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《星球大战》推出 威尔士语版本

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石油巨头从 价格飙升中 牟取暴利， 气候危机席卷 欧洲 KS 伊朗冲突引发的 Wy 意外之财引发 “从人类苦难中牟利” 的指控

在伊朗冲突推高能源价格、排放驱动的气候危机引发致命热浪之际，八家最大的石油公司在短短三个月内累积了超过90,000,000,000美元的利润。这些战争意外之财重新引发了要求石油和天然气超级巨头——如沙特阿美和英国石油——为“从人类苦难中牟利”造成的环境破坏买单，并资助向可再生能源快速转型的呼声。《卫报》分析发现，这八家上市石油生产商在截至某季度末的三个月内几乎赚取了93,000,000,000美元（69,000,000,000英镑）的利润。COMPOSITE: GUARDIAN DESIGN / REUTERS / EPA / AP / GETTY / ZUMA PRESS WIRE / SHUTTERSTOCK 约旦警告以色列在历史悠久的圣殿山违反“现状”的袭击：以色列接管耶路撒冷最重要的宗教场所。约旦警告称，安全问题令人担忧：“现状”被接管。早期释放标签追溯至19世纪，由约旦哈希姆王室监管。

以色列接管耶路撒冷最重要的宗教场所。7月23日，超过2,000名以色列极右翼人士——由安全部长伊塔马尔·本-格维尔率领——冲击了这一区域，被称为犹太人心中的圣殿山。他们在此祈祷，并围绕“即将发生的”极端主义威胁。Julian B 当局未能警示潜在的违反监管条件行为，一家监督机构警告称。此次会议及约旦发出的可能“宗教冲突”警告，延续了政府支持的犹太定居者入侵模式。内政事务编辑 Rajeev Syal 表示，当前系统依赖于不堪重负的警方监控数千名提前释放的罪犯。约旦今日召集紧急外长会议。

《卫报》2026年8月5日星期三

4 伊薇特·库珀，新任卫生和社会保障大臣承诺改革两项重大独立调查中的产科护理标准，这些调查涉及一系列产科失误——唐娜·奥肯登对什鲁斯伯里和特尔福德的重大信托级失误报告，以及诺丁汉的报告，同时还有瓦莱丽·阿莫斯对英格兰产科系统的全国性调查。两项调查均突显了系统性临床错误、人员不足和有毒文化。女性的观点，”她表示，“在某些产科病房中，这种令人震惊和痛苦的感觉似乎已经被遗忘，而这本应是核心问题。”诗歌书籍销量创历史新高，得益于《奥德赛》的热潮。

44 演绎《Mr Brightside》

以下为忠实翻译：

在机构文化中，揭示本应公开的事实——数百起婴儿和产妇死亡直接归因于拒绝倾听母亲的声音，以及机构为掩盖问题而采取的防御性冲动。阿莫斯的审查尤其面临巨大反弹，包括一名专家顾问因缺乏对“正常分娩意识形态”的明确警告而辞职，以及对阿莫斯设立新法定产科专员的核心建议，家属认为该专员缺乏实质性独立性。第4页

《生活与艺术》 专题与访谈 女性不应感到必须经历“理想分娩”的压力，库珀表示 图丽莎·孔托斯塔夫洛斯 N-Dubz和《X Factor》明星谈性爱录像带、生存与监管媒体

库珀表示，她仍致力于设立一名专员。第6页 她说：“我会担心任何母亲感到有压力，认为某种分娩方式是所谓的‘理想分娩’——但每个案例都不尽相同，必须遵循证据，必须有知情选择。”她对《卫报》表示，在她承诺对标准进行彻底改革后，多起严重产科丑闻让她“读来感到震惊”，并认为需要系统性变革。作为新任卫生大臣，伊薇特·库珀在接受采访时说，设立产科专员的目的是“确保这些问题得到倡导，成为英国国家医疗服务体系的一部分”。

库珀是20世纪90年代初首位休产假的初级卫生部长，她表示：“归根结底，产科服务中最重要的人是母亲、婴儿和家庭。但产科专员的意义在于确保这些问题得到重视。”她补充道：“我们一直说，英国国家医疗服务体系关乎从摇篮到坟墓，我希望……更加关注产妇和儿童健康，让其成为英国国家医疗服务体系的核心优先事项，从家庭生活的最初阶段就开始。”

库珀在托尼·布莱尔政府担任公共卫生部长27年后重返该部门，她表示产妇和儿童健康将是其工作重点。她计划重新引入被早期保守党政府改革废除的全国产科标准，取代各信托机构各自为政的做法，并制定具有约束力的全国性要求。这些标准将由一个新成立的工作组起草，包括终结护理水平的“邮编彩票”现象，以及解决种族不平等问题——这些不平等导致部分群体的健康结果更差。

在接受《卫报》采访时，库珀还表示，她将负责推动安迪·伯纳姆的社会保障改革，并承诺兑现首相基尔·斯塔默上周宣布的全国护理服务委托。作为前首相的长期盟友，以及伯纳姆在2015年的领导力竞争对手，库珀认为领导层的更迭正是推动变革的契机。她表示，重返该部门后，明显感受到此前的重点已被淡化。

订阅可节省36% 女性不应感到必须经历“理想分娩”的压力，前外交大臣库珀表示，她已准备好迎接一场艰苦的战斗，以兑现工党在竞选宣言中承诺的全国护理服务。第36页

以下为忠实翻译：

对贫困地区尤其是黑人和亚裔女性的分娩体验有特定要求。患者体验将被纳入标准，设定25个目标以充当表现不佳的早期预警系统。卡通插图见《卫报》第4版。但民调显示，部分产科病房因希望顺产而不愿升级干预措施，家属对此多次提出警示。

“我们现在有一种能量感，”她表示，“安迪希望专注和推动的所有事项，也正是全国民众关注的问题。”她回顾了25年前的一些做法，并感慨道：“当时我们讨论的重点——以女性和家庭为护理中心、倾听领导层的声音——如今依然如此。”

权力下放 JP Spencer现任唐宁街北区工作人员，曾在斯塔默地方选举惨败前担任工党议会党团（PLP）成员。民调显示，在福利支出和公众反弹问题上，47%的受访党员认为政府开支过大，仅21%认为不足。0800年，伯纳姆的支持率高达72%，若当时启动党内投票，他极有可能赢得领导权竞争。这些调查结果已与唐宁街高级战略师分享。Ed Owen是布莱尔时期的前工党顾问，现任临时首席执行官。

伯纳姆的政府可能会密切关注相关数据。ThinkLabour智库临时政治战略主任Christabel Cooper表示：“工党成员对福利的态度比想象中更强硬。他们明白，工党政府若想赢得连任，必须妥善处理福利问题。”

当被问及政府应如何为当前福利法案提供资金时，52%的受访者支持增税，其中24%赞成向所有人加税，70%认为仅应向高收入者加税。该调查于7月进行。

ThinkLabour前首席执行官Alison Phillips近期离职，出任伯纳姆的副幕僚长。该智库前身为“工党共同体”（Labour Together），与伯纳姆的政治理念日益紧密。

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前外交大臣库珀表示，她已为在该职位上进行一场艰苦的斗争做好了准备，因为她寻求落实安迪·伯纳姆的社会护理改革——她表示，她致力于履行首相上周宣布的建立国家护理服务的竞选宣言承诺。

作为前首相基尔·斯塔默的长期盟友——以及2015年伯纳姆在领导权竞争中的前对手——库珀表示，她认为领导层的变动正是所需要的。“我认为我们现在有了一种活力，”她说。“安迪想要关注并推动的所有事情，也正是全国人民非常关心的事情。”

领导层。但在斯塔默在地方选举中表现糟糕之前进行的一项民调显示，伯纳姆当时的净好感度为72%，这表明如果需要由党内成员投票，他很可能在任何领导权竞争中获胜。

伯纳姆政府可能会密切关注这些数据。ThinkLabour（原名为 Labour Together）与伯纳姆的首相任期联系日益紧密。其前首席执行官艾莉森·菲利普斯最近离职，成为了伯纳姆的副幕僚长，与其权力分立主管JP·斯宾塞一起工作，后者目前在 No 10 North 工作。布莱尔时期的前工党顾问埃德·欧文是目前的临时首席执行官。据了解，这些调查结果已与唐宁街的高级战略师分享。

ThinkLabour的临时政治战略主管克里斯塔贝尔·库珀表示：“工党成员对福利的看法比你想象的要强硬。他们会意识到，如果工党政府想要赢得第二个任期，福利是必须处理好的一件事。而且他们也理解在一个深度不确定的世界中国防的重要性。”

“这就是为什么了解成员实际说了什么，而不是仅仅依赖于对他们可能想法的假设，是非常重要的。”

该调查是在该机构发布一份名为《工党为谁而战？》的报告之后进行的，该报告认为工党的选举成功在于将受到财务压力、进步派选民以及关注英国国家医疗服务体系 (NHS) 和移民的人群团结在一起。该报告已分享给 No 10，并得到了工党副党魁露西·鲍威尔的公开赞赏。

73%

受访成员中希望政府通过提高税收在社会护理方面增加支出的比例

29%

受访成员中将气候变化视为英国最重要问题之一的比例

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2026年8月5日 星期三 卫报

新闻

9

电影赋予原力

威尔士的电视和电影界对此翘首以盼，期待看到《星球大战》的威尔士语版本。“是的，甚至连‘愿原力与你同在’都有了一个非常棒的翻译——‘Aboed i’r Grym fod gyda chi’。至于那句经典开场白：‘很久很久以前，在一个遥远的星系……’则被译为：‘Amser maith yn 61, mewn galaeth bell bell i ffwrdd ...’” 史蒂文·莫里斯

制片人迈克尔·科恩（Michael Kohn）是卢卡斯影业发行运营总监，他表示公司对这一项目感到兴奋，该项目与电影明年的周年纪念日不谋而合。威尔士的戏剧性风景和神秘森林曾被用于拍摄《星球大战》系列，而千年隼号（Millennium Falcon）则是在威尔士的一个船坞秘密建造的。

公主莱娅（凯丽·费雪饰）和C-3PO（由艾梅·菲昂·爱德华兹配音）的威尔士语版本也将亮相。他表示：“多年来，我参与过一些旨在保护和振兴当地语言的《星球大战》本土化配音项目。这些项目不仅在社区内取得了巨大成功，在国际上也广受好评。通过《星球大战》来庆祝威尔士语，这样的机会我们绝不能错过。”

昨天，这一消息公布：1977年的经典大片《星球大战：新希望》的威尔士语版本将于圣诞节当天在威尔士电视频道S4C及其平台上播出。该国与《星球大战》系列的渊源可追溯至1979年，当时千年隼号的一个版本在距离诗歌音乐节（Eisteddfod）会场不远的彭布罗克船坞（Pembroke Dock）的一个机库中建造完成。它以木材和钢铁打造，代号为“神奇环岛”（Magic Roundabout），尽管当地人都知道内情。

出演过2017年《星球大战：最后的绝地武士》的马克·刘易斯·琼斯（Mark Lewis Jones）将为威尔士语版达斯·维德配音。出演过《哈利·波特》和《蜘蛛侠》系列电影，以及《诺丁山》的瑞斯·伊凡斯（Rhys Ifans）将为绝地大师欧比旺·克诺比配音。马修·瑞斯（Matthew Rhys）将为汉·索罗配音，而因《浴血黑帮》和《慢行者》为人熟知的艾梅·菲昂·爱德华兹（Aimee-Ffion Edwards）则将为莱娅公主配音。

另一位威尔士语版配音演员是奥西恩·摩根（Osian Morgan），他将为卢克·天行者配音，而瑞斯·伊凡斯的弟弟利尔·伊凡斯（Llyr Ifans）则将为C-3PO配音。

卢卡斯影业联席总裁林文·布伦南（Lynwen Brennan）出生于彭布罗克郡。她表示：“威尔士拥有丰富的故事传统和优美的抒情语言。我们从未有过《星球大战》的威尔士语翻译版本。这一消息是在

鲍勃·哈里斯将出席今年晚些时候在伦敦皇家阿尔伯特音乐厅举行的明星荟萃音乐会，以向他致敬。这场名为《与我同在：鲍勃·哈里斯——音乐人生的庆典》的活动将于12月2日举行。音乐广播传奇人物鲍勃·哈里斯将与众多艺术家同台，分享他与哈里斯的回忆。门票将于周五上午10点开售。

哈里斯因其低沉的电台嗓音被称为“低语鲍勃”，他曾在1972年至1979年间主持BBC Two的音乐节目《老灰口哨测试》，并在1999年至2026年间主持周四晚间的乡村音乐节目。2024年至2026年，在前主持人约翰尼·沃克去世后，他还主持了《70年代之声》节目。

哈里斯于2007年被诊断出前列腺癌，并成功接受治疗。今年4月，他透露癌症已扩散至脊柱，导致他在医院接受了为期2周的放疗。哈里斯在6月的最后一次《70年代之声》和乡村音乐节目中告别听众，称离开这些节目是“一生中最艰难的决定之一”。

哈里斯表示，在接受治疗期间，BBC广播二台“给予了无法用言语表达的支持”。他还表示：“能与这些艺术家一起见证他们职业生涯的起步，我感到无比幸运和荣幸，我们之间建立了长期的工作关系和深厚的友谊。”

演出阵容包括罗杰·多特里、保罗·韦勒和罗伯特·普兰特等明星，更多艺术家将在稍后公布。其他参演者还包括里克·韦克曼、卡莉·皮尔斯、克里斯·迪福德、贝丝·尼尔森·查普曼、朱迪·茨克、凯特·拉斯比、The Shires、凯齐娅·吉尔和托比·李。

哈里斯说：“我第一次参加皇家阿尔伯特音乐厅的音乐会是在1968年，对我来说，这是英国最美丽、最负盛名的场馆。能在这个舞台上呈现这场演出，与这些出色的艺术家一起，实现了我的一个梦想。”这场活动还将邀请广播和音乐界人士登台，分享他们对哈里斯的记忆。哈里斯于2024年3月在《70年代之声》最后一期节目中挂断耳机，此前该节目的前主持人约翰尼·沃克于2026年3月去世。

与此同时，为庆祝威尔士语版《星球大战》上映50周年，威尔士政府与S4C、迪士尼和卢卡斯影业合作，推出了威尔士语版《星球大战：新希望》（Star Wars: Gobaith Newydd）。《威尔士明星报》的海报展示了威尔士语版楚巴卡；威尔士语观众终于能用母语欣赏这部电影，我的希望是它能带来与第一次观看时相同的情感冲击。威尔士语片名为《Star Wars: Gobaith Newydd（新希望）》。S4C首席执行官杰伦特·埃文斯表示：“这是一部影响了全球几代影迷的标志性电影。这是一个推广威尔士语的绝佳机会。”

威尔士政府的目标是到2050年实现100万人使用威尔士语。《星球大战》可能为此助一臂之力。威尔士第一部长朗·林文·布伦南（威尔士语流利）表示：“能用威尔士语观看《星球大战》中的楚巴卡和汉·索罗（哈里森·福特配音），并感受到与第一次观看时相同的情感冲击，这是我的希望。”

威尔士语版《星球大战》由马修·里斯（上图左）配音，他表示：“我非常感激能将这部电影译制成威尔士语，并能在庆祝我们50周年之际，与威尔士国家诗歌音乐节（National Eisteddfod）合作，该节日现正在彭布罗克郡举行。我们与威尔士的杰出人才合作，通过威尔士政府创意威尔士署的支持，使这一愿景成为现实。”

哈里斯，80，一直是乡村、民谣、美国乡村和创作歌手的热情倡导者，他表示：“这是我一生中最艰难的决定之一。”他曾在广播生涯中向听众介绍新兴人才，同时也推广已成名的明星。

《卫报》 2026年8月5日，周三

法国内政部长洛朗·努涅斯（Laurent Nuñez）表示，欧盟各部长一致认为申根区“不是问题所在”。法国是少数未签署由22名欧盟领导人联名发出的信件（表达重新引入边境检查意愿）的成员国之一，尽管法国确实加强了自身的管控措施。部长们普遍支持欧盟委员会主席乌尔苏拉·冯德莱恩提出的五点计划，该计划提议采取进一步行动加强欧洲外部边境，包括建立预警系统及加强与非欧盟国家在移民问题上的合作。欧盟理事会会后声明称：“各方普遍认为，必须继续无情打击人口贩运网络，加强遣返工作，巩固欧盟边境，与第三国建立深度伙伴关系，并改善预判能力。”

民众在休达等待红十字会分发食物后的救助 上图：周一，部长们强调需提升“态势感知能力”，欧盟委员马格努斯·布伦纳（Magnus Brunner）指出，这可通过进一步发展预警系统（如边境前情报和社交媒体监测）及努力“应对从事外国信息战的恶意行为者”来实现…… 照片：MOURA / 路透社

移民事务主管批评正常化操纵和干预

欧盟移民事务专员马格努斯·布伦纳批评西班牙计划为500,000无证移民提供正常化身份的举措，称这对欧洲来说“不是一个好的信号，绝对不是”。布伦纳在欧盟内政部长紧急举行的视频会议上表示：“我理解这是成员国的权限。我理解西班牙这样做主要是因为涉及拉丁美洲人，他们讲同一种语言，拥有相同的文化，但这对欧洲其他地区发出的信号并不好，绝对不是。”

此次会议旨在从休达危机中吸取教训并规划后续步骤。团结的信息传递是在西班牙政府宣布至少75人在上周试图进入北非的西班牙飞地休达时死亡后发出的，尽管休达当局周一公布的死亡人数为88，另有至少11人在摩洛哥一侧的边境失踪。约70,000人在72,000人进入休达后已离开。

移民问题自2015-16年危机以来一直是欧盟内部的深刻分歧点，当时有超过100万人在欧盟寻求庇护。欧盟边境机构Frontex报告称，2025年非正常入境人数为178,000，较前一年下降26%，为2021年以来的最低水平，当时欧洲大部分地区仍处于新冠疫情封锁状态。尽管非正常入境人数减少，布伦纳仍批评西班牙的正常化计划“不是一个好的信号”。西班牙的非正常入境人数（36,683）明显低于意大利（66,328）和希腊（51,399）。

布伦纳表示：“目前我看不到正常化与休达事件之间存在直接联系”，但他称局势已得到控制，无人前往西班牙本土，欧盟的无边境申根区未受影响。他拒绝批评意大利决定与西班牙恢复为期一个月的空中和海上边境检查，此前西班牙首相佩德罗·桑切斯曾对此提出批评。

共有22个欧盟成员国签署了一封由意大利和丹麦组织的信函，间接批评了西班牙的正常化计划。欧盟外交部门正在调查俄罗斯可能在休达危机中发挥的作用，但布伦纳表示“现在下结论还为时过早”。

休达已经离开，西班牙不再是“非法移民”的“拉动因素”。此类举措是基于“歧视、假新闻、无知和政治利益”而做出的。根据边境管理局（Frontex）的数据，近1.2万人已申请该计划，其中向英国提出申请的有65,891人。这是欧盟试图从一场激烈争吵中继续前行时罕见的不和谐音符。数以万计的移民抵达后，2015-16年的危机为欧盟庇护和移民规则的全面改革铺平了道路，新规已于6月生效。

内政部长费尔南多·格兰德-马拉斯卡（Fernando Grande-Marlaska）昨日告诉记者，欧盟会议是“具有建设性的”，各成员国认可马德里“迅速且高效”的应对。当被问及西班牙的正常化政策时，布鲁纳表示任何中止《申根协定》的举措都必须“适度且临时”，并补充道：“我总是说，对这一正常化讨论的理解......”

11人在事故中受轻伤，3人被转送至布洛涅的医院。据法国当局周二发布的声明，载有173人的橡皮艇在英吉利海峡起火后倾覆，船上人员最初拒绝救援。这艘船据报从迪耶普出发，距英国约70英里（112公里），比加来至多佛尔的27英里路线更远。周一，英国改革党提出动用皇家海军，在名为“堡垒行动”的计划下将偷渡者遣返法国或比利时，并称该计划是“人道主义回应”。

新任首相安迪·伯纳姆承诺将继续努力阻止偷渡，但自他担任首相以来，已有超过2,000人穿越英吉利海峡。政府已采取多项威慑措施，但绝望的偷渡者仍不断乘坐越来越危险的橡皮艇出海。上周，一艘载有173人的橡皮艇在试图穿越海峡时发生引擎起火倾覆，这是今年迄今载客量最多的一次。7月23日抵达的一艘船上载有165名乘客。

皇家全国救生艇协会（RNLI）发言人表示，连续的英国政府打击行动导致人口贩子采用越来越危险的手段。“考虑到超载船只的结构脆弱性，决定不强行将移民转移至国家救援船只，以避免在船只沉没时危及他们的生命，”声明称。人口贩子还从距英国更远的法国海岸（如加来海滨）发船，以躲避法国警方。

昨日凌晨6时，英国东伯恩的全天候救生艇与法国船只一同展开大规模空中和海上搜救行动。加来省长称，有40名消防员和专业医疗团队参与了此次事故。法国当局最初报告船上有173人，但有5人在获救后被送回布洛涅。所有173人现已被送回布洛涅。

星期三 2026年8月5日 《卫报》

犬类水患危机 昂贵的老猫“蓬松” 安全运动因事故增加 “Bagpuss”创作者艺术品 售价£400,000 第5版 第18版 18 )National g aS

Vio os & fot (e

前议员敦促保守党放弃 前新纳粹候选人

前议员昨日呼吁凯米·巴德诺赫放弃一名曾因针对议员发布反犹太主义辱骂言论而入狱的地方选举候选人。约书亚·博恩希尔-佩因（Joshua Bonehill-Paine）于2014年因恶意通信罪被定罪，此前他发布的反伊斯兰骗局导致莱斯特一家酒吧业主受到死亡威胁。2015年，他因在计划的新纳粹集会前在网上发布反犹太主义材料而被监禁。2016年，他因对伯杰进行种族加重骚扰而被判有罪。

针对她的辱骂行为被犹太工党运动引用，该组织称博恩希尔-佩因的候选人资格“令人震惊”。前议员埃拉·克里默（Ella Creamer）表示：“我们已向保守党表达了我们的担忧，并呼吁他们撤销他的候选人资格，并审查其审查流程。”

保守党领袖为博恩希尔-佩因辩护，称“他已为自己的罪行表达了悔意，已得到改造，并每天都在努力解决他曾经造成的问题”。博恩希尔-佩因则回击了改革党，在该党领袖

以下为忠实中文翻译：

“厌女和色情的第二次机会。”奈杰尔·法拉奇也加入了对……的批评。“这位名誉扫地的前BBC主持人乔舒亚·博内希尔-佩因的选拔引发了争议。”但来自巴德诺克的批评同样存在，她分享了休·爱德华兹受到批评的证据。前新纳粹分子佩因坚称，在以化名参加威尔士诗歌比赛后，他已通过审查。她回忆起自己怀孕六个月时不得不在老贝利法庭作证，称那段经历为“地狱般的两天”。有人将巴德诺克对博内希尔-佩因的支持与对中间派保守党人的排挤进行对比。前部长加文·巴韦尔上个月因巴德诺克警告称支持净零目标等政策的人不再受党内欢迎而失去党鞭。

改革英国党发言人表示：“博内希尔-佩因先生未被选为改革英国党候选人，这是有原因的。”与此同时，凯米·巴德诺克声称自己拥有一代新的保守党候选人，并支持打击反犹主义，但她选择一名反犹分子参选保守党的做法“令人难以置信”。英国犹太人代表委员会副主席卡伦·纽曼告诉《赫芬顿邮报》，博内希尔-佩因的选拔“令人难以置信”。她说：“我们已联系保守党，要求他们对此作出解释。这种虚伪令人瞠目结舌。”

博内希尔-佩因是病毒式传播的《克鲁克恩公报》AI短片系列的创作者，计划于明年竞选萨默塞特郡议会议员。他周一告诉《卫报》，自己曾是保守党约维尔支部的执行委员，并在博内希尔-佩因出狱后继续从事反极端主义工作。现为工党贵族的露西安娜·伯杰是犹太人，她在网上直接向巴德诺克发文称：“为避免疑问，[此人因其种族主义和对女性的观点，不应在公共生活中占有任何角色]。”她补充道：“他曾因种族骚扰被定罪，这还不是全部。”

爱德华兹于2024年9月因浏览涉及年仅7岁儿童的不雅图片被判处6个月缓刑。他在周日的Substack帖子中写道，自己以“Y Gelyn”（意为“敌人”）的化名参加了威尔士国家诗歌节（National Eisteddfod）以“认知”（adnabod）为主题的诗歌比赛，并称该诗是对已故父亲的致敬。诗歌节比赛要求参赛者以化名提交作品，获奖者身份仅在宣布时公布。前BBC记者马丁·休斯凭借一首关于虐待的诗歌赢得今年比赛，获得£750奖金。

曾公开谈论自己童年遭受性侵的演员塞拉·克拉夫特呼吁比赛组织者审查允许参赛者使用笔名的规定。威尔士国家诗歌节在声明中表示：“我们有一套流程，确保包括评委在内的所有人事先都不知道参赛者的身份。每届诗歌节结束后，我们会进行……”

以下是忠实的中文翻译：

评估期以确保我们的流程适当——今年也不例外。”克拉夫特表示“现在让他[爱德华兹]试图为自己辩解还为时过早”。爱德华兹说：“这不是为那些自以为是的威尔士语使用者——[克拉夫特]也在其中——写的诗，他们利用一切机会对每个话题信口开河。她和她那类人太过乐意忽视心理健康问题的破坏性影响。在这一点上，他们忠于伦敦小报的传统。”中风幸存者贝蒂·布罗梅奇（97岁）昨天在格洛斯特郡上空倒飞的“航空超级特技”双翼飞机上稳稳站立。她打破了自己保持的最年长女性机翼行走者吉尼斯世界纪录，完成了第5次机翼行走，同时为当地中风康复中心筹款。布罗梅奇说：“我不能开车，视力也不好，有时会有些沮丧。所以，[想做能做的事]。”

威尔士国家诗歌艺术节（2026年将举办的National Eisteddfod of Wales）的照片未回应《卫报》的置评请求。 ANDREW MATTHEWS / PA

《卫报》周三 2026年8月5日

环境 消防员 准备在 希腊西阿提卡 阿伊亚·帕拉斯凯维 一条高速公路旁 扑灭山火 照片： ARIS OIKONOMOU/ ‘ANADOLU / GETTY IMAGES.

球员们在 伦敦西南部 克拉彭公地 一片干旱的 草地上 参加足球 训练 照片 MAJASMIESKOWSKa/ PAWIRE

战争利润：石油巨头获$90bn暴利，被指“从人类苦难中牟利” @ 续接第1版 八大公司季度利润 油价 该公司还大幅削减了其在绿色能源上的支出。雪佛龙报告第二季度净收入为$12.2bn，较去年同期增长逾1五倍。埃克森美孚报告利润为$14.5bn，是去年同期的两倍，也是自2022年俄罗斯入侵乌克兰以来的最高季度利润。1006月——在美以对伊朗发动战争引发全球油价飙升至每桶$126的历史高位后，布伦特原油价格{© 沙特阿美 @ 埃克森美孚 @ 雪佛龙 @ 壳牌 @道达尔能源 @ 英国石油 @ 挪威国家石油 @ 埃尼 11 19 20201 25 24 Feb 2026 / 去年初，英国石油宣布“根本性重置”其环境雄心，将年度能源转型预算从$5bn削减至$1.5bn-$2bn。WHO命名美以战争高点突破每桶$125 “新冠疫情开始”一场大流行

“这些公司利用了化石燃料供应史上最大的一次市场中断，将去年同期不到$50bn的综合利润几乎翻了一番。”

近年，英国石油已将其英国海上风电场剥离为合资企业，出售了其美国陆上风电业务，并于昨日宣布将出售其价值$4bn的美国生物气体业务——该业务从垃圾填埋场捕获甲烷，是美国最大的可再生天然气生产商。100该公司还据报道正在与科威特主权财富基金支持的财团进行深入谈判，以出售其太阳能业务Lightsource。

今夏的影响包括欧洲有记录以来最严重的热浪，科学家称其在无人为造成的全球变暖情况下“几乎不可能”发生。据估计，约20,000人死于极端高温，其中包括5月和6月在英国近3,000人。

数据显示，这八家石油公司——沙特阿美、英国石油、壳牌、挪威国家石油、道达尔能源、埃尼、雪佛龙和埃克森美孚——在202502 202503 202504 202601 202602 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026春季季度每分钟获利超过$700,000，据《金融时报》报道。

联合国气候负责人西蒙·斯蒂尔表示：“世界各地气候驱动的灾难正在达到噩梦般的比例。”他补充道：“需要采取的行动很明确：放弃——”

周五，英国石油将其北海油气业务挂牌出售，Source: S&P Capital IQ platform Source: Refinitiv而其市值和股价——

煤炭、石油和天然气的使用推动了更快的增长，扩大可再生能源规模，并在最受影响的地区保护民众，而温度正趋向一系列致命热浪，其规模和严重性均因化石燃料燃烧而加剧。”全球见证组织化石燃料问题首席研究员帕特里克·盖利表示：“沙特阿美的化石燃料生产使其成为历史上碳排放量最大的公司，根据碳排放大户数据库，其排放量超过雪佛龙和埃克森美孚，壳牌和BP位列前10。沙特阿拉伯多年来一直成功阻挠国际气候行动。”

BP昨日成为最新一家公布季度业绩的大型石油公司，其4月至6月期间利润达57.3亿美元，较去年同期的25亿美元增长逾一倍。BP新任首席执行官梅格·奥尼尔为公司利润辩护，称公司“专注于我们能做的事，以应对当前局势”，例如可靠地生产市场短缺的石油产品。壳牌上周公布了其历史上第二高的季度利润，净收入跃升至98.4亿美元，尽管其卡塔尔天然气厂因数十亿美元的损失而减产。挪威国家石油公司同期利润从去年春季的18亿美元增至32亿美元。

在美国，埃克森美孚公布的利润引发了唐纳德·特朗普的批评。这位美国总统指责两家公司“从其对伊朗的战争中赚取暴利”，并警告称将在11月中期选举前——其支持率正在下滑——迫使它们将利润返还公众。沙特阿美的季度净收入同比增长34%，达到330亿美元以上，尽管其基础设施遭无人机袭击受损。欧洲的热浪已“吸干土壤”，导致极端干旱，玉米、向日葵和沙拉作物的粮食供应受损，预计将有至少900万吨粮食损失。英国正面临有记录以来最严重的收成。去年9月发表的科学分析首次将全球最大的14家化石燃料公司的排放直接与致命热浪联系起来，发现其中任何一家公司的排放量均足以引发50多起本可避免的热浪。

“当野火威胁全球社区、干旱侵蚀土地、能源成本飙升时，普通家庭正为大型石油公司优先考虑股东财富而付出代价，而地球的宜居性正在迅速失控。”地球之友运动负责人罗茜·唐斯表示：“是时候让石油巨头为其推动的气候崩溃买单了。想想看，如果大型石油公司公平纳税，我们能建多少防火防洪设施，或安装多少太阳能电池板。”

干旱条件还助长了法国、西班牙、葡萄牙和希腊的大规模野火，造成57.3亿欧元的损失。自俄乌战争爆发以来，煤炭、石油和天然气的使用推动全球化石燃料公司利润膨胀了约6000亿美元，伊朗和胡塞武装的导弹袭击进一步推高油价，使其超过3万亿美元。盖利表示：“这是大型石油公司在人类苦难中牟利的明证。今年春季最大的石油利润来自俄罗斯对乌克兰的战争及更多因素。”

全球最大的化石燃料公司的碳排放首次被科学分析直接与致命热浪联系起来，该分析于去年9月发表。例如，英国正面临有记录以来最严重的收成，而这些公司的排放足以引发50多起本可避免的热浪。

8家石油公司被联系置评。

星期三 5 2026年8月 《卫报**

@ 路易丝·黑格（Louise Haigh），媒体巨头 Axel Springer 的第一秘书，表示这将帮助小企业——它们常因当前要求而被排除在合同之外，而大企业却懂得如何规避。

分析 《Politico》和《世界报》的所有者计划将《电报报》打造成中右翼的全球玩家。

黑格表示：“《电报报》让自己陷入了一个非常尴尬的境地，尤其是考虑到它的新所有者。”《电报报》正受到密切关注。”气候变化刊物《Carbon Brief》的编辑利奥·希克曼（Leo Hickman）说道。

“欧洲大部分地区正遭受极端夏季的干旱、野火和高温相关的超额死亡，《电报报》长期以来为气候怀疑论评论提供平台的历史，如今看来更加失当且不协调。”

迈克尔·萨维奇（Michael Savage） 媒体编辑

Axel Springer 对该问题的态度并不统一——其权力巨大的首席执行官马蒂亚斯·德普夫纳（Mathias Döpfner）表示，他支持应对气候变化，因其能带来创新。

据《电报报》内部人士透露，相关文章并非出自内部指令。一位人士称，其编辑克里斯·埃文斯（Chris Evans）只是“一个老派的舰队街编辑——他喜欢任何能制造噪音的东西”。多数人认为，这些文章实际上标志着保守党内部在 Badenoch 决定禁止不遵循党内净零路线的候选人后，分歧公开化，中右翼声音开始在其偏爱的媒体平台发声。

合同金额低于 100 万英镑 的将免于此项要求，部长们希望这将使小企业更易参与。中央政府部门需评估政府合同的社会价值，该因素在决策中占 10%。新措施将这一比例提高至 20%，但买家将不再仅考虑社会效益，而是被推动与能创造当地就业、支付高于最低工资、提供培训、工作经验或填补当地技能缺口的公司签约。

“我们正在以不同的方式行事。每一英镑的纳税人资金都应以惠及当地社区的方式支出——创造优质就业，并为年轻人提供未来所需的技能。长期以来，政府合同的获取一直是一场勾选式的流程，未能带来民众在生活中感受到的切实变化。”

“我们将确保每年通过政府合同支出的 £90bn 用于支持英国的就业、技能及每个邮政编码区的人才。”

1 obody 能否认英国正变得更温暖，高温已成为住宅、自然和粮食安全的明显威胁，正如那篇探讨近年来英国野火对家庭造成毁灭性影响的报道所述。

该文章的结论在萨福克野火后并不意外，但其刊登在《电报报》——这家长期批评绿色政策的右翼报纸——上，确实引发了部分读者的关注。独立议员罗茜·达菲尔德（Rosie Duffield）赞扬该分析时称，环保团体认为，创造就业不应以牺牲环境为代价。

“我们正看到美国发生的情况：一个嘈杂且激进的右翼群体几乎主导了气候讨论。”政策与传播专家鲍勃·沃德（Bob Ward）说道。

绿色和平组织英国政治主管、伦敦政治经济学院格兰瑟姆气候变化与环境研究所主任阿米·麦卡西表示：“保护环境与帮助年轻人获得良好工作是相辅相成的，不应以牺牲一方为代价。企业不再需要在环境价值与创造更美好未来之间做出选择。公司应通过环境目标接受问责，以实现更好的未来，而不应将年轻工作者抛在身后。”

地球之友运动负责人罗茜·唐斯表示：“鼓励企业创造优质本地就业机会至关重要，但这不应与保护环境的努力对立。社区已在为环境不作为付出代价，英国今夏面临创纪录的高温相关死亡人数，自然环境也在急剧恶化。”

《每日电讯报》刊发的两篇引人注目的气候相关文章引发了讨论。第一篇由专栏作家蒂姆·斯坦利撰写，标题为《气候变化是真实的——右翼需要认真对待》。他表示：“中右翼在很大程度上已从公众视野中消失……斯坦利的文章很勇敢，但他只是在为右翼发声。实际上，有大量保守党支持者与他持相似观点。”另一消息人士称，《每日电讯报》内部读者调查显示，许多读者希望采取气候行动。

第二篇文章由该报全球经济编辑安布罗斯·埃文斯-普里查德撰写，他长期以来主张气候变化的成本不容忽视。他批评凯米·巴德诺克选择“与气候虚无主义调情”，并提及她反对净零目标及清洗支持这些目标的候选人。他写道：“在某个时刻，你必须得出结论：保守党在关乎人类生存的问题上已变得特朗普化。”

这些文章受到亲绿色保守党人士的欢迎。保守党环境网络主任萨姆·霍尔表示：“看到右翼就最佳应对方式展开如此活跃的辩论，令人欣慰。”

然而，其他监测气候报道的人士则认为，《每日电讯报》整体立场并未真正转变。该报作为保守党“圣经”的声誉使巴德诺克感到有必要回应，坚称自己反对“将净零计划政治化”。

作为政府推动的一部分，公共部门买家在采购时将取消要求企业证明其“绿色”程度，转而询问竞标企业如何帮助年轻人重返工作岗位。政府采购合同每年约涉及900亿英镑纳税人资金。此举可能引发反人口贩运和平等运动人士的担忧。一名工党消息人士表示，政府知道取消部分社会价值指标将招致批评。

“此前曾出现过企业为获得合同而被迫在某一时刻完成过多‘打勾式’任务的情况。企业需要做的是改善社会和环境福祉，而非仅仅将年轻人推向就业——”

2050年，而非否认这一变化——例如《每日快报》的倒计时活动和“彻底的气候危机绿色十字军”言论，“这不过是繁文缛节，而非实用之举”，《可靠媒体》倡导组织负责人理查德·威尔逊表示。就连以反对绿色政策著称的《星期日电讯报》编辑阿利斯特·希思也撰文称，“可悲的是，政府的每一英镑都被用来投资那些希望直接投资于年轻人的公司，而非他们所在地区，这能带来实实在在的成果，而不仅仅是纸面上的好看。”他总结道，“与全球变暖的战争已经失败”——尽管他最终认为英国必须适应。这些言论引发了一些气候变化专家的疑问：《电讯报》的观点——乃至其读者和新东家——在这场否认气候变化的过山车式转向中究竟意味着什么？随着报纸易主，《电讯报》的立场及更广泛的辩论是否正在发生转变？该报被德国财团收购后，科米·巴德诺克利用最终发言权进一步强化了她对净零政策的怀疑态度。

采购规则的变化意味着，在评估供应商时，其对支持英国就业、技能发展的承诺——特别是针对未接受教育、就业或培训的年轻人、离开照护体系者及长期健康状况人群的扶持——将被纳入考量，而非仅依赖绿色或社会价值指标。《电讯报》被要求置评。

《卫报》2026年8月5日（周三）

一架由美国二战王牌飞行员驾驶的战斗机机翼尖端，在坠毁巴布亚新几内亚80余年后，被运回飞行员家乡威斯康星州。这块机翼尖端通过空运、陆运和海运，于周日移动20英里抵达苏必利尔市的博物馆。太平洋残骸搜寻组织创始人贾斯汀·泰兰告诉威斯康星公共广播电台（WPR），巴布亚新几内亚政府需为该机翼尖端签发出口许可证，因美国已放弃对二战文物的所有权。

理查德·邦（Richard Bong） “该机翼尖端实际上是永久借展，作为回报，此次搜寻任务还为巴布亚新几内亚国家博物馆确保了另一部分飞机残骸。”这部分残骸上绘有邦的女友玛吉（Marge）的形象。

一架洛克希德P-38“闪电”战斗机的机翼尖端，由二战期间美国王牌飞行员驾驶，在1944年3月于今巴布亚新几内亚上空因发动机故障被迫跳伞后坠毁。坠机残骸数十年来下落不明。2024年，以这位飞行员理查德·邦命名的理查德·I·邦退伍军人历史中心宣布，正与历史保护组织太平洋残骸搜寻组织合作。博物馆官员及邦的亲属也前往坠机地点。

