough on me – I took that as a compliment'

Kieran Brookes on being subjected to mind games by the England coach after coming through Irish system... and eyeing an Ireland call-up at 36

Brookes has proved an inspired signing for Ulster in his 18th year as a pro

Rugby Union

Peter O'Reilly

Irish Rugby Correspondent

Clayton McMillan was as happy as we've seen him last Wednesday, when the habitually phlegmatic Kiwi discussed the ingredients that had gone into Munster's spirit-lifting victory over the Bulls.

High on his list of heroes was a 36-year-old Englishman in his 18th season of professional rugby. “We feel like we have recruited really well even though we were criticised for some of those recruitments over the summer,” McMillan said. “You can’t beat experience and someone like Kieran Brookes brings a massive amount.”

With Brookes, it's not just the volume of experience – about 360 professional games – but the breadth of his exposure, having had spells at four Premiership clubs (Newcastle, Leicester Tigers, Northampton Saints and Wasps) and at Toulon and Perpignan in the French Top 14.

He also has 16 caps for England, including a bit-part role in the grand slam of 2016, but we'll come back to that. He looks remarkably fresh-faced for someone who has spent all that time at tight-head prop. How many times has he crouched, bound and thudded into an opposing front row?

"One of the boys asked me about that," he says, smiling. "If you say 360 games at an average of ten scrums a game? That's not counting scrums in training, though [or resets]. But everything's working fine, yeah. I've got thin cartilage in both knees but as long as I rehab it well, my body feels good. I've been very lucky to have had minimal concussions – two or three."

It was Oli Jager's misfortune with a brain injury that forced Munster to go looking for an experienced tight-head earlier this year. Brookes was more attractive for being Irish-qualified. While he was born in Stoke-on-Trent and grew up in England, his mother, Karen, is from Belfast and his statutory three-year “stand-down” period is long over.

The critics McMillan mentions saw this point as a red herring. What relevance has his Irishness when he will be 37 come next year's World

Cup? But so will Bundee Aki and no one is ruling him out on age grounds. Andy Farrell worked with Brookes in the England set-up more than a decade ago and isn't exactly flush for tight-head options. He hasn't been in touch, but it seems

unwise to rule anything

out. Around the time

Stuart Lancaster picked

him for England, the UK

media got some mileage out of the fact Brookes had appeared as an extra on Coronation Street and Shameless. Last week he played a surprise role at Thomond Park.

McMillan was so short-staffed at hooker that he went shopping in the All-Ireland League, without luck. But

---

You can feel English and you can feel Irish. I don't think you have to be one or the other

Brookes had played there in his teens and was up for a challenge. He came off the bench with 20 minutes remaining and his first task was to throw at the lineout. All told he found his target with five out of six attempts.

"I told Clayton that I was happy to play in any front-row position," Brookes says. "Every single hooker in the club asked if they could help, with video footage or with roles off set piece, whatever. I was happy enough with how it went."

The former England wing, Chris Ashton, was once asked to provide thumbnail sketches of each of his team-mates. For Brookes, he said: "Docile and very intelligent, and would never go out of his way to say anything bad about anybody."

"I'll take that," Brookes says. But docile? Maybe off the pitch. Last weekend, Brookes looked like someone out to make an impression on his new team-mates, to prove his commitment to Munster was absolute. He flung his body into rucks and launched himself into tackles.

Yesterday, he was in Ravenhill for the first time. One of his chores last week was to arrange as many as 18 tickets to be left on the gate for relatives. He represented Ireland at under-18, under-19 and under-20 level and was on Leinster's hitlist for an academy slot, only to choose England Under-20 in 2010.

“You can feel English and you can feel Irish,” he says. “I don’t think you have to be one or the other, but at the time I was playing rugby in England for an English club. The opportunity came up to play for England and it was an honour.”

By the time he was playing for the England team that beat Ireland in a warm-up Test before the 2015 World Cup, Brookes was surely content with his decision. But he was 25 when he won the last of those 16 caps, only one of which came under Eddie Jones.

Does he ever wonder what might have transpired had he stayed in the Irish system? “I don’t regret anything,” he says. “I’ve never looked back.” If he did, he’d remember that Jones gave him a hard time. In his autobiography, Danny Care described the mind games that Brookes was subjected to after some of Jones’s “ridiculously hard” training sessions.

Care writes: “[Eddie] asked, ‘How did you find it?’ Brooksy was a gentle giant, just a nice, softly spoken lad with no side to him, and he replied, ‘Yeah, it was tough, but I enjoyed it. I feel good.’ Eddie shot back, ‘You’ve obviously not worked f\*\*\*ing hard enough, mate.’”

The next week, after another session, Jones asked him the same question. According to Care, “Brooksy thought for a moment, then replied, ‘Absolutely exhausted, one of the hardest I’ve ever done.’ To which Eddie responded, ‘You’re obviously not f\*\*\*ing fit enough, mate.’”

Ten years on, how does he feel about such treatment? “I wouldn’t say he bullied me,” he says. “He was tough on a lot of players. I could take it as a compliment that he maybe saw some potential there and maybe it worked for him.”

It still seems a shame that Brookes didn't reach his potential until he was in France, in his 30s. There, he mauled, cleaned out rucks, tackled and scrummed hard. But now his focus is on Munster, where he and his family are settled, and over the coming days he will share his experiences of playing against Racing 92, Munster's opponents in Cork on Saturday night. "Yeah, we're happy," he says. "I'm here to do a job. I'd love to win something with Munster."

12 October 11, 2026 The Sunday Times Rugby Union Gallagher Prem

Bad defending? For all its faults, I'd take this over dark-ages rugby

71-48

Northampton Saints

Bath

Stuart Barnes

t's only 40 or so miles up the motorway from Northampton to Leicester, but as far as rugby union was concerned this weekend it could have been a million miles.

Fans were either thrilled – or not – as Leicester Tigers and Gloucester racked up 69 points in a match on Friday utterly dominated by the “intensity” of the respective packs; yesterday in Northampton, suffice to say close-range driving line-outs were not the monopolistic modus operandi.

Friday night was rugby's version of a heavyweight collision. Blows were traded. Spectators winced and wondered if this was it. The next afternoon, further down the M1, Northampton and Bath offered an answer. By half-time, both teams had a bonus point and the score a breathless 29-26 in Bath's favour. There are those who believe in the purity of forward power, but at Franklin's Garden's we witnessed something akin to a kaleidoscopic game of club rugby.

The 119-point aggregate score was the second-highest in English top-flight history, only behind Northampton's 94-33 win over Bristol Bears in May. Of the ten Prem games in which 100 points have been scored, five have been since the start of the 2023-24 season – the same as in the whole of the previous 36 years. Bath's total of 48 points was the most ever by a losing team in the league.

These two clubs have won the past three Gallagher Prem titles between them. Bath have been focused more on their forward power. It undid them against Exeter Chiefs in last season's play-off semi-final. Northampton are a smoother operation, the angles and handling of their midfield are mesmeric. Poetry in soft-handed motion.

If there was a chasm between the styles of the games in Leicester and Northampton, so too was there a fascinating difference between these English powerhouses of rugby union sparring at the Gardens.

After an error-strewn first five minutes, the talismanic fly halves

119

Point aggregate score yesterday is the second highest in Gallagher Prem history — behind Northampton's 94-33 win over Bristol Bears in May

Gallagher Prem matches since the start of 2023-24 season in which more than 100 points have been scored — the same number as in the previous 36 years

reminded us of the quality on display. Alex Mitchell tapped a penalty quickly rather than kick to the corner. Moments later, Fin Smith looped behind his midfield, utilising James Pater on a smart decoy run for the first try of the day. Pandora's box was open and havoc ensued for the next 73 minutes.

Seventeen further tries were scored on what can only be described as a humiliation for the West Country side. The afternoon ended with Bath belatedly reverting to their familiar pick-and-drive. It was held up. The home fans laughed, Bath's travelling supporters cried.

People questioned the defensive quality of Northampton in their surge to last season's title. This time around it is all well and good to point out that

Youngsters Bracken and Caluori power Saracens to victory

Charlie Morgan Senior Rugby Writer

Stubborn defence ruled over indecisive attack for the second week in succession at StoneX Stadium until Saracens pulled away to oust Bristol Bears and end the Prem's only

aining unbeaten record.

