ThunderStorm.

“How the Democrats lost the working-class vote”, ran the headline on the New York Times’s front page on 6 January. According to the Times, the Democrats’ estrangement from the working class was decades in the making. The party’s enthusiastic embrace of trade and globalization led to the closure of factories across industrial America, eliminating jobs that had been a prime source of stability, identity and prestige. While many Democrats attributed Trump’s success to the left’s embrace of “woke” language and causes like transgender rights, the Times observed, the economic seeds of his victories “were sown long ago”. A longtime AFL-CIO official was quoted as saying that “one of the things that has been frustrating about the narrative ‘the Democrats are losing the working class’ is that people are noticing it half a century after it happened”. Given the long incubation of this development, one might say the Times itself was late in recognizing it. But the question remains: how can Democrats win back those working-class voters? One key question has dominated: should the party move to the left or tack toward the center? Should it stress progressivism or moderation? In a way, though, it’s a false choice. The Democrats could combine both approaches in a policy of pragmatic populism, fusing the insurgent ideas and galvanizing fire of an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with the plainspoken bread-and-butter appeal of a Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, an auto-repair shop owner who represents a rural district in Washington state. Pragmatic populism would offer sweeping solutions to the economic anxiety facing so many American families but without the polarizing rhetoric. It would avoid labels like “oligarch” and “tycoon”, drop references to socialism and redistribution and refrain from saying that billionaires should not exist (even though a strong case can be made for that proposition). Instead, pragmatic populists would adopt a message of “let us join together to create a more perfect union”. They would promote the idea of a social contract, founded on the notion that those who have surged ahead economically have an obligation to help those who have been left behind. They would argue that the .01% have thrived thanks to an economic system built over decades of public investment in schools, roads, ports, communications, regulatory agencies, the police and the courts, and that the very wealthy need to “give back” (as super-rich philanthropists are fond of saying) so that ordinary working people can share fully in the fruits. To consider how this would work, take the issue of childcare. A pragmatic populist would say: “The skyrocketing cost of childcare is crushing families across the country. In New York City, the typical family is spending a quarter of its income on such care, and many parents, especially mothers, have to quit the workforce to look after their kids. And childcare providers earn so little that many are leaving the industry. We need to provide parents more in tax credits and providers more in wage subsidies. The cost will not be negligible, but such a policy would not only ease the struggles of parents but also make them more productive workers. So we’re going to ask corporations and the very wealthy to contribute somewhat more in taxes to help make that happen.” Or take dental care. While food deserts have gotten a lot of attention, dentistry deserts have not. According to the CDC, nearly 60 million Americans live in areas in which dental services are in short supply. Even where such services are available, the cost of root canals, implants and crowns can be prohibitive, especially for the working class. Two-thirds of the shortages are in rural America, and a program to expand the Affordable Care Act to include dental insurance could help the Democrats make inroads in a part of the US they have all but lost. Small businesses offer another ripe constituency. Such enterprises (defined as having revenues of less than $40m and workforces of under 500) make up more than 99% of all firms in the country. Many of them are hampered by fines, fees and red tape. The Democrats have long been seen as indifferent or even hostile to this sector. In a promising sign of change, the New York mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, has proposed creating a “mom-and-pop czar” to help ease the regulatory burden on the city’s bodegas, pharmacies, barber shops and beauty salons. These businesses also have a hard time getting credit. Most are too small to interest the mega banks that dominate the US financial system. The thousands of small banks in the country that do cater to this community are themselves under tremendous strain. The Democrats could propose ways of easing the availability of credit for small-business owners, especially Black and Latino ones, who often lack the necessary credit records and collateral. The hemorrhaging of Black and Latino voters is among the most troubling developments for Democrats. Many complain that the party shows up every four years asking for their vote, then forgets about them. During the recent election, Trump’s surge among Latinos in Texas’s Rio Grande valley offered a stinging rebuke to a party that had long counted on their support. “I think Democrats have historically taken the Rio Grande valley for granted,” Beto O’Rourke, the former senatorial candidate, told the Guardian last summer. “Republicans saw an opportunity, they’re hungry, and they’ve gone after it, investing money and running strong candidates with resources behind them.” The Democrats have by contrast spent heavily on Washington-based consultants and lobbyists, starving local operations of funds and hollowing out the party’s infrastructure on the ground. Where the Democrats are present, they have a reputation for being bad listeners given to lecturing people about what’s good for them. This has to change. Here are some recommendations for Democrats – politicians and otherwise: Don’t ask what’s the matter with Kansas. Don’t ask how Trump voters can vote against their interests. Don’t ask evangelical Christians how they can support someone like Trump. Don’t claim that the facts and science are on your side. Don’t claim that Trump voters are victims of disinformation. Don’t blame the Democrats’ unpo[CENSORED]rity on Fox News and other rightwing outlets. Don’t campaign with celebrities. Don’t sermonize when discussing climate change. Don’t call Trump supporters stupid. That last suggestion might pose the greatest challenge of all. Even after the accumulation of so much evidence about the resentment that blue-collar Americans feel at the hands of white-collar liberals, condescension remains rampant. This was clear from the more than 2,000 reader comments posted on the Times article about the Democrats’ loss of the working class. Some samples: “They’re just dumb, bitter jerks who were looking for permission to be as resentful and judgmental in public as they were in private.” “The working class has, by and large, left the 4th estate for the purveyors of disinformation.” “I have to live with trump as president the next 4 years and possibly the rest of my life because of these ‘working class’ idiots who vote against their own interests.” “Most working class people are not reading the NYT, or any conventional news sources—this goes double for the Trump supporters amongst them. They are ignorant.” In the end, such an outlook is neither pragmatic nor populist. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/23/democrats-progressives-centrists-future

An attempt by the New South Wales government to reintroduce koalas to a forest in the state’s far south has failed after more than half of the moved animals died, including two with signs of septicaemia, and the remaining marsupials were taken into care. The translocation and deaths of seven out of 13 koalas in April were not made public by the government, prompting questions about whether something went wrong with the project and calls from the NSW Greens for a review. The project was aiming to re-establish a koala po[CENSORED]tion in an area of south-eastern NSW where the species is locally extinct. Translocation is part of NSW’s koala strategy to try to improve the trajectory of the endangered species, at risk of extinction in the state. A spokesperson for the NSW environment department told Guardian Australia 13 koalas were selected for translocation in April and moved from “a high-density po[CENSORED]tion” in the Upper Nepean state conservation area west of Wollongong to the South East Forest national park near Bega. They said three koalas died within a two-day period in early April, which led the department’s project team to put the remaining 10 animals into a wildlife hospital. Four more koalas died. They said necropsy results from two of the first three koalas that died revealed chronic and acute infections of the lungs and liver, suggesting septicaemia – a bloodstream infection – “as the likely cause of death”. Koalas face death, attacks and starvation as blue gums chopped down in Victoria Read more The spokesperson said the remaining six koalas were healthy and returned to their original habitat in the Upper Nepean. They said the reintroduction project was immediately put on hold for research to try to establish what caused the deaths. The team was “investigating a potential link between septicaemia in koalas and adverse weather conditions, as the mortalities occurred four to five days after a significant rainfall event,” they said. “We believe prolonged wet weather can pose serious health risks to koalas, disrupting feeding behaviour, inhibiting thermoregulation, and weakening the immune system.” They said the project team, in collaboration with researchers and veterinarians, would continue investigating “the potential impact of heavy rainfall, as well as factors such as diet, nutrition, and gut microbiome on the success of future translocations”. The state Greens environment spokesperson, Sue Higginson, said the incident was “deeply distressing” and sent “a very cynical message that the government is focused on [a] high risk and failed koala program effort” while habitat destruction for development and logging continued. “This koala translocation experiment has been a catastrophic failure and raises serious questions about how it happened,” she said. “The control settings around this translocation experiment must now be brought into question and reviewed because it would appear they were flawed. “It is deeply concerning that the government allowed this program in the circumstances and given the outcomes, it’s clear they shouldn’t have.” Carolyn Hogg, a professor of biodiversity and conservation at the University of Sydney, said wildlife translocation could be complex and the deaths were “a really unfortunate event”. “We do know unexpected weather events may cause pathogens to unexpectedly appear,” she said. Hogg said for NSW koala po[CENSORED]tions under pressure from habitat fragmentation and isolation, translocation projects were a management tool that could improve gene flow and genetic diversity. Valentina Mella is a senior lecturer in animal behaviour and conservation at the University of Sydney. Speaking generally, she said there were important scientific questions that should be considered before translocating wildlife into a new area. “When you move an animal into a habitat that is considered suitable for that species but that species is not actually present, you have to ask yourself why,” she said. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/14/more-than-half-of-koalas-relocated-to-nsw-forest-died-in-failed-government-attempt-at-reintroduction