威斯康星州国民警卫队准将阿德里亚·祖卡罗·瓦滕达尔告诉WPR：“能将理查德·邦的一部分遗产带回家，我们深感荣幸。”邦的侄子吉姆表示，对于博物馆参观者而言，能“亲眼看到实物”具有无可估量的价值。

网站称，Pacific Wrecks 组织花费了两年时间与马当省政府、土地所有者及巴布亚新几内亚国家博物馆（拥有 Marge 残骸所有权）的藏品与展览总监 Briana Fiandt 进行谈判，以确保 P-38 战机的部分残骸。这位威斯康星州新闻频道 WDIO 的记者表示，她希望这片机翼能“激励后代对历史产生兴趣”。该战机是一架洛克希德 P-38“闪电”战斗机，理查德·邦（Richard Bong）以女友 Marge Vattendahl 的名字为其命名，并在机头绘制了她的肖像。邦在空战中击落了 40 架日军飞机，超过其他任何美国飞行员，因此于 1944 年获得美国最高军事荣誉——荣誉勋章。1945 年 2 月，他与 Vattendahl 结婚，后者后来成为时装模特和杂志出版商。1945 年 8 月 6 日，美国在日本广岛投下原子弹当天，邦在一次试飞中丧生。同一架 P-38 由另一名美国军事飞行员托马斯（Thomas）驾驶时坠毁。战争于九天后结束。数月后，探险者在巴布亚新几内亚马当省的丛林中发现了这架飞机的残骸，其翼尖仍保留着邦涂上的油漆。巴布亚新几内亚军方将这片 1.82 米（6 英尺）长的铝制翼尖运往首都莫尔兹比港，随后由一架军用加油机运回。威斯康星州国民警卫队派出一个团队前往现场收集这部分残骸，并将其带回。该团队与美联社合作。

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2026 年 8 月 5 日 星期三 《卫报》 全国

许多危险并非一眼可见。 如有疑问，请让狗远离水域

“陡峭的河岸可能会成为问题，如果狗下水后游来游去，却找不到出路，”她说道。 “水下隐藏的碎片——购物车、碎玻璃、大量水草或树枝。”

水上安全行动启动，因事故数量达五年新高

托马斯还警告不要尝试自行救援。“如果你的狗遇到困难，可能会演变成两起紧急情况，而非一起，”她说。“如果你能看到狗可以安全上岸的地方，就把它叫到那里。如果无法做到，请拨打紧急服务电话，他们会前来协助。”科学记者 尼古拉·戴维斯（43）

即使在风景如画的夏日，厄尔斯伍德也远非看似平静的“无危险”地带：一块小小的黄色标志（2）警示蓝绿藻的存在。这种蓝绿藻在温暖的天气和高大的紫色花朵中茁壮生长，形成水华、沙沙作响的树木和浮沫——部分会释放毒素。环境署提醒：“并非所有蓝绿藻的水华和浮沫都有毒，但仅凭外观无法判断，因此最好假设它们有毒。”位于西米德兰兹郡索利哈尔附近的厄尔斯伍德湖看似是狗戏水的理想场所，但宠物主人已被警告，这片原本宁静的开放水域可能对宠物构成致命威胁。

Dogs Trust 兽医项目经理艾米莉·米尔斯表示：“狗可能因饮用受污染的水或仅在游泳后清洁毛发而生病。症状可能在接触后短至15分钟内出现，并迅速恶化至致命。”

Dogs Trust 基尼尔沃思分部的安置经理艾玛-简·托马斯说：“近期持续高温，数百万家庭在开放水域附近度过时光，但人们很容易忽视其中的危险。”

“狗喜欢水，这对它们来说是很好的运动和丰富体验。然而，并非所有狗都是天生的游泳高手。”

当地居民萨莉表示，蓝绿藻令人担忧，并提到她的边境牧羊犬

比利是游泳健将，”她周一在厄尔斯伍德散步时补充道，“但即使是游泳健将也可能在水中遇到困难。陪同托马斯的还有达尔马提亚犬布鲁诺，它显然很想下水游泳。但它被牢牢拴在短绳上——这是有充分理由的。多格斯信托基金会（Dogs Trust）发起了一项宣传活动，口号是“如有疑问，拴好爱犬”，旨在减少在湖泊、运河、河流和海边发生的犬只及主人受伤或死亡事件。

艾玛-简·托马斯与达尔马提亚犬布鲁诺在厄尔斯伍德湖；一只边境牧羊犬正在享受戏水 根据多格斯信托基金会在2019至2025年间对2,000名犬主进行的调查，12起与犬只相关的救援事件与蓝绿藻有关。调查还发现，33%的受访者不认为蓝绿藻对犬只构成严重威胁，19%的犬主不知道看似平静的水域仍可能存在严重风险，80%的犬主表示即使自身有危险，也会下水救犬。英国国家水上安全论坛的单独数据显示，散步时发生的犬只相关事件中，部分犬主存在认知不足。

皇家全国救生艇协会提供的数据显示，2021年至2025年间，英国开放水域共记录了308起与犬只相关的事件，其中约三分之一发生在6月至9月间。2025年，与犬只相关的事故达到五年来最高水平，较前一年增长39%，其中有10起意外溺水死亡与动物有关。运河与河流信托基金会的数据显示，疲劳和强水流也构成风险。

“我们知道犬只喜欢水，我们绝不希望阻止它们享受水上活动，”托马斯说，“我们发起这项活动的目的是让主人和犬只能够继续安全地享受这些区域。因此，当他们来到这里时，能够意识到潜在的风险。”

“在考虑开放水域时，请始终记住：停下来，检查并思考可能存在的危险，”托马斯提醒道。

机构在提交给委员会的书面证据中表示，宠物跳蚤治疗中的有毒物质应被视为最危险的PFAS（永久性化学物质）。委员会建议禁止在宠物店或线上销售这类局部治疗产品。委员会呼吁政府减少这些化学物质的常规使用，并确保向宠物主人提供的建议能够考虑动物及其共同生活者的生活方式、居住地和风险因素。委员会还对宠物药品行业“高度参与”制定这些药物的监管流程表示担忧。

帝国理工学院生态学教授盖伊·伍德沃德告诉委员会，研究表明，这些化学物质分解后会产生高毒性，足以对鱼类、无脊椎动物和传粉昆虫构成威胁。曾有假设认为，宠物治疗中的化学物质进入环境的风险较低，但最新研究表明情况并非如此。委员会还发现，目前评估这些宠物治疗药物是否进入水道的证据“令人担忧地不足”。仅400块方糖大小的化学物质就足以使约400个奥林匹克标准游泳池的水超过预测无影响浓度。

兽药理事会（Veterinary Medicines Directorate）这一独立监管机构的发言人表示，他们认识到每年有数百万有害化学物质被不必要地用于英国宠物身上。一份报告于2025年发布的结论称，非处方宠物跳蚤治疗产品应被禁止销售。

环境与气候——研究发现这些化学物质对人类有害。猫狗广泛使用局部或“滴剂”治疗，其中含有杀虫剂，兽医常建议定期使用作为预防措施。卡迪夫大学的研究人员发现，宠物跳蚤和蜱虫治疗中最常用的两种化学物质——吡虫啉和氟虫腈——在威尔士九条河流中近一半的样本中被检出。帝国理工学院的研究人员表示，这些化学物质的降解产物可能比化学物质本身“高出整整一个数量级更具毒性”。野生动物信托基金会称，部分化学物质会影响胎儿发育并导致甲状腺功能紊乱。环境、食品和农村事务部发言人表示：“虽然这些治疗在预防跳蚤和蜱虫方面对宠物健康发挥着至关重要的作用，但我们有责任评估这些治疗的可用性，以确保主人正确使用。”

干式熟成25天 配康沃尔海盐 提升风味

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£6.19 特别精选100%英国牛肉 阿伯丁安格斯肋眼牛排 盒装，£6.79，每公斤£2991，价格和产品可能因门店而异（苏格兰、威尔士、Aldi Local及线上门店）。 图片仅供展示。

2026年8月5日 星期三 《卫报》 全国版

《奥德赛》带动诗歌销量史诗级增长，社交媒体上发现遗体的女性获悼念 诺兰效应也在美国显现。根据Circana BookScan的数据，今年迄今《奥德赛》所有版本的印刷销量增长了76%。诗歌销量有望在今年创下历史新高，得益于克里斯托弗·诺兰改编的《奥德赛》电影的成功。诗歌热潮远不止于古代史诗。即使不计入今年和去年《奥德赛》和《伊利亚特》的销量，该类别仍保持增长势头。

2026年前30周，诗歌销售额超过800 万英镑，同比增长7.2%，与去年同期相比增长13.3%，有望成为自2023年至2025年（有记录以来最赚钱的三年）以来表现最佳的一年。年度总销售额有望首次突破1500 万英镑，并可能达到1700 万英镑。这一增长主要由更具商业性、社交媒体友好的诗人推动。唐娜·阿什沃斯仍是英国十年来最畅销的在世诗人，其2025年诗集《致女性》贡献了显著份额。

伊丽莎白-简·罗斯（又名丽莎）的遗体在希腊雅典基普塞利区一栋废弃建筑内的手提箱中被一名流浪汉发现，享年38岁。这位在爱丁堡“命运教会”礼拜的女性，被牧师和会众缅怀为“拥有帮助弱势群体的无尽热情”。一名26岁的拳击手沙里夫·艾哈迈德扎伊被广泛报道为——

以下为忠实翻译：

自诺兰的电影（今年已售出34,000份拷贝）——由马特·达蒙和安妮·海瑟薇主演——将荷马2,700年前的史诗带给新观众后，该诗歌的英国纸质书销量在截至7月25日的四周内较2025年同期增长了1,400%。传统主义者对这位苏格兰作家的格言式作品究竟是诗歌还是自助读物提出了质疑。尼尔森IQ的菲利普·斯通表示：“在克里斯·诺兰涉足《奥德赛》之前，诗歌市场已呈上升趋势，Instapoets（如Instagram上的诗人）如鲁皮·考尔等，将诗歌从学术类别重新定位为生活方式、礼品和自我发展类别。”《奥德赛》和荷马的另一部史诗《伊利亚特》近年来因Instapoets的流行而受益，今年迄今已创造了£980,000的诗歌销售额，相当于英国每£10诗歌书籍支出中有120 万英镑0。

诺兰的改编版本在上月开画周末全球票房收入达1.98 亿英镑。今年诗歌类畅销书的突破来自伦敦演员兼诗人卢卡斯·琼斯，其处女诗集《我仍相信奇迹》是2026的畅销诗歌作品，根据《书商》数据，销售额达£400,000。2017年，加拿大Instagram网红鲁皮·考尔的作品（如2015年的《奶与蜜》）创造了120 万英镑m的销售额，保持着诗人年度最高销售纪录。

艾米莉·威尔逊备受赞誉的2017年译本是《奥德赛》现象的主要受益者。她上周在批评诺兰的电影时登上头条，称其“没有令人信服的观点”，缺乏“心理、情感、政治和伦理深度”。她在《伦敦书评》的一篇尖锐文章中写道：“诺兰的《奥德赛》缺少许多使这部诗歌伟大的元素……写作拙劣。角色的动机或言行均无说服力。没有性爱场景，所有食物看起来都很糟糕……[would be ashamed to have written any part of this script]。”

有声书版本的《奥德赛》也从中受益：斯蒂芬·弗莱的朗读进入Spotify英国有声书排行榜前10，伊恩·麦克莱恩的朗读则出现在美国排行榜上。唐娜·YSs·阿什沃思的诗集今年在英国的销量位居畅销书之列。

利萨·欧文夫妇是该教区的资深牧师，他们表示：“利萨将永远被铭记，她对帮助弱势群体有着无尽的热情。这种激情和强烈的使命感有时将她带到充满挑战的地方。她决心不让这个世界在她离开时保持原样。”他们称，他们的思念和祈祷与罗斯的家人同在，后者失去了一位美丽的女儿和姐姐。

据信，罗斯在被发现前五至七天死亡，但有人在她被发现后仍使用其手机发送信息。艾米莉·威尔逊的译本广受好评，于2017问世。希腊警方——希腊国家警察——无法通过指纹识别她的身份。侦探通过分析视频片段追踪到嫌疑人，后者据称上周认罪。嫌疑人据称将她的遗体装入手提箱，并带到一处废弃地点弃置。

办公室早前表示：“在这艰难时刻，我们的思念与伊丽莎白的家人同在。我们正为地方当局提供支持，以便今年发布公共信息，并与地方当局保持联系。”超过2万名农民寻求禁止一次性烧烤架、篝火及露营炉具，因其存在引发野火的风险。农民正在计算损失，包括苏格兰女子在雅典遇难的善后，以及因过去三个月的创纪录热浪和自1976年以来最严重的干旱导致的歉收或减产。本周，威尔士朗达山谷发生火灾，上周苏格兰凯恩戈姆山也出现火情。萨福克郡的大火逼近赛兹韦尔B核电站数英里，北爱尔兰莫恩山脉同样受到影响。受灾面积达2万公顷（5万英亩）。

苏格兰警方表示：“我们知晓在希腊发生的苏格兰女子遇难事件，并正与当局协调。警员正在向其在苏格兰的家人提供支持。”环境编辑菲奥娜·哈维表示：“一根流浪的火柴或单个火星，数月的辛勤劳作可能在几分钟内化为乌有；庄稼被毁，收成受损，关键机械和基础设施遭到破坏，牲畜面临严重威胁。”德比郡海皮克选区议员乔恩·皮尔斯已致信零售商，要求停止销售一次性烧烤架。代表农村土地所有者的乡村土地与商业协会（CLA）也呼吁禁止一次性烧烤架，并解除对受控燃烧的禁令。

此呼吁还得到消防员、自由民主党及多名工党议员的支持，因英格兰大部分地区面临更多高温天气。CLA主席加文·莱恩表示：“受控燃烧是降低火灾风险的有效方法之一。操作得当，能清除助长野火的植被。”国家农民联盟副主席保罗·汤普金斯指出：“除了直接损失，土壤健康、草地生产力及已面临重大压力的农业企业信心可能面临长期后果。”大多数大型超市已停止销售一次性烧烤架，但部分五金店、DIY商店及线上平台仍有售。野火已影响英国各个地区。

伊丽莎白-简·罗斯热衷于帮助他人，其所在教会表示——

《卫报》周三 2026年8月5日 国内新闻 10月1日起，数千名囚犯将获释以缓解监狱过度拥挤危机 图片：MARTIN GODWIN / THE GUARDIAN

7,

监管机构警告提前释放电子监控存在问题

但被判处家庭暴力监禁刑期的罪犯，以及过失杀人罪犯，仍有资格在服刑期过半时获释。司法大臣亚历克斯·诺里斯已向受提前释放计划影响的家庭道歉，称他们“正在为之前的失败买单”。他承认，这些提议“造成了伤害”，令哀痛的家庭——如警员安德鲁·哈珀的遗孀莉西——感到愤怒。他说：“我无法表达这些改变对公众的愤怒，因为我们被迫做出会对人们生活产生真实影响的重大改变，而我们本应拥有一个正常运转的监狱系统。”

他的呼吁是在政府宣布将从10月1日起释放多达5,000名囚犯以缓解监狱过度拥挤危机之后提出的。目前，关押人数达86,500人。琼斯表示，他最近发起了对罪犯监控和电子标签系统的检查，发现该系统在检测缓刑违规行为时存在漏洞。缓刑官员常常错误地认为会收到关于排除区域违规的通知，而实际上，他们需要主动查阅个案并判断是否需要进一步调查潜在违规行为。琼斯称，他已看到该系统正承受压力，亟需升级以“将风险降至最低”，并指出监控流程“涉及重大复杂性”，缓刑官员因大量文书工作而“疲于应对且参与度低”。

琼斯还呼吁大臣确保提案中有足够的工作人员，以维持“批准场所”（即用于监管2,000名最严重罪犯的过渡性住所）的运作。这些场所在管理出狱后的罪犯方面“极为有效”，但目前因人手不足而面临压力。琼斯表示：“如果这些场所无法继续开放，将是一个巨大的机会错失。”他补充道：“一些系统相当笨拙，过于依赖人工查找信息，而非主动推送信息给执行人员。”

数据未被主动监测或分析以降低公众风险。强奸犯和严重儿童性侵犯者将不再有资格提前释放。哈珀的母亲黛比·亚当表示，得知杀害儿子的凶手仍有资格提前获释后，她的家人“正在付出代价”。

以下为忠实翻译：

还有足够的人员被标记以用于提前释放计划吗？根据政府缓解2,400个剩余名额的计划，需要工作人员提供支持。如果不够，就会存在风险，即你给公众虚假的保证，”他说。“因为归根结底，所有标记都会让你了解某人在特定时间的位置。你依赖的是有足够的警员和缓刑官来查看这些信息，并根据该个人的活动情况做出决定。”

英格兰和威尔士被电子监控的人数在五年内翻了一番，达到28,700人，预计到2027年每年将新增22,000名被标记者。琼斯表示，这一扩展需要大幅增加监控罪犯的工作人员。上个月，国家审计署发现，为缓解监狱压力而迅速扩大电子标记规模，若无稳健改进，将危及公共安全。

琼斯早期对英格兰六个地区的检查发现：

杀人犯和家庭暴力施暴者仍有资格提前释放，司法部已确认。总理已向公众保证，罪犯将面临更严格的社区监管，包括新的GPS监控。但将强奸犯、严重儿童性虐待罪犯和诱拐者排除在外的计划，将释放人数减少了1,000人。

罗瑟勒姆工党议员莎拉·钱皮恩上月致信伯纳姆，警告他“全国各地的受害者仍处于恐惧和不确定的状态”，并表示：“我完全支持减少针对女性和女童的暴力以及打击严重性犯罪的宏伟目标。然而，若不恢复对提前释放计划的豁免，我无法理解这如何实现。没有家庭暴力施暴者的豁免。”

司法大臣亚历克斯·诺里斯表示，他对当前局势感到愤怒——

周三 2026年8月5日 《卫报》

PC安德鲁·哈珀的母亲黛比·阿德拉姆（左）在ITV《今晨》节目中批评了该计划 照片：KEN MCKAY / ITV / SHUTTERSTOCK

分析 杰西卡·埃尔戈特

在梦幻般的开局之后，首相首次体验到不受欢迎的滋味

安迪·伯纳姆原本希望展示自己是“基尔·斯塔默的对立面”，但他在上任后的头两周本可顺风顺水。与描绘经济困境和终身难以摆脱的财政黑洞（仅靠削减冬季燃料补贴等牺牲才能改善）的画面不同，伯纳姆的第一周充斥着小规模胜利，包括降低公交车票价。然而，这位新任首相能掌控的范围有限。与斯塔默一样，上任仅数日，他便发现自己不得不面对必须立即做出的决定——每一个决定都会让他不受欢迎。与斯塔默一样，他将矛头指向前任，面对愤怒的公众。

社会事务记者杰西卡·默里（Jessica Murray）报道

周一，首相计划与家人度假的第一天，他不得不决定是否提前释放囚犯，以避免监狱系统不堪重负。伯纳姆排除了强奸犯、严重儿童性犯罪者和诱拐犯适用该计划。但包括两名被判过失杀害PC安德鲁·哈珀（Andrew Harper）的凶手在内的一些杀人犯，将有资格获得提前释放。

在《每日电讯报》的一篇文章中，伯纳姆承认自己不愿做出这一决定，并曾希望找到其他方法，但每个字里行间都透露出无奈：“杀人后刑期被缩短，这根本不对。”他告诉BBC《早餐》节目，“我们的司法体系已经失效。［能理解存在危机，也同意需要解决，但不能以牺牲受害者为代价。对我来说，这又是一个例子，说明道路交通受害者没有得到与其他罪行同等的对待。”

巴克利的伴侣伊克巴尔（Iqbal）最初被判处12年有期徒刑，因杀害朱尔斯-霍夫（Jules-Hough）和她腹中未出生的孩子内芙（Neve）。2023年，上诉法院以“量刑过轻”为由，将肇事司机查普尔（Chappell）的刑期增加至15年，巴克利认为这才是公正的判决。然而，他被告知伊克巴尔的刑期被缩短，且根据新计划，伊克巴尔可能在服满一半刑期后即获释。与斯塔默和时任司法大臣沙巴娜·马哈茂德（Shabana Mahmood）面临的情况不同，当时监狱容量已处于紧急状态，而伯纳姆的决定并非如此。

朱尔斯-霍夫的家人对受害者因该计划受到不公平对待感到震惊：“这影响的是我们的一生，而不仅仅是未来几个月。”巴克利表示，得知驾车杀人犯将被释放，他感到“极度震惊”，并强调这些罪犯不应被豁免。“杀人后刑期被缩短，这根本不对。我们需要明确，如果这些罪犯被释放，接下来会发生什么。”

她说，她欢迎安迪·伯纳姆介入，将强奸犯、严重儿童性犯罪者和诱拐犯排除在提前释放计划之外，但认为这一措施还不够。阿迪尔·伊克巴尔（Adil Iqbal）曾以时速123mph的速度飙车，随后撞死38岁的受害者，他原本被判处12年有期徒刑，但根据新计划，他可能在服满一半刑期后即获释。与斯塔默和时任司法大臣面临的“监狱容量紧急状态”不同，伯纳姆的决定并未达到这一程度。

政府因未将家暴罪犯排除在提前释放计划之外而受到批评，但表示该计划已“尽可能做到最好”。伯纳姆表示：“说实话，我希望走得更远……我已经竭尽所能。”然而，根据新计划，伊克巴尔可能只需服满7

2024年判决仍未执行完毕。足够。“这一计划仍有受害者和加害者。”他可能实际服刑的时间比最初判决的更短，让那些仍处于危机中的家庭感到担忧。艾丽斯·拉塞尔-哈里斯（Alice Russell-Harris）是避难所组织（Refuge）的负责人，她对这些事务表示“深切关注”，并称政府不能在危险罪犯获释之前视而不见。该组织对此表示“深感震惊”。巴克利（Buckley）表示：“我们为更严厉的判决奋斗了数月，最终却发现其中一个加害者可能提前获释，这让我们感到震惊。如果判决可以随意缩短，那么判决的意义何在？”她在BBC广播4台的《今日》节目中说道。“司法应始终以公共安全和受害者的声音为先。”她表示，提前释放家暴犯将“加剧幸存者对自身安全的恐惧”，并指出加害者“经常违反条件，继续实施虐待”。

这种提前释放被认为是政府为了防止监狱系统崩溃而设计的效果。根据原定于9月生效的《量刑法案》（Sentencing Act），这本应是一种更可控的方式来缓解同一问题。但无论从哪个角度看，提前释放杀人犯、虐待者和性犯罪者都将付出高昂的人力代价。

斯塔默（Starmer）首届内阁的部长们对他们从保守党那里继承的局面感到愤怒，当时在某些地区，在警方不得不停止逮捕之前，仅剩极少数的监狱床位。前狱警查普尔（Chappell）表示，希望政府能投入更多资金改善监狱设施，而不是采取这种方式。

2019年，警员安德鲁·哈珀（PC Andrew Harper）在响应一起入室盗窃报案时遇害，其家人得知被判杀害他的两名男子仍有资格提前获释，感到“极度震惊”。哈珀被汽车拖行数英里致死。马哈茂德（Mahmood）尤其对夏季骚乱后的经历心有余悸，当时在索斯波特（Southport）谋杀案后，监狱容量威胁到了逮捕斗殴者的能力。这一提前释放计划进一步威胁到已饱受创伤的受害者家庭。

玛雅·查普尔（Maya Chappell）的姑姑杰玛·查普尔（Gemma Chappell）表示，玛雅在2022年被母亲的男友摇晃致死，年仅两岁。玛雅的母亲达娜·卡尔（Dana Carr）因疏忽致死被判九年监禁，但查普尔被告知她可能在计划下提前获释。车内乘客杰西·科尔（Jessie Cole）和阿尔伯特·鲍尔斯（Albert Bowers）因过失杀人被判13年监禁，在服刑一半后可申请提前释放。

但这种精心规划的提前释放——在国家建设更多监狱容量的同时——在受害者和家属（包括哈珀的遗孀）开始收到加害者提前获释的信件时，撞上了人性影响的现实。哈珀的遗孀表示：“安德鲁理应得到更好的对待，我们也是。”他的母亲黛比·阿迪亚姆（Debbie Adiam）说：“这感觉太糟糕了。我们仿佛辜负了安德鲁。”

伯纳姆（Burnham）在批评声浪中暂停了该计划，但他无法永远回避这一决定。即使

再次强调，性犯罪者的排除令他难以取悦任何一方，并认为受害者的声音未被听见。我们已经历过司法系统，以为已经尽力而为。显然，如果不采取任何行动，情况将变得“极度痛苦”——倘若监狱再次达到危机容量，我们可能不得不在未来几个月内重新审视这一问题。我们应被允许哀悼，我们应被允许尽力而为。查普尔表示，卡尔未承认任何罪行却申请撤销对其的指控“荒谬至极”，弗兰基·朱尔斯-霍夫被阿迪尔·伊克巴尔超速驾驶撞死，而后者却可能因监狱系统崩溃的风险而免于牢狱之灾。伯纳姆在文章中明确指出了他所面临的两难选择：“我可以直视人们的眼睛，说我已竭尽所能。但我们正为此付出代价。”

《卫报》2026年8月5日（周三） &

英国慈善机构因资助以色列非法定居点遭调查 父女纽基海滩溺亡， 梅拉妮·沃德呼吁禁止相关资助 死因裁判官听证会获悉

哈伦·西迪克 PA通讯社 法律事务记者 英格兰和威尔士的慈善机构因向巴勒斯坦境内的以色列非法定居点提供资金而面临官方调查。一名父亲试图救起被海浪卷入海中的女儿，但两人最终双双溺亡，死因裁判官听证会获悉。慈善委员会旨在查明流向非法定居点的慈善资金规模、这些支出是否符合其宗旨，并确定是否需采取任何监管行动。此次调查源于《卫报》对该问题的报道。

去年，《卫报》披露，两家英国慈善机构曾向位于以色列占领区的苏西亚（Susya）Bnei Akiva犹太教高中转移约570 万英镑万英镑资金。今年6月，《卫报》公布了工党议员梅拉妮·沃德向监管机构提交的正式投诉细节，称英格兰和威尔士的32家慈善机构至少向以国际法视为非法的以色列定居点捐赠了2800 万英镑万英镑。

约翰·彼得·柯林斯（66岁）和萨曼莎·阿黛尔·柯林斯（32岁）于7月26日在康沃尔郡纽基的菲斯特拉尔海滩被海水卷走。康沃尔死因裁判官法庭获悉，两人来自南约克郡唐卡斯特，当时正在海滨小镇度假。助理死因裁判官埃玛·希尔森表示：

“萨曼莎·柯林斯与家人在纽基度假。她和父亲在礁石上钓鱼时，萨曼莎被海浪卷入海中。约翰试图救她，但非常遗憾未能成功，两人均不幸溺亡。”约翰的妻子、萨曼莎的母亲阿黛尔·柯林斯在听证会上确认了两人的身份。7月29日，皇家康沃尔医院（位于特里尔斯克）对两人进行了尸检。初步死因——

父亲双方都理解调查是对沃德投诉的直接回应。巴勒斯坦人检查他们在苏西亚（一个被占领的村庄）被烧毁的房屋，当时一所以色列学校就位于该村庄附近。该村庄的合作伙伴曾在2019年至2024年间向德文郡和康沃尔郡警方捐赠了近£200,000。此前警方曾证实，2024年9月26日晚上9点45分左右，警员被召至菲斯特拉尔海滩。约翰和他的女儿均已从水中被打捞上岸，并在现场被宣布死亡。

萨曼莎被认为是携带一个手提袋进入水中的，袋子被描述为橙色或桃色。警方女发言人表示：“袋子内可能装有对其亲人具有重大情感价值的个人物品。”她补充道，如果有人发现符合描述的袋子，请将其交至纽基警察局。

公布调查时，委员会助理主任斯蒂芬·罗克表示：“有严重指控称，慈善体系被滥用以向非法定居点输送资金。一些证据表明相关规定正在被违反。我们的首要任务是查明事实。”她对“英国的礼品援助被用于资助非法定居点”表示担忧。

该委员会称，已与警方和英国税务海关总署（HMRC）分享了调查范围的信息。大都会警察战争罪行调查组表示，目前未就此事对任何慈善机构展开调查。调查最初将聚焦于8家未具名的慈善机构，并表示将在公布调查结果时考虑公开这些慈善机构的名称。委员会还计划在未来扩大调查范围至更多慈善机构。

工党议员、外交事务委员会成员阿卜提萨姆·穆罕默德对调查消息表示欢迎，但称“至少有32家慈善机构参与这一可憎行为的证据”。她表示：“慈善委员会也必须对这些机构展开调查，并迅速采取行动，彻底杜绝此类行为。”

上月，《卫报》披露，一家英国慈善机构正在资助位于巴勒斯坦城市希伯伦非法以色列定居点核心的一所宗教学校。该学校新宿舍楼的建设已于6月获批，打破了长达数十年的关于希伯伦管控的国际协议。

“资助以色列非法定居点与暴力和对巴勒斯坦人的剥夺密切相关，毫无慈善目的可言。”调查将首先查明事实，随后将根据调查结果和证据确定是否需要采取监管行动。委员会表示：“在家属极度悲痛的时刻，我们将尽力帮助他们找回这些物品。我们的事实调查还将帮助我们制定监管指南，以确保公众对慈善机构的信任和信心。”

6月，时任外交大臣伊薇特·库珀在议会表示，她已要求监管机构调查此事。工党议员沃德则表示，她和140名工党同僚希望看到禁令而非调查。她告诉议员，该委员会去年7月似乎已知晓此问题，“但至今未采取任何行动”。

“希伯伦之剑神学院之友”（Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron）慈善机构——

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2026年8月5日 星期三 《卫报》

Palantir仅缴纳200 万英镑m英国税款

尽管获得巨额公共合同，Palantir软件集团在2024年, 仅向英国缴纳了200 万英镑m的企业税，而同期其全球收入飙升至$8bn（£6bn），这一结果被描述为“超乎想象”。该公司在韩国、日本、法国或德国的纳税额也未披露。

研究人员指出，Palantir将其英国收入计入美国账目，这一做法有时被称为转移定价。虽然Palantir 26%的收入来自美国以外的客户，但其美国母公司仅将4%的收入记录为海外收入，作为所售产品的最终所有者。2024年, 是可获得可比数据的最近一年，该公司大部分非美国员工——约750人——均在英国工作。此举的原因尚不明确，但研究人员认为，与客户签订的合同可能是与Palantir美国公司签署的。

另一种Palantir用于减少税收的方式是向员工授予股票期权。公司可通过股票期权在行权时的价值来抵减应缴税款，而员工则需为股票期权缴纳所得税，且税率通常更高。与利润相比，其有效税率仅为1.4%全球。

截至2026年, Palantir持有估计价值6.7 亿英镑m的政府合同。与英国国家医疗服务体系（NHS）签订的一份为期三年、价值200 万英镑40m的协议即为其中之一。例如，Palantir披露……

contribu- 0美元联邦税，而去年12月英国国防部授予的250万英镑中，该公司获得了159万英镑的收入——且未经竞争性招标。该公司2024年的文件显示，其在英国的收入为2.47亿英镑，但仅缴纳了210万英镑的英国企业税，尽管利润超过2500万英镑，实际税率仅为略高于8%，研究人员发现。该报告称，通过股票而非现金支付员工薪酬，将税负从公司转移至员工。

总部位于美国的公司Palantir利用人工智能为英国国家医疗服务体系（NHS）和国防部赢得了大量利润丰厚的合同，其业务正在呈指数级增长。工会Unison的总书记安德烈亚·伊根（Andrea Egan）委托撰写了这份报告，她表示：“能够让企业规避税收的系统显然需要改变。像Palantir这样的公司必须缴纳应缴的税款。”

“英国是Palantir在美国以外的最大市场，2024年收入达2.47亿英镑。尽管英国市场规模庞大，但该公司在英国缴纳的税款却少于其应缴纳的25%英国企业税率。Palantir的一位发言人表示，公司遵守了其运营所在司法管辖区的税收制度，并称批评其转让定价的做法‘完全不可信’，同时补充道：‘转让定价是分配公司利润的一种方式，通过股票期权和前期亏损结转，意味着按照目前的利润率，公司在未来近10年内无需缴纳美国联邦所得税。’”该报告称。

Palantir的股价在昨日早盘交易中上涨了17%，此前其首席执行官亚历克斯·卡普（Alex Karp）预测公司全球收入将几乎翻倍。

---

专辑评论 菲比·布里杰斯（Phoebe Bridgers）的新专辑《Lost Weekend》以扣人心弦的歌词和令人激动的音景，探讨了无法在父母去世时唤起应有情感的挣扎：她在寻找美好回忆时，想起的却是配偶虐待、疏离和非理性行为，最终“感到冷漠，穿着黑色”。Alexis Petridis

布里杰斯的歌词一如既往地出色，但《Lost Weekend》的独特之处在于其声音设计。这张专辑延续了她作为创作型歌手的成功，融合了美国民谣风格的独立音乐，充满渴望的旋律、原声吉他、曼陀林和忧郁的小提琴，正如你所期待的那样。上一次布里杰斯发行个人专辑还是在2020年新冠疫情高峰期：《Punisher》不仅跻身多个评论家年度最佳榜单，还进入了英国前十，并在美国售出50万张。

然而，最能说明问题的制作人员名单是“声音设计”：在《Lost Weekend》的大部分曲目中，标准的独立创作歌手乐器难以在电子嗡鸣、反馈和怪异的无词人声中凸显。整体效果令人不安，偶尔令人不适，但又极具震撼力：声音中透露出某种大胆，如同她与露西·达克斯（Lucy Dacus）和朱利安·贝克（Julien Baker）组成的乐队Boygenius的首张专辑《The Record》发行后，从《Pitchfork》眼中的“超级组合”迅速崛起，再到她个人专辑《Panorama》中，美妙的旋律和乡村班卓琴几乎被McCartney III的音景完全掩盖。

PHOTOGRAPH: FRANK OCKENFELS

想象中的。但它作为一种路标，指向你这样的人——偶尔会陷入不和谐的混沌。读者们会通过《迷失周末》的开场来判断一部真正的主流作品，《迷失周末》在音乐和歌词上都带来了刺激。结果是一种令人兴奋、强烈的现象。这首曲目，一切并不顺利。《The Outside》和《The Record》这张专辑在2024年颁奖典礼上赢得了三项格莱美奖，专辑描绘了歌手在人群中冲浪——后者充满了情感动荡，很大程度上是由她父亲的去世引起的（专辑题献给“爸爸”），尽管其中夹杂着乐观情绪。与此同时，菲比·布里杰斯（Phoebe Bridgers）与SZA合作的《Ghost in the Machine》中有一句歌词：“他们从不让我触地”，而另一首《The Governor's Waltz》则可能被解读为对保罗·梅斯卡尔（Paul Mescal）时光的影射。

布里杰斯在《Liberty, the Machine》中唱道：“过去看起来越来越光明”，但她补充了一个限定条件：“但我当时在外面，看着”。这张专辑献给了她父亲（专辑题词“献给爸爸”），她与父亲的关系曾经紧张——而她的疏离感因与演员保罗·梅斯卡尔的关系破裂而加剧（“她可以假装是我 / 自从她取代了我在床上的位置 / 在那个舞台上”）。《迷失周末》将其转化为一次丰富而有意义的旅程。其他流行明星也曾为她提供支持：她在泰勒·斯威夫特（Taylor Swift）的重录专辑《Red》中献声，在洛德（Lorde）的《Solar Power》和保罗·麦卡特尼（Paul McCartney）的伴奏中演唱。标题曲确认了他们如传闻中那样订婚。这首歌描述了一种令人不安的感觉——

发行日期：8月14日

cdiGian Live

： 娜奥米·克莱因 极右翼的主导意识形态已演变为一种可怕的、至上主义的生存主义。我们如何建立一场足够强大的运动来阻止他们？

与阿斯特拉·泰勒一起： 加入娜奥米·克莱因和阿斯特拉·泰勒，深入探讨这一人为制造的“末日复合体”，并揭示她们在新书《末日法西斯主义：与生者世界的斗争》中探索的强大抵抗可能性。

如何抵抗 末日法西斯主义 不要错过这次直接聆听克莱因和泰勒讲述我们如何共同反击这种末日叙事，用一个更美好的故事取而代之。这个故事不是关于末日，而是关于更好的时代；不是关于分离和至上，而是关于归属与相互依存。

周一 9月28日 7.30pm-9pm 布里斯托尔圣乔治音乐厅 布里斯托尔BS15RR

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2026年8月5日（周三） 《卫报》 国内版

彼得·吉尔：一位以坦诚和远见著称的戏剧家 > 彼得·吉尔。迈克尔·比林顿 在他众多执导的演员中，彼得·吉尔（享年86岁，卒于2002年）是英国戏剧界一位默默无闻的英雄。无论是作为导演还是剧作家，他的作品都以毫不妥协的诚实和不屈不挠的正直为特征。他深受同行艺术家的钦佩，最近一次获得公众认可是在2002年，其杰出剧作《约克真实主义者》（The York Realist）斩获多个奖项，谢菲尔德克鲁西布剧院（Sheffield Crucible）还为他举办了为期一个月的作品回顾展，并上演了一部全新剧作《原罪》（Original Sin）。

吉尔出生于威尔士一个天主教工人阶级家庭，早年曾是演员：仔细观察，你能在1964年上映的电影《祖鲁》（Zulu）中发现他的身影。但真正塑造其职业生涯的，是他于1964年在伦敦皇家宫廷剧院（Royal Court）担任副导演期间所秉持的价值观——对文本神圣性的信仰、与设计纯粹性相连的无情诚实，以及对演员的尊重。他执导的演员包括：《舌鸟》（Tongue of a Bird）中的梅拉妮·霍尔（Melanie Hall）和德博拉·芬德利（Deborah Findlay）；《约克真实主义者》（The York Realist）中的斯蒂芬·黑根（Stephen Hagan）和马修·伯顿（Matthew Burton）；《某些年轻人》（Certain Young Men）中的安德鲁·伍德尔（Andrew Woodall）和杰里米·诺萨姆（Jeremy Northam）；《卡迪夫东》（Cardiff East）中的马修·里斯（Matthew Rhys）和丹尼尔·埃文斯（Daniel Evans）；以及《万尼亚舅舅》（Uncle Vanya）中的斯蒂芬·雷亚（Stephen Rea）和金·汤姆森（Kim Thomson）。他还曾在国家剧院（National Theatre）工作，其作品包括克里斯托弗·汉普顿（Christopher Hampton）《好莱坞故事》（Tales from Hollywood）的精彩硬朗版本，以及奥特韦（Otway）《威尼斯保全》（Venice Preserv’d）的惊人复兴，后者由伊恩·麦克莱恩（Ian McKellen）、迈克尔·彭宁顿（Michael Pennington）和简·拉波泰尔（Jane Lapotaire）主演，展现了英雄般的表演风格。

吉尔的首部剧作《沉睡者之窝》（The Sleepers Den）呈现了三代女性同床共枕的场景，是对1976年青少年性关系留下的未愈情感创伤的细致再现。1983年的《触地得分》（Kick for Touch）则以同样真实的笔触描绘了威尔士工人阶级生活中的男性情谊、橄榄球作为宗教般的信仰，以及女性作为局外人的处境。这些作品均得益于D·H·劳伦斯（DH Lawrence）的情感智慧——1968年，他以三部曲形式重新搬演了劳伦斯的《矿工的星期五之夜》（A Collier’s Friday Night）、《媳妇》（The Daughter-in-Law）和《霍尔罗伊德太太的守寡》（The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd），标志着其作为导演的首次重大成就。