Noah Caluori and Jack

Bracken collected a try

each, with Maro Itoje

and Ben Earl highly influential up front for the home side. Louis Rees-Zammit dazzled for Bristol, who hauled themselves to within four points at 11-7 early in the second period before falling to their first defeat of the league campaign. Bristol were without a win at this venue in all seven of their previous attempts and

Caluori makes light work of Bristol's defence with an early try

Pat Lam had rotated his line-up considerably ahead of a Champions Cup assignment in Cape Town against the Stormers. As Joe Batley made a 100th club appearance, he was partnered in the second row by Harry Wells, who left Leicester Tigers over the summer. Tom Jordan's late withdrawal compromised Bristol further. Brendan Venter has planned out his Saracens squads for the first few weekends of the campaign. Eager for a reaction following a flat performance in the loss to Sale Sharks, he handed Jamie George, Owen Farrell and Noah Caluori their first competitive outings of the season.

Olamide Sodeke, the exciting lock, teamed up with George Martin in a bruising engine-room partnership with Maro Itoje reverting to blindside flanker. Fit again after surgery on his wrist, Caluori quickly made an impression. It took just four minutes for Saracens to go ahead with a try that underlined their blend of experience and youth. Sodeke and Alec Clarey forced a spill from George Kloska in a two-man tackle and Farrell flung a 20-metre pass off his left hand to Sione Va'enuku. Caluori

outstripped the cover defence and stretched to complete a polished finish. Caluori then helped Saracens consolidate by climbing high to deflect Charlie Bracken's box-kick in-field. The hosts spread the ball left, thanks to a beautiful transfer from Jamie George, and Bristol conceded a penalty that Farrell converted.

Sodeke was sin-binned for a high tackle on George Taylor as Bristol responded. However, the 14-man defence resisted. Another run on the Saracens right from Caluori caused Bristol to infringe and the lead was extended further by Farrell. In sharp contrast with the try-fest staged by Northampton Saints and Bath, defences remained on top in a cagey affair. Upon the return of Sodeke, the Saracens maul muscled an opportunity in the Bristol 22 but Luka Ivanishvili burrowed into a breakdown to earn a turnover.

Ivanishvili, the Georgian openside, promptly forced a second penalty moments later. Thanks to a strike move that allowed Louis Rees-Zammit to link up with Aidan Boshoff on the opposite wing, the Bears ended the half with a five-metre line-out. Under pressure from Sodeke, the set-piece malfunctioned and Saracens filed off the field 11-0 in front. Any purists in attendance would have been happier than those in the East Midlands, if not quite purring. Bristol's attack had been clunky given their changes and centre Max Clark hobbled off minutes into the second period to present another headache. Rees-Zammit was still on the pitch, though, and he zipped outside Caluori to spark his team. Itoje and Sodeke tracked across superbly to prevent a try on the other flank, but Harry Randall soon scampered clear from 40 metres after a neat exchange with Boshoff.

Venter chose this point to change his entire front row and one of those replacements, Alex O'Driscoll, shunted over the whitewash for a prompt response to keep defiant Bristol at arm's length. Close to the hour mark, Lam switched his props and also introduced club captain Fitz Harding, arguably the league's form back-rower, from the bench. Unfortunately for Bristol, any comeback attempt was hampered by the Saracens maul. Itoje rose to claim a five-metre line-out and the drive

DAVID ROGERS/GETTY IMAGES

Sleightholme scored a hat-trick of tries for the home side in an extraordinary match

48

Points scored by Bath is the most ever by a losing team, surpassing Bristol's tally in a 53-47 defeat by Sale in 2003 if they leak 48 against Bath, someone like, say, Leicester, will punish them. But which club in England can bottle them up? It's not even as if the champions were flawless here. Their failure not to clear their lines from the many Bath restarts placed the Saints defence under pressure. Bath managed seven tries of their own.

The curmudgeon in me is left shaking his head but, while this may not be rugby as we know it in England, it is some evolution from the dark age of kick-and-chase witnessed for many of the club game's early years. I'll take this every time over 6-3, for all its defects.

I'll take Finn Russell suspending time as he waved the ball around, bewitching the Saints midfield before unleashing the impressive Arthur Green towards the tryline. Tom Carr-Smith ran the classic scrum-half angle to put Bath ahead. Russell had his team playing at a higher tempo than usual. A tapped penalty instead of a kick to the corner and the left wing, Charlie Griffin, was over.

If that wasn't the usual Bath, the Saints' riposte to the visitors' 12th-minute score was pure Northampton, with Rory Hutchinson, Smith and JJ van der Mescht handling well to send Ollie Sleightholme over for the first try of his hat-trick. The backs were their usual delicate selves (perhaps in attack and defence) but the offloading of the forwards is improving game by game. A mention, too, for Alex Coles, who tore into Bath from frequent touchline positions.

Then followed the quietest phase of the game. Twelve minutes without the scoreboard shifting. When it did move again, the architect was Smith, with Tommy Freeman making a belated entry into the action. The two men know each other's game so well. But then Northampton's tendency to overplay led to a Bath penalty, a kick to the corner, and Archie Griffin going over for a try that made you feel a little more secure as a rugby follower. It was pure, old Bath, if a little scruffy.

That was on the half-hour. There was to be time for the visitors to take the lead and claim a bonus point from Arthur Green's try, for Fraser Dingwall to pick the line of the day to slice what was to become more a rumour than a Bath rearguard. On the stroke of half-time, Russell kicked a penalty after eight first-half tries.

That blitz escalated after the break with ten second-half tries. Northampton continued to overplay, but perhaps it is only by making these errors that they will learn. They are quick on the uptake. Sweeping, end-to-end scores characterised the hosts' play at its best. Sleightholme's second was a classic, starting in the Saints right-hand corner, and finishing in the left. For the left wing's hat-trick try, he brushed off Bath's wilting tacklers, who were close to broken.

Bath tried to trade blows with Saints and ended on their backsides. The bomb squad blew up in their face; 71 points against Bath was some response to the Bristol loss. Forty miles from Leicester to Northampton, but a different rugby universe.

Northampton Saints: Tries F Smith (7), Sleightholme (16, 60, 64), Freeman (28, 78), Dingwall (36), Pater (45), Kemeny (51), Mitchell (56), Coles (68). Cons F Smith 8. Bath: Tries Carr-Smith (10), Griffin (13), Griffin (30), Green (32, 42), Carreras (49), Bayliss (66). Cons Russell 5. Pen Russell (40).

Northampton J Pater (A Belleau 76); T Freeman, R Hutchinson, F Dingwall, O Sleightholme; F Smith, A Mitchell (A McParland 62); E Iyogun (D Fischetti 57), C Langdon (R Smith 57), C Kundiona (I Neculai 57), A Coles, JJ van der Mescht (E Prowse 46), J Kemeny (T Lockett 71), H Pollock (Taylor 57), C Chick.

Bath S Carreras; J Cokanasiga, M Ojomoh, C Redpath, C Griffin (I Davies 71); F Russell, T Carr-Smith); S Kirk (B Obano 54), K Tuipulotu (T Dunn 54), A Griffin (W Stuart 54), W Jeanes (J Coetzee 54), R Molony (C Ewels 54), J Bayliss (sin-bin 26), M Reid (T Hill 23), A Green.

---

Gallagher Premiership | P | W | D | L | F | A | B | Pts | Gloucester | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 124 | 62 | 4 | 12 | Northmpton | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 156 | 115 | 3 | 11 | Saracens | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 87 | 66 | 3 | 11 | Leicester | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 100 | 90 | 3 | 11 | Bath | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 121 | 122 | 3 | 11 | Bristol | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 82 | 80 | 2 | 10 | Sale | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 45 | 51 | 0 | 4 | Exeter | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 58 | 85 | 3 | 3 | Newcastle | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 45 | 83 | 2 | 2 | Harlequins | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 17 | 81 | 0 | 0 | # DEPLETED ALL BLACKS HAMMER SLACK AUSTRALIA AT EDEN PARK IN WORLD CUP DRESS REHEARSAL

gathered irresistible impetus. Lovejoy Chawatama, having arrived mere seconds earlier, saw yellow and Saracens were awarded a penalty try.

By this stage, Itoje had found his stride and was disrupting Bristol at will. One opportunistic tackle brought a scrum from which Farrell wrapped Lucio Cinti to link with Caluori. The athletic Jack Bracken brushed off a defender on his way down the touchline and Saracens had a bonus point. Appropriately, Venter's men ended matters by hunting down and stifling Bristol to take the spoils.

Saracens Tries Caluori (5min), O'Driscoll (52), penalty try, J Bracken (64). Con Farrell. Pens: Farrell 10, 25 Bristol Bears Tries Randall 47 Con Williams.

