The Guardian — 13.10.2026

PM: Britain's relationship with EU 'not good enough'

Burnham promises 'serious dialogue' over UK's place in Europe

Pippa Crerar

Jennifer Rankin

Lisa O'Carroll

Andy Burnham has promised a “serious dialogue” over the UK’s future place in Europe, saying the existing relationship is “not good enough”, as he frames next month’s Brussels summit as a possible first step to EU membership.

The prime minister said Britain must take a “clear-eyed rational look” at its long-term relationship with the bloc to boost economic growth and control immigration, which needed to go beyond Labour’s existing red lines. The next “reset” summit will take place on 20 November, ending months of uncertainty, with the two sides seeking deals on food and drink, youth mobility and emissions trading, which Burnham hopes could boost the economy by £10bn a year.

One EU diplomat said a deal on the three “significant but modest” issues needed to be approved as a test of the UK’s good faith so that both sides could get on with the “real reset” in the longer-term relationship.

But the UK remains braced for a possible row over protectionist “Made in Europe” trade rules amid industry fears they could lock out UK manufacturers, prompting the prime minister to pledge he would raise concerns with his EU counterparts.

Burnham was also forced to clarify that he did not think Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit campaign had affected the final result, after he raised questions about the legitimacy of the outcome at the weekend.

In a statement to MPs, the first since the party conference recess, an otherwise confident-sounding Burnham said that it would be a “major dereliction of duty” for his government to turn away from exploring closer relations with the EU.

“We should not turn our backs on this opportunity and I hope all sides of this house will get behind the government’s efforts to land a positive outcome,” he said.

"I believe our chances of doing so will be enhanced

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Security review for MPs after Widdecombe death

Rajeev Syal

Home affairs editor

Security arrangements for high-profile public figures including politicians and members of the royal family are to be urgently reviewed after the killing of Ann Widdecombe,

Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, said yesterday.

Mahmood said former MPs, party leaders who are not MPs, peers, former members of devolved parliaments and party spokespeople will also be offered police support.

The UK's protective security system would be re-examined to combat the growing risks of terrorism, extremism and state threats, as well as harassment and intimidation, Mahmood said.

The review will be carried out by Sir Stephen Lovegrove, a former UK national security adviser, who will look at whether current security arrangements provide adequate protection for those most at risk.

This includes high-profile individuals including royals, government ministers, MPs, locally elected representatives and other prominent individuals in British politics. His review will not

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Henry Dyer

Rowena Mason

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Guardian can reveal. Chris Bruni-Lowe, Farage's private pollster for many years, played an important role in the operations of Redfield & Wilton Strategies and used it to develop potential campaign strategies, according to several sources who have worked there.

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PM pledges 'serious dialogue' on UK role in Europe

← Continued from page 1

by being open to a discussion about our relationship with the EU in the longer term. If we are serious about promoting growth, controlling immigration, upholding our values and security, it is a conversation we must have. Sticking with the status quo is not good enough for Britain. Worse, it would be a major dereliction of duty to turn away. We need to take a calm, clear-eyed, rational look at the world as it is today to consider what is best for our country.

"Our immediate priority is securing a successful outcome at the summit, and I believe we should then set up a serious dialogue about the different options for our relationship in the long term."

Burnham denied he was reopening the Brexit debate, insisting he did respect the referendum result, but said he wanted to take a “pragmatic approach” to boost growth and improve cooperation on migration.

He was also forced on to the back foot over his remarks to a podcast on Sunday that Russia had interfered over Brexit, rejecting suggestions from the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, that he may have been loose with his language. "It is a matter of record, that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 general election, and we think it is inconceivable that this was the first time," he said.

On Sunday, Burnham had said it was clear Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum after he sought answers when he arrived in No 10 - but did not disclose who gave him the assessment, what evidence it was based on or - crucially - whether any interference had affected the result.

Downing Street said the prime minister “absolutely” accepted the Brexit referendum result and believed it to be legitimate, while the Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty said it was clear Russia attempted to interfere but had failed.

In his statement, Burnham told MPs they were right to raise the question of the “loss of immigration control” that came with Brexit and suggested Brussels recognised this.

The UK is excluded from Eurodac, a database that holds biometric and ID data to identify asylum seekers and irregular migrants, and exited the Dublin regulation, a legal mechanism to return refugees to the European country through which they first entered or transited.

But while Burnham told MPs a return to free movement was “not on the table” in his talks with the EU, and that he would honour Keir Starmer’s manifesto red lines, he was unable to rule it out for a post-election future.

Sources on both sides believe that they will be able to get other issues over the line at the summit next month, suggesting that a food and phytosanitary agreement would have been agreed in July if the summit had gone ahead on its original date. Issues still to be resolved include a

Protesters outside parliament after the referendum. The PM says he is not reopening the Brexit debate

PHOTOGRAPH: MIKE KEMP/GETTY IMAGES

transition period for grains grown in the UK using recently approved fungicides not yet licensed in the EU. This would allow farmers harvesting this year to sell stockpiles next year even with the different regulations.

The thorniest issue remains the youth mobility programme, allowing EU and British citizens under 30 to live, work or study in each others' countries for three years.

The two sides are at odds over the overall numbers, as well as the tuition fees students would pay at British universities.

The UK's biggest current risk of not aligning more fully with the EU is being locked out of the new Made in Europe initiative - aimed primarily at imports from China in strategic sectors, such as renewable energy, nuclear and electric cars - which will block British-made components being used in EU supply chains.

EU sources have insisted there can be no agreement on the issue with the UK at the summit, because the bloc is yet to agree its own position on the proposals. EU lawmakers hope to agree on a key proposal, the Industrial Accelerator Act, in December.

But Brussels is, at least, open to discussing the issue and it may be part of the summit statement - a joint text agreed by both sides. The UK has the support of the Netherlands, Poland and Italy for inclusion in the scheme, but France in particular has posed a stumbling block.

🔗 [系统已自动跨页缝合转版续文：《Mahmood to urgently review security for MPs and royals》]

include an assessment of security in individual cases.

Widdecombe, a former Tory minister and Reform UK spokesperson, was found dead on 9 July at her home in Haytor Vale, Devon, having sustained serious injuries.

Joshua Kerry, 28, has been charged with Widdecombe's murder. He is also accused of the “online reconnaissance” of prominent people and institutions, travelling to the home of Reform UK’s leader, Nigel Farage, in south London on 19 April 2025 and trying to break in, 15 months before Widdecombe was killed.

Addressing the Commons, Mahmood said that, regardless of the outcome of the investigation into the attempted break-in at Farage's home, it was “clear there is insufficient protection for those who serve”.

“I can therefore announce today that I will expand, with immediate effect, police support to political figures who are not currently members of parliament,” she said. “This will include former members of parliament, peers and party spokespeople, giving them access to a named police officer, as well as help with wider security measures.

“Today I also announce an independent root-and-branch review of the protective security provided by the state to those in public life,” the home secretary added. “We can defeat those who mean us harm, but we are strongest when we act together. In a more dangerous world, we are faced by threats from without and within that target our democracy and our way of life.

"In response, we are adapting and strengthening our defences. As ever, I commend the work of the police and our security services, who labour in silence to keep us safe. And I'm sure the whole house joins me in offering thanks to them for that vital life-saving work."

Lovegrove will look at how existing security is provided, whether funding and security measures are being used effectively and proportionately, and how decision-making can be more consistent in response to threat and risk.

Robert Buckland, the former justice secretary, is conducting a separate review into the murder of Sir David Amess MP, which will consider the security of MPs in their constituencies. Amess was murdered at a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea in 2021 by a terrorist inspired by Islamic State. Ali Harbi Ali was given a full-life sentence for the murder.

In May's local elections, the Electoral Commission found that $55\%$ of all candidates experienced some form of harassment and intimidation, as did the same proportion of candidates at the 2024 general election.

Inquiry to look into deaths during attack at Manchester synagogue

Press Association

A public inquiry will examine the deaths of two men who were killed during a terror attack at Manchester's Heaton Park synagogue in October 2025, the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said yesterday.

Melvin Cravitz, 66, died from multiple stab wounds and fellow worshipper Adrian Daulby, 53, was killed by a bullet fired by police as he blocked the synagogue doors when Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, tried to get in.

Shamie, a Syrian-born UK citizen, was shot dead by police on 2 October last year while he carried out his terrorist attack at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue.

Police had already seized Shamie's mobile phone containing details of his extremist mindset and terror fixation, but did not analyse the contents until after he launched the attack, which took place on Yom Kippur - the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Mahmood said: "What happened that day must be fully understood. So, as requested by the coroner, I can announce a public inquiry into the deaths of Mr Cravitz and Mr Daulby.

“This will ensure that all evidence can be heard, including any sensitive national security material that could not otherwise be fully heard in the coroner’s court,” she said.

A police chief said in July he was “deeply sorry” for missed opportunities to potentially uncover the plot.

The apology came after details emerged with the jailing of Shamie's friend and accomplice, Mohammed Bashir, 31, who was sentenced to life imprisonment that month for planning a separate attack with Shamie on the UK Defence Academy at Shrivenham, Oxfordshire.

After the hearing, Sir Stephen Watson, the chief constable of Greater Manchester police (GMP), said: "Shamie had come to the notice of GMP in respect of two linked criminal allegations which did not relate to terrorist offences ... At the time of his committing the attack, Shamie was on police bail.

"In conducting an internal review, it became apparent that GMP had seized Shamie's mobile devices, at the point of each arrest.

“It is clear that our not having reviewed the data available to us prior to the attack constitutes a missed opportunity,” he said.

▲ Melvin Cravitz, left, and Adrian Daulby were killed during the attack

Roman fort fit for an emperor could prove fabled Welsh outpost is real

Dalya Alberge

Magnus Maximus, the Roman emperor who ruled Britain in the fourth century, led his troops against the Picts and Scots, but a theory that he also established a military camp near Frenni Fawr hill in Wales has so far been based on folklore.

Now, fourth-century coins, among other finds at a newly identified Roman fort in Pembrokeshire, suggest the medieval tale was rooted in reality, exciting archaeologists.

The fort was discovered by Dr Mark Merrony, a leading Roman specialist at the University of Oxford. He heads an excavation that is bringing to life a story about Magnus Maximus, as told in The Mabinogion, a collection of medieval tales of myth and magic.

Merrony said this landscape held the only Roman military site close to where the Mabinogion had placed the emperor. "If Magnus Maximus was there, there must have been an army there," he said. "It's such a remote area but the tale mentions the easternmost peak of the Preseli Hills, which is where this site is. The presence of a heavily fortified Roman auxiliary fort may help unlock the mystery of a Mabinogion legend that has endured for nearly 1,700 years."

In The Dream of Macsen Wledig, medieval storytellers used the emperor's name in Welsh in recounting his rise to power. They described how on his military manoeuvres, he pitched his camp at Frenni Fawr, a 395-metre (1,300ft) peak at the eastern end of the Preselis.

There had been no archaeological evidence for a Roman camp or fort on the top of the Frenni Fawr or below it until now. Merrony discovered the site about 2 miles south-west of the summit in 2024. Satellite imagery had shown an outline in a field and, shortly after visiting it, Merrony's eye was caught by a Roman tile, which turned out to be the first of many.

With financial support from Oxford University and crowdfunding, one of several excavations backed his theory of the site and its significance.

Merrony said that before the dig, his brother, Nick, had joked about finding a couple of coins to prove the Magnus Maximus theory. “He came back and said: ‘Well, are these any good?’ I said: ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ He’d found two coins dating from the late fourth century.

'The presence of a Roman auxiliary fort may help unlock the mystery of a Mabinogion legend'

Dr Mark Merrony

Archaeologist

"It is fascinating to consider that the two coins may be linked to the tale of Macsen Wledig - Magnus Maximus - in The Mabinogion, the Welsh equivalent of The Odyssey."

Merrony is a specialist in the Romano-British period whose previous discoveries include two Roman villas, at Ford in Pembrokeshire and at Cutteslowe in Oxfordshire. In 2022, he identified a Roman road along the southern shoulder of the Preseli Hills, challenging assumptions the Romans did not venture that far into Wales.

Dr Mark Merrony, who specialises in the Romano-British period, at a dig site on the Pembrokeshire hill Frenni Fawr PHOTOGRAPH: MARK MERRONY

Measuring 180 by 150 metres, the Frenni Fawr fort probably held about 500 troops. Merrony said a survey had confirmed the presence of a rectangular building in the middle and a larger building to the south, “consistent with the placement of a headquarters building orientated east and thereby ‘facing the enemy’, and a commander’s house”.

Tom Cruise's Digger digs deeper as projected losses reach \$245m

Andrew Pulver

Digger, the ambitious eco-fable starring Tom Cruise and directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, is heading for an even worse financial outcome than previously thought, with reports suggesting it will lose about \$245m (£185m) - placing it among the biggest financial disasters in movie history.

According to a report in Variety, Digger's estimated second weekend revenue in North America of \$3.2m is a 60% drop on its opening weekend figure of \$8m. Its projected final box office total is about \$50m worldwide.

Though precise figures are not available, Variety estimates Digger's production costs were between \$160m and \$180m - well over the original budget of \$125m - with another \$100m spent on marketing. Another \$15m was on hand for awards-season marketing, but this was predicted to be scaled back. Given that cinemas keep about half the revenue from ticket sales, Variety estimated the film would need to make about \$350m to cover costs. A spokesperson for Digger's producing studio, Warner Bros, said break-even was \$300m.

A \$245m loss would put Digger on a par with such legendary turkeys as Cutthroat Island, which lost \$222m, adjusted for inflation; Mortal Engines - \$224m adjusted; and The Marvels - \$205-\$250m adjusted.

Film critics have been divided by the film. The Guardian's chief film critic, Peter Bradshaw, called it "an exasperatingly shallow, laborious, self-congratulatory satire" in a two-star review, while Guardian Australia's deputy culture editor, Sian Cain, took the opposite position, describing it as “a masterpiece”.

Warner Bros, for whom this is the last release before its takeover by

▲ Tom Cruise stars in the eco-fable that has radically divided critics

David Ellison's Skydance, tried to play into the controversy with an ad campaign quoting its negative reviews, but it has had little effect.

So far, 2026 has been a disappointing year for Warner Bros as it prepares for new ownership, with poorly performing releases such as Supergirl and The Bride!. This contrasts with a successful 2025, in which releases such as A Minecraft Movie, Sinners and F1 propelled it to the second most successful studio behind Disney.

Elsewhere, The Social Reckoning, directed by Aaron Sorkin, also failed to live up to expectations on its first weekend, taking an estimated \$5.5m at the North American box office and \$9m globally.

▼ Firefighters tackle a blaze at an apartment building in Kharkiv hit by a Russian drone strike yesterday

PHOTOGRAPH: SERGEY KOZLOV/EPA

'Putin doesn't read Truth Social': Zelenskyy vows response over attacks on energy grid

Andrew Roth

Jennifer Rankin

Luke Harding

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to respond to Russia's continuing attacks on Ukraine's power grid as European leaders rally around Kyiv amid a feud with Donald Trump over Ukraine's strikes on oil refineries.

Speaking to a gathering of European security officials in Warsaw yesterday, the Ukrainian president said Kyiv would retaliate if strikes on its power grid continued: "If Russia does not agree to an energy ceasefire this winter, we will respond."

On Sunday, Trump announced an “energy ceasefire” between Kyiv and Moscow on Truth Social which Zelenskyy said neither side had agreed to. Zelenskyy said he was “surprised” by the post, which came while Kyiv was under attack from Russian drones.

Moscow then launched a “targeted attack” on a Kharkiv power station hours later, as much of Kyiv was plunged into darkness. “It’s clear that Putin does not read Truth Social,” Zelenskyy said.

Russia bombed six energy facilities yesterday, injuring 33 people, the Ukrainian president said. “It is becoming increasingly clear that Russia does not want to agree to the energy ceasefire proposed by the US,” he added.

Zelenskyy also suggested that Ukraine's recent counter-strikes on datacentres belonging to the Russian technology company Yandex had reduced the number of bots posting messages in Europe and the US. "It suddenly became a little easier to breathe on many social platforms. There was less hate, less division and fewer provocations," he said.

The Kremlin refused to say yesterday whether it agreed with Trump's post, which claimed a ceasefire was "effective immediately". It also rejected Zelenskyy's proposal that Russia stop bombing for 60 days so Ukraine could hold a presidential election. Moscow wanted an overall peace deal first, it said, which, for the Kremlin, means Kyiv's capitulation.

The row began on Friday when Trump announced he was lifting sanctions on Russian diesel exports. He said the move would reduce global and domestic fuel prices before next month's US midterm elections.

Both Republican and Democratic politicians have pointed out that the deal violates a US law that blocks Russian energy imports. Yesterday Trump defended it. “I made the right choice for the American People - ALWAYS, AMERICA FIRST!” he wrote in a social media post.

Earlier a furious Zelenskyy called the decision “weak” and said it would generate “billions” for Putin, enabling him to wage war “even more intensely”. Trump said Zelenskyy should “damn well stop” hitting Russian refineries. Ukraine needed a “new leader”, he said on Saturday.

Ukraine has said it is ready to negotiate an energy ceasefire that would take the pressure off its electricity grid before the winter. European leaders have voiced support for Kyiv, saying Russia was responsible for the continuing strikes on energy infrastructure in both countries.

▲ Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the US diesel deal with Russia ‘weak’

“We welcome the energy ceasefire when it holds,” the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said at a meeting of foreign ministers. “We haven’t yet seen that also Russia will stick to it.”

Ministers from the Baltic states criticised the US decision to lift sanctions on imports of Russian diesel, which had been blocked as part of punishment for Putin launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"This deal doesn't help, neither the crisis of the oil products nor the unity within the transatlantic community when it concerns Russia,” said Lithuania’s foreign minister, Kestutis Budrys. “And it is not the European way. Our way is to increase pressure because we already see how it works.”

Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, using jet-powered drones and ballistic missiles as the winter months approach, leading to blackouts and water shortages far earlier in the season than has been usual during the war.

Trump's proposal was for both sides to halt strikes on oil refineries but Kallas said that deal favoured Russia, which has far more refineries.

The US president has blamed the high price of diesel on Ukraine's attacks, rather than the global shock to energy markets from the US war in Iran and the subsequent closure of the strait of Hormuz.

According to the Financial Times, the US has threatened to stop the procurement system that provides Ukraine with weapons, paid for by its European allies. The White House has also said it could turn off intelligence sharing unless Kyiv halts its long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries.

Ben Hodges, the former head of US forces in Europe, described the energy ceasefire “deal” as a fantasy and urged Ukraine to ignore Trump and “ramp up” its attacks on Russian oil and gas complexes. “Clearly, this is having a very significant effect,” he said. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be hearing all this pressure from the Kremlin on the White House demanding that it stop.”

Federal agents raid home of prominent US Democrat Ilhan Omar

Matt Shuham

US federal agents searched congresswoman Ilhan Omar's home yesterday as part of a criminal investigation, according to the justice department.

It was unclear what the nature of the warrant was. A spokesperson said: “Today in the Washington DC area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorised search warrant secured by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.”

Fox News, citing two unnamed sources “close to the investigation”, reported that the search was related to a criminal fraud investigation concerning Omar’s immigration paperwork, which her late father filled out when she was a child.

Donald Trump and key allies have accused Omar of fraud related to her family's immigration history, fantasising openly about denaturalising her and expelling her from the country. The congresswoman has consistently denied the accusations.

In a social media post yesterday, Omar criticised the raid as an attempt by the Trump administration “to target political enemies and weaponise law enforcement”. Trump had spent years targeting her “with baseless lies and smear campaigns”, she said, adding: “This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.”

Administration officials, and the president himself, have long hinted at a federal investigation into Omar. In December, Trump accused her of having “married her brother” and said she “should be thrown the hell out of our country”, a reference to a years-old but unsubstantiated claim that Omar sought to help her ex-husband - who they allege is really her brother - obtain immigration papers via a sham marriage.

The homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, told the right-wing media personality Benny Johnson last month: “We know that she married her brother to try to bring him into the United States. We know he lives now in London. We feel that there may be more to this, the whole family migration, and possibly some illegal activity ... But all of us, we’re investigating.”

Soon after, Trump's “border czar”, Tom Homan, said he could not “comment on an ongoing criminal investigation”.

◀ Ilhan Omar said the raid was an attempt by the Trump administration to target political enemies

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Director who oversaw cost-cutting at Grenfell leaves new role after backlash

Jessica Murray

Social affairs correspondent

A housing director who oversaw cost-cutting at Grenfell Tower before the fatal fire has left a £150,000-a-year senior council housing role after a backlash from bereaved families and survivors.

Laura Johnson was the director of housing at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea at the time of the 2017 Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people, and was criticised in the subsequent inquiry for her role in prior budget-cutting decisions. It was found that she had pushed for a new contractor to carry out the tower's renovation works on a lower budget, which ultimately meant metal cladding was swapped for combustible plastic-filled panels to save money.

In August, she was appointed the director of development and property at the Barnet Group, which manages the north London borough's 13,000 council homes, on a salary of £157,078, a move described by bereaved families and survivors as a “scandal”.

In a letter to Joe Powell, the Labour MP for Kensington and Bayswater, where Grenfell Tower stood, the company confirmed Johnson was “no longer employed by the Barnet Group”. Eamon McGoldrick, the group’s chair, said in the letter: “We fully recognise the depth of feeling surrounding the Grenfell Tower tragedy and its continuing impact on bereaved families, survivors, residents and the wider community. We also fully acknowledge legitimate public interest concerning governance of senior appointments.”

McGoldrick said he could not go into details about Johnson's situation and it is not clear what led to Johnson's employment being terminated.

It is understood that Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, wrote to the Barnet Group last month asking for further information about Johnson's appointment and on what basis it had been made.

A spokesperson for Grenfell United, which represents survivors and bereaved families, welcomed the news and said it was a “scandal” Johnson had been given the role.

“More than nine years after Grenfell, it should not take bereaved families and survivors campaigning for a housing organisation to take the inquiry’s findings seriously,” the spokesperson said.

"But this does not end with Johnson. Others whose conduct was singled out by the Grenfell Tower public inquiry continue to hold positions of authority, have responsibility for health and safety, and draw large salaries. The inquiry's findings are there for everyone to read, yet those criticised continue their careers as though nothing has happened. It is an outrage that such damning findings have done nothing to stop them being entrusted with public safety.”

▲ The 10th anniversary of the tower fire will be marked on 14 June 2027

Powell said: “It’s totally inappropriate for any individual criticised by the inquiry to continue to work in housing, particularly while criminal investigations are ongoing. It’s right that Laura Johnson is no longer in such a position.

"The Grenfell Tower inquiry was clear about the failings of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and senior individuals involved in the management of their housing, including the tower."

Last month, a Barnet Group spokesperson insisted Johnson was the “strongest candidate” for the role in a competitive field, and that it had considered her “professional experience, subsequent performance, references, qualifications and overall suitability for the role”.

Yesterday, a spokesperson for the group said: “We can confirm that Laura Johnson is no longer employed by the Barnet Group. In common with any employer, we owe obligations of confidentiality to those working for us, applying for, or being considered for any role at any level. For that reason, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.”

Last month the Metropolitan police said they had asked prosecutors to consider charges including manslaughter and fraud against 54 individuals, and 20 companies and organisations, in relation to the Grenfell Tower fire.

The Crown Prosecution Service said charging decisions would be made before the 10th anniversary of the disaster on 14 June 2027.

Hamnet composer Max Richter to receive Ivor Novello award for 'ingenuity and impact'

Press Association

The composer Max Richter, who wrote the score for the award-winning film Hamnet, is to receive the Ivor Novello award for innovation in recognition of his “unmistakable originality and influence”.

Richter will receive the honour in person at the Ivors Composer awards in recognition of his “ingenuity and impact in contemporary classical composition”.

The 60-year-old has been praised by the Ivors Academy as “one of the defining voices in contemporary classical music”. He is renowned for compositions that blend classical tradition, minimalism, electronic music and sound design.

With more than three decades in the music industry, Richter's music has featured in films such as Mary Queen of Scots (2018), Ad Astra (2019), Miss Sloane (2016) and Waltz With Bashir (2008).

His most recent score was for the 2025 film Hamnet, which received widespread critical acclaim and secured awards at the Oscars, Golden Globes and Baftas.