吉尔始终以严谨、探究的态度对待经典文本。正如欧文·沃德尔（Irving Wardle）所言，他“将日常生活的过程”转化为戏剧，不仅展现了对戏剧的热忱，更体现了对高标准的坚持和对个人野心牺牲的信念。他对阶级与性别交织的痴迷贯穿其作品：对约翰（John）而言，约克郡的乡村拥有一种智性、原始的诚实，而这种特质也定义了吉尔作为一流导演的地位。晚年，吉尔逐渐远离英国戏剧界，偶尔的抱怨源于他对高标准的坚守和对戏剧未来的关切。他创立于1984年的国家剧院工作室（National Theatre Studio）旨在培育新作，但结局并不圆满。他曾将河畔工作室（Riverside Studios）的一个旧电视演播厅改造成表演空间，这一成就足以证明其卓越的导演才华——

彼得·吉尔讣告 《卫报》戏剧评论家迈克尔·比林顿自1971年以来一直为《卫报》撰写戏剧评论，他曾写道，彼得·吉尔作为编剧和导演的作品最终成为伦敦皇家宫廷剧院和丛林剧院舞台上的持续关注点，这正是因为吉尔的远见卓识。汉默史密斯的河畔剧院既是令人着迷的尊重对象，也是充满异国情调的“他者”，而他在任期间，始终不懈地支持新兴作家，确保他们的作品能够登上舞台。他与恋人吉尔的作品密不可分，因为他们与这片土地不可分割地紧密相连。比林顿写道：“既有清晰的思考，也有美的创造——‘and something beautiful’。”

吉尔不遗余力地推广新作家，确保他们的作品登上皇家宫廷剧院和丛林剧院的舞台。 《卫报》2026年8月5日星期三，第6版

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牡蛎养护项目启动 野生动物保护组织发起项目，旨在恢复濒临灭绝的本土欧洲牡蛎，将其作为“自然生态系统工程师”，在改善水质、提升生物多样性和为多种海洋物种创造栖息地方面发挥关键作用。定制的北爱尔兰首座浮动礁石已在格伦纳姆码头安装，为欧洲牡蛎提供庇护栖息地，助其生长繁衍。该浮动礁石支持约10,000只幼年牡蛎（称为“稚贝”）及约200只成年牡蛎。

尽管本土牡蛎礁曾是北爱尔兰海岸线的常见景观，但由于过度捕捞、栖息地丧失、疾病和污染，其数量已急剧下降。早期结果令人鼓舞，牡蛎存活率超过80%。Ecodetect摄像系统与礁石一同安装，记录造访和与结构互动的物种，为牡蛎礁如何支持海洋生物提供宝贵见解。在运行的前三个月，该系统已记录超过7,000 000次野生动物检测，包括鲻鱼和黑海鸽等物种。

该项目是阿尔斯特野生动物组织恢复北爱尔兰本土牡蛎及其他“蓝碳”栖息地的更广泛计划的一部分。阿尔斯特野生动物表示，新的浮动礁石在格伦纳姆码头重现了海床上方的天然牡蛎礁栖息地，有望为扩大本土欧洲牡蛎的恢复提供新途径。PA Media

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《巴格普斯》联合创作者画作拍出400,000英镑 《巴格普斯》联合创作者彼得·弗明的艺术作品（包括《巴格普斯》《神奇的克兰格斯》和《巴兹尔·布拉什》的绘画）以超过£400,000成交。约500件英国木偶师的画作、书籍和收藏品在坎特伯雷拍卖行进行为期5天的两日拍卖，每件拍品均售出，其中一幅《柳林风声》中的癞蛤蟆画作以£4,200成交，两幅作品及一幅著名粉红猫巴格普斯与朋友艾米丽的画作以£3,900成交。

他们的首部热门作品《伊阿宋与阿尔戈英雄》讲述了一种物种的冒险故事，他们在探险中与星球上的其他居民相遇——

娜奥米·克莱恩与阿斯特拉·泰勒：如何抵制末世法西主义

极右翼的统治意识形态已演变成一种畸形的、至上主义的生存主义。我们如何建立一个足够强大的运动来阻止他们？

加入娜奥米·克莱恩（Naomi Klein）和阿斯特拉·泰勒（Astra Taylor）的行列，随他们深入探讨这一人为的末日综合症，并揭示反抗的强大可能性，正如他们在犀利且充满希望的新书《末世法西主义：以及为生存世界的斗争》（End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World）中所探讨的那样。

不要错过这个机会，直接聆听克莱恩和泰勒讲述我们如何能用一个更好的故事来共同对抗这种启示录式的叙事。一个关于更好时代而非末世的故事；一个关于归属感和相互依存而非隔离与至上主义的故事。

9月28日，星期一 晚上7.30-9点 布里斯托尔圣乔治教堂 (St Georges Bristol) Bristol BS1 5RR

现场参与

在线参与

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国内

人工智能生成的短篇小说“更吸引人”

“通过练习，我们可以学会识别人工智能写作的独特风格，就像我们能学会识别不同人类作者的独特风格一样，”韦斯伯格说道。参与者的自我报告显示，他们在小说创作方面的专业知识与猜测准确性并无关联，但对人工智能系统的专业知识则与之相关。然而，参与者对被标记为人类创作的故事给出了更高的评分。研究结果还表明，对人工智能持积极态度的人更倾向于认为人工智能生成的故事更易于阅读和理解。五六条锦鲤在机油袭击事件中死亡。不过，韦斯伯格补充道：“人工智能能够生成类人故事这一事实并不会改变任何事情。人们对人工智能生成故事的偏好与对真实性的追求有关，但并不意味着他们实际上更喜欢人工智能生成的故事。”

迪娜·斯科尔尼克·韦斯伯格是这项研究的资深作者，来自美国维拉诺瓦大学，她表示：“人工智能系统已经能够生成至少与人类创作的短篇小说一样优秀，甚至更优秀的作品。我们应当相应地更新对人工智能能力的看法。”然而，韦斯伯格也指出，这并不意味着写作应完全交由人工智能，因为由该技术创作的小说可能与人类创作的作品有所不同。她提到，人工智能生成的小说以及人类与人工智能合著的小说可能需要占据一席之地，但这并不意味着我们不再有空间去欣赏创作过程。

从荷马的《奥德赛》到阿加莎·克里斯蒂的犯罪小说，人类创作了无数故事来装点书架。如今，研究表明人工智能或许正在提供某种竞争。在《判断与决策》杂志发表的一项研究中，1,682名成年人被要求阅读一篇短篇小说。随后，研究人员进行了两项进一步实验，共905名成年人被给予六篇短篇小说中的两篇——三篇由人类创作，三篇由ChatGPT生成。每篇人工智能生成的故事与一篇人类创作的故事主题相似。参与者被告知故事是由人类还是人工智能创作，但这一信息并不总是准确。研究人员随后要求参与者评价故事的吸引力和参与度。PA Media

在其中一项实验中，167名参与者（40%）猜测正确，结果比随机概率更差；而在另一项实验中，250名参与者（52%）猜测正确。卢克·肯纳德是伯明翰大学电影与创意写作教授，未参与此项研究，他指出人工智能伴随着危害。“因为我们是人类，倾向于将人工智能拟人化，想象它是某种面带善意中性表情的发光机器人，但实际上它只是基于一个庞大的、被盗的真实写作数据库的预测代码，物理上依赖于规模庞大、耗资巨大且对周边社区造成灾难性影响的数据中心，”他说道。

一名退休老人昨日承认使用机油和清洁剂杀死了邻居的锦鲤，因为水泵的噪音让他“几近疯狂”。肯纳德还强调，人工智能并非“普遍

以下为忠实翻译：

参与者能够区分人类创作与人工智能生成的故事，但这构成了“一种存在性威胁”。76岁的格里·达菲（Gerry Duffy）在伦敦北部巴尼特区袭击了邻居的锦鲤，“纯粹出于沮丧和缺乏睡眠”。阅读人工智能生成故事的参与者认为其比阅读人类创作故事的参与者更吸引人、质量更高。她表示：“人类写作是一种创造性自我表达的形式，或是挑战自我的方式，亦或是理解我们世界的手段。”作者写道：“我们真正应该问的问题是：‘这样做值得吗？’答案绝对、明确：‘不值得。’”

他曾告诉邻居安德烈亚斯·普托希德斯（Andreas Ptohides），如果噪音问题得不到解决，他将采取行动。沙希德·伊夫蒂哈尔（Shahid Iftikhar）在威尔斯登治安法庭起诉时表示，普托希德斯的五六条锦鲤被杀，损失约为£565。他补充道：“被告此前曾因噪音问题向原告投诉，并表示‘如果你不处理，我会动手’——这起事件前已有警告。”法庭获悉，达菲于3月被监控拍到翻入邻居花园，破坏水管和水泵。辩护律师埃利奥特·斯特恩（Elliott Stern）称，达菲曾试图在不杀死锦鲤的情况下解决纠纷。他补充道：“这名男子被持续不断的噪音逼疯了，他多次与原告交涉。对方最初承诺关闭水泵，但后来又反悔，称这对鱼不利。”

达菲曾是建筑工人，退休后住在一间工作室公寓，其公寓后方与邻居的花园相邻。一名环境官员告诉他，要么搬家，要么关闭窗户。斯特恩律师称。律师表示：“纯粹出于沮丧和缺乏睡眠，达菲先生一反常态，失去理智，造成了多处损坏。”达菲承认三项损坏财物罪和一项非法毁坏鱼类罪。

33岁的阿丽亚娜·格兰德（Ariana Grande）在巡演即将结束时决定“暂时淡出公众视野”，此前劳拉·斯内普斯（Laura Snapes）曾在很久以前对此进行过报道。她进一步解释了这一决定背后的原因。周一晚，在芝加哥为期三晚的首场演出中，这位歌手兼演员在读稿时告诉歌迷：“昨天宣布的决定并非冲动之举，而是我早已悄然计划好的。”阿丽亚娜·格兰德在当前巡演中演出，下图为她接受塞斯·梅耶斯（Seth Meyers）采访的画面。她的新专辑探讨了公众过高期待和批评者的负面评价等主题。

格兰德表示，她的决定出于“深思熟虑和充满力量的状态”。她继续说道：“无论外界有什么噪音，都无法扭曲我的现实，或比我们共同拥有的这份爱更真实。”她似乎提及了公众对其持续关注的担忧：“人类有时确实需要休息。”此次计划中的淡出包括取消明年夏天在伦敦巴比肯剧院参演的《星期天与乔治同游公园》（Stephen Sondheim作品）制作，她原本将与《邪恶》（Wicked）联合主演乔纳森·贝利（Jonathan Bailey）同台。

表达了她对公众期望的失望；在视频发布后，这种情绪愈发强烈。他被判处两年有条件释放，并被要求支付£565的赔偿金给Ptohides。上周，她在发布新专辑同名单曲《Petal》的主打MV时，视频中她用电锯杀人。在芝加哥的舞台上，她说道：“爱你们，这就是我一直想要的……其余的 76, [注]不该由我来承受。”该视频在Instagram上分享后，平台附上了社区说明，引导饮食失调患者获取相关资源。她称自己的巡演“是我生命中最具疗愈性、美好、特别的经历之一”。她继续说道：“我听说粉丝们很担心我，但事实恰恰相反。边界是必要的，破坏公物和非法损毁鱼类——”

巡演将于8月15日起在伦敦 02 体育馆连演 10 晚。

Alleyn’s：卓越人文 成就卓越自我 Alleyn’s School

南伦敦顶尖男女混合学校 招收 4-18 岁学生

A\ / WeCanBe alleyns.org.uk

2026 年 8 月 5 日 星期三 《卫报》 国内新闻

“无人在乎” （与阿达纳生态平台成员一同） 在阿达纳市法院外，一处靠近Kiçiçikdikili社区的回收设施起火

土耳其农民 承受着英国塑料垃圾的负担

大火燃烧了 36 小时，产生的有毒浓烟笼罩了社区及附近农田。

“我们无法确定进入这处距Kiçiçikdikili以西半英里的设施的塑料垃圾是进口还是国内产生的。然而，附近路边倾倒的一堆垃圾中发现了英国包装。‘一名不愿透露姓名的商人表示：“这里每年夏天都会发生火灾；旁边就有一所学校。社区居民对此非常担忧。”’

塑料碎片缠绕在距离阿伊汉*农田仅数米的水道芦苇上。阿伊汉是土耳其南部阿达纳的一名农民，正在收获茄子。“这里四面八方都是污染，”他说道，

2025, 全球最大的塑料垃圾出口国之一英国共出口了 675,000 吨塑料垃圾，其中近 140,000 吨流向土耳其。欧盟对土耳其的塑料垃圾出口量超过 500,000 吨。

吨。但尽管欧盟最近对塑料废物出口实施了更严格的管控，英国政府仍在继续向经济合作与发展组织（OECD）富裕国家之外的国家出口塑料废物。2021年5月至2024年7月期间，13家英国公司向距离艾汉茄子地仅一英里的凯末尔·德尼兹（Kemal Deniz）回收区发送了545批家庭和超市塑料废物——总计52,000吨。环境调查署（EIA）法律专家艾米·杨曼（Amy Youngman）表示：“[居多古杜（Giindogdu）的]研究中最高的污染水平与可识别的工业源直接相关。英国的废物推动了这些造成污染的运营，若没有这些废物，这种危害不会达到如此规模，甚至可能根本不会发生。”她呼吁英国采取行动，“逐步停止塑料废物出口，加强可追溯性和执法，以及监管微塑料并减少塑料生产”。

近年来，英国已有21家塑料回收和加工设施关闭。

《卫报》获悉的最新研究还显示，阿达纳的德尼兹（Deniz）区——毗邻艾汉的田地——的水道中微塑料和塑料碎片含量极高，其中一条水道紧邻凯末尔·德尼兹，微塑料浓度较上游增加了10倍，该研究已发表于《环境监测与评估》期刊。

Eurokey是英国向土耳其出口废物的前三大公司之一，其发言人表示，该公司仅与经环境署（Environment Agency）批准的“认可合作伙伴”合作，对调查结果感到惊讶。他们表示，不再向土耳其发送塑料废物。他们补充道：“将塑料废物发送到国外是因为国内没有足够的处理基础设施，但Eurokey正在科比（Corby）建设自己的回收厂以解决这个问题。”

他发现，阿达纳其他下游回收设施附近的水渠中微塑料浓度更高，达到上游的132倍。水渠网络穿越农田，最终流入塞伊汉河（Seyhan River），并汇入地中海。

居民表示，该地区废弃的塑料回收和加工设施引发的火灾会产生有毒烟雾，笼罩社区和田地。艾汉说：“每年我们安装温室薄膜时，拆卸后都必须清理表面，因为会发现一层黑色涂层，来自这些地方的烟雾。”“（回收设施）正在将受污染的水排入水渠，”居多古杜说，“农民随后将这些水用作灌溉水源。”他还发现了“高度符合回收加工特征”的颗粒、薄膜和碎片。今年1月，暴雨后水渠水淹没了他的土地，摧毁了7公顷（17英亩）的作物。他说：“我们不得不重新种植，但能做什么呢？无处投诉——没人在乎。”

阿达纳位于土耳其丘库罗瓦平原（Cukurova Plain），这是该国最肥沃的地区之一，盛产棉花、大豆和柑橘。但自2018年中国禁止进口塑料废物以来，重兵把守的凯末尔·德尼兹回收区已成为——

Vanden是去年向土耳其出口废物的另一家顶尖公司，其发言人表示：“任何证据都表明塑料废物在凯末尔回收厂是以环保的方式进行回收的。任何环境损害的证据都应——

土耳其在埃及和意大利之后接受调查，被相关部门称为“土耳其已成为德尼兹区的主要塑料废物存储和回收设施中心，并因有毒烟雾持续36小时而引发抗议”。土耳其是欧盟和英国塑料废物的主要目的地。阿达纳接收了60%的土耳其塑料废物进口——这些进口已使当地处理基础设施不堪重负，并导致塑料泄漏到地中海，对海洋生物造成严重破坏。Vanden进行了评估，提供了土耳其公司的名称，其中一些公司无明显标识，另一些则拒绝置评，如ProtoGreen。塑料堆随处可见。环保组织“阿达纳生态平台”的抗议活动中，成员SAatbarataci表示：“照片展示了阿达纳生态状况。”

2020年国际自然保护联盟的报告显示，140,000吨塑料废物管理不当，引发了广泛的非法活动，包括倾倒和焚烧。环境调查署（EIA）和记者的调查发现，英国出口到土耳其的塑料废物中，有13%被运往凯末尔·德尼兹区。2025年，英国向土耳其出口了大量塑料废物。2021年5月至2024年7月期间，欧盟向该国输送了500,000吨塑料废物。13家英国公司出口了废物，其中最大的三家是ProtoGreen、Vanden和Eurokey。目前尚无证据表明这些英国公司存在违法行为。不过，它们有义务确保出口的废物以环保方式处理。

萨班哲大学海洋生物学家Sedat Giindogdu表示，凯末尔·德尼兹区的回收设施将废水直接排入用于灌溉的运河和渠道。居住在该区域附近的居民称，废物处理厂的火灾每年会产生4至5次有毒烟雾，笼罩在较贫困的居民区上空。环保组织“阿达纳生态平台”发言人Yasar Gékoglu表示：“即使在正常工作条件下，化学污染、水污染、空气和土壤污染也严重影响了他们的生活。”

去年，居民举行了抗议活动。* 姓名已更改

英国环境、食品和农村事务部发言人表示：“从英国出口废物的企业必须确保其运输的废物以环保方式管理，我们已采取行动进一步减少塑料废物出口。”土耳其政府未予置评。他从凯末尔·德尼兹区下游运河采集的水样显示，阿达纳的基础设施不堪重负，塑料废物进口比例过高，对当地生活造成负面影响。

《卫报》2026年8月5日（周三）

© / 目击者

顺时针方向自上而下： 西班牙选手Iris Tié Casas的夺冠表现； 白俄罗斯游泳运动员Vasilina Khandoshka以中立运动员身份赢得银牌； 荷兰选手Marloes Steenbeek； 土耳其游泳运动员Selin Hurmeric

ANDREA STACCIOLI INSIDEFOTO/

Wednesday 5 August 2026 《卫报》

欧洲游泳锦标赛 艺术游泳运动员全力以赴，在巴黎水上运动中心昨日掀起浪花。十六名女子参加了个人技术自选决赛，西班牙选手伊丽丝·蒂·卡萨斯（Iris Tié Casas）夺冠。

按顺时针方向，从右至左： 斯洛伐克选手索菲娅·斯特拉佩科娃（Zofia Strapekova）； 为德国赢得铜牌的克拉拉·布莱尔（Klara Bleyer）； 希腊选手瓦西莉基·帕戈娜·亚历山德里（Vasiliki Pagona Alexandri）； 以及来自马耳他的泽娅·蒙特福特（Zea Montfort）

ARLAND / EPA

GeeGian Live

乌克兰 夏洛特·希金斯（Charlotte Higgins）从未想过自己会报道一场战争。但在2022年秋季，即俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰七个月后，她前往当地采访一个文学节，这一经历改变了她的人生。

战争时期的艺术：与夏洛特·希金斯一同探讨 《卫报》首席文化记者将与三位杰出的乌克兰作家——奥莉娅·赫拉克勒斯（Olia Hercules）、萨沙·多夫日克（Sasha Dovzhyk）和奥列西娅·赫罗梅丘克（Olesya Khromeychuk）——共同参加一场特别的现场活动，在伦敦举行并全球直播。

我们的小组将分享他们关于战争时期乌克兰艺术、生存与抵抗的深刻个人叙述，并探讨为何文化真正关乎生死。

Wednesday 30 September 19:30–21:00 康威大厅（Conway Hall） 伦敦 WC1R 4RL

立即订票：theguardian.com / event / art-in-a-time-of-war 或扫描二维码

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Wednesday 5 August 2026 《卫报》 国内新闻

“瞎忙活和傻笑”：吉米·克里克特如何掌握纯粹的快乐 更多内容。这几个词完美契合了吉米·克里克特（Jimmy Cricket）——马克·劳森（Mark Lawson）的一部短剧集锦节目，其中包含歌曲和单口喜剧表演。由马尔格鲁（Mulgrew）饰演克里克特，这24集节目固定邀请喜剧演员尼古拉斯·史密斯（Nicholas Smith，《你被服务了吗？》）和琼·西姆斯（Joan Sims，《继续》系列），并设有哈泽尔·奥康纳（Hazel O’Connor）、罗里·布雷姆纳（Rory Bremner）等嘉宾的模仿环节。照片：SHUTTERSTOCK

作为克里克特，他身着过短的正式西裤（可能向同样装扮的马克斯·沃尔致敬）、滑稽的帽子，以及左右脚穿反的威灵顿靴。这一舞台形象——加上略显幼稚的艺名——让一些人误以为他是儿童节目演员。但这种误解并非全无道理。他面向成人的表演内容，被归类为“家庭娱乐”——无黄段子、无脏话，仅有几首歌，其中他保留的家乡口音让“faffing”（瞎忙活）与“laughing”（傻笑）押韵。

吉米·克里克特这个艺名由北爱尔兰库克斯敦的詹姆斯·约瑟夫·马尔格鲁（James Joseph Mulgrew）采用，当时他在1990年的儿童皇家综艺表演（Children’s Royal Variety performance）中首次使用，而此前他在20世纪60年代的Butlin’s和Pontins度假营担任演员，彼时夏季度假胜地是英国艺人的“训练营”。该艺名与“Jiminy Cricket”（吉米尼·克里克特）一样，源于对“Jesus Christ!”的委婉表达，但虔诚的教徒兼一丝不苟的喜剧演员马尔格鲁不太可能是受此誓言启发。无论是刻意为之还是巧合，他选择的舞台形象——包括0分严肃的装扮——最终让他在80岁时离世，留下了这句口头禅的另一层讽刺意味。

以下为忠实翻译：

笔名的纯洁性及其可能激发迪士尼《木偶奇遇记》（片中蟋蟀吉米尼是关键角色）粉丝兴趣的清教徒主义，或许源于他20世纪50年代在北爱尔兰的罗马天主教家庭背景——那个信条与时代以严苛著称。对于热爱直翅目昆虫的爱好者（共88,种相关物种），以及最伟大的夏季运动的拥趸而言，他的幽默别具吸引力。其成长经历的持久影响还体现在他节目中多次提及来自“妈咪”的信件。尽管当时并无争议，但其表演中的一个元素——大量关于“爱尔兰式逻辑”的笑话——如今可能被视为冒犯。不过，与犹太裔喜剧演员类似，马尔格鲁本可声称自己在写作莫克姆与怀斯的作品时常提及的暴行中饱受偏见之苦，尽管几乎没有人生来就有权利探讨族群刻板印象。阿根廷教皇的形象与他的电视和广播表演不谋而合。当时，BBC广播电台本身就是个玩笑大师，这一荣誉不太可能是为了喜剧。表演者对乌尔斯特口音保持警惕。在那个时代，BBC广播电台正处于马尔格鲁公众知名度的巅峰，受到假日营地版《木偶奇遇记》的启发——“永远让你的良心成为你的向导”，吉米尼蟋蟀唱道——这正是马尔格鲁 / 蟋蟀的信条。

马尔格鲁职业生涯的巅峰期出现在1990年BBC广播二台的成功系列节目《吉米的板球队》，标志着他重返广播界。其电视曝光的高峰期则在1985-88年，于ITV一档名为《吉米的板球队》的节目中，该节目主要面向不太可能成为其观众的群体，反过来也避免了冲突。他的目标是提供无威胁的娱乐，并取得了成功。这一时期与北爱尔兰动乱及其相关的宗派主义重叠，但他仍坚持信仰，并在2015年获得教皇方济各授予的骑士勋章——天主教的最高荣誉。在其口头禅“还有呢”之后，他迎来了职业生涯中最大的电视可见度。

苏格兰有创纪录的18岁青少年获得大学录取名额，人数达2,090名，较去年增加7%，苏格兰政府称这是该阶段的历史新高。与此同时，各年龄段的录取总人数为32,370人。尤其令人鼓舞的是，来自贫困地区的学生人数进一步增加……我们扩大高等教育入学机会的决心，正为成千上万来自更贫困地区的年轻人提供深造机会。苏格兰政府表示：“大学入学应始终基于学习能力而非支付能力。苏格兰政府对免费学费的承诺，意味着符合条件的高中生能够——”几乎150,000名苏格兰学生昨日收到了全国统考、高等及高级考试的成绩。

今年，包括高等教育（Highers）和职业技能（Skills for Work）奖项在内的各类学习者来自各种背景，包括贫困地区。苏格兰教育大臣麦里·麦卡伦表示：“这是又一份极为积极的成绩单，展现了苏格兰教育体系的实力，大学录取人数不断增长，旨在打造一个包容性的体系，涵盖学院和现代学徒制。”她还表示，政府在2026学年取得了成绩。根据英国大学和学院招生服务中心（Ucas）的数据，2026学年获得录取资格的学生人数为17,920人，较去年的17,350人有所增加。来自贫困地区且年龄在18岁及以下的学生中，成功获得大学录取的人数几乎创下18,岁年龄段的新高。

一名计划攻读法律专业的S6年级学生、18岁的拉伊斯·埃尔哈姆迪（Laith Elhamdi）在格拉斯哥的全圣徒中学（All Saints secondary）对自己的考试成绩作出反应：

部分大学名额仍可通过补录流程获得。

e 《卫报》2026年8月5日（周三）

全球油价下跌2%，因美、卡塔尔报告停火取得进展 朱利安·博格尔报道 卡塔尔外交部发言人马吉德·阿勒安萨里（Majed al-Ansari）表示，卡塔尔、巴基斯坦和阿曼正在密切协调，并交换美伊双方的提案草案，外交接触已进入“非常积极的阶段”。一名巴基斯坦高级安全官员告诉路透社：“幕后正在发生很多事……我们正在与双方对话。我们此刻的唯一目标是让双方至少同意开始对话。”近期谈判的焦点集中在伊朗与阿曼之间，讨论一项临时过境方案，允许船只进出波斯湾。该谅解备忘录（MoU）上月破裂，当时船只试图在未经伊朗批准的情况下沿阿曼海岸穿越霍尔木兹海峡，伊朗随即发动袭击。

美国财政部长斯科特·贝森特（Scott Bessent）表示，美伊正在谈判，并告诉CNBC电视台：“我认为我们今天或明天可能有机会达成协议，开放海峡，并朝着更正常化的局势迈进。”他的言论与唐纳德·特朗普周一的乐观表态如出一辙，后者声称突破即将到来，尽管德黑兰迅速否认与美方进行任何直接对话。参与谈判的地区外交官表示，阿曼正面临来自美国、欧洲和沙特的联合压力，要求其接受一项临时方案，允许船只通过靠近伊朗的北部航线进入波斯湾，再沿阿曼海岸的南部航线离开，并由伊朗共同控制。有争议的问题是伊朗要求对过境船只收取通行费或其他费用，这一问题将留待后续讨论。

英国海事贸易行动办公室（UKMTO）报告称，周一晚间一艘货船在阿曼海岸附近的海峡水域遭不明弹体袭击，但未透露船只名称。乐观的消息推动油价昨日下跌2%，但海峡仍对航运关闭，一艘货船在靠近该水道的阿曼海岸附近被不明弹体击中。

在哥伦比亚当选的穿着大象服装的活动家                      4 / 韩国 第29页                                                首尔遭遇致命热浪 第31页

在为期60天的谈判期间，为宗教犹太人举行特殊圣殿山仪式，以及讨论全球五分之一的石油和液化天然气问题，伊朗核计划也将在此期间得到处理。阿曼政府一直在抵制霍尔木兹海峡提议，担心该提议可能成为永久性安排，并让伊朗在阿曼水域的海上航线上拥有持久发言权，该地区外交官表示。这些节日将出现在一场激烈的选举活动中，以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡领导的极右翼联盟将为生存而战。谈判因德黑兰内部分歧而复杂化，外交官称，伊朗外交部希望达成协议，担心伊朗对霍尔木兹海峡的控制可能最终成为一种浪费资产，因为海上交通会寻找替代路线。而政权内的强硬派则以美国政府无法兑现开放海峡所承诺的经济利益为由反对这项协议。

利雅得正对阿曼施加特别大的压力，一位外交官表示，因为沙特认为“由于伊朗内部存在一个在任何情况下都不希望达成协议的强大派系，我们可能正处于地区战争的边缘”。以色列极右翼国家安全部长伊塔马尔·本-格维尔上月在耶路撒冷阿克萨清真寺现场，该地点的特殊圣殿山警察部队正准备应对更多直接挑战。

约旦外交大臣艾曼·萨法迪告诉《卫报》：“这是一个持续的威胁，一个我们正在尽一切可能手段应对的危险威胁。”“我们警告说，篡改现状……可能引发一场宗教冲突，其影响将超出巴勒斯坦和约旦，波及整个穆斯林世界。”“这是整个国际社会都应当意识到的问题。耶路撒冷是一个火药桶。”

萨法迪将于今日主持紧急会议，邀请阿拉伯联盟国家、土耳其、印度尼西亚、马来西亚和巴基斯坦的同行与会。“我们正在努力解释这一危险，”他说，“我们正在——”

周三，2026年8月5日：《卫报》

4名穆斯林在阿克萨清真寺祈祷，抗议犹太复国主义国家吞并约旦河西岸的计划、否认约旦在水资源协议中的份额，以及每日对阿克萨清真寺监护权的挑战。这些举措将在多个方面破坏约旦的稳定，包括经济成本、大量流离失所者涌入带来的政治影响，以及对该国脆弱人口结构平衡的威胁。

“每天都有定居者进入阿克萨清真寺，同时[巴勒斯坦]耶路撒冷人被禁止进入清真寺，”萨法迪说，“我们的立场是，这是一条我们绝不允许被跨越的红线。我们已向伊斯兰行动阵线（IAF）——塔哈布的政党、约旦最大的政治团体——明确表达了这一立场。”

早些时候，众所周知，我们将会在被要求采取一切必要措施以防止任何一个意识形态名称上升的年份。这种上升在很大程度上是由约旦河另一侧的事件驱动的，以及以色列试图将巴勒斯坦人驱逐到约旦。这不仅将违反国际法和巴勒斯坦人留在其土地上的权利，而且也将是一个巨大的升级。

巴勒斯坦人抬着上周末从一栋被毁住宅楼废墟中寻回的遗体棺材。

加沙战争帮助其赢得了 22% 的可用席位。政治伊斯兰的激增给君主制带来了冲击，使其放缓了政治改革计划以及向议会转移更多权力的进程。

约旦的穆斯林兄弟会去年被宣布为非法，其政治分支 IAF 的办公室遭到突击搜查。然而，它被允许以 Umma（“社区”或“民族”）的名义继续作为一个政党存在。

塔布布（Tahboub）认为，政府在争取国际支持以抵制以色列侵占方面可以做得更多。“这个问题没有以所需的力度被摆在桌面上，”她说，同时强调 Umma 党在面对对手时支持政府。

她说，她理解地理和经济带来的限制，这些限制使约旦在经济和安全需求方面严重依赖美国。

与其他海湾君主国不同，它不允许美国其自身的 mili-... [...OMITTED...]

约旦人中有很多是来自巴勒斯坦难民的后裔，他们代表了约旦 11.5 million 人口的一半以上。作为该国的原始居民，“东岸人”对他们认为的进一步淡化国家认同感到担忧。

加沙卫生部记录部门负责人扎赫尔·瓦海迪（Zaher al-Waheidi）表示，亲属报告称仍有人被困在废墟中。他补充说，实际人数可能高出数千人，因为一些袭击导致整个家庭在同一时间被杀，导致没有幸存者来报告失踪情况。

联合国委员会、人权观察（Human Rights Watch）和国际特赦组织（Amnesty International）发现以色列在加沙犯下了种族灭绝罪。6月，一个联合国委员会发现以色列继续在加沙实施种族灭绝，且其安全部队“蓄意针对并杀害”了巴勒斯坦儿童。

至少 26 名巴勒斯坦人在周末的以色列袭击中丧生，尽管此前宣布了一项协议以巩固 10 月停火的第二阶段。

人们聚集在加沙中心，为昨日因以色列袭击丧生的 112 人举行大规模葬礼，其中包括 40 名儿童，他们死于 2023 年加沙战争最早的以色列袭击之一。这些杀戮发生在以色列安全部队因约旦政府对以色列在加沙战争中大规模杀害巴勒斯坦平民的抗议而采取报复行动的几天之后，官员们暗示，如果批评停止，水龙头可能会重新开启。

以色列拒绝续签 2021 年的一项水资源协议，根据该协议，以色列每年与邻国共享 100 million 立方米的水，而约旦是世界上最干旱的国家之一。

水资源量回到了 1994 年条约最初约定的 50 million 立方米，这远远不能满足比 32 年前的约旦人口规模大得多的需求。据报道，以色列政府在回应约旦政府的抗议时将供水量减半。我们正试图通过合法抗议来创造意识，意识到迫在眉睫的危险在持续 [...OMITTED...]

那些以色列政府的行为 其领土上的军事基地，但那里 他们的遗体直到现在才被找回，因为以色列的 唐纳德·特朗普赞扬了最新的协议，该协议旨在让哈马斯解除武装且以色列军队撤出加沙，称其为一项“历史性协议”。自10月停火以来，以色列的持续打击虽有所放缓但并未停止。自2023年10月7日以来，加沙已有超过73,377人被以色列军队杀害，其中包括1,252人。自10月停火开始以来，已有5名以色列士兵被杀。

数百人聚集在代尔巴拉赫的地面上，周围摆放着用巴勒斯坦国旗包裹的棺材，排成行。哀悼者为受害者祈祷，然后将遗体从被摧毁的建筑搬运到附近的墓地。停火谈判旨在将停火协议推进到第二阶段，并让哈马斯解除武装，但目前基本陷入停滞。高级哈马斯官员表示，该组织的解除武装是以色列从该地带撤军为前提的。以色列表示，它对上周的协议有“严重的安全顾虑”。

在约旦东部沙漠的穆瓦法克·萨尔蒂基地，美国的驻军规模自美国与伊朗开战以来显著增加。上周，伊朗的空袭造成3名美国人死亡，多人受伤。

在加沙地带，大多数200万人口流离失所，生活在卫生条件恶劣、拥挤的帐篷城市中，处于人道主义危机之中。上周末，加沙的民防部门挖掘了被夷平的公寓楼，找回了另外112名受害者的遗体，其中包括妇女和儿童。加沙民防部门表示，仍有157人在袭击中失踪。美联社

11月22日，以色列战机摧毁了加沙城西部绿线附近的一个住宅区，造成300多人死亡。现场的旁观者仅救出了约40人，他们用双手和简易工具在冒烟的瓦砾中挖掘。

在耶路撒冷、西岸以及 约旦对耶路撒冷圣殿山 / Al-Haram al-Sharif（圣地）的托管权可追溯至奥斯曼时代，该市宗教场所的现状在1878年的《柏林条约》中得到确认。哈希姆王国对耶路撒冷的监督权在20世纪扩展至基督教圣地，并在1967年战争及1994年《以色列-约旦条约》后再次得到确认。犹太极端分子的侵犯行为——如两次世界大战期间的骚乱，以及2000年右翼领导人阿里埃勒·沙龙（后成为以色列总理）对该圣地的访问——引发了第二次大起义，导致持续超过4年的暴力冲突。

约旦对维持与西方邻国的正常关系面临更高的政治成本。安曼一直试图缓和局势，但由于伊朗成功的空袭接连得手，这一努力变得更加困难。迪马·塔布布（Dima Tahboub）是约旦伊斯兰乌玛党（Umma party）的议员兼发言人，她表示：“这里的反正常化情绪比以往任何时候都更加强烈。”

约旦在以色列在西岸的广泛行动影响下具有独特的脆弱性，安曼担心随着10月选举的临近，局势可能会急剧升级。

距离原定于2025年10月的停火协议投票仅剩几个月，激进分子正试图以难以逆转的方式改变该地区的地理格局。对约旦而言，最坏的情况是以色列试图将巴勒斯坦人从西岸大规模驱逐。

急救人员得以在加沙各处挖掘废墟，那里仍有数千具遗骸，其中73,377人自战争开始以来被以色列军队杀害，另有1,252人自2025年10月停火以来遇难。四分之一英里（250米）范围内仍有遗骸被掩埋。至少有7,400人失踪。

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星期三 2026 年 8 月 5 日 《卫报》

这位活动人士曾尝试通过众筹维持工作，但认为这并不可持续，因此决定竞选公职，以便利用参议员的薪水继续监督工作。这位身穿大象服装的活动人士在哥伦比亚宣誓就任参议员。他在2019年12月宣布参选，但保持匿名。“在选举前仅三天公开我的面孔，给了我足够的时间来保护我自己的安全，”他说。Riia 在哥伦比亚约1,100个市镇中的几乎每个地方都至少获得了一票。政治分析师 Gabriel Cifuentes 表示，Elefante Blanco 的当选既反映了社交媒体对选举的影响，也反映了“对传统政治日益增长的厌倦”。南美记者 Tiago Rogero 报道称，就职日之所以壮观，是因为世界上从未发生过类似的事情。

Riia 说：“就职典礼令人叹为观止，因为这样的事情在世界任何地方都从未发生过。政治被视为一种腐败行为，而像我这样不依附于任何政党的活动人士，往往能吸引那些通过社交媒体日益紧密联系的公众的注意。”

Riia 的提案之一是一项法律，要求各市镇拨款修复路坑。该角色的起源可追溯至2019年，当时 Rtia 在佩雷拉市市长办公室工作。在此期间，他目睹了管理层向员工施压，要求他们为一名候选人争取空白票。他录下了对话并将其泄露给媒体。“我不得不离开这座城市，因为我收到了死亡威胁，”他说。他搬到麦德林，并在整个竞选期间几乎未透露身份。直到选举前三天，他才决定公开面孔。

就职典礼期间，他偶尔会摘下服装的头部。他补充道：“我即将进入全体会议，但不会穿着这套服装，因为它仅用于特定场合，而非每次辩论都适合。”在哥伦比亚最新的议会全体会议中，共有32名女性、69名男性和一只卡通大象参议员。该角色以他的父亲 Dario Riia 命名，Dario 于2024年在一条坑洼的街道上摔倒后去世，享年85岁。

这位参议员表示，在左翼参议员 Ivan Cepeda 和极右翼百万富翁律师 Abelardo dela Espriella 的总统决选中，他投了空白票。“我既不属于左翼、右翼，也不属于中间派，”他说，“我是独立的。”对这位在整个竞选过程中几乎未透露身份的新参议员而言，融入环境从来不是选项。

他在穿过国会礼堂狭窄的通道时有些困难，在身着剪裁精致的西装和礼服的同僚间穿行，最终穿着他那圆滚滚的白色毛绒服装宣誓就职。

即便如此，他仍面临批评，因为路易斯·卡洛斯·Riia（34岁）匿名揭露不法行为，而路易斯·卡洛斯本人投票支持德拉·埃斯普列亚的提案，将“白象”（Elefante Blanco）项目迁往周五总统就职典礼的举办地——距波哥大280英里的卡利。他表示：“在哥伦比亚，如果你不按腐败分子的方式行事，就不会受欢迎。”该提案以58票对30票在参议院通过。这一术语指代那些耗资巨大、最终被废弃或毫无用处的公共工程。此前五年，他一直在社交媒体上揭露公共资金浪费问题。他委托插画师设计了大象形象，并请裁缝制作了服装。他的视频吸引了数十万次观看，部分项目后来得以重启，Riia也成为哥伦比亚最受欢迎的参议员之一，获得约124,000票。2021年11月，他发布了第一条视频，内容是一条未完工的道路。