Saracens M Malins; N Caluori, L Cinti, S Va'enuku (F Burke, 65, Va'enuku 74), J Bracken; O Farrell, C Bracken (T Williams, 40); P Brantingham (A O'Driscoll, 50), J George (E Clarke, 50), A Clarey (C Welbach, 50), O Sodeke (sin-bin 15), G Martin (N Isiekwe, 50), M Itoje, T Knight (A Onyeama-Christie, 70), B Earl.

Bristol T Wilson (G Ibitoye, 66); L Rees-Zammit, M Clark (J Bates, 44), J Williams, A Boshoff (J Woolmore, 64-71); S Worsley, H Randall (K Marmion, 62); J Woolmore (L Chawatama 60; sinbin 61), G Oghre (T Gwilliam, 40), G Kloska (J Halliwell, 60), H Wells, J Batley, G Taylor (J Owen, 15, Ivanishvili, 74), L Ivanishvili (F Harding, 60), B Grondona

The All Blacks extended their unbeaten run at Eden Park to 54 Tests and retained the Bledisloe Cup, an honour they have held since 2003, by thrashing Australia 50-19 at Eden Park (Elgan Alderman writes).

In a year's time, they will meet the Wallabies in Sydney on the second weekend of the World Cup, and this result showed that Australia under Les Kiss still have a way to go to challenge for glory on home soil, having gone unbeaten in their six previous Tests.

The Wallabies began well. Max Jorgensen and Tom Wright combined for the opening try. Jorgensen was sent

responded for the All Blacks before a superb second try when Tupou Vaa'i rounded off a flowing move. Though Australia were under the pump, the half-time deficit was only 17-14.

The Wallabies could not get a foothold in the second half, and the physical All Blacks pulled clear. Cam

Roigard snuck

Rogard snuck over from short range, as did Codie Taylor after multiple phases of attack, and neat interplay between Roigard.

between Roigard, Lakai and Leroy Carter brought the fifth try. Josh Moorby, scored the sixth before Josh Nasser's consolation. Will Jordan dotted down his kick in the final play.

Stuart Barnes

Furbank is injury-plagued and in a poor team. If Quins drag him down, here's an alternative England No 15

Never mind Sharks, keep an eye out for dark horses as Sale clash with Harlequins today. In particular, the performance of the Sale full back Joe Carpenter. He has been capped by England but only once, against the USA last summer. This is an opportunity for the 24-year-old to enter the equation for a position that is up for grabs.

Opposite him is the man most expect to wear the No15 shirt for Steve Borthwick. George Furbank is a fine player but cannot be trusted to make the position his own. He has vision, a secondary fly half's feel, a decent boot, a change of pace and an awareness of when and where to counterattack. If fit, he is the likeliest No15. But, alas, that is England's biggest 'if'.

The 29-year-old has a paltry 14 caps. In his early years under Eddie Jones he appeared too tentative under the high ball but it isn't any single flaw in his game that has held him back. It's bad luck, pure and simple. His most recent cap was against Japan in November 2024. He broke an arm soon after and hasn't played for England since.

He had his appendix removed in Johannesburg, missing the South Africa game he was set to start. Another England summer passed him by as he left Northampton Saints for Harlequins, swapping the league's top team for one near the bottom. Furbank's debut was a pre-season friendly against Edinburgh; first match, first carry, first concussion. What is Napoleon supposed to have said? "I would rather have a general who was lucky than one who was good." Furbank is undoubtedly good but he is desperately unlucky.

You can't measure the fortune – good or bad – of a man, but can you build a back three around someone so unlucky? It will take time to create a new link between No10 and No15. England have 12 matches before the World Cup; they cannot afford for their former Saints edifice to crumble mid-season.

Furbank has quit the stability of the champions for the consistent inconsistency of Harlequins. He has swapped a symbiotic connection with Fin Smith for an alliance with the unquestionably gifted but far from reliable Marcus Smith.

Marcus Smith will have suffered from being the catalyst of a team in torment last season. Playing in a side overflowing with self belief brings a smile to your face. And enjoying the match is central to a player maximising his game. Especially a No10. As Harlequins have drifted away from their title-winning season in 2021, Marcus Smith's ever-present smile has been replaced with a grim look, a rolled-up-sleeve attempt to lead from the front when what a team wants from a fly half is mastery. Dan Carter didn't run around with veins popping in his head.

Furbank is a full back with a fly half's mindset. He's a clever player who has performed with a Saintly smile. Whether he can recapture his form at Harlequins is doubtful and – if he can – whether an out-of-form No 15 can leave club concerns behind when with England is not guaranteed.

His former team-mates Tommy Freeman and George Hendy are other contenders should Furbank fail to find fitness, form or both. Freeman played at full back against Bristol Bears last weekend but has not had time to make the transition. He is an outstanding finisher with a brilliant aerial game that Fin Smith can find with his eyes shut.

Hendy has yet to be capped, and Borthwick's prevarication has cost England and the rangy wing time to settle into the squad. "If I want to kick on to anything further than Northampton, I'm going to have to show I can be consistent and good in the air as a back-three player," Hendy said last week. But he has no time to fiddle between wing for club and full back for country.

The other contender is Leicester Tigers' Freddie Steward. Against Newcastle Red Bulls he was tentative under the high ball. It was a concern because high balls are his forte. He will never be mobile enough to get near the world's best wings. Unless England revert to a limited game of set piece/box-kick, Steward will struggle to force his way back into the elite squad.

Which brings us back to Carpenter. He missed a chunk of last season with injury. When he did play, it was in a side on the slide, and it is anything but easy to hold form while those around you suffer.

He was steady in Sale's 21-17 win at Saracens last week, piecing together a typical Carpenter display of counterattack. He doesn't rip defences to pieces but can beat defenders in tight spaces to create space for others. He has fine footwork and plenty of pace, and the positional experience the Saints contenders lack. He is generally rock solid under the high ball.

What he lacks is Test-match experience. If the dark horse can put in error-free performances, mixed with flashes of magic on the counter, he could bolt all the way to the World Cup. An outstanding game today, outside a George Ford with plenty to prove, could take him nearer to the autumn squad and an opening fixture against England's potential World Cup knock-out opponents, Australia.

No bowler with 100 Test wickets since SF Barnes played his last match in 1914 has a lower bowling average

SIMON

WILDE

Cricket Correspondent

llie Robinson is chatting away about gym work and how he is being strict about what food he puts on his plate, and he's definitely smiling as he says it. He sounds relaxed and looks content, and that's not always been the case in recent times. But 2026 has been his redemption year and he is clearly still relishing how, and why, life has changed for the better.

Not so long ago, he thought he had lost the thing that as a sportsman he wanted above all else: to play for his country. What was worse, he didn't know how to retrieve it. He reflects: "I was averaging 22 in Tests and 21 in first-class cricket, and if that was not good enough, how was I ever going to get back to playing for England?"

It has taken a combination of circumstances, and a tortuous personal journey, to reunite him with an England shirt, and he seems determined not to let this second chance slip.

He is, at present, on a four-week stay in Portugal, on what I mistakenly take for a holiday but he refers to, more accurately, as warm-weather training. England's nutritionist and strength and conditioning team have devised a 28-day programme, including a six-day-a-week regime involving two or three activities a day – upper-body and lower-body gym sessions, running, cycling and swimming, mixed with games of padel and the occasional round of golf (by way of a treat). He is confined to 2,300 calories a day.

All this is designed to ready him for a return to bowling next month when England's fast bowlers will spend two days a week in the nets at Loughborough in preparation for the South Africa Test tour in December. He says he has lost about 10kg since February.

“We’ve got a good plan and already seen progress,” he says. “We’ve just been trying to tap away at it every time there’s no cricket. It’s easier to be strict when there’s no games and you haven’t got to fuel up as much.

"The nutrition side of things is big. I've even brought the scales with me. At dinner last night I was working out everything [in calories] to make sure I get it bang on. We've been eating organic food for 18 months and I stopped dairy this year. My recovery has got better, I've played more cricket and got stronger.

“Other bowlers got injured and weren’t called unfit, but if I got injured it was because I was unfit, and I felt that was a bit unfair. If you looked at the overs I bowled it was more than them. At times you get pigeonholed and for me it’s been about changing perceptions.

"This summer I was definitely trying to get fitter and leaner, and a few people made comments that I was moving better in the field. It's nice to know your hard work is being seen. I definitely feel better."

That he is prepared to talk openly about these issues feels like progress too. Robinson is one of those cricketers about whom everyone seems to have an opinion, whether it's about if he is fit enough, or bowls fast enough.

‘Others got injured and weren’t called unfit – that was unfair’

Ollie Robinson reflects on losing 10kg and ignoring England's calls to get faster by becoming ‘best 80mph bowler in world’

At the start of the season even his own coaches at Sussex, Paul Farbrace (who is his stepfather) and Grant Flower, seemed to doubt if he was ready for another crack with England, given that it would require him to “run in for a full Test match”.