Richter has also reached audiences on the concert stage, collaborating

▶ Jacobi Jupe and Paul Mescal in Hamnet, for which Max Richter, above, wrote the critically acclaimed score

PHOTOGRAPH: LANDMARK MEDIA/ALAMY

with artists including Anna Lapwood, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Gautier Capuçon.

The composer has also turned his hand to fashion, scoring music for Dior catwalk shows, and his music has featured in ballet productions through his longstanding creative partnership with the choreographer Wayne McGregor.

The Ivors Academy describes the award as “one of the most respected honours in music creation and a globally recognised benchmark for creative excellence".

Richter will receive the accolade during a ceremony at Grosvenor House in London on 17 November. He follows in the footsteps of previous recipients including Anoushka Shankar, Gavin Bryars, Matthew Herbert and Talvin Singh.

Roberto Neri, the chief executive of the academy, said: "Max Richter has expanded what contemporary composition can be and who it can reach. His music combines extraordinary craft with a constant desire to innovate, connecting with audiences across concert halls, recordings, stage and screen. “We’re proud to recognise Max with an Ivor Novello award for innovation.”

Tom Gray, the academy's chair, added: "Max is a composer of unmistakable originality and influence. He has created a musical language that is entirely his own, while continually exploring new forms, sounds and ideas.

“From collaborations with the Future Sound of London and Roni Size to ballet, opera, film and television, and landmark works including Sleep, The Blue Notebooks and the score for Hamnet, his work has undoubtedly changed contemporary composition.”

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Normandy veteran Henry Rice dies at the age of 100

Press Association

A second world war veteran who served in the Royal Navy during the Normandy landings and “dedicated much of his later life to remembrance” has died at the age of 100.

Henry Rice, of Cranleigh, Surrey, was a “great character with a cheeky smile” who would be “greatly missed by all”, the Spirit of Normandy Trust said in a statement announcing his death.

The veteran was a signaller aboard HMS Eastway, a ship that carried allied troops and equipment to the beaches of Normandy in 1944.

He arrived off Juno beach five days after D-day, when troops from the UK,

◀ Henry Rice ‘dedicated much of his later life to remembrance, ensuring those who served would not be forgotten’

France, the US and Canada launched an invasion against German forces in occupied France.

He received the Légion d'honneur order of merit from the French government for his service.

Rice was remembered by the Veterans' Foundation, which said in a statement that he “dedicated much of his later life to remembrance, ensuring the sacrifices of those who served would never be forgotten”.

He travelled to France in June with a group of veterans for a service marking the 82nd anniversary of D-day, speaking to French schoolchildren about his memories of the war alongside fellow Normandy veteran Ken Hay, who died last month aged 101.

Speaking to the Press Association in 2024, Rice said teaching children about the second world war was important given that the “world is dangerous at the moment”.

He said: “If those children grow up into adults and know what this is all about, collectively they can go to politicians, Russians can go to Putin and say: ‘Oi, we’ve had all this before. We don’t want it. Stop it, please.’”

Women far more likely to be told autoimmune issues are in the mind

Andrew Gregory

Health editor

Women with autoimmune conditions are up to 74% more likely than men to be told their symptoms are psychological or psychosomatic, and face much longer waits for a diagnosis and treatment, a study suggests.

Hundreds of millions of people - about one in 10 globally - are affected by autoimmune conditions, which can cause health issues including fatigue, muscle pain and rashes.

But research by the universities of Cambridge and East Anglia suggests a stark gender divide when it comes to how signs of the conditions are handled by doctors.

Women are more likely to have their conditions wrongly attributed to psychiatric causes, more likely to have symptoms misdiagnosed as psychosomatic, and more likely to experience delays in getting a diagnosis, according to the study.

The study's lead author, Dr Melanie Sloan, said: "The damage caused to women by these types of misdiagnosis can be very long-lasting in terms of trusting doctors and their own self-esteem."

Sloan, a researcher in the department of public health and primary care at Cambridge and UEA, said some women were forced to wait years before getting a diagnosis, causing long delays to treatment.

The study, published in the Lancet eClinicalMedicine, included more than 6,600 people with autoimmune conditions. Most were female and from the UK.

Patients listed their main condition, with almost a quarter of the women having autoimmune thyroid disease, known as Hashimoto's

34%

The proportion of women with autoimmune symptoms who are told their condition is psychosomatic

43% The proportion of women with such symptoms which are misdiagnosed as having a psychiatric cause

disease, which can cause the gland to become underactive, or overactive, known as Graves' disease.

Hashimoto's disease can cause weight gain, hair loss, fatigue and joint pain, while the symptoms of Graves' disease include bulging eyes, palpitations and weight loss.

About one in seven women had systemic lupus, which can cause tiredness, rashes and muscle pain.

Among male patients, rheumatoid arthritis, vasculitis and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) - also known as “sticky blood” syndrome - were the most common conditions.

Researchers found 43% of women reported being told their condition was down to a psychiatric cause compared with 33% of men.

Meanwhile, 34% of women also reported having symptoms misdiagnosed as psychosomatic - meaning they were triggered or worsened by stress or anxiety - compared with 22% of men.

Overall, after accounting for factors including age, disease group, and household finances, researchers found women were almost 46% more likely to report having received a psychiatric misdiagnosis, and nearly 74% more likely to report a psychosomatic misdiagnosis than men.

Among men, the most frequently reported time to diagnosis was less than three months. Among women, it was one to two years.

Autoimmune conditions, which happen when the immune system attacks the body by mistake, can be complex to diagnose as they often cause symptoms common in the wider population.

The study team said: “Broader diagnostic challenges affect both sexes” but “females may face additional disadvantages”.

They added: “Historical biases in medicine may persist, including positioning females as less credible and emotional reporters of symptoms than males.”

Sloan said the findings “highlight that psychological or mental health explanations can be given too soon”.

She added: “It is really important that symptoms are not automatically assumed to be psychological and for doctors to just say: ‘I believe you’ to patients with symptoms that the doctors cannot see.”

National

Iran 'almost certainly' behind RAF Fairford threats, says Burnham

Dan Sabbagh

Defence and security editor

Andy Burnham has said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was “almost certainly” behind threats to RAF Fairfield, the firmest attribution of responsibility made so far by the UK after an incident late last month.

The prime minister told MPs the UK would bring further sanctions against Tehran and the IRGC in the aftermath of an ambiguous episode that, despite more than a fortnight of police investigation, has yet to lead to anybody being charged.

Addressing parliament yesterday about events at the Gloucestershire base used by the US, Burnham said: “I can confirm our assessment that it is highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran, almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards.”

In a statement to the House of

Commons, the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, told MPs that the foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, had summoned the Iranian ambassador over the Fairford incident and that the government had imposed sanctions on two individuals accused of spying in Europe and the US.

"He [Miliband] will condemn Iran's continued attempts to undermine our safety," Mahmood said. "We are also sanctioning two individuals involved in conducting espionage and attacks on behalf of the government of Iran in Europe and the US, and we will not hesitate to take further action to restrict Iran's capacity to threaten international security."

Five men from London drove to Whelford, a village next to the air-base, in three white vans shortly after midnight on 27 September. They were released on police bail a day later after no bombs or explosives were found.

The incident was followed by the withdrawal of 12 B-1 bombers a week later, amid reports that the US was concerned about a possible drone attack on the base, which it had used as part of an attack on Iran during the war in the Middle East in the spring and summer.

▼ A US B-1 bomber prepares to take off from RAF Fairfield after the nearby security alert last month

PHOTOGRAPH: ALASTAIR GRANT/AP

Burnham's brief remarks were a step up from previous comments. The prime minister had said in the days after the incident that there were “strong indications” that Iran had played a part - but now appeared confident enough to apportion responsibility.

A joint statement from the UK, the US and European allies, released by the Foreign Office, said the UK “has also concluded this event demonstrates the IRGC's continued willingness to project hostile activity beyond its borders through covert networks and proxy actors".

Despite the statement, it remains unclear what the authorities believe happened at Fairfield.

'Our assessment is that it is highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran'

Andy Burnham

Prime minister

Some experts have speculated it was a “feint” to demonstrate that Iran could in theory attack a relatively open site.

British sources have repeatedly maintained that Iran lacks the capability to launch what would be a sophisticated drone attack, but the incident appears to have unnerved the US, which is worried about the security of its bases in Europe.

The incident at Fairford comes after what the UK, in the joint statement, said was a recent campaign of attacks across Europe targeting Jewish communities, Iranian journalists and US interests, claimed by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI).

Though the US has detained and indicted Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, whom it accuses of being behind the HAYI group, there is evidence to suggest that Iran-linked attacks have continued.

A week ago, two Iranian nationals, Salam Ahmadyan of Liverpool and Rahman Salehi of Salford, were charged with terror offences, accused of trying to target the Jewish community in Manchester with a homemade chlorine powder bomb.

Prosecutors told a magistrates court the pair were in contact with a third party, believed to be in Iran, who directed them and sent them “instructions on how to prepare an explosive device”. A trial at the Old Bailey has been scheduled.

News

Abramovich aides falsified paperwork to dodge tax, records suggest

Rob Davies

Simon Lock

Aides of Roman Abramovich - including staff at the global accountancy firm Deloitte - falsified paperwork mapping the oligarch's sprawling offshore business empire, records suggest, helping his businesses dodge tax and disguise assets.

New analysis of leaked corporate records uncovers what appears to have been a long-running and carefully orchestrated strategy of backdating documents.

The Russian billionaire's closest aide, London-based Eugene Tenenbaum, appears to have been involved in the backdating and may also have given false evidence to the UK high court during a potentially costly lawsuit, the papers indicate.

Abramovich's personal and financial affairs are now restricted, owing to sanctions imposed by the UK and EU in response to Russia's war on Ukraine.

But the documents raise questions about how Abramovich was able to shield his financial affairs from the authorities for more than a decade, with the apparent assistance of apparatchiks and blue-chip advisers.

The findings are based on the Cyprus Confidential leak, more than 500,000 documents, first released to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and analysed by organisations including the Guardian, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the BBC.

The digital paper trail charts the reorganisation of billions of pounds that the former Chelsea FC owner obtained via the controversial acquisition of oilfields in the frozen wastes of Siberia, amid the breakup of the Soviet Union.

From 1999 until at least 2013, a cadre of aides and accountants tasked with shifting the funds between offshore jurisdictions deployed tactics that experts say may have constituted fraud and tax evasion.

This, it seems, involved backdating documents to create a convenient paper trail showing that agreements and transactions had taken place years earlier.

Lawyers for Abramovich denied any wrongdoing and said he relied on the advice of his advisers and Deloitte Cyprus. Tenenbaum denied any wrongdoing and said he also relied on the specialist advice given by Deloitte Cyprus. Deloitte Cyprus said that it “acts in compliance with all applicable laws” and that it could no longer access the relevant material because of the time that has elapsed.

The disappearing \$2bn

A crown jewel in Russia's rich seam of natural resources, Sibneft's oilfields fell into Abramovich's hands during the chaotic post-Soviet privatisation era.

The famously shrewd entrepreneur obtained the business for roughly \$250m, reportedly spending as little as \$19m of his own money.

By the time he sold the last of his shares to Gazprom in 2005, Abramovich had raised \$16bn, money he ploughed into investments, mansions, superyachts and Chelsea FC.

One Cyprus-based company, Kravin Investments, received a \$3bn windfall in May 2003, of which it retained about \$2bn.

The money sat in Kravin's bank account or was lent to other companies, accruing interest that was, in theory, taxable in Cyprus.

But Abramovich's aides soon began devising plans to “eliminate” a tax liability that one financial adviser warned could be “very large”, records suggest.

The gatekeeper to Abramovich's fortune was Demetris Ioannides, who was the chair of Deloitte Cyprus before spinning out his own business Meritservus. That firm became Abramovich's go-to financial advisory, serving him for nearly 20 years, before sanctions were imposed on it by the UK in 2023, along with Ioannides, for its role helping Russian oligarchs hide their wealth.

"It will be necessary to change the [Kravin's] financial statements and the accounting records accordingly for 2003 and 2004," Ioannides wrote in an August 2005 email, citing discussions with Deloitte Cyprus partners and erstwhile colleagues Antonis Taliotis and Nicos Charalambous.

The following month, in an email copying in staff at Meritservus and Abramovich's investment vehicle, Millhouse, Taliotis appeared to agree.

“Certain changes will have to be made to the accounts [...]” he wrote.

Millhouse and Meritservus duly began producing paperwork showing that Kravin was simply holding and investing the Sibneft billions as a trustee for another business, the British Virgin Islands-based Kelvedon

Eugene Tenenbaum, left, at a Chelsea FC match with the club's then owner, Roman Abramovich

PHOTOGRAPH: MATTHEW ASHTON/CORBIS/GETTY

I had an enquiry by ■ about the finalisation of the financial statements of Amiscan.

Dear Eugene and

The financial statements of Amiscan will as from 2003 be filed with the Registrar of Companies. As a result the costs etc. of the private assets will be disclosed as the returns are available to the public.

At the last meeting of the Trustees, we considered whether it will be more prudent not to disclose the above information, to which there was consensus.

The suggestion I put forward was that Amiscan signs trust agreements with a BVI company or its BVI parent to the effect that Amiscan holds the equity shares of the asset owning companies on behalf of the BVI company.

---

I tried to call you several times yesterday but there was no answer on your phone.

I had the meeting with Antonis Taliotis and Nicos Charalambous as audit partner of Deloitte, and the following were agreed.

1. Dividends are declared by Kravin to Kelvedon to cover the amounts that are deposited with the Banks.

The result was simple: although the billions had sat in Kravin's accounts for years, it now appeared that the money had never really been Kravin's at all. Deloitte Cyprus, apparently aware of the deception, duly signed off the accounts.

History had in effect been rewritten, analysis of the documents suggests, disappearing \$2bn from Kravin's balance sheet - and with it any tax liability.

2. Agreements are put in place to state that:

Worldwide. Documents detailing this supposed fact, including correspondence and trust agreements, were given dates between March and December 2003, despite being created at least two years later.

i) Kelvedon left the funds with Kravin for deposit with the Banks and that interest accrued belongs to Kelvedon

3. Minutes to be drafted covering the payment of dividend and the undertaking to deposit the funds on behalf of Kelvedon

Abramovich's lawyers said: "Any suggestion that our client evaded tax, or sought to deceive the Cypriot authorities, is denied, and publication of the same would be defamatory of him. If an arrangement was proposed by professional advisers of Deloitte's standing, it would have been entirely proper for companies linked to our client (in which he was not involved on a day-to-day basis) to rely on it."

4. I have undertaken to prepare all the above documents to be agreed with Antonis and Nicos.

ii) A fee for the above is to be paid by Kelvedon to Kravin

In drafting the agreements as per the above, it will be necessary to ensure if possible, that the fee does not attract VAT.

If you agree, it will be necessary to change the financial statements and the accounting records accordingly for 2003 and 2004.

Andrew Mitchell KC, a leading expert in financial crime and tax law, described the scheme as a “blatant move to protect from legitimate taxation assets which should otherwise have been subject to tax”. This, he claimed, would amount to “straightforward” tax evasion.

With regard to the Provisional Tax Assessments for 2005, these will be filed with NIL income for Kravin and also for Tesina Ltd.

---

The ghost house

One of Abramovich's most prestigious assets was the Fyning Hill estate in West Sussex, an imposing mansion set in 172 hectares (424 acres) of South Downs countryside.

With best regards, Demetris Ioannides

▲ Top, an October 2005 email from Demetris Ioannides, right, to Eugene Tenenbaum. Above, an August 2005

email from

him citing talks

with Deloitte

Cyprus partners

and erstwhile

colleagues

Antonis Taliotis

and Nicos

Charalambous

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, reportedly flew in for lunch here during his first UK state visit, in 2003.

Two years later, accounts show, the estate was listed among \$650m of luxury assets - including a London penthouse, a French chateau, helicopters, jets, yachts and a supercar - all held in a Cypriot company, Amiscan Investments.

New Cypriot disclosure rules, introduced in 2003, meant that these would have to be included in Amiscan's accounts.

But by the time those accounts were filed, this vast billionaire's toybox had vanished, thanks to Abramovich's squad of financial fixers.

In an October 2005 email, sent to Tenenbaum, Ioannides suggested it might be “more prudent not to disclose” them.

Files show that Abramovich aides, including Ioannides, worked together to backdate contractual agreements, giving the false impression that Amiscan's assets had been shifted to its BVI shareholder, Kelvedon Worldwide, at the start of 2003.

Deloitte Cyprus staff took part in discussions about this disappearing act, emails show.

Yet the auditor signed off Amiscan's accounts, now showing no trace of three properties and a fleet of luxury vehicles.

Lawyers for Abramovich and Tenenbaum denied wrongdoing of any sort, including improper backdating, falsification, or any sort of tax evasion. They each also said that their clients could not recall the context or detail of documents more than 20 years old, which had not been provided to them by the Guardian. Both said their clients had relied on expert advice, including from Deloitte Cyprus.

Deloitte Cyprus, also answering on behalf of Taliotis and Charalambous, said that it “acts in compliance with applicable laws”. It said the correspondence was more than 20 years old and no longer accessible, meaning it could not comment on whether the material was complete or accurate.

A lawyer for Ioannides said he was unable to comment for personal reasons.

Lawyers for Tenenbaum said that documents could sometimes be back-dated for legitimate reasons, such as to show when a transaction became effective.

Rachel Sexton, a forensic accountant who is experienced in fraud investigations, agreed that this was possible but added: “From the evidence I have seen, this does not appear to be the case.”

She said backdating documents to create a false impression “could be considered to be fraudulent misrepresentation”.

Two more accounting experts, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the files did not appear to show legitimate reasons for backdating.

Mitchell raised concerns about Deloitte's apparent role in the tactic. "What you take away from it is that there are professionals who are prepared to bend and break the rules of their profession and therefore the law."

---

The whole truth

In 2008, Abramovich faced the prospect of a potentially costly lawsuit from the Moscow businessman Chalva Tchigrinski, a former partner in their joint oil venture, Sibneft-Yugra.

The partnership ended with Tchigrinski's company Sibir ousted and left with nothing, leaving Abramovich free to sign the Sibneft deals that would make him Russia's richest man.

Tchigrinski's lawyers claimed foul play. Abramovich, they claimed, had diluted his partner's stake via a series of secret meetings that gave him full control and, as a result, the full financial benefit of the eventual sale to Gazprom.

In a witness statement, Tenenbaum denied any knowledge of the project's details before spring 2004, when Sibir made its complaints public.

"I have searched my files, emails and documents from 2002 to 2004," he told the court, "and I can confirm that I have in my possession no records or documents or other communications that relate to Sibneft-Yugra."

Files from the Cyprus Confidential leak appear to contradict this testimony.

They show that Tenenbaum signed off on a string of agreements governing some of the very deals he claimed in court to know nothing about.

Lawyers for Tenenbaum denied that his testimony misled the court, saying he had given evidence “honestly and in good faith” and denied “in the strongest terms” misleading the court. Lawyers for Abramovich denied that his corroboration of Tenenbaum’s testimony had misled the court.

▼ The minister for AI, Kanishka Narayan, takes questions after his speech in London yesterday

PHOTOGRAPH: CARLOS JASSO/AFP/GETTY

'Likely, if not inevitable' that AI attack will breach UK's cyber-defences - minister

Dan Milmo

Global technology editor

An AI-driven cyber-attack like the OpenAI breach of Australia's healthcare system is likely, “if not inevitable”, in the UK, according to a senior minister.

Kanishka Narayan, the British AI minister, indicated that the government's own cyber defences would be bypassed by a technology that has developed highly sophisticated skills in cybersecurity.

Narayan said an incident in June when an OpenAI agent - a computer program acting autonomously - infiltrated Medicare, Australia's universal healthcare system, could be repeated in the UK.

“It concerns me,” he said. “It seems likely, if not inevitable, that our own cyber defences will be breached." Narayan said the agent's task was "benign" as it searched for information about public spending on medicines, but it nonetheless went after data that it was not authorised to have.

"The Australian government has said that no personal medical records are known to have been accessed, and there is no evidence of wider compromise, but the incident should concern us," he said.

---

'If you can't control the risks, do not release the system'

Kanishka Narayan on AI development

Speaking at a science and tech hub at Imperial College London, Narayan said the security minister, Dan Jarvis, would lead a government programme to strengthen against cyber-attacks, including from AI.

Narayan spoke before a parliamentary hearing on AI safety today into the issue. Senior figures from OpenAI and Anthropic will be among those giving evidence to MPs on the business, innovation, science and trade committee. They will also be joined by the head of the UK's AI Security Institute, Henry de Zoete.

Narayan confirmed that the institute would gain access to advanced AI models before they were released, after the White House had reportedly placed restrictions on their availability.

"I can confirm that AI scientists at the AI Security Institute are now conducting rigorous evaluations of the latest generations of models, including [Google's] Gemini ... to identify risks early to test robust safeguards to help keep people safe," he said.

The minister added that leading AI companies must “listen” to warnings of safety risks posed by their technology - and not release models if they carried a serious threat.

“And to the companies developing the world’s most powerful AI systems, my message is: listen when your scientists warn of severe dangers. Investigate unexpected behaviours. And if you can’t adequately control the risks, do not release the system,” he said. “I want the labs to be honest.”

Narayan said the UK would “play its part” in coordinating an international response to AI safety by making the technology a “central focus” of Britain’s G20 presidency next year.

“We know that these challenges cannot be addressed by a single country alone, but by virtue of our capability, by virtue of the foundations of our trust, Britain will play its part,” he said.

Hackers turn hundreds of supermarket fridge settings up to 50C

Reuters

Paris

Hackers forced the temperature of many French supermarket fridges up to 50C (122F) on Sunday night, leading to fires and food losses at several hundred stores across the country in an “unprecedented” cyber-attack.

The Paris prosecutor's office said yesterday that the large-scale attack had affected refrigerators “in several major food retailers across France”. Reported damage included food losses and fires, it added. The prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, had instructed France’s national cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, to investigate, his office said.

France “was coordinating with its European counterparts, as other countries may also be affected", while also investigating whether any other French firms were at risk.

Les Mousquetaires, which owns retailer Intermarché, said about 150 of its stores had been hit, with fridges heated up to 50C for six hours. It had thrown all the food away, a spokesperson said.

Dominique Schelcher, the chief executive of Coopérative U, said his supermarkets had also been hit. "Targeting equipment essential to the preservation of fresh products and to the food supply of the French people is of extreme gravity and is unprecedented," he wrote on X.

Several other supermarket chains, including Carrefour, Monoprix and Auchan, did not respond to requests for comment. According to BFM TV, France's largest supermarket chain,

▲ Empty fridges at an Intermarché in Névez, western France, yesterday

E.Leclerc, had also been affected, with hackers “managing to remotely trigger the forced defrosting of the refrigeration systems in numerous stores”. E.Leclerc did not respond to a request for comment.

The attack may not have been confined to France. The Dutch supermarket company Ahold Delhaize said it was also dealing with a security issue in its network, and had taken several systems offline. It was not clear if there was any link between the French supermarket attack and the problems flagged by Ahold Delhaize.

The source close to Lecornu said ANSSI had identified a vulnerability in software supplied by the Danish company Danfoss. Danfoss said it was “aware of incidents in France affecting a limited number of refrigeration management systems”. The affected units “were running outdated firmware”, it said.

The incident comes against the background of growing concern about the potential havoc that can be caused in Europe in all sectors by cyber-attacks by malicious actors.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, last month ordered measures to protect France's critical infrastructure from potential Russian hybrid attacks.

Vitality

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National

PHOTOGRAPH: LILY RENSHAW/THE GUARDIAN

Art review

Elusive musical magic from a modern wizard

Tarek Atoui's Turbine Hall

Tate Modern

★★★★★

Jonathan Jones

On the floor of the Turbine Hall, there are wide water basins and huge flattish rough-hewn rocks you might normally

Immense elongated brass trumpets and giant glowing drums float above visitors; above, Tarek Atoui observes his installation

PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID LEVENE/ THE GUARDIAN

see on moorland or in a desert. You can sit or stand or climb on them. But if you look up, you won't be able to stop looking up - because it's raining musical instruments. Immense elongated brass trumpets and giant glowing drums float in the air, suspended from the girders of the former power station's roof.