此后，他又发布了数十条关于桥梁、学校、隧道和医院等“白象”工程的视频，均以扭曲的声音解说，有时还展示“白象”跋涉于泥泞或涉水穿过浑浊水域的画面。里亚表示，他希望向参议员们传递“一个信号，即国家应在长期被忽视的地区发挥作用”，并称即使就职典礼场地变更，成本也会低于左翼总统古斯塔沃·佩特罗2022年的就职典礼。本周，他将身着“白象”服装出席周五的活动。“服装里面非常热，”他说，“但还是得穿，因为我要去国家不去的地方。”里亚通过自由职业、出售“白象”毛绒玩具等方式筹集差旅费。他表示：“我与德拉·埃斯普列亚的关系基本上是政治监督，无论哪位候选人获胜，情况都会如此。”

团队计划在明年内消灭其他流浪猫，但“九命猫”（Nine Lives）始终逍遥法外。经过三年追捕，团队于2024年7月底释放了20只褐鸭（pateke），但同一只猫随后再次出现，连续三晚在采石场捕杀了15只鸟类，这一行为被形容为“相当不寻常”。他们投放了鲑鱼、炸鸡和兔肉作为诱饵。在“九命猫”于普鲁鲁阿半岛（Purerua peninsula）游荡的三年间，团队曾多次接近捕获它。该猫最初被发现时，其尸体将被保存，用于向社区宣传流浪猫对本地物种的影响。

照片来源：ESTEBAN VANEGAS / THE NEW YORK TIMES / REDUX / EVEVINE。

新西兰北岛顶端的普雷鲁阿半岛于2023年部署了威灵顿。在普雷鲁阿半岛的这次行动中，使用了笼子和陷阱。“我们并不认为成功是理所当然的，因为这场猫鼠游戏令人沮丧且曲折。”上周五，一只臭名昭著的野猫——因三年来屡次逃脱陷阱而被命名为“九命猫”——的摄像头画面显示它进入了其中一个“九命”笼子。“我们派出了陷阱手前去查看，它就在那里。于是它被人道射杀，”保育项目Pest Free Purerua的导师安迪·门托说。

这只野猫在新西兰被捕杀，结束了其对该国最稀有的本土鸭类——斑头鸭的毁灭性破坏。Pest Free Purerua刚刚向半岛引入了20只斑头鸭，以为已控制了野猫种群。然而，一周内便发生了首次死亡。团队架设了摄像头，识别出一只有特定斑纹的猫，门托说。另有15只斑头鸭被同一只猫杀死。

这只大型灰色虎斑猫估计已杀死数十只斑头鸭（约占其全球种群的1%），以及一系列几维鸟雏鸟、壁虎和其他本土物种。11月，政府宣布将野猫纳入该国领先全球的“捕食者零2050”战略。新西兰是全球家猫拥有率最高的国家之一，家猫和野猫对生物多样性的影响引发激烈争论。一些社交媒体用户对“九命猫”被射杀感到震惊，认为它应被饶恕；门托表示这对半岛是“实质性的进展”，团队可能会重启斑头鸭的引入计划，并考虑再引入5只。

《卫报》周三 2026年8月5日

数百人被迫 以维持社区运转为由，Spin Time的居民们又将在街头度过一夜。 “但我们能够在大约20分钟内将火扑灭，”他说道。 失业的Podaro说：“这里有很多儿童、新生儿、老人和残疾人， “消防员确保了区域安全，但随后警察赶到，由于我们害怕，便都跑到了外面。 以及患有重病的人，他们在这酷暑中苦苦挣扎。这届政府似乎不 他们锁上了大门，并告诉我们出于安全检查无法返回室内。几小时后， 明白，如果我们有份体面的工作、能赚到钱，就不会陷入这种境地。” 这栋建筑被查封。”

社区中心沦为牺牲品， Spin Time为包括Marco Perilli在内的数百人提供了生命线。 他表示警方搜查了建筑内的毒品和武器。“结果适得其反，因为他们什么也没找到，” 他补充道，称这场火灾被用作驱逐的借口。 印度人民党在学生骚乱后遭遇选举失利 佩内洛普·麦克雷 新德里

罗马街头露宿

驱逐强制清理

一名建筑工人在离婚后成为无家可归者，他是“蟑螂运动”抗议活动的首批居民之一。佩里利是帮助扑灭火灾的学生之一。“梅洛尼政府需要认真思考权力的真正含义，”他补充道，“权力不是攻击穷人——这届政府是在向穷人宣战。”

印度执政党印度人民党（BJP）在补选中遭遇失利。英国志愿者本杰明·麦克沙恩在Spin Time的餐厅表示，这里提供的不仅仅是住所。“这里有共享办公空间，有课后俱乐部，有移民援助、食物银行、理发店、礼堂......我想不出世界上还有哪个地方能为社区成长提供如此多元的途径。”

在比哈尔邦首府巴特那，普拉尚特·基肖尔领导的新兴政党“人民好治理党”（Jan Suraj）夺取了Bankipur选区的席位。这一选区曾是BJP的据点，此次选举备受关注，因其发生在学生抗议考试试卷泄露事件之后，该事件迫使教育部长辞职，成为这届以“不向公众压力屈服”为傲的政府的罕见退让。

上周一场小型火灾迫使Spin Time Labs大楼疏散，该建筑自2013年起被草根团体占用，目前仍因梅洛尼政府打击此类被占用物业而关闭。数百人在罗马的高温热浪中连续一周露宿帐篷，与当地政客就一处知名社会住房援助中心的未来僵持不下。

“这里有孩子、新生儿、老人和残障人士，他们在高温中苦苦挣扎，”来自罗马尼亚的家政工人佩特罗内拉·波达罗说，她与其他居民一起在Spin Time Labs大楼外的埃斯奎利诺区露营。火灾于7月29日凌晨在大楼外部区域发生，被居民及时扑灭，未蔓延。但警方以安全检查为由疏散了这座10层建筑，迫使约4oo名居民——包括儿童、老人和残障人士——流落街头。

佩特罗内拉和自2013年起便居住在同一楼层。Spin Time是一项由罗马左翼市议会和梵蒂冈支持的倡议，长期以来一直是梅洛尼政府驱逐的目标。梅洛尼政府将被占用建筑视为非法。

BJP在本周的三场补选中失利两场，反对党国大党保住了中央邦达蒂亚选区的席位。BJP在古吉拉特邦的曼贾尔布尔选区勉强守住优势，避免了全面溃败。古吉拉特邦是莫迪的家乡。

基肖尔的支持者表示，他的竞选成功聚焦于年轻选民关心的议题，特别是教育、考试丑闻和失业问题。“与其他只会空喊口号的政客不同，他提出了一个简单的口号：为孩子的未来投票，”前BJP支持者迪帕克·夏尔马告诉《印度教徒报》。

照片：克劳迪娅·德加努蒂

反对派认为这是对犯罪行为的纵容。学生抗议运动正在兴起。该中心提供食物银行、餐厅和共同工作空间，于2019年因教廷枢机康拉德·克拉耶夫斯基（已故教皇方济各的助手）爬入下水道恢复电力而登上头条，当时的意大利内政部长、现任副总理马泰奥·萨尔维尼对此大为愤怒。印度近三分之二的人口年龄在35岁以下。尽管官方青年失业率为16%，但阿齐姆·普莱姆吉大学的一份报告显示，毕业生的失业率要高得多。

蟑螂人民党的崛起令政府感到不安。该党主席尼廷·纳宾在竞选期间称主要由Z世代组成的抗议者为“病毒和蟑螂帮”，引发争议。他承诺在补选失利后，该党将“进行深刻反思”。多位意大利作家、演员和电影导演，包括奥斯卡得主保罗·索伦蒂诺，呼吁允许居民返回或提供替代住所。高调批评梅洛尼政府的作家罗伯托·萨维亚诺周一到访现场，称其为“民主的象征”而非犯罪行为。高层消息人士表示，此次失利表明核心支持者可能转向。明年将举行一系列邦选举，全国大选定于2029年举行。

该建筑目前处于两项司法查封令之下——一项与私人业主为重获所有权而进行的长期法律诉讼有关，内政部支持业主；另一项则与火灾有关。罗马市议会及志愿者已提供行军床、食物、饮料和医疗援助。为寻求解决方案，当局正考虑收购该建筑。

普拉尚特·基肖尔展示了他在比哈尔邦补选中获胜的选举证书，印度东部——

2026年8月5日 星期三 《卫报》 世界

首次发布严重高温预警 护士正对多达63,000名被认定为最脆弱的居民进行检查，包括老年人和残疾人士或慢性病患者

首尔的死亡人数已达19人。为缓解首尔不断上升的城市热浪，200辆卡车正在向超过1,200英里的道路喷洒水。这些卡车每天在最严重的地区作业多达5次。首尔的行人通勤者在阴凉处蜿蜒前行，避开早晨较凉爽时段的直射阳光。其他人则在城市各处设置的喷雾降温区寻求缓解。

首尔昨天首次发布严重高温预警，韩国正遭受致命热浪袭击，创下历史最高气温。东南部城市梁山周日下午气温达到42.5摄氏度——这是在122个

根据多年气象观测数据发布安全信息。在高温向西转移之前，无人机还使用热成像摄像头在拥挤的——尤其是超过900万人口的首都——度假人群密集区域上空进行监测。首尔九老区周一气温飙升至39摄氏度，预计接下来将有三天持续37摄氏度的酷热天气。韩国自5月以来已记录19起与高温相关的死亡事件，超过2,000人因高温疾病接受治疗，韩国疾病管理预防署的数据显示。

一名在首尔从事建筑工作、仅被《韩国时报》称为“金”的工人表示：“我们每小时休息10分钟，但这里连风扇都没有，只能坐在阴凉处。汗水太多，衣服摩擦皮肤都磨破了。”来自光明市的55岁购物车回收员李某（音）在超市停车场工作，他称高温条件极其恶劣。“通风不畅，感觉就像在桑拿房里，有4个人在首尔清溪川消暑，”他说。韩国总统李在明昨日在内阁会议上呼吁官员采取措施保护民众生命，检查因空调需求激增的电力系统，并表示：“我们需要为国家危机应对体系进行根本性改革，因为这种极端天气正在成为常态。”

外卖骑手的处境也引发关注。韩国气象厅将此次热浪归因于朝鲜半岛上空重叠的高压系统，加之强烈的直射阳光，形成“热穹顶”效应。首尔当局周一召开紧急会议，并启动多项举措应对高温，缓解健康风险。这是该市今年首次根据政府为应对气温上升而建立的新系统发布严重高温预警。

在东南部的庆尚南道，焚风现象加剧了高温。焚风是指气流翻越山脉后在背风坡变得更热更干燥的现象。一名男子在首尔清溪川消暑，而其他人则在树荫下乘凉。

照片：GREG BAKER / AFP / GETTY；JEON HEON-KYUN / EPA

边境施工队正在修建一道与牲畜相关的屏障。此前，负责监管的美国海关和边境保护局（CBP）在新墨西哥州的雨季过后突然加快了边境墙建设进度。美联社报道称，为应对高温，工人们被要求采取防暑措施，包括洒水、修建道路、设置屏障、改善通风、在施工现场控制扬尘，并安装空调。三头狮子在东京一家动物园疑似中暑死亡，另有其他动物在高湿度环境下挣扎。

“大约有18,600名日本民众在7月20日至26日期间因中暑被送医，其中45人到院时已死亡。”据日本消防救灾部门统计，日本每年约有1,300人死于与高温相关的疾病，并计划到2030年将这一数字减半。去年夏天，日本经历了有记录以来最炎热的夏季，部分地区气温高达40摄氏度，今夏又有多地达到“极端酷热日”标准。去年8月，东京以北的伊势崎市记录到最高气温41.8摄氏度（107华氏度）。

在新墨西哥州，牧场主反对在干旱期间抽取地下水用于边境墙建设。州工程师办公室表示：“无论是在州属还是联邦土地上，所有非部落水井在钻探或抽水前都必须获得州工程师的许可。”该办公室7月巡查了两口水井，发现它们每分钟抽水200加仑，且均未持有必要的许可证。自7月中旬以来，东京多摩动物园的16头狮子中已有10头出现“食欲不振和活动减少”的症状，其中3头雌狮死亡——一头于上周二死亡，另一头于周五，第三头于周日。动物园在声明中称，死因疑为脱水和多器官衰竭。

在7月的一次公开会议上，牧场主表示注意到边境沿线的水井开发未经监管，威胁到附近居民的水源。一名名为约翰逊的牧场主在会上提出这一问题，称一口工业水井的钻探队告诉他，该井每分钟将抽取300加仑水，用于其租赁放牧地的混凝土生产。“无论他们在那口井上做什么，都会影响整个流域的所有人，包括我们。”得克萨斯州和加利福尼亚州的边境城镇居民和环保人士也报告了多种与施工相关的问题。

自特朗普政府将边境屏障列为最优先国内事务以来，四个州已获得超过460亿美元（34亿英镑）的联邦资金。新墨西哥州的牧场主表示，抽取地下水生产混凝土可能威胁到他们的牲畜。

i 商业 富时100 综合指数 日经225 汇率 21.68 16.91 970.11 202.63 / 1.1668 1087938 5855117 ‘oo002 数据来源：ICE www.ice.com / data

在“我们呼吁安迪·伯纳姆打破前任惯例，抵制金融城游说团体的要求，并通过对银行利润征收暴利税来收回这些流失的数十亿英镑，其收益可用于为那些努力支付账单的家庭和企业提供真正改变生活的支持”之后，对暴利税的呼声日益高涨。银行高管本周在被问及新税时表现谨慎。他们告诉记者，他们对伯纳姆的经济愿景感到鼓舞，但强调银行向企业放贷的能力对新首相的增长雄心至关重要。埃尔赫德里表示：“英国的增长需要强大的银行。”

特朗普政府据报道正在起草一项措施，禁止美国进口中国数据中心组件，这是华盛顿对中国人工智能技术快速发展做出回应的最新迹象。卡利耶纳·马科托夫自2022年保守党政府推出能源利润征税以来，银行记者尼克·罗宾斯-厄利对英国银行暴利税的呼声重新升温。四大银行——汇丰银行、国民西敏寺银行、巴克莱银行和劳埃德银行——在2026年上半年的集体利润达到292亿英镑，这使得贷款机构再次成为活动团体的目标，包括Positive Money和英国工会联合会（TUC），后者呼吁对这一利润丰厚的行业征收新税。Positive Money表示，由此产生的190亿英镑可用于资助伯纳姆的生活成本议程，覆盖其电费增值税减免（价值8.5亿英镑）、2英镑的公交车票价上限（5亿英镑）以及酒吧和音乐场所的商业税减免（1亿英镑），总计超过13倍。

汇丰银行高管昨日报告称，今年第二季度利润同比增长60%，至101亿美元（75亿英镑），得益于财富管理和保险业务的费用，以及更高的利率，使银行能够对贷款和抵押贷款收取更高费用。银行高管已承诺将近一半的利润——137亿英镑——以股息和股票回购的形式返还给股东，Positive Money计算出这笔款项可轻松承担一项税收，该组织估算这项税收可能在10月预算中筹集190亿英镑。Positive Money联合主任萨拉·霍尔表示：“之前的政府允许强大的银行游说团体说服他们反对征税，尽管近年银行利润屡创新高，公众压倒性支持这一政策。”TUC秘书长保罗·诺瓦克表示：“有大量证据表明，银行完全有能力支付更多税款。尽管利率上涨意味着抵押贷款困境和我们其他人的账单增加，但大银行却赚得盆满钵满。”

四名知情人士透露，负责监管美国电信行业的联邦通信委员会（FCC）正在制定一项措施，禁止进口中国光学收发器，这些设备使数据能够以光速通过光纤电缆传输。大都会银行紧随四大银行之后宣布了丰厚利润。这家挑战者银行报告税前利润增长38%。

profits yes- within datacentres。官员希望借助强劲业绩，并针对英国收入超过8 亿英镑m的部分征收38%的税，以筹集足够资金覆盖伯纳姆昨天提出的6070 万英镑m计划，并在2026年上半年公布该措施。计划重启股票回购，规模超过13倍。

特朗普政府正专注于限制中国技术进入美国尖端产业，联邦通信委员会（FCC）仍可能修改或搁置该限制，但最新讨论显示这一趋势。Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent 美国长期处于人工智能产业前沿，£2.2bn的第二跑道开发项目在OpenAI、Anthropic和谷歌等公司推动模型发展，英伟达等芯片制造商主导供应链的背景下，法院裁决后得以推进。

但中国在人工智能、芯片制造和机器人技术方面的进步已震动市场，引发美国科技领导层分歧，并令特朗普政府措手不及。中国企业是数据中心所需组件的最大制造商之一，其光学收发器行业控制着全球大部分市场。美国科技公司已承诺投入数万亿美元建设本土人工智能基础设施。然而，计划进度落后，而中国正通过大规模数据中心建设追赶。

中国组件引发担忧，因其可能被嵌入美国基础设施，从而窃取数据、植入恶意软件或中断服务，专家称。上月，FCC宣布禁止中国先进人形机器人。特朗普政府还在考虑是否限制中国开源人工智能模型的使用。

盖特威克机场将启动£2.2bn的第二跑道开发项目，此前反对该计划的当地团体在挑战中败诉。上诉法院驳回了当地团体对早前高院裁决的上诉，该裁决认定项目可继续推进。该项目将使英国第二繁忙机场每年增加100,000架次航班，并接纳13 million名额外乘客。项目于2026年9月获得交通大臣海蒂·亚历山大批准。

盖特威克首席执行官皮埃尔-于格·施密特表示，机场对裁决“非常满意”，称这标志着“盖特威克和当地社区长达八年的规划和法律程序的里程碑”。亚历山大称：“政府已对扩建计划的各个方面进行了全面测试和审查。”她补充道：“盖特威克的第二跑道将每年增加13 million名乘客和100,000架次航班，为度假者提供更多选择，加强全球联系，帮助英国成为全球最具吸引力的投资目的地之一。我们将支持能改善道路和公共交通并造福当地社区的扩建。”

盖特威克地区保护运动主席彼得·巴克莱对裁决表示失望，称：“我们对裁决结果感到失望。政府在审查交通部批准计划的决定时，未能充分评估该计划的潜在气候影响。”卢顿机场所有者昨日表示，其扩建计划将涉及轻微调整西萨塞克斯机场的紧急跑道，并将其常规用于短途航班。

《卫报》2026年8月5日 星期三 ® 商业

乘客支持增长，我们的气候也需要政府觉醒，同时已清除了法律障碍。有关人士还提及中国飞机。盖特威克机场是全球最繁忙的单跑道机场之一，并希望在2030年早期启用第二条跑道。为推动可持续变革，我们还投资超过2.19亿英镑用于生产绿色燃料，以减少飞行中的排放，并“确保航空业的未来”。

“它将进一步巩固航空业对气候、噪音和空气污染的影响，增加拥堵，并将年客运量从1900万提升至3200万，目标是在2040年代中期实现。” 最高法院驳回了任何上诉的可能性，维持高等法院批准扩建的裁决。竞选人曾寻求对该计划进行司法审查，以提升年客运能力。白宫和FCC未回应置评请求。 补充报道 路透社

奥尼尔到任。到年底，英国石油预计将提前12个月实现将净债务降至180亿美元以下的目标。她曾向安迪·伯纳姆就北海问题提供建议：“我留给他的信息是：英国目前75%的能源来自化石燃料，因此我们消耗的第一桶石油和第一立方米天然气都应来自英国北海，那里能创造就业、税收及所有积极影响。” 这是支持增加（或更稳定的）国内产量的理由，即使英国正在去碳化：通过最小化进口来实现。

奥尼尔在削减英国石油资产时毫不感情用事，并将伯纳姆的建议置之脑后。随着伊朗战争带来的油气收入激增，英国石油的利润和现金流大幅增长。英国石油第二季度利润飙升至57.3亿美元，平均油价从第一季度的67美元上涨至第二季度的94美元，天然气价格涨幅较小。环保组织对北海石油的态度引发现场愤怒，但金融城的分析师对此并不意外。

英国石油出售了其油气业务Archaea（从垃圾填埋场提取甲烷），称其为“快速增长的业务”，将为“实现净零排放目标提供独特价值”。同时，英国石油还剥离了Lightsource（在萨里女王伊丽莎白二世水库生产太阳能），因其“与资本竞争力不足”。新任首席执行官梅格·奥尼尔上周明确表示：“英国石油不会重返北海。”

全球石油流动受限，炼油业务成为印钞机。英国2025年的净进口依赖度为43.5%。英国石油迅速剥离了其拥有60年历史的北海油气业务，因该业务被判定为“过剩”，且对处于去杠杆阶段的集团而言资本密集度过高。油价飙升令各大石油公司利润暴涨，英国石油亦不例外。

并不难理解。它同样冷静地呈现了近年来的战略混乱。对奥尼尔（O’Neill）而言，下一个问题在于如何精炼这些资产。如果伯纳姆（Burnham）希望强化关于优先事项的信息，美国Asale太阳能部门的出售将是关键——但英国石油（BP）在该领域同样庞大，国内供应的提升并非仅靠生物沼气业务Archaea（Lightsource曾接近收购，但与其他大型企业一样，重新加入的时机尚未成熟）。仅批准Adura的Jackdaw和Rosebank油田开采许可还远远不够。这些曾是伯纳德·卢尼（Bernard Looney）短暂“绿色时代”下的重点绿色资产，却在2月被取消。德国盖尔森基兴的一座大型炼油厂也已出售，奥地利的加油站业务同样如此。资产负债表的压力虽不及当前严峻，但她昨天回避了这一问题——能源利润税（即暴利税）自2022年启动，旨在激励投资。2022年，卢尼的前任奥尼尔已开始出售润滑油业务Castrol，但股东仍期待一位直言不讳的首席执行官在10月预算案中给出明确答案。这是10月预算无法回避的重大抉择之一。

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2026年8月5日 星期三 《卫报》 商业 银行业 Y 伦敦金融城，银行业今年业绩亮眼，提高其税收或可为安迪·伯纳姆（左）推动的社会护理改革提供资金

基尔斯蒂·威格尔斯沃思 / PA图片：VUKVALCIC / SOPA / GETTY；首相会提高银行税吗？金融城发出警告，呼吁声浪高涨 伯纳姆尚未就银行税发表任何具体评论。然而，他在2024年6月的讲话中表示，英国的贷款方式“对经济健康至关重要”，奥斯本也曾屈从于银行的抱怨，称征税过于频繁且缺乏警告。他同意将税率从0.21%降至0.1%，此举将每年税收从80亿英镑减少至40亿英镑。但他还准备了另一项工具，旨在应对市场动荡。在伊朗战争的阴影下，贷款机构披露了创纪录的上半年利润，让银行业重回防御状态。劳埃德银行集团首席执行官查理·纳恩敦促政策制定者“尽快给英国银行业一些喘息空间”。巴克莱首席财务官安娜·克罗斯上周表示：“我们希望这一考虑能够落实。”

银行业游说机器已准备就绪，尽管工党在2024年上台后，一些前座议员确实希望证明伯纳姆的增长计划在缺乏金融城支持的情况下可能胎死腹中。作为副首相，安吉拉·雷纳据报道曾敦促时任财政大臣的雷切尔·里夫斯将银行利润税从8%降至3%，自2023年4月起生效，并提高银行的企业税率，引发劳埃德、汇丰和国民西敏寺银行的熟悉警告，称此举可能“侵蚀投资”并损害政府的经济复苏计划。

随着伊朗战争持续，能源价格将进一步上涨——政府需要采取更多措施保护家庭。因此，是时候提高银行利润税了。对银行征收暴利税一直备受争议，银行高管们也难以摆脱2008年金融危机带来的声誉损害。后疫情时代利率上升和随之而来的生活成本危机导致通胀飙升至11%，银行利润再次成为公众关注的焦点。联合政府中的保守党部长们曾将银行视为税收的“软目标”，以推行国家紧缩政策。在清理一系列由纳税人资助的救助行动的烂摊子后，银行税首次被推出。

首先推出的是银行税，保守党承诺通过股息和股票回购向投资者提供回报。这些丰厚的数字迫使议员们重新考虑如何从大银行获取资金。英国四大贷款机构——汇丰、国民西敏寺、巴克莱和劳埃德——在今年上半年共报告了292亿英镑的利润，其中近一半（137亿英镑）来自股息和股票回购。

财政委员会 公共政策研究所对银行加税。活动人士“部分有影响力的高管曾在2023年7月抨击金融城老板，称他们在消费者遭受苦难之际牟取暴利”，乔治·奥斯本（时任财政大臣）向该行业开出了警告，称商业贷款可能受到抑制，并从存放在英格兰银行的储备中赚取的4%利息中，仅四大银行就能带来£19bn的收益，有助于抵消投资——例如摩根大通的投资——以及金丝雀码头总部（耗资£3bn）对公共财政造成的每年£22bn的损失。该措施于2010年5月卡梅伦-克莱格联合政府上台数周后推出，基于国际货币基金组织的提议，旨在通过对英国最大银行的部分资产负债表征税，追回数十亿英镑。该措施类似于玛格丽特·撒切尔在1981年引入的存款税。部长们要求财政部官员研究英国最大银行的盈利能力，作为最后手段。英国工会联合会（TUC）总书记保罗·诺瓦克上周表示：“银行完全有能力缴纳更多税款。这是新任首相和财政大臣展示他们站在哪一边的机会。”

然而，银行高管们随即发起了反击。2015年，汇丰银行时任首席执行官斯图尔特·格利弗对不断增加的监管负担和每年7 亿英镑m的银行税感到愤怒，透露该行正考虑将总部迁出英国，前往香港。“这不是威胁，而是客观评估，”他表示。摩根大通首席执行官杰米·戴蒙表示：“我们迄今已缴纳了约$10bn（£7.4bn）的额外税款，我认为这并不公平。如果继续如此，我们将重新考虑。”纳特韦斯特集团首席执行官保罗·斯韦特称，加税将抑制贷款并损害经济。他报告称利润增长了29%，并表示：“如果希望经济强劲，就需要强大的银行。保持政策的一致性和稳定性至关重要。”

受定量宽松后果影响，游说团体迅速计算出新的数字。根据游说团体英国金融（UK Finance）的数据，当考虑就业税和增值税时，英国银行的总体税率约为45.8%，而法兰克福为38.6%，纽约为27.9%。巴克莱银行表示，任何对其财务的限制都可能影响其支持伯纳姆增长议程的能力，并称其贷款对企业和消费者至关重要。活动组织“积极货币”（Positive Money）呼应了这些观点，称：“我们呼吁安迪·伯纳姆与前任政策决裂，抵制金融城游说团体的要求，通过对银行利润征收暴利税追回这些流失的数十亿英镑，其收益可用于提供真正改变生活的支持——”

奥斯本支持将银行税规模缩减至0. 21 %，甚至 0，以避免失去金融城最重要的贷款机构之一。

think 确保其仅覆盖英国本土的银行。乔治·奥斯本（George Osborne）在2015年宣布的银行征税政策，后来在银行业的压力下减半，这一政策如果过去的记录有任何参考价值，将使他与伦敦金融城产生分歧，因为该政策直接惠及汇丰银行（HSBC），并基于银行的资产规模——而非我们和其他银行在帮助那些难以支付账单的家庭和企业方面的表现（资产规模达25%）。"

《卫报》2026年8月5日 星期三

天气 2026年8月5日 星期三 英国和爱尔兰 今日中午预报 / 全国各地及伦敦 晴朗 多云 降水概率 空气污染 明天 12 26 0 低 晴间多云 雾霾 * e 大部分多云 —— = 25% 低 阴天 = = ad 90% 低 阵雨 ~ a e 低 §{) 高 3 奥马： ——<- ee ‘晴朗且有大阵雨 周五 10 16 85% 低 阵雨 ‘ / 伯明翰 oe a oe ° aa 1 22 0 低 雨夹雪 夜间 & 布莱顿 雪 Bright e = ry ‘阵雪 il 25 布里斯托尔 z a sow 大雪 ke& 碳 Sia u 2 > 30 计数 neyo zs eacheenss, / a Py ‘ede nao 雷阵雨 15 ts uw 20 0 = o2aug2o2e 2847 纽卡斯尔 in é 湿润平均 / Ss, vars q nm a 4 04oeaugz0i¢ 2005 026.74 aoa) 彭赞斯 a > «# 0 风速，Wi as 史前基线 史前基线 280 280 ee ee fs / 3 大西洋锋面 物种观察 全球 § C) \ x 1008 当奶牛打嗝和放屁时，它们释放甲烷，导致地球变暖，但这与野生动物消化产生的气体相比如何？一项新研究表明，鹿向大气中排放的甲烷量最大，但与家畜相比，其总贡献仅为3%。

18 里斯本 } 贝尔 6: 阿姆斯特丹 马德里 1016 雅典 iG 马拉加 ig: 奥克兰 ©, 米 比较消化气体： . 1026 ~ 4 研究显示，鹿向大气中排放的甲烷量最多，但与家养牲畜相比，其总量微不足道。 @ 曼谷 @ 迈阿密 jwwwe ) 4: 萨洛尼卡 3 吨 冷锋 1016 , 2, 莫斯科 暖锋 1098; 布斯拉 @ 蒙巴萨 ees \ - 4 贝尔格莱德 垂直 @ 孟买 aig } : 诺维奇 aig } 孟买 ” 法 x . 近年来甲烷一直在迅速上升，但难以确定其具体来源。与家养奶牛一样，野生反刍动物如鹿、驼鹿和羊驼依赖细菌帮助分解它们食用的纤维植物。 : 卑尔根 诺维奇: & 特鲁斯 58 内罗毕 锢囚锋 re \ 58 布达佩斯 : et \ 来自德国耶拿马克斯·普朗克生物地球化学研究所的特蕾西娅·亚兹贝克（Theresia Yazbeck）表示：“为了了解它们释放多少甲烷， 4 克拉根福 新约克 =? 卡文顿 @ pas \ 卡文顿 @ pas: 4 芝加哥 2 珀斯 \ =? 卡文顿 @ : 高压脊 卡文顿 @ : SUM & 闪电 \ 卡文顿 @ : 潮汐 —— @ oa 2 罗德! 来自马克斯·普朗克生物地球化学研究所的 #2 都柏林 3% 罗马 阿伯丁 0509 4.0m 1755 3.7m / 伦敦桥 0543 6.4m 1756 6.6m 贝尔法斯特 2118 0054 / 耶拿，德国， 0: 佛罗伦萨 @ 上海 阿伯丁 0509 4.0m 1755 3.7m: ‘埃文茅斯 1110 11.7m 2332 11.5m / 伦敦桥 0543 6.4m 1756 6.6m 贝尔法斯特 2118 0054: 洛西茅斯 0328 3.8m 1610 3.5m 伯明翰 2052 00535 / 生物地球化学 [...OMITTED...]

在德国耶拿，及同事使用了近期的3格拉布塔尔@。新加坡 阿伯丁 0509 40米 1755 3.7米：巴罗 0314 8.6米 1539 8.1米 / 伦敦桥 0543 64米 1756 6.6米 贝尔法斯特_2118t0054：米尔福德港 1009 6.1米 2235 6.2米 2040t00534 / 德国耶拿的生物地球化学：全球野生动物 BD Hixong @ 斯托克顿 阿伯丁 0509 40米 1755 3.7米：贝尔法斯特 0249 3.4米 1527 3.1米 / 伦敦桥 0543 64米 1756 6.6米 贝尔法斯特_2118t0054：纽基 0904 6.0米 2130 6.0米 2052100543 / 德国耶拿的生物地球化学：种群并结合了这些 / 0 2：佛罗伦萨 @ 上海：Hae 2 Stes 阿伯丁 0509 40米 1755 3.7米：科夫 0926 3.7米 2153 3.7米 / 伦敦桥 0543 64米 1756 6.6米 贝尔法斯特_2118t0054：北希尔兹 0715 4.8米 1958 4.4米 2106100529 / 德国耶拿的生物地球化学：与甲烷排放估算 / 0 2：佛罗伦萨 @ 上海：& 赫尔辛基 GE 悉尼 阿伯丁 0509 40米 1755 3.7米：戈默 1014 4米 2311 4am / 伦敦桥 0543 64米 1756 6.6米 贝尔法斯特_2118t0054：奥南 0926 3.3 2203 3.4米 2117100608 / 德国耶拿的生物地球化学：基于体重和饮食。2 tabu iG 特拉维夫 阿伯丁 0509 40米 1755 3.7米：多佛 0237 6.2米 1504 6.3米 / 伦敦桥 0543 64米 1756 6.6米 贝尔法斯特_2118t0054：彭赞斯 084 48米 2059 49米 / 德国耶拿的生物地球化学：= 211410549 / 0 2：佛罗伦萨 @ 上海：他们的计算结果发表于 & soturg © 特内里费 阿伯丁 0509 40米 1755 3.7米：都柏林 0328 3.9米 1608 3.6米 / 伦敦桥 0543 64米 1756 6.6米 贝尔法斯特_2118t0054：普利茅斯 0942 48米 2155 4.9米 / 德国耶拿的生物地球化学：日落 2041 2117100532 / 0 2：佛罗伦萨 @ 上海：于《地球物理研究杂志》@ 吉隆坡 D 东京 阿伯丁 0509 40米 1755 3.7米：戈尔韦 0918 4.4米 2141 4.4米 / 伦敦桥 0543 64米 1756 6.6米 贝尔法斯特_2118t0054：朴次茅斯 0309 4.3米 1551 4.3米 / 德国耶拿的生物地球化学：月出 2242

0 2：佛罗伦萨 @ 上海：哈勒赫 2103100543 阿伯丁 0509 40米 1755 3.7米：格里诺克 0407 3.4米 1635 3.2米 / 伦敦桥 0543 64米 1756 6.6米 贝尔法斯特_2118t0054：绍斯波特 0213 S.5米 1431 8.0米 / 德国耶拿的生物地球化学：月落 1345 / 0 2：佛罗伦萨 @ 上海：因弗内斯 2123100522 阿伯丁 0509 40米 1755 3.7米：哈里奇 0344 3.7米 1542 3.8米 / 伦敦桥 0543 64米 1756 6.6米 贝尔法斯特_2118t0054：斯托诺韦 1103 39米 2326 im / 德国耶拿的生物地球化学：下弦月 6409 / 0 2 4.：佛罗伦萨 @ 上海：伦敦 2081800531 阿伯丁 0509 40米 1755 3.7米：霍利黑德 0204 S.3米 1431 4.8米 / 伦敦桥 0543 64米 1756 6.6米 贝尔法斯特_2118t0054：波特兰 1030 16米 2247 -Lém 曼彻斯特 2057100534 / 德国耶拿的生物地球化学：其中超过一半来自仅六个 / 0 2：佛罗伦萨 @ 上海：加尔各答 2 华沙 阿伯丁 0509 40米 1755 3.7米：利物浦 1015 7.0米 2247 6.4米 / 伦敦桥 0543 64米 1756 6.6米 贝尔法斯特_2118t0054：惠特比 0749 53米 2030 4.8米 纽卡斯尔 2102100524 / 德国耶拿的生物地球化学：鹿种——约为家畜排放量的38分之5 威斯顿 阿伯丁 0509 40米 1755 3.7米：利斯 0628 52米 1910 48米 / 伦敦桥 0543 64米 1756 6.6米 贝尔法斯特_2118t0054：威克 030232 1542 29米 诺维奇_2081100522 / 德国耶拿的生物地球化学：比家养牲畜 B 韦顿 阿伯丁 0509 40米 1755 3.7米：利物浦 0246 8.8米 1511 8.3米 / 伦敦桥 0543 64米 1756 6.6米 贝尔法斯特_2118t0054：沃金顿 0313 7.7米 1540 7.3米 彭赞斯 2059100558 / 德国耶拿的生物地球化学：排放。凯特·拉维利厄斯 德意志

2026年8月5日 星期三 《卫报》 环法女子赛 世界冠军 “迫不及待”： 罗伊塞尔强势夺冠 索博斯洛伊渴望利物浦新生

体育 计时赛 重启 第39页 > 第41页 >

a. 大卫·斯奎尔斯谈……詹尼·因凡蒂诺在国际足联帝国崩塌之际紧抓权力

“该组织的冬季运动总监——现由英国雪上运动（GB Snowsport）临时担任。该机构表示对资助决定感到‘失望’——

本周对冈恩来说可谓精彩纷呈。一开始他在Instagram上发布了一条‘回击网络喷子’的犀利帖子，最终却以他紧抓权力收场[大写为原文所有]。美国金融男孩们大量涌入奥运会。英国雪上运动在给《卫报》的声明中还表示：‘继《国际足联前瞻企业（FPS）计划》——本质上是将世界杯私有化——引发广泛质疑后，我们遵循了英国体育（UK Sport）资助的一项独立治理审查最近结束的结果。他的敌人们正‘积极行动’——

28名英国人在X平台上发声，25名股票玩家如亨利·帕里（其最连贯的政府资助言论近期刚完成一项由英国体育资助的独立治理审查）等，因其帝国崩塌、总统‘在任期内’面临危机，而陷入公关危机管理模式……距离新一轮治理审查仅剩9步之遥。审查结果仍显示我们的治理标准依然稳健且适当。我们期待全面且坚定地参与任何新审查，并有信心保罗·麦金尼斯将得出相同结论。’

“他们发布了一份措辞强硬的声明，要求英国体育立即就……澄清。英国体育还确认将成立一个‘专业的多项目绩效交付组织’，名为‘SportOrg’，负责接管部分运动项目的精英计划运营。冰壶和轮椅冰壶项目已由SportOrg运营，英国钢架雪车协会（BBSA）也宣布将在2034年犹他冬奥会前将项目转移至该新机构。

这算什么？足球界抛弃你时，情况就是如此。卡洛斯·科尔代罗、凯文·拉穆尔：‘叛徒、墙头草、背后捅刀者！’而里奥·费迪南德的沉默……乔安娜·波尔顿因反对建立类似SportOrg的组织计划，称其‘可笑’且‘天真’，已于2022年辞去BBSA主席职务。

英国体育绩效与人才总监凯特·贝克博士表示：‘奥运会和残奥会冬季项目的竞争日益激烈，因此我们更需将资源投入到能产生最大影响的领域。这也是我们不惧推动系统变革的原因，以确保运动员拥有最佳成功机会。我们今天宣布的投资，加上正在推行的系统改革，将助我们实现这一目标。’

英国体育已保证在未来四年内为滑雪和单板滑雪项目及其残奥会对应项目提供1250 万英镑百万英镑资金，这是2030年阿尔卑斯冬奥会前冬季运动总预算池（3300 万英镑百万英镑）中最大的一笔，高于钢架雪车项目的1010 万英镑百万英镑担保。但英国雪上运动之外的新资助机制尚未确定。

‘英国体育董事会决定不再通过英国雪上运动为米兰-科尔蒂纳冬奥周期提供资助，’该资助机构在声明中表示。‘英国体育已致函所有获得资助的雪上运动运动员——这肯定有误。我们处于声明中。’