However, after a summer in which Robinson took an astonishing 28 wickets at 9.32 apiece in four Tests, to leave him in possession of the best overall Test record of any bowler with 100 wickets since the First World War, few critics can now doubt his ability.

For England's broader prospects, the best thing is that he has given the bowling attack the kind of stability, and leadership, that was missing in Australia last winter, and has often been absent since Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad retired. “I do try to set the tone,” he says. “I try to find the length early and find out how much the ball is doing before I hand it over to Jofra [Archer] in the second over, or Josh [Tongue] in his first spell. It’s about finding out what’s working best and communicating quickly.

“That’s probably where you could say I am the [attack] leader, as in I find out the information first.

"I try to make the most of it; I have to make the most of it at my pace. Then I just relay it to the guys. It's nice when you bowl the first over and get to lay the foundations.

"If you have three or four wicket-taking bowlers that go at four an over, it's hard to control a Test match; if you have someone that controls the

game along with those wicket-taking guys, it's a very good unit."

There have been plenty of rave reviews about England's newly fashioned pace quartet – Robinson, Archer, Tongue and Gus Atkinson – and the good vibes extend to the bowlers themselves. “We’ve got four leaders who can bowl in all conditions and get 20 wickets, and we feel we’ve got all bases covered,” Robinson says. “For how good Jimmy and Broady were, they were a double act and it’s hard to carry a team and take 20 wickets as a two-man attack. As a quartet this is probably the strongest we’ve been for a while.”

Robinson has been taking a strict approach to his conditioning and nutrition, thanks to a programme specially devised by England

Robinson may have changed his approach to training and diet, but the central pillar in his successful comeback was that he went back to believing he could be effective bowling at 80mph despite calls to strive for higher speeds, including from the England director of cricket, Rob Key. During his two years out of the England team, he spent the winter of 2024-25 lifting weights in an attempt to get stronger and increase his muscle mass – “all the things that could potentially help me bowl quicker”. Initially, it seemed to work, as he got up to about 82-84 mph in the nets, but the next summer he found his returns declined, until the last game at Worcester.

"It was a green seamer and I decided to go back to bowling wobble-seam, just being really consistent and skilful, and not worrying about pace," he recalls. "I got 11 wickets and it made me rethink. Then someone told me I averaged around 18 when I bowled $80\mathrm{mph}$ or less, and 25 when I bowled over $80\mathrm{mph}$ . I didn't know that.

“I just thought, ‘How can I be the best 80 mph bowler in the world, and keep that pace at 80 mph?’ Because there were Tests where I started at 81mph and dropped to 76 mph. If you bowl 80-81mph, you have to maintain that pace, you can’t drop off. If I have the odd spell that’s quicker when my tail’s up, then great, but I’m trying to be the best bowler I can be at my normal speed.”

Between them, England and Robinson had needlessly sent him down a rabbit hole, an error that became clearer still when the likes of Scott Boland and Michael Neser, who bowl about 80mph-plus, put England to the sword in the Ashes. Sheer pace was no longer the only trick in town.

Robinson's skills are deceptive, but among the best in the game. He doesn't appear to do much with the ball but this is partly an illusion. What he does, he does late, which makes it all the harder for batsmen to deal with. "At my pace, I have to be the most skilful bowler I can be," he says. "It's about making sure those skills are a level above anyone else. When it nips off the wicket that much closer to the batter, it makes it feel like it's 85mph even if the ball speed is 80mph. The same with swing – the later, the quicker it feels to the batter.

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THE BEST AVERAGE FOR A HUNDRED YEARS

“It’s about nailing those skills – whether it be accuracy or trying to be tall at the crease to get the extra bounce; whether it be position on the

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HE TAKES WICKETS VERY REGULARLY

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The nutrition side of things is big. I have even brought the scales with me

“

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BRILLIANT AT HOME

Just two players with more than 50 Test wickets in England have taken them at a lower average crease to create the angles, or getting wobble or swing. All those things I practise every day. Although it looks very simple and samey, in that I try and land it in the same sort of area, I'm not actually someone that bowls the same ball over and over again."

Robinson has bowled wobble-seam all his career. He set out as an off spinner before changing to seam in his late teens, and for a couple of seasons his wrist position wasn't good enough to keep the ball upright in flight.

"I used to really enjoy watching Glenn McGrath, how he got tight to the crease and would have the seam angled in, a little wobble sometimes. The wobble was something I had to use to become effective," he says.

“I only really bowl swing if it gets flat, which was probably something I learnt off Jimmy [Anderson] – the finger pressure for swing and getting the ball to move later, not early from the hand, those sort of things. I could name eight or nine bowlers that have taught me things I use now.”

Robinson's willingness to embrace the ploy of Jamie Smith standing up to the stumps, after an initial reluctance, was further evidence of his capacity to try new things. "When the keeper is that much closer it's hard to get the ball full without being floaty because you're thinking if he nicks it he's not going to catch it," he says. "You've got to trust that the keeper's going to do his job. The better Smudge kept, the better I bowled."

The 32-year-old has already started doing his homework for South Africa, where he has not played before. "It depends on the wickets but I'll probably start by looking to wobble it with the new ball, and then just see how it goes. I've been looking at people who've bowled well in South Africa like Shaun Pollock, Vernon Philander and Morné Morkel.

"Everyone that knows me will tell you I'm a cricket badger. I watch a lot of cricket. I'm always using Sky TV to slow it down and look at how someone's releasing the ball.

9.32

"I messaged David Wiese [the former Sussex all-rounder] the other day because he was playing in the Canadian T20, and he bowled a slower ball out of the front of the hand – he actually took a hat-trick – and I asked him how he did it."

Robinson accepts that when he lost his England place after the winter tour to India in early 2024 he had not prepared thoroughly enough between Test assignments, although in mitigation it was the England team culture at that time for players to conserve their energy for major assignments. This approach did not suit him.

"I got carried away with playing Test cricket, having six weeks off, then trying to come back and get ready," he reflects. "Now, I understand I have to be constantly bowling. To have six or seven [weeks] off and not train to a level that I should to keep my body prepared to bowl again... it just wasn't the way I should have gone. [That] was probably my downfall. I came back and had back spasms a couple of times in games because I

Robinson's average this summer is sixth-best recorded in an English season (minimum 15 wickets) and best since 1958

GARETH COPLEY/GETTY IMAGES

thought I was ready to bowl, but clearly I wasn't. Being out of the team was a hard pill to swallow because I thought I was good enough. It didn't make me hate the game but I definitely fell out of love with it."

The 2024 season was a struggle and before his wickets at Worcester so was 2025, although it helped that he took on a leadership role with the Sussex bowlers, which transitioned into him taking on the full red-ball captaincy this year.

That late-summer boost at New Road encouraged him to head off to a season of grade cricket with Sydney University, which was a joy. “It was just about getting stuck in again really, bringing myself back down to that 12-year-old kid that loved cricket, I guess. I did an interview after Christmas talking about England and the door being shut. Baz [Brendon McCullum] texted me and said the door was still open and Key called me and said, ‘Keep working’. All those things combined reignited the flame within me.”

He said recently that had he been chosen for last winter's Ashes tour he would not have been ready, but he revises that view now. “I said that out of respect for the guys who were playing the Ashes because I know how hard an Ashes series is. You don't need another player saying they should be there instead. I'd have loved to have been there and would definitely have been ready if called upon.”

Has he had any contact recently from Matthew Hayden, the former Australia batsman who dismissed him as purveying 77mph “nude nuts” during the 2023 Ashes? Robinson said not. “Hopefully the best record in 100 years has put that one to bed,” he says with a laugh.

Australia's saviour is a Yorkshire-born friend of the Roots

Simon Wilde

Cricket Correspondent

It appears that reports of the death of Australian batsmanship may have been exaggerated. For all their struggles on the opening day of the series against South Africa in Durban, during which Australia slid to 124 for six, one top-order batsman, Matt Renshaw, survived until stumps.

If they were to post a competitive score, Renshaw needed to deliver on this second day – and deliver he did, spectacularly so, as he translated his modest start into one of the great overseas innings played for his country. With exceptional support from Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon in particular, Renshaw was able to hoist his overnight 37 into a mammoth 190 from 397 balls, the second-longest Test innings played for Australia since 2019, as Australia were eventually all out for 390. South Africa reached 27 for one before bad light brought an early close.