If the Lebanese artist Tarek Atoui had just left it at that, it would be an impressive, intriguing installation, but this is Tate Modern, honey, and Atoui hasn't been asked to occupy its grandest space with mere physical objects. Instead, his sculptural creations and found stuff resonate and echo with an ever-changing, invisible art of noises.

The crowd of towering, floating pinnacles, the mysterious voice and crescendo of percussion, suggest an ancient, tumultuous labyrinth of a city. I thought of Lahore and Marrakech, of a street singer heard once in an Istanbul market. Yet this city is purer, less tangible. Its towers fly in the air.

An earth-shaking bass note throbs from a hanging trumpet - or is it from that translucent cone rising out of the ground like an ethereal minaret? Then a drumbeat booms through the space and a woman's plangent, achingly lovely voice sings notes of infinite nostalgia and melancholy.

It's entrancing. The music has you hooked. It is music, I think, though abstract, non-melodic, a rising and falling of sounds that lead you around and through the installation's forest of solid things. But then - is music ever not sculptural? Listening to the scything percussive notes of Stravinsky certainly is; and to

Ultimately, you can't reduce this magical, elusive work of art to a fixed meaning. You have to surrender to it. The sound gathers you up in its ecstasy like a spiralling mystical dance.

crystallise sound waves into vision has haunted everyone from the inventors of opera to designers of psychedelic lightshows.

Yet Atoui still manages to do something new and beautiful with sound and vision. He teases you and boggles your mind with how his musical instruments relate to the sounds you hear, how the stones and water basins, pipes and strings have produced this sonic outpouring. The entire installation is an interconnected musical machine.

It's funny, too. There's a warm, generous if absurdist humour to it all. In the past, a crazy mechanical contraption like this would be called "Heath Robinson-ish", after the early 20th-century British cartoonist who came up with such things.

▲ ‘You have to surrender to it’: a musician plays in the Turbine Hall

Sadness hovers in the sounds that fill this vast grey space, as the bass notes pound harder, building up to an apocalyptic blast.

A better comparison is Leonardo da Vinci, who invented wild

musical instruments among his other real and impossible machines: organs worked by water, a string instrument shaped like a fantastic beast.

Atoui, like Leonardo, seems to be looking for a lost harmony in the world, a secret note that pleased the Lord.

There is a strong similarity with Sufi drummers and dervishes who use music and motion to inculcate a liberating, trancelike calm. I certainly didn't want to leave. The vibrations and complex visual composition keep your brain busy but you are also soothed and at peace.

What is being mourned and where is he taking us? You start to feel you are in a city of sounds and sights.

It also recalls the urban life all around this site: the exotic sounds of Bankside, the music of the city, gathered into Atoui's collage of random noise. But reality slips and fades as you are shown a world beyond the physical. All these objects, from the cones to the stones to the electric guitar played live at the press view, are but as air.

They fascinate the eye but the sound eventually dissolves the material world. The solid stuff Atoui begins with becomes as unreal as a reflection in a courtyard pool.

Atoui has grabbed the opportunity to work in this vast space with both hands, creating something rich, ingenious, funny, sad, mystical.

This is a Turbine Hall installation to lose yourself in for hours, dreaming and wondering. It's the sonic answer to a sun indoors - and Atoui is a modern magus.

Until 11 April

Theatres losing their regional identity, says Hesmondhalgh

Chris Wiegand

Stage editor

There has been “a loss of regional identity” in the stories on stages around the UK due to the challenging circumstances facing theatres, according to Julie Hesmondhalgh.

The actor, who last week was the fourth contestant to leave The Celebrity Traitors, said that for financial reasons, regional theatres are increasingly making co-productions with other venues. This can lead to a “generic” product, she said, rather than a show that specifically says something about the local area.

Hesmondhalgh highlighted the impact of James Graham's Punch, a drama about restorative justice, which opened at Nottingham Playhouse in 2024 and was based on the true story of a one-punch death in the city. The play, which brought Hesmondhalgh an Olivier award for her performance as the victim's mother, went from Nottingham to the West End, a UK tour and Broadway. "New work is always so hard to sell but because it was such a local story, and by James Graham, it sold," she said.

Asked if programming had become risk-averse since Covid, Hesmondhalgh said: "It's really hard for regional theatres. There's room in my heart for musicals and Noël Coward. There's a familiarity about the old classics that people love.

“But the world of co-prosis making things very difficult for people. In order to survive as a regional theatre now, you have to necessarily make so many co-productions with other regional theatres. There's a definite loss of regional identity, locally made productions."

Hesmondhalgh, 56, who is from Accrington in Lancashire, led a successful campaign to save Oldham

▲ Julie Hesmondhalgh spearheaded a campaign to save Oldham Coliseum

Coliseum from closure. This year, she was appointed as a guest curator for its reopening programme. The building is undergoing major refurbishment and redevelopment by the council, and will stage shows that have “a distinctive Oldham mark, a Coliseum mark”.

However, to make regionally specific work that does not involve co-production, she said she is having to do a lot more fundraising. The experience, she said, had given her “a new empathy for people trying to run regional theatres - it’s not easy”.

Next month, Hesmondhalgh will receive the lifetime achievement prize at the inaugural Great British Theatres awards.

National Politics

Revealed: Farage adviser held influential role at UK polling company

← Continued from page 1

2020, is owned by Bruno Rodrigues, a lawyer. Its main public face was Philip van Scheltinga, a Harvard graduate.

As the Covid pandemic grew and the UK entered lockdown, the company's polls received increasing coverage, even while the source of the firm's polling expertise was unclear. Former employees have now revealed the important role of Bruni-Lowe, who sometimes used the name "Chris Redfield", under which quotes were published by the Washington Post newspaper.

Sources said that as well as ordering UK and US voter intention polls, Bruni-Lowe directed research on issues such as council spending, and appeared “obsessed” with producing a dossier that he suggested could be sold to political parties.

Bruni-Lowe's role at the company will amplify questions about transparency in the polling industry, given his longstanding association with Farage at a time of intense scrutiny over the party's use of polls to shape its political narrative.

The rules of the British Polling Council (BPC) do not require pollsters to state any political affiliations, but they have strict guidelines on how they must declare who has commissioned and paid for any polling.

In a statement, Rodrigues, the company's sole director, said there had never been “an institutional, polling, research, commissioning or financial relationship” between Redfield & Wilton and Reform UK or Farage.

He said Bruni-Lowe had worked as a “consultant” from mid-2020 until late 2022, and returned “voluntarily” in the summer of 2025 to train interns. Rodrigues added that Bruni-Lowe was “an important and highly valued member” of the team.

Sources said Bruni-Lowe, who some employees said had been known as “Chris Redfield”, was heavily involved in the company’s polling operations. Rodrigues said the surname Redfield was used as an email account convention within the organisation, citing other examples of “Philip Redfield” and “Bruno Redfield”. He said: “It was not a device created specifically for Chris and it did not conceal his identity from people working within the company.”

Nonetheless, the situation was confusing enough that at least one newspaper, the Washington Post, attributed quotes to that name, while notes taken by one former employee during an oral induction in the summer of 2021, and seen by the Guardian, described “boss - Chris Redfield is COO essentially”.

Rodrigues said: “He was never presented to staff as the company’s chief operating officer and staff were never instructed to treat him as such." He added that Van Scheltinga, as director of research, led the "day-to-day operation".

The Guardian can also reveal that Dan Jukes, then a senior adviser to Farage, sought to promote Redfield & Wilton's work in 2020, looking to place exclusive polls in publications including the Guardian, which turned down the offer.

Jukes stepped down as Farage's chief of staff recently over a scandal in which undercover reporters posed as potential overseas donors to Reform UK. Footage published by Channel 4 News showed the co-founder of the polling firm JL Partners, James Johnson, apparently acknowledging that Jukes had commissioned polling funded by an overseas donor.

The polling had appeared in newspapers without any reference to the party, with JL Partners acknowledging “weaknesses” in its procedures.

Jukes denies wrongdoing and Reform UK has said the party itself did not commission the work. Reform recently announced that an internal inquiry had cleared the officials of breaking the law. The matter remains under police investigation.

Redfield & Wilton started producing polls in 2020 with little information about the people behind the company. During its publicly active years before it became less visible in late 2024, its voter intention polls appeared in politically influential newsletters from Politico, the Times, and the New Statesman.

Bruni-Lowe ran Farage's 2015 election campaign, helped test messaging for the formation of the Brexit party and advised on the 2019 local elections campaign, as well as having produced private polling for Farage since at least 2014, apart from during a brief period of working for Rishi Sunak before the 2024 election. In his book on political strategy, he writes of having worked for “organisations and candidates of all political persuasions". He is considered to be part of Farage's inner circle and was close enough to the Reform UK leader to have been present on a trip to party donor Christopher Harborne's Thai wellness retreat at Christmas in 2022 to mark the crypto billionaire's 60th birthday.

▲ Nigel Farage in May 2023 at a Mayfair restaurant with his adviser Chris Bruni-Lowe, seated left

Other guests photographed at the meeting include Farage's unpaid aide and convicted fraudster George Cottrell.

In May 2023, Van Scheltinga and Bruni-Lowe were photographed having drinks at a Mayfair restaurant with Farage, Cottrell and Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader.

Rodrigues said: “The existence of personal or social meetings involving individuals associated with the company does not establish a corporate relationship between Redfield & Wilton Strategies and Reform UK.”

While much of Redfield & Wilton's published polling related to voter intentions in the UK and the US, sources said Bruni-Lowe had its staff develop a “dossier” on local authority performance between autumn 2024 and spring 2025.

One source said he suggested the firm's work could be sold to political parties, and that Bruni-Lowe appeared “obsessed” with the dossier. Research by employees included freedom of information requests to councils to find expenditure on translation services.

Rodrigues said the FOI project was a “commercial research project” and translation services were just one of “several dozen categories” examined by the company in a project led by Van Scheltinga. He added that none of the research was supplied to Reform or Farage. The company’s other work, sources said, included polling in Montenegro, Hungary, Hong Kong and the Bahamas, as well as research about attitudes in the UK to gold and cryptocurrencies.

One online profile for Rodrigues, a solicitor based in London, refers to him holding a directorship of an “innovative market research firm”. However, according to former employees, he had a limited role in the day-to-day running of Redfield & Wilton. Van Scheltinga was frequently quoted giving analysis of the company’s polling and wrote columns for the Times and Telegraph.

Van Scheltinga was the listed contact for the company with the BPC but one industry source said he never attended its meetings. This led to demands from the BPC for a representative of the group to appear before them: that was ultimately Rodrigues, the nominal director, who maintained “total silence”, according to the source.

Bruni-Lowe declined to comment. Van Scheltinga did not respond to requests for comment.

Asylum policy Reform says it would reject all claims - including from children

Ben Quinn

Children and mothers would not be exempt from plans by Reform UK to immediately deport 90,000 asylum seekers and impose a five-year ban on migrants being granted asylum, Nigel Farage said yesterday.

The party's most hardline immigration policies yet were condemned by refugee charities and others as unworkable and an abandonment of Britain's tradition of helping victims of war.

New claims would be automatically rejected, and failed applicants would be returned either to their home countries or a safe third country. A Reform government would impose tariffs, visa bans or airspace restrictions on countries refusing to accept the return of asylum seekers.

Asked if children would be exempt, Farage told a press conference in

Kent: “If you allow Palestinian or Afghan women to come as well as children, that may well sound compassionate given the circumstances in that country.

“However, as soon as you do that you open the door to family reunions, to husbands coming, to partners coming and before you know it you have plenty of young men coming as well.”

The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said last month that approximately a quarter of arrivals under the reopened UK resettlement scheme (UKRS) will consist of Afghan women and girls fleeing Taliban rule and Palestinians who have fled Gaza.

Appearing in front of a replica of the type of inflatable boat that he said was now being used to cross the Channel, Farage said a Reform government would also review the status of anyone granted asylum since 2024.

Those coming from countries deemed safe by a Reform home secretary would lose their permission

Nigel Farage says granting children and mothers asylum 'may well sound compassionate' but it 'opens the door' to men being allowed entry to the UK too

PHOTOGRAPH: CHRIS RATCLIFFE/REUTERS

to remain in the UK, while all legal resettlement routes would also be abolished, except for those set up for Ukrainians in the wake of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.

A 17-page document published by the party yesterday envisages the “embedding” of immigration enforcement throughout the state, and effectively society, by including immigration checks in food safety, housing and licensing inspections.

People targeted for deportation would be identified from data on water or electricity usage, “aerial imaging”, and complaints from neighbours, the document said.

Zia Yusuf, the party's would-be home secretary, said Reform planned to deport “north of 1 million people” but insisted the party was “not in the business of sending people to be killed or tortured”, telling the press conference there would be “third country options” for “edge cases”.

However, the Refugee Council said that closing Britain's asylum system would “cause chaos”, and desperate people who would still arrive on the country's shores would be driven underground instead of entering an orderly system.

Jon Featonby, the chief policy analyst at the charity, said: "These unworkable proposals would see us abandon our proud tradition of offering safety to victims of war, which our ancestors established in response to the horrors of world war two.”

The Labour party's chair, Bridget Phillipson, said the Reform UK leader was “casting around for more and more extreme policies” as he was faced with questions about his own finances and the threat posed by Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain, which appeared to have cost his party the opportunity of finishing third in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection.

She insisted that Labour could “control immigration and get numbers down with serious action, not by abandoning the asylum system altogether”.

Reform's policy was described by Luke Tryl, the UK director of More in Common, as an “eye catching” move that was perhaps aimed at stemming the growth of Restore on Reform’s right. But he said a policy to stop asylum entirely would run contrary to the desire of a majority of Reform voters, of whom only 14% wanted to see a cessation of Britain welcoming people fleeing persecution and war.

A small boat in the Channel last month. Farage has proposed a five-year ban on granting asylum

PHOTOGRAPH: JEAN-FRANÇOIS BADIAS/AP

Sketch

John Crace

Of course Putin didn't interfere in Brexit, says Nige - after all, I'd have been the first to know

Let's face it. The very idea that Russia might have tried to interfere with the Brexit referendum is clearly absurd. I mean, what could a hostile state hope to gain from sowing division between the UK and the EU? We all know that Vladimir

Putin has nothing but the best interests of European democracies at heart. That's why he invaded Ukraine. To help it become a bit more democratic. The sort of democracy which is so highly prized that $98\%$ of its citizens vote for its leader. If only others could be more like Russia.

If anything, Putin would have wanted the UK to remain within the EU and it was only his impartiality that prevented him from saying so. Besides which, why would the Russians want to get involved as anything so politically insignificant as the partial break up of an organisation it considers an enemy? It just makes no sense. And it's not as if Russia has any track record of clandestine foreign engagement. Next, people will be suggesting Russia paid Reform's

Everything that ever happens in the world somehow always becomes personal to Nige. His solipsism eclipses everything former leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, £30,000 to make helpful speeches in the European parliament and to recruit other MEPs.

Andy Burnham sees it rather differently. Over the weekend he claimed that since he had become prime minister he had seen incontrovertible proof that the Russians had been involved in a misinformation campaign during the Brexit referendum. He didn't say exactly what form the interference took. Merely that it was a reality. So it was no surprise that Nige Farage was asked for his reaction during a Reform press conference in Kent yesterday morning.

"The prime minister is a liar," Nige snapped. "Yes, a liar." Nige was beside himself with anger. He is getting more thin-skinned by the day. This was yet another myth fabricated by the establishment. Another excuse to try to relitigate the result of the referendum. The whole thing was clearly a plot to undermine him.

Everything that ever happens in the world somehow always becomes personal to Nige. His solipsism eclipses everything. We all only exist as satellites of his own imagination. When he dies, we will all die with him. If he hasn't killed us first.

It was like this. If Russia had tried to interfere with the referendum then Nige would have been the first to know about it. And frankly he had been deeply disappointed that no one had tried to buy him. Numerous punters had bought him for £80 a pop on Cameo. But despite having billions in petro-roubles, the Russians had blanked him.

The Reform roadshow was in Kent to promote Nige and Zia Yusuf's war on immigrants. The UK had been invaded and everyone had to go. No exceptions for migrants with winning smiles or tragic backstories. There was no room for Afghan women and children.

This was Toxicity Unfiltered. Prejudice 101. The Americans had removed their bombers from RAF Fairfield because of the small boat crossings. He didn't pause to wonder why the US president had kept some planes at other UK airbases. There would be tariffs on any countries who didn't want their migrants back. Maybe even airstrikes. Any civil servants who declined to activate the mass deportations would be lined up and shot in front of the white cliffs of Dover.

National

Rapid rise in Send demand could drive councils into bankruptcy

Patrick Butler

Richard Adams

Councils are warning of potentially “catastrophic” debts, which are forecast to reach a record £10bn over the next 18 months, as a result of rapid growth in demand for special educational needs and disability support in English schools.

Although the government recently cleared more than £5bn in historic council Send debts, a surge in requests has led to authorities predicting they will have re-accrued that debt figure by April, and doubled it by 2028.

The recent acceleration in applications for education, health and care plans (EHCPs), which mandate support for conditions such as speech and learning difficulties, autism or ADHD, is thought to partly reflect a rush to secure support before the government's Send reforms take effect.

The prospect of council finances being overwhelmed by schools' Send spending reflects similar concerns in the NHS and the benefit system over the strain that the rise in mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions has put on public services.

The government-commissioned Fonagy report, published last week, found the increase in these conditions was real and a cause of distress to many who have them, but the resulting demand for support would be unsustainable without introducing new ways to manage the pressure on public services.

The County Councils Network (CCN), which published the forecasts today, said the overspending was not the fault of councils, and called on ministers to guarantee future Send debts run up by local authorities, some of whom would be otherwise left in effect bankrupt as a result of meeting their legal duties.

Linden Kemkaran, the CCN's Send spokesperson, said: “These deficits have not accumulated because councils have chosen to spend recklessly: they are the result of having to meet rapidly growing statutory demand, which has only intensified this year, without funding keeping pace.

"If councils are left carrying billions of pounds of Send debt, it will not just be a problem for local authorities. Taxpayers and local communities will ultimately bear the consequences."

The government's reforms aim to gradually replace the current system in England with a more inclusive approach of Send support in mainstream schools that in principle obviates the need for an EHCP. But parents appear to be rushing to secure formal support now to avoid any future uncertainty.

Without a ministerial guarantee to wipe future overspending, councils say they are at risk of bankruptcy when those accumulated debts - currently kept off town hall balance sheets under a special “override” arrangement with the Treasury - go back on to the books in April 2028, when the override is due to expire.

Ministers have agreed to pay 90% of English top-tier councils' Send debts accumulated to March 2026. Ministers have previously said future debt support would be “appropriate and proportionate” but that it would “not be unlimited”.

The CCN said anything less than a ministerial commitment to pay down 90% of future Send debt would be a “financial catastrophe” for councils - and some authorities would struggle with solvency even if they retained just 10% of their Send debts.

Publicly available internal reports by local authorities show a number are predicting overspends of more than £100m in 2026-27 alone.

Hampshire county council is forecasting a £200m deficit for this year. Others include Surrey, East Sussex, Kent, Worcestershire, and Norfolk county councils.

EHCPs are legal documents agreed between local authorities and families in England detailing the support required for people up to the age of 25, allowing access to extra funding or places in special schools.

In January the number of young people with EHCPs hit 718,000, after a 12.5% increase over the past 12 months. This was the largest annual increase since the plans were introduced in 2014. An additional 1.3 million young people have been identified as having special needs, according to official data.

Many councils are anticipating double-digit annual increases over the next three years, with several now projecting that at the current rates of increase, nearly one in 10 pupils will have an EHCP by 2029.

The Fonagy report said the growth in EHCPs had “substantially outpaced the capacity” of the education system to respond. Of the 105,300 statutory assessments carried out in 2024, 94% of resulted in the award of an EHCP.

A government spokesperson said: "We inherited a Send system under immense strain, and have always recognised that both deficits and EHCP applications will continue to rise before our reforms are rolled out.

“We’re investing billions to make sure every community has easy, early access to specialists and so councils can deliver their tailored local reform plans.”

▼ Joseph Payne as the writer, Tim, and Samantha Begeman as an actor auditioning for a role in Chekhov

PHOTOGRAPH: ALI WRIGHT

Theatre review Discomforting look at a male director's power

Nina

Battersea Arts Centre, London

★★★★☆

Kate Wyver

S mile. Introduce yourself. Say you're such a big fan. Now do whatever he tells you. These are the unspoken rules the women follow as they

take turns auditioning in Caroline Williams' discomforting, rage-fuelled production about men and power and rotting winged roadkill.

The women are auditioning for the role of Nina, the aspiring actor in Chekhov's The Seagull, in an experimental production directed by the pretentious wunderkind Goran (Rowan Polonski). He is the type of director to dismiss the need trauma, he demands. Show me what that looks like. The women are eager to please, eager to work, and Goran has the power to make them a star. Looking on, writer Tim (Joseph Payne) is a timid bystander, reading in for sour, lovesick Konstantin as the play slips in and out of focus and reality.

▲ The four Ninas are put through an increasingly invasive audition

for an intimacy coordinator while claiming credit for having one in the room.

As the women file through, Goran's requests to his Ninas (Maya Bartley O'Dea, Nina Bowers, Samantha Begeman and Gemma Barnett) become increasingly invasive. They slide from small, needling questions that might be deemed permissible from a truth-seeking visionary, to commands that are so terrible they could crack a person in two. Tell me your

As tension builds, our play, co-directed by Williams and Deborah Pearson, grows in scale and beauty. Bowers' exquisite, harrowing birth scene splits open the show's depths of earned fury, while Begeman has a distressing masturbation scene. Projected loud and large across the stage, the latter is almost too hard to watch, but this show demands we bear witness.

The final switch of power is an artistic act of wish fulfilment. It may be what we would dream of for these women but it rings hollow for the world the show has so carefully and grimly constructed.

Williams and Pearson's unflinching direction is most compelling in its bleak brutality. Why would any woman want to be an actor?

Until 24 October

Student stabbed housemate 30 times, court told

Steven Morris

A university student lay in wait for his housemate to return home before stabbing him 30 times, a murder trial has been told.

Zack Coughlan, 23, dressed all in black and wore a mask and gloves to ambush Jamie Collins, 21, in the garden of their home near the University of the West of England in Bristol, where both studied robotics.

Collins was attacked shortly before 6pm on 8 April after returning from campus on his bike, Bristol crown court heard.

Coughlan then allegedly cycled away on the bike, dumped it at a nearby retail park, bought a change of clothes and threw his bloodstained clothing into a pond.

He returned home to the house they shared in Filton, south Gloucestershire, at about 9pm, put a pizza in the oven and did some online gaming with friends, the court was told.

Adam Vaitilingam KC, prosecuting, said: "A few hours later he decided it was time to call the police and

The robotics student Jamie Collins, 21, who was fatally stabbed outside his Gloucestershire home in April

pretend that he had just found his friend's body in the garden.

"At about 2am - eight hours later - the defendant called 999. He said that his friend had been stabbed. They told him to do CPR until paramedics arrived and he told them that he was."

He told police he had noticed the back gate was open, went outside and found Collins's body. The court heard the attack was caught on CCTV, which Coughlan showed officers who initially treated him as a witness.

Coughlan had injuries to his hands but he said he had hurt himself when he fell while climbing trees.

Vaitilingam said that as evidence against Coughlan mounted, he went from being a witness to a suspect.

The jury was told Coughlan and Collins lived in a house owned by the defendant and there had been disagreements about whether Coughlan was charging too much rent.

Leave a cancer breakthrough in your Will.

Since the beginning of humankind, a tiny protein called EGFR silently fuelled cancer growth—until our researchers discovered it. Now we can stop it, thanks to a breakthrough supported by gifts left in Wills.

Gifts in Wills fund over a third of our work to beat cancer.

Find out more:

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CANCER RESEARCH UK

Together we are beating cancer

National

At least 183 homes lost to coastal erosion since 2010, councils reveal

Matthew Pearce

Seaside communities in the east of England have lost at least 183 homes to coastal erosion and landslides over the past 16 years, figures obtained by the Guardian reveal.

After councils judged properties across the Yorkshire and East Anglian coasts too vulnerable to remain safely occupied, the homes were proactively demolished.

The demolitions cost £1.1m, with the Environment Agency contributing about £482,000 towards clearing 61 homes at risk of collapsing and the rest paid for by councils and at times by homeowners themselves.

Coastal erosion is the wearing away and retreat of the sea shoreline, which can destabilise cliffs. While it is a natural process, scientists said the climate crisis was accelerating it.