Our spy photographers caught what we thought was a Ford Bronco Sport Raptor testing without camouflage, but it's actually just a joke. The fake Raptor version of Ford's compact crossover sits higher, partially thanks to BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 tires. The prototype also has larger exhaust pipes and two mufflers instead of one, but we now know that a real-life Bronco Sport Raptor isn't in the cards. UPDATE 7/24/25, 6:50 p.m.: A Ford spokesperson confirmed to Car and Driver that the Bronco Sport "Raptor" that was captured in our spy photos isn't a real upcoming model. Instead, it's more of an internal joke. "This is our team having fun, not a Bronco Sport Raptor. Just like our customers, we encourage employees to leverage the customization superpowers of the Bronco family and continue to explore possibilities," the spokesperson said in an email. Once exclusive to the F-150 pickup truck, the Raptor nameplate has begun spreading through the Ford lineup. Along with the F-150 Raptor and V-8-powered F-150 Raptor R, Ford now sells a Raptor variant of the Bronco off-roader and a Raptor-ized version of the smaller Ranger pickup. It appears that Ford isn't stopping there: our spy photographers have caught this Raptor-badged Ford Bronco Sport prototype testing, and it seems to pack some serious hardware upgrades. The Bronco Sport Raptor prototype wears no camouflage, curiously, and it proudly displays Raptor badges on the front doors and tailgate. The former appears to be the emblem from the tailgate of the Bronco Raptor, while the latter looks like the badge from the rear of the Ranger Raptor. The prototype also sports a Sasquatch sticker on the rear fender, suggesting that this vehicle may have started life as a Badlands Sasquatch model, a new addition to the Bronco Sport lineup for 2025. There's also a sticker on the rear window depicting Mothman, a cryptid that was reportedly spotted prowling West Virginia in the 1960s, spawning a series of tall tales. We're not sure what to draw from this sticker, and it might just be Ford engineers having a bit of fun, given that the Sasquatch package is already named for a legendary cryptid. The steel front bumper and bull bar look identical to those of the Sasquatch, but there are some notable differences on this Raptor prototype. The fender flares are wider and feature exposed rivets. This Bronco Sport looks to have a taller ride height, which could come in part from a revised suspension. But that extra ground clearance is also thanks to the beefy BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 tires, a significant upgrade over the Sasquatch model's Goodyear Territory all-terrain rubber. Unfortunately, we don't know the tire sizes, as Ford's engineers appear to have scraped off the tire code on the sidewalls. Interestingly, the KM3 is a more serious off-road tire than the BFGoodrich KO2s fitted to all other Raptor models, with more of a focus on traction in mud and on rocks at the sacrifice of on-road performance. The prototype is also sporting a new exhaust setup. Instead of a single muffler that leads to two exhaust tips, there are two separate mufflers that each lead to much larger exhaust outlets. This could mean that the Bronco Sport Raptor could add some extra oomph on top of the 250 horsepower put out by the turbocharged inline-four. We're not entirely sure what to make of this prototype. Ford could be developing a new Bronco Sport Raptor, or it could just be testing upgrades to the Sasquatch package or other optional equipment, with the Raptor badges meant to fool us. If this does enter production as a Bronco Sport Raptor, we expect even more design changes to differentiate it from lesser Bronco Sport models, starting with a bolder grille featuring the large "FORD" badging like other Raptor models. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a65501680/ford-bronco-sport-raptor-spy-photos/

Andrei Cordea (26 de ani) e pe lista lui Gigi Becali pentru a îl înlocui pe Marius Ștefănescu. Furios după 0-1 cu Shkendija, patronul FCSB a dezvăluit la FANATIK SUPERLIGA că îl trimite pe Ștefănescu la Dinamo. Andrei Cordea, primul mesaj după ce Gigi Becali vrea să îl readucă la FCSB Andrei Cordea poate profita de conjunctura de la FCSB și să revină la echipa pentru care a jucat între 2021 și 2023. Mijlocașul dreapta e liber de contract după despărțirea de Al-Tai și a stârnit interesul lui Gigi Becali. Latifundiarul din Pipera caută înlocuitor pentru Marius Ștefănescu, pe care vrea să îl cedeze la rivala Dinamo. În cazul în care se va întoarce la FCSB, Andrei Cordea va fi din nou coleg cu Florin Tănase. Cei doi sunt foarte buni prieteni și deja fac afaceri împreună. Cordea a achiziționat un apartament în Noura Residence, complex amplasat în partea de nord a Bucureștiului, pe care Tănase îl construiește împreună cu agentul Florin Vulturar. „Am achiziționat un apartament cu trei camere de 93 de metri pătrați cu balcon și parcare. Am fost plăcut surprins să știu cât de repede va fi gata proiectul și important a fost că nu au fost blocaje, cum se întâmplă des în alte imobiliare. M-a convins prietenul meu, Florin Tănase, pentru că știam că el este în spatele proiectului și va face totul așa cum își dorește și evident cum îmi doresc și eu. Un alt coleg de națională și-a luat apartament în complexul lui Florin Tănase: Încet, dar sigur, Florin Tănase își strânge prietenii și coechipierii în Noura Residence. Recent, Deian Sorescu, coleg de națională cu Tănase și fost jucător la FCSB, a cumpărat și el un apartament în complexul din nordul Bucureștiului. Ansamblul rezidențial pe care îl construiește „decarul” campioanei României va avea 127 de apartamente. Ele vor fi repartizate în patru blocuri cu câte 6 etaje. Complexul este unul de lux, astfel că prețurile sunt destul de piperate și nu vor fi accesibile pentru orice buzunar. „Încrederea colegilor este cel mai bun feedback. Mulțumim, Deian Sorescu, că ai ales să fii parte din proiectul semnat Florin Tănase. Vino și tu în echipa campionilor”, se arată în postarea celor de la Noura Development. https://www.fanatik.ro/m-a-convins-florin-tanase-andrei-cordea-mesaj-dupa-ce-gigi-becali-si-a-manifestat-interesul-video-21234006