以下为忠实翻译：

以他的最新声明……重申我们的全力承诺。在阿尔卑斯2030年赛事前敲定这一基调，并将其贯彻到所涉及的一切。承诺在解决这些挑战的同时，继续直接向运动员发放金牌奖励金，进入新周期。好的， / 仍然分开处理。英国体育局将委托——啦啦啦。你被邀请的那个人拥有人民的爱。委托开展一项独立审查，调查“英国滑雪运动的治理”。‘再试一次，当你有用的时候’ / 我知道我无法忍受英国滑雪运动在过去三年内两次更换主席，其中包括夏洛特·班克斯和休·南丁格尔，以及奥运金牌得主迈克尔·奥斯特林——一位非执行董事，成为东山再起的核心。目前排名最高的组合是阿丽娜·萨巴伦卡和诺瓦克·德约科维奇。八支队伍将获得外卡，另外两支队伍将通过新的资格赛进入8月24日举行的锦标赛。只有一件事——像Screoge NeDuck那样，重新引入Faceless TP Horgan Bot？（需要道德委员会采取最光荣的行动，为拉莫斯的家人及移民工人家庭支付适当赔偿）网球界最可敬的埃莉娜·斯维托丽娜和她的丈夫盖尔·蒙菲尔斯也已报名参赛。私人飞机和车队，我们……将从中吸取教训。美联社。‘别再巴结暴君和$1m双打贵族了，最后再支付一次。’新婚夫妇凯蒂·博尔特和亚历克斯·德米瑙尔是额外报名的13支队伍之一，参加美国公开赛混双锦标赛，该赛事去年进行了改革，冠军奖金为$1百万美元。共有29支队伍争夺16个正赛席位，比赛将于8月25日和26日举行。队伍可在8月17日前报名，届时六对组合将根据最佳单打排名进入正赛。

法国后卫、六次Top 14冠军得主托马斯·拉莫斯将在下赛季结束时离开图卢兹，加盟竞技92队。拉莫斯，31, 职业生涯一直效力于图卢兹，但将在2027-28赛季开始前以三年合约加盟竞技92队。法新社

《卫报》2026年8月5日星期三 体育 板球

重返测试赛队长一职后，斯托克斯排除了重返阿什েজ的可能性，并在斯蒂芬·弗莱明担任新主教练后，基决定——

本·斯托克斯展望未来执教前景——哈里·布鲁克“为时过早”接班。对于曾在2017年至2022年初担任队长的乔·鲁特，斯托克斯在结束其最后一场测试赛时表示，布鲁克作为副队长应成为其接班人，但鲁特在疫情期间的表现却难言理想。斯托克斯补充道：“我爱他，并祝愿他在担任队长时一切顺利。希望他能在未来的角色中取得巨大成功。”他还重申了这一观点。斯托克斯担心鲁特可能会在达勒姆结束国内职业生涯后再次发现这一职位过于耗费精力，影响个人表现，同时还要兼顾即将到来的冬季海外特许经营赛事。

斯托克斯还不同意让布鲁克在缺席第1场对阵新西兰的测试赛后因纪律原因被要求担任领导角色的决定。斯托克斯表示：“我只是做我认为正确的事，因为我见过乔经历的一切，以及他为他人付出的努力。他总是将团队放在首位，自己总是排在第二位。即使我缺席了那场对阵新西兰的测试赛，我也只是想，‘他现在是副队长？’我多少能理解他们的理由，但传递给他的信息是什么？他是副队长，而队长却不在场。我认为，如果你觉得某人会成为一名优秀的队长或领导者，那就直接给他这个机会。”

在6月卸任英格兰队职务后的首次采访中——与前队友斯图尔特·布罗德和乔斯·巴特勒在《为板球而爱》播客进行了两小时的交流——斯托克斯表示，他已将目光投向未来，考虑留在板球界，具体是成为教练。当被问及是否有一天想执教英格兰队时，斯托克斯回答：“绝对想。我真的很喜欢这种想法，再次以某种形式成为团队的一部分，因为我不希望看到那种情况再次发生。我非常关心乔，但祝愿他一切顺利。他将非常享受与[弗莱明]的合作。他是个伟大的人，我之前与他共事过。我告诉乔，我唯一担心的是你。”

这位35岁的全能选手目前坚称自己“绝对”退役。尽管英格兰男队板球总监罗伯·基最近表示，大门仍向斯托克斯敞开，但他排除了在明年夏天的本土阿什斯系列赛中戏剧性回归的可能性。斯托克斯再次排除了参加明年夏季阿什斯系列赛的可能性。

分析

PLP BROWNIGETTY IMAGES 关于球队的 阿里·马丁 宵禁问题以及谁知道发生了什么 被回避，取而代之的是 一些关于表现更好的内部玩笑

解读：担忧 当晚前往麦当劳点一份 麦香鱼的想法。但其中 透露出的不安情绪远不止于此， 针对的是他作为队长以及

现在的前雇主—— 英格兰和威尔士板球委员会 对事件的处理方式。 “我不打算撒谎说

对‘伟人’弗莱明的期望是，可能还有其他因素促成了这一决定[退役]，”斯托克斯说。“但今天我不会详细谈论这些。我认为在适当的时间和场合会有机会承认太多事情。而现在，与老朋友们聊了两个小时球队的不足，并不是合适的时机，因为，你知道，面对英格兰在阿什斯系列赛中4比1的失利，板球仍在努力摆脱……我不想给人留下对任何人怀有怨恨的印象，也不想让人觉得我对斯图尔特·布罗德和乔斯·巴特勒1有任何不满。我也不会现在就回顾过去。因为我现在很放松？”在他们的播客中，关于与新西兰在特伦特桥的告别赛，许多人认为那并不理想，斯托克斯表现得有些尴尬。其中“还”一词耐人寻味，斯托克斯提到希望不要损害英格兰队的利益，并宣布从英格兰队退役

数周前。有点过于自我放纵。团队可能意识到，恕我直言，焕然一新，确实，除了球队目前透露的信息外，已准备好再次出发。缺乏比赛意识可能会在某些时刻贬低未来的书籍价值。除了为达勒姆效力，或类似情况。根据他自己的承认，退役的主要动力是在澳大利亚的五个月间让自己精疲力竭。在即将到来的本土阿什েজ系列赛之前，没有丝毫回心转意的迹象。所有人在澳大利亚都保持一致，与布伦丹·麦卡勒姆在战术上没有分歧。努萨——除了在夏天遭受的颧骨骨折，这次巡回赛中的中场休息引发了头条新闻和质疑。

关于达勒姆的训练网，尽管他坚称这与自己退役无关，但球队对场外“好时光”的偏好不会再重演。他坚持认为，斯托克斯承认自己由于过度思考和过度训练，在这次漫长的过程中将“太多责任”扛在自己肩上，以至于在返回时状态远非测试赛就绪。作为英格兰队长，他倾向于勇往直前，而非将任务委派他人。有趣的是，斯托克斯后来提到，麦卡勒姆在讨论其接班人时本可以沟通得更好，当时他们在澳大利亚的冬季测试中一度处于领先地位，却在珀斯的系列赛首战中被斯托克斯停赛时功亏一篑。

斯托克斯和乔·鲁特，以及布鲁克未能在白球角色中挺身而出——如果斯托克斯不退出英格兰队，他本可能仍是测试主教练。斯托克斯公开表达了对球队未来的美好祝愿。在谈到斯蒂芬·弗莱明时，斯托克斯认为英格兰选择了一位“伟人”，此前曾在印度超级联赛的钦奈超级国王队与其共事。

尽管这些言论增加了对现任管理层的罕见直接批评，但斯托克斯选择不回答最明显的问题——当被问及与球队的关系时，他表示：“他总是把球队放在第一位，总是以团队为先。这是我唯一关心的，知道他上次经历了什么。因为我不想看到那种情况再次发生。我非常关心乔。”罗布·基董事也提到，英格兰队——而非整个板球运动——的饮酒文化与日益专业化的趋势格格不入。“自1980年代以来，情况一直如此，”他说。“随着比赛变得越来越好，[这种文化]却依然如故。”

然而，尽管抱有希望，斯托克斯也分享了对哈里·布鲁克未能在关键时刻挺身而出的担忧。正如他在最后一场测试赛后所说，斯托克斯感到政权更迭可能来得更早，而——

2026年8月5日 星期三 The Guardian 体育 环法女子自行车赛

更合理的做法是，鲁特即将重返赛场本应更充分地讨论那场臭名昭著的夜晚，斯托克斯可能不会让这件事一直存在。”这成了一种“不健康的副队长关系”。同样，他从未质疑过这份工作传递的信息，今年夏天他与格斯·阿特金森一起走出了洛兹国际板球场的那场比赛，当时他正以一名前英格兰板球运动员的身份发言。

4Marlen Reusser的第三次环法职业生涯冠军使她在系列赛中领先Demi Vollering优势明显

ECB对爱尔兰的风险感到不满

TIM DE WAELE,

Matt Hughes

爱尔兰决定在今年夏天为其男子板球队举办一场完整的单日国际系列赛，对阵阿富汗，可能会因此失去未来与英格兰进行有利可图的比赛的机会。英格兰和威尔士板球委员会（ECB）被认为对这一系列赛感到不满，该系列赛于今日开赛，因为英格兰拒绝在国际板球理事会（ICC）全球赛事之外与阿富汗比赛，ECB主席理查德·汤普森将其描述为塔利班政权的“性别隔离”。ECB的政策得到了英国政府的支持，但爱尔兰板球协会已与阿富汗板球委员会建立了密切关系，本月在北爱尔兰为其提供了五场单日国际赛。爱尔兰将于2024年3月访问阿富汗，进行一场测试赛、三场单日国际赛和三场T20比赛。

英格兰曾在2019年和2023年主场系列赛前在伦敦洛兹球场与爱尔兰进行了测试赛，但ECB今年选择了在与孟加拉国的冠军杯小组赛热身赛中进行测试赛。英格兰男子队去年在拉合尔与阿富汗比赛，此前ECB董事会会议批准了这场比赛，此举受到160名跨党派议员的强烈批评。然而，ECB今年夏天不会安排任何与阿富汗的双边板球比赛，而是为阿富汗难民女子队组织了英格兰之旅，并邀请她们参加在伦敦洛兹球场举行的T20世界杯决赛。

穿上黄色领骑衫后，罗伊塞尔现身。“这是我们长期以来的想法，我将环法自行车赛视为今年的目标。我真的瞄准了它。我来到这里是为了成为领骑者，我知道环法赛将在瑞士国庆日当天从瑞士出发，我们会有一个‘第戎计划’。”这位法国车手在第四赛段的第戎计时赛中获胜。现在，她面临着更艰巨的任务，以捍卫自己的头衔，因为大部队将进入一系列充满爬坡的赛段，最终在周五登上旺图山。虽然她在环法女子赛中战胜了2023年冠军沃勒林，但费朗-普雷沃今年似乎处于下风。罗伊塞尔是计时赛专家，在与计时赛较量时，以14秒的优势领先2024年环法赛冠军卡西娅·涅维亚多马，后者在爬坡时苦苦挣扎，始终未能找回去年的状态。罗伊塞尔和沃勒林已经展现了最佳水平，费朗-普雷沃则在赛段中显得紧张，双手握着冰块，闭目集中精神。

“已经无能为力了，”她在赛段结束后说道。“我已经尽力了。压力很大。很高兴这一天结束了。”沃勒林说：“我知道自己会在马伦面前失去一些时间，但对这次计时赛的表现感到满意，因为我知道这是专家们的较量。但将差距保持得如此接近，让我非常开心。” 杰里米·惠特尔

尼维亚多马-菲尼尼赢得了去年夏天的胜利。费朗-普雷沃一度领先，但在环法女子自行车赛中落后更多。她曾对塔利班在2021年重新掌权后实施的女性体育禁令感到焦虑，这种担忧在比赛中得到了验证。在从热夫雷-尚贝坦到第戎的第四赛段获胜后，法国媒体将这位前世界冠军的表现称为“灾难性的”，她失去了动力和方向感。这位34岁的瑞士车手在总成绩榜上跌至第14位，落后领先者罗伊塞尔超过两分钟。费朗-普雷沃目前落后2分13秒，但仍保持乐观。“现在我必须在第5赛段追赶，”她说，“我喜欢这种挑战。”

尽管阿富汗是国际板球理事会（ICC）唯一未运营女子板球项目的正式成员，但ICC并未禁止他们参赛。澳大利亚、南非和新西兰拒绝与阿富汗进行双边系列赛，而爱尔兰则与西印度群岛、津巴布韦和四个亚洲ICC正式成员一起为他们安排了赛程。英格兰和威尔士板球委员会（ECB）与板球爱尔兰的关系一直微妙。尽管英格兰男队去年9月在爱尔兰进行了三场T20比赛，但ECB随后派出了第二梯队，日程上不再安排其他比赛。不过，英格兰女队下月将在主场迎战爱尔兰，进行三场一-day国际系列赛。

“今天第5赛段：马孔-贝勒维尔-昂博热莱 140公里，丘陵地形” ——TV TNT Sports 1 / HBO Max，12:30播出

在赛段开始前，作为卫冕环法女子自行车赛冠军的队友玛丽安娜·沃斯就支持了服装检查。“每次进行兴奋剂检查时，他们都会执行规则。如果我们因为运动员的隐私而质疑这一点，那么也必须质疑兴奋剂检查，而我们都同意不该这样做。规则就是用来遵守的。你必须执行规则吗？”阿尔达格说，“否则，就不要制定规则。”

国际自行车联盟（UCI）的指令引发了性别歧视的指控，因为男子比赛并未实施相同的服装检查规定。UCI在给参赛车队的声明中表示，将“特别关注”确保车手遵守关于“非必要物品”或其他配件的规定。赫里奥特-瓦特大学航空航天与机械工程学教授伯特·布洛肯表示，胸部整流罩可以改变气流、减少空气阻力，帮助车手节省体力。但我们不会在头盔上做文章。“在计时赛中，你不会因此获得数十秒的优势，但在20-30公里的赛段中，这可能产生决定性的差异。”他补充说，这可能意味着每公里0.78秒的优势。

菲尼克斯-普雷米尔科技车队经理菲利普·罗德胡夫特表示：“每个人都在追求最佳空气动力学，因此存在一些规则需要遵守。几瓦特的差异在计时赛中至关重要，但我不会冒险违规。”7月21日，在埃维昂莱班和托农莱班之间的计时赛中，空气动力学的微小优势可能决定胜负。

以下是忠实的中文翻译：

yo 环法女子赛夺冠热门德米·福勒林所在的FDI联合-苏伊士车队经理斯蒂芬·德尔库尔表示：“我们从不这样玩弄规则。如果他们想要对此进行检查，那是因为有人在这样做。每个赛季大家都会在风洞中做更多工作，研究从车把、自行车到可能改变体型的装备。”沃斯谈及检查时说：“我认为这并不算真正的搜身，所以我对此没有意见，只要不太过侵入性即可。”

阿尔达格是2024年女子环法赛冠军卡西娅·涅维亚多玛的车队经理，他认为男女运动员的服装检查差异不大。他表示：“男性环法赛在7月有三个阶段会进行检查，女性赛事也是如此。”鲁德胡夫特说：“当你看到男选手在战术位置放置水瓶等手段时，可以想象女性选手也会考虑类似做法。但无论如何，这种行为仍属作弊，不应发生。”

理查德·汤普森批评阿富汗的“性别隔离制度”

《卫报》2026年8月5日星期三

. / 体育 足球

女子超级联赛 穆里尼奥“希望我能让皇马快乐” - 维尼修斯 前哈茨主帅奥利德将接替斯金纳 维尼修斯·儒尼奥尔对自己在新任皇马主帅何塞·穆里尼奥手下第二天的季前训练给出了乐观评价。她曾在美国执教，尽管有传言称她可能加盟阿森纳。她曾在休斯敦迪纳摩队执教女子队和U19男子队，此前还曾在加泰罗尼亚足协任职。这位26岁的球员是皇马进攻线上的核心之一，近年在曼联表现出色，尽管围绕巴西前锋在皇马的未来存在不确定性，他仍面带微笑。曼联即将任命前哈茨主帅埃娃·奥利德为新任主教练，接替马克·斯金纳，

在他周一离职后，多个消息人士告诉《卫报》，在周一宣布离职之前，Olid 进行了广泛的背景调查。与这位 40 岁教练的谈判据称已进入非常先进的阶段，预计她将于今日向曼联队球员介绍。曼联有信心这位西班牙教练是带领他们进入新篇章的合适人选，正如《电报》首先报道的那样，俱乐部正专注于培养年轻的本土球员。

Olid 带领哈茨队赢得了她们首个苏格兰女子超级联赛冠军。曼联上赛季在赛季最后一天戏剧性地获得 WSL 第四名，但 4 月份已经确认她将在今年夏天通过双方协议离开爱丁堡俱乐部。她们将在 9 月 4 日客场对阵曼城狮女队开启新赛季。

曼联队长玛雅·勒蒂西尔表示，她的球队将“团结一致”并为新的 WSL 赛季做好准备，尽管 Skinner 已经离职。她的英格兰队友埃拉·图恩向 Skinner 为俱乐部五年任期内所做的贡献表示敬意，其中包括赢得 2024 年女子足协杯。

勒蒂西尔表示，“他给俱乐部带来的能量是惊人的”，而图恩告诉记者：“他想在消息传出前告诉球队。很高兴他能够告诉我们 [并且] 能够告别，我们都感到非常疲惫，但现在他为俱乐部做了很多，是时候休息了。我们对他所做的一切感激不尽。”

回到米哈伊洛·穆德里克身上，他上周解除禁药禁令，参加了切尔西在香港的公开训练课，但蓝军主帅哈比·阿隆索表示，尚未就他的未来做出决定。“我们需要评估情况，”阿隆索说。

在伯纳乌球场，维尼修斯告诉皇家马德里电视台：“情况进展得非常顺利，认识了新教练和新球员，并且训练非常刻苦。”“穆里尼奥希望我像一直以来那样：快乐、开朗地踢球。”

然而，维尼修斯开朗的举止掩盖了幕后可能酝酿的棘手局面。他处于皇家马德里合同的最后一年，有猜测称俱乐部和球员仍在进行谈判，而阿森纳正在探讨潜在的转会。

维尼修斯为皇家马德里打入 128 球并贡献 100 次助攻。

Eva Olid 在执教五年后带领哈茨队赢得了她们首个 SWPL 冠军。她执教五年期间还带领球队进入 2024 年苏格兰杯决赛，但在决赛中负于流浪者队。她度过了一个忙碌的夏天，代表巴西参加世界杯，但球队在 16 强赛中被淘汰。

维尼修斯是世界杯的最佳射手，打入 4 球。

“那是一次很好的训练课，我们都感到非常疲惫，但现在必须为明天休息。我们知道季前赛是什么样子，我们必须做好准备。”

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与沃尔索尔、林肯城、斯旺西，巴塞罗那在2025年1月签下了Courage。曼城已经将英格兰前锋Rushworth完成回归并加入到赫尔。布莱顿的体育总监Mike Kerolin从贝丝·米德（Beth Mead）将其招入队中，本夏通过自由转会从阿森纳加盟。来自巴塞罗那的一份声明称，他们将Coventry以2250 万英镑m的价格出售，表示：“虽然我们希望Carl能留在俱乐部更久，但我们尊重他为了在英超获得常规一线队出场机会而做出的决定。”布莱顿在今年夏天的一笔125 万英镑m交易中，阅读道：“签下Kerolin Nicoli是巴塞罗那雄心的又一次明确体现。俱乐部仍致力于将世界足坛最优秀的球员聚集在一起，旨在保持顶尖水平并继续树立卓越标准。”

部分 足球协会和英格兰体系认为，Ben Fisher从非联赛球队哈利法克斯在2019年加入布莱顿，但离开俱乐部时未曾有过一次成年队出场。在科文特里的一季中，他经历了在联赛金字塔各级球队的租借。Rushworth以俱乐部纪录的2250 万英镑m签约，代表了科文特里的第四次夏季签约。上个月，当弗兰克·兰帕德的球队继续为时隔25年重返英超做准备时，他们在支付给法兰克福1700 万英镑m签下瑞士后卫Auréle Amenda时，打破了之前的转会纪录，此外还签下了Loum Tchaouna和Frank Onyeka。在Amenda到来之前，他们的最高支出是2023年支付给安塔利亚体育的770 万英镑m以签下Haji Wright。

消息人士称，这笔交易也是巴塞罗那的俱乐部纪录，且就英格兰俱乐部收到的费用而言，它超过了利物浦因出售Olivia Smith而在2025年收到的€1m，以及Melvine Malard近期从曼联转会切尔西的£850,000。但26岁的Kerolin曾是上赛季赢得WSL冠军和女足FA杯的曼城队成员，并在俱乐部效力了

18个月。Kerolin在从北卡罗来纳州抵达后将增强巴塞罗那的进攻资源。

巴塞罗那在今年夏天以未公开的费用签下了曼城的巴西前锋Kerolin，据称金额在125 万英镑m左右，这将代表女超联赛球队出售球员所得的最高金额。

“凭借她的天赋、创造力以及决定比赛的能力，Kerolin为一支雄心未变的球队增添了更多质量：挑战每一个冠军，并且再次争取赢得它们。”

25岁的她在上赛季的英冠联赛（Championship）中以租借身份在科文特里表现出色，在升级过程中发挥了关键作用，参加了全部46场联赛，并凭借17次零封获得金手套奖。在其他方面，阿斯顿维拉迎来了体育仲裁法庭支持其上诉，允许注册17岁球员Brian Madjo。这位前锋出生于伦敦但在卢森堡长大，1月从梅斯加盟维拉，但此前因国际足联关于未成年人国际转会的规定而没有参赛资格。Madjo在季前赛中打入四球，现在可以为维拉出场。

“很高兴能让Carl以永久身份回到我们身边，”兰帕德说，他的球队将于8月21日在阿森纳开始赛季。“他是一名顶尖的职业球员，性格极佳，上赛季对球队升级产生了巨大影响。我期待再次与他共事，并欢迎他回到团队中。”

Rushworth同样备受推崇。

2026年8月5日，星期三 《卫报》

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巴塞罗那告别了西班牙国脚Alexia Putellas, Mapi Leon, Ona Batlle和Salma Paralluelo。据信该交易协商包含了一项分成条款和回购选项，出售金额可随附加费最高升至3000 万英镑m。

[...OMITTED...]

索博斯洛伊“迫不及待”地面对这件事——关于填补由罗伯逊和萨拉赫空出的足球副队长席位之一。但这位25岁的球员，曾在利物浦美国巡回赛中担任队长，表示如果被邀请将是巨大的荣誉。

他补充道：“还没有过这种情况，我们会从任何对话中汲取动力。我们有范戴克作为队长，我们有[艾莉森]，我们有乔·戈梅斯 [作为副队长]，所以根本没有对话。显然 Ali 并不在这里，而乔受伤了。让我们看看每个人的眼睛，他想赢。这还没有确定。如果你被再次提供担任利物浦副队长的机会，而且你想踢，你就必须付出你的最好。然后我们会欢迎他——或者他们将接手。这将是一个自豪的时刻，但我尊重每一个人的决定。如果他们决定不这么做，那么我们将不得不采取行动。无论最终是谁，我们都会跟随他们。现在我们正处于零点。”

欧冠资格赛第三轮：首回合 阿拉拉特：亚美尼亚 2 迪纳莫萨格勒布 5 考诺扎格斯 0；哈포埃尔比尔谢巴 0；贝尔格莱德 0；列夫斯基索非亚 1 卡尔托 0；米尔比 1 斯洛伐基亚布拉迪斯拉发 2；奥林匹亚科斯 ‘jen I；圣吉列斯联合 0 NEC 0；布拉格斯巴达 2 Bogs Gime

欧罗巴联赛 第三轮资格赛：首回合 拉恩 Levis 1999, 再次尝试并从对话中获取动力。我们有维吉尔 [范戴克] 作为队长，我们有

会议联赛 第三轮资格赛：首回合 Auds 1 迪纳莫城。

女足欧冠 第二轮资格赛：小规模锦标赛半决赛 布雷达比克 1 Abtobe 1 (点球 2-0 获胜)；Aktbe ‘Dinamo-8GU 0 塞尔维特 3。

多米尼克·索博斯洛伊认为本赛季的挫败感可以推动利物浦挑战冠军，但承认球队必须在转会截止日期前迎来援军才能创造出“一些特别的东西”。

利物浦中场球员在上一赛季已经令人印象深刻的水平之上，进一步提升了。利物浦增加了中后卫 Jérémy Jacquet 和多才多能的前锋 Victor Muiioz。

利物浦中场透露，队长袖标在柯蒂斯·琼斯被任命为俱乐部年度最佳球员后成为了一个问题，当索博斯洛伊在纽约战胜雷克瑟姆的比赛中将它传给科斯塔斯·齐米卡斯时，他发现这是一个问题。

“他赛后不说话，”坚持认为没有问题。

板球 第二场测试赛 (五场中的第三场) 西班牙 (茶) Wes Ines 344 UP Greaves73, RL 追逐 70; Said Khan 4-95). 巴基斯坦 387 (abdullah 16009, Babar Azam 88, Azan Awa‘ 55, ‘sAWaeican 6-112) 巴基斯坦以 43 跑领先西印度群岛。所有第二局 विकेट 均已站定。

女足第三场 T20 国际赛 丹布尔斯斯里兰卡 113-6, 巴基斯坦 115-6。巴基斯坦以四个 wicket 击败斯里兰卡。

百球赛男子组 (局间休息) SunRisers Leeds 241-2 (RO Rickelton 0, MR Marsh76, HC Brook 55) 伦敦精神 136-7 (GM Morris1)。

百球赛女子组 伦敦精神 136-7 (GM Morris1)。

在阿内·斯洛特失去他的工作作为结果后，巴黎圣日耳曼的布拉德利·巴尔科拉，以及一个拥有穆罕默德·萨拉赫、安迪·罗伯逊和防守线的球队在英超舒适地获胜。但在季前友谊赛对阵桑德兰、雷克瑟姆和利兹联之后，索博斯洛伊——他最近在安菲尔德签署了一份新的五年合同——坚持认为没有问题。

与 Suntizers Leeds 142-5, SunRsers Leeds 以五个 wicket 击败 London Spit，首个赛季应该，Szoboszlai Ibrahima Konaté 以自由球员身份离开 Szoboszlai 透露。“我认为每个他的中场队友。坚持，促使在 Andoni 保持轻微在几个位置上。经理在自己的方式上各不相同。“我们之间从未有过争论 [ATP NATIONAL BANK OPE Cond Iraola 的首个赛季作为利物浦 Szoboszlai 谈到利物浦的 那就是他的风格。他总是会三，”他声称。“我们只是讨论了 第一轮：§ Bez (Ars) tM Bellcc (It) 7-5 6-3；主教练。转会活动：“我的工作不是 而是倾向于在比赛后第二天，在球场上的一些事情。之后，你 Brooksby (Gre) bt Darn (US)btAJ (US)Walton 64,64；(Aus) M Murkace 6-3, 6-4；Tsitsipas (Po) Bt “我等不及 [新赛季] 了，告诉你我们需要签谁或者是否 我们将其在更衣室里讨论。 诚实地说，”这位匈牙利队长说 把它做大。但下次 Miron (US) 7-5, 4-6, 6:2；Svajda (US) bt O Sapovalov 必须签某人。如果那些家伙 习惯于此。” 我们将在利物浦季前巡赛后这样做 (Can) 4-6, 6:4, 3-Oret J Fearnley (GB) tA Mannarino (Fe). 7-6(9-3), 6-4；TA Tirante (hrs) O Chan (Can) 63, 以及经理决定签入 Iraola 也没有与任何人交谈 aboveand 没人生气。全部解决了。我们 £5.76)。V Royer EP Caro Busta) 16 美国。 “我觉得我们准备好签某人，那么我们非常开心且 Szoboszlai - 或任何其他球员 都是酷的，每个人。” WTA NATIONAL BANK OPEN (Tornt, c ‘第二轮：ESvitlina (Vi) bt Bouzas Manciro (So) 67 (5-7), 7-6 (7-8), 6-4；Swlatek (Pol) BES Baek (C2) 6.0, 6-3: Alexandrova (Rs) bt C Osorio (Cl) 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), VGolubl (Sw) BED Vek (ro), 5-7, 6-2, 63 骑行 Ciao ‘环法女子赛

‘第四赛段 (Gevrey-Chambertin-ijon, 23k 7) LMVisaReusser Leae a Bike +004；3 Vollring (Neth)2LNooijen capitano (Sa) Movstc 27min 30sec；(Neth) FDS United Crowdslined SUEZ #0.18 总成绩：1M Reusse (Swi) 12h 47min 领先于米兰的 Sosec, 2D volving (Neth) + 0.14, 3 Kerbao (Fr) EF Eaucation-Oatly +0.58 Basilica di ‘环波兰赛 (Pols) ‘第二赛段 (Miedzyatroje Szczecin, 151km) 1M (I) Sant‘Ambrogio se；2 Magpie (F)Soudal Quick 支付他们的 ) XDS Astana 同时 {Mia (I) he Sain 285；'08；3K Malechi (Pl) Pnareto-036.5 尊重 ro Gycting+0.12 给 Franco 赛程 Baresi，足球 Gp 除非 ated) 前意大利 ‘第三轮资格赛：首回合 AGF v Sabah (5.30pm)；Fenerbace v Sturm Graz (7pm) 以及米兰 ‘第三资格赛 Gornik g round:Zabrze首回合(7.15pm) 后卫 Fere ncva rosy 逝世于 第三轮资格 SKAround:Sofa 首回合(7.30pm)Brann v Apollon (69m)；

帕纳辛奈科斯 周岁 66. 第二轮资格赛(2pm)；轮：Apollon小型锦标赛 Paolo Maldini Ajax Brondby zara Sosnowiec半决赛 (3D)；‘Asta 维也纳 v Hac Split (10am)；Brann v Mitrovica。以及 Roberto (Gam)；法兰克福 v 奥莫尼亚尼科西亚 (50m)：Ferencvaos Pook (3.30pm)；intra v Hearts (2 30pm) Baggio 是 Hammary v Apolona (2.30pm) 赛事 v Toren；Kharkiv v Fenerbahce (正午: Kage vga (60m) 之中 Mara v Fara Costanta (5pm)；OM Lewen v TSC (7pm) Racing Union vHIK (pen)：SEK 2000 v PSV (正午) Slavia (.30pen),布拉格 St vPiten 出席 RangersvB (7Frauen 30pm)；(Spm;SportingValerenga vSeaSters sim FF (n2en)；Vaan v Spartak Mana (7.30pm) ‘门票 爱尔兰 v 阿富汗，Bready (10.453) ‘YARA NARDI / REUTERS 加拿大 v 阿拉伯联合酋长国，Dune (113m) Manchester Super Giants v Weth Fite, 14 Trafford (3pm) Trent Rockets v Bimingham Phoenix, Tent ridge (6.30pm) 旧的最终裁判

指派一名英格兰顶级裁判执法科特迪瓦曼彻斯特超级巨人队对阵威尔士战士队的比赛，14 Taff 是继霍华德·韦伯和马克·克拉滕伯格之后，葡萄牙对阵西班牙的海外执法任务，两人均在沙特阿拉伯担任高级裁判职务。雷纳德接替法埃担任象队主教练（11.30am）；特伦特火箭队对阵伯明翰凤凰队（3pm）世界杯16强赛上月在达拉斯举行。前英超裁判泰勒在英超执法16个赛季后，加入土耳其中央裁判委员会担任精英裁判发展主任。Group a the Oval (113m)，“在执法了国内及国际足球的最高水平赛事后，我欢迎这一机会，将我的经验带到土耳其，专注于精英裁判的战略和技术发展。”法国人埃尔韦·雷纳德已回归接任科特迪瓦主教练，此前他曾带领该队在2015年非洲国家杯夺冠。雷纳德曾在今年世界杯期间临时接替埃默斯·法埃。法埃的合同在象队进入淘汰赛后未获续签。

前英超及世界杯裁判安东尼·泰勒表示：“我将与协会内的同事合作，支持精英裁判的持续发展，并加强更广泛的裁判计划，使其与欧足联和国际足联的标准保持一致。”

格雷格·伍德的赛马建议 2.30 Love Alive 3.00 River Wnarfe 3.30 £83y (nap) 4.00 Buckland Belle 4.30 Havana Mojito 5.0 tarong (3) 2.45 tar Start 3.15 Rock Steady Beat 3.45 Garden Oasis 4.15 Sea Her Excel 445 Ala Whiteburd 5.15 Divsion Day 5.20 Najmet Minzaal 5.50 Of The Peg 6.20.ve The Writer 650 Kaincy 7.20 Dislstone 7.50 Cloud Forest 8.20 umeirah Sands 8.50 Desert elle $5.40 ShadesOf May 6.10 SpeedOf Sound 6.40 Dubai Charm 7.10 Liberate 7.40 Urban Warrior 8.103003

泰勒在22年职业生涯中执法831场比赛后，于上月退休。这位47岁的裁判是最新一位前裁判。他在世界杯32强赛中执法了对阵挪威的决赛，最终以2-1告负。路透社

《卫报》2026年8月5日星期三

因凡蒂诺对各足联而言有多关键？随着对国际足联主席的压力在世界杯（北美和中美洲及加勒比地区）的混乱后持续增加，我们的作者评估了因凡蒂诺与全球各足联关系的强度，以及各足联如何看待因凡蒂诺的连任。（欧洲）已坚定采取行动以实现因凡蒂诺的去职。

约旦的阿里·本·侯赛因王子关于“敲诈”的指控可能成为一个重要时刻。针对FFE提案，各足联表现出强烈反对，首先直接拒绝，随后在提案撤回后发表声明，直接批评因凡蒂诺。代表中北美及加勒比足联41个成员协会的声明称，该计划是“领导力失效的症状，已停止将足球放在首位”，并称因凡蒂诺的行为是“单方面且令人震惊的行径”。

上周，他们威胁要抵制所有“国际足联治理不善和领导不力”的比赛，如果国际足联前进计划（Fifa Forward）被废除，并表示“一个全面的企业计划未能应对这一紧迫问题，极大地导致了其失败”。在周六发表的严厉声明中，欧足联表示，国际足联现任领导层“不仅失去了欧足联的信任，也失去了足球大家庭中许多其他成员的信任”，并承诺推动变革。一些欧足联成员也是国际足联副主席，如维克多·蒙塔利亚尼（Victor Montagliani），他将是联合推翻因凡蒂诺的主要候选人。包括英格兰和威尔士足协在内的多个协会已撤回对因凡蒂诺连任的支持信函，并

努力确保其他联合会效仿，以不可逆转地削弱其地位。尼克·埃姆斯（Nick Ames）的报告显示，亚足联（AFC）对欧足联的支持尚为时过早；该联合会内部存在分歧。亚足联曾强烈表态反对国际足联的提议，但相较于以往的声明，此次态度更为谨慎。亚足联主席帕特里斯·莫特赛佩（Patrice Motsepe）表示，将咨询区域内54个成员协会的意见。新西兰作为亚足联的重要成员，呼吁改革国际足联。亚足联内部对因凡蒂诺的支持并不一致，但南美足联（Conmebol）迅速表态反对其明年在摩洛哥的连任计划。南美足联希望维护与国际足联的制度性关系，并保留谈判空间，而非公开加入反对因凡蒂诺的行动。这表明南美足联的立场务实：它在保护南美足球在国际足联的影响力和谈判地位。不丹等国几乎完全依赖国际足联的资金，例如每年获得$1.5的拨款，占其预算的大部分。澳大利亚在过去两届世界杯中进入淘汰赛阶段，但已损失约$17，这或许能解释其态度为何模糊。自FFE风波爆发以来，南美足联主席亚历杭德罗·多明格斯（Alejandro Domínguez）一直保持沉默，仅在乌拉圭访问期间发布生日祝福，而非表态支持个人、俱乐部或机构。南美足联的做法是务实的：它在保护南美足球在国际足联的准入、影响力和谈判地位。并非所有亚洲成员都确信欧足联有能力推翻因凡蒂诺。与首届世界杯举办地乌拉圭不同，2030年世界杯百年庆典的筹备进展

欧洲足联正在评估国际足联如何成为推动各大洲足联权力过度集中的最关键驱动力。美国的数据。最大的问题在于，中北美洲及加勒比海足球协会（Concacaf）和亚足联（AFC）在过去30-40年间大部分时间里一直是地区强国，而墨西哥则是其中的主要国家之一。巴西和阿根廷是南美足联（Conmebol）的其他主要国家。欧洲冠军联赛及其每年吸引的巨额资金巩固了这种关系。扩大赛事规模并提高举办频率是国际足联为保持竞争力可用的少数手段之一。私人投资不会损害其事业。剩下的33个Concacaf国家相对较小，因此自然更依赖国际足联通过“前进计划”等项目提供的资金。就在他们之下的是由巴拿马、牙买加、哥斯达黎加和洪都拉斯组成的中产阶层。

与此同时，亚足联领导层可能希望公开反对因凡蒂诺的流产提案，但大多数亚洲足协并不希望他被取代。亚足联主席谢赫·萨尔曼有自己的野心，并一直在历史上成功维护亚足联的团结，但这一目标将变得棘手，尤其是考虑到卡塔尔、阿拉伯联合酋长国和沙特阿拉伯等西亚国家在亚洲的影响力。最近加拿大已展现出在赛场上竞争的能力。一位不愿透露姓名的业内人士表示：“他们不会直接对抗因凡蒂诺，因为他们总是更倾向于站在非欧洲国家的一边。确保亚洲团结的唯一方法是推出一位亚洲候选人。”

较小的加勒比国家感到有能力加入——

欧洲足联的年收入总计约为国际足联的两倍；就目前情况而言，这座足球强国完全可以自给自足。南美足联在收到进一步信息和澄清的请求后，仅在数日前发布了一份强调“足球优先”的模棱两可声明。这是唯一的官方回应，此后便是绝对的沉默。南美足联体育产业专业人士（AD Sporting Industry Professionals）主任、南美足联好友玛塞拉·莫拉·阿劳霍（Marcela Mora y Araujo）表示：“南美足联目前的立场更接近谨慎支持因凡蒂诺，而非公开对抗。”

2026年8月5日 星期三 《卫报》

詹尼·因凡蒂诺目前处于 最脆弱的时刻 EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI / FIFA / GETTY

Concacaf 国家 是否会分裂？是否会构成 生存威胁？ 欧洲足联拥有世界上最强的俱乐部 和国家队，是否会考虑退出 与因凡蒂诺的合作

菲فا不太可能造成严重损害，尽管这可能会给那些希望通过改版后的世俱杯扩大主席全球影响力支持的俱乐部带来问题。自上周的戏剧性事件以来，大陆间的大球队似乎已出现分裂，可能会寻求与欧足联联手，参与新赛事的竞争，考虑到与欧洲球队竞争时所能获得的财务机会。卡塔尔和阿拉伯联合酋长国这两个金融巨头已公开表态支持因凡蒂诺留任，多个中北美及加勒比足联（Concacaf）国家也在考虑效仿欧洲的做法。一些较小的国家，如亚洲的斯里兰卡、黎巴嫩、科威特和不丹，以及中北美及加勒比足联的41个成员国——该联盟代表北美、中美洲和加勒比地区——据悉已在世界杯决赛前提交了支持因凡蒂诺连任的背书信。尽管亚足联的47个成员中大多数（包括沙特阿拉伯）保持沉默，欧足联仍希望能争取到他们的支持，但目前尚不清楚反对派是否拥有足够的票数来发起真正的选举竞争。通常，一个国家只有在受到具体决定影响时（如申办赛事）才会引起关注。与因凡蒂诺决裂不会对亚洲构成重大威胁，但如果欧洲主导的局面重现，可能会让人担忧回到过去。