The Guardian requested data from nine councils named in an

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA) report as being some of the most vulnerable to coastal erosion.

East Riding of Yorkshire council, which includes vulnerable communities in Skipsea, Aldbrough and Mappleton, has demolished 66 homes since 2010.

Great Yarmouth borough council has demolished 64 properties, all of them located in the village of Hemsby. Since December 2025, 41 properties in the seaside resort have been removed.

A council spokesperson said: “Last winter, the dunes in Hemsby saw about 50% of the erosion predicted for the entirety of the next 30 years. More than 10 metres of land was lost in just over 12 months.

“Council staff continue to liaise with people to make sure residents and the public are safe and work closely with people to offer support and advice and explain the options available.”

North Norfolk council has proactively demolished 21 homes over the same period. East Suffolk, which only held data for the past six years, recorded a sharp rise in demolitions last year. Eight homes were demolished between 2020 and 2024, and 16 in the year to April.

Most of the homes in East Suffolk demolished this year are understood to be in Thorpeness. Hilary

Lightfoot's home, in which she lived and raised a family for 20 years, was one of them. “I’ve lost £650,000 – that was what my flat was worth,” she said. “I’ve had to dig into my pension savings to buy a house, which I still owe money on. I’ve borrowed money. It’s just disastrous.”

The Environment Agency estimates that 3,500 properties in England are at risk of coastal erosion by 2055, increasing to more than 10,000 by 2105.

◀Hemsby in Norfolk, where 41 properties have been demolished by Great Yarmouth council since last December PHOTOGRAPH: CARL COURT/GETTY

certainty" for some seaside homes rather than an accidental risk, according to the EFRA committee's report.

East Suffolk council said it had invested about £1.5m in measures designed to slow erosion and give residents more time to prepare.

North Norfolk district council (NNDC) said: “Households in all 21 homes were supported by NNDC. Nineteen of these were proactively demolished before they reached the cliff edge and became an emergency.”

A spokesperson for East Riding said: “The council is working directly with residents, businesses and communities to find out the full economic, environmental and social impacts of these losses.”

An Environment Agency spokesperson said it was “very aware” of how erosion was affecting coastal homeowners and communities.

£1.1m

The cost of proactively demolishing homes deemed unlivable in nine at-risk coastal communities

Unlike flood damage, which can be covered by the Flood Re scheme, there is no UK insurance product for coastal erosion, because insurers treat coastal retreat as a “virtual

They said: “While local authorities are best placed to support affected residents, we are backing them with £36m for coastal erosion adaptation pilots, slashing planning regulation red tape in vulnerable areas and offering £10,000 grants to fund the safe demolition of affected properties - with scope to go further for more complex jobs."

Century of fish recipes reveals how many old favourites fell out of fashion

Steven Morris

National

In days gone by, the UK's domestic cooks were an adventurous lot when it came to seafood, prepared to dish up anything from an oyster cocktail to whale meat curry.

But an investigation of more than 1,000 fish and shellfish recipes over the past century suggests tastes have become much narrower.

Ruth Thurstan, from the University of Exeter, studied seafood recipes published in the British version of Good Housekeeping magazine from 1923 to the present.

In all, 67 species of fish and shell-fish featured in the recipes but since the 1970s the “big five” - cod, haddock, tuna, salmon and prawns - have dominated, accounting for more than 60% of all mentions. The number of recipes for delicacies such as oysters, flatfish and herring plunged.

Thurstan said: “For decades, British cooks have turned to published recipes for inspiration about what to put on the dinner table. I wondered whether these everyday sources could tell us how our relationship with fish has changed over time.”

She said there were three broad phases: before the 70s, there was a diverse mix of species in recipes. No single group ruled but flatfish, herring and oyster were prominent. Recipes emphasised domestic skills, economy and preparing whole fish.

The 1970s saw a decline in diversity of fish species in recipes, with increased focus on the “big five”. Since the 80s, these accounted for the majority of recipes, with a decline of other species - though not all have vanished entirely.

Recipes from the 1920s and 30s that Thurstan found included oyster

▶ Adding lemon slices to a trout prior to baking

PHOTOGRAPH:

VICUSCHKA/GETTY

Ask your fishmonger for witch and also for its first cousin, megrim. They are both delicious and delicate flat fish, cheap and plentiful. British fishermen caught 16 million lbs. last year. Fried, grilled, steamed, or baked this simple way, their excellence will surprise you.

BAKED WITCH (OR MEGRIM)

1 Witch or Megrim per person, 1 oz. butter, $\frac{1}{2}$ lemon, 3 or 4 small boiled potatoes, 1 teaspoonful of chopped parsley.

Method: Wash the fish and cut off the fins. Cut two thin slices of lemon and keep them for garnishing. Lay in an oval fireproof dish or baking tin, put small pieces of butter on the fish and squeeze the rest of the lemon over it. Cover the fish with a greased paper and bake it in a hot oven for from ten to fifteen minutes.

To serve: Remove the paper and leave the fish in the same dish in which it was cooked. Place the potatoes, cut into halves, at each side of the dish and sprinkle parsley over them. Garnish with lemon. Doesn't that sound delicious? Next time you want something tempting try this.

EAT MORE FISH

Fish baked in custard - 1923 style

“Purchase a slice of cod or halibut, or some filleted fish weighing about 1lb. Wipe it with a clean cloth and remove any black skin. Lay the fish in a greased and shallow baking-dish and sprinkle it with salt, a little white pepper, the grated rind of half a lemon, and a small onion finely chopped. Then break into a basin 1 or 2 eggs, add 2

All about

HERRINGS

"OF ALL THE FISH that swim the sea" runs the old saying, "the herring is the King." Certainly whether it is a question of flavour, food value or cheapness, we have to agree that the herring is worthy of his crown.

Consider the herring's food value. It is a very cheap source of body-building protein. It is an oily fish and its oil is distributed throughout its flesh, not all contained in its liver as is the case with the cod and halibut. Herring oil not only supplies an extraordinarily high number of calories or energy-giving units, but it also contains two vitamins, A & D. Vitamin A strengthens our resistance to disease and Vitamin D is essential for sound bones and teeth.

That is why the herring is such a valuable food for young and old. It is a tasty food, too. This leaflet gives you a number of ways of serving it, whether for breakfast, dinner, tea or supper.

MINISTRY OF FOOD LEAFLET No. 9

◀ Recipe and serving suggestion for baked witch or megrim (types of flatfish); above, a 1947 ministry of food leaflet promoting herring

tablespoonfuls of flour, and a light seasoning of pepper and salt. Beat until smooth, and add half pint fresh milk. Strain this custard over the fish, stand the dish in a tin containing some water, and bake in a moderate oven until the custard is set and lightly browned (about 30 minutes). Potato chips or some mashed potatoes would be a good accompaniment to this dish."

cocktail, lobster canapes and halibut steaks in milk.

The 1940s - when rationing was in force - featured recipes by the ministry of food explicitly encouraging the consumption of fish and alternative protein sources - including a recipe for curried whale meat.

In the 1960s, recipes included plaice Veronique and chilled prawn soup. The cooks of the 1970s were being asked to consider rustling up cod roe on toast, and tuna with soured cream quiche. There was also a sharp increase in recipes mentioning tinned fish.

Recipes in the 1990s featured the likes of herb-crusted salmon and prawn and peanut noodles, while more “aspirational” dishes in the 2020s have included golden hasselback salmon, gochujang sticky cod and miso prawn skewers.

"The results reveal a striking story of change," said Thurstan, from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter's Penryn campus.

"This wasn't simply a case of fewer species being available - herring, oyster and lobster can all still be bought - but it reflects a genuine narrowing of what readers were being shown and encouraged to cook."

According to the Marine Stewardship Council, the big five make up 80% of the fish and seafood consumed in the UK.

Thurstan said this dominance carried environmental costs. She said cod, haddock and prawn fishing, for example, could damage valuable habitats while salmon farming has come under intense scrutiny.

SAS soldiers refusing to answer Afghanistan inquiry questions

Jamie Grierson

Dan Sabbagh

The judge leading a statutory inquiry into alleged unlawful killings in Afghanistan has said most SAS personnel approached have refused to answer any of its questions.

Lord Justice Haddon-Cave is investigating allegations of more than 50 summary killings by UK special forces soldiers as well as claims of an alleged cover-up of illegal activity and inadequate investigations by the Royal Military Police.

In a public hearing, Haddon-Cave said rule 9 requests - written notices asking for information - had been sent to SAS operators who were linked to the deliberate detention operations (DDOs) at the centre of allegations.

"The inquiry has identified numerous SAS personnel from whom it wishes to hear direct evidence as to the DDOs in question and has issued rule 9 requests for information to each of them," he said.

“A high proportion have indicated their intention to rely on their privilege against self-incrimination and have refused to answer any questions asked by the inquiry.”

Ministers announced the statutory judge-led inquiry after allegations that 54 Afghans were killed in suspicious circumstances by one SAS unit in Helmand province between 2010 and 2011 and accusations these amounted to war crimes.

A high court case brought by the law firm Leigh Day on behalf of one man, Saifullah, alleged that his father, two brothers and a cousin were killed during an SAS raid on a compound in southern Afghanistan in February 2011.

The inquiry is tasked with determining whether investigations conducted by the Royal Military Police were carried out properly and effectively and whether there is credible information that “numerous” extrajudicial killings were carried out by British armed forces between 2010 and 2013. The judge said the three-year period “sufficiently captures the allegations currently being made”.

The inquiry will also seek to determine whether the circumstances of the killings were covered up and what lessons can be learned. The open hearings continue and will take place throughout this month and next.

BBC defends editing out trans slogan on Strictly star's T-shirt

Michael Savage

Media editor

The BBC has defended its decision to edit out a transgender rights slogan from a T-shirt worn by a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, stating it was standard practice to avoid “overt branding or slogans”.

The actor Bethany Antonia was filmed wearing the T-shirt, which bore the slogan “Protect the Dolls”, during rehearsals before her live performance on Saturday night.

The slogan has become a sign of support for the rights of trans women, with proceeds from sales of the T-shirt donated to the UK trans charity Not a Phase.

However, the T-shirt's wording was edited out, making it appear plain white, during footage of Antonia's rehearsals shown on Saturday's show. The edited version also appears on the BBC's iPlayer platform.

The T-shirt, produced by the designer Conner Ives, has been worn by prominent figures such as the actors Pedro Pascal and Tilda Swinton, as well as the singer Troye Sivan.

A social media video posted by the BBC last week had shown Antonia, who stars in House of the Dragon, training in the T-shirt with her professional dance partner, Nancy Xu. At that point, the slogan on the T-shirt was clearly visible.

However, when footage of their rehearsals was shown during Saturday's show, Antonia was instead seen wearing a plain white T-shirt.

The BBC said edits were made to meet editorial guidelines.

A spokesperson said: “As is standard practice on any entertainment show on the BBC and in line with our editorial guidelines, appropriate steps are taken to reduce the inclusion of any overt branding or slogans that may be present, regardless of the wording or statement in question.”

Antonia has not commented on the BBC's editing.

In 2017 the BBC blurred out a T-shirt worn by the Clean Bandit singer Grace Chatto proclaiming support for the then Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn. In 2024, writing on a T-shirt worn by the Kaiser Chiefs singer Ricky Wilson, which read “Trans Rights Are Human Rights”, appeared to have been blurred out by the BBC in certain shots during an episode of Michael McIntyre’s Big Show.

▲ Bethany Antonia’s T-shirt, left, appeared blank on Saturday’s show

'I froze in fear' Plight of boarding school pupils sexually abused by their peers

Sally Weale

Education correspondent

Benji\* was in his early teens when a fellow pupil at one of the country's most prestigious independent schools

began a series of sexual assaults against him that went on for years.

He had previously been happy at school, where he excelled at sport. Then one night he woke in his dormitory to find the boy's hand on his penis. "I just froze," said Benji.

The boy threatened to beat him up if he reported what had happened, and the abuse began to accelerate. He would forcibly masturbate Benji three or four times a week. From there he began to force Benji to engage in oral sex every two to three days.

"It slowly got worse and worse," said Benji. "He claimed he had

taken pictures of me when I was sleeping. He said he would put them up around school and make this rumour up that I was gay.”

Awareness and safeguarding have improved significantly in UK boarding schools after decades of shameful revelations about sexual abuse, but experts say children who live and learn in institutions away from their parents will always be more vulnerable.

In the past, the focus has been on the appalling experiences of pupils sexually abused by their teachers. Today, attention has also turned to the sexual violence perpetrated by one pupil on another - in boarding schools, and in other schools.

Earlier this month, a Guardian investigation uncovered the horrifying scale of child-on-child sexual abuse in schools, with at least 1,700 sexual offences against under-13s, including multiple rapes, reported to police every year.

It was not until more than a decade later that Benji felt able to disclose what he had suffered. “I was massively ashamed,” he said. He abused alcohol and drugs and tried to kill himself. “I would do anything to blank it out. I was angry with the world.”

After leaving school he went abroad, where he began to do seasonal work. “Until I was 26, I was running away from the darkness. I didn’t want to have to think or relive it.”

After spiralling downwards, Benji finally told his mother. Horrified, she contacted the school. The police became involved, there was a trial, and in 2021 the perpetrator, Christopher Brewer, was convicted of 12 offences against Benji and one other pupil.

Jailing Brewer for three years, the recorder of Bristol, Judge Peter Blair, said Brewer had ruined Benji's life. "He felt a complete sense of powerlessness," he said. "This was not a very long way away from sex slave." Benji said: "I look back on that court case and that's the proudest moment of my life. It's the only time in my life when I've felt powerful. I had to do this for myself so I could move on, and could slowly become happier."

After the criminal case, Benji pursued a civil negligence claim. The school denied liability, and a compensation settlement was agreed. Now he feels compelled to speak up to support others.

"If I can make a change to someone who is dealing with a similar situation, if I could change someone's life for the better, it would make everything that happened worth it."

Andrew Lord, a partner in the abuse claims team at Leigh Day, represented Benji in his civil action. “I have advised several families whose children have been impacted by abuse in boarding schools, and a great number describe still feeling the impact

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'I was massively ashamed. Until I was 26, I was running away from the darkness'

Benji

Sexual abuse survivor

• Boarding school pupils living away from their parents are more vulnerable to sexual abuse, experts say

PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY IMAGES

many years later," he said. "It is no longer credible for any school to plead ignorance on the shocking prevalence of sexual violence among pupils, nor is it acceptable to not have an immediate plan to investigate and mitigate these potential harms."

Richard Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater & Gordon, said from his experience a disproportionate number of civil claims over child-on-child sexual abuse involved boarding schools. “Because children are there more of the time ... They’re living not just a school life, but their private lives as well.”

Sam\*, also represented by Lord, was at another renowned boarding school when an older student got into his bed and sexually abused him. There were other incidents.

Sam did not report the abuse immediately and, in the months that followed, he lived in a state of terror. “I could hear his door open. I was frozen in fear,” he said.

Eventually, Sam confided in a fellow pupil; it was reported to the housemaster, and he was asked to give a written statement. Yet in the days after disclosure, the boy was allowed to stay in the dormitory opposite. The incident was finally reported to the police by Sam's family, but there were no charges. "Ultimately I think the school did not want any bad press," he said.

But the abuse had a devastating and lasting impact on Sam, who went on to have a terrible time at university, where he hid in his room and left without completing his degree. Eventually he brought a civil action against the school, and a settlement was reached.

Gabrielle Shaw, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said awareness and safeguarding had improved but “policies alone do not keep children safe”. She said: “Every pupil needs a safe route to speak out and a response that takes them seriously, protects and supports them, and acts appropriately. Crucially, it must be without reputation or institutional interests taking precedence.”

Robin Fletcher, chief executive of the Boarding Schools' Association, said safeguarding young people was every school's top priority. "Over the past decade, BSA has worked to strengthen schools' ability to recognise and respond to abuse through specialist training, conferences and safeguarding guidance.

“Any safeguarding incident reinforces the need for strong processes, training, support and a culture where abuse and abusers have no place in any school.”

\* Some names have been changed

---

Eyewitness

World

Riyadh airport suspends all flights as Houthi strikes continue

Patrick Wintour

Diplomatic editor

Saudi Arabia has been forced to suspend all flights at Riyadh airport until Saturday after a further round of Houthi missile attacks caused more damage and left one person dead.

The Gulf nation announced it was suspending flights from its second busiest airport after Houthi missiles killed 13 people on Saturday and left more than 300 injured. Saudi state TV broadcast CCTV footage that showed passengers surrounded by smoke and falling masonry as they queued at the terminal to board a plane just as the Houthi missile struck.

Some airlines, including Gulf Air and Bahrain Air, had already said they were cancelling flights. More missiles were fired at Saudi Arabian cities by the Houthis yesterday, a Saudi military spokesperson said.

The country has pressed ahead with the 25th WPC Energy Conference in Riyadh, hoping to project an image of normality. But some senior oil executives did not attend or appeared virtually.

The Saudi energy minister, Abdulaziz bin Salman, told the conference that “fear has no place in the Saudi lexicon”, emphasising the resilience of the kingdom’s energy system and the determination of its people to confront crises.

Amin Nasser, the president and chief executive of Aramco, said Saudi Arabia had invested deeply in protecting its supplies, but “no nation, even one as capable and confident as ours, can safeguard them alone”. He added: “Markets can diversify suppliers. They cannot diversify geography … When energy infrastructure in this region is targeted, the consequences reach economies everywhere.”

A review is under way to establish how Houthi missiles are repeatedly penetrating badly stretched Saudi air defences. Schoolchildren and some office workers were advised to study and work from home. The Houthis have also targeted the city of Khamis Mushait, and the King Fahd international airport in Dammam.

Interceptor missiles are needed to protect government buildings, oil facilities and infrastructure hubs across a wide area. The Houthis have vowed to attack airports across Saudi Arabia.

Since last month Houthi attacks have targeted fuel tanks at Riyadh airport and its affiliated warehouses, destroying a parked Airbus A320 passenger plane and damaging at least five other aircraft.

The crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has not been seen in public since last Tuesday, reflecting the pressure he is under to find a way out from a war that has dogged his leadership since 2014. Saudi Arabia badly needs stability to continue the slow diversification of its economy from oil dependence, but has not found a way to restore it in Yemen.

Inside Yemen, fighting continued in and around Taiz, the third city, and the most populous governorate, with Saudi planes mounting eight separate strikes on any assembly of Houthi forces. As many as 60 fighters died on Sunday from both sides.

The governor of Taiz, Nabil Shamsan, on Sunday issued an urgent call to lift the Houthi siege and warned a shortage of medicines meant the city would soon run out of emergency surgical and intensive care services.

Overall the Houthis claimed the Saudis had mounted 124 raids on Sunday. The Saudis are seeking to locate Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the group's reclusive leader, as rumours of his assassination circulate, but Saudi Arabia does not seem to have intelligence on his whereabouts either in the capital, Sana'a, or in its stronghold of Saada.

On the diplomatic front, Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, spoke to the Saudi foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan, on Sunday to see if there was a way in which Iran could act as a mediator between the Saudis and the Houthis, a group that Iran has trained and armed. Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi political bureau, claimed Saudi Arabia had accepted the mediation offered by Iran and proposed first a one-month truce, and then a two-week truce, but that the Houthis had rejected both offers.

He said: “The battle this time is not like its predecessors; the arena is no longer the same arena, and the cards have changed. Therefore, a comprehensive settlement must be put in place between Riyadh and Sana’a, the Houthi capital, because every day that passes in this battle will expand its scope and deepen its losses, and the settlement that is possible today may become difficult or impossible tomorrow.”

▲ CCTV footage shows the impact of the missile strikes at Riyadh airport PHOTOGRAPHS: SAUDI MEDIA MINISTRY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Paris opera house

Row over ceiling art

hits new heights

Page 25

Amelia Earhart

The Pacific quest to

find plane wreckage

Page 26

Yemen The military group attacking Saudi Arabia

On Saturday, a missile strike by the Houthis in Yemen hit Riyadh's international airport, killing 13 people and wounding hundreds. On Sunday, another attack killed one person and injured nearly a dozen others.

Though the violence might appear at first sight to be restricted to the Arabian peninsula, it could have global consequences, pushing up fuel prices and inflation.

Why now?

The Houthis initially stayed on the sidelines of the conflict launched by the US and Israel against Iran. But last month, the Islamist militia movement seized control of key territory and gained virtual control of the Bab al-Mandab strait, which dominates the Red Sea, a critical shipping route for oil and gas exports from the region.

The Yemeni government forces and local allies began a major counteroffensive last week to drive back the Houthis from the Bab al-Mandab.

Saudi Arabia is in the Houthis' crosshairs because it supports Yemen's UN-backed government and its forces. Their attacks on high-profile targets in the kingdom such as oil infrastructure and the capital's airport - key symbols of its international integration and economic future - make painfully obvious the costs of Riyadh's strategic choices.

---

How is this new territory for Saudi Arabia?

The recent attacks on Saudi Arabia have been the deadliest to hit the kingdom in a decade.

They also caused one of the most significant disruptions to Saudi civil aviation in years. Businesses in Riyadh's financial hub have told employees to work remotely, authorities in Riyadh have asked schools to switch to online classes this week, and top energy executives were dropped from the schedule of a high-profile conference this week in the capital.

---

Why couldn't Riyadh stop the missiles?

Saudi Arabia has invested enormous sums in its military - the kingdom is the world's eighth biggest spender on weapons - but Houthi attacks are hard to stop.

▲ The Bab al-Mandab strait is a major shipping route for oil and gas

▲Riyadh's international airport was hit by Houthis on Thursday

“Saudi air defences have been able to intercept some Houthi missile and drone attacks, but Saudi Arabia is so large that it’s simply impossible for them to consistently defend themselves,” said Thomas Juneau, an analyst at the University of Ottawa.

Other analysts point out that even the vaunted Israeli air defence systems failed to stop a ballistic missile narrowly missing Ben Gurion international airport last year.

What might happen next?

The Houthis said their actions were “guided by reciprocity” - suggesting they were responding to Saudi strikes on the territory they control in Yemen - but show no sign of stopping their attacks.

“Unless the Saudi enemy stops its aggression and interference in Yemen, worse is yet to come, God willing,” said official statements carried by the Houthi-run al-Masirah television channel.

It seems unlikely Saudi Arabia will halt its counterstrikes, and equally unlikely the kingdom will be able to find a way to block all incoming Houthi missiles, though it may improve its intelligence gathering and early warning to allow better defence of specific high-value targets.

Nor is there any imminent prospect of an end to the hostilities between Iran and the US that are a major factor in the surge of the recent violence in Yemen. And though the Houthis are more a coalition of different factions than a coherent single movement, for the moment they appear unified behind hardline and ideologically committed leaders.

Farea al-Muslimi, a specialist on Yemen and the Gulf, said the Houthis had been consistently underestimated over the years.

"They are very confident and feeling empowered," he said. Jason Burke

Opposition leaders join Delhi march as pressure mounts on Modi's BJP

Hannah Ellis-Petersen

Delhi

Delhi's police again obstructed protests in India's capital yesterday as thousands of people returned to the streets, led by opposition leaders, to demand the resignation of the election commissioner.

There was mass unrest in Delhi at the weekend, with thousands of people detained by police as they attempted to take part in a protest led by the gen Z Cockroach movement.

The leaders of India's main opposition parties led another procession through Delhi yesterday, this time to the supreme court.

The leader of India's opposition alliance, Rahul Gandhi, alongside other opposition figures and student groups, had declared an intention to march to the country's top court and submit a petition calling for the chief of India's election commission, Gyanesh Kumar, to step down.

Kumar has come under fire over his role in an exercise to verify and “purify” India’s electoral rolls which saw more than 130 million names - more than the population of Japan - deleted from voter lists since last year.

Opposition parties and civil society groups allege that Kumar implemented this so-called Special Intensive Revision (SIR) to entrench the power of Narendra Modi's government and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP). Muslim voters and other minorities who are less likely to be BJP voters have allegedly been disproportionately affected by the deletions.

The Election Commission of India denied favouring any party and said voters who had been wrongly deleted could re-enrol, while the BJP has accused its rivals of trying to undermine the country's democracy by questioning what it says are legitimate electoral processes.

Multiple metro stations were closed in central Delhi yesterday, and police barricades halted thousands of protesters about 600 metres from the supreme court, forcing many to turn back.