Some call it a friendship recession: a time when close male friendships sink to their lowest. Here’s how friendships for straight men fall to the wayside – and what could bring them together. As a therapist, Jeremy Mohler spends his days guiding middle-aged men through feelings of loneliness. He encourages them to seek connections, yet the 39-year-old is the first to admit it: when you’re a guy, making real friends in midlife is difficult. “It feels like an uphill battle,” says Mohler, who lives in Baltimore. Some call it a friendship recession: a time in midlife when close male friendships sink to their lowest. According to data from the Survey Center on American Life, 15% of US men said they do not have close friends in 2021, compared with 3% in 1990. Those reporting 10 or more close friends decreased from 33% to 13% during the same period. Authentic or close friendship may mean different things to different people. One straightforward description is finding “someone who sees you as you see yourself, and you see them as they see themselves”, says Niobe Way, a developmental psychology professor at New York University. Jeffrey Hall, a professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas who studies friendships and has previously found it can take 200 hours to make a close friend, says: “A true friend will support and stand by you no matter what, will stand up for you, and tells you the truth.” Overwhelmed by company? Five introvert-friendly ways to hang out Read more The reasons for the friendship recession are complex, says Hall. Straight men Mohler’s age often depend on their partners for socializing. Some dive deep into parenthood. College buddies disperse. Work priorities take over. And moving to a new city or country can dissolve formerly strong bonds. Ultimately, it can feel too hard to invest time in new and deeper friendships. Despite loneliness due to estrangement from relatives or different family structures, “many gay men find and build community around an embrace of shared spaces,” says Matt Lundquist, a therapist in New York, which he finds is less common for heterosexual men. “This sort of intentional taking on a project of searching for new, deeper friendships is more a heterosexual project. It is a demographic that is very isolated.” “My clients are looking for more connections,” Mohler says. “I have ideas and skills and solutions, but I’m still personally searching for practical ways to do that.” He is not the only one feeling the itch to turn a workout buddy into someone he can call on a Saturday afternoon. US men aged 15 to 35 are among the loneliest in wealthy countries, with 25% reporting feeling lonely for a lot of the previous day, according to a 2025 Gallup poll. Marketing professor and po[CENSORED]r podcast host Scott Galloway recently touted the benefits of authentic connections for men amid what he called a “perfect storm of loneliness”. “Men have it drilled into us from an early age that vulnerability and emotional connections are signs of weakness,” Galloway wrote. “They aren’t, and men with influence have an obligation to cleanse this bullshit version of masculinity from the zeitgeist.” The men I interviewed say they don’t want to be just a stat in the much-touted loneliness epidemic, which is also increasingly being tied to poorer physical and mental health outcomes. Still, it’s difficult to avoid in practice. “There’s a certain cultural understanding that men don’t know how to enact intimacy or that it’s simply not practiced very much,” says Hall. “And even men’s po[CENSORED]r culture doesn’t show you how to go about the process.” Some are figuring it out. Jedidiah Jenkins, 42, an author living in Los Angeles, says he’s had to relearn about the importance of maintaining close bonds with other men. As a teenager, he had plenty of friends; making them seemed effortless. “You didn’t have to work for it,” Jenkins says. “We have to learn in the same way that we actively download dating apps and pursue a relationship that we have to pursue friendships.” I’m in my 20s with lots of online friends, but can’t seem to connect IRL Read more For the last few years, Jenkins has organized a weekly hangout at his house. Anywhere from three to 20 friends show up for what he calls “riff raff Thursdays”, including a handful of regulars. He starts a bonfire and serves hot tea, mezcal and peanut butter pretzels. The consistency means that his friends know what they are doing that week, and takes away the pressure of scheduling one-on-one meetups. “It doesn’t require the full energy of finding time for a weekly coffee date,” he says. How male friendships fall by the wayside Before the second world war, same-sex male friendships were a large part of public life, and women’s friendships were seen as frivolous and less important, Hall explains. But these roles have since reversed. Today, most heterosexual men feel they are marrying someone who becomes the default events planner, and their genuine close friendships fall away, Hall says. “They rely on their wives to develop the social calendar – they think: ‘She’ll do it and I don’t have to do it’,” he says. “There’s atrophy in their skillset.” Way, the developmental psychology professor, says girls and boys start out on the same trajectory of prioritizing friendships. But boys feel pressure to give up their same-sex friendships because it feels “girly or gay”. Rates of male suicide also tick up around adolescence. “It’s not that they naturally don’t want these friendships. They had them when they were younger,” she says. “It’s not some weird biological thing.” Way, who receives emails from hundreds of men each year about her research, says more of them feel like it’s possible to secure closer friendships after the pandemic because the topic is receiving more attention. “They are now recognizing what the problems are,” she says. “They’ve hit the bottom of the barrel.” At the same time, her research points to a culture that doesn’t value friendships. Since the 1980s, she says, the United States’ focus on self-fulfillment has reduced the importance of friendships for everyone. Digital life distracts us too much or provides a simulacrum of closeness; even listening to podcasts can bring a faux feeling of intimacy. “We focus more on the self, and the tech just exacerbates it,” she says. Bringing men together In Hebden Bridge, England, former professional rugby player Craig White has started hosting nature retreats for men to encourage deeper connections. White, now a mentor and coach, runs a “mid-life intensive” program that offers online meetings along with a three-day in-person meet-up. White’s retreats involve hiking, spending nights around a fire, discussing feelings openly and bonding outside of day-to-day pressures. When it came to his father, “healthy male friendship wasn’t modeled and the friendship groups involved alcohol,” he says. “A lot of my clients are brilliant men, but a lot of their old friends are still doing the same thing and there’s a reluctance to go back to that.” Draymond Washington, an entrepreneur and former financial adviser, founded a private club in Chicago called Three Cities Social earlier this year, and says connecting midlife professionals is the goal. But after months of hosting events, he realized that while the club’s membership is roughly 40% male, event attendance was typically 80% women, he says. Men aren’t always willing to come to the club to socialize. So he has started hosting events aimed specifically at men in their 30s and 40s: boxing classes, pickleball and boat rides. “Guys like to do stuff,” Washington says. “Someone needs to curate and then they do want to show up.” He’s been able to engage more men this way, but it’s been more difficult than he expected. https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/ng-interactive/2025/jul/10/male-friendships-midlife

Americanii au aprobat joi, vânzarea de sisteme de apărare aeriană către Egipt. Afacerea are o valoare de aproape cinci miliarde de dolari. Egiptul este unul dintre cei mai mari beneficiari ai echipamentelor militare americane, informează Mediafax. Tranzacția se referă la NASAMS, sisteme de rachete sol-aer produse de RTX și utilizate în special de ucraineni timp de luni de zile pentru a contracara atacurile aeriene rusești. Această vânzare va „susține politica externă și obiectivele de securitate națională ale Statelor Unite prin consolidarea securității unui aliat major non-NATO, care este o forță pentru stabilitatea politică și progresul economic în Orientul Mijlociu”, a transmis Agenția de Cooperare pentru Securitate și Apărare a SUA (DSCA) într-un comunicat citat de Le Figaro. Egiptul este, alături de Israel, unul dintre cei mai mari beneficiari ai suportului militar american. După ce Donald Trump a revenit la putere în ianuarie, guvernul american a înghețat toate livrările, cu excepția celor acordate Egiptului și Israelului. https://www.stiripesurse.ro/tranzactie-majora-cu-puternice-implicatii-militare-statele-unite-aproba-vanzarea-de-sisteme-de-rachete-sol-aer-catre-egip_3767464.html

Contra for me too, no activity at all!