虽然几乎所有人从2016年起都支持因凡蒂诺，但过去几天里，亚洲的足协被部分人士视为腐败和 / 或贪婪，而欧洲人虽做法相同，却试图将自己塑造为足球的道德守护者。芬兰成为首个公开撤回支持信的国际足联211个成员协会，上周四宣布撤回，威尔士足协于周一跟进。大洋洲足联（包括新西兰在内的11个成员）尚未对国际足联主席的领导权表态，但新西兰足球协会的安德鲁·普拉格内尔表示，大洋洲成员应在因凡蒂诺的领导权问题上保持团结。他指出，在因凡蒂诺领导下，欧洲和南美之外的足球协会已取得“巨大进步”——“但提案本身、其提出方式、发展过程以及成员获悉的方式，都对国际足球的治理信心造成了冲击”。

前威尔士国脚、欧足联副主席劳拉·麦卡利斯特在上周的欧足联紧急会议上提议抵制世界杯，英足总也被认为已致信国际足联，撤回对因凡蒂诺的支持。

中北美及加勒比足联如果分裂，将构成生存威胁，而该联盟正在经历这一危机。上周五，中北美及加勒比足联召开紧急会议，一位与会者告诉《卫报》，所有成员都坚定地与欧足联保持一致。这可以被解读为一种原则立场，但很难将该联盟的行动与其所面临的信任危机割裂开来——

蒙塔利亚尼被视为因凡蒂诺最可能的继任者，倘若后者需要辞职。中北美及加勒比足联的会议据称包含了多个国家撤回对因凡蒂诺支持的承诺，部分国家已私下行动。因凡蒂诺与非洲54个国家协会的关系普遍被视为“主仆”关系，他通过国际足联官员基本上命令各足协 / 联合会领导人执行其指令。不服从苏黎世政治路线的协会——如因凡蒂诺决定的主办权——可能会面临审计压力，这充分反映了他们对失去国际足联资助的担忧。

中北美及加勒比足联面临的一个潜在困难是，其四个成员——美国、墨西哥、哥斯达黎加和牙买加——正竞标2031年女足世界杯，主办权将由国际足联决定。尽管目前无其他竞标方，但最终决定需在11月举行的国际足联临时大会上批准。新西兰足协可能会先与大洋洲成员及其他区域联合会磋商，再采取立场，并表示最好能与成员国立场一致。“显然，团结就是力量，”普拉格内尔表示，“当联合会统一行动时，效果更佳。你已在部分联合会看到，即使上周，成员间也出现了分歧。”

美国足协对因凡蒂诺深感不满——尤其是其在“福拉林·巴洛贡事件”中与唐纳德·特朗普的交易引发的行业反弹——但出于政治敏感性，可能无法公开挑战他。另一复杂因素是，中北美及加勒比足联主席维克托·蒙塔利亚尼被广泛视为最有能力在明年3月的主席选举中挑战因凡蒂诺的人选。

财务困难的协会（如乌拉圭）更依赖青少年人才输出的收入而非国际足联拨款。国际足联每年向各协会提供00资金用于运营成本。南美足联仅代表10个成员国。尽管各国情况不一，蒙得维的亚贡献的世界杯球员数量超过历史上任何其他城市，本届世界杯有6名拥有丰富国际执教经历的阿根廷主帅。国际足联道德委员会的调查及后续禁令让不少协会主席面临压力。一位内部人士称：“这不是道德问题，而是政治斗争和视角分歧。”门德斯附和道：“这不是简单的道德问题，而是权力斗争，以及对足球和足球产业认知的分裂。如今，欧洲中心主义主导一切，赞助商推动的补水暂停和超级碗式中场秀等元素层出不穷。佛得角门将沃津哈和新西兰后卫的故事便是例证。”

自给自足的情况出现在智利和巴拉圭俱乐部。MMA 虽然 Montagliani 呼吁对国际足联的治理进行彻底审查，但这位加拿大人尚未决定是否参与明年3月的连任选举。OFC 大洋洲足联在经济上实现了自给自足，其当地联赛及巴拉圭俱乐部分别实现盈利。由于在赛事期间受欢迎，其国家队成为头号体育吸引力。这一受欢迎程度在一定程度上归功于来自阿根廷和巴西的主播和网红的努力。MMA 全球足球权力中心之外的小国也积极参与。如果该联合会脱离，它将希望获得类似的支持。OFC 大洋洲由依赖国际足联资金的小型联合会组成，因此国际足联在其中扮演关键角色。相比之下，中北美及加勒比足联（Concacaf）的联赛（如英超完全独立于英足总，因而独立于国际足联）及其他欧洲联赛在很大程度上不依赖其资金来源。因此，Infantino 提出的世界杯改革方案一旦实施，将在财务上对这些联合会产生巨大影响。JD 同样支持由欧足联领导的反对派，反对 Infantino 的世界杯提案。

Infantino 拥有“全球”心态，并通过与球员相关的主播和网红接触远离全球足球权力中心的小国。为此，顶级市场是英超联赛（完全独立于英足总，因而独立于国际足联）及其他欧洲联赛。中北美及加勒比足联的选举也将于明年举行。亚足联（包括英格兰、威尔士、芬兰和塞尔维亚等成员）也大多支持反对派。阿里亲王的声明描绘了一个在寻求全球管理机构帮助时面临障碍的小国形象。约旦今年首次参加世界杯，但他解释称，尽管球迷购买了门票，部分人仍未获得签证。“自12月卡塔尔阿拉伯杯（国际足联赛事）以来，我们一直在等待球员的奖金，”他表示——

进入... 《卫报》 星期三 曼联拟 Kerolin 以创纪录 任命 Olid 为 125 万英镑m 售价 WSL 赛季 从曼城转会巴萨 主教练 9" 770261 " 307538

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“敲诈” 约旦足协主席称国际足联试图强迫支持 Infantino 约旦足球协会主席阿里·本·侯赛因亲王指责 Gianni Infantino 的管理层进行“敲诈”，声称如果约旦足协拒绝支持其连任竞选，国际足联将威胁扣留财务援助。阿里亲王曾在 2016 年竞选国际足联主席，与 Infantino 竞争。

声明并获得第三名，列出了一个数字。“我们球队因进入决赛而应获得的资金尚未交付，而球员们也尚未获得参加去年阿拉伯杯的相应款项，与此同时，国际足联却在吹嘘他们拥有数十亿的储备金。阿里王子是西亚足球联合会的负责人，该联合会包括卡塔尔和阿拉伯联合酋长国等具有影响力的国家，到目前为止，这些国家都支持因凡蒂诺留任。在世界杯期间，有人口头向我传达，如果我支持他，将大大有助于帮助我们的足协。我们为自己在约旦维护伦理价值而感到自豪。我们之前没有支持他，现在当然也不会。但整个情况无异于敲诈，我们拒绝屈服于此。”

据了解，其他国家在2024年3月的国际足联选举前也受到了协同压力，被要求正式支持因凡蒂诺。此前曾发函支持其连任的国家正逐步撤回支持。据了解，希腊是最新一个撤回支持的足协，此前已有多国采取了这一立场。前阿森纳主教练阿尔塞纳·温格（现任国际足联全球发展主管）表示，该项目的撤回是“绝对必要的”。

因凡蒂诺的权威在这一天遭受进一步打击，因另外两名关键盟友与他保持距离——由于他失败的世界杯私人投资计划。他的二把手，国际足联秘书长马蒂亚斯·格拉夫斯特伦（Mattias Grafström）在给组织员工的电子邮件中将失败的“国际足联前行企业”称为“一系列令人悲哀且可责备的事件”。电子邮件的部分内容写道：“一系列令人悲哀且可责备的事件——庆幸的是，这些事件以永久放弃FFE项目而告终——让我们感到沮丧，但这些不应掩盖这一现实。”格拉夫斯特伦的邮件还敦促国际足联员工在被认为是一次成功的世界杯之后保持高昂的士气，其信息在未点名批评因凡蒂诺的情况下戛然而止。温格表示：“我首先是通过媒体报道意识到这个项目的。撤回该项目的决定是绝对必要的，且毫无疑问，因为我坚信一个独立、致力于透明度和诚信的国际足联才能服务于我们的比赛。”

国际足联已被要求就阿里王子的指控发表评论。

国际自行车联盟（UCI）关于对选定的女子巡回赛车手在前往第戎的赛段前进行额外检查的指令，是在一些车队注意到车手在个人计时赛前的体型变化后，由部分车队促成的。UCI的裁判在寻找能够人为改善气流并降低风阻的填充胸部整流罩，这些装置违反了国际自行车联盟的规则。AG Insurance-Soudal车队的总监斯泰恩·斯蒂尔斯表示，裁判在2024年巴黎奥运会上首次注意到可疑的填充物。“可能有一个车手突然拥有了巨大的胸部，”斯蒂尔斯告诉比利时新闻报纸《Het Laatste Nieuws》。

6月，男车手扬-威廉·范·希普因在

法语 “去年，许多骑手在他们的 @ 分析 ‘据报道，因凡蒂诺已于昨天在针对将水瓶插入赛车服前部的行为展开严厉打击的比赛中抵达第戎，并呼吁国际足联工作人员于今日在摩洛哥首都拉巴特召开危机会议，以应对最新的规避自行车运动规则的尝试。这些骑手在胸部区域完全填充冰块或其他物品以创造更大的体积，理由是这能增强其空气动力学和速度。第 42-43 页 > 这提供了更好的空气动力学效果。这仅仅是 00 他试图维持自己的职位。改变身体形态以 [...]

索博斯莱“迫不及待”迎接利物浦的重启

安迪·亨特

多米尼克·索博斯莱认为，上赛季的挫折可以推动利物浦再次向联赛冠军发起冲击，但他承认，如果在转会截止日期前没有引援，球队必须拿出“特别的表现”。

这位利物浦中场在上赛季已经表现出色的基础上更进一步，被评为球队年度最佳球员，但整体而言，球队却出现了退步，安妮·斯洛特因此失去了主教练职位。索博斯莱坚称，在斯洛特的首个赛季中轻松赢得英超冠军的球队，在其卫冕之战中表现不佳，这应当成为安德尼·伊劳拉作为利物浦主帅首个赛季的反弹动力。

“老实说，我迫不及待[迎接新赛季]，”这位25岁的匈牙利队长在利物浦美国季前赛之旅后表示。“我觉得我们已经准备好再次出发，并从上赛季中汲取动力，因为那并不是最好的结果。我们没有达到预期目标。所以现在我们要再次全力以赴。

“每个人都很有动力。我觉得从每个人的眼神中都能看出他们渴望比赛，而如果你想上场，就必须全力以赴。然后主教练会决定谁上场。但现在大家都站在同一起跑线上。”

利物浦今夏已签下中卫热雷米·雅凯和多面手前锋维克托·穆尼奥斯，但尽管他们仍在追求巴黎圣日耳曼的布拉德利·巴尔科拉，球队在穆罕默德·萨拉赫、安迪·罗伯逊和易卜拉欣·科纳特以自由球员身份离队后，多个位置仍显薄弱。

索博斯莱谈及利物浦的转会动态时表示：“告诉你我们该签谁或是否该签人，这不是我的工作。如果上层和主教练决定签人，我们会非常高兴，并热烈欢迎他——或他们。如果他们决定不签，那我们就必须用这套阵容拿出特别的表现。”

这位利物浦中场透露，伊劳拉更倾向于在比赛结束后不立即与球员交流，这一特点他在与桑德兰、雷克瑟姆和利兹联的季前友谊赛后有所体会。“他不会在赛后讲话，”索博斯莱透露。“我认为每位主教练都有自己的方式。他就是这样。他总是更愿意在比赛次日再谈，这对大家都没问题。我们得适应这一点。”

伊劳拉也尚未与索博斯莱——或任何其他球员——讨论填补罗伯逊和萨拉赫离开后空缺的副队长职位。但这位25岁的球员在美洲之旅中担任利物浦队长，表示如果被问及，他将感到无上荣耀。

他补充道：“目前还没有任何对话。我们有维吉尔[·范戴克]担任队长，有阿里[·阿利松]，有乔·戈麦斯[担任副队长]，所以完全没有讨论过。显然阿里不在这里，乔也受伤了。走着瞧吧。这还没定。如果有人提议让你担任利物浦的副队长，你会接受的。这对我来说将是一个骄傲的时刻，但我尊重每一个人。无论最终是谁，我们都会追随他。”

在纽约战胜雷克瑟姆的比赛中，索博斯莱将队长袖标传给了科斯塔斯·齐米卡斯，这引发了柯蒂斯·琼斯的不满。但索博斯莱（他最近与安菲尔德签下了一份为期五年的新合同）坚称他与这位中场队友之间没有问题。

“我们三人之间从来没有争论过，”他表示。“我们只是在场上讨论了一些事情。之后，你们把这件事炒得很大。但下次我们会在更衣室里解决。没有人生气。一切都解决了。我们都很冷静。”

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告别队长

米兰圣安布罗焦大教堂外排起了长队，人们前来悼念上周去世的前意大利和AC米兰后卫弗朗哥·巴雷西，享年66岁。保罗·马尔蒂尼和罗伯托·巴乔等人也在现场。

萨拉·纳尔迪 / 路透社

足球简讯

赛事官员

前英超裁判泰勒出任土耳其高级职务

前英超和世界杯裁判安东尼·泰勒已加入土耳其中央裁判委员会，担任精英裁判总监。

泰勒上月结束了长达22年的裁判生涯，期间共执法831场比赛。这位47岁裁判的最后一次执法任务是上月在达拉斯进行的葡萄牙对阵西班牙的世界杯16强淘汰赛。

“在国内和国际足球最高水平的执法经历让我有机会将这些经验带到这个专注于土耳其精英裁判战略和技术发展的角色中，”泰勒在声明中表示。“我将与联合会的同事们合作，支持其裁判员的持续发展，并加强更广泛的裁判计划，以符合欧足联和国际足联的标准。”

泰勒是继霍华德·韦伯和马克·克拉滕伯格之后，又一位退役后前往海外担任高级裁判职务的前英格兰顶级裁判。韦伯和克拉滕伯格均曾在沙特阿拉伯担任高级裁判职务。泰勒在英超执法了16个赛季。路透社

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▲ 安东尼·泰勒在世界杯执法了最后一场比赛

科特迪瓦

勒纳德接替法埃出任大象队主教练

法国人埃尔韦·勒纳德已重返科特迪瓦，接任国家队主教练。他曾在2015.年率领科特迪瓦赢得非洲杯冠军。勒纳德今年世界杯期间曾临时接替突尼斯队，现接替埃梅尔斯·法埃。尽管大象队在世界杯上首次进入淘汰赛阶段，但在32强赛中以2-1不敌挪威后，法埃的合同未获续签。路透社

赛果

足球

欧冠联赛

第三轮资格赛：首回合 阿拉卡特 - 亚美尼亚2, 卢卡1；萨格勒布迪纳摩3, 考塔-扎尔加拉1；哈普尔贝尔谢巴1；贝尔格莱德红星0；索非亚列夫斯基1, 凯拉特0；马尔代夫1；斯拉农布拉迪斯拉发2；奥林匹亚科斯 O'MCC 0；布拉格斯巴达2, 里昂1；圣吉罗斯联1；博德 / 格林特1。

欧联杯

第三轮资格赛：首回合 莱梅1, 伊比利亚1999 L；沙姆洛克流浪者1, 埃格纳蒂亚1。

欧协联

阿达1, 迪纳摩城0。

周一欧冠联赛

第二轮资格赛：小组赛半决赛 布伦德利德1, 阿克里斯特1（加时赛：阿克里斯特点球2-0胜）；迪纳摩 BGO 0, 塞尔维特·克莱门特3。

板球

第二场测试赛（五日赛第三日）

赫兹 & 西班牙（5个门柱） 西印度群岛344 LJP（莱扎雷斯7），IK Chian（1），圣彼得4-0（1），梅蒂安3（F）（阿卜杜拉·沙菲克 1004a，比特尔·阿拉姆69, 阿拉姆-纳特57）JA Marican 6-1（2）。西印度群岛落后巴基斯坦43分，第二局文章待立。

周一第三场720国际赛

多米尼克：斯里兰卡113-6, 巴基斯坦115-6, 巴基斯坦以四个门柱击败斯里兰卡。

受伤的男人们

海丁利（局间休息） 太阳队（利兹24:1-2（8））里克森 西部，8R 北部，7R，HC 布鲁克5（1）+ 伦敦精神。

受伤的女人们

海丁利 伦敦精神136-7（GM 哈里斯51） 太阳队（利兹14:2-5。利兹太阳队以五个门柱击败伦敦精神。

网球

ATP国家银行公开赛（加拿大布兰特福德）

首轮：5. 曼（英）胜 M（米兰）（91）7-5, 1-6, 6-7（1-7）；J 布罗德斯基（美）胜 A 沃尔顿（澳）6-1, 6-4；5 齐齐帕斯（希）胜 M 戴维斯3（美）6-4, 6-4；H 胡尔卡奇（波）胜 M 格林（美）7-5, 4-6, 6-2；Z 斯瓦伊达（美）胜 D 斯图波瓦洛夫（捷）4-6, 6-4, 5-0 退赛；J 弗鲁利（英）胜 A 穆穆里诺（法）7-6（4-7），6-4；7 蒂亚福（英）胜 D 钱（捷）6-1, 1-6, 7-6（7-1）；V 博耶（法）胜 P 卡雷尼奥·布斯塔（西）1-6, 5-4 退赛。

WTA国家银行公开赛（加拿大多伦多）

第二轮：5. 萨巴特（德）胜 J 博卡斯·莫维诺（西）6-7（5-7），7-6（7-4），6-4；1, 斯维亚泰克（波）胜 S 贝莱克（捷）6-3, 6-2；E 亚历山德罗娃（俄）胜 C 奥索里奥（捷）6-1, 7-6（7-4）；V 戈卢比奇（瑞士）胜 D 沃基奇（捷）5-7, 6-2, 6-3。

骑行

环法女子赛 (TOUR DE FRANCE FEMMES)

第四赛段（萨伏伊）Chardonnier（下午6点，上午11点 (T)）1 M Rousset (Sw) Movistar 2 7分30秒；2 L Noxijen (Netti) Vienna Leasa 4 / 6w +0.04；3 D Vollering (Netti) PD United-SUS2 +0.18。

总成绩单：1 M Rousset (Sw) 11w 47分 36秒；2 D Vollering (Netti) + 0.14；3 C Kerbaul (Fr) EF Education-Getty +0.24。

波兰环赛 (TOUR DE POLIGNE)

第二赛段（Mittelpattige Szczecin，凌晨1时53分）1 Mian (H) Lab-Trek 2小时 5分 27秒；2 P Magnier (Fr) Soubal Quick-Step；3 M Matucelli (H) XDS Astana 均同时到达。领先排名：1 Mian (H) 8小时 9分 28秒；2 P Magnier (Fr) +0.08；3 K Malecki (Pol) Plesonko-Q36.5 Pro Cycling +0.12。

赛程

足球（除非另有说明，均为晚上8点）

欧冠联赛 (Champions League)

第三轮资格赛：首回合 AGF x Sabah (1.30pm)；Fenerbahce x Starre Graz (7pm)

欧罗巴联赛 (Europe League) Ferrocuero x Gareth Cabras (7.15pm)

欧协联 (Europe Conference League)

第三轮资格赛：首回合 Brann x Apollon (6pm)；Panathinaikos x CSKA Sofia (7.30pm)

女子欧冠联赛 (Women's Champions League)

第二轮资格赛：小型赛事半决赛 Apa x Brandtia (12am)；Apollon x Czerni Sennemer (3pm)；Austria Vienna x Hajduk Split (15am)；Brann x Mitrovica (9am)；Eintracht Frankfurt x Onionia Nicosia (6pm)；Ferrocuero x Pauk (3.30pm)；Gintra x Hearts (2.30pm)；Hombartys x Apollonia (2.30pm)；Juventus x Torriente；Hürriot x Fenerbahce (4am)；Kapp x Riga (6pm)；Mura x Faisal Constanta (5pm)；OH Leuven x TSC (7pm)；Racing Union x HJK (6pm)；SFK 2000 x PSV (4am)；Slavia Prague x Rangers (7.30pm)；Sporting x Septiers (1.30pm)；St Pölten x VB Frauen (5pm)；Villenegal x Matrei FF (4am)；Villamax x Spartak Myjava (7.30pm)

板球

首场及一日国际赛 Ireland x Afghanistan, Brady (10.45am)

Murrs 板球世界杯第二级别 (4) 系列赛 Canada x 阿联酋, Dundee (11am)

The Hundred 男子赛 Manchester Super Giants x Welsh Fire, Old Trafford (3pm)；Trent Reuters x Birmingham Phoenix, Trent Bridge (6.30pm)

The Hundred 女子赛 Manchester Super Giants x Welsh Fire, Old Trafford (11.30am)；Trent Reuters x Birmingham Phoenix, Trent Bridge (3pm)

Wynn &c

Wynn &c

第8组 Surrey x Kent, The Oval (11am)

第8组 Hampshire x Glamorgan, Utilita Bowl (11am)

Greg Wood 的赛马建议

Brighton 2.30 Love Alive 3.00 River Wharfe 3.30 Silca Boy (sag) 4.00 Buckland Belle 4.30 Havana Mighty 5.00 Stansong (int)

Pontefrost 2.45 Star Start 3.15 Rock Steady Beat 3.45 Garden Stock 4.15 Sex Her Excel 4.45 Alfa Whiteland 5.15 Division Day

Hampshire 3.20 Nugent Mousad 5.50 Off The Peg 6.20 Clive The Writer 6.50 Kandy 7.20 Dialstone 7.50 Cloud Forest 8.20 Lamerald Island 8.50 Desert Belle

Fremont 5.50 Shades Of May 6.10 Speed Of Sound 6.40 Sedge Charm 7.30 Lherster 7.40 Urban Warrior 8.10 Banana

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体育 足球

国际足联大家庭

Infantino 对各足球协会而言有多关键？

在世界杯出售失误导致国际足联主席面临的压力持续增加之际，我们的撰稿人评估他在全球范围内的关系强度

各个足联如何看待因凡蒂诺的连任？

欧足联（欧洲）坚定地主导了目前旨在撤换因凡蒂诺的行动。上周发出的威胁——如果 Fifa Forward Enterprise 计划不被废除，将抵制所有国际足联（Fifa）赛事——极大地促成了该计划的失败。在周六的一份严厉声明中，欧足联表示，目前的国际足联领导层“不仅失去了欧足联的信任，也失去了足球大家庭中许多其他成员的信任”，并承诺将推动变革。包括英格兰和威尔士足协在内的一些欧足联成员协会已经撤回了对因凡蒂诺连任的支持信，且相关努力仍在继续，以确保其他协会效仿，旨在不可逆转地削弱他的地位。Nick Ames

关于亚足联（AFC，亚洲）支持欧足联的报道为时过早；该足联内部存在分歧。亚足联已公开表态，相对于其通常的声明而言，此次态度相当强硬地反对拟议的世界杯交易，并呼吁国际足联进行改革。亚足联过去一直是坚定的支持者，但如果因凡蒂诺看起来陷入困境，亚足联领导层——他们对提案的提出方式感到由衷愤怒（可能比对交易细节更愤怒）——可能会倒戈。如果欧足联和中北美及加勒比海足联（Concacaf）反对，这可能会确认因凡蒂诺的垮台，但这并非定论——亚洲有些人并不相信欧足联拥有足够的人数优势。大问题在于，虽然亚足联领导层可能希望因凡蒂诺下台，但大多数亚洲个体足协并不希望他被替换。亚足联主席谢赫·萨尔曼（Sheikh Salman）有自己的野心，且在维持亚足联统一方面历史上一直很成功，但这将很棘手，尤其是像卡塔尔、阿拉伯联合酋长国和沙特阿拉伯等西亚国家支持因凡蒂诺且在亚洲具有影响力。可能确保亚洲统一的唯一方法是拥有一位亚洲候选人。

约旦的阿里·本·侯赛因王子（Prince Ali bin Hussein）关于“敲诈”的指控可能会成为一个重要时刻。John Duerden

中北美及加勒比海足联（Concacaf，涵盖北美、中美洲及加勒比地区）是强烈反对因凡蒂诺及其 FFE 提案的足联之一，首先是直接拒绝该提案，随后在提案被撤回后发布了一份直接针对因凡蒂诺的声明。一份代表中北美及加勒比海足联 41 个成员协会的发布稿称该计划是“领导层不再将足球放在首位的症状”，是“一次单方面且令人震惊的治理与领导失败之举”，并表示“必须对本届主席任期进行全面清算”。

这几乎是在选举本身之外，你能听到的最直接的对因凡蒂诺的不信任投票。当然，应当注意到，中北美及加勒比海足联主席维克多·蒙塔利亚尼（Victor Montagliani）同时也是国际足联副主席，如果各足联达成统一意愿要罢免因凡蒂诺，他将成为竞选主席的领先候选人。蒙塔利亚尼过去对此话题保持沉默，但这份代表他的声明表明，他至少并不排斥反对因凡蒂诺的想法。Alexander Abnos

非洲足球联合会主席帕特里斯·莫特塞佩（Patrice Motsepe）表示，54 个成员协会一致支持因凡蒂诺在明年摩洛哥的连任。Osasu Obayiuwana

自从 FFE 骚乱爆发并平息以来，南美足联（Conmebol）一直异常沉默。其主席亚历杭德罗·多明格斯（Alejandro Dominguez）一直在发布对乌拉圭个人、俱乐部和机构的生日祝福，他目前正在乌拉圭访问，为 2030 年世界杯首届百年庆典做准备。与公开反对国际足联夭折的 FFE 提案的欧足联、中北美及加勒比海足联和亚足联不同，南美足联在发布一份强调足球至上并要求进一步信息和澄清的模棱两可的声明之前，等待了数日。那是唯一的官方回应，此后便陷入了绝对的沉默。

“南美足联（Conmebol）目前的立场最准确的描述是谨慎支持，而非公开对抗，”AD体育行业专业人士（AD Sporting Industry Professionals）的一位主管、同时也是南美足联的朋友且担任该地区足球顾问的 Marina Mendez 说道。

“这种区别在政治上具有重要意义。它表明南美足联希望维护其与国际足联（Fifa）的机构关系，并保留谈判空间，而不是加入一场公开反对因凡蒂诺（Infantino）的活动。这不一定应被解读为无条件的个人忠诚。南美足联采取的是实用主义方法：它在评估国际权力平衡如何演变的同时，旨在保护南美足球在国际足联中的准入权、影响力以及谈判地位。”

巴西和阿根廷是主要国家，多明格斯（Dominguez）负责处理与这两个国家的的关系，预计大多数其他国家也会效仿。“这些协会不太可能直接与因凡蒂诺对抗，因为他们总是希望站在非欧洲人的正确一方，”一名不愿透露姓名的行业内部人士表示。

Marcela Mora y Araujo

目前尚不清楚大洋洲足球联合会（Oceania Football Confederation）的 11 个成员协会将如何行动。作为领先成员的新西兰迅速对世界杯提案表示反对——尽管 OFC 本身的反应含糊其辞——而且在其他足协中仍有支持 Infantino 的力量。John Duerden

该联合会对 Infantino 和 Fifa 的财务依赖程度如何？

欧足联（Uefa）完全没有。虽然世界杯是 Fifa 最核心的收入驱动力，但欧足联可以凭借极具盈利能力的冠军联赛及其每年吸引的巨额资金等项目自立。扩大赛事规模并增加举办频率是 能够跟上步伐的唯一途径之一。私人投资也不会损害其目标。欧足联的年收入近期总计约为 的两倍；就目前情况而言，这个足球强权完全可以独立应对。NA

亚足联（AFC）在该大洲的两端都有富裕的足协，但在这两者之间，有一些足协几乎完全依赖 的资金。例如，不丹每年获得 $1.5m，这构成了其预算的大部分。即使是过去两届世界杯都进入了淘汰赛的澳大利亚，在过去两年中也损失了约 $17m，这或许可以解释在最初听到该计划时，其发表的呼吁给予更多时间的声明为何相当模糊。JD

中北美及加勒比海足联（Concacaf）这是一个顶端极其集中的联合会。美国和墨西哥在过去 30-40 年的大部分时间里一直是地区强权，而加拿大近期表现出其在赛场上具有竞争力，并在赛场外解决商业问题。紧随其后的是由巴拿马、牙买加、哥斯达黎加和洪都拉斯组成的中产阶级。其余 33 个 Concacaf 国家相比之下规模相当小，因此自然更依赖于 通过前向计划（forward programme）和其他倡议提供的资金。

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8

9

▼ Gianni Infantino is now at his most vulnerable

EYA MARIE UICATEGUUFIFA / GETTY

较小的加勒比海国家感到有能力与大国同行，这一事实充分说明了他们认为如果没有 Infantino 掌舵 ，他们可能会面临多么大的风险。AA

非洲足联（CAF）该联合会利用自身的商业收入资助活动，因此在这种意义上并不依赖 和 Infantino。但 CAF 的 54 个成员协会中的大多数在财务上面临挑战，依赖于世界管理机构向其提供的年度拨款以支付运营成本。OO

南美足联（Conmebol）它仅代表 10 个成员国。尽管成员之间存在差异，但这些足协在经济上是自给自足的，且其本土联赛具有盈利能力。他们的国家队是 No 1 体育吸引力。俱乐部的主要收入来源是电视转播权、营销和球员出售。就此而言，最大的市场是英超联赛（其完全在英足总以及因此在 之外运行）和其他欧洲联赛，这些联赛在很大程度上也独立于其各自的足协。蒙得维的亚在历史上培养的世界杯球员比任何其他城市都多，因此即使是像乌拉圭这样在财务上挣扎的协会，仍然更多地依赖于培养青年人才的收入而非 的援助。本届世界杯有六位具有广泛国际履历的阿根廷教练。出口本土人才比 项目分配资金是更大的收入来源。世界杯中两个最色彩鲜明的故事——佛得角门将 Vozinha 和新西兰后卫 Tim Payne，在赛事期间走红后，分别转会至智利和巴拉圭俱乐部。这种走红在很大程度上归功于来自阿根廷和巴西的主播和影响力人物的努力。MMA

大洋洲足联（OFC）大洋洲由倾向于依赖 拨款的小型足协组成。因此，最近的世界杯提案如果能够通过，将在财务上产生巨大的影响。JD

分裂是否会造成生存威胁？

欧足联（Uefa）拥有世界上最强的俱乐部和国家队。与因凡蒂诺和国际足联（Fifa）分道扬镳不太可能造成严重损害，尽管这可能会给那些希望通过改组后的世俱杯扩大全球影响力的俱乐部带来问题。考虑到与该运动大多数巨头竞争时所能获得的财务机会，其他大洲的更强球队可能会寻求与欧足联联手，参加新的赛事。NA

亚足联（AFC）这是一种概括，但在亚洲，国际足联作为一个机构所引发的关注度不如在西欧那样高。通常，只有当一个国家具体受到某项决定影响时（例如在申办赛事时），才会产生兴趣。与因凡蒂诺决裂对亚洲不会构成巨大的威胁，但如果真的发生，人们会对回归一个由欧洲主导的国际足联感到担忧。虽然几乎所有人从2016年直到前几天都支持因凡蒂诺，但支持他的亚洲足协在某些领域被视为腐败和 / 或贪婪，而采取同样行动的欧洲人现在却试图将自己塑造为这项运动的道德守护者。JD

中北美及加勒比足联（Concacaf）如果分裂会造成生存威胁，那么中北美及加勒比足联现在正处于这种状态。人们当然可以将此解读为一种原则性的立场，但很难将该足联的声明与蒙塔利亚尼目前的处境分开来看——如果后者需要下台，蒙塔利亚尼是最可能的继任者。AA

非洲足联（CAF）因凡蒂诺与非洲54个国家协会之间的关系在很大程度上被视为一种“主仆”关系，他基本上是通过国际足联官员命令各足协 / 联合会负责人听从他的指令。那些不遵循由因凡蒂诺决定的苏黎世政治路线的人，很可能会面临对其如何使用国际足联拨款的审计。许多足协 / 联合会主席因此面临国际足联伦理委员会的程序及随后的禁令。OO

南美足联（Conmebol）“这不涉及道德，纯粹是政治，”一名行业内部人士说道。门德斯表示赞同：“这并非简单的道德问题，而是一场权力斗争，以及关于足球整体以及足球商业化具体视角的破裂。如今，欧洲中心主义占据主导，而像赞助的补水休息时间以及超级碗风格的中场秀这类事物，强加了一种此前从未见过的北美视角。” MMA

大洋洲足联（OFC）大洋洲欢迎因凡蒂诺拥有“全球”心态，并竭力与远离全球足球权力中心的较小国家接触。如果该足联最终选择分裂，它将希望在竞争对手候选人身上看到类似的特质，而不是回到那个该足联在权力走廊中被视为无关紧要的旧时代。JD

中北美及加勒比海足联国家考虑撤回对主席的支持

Matt Hughes Nick Ames

一些中北美及加勒比海足联（Concacaf）国家正考虑效仿欧洲，正式撤回对国际足联（Fifa）主席詹尼·因凡蒂诺（Gianni Infantino）的支持。据了解，中北美及加勒比海足联——代表北美、中美洲和加勒比地区的足联——的所有 41 个成员在世界杯决赛圈之前都提交了支持因凡蒂诺竞选连任的背书信，但现在许多国家正认真考虑撤回这些信函。

芬兰成为国际足联 211 个成员协会中首个于上周四公开撤回支持信的国家，随后威尔士足协在周一跟进。欧足联（Uefa）副主席、前威尔士国脚劳拉·麦卡利斯特（Laura McAllister）在上周的一次欧足联紧急会议上提出了抵制世界杯的建议，而据了解，英格兰足协（FA）也已致信国际足联，表示不再支持因凡蒂诺。

中北美及加勒比海足联上周五举行了紧急会议，一名参会人士告诉《卫报》，所有成员与欧足联立场高度一致，而欧足联一直带头要求因凡蒂诺下台。

据了解，中北美及加勒比海足联的会议上，几个国家承诺撤回对因凡蒂诺的支持，且部分国家可能已经在私下这样做了。

中北美及加勒比海足联面临的一个潜在困难是，其四个成员——美国、墨西哥、哥斯达黎加和牙买加——正在竞标国际足联即将做出的 2031 年女足世界杯举办地决定。

虽然目前没有其他竞标方案，但该决定仍需在 11 月举行的国际足联特别大会上获得批准。

据了解，美国足球协会对因凡蒂诺深感不满——尤其是他与唐纳德·特朗普（Donald Trump）的交易在福拉林·巴洛贡（Folarin Balogun）事件中给他们带来的负面反弹——但考虑到政治敏感性，可能觉得无法与他对抗。

另一个复杂因素是，中北美及加勒比海足联主席维克多·蒙塔利亚尼（Victor Montagliani）被广泛认为是明年 3 月总统选举中最有能力挑战因凡蒂诺的潜在候选人。

尽管蒙塔利亚尼呼吁对国际足联的治理进行彻底审查，但这位加拿大人尚未决定是否参选，并在上个月接受《卫报》采访时表示，他的首要任务是连任中北美及加勒比海足联主席，该选举也将于明年举行。

虽然中北美及加勒比海足联保持统一，但同样支持欧足联领导的反对因凡蒂诺拟议的世界杯

出售方案的亚洲足联（AFC），在经历了上周的戏剧性事件后似乎出现了分歧。值得注意的是，卡塔尔和阿拉伯联合酋长国这两个金融强国都公开支持因凡蒂诺留任，斯里兰卡、黎巴嫩、科威特和不丹等较小国家也是如此。

虽然亚洲足联 47 个成员中的大多数（包括沙特阿拉伯）保持沉默，但欧足联希望能够吸引他们的支持，但目前尚不清楚反抗者是否拥有足够的人数来迫使一场真正的选举竞争。

新西兰足球协会的安德鲁·普拉格内尔（Andrew Pragnell）表示，国际足联放弃的私募股权提案给世界足球治理的信心带来了冲击，他敦促大洋洲的成员在因凡蒂诺领导权问题上保持统一。

大洋洲足联（其 11 个成员中包括新西兰）尚未对国际足联主席的领导地位采取立场，尽管普拉格内尔表示，在因凡蒂诺领导下，欧洲和南美传统强国之外的足球协会获得了“巨大的收益”——“但提案本身、其交付和发展的方式、成员得知该消息的方式，以及对国际足球体系信心的冲击，都投下了相当大的阴影”。

Pragnell表示，新西兰在采取立场之前将与大洋洲成员及其他区域足联进行磋商，并表示成员国在该问题上保持一致将更为理想。“显然，人数越多，力量越大，”Pragnell说道。

“当然，当一个足联统一行动时会有所帮助。你已经在一些足联中看到了，甚至就在上周，成员之间出现了分歧。”

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即将到来 ... 曼联拟任命 Olid担任 女超联赛（WSL） 赛季主教练

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... 出发 Kerolin从 曼城转会至巴萨 转会费创纪录 达 125 万英镑m

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体育

“敲诈”

约旦足协主席称 国际足联试图强迫 支持因凡蒂诺

尼克·艾姆斯 (Nick Ames)

约旦足球协会主席阿里·本·侯赛因王子 (Prince Ali bin al-Hussein) 指责詹尼·因凡蒂诺 (Gianni Infantino) 的管理层实施“敲诈”，声称如果他的协会拒绝支持该主席的连任竞选，国际足联 (Fifa) 将威胁扣押对其协会的资金援助。

阿里王子曾在 2016 年与因凡蒂诺竞争国际足联主席之位并获得第三名，他列举了困扰该全球管理机构的一系列问题，并表示约旦球员尚未收到去年参加阿拉伯杯的报酬。阿里王子是西亚足球联合会的负责人，该联合会包括卡塔尔和阿拉伯联合酋长国等具有影响力的国家，这些国家迄今为止一直支持因凡蒂诺留任。

就在这一天，因凡蒂诺的权威再次受到打击，因为另外 2 名关键盟友与其失败的世界杯私人投资计划保持距离。他的二号人物、国际足联秘书长马蒂亚斯·格拉夫斯特伦 (Mattias Grafström) 在给组织员工的一封电子邮件中，透露他将那个搞砸了的“国际足联前行企业” (Fifa Forward Enterprise) 称为“一系列令人悲哀且应受谴责的事件”。与此同时，前阿森纳主教练阿尔塞纳·温格 (Arsène Wenger)——现任国际足联全球发展主管——表示，撤回该项目是“绝对必要的”。

因凡蒂诺正稳步失去那些此前曾发信支持其第四任期任职的国家的支持。据了解，希腊是最新撤回支持的协会，此前已有英格兰、威尔士、芬兰和塞尔维亚等国带头采取了这一行动。

● 中北美及加勒比足球联合会 (Concacaf) 国家可能会放弃对因凡蒂诺的支持 ● 分析

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阿里王子的声明发表在 X 上，描绘了一个小国在寻求全球管理机构帮助时面临重重障碍的景象。约旦在今年参加了他们的首届世界杯，但他解释说，尽管购买了门票，部分球迷仍未获得签证。他的声明写道：“自 12 月以来，我们一直在等待球员参加在卡塔尔举行的阿拉伯杯（这是一个国际足联赛事）的奖金。我们的球队因进入决赛而应得的资金尚未交付，而与此同时，国际足联却在吹嘘他们拥有多少十亿的储备金。”

“很明显，问题实际上出在领导层。几个月来，国际足联一直拒绝在这些或其他任何事项上帮助我们——直到在世界杯期间有人口头向我传达，如果我支持因凡蒂诺，将大大有助于帮助我们的足协。我们在约旦以维护伦理价值为荣。我们之前没有支持他，现在当然也不会。但整个情况等同于敲诈，我们拒绝屈服。”

据了解，其他国家在 3 月的国际足联选举前，也受到了协同压力，被要求正式支持因凡蒂诺。

格拉夫斯特伦的电子邮件敦促国际足联员工在被认为成功的世界杯之后保持高昂的士气。他的信息并未直接点名批评因凡蒂诺。邮件的一段写道：“一系列令人悲哀且应受谴责的事件——庆幸的是，这些事件随着 FFE 项目的永久放弃而结束——尽管我们对此感到沮丧，但不应掩盖这一现实。”

温格表示：“我最初是通过媒体报道得知该项目的。撤回该项目的决定是绝对必要且毋庸置疑的，因为我坚信一个独立、以承诺、透明度和诚信服务于我们这项运动的国际足联。”

国际足联已被联系以就阿里王子的指控发表评论。

据报道，因凡蒂诺今天已召集国际足联员工在摩洛哥首都拉巴特举行危机会议，试图保住自己的位置。

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加雷斯·科普利 / 盖蒂图片社 (GARETH COPLEY / GETTY IMAGES)

女子环法赛车手接受隐藏胸垫检查

杰里米·惠特尔 第戎

在昨天女子环法自行车赛计时赛阶段抵达第戎前，车手们接受了针对隐藏空气动力学增强装置（即胸部整流罩）的检查，以遏制最新规避自行车比赛规则的企图。

国际自行车联盟（UCI）规则禁止通过改变身体形态来提升空气动力学性能。UCI的裁判员正在寻找能人为改善气流和减少风阻的胸部填充整流罩。

今年6月，男子车手扬-威廉·范席普在一场法国比赛中因将水瓶塞入比赛服前部而被取消资格，理由是此举提升了其空气动力学性能和速度。

UCI要求在抵达第戎前对部分车手进行额外检查的指令，是应部分车队的提议而发布的，这些车队此前已注意到计时赛前车手体型的变化。

AG Insurance-Soudal车队总监斯泰恩·斯蒂尔斯表示，他首次注意到可疑填充物是在2024年巴黎奥运会上。"有一名车手突然长出了巨乳，"斯蒂尔斯告诉比利时报纸《Het Laatste News》。

"去年，许多车手用冰块或其他物品填满胸部区域，以增加体积，从而获得更好的空气动力学效果。这只是一

Gobaith Newydd

Star Wars gets a version in Welsh

Page 3

The Guardian

Wednesday 5 August 2026 £3.50 From £2.40 for subscribers

Profits of war

Oil giants make $90bn from price surge as climate crisis engulfs Europe

Windfall from Iran conflict triggers accusations of 'cashing in on human misery'

Jillian Ambrose Damian Carrington

Eight of the biggest oil companies amassed profits of more than $90bn in just three months as the Iran conflict sent energy prices soaring and the emissions-fuelled climate crisis caused deadly heatwaves.