However, a team of lawyers confirmed that they had submitted the petition on Gandhi's behalf. By late evening, Gandhi himself had broken through the barricades and reached the court gates.

In a press conference before yesterday's march, Gandhi reiterated his allegation that the Modi government was using Kumar and the election commission to commit “vote chori” - cheating - and accused the election commissioner of being a thief.

Gandhi expressed support for the mass uprising of young people, led by the Cockroach Janata party and student groups, which took to the streets over the weekend - to be met with police brutality and detentions.

“Till the constitution is upheld, till the chief election commissioner is removed, till the system of elections

Opposition supporters in Delhi. More than 130m names were removed from the electoral roll

PHOTOGRAPH: BHAWIKA CHHABRA/REUTERS ▲ A woman is detained during the unrest. Police have been accused of trying to suppress political protest

PHOTOGRAPH: RAFIQ MAQBOOL/AP

is revamped, till justice is served for India, the youth won't stop," he said.

The issue of SIR and calls for the resignation of Kumar have galvanised support for India's opposition parties, which were previously seen as failing in the face of the BJP's considerable electoral success.

Gandhi was detained twice last week after the police refused to let him and other opposition leaders reach Jantar Mantar, the designated protest site in Delhi's centre.

Among the opposition politicians marching yesterday was Mahua Moitra, who was also detained last week. In her constituency in West Bengal she has alleged that more than 10,000 voters were unjustly removed from the electoral rolls.

"There's no going back now. People know that their votes have been stolen and this government is finished," said Moitra. "The police can detain us, they can use brute force and crack our skulls, but we are not going to get off the streets until Gyanesh Kumar resigns and this government is gone. If we don't stand up to this, then there will be nothing left of our country."

Moitra accused the supreme court of helping to validate the SIR process and helping to disenfranchise millions of Indians. “When the history of this dark chapter of India is written, the supreme court will be the most disgraced,” she said. “It was the supreme court who put a stamp of approval on every illegality of this government.”

Gandhi has spent months accusing the BJP of fraudulently influencing elections, but his claims have largely been ignored. However, the issue exploded last month after the Indian Express newspaper reported on multiple irregularities in the SIR process which had been unilaterally pushed through by Kumar.

The protests are likely to continue this week. Yesterday, leaders of the Cockroach Janata party approached the Delhi police to seek a date to be allowed to hold a protest in the capital without obstruction. They said that if the police refused to comply, their supporters would take to the streets of the capital anyway.

Indonesia Mosques double as quake alert test hubs

Oliver Holmes

Scientists working on an early warning system in earthquake-prone Indonesia have taken the spiritual path to designing a network of

alarms that will reach even the remotest communities: they hope to use mosques to save lives.

A five-year trial is assessing whether loudspeakers used to broadcast the call to prayer can double up as earthquake klaxons.

“Every community has a mosque,” said the project lead, Dr Inoue Hiroshi, a Japanese disaster scientist who came up with the idea nearly two decades ago while researching devastating quakes in Sumatra, Indonesia, including one that killed more than 1,000 people in 2009. “I thought if Indonesia had the same service and people received the warning before the shaking came, then many people among those few hundred wouldn’t have died.”

Inoue, of the Disaster Prevention Research Institute at Kyoto University in Japan, is working with the Indonesian government to assess whether the country

could implement an early warning system similar to Japan's.

Indonesia's disaster agency has to grapple with huge distances and hard-to-reach territories, but it has the benefit of an established network of regularly serviced loudspeakers, something many other countries do not. With the largest population of Muslims worldwide, Indonesia has hundreds of thousands of mosques, which broadcast the call to pray five times a day. The pilot scheme has already hooked up several mosques to its seismic sensor network.

For an earthquake early warning system to save lives, it needs

The remains of a village mosque after an earthquake hit Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province in 2018

PHOTOGRAPH: MOHD RASFAN/AFP/GETTY

a network of alarms, and they need to work. “The advantage of a mosque speaker is that they’re existing and well maintained,” said Inoue. “For any disaster infrastructure, maintenance is the big challenge ... but the mosque speaker is maintained by the people.”

Many modern disaster preparedness strategies work using mobile phones but earthquakes can disrupt communication infrastructure.

Andi Eka Sakya, a senior researcher at the Indonesian government-affiliated National Research and Innovation Agency and the Indonesian head of the research team, said the country had a tsunami early warning system dating back to 2008, but the earthquake initiative could be a “breakthrough”. While tsunamis affected coastal areas and could be predicted in minutes or even hours,

272

The number of Uzbek mosques fitted with disaster alert devices in a pilot project similar to Indonesia's scheme earthquake waves moved through the ground at incredible speeds, and Sakya said a village 30 miles from the epicentre might have only five to 10 seconds to respond.

“It’s still a prototype, and they don’t issue warnings to the public yet,” he said.

The project, which runs until 2030, is also looking at installing alarm systems in school loudspeakers and using radio and television transmissions.

Other countries in the Muslim world have looked into similar systems. When the United Arab Emirates planned to start its Barakah nuclear power plant, an official on the project said mosque loudspeakers would be part of a broader network of alarms in the event of a radiation leak.

A mosque loudspeaker project is also being trialled in Uzbekistan, where the Ministry of Emergency Situations announced a pilot project this year for devices to be installed in 272 mosques. The alarms would alert people to floods, mudflows, landslides and avalanches. The United Nations Development Programme, which partnered in the initiative, said:

"The selection of mosques is not incidental. They are traditionally perceived as authoritative social institutions with significant influence on local communities."

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High art Legal push to reveal Parisian opera decor covered up by Chagall

Kim Willsher

Paris

In 1962, the then French culture minister, André Malraux, reportedly bored by the ballet he was watching at Paris's opera house, raised his eyes to the ceiling and

decided it needed a makeover. In his ennui, Malraux thought his friend and artist Marc Chagall, sitting next to him at the Palais Garnier at the time, was the man for the job and commissioned him to make a new ceiling.

Over the next two years, Chagall worked in secret and for free to produce 24 enormous and colourful wedge-shaped canvases, which were installed over the original 19th-century classical ceiling by the now forgotten artist Jules-Eugène Lenepveu. Today, more than four decades after Chagall's death, one of Lenepveu's descendants is planning legal action to have the original ceiling uncovered and restored.

Arnaud Carayon says he has “asked nicely” for this to happen for three years, including writing two letters to France’s president, Emmanuel Macron. Now he has instructed a lawyer to take the issue to court.

"The Lenepveu ceiling is classified as a historic monument and yet it hasn't been seen for 60 years and we have no idea what state it is in," Carayon said. "Today, everyone has forgotten Lenepveu.

World

▲ The original classical ceiling by Jules-Eugène Lenepveu at the Palais Garnier, home of the Paris Opera Ballet. The artwork was covered in

the 1960s by canvases painted by the modernist Marc Chagall, below

PHOTOGRAPHS: J MOATTI/FRIENDS OF LENEPVEU SOCIETY; MICHAL SIKORSKI/ALAMY

Unfortunately, he was swept away by the wave of impressionism, but in his time he was really a star. More importantly, he was specifically chosen to decorate the opera ceiling by Charles Garnier, who designed everything in the opera house right down to the last door knob. But on a whim, Malraux decided he did not agree with Garnier's choice."

Garnier's opera house was commissioned by Napoleon III and opened in January 1875 in the presence of European royals and political figures including the then lord mayor of London, Sir William Cotton.

Lenepveu, who was Garnier's friend and artistic collaborator, produced a classical and allegorical work painted in oil directly on the copper plates of the dome. The work, called The Muses and the Hours of Day and Night, was given historic listing in 1923 and was

considered perfectly in keeping with the ornate Second Empire style of Garnier's palace.

Lenepveu, who went on to lead the French Academy in Rome, later produced a series of Joan of Arc frescoes in the Paris Panthéon, but his name is little known today.

Malraux is said to have wanted to give the fusty opera house a more modern, edgy feel. Chagall's 24 cake-slice-shaped canvases were spliced together around the central chandelier covering 220 sq metres (2,368 sq ft) of the dome. The work is divided into separate colours (red, blue, green, yellow and white) and features dancers, angels, musicians and the names of composers.

Even before Chagall's work was installed, the row between traditionalists and modernists erupted and reached the other side of the Channel. The Royal Institute of British Architects in London wrote to the culture minister asking him to abandon his plans to cover the original ceiling. “The unique character of [the opera house] is based on the fact that all its elements: architecture, paintings, sculptures and mosaics work together in harmony,” Riba wrote. Its plea was ignored.

The Palais Garnier will be closed for renovation from next year until 2032, and Carayon, the president of the Friends of Lenepveu Society, said he had written to Macron to suggest alternating the Lenepveu and Chagall ceilings after it reopened, with each being shown for a decade. He said the Élysée Palace had replied only that the president was “particularly attentive” to the subject. Carayon said: “From the beginning, the Chagall ceiling was designed to be removable. It can be taken down without any damage. We thought the idea of alternating ceilings was very positive and promising, but it seems nobody has the guts to touch the Chagall ceiling.”

At a 2023-24 Chagall exhibition at the Pompidou Centre, the curator, Anne Montfort-Tanguy, said: "The ceiling [of the opera house] is Chagall: it's his autobiography, his vision of Paris. All the artists he loved are represented as well as what he considered the most important Paris monuments like the Eiffel Tower ... It's a moving, fluid almost cinematic work. The ceiling is a complete work of art. It was Chagall's gift to the country that welcomed him; an homage to France and to Paris."

French centre left urged to wage 'existential battle' against Le Pen

Angelique Chrisafis

Paris

The MEP Raphaël Glucksmann has urged the French centre left to wage an “existential battle” to prevent Marine Le Pen’s far right from winning the 2027 presidential election after he was chosen as the social democratic candidate for the presidency.

"We've got to rid our hearts of the spirit of defeat," Glucksmann, the founder of the small party Place Publique, said yesterday morning after his decisive win in a centre-left primary race held by the Socialist party.

Glucksmann told France Inter radio that the country was living in a “historic moment”, with the far right at the gates of power. He said the 2027 presidential election campaign would be brutal and “like no other we have ever experienced”, but added that he could restore a “pride in social democracy”.

At present the centre left sits substantially behind the far right in the polls and also trails the radical left politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is polling high but with whom Glucksmann refuses to work.

Glucksmann, 46, an essayist and intellectual who argues he is different from career politicians, is staunchly pro-Europe and pro-Ukraine.

His candidacy marks the first time the Socialist party will not have its own presidential candidate since the party was founded in 1969. The party suffered crushing defeats in the last two presidential elections.

Glucksmann strikes a more reformist and centrist tone than the Socialist party but has cooperated with it in the past, presenting joint electoral lists. He is polling at between 9% and 14%, well behind the frontrunner, Le Pen. He also trails the centre-right contender Édouard Philippe, who was prime minister under Emmanuel

◀ Raphaël

Glucksmann, the social democratic candidate for the presidency, says the campaign will be ‘like no other’

Macron. Crucially, he is also behind Mélenchon, whose party, La France Insoumise, boycotted the Socialist primary and has presented itself as the biggest force in a divided left.

He is tasked with regaining centre-left voters who jumped ship to support Macron. He said the French president, who is standing down in spring, had “wasted 10 years” failing to act on the climate emergency.

Glucksmann said he “lost sleep at night” worrying about how the social-democratic left had lost the working class. He said the centre left needed to regain “a form of radicality that we lost” and that the focus of this would be environmental policy.

Is it Earhart's plane, or just a tree? Mission aims to solve puzzle of pilot's disappearance

Oliver Holmes

A team of US researchers are approaching a remote Pacific atoll where they suspect the aviator Amelia Earhart crash-landed in 1937, in the latest attempt to crack one of the biggest mysteries of the 20th century.

The 17-person expedition is inspired by satellite images taken over several years showing a submerged plane-like object in the uninhabited island's sandy lagoon - evidence that is dismissed by other longtime Earhart sleuths who say it is probably a fallen tree.

The researchers - led by archaeologists who raised funding from Earhart's former benefactor Purdue University - hope it will instead be revealed as the wreckage of her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra. They say that separate aerial footage of the area suggests the submerged object has a metallic glint.

“Finding Amelia Earhart’s Electra aircraft would be the discovery of a lifetime,” said the expedition’s leader, Richard Pettigrew, before he set sail this month. “Confirming the plane wreckage there would be the smoking-gun proof.”

Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan vanished in 1937 during their attempt to circumnavigate the globe at the equator. By that point, Earhart, 39, was already a celebrity and aviation pioneer, having broken several records including being the first woman to make a nonstop solo transatlantic flight.

Locating the plane wreckage

World

'Finding Amelia Earhart's Electra aircraft would be the discovery of a lifetime'

Richard Pettigrew

Mission leader

The aviator Amelia Earhart and, below, with Fred Noonan, her navigator. They vanished while attempting to fly around the world in 1937

PHOTOGRAPH: POPPERFOTO

would confirm a long-held - but unproven - hypothesis that Earhart and Noonan ditched at the atoll of Nikumaroro, which is part of the archipelago nation of Kiribati and about halfway between Australia and Hawaii.

They were en route to Howland Island, about 400 miles north of Nikumaroro, when their plane ran low on fuel and disappeared.

After a six-day sea voyage from Tarawa, the capital of Kiribati, the research group is expected to arrive on the uninhabited atoll today and will spend several days searching for the “Taraia Object”, an elongated shape named after the part of the island where it was first noticed in a 2020 satellite image.

The expedition said it had been lying there for several years, and was even visible in aerial photography dating back to 1938.

Pettigrew, who leads the Archaeological Legacy Institute, a non-profit organisation, raised funds for the mission with Purdue University in Indiana, where Earhart once taught and which funded her ill-fated final flight. The university runs an airport and opened the Amelia Earhart Terminal last year.

▲ Nikumaroro, the atoll where it is thought Earhart and Noonan landed

The expedition builds on an already large body of evidence pinpointing the atoll as the location where Earhart and Noonan went down. Much of it was gathered during dozens of visits between 1989 and 2019 by teams from the US explorers' group Tighar (the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery).

The Tighar co-founder Ric Gillespie said the Taraia Object was probably a dead pandanus, a tree native to the area, that washed into the lagoon. Gillespie, who is the author of One More Good Flight: The Amelia Earhart Tragedy, said he and other teams had visited the exact site where the object was located in 2001 and 2007 with metal detectors.

"There's nothing there, or we would have found it," he said in an interview this year. "If they suddenly discover that Amelia Earhart's wreckage is there, I'll be very surprised, but I'd be the first one to congratulate them. But I don't think they are going to find anything."

While Tighar agrees with the theory that the Electra made an emergency landing on the atoll, the group believes it was washed off a reef and now probably lies undiscovered and in pieces in deep water off the island's western end.

Tighar's version of the mystery is that Earhart, and possibly Noonan, were marooned on Nikumaroro but survived for a while, drinking rainwater and eating small fish and turtles. This theory is based on signs of a castaway's campsite and artefacts from the 1930s, such as a jar of what is believed to be cosmetics freckle cream.

The pair's disappearance led to a massive US government search, including a flyover of Nikumaroro, then known as Gardner Island.

The Purdue mission said the Taraia Object may not have been found by previous expeditions as it could have been covered with sand.

Netanyahu orders prosecution of soldiers interviewed in NAZA

Lorenzo Tondo

Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered Israel's attorney general and the head of the Shin Bet security service to reveal the identities of soldiers and officers interviewed in the investigative documentary NAZA and prosecute them for causing “harm to Israel’s diplomatic and security interests”.

The award-winning documentary, directed by the Oscar-winning film-makers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and produced by the Guardian, details Israel's mass killing of civilians in Gaza. The film is in cinemas and will be shown in more than 50 countries.

In a letter addressed to the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, the IDF chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, and the Shin Bet head, David Zini, Netanyahu demanded they “act urgently to uncover the identity of all those who are involved or appear in the libel film”.

The Israeli prime minister also called for “a criminal investigation and prosecution for serious information security offences, criminal defamation, and harming Israel’s diplomatic and security interests”.

NAZA premiered last month at the Venice international film festival, where it won the special jury prize after receiving the longest ovation in the event's history. It takes its name from an acronym used euphemistically by Israeli intelligence to indicate how many civilians it expects to be killed in an airstrike.

The Israeli government has threatened to strip Abraham and Szor of their citizenship and accused them of treason. Government supporters have vowed to hound the film-makers on their return to Israel and picketed Szor's parents' home in

Savyon, chanting: “Death sentence to traitors.”

Zamir denounced the film as an “attack on the state of Israel”, accusing it of spreading “lies and blood libels”. He had earlier ordered military and legal officials to identify the soldiers featured and examine possible legal action against them. However, the military advocate general, Itai Ofir, said criminal prosecution would require evidence of security violations or disclosure of classified material, although disciplinary measures remained possible.

▲ The Shin Bet head, David Zini, has been ordered to identify the soldiers

The protection of journalistic sources is a cornerstone of press freedom under international human rights standards and disclosure orders are permitted only under stringent conditions.

A Guardian spokesperson said: "These moves are all attempts to distract from the urgent questions the film asks about the mass killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Journalists should be free to pursue public interest investigations without threats or harassment."

World

Huge rise in cocaine trafficking to Europe as Latin American cartels expand reach

Andrei Netto

Paris

Mexican-run meth labs have been found in France, Poland and Germany. Below, a seized cargo of cocaine that had been en route from Colombia to Spain

PHOTOGRAPHS: ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI/REUTERS; SEBASTIAN BARROS/GETTY IMAGES

A four-month investigation by the Guardian has revealed that the surge in cocaine trafficking to Europe is directly linked to the expanding presence of Latin American criminal networks in the continent, where they have forged close ties with local mafia organisations.

The investigation, utilising databases, police and intelligence agencies, along with interviews with judges, prosecutors and experts from eight countries, shows that cartels and factions from Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico and the US are active in at least 12 European countries. Between 2014 and 2024, there was a 471% rise in the quantity of cocaine seized and more local laboratories processing cocaine derivatives were dismantled.

The figure could be even higher as it includes only groups officially identified in Eur ope through police operations, transnational investigations and active court cases involving brokers, active members, cells or operational networks. It does not include gangs that lack a physical presence in Europe while working in “joint ventures” with European mafias.

The identified groups include Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG); the Clan del Golfo mafia, and the guerrilla organisations ELN and dissident factions of Farc in Colombia; Brazil's Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC, or First Capital Command) and Comando Vermelho (CV, or Red Command); Venezuela's Tren de Aragua; and the US-originated Barrio 18 and MS-13 gangs, which are also prevalent in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and, to a lesser degree, Mexico.

These organisations have built a more prominent presence in Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, while their activities have also been noted in Germany, Romania, Croatia and Slovakia. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (Gi-Toc) also includes Bulgaria.

Daniel Brombacher, a political scientist and director of the Europe Observatory at Gi-Toc, said: "There is something new happening with a presence of Latin American groups in geographies where there's no pre-existing infrastructure.

“This phenomenon is no longer limited to the traditional gateway countries,” he said. “Recent police operations have uncovered Mexican-run methamphetamine labs in southern France, north-eastern Poland and Brandenburg, south of Berlin. Latin American groups are also appearing in Romania and Bulgaria along the Balkan route."

Latin American national authorities and experts suggest the list may be even longer. An unpublished report by the São Paulo public prosecutor's office, partly based on data from the Brazilian intelligence agency Abin - which the Guardian reviewed - shows, for example, that the PCC, now Brazil's biggest criminal group, operates in 16 European countries, including the UK, Ireland, Iceland, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

The suspicion that Latin American cartels and factions are seeking to become established in Europe is not new. From the 1980s Colombian criminal organisations such as the Cali and Medellín cartels had footholds in regions of Spain such as Galicia. In 2013, a Europol report in 2103 warned of their rise. But what authorities are witnessing now is on another level.

▲ Suspected CV cartel members are arrested in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A Europol report this year stated: "Latin American MTCNs [most threatening criminal networks] have also settled in the EU, from where they direct operations that affect the EU. This is particularly the case for mobile criminal networks involved in organised property crime."

Interpol, led by the Brazilian federal police officer Valdecy Urquiza, was approached by the Guardian but did not comment.

The problem has become more visible over the past decade. Drug production in Latin America in that time has increased roughly fourfold to reach a record of about 4,100 tonnes in 2024. This came after growth of up to 35% at the beginning of the decade.

More cocaine is now produced in Colombia than during the era of the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar. Nearly all the world's cocaine and many related substances originate from Latin America, particularly Colombia.

Víctor Manuel Sánchez Valdés, an academic at the Autonomous University of Coahuila in Mexico who is an expert on organised crime, said: “The main ones are the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco cartel [CJNG] in Mexico; the Comando Vermelho and the PCC of Brazil; the Gulf Clan and different factions of the Colombian Farc; the Lobos and the Choneros of Ecuador; and Tren de Aragua of Venezuela.”

He believed that the Latin American presence in Europe was even more widespread than was generally recognised.

“Sinaloa cartel and the CJNG have a presence in more than 20 European countries. Obviously, that does not mean they dominate or have large cells,” he said. “Rather, they are business emissaries.”

Increase in quantity of cocaine seized by police forces across Europe in the decade from 2014

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime's 2026 World Drug Report on illicit crimes states that global cocaine production in 2024 was between 3,800 and 4,700 tonnes - more than four times higher than it was in 2014. South America remains the main production hub, with coca cultivation covering a record 385,000 hectares over the past decade - three times the 2014 figure.

Europe has emerged as a key market because it offers organisations higher profit margins than the US. Since the beginning of the decade, European police have confiscated more drugs than American forces, and data indicates that Europe now represents about a quarter of global consumption.

Man rescued after 26 hours trapped by rockslide in Sardinian cave

Angela Giuffrida

Rome

A 31-year-old man has been pulled alive from a cave on the Italian island of Sardinia after being trapped roughly 10 metres below ground for 26 hours as a result of a rockslide.

In a huge and complex operation, rescuers worked nonstop after Luca Olmetto became trapped in the Gorroppeddu cave in the rugged Urzulei mountain range in eastern Sardinia on Sunday afternoon.

He had been exploring the cave with his girlfriend, who was a few metres behind him and narrowly missed the collapse, which completely blocked the entrance to the cave. She managed to escape unharmed and immediately raised the alarm.

Rescuers managed to reach Olmetto, who was conscious and responsive throughout the operation, late yesterday afternoon after manually removing rubble and earth blocking a narrow passage.

They then proceeded with the delicate operation to remove the large amounts of debris that covered the caver before extracting him from the cavity. According to Rai News, Olmetto was brought to the surface just after 6pm local time and was stabilised by medical staff before being airlifted to hospital.

Approximately 48 experts from Sardinia's alpine and speleological rescue corps and 30 firefighters were involved in the rescue operation. A helicopter provided materials and equipment needed to make the site secure.

In a message posted on social media, the council of Codrongianos, Olmetto's home town in north-west Sardinia, said the past 24 hours had been filled with “great anxiety for the entire community”.

The Gorroppeddu cave is a largely unexplored natural cavity.

In a similar incident in December 2024, another explorer, Ottavia Piana, became trapped while exploring a cave in the Bueno Fonteno caves near Bergamo in northern Italy. She remained underground at a depth of roughly 600 metres for 75 hours before being freed. Piana, 32, suffered fractured vertebrae, ribs and facial bones. Her high-profile rescue involved 160 specialists.

▲ Dozens of rescue workers helped to free Luca Olmetto from the cave

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Global economy could 'test limits of resilience', says IMF

Heather Stewart

Bangkok

The global economy “could soon test the limits of resilience” as emergency oil stocks run low and government budgets become overstretched, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

In its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook report, the IMF said global growth had withstood the Middle East conflict better than feared over the past six months.

It said the rerouting of oil supplies away from the strait of Hormuz, and the release of strategic energy stocks, had helped to contain the impact on oil prices from the US-Iran war.

However, it warned that emergency stocks were depleted, and high debt levels and deficits in many countries may leave governments with little capacity to protect consumers from any future jump in prices.

“Without shoring up supply capacity and replenishing policy buffers, the global economy could soon test the limits of resilience,” it said. “Additional geopolitical shocks could still transmit rapidly through prices and supply disruptions.”

The International Energy Agency announced the largest-ever emergency releases of oil stocks on to the market in March, and promised to accelerate the releases last month.