That Cummins himself was able to last 98 deliveries and Lyon 92 – in the course of partnerships of 86 and 134 – said something about how the Kingsmead pitch had settled down, but also about how South Africa’s guns were spiked by Renshaw’s patience and discipline. There was simply no way past him.

On this showing it seems remarkable that so many others were tried ahead of him as Australia sought to rebuild their batting line-up. He had spells in the Test side in 2016-17, 2018 (a one-off appearance in South Africa amid the fallout from the ball-tampering scandal) and in 2023, but was only brought back for a fourth time after the home defeat by Bangladesh in August.

Even then, the selectors equivocated about how best to use him. He opened the batting in his comeback Test in Mackay, but was told on the eve of the game here that he'd be batting in the middle order – where he has been performing well in Australia's white-ball sides for 12 months – while the other returnee, Nic Maddinson, was shunted to the top in a move that failed as singularly as Renshaw's succeeded.

Renshaw's 190 came off 397 balls

Renshaw, born in Middlesbrough and settled in Brisbane from the age of ten, might easily have played for Yorkshire and England, but his father's work took the family abroad and Australia were more convinced during his formative years than they would be later that they had a good one on their hands, and kept close tabs on his movements.

When he spent a season with MCC Young Cricketers at the age of 18, there were strict instructions that any offers from counties should be rebuffed. Queensland were quick to put him on a rookie contract too.

They were probably right to be nervous because Renshaw's family had close ties with Joe Root's and word might easily have travelled about how good this dual-national cricketer was (Renshaw made scores of 94, 170 and 146 in his first six Sheffield Shield games, all before the age of 20). His father Ian, who taught coaching and sports psychology at Sheffield Hallam University, played for two or three years for Sheffield Collegiate alongside Root's father Matt, and their sons – Joe and Billy Root, and Matt Renshaw – would play together on the edge of the outfield.

Renshaw, 30, was a child at the time – he was seven when his family left the UK for New Zealand before relocating to Australia three years later – and admitted that he used to cry when he was dismissed, something Joe Root confirms. “He enjoyed a strop when he got out and made a big scene,” he once told me.

Renshaw was understandably not overly happy when he was caught at slip driving at off-spinner Simon Harmer when ten short of a double-century two balls after the tea break, but he kept his emotions in check. This was the only wicket to fall to South Africa's spinners in 51.2 overs.

He has yet to play a Test against England, though he has come close a couple of times, being dropped shortly before the 2017-18 Ashes, and narrowly losing out to Jake Weatherald as opener prior to last winter's series, but he is now well placed to hold down a spot though to next summer's tour to England.

Renshaw offered no clear-cut chances and gave South Africa no real hope as to how they might remove him. He rode out several spells of short-pitched stuff, during one of which he was struck nastily on the side of the helmet-grille – via the shoulder – when he ducked into an Anrich Nortje bumper that did not rise as much as expected. Mind you, he was on 131 by that stage, and it did not unduly disturb his equilibrium.

Wiaan Mulder, who finished with commendable figures of four for 68, removed Cummins and Mitchell Starc either side of the second new ball but Lyon's arrival led to South Africa's most frustrating period as they struggled to create chances for 47.2 overs. During the middle session, Australia added 113 for the loss of only one wicket, Renshaw's share being 88. Scoreboard, page 16

Australia First Innings | 4.07 | £10,468: 1M 1F (5) | 1 (4) | 1 | DONEGAN 18 A Balding 9-8 | O Murphy | 2 (3) | 053 | BUNDABERG 18 G & J Moore 9-4 | David Egan | 3 (1) | 2 | IRON CURTAIN 30 R Beckett 9-4 | H Crouch | 4 (5) | 322 | ROYAL ACCLAMATION 15 (BF) C Appleby 9-4 B Loughnane | 5 (2) | 5 | WILCOX BRIDGE 19 K R Burke 9-4 | C Lee | Betting: 7-4 Royal Acclamation, 5-2 Iron Curtain, 11-4 Donegan, 7-1 Bundaberg, 14-1 Wilcox Bridge | 1.27 DRAGONBET / EBF MARES' 'NATIONAL HUNT' NOVICES' HURDLE £8,714: 2M 3F 100YDS (7)

Ruthless Verstappen gets the better of Hamilton (twice)

Verstappen has never won in Singapore but will start today's race on pole

MOLLY HUDSON

Motor Racing Correspondent

Singapore

Lewis Hamilton left qualifying with a sense of what might have been, after leading in the first two parts of the session. But ifs and buts are not the metrics Max Verstappen cares for and now his Red Bull is back on the pace, he is barely putting a tyre out of place.

Verstappen claimed a brilliant pole, to go with a sprint-race victory earlier yesterday, as Red Bull's resurgence, and his ruthlessness, continued. Much of the session was a battle between two of the sport's greatest drivers, as Hamilton and Verstappen exchanged fastest times, but as the clock ticked down it was the Dutchman who produced the precision.

For Hamilton, the seemingly never-ending wait for a Ferrari pole position goes on; he has not been on the front of the grid since Budapest in 2023, in a Mercedes. “The car was feeling much better [during qualifying]. I really felt she had more in her,” he said. He was pipped by his team-mate Charles Leclerc, who will start in second, with Hamilton third, and the pair will hope their teamwork can stop Verstappen in the race.

Verstappen's first goal will be to keep the lead off the line, having struggled from standing starts this season. Qualifying is crucial at this street circuit, where it is incredibly difficult to overtake due to its tight and twisty nature – bravery and skill are rewarded. The Marina Bay Street Circuit is one of the very few tracks Verstappen has never won at, and this was also his first pole here. “This was the one I really wanted,” Verstappen said, having taken his 50th pole. “The car has been strong all weekend.”

George Russell, who qualified sixth, will start from the back of the grid owing to an engine penalty, having also crashed out of the lead in the sprint race, misjudging a slippery kerb on a drying track.

"I came around the corner, I came on the throttle, I got more power than I was expecting from the battery, I went a little bit wide and then I touched the white line," Russell said. "The No1 rule in the rain is don't touch the white lines. Very silly mistake, overly confident, my first crash [when it was my fault] of the year."

His championship rival – if he is even close enough to be described as that – Kimi Antonelli finished fourth in the sprint, but still extended his championship lead to 89 points. He will start fourth in the main race.

The Italian was helped by an unnecessary McLaren crash on the last lap, when Lando Norris tried an overly ambitious move and drove into the side of team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Rain meant the decision to host a sprint race at a circuit that hardly encourages overtaking somewhat paid off for Formula 1, as Verstappen claimed victory and nine cars failed to finish. The Dutchman was still unimpressed, with passing almost impossible when the track dried. “We shouldn’t hold a sprint [race] where you can’t pass,” he said.

Just like in Malaysia last week, the rain began to fall as the drivers lined up on the grid. In this region it is often particularly heavy and the start was delayed. As Norris explained earlier in the week, the spray produced from the rear of the cars leads to almost non-existent visibility.

It took 30 minutes to clear the standing water and prepare for two formation laps behind the safety car – as Russell joked on the team radio with Antonelli that he was his new engineer. Most drivers had a strong initial launch, but Verstappen struggled with wheelspin in the second phase, allowing Russell to nip ahead, while Hamilton had a brilliant launch from sixth, moving up to third.

Russell was caught out on the exit of the final corner, crashing into the wall and then back on to the straight, where Verstappen and Hamilton managed to avoid him.

That triggered a safety car to recover the Mercedes, while Lance Stroll's Aston Martin was abandoned at turn 16 after a crash with Sergio

Pérez, in the Cadillac. Isack Hadjar had a mechanical issue, which left him on the side of the track, and Arvid Lindblad spun.

After the restart, Valtteri Bottas hit Alex Albon, sending the Williams driver into the rear of Gabriel Bortoleto's Audi, and causing all three to retire, as the list of stressed mechanics multiplied. That only increased the frustration on the McLaren pitwall.

Hadjar had barely finished thanking his Red Bull mechanics for their help before he suffered a gearbox issue in qualifying.