Tesla sales in Europe have collapsed by one-third this year, data shows, after Elon Musk warned the electric carmaker faced “a few rough quarters” ahead. According to the figures published on Thursday by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), sales of Tesla vehicles in Europe slumped by 33% to 110,000 in the first half of 2025, compared with 165,000 in the first half of 2024. The data suggests Tesla is still trying to emerge from a sales rut in Europe, even after releasing a refreshed version of the Model Y, its bestselling car. It is not the only carmaker struggling to tempt European customers, with total new car sales across the EU down by 7% in June. However, Tesla faces specific challenges. Musk, whose shares in the company have made him the world’s richest man, has contributed to the decline by backing Europe’s far-right political parties, and briefly allying himself with Donald Trump, who is deeply unpo[CENSORED]r across the continent. The Tesla chief executive’s alliance with Trump has since blown up spectacularly, while the company has come under pressure in the US from the president’s anti-EV policies. Sales across Europe – including the EU, UK, Norway and Switzerland – were down for the US carmaker by more than a fifth year on year in June, to 35,000. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/24/tesla-european-sales-elon-musk-electric-carmaker

saw her personalised shin pad adorned with her wedding photo, and because she joked last week that she still hadn’t got her husband, Scott, a card. But then Kelly has always had a rare gift for catching the eye. Her shirt-waving celebration at Wembley remains the defining image of the Euro 2022 triumph. Her trademark headband renders her instantly recognisable in a squad full of above-average-height blond women. Her hop-skip penalty run-up is unique. In a profession where many are naturally wary of being seen to court attention, Kelly is luxuriantly comfortable with being the focus of your gaze. As her teammate Esme Morgan puts it: “She just doesn’t really care what people think.” Being England’s unashamed icon and an effortless content generator comes with clear off-pitch benefits. Be real: who here can name the wedding date of any other Lioness? Who here can imitate a typical Lauren Hemp penalty run-up? How many Jess Park goal celebrations have you seen commemorated in a tattoo? But of course the benefits can be felt on the field too, and so far this month England have been merrily reaping them. There is a counterfactual history of England’s Euro 2025 to be written in which Kelly does not post her astonishing social media tirade against Manchester City at the end of January. In which she does not get the move to Arsenal that rescues her career, does not win back her England place, does not rescue the quarter-final against Sweden or score the winning goal against Italy. And – quite frankly – it is a history in which England’s players are watching Sunday’s final from their sofas. Frozen out by Gareth Taylor at Manchester City, out of contract in the summer, handed one league start all season, Kelly was ready to walk away from the game. City were prepared to let her go on loan to Brighton. Kelly wanted to join Manchester United. City were unwilling to lose her to a rival. Result: deadlock. And with just hours remaining of the January transfer window, a deadlock Kelly realised she was going to have to break herself. “While I can’t control someone’s negative behaviour towards me, I can control how long I am prepared to tolerate it,” Kelly wrote in an Instagram post very clearly self-penned. “To be dictated whom I can and can’t join with only four months left of the football season is having a huge impact on not only my career but my mental wellbeing. Our dreams can be crushed while we live in silence.” Kelly’s outspokenness was immediately rewarded with a last-gasp move to Arsenal. And yet to burn her bridges with City so publicly was a decision fraught with risk, but also a measure of her need to dictate terms rather than have them dictated to her, to act rather than let things drift, to determine her own fate. After the Italy game, someone asked Kelly who had made her the person she is today. “Myself,” she answered. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/jul/24/chloe-kelly-england-women-euro-2025-final

A man who was apparently trying to reach Spain from Morocco using a rubber ring and flippers has been rescued after he was spotted by a family sailing to the Balearic islands. The family were on their yacht 13 nautical miles south of the Andalucían town of Benalmádena on the Costa del Sol, on 16 July when they manoeuvred around the stern of an oil tanker and saw something moving on the waves. According to the Diario Sur newspaper, they assumed it was a bird until they looked through a pair of binoculars and realised it was a person. Video of the rescue, shared on social media by the Spanish Royal Assembly of Yacht Captains (RAECY), shows the exhausted young man swimming towards the yacht as a rope is thrown for him to grab. After bringing him on to the boat, the family gave him water, clothes and a cup of soup. “We’ve called in a shipwrecked man and we’re going to pick him up,” says a man in the footage as he pans the camera around the empty waters. “It’s incredible where he is because just look, all the passing boats are really far away from him.” Sources at the RAECY said the man was wearing a wetsuit and was equipped with only the ring and a pair of flippers. “He almost didn’t speak,” they said. The family headed for the port of Estepona but were met by a maritime rescue service vessel at sea that took the man to port in Málaga and handed him over to police and the Red Cross. Such dangerous crossings are not uncommon. “Dozens of migrants try to reach Spain like this, using the only basic means they can afford,” wrote María Martín, migration correspondent for the Spanish daily newspaper El País. She said it was a method often used by young men trying to reach the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in north Africa, but added it was less common among those trying to cross the wider stretch of the Alborán Sea between Morocco and Spain. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/22/man-rescued-trying-to-reach-spain-from-morocco-in-rubber-ring-and-flippers

Perhaps the most notorious of Ozzy Osbourne’s outrageous on-stage antics was biting the head off of a bat. So as tributes for the late rocker poured in from around the globe, one stuck out as particularly surprising – from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta). The 76-year-old Black Sabbath frontman’s death was announced on Tuesday, with his family saying Osbourne – who suffered from various ailments, including a form of Parkinson’s disease – “was with his family and surrounded by love”. Tributes soon poured in for Osbourne from musical world luminaries such as Elton John, Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart … and Peta, the famously strident animal-protection group. “Ozzy Osbourne was a legend and a provocateur, but Peta will remember the ‘Prince of Darkness’ most fondly for the gentle side he showed to animals – most recently cats, by using his fame to decry painful, crippling declawing mutilations,” Peta said on its website and social channels. “Ozzy may have been the singer, but his wife, Sharon, and his daughter, Kelly, were of one voice when it meant protecting animals. “Ozzy will be missed by animal advocates the world over.” Osbourne had famously partnered with the organisation in 2020 to speak out against the declawing of cats, and lent his face to an ad campaign showing his bloodied hands with the tagline: “It’s an amputation. Not a manicure.” “Amputating a cat’s toes is twisted and wrong. If your couch is more important to you than your cat’s health and happiness, you don’t deserve to have an animal! Get cats a scratching post – don’t mutilate them for life,” Osbourne was quoted as saying at the time. Peta suggests that those looking to protect their pets to seek out “humane ways to prevent cats from scratching on furniture”. As well as biting the head off a dead bat he believed to be a stage prop in 1982 while performing in Iowa – and later going to hospital for a rabies inoculation – Osbourne also claimed to have bitten the heads off two doves during a record label meeting the year before, supposedly having brought them to the meeting to release as a sign of peace. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jul/23/ozzy-osborune-animals-peta