But in a sign of the system's vulnerability, the US strategic petroleum reserve was recently reported to have fallen to its lowest level since 1982.

Last week, Donald Trump agreed a deal with Vladimir Putin to suspend sanctions on US imports of Russian diesel in an attempt to lower prices at the pumps, which analysts said would have little meaningful effect.

The World Economic Report is published today in Bangkok, where the IMF and World Bank are holding their annual meetings this week, with finance ministers and central bankers scheduled to attend.

Before the gathering, the IMF managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, urged governments to tighten their belts amid rising global debt levels. "We cannot keep delaying necessary policy action - you have the tools, now have the wisdom to use them," Georgieva said.

In the report, the IMF revised up its forecast for global economic growth this year marginally, to 3.1%, against 3% in its last update in July. Next year's forecast is unchanged, at 3.4%.

US growth remains unchanged at 2.3% this year and was revised up to the same pace, 2.3%, for 2027 - from 2.2% at the last update.

The IMF predicted GDP growth of 1.3% for the UK this year - up 0.3 percentage points from its most recent update in July - in welcome news for the chancellor, John Healey.

However, the IMF also warned that prolonged high oil prices and rising interest rates meant growth was likely to “edge down” in 2027. It cut its UK growth forecast for next year modestly, to 1.2% from 1.3%.

The IMF said “risks are skewed to the downside” for the global economy. In particular, it pointed to the threat of “a prolonged stalemate or further escalation in the Middle East”, which would lead to higher energy and food prices.

That ship has sailed

The Channel ferry from Poole made its last trip to Cherbourg in Normandy yesterday. Brittany Ferries' Nigel Wonnacott said the service was no longer viable and criticised a local Reform UK branch as "the turkeys who voted for Christmas".

PHOTOGRAPH: ZACHARY CULPIN/BNPS

Carmakers back Britain to be included in ‘Made in Europe’ law

Jasper Jolly

Stellantis and Renault have backed the British car industry for inclusion in proposed rules to protect EU industry, but urged the UK government to consider limiting imports of Chinese cars.

Emanuele Cappellano, who leads Stellantis's European brands including Fiat, Citroën, Opel and Vauxhall, and François Provost, the chief executive of France's Renault, both said the UK should be considered an EU member state for the purposes of the proposed "Made in Europe" legislation. The rules aim to ensure EU subsidies benefit Europe's industry, rather than helping manufacturers from other countries,

Europe's car industry is under enormous pressure as it copes with lower demand than before the coronavirus pandemic, while investing tens of billions of euros in shifting production to electric vehicles. Chinese companies' market share has increased as the transition to EVs opens the door to new entrants.

The EU confirmed yesterday it would limit the number of hybrid EVs imported from China to 350,000 a year. The EU expects the quota will halve China's market share of $6\%$ .

The Made in Europe rules are part of the EU's response to the rise of China in key manufacturing industries. Under the proposed law, cars would have to contain enough European parts and materials to continue to qualify for EV grants. However, manufacturers and politicians are haggling over the details. If Brussels sticks to a strict definition of “European” that covers only EU countries, Britain would be left out.

London has not yet imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, but the business secretary said this month that this was under review.

US economists who developed New Keynesian model awarded Nobel prize

Graeme Wearden

Two US economists have won the Nobel economics prize for their work developing models that help central bankers and finance ministers stabilise their countries by avoiding long recessions and runaway inflation.

Robert Hall of Stanford University, California, and Michael Woodford of Columbia University, New York, were recognised for developing the “microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation”, giving policymakers better tools to smooth out the peaks and troughs of their economies.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said it was recognising the pair for generating “a paradigm shift in stabilisation policy”, awarding them the prize worth a combined 12m kronor (£900,000).

“New Keynesian models, a result of their research, allow us to explain and quantify how stabilisation policy affects business cycles and are now used by central banks and finance ministries around the world,” the academy said.

These models improved on John Maynard Keynes's stabilisation models, which struggled to handle the impact of the oil shock in the 1970s, when countries suffered high inflation, weak growth and high unemployment at the same time.

Hall and Woodford demonstrated how traditional models could be reconstructed, based on the way that individual households and businesses collectively affect an economy through their actions.

Hall's work was based on forward-looking consumer behaviour rather than the more mechanical rules of thumb used by Keynes, which linked key variables such as inflation, unemployment and gross domestic product.

Woodford built on this work to create the New Keynesian model, a full macroeconomic stabilisation framework that is the main tool for policymakers now. “It’s a tremendous honour,” he said. “It’s a surprise but I’m feeling very good about it.”

▲ The joint winners of the Nobel, Robert Hall and Michael Woodford

Business view

Nils Pratley

It's time for investment trust shareholders to tell US raider Saba Capital to get lost – again

H

ere we go again: another episode in the Saba saga, the story of a New York hedge fund causing havoc in the UK investment trust sector by taking big stakes in funds and then demanding change, often in only vague terms.

The best that can be said about Saba Capital (and it's not much) is that its belligerent boss, Boaz Weinstein, has disturbed the complacency that used to infect the UK investment trust world, meaning companies that invest in other companies. It is now harder for a board to do nothing if the share price sits at a wide discount to the value of the underlying assets for long periods.

Too often, though, Saba's assaults look self-interested, short-termist or damaging for UK investors. The attack on Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust, a FTSE 250 constituent usually known by its USA ticker, is all three. Regular shareholders in USA have roundly told Saba to get lost twice in the past 18 months but they will have to do so again if they value what they own, which they should. The US raider, sitting on a near-30% stake, wants to install three of its placemen on the board via a vote at next week's annual meeting.

On a long view, USA's performance has been excellent: an annualised return of $16.7\%$ since launch in 2018, beating the S&P 500 over the period and within the top $10\%$ of all UK investment

companies. The only reason an opening, of a sort, has appeared for Saba is because the 16.7%-a-year returns haven't happened in a straight line. The pop in AI valuations in late 2022 means USA's five-year statistics are less impressive.

But volatility is what investors accept when they buy into a strategy of backing high-growth US companies for the long term. The portfolio is stuffed with stakes in big names in the AI world - Anthropic, Databricks, OpenAI, SpaceX and Stripe - that were acquired when the companies were smaller and sometimes still privately owned. A little bit of biodiversity in the UK investment landscape will be lost if USA falls under Saba's control.

What would a Saba-dominated board do? It's hard to say definitively because this is all Saba says: "If our nominees are elected, we would urge them to offer all USA shareholders a 100% cash exit at or near NAV [net asset value] - providing a long-overdue liquidity event." The absurdity of that proposal lies in the fact that the board of USA says it has already offered Saba what it supposedly wants - a chance to get out at a price nearly equivalent to the value of the assets. But the US hedge fund declined.

$\triangle$ Boaz Weinstein's Saba is often accused of short-term thinking

The suspicion is that Saba's nominees could try to appoint Saba itself as manager, or wrap USA into a Saba-managed vehicle. And, note, Saba's main funds in the US currently trade on far wider discounts to asset value than USA's relatively modest 3%.

Since Saba hasn't spelled out much, all one can say is that its nominees cannot possibly be regarded as independent. One is a Saba employee; the other two are serial picks in Weinstein's various campaigns.

Here is the broker Investec's assessment: "Saba offers no

credible plan. Shareholders are being asked to give its nominees potential board control on the strength of a conditional, non-binding liquidity proposal, with no roadmap for the future manager, strategy or governance: vote first, then find out later what you've voted for."

The choice, then, is between a known strategy that has been successful, with a few bumps, or a mystery ride under Saba's tame directors. The analysis should not be hard: shareholders should stick with the existing board. Independence matters.

Here's the tricky bit, however. Saba's near-30% holding, plus 7.7% in the hands of assumed sympathiser Sessa Capital, means USA shareholders need to act. "Not voting is a vote for Saba," says the broker Panmure Liberum. "Support the board, or suffer the consequences," warns Investec. Sound advice.

The annual meeting is on the 23rd of this month but, for anybody holding via an investment platform, the effective voting deadline can be as soon as tomorrow. Those platforms - looking at Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell and Interactive Investor

\- should be warning clients of deadlines right now. Preferably in red for danger.

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Business

UK manufacturing

Making great strides 'Passion project' aims to keep jeans in Wales

Joanna Partridge

W orn on the streets of London, San Francisco or Sydney, every pair of high-end

jeans made by Hiut Denim comes from the rather unlikely location of a small coastal town in west Wales.

Cardigan, with a population of 4,200, has a proud history of denim production and was once home to Britain's largest jeans factory - even if the town's name recalls a different garment entirely.

When production moved abroad at the start of the century, hundreds lost their jobs and were forced to find work elsewhere.

Hiut Denim was founded by David and Clare Hieatt in Cardigan in 2011. The couple had previously founded the ethical fashion brand Howies. They set up Hiut with the goal of reviving denim-making skills in the town and training up the next generation of skilled craftspeople.

Elin Evans was one of those “grand masters”, as they are known in the company, with a lifetime’s experience of making jeans. Now 59, Evans is Hiut’s factory manager and has been in the trade since 1983. “I’ve done a full loop, because this is where I started,” she says, from her seat behind a sewing machine on the factory floor. Deftly handling the indigo fabric, she moves individual pieces through the machine, and a pair of jeans begins to take shape.

In its heyday, the Dewhirst factory in Cardigan, where Evans once worked, employed about 400 people - 10% of the town's population - and cranked out 35,000 pairs of jeans each week for Marks & Spencer.

When Dewhirst decided to outsource production to Morocco, Evans was given the opportunity to move to Tangier. But the founding of Hiut led to her returning home to Wales and to a sewing machine.

“I hoped it was like riding a bike,” she says. “You never forget, and the rest is history.”

As Hiut took off, the company

▲ Staff at Hiut Denim, including the factory manager and ‘grand master’ Elin Evans, above, who has worked in jeans production since 1983

moved into what was once part of the Dewhirst factory, taking Evans back to the place she began her career. A slogan painted on the factory wall proclaims: "Our town is making jeans again." Welsh flag bunting flutters above the sewing machines.

Evans and the other grand masters who joined Hiut have spent decades cutting pieces of fabric, creating pockets and stitching denim. The brand's production levels are far removed from the mass manufacturing that previously took place in Cardigan - Hiut employs 20 people, who make 120 pairs of jeans a week.

The company says its product is no ordinary wardrobe staple. Each pair is handmade from 17 pieces of fabric, with a “made in Wales” label inside the waistband and another label signed by the member of staff who stitched the jeans. Hiut also offers lifetime repairs.

"The majority of the time, you know the name of the person that's bought your jeans. You know your customer and the customer gets to know us as well," says Evans. "We're very proud of what we're doing and the quality is top notch."

Indeed, online fashion reviews praise Hiut's attention to detail. Such premium jeans come with a suitably premium price tag -

starting at £245 for men's and women's slim-fit styles, made from organic cotton from Turkey, and rising to £350 for pairs made from premium Japanese selvedge.

Hiut's customers include the TV personalities Ant and Dec, and the brand got a big boost when the Duchess of Sussex wore a pair during her first official visit to Wales in 2018, resulting in a three-month backlog of orders.

Despite such endorsements, the company hit financial difficulties in the wake of the pandemic - and the founders approached some of their top customers to ask if they wanted to invest in the company.

One of these was the German von Loeper family. They initially became minority shareholders in late 2024, before taking over the company in September 2025.

Johann von Loeper, 26, became the company's chief executive, leaving a career in finance in London to move to Cardigan.

He says his father, Philipp, was a loyal customer first, which prompted the family-owned investment group to take a stake in a firm outside its usual industries of life sciences and agriculture.

"We don't do anything in retail or fashion really, this is more of a passion project," von Loeper says. "My father sort of became obsessed with the product ... I think he bought more than 30 pairs."

The family has committed to keeping the manufacturing in Cardigan, although von Loeper adds that the factory's west Wales location creates logistical challenges when moving finished garments or setting up

Johann von

Loeper, the

chief executive

of Hiut. His

family became

a minority

shareholder in

the firm, before

taking over

entirely last year

PHOTOGRAPHS:

DIMITRIS LEGAKIS/

ATHENA PICTURES

photoshoots. He adds: “The thing that attracted all of us to Hiut was the purpose of making jeans again, and not just for the sake of making jeans, but to have the jobs, to have to craft, to have skills remain here.”

Some high-profile visitors have tried out the craft. A framed photo and letter from Kensington Palace hangs on the factory wall, commemorating the March visit by the Princess of Wales, where she had a go on a sewing machine.

Walking past huge rolls of fabric from some of the most prestigious denim mills in the world - in Japan, Italy and Turkey - von Loeper says he faced a big decision shortly after taking over the company. A key Japanese denim supplier warned Hiut and other long-term customers that operational pressures meant it was about to close its order books until 2027.

"We bought £100,000-worth of selvedge in my first few weeks here because I said: 'Let's get it now before we run out.' That was one of the better things I did," he says.

When the von Loeper family took over, they said Hiut was “losing a lot of money every month”, but they believed that with investment and a new strategy, the brand could become profitable again.

The new owners soon got to work updating the entire jeans collection, and are hoping to take on more staff so they can increase production. Von Loeper is aware that Evans and other grand masters are not too far from retirement, and believes the company has a five-year window to hire and adequately train new employees. He also wants to broaden Hiut's appeal, and has secured new stockists, including the Liberty department store in London.

"Our customer age group has always been 35 to 55," says von Loeper. "Our jeans were worn to the office even before Covid, but we can definitely see that customers and what they are buying for has changed and we are trying to adapt to that."

At the Hiut shop, located near where the jeans are made, customers come to try on different denims. One customer, Paul Tomlin, has made a special journey to Hiut during a visit to Wales to buy more of his favourite jeans.

“I came to make sure I got the right fit. I tried on three pairs and found a style that suits me,” said Tomlin, holding a branded bag containing two new pairs. He says he likes the firm’s ethos, as well as its clothing: “It’s a good story and has a good feel as a company.”

Source: NOAA-ESRL

Weather Tuesday 13 October 2026

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UK and Ireland Noon today | Sunny | Mist | Fog | Sunny intervals | Hazy | Mostly cloudy | Overcast/dull | Sunny showers | Sunny and heavy showers | Light showers | Rain | Sleet | Light snow | Snow showers | Heavy snow | Ice | Thundery rain | Thundery showers | Temperature, °C | Wind speed, mph | Windy |

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Carbon count

Daily atmospheric CO $_{2}$ readings from Mauna Loa, Hawaii (ppm): | 11 Oct 2026 | 426.56 | Weekly average | 04 Oct 2026 | 426.26 | 12 Oct 2025 | 424.69 | 12 Oct 2016 | 401.15 | Pre-industrial base | 280 | Safe level | 350 | ---

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Trough

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High tides | Aberdeen | 0221 | 4.3m | 1438 | 4.2m | Avonmouth | 0830 | 13.0m | 2044 | 12.8m | Barrow | 0022 | 9.3m | 1238 | 9.1m | Belfast | 0009 | 3.6m | 1228 | 3.4m | Cobh | 0636 | 4.0m | 1850 | 4.0m | Cromer | 0735 | 5.1m | 1954 | 4.9m | Dover | 0011 | 6.7m | 1228 | 6.8m | Dublin | 0028 | 4.0m | 1246 | 3.9m | Galway | 0617 | 5.1m | 1838 | 4.9m | Greenock | 0126 | 3.6m | 1351 | 3.5m | Harwich | 0050 | 4.0m | 1300 | 4.0m | Holyhead | 1132 | 5.5m | 2349 | 5.4m | Hull | 0724 | 7.6m | 1941 | 7.3m | Leith | 0343 | 5.6m | 1559 | 5.3m | Liverpool | 0002 | 9.4m | 1219 | 9.3m |

© Crown Copyright and/or database rights. Reproduced by permission of the Keeper of Public Records and the UK Hydrographic Office | London Bridge | 0259 | 7.0m | 1512 | 7.2m | Lossiemouth | 0054 | 4.1m | 1309 | 4.0m | Milford Haven | 0722 | 7.0m | 1938 | 6.9m | Newquay | 0612 | 6.9m | 1829 | 6.8m | North Shields | 0426 | 5.1m | 1645 | 4.9m | Oban | 0645 | 4.0m | 1853 | 3.9m | Penzance | 0548 | 5.5m | 1803 | 5.4m | Plymouth | 0656 | 5.5m | 1907 | 5.4m | Portsmouth | 0025 | 4.6m | 1246 | 4.7m | Southport | -- | -- | 1200 | 8.9m | Stornoway | 0750 | 4.7m | 2002 | 4.6m | Portland | 0759 | 2.2m | 2010 | 2.0m | Whitby | 0504 | 5.6m | 1722 | 5.4m | Wick | 0018 | 3.5m | 1234 | 3.4m | Workington | 0024 | 8.3m | 1243 | 8.1m | ---

Sun & Moon

Accu Weather.com

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather ©2026

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Lighting up | Belfast | 1831 to 0752 | Birm'ham | 1817 to 0730 | Brighton | 1813 to 0722 | Bristol | 1822 to 0733 | Carlisle | 1817 to 0739 | Cork | 1845 to 0757 | Dublin | 1833 to 0750 | Glasgow | 1822 to 0747 | Harlech | 1826 to 0741 | Inverness | 1818 to 0748 | London | 1811 to 0722 | M'chester | 1818 to 0734 | Newcastle | 1813 to 0734 | Norwich | 1804 to 0719 | Penzance | 1835 to 0742 | ---

Weather tracker

Temperatures fluctuated dramatically in the Balkans last week, with unusually large differences between daytime highs and overnight lows - known as the diurnal range. An area of high pressure brought prolonged sunshine during the day, while clear skies at night allowed temperatures to drop rapidly as heat escaped into the atmosphere without cloud cover to slow the cooling.

In Kosanica, Montenegro, the average maximum temperature in October is 15C (59F), while the average minimum is 4C. However, on 4 and 5 October the difference between daytime highs and overnight lows reached 30C, more than double the October average.

Elsewhere in Europe, high pressure will build across the north and west this week, pushing an area of low pressure south towards the Mediterranean. The low-pressure system will deepen as it crosses the Adriatic and Ionian seas before moving eastwards into the Aegean Sea by the midweek. Heavy rain and strong winds are expected to sweep across Greece as a result. Forecasts suggest widespread rainfall of 50-150mm (2-6in), with the highest totals expected around the island of Skiathos. Ed Walton and James Parrish MetDesk

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Around the world

Algiers

Ams'dam

Athens

Auckland

B Aires

Bangkok

Barcelona

Basra

Beijing

Berlin

Bermuda

Brussels

Budapest

C'hagen

Cairo

Cape Town

Chicago

Corfu

Dakar

Dhaka

Dublin

Florence

Gibraltar

H Kong

Harare

Helsinki

Istanbul

Jo'burg

K Lumpur

K'mandu

Kabul

Kingston

Kolkata

L Angeles

Lagos

Lima

Cricket England hand out record 39 central contracts

Football Wiegman's future a pressing concern for Lionesses

Page 39 →

Sport

Tom Garry, page 34 →

▲ Ruth Chepngetich took almost two minutes off the marathon world record then failed a doping test five months later

PATRICK GORSKI/USA TODAY

Record scratch Athletics wishes it could scrub women's marathon milestone - what can be done?

W hen Ruth Chepngetich annihilated the women's marathon world record in Chicago two years ago today, NBC's commentators compared it to the moon landing. "Bring it on Neil Armstrong!" cried one. "She

has done things in this sport that we have not seen," said another. "Unbelievable!"

Others reached for that word after the Kenyan had crossed the line in 2hr 9min 56sec, a time that not only smashed the world record by 1min 57sec, but her personal best by a staggering five minutes. Afterwards she was asked by Robert Johnson of Let's Run what her response was to those who believed she must be doping. "People must talk," she replied. "I don't know."

We know a lot more now. Because five months after that epic run, Chepngetich's star came crashing down to earth. First she failed a doping test. Then she was banned for three years. Yet her world record still stands because she passed a test after the race itself.

What should we think of this? What can we legally say? And what, if anything, can be done about it?

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke to Brett Clothier, the head of the Athletics Integrity Unit, which prosecuted the case against Chepngetich, to ask about her world record. “It is not satisfactory, to be frank,” he admitted. “But the world anti-doping code is pretty clearcut on the rights athletes have, even if they’re found guilty.”

That much is true. But while legally Chepngetich was clean when she broke her world record, the fact it stands surely damages the sport's credibility.

True, there are plenty of highly suspicious records from the 80s and early 90s, given what we know about state-sponsored doping behind the iron curtain and in China. And if you believe Florence Griffith Joyner knocked more than half a second off her 100m and 200m times in 1988 by doing 5,000 sit-ups a day and drinking water, I have some magic beans to sell you.

riffith Joyner, of course, never tested positive. But before her death aged 38, her fellow American sprinter Darrell Robinson claimed in a paid interview with the German magazine Stern that he had sold her human growth hormone for \$2,000. Yet as much as Flo-Jo's records make us uneasy, they

are seen as coming from a more lawless era. Also, what makes Chepngetich unique is that no other athlete has been hit with a lengthy ban so soon after a world record.

The Kenyan's defence for being 20 times the legal limit of hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) in her system? That she had taken her housemaid's medication after feeling hot and having a rapid resting heartbeat. It was, the AIU noted, a “hardly credible” explanation.

The AIU also found screenshots on Chepngetich's phone about the banned drug testosterone and “messages related to unidentified third parties working on ‘programs’ possibly related to doping”. The Kenyan has insisted that she has never used testosterone and the messages were from a group chat, but they hardly inspire confidence either.

So what can be done? The short answer, having spoken to the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), is very little. As a Wada spokesperson pointed out to me, removing her results before her positive test “in the absence of any evidence or reasonable inference that the athlete was doping before or at the time of the earlier results, might well breach a number of legal principles including proportionality and human rights.”

But what about Lance Armstrong, who was stripped of his Tour de France titles despite not being convicted of doping while competing? Could this not apply here? Not according to Wada. “He had procedural avenues open to him to contest the sanction but ultimately chose not to use them,” a spokesperson told me. “That makes his case a relatively weak precedent for establishing how far retrospective disqualification

could legally go."

The fact that the Chepngetich record stands surely damages the sport's credibility

One idea I floated to experts was the idea that athletes could be asked to sign a social contract, which pledged they would accept losing their world record if they tested positive within a year of that world record or winning an Olympic medal.

In theory, one anti-doping expert put it to me, this was possible. But he felt it would require everybody

\- from sports federations and governments to athlete bodies and human rights groups - to agree to change the Wada code to allow

retrospective punishments. And that will not happen.

At least track and field can point to many significant victories over doping, given that Chepngetich is one of 317 elite Kenyan athletes the AIU has caught since it was set up in 2017. Many sports pay lip service to catching cheats. Athletics actually does. And the AIU does it on a modest budget of \$11.9m (£9m) a year.

There are also positive signs that prominent athletes realise more must be done. Before Sabastian Sawe set his men's marathon world record in London, for instance, his sponsors, Adidas, paid \$50,000 for extra testing. Nike did the same for two of their athletes, Jacob Kiplimo and Brigid Kosgei, before Chicago.

Sawe's agent, Eric Lilot, wants to go further by making his athletes sign a contract that will require them to give up any money still owed to them if it is shown they intentionally tried to dope. All that points to brighter days ahead, however much Chepngetich's record makes us feel queasy.

Nearly half of female footballers are considering quitting the sport

Financial worries and mental health struggles prompt calls for greater player protection

Tom Garry

Almost half of female footballers are considering leaving the sport because of financial concerns or psychological stress, and 57% have struggled with their mental health, according to a report highlighting the working conditions for players worldwide.

About 800 players were surveyed by the global players' union, Fifpro, for the report, which found that average club wages have tripled in the women's game since 2017 but also raised concerns about the gulf in pay and the support provided to players. Fifpro said "average pay is not significantly higher than national minimum wage levels" in many regions.

The report, entitled Working Conditions in Women's Football, heard that $49\%$ of players were considering leaving football earlier than planned. Of those more than half cited financial reasons and $46\%$ pointed to psychological stress as the reason.

Only 56% of players surveyed had an individual employment contract, and only 13% receive a club pension. The average contract length has risen from 12 months in 2017 to 19 months, but financial uncertainty remains for players. The average monthly wage of those surveyed - nearly half of whom play for their countries, and over half of whom have a university degree - was \$2,601 (£1,966), but that is inflated by a small proportion of much higher earners. The median monthly salary was only \$1,669 (£1,261). Only 76% of players said they were always paid fully and on time and 5% had experienced delays of more than three months to be paid.