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Qualifying for Singapore Grand Prix | Driver | Team | Time | 1 | Max Verstappen (Neth) | Red Bull | 1:31.373 | 2 | Charles Leclerc (Monaco) | Ferrari | 1:31.427 | 3 | Lewis Hamilton (GB) | Ferrari | 1:31.496 | 4 | Kimi Antonelli (It) | Mercedes | 1:31.562 | 5 | Lando Norris (GB) | McLaren | 1:31.712 | 6 | George Russell (GB)* | Mercedes | 1:31.747 | 7 | Oscar Piastri (Aus) | McLaren | 1:31.860 | 8 | Pierre Gasly (Fr) | Alpine | 1:32.225 | 9 | Liam Lawson (NZ) | Racing Bulls | 1:32.369 | 10 | Arvid Lindblad (GB) | Racing Bulls | 1:32.781 | 11 | Nico Hülkenberg (Ger) | Audi | 1:32.784 | 12 | Oliver Bearman (GB) | Haas | 1:32.908 | 13 | Esteban Ocon (Fr) | Haas | 1:33.323 | 14 | Carlos Sainz Jr (Sp) | Williams | 1:33.526 | 15 | Gabriel Bortoleto (Br) | Audi | 1:33.658 | 16 | Franco Colapinto (Arg) | Alpine | 1:33.787 | 17 | Fernando Alonso (Sp) | Aston Martin | 1:34.223 | 18 | Alexander Albon (Thai) | Williams | 1:34.289 | 19 | Lance Stroll (Can) | Aston Martin | 1:34.946 | 20 | Sergio Perez (Mex) | Cadillac | 1:35.123 | 21 | Valtteri Bottas (Fin) | Cadillac | 1:35.984 | 22 | Isack Hadjar (Fr) | Red Bull | no time | * starts from the back of the grid due to a penalty | ---

ON TV TODAY

Singapore Grand Prix

Today, 1pm. TV: Sky Sports F1

Today's racecards

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Chepstow

Going: good to soft-good in places

Rob Wright's tips: 1.27 Princess Day 2.02 Ugo Bingo

2.37 Mwabani 3.12 Bound For Glory 3.47 Leader Crik (nb)

4.22 Haas Boy 4.57 Old Coast Road

1 D142-1 KAMILLE AU KANADA 138 (T) A Honeyball 6-11-6

S Twiston-Davies

2 05-1U BATH TAVERNESS 19 P Evans 5-11-0 R T Dunne

3 211- CONNELLS CROSS 193 (T) K Bailey & M Nicholls 5-11-0 C Gethings

4 1/30- DIVINE DIVA 185 D Skelton 5-11-0 H Skelton

5 5354- MIDNIGHT DOYEN 228 J Scott 6-11-0 R Dingle

6 1110- PRINCESS DAY 185 (BF) J Scott 5-11-0 L Williams

7 1- WALKINTHEMOURNES 372 J Tizzard 5-11-0 B J Powell

Betting: 5-2 Kamille Au Kanada, 11-4 Princess Day, 3-1 Divine Diva, 5-1 Connells Cross, 8-1 Walkinthemournes, 20-1 Midnight Doyen, 50-1 Bath Taverness

1 MY BOY BEASTY 305 D Killahena & G McPherson 8-12-0 N Slatter (3)

2 42-F13 KATES CHOICE 123 (T) Mrs N Evans 6-11-11 B Poste

3 425- ONE COOL DREAMER F12 (P) R Stephens 5-11-10 R T Dunne

4 22133- LITTLE PI 195 (P) S Allwood 8-11-8 T McCain-Mitchell (3)

5 -P4P36 MIDNIGHT PASS 19 M Keighley 5-11-7 J Bowen

6 /56-06 SWEET HONEY B 31 C Boultbee-Brooks 8-11-5 R McLernon

7 0-0453 UGO BINGO 50 (T,D) J Tizzard 7-11-4 B J Powell

8 3542-0 ITALIAN SPIRIT 141 (P) H Dickin 10-11-4 M Bevan (7)

9 000P/ V POWER F46 (T) T Faulkner 6-11-2 Tabitha Worsley

10 456/4- AMBERELLI 498 M Keighley 6-11-1 F Keighley (5)

11 131665 MAKINBECON 34 (P,T) B J Murphy (Ire) 6-11-0 C Pritchard

12 25560- LADY BLACKMORE 188 (H) A Ralph 5-10-12 C Gethings

13 P05P0- KER D'OUDAIRIES 235 Christian Williams 6-10-7 J Tudor

14 /0060- DEAUVILLE LADY 193 N Hawke 5-10-4 D Noonan

Betting: 4-1 Ugo Bingo, 11-2 Little Pi, 6-1 Kates Choice, 10-1 Makinbecon, Sweet Honey B, Amberelli, 12-1 One Cool Dreamer, Midnight Pass, My Boy Beasty

1 1/22- LION ROSE SIVOLA 240 (BF) J & A O'Neill 11-0 Jonjo O'Neill Jr

2 4-0 GILI ISLAND 166 D Skelton 10-13 C J Todd

3 222- MWABANI 203 (BF) Mrs J Williams 10-13 C Gethings | 4 | ONE COOL KID (T) T Lacey 10-13 | S Sheppard | 5 | O- ON SUBS 333 Christian Williams 10-13 | J Tudor | 6 | SKIBIDIRIZZ D Skelton 10-13 | H Skelton | Betting: 2-1 Mwabani, 9-4 Lion Rose Sivola, 5-2 Skibidirizz, 7-1 One Cool Kid, 20-1 Gili Island, 33-1 On Subs

3.12 DRAGONBET BEST ODDS GUARANTEED HANDICAP HURDLE £4,225: 3M (13)

HARBOUR LIGHT 197 N & W Twiston-Davies 5-12-0

1 00211-

S Twiston-Davies

2 1-0504 BRIGHT LEGEND 19 (T) Faye Bramley 6-12-0 Jack O'Neill (7)

3 3055-2 WESTERN GEORGE 140 J & A O'Neill 5-12-0 Jonjo O'Neill Jr

4 551P3- ICAQUE DE L'ISLE 201 R Bandey 8-11-13 R Dingle

5 25231- WEST ORCHARD 170 (P) J Tizzard 9-11-11 F Gingell

6 /OP5-P SHENGAI ENKI 153 F Brennan 7-11-9 Isabelle Ryder (5)

7 5-3604 BALTRAY 44 (P) E Lavelle 8-11-8 L Harrison

8 3345-2 PIPERS CROSS 19 (CD) P Evans 9-11-7 Doubtful

9 -3144U FINAL ENTRY 13 (T,V) D Pipe 5-11-6 Rian Corcoran (5)

10 2/00-4 PAPPARICHE 162 Christian Williams 6-11-0 J Tudor

11 -31432 BOUND FOR GLORY 37 (P) R Stephens 4-11-0

11 -13433 Miss Imogen Mathias (7)

12 402-OP POET'S MUSE 13 (P) I Chanin 5-10-8 L Williams

13 F45-40 GETUPTHEYARD 37 (P) N Hawke 7-10-4 D Noonan

Betting: 11-4 West Orchard, 3-1 Harbour Light, 11-2 Western George, 8-1 Bound For Glory, 10-1 Icaque de L'Isle, Final Entry, 12-1 Baltray, 16-1 Bright Legend

8 22611- HAAS BOY 196 (P,T,D) Chester Williams 9-10-12 L Williams

9 63330- DR T J ECKLEBURG 185 (D) Mrs C Williams 8-10-7 C Ring

10 2-2122 GOWER PRINCE 21 (H) J & A O'Neill 8-10-2 B Macey (5)

Betting: 11-4 Glengouly, 3-1 Norn Iron, 5-1 Haas Boy, 7-1 Gower Prince,

8-1 Ooh Betty, 10-1 Stream Of Stars, 14-1 Faivoir, 20-1 Welsh Charger

4.57 WASDELL GROUP OPEN NH FLAT RACE (GBB RACE) £3,802: 2M (6)

1 1- OLD COAST ROAD 323 D Skelton 11-0 H Skelton

2 3- MASKED BLAGNY 250 S Edmunds 10-13 C Hammond

3 MOTIVASPEED ESSEF Mrs C Williams 10-13 A Wedge

4 1- ONETINGFORNUTTIN 231 M Bowen 10-13 J Bowen

5 TOO MANY ACRES P Nicholls 10-13 S Twiston-Davies

6 43- ROXY ROCKS 177 C Honour 10-7 B Carver

Betting: 13-8 Old Coast Road, 3-1 Too Many Acres, 7-2 Onetingfornuttin, 6-1 Masked Blagny, 14-1 Motivaspeed Essef, 16-1 Roxy Rocks

4.22 DRAGONBET BORN IN WALES SENIORS' HANDICAP HURDLE £10,562: 2M (10) | 1 | 2311-2 | NORN IRON 163 (T,D) Harry Derham 8-12-0 | Paul O'Brien | 2 | PPPPI-1 | GLENGOULY 140 (P,T,D) Faye Bramley 10-12-0 | S Bowen | 3 | 00103- | OOH BETTY 176 (T,D) Ben Clarke 8-12-0 | B R Jones | 4 | 13226- | STREAM OF STARS 283 (D) N & W Twiston-Davies 11-11-12S Twiston-Davies | 5 | 30030- | FAIVOIR 184 (D) D Skelton 11-11-11 | Miss H Palin (5) | 6 | 061-06 | NO ORDINARY JOE F14 (P,T,D) R Stephens 10-11-8Mr Jack Stenhouse (7) | 7 | 46U60- | WELSH CHARGER 176 (P,D) A Ralph 8-11-7 | J J Burke | ---