The windfall war profits have reignited calls for oil and gas supermajors such as Saudi Aramco and BP to pay for the environmental damage caused by "cashing in on human misery" and fund a rapid transition to renewable energy.

A Guardian analysis found the eight listed oil producers made almost $93bn (£69bn) in the three months to the end of

COMPOSITE: GUARDIAN DESIGN/MEUTERS/EPA/AP/GETTY/TUMA PRESS WIRE/SHUTTERSTOCK

Jordan warns of Israeli takeover of holy site

Julian Borger Amman

Jordan is convening an emergency meeting of foreign ministers today over the "imminent" threat of an

Israeli takeover of the most important religious site in Jerusalem.

The meeting - and the warning from Jordan of possible "religious conflict" - follows a pattern of government-backed incursions by Jewish extremists. They have targeted the

compound around the historic al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock in violation of a "status quo" agreement under which only Muslims can pray at the site.

The agreement, which dates back to the 19th century, is overseen by Jordan's Hashemite monarchy.

On 23 July, more than 2,000 Israelis from the religious right - mostly settlers led by the security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir - stormed the area, known to Jews as Temple Mount. They prayed and

Warning over safety of early-release tagging

Rajeev Syal Home affairs editor

The electronic tagging system that will be relied upon to monitor thousands of offenders released early

from prison is failing to alert the authorities of potential breaches of conditions, a watchdog has warned. Martin Jones, HM inspector of probation in England and Wales, said the current system relied upon hard-pressed police

---

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News

◀ Yvette Cooper, the new health and social care secretary, has promised a reform of standards in maternity care after a series of damning reports PROTOGRAPH: TOLGA AKWIN/SPA

Women must not feel pressure to

have 'an ideal birth', says Cooper

Jessica Elgot

Women should not feel pressured into experiencing an 'ideal birth,' the new health secretary, Yvette Cooper, has said, as she promised a root-and- branch reform of standards after several damning maternity scandals.

Cooper, who returns to the depart- ment 27 years after she was the public health minister under Tony Blair - said maternity and child health would be a major focus in the role where she will also be expected to deliver signifi- cant reforms to social care.

In an interview with the Guardian, she said the culture change should address any pressure on women to have a particular kind of birth experi- ence, after families repeatedly raised the alarm about an unwillingness to evaluate intervention from some maternity units because of a desire for more natural births.

Labour party

members 'have tough view on welfare' - poll

Aletha Adu Political correspondent

Andy Burnham has inherited a Labour membership that is scepti- cal about increased welfare spending, supportive of higher defence spend- ing and ranks climate change as one of the country's biggest challenges, according to new polling.

The survey of 788 members by ThinkLabour shows members rank- ing health (43%), the economy (42%), the cost of living (39%) and climate change (29%) as Britain's most impor- tant issues, ahead of welfare benefits (7%) and immigration (6%).

Despite the internal rows in the

She said: 'I would worry about any mum feeling pressurised that there is somehow a kind of an ideal birth experience to live up to when it's always different in every case, and you have to follow the evidence, you have to have informed choice.'

In one of her first acts as health secretary, Cooper said she intended to re-introduce national maternity standards dismantled under early Conservative NHS reforms, replacing fragmented trust-by-trust practices with binding national requirements.

The standards, which will be drafted by a new task force, include ending the postcode lottery for levels of care and tackling racial inequalities which have meant worse outcomes for deprived areas and particularly for Black and Asian women.

Patient experience will be included in the standards, with targets that act as an early warning system for underperformance.

Cooper - who was the first minis- ter to take maternity leave as a junior health minister in the early 90s - said she had found reports of maternity scandals 'traumatic' to read and that systemic change was needed.

She said: 'We've always said the NHS is about the cradle to the grave, I want to ... have much more focus around maternity and child health, the very beginning of a family's life, making that much more central to the priorities of the NHS.'

Cooper said there had been discus- sions for the past two decades about how maternity services could better listen to mothers' needs. But she said on returning to the department, it felt clear that emphasis had been lost.

'I went back to look at some of the things that we'd done 25 years ago. And what did strike me was how much we were talking then about women and families being at the centre of care and about listening to

women's views,' she said. 'It is really shocking and distressing feeling that has somehow been lost in some of the maternity units where actually it should be the central issue.'

She said she was determined to deliver robust responses to the two major independent inquiries into maternity failings - Donna Ostend- en's reports into major trust-level failures in Shrewsbury and Telford, and at Nottingham, alongside Valerie Amos's national investigation into England's maternity system.

Both highlighted systemic clini- cal errors, understaffing, and toxic institutional cultures, revealing that hundreds of infant and mater- nal deaths were directly attributable to a refusal to listen to mothers and a defensive impulse toward institu- tional cover-ups.

Amos's review in particularly has faced significant backlash including the resignation of one expert adviser over the lack of explicit warnings about 'normal birth ideology' - and over Amos's central recommendation for a new statutory maternity com- missioner, which families said would lack meaningful independence.

Cooper said she was still commit- ted to introducing a commissioner. 'In the end, the most important peo- ple in the maternity services are the mothers, babies, the families. But the point of a maternity commissioner is to make sure those issues are cham- pioned as part of an NHS,' she said.

Cooper, the former foreign secre- tary, said she was prepared for a tough fight in the role as she seeks to deliver Andy Burnham's social care reforms - saying she was committed to deliv- ering the manifesto commission of a national care service announced by the prime minister last week.

A longstanding ally of the former prime minister Keir Starmer - and a former leadership rival of Burnham's in 2015 - Cooper said she believed the change of leadership had been what was required. 'I think we've got a sense of energy now,' she said. 'All of the things that Andy wants to focus on and drive are also just very much the things that people are concerned about across the country.'

leadership. But a poll conducted just before Starmer's disastrous local elec- tions performance showed Burnham had a net favourability of 72% at that time, suggesting he would be likely to win any leadership contest had a vote by party members been needed.

Burnham's administration is likely to take a close interest in the data. The ThinkLabour thinktank, for- merly Labour Together, has become increasingly linked to Burnham's premiership. Its former chief exec- utive, Alison Phillips, recently left to become Burnham's deputy chief of staff, alongside its director of

devolution, JP Spencer, who is now working in No 10 North. Ed Owen, a former Labour adviser during the Blair years, is the current interim chief executive. It is understood these findings have been shared with senior strategists in Downing Street.

Christabel Cooper, ThinkLabour's interim director of political strat- egy, said: 'Labour members have a tougher view on welfare than you might think. They will be aware that welfare is something the Labour gov- ernment has to get right if it is going to win a second term. And they also understand the importance of defence in a deeply uncertain world.

'That's why it's important to understand what members actually say rather than just rely on assump- tions about what they might think.'

The survey comes after the body released a report titled Who is Labour For?, arguing Labour's electoral suc- cess lay in holding together voters pressured by finances, progressive voters and those concerned with the NHS and immigration. It was shared with No 10 and publicly praised by Lucy Powell, Labour's deputy leader.

73%

Proportion of members surveyed who want the government to spend more on social care by raising taxes

29%

Proportion of members surveyed who see climate change as one of Britain's most important issues

---

Wednesday 5 August 2026 The Guardian

News

9

Gobaith Newydd: dubbed Star Wars film puts the force with Welsh speakers

Obi-wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) is voiced by Rhys Ifans, above PHOTOGRAPHS: CINE TEXT/SP/ARTS/PHOTO/ ALLSTAR

Steven Morris

Wales's dramatic landscapes and mysterious forests have been used to film a Star Wars series, while the Millennium Falcon was built in secret in a Welsh dockyard.

But until now speakers of Welsh - Cymraeg - have not been able to hear the words of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia spoken in their own language.

Yesterday that changed as it was revealed that a Welsh language version of the 1977 blockbuster Star Wars: A New Hope will be shown on the Welsh television channel S4C and its platforms from Christmas Day.

And the cast is full of home-grown talent, with Rhys Ifans, who has appeared in Harry Potter and Spider-Man films as well as Notting Hill, voicing the Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The Emmy award-winning actor Matthew Rhys is Han Solo, and Aimee-Ffion Edwards, best known for her roles in Peaky Blinders and Slow Horses, is Princess Leia.

Mark Lewis Jones, who had a role in the 2017 Star Wars film The Last Jedi, is the Welsh Darth Vader.

Osian Morgan voices Luke Skywalker and Rhys Ifans's brother, Llŷr Ifans, C-3PO.

The announcement was made at the National Eisteddfod, the vast music and poetry festival now taking place in Pembrokeshire.

The Welsh version has been produced by Lucasfilm and Disney in collaboration with S4C and the Welsh government via its Creative Wales agency. Its Welsh title is Star Wars: Gobaith Newydd (New Hope).

The Welsh government is aiming to have a million people speaking Cymraeg by 2050. Star Wars may help a little. The Welsh first minister, Rhun ap Iorwerth, who is fluent in Welsh,

Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and C-3PO, voiced by Aimee-Ffion Edwards, above, and Llŷr Ifans respectively PHOTOGRAPHS: LUCASFILM/ALLSTAR

'My hope is it will have the same emotional impact as if you were watching for the first time'

Lynwen Brennan Lucasfilm co-president

A poster for the Welsh Star Wars; above, Chewbacca and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) voiced by Matthew Rhys, inset above left PHOTOGRAPHS: LUCASFILM/DISNEY/ ALLSTAR

Star lineup to honour Bob Harris with Royal Albert Hall concert

Guardian staff

The music broadcasting legend Bob Harris is to attend a star-studded concert in his honour at the Royal Albert Hall in London later this year.

Harris, known as Whispering Bob because of his smoky radio voice, hung up his headphones for the last time on his Radio 2 shows in June, telling listeners that leaving Sounds of the 70s and his country show had

been "one of the hardest decisions of my life".

Harris was first diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2007 and was successfully treated. In April this year, he revealed the cancer had spread to his spine which led to a two-week course of radiotherapy in hospital.

Stars including Roger Daltrey, Paul Weller and Robert Plant will take part in Stand By Me: Bob Harris - A Celebration of Life in Music, which will take place on 2 December.

The one-off musical show will

also include performances by Rick Wakeman, Carly Pearce, Chris Difford, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Judie Tzuke, Kate Rusby, The Shires, Kezia Gill and Toby Lee.

Harris, 80, has been a passionate advocate for country, folk, Americana and singer-songwriters and introduced generations of listeners to emerging talent alongside established stars.

Many of the artists due to perform in the show were championed by Harris during his broadcasting career, with more artists to be announced at a later date.

"I've been blessed and honoured to have been there with all these artists right at the beginning of their careers, so we all have long working

relationships and deep friendships," he said.

"I truly love the Royal Albert Hall too. I first began attending concerts there in 1968, and it is, to me, the most beautiful and prestigious venue in Britain. So I feel so honoured to have

▲ Bob Harris left Radio 2 in June after a course of cancer treatment

said A New Hope was one of the most influential films of his childhood.

He said: "Its appeal shows no sign of waning. To see a Welsh language version, using the talents of some of our best actors, is fantastic.

"We already produce world-class TV and film here in Wales and I'm really looking forward to seeing Star Wars in Welsh."

And yes, there is a very nice translation for "May the force be with you" - "A boed i'r Grym fod gyda chi".

As for the beloved opening line: "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ...": "Amser maith yn ôl, mewn galaeth bell i ffwrdd ..."

The producer, Michael Kohn, who is director of distribution operations at Lucasfilm, said the company was excited about the project, which coincides with the movie's 50th anniversary next year.

He said: "I've been involved in a few Indigenous dubs of Star Wars over the years that aim to preserve and revitalise interest in learning the language. They have been tremendously successful not only in their communities but internationally as well. The chance to celebrate the Welsh language through Star Wars is one we couldn't pass up."

The country's links to the franchise date from 1979, when a version of the Millennium Falcon was created at a hangar at Pembroke Dock, not far from the current Eisteddfod site.

Built out of wood and steel for The Empire Strikes Back, it was constructed under the codename "Magic Roundabout", though all local people knew what was going on.

Scenes for the 2024 television series Star Wars: The Acolyte, were also shot in Wales.

Another Welsh connection is the Lucasfilm co-president Lynwen Brennan, who was born in Pembrokeshire.

She said: "Wales has such a rich history of storytelling and a beautiful lyrical language. We have never before had a translation of Star Wars into Welsh and I am so thankful, that in celebration of our 50th anniversary, we have been able to work with some incredible Welsh talent to make that a reality. Welsh speakers will finally be able to enjoy the film in our native language and my hope is that it will have the same emotional impact as if you were watching the film again for the first time."

S4C's chief executive, Geraint Evans, said: "It's such an iconic film to so many generations of fans across the world. It's a fantastic opportunity to promote the Welsh language."

these wonderful artists with me on stage at my favourite venue. Bringing this music together for Stand By Me is the realisation of a dream."

The event will also feature broadcasting and music figures on stage to present the show and share their memories of Harris. Tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am.

Harris presented the BBC Two music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test from 1972 to 1979. He presented his country show on Thursday nights from 1999 to 2026 and Sounds of the 70s from 2024 to March 2026, after the death of its former presenter Johnnie Walker.

Harris said Radio 2 had been "supportive beyond words" while he received treatment.

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4

News

People wait for Red Cross food in Ceuta on Monday. Above, commissioner Magnus Brunner PHOTOGRAPH: VIOLETA SANTOS MOURA/REUTERS

Migration chief criticises regularisation policy in Spain as EU reviews Ceuta crisis

Jennifer Rankin

Brussels

The EU's top migration official has criticised Spain's plan to regularise undocumented migrants as "not a good signal" for Europe, after an emergency meeting yesterday intended to draw a line under divisions on the Ceuta crisis.

Magnus Brunner, the European commissioner for migration, said "we can't see a direct link at the moment between the regularisation and the incidents in Ceuta" but said the policy was "definitely not a good signal for the rest of Europe".

It was a rare note of discord as the EU sought to move on from an acrimonious row, triggered when tens of thousands of migrants arrived in

the tiny Spanish territory of Ceuta in north Africa last week. Most have since left.

EU interior ministers held a hastily-arranged video conference yesterday intended to learn lessons from the politically divisive Ceuta crisis and to chart next steps.

Spain's government said at least 75 people had died trying to reach the territory last week, although Ceuta authorities on Monday put the death toll at 88, with at least 11 more on the Moroccan side of the border.

About 70,000 of the 72,000 people who entered Ceuta had left, Spain's interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, told reporters yesterday. He described the EU meeting as constructive, saying member states recognised Madrid's "immediate and efficient" response.

Brunner said the previous few days had been "a test of our resilience" and of the EU's external border. The situation, he said, was under control, no one had moved to mainland Spain and the EU's border-free Schengen zone had not been affected.

The message of unity came after Spain faced heavy criticism from several EU member states. A total of 22 EU member states signed a letter, organised by Italy and Denmark, that implicitly criticised Spain's plan to regularise 500,000 undocumented migrants and asylum seekers as a "pull factor" for "illegal migration". Nearly 1.2m people have applied for the scheme.

Asked about Spain's regularisation policy, Brunner said it had not been discussed, but added: "I always say to this regularisation discussion ...

it's not a good signal, definitely not a good signal for the rest of Europe."

He went on: "I do understand that it is a member state's competence. And I do understand that Spain did it because it's mainly about Latin Americans speaking the same language, having the same culture, but the signal for the rest of Europe is not a good one, definitely not."

Brunner also declined to criticise Italy's decision to reintroduce air and sea border checks with Spain for one month, after criticism by the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, that such moves were informed by "prejudice, fake news, ignorance and political interest".

Brunner said any suspension of Schengen rules had to be proportionate and temporary, adding: "I have some understanding of this reaction

of the Italians, because the citizens are concerned."

France's interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said EU ministers had agreed the Schengen zone was "not the problem". France was one of the few member states that did not sign the letter of 22 EU leaders signalling readiness to reintroduce border checks, although it did step up its own controls.

Ministers broadly endorsed a five-point plan set out by the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who proposed further action to strengthen Europe's external borders including an early-warning system and better cooperation with non-EU countries on migration.

"There was a common understanding of the need to continue relentlessly fighting migrant smuggling networks, to reinforce returns, to strengthen EU borders, to build deep partnerships with third countries, and to improve foresight," read a statement from the EU council after the meeting.

Ministers stressed the need to improve "situational awareness, which could be achieved by further developing early-warning systems such as pre-frontier intelligence and social media monitoring ... and efforts to "counter malicious external actors engaged in foreign information manipulation and interference".

The EU's foreign policy service was carrying out an investigation of the possible role played by Russian disinformation, but it was too early to reach conclusions, Brunner said.

Migration has been a deeply divisive issue for the EU since the 2015-16 crisis when more than 1 million people sought asylum in the union. As far-right and nationalist parties seek to outflank mainstream rivals on the issue, tensions remain high, despite fewer people making irregular crossings.

The EU's border agency, Frontex, reported 178,000 irregular border crossings in 2025, down 26% on the previous year and the lowest level since 2021, when much of Europe was in Covid lockdowns.

Irregular arrivals in Spain (36,683) were significantly lower than in Italy (66,328) and Greece (51,399), as well as attempted and successful crossings to the UK (65,891), according to Frontex.

The 2015-16 crisis paved the way for a sweeping overhaul of the EU's asylum and migration rules, which came into force in June.

Dinghy with 173 people capsizes in the Channel after engine fire

Diane Taylor

A dinghy carrying 173 people has capsized after its engine caught fire while crossing the Channel from France.

The people onboard were rescued from the water after a major air and sea operation was launched using UK border security and French vessels, along with an RNLI boat yesterday.

French authorities said there were initially 173 people onboard, but five

were rescued overnight in an earlier incident and taken back to Boulogne. The rest of the passengers said they wanted to continue their journey.

The dinghy was carrying the highest number of people so far this year. A boat that arrived on 23 July was carrying 165 passengers.

An RNLI spokesperson said Eastbourne's all-weather lifeboat launched at 6am yesterday.

The Calais Prefet said that 40 firefighters and a specialised medical team were involved in the incident.

Eleven people sustained minor injuries and three were transferred to hospital in Boulogne.

On Monday, Reform UK proposed using the Royal Navy to return people to France or Belgium under a plan it called "Operation Fortress". The party has described the scheme as a humanitarian response.

Last week, four people died on overcrowded boats trying to cross the Channel.

Smugglers are using increasingly dangerous techniques in response to successive UK government clampdowns to stop crossings.

They are also launching boats from parts of the French coast that are farther away from the UK, in the hope of evading French police

interceptions. The boat yesterday reportedly left from Dieppe, about 70 miles (112km) from the UK, compared with the Calais to Dover route of 27 miles.

The new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has promised to continue

▲ All 173 people onboard the dinghy have now been returned to Boulogne

working to stop the crossings, although more than 2,000 people have crossed the Channel since he became prime minister. The government has put a number of deterrents in place to stop crossings, but desperate people continue to get into increasingly dangerous dinghies.

According to a statement issued by French authorities on Tuesday, the people in the boat initially refused an offer of assistance.

"Given the structural fragility of the overcrowded boats, the decision was made not to force the migrants to board state rescue vessels, to avoid endangering their lives in the event of a shipwreck," the statement read.

All 173 people have now been returned to Boulogne.

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Water peril for dogs Safety campaign as incidents increase

Page 9

Saggy, costly old cat Bagpuss creator's art sells for £400,000

Page 18

National

Ex-MP urges Tories to drop

former neo-Nazi candidate

Ben Quinn

Political correspondent

A former MP yesterday urged Kemi Badenoch to drop a local election candidate who had been jailed for a campaign of antisemitic abuse against her.

The Conservative leader defended the selection of Joshua Bonehill- Paine, a former neo-Nazi, insisting she believes in "second chances".

Writing on social media, Luciana Berger, now a Labour peer, said: "For the avoidance of doubt, I don't believe this man should have any role in public life - because of both his rac- ism and his view of women."

Directly addressing Badenoch in comments online, Berger, who is Jewish, said she had "got this very, very wrong". She added: "He was convicted for racial harassment for five specific blogs. But that wasn't all.

◀ Joshua Bonehill-Paine is due to stand as a Conservative candidate for Somerset council next year

He'd published reams of deeply rac- ist, misogynistic and pornographic material about me."

She recalled being six months' pregnant when she had to give evi- dence at the Old Bailey in what she described as "two days of hell".

Bonehill-Paine, the creator of the viral Crewkerne Gazette series of AI clips, is due to stand for election to Somerset council next year.

He told the Guardian on Monday he was an executive member of the Tories' Yeovil branch and had carried out counter-extremism work after being released from prison.

Badenoch said Bonehill-Paine was

certified by the Home Office to train police on antisemitism and coun- tering extremism. "He is someone who has shown contrition for his crimes, has been rehabilitated and is spending every day working to solve the very problem which he knew he had caused previously," she said. "The Conservative party believes in second chances."

But there was criticism from those who contrasted Badenoch's support for Bonehill-Paine with the freezing out of centrist Tories. The former minister Gavin Barwell last month lost the whip after warnings from Badenoch that supporters of policies such as net zero targets were no longer welcome in the party.

Karen Newman, the vice-pres- ident of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told HuffPost that Bonehill-Paine's selection "beggars belief". She said: "We have con- tacted the Conservative party to set

out our concerns and call on them to rescind his selection and review their vetting processes."

Bonehill-Paine was convicted in 2014 of malicious communications over an anti-Islam hoax that led to death threats against the owners of a pub in Leicester. In 2015, he was jailed for more than three years after post- ing antisemitic material online ahead of a planned neo-Nazi rally. In 2016, he was found guilty of the racially aggravated harassment of Berger.

The abuse directed at her was cited by the Jewish Labour Movement, which described Bonehill-Paine's selection as "appalling".

Bonehill-Paine, meanwhile, hit back at Reform UK after its leader, Nigel Farage, joined in the criticism of Badenoch, sharing evidence in which he was told he had passed vetting checks to be a Reform party candidate and asking if he would like to meet to discuss standing for the party.

A Reform UK spokesperson said: "There's a reason why Mr Bonehill- Paine wasn't selected as a Reform UK candidate. Meanwhile, while Kemi Badenoch claims to have a new gen- eration of Tory candidates and says she supports the fight against anti- semitism, she is selecting a convicted antisemitic to stand for the Conserva- tives. The hypocrisy is breathtaking."

Anger as

disgraced Edwards enters poetry competition

Ella Creamer

The disgraced former BBC presenter Huw Edwards has been criticised after entering a Welsh poetry com- petition under a pseudonym.

Sera Cracroft, an actor best known for her role in the BBC Welsh lan- guage soap opera Pobol y Cwm, told the broadcaster it would have been "catastrophic" if Edwards had won the prize, and the "image of him being crowned in front of the nation" would be "hurtful to survivors".

Edwards was given a six-month suspended sentence in September 2024 for accessing indecent images of children as young as seven.

In a Substack post on Sunday, he wrote that he had entered the poem to a competition run by the National Eisteddfod of Wales on the theme of adnabed, meaning "knowing". He describes the poem as a tribute to his late father.

PHOTOGRAPH: ANDREW MATTHEWS/PA

Winging it Betty Bromage stands firm atop an Aero-Super-Batics biplane as it flies upside down over Gloucestershire yesterday. The stroke survivor, 97, broke her own Guinness world record for the oldest female wing-walker with her sixth wing walk at RFC Rendcomb Airfield while fundraising for her local stroke unit. Bromage said: "I can't drive, I can't see very well and I get a bit frustrated. So, I want to do the things I can do."

Entrants to the Eisteddfod poetry competition are required to sub- mit work under a pseudonym, with the winners' identities revealed only when they are announced. Edwards entered the poem under the pseudonym "Y Gelyn", meaning "The Enemy". Martin Huws, a for- mer BBC journalist, won this year's competition, receiving £750, for a poem about abuse.

Cracroft, who has spoken pub- licly about being sexually assaulted as a child, called on the competition's organisers to review rules regarding entrants using a pen name.

The National Eisteddfod said in a statement: "We have a process in place which ensures nobody, includ- ing the judges, knows beforehand who has competed.

After each eisteddfod, we have a period of appraisal to ensure our processes are appropriate - this year will be no exception."

Cracroft said it was "far too soon for him [Edwards] to try and redeem himself".

Edwards said: "This wasn't a poem for the sickeningly self-righteous Welsh speakers - [Cracroft] amongst them - who take advantage of every opportunity to speak unthinkingly on every subject under the sun. She and her type are far too willing to ignore the damaging effects of mental ill health. In that, they are loyal to the heritage of London's tabloid papers."

The National Eisteddfod of Wales did not respond to a request for com- ment from the Guardian.

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News Environment

Firefighters prepare to battle wildfires next to a highway in Agia Paraskevi, West Attica, Greece

PHOTOGRAPH: ARIS OBIONOMOU/ ANADOLU/GETTY IMAGES

Players take part in football practice on a parched Clapham Common in south-west London

PHOTOGRAPH: HALA SHELIKOWSKA/ TA WIRE

Profits of war: $90bn windfall for oil giants triggers claim of 'cashing in on human misery'

Continued from page 1

June - the first full financial quarter after the US-Israeli war on Iran triggered a surge in global oil prices to highs of over $126 a barrel.

The companies have used the biggest disruption of fossil fuel supplies in the market's history to almost double their combined profits from just under $50bn in the same period last year, with campaigners warning that millions of households are left "paying the price" in higher bills and climate chaos.

The data suggests the eight oil companies - Aramco, BP, Shell, Equinor, Totalenergies, Eni, Chevron and ExxonMobil - made more than $700,000 of profit every minute over the spring quarter.

While their market valuations were swelling by about $600bn to above $3tn, temperatures built towards a run of deadly heatwaves, all made more likely and more severe by burning fossil fuels.

Carbon emissions from the world's biggest fossil fuel firms were directly linked to fatal spells of hot weather for the first time by scientific analysis published last September. It found the emissions from any one of the 14 biggest companies were each enough to cause more than 50 heatwaves that would otherwise have been virtually impossible.

The biggest oil profits in the spring quarter were raked in by Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company Aramco, which reported a 34% increase in quarterly net income to more than $33bn, even as its infrastructure was damaged by drone

Quarterly profits for the big eight oil companies

Source: S&P Capital IQ platform

and missile strikes from Iranian and Houthi forces.

Saudi Aramco's fossil fuel production has made it responsible for more carbon emissions than any company in history, according to the database Carbon Majors, followed by Chevron and ExxonMobil, with Shell and BP in the top 10. Saudi Arabia has for decades led successful efforts to block international climate action.

BP yesterday became one of the last big oil companies to publish its results for the April to June period, reporting quarterly profits of $5.73bn - the highest since the first year of Russia's war on Ukraine and more than double the $2.5bn of the previous three months.

"BP's sky-high profits are a scandalous reminder of who's been cashing in on human misery this

Price of oil

Brent crude, $ a barrel

Source: Refinitiv

year," said Patrick Galey, the lead on fossil fuels at Global Witness. "While wildfires threaten communities across the world, drought bites and energy costs spiral, ordinary families are paying the price for big oil's prioritisation of shareholder wealth over a livable planet."

Rosie Downes, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth, said: "While BP banks another round of enormous profits, millions of households are paying the price through sky-high energy bills and a climate crisis accelerating rapidly out of control."

BP's new chief executive, Meg O'Neill, defended the company's profits by saying it was "focused on the things we can do to try to help address the situation", such as reliably producing more of the oil products that are in short supply.

The company has also been slashing the amount it spends on green energy since it dropped its environmental ambitions in a "fundamental reset" early last year, cutting its annual energy transition budget from $5bn to $1.5bn-$2bn.

In recent years BP has spun off its UK offshore windfarms into a joint venture, sold its US onshore wind business and yesterday announced it would sell its $4bn US biogas business, which captures methane from landfill sites and is the largest renewable gas producer in the US.

It is also reportedly in advanced talks to sell its solar power business Lightsource to a consortium backed by Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund, according to the Financial Times.

On Friday BP put its North Sea oil and gas business up for sale after more than 60 years operating it, reigniting calls for the UK government to rule out the development of two North Sea fields in the ageing basin.

Shell last week reported its second highest quarterly profits ever as its net income jumped to $9.84bn despite producing less gas from its Qatar gas plant due to billions of dollars worth of damage caused by the war. Equinor's profits climbed to $3.2bn in the same period, up from $1.8bn in the spring quarter last year.

In the US, the profits reported by Chevron and ExxonMobil provoked criticism from Donald Trump. The US president accused the pair of "making too much money" from his war on Iran and warned that they would be made to return profits to the public as he nears the November midterm elections with flagging approval ratings.

Chevron reported net income of $12.2bn for the second quarter, a more than fivefold increase on the same period last year. ExxonMobil reported a profit of $14.5bn, double what it made a year ago and its highest quarterly profit since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The impacts this summer include Europe's worst ever heatwave, another categorised by scientists as "impossible" without human-caused global heating. About 20,000 people are estimated to have died due to the extreme temperatures, including close to 3,000 in the UK in May and June.

"Around the world, climate-driven disasters are reaching nightmare proportions," said the UN climate chief Simon Stiell, adding: "What needs to be done is clear: leave coal, oil and gas behind faster, scale up renewables, and protect people where the impacts are already hitting hardest."

Europe's heatwaves have "sucked soils dry" and led to extreme drought, damaging food supplies from maize to sunflowers to salad. At least 9m tonnes of grain are expected to be lost with, for example, the UK facing its worst harvest on record.

The arid conditions have also enabled huge wildfires in France, Spain, Portugal and Greece, causing billions of euros of damage. "It's time to make oil giants pay up to repair the climate breakdown they're driving," said Galey. "Think how many fire and flood defences we could build, or how many solar panels we could install if Big Oil paid their fair share in taxes."

The eight oil companies were contacted for comment.

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8

Government contracts

Firms no longer need to show environmental value

Alexandra Topping

Political correspondent

Ministers will scrap the requirement for companies to prove their green and progressive values before they are awarded government contracts, and instead ask bidding businesses to prove that they will help young people back into work.

As part of a government drive to

reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neets) and boost regional growth, public sector buyers will double the consideration they give to whether companies will get more people into jobs, rather than if they can show they are improving social and environmental wellbeing.

Government procurement contracts account for about £90bn of taxpayers' money spent each year.

▲ Changes to procurement rules mean providing jobs to young people will be considered rather than green or social value indicators PHOTOGRAPH: PA

Louise Haigh, first secretary of state, said it would help small businesses who often find themselves locked out of contracts because of the current requirements, which big businesses know how to get round.

Haigh said: "Every pound of taxpayer money should be spent in a way that benefits local communities - creating good jobs and giving young people the skills they need for the future.

"For too long, securing government contracts has been a tick-box exercise that fails to deliver the positive change that people feel in their pocket and see in the places they live.

"We are doing things differently. These new rules will ensure the £90bn that is spent each year through government contracts supports British jobs, skills and people in every postcode."

Central government departments are required to weigh up the social value of government contracts, which counts for 10% of the decision. Under new measures this will be increased to 20%, but instead of considering social good, buyers will be pushed to secure contracts with companies creating local jobs that pay above the minimum wage, offer training, work experience or plug local skills gaps.

Contracts worth less than £1m will be exempt from the requirement, which ministers hope will make it easier for smaller companies to compete for opportunities.

The plans were criticised by environmental and green campaign groups, who said that job creation should not be a trade-off with protecting the environment.

Greenpeace UK's head of politics, Ami McCarthy, said: "Protecting the environment and helping young people into good work are mutually beneficial and one shouldn't come at a cost to the other. Companies should be held to account with environmental targets to help achieve a better future without leaving young workers behind."

Friends of the Earth's head of campaigns, Rosie Downes, said: "Encouraging companies to create good local jobs is crucial, but it shouldn't be an either/or with efforts to safeguard our environment.

"Communities are already paying the price of environmental inaction, with the UK on course for record levels of heat-related deaths this summer and our natural world in sharp decline."

The move is also likely to spark concern among anti-trafficking and equality campaigners. A Labour source said the government knew it would face criticism for scrapping some of the social value indicators.

"What companies have to do at the moment feels too much like a box-ticking exercise and it's just red tape instead of being useful," they said. "We are trying to make sure that the government pound is being used to invest in companies that want to invest directly in young people in their areas, and it brings real results and doesn't just look good on paper."

Suppliers will be assessed on their commitment to backing British jobs and developing skills, and specifically targeting support for young people not in education, employment or training, care leavers, and people with long-term health conditions.

Analysis

Has the

Telegraph

decided to go green?

Michael Savage

Media editor

Nobody can deny that the UK is getting warmer and high temperatures are becoming a clear

threat to homes, nature and food security," read the news report, which explored the devastating effect on families from British wildfires in recent years.

The article's conclusions, written after the wildfires in Suffolk last week, were no surprise. However, the fact that the piece appeared in the Telegraph, the rightwing title that has been a leading critic of green policies, did raise eyebrows among some readers.

Praising the analysis, the independent MP Rosie Duffield noted it was from an outlet "hardly known for their raging lefty/net zero/climate change agenda".

Even more intriguing was the fact that the essay came after two other notable Telegraph climate pieces. The first was by columnist Tim Stanley, who set off a debate on the right with a column headlined: "Climate change is real - and the right needs to get serious about it."

Then came a piece by the paper's world economy editor, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, who has long argued that the costs of climate change could not be ignored. He accused Kemi Badenoch of choosing "an abominable political moment to flirt with climate nihilism", citing her opposition to net zero targets and purge of candidates who back them. "There comes a point when you have to conclude that the Tories have gone Trumpian on the existential issue of our time," he wrote.

Such is the Telegraph's reputation as the Conservative party's bible that Badenoch felt it necessary to respond, insisting she was opposed to the "political programme" of achieving net zero by 2050, rather than denying the climate crisis altogether.

Even Allister Heath, the Sunday Telegraph editor known for his opposition to green policies, wrote a piece concluding that "the war against global warming has been lost" - though he concluded Britain must simply adapt.

The pieces have caused some climate change experts to wonder whether the Telegraph's view - and the wider debate on the right - may be shifting. It comes with the newspaper under new ownership, having been bought by the German

media powerhouse Axel Springer. The owner of Politico and Die Welt has plans to make the Telegraph a global player on the centre right.

"The Telegraph has got itself into a really awkward spot, especially with its new owner no doubt looking on closely," said Leo Hickman, the editor of climate change publication Carbon Brief.

"With large parts of Europe suffering an extreme summer of drought, wildfires and heat-related excess deaths, the Telegraph's long-running history of platforming climate-sceptic commentary now looks even more badly misjudged and discordant."

In fact, Axel Springer's approach to the issue is not unified - and its all powerful chief executive, Mathias Döpfner, has said he was "all for climate change" because of the innovation it could bring.

According to Telegraph insiders, the pieces did not come from an internal order. One said its editor, Chris Evans, was simply "an old school Fleet Street editor - he likes whatever is causing noise".

Most believe the pieces effectively marked a Conservative party schism spilling out on to the pages of its favourite outlet, with centre-right voices speaking up after Badenoch's decision to ban candidates who did not follow the party line on net zero.

"We're seeing a little bit of what has happened in the United States, where a noisy and very vocal group on the right of the right wing have been dominating the discussion about climate," said Bob Ward, the policy and communications director at the LSE's Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

"The centre right has largely disappeared from view ... It is a brave piece [from Stanley], but all he's doing is looking out the window. Actually, there are a large number of Conservative supporters who feel similar to him."

Another source said the Telegraph's own internal reader research showed many wanted action on climate change.

The pieces have been welcomed by pro-green Tories. "It has been great to see such an active debate on the right about the best approach," said Sam Hall, the director of Conservative Environment Network.

However, others who monitor climate coverage conclude that as a whole, there has been no real shift in the Telegraph's approach.

"We've seen cases before where a paper has sought to reposition itself as becoming more grounded in scientific reality around climate change - such as the Daily Express's 'green crusade'," said Richard Wilson, the director of the Reliable Media campaign group. "Sadly that change was not sustained."

Hickman said: "The week ended with editors giving the final word to Kemi Badenoch who used it to simply double down on her own net zero scepticism. What on earth must the Telegraph's readers - and new owner - make of this vertiginous rollercoaster of denial?"

The Telegraph was approached for comment.

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News

Wingtip from ace pilot's lost plane sent to US after jungle recovery

Ramon Antonio Vargas

A wingtip of a downed fighter flown by a US military ace in the second world war has been taken to his home state of Wisconsin from Papua New Guinea, where it crashed more than 80 years ago.