The Jeffrey Epstein files scandal swirling around Donald Trump and his administration continued to escalate on Thursday as officials from the Department of Justice met with the late sex offender’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, whose lawyer said she “answered every question … honestly and to the best of her ability”. Todd Blanche, the US deputy attorney general, arrived on Thursday morning at the office of the US attorney in Tallahassee, Florida, ABC News reported. The state prosecutor’s office is based in the federal courthouse in the Florida capital and Maxwell’s lawyers were also seen entering the building, the TV network reported. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking and other crimes at a federal prison in Florida, after being convicted in New York in late 2021. On Thursday afternoon, Maxwell’s attorney David Markus said that his team and Blanche had a “very productive day”, Fox News reported, adding that Markus declined to comment on whether Maxwell and Blanche would meet again on Friday. “[Blanche] took a full day and asked a lot of questions,” Markus said, adding: “Miss Maxwell answered every single question. She never stopped. She never invoked a privilege. She never declined to answer. She answered all the questions truthfully, honestly and to the best of her ability.” The meeting comes amid growing political and public pressure on the Trump administration to release more details about the Epstein investigation – something that Trump and members of his administration had promised. Mark Epstein, the brother of the disgraced financier, told the Guardian in an interview that if he had the opportunity he would ask Maxwell “what she and Jeffrey might have known what the dirt was on Donald Trump”. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/24/ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-doj

“We regret the absence of an official list that allows us to verify with more precision,” the group said, adding that some lists in circulation had included people not classed as political detainees, people who had already been released and even prisoners who had died. “At Foro Penal we remain in coordination with families working to verify other cases.” The communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about who was to be released and whether any of them would be subject to house arrest or other alternatives to detention. The main opposition coalition in Venezuela cheered the release of the prisoners, but said on Sunday that nearly 1,000 people were still in jail in Venezuela for political reasons and that 12 others had been arrested in recent days in what it called a “revolving door” for political prisoners. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/21/venezuela-to-investigate-alleged-torture-of-its-citizens-in-el-salvador-jail

Agrowing number of products and routines – such as red light masks and de-puffing regimens – claim to fight the signs of inflammation. Many nutritional methods have proven to help chronic inflammation, too – such as eating a vegetable-heavy Mediterranean diet or more whole grains and omega-3-rich fish. But cost and access issues can get in the way of these solutions. Plus, they may not address a major root cause, as increasing evidence says chronic stress can induce chronic inflammation. To prevent and manage chronic stress, more health professionals are offering “social prescriptions”, or referrals to non-medical, community-based, de-stressing activities. Often, these activities are free or the costs are covered by another party, like an insurer or local non-profit. Dr Alan Siegel, executive director of non-profit Social Prescribing USA and a family physician at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, has prescribed community walks, painting classes and museum visits to his patients for over two decades. “Whether somebody walks into my office with type 2 diabetes or depression, I’ve seen how social prescriptions can help patients truly heal and adopt healthier lifestyles in the long-term.” More than 30 countries and a dozen US states have social prescribing programs, which have led to improved health and reduced pressure on healthcare. But even without a doctor’s note or a thick wallet, anyone can engage in these scientifically backed anti-inflammatory activities. What is inflammation? Inflammation – the body’s evolutionary response to infection, injury, or other threats – has been a trending topic in the health world. Some scientists have even called inflammation “the cause of all diseases”. But what actually causes inflammation, and what fights it? In some contexts, inflammation is good. When the body faces an acute threat – say, an ear infection or a sprained ankle – it responds with acute inflammation, an immune system process marked by fever, swelling and pain in the affected area. But in the face of chronic threats – say, from trauma or job stress – acute inflammation can also become chronic, and the immune, stress and cardiometabolic responses can become dysregulated. Research links chronic inflammation with low mood, cognitive impairment, cardiovascular risks and a range of mental health conditions including depression and dementia. Spend time in nature Forest-bathing – engaging in natural environments with all five senses – is a known wellbeing booster. But according to Dr Qing Li, professor of clinical medicine at Nippon Medical school in Tokyo, forest bathing can also help support healthy functioning of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis, a key player in controlling the stress and inflammation response. “Forest environments can promote relaxation and activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the ‘rest and digest’ functions,” says Dr Li. It can also reduce activity in the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the “fight or flight” responses. By helping to prevent and manage stress, forest bathing can also help prevent and manage chronic inflammation. https://www.theguardian.com/global/2025/jul/22/how-to-fight-chronic-inflammation-free

The Tour de France debutant Valentin Paret-Peintre banished the bitter memories of Julian Alaphilippe’s misplaced celebrations in Carcassonne on Sunday by becoming the fifth French rider to win at the summit of Mont Ventoux. For the French, such success on the Giant of Provence, the first in the Tour in 23 years, justified huge celebration and plenty of tears. Paret-Peintre’s impressive victory came at the expense of the indefatigable Ben Healy, who was within a hair’s breadth of taking his second stage win of the Tour. It was Paret-Peintre’s second Grand Tour win, after his stage victory in the 2024 Giro. “This morning I didn’t think this was possible, because I expected [Tadej] Pogacar to want to win,” he said. Yet the absence of his Soudal Quick-Step team leader, Remco Evenepoel, who abandoned the Tour in the Pyrenees, opened a door of opportunity for the climber from the Haute-Savoie. “I could see that I wasn’t strong enough to drop Healy in the finale,” he said, of his team’s fourth stage win in this year’s race, “so I focused on trying to beat him in the sprint.” But while Healy and Paret-Peintre were playing out the final moments of a sparring match that had started much further down the mountain, Jonas Vingegaard was keeping his promise to attack the race leader Pogacar. Just 48 hours after Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike team had been lambasted for their lack of cohesion and accused of disloyalty towards the two-time champion by some critics, they were transformed into a cohesive well-drilled unit, working hard to support his efforts to dislodge Pogacar. Sepp Kuss, Wout van Aert and Tiesj Benoot put in lengthy turns pacemaking their leader on the never-ending climb, in the hope of finally cracking Pogacar. “The team did really amazing today,” Vingegaard said. “Everybody worked, there was real commitment from everyone.” But the Dane’s best efforts, which saw him make several attacks on his rival, came to nothing. On the Ventoux’s cruel final bend, perhaps the worst on the climb, the Slovenian again opened up a gap, sneaking clear to increase his overall lead by another couple of seconds. “He followed me every time he attacked and I followed him,” Vingegaard said after the stage. “I don’t know if I could see any weaknesses today but at least, how good I felt gives me motivation. I will keep trying. “I was feeling very good, so I’m happy. I didn’t get any time, but I take a lot of motivation from it.” Yet insult was added to injury when Vingegaard collided with a photographer on the Ventoux summit’s cramped finish line. “A photographer stepped right in front of me,” he said. “I don’t know what he was doing. I went down. People who are working on the finish line need to be more careful.” However hard he tries, he cannot find any weaknesses in Pogacar’s armour. Vingegaard’s first attacks, in the forested section of the climb, splintered the main peloton and took him across to his teammate Benoot. For a fleeting moment and for perhaps the first time in this Tour, Pogacar initially showed signs of stress. At Chalet Reynard however, 6km from the top, the pair were still inseparable, although Vingegaard had one more card to play. As they bridged up to another of his teammates, Victor Campenaerts, he had another ally to pace him into the decisive kilometres. But the Dane’s next move, with 4km to race, once more failed to dislodge the race leader. The pair’s blistering times on Ventoux shattered all precedents. The past record, set by Spain’s Iban Mayo in a 2004 time trial, was 55 minutes and 51 seconds. Pogacar beat that mark by a minute and 20 seconds, with Vingegaard just two seconds slower. Afterwards Pogacar, asked what his limits were, appeared offended by the question. “I don’t think we could ride much faster,” he said. “Jonas and his team did very good pacing. On our aero bikes we go pretty fast, maybe we pick up a couple of seconds. I don’t know. What do you want?” He maintained too that, despite appearances, he was no Superman. “I’m definitely not Superman. I was born in Ljubljana. Today was an epic climb to do and we brought down the gap quite fast. We saw the winners in the last 800 metres, but even for Superman I don’t think it would have been possible to catch them.” There were some other shifts in the overall standings, although Kelso’s Oscar Onley clung on and remains stubbornly in fourth place overall, after finishing 14th on the stage. But Primoz Roglic, ninth on the Ventoux, is moving up the standings and has now climbed into the top five, while the unflagging Healy remains in the Tour’s top 10, in ninth place overall. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jul/22/tour-de-france-valentin-paret-peintre-stays-ice-cool-on-mont-ventoux-for-famous-victory-cycling