Goodwood

Going: good to soft-soft in places

Rob Wright's tips: 1.47 Mr Freedom 2.22 Brynmair Gold 2.57 Zarak Crown 3.32 Percy's Star (nap) 4.07 Iron Curtain 4.42 Storming Point 5.17 Shangri La

1.47 ALDERBROOK HANDICAP (PROFESSIONAL JUMP JOCKEYS) £9,160: 2M (12)

1 (7)000411 CARTHUSIAN 14 (D) J Candlish 4-12-1 Sean Quinlan

2 (9)02503- KLYCOT J215 R Bandey 4-12-0 K Brogan

3 (10) 511110 ARC ZOOSVE 106 (CD) N King 5-11-13 J Quinlan

4 (3)4-5360 AGGAGIO J8 (CD) G & J Moore 8-11-8 C O'Farrell

5 (1)522200 SOLAR PASS 18 (P) A Balding 4-11-7 N De Boinville

6 (11)350544 MR FREEDOM 10 (P,C) Miss S West 7-11-7 M Goldstein

7 (5) 111034 ROGUE EMPIRE 22 (D) R Teal 4-11-6 T Cannon

8 (4)02010- PONCHO J281 (CD) G & J Moore 8-11-4 F Mitchell

9 (6) 2-1513 DIVISION DAY 37 Mrs L Richards 4-11-2 C Deutsch

10(8) /11-06 EASTER ICON J44 (D) G Brown 7-10-13 Charlie Price

11 (12)54-652 KOTARI 16 G & J Moore 7-10-10 C Quinn

12 (2)524345 FAIR DINKUM 28 (P,T,D) J Scott 6-10-10 H Kimber

Betting: 9-4 Carthusian, 6-1 Kotari, 7-1 Klycot, 8-1 Arc Zoosve, 10-1 Division Day, 12-1 Mr Freedom, Fair Dinkum, Rogue Empire | 2.22 VIRGIN BET / BRITISH EBF RESTRICTED NOVICE STAKES£10,800: 6F (8) | 1 (8) | 4 CORNICHON 23 R Varian 9-7 | R Dawson | 2 (4) | 00 DANCINGONTHESTARS 16 D Cunha 9-5 | S M Levey | 3 (6) | 3 WAR CHEST 23 (H) E J-Houghton 9-5 | C Bishop | 4 (5) | 2 BRYNMAIR GOLD 11 Oliver Cole 9-2 | O Murphy | 5 (7) | AT MY EXPENSE R Teal 8-13 | G Wood | 6 (1) | 5 BINFLUENCER 160 G & J Moore 8-13 | R Clutterbuck | 7 (2) | SEASAIL M Tregoning 8-13 | Ashley Lewis (3) | 8 (3) | 0 ANGEL CHILDE 23 H Main 8-11 | J Dace (5) | Betting: 7-4 War Chest, 2-1 Brynmair Gold, 9-2 Cornichon, 6-1 Binfluencer, 14-1 Seasail, 16-1 At My Expense, 100-1 Angel Childe, Dancingonthestars

257 IRISH STALLION FARMS EBF NURSERY | 1 (2) | 41 ZARAK CROWN 24 R & P Fahey 9-9 | James Doyle | 2 (1) | 421020 WISE AND WONDERFUL 18 A Balding 9-5 | O Murphy | 3 (8) | 002 CLOUD CHORUS 30 G & J Moore 9-5 | David Egan | 4 (6) | 553 UNDER ARREST 38 W Haggas 9-3 | T Marquand | 5 (5) 330 ISABELLA DE VEGA 23 E Walker 8-13 Ashley Lewis (3)

6 (3) 42 CASHINOROYALE 18 (T) G Baker 8-12 Jason Watson

7 (4)260204 PERSIAN LAND 15 P Evans 8-12 J F Egan

8 (7) 065 LOTS ROAD 22 R Beckett 8-12 R Clutterbuck

Betting: 5-2 Zarak Crown, 4-1 Cloud Chorus, 5-1 Wise And Wonderful, 6-1 Under Arrest, 7-1 Cashinoroyale, 10-1 Lots Road, Isabella De Vega, 16-1 Persian Land

3.32 VIRGIN BET DAILY EXTRA PLACES HANDICAP

£10,468: 6F (14)

1 (2)24-000 CRESTOFDISTINCTION 28 (D) J Channon 4-10-0 G Bass

2 (7)-05600 THE STRIKIN VIKING 29 (H,D) H Al Jehani (UAE) 4-9-13T Marquand

3 (11)030640 CABURN 22 (V,D) J Tate 4-9-13 H Crouch

4 (3)222210 DEEP HAVANA 22 (BF,D) H Al Jehani (UAE) 5-9-12James Doyle

5 (6)40-520 MIDNIGHT THUNDER 24 (T,BF,D) S bin Suroor 4-9-110 Murphy

6 (9)306125 COLLECTING COIN 29 (BF) J Candlish 4-9-6 G Wood

7 (10)051440 JUNGLE DRUMS 22 (D) J Osborne 4-9-5 W Carver

8 (14)222055 SUDDEN FLIGHT 22 (P,D) R Hughes 4-9-2 D J Murphy (5)

9 (8)201233 BONE MARRA 23 (T,D) Ollie Sangster 3-9-1 B Loughnane

10(13)000226 BROSAY 10 (B,C,D) Charlie Pike 4-9-1 Rossa Ryan

11 (12)015430 DREAM COMPOSER 22 (P,CD) A Carroll 8-9-0 Myla Coppins (5)

12(1)315400 JUSTCALLMEPETE 28 (B,D) A Carroll 7-8-13 J Dace (5)

13(5)416621 PERCY'S STAR 18 (B,CD) C Dwyer 3-8-6 S De Sousa

14(4) 1-3102 FROM THE HIP 6 (D) M Usher 3-8-6 T Heard

Betting: 11-2 Percy's Star, 6-1 Deep Havana, 7-1 Collecting Coin, Bone Marra, Midnight Thunder, 8-1 Sudden Flight, 12-1 Brosay, From The Hip, The Strikin Viking, Caburn

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4.42 INKERMAN LONDON HANDICAP £18,319: 1M (13)

1 (8)042005 CERULEAN BAY 15 (CD) D O'Meara 5-10-0 C Fallon

2 (13)-00021 BRIAN 36 J S Moore 4-9-11 David Egan

3 (9)306000 BALMACARA 25 E J-Houghton 5-9-10 C Bishop

4 (2)100000 URBAN LION 15 (D) J Channon 5-9-9 E Greatrex

5 (12)-02603 ETERNAL FORCE 15 (P,BF,D) W Haggas 4-9-8 T Marquand

6 (4)130400 SUPIDO 36 (T,D) I Williams 4-9-4 S De Sousa

7 (6)3-4034 WECHAAD 28 (H,BF) R Varian 3-9-4 R Dawson

8 (10) 11-525 SWORD MAKER 15 (P,BF) S bin Suroor 3-9-4 O Murphy

9 (1) 011031 NAVAL LIGHT 22 (D) K R Burke 3-9-2 James Doyle

10(11)0-0500 AL MUBHIR 29 (D) K Ryan 7-9-1 B Loughnane

11 (7)404-60 GOODWOOD GALAXY 141 D Menuisier 3-9-1 S M Levey

12 (5) 251101 CRAZEE ICON 29 (D) A Balding 3-8-12 Jason Watson

13(3)-32265 STORMING POINT 51 (P) G & J Moore 3-8-7 L Morris

Betting: 7-2 Brian, 5-1 Crazee Icon, 6-1 Naval Light, 7-1 Wechaad, Eternal Force, 8-1 Sword Maker, 10-1 Cerulean Bay, 12-1 Storming Point

517 VIRGIN BET A GOOD BET FILLIES' HANDICAP 60.100, 1M 25 (12) | 1 (4) 5-1343 WISPER 29 (D) A King 8-10-2 | Rossa Ryan | 2 (13) 1100-0 AEQUITAS 30 D O'Meara 4-9-11 | C Fallon | 3 (5) 111 PROSPERITY 22 K R Burke 3-9-11 C Lee