▲ A Fifpro report has highlighted the stress put on female players

“Away from the best-resourced clubs, there is a recurring theme of precarity and fragile conditions,” Fifpro’s director of women’s football, Alex Culvin, said. “The women’s football industry has come a long way, [but] for the rest of the industry, there is a hell of a long way to go.

"The professionalisation of women's football is accelerating in some parts of the world and, as our report highlights, revenues are increasing. However, the progress and benefits are not evenly distributed among players across the world.

"At the most basic level, regulatory and policy intervention is required to ensure that players in some countries are not left behind - a rising tide lifts all boats. These interventions should focus on salary, facilities, staffing, performance and health of players."

The players were asked whether their club employed enough staff to fulfil players' needs, and 47% said no.

The former England and Chelsea defender Millie Bright - who, when she ended her decorated career in April said: “I’ve given all I can” - told Fifpro’s media channels that creating an environment where players can ask for help with their mental health without judgment was essential.

“You’re a little bit embarrassed to say that you’re struggling a little bit, so you just hide it and just keep playing,” she said. “A big thing for me in mental health is the environment and the culture. To have a positive impact, it needs consistency and daily behaviours.”

Crunch time

Wiegman

faces up to

World Cup

dilemmas

Five questions for England as they target Brazil 2027, including who should start at centre-back and at No 10

Tom Garry

England have two jobs to do today. First, avoid an almighty upset and progress past Greece on aggregate in their Women's World Cup

playoff to reach a final tie. Second, hone their style to play like contenders for next summer's finals in Brazil, which is a far trickier but crucial challenge. Friday's uninspiring 3-1 first-leg victory in Crete left plenty of questions facing the European champions.

---

Can England defend well enough to win a world title?

England had 58 touches in Greece's box and turned that into three goals, whereas Greece had two touches in England's box but scored and hit the bar. Sarina Wiegman said she was not happy her team had conceded. Their defending in June's 4-0 defeat by Spain also left much to be desired, and it feels as if England are not yet certain who should partner the captain, Leah Williamson, at centre-back. Wiegman mentioned yesterday that stopping counterattacks was something they must fix - they also struggled defending quick breaks in April 2025 when losing in Belgium. That year they found a way to win the Euros but they must tighten up defensively if they want to win a first world title in the Maracanã.

Why are the forwards not clicking? England were wasteful in the final third in Greece and not for the first time. In the World Cup qualifying group England were 1-0 and 2-0 winners against Iceland in games where they should have scored more. A ruthless Spain, the world's No 1 side, secured 6-1 and 3-0 wins over Iceland. Wiegman was asked

Beth Mead (right) is a top contender to be England's starting No 10, a position where the head coach is pleased to have 'a lot of options'

STEFANOS RAPANIS/REUTERS

what one element of Friday's performance she would most like to improve and replied: "The execution in the final third. We got in good positions but then it's [about] staying onside, having the final pass, the right pass at the right moment, the run at the right time, and deciding what cross or cutback you're going to choose."

---

Who should start in attacking midfield?

For the past year it has repeatedly felt as if Wiegman does not know who should start as the No 10, with Jess Park, Lucia Kendall and Laura Blindkilde Brown given chances,

along with Lauren James. Dropping - and recalling - Ella Toone, plus the late addition of Grace Clinton to this squad, adds mystery. Erica Meg Parkinson's debut on Friday adds another youngster into the mix, and Beth Mead can also play as a 10. Asked whether the position had the most question marks surrounding it, Wiegman said: "We have a lot of options ... You can call it a ‘question mark’ - I call it many options."

---

Which youngsters should be given a chance?

There have been growing calls for the 20-year-old Chelsea midfielder Lexi Potter to be handed her debut and the 21-year-old Freya Godfrey could be in line for her debut tonight on the right wing. If England held a greater first-leg advantage, they would surely be more likely to experiment in Leicester, although Wiegman confirmed she would make changes. Keira Walsh said of her Chelsea teammate Potter that it was “a really good thing that she’s finally being appreciated for how good she is”, and added: “Her intelligence gives me confidence, knowing that she’s perfectly capable of stopping the counter.”

---

Do England need clarity over Wiegman's future?

Off the pitch, the biggest unknown facing England is the future of Wiegman, whose contract runs until the end of the World Cup. There have been no reasons to suspect the squad are unsettled by the uncertainty, but the topic is likely to be mentioned in every England press conference until there is clarity. Walsh said yesterday: “Obviously I’d want her to stay. I think everyone in England would love her to stay. I really appreciate her as a manager but it’s her decision.” Wiegman did not wish to discuss the matter, saying: “We’re only focused on Greece and I don’t want to talk about me.”

▲ Khaldoon al-Mubarak with Andy Burnham at a testimonial in 2019

Burnham's contacts with al-Mubarak disclosed

David Hughes

Harry Taylor

Andy Burnham had a formal meeting with Manchester City's chair, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, at an investment summit, chatted to him in the stands at a testimonial game and was accompanied by staff from the club on official overseas visits.

Details of the prime minister's contacts with the scandal-hit club and its Abu Dhabi owners during his time as Greater Manchester mayor were released by the combined authority. Burnham told MPs that “all of my dealings” with Manchester City’s owners would be published.

A Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) spokesperson said: “In October 2021 Andy Burnham, in his role as mayor of Greater Manchester, had a formal meeting with Khaldoon al-Mubarak at the UK government’s global investment summit arranged by the Department for International Trade.

"In his capacity as mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City at home matches on a small number of occasions, including attending Vincent Kompany's testimonial match in September 2019, where he met the chairman informally in the stands. These have been declared in the usual way.

“Also during his time as mayor, representatives of Greater Manchester sporting clubs would routinely join business delegations as part of mayoral international visits.”

City have been found guilty of breaching Premier League financial regulations between 2009 and 2018. The club maintain their innocence and appealed against the verdict.

Burnham said last month he would be “really concerned” if City’s Abu Dhabi owners sold the club in the wake of the finding, crediting them with being “a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester”. Downing Street sought to clarify his comments afterwards, saying the prime minister was clear the judgment is serious and that, where wrongdoing is established, those responsible should face the consequences.

The shadow sports minister, Louie French, said the disclosure of Burnham's meetings was “far from the full transparency that fans deserve”. French said: “Burnham cannot hide behind the GMCA - he must take responsibility for this himself.” PA

On his first Premier League start, teenage striker Sidiki Cherif won the penalty that led to Coventry's first goal and scored their second CHRIS RADBURN/REUTERS

Sport

Football

Premier League

Mfuni caps Newcastle rout to end Coventry's long home wait

Coventry

Rudoni 6pen, Cherif 48, Simms 81, Mfuni 86

Newcastle

Botman 70

Peter Lansley

Coventry Building Society Arena

If ever there was validation needed for attack being the best form of defence, Frank Lampard can point to this game. Coventry climbed out of the relegation zone after their second successive win showcased the benefits of their manager's willingness to balance risk with reward.

Late goals from substitutes Ellis Simms and Stephen Mfuni allowed promoted Coventry to pull away from a Newcastle side who, after a strong start to the season, also lost their last game, at Leeds, by this scoreline.

Indeed Newcastle could have gone fourth in the Premier League with victory but, despite dominating for long spells and missing several very presentable chances, they could not argue with what turned into a dismantling.

Even after Sven Botman had reduced the deficit to 2-1 with 20 minutes remaining, and Newcastle threatened to take charge, Coventry insisted on leaving two or three players right up front. It was a bold and brave move and Lampard, who has warned supporters to expect this approach throughout this first season back in the elite since 2000/01, deserves great credit. On other days, they might come unstuck, but here it was a case of who dares, wins.

It was 25 years since John Hartson last scored a goal at home for Coventry in the Premier League, so it felt significant when Jack Rudoni stepped up to take his penalty in the sixth minute.

The pre-match atmosphere had been ramped up anyway after three weeks of international football had left Sky Blues fans longing for more after their victory away to Nottingham Forest.

So as Ephron Mason-Clark chased Brandon Thomas-Asante's pass in from the right, more in hope than anticipation, and Lukas Hornicek could only flap at the ball, the vast majority of the CBS Arena seemed to take to their feet to appeal for the spot-kick as Sidiki Cherif went to ground on feeling contact from the Newcastle goalkeeper as they contested the loose ball.

Rudoni composed himself before slotting home his penalty left-footed, sending Hornicek the wrong way, to rocket the stadium into raptures. The sense of community was underlined as Coventry's attacking midfielder lifted his shirt to offer the message 'Get well soon Nan'.

On his first Premier League start since signing from Fenerbache for £21m in the summer, Cherif opted to shoot straight and weakly at Hornicek when on one such counterattack Rudoni was all but free in the middle.

They had Bobby Thomas to thank for denying Newcastle not once but twice before the interval. Firstly the centre-back headed off the line after Jacob Murphy turned Harvey Barnes' superb far-post cross back in and past Carl Rushworth. Then when Matias Fernandez-Pardo raced ahead of him on to a superb through pass, rounded Rushworth and shot goalwards, Thomas's recovery run allowed him to clear.

Only time will tell whether Coventry's £100m summer investments will provide sufficient quality for the club to stay up, but certainly the quantity is there. There was £70m in new talent not in the starting XI here.

Taiwo Awoniyi might have been many promoted team's big signing, at £17m from Nottingham Forest, though his absence through a three-game suspension has opened the way for Cherif.

The 19-year-old forward is evidently not the finished product but he has raw attributes from which Coventry can build. Three minutes into the second half he had scored his first goal in the Premier League.

When Malick Thiaw headed a long throw out of the penalty area, Cherif's first touch set him up to swivel and strike a crisp drive that swished through four pairs of plum-coloured stockings and beyond Hornicek's grasping fingers. Then Cherif could have put the game out of Newcastle's reach. Sven Botman horribly miscued Thomas-Asante's cross from the right and there unmarked was Cherif. He clunked his sidefooted shot wide from six yards out.

That miss was made to look all the more important as Botman was allowed to wander forwards unchallenged before belting a shot into the top corner of Rushworth's goal.

Sims made it 3-1 after the excellent Brandon Asante-Thomas nicked the ball on the edge of the area for the striker to shoot home. There was still time for Thomas-Asante to shoot against the post before victory was emphatically sealed when Mfuni twinkle-toed his way into the penalty area to strike in left-footed.

Coventry 4-2-3-1

4-2-3-1

Rushworth; Van Ewijk, Thomas, Pinnock, Dasilva; Yirenki (Onyeka 78), Grimes (Mfuni 83); Thomas-Asante, Rudoni (Torp 83), Mason-Clark (Sakamoto 61); Cherif (Simms 78)

Subs not used

Bentley, Latibeaudiere, Hamer, Gboho

Newcastle

4-2-3-1

Hornicek; Miley (Dedic 59), Thiaw, Botman, Hall; González, Willock (Joelinton 59);

Murphy (Touré 59; Burn 90), Wissa (Osula 78), Barnes; Fernandez-Pardo Subs not used

Pope, Schär, Bamba, Steur

Referee John Brooks Attendance 30,811

Simms 81, Mfuni 86

SSE AIRTRICITY IRISH PREMIER DIVISION

Shamrock Rovers 2 Bohemians 1

LA LIGA

Levante 3 Sevilla 3

SERIE A

Atalanta 3 Venezia 1; Torino 2 Udinese 1

Cricket

FIRST MEN'S TEST (day four of five)

Durban Australia 390 (MT Renshaw 190; PWA Mulder 4-68) & 314-6 dec (MT Renshaw 82). South Africa 284 & 102-4. South Africa require 319 runs to win with six second-innings wickets remaining.

FIRST MEN'S TEST (day four of five)

Abu Dhabi Bangladesh 346 (Tanzid Hasan 83, Shadman Islam 67, Litton Das 53; Mohammad Saleem 4-82) & 372-7dec (Litton Das 102, Najmul Hossain Shanto 82, Mushfiqur Rahim 81, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 52no).

Afghanistan 240 (Rahmat Shah 105no, Abdul Malik 62; Hasan Mahmud 5-55, Ebadot Hossain 4-56) & 132-3 (Rahmat Shah 51). Afghanistan require 347 runs to win with seven second-innings wickets remaining.

Tennis

SHANGHAI MASTERS (China)

Third round: F Auger-Aliassime (Can) bt P Carreño Busta (Sp) 6-3 4-6 6-1; C Ruud (Nor) bt L Tien (US) 6-4 7-6 (7-3); R Jodar (Sp) bt J Lehecka (Cz) 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-4; S Tsitsipas (Gre) bt T Fritz (US) 3-6 7-5 6-3; D Medvedev (Rus) bt D Svrcina (Cz) 6-2 6-3; Z Bergs (Bel) bt C Alcaraz (Sp) 7-5 7-6 (7-4); B Van De Zandschulp (Neth) bt A Fils (Fr) 7-5 6-4; T Paul (US) bt V Vacherot (Mnc) 6-4 6-2.

WUHAN OPEN (China)

First round: S Kartal (GB) bt A Kalinina (Ukr) 7-5 6-3; L Fernandez (Can) bt E Alexandrova (Rus) 6-4 3-6 6-3; L Tararudee (Tha) bt D Parry (Fr) 6-4 6-1; J Tjen (Ido) bt

A Ito (Jpn) 6-3 6-1; M Bouzkova (Cz) bt C Tauson (Den) 6-1 2-0 ret; M Pohankova (Svk) bt A Bondar (Hun) 6-1 6-3; J Paolini (It) bt S Bejlek (Cz) 6-3 6-4; M Frech (Pol) bt M Sawangkaew (Tha) 6-3 7-6 (7-5); M Sakkari (Gre) bt D Vekic (Cro) 6-4 6-2; C McNally (US) bt Y Starodubtseva (Ukr) 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-4; Wang Xiyu (Chn) bt Wang Xinyu (Chn) 6-2 6-0; Shi H (Chn) bt A Eala (Phi) 4-6 6-3 6-3.

CHINA OPEN (Beijing)

Final: Zheng Q (Chn) bt M Andreeva (Rus) 7-5 6-4.

Fixtures

Football (7.45pm unless stated)

Champions League

Arsenal v Lille (8pm); Atlético Madrid v Manchester Utd (8pm); Galatasaray v Barcelona (8pm); Inter v Club Brugge (8pm); Lens v Sporting (5.45pm); RB Leipzig v PSV (8pm); Sabah v Slavia Prague (5.45pm); Viking v Bayern Munich (8pm); Villarreal v Napoli (8pm)

Sky Bet Championship

Birmingham v Preston (8pm); Bristol City v Blackburn; Burnley v Charlton; Cardiff v Watford; Millwall v Swansea; Stoke v Middlesbrough (8pm); Wolves v Bolton; Wrexham v West Brom

Jersey Mike's EFL Trophy

Cheltenham v Tottenham U21 (7pm); Gillingham v Brighton U21 (7pm); Notts County v Nottingham Forest U21 (7pm); Oldham v Leeds U21 (7pm); Reading v Chelsea U21 (7pm); Walsall v Fulham U21 (7pm)

Enterprise National League South

Ebbsfleet v Totton

William Hill Scottish Championship

Queen's Park v Inverness CT

KDM Evolution Trophy

Airdrieonians v Hearts B; Annan v Alloa; Banks O'Dee v Motherwell B; Berwick v Queen of the South; Clyde v Clachnacuddin; Clydebank v Dumbarton; Cove Rangers v Formartine; Cowdenbeath v Celtic B; Cumbernauld v East Fife; East Kilbride v Kelty; Edinburgh City v St Mirren B; Elgin v Aberdeen B; Fraserburgh v Dundee B;

Gala Fairydean v Hamilton; Montrose v Dundee Utd B; Peterhead v Rangers B; Ross County v Forfar; Spartans v Bonnyrigg; Stirling v Hibernian B; Stranraer v Kilmarnock B

Women's World Cup European qualifying play-offs

Semi-finals: second leg Austria (2) v Kosovo (1) (5pm); England (3) v Greece (1) (7.30pm); Iceland (4) v Croatia (0) (6.30pm); Italy (2) v Belarus (0) (5.15pm); Netherlands (8) v Hungary (0) (7.45pm); Norway (2) v Romania (0) (5pm); Poland (0) v Belgium (1) (5pm); Portugal (4) v Northern Ireland (0) (7.15pm); Republic of Ireland (8) v Kazakhstan (0) (7.30pm); Scotland (2) v Czech Republic (0) (7.15pm); Serbia (1) v Finland (3) (4pm); Slovenia (3) v Turkey (3) (4pm); Sweden (5) v Lithuania (0) (6pm); Switzerland (7) v Israel (3) (6.30pm); Ukraine (3) v Slovakia (1) (4pm); Wales (1) v Albania (0) (7.15pm)

Cricket

Third Men's T20 International

Pakistan v Sri Lanka, Rawalpindi (2pm)

---

Greg Wood's racing tips

Leicester 1.24 Banged Up (nap) 1.54 Romotoso

2.29 Pivotal Voyage 3.04 Comade Alexi 3.39 That's Random

4.14 Oviedo 4.47 Flight Control 5.17 New Objective

Hereford 1.45 Blue Topaz 2.20 Betty's Tiara 2.55 I Love You

Sivola 3.30 Son Of Hypnos 4.05 Zaraquelle 4.38 Unflappable

Southwell 2.00 Limerick Leader 2.35 Lady Kara

3.10 Thelasthighking 3.45 Masterius 4.20 L'Amandine

4.52 Winston's Oath 5.23 Shorten Sassy

Wolverhampton 4.25 Sanditon 5.00 Aspire To

Glory 5.30 Royal County Glory 6.00 Soft Landing

6.30 Muhandes 7.00 Zachary Hickes 7.30 Koffee And Kale

8.00 Myrrh 8.30 Midnight Media (nb)

▲ Like 94% of clubs in England’s top five leagues, Chelsea are loss-making

Regulator to propose tighter cost controls across clubs

Matt Hughes

The Independent Football Regulator (IFR) is to recommend clubs introduce greater cost controls in its long-awaited State of the Game report, to be published today.

The 250-page draft report, with a final version to follow in the spring after an eight-week public consultation beginning this week, will paint a damning picture of the financial state of English men's football, including the stark finding that $94\%$ of the top 116 clubs are loss-making.

The report will include a series of recommendations for the regulator and clubs to improve sustainability, with the IFR chair, David Kogan, and chief executive, Richard Monks, to provide more details at a press conference in Manchester today.

That event is likely to be dominated by questions about whether the regulator could force the sale of Manchester City if the mass guilty verdicts of an independent commission are upheld on appeal.

As administrators of an enhanced owners, directors and senior executives test, the IFR has powers to assess the suitability of owners and executives “where there is clear evidence of wrongdoing by individuals”.

The State of the Game report sprung out of the Football Governance Act, which created the IFR, which has taken almost 18 months to produce the most detailed study ever of the industry and its finances.

EFL clubs have been waiting for the report in the hope that it will give them greater impetus as they continue to negotiate with the Premier League over a new financial settlement, although it may not necessarily do so given details that may emerge of extravagant and unsustainable spending by many lower-division clubs.

The Premier League has offered a new deal to the EFL worth £180m a year over 10 years, a significant increase from the current £150m figure, but the EFL wants £207m a year and the option to renegotiate after five years.

The EFL has also proposed the creation of a new so-called “lifeboat fund” for clubs in financial distress.

The IFR has powers to impose a settlement on the leagues if they cannot agree themselves. Both sides are likely to seize on elements of the report to bolster their arguments.

Sport

Football Champions League

Carrick backs United to 'come out fighting' after worst start in 40 years

Sid Lowe

Madrid

Manchester United have endured their worst league start in 40 years but Michael Carrick insists he is “loving it”. United arrived in Madrid without Kobbie Mainoo and Luke Shaw, who both picked up knocks in the draw against Tottenham at the weekend, and with the coach admitting that his team are in “a spot”, but he vowed that they would “come out fighting”.

Despite collecting just six points in the Premier League so far, Carrick claimed he did not feel under pressure and backed his captain, Bruno Fernandes, who he revealed was still “carrying something”, to rediscover his form. As he talked about building, there was a reminder too of the fact that Arsenal, the champions, finished “seventh or eighth” in Mikel Arteta’s first two seasons.

"To do something good, to do something great, you have got to be able to do something difficult," said Carrick, whose side visit Atlético Madrid in the second round of games in the Champions League league phase tonight.

“We hoped for a lot more, we expected a lot more, and we are where we are,” Carrick added. “I was aware that, winning as many as we had [last season], it was going to get more challenging, stickier. I understand that when it is not going well there is a real clamour and a feeling that it's a disaster, that it's all wrong and that everything needs to be changed. I kind of get that, but that's not our mindset and it's certainly not mine. You have to deal with things and overcome them. That is what I did throughout my career. We have to accept reality but we are building and you can't lose sight of the journey."

On the pressure he is under, Carrick said: “It depends on how you define ‘pressure’. There is our own expectation: we know what we want, what we are capable of and that comes from us. I don’t look outside. I don’t feel the pressure from that at all.

"I'm pretty good at shutting off, to be honest; closing off and living a little bit in my bubble. And I think that's what we do as a group. We look after each other, we all know what's out there and it's about managing it, controlling it and staying focused. It is about us wanting to succeed, to win. That's the drive. There is no negativity. We are hugely confident and we have confidence in each other."

Despite the poor domestic start, which also included exiting the Carabao Cup against Brighton at Old Trafford, Carrick's side did win their Champions League opener convincingly against Sabah last month.

"We need to do something about it now and accept the reality," Carrick said. "I love this part of it: sometimes when it's not quite going for you, you see who's really there. You see within the group, the squad, the club, who's really there and who wants to be there for the long term, [who] is really attached to it and [for whom it] really means something. You have to embrace the challenge. I totally believe that we'll work through it."

Asked if he believed that Fernandes could recover his form, Carrick said: "I think it's pretty obvious to say that he can, yeah. I mean, he's a top player. Sometimes things don't quite go for you, but he's done some incredible things for this football club and he will do the same in the future, there's no doubt about that. I've seen that a lot was made of [his fitness]. He was carrying something.

"People don't maybe realise it, but it happens a lot: players play with issues. I probably played 80% of the games with some sort of issue. It's not ideal, but it's manageable. Bruno was able to play the games; that's the commitment he has. He's pretty much over it. It's not a major deal, he's in good shape and he was really bright [in training] this morning, looking forward to the game."

---

Arteta rues losing duo to injuries in warm-down

Ed Aarons

Mikel Arteta has admitted frustration after Piero Hincapié and Martín Zubimendi sustained ankle injuries during the warm-down after Arsenal's win against Leeds on Saturday. Arteta said they would miss the Champions League game at home to Lille tonight and that Hincapié's injury "looks a little bit more serious".

“We had a training session planned after the game for the players,” the manager said. “They didn’t have enough minutes to get everybody in the right rhythm and in two very unfortunate actions, we lost two players.”

Arteta described it as “far from ideal” but dismissed suggestions he would change the post-match routine. “When they have to play, they have no rhythm, and when you ask them to play, they’re going to have no impact in the game,” he said. “That could happen at the Emirates; it never happened in the seven years I was here. It could happen the next day in the training session, and that has happened before, and hopefully it happens now and doesn't happen again. What can you do? If I knew I had a crystal ball clear, I'd say: 'Guys, go in the Jacuzzi, everybody, I'll see you tomorrow.'"

Hincapié and Zubimendi were expected to feature against Lille having not started in the Premier League this season. Arteta seemed disappointed with Illan Meslier and his staff after the reserve goalkeeper gave Hincapié a piggyback off the pitch rather than waiting for a stretcher.

“That’s something else not to discuss here,” he said. “Today they’re going to have a further scan and probably tomorrow we’ll know more and then we’ll see how they’re going to go. Piero’s one looks a little bit more serious, I think, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

▲ Martín Zubimendi (left) and Piero Hincapié (right) are out for Arsenal

There was better news as William Saliba has resumed training on his own as he recovers from a back injury sustained at the World Cup. Arteta would not be drawn on when the France defender could be back, though. “We’re still talking about weeks,” he said.

Gabriel Magalhães is likely to be partnered by Ezri Konsa again against the Brazil defender's former club tonight. Gabriel insisted he would not hesitate to take another penalty in a shootout despite missing the crucial spot-kick in the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain. "I was sad, and I didn't want to miss a penalty, but I have learned from this and if I have another opportunity, I will be ready to take it," he said.