A sensitive data in the car entertainment and navigation system and most people forget to wipe this after they leave a hire car,” he says. Why are Chinese vehicles the focus of concern? China is a major manufacturer of electric vehicles (EVs) through brands including BYD and XPeng. This, allied with the Chinese state’s use of cyber-espionage, makes those cars a source of potential concern. China’s National Intelligence Law of 2017, for instance, states that all organisations and citizens shall “support, assist and cooperate” with national intelligence efforts. “Chinese law obliges Chinese companies to cooperate with state security, so one has to assume that if a car is capable of spying on you it may be misused to do so,” says Prof Alan Woodward, a computer security expert at the University of Surrey. There is “no evidence” in the public domain to point to use of Chinese vehicles in such a way, he adds. However, experts also wonder if China would risk causing serious damage to a key export sector such as EVs by making it a vector for intelligence gathering. Mobile phones, smart watches and other wearable devices are more likely targets for espionage. What does the UK government say? A government spokesperson would not comment on specific security measures, but said: “Protecting national security is our top priority and we have strict procedures in place to ensure that government sites and information are appropriately protected.” A more detailed statement was made last month by the defence minister Lord Coaker, who said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was “working with other government departments to understand and mitigate any potential threats to national security from vehicles”. He said the work related to all types of vehicle and “not just those manufactured in China”. Referring to an i report that the MoD had banned EVs with Chinese components from sensitive sites and military training bases, he said there were “no centrally mandated policy restrictions on the movement of Chinese manufactured vehicles”. However, he said individual defence organisations – a reference to public and private entities – may have stricter EV requirements on certain sites. BYD has been contacted for comment. XPeng said it was “committed to continuously adhering to and complying with the applicable UK and EU privacy laws and regulations”. The SMMT, the trade body for UK carmakers and traders, told the i: “All manufacturers with cars on sale in the UK must adhere to relevant regulations on data privacy, and EVs are no different. “The industry is committed to upholding a high level of customer data protection, including proportionate use of data, including apps and paired mobile phones, which can be removed from cars according to individual manufacturer instructions, giving peace of mind to motorists.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/29/source-of-data-are-electric-cars-vulnerable-to-cyber-spies-and-hackers

Conservationists have called on the environment minister, Murray Watt, to intervene after satellite images appear to show clearing in threatened species habitat at the site of a proposed coalmine in Queensland. Images and drone footage obtained by the Queensland Conservation Council over the past two months appear to show large areas of bushland cleared at the site of Magnetic South’s proposed Gemini coalmine near Dingo in central Queensland. Public documents released under freedom of information laws show the environment department told the company in 2022 it strongly recommended referral of the project to consider whether it required an assessment for potentially significant impacts on the Brigalow ecological community, and species including the greater glider, koala and bridled nail-tail wallaby. The council wrote to Watt last month alerting him and the federal environment department’s compliance unit to what it claimed was the removal of “approximately 200 hectares of greater glider habitat” since late May in an area earmarked for an open coal pit. The council wrote it had “urgent concerns” that construction of the mine might have commenced without referral of the project for an assessment under Australia’s environmental laws. The proposed metallurgical coal project, which would produce up to 1.9m tonnes of coal a year, has attracted concerns in the past due to a Queensland government decision not to require an environmental impact statement and opposition from graziers. In its letter to Watt, the Queensland Conservation Council asked whether the alleged clearing had been approved by the federal government and whether the government needed to take enforcement action. The council wrote it believed the clearing could be unlawful and that it expected Watt’s department “to take urgent action accordingly to protect this culturally and ecologically significant place”. The council’s coal and gas campaigner, Charlie Cox, said Watt needed to urgently step in. “There is now drone footage, satellite imagery, and traditional owners on the ground all suggesting that yet another coal corporation has taken it upon themselves to start building their mine without the relevant federal approvals,” she said. Cox called on the minister to use enforcement powers to stop the alleged clearing and to call the project in for a federal assessment. “Murray Watt is committed to reforming our environment laws that are woefully failing nature, he needs to actually enforce the existing laws too,” she said. Zhanae Dodd is a Ghungalu woman and founder of Guyala Yimba, an Indigenous human rights consultancy. Ghungalu custodians have a camp at the proposed mine site, where they have been conducting cultural ceremony since early this month.

Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, called an early recess as Democrats push for a vote to release the Epstein files. Key US politics stories from Tuesday 22 July at a glance. House speaker says calls for an Epstein files vote ‘political games’ Republicans downplayed the decision to cut short the workweek, while arguing that the White House has already moved to resolve questions about the case. Last week, Trump asked the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release grand jury testimony, although that is expected to be only a fraction of the case’s documents. The House speaker, Mike Johnson, dismissed the calls for a vote as “political games” and also argued that Congress must be careful in calling for the release of documents related to the case, for fear of retraumatizing his victims. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/23/trump-administration-news-updates-today