4 (9) 121133 ROOM FOURTEEN 30 (H,D) J Fanshawe 3-9-BB Loughnane

5 (1) 223211 WITHTEARSINMYEYES 25 J Channon 3-9-8 G Bass

6 (7) 1-5026 WINGED ONE 106 (P) A Balding 3-9-8 O Murphy

7 (2) 1-2151 SPIRIT OF ATHENE 33 (D) E Walker 3-9-5 Ashley Lewis (3)

8 (3) 241520 OH YES YOU DO 25 (BF,D) D Menuisier 3-9-2 J Dace (5)

9 (12) 3216 WILD VIOLET 85 (D) M Bell 3-9-2 C Shepherd

10 (8) 213344 ALMA LATINA 24 (P,D) R Beckett 3-9-1 H Crouch

11 (11) 43-532 SHANGRI LA 25 D M Simcock 3-9-0 L Morris

12 (6) 1-20 HAMDANIA 17 James Horton 3-8-13 Kaiya Fraser

13 (10) 53134 BRIGHTON BEACH 25 W Haggas 3-8-12 T Marquand

Betting: 4-1 Prosperity, 9-2 Spirit Of Athene, 5-1 Withtearsinmyeyes, 8-1 Brighton Beach, 10-1 Room Fourteen, 12-1 Oh Yes You Do, Wild Violet, Shangri La, Alma Latina

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CRICKET SCOREBOARD | Australia First Innings | Nic Maddinson b Jansen | 0 | Travis Head c Verreynne b Mulder | 9 | Marnus Labuschagne lbw b Mulder | 37 | Steven Smith c Mulder b Jansen | 25 | Matt Renshaw c Markram b Harmer | 190 | †Alex Carey c Markram b Nortje | 14 | Beau Webster c Verreynne b Nortje | 4 | *Pat Cummins c Markram b Mulder | 43 | Mitchell Starc b Mulder | 6 | Nathan Lyon lbw b Jansen | 27 | Josh Hazlewood not out | 5 | Extras (lb 20, nb 8, w 2) | 30 | Total (137.2 overs) | 390 | South Africa First Innings | Aiden Markram not out | 15 | Ryan Rickelton c Webster b Hazlewood | 0 | David Bedingham not out | 12 | Total (1 wkt, 8.4 overs | 27 | \*Temba Bavuma, Tristan Stubbs, Wiaan Mulder, †Kyle Verreynne, Marco Jansen, Simon Harmer, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje to bat.

Bowling Starc 4-1-16-0; Hazlewood 4-0-9-1; Cummins 0.4-0-2-0.

David Walsh

CHIEF SPORTS WRITER

How can Russia be let back into Olympics while bombs kill child athletes in Ukraine?

have been meaning to write about Russia, Ukraine and the International Olympic Committee's mid-summer recommendation that Russia's athletes be welcomed back into international competition. Before considering the IOC's thinking on this ques-——the 180's thinking on this question, there is a part of Yuliya Stepanova's career worth recalling. Yuliya is the only Russian athlete that I know. My admiration for her runs deep.

A fiercely courageous woman, she was the elite-level 800m runner who became famous in 2014 for her whistleblowing in the story of Russia's systemic doping programme, leading to the country's banishment from international sport. Yuliya could tell all about the system because she was part of it. Helped by her husband, Vitaly, she recorded and videoed top officials and athletes as they incriminated themselves. She then passed the evidence to the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The part of Yuliya's story that relates to what the IOC is now proposing goes back to the start of her career, circa 2009. She was 23 at the time and one of the country's most promising middle-distance runners. Russia's top athletes were well rewarded. One of the benefits was being able to join a police or army sports club; compete at two or three club events, pose for photographs afterwards and in return receive a monthly allowance and a post-career pension.

Roll Yuliya's story five years forward and she is the whistleblower hiding out in Germany. Her contact at the police club calls and says they now may have to fire her. She hands the phone to Vitaly, who asks why the police would fire someone for exposing corruption. He is told that's not the reason, rather it was that Yuliya was no longer competing. Vitaly indicated she would continue to compete.

Weeks passed. Another email led to another phone call. This time, the police contact told Vitaly they were definitely going to fire Yuliya. Asked why they were doing that, he said the Russian Athletics Federation had told them to. Vitaly asked if it was normal for a sports body to tell the police what to do. Before they completed the paperwork, Yuliya resigned, kissing goodbye to the pension that she was now never going to receive.

On February 28, 2022, four days after Russia invaded Ukraine, the IOC strongly condemned the breach of the Olympic Truce by the invaders and expressed its concern for the Olympic community in Ukraine. The IOC then offered its advice to international federations.

It said: “In order to protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all the participants, the IOC executive board recommends that international sports federations and sports event organisers not invite or allow the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials in international competitions.”

and – led by the president of the United States, Jimmy Carter – 65 countries boycotted the 1980 Games. Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister at the time, encouraged British federations and their athletes to join the boycott. Some did, most didn't. Coe's duels with Steve Ovett remain a vivid memory for all those who watched the Moscow Games.

By the standards of the often-compromised positions of the IOC, this was a credible stance. The presumption, of course, was that as long as Russia continued its war against Ukraine, athletes would continue to be excluded from international sport.

Alas, this is not how the IOC conducts its affairs. Appalled by Russia's aggression in February 2022, it seemed less so nine months later. Nothing had changed in Ukraine but the IOC still altered its position. In a January 2023 statement, it reiterated its support for Ukrainian athletes and followed that with an unsubtle shift. "On the other hand, while acknowledging that each international federation is the sole governing authority for its sport, the IOC asked the international federations to consider the possibility of creating a pathway for Russian athletes who had not actively supported the war in Ukraine to compete in international events as neutral athletes.”

The IOC's starting point had been that Russia's athletes should not be allowed to compete as long as athletes from Ukraine were being prevented from participating in international competition by the war. Nine months later, the IOC wanted a pathway back to international sport for those Russian athletes who hadn't “actively supported the war”.

That was the beginning of the fudge. As the war intensified, the IOC's position shifted further. Last December, it asked that Russian youth athletes be allowed to compete in international events. It couldn't point to any improvement in the conditions in which Ukrainian people were living. Instead, it leant into the argument that athletes shouldn't be responsible for the actions of their governments and talked about them competing without political interference.

That was Sebastian Coe's position in 1980. Coe was a 23-year-old at the time, obsessed by the dream of winning a gold medal at the Moscow Olympics. But in December 1979, Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan

Lord Coe is now the president of World Athletics, leading the sport that most matters to Russia – because if there's one arena in which Russia wants to play, it is the Olympics. Forty-six years have passed since the Moscow Games and Coe's position is now very different. From the beginning of the full-scale invasion, World Athletics' stance has been that until the war ends, Russia has to be excluded from international competition. On this, Coe has been unwavering.

The sands shifted again in July, when the IOC announced it had provisionally lifted the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee and was now recommending that international federations lift the restriction on Russian athletes. Kirsty Coventry, who was elected as president of the IOC last year, tried to explain the decision. “We wanted to ensure all athletes have the possibility to compete at the Olympic Games and not be held responsible for their governments’ actions,” she said.

Four days later, on July 11, Uliana Vorona was killed by a Russian bomb while standing at a bus stop in Sumy. Vorona, 13, was a talented high-jumper. How could the IOC change its position when nothing had changed for the better in Ukraine?

Encouraged by the IOC's attempt to reopen the door, Russia engaged a New York-based law firm to bring World Athletics to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and argue that Russian athletes must now be allowed to compete in international athletics. World Athletics says the IOC's recommendation is just that, a recommendation, and that until the war in Ukraine ends, Russian athletes cannot be allowed to compete in its events. It would be a surprise if CAS found in Russia's favour.

At this point, you may wonder about the United States and Israel and the attack on Iran. It is a reasonable question. My best response is that when it comes to sport, Russia is different. Here we're back to Yuliya's membership of the police club and allow me to borrow the words of the Ukrainian-American economist Roman Sheremeta, who reminded us in a recent online post why Russia is different.

“Russian professional sport is not a civil society institution. It is a state institution. It is financed by the state budget,” he wrote. “Athletes are salaried by state agencies. The two most decorated sports clubs in the country

Russia's athletes are on its payroll. Let them come back when the tanks go home

– CSKA [Moscow] and Dynamo [Moscow] – are not private franchises. CSKA are the Central Sports Club of the Army. Dynamo have belonged to the security services since the days of the Cheka...

“So, when someone tells me that a Russian athlete has ‘no control over their government’, they are describing a relationship that does not exist. The athlete is not standing outside the state, subject to its whims. The athlete is on its payroll, wearing its uniform, holding its rank. Let them come back when the tanks go home.”