Arteta has challenged Bukayo Saka to score more goals after the forward found the net five times in his past four England appearances and revealed that they had been working on rotating him into more central areas to finish moves.

“He has been getting in great positions, getting shots, getting one-touch finishes and tap-ins,” he said. “That is the kind of unpredictability we have with that player, otherwise we know how the opponent is going to defend him. He is doing well. He could have had another four or five goals by now, easily ... He needs to be thinking about scoring a certain amount of goals per game. If that shifts, he will get into those positions and score more goals.”

Viking's double act keep on delivering

Bjarte Lunde

Aarsheim

(left) and

Morten

Jensen have

taken Viking

to Europe's

highest level

CARINA

JOHANSEN/

THE GUARDIAN

From relegation to Champions League: the rise of Viking

Norway's champions, who host Bayern Munich tonight, have excelled under the joint head coaches Morten Jensen and Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim

'hen we recruit players, we say something bold." The

morning's training session at Lyse Arena has finished and, over lunch, Morten Jensen is explaining how he and Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim have propelled Viking Stavanger from mediocrity to an implausible place among Europe's elite. "We always tell them: 'If you come to Viking and play for us, we're going to be the best coaches you ever had.'"

It is a story more than a decade in the making for Jensen and Aarsheim, who were appointed joint head coaches in November 2020. Tonight they will oversee

the club's first home Champions League game, against Bayern Munich, the latest step in a journey that has brought shared success in every sense.

“We were talking on the phone one evening, it must have been around 2012 or 2013,” Aarsheim says, sitting across the table and recalling one of countless conversations between close friends who had first met on the semi-professional scene. “I worked in a bank, he was in the oil and gas industry, we both had local teams part-time. And I remember we said: ‘Hey, we should take a team together one day.’”

They are outwardly an odd couple. Aarsheim had played almost 300 games for Viking during the 1990s and 2000s. He cemented club legend status as a classy midfielder and captain, combining modest league successes with a handful of short Uefa Cup runs before starting to coach at Randaberg. Jensen's attempts to forge a playing career at Viking had been stalled by injury; he had played college soccer in the United States before landing back in Norway's lower divisions and managing tiny Havørn.

"He's always calm, collected, analytical," says Jensen of

◀The English-born New Zealand midfielder Joe Bell (left) is in his second spell and last season helped Viking to a first Eliteserien title since 1991

Viking's CEO, Eirik Bjørnø (left), and the sporing director, Erik Nevland, have helped change the Stavanger club off the pitch

Aarsheim, five years his senior at 51. “His personality is not to be stubborn, but find solutions, so he’s always interested and seeking to learn new things. He can explode and be aggressive when he needs to, but it’s at the right time and there needs to be a reason.”

It is Aarsheim's style to weigh words deliberately, a dash of swearing added for effect. The rhetoric falls to Jensen. “What’s impressive with Morten is how big he thinks and that he dares to tell it out loud,” Aarsheim says. “He talks about winning the league, the Champions League, everything, while I’m thinking: ‘Let’s just get a good team first.’ But it transmits. We put dreams to the players and put that flame inside for them to dream bigger. We don’t want players simply to be satisfied to play here.”

Viking have become an outstanding side themselves under Aarsheim and Jensen. “I think we have shown many players, young and a little bit older, that we see potential and can develop them,” Jensen says.

Their paths had converged, becoming assistants to the previous Viking head coach, Bjarne Berntsen, before both were due to be interviewed for his replacement. “They gave us the tasks independently,” Jensen remembers. “And we said: ‘What if we just come together? Would you fancy that?’”

Zlatko Tripic is Viking's captain and talisman

'I'm sat there thinking: 'Jesus, are we really going for this?"' remembers Eirik Bjørnø, who was 29 and newly promoted to Viking's chief executive

officer position, when Aarsheim and Jensen turned up for their interview. The pair had everything planned, down to a 120-page dossier on how their team should play. At Jensen's instigation, they also prepared a special slide.

“Suddenly there’s this photo of a bunch of sheep,” Bjørnø says. “They had a big spiel about all the sheep, everyone following the main sheep. Then up pop these two wolves on the photo.” The sheep were, quite plainly, Viking’s competitors. As Jensen tells it: “We said: ‘Are you going to hire these two badass wolves? We’re going to eat up all the sheep.’”

Bjørnø and Viking's sporting director, the former Manchester United and Fulham striker Erik Nevland, were persuaded. "We were at a place in history where we needed to do something different to become better," says Nevland, who played for Viking across three stints and scored twice in a Uefa Cup win against Chelsea. "It was kind of: 'Let's go for it.' It just made sense. It was a bit of a gamble but we were in a position where we could do that.”

Joint managers are vanishingly rare at the highest level. “It comes up all the time,” Nevland says. “When I talk to sporting directors from other countries it’s not Viking any more, it’s: ‘Oh, you’re the club with two head coaches.’ It’s something different but it’s a dynamic thing; it’s not like we will necessarily do it this way whenever they move on. It’s special, but why change something that works?”

Their efforts bore spectacular fruit last year, beating a previously imperious Bodø/Glimt to the Eliteserien title. Viking had been a dominant force in Norway during the 1970s but had not been champions since 1991. They had even been relegated in 2017. “In the first two years we learned a lot of things that we’ll never do again,” says Jensen. Finishing 11th in 2022 brought a keener focus on developing local players; those who, like their managers and the similarly homespun Bjørnø-Nevland double act, know what it entails to represent this mountain-fringed port city in Norway’s south-west.

“We’ve done it with a lot of people that care for each other,” Bjørnø says. “We’re trying to enjoy the ride together, and that makes us a lot stronger. When you have success together, it makes such a big difference when you actually feel that you’re friends.”

Nevland sees more benefits from such an intense local flavour. "It just gives us a feeling that everything we do means more," he says. "The decisions you make are a little bit more thorough because it's so important for the region and everyone you know. If it's for my brother or my neighbour, you know all the decisions impact them in some kind of way."

Stavanger, enriched hugely by the discovery of oil 200 miles off shore in 1969, can adore its football team again. “There had been something underlying that was missing for the people here,” Jensen says. “We wanted to play entertaining football and move our people. And maybe that’s the most fun part: it’s not the Champions League or the title win, it’s seeing how many kids are running around with Viking jerseys around the city and in the schools. A decade ago you would only see Manchester United and Liverpool shirts. That’s the one thing I am most proud of.”

A video meeting longer than 10 minutes would risk losing the players' attention. This one earlier in the day has focused

on ways to exploit the high press of SK Brann, fierce rivals from up the coast who Viking must visit for an awkward test four days before facing Bayern. “They killed us last year out there, remember that,” Jensen tells the squad, shortly

'You can see the respect and loyalty they have to each other ... they give us this confidence'

before it winds up. “We thought we were going to be there, but they ran over us, they challenged us, had more energy.”

Aarsheim generally oversees Viking's defensive drills; Jensen focuses on attack. They have shown Viking's players 10 short clips, selected by a six-strong staff during a coaches' meeting that started at 8.30am. All bets are off in these highly charged derbies against Brann. The focus is on how Viking can impose their style and minimise the effect of an intense, raucous environment. "We're going to be better in the first duel, we're going to be better than them in the second-ball phase, it's going to be important," Aarsheim says.

It is raining lightly by the time training starts. Aarsheim clenches his fists on the touchline when one of the crossfield switches Viking have been practising finishes with a tap-in. In the centre circle, Jensen is telling their forwards how to escape the Brann press. Later in the session, they watch from the stand.

The tone is businesslike, positive, collaborative. But who gets to play good or bad cop if necessary? “I think we mix it up and sometimes we plan it,” Aarsheim says. “Yeah, we do that as a tool sometimes,” Jensen continues. “But we don’t believe in shouting and yelling at them. It’s not going to make them better footballers. So we try to develop their football intelligence, but also the people. I think our strongest asset is in man-managing.”

They are often asked what happens if they disagree over, for example, a selection issue. “Then we’ll discuss, loudly sometimes, with the rest of our staff in the coaching room and will both have to defend our choices and reasoning to them,” Jensen says. “We’ll all discuss it until we have an agreement. But 99% of the time we are pretty agreed in terms of who to use in a particular game so it’s very seldom we waste time over that.”

Aarsheim takes over. “I can read Morten in one second. If he really wants something from his stomach then I sense it: ‘OK, let’s go with that.’ It’s never been a problem.”

The fit is instinctive and has become second nature to Viking's team, too. "You can see the respect and loyalty they have to each other," says Zlatko Tripic, the long-serving captain, speaking under calmer skies after the session. "They give a lot of responsibility to the players and let us discuss things. If you ask everyone in the dressing room, there is huge respect for how they deal with things and have given us this comfort and confidence."

It is a self-assuredness Viking hope can help them trouble Bayern. Nothing appears off limits in Norwegian football's recent run of fairytales. "This should be the best period of their lives," says Jensen of a squad that, 72 hours later, heed the warnings and win 2-0 in Bergen. "It's our job to make them do the best they can," Aarsheim says. "For us, Viking is Barcelona. The players have to understand that we see Viking as more than a club. In our heads, it's the best team in the world."

Sport

Formula One

'The tears on grown men's faces were deeply moving'

The big interview

Christian Horner

Former Red Bull chief

reflects on the 'brutality'

of his sacking, 20 years

with the team, his rivalry

with Toto Wolff and his

hopes of an F1 return

Donald McRae

Christian Horner should be in steamy Singapore, preparing for another grand prix victory, but here he is, at home on an autumnal morning

in genteel Highgate as his wife, Geri Halliwell-Horner, welcomes me with a cheerful hug. Horner smiles as the former Spice Girl produces an impressive imitation of my South African accent which echoes her old headteacher at Watford Girls.

After the most controversial man in the recent history of Formula One says hello, Halliwell-Horner and I discuss the fact that my two daughters also went to her school and that one of their history textbooks had her name printed on the inside page - while the ex-Ginger Spice talks about gritty old Watford, grammar school education and Nelson Mandela.

I joke that it feels like I'm interviewing Halliwell-Horner instead of Horner. Everyone laughs but I will soon ask Horner about the impact on his marriage in 2024 when an investigation was carried out into allegations he had sent “hundreds” of inappropriate texts and photographs to a female employee when Red Bull’s team principal. The woman was apparently “upset, angry, scared, intimidated and lonely” while the tabloids speculated that Halliwell-Horner was “furious”.

Horner was exonerated by two independent investigations but other hurtful circumstances then surrounded his sudden departure from Red Bull in July 2025. The team has struggled since then but, nine days ago, at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Max Verstappen won Red Bull's first race with an engine built entirely by the team. Verstappen then won again in Singapore this past Sunday.

That feat of engineering had been conceived and instigated by Horner near the end of his remarkable 20 years at Red Bull.

When Halliwell-Horner disappears after a final hug, Horner is amiable yet careful. However, the 52-year-old admits his distress after he was forced out: “It felt particularly brutal and sad to finish in that manner. But I now have a reasonable relationship with Oliver Mintzlaff [the CEO of corporate projects at Red Bull]. He rang the other day and thanked me for all I’d done for the engine.”

His dismissal, Horner reiterates, “was painful. Very painful. I didn’t really process it till a month later because, in the immediate aftermath, I focused on supporting my daughter [Olivia] through a hideous period.”

Horner and his former partner, Beverley Allen, became parents to Olivia in 2013. After they separated, he and Allen remained on good terms and so grief, following her death from eye cancer, framed his demise at Red Bull. As he recalls that difficult period, he pays fleeting tribute to his arch-rival, Toto Wolff, the head of Mercedes, who has addressed his battle with depression.

“Toto was very brave to talk openly about such a factor for people our age. I hadn’t experienced those issues but I had an appreciation during this period of how people could [suffer]. The identity of many middle-aged guys is through their work. Suddenly you have that stripped and taken from you. Who are you? What are you? What is your purpose? You either curl up into a ball or brush yourself down and get up."

Horner, who arrived in 2005 as the youngest team principal in F1 history, adds: "When I started at Red Bull, there were under 400 people. When I left, there was 2,200. I poured my heart and soul into that business and convinced people to leave other teams for Red Bull. I never had a big turnover in staff because there was tremendous loyalty over a long period. The

startup engine business had been founded in 2021 and I was about to get it on the track when I left. I felt great sadness in not seeing that engine in a car.”

He broke down briefly while telling staff of his fate. “It was very strange because that group became your extended family. So the tears on grown men’s faces was deeply moving.”

In his new book, which provides a thorough overview of his career, Horner describes the day he replaced Tony Purnell, his predecessor, in 2005: “Formula One is ruthless, I thought, watching from my car as Tony and Dave Pitchforth, their just-fired managing director, carried glum expressions and cardboard boxes stuffed with personal belongings

... when I was eventually shown to my office, it resembled a crime scene. A barely drunk cup of coffee had been abandoned on the desk. Through the walls, I heard Tony's PA sobbing."

Horner says now: “History repeats itself. Not all teams act in that way. A lot of teams haven’t delivered over the years but you don’t see the same brutality as when I left. We had pole position at the previous race.”

At last year's British Grand Prix, just before Horner's sacking, Verstappen was leading when “the rain came”.

been pretty tough but it was a particularly sensitive time, with the bereavement of my daughter's mum the previous week. I had an 11-year-old child grieving her mother. Nothing was more important than that."

Horner also mentions his “relief” at leaving. “The last two years had

There had been a power struggle at Red Bull following the death in 2022 of Dietrich Mateschitz, the company's billionaire founder who always backed Horner. Both Helmut Marko, a key consultant, and Jos Verstappen, Max's father, seemed keen to undermine Horner. "Helmut could be blunt and I was disappointed he'd stayed as a guest of our family two days before [Horner's sacking] with no indication this was coming," Horner reveals.

Christian and Geri Halliwell-Horner at the 2021 premiere of Bond film No Time To Die

What about Verstappen Sr? "There's nothing to say."

Were the Verstappens partly responsible for Horner's removal? "No, it was a Red Bull decision. After Dietrich died, things changed in the leadership."

Horner says the reasons for his sacking remain opaque, apart from a general discontent that the team no longer matched the domination it had enjoyed in two separate spells when Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen won multiple championships: “I think it was a feeling there was too much control in my hands. But I wasn’t really given a reason.”

Did the 2024 allegations contribute to his dismissal? “I’d ◀Christian Horner (right)

chatting with Max

Verstappen in 2024

GIUSEPPE CACACE/EPA

come through that, dismissed them. So this was more focused on performance and the future.”

Was he worried his marriage might be in jeopardy after the texts and photographs were leaked? “My wife was a pillar of support throughout and I just had to believe in the process. I’ve said enough about it in the book and previously.”

Yet the book does not outline the allegations against him or provide any details of his defence. “I’ve said everything I can say, and there are certain legal reasons [why] I’m not at liberty to go further.”

Horner is more precise when asked if there is a chance he might never work in F1 again. “Absolutely. But if I don’t go back I had a hell of a run. I won one in every four races I competed in. I had 287 podiums out of 405 races.”

He says: “Nobody could take away the 124 wins and 14 championships [six constructors’ and eight drivers’ titles]. But I felt particularly hurt and robbed I didn’t have the opportunity to see that [Red Bull-manufactured] Powertrains engine win.”

Horner watched Verstappen's victory the Sunday before last on television and “I felt very proud seeing what it meant to everybody and that they sent the Powertrains representative on to the podium. I had messages throughout the team and I texted Max after the race. He was very magnanimous and it was a landmark moment to see that engine win. It reinforced to me that, if you assemble the right people with the right culture and the necessary tools, anything is possible.”

Yet he still believes the team has lost its mojo. “Red Bull has been the maverick team. It’s pushed the boundaries. Only Red Bull would do something crazy enough to build a new engine as a subsidiary of a fizzy drinks manufacturer. Its mantra was to be nonconformist, to be a disruptor. It’s a little different now.”

Who is in charge of Red Bull's team - Laurent Mekies, his successor, or Max Verstappen? He laughs. "I'm not getting drawn into that. Ultimately Oliver Mintzlaff is the most senior guy and obviously Max is a massive asset. I employed Laurent but I can't judge how he operates."

Horner argues that his comments last month about Ferrari being “a dream job” applied more to other people than himself. He would prefer to return with a team where he has a part-ownership stake. In regard to Ferrari and their currently beleaguered team principal, Horner suggests “Fred Vasseur is an experienced

---

'The next move I make would have ownership attached and Ferrari aren't going to sell shares'

guy. He's done a decent job. But I, more than anyone, know the pressures of running a competitive organisation. My comments got taken out of context.

“Ferrari is the biggest brand in F1. It’s the most historic team. But I’ve accumulated some phenomenal capital behind me, to look at the next move I potentially make in the sport. That would be with ownership attached to it and Ferrari aren’t going to sell shares. So I’m happy to sit outside the sport and see what opportunities present themselves over the coming months or years. It’s not a prerequisite that I go back. I would only return for the right opportunity with like-minded people that want to win. I would never go back just to take part.”

Horner says: “For the last 21 years I would have been sitting in Singapore right now. But it’s my daughter’s 13th birthday today and I’m taking her to see Hamilton at the theatre tonight.”

What does he miss most about F1? "The people, the team, the competition. I still love the

sport but I don't miss the travel and politics."

Wolff said Horner had “broken too much glass” to return to F1. Horner grins: “He also said this [Red Bull] engine was going to be completely shit and a disaster. Toto’s got it quite easy at the moment. Zak Brown [the head of McLaren] is compromised because he’s using Toto’s engine so he can’t ruffle feathers. All sport needs rivalry, whether it’s Ferguson and Wenger, Mourinho and Guardiola. It percolates and polarises. I used that to galvanise good people to take on Mercedes.”

Yet F1 takes its toll and Horner admits he has suffered panic attacks. “I didn’t know what it was. You suddenly feel dizzy and conscious of your breathing and you think there’s something strange going on. I put it down to having had too much coffee on an oppressive, muggy, thundery day. Then it happened again. I got checked out and there was nothing physically the matter. They said: ‘We think you have anxiety. Your breathing’s very shallow.’ It was my body telling me you’re pushing pretty hard here. I’m able to recognise the symptoms now and let it go, and breathe.”

What might he be doing 10 years from now? “I’m looking forward to finding out. It could be at a racetrack, it could be sitting on a tractor.”

He laughs again before showing his real conviction. “I know my strength is getting a group of people across different skill sets to work as a team. That’s possibly applicable to other things but, at the moment, the only thing that really motivates and excites me is Formula One.”

Drive by Christian Horner is published by Bantam on 22 October. Available on pre-order from Guardian Bookshop. He will be sharing stories from the book on tour across the UK from 17-26 October.

Cricket

England's Key hands out record 39 central contracts

Ali Martin

Rob Key believes he can now “map out the next two years” for the England men’s teams, having handed out a record 39 central contracts and unveiled new split coaching setups under Stephen Fleming and Brendon McCullum that he hopes will produce homegrown candidates for the top roles in future.

The retirements of Ben Stokes and Mark Wood, plus Zak Crawley being dropped, have allowed Key, the England team director, to stretch the pot of money for player contracts further. Thirty main deals have been issued - up from 26 last year - while nine players have development contracts that top up their county pay.

There is a blend of one- and two-year contracts in the main group, with Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jofra Archer and Jacob Bethell extending terms until the end of 2028. Jordan Cox, a bright spark from the summer, jumps straight into the two-year list, as do two rookie fast bowlers: Sonny Baker has seven caps across all formats, Henry Crocombe is uncapped. The all-rounders

Sam Curran and Will Jacks also get two-year deals.

But Key is also keen to keep others hungry, with Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith kept to 12 months apiece - a sign of needing to bolt down their Test spots - likewise Ollie Robinson after his remarkable return during the summer. Emilio Gay and Dan Lawrence also get one-year deals, as does Ollie Pope, despite being out of the England XI since midway through last winter's Ashes.

Asked about Duckett and Smith, Key replied: "Yeah, we debated and deliberated long and hard about those types of things. We feel that this is going to be the thing that gets the best out of those guys. In a few other cases, they're just a longer-term bet. You want to make sure you can almost map out the next two years."

Beyond a super-sized squad that covers all formats, the coaching teams are settled before Fleming starts as Test head coach in South Africa this winter. Marcus Tresco-thick will remain as an assistant coach to the Test side only and in come James Foster and Richard Dawson. Dawson has also been named as “national spin-bowling lead” and will leave Glamorgan, with Key praising his work at one of the less well-resourced counties.

The South African Eric Simons, an ally of Fleming at Chennai Super Kings, has been hired as the Test fastbowling coach. It ends a run of short-term hires when McCullum was Test head coach, including Jimmy Anderson, David Saker and Tim Southee.

▲ Rob Key (left) has extended Joe Root's contract until the end of 2028

Southee and Jeetan Patel will now solely be part of McCullum's white-ball staff to give it a strong New Zealand flavour, with Sarah Taylor the one full-time English coach here. Kevin Pietersen will continue to make guest appearances as a “specialist mentor” as Brook’s side looks to the 2027 World Cup.

But with Jonathan Trott now in charge of the Lions and Mike Yardy promoted to “national batting lead” after a summer with the Test side and experience with the under-19s, Key sees future head coach candidates emerging from the English game.

"We've got the best of what this country has to offer," said Key. "There is part of a succession plan in there that may or may not happen because you never know what happens in these jobs. But I certainly think there's a number of coaches that have the potential not only to learn, but go and do the [head coach] job in the future. Richard Dawson would be near the top of that list."

Dawson will first need to address longstanding spin issues. Shoaib Bashir gets another one-year deal, despite not featuring during the Ashes or against Pakistan, while Mason Crane and Liam Patterson-White receive development deals. Patterson-White, a left-arm finger spinner, may well signpost plans for the Test tour of Bangladesh in February.

Brydon Carse keeps his central contract while undergoing a disciplinary with the Cricket Regulator after his brief arrest in Derby in August. Key said he will let the process run its course but doesn't “see anything to suggest” that Carse will have his deal ended.

Rugby union

---

Saracens sack player who sparked Stokes captaincy crisis

Matt Hughes

Saracens have sacked the rugby player who sparked English cricket's captaincy crisis on a night out with Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson last summer following his involvement in another alcohol-related incident.

In a statement released yesterday evening, Saracens confirmed that Totoa Auvaa, a 21-year-old Samoan forward, has been dismissed following an internal investigation into an incident in St Albans last weekend.

Auvaa triggered the chain of events that resulted in Stokes resigning as England Test captain and retiring from international cricket by throwing a punch at Atkinson in a Chelsea nightclub in June, which led to both cricketers being stood down from the second Test match of England's 2-1 series defeat against New Zealand.

While both players returned for the third Test, Stokes's unhappiness at the England and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) handling of the matter influenced his sudden retirement on the fourth day at Trent Bridge.

Auvaa's punch missed Atkinson and struck an ECB security guard, who required stitches but did not report the matter to the police, while Saracens also opted not to take disciplinary action, as revealed by the Guardian.

Auvaa, who made his senior debut off the bench in the Prem Rugby Cup last month, was given a final warning following other alcohol-related incidents, however, and has now left the club.

“Saracens can confirm that Totoa Auvaa, a member of the senior men’s academy, has left the club with immediate effect,” the club said. “Following an incident over the weekend, the club has determined that his conduct was inconsistent with the standards

◀ Saracens have sacked Totoa Auvaa after another alcohol-related incident, which is also being investigated by the police

and values expected of all individuals representing Saracens, both on and off the field.

“Saracens takes its responsibilities to its supporters, partners and the wider community seriously. The club remains committed to upholding the highest standards of behaviour, integrity and accountability across the organisation. The club will not be making any further comment on this matter.”

Hertfordshire police also confirmed they were investigating an alleged assault in the early hours of Sunday morning in St Albans. “Police are investigating an altercation which occurred between 2.15am and 2.20am on Sunday [11 October] in St Peter’s Street, St Albans,” a statement read. “It is alleged a man aged in his 20s was approached by another man who then punched him to the face. Inquiries are ongoing at this time.”

In a statement confirming that no action was being taken against Auvaa in June, Saracens criticised the ECB for failing to consult them before releasing a statement which referred to their employees being victims of “unprovoked attacks”.

Saracens said the events were “regrettable” but that they were “supportive” of their player. The ECB was bemused that no action was taken against Auvaa, particularly given Stokes and Atkinson both missed a Test match despite being blameless.

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