almost five years ago. “There were lots of men and women working there at the end.” During its 40 years of operations, workers at Bridgend Ford produced 22m engines for Ford, Volvo and Jaguar cars, before it closed quietly in September 2020 during ongoing Covid restrictions. Debbie’s husband was one of 1,700 people who worked for the biggest employer in the town, located between Cardiff and Swansea, when the factory’s closure was announced in 2019. After about 30 years of service, he took early retirement in his late 50s when he received his redundancy payment. At the time, many other Ford workers pinned their hopes on taking their skills to a car plant planned for a neighbouring industrial estate by the chemicals company Ineos, where it intended to build its Grenadier 4x4 vehicle. However, the company owned by billionaire Brexit-backer Sir Jim Ratcliffe subsequently cancelled the development, opting to build the “British” vehicle in France. “Ford workers still meet up,” says Debbie, highlighting the ongoing feeling of community. However, the closure led to the workforce scattering to various other employers – including carmaker Aston Martin’s plant at nearby St Athan – while others retrained. “Welsh cloud region” Coming up for five years later, the Ford site is still empty, but an industry of the future has big plans. The US-based datacentre company Vantage bought the land for a reported £27.5m in 2024, the biggest industrial transaction in south Wales last year. In recent weeks it has submitted a planning application to the council to build a huge datacentre complex on the site, representing a multibillion-pound investment. “We recognise the importance of industry in Bridgend,” says Vantage in its application, stating that the cluster of 10 datacentres will “lay the foundation for future prosperity and regional economic regeneration”. Future prosperity may, however, be some way off. Subject to gaining planning approval, Vantage intends to start construction early next year, and will build the complex over three phases up to 2040. Once operational, it is pledging 600 full-time jobs on site, with a further 350 in the supply chain. It says the average salary of Vantage employees is £75,000, more than double the average salary in Bridgend, or Wales. The company, backed by a consortium of investors including DigitalBridge Group, Silver Lake, Australian Super and others already operates one datacentre 30 miles east along the M4 motorway at Newport and has received planning permission for another in the Vale of Glamorgan. Vantage writes in its planning statement to the council that these three locations would “form the cornerstone of a Welsh cloud region”. A company spokesperson said its expansion in south Wales was linked to “many factors … from the availability of land, power and skilled labour to the support of the local councils and national government, and customer demand”. The company also estimates the development will help the town by generating £8.3m a year in business rates for the local authority, although in Wales these are pooled between councils and distributed centrally. More money for the area would clearly be welcomed by locals, many of whom bemoan the state of public services. On a sweltering weekday morning, groups of retired women are dodging soaring temperatures inside Bridgend’s Aroma cafe. Many are former colleagues meeting for regular coffee catch-ups, where the lack of local public transport or the disappointing state of Bridgend’s town centre with many vacant stores are common themes. “It’s all right if you vape, or want a Turkish barber,” says Susan, sitting at one of the tables. “You don’t come into town if you want an outfit.” Home of heavy industry Many in Bridgend feel they have heard promises from large companies before. While the town itself was never home to heavy industry, the surrounding region relied on it, and the Tata steelworks at Port Talbot is just 14 miles up the road. When Ford opened in 1980, the area was already home to dozens of car parts companies and it was hoped the automotive sector would take the place of a declining coal industry, which employed 250,000 in Wales at its peak. Significant numbers of Welsh miners took part in the 1984-85 miners’ strike, led by Arthur Scargill and the National Union of Mineworkers. While the action ultimately failed to prevent pit closures, it left a lasting legacy in Wales’s coalmining heartlands. In the aftermath of the strike, Wales had some success in attracting foreign investment, often to Bridgend, helped by its proximity to the M4. However, many locals can reel off a list of the large multinationals that have come and gone, including LG and Bosch. While Ford’s closure did not cause a rise in unemployment in Bridgend, where it remains about 3.5%, according to official figures, the economic inactivity rate – measuring people neither in work nor looking for a job – has climbed 6% since the pandemic. While this picture is repeated across the UK since Covid, the rate in Bridgend stands at 30.6%, significantly higher than the British average of 21%. The main political parties are looking for ways to tackle persistent economic problems, but have differing views on how best to achieve it. Reform UK is hoping to capitalise on voters’ dissatisfaction, in a town that voted 54.6% for leave in the Brexit referendum, at a time when it is setting out its stall in Wales before next May’s elections for the Welsh parliament. “The town centre is lacking vibrancy,” says Caroline Jones, who hopes to be selected as Reform’s candidate for the Senedd for Bridgend. . Recalling a busier time, when the high street was home to more shops and bank branches, she says: “Our aim is to enhance town centres, to bring local employment and to level up the playing field.” Jones, who previously served as the Senedd member for south west Wales for Ukip and as an independent, was Reform’s candidate for Bridgend in last year’s general election, coming second to Labour with a 19% share of the vote. “I want to see industry and manufacturing brought back into our area, which obviously needs a lot of planning,” she adds. It is unclear how Reform intends to attract this investment, and many of the policies Jones and the party are proposing – including lowering corporation tax or raising the income tax threshold to £20,000 – are not devolved powers and therefore beyond the jurisdiction of the Senedd. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jul/19/welsh-voters-labour-reform-bridgend-ford-plant

Hundreds of captive-bred, critically endangered frogs are managing to survive after being released at a fast-flowing mountain stream near Mount Beauty in Victoria, with some moving a “considerable distance” from the release point. More than 600 spotted tree frogs have joined dwindling wild po[CENSORED]tions in the Kiewa River, as part of a Zoos Victoria conservation breeding program to boost numbers and genetic diversity after 50% of the frog’s Victorian habitat was severely burnt in the 2019-20 black summer bushfires. This year a team of biologists from Zoos Victoria and Wild Research released 265 one-year-old frogs, following a 2024 cohort of 300 tadpoles and 70 juvenile frogs. So far more than half of the animals released have been found again, according to the Wild Research director, Dr Matt West, who has been part of a team tracking their survival after release. “Quite a large proportion of those animals are actually surviving, which is exciting and brings us a huge amount of hope that we might be able to recover this po[CENSORED]tion of spotted tree frogs.” Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter It was promising news for a species facing numerous threats, including a disease called the chytrid fungus, predation by introduced fish species such as trout, as well as flash flooding and bushfire. Even though the frogs were individually marked (with a skin clip on their toe), finding them again could be challenging, West said. Spotted tree frogs grew to about 6cm long and were well camouflaged with their vivid green spotty skin. “They are very difficult animals to find because they look very similar to the types of things they like to sit on – granite boulders, ferns and sedges,” he said. The task of finding them was made even more difficult after many of the captive-bred animals had moved “a considerable distance” – about a kilometre in a year – from the section of stream where they were released, West said. “It’s challenging walking up and down the stream, just for a couple of kilometres. But when you’ve got to extend that out to 10km, it makes it even more difficult to find a frog.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/22/critically-endangered-spotted-tree-frogs-survive-release-into-wild-victoria

Sarina Wiegman has said Jess Carter is “ready to perform and compete” in England’s semi-final against Italy on Tuesday night, praising the defender’s strength of character in the face of racist abuse received during Euro 2025. Wiegman is expected to keep faith with Carter after a below-par performance against Sweden in the previous round – one of many in the team that night – but the head coach said they had discussed the possibility of her not playing. “Of course we had conversations,” Wiegman said. “Although it is a hard situation, Jess is a very strong person and she wants to move on, too. She also felt – as we did – that we had to address this. You can’t just let it go, so we did not. “Then we know that there’s a match going on: we want to perform, we’re ready to perform, she’s ready to perform and compete, and that says a lot about her and the team.” The midfielder Georgia Stanway echoed Wiegman’s sentiments and took aim at those who sent the racist messages on social media. “The people that are saying these things and doing things like this are not fans,” Stanway said. “When we pull on that shirt we are doing it for the people we stand next to, for our families and the actual people who are there watching the games and enjoying the games. I say it with power because I really believe in that, we believe in that: the people who are like that don’t deserve to be called fans.” England will not be taking the knee in protest at racist abuse and discrimination because it is not “doing what we want it to do” any more, Stanway said. She hopes standing will “bring up more conversation and more change”. Italy’s head coach, Andrea Soncin, expressed his team’s support for Carter before the fixture in Geneva. “There is the greatest of solidarity with her and towards anyone suffering violence and abuse,” he said. “It should not be tolerated. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/jul/21/england-euro-2025-semi-final-litaly-leah-williamson-trains

Zimbabwe’s efforts to control malaria have been dealt a huge blow as experts say the disease has returned “with a vengeance” after US aid cuts, with 115 outbreaks recorded in 2025 compared with only one last year. The sharp rise in cases comes six months after Donald Trump halted critical funding for US research and national response programmes. The cuts in January, which included funding for tuberculosis, HIV/Aids and malaria programmes, crippled the Zimbabwe Entomological Support Programme in Malaria (Zento) at Africa University in Mutare, which provides the country’s National Malaria Control Programme with scientific research to combat the disease. Cumulative malaria cases increased by 180% in the first four months of 2025, according to the health ministry, while the number of malaria-related deaths increased by 218%, from 45 in the same period in 2024 to 143 in 2025. As of 26 June, the number of malaria cases had risen to 119,648, with 334 deaths, according to the Zimbabwean health ministry. The distribution of essential control methods, such as mosquito nets, was also disrupted, leaving hundreds of thousands of people exposed to mosquito bites across the country. The health ministry said in May that 1,615,000 insecticide-treated nets were being distributed but that there was a shortfall of 600,000 due to the withdrawal of US funding. Itai Rusike, director of Zimbabwe’s Community Working Group on Health, said funding shortfalls were jeopardising the country’s significant gains against malaria over the past 20 years. “Sustained domestic funding is critical to keep prevention and treatment efforts on track,” he said. “If mosquito nets and preventive medicines for pregnant women are unavailable, lives will be lost. When the supply of test kits and first-line treatments is disrupted, malaria cases and deaths will spiral.” Children under the age of five account for 14% of total malaria cases. Zimbabwe has set out to eliminate malaria by 2030, in line with the ambitious goal set by the African Union, using various strategies such as raising community awareness, preventing mosquito bites with insecticide-treated nets and spraying, as well as improving surveillance systems. Dr Henry Madzorera, a former health minister, said Zimbabwe should mobilise its own resources to bridge the funding gap. “We have a lot of taxes earmarked for the health sector – let us use them wisely for health promotion and disease prevention,” he said. “People must be treated early for malaria. “The country should not rely on donors to do malaria-elimination activities,” Madzorera added. In 2024, USAID disbursed $270m for health and agriculture programmes in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s deputy health minister, Sleiman Kwidini, admitted the funding gap left by the US cuts had disrupted the provision of mosquito nets. “We are now taking over the procurement of those nets after the US withdrew funding. We have just been disturbed, but our vision is to eliminate malaria by 2030,” he said. Prof Sungano Mharakurwa, director of Africa University’s Malaria Institute, said it would take time to recover lost ground but added: “If we get funding, we can hit the ground running and promptly return to scoring successes again, until we beat this deadly scourge that is malaria.” He said that since the Zento mosquito surveillance programme began in Manicaland province, there had been a marked reduction in malaria cases and it was about to be extended when the US cuts came. “Working with the National Malaria Control Programme, it had just been expanded,” Mharakurwa said. “It was poised to run for five years with national coverage when it was abruptly terminated.” Africa University data shows that Manicaland recorded 145,775 malaria cases in 2020 but just 28,387 after Zento was introduced in 2021. Malaria cases in the province had been further reduced to 8,035 by 2024 before more than trebling to 27,212 the following year, when US funding was cut. Mharakurwa said: “The malaria was back with a vengeance straight after, and [numbers of] cases that were waning rebounded in 2025, surpassing levels that had ever been seen since the beginning of the project.” Above-normal rains this year, which aided malaria transmission, had worsened the situation, he added. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jul/19/health-malaria-mosquito-deaths-zimbabwe-trump-usaid-cuts-disease-control

If Chinese carmakers are to be believed, a lot of people really love karaoke. Those people love karaoke so much that they want it in their family car. This was not something the European mind could comprehend a few years ago, according to Volkswagen’s chief financial officer, Arno Antlitz. Yet the technology, included in electric cars sold by China’s BYD and Xpeng, is just one example of the lessons that Volkswagen and its European counterparts have had to learn as they scramble to keep up with Chinese rivals on track to dominate the global electric car market. “Nobody in Wolfsburg thinks you need karaoke in the car,” said Antlitz last week at a conference run by the Financial Times. “But you do need it.” A decade ago, such humility from the world’s second-largest carmaker would have been surprising. Few people in Europe had driven Chinese brands, which were associated with shoddy workmanship. The global industry was dominated by longer-standing car-making countries led by Germany, France and the UK in Europe, and Japan and South Korea in Asia. Yet the advent of batteries offered a clear run for Chinese manufacturers – with huge state subsidies – to try to dominate the nascent electric vehicle industry. They have seized the opportunity. Chinese brands achieved more than 10% share of European battery EV sales in some months of 2024, according to data from Matthias Schmidt, an electric car analyst – although that fell back to 7.7% in February. But the scale of China’s home market is unrivalled, with 12.8m battery and hybrid cars sold in China in 2024 – more than the entirety of the European car market. China’s rapid progress took rivals by surprise, particularly after technological leaps during the years of coronavirus pandemic isolation. Bentley boss Frank-Steffen Walliser told the FT conference that the technology presented to the world at the Shanghai motor show in 2023 “was kind of a shock coming back after the cold pause”. Chinese carmakers are increasingly racing towards a future in which the car is completely integrated with the rest of users’ digital lives and does most of the driving itself. Of the western carmakers, Tesla is still the leader on this front, but it ceded its technology lead to China’s BYD while its chief executive, Elon Musk, focused on getting Donald Trump elected as US president. Despite Musk’s support, Trump’s policies are expected to leave America’s carmakers far behind. Chris McNally, an analyst at investment bank Evercore ISI, wrote last week, in a note to clients, after visiting the latest Shanghai show, that “investors have yet to grasp just how far ahead China may be” when it comes to the future of the car. He cited the experience of sitting in massage seats in the Aito M8 luxury SUV, watching a film on a retractable projector screen while Huawei computer chips handled the driving. That was all available for half the price of a western luxury competitor. The global market share of the big three carmakers in each of Detroit, Germany and Japan has dropped from 74% to 60% in five years, McNally said. “If you are a US/EU manufacturer and do not have a plan to come to market with an affordable/scaled EV in next five years, you may be out of business in the 2030s.” He added: “Is the game lost for western manufacturers? We can only say they appear down big at an auto evolutionary half-time.” BYD’s Seagull has ruffled feathers with a price of about £6,000 in China – far below any rival but with autonomous technology, dubbed “God’s Eye”, which matches that available on much more expensive cars. The car, already a stark illustration of what European manufacturers are up against, could achieve further savings in future by using heavier sodium-ion batteries that sacrifice range for affordability. Chinese carmakers are on average able to develop cars at 27% of the cost of European rivals, according to analysis by Bain & Company, a consultancy. It is not just at the cut-price end. Chinese manufacturers were out in force at a test day last week run by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, a UK lobby group. BYD’s new £33,300 Seal U DM-i, a plug-in hybrid family SUV, is going up against Volkswagen, whose plug-in hybrid Tiguan can be £10,000 more expensive. State-owned Chery (under the Omoda and Jaecoo brands) was accompanied by Leapmotor, Geely (owner of the Volvo, Polestar and Smart brands), and Xpeng – whose electric G6 was the first from the brand to make it to the UK. On a week’s test, the Guardian found a wealth of driver assistance features and a smart, spacious interior that rival the Tesla Model Y – even if some reviewers found the ride a little too bouncy. All of them offer keenly priced cars with little to separate them from European rivals, with relatively smooth rides and often impressive voice assistants that allow a driver to open the sunroof without taking their eyes off the road. One of the most po[CENSORED]r vehicles for test was the ferociously quick MG Cyberster electric sports car, made by state-owned SAIC. There has been some sign of a fightback from Europe. The Renault 5, starting at £23,000, has already achieved huge po[CENSORED]rity as one of the first affordable European-made electric cars. Renault has taken pains to cut the production cost of the vehicle as much as possible, and it has been rewarded with huge po[CENSORED]rity – although it is unclear how profitable the model will be. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/20/sing-when-youre-winning-how-karaoke-heralds-the-triumph-of-chinese-carmakers