The relic had a remarkable journey by air, land and sea to reach its new home at a museum named in honour of the pilot, Richard Bong.

Bong is credited with shooting down 40 Japanese aircraft, more than any other US pilot. He accounted for three of the enemy planes while in a Lockheed P-38 Lightning that he named Marge after his girlfriend, Marge Vattendahl. Her portrait was painted on the plane's nose.

The P-38 was being flown by a fellow US military pilot, Thomas

► Richard Bong and the Lockheed P-38 Lightning adorned with an image of his girlfriend, Marge Vattendahl PHOTOGRAPH: STEAP

Malone, in March 1944 over what is now Papua New Guinea when an engine failure forced him to bale out. The wreckage was lost for decades.

Bong won the Medal of Honor, the highest American military award, in 1944. In February 1945, he married Vattendahl, who became a fashion model and magazine publisher.

But on 6 August 1945, the day the US dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, Bong was killed on a test flight. The war ended nine days later.

The Richard I Bong Veterans Historical Center announced in March 2024 it was collaborating with the historical preservation group Pacific Wrecks on a search for Marge. Two months later, explorers in the jungles of Papua New Guinea's Madang province found what remained of the plane, its wingtips still bearing the paint Bong had applied.

Wisconsin's national guard said a team went to the site to collect a section of the plane and brought it back on a military refuelling aircraft.

Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) said officials from the museum and relatives of Bong also went to the crash site. It said Pacific Wrecks had spent two years negotiating with Madang's government, landowners and Papua New Guinea's national museum - which owns Marge's wreckage - to secure a piece of the P-38.

Papua New Guinea's military flew the 1.82 metre (6ft) aluminium wingtip to the capital, Port Moresby, where it was handed to the national guard team, which has a partnership with

the country for disaster response and medical readiness. They flew the wingtip back to the US.

The wingtip was put on display at an airshow and brought to Poplar, Bong's birthplace, before being moved 20 miles to the museum in the city of Superior on Sunday.

Justin Taylan, the founder of Pacific Wrecks, told WPR the government of Papua New Guinea needed to issue an export permit for the wingtip because the US had relinquished ownership of second world war relics.

The wingtip was in effect a permanent loan and in return, the recovery mission had secured another section of the plane for Papua New Guinea's national museum.

Brig Gen Adria Zuccaro of Wisconsin's national guard told WPR that her troops had been "honoured to bring a piece of Richard Bong's legacy home".

Bong's nephew, Jim, said it was priceless for museum visitors to be able "to actually have something tangible right in front of you that is a part of what he flew in combat".

The museum's director of collections and exhibits, Briana Fiandt, told the Wisconsin news channel WDIO that she hoped the wingtip would "help inspire future generations to be interested in history".

Additional reporting Associated Press

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National

If in doubt, keep your dog out

Water safety drive launched as incidents hit five-year high

Nicola Davis

Science correspondent

W

ith its gentle ripping water, tall purple flowers and rustling trees, Earlswood

Lakes, near Solihull in the West Midlands, seems the perfect spot for dogs to paddle. But their owners have been warned that the otherwise idyllic open water could prove perilous to pets.

Emma-Jane Thomas, rehoming manager at Dogs Trust Kenilworth, said: "We've had all this hot weather and millions of families are now spending time around open bodies of water, and it's easy to not realise the dangers.

"Dogs love water and it's great exercise and enrichment for them. However, not all dogs are natural swimmers," she added, during a walk around Earlswood on Monday. "Even strong swimmers can get into difficulties in the water."

Accompanying Thomas was Bruno the dalmatian, who was clearly eager to go for a dip. But he was kept on a short lead – with good reason. Dogs Trust has launched a campaign with the catchline "If in doubt, keep your dog out", in an attempt to reduce the injuries and fatalities that can occur among dogs and their owners around lakes, canals, rivers and the sea.

Data obtained by Dogs Trust from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution shows that 308 dog-related incidents were recorded in open water in the UK between 2021 and 2025. About a third occurred between June and September.

There were 10 accidental deaths due to drowning linked to animal

▲ Emma-Jane Thomas with Bruno the dalmatian at Earlswood Lakes; left, a border collie enjoys a dip

rescue in England between 2019 and 2025, and 12 linked to dog walking, according to separate National Water Safety Forum data.

Dog-related incidents in the UK reached a five-year high in 2025, increasing by 39% compared with the previous year, according to the Canal & River Trust.

Dogs Trust notes strong currents and fatigue also pose a risk. "When you're thinking about open bodies of water, it's always: stop, check and think about what could be the dangers," said Thomas, noting

many are not visible on first sight. "Steep banks could be an issue if a dog gets in, then swims around and can't find a way out again," she said. "Hidden debris under the water - trolleys, broken glass, lots of weeds or branches."

Thomas also cautioned against attempting a rescue. "If your dog's in difficulty, it could then be two emergencies, not just one," she said. "If you can see a safe place where your dog can exit the water, call your dog there. If you can't do that, call emergency services and they will come and assist."

Even on a picturesque summer's day, Earlswood is far from hazard-free: a small yellow sign warns of blue-green algae. Such cyanobacteria thrive in warmer weather, forming blooms and scums – and some release toxins.

"Not all blue-green algae blooms and scums are toxic, but you can't tell just by looking at them, so it's best to assume they are," the Environment Agency notes.

Emily Mills, veterinary projects manager at Dogs Trust, said: "Dogs can become unwell from drinking contaminated water or simply cleaning it from their fur after swimming. Symptoms can be seen as little as 15 minutes after exposure and may progress rapidly to become fatal."

Local owner Sally said the blue-green algae was a concern, adding that her border collie, Billy, was always kept on a lead.

"But there's more dogs off the lead than on when you walk around here. And it is a worry that there isn't enough signage," she said.

Many owners may be unaware of such risks, with 33% reporting they did not believe blue-green algae posed a serious risk to dogs, according to a Dogs Trust survey of 2,000 owners conducted in June.

The survey also found 19% of dog owners were unaware calm-looking water could still pose serious risks, and 80% said they would enter water to rescue their dog, despite the risk to themselves.

"Dogs love the water, we know that, and we absolutely don't want to stop that," said Thomas. "The reason we've put the campaign out is so that owners and dogs can continue to enjoy these types of areas safely, so when they do come here, they are aware of the risks."

Toxic pet flea treatments should be prescription only, say peers

Pippa Neill

Environment reporter

Over-the-counter flea treatment for cats and dogs should be banned as millions of hazardous chemicals are unnecessarily applied to UK pets each year, a report has concluded.

Cats and dogs are widely treated with topical, or "spot on", treatments that include insecticides, and vets often recommend regular usage as a preventive measure.

Two of the most frequently used chemicals in pet flea and tick treatments - imidacloprid and fipronil

• are banned for use in pesticides in the EU and UK due to their toxicity to fish, invertebrates and pollinators.

It was assumed there was a low risk of these chemicals entering the environment from pet treatments, but recent research has suggested otherwise. A report published today by the House of Lords environment and climate change committee found these chemicals were being transferred to the natural environment, potentially causing damage to ecosystems.

Researchers at Cardiff University found imidacloprid and fipronil in almost half of all samples across nine Welsh rivers. The Environment

Agency said in its written evidence to the committee that even very small amounts of these two chemicals could cause environmental harm.

Guy Woodward, a professor of ecology at Imperial College London, told the committee that two sugar cubes of imidacloprid would be enough to exceed the predicted no-effect concentration in about 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The committee also found there was "worryingly insufficient evidence" to assess whether these chemicals were harmful to humans. Studies have found that imidacloprid and fipronil can affect foetal development and cause thyroid disruption.

Researchers at Imperial said the breakdown products could be "an entire order of magnitude more toxic" than the chemicals themselves. The Wildlife Trusts said some

of these chemicals break down to the most toxic Pfas, forever chemicals.

The committee is calling on the government to reduce the routine use of these chemicals and ensure advice to pet owners takes into account the lifestyle, location and risk factors of the animal and those they live with.

The committee recommended a ban on sales of the topical treatments in pet shops or online. Pet owners would still be able to get preventive treatment prescribed by a vet.

The committee also raised concerns that the pet pharmaceuticals industry was "very involved" in establishing the regulatory processes for controlling these medicines.

A spokesperson for the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, the independent regulator, said it recognised pet treatments were entering watercourses, which was why it had been involved in consulting on the issue.

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesperson said: "While these treatments play a vital role in pet health against fleas and ticks, it is right that we assess the availability of these treatments to ensure correct usage by owners."

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National

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The Odyssey gives poetry sales an epic boost as genre rides high on social media

Emma Loffhagen

Poetry sales are on course to reach a record high this year, buoyed by the success of Christopher Nolan's film adaptation of The Odyssey.

Poetry sales surpassed £8m in the first 30 weeks of 2026, an increase of 13.3% on the same period last year, according to UK data from market researchers NielsenIQ.

The annual total is in line to exceed £15m for the first time since accurate records began and could reach £17m if the momentum continues.

The Odyssey has accounted for a significant share of this year's growth after Nolan's film - starring Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway - brought Homer's 2,700-year-old epic to a new audience. UK print sales of the poem increased by 1,400% in the four weeks to 25 July compared with the same period in 2025.

Editions of The Odyssey and Homer's other epic, The Iliad, have generated £980,000 in poetry sales so far this year - or £1.20 of every £10 spent on poetry books in Britain.

Nolan's adaptation stormed the global box office, taking £198m on its opening weekend last month.

Homer could now challenge the record for the highest annual UK sales by a poet, which is held by Rupi Kaur, a Canadian Instagram sensation whose books, such as 2015's Milk and Honey, generated £1.2m in 2017.

'Instapoets have repositioned the poetry sector into a lifestyle genre'

Philip Stone NielsenIQ

The Nolan effect is also being felt in the US. Print sales across all editions of The Odyssey are up 76% so far this year, according to Circana BookScan figures.

The poetry boom extends well beyond ancient epics. Even when sales of The Odyssey and The Iliad are taken out of this year's and last year's figures, the category is up 7.2% and remains on course for its best year, beating the three years from 2023 to 2025, its most lucrative on record.

Much of this has been driven by more commercial, social media-friendly poets. Donna Ashworth remains Britain's bestselling living poet of the decade, with her 2025 collection, To the Women, selling almost 34,000 copies this year - though some traditionalists have questioned whether the Scottish writer's aphoristic work is poetry or self-help.

Philip Stone of NielsenIQ said: "The poetry sector was already enjoying an upward trajectory before Chris Nolan tackled The Odyssey, helped in recent years by the popularity of Instapoets [poets on Instagram], including Rupi Kaur, repositioning the poetry sector from a more academic category into a lifestyle, gift and self-development genre."

The year's breakout poetry best-seller comes from Lucas Jones, a London-based actor and poet. His debut collection, I Still Believe in Miracles, is 2026's bestselling poetry title by value, generating £400,000, according to the Bookseller.

Emily Wilson's acclaimed 2017 translation has been the main beneficiary of the Odyssey phenomenon. The classicist made headlines last week when she criticised Nolan's film, saying "it has nothing convincing to say" and that it "lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth".

In a scathing article for the London Review of Books, she wrote: "Nolan's Odyssey lacks many of the elements

34,000

Copies sold this year of a collection by Donna Ashworth, Britain's bestselling living poet of the decade

▲ The Odyssey - Nolan's version and left, Emily Wilson's; far left, Donna Ashworth PHOTOGRAPH: MELINDA SUE GORDON/UNIVERSAL PICTURES

that make the poem great ... The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible ... I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script."

Audiobook versions of The Odyssey have also benefited: Stephen Fry's reading is in Spotify's UK audiobook top 10, while Ian McKellen's narration has appeared in the US chart.

Farmers seek ban on disposable barbecues to cut risk of wildfires

Fiona Harvey Environment editor

Farmers and landowners are calling for a temporary ban on throwaway barbecues in England and Wales because of the risk of wildfires.

The call, also made by firefighters and backed by the Liberal Democrats and many Labour MPs, comes as much of England faces more heat.

Paul Tompkins, the deputy president of the National Farmers' Union,

said: "A stray match or single spark, and months of hard work can be wiped out in just minutes; crops destroyed and harvests ruined, vital machinery and infrastructure damaged and livestock put at serious risk.

"Beyond the immediate losses, there could be long-term consequences for soil health, grassland productivity and the confidence of farm businesses already facing significant pressures."

He called for retailers to remove disposable barbecues from sale and

for local authorities to issue public space protection orders prohibiting the lighting of barbecues, campfires and camping stoves.

Farmers are counting the cost of lost or poor harvests driven by record heatwaves supercharged by the climate crisis over the past three months and the worst drought in many areas since 1976.

The MP for High Peak in Derbyshire, Jon Pearce, has written to retailers asking them to stop selling disposable barbecues.

Most major supermarkets have already halted sales of throwaway models but they are still available in smaller shops, from some hardware and DIY stores and online. Wildfires have affected every region of the UK

this year, with more than 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) estimated to have burned.

There have been fires in the Rhondda valley in Wales this week and the Cairngorms in Scotland last week. A blaze in Suffolk came within a few miles of the Sizewell B nuclear plant, and the Mourne mountains in Northern Ireland have been affected.

The Country Land and Business Association, which represents rural landowners, also called for a ban on disposable barbecues and for the lifting of a ban on controlled burning.

Gavin Lane, the president of the CLA, said: "Controlled burning is one of several proven ways to reduce the danger. Done properly, it clears the vegetation that feeds a wildfire."

Tributes paid to woman whose body was found in a suitcase

PA Media

Elisabeth-Jane Ross, the Scottish woman whose body was found in a suitcase in Greece, has been remembered for her "unstoppable passion" for helping those less fortunate.

Pastors and the congregation at Destiny church in Edinburgh paid tribute to the 38-year-old, also known as Lisa, who worshipped there.

Her body was discovered inside a suitcase by a homeless man in a derelict building in the Kypseli area of Athens on 18 July.

A man widely reported to be Sharif Ahmadzai, 26, a boxer who left Afghanistan after being orphaned as a teenager, has been arrested in connection with her death. He is due to appear in court today.

Andrew and Sue Owen, the parish's senior pastors, said: "Lisa will always be remembered for her unstoppable passion to help those who were less fortunate than herself. This passion and deep sense of calling sometimes took her to challenging places.

"Lisa was determined not to leave this world the same way she found it."

They said their thoughts and prayers were with Ross's family, who had lost a beautiful daughter and sister.

Ross is believed to have died between five and seven days before she was found, though someone was reportedly using her mobile phone to send messages.

The Hellenic police, Greece's national force, were able to identify her using fingerprints. Detectives analysed video footage to track down the suspect, who allegedly confessed last week.

The suspect is believed to have put her body into a suitcase and taken it to the abandoned site where it was later found.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said earlier: "Our thoughts are with Elisabeth's family during this difficult time. We are providing consular support and are in contact with the local authorities."

Police Scotland said: "We are aware of the death of a Scottish woman in Athens and are liaising with authorities in Greece. Officers are providing support to her family in Scotland."

▲ Elisabeth-Jane Ross had a passion for helping people, her church said

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National^{}[] Prisons

▼ Thousands of prisoners are to be released from 1 October to ease the prison overcrowding crisis

PHOTOGRAPH: MARTIN GODWIN/THE GUARDIAN

Watchdog warns early-release tagging can fail to detect probation breaches

● Continued from page 1

and probation officers looking up individual cases and then deciding whether potential breaches needed to be investigated further.

He said it needed to be updated to send alerts to the authorities if a former inmate breached an exclusion zone that they were banned from.

His demand comes after the government announced that up to 5,000 prisoners would be released from 1 October to ease the prison overcrowding crisis. At present, there are 86,500 people behind bars with 2,400 spare places.

Andy Burnham paused the scheme last month and yesterday announced plans to exclude prisoners guilty of rape, serious child sexual abuse offences and grooming, reducing the number of releases by 1,000. Killers and domestic abusers will still be eligible for early release, the Ministry of Justice has confirmed.

The prime minister has assured the public that offenders will face tighter community supervision, including new GPS monitoring.

Jones said he had recently launched an inspection of offender tagging and had seen that the system was coming under strain and needed to be upgraded to “minimise the risk to the public”.

“Some of the systems are pretty clunky and it’s far too reliant on people looking for the information rather than the information being fed or pushed to practitioners as a matter of course.

“Tagging has potential to improve public perception of victims’ safety. But only if it used properly and if there is a wider system and enough staff to support that. If not, there is a risk that you give false assurances to the public,” he said.

The number of people in England and Wales being electronically monitored has doubled to 28,700 in five years, and is estimated to rise to 22,000 newly tagged each year from 2027. Jones said this expansion needed a huge increase in staff to monitor offenders.

An early review of Jones’s inspection, across six regions in England, found:

• ● Probation officers wrongly assuming they would be notified about breaches of exclusion zones, when they were required to conduct a specific search.

• ● Data not being actively monitored or analysed to reduce risk to the public.

• ● “Significant complexity” involved in managing the monitoring process, leaving probation officers “overwhelmed and disengaged” by the volume of correspondence.

“My concern is this: have the processes and the system kept apace with the number of people being tagged? Because ultimately all tagging gives you is information about where somebody is at a particular point in time. You are relying on having sufficient police officers and probation officers to look at that information and make a decision about how it informs your picture on the activities of that individual,” said Jones.

Last month, the National Audit Office found the rapid expansion of electronic tagging to reduce pressure on prisons would put public safety at risk without robust improvements.

Jones also called for ministers to ensure that there were enough staff in approved premises, which are hostels set up to monitor 2,000 of the most serious offenders when they are initially released from prison.

He said: “Our research shows approved premises work. [They] are extremely effective at managing people after their initial release from custody. What a missed opportunity if those premises cannot remain open because of our insufficient staff.”

Rapists and serious child sexual offenders will no longer be eligible for the early release scheme after a review of the plans.

▲ Justice secretary Alex Norris said he was angry at the current situation

But those given custodial sentences for domestic abuse, and criminals guilty of manslaughter, will remain eligible to be freed halfway through their sentence.

Alex Norris, the justice secretary, has apologised to families affected by the early release scheme, saying they were “carrying the can from previous failures”. He acknowledged that the proposals had “created harm” for grieving families such as Lissie, the wife of PC Andrew Harper.

“I would express how angry I am, too, at being in a situation where we’re having to make significant changes that do have real impacts on people’s lives, so that we are able to have a functioning prison system,” he said.

Harper’s mother, Debbie Adlam, said her family was “paying the price” after learning her son’s killers remained eligible for early release under the government’s plans to ease prison overcrowding.

Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham, has written to Burnham warning him that “victims across the country remain in a state of fear and limbo” without domestic abusers being exempted.

She told the PM: “I fully support the ambitious goal to reduce violence against women and girls and tackle serious sexual offences. However, without reinstating the exemption to the early release scheme I fail to see how that is possible.”

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▼ Debbie Adlam, the mother of PC Andrew Harper, left, criticised the scheme on ITV's This Morning

PHOTOGRAPH: KEN MCKAY/ITV/SHUTTERSTOCK

'It's not right' Victims' families dismayed that killers will walk free

Jessica Murray

Social affairs correspondent

When Calvin Buckley, whose pregnant partner was killed by a dangerous

driver in 2023, successfully secured a tougher sentence for the man who took her life, he felt some justice had been served.

Now, under plans to release prisoners early to ease overcrowding, Adil Iqbal, who filmed himself speeding at 123mph before he crashed into 38-year-old Frankie Jules-Hough, may serve less time in prison than he would have under his original sentence.

"He could actually serve less time than he originally was going to before we appealed," Buckley said. "We've fought for a tougher sentence. What is the point of having an actual sentence if the government can just reduce that?"

Victims and bereaved family members who fear perpetrators could be released early under government plans to free up prison space said they were "deeply concerned" at the prospect of dangerous offenders walking the streets.

Gemma Chappell, the great-aunt of Maya Chappell, who was shaken to death aged two by her mother's boyfriend in 2022, said the early release scheme was further traumatising bereaved families.

Maya's mother, Dana Carr, was sentenced to nine years in prison after being found guilty of child cruelty by neglect and allowing her child's death, but Chappell has been told she is set to be released early under the scheme.

"I think it's terrible," she said. "I think victims are not being heard. We should be allowed to grieve, we should be allowed to have our trauma."

Chappell said it was "ridiculous" that Carr had made no admission of guilt and applied to have her

'Victims are not being heard. We should be allowed to grieve, to have our trauma'

Gemma Chappell

sentence reduced, which was denied, but was now set to be released early anyway.

She said she welcomed Andy Burnham's intervention to exempt rapists, serious child sexual offenders and those convicted of grooming from the early release plans, but said it did not go far enough. "There's still victims and families out there who remain deeply concerned about these dangerous offenders getting out early, and we're one of them," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "Justice should always be about public safety and the victim's voice first."

A former prison officer, Chappell said she wanted the government to invest more money in prison buildings instead. "Letting serious

▲ Frankie Jules-Hough was killed by Adil Iqbal, who was driving at speed

offenders out on to the street is not the answer," she said. "We need some clarity on what's going to happen if these offenders do get out because this affects our lifetime, not just the next couple of months."

Buckley said he had been "devastated" to learn driving offenders would not be exempted from the plans. "To kill somebody and to have your sentence reduced is just not right," he told BBC Breakfast. "Our justice has been taken away. I understand there is a crisis, I agree that it needs to be addressed, but not at the expense of victims. For me it is another example of road victims not being treated the same as other offences."

Iqbal was originally sentenced to 12 years for killing Jules-Hough and her unborn child. Neeve, increased to 15 years by the court of appeal under the unduly lenient sentence scheme. Buckley said he had been told Iqbal would serve a minimum of eight years of his 12-year sentence in prison. But under the new plans, he could be eligible for release after half of his sentence.

The government has also been criticised for its decision not to exempt domestic abuse perpetrators from the scheme.

Alice Russell-Harris, the public affairs lead at Refuge, said the organisation was "deeply alarmed" and the move would "put many domestic abuse survivors at risk". She said releasing domestic abusers early would "heighten survivors' fears for their safety" and they were aware that perpetrators "frequently breach conditions to continue their campaign of abuse".

The family of PC Andrew Harper, who was killed while responding to a report of a burglary in 2019, said they were devastated to learn two of the men jailed for his death would still be eligible for release.

Harper was killed after being dragged behind a car for a mile. Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, who were passengers in the car and sentenced to 13 years for manslaughter, could apply for early release after serving half of their sentences.

"Andrew deserves better than this and so do we," his mother, Debbie Adlam, said. "It feels like we're letting Andrew down again. We've been through the justice system, we thought we'd done as best as we could. Apparently, the situation is, if nothing was done, then the prison system would fall completely. But we're paying the price for it."

Analysis Jessica Elgot

After a dream start, PM has his first brush with what it feels like to be unpopular

If Andy Burnham wanted to demonstrate he was the anti-Keir Starmer, the first fortnight could not have gone better. Instead of painting a gloomy picture of tough times and an economic black hole that would only improve with sacrifices such as cutting winter fuel allowance, Burnham's first week was a blitz of small wins including cutting bus fares.

But the new prime minister can only control so much. And like Starmer, within his first days in office he found himself facing immediate decisions where every call would make him unpopular. And - like Starmer - blaming his predecessor counts for nothing with an angry public.

On Monday, the first day of the prime minister's planned holiday with his family, the call had to be made on the early release of prisoners to stop the prison system becoming overwhelmed. Burnham excluded those convicted of rape, serious child sexual offences and grooming from the scheme. But some killers - including two who were convicted of the manslaughter of PC Andrew Harper - will be eligible.

In an article for the Telegraph, where frustration seeped from every syllable, Burnham admitted he had not wanted to take that decision and had hoped to find a way to stop even more convicts from being released early, some just a third into their sentences. "The truth is I wanted to go even further ... I have pushed to the very limits of what is possible to do," he said.

Unlike the situation that Starmer and the then justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, faced, this was

'I can look people in the eye and say there is nothing more I could have asked for without risking the prison system collapsing'

not quite the emergency early release that was needed in 2024 because prison capacity was at crisis level.

The government cannot in this case escape that this was the culmination of months of planning and legislation. This was the designed effect of the Sentencing Act, which was due to come into effect in September, a more managed way to avert the same issue. But whichever way you

look at it, releasing killers, abusers and sex offenders early will always have a high human cost.

Ministers in Starmer's first cabinet still talk with fury about the situation they inherited from the Conservatives, when just a handful of prison places were available in some regions before police would have had to stop making arrests.

Mahmood in particular was scarred by the experience of the summer riots after the Southport murders, when prison capacity threatened the state's ability to arrest the brawlers.

But the careful planning of this managed early release - while the state builds more prison capacity - met the reality of the human impact as letters began to land from victims and families, including Harper's widow, about the early release of perpetrators.

Burnham paused the scheme as criticism mounted - but he could not avoid the decision for ever. Even with the exclusion of sex offenders, he will please few and is likely to have to revisit the issue in the coming months if prisons start to reach crisis capacity again.

In his article, Burnham made clear the impossible choice he had faced. "I can look people in the eye and say there is nothing more I could have asked for without risking the prison system collapsing within months," he wrote.

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National

UK charities to be investigated over funding of illegal Israeli settlements

Pair drowned off Newquay beach, coroner hears

Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent

An official investigation has been launched into charities in England and Wales donating funds to illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine.

The Charity Commission aims to establish the amount of charitable funds going to illegal settlements, whether the spending was in furtherance of their purposes, and determine any regulatory action that may be necessary.

The investigation follows the Guardian's reporting about the issue. Last year, it revealed that two UK charities had transferred approximately £5.7m to the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva high school in Susya, in the Israeli-occupied territory.

In June, the Guardian published details of a formal complaint made by the Labour MP, Melanie Ward, to the regulator in which she said that 32 charities in England and Wales had donated at least £28m to Israeli settlements that are illegal under international law. The Guardian understands that the inquiry is a direct response to Ward's complaint.

Announcing the investigation, which will initially focus on eight unnamed charities, Stephen Roake, the commission's assistant director of compliance, said: "Serious allegations have been made about UK charities operating in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine, so our first step is to establish the facts. Only then can we determine if regulatory action is required, based on our findings and the evidence we see.

"Our fact-finding will also help us develop regulatory guidance for charities, which will help to ensure public trust and confidence in charities."

In June, the then foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, said in parliament that she had asked the regulator to

▲ Palestinians inspect their burnt houses in Susya, an occupied village where an Israeli school is located

PHOTOGRAPH: WISAM ISASHLAMOUN/GETTY

investigate the issue, telling MPs that "charity systems are abused to funnel support to illegal settlements" and "some evidence suggests that rules are being broken". She expressed concern about "UK gift aid being funnelled to illegal settlements".

Responding to Cooper, Ward said she and 140 Labour colleagues wanted to see a ban rather than an inquiry. She told MPs that the commission appeared to have been made aware of the issue in July last year, but "has done nothing so far".

The regulator said the eight charities were among those about which

concerns have been raised and that it would look at the location of their respective partners and how recently any alleged activity occurred. It said it would consider naming the charities when it published its findings.

The commission added it planned to extend the number of charities under investigation over time.

It said it had shared information about the scope of its inquiry with the police and HMRC. The Metropolitan police's war crimes unit has said it is not currently investigating any charities in relation to this matter.

Last month, the Guardian revealed that a British charity was funding a religious school at the heart of illegal Israeli settlement expansion plans in the Palestinian city of Hebron.

Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron,

which was approached for comment at the time, sent nearly £200,000 to the school between 2019 and 2024.

Construction of a new dormitory for the school was approved in June, breaking a decades-old international agreement on control of Hebron.

Abtisam Mohamed, a Labour MP and member of the foreign affairs committee, welcomed news of the investigation, but said "there is evidence of at least 32 charities engaging in this abhorrent practice. The Charity Commission must investigate them as well and move quickly to stamp out this behaviour altogether.

"Funding illegal Israeli settlements is extremist activity linked to the violence and dispossession of Palestinians and bears no relation to charitable activity."

PA Media

A father tried to save his daughter after she was dragged into the sea off Cornwall but they both drowned, an inquest has heard.

John Peter Collins, 66, and Samantha Adele Collins, 32, were pulled from the water at Fistral beach in Newquay on 26 July. Cornwall coroner's court heard their family, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, had been on holiday in the seaside town.

The assistant coroner Emma Hillson said: "Samantha Collins was on holiday with her family in Newquay. She and her father were fishing on rocks when Samantha was dragged into the sea. John tried to save her, but very sadly was unable to so and they both lost their lives."

Adele Collins, the wife of John and mother of Samantha, identified their bodies, the hearing was told.

Postmortem examinations were performed at Royal Cornwall hospital in Treliske on 29 July. The provisional cause of death for both father and daughter was given as drowning.

Devon and Cornwall police previously confirmed officers had been called to Fistral at about 9.45pm on 26 July. Both John and his daughter had been recovered from the water and were pronounced dead at the scene.

Samantha is believed to have entered the water carrying a handbag, described as orange or peach in colour. A police spokeswoman said it was "thought to contain a number of personal items of great sentimental value to her loved ones".

"At what is an incredibly difficult time for the family, they would take great comfort in being reunited with these belongings if possible," she added. Anyone who finds a bag matching the description is asked to hand it in to Newquay police station.

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Palantir pays only £2m UK tax despite huge public contracts

Juliette Garside

The software group Palantir paid just £2m of corporation tax in the UK in 2024 despite holding public sector contracts worth hundreds of millions, thanks to tax breaks that are likely to reduce its public contributions around the world.

The US-headquartered company, which has harnessed AI to secure lucrative work for the NHS and the Ministry of Defence, is growing exponentially.

Palantir's shares bounced 17% in early trading yesterday after its chief executive, Alex Karp, forecast worldwide revenues would almost double

this year to $8bn (£6bn), a result which he described as "otherworldly".

But the amount of tax Palantir pays compared with profits earned - its effective tax rate - is just 1.4% globally, according to a report published today by the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research. In the US last year, it paid $0 in federal taxes and just over $2.5m in state taxes, the report states.

Andrea Egan, the general secretary of the trade union Unison, which commissioned the report, said: "Systems that enable tax to be shirked on an industrial scale clearly have to change. The likes of Palantir need to stump up what's due."

The UK is Palantir's biggest market outside the US, with £247m of

revenues declared by the company for 2024, the most recent year for which comparable figures are available. The majority of its non-US workforce - about 750 employees - are based in Britain.

As of 2026, Palantir holds an estimated £670m in government contracts. A three-year, £240m deal with the MoD was awarded last December - without a competitive tender.

However, in 2024 the company paid just £2.1m in UK corporation tax, despite declaring profits of more than £25m, giving an effective tax rate of just over 8%, researchers found. The UK corporation tax rate for that year was, and still is, 25%.

Despite the size of the UK market, tax collected here was less than

in South Korea, Japan, France or Germany.

One reason, according to researchers, is that Palantir is accounting for its UK revenues in the US, a practice sometimes referred to as transfer pricing. While 26% of all Palantir revenue is sourced from customers outside the US, only 4% of revenue is booked abroad.

The reason for this is not clear, but researchers said they believed contracts with customers were signed with Palantir's US companies, which in turn pay a service fee to its local country subsidiaries to deliver the work.

For example, Palantir disclosed £159m of revenues in its UK company filings for 2024, but disclosed £247m of UK revenues in its stock-market filings.

A spokesperson for Palantir said the company complied with the tax regimes in the jurisdictions in which it operates, and criticising its use of transfer pricing was "simply not credible", adding: "Transfer pricing, which allocates a company's profits

among entities within the Palantir group of companies, is an entirely standard practice that is virtually universal for large multinational companies."

They said accounting practices could lead to different filings in different countries, and it was common for US parent companies, as the ultimate owners of the products sold, to record revenues earned abroad.

Another way in which Palantir cuts its tax bill is by granting share options to staff. The company can reduce what it owes by the amount the shares are worth when they vest. Employees are liable for income tax on their share options, often at higher rates, but the use of shares rather than cash to pay staff shifts the tax burden from the company to its employees.

In the US, Palantir has stored up billions in tax credits from share options and losses carried forward from previous years, meaning that at the current rate of profit it would not be liable for US federal income tax payments for "nearly a decade", the report states.

Album

review

Wrenching

lyrics set to

a thrilling

soundscape

Phoebe Bridgers

Lost Weekend

★★★★★

Alexis Petridis

The last time Phoebe Bridgers put out a solo album was six years ago, at the height of the Covid pandemic: Punisher not only ended 2020 near the top of many critics' best-of lists, it made the UK Top 10 and sold half a million copies in the US.

The intervening period has proved just as commercially triumphant. With the release of their debut album The Record, Boygenius, the band Bridgers formed with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, went from a kind of supergroup for Pitchfork readers to a genuine mainstream phenomenon.

The Record won three Grammys while another, for Bridgers' collaboration with SZA, Ghost in the Machine, meant she left the 2024 ceremony the biggest winner. Other pop stars called on her services: she sang on Taylor Swift's re-recorded Red, Lorde's Solar Power and on Paul McCartney's

McCartney III Imagined. But to judge by Lost Weekend's opening track, all was not well. The Outside depicts the singer crowd-surfing - "they never let me hit the ground, way beyond the barricade". Then it adds a qualifier. "But I was on the outside, watching," she sings, the sense of dislocation heightened by the fact that her voice is smothered by a vocoder, and the musical accompaniment.

It acts as a signpost to the rest of Lost Weekend, both musically and lyrically. There is a lot of emotional turmoil in the latter, largely occasioned by the death of her father, with whom Bridgers had a strained relationship - though the album is dedicated "For Dad" - and the collapse of her relationship with the actor Paul Mescal.

The title track confirms that they were, as rumoured, engaged. If

you're the kind of person who gets their kicks combing new albums for celebrity gossip there's plenty here to occupy you, not least a line in The Governor's Waltz that could be interpreted as a swipe at Mescal's current partner, Gracie Abrams ("she can pretend to be me / Since she took my place in my bed, on that stage").

Still Standing, meanwhile, describes the disquieting sensation

◀ Phoebe Bridgers and above, her new album, Lost Weekend, which builds on her huge critical success as a songwriter PHOTOGRAPH: FRANK OCKENFELS

of being unable to muster the emotions you're supposed to feel at the death of a parent: digging around for fond memories, Bridgers instead comes up with recollections of spousal abuse, distance and irrational behaviour and ends up "feeling indifferent, wearing black".

Bridgers' lyrics are brilliant throughout, but they're matched by the individuality of Lost Weekend's sound. At heart it's a well-written Americana-infused indie singer-songwriter album, complete with the yearning melodies, acoustic guitars, mandolins and melancholy violin you might expect.

But perhaps the most telling credits are those for "sound design": for huge swathes of Lost Weekend the standard indie singer-songwriter instruments struggle to make themselves heard amid waves of droning electronics, feedback and eerie wordless vocals. The overall effect is disorientating, occasionally disturbing and really thrilling: there's something really daring about the sound of Panorama, where a beautiful melody and a rustic banjo figure are almost completely buried under occasionally discordant murk.

The result is a heady, potent, occasionally wrenching album, albeit one flecked with optimism. "The past is looking brighter all the time," sings Bridgers on Liberty Tree. The path to get to that point has evidently been a trying one: Lost Weekend transforms it into a rich and rewarding journey.

Released on 14 August

---

The Guardian Live

Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor: How to resist end times fascism

The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. How do we build a movement strong enough to stop them?

Join Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor as they take us deep into this man-made Armageddon complex and reveal powerful possibilities for resistance, as explored in their blistering and hopeful new book, End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World.

Don't miss this opportunity to hear firsthand from Klein and Taylor on how we can collectively counter this apocalyptic narrative with a far better story. A story not of end times, but of better times; not of separation and supremacy, but of belonging and interdependence.

Monday 28 September 7.30pm-9pm St Georges Bristol Bristol BS1 5RR

In person

Online

Book your tickets at theguardian.com/event/klein-taylor or scan the QR code

---

National

Appreciation

Peter Gill, a dramatist of raw honesty and clear vision

Michael Billington

Peter Gill, who has died aged 86, was one of the unsung heroes of British theatre. As both director and playwright his work was characterised by its uncompromising honesty and unflinching integrity.

Much admired by his fellow artists, he at last achieved a degree of public fame in 2002 when his terrific play The York Realist won a number of awards and the Sheffield Crucible staged a month-long retrospective of his work as well as a brand-new play, Original Sin.

Gill, born into a Welsh working-class Catholic family, began life as an actor: look closely and you can spot him in the film of Zulu.

But it was at London's Royal Court, where he started work as an associate director in 1964, that he acquired the values that were to shape his career: a belief in the sanctity of text, the purity of design and a respect for actors.

His first play The Sleepers Den, showing three generations of women all in bed next to each other, was a meticulous recreation of working-class life. But it was his rediscovery of three plays of DH Lawrence - A Collier's Friday Night, The Daughter-in-Law and The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd - staged as a trilogy in 1968, that marked him out as a first-rate director: as Irving Wardle wrote, "the ordinary processes of living became not only interesting but objects of respect and something beautiful".

Gill's work as a playwright and director were ultimately inseparable because they were

▶ Peter Gill. Among the many actors he directed were, from top: Melanie Hall and Deborah Findlay in Tongue of a Bird; Stephen Hagan and Matthew Burton in The York Realist; Andrew Woodall and Jeremy Northam in Certain Young Men; Matthew Rhys and Daniel Evans in Cardiff East; and Stephen Rea and Kim Thomson in Uncle Vanya PHOTOGRAPH: LINDA WILINDI/ THE GUARDIAN

linked by an unsparing honesty. In Small Change (1976), he recalled the unhealed emotional scars left by an adolescent sexual relationship. In Kick for Touch (1983) he wrote with equal truth about a Welsh world of male bonding, rugby-as-religion and women as outsiders.

Gill invariably directed his own work but he approached classic texts in the same rigorous, investigative spirit. One of his finest achievements was to turn a former TV studio into a performance space at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London, and to stage productions of glittering clarity there. If the Riverside is still a going concern, it is because of Gill's visionary enterprise.

He also worked at the National Theatre, where his productions included a brilliantly hard-edged version of Christopher Hampton's Tales from Hollywood and an astonishing revival of Otway's Venice Preserv'd, where Ian McKellen, Michael Pennington and Jane Lapotaire achieved a heroic acting style that perfectly matched the tone of Otway's verse-tragedy.

Gill's tenure as director of the National Theatre Studio, which he founded in 1984 to develop new work, ended less happily. But during his time in that role he tirelessly championed new writers and ensured that their work reached the stages of the Royal Court and the Bush.

If I had to seize on one play that shows Gill as both writer and director at his best it would be The York Realist. It involves a farm labourer, George, who has an affair with a London-based director, John, while working on a production of the York Mystery Plays in the early 1960s.

The play owes an obvious debt to DH Lawrence in its emotional intelligence, raw honesty and fascination with the intersection of class and sex. For John, the Yorkshire countryside has an exotic otherness of which he can never fully be a part while his lover, George, relishes the intellectual excitements of London but is wedded irrevocably to the land.

It was as if much of what Gill had learned during his early years at the Court had been not just absorbed but miraculously enhanced.

In later years Gill became increasingly detached from the British theatre. Periodically my phone would ring and he would often talk volubly about something that had caught his attention.

He still cared passionately about the theatre and his occasional gripes were driven by his adherence to high standards and his belief in the sacrifice of personal ambition to the primacy of the work itself.

Michael Billington has written about theatre for the Guardian since 1973 Peter Gill obituary Journal, page 6 →

Oyster conservation project launches first floating reef in Northern Ireland

PA Media

Efforts to reintroduce near-extinct native oysters to Northern Irish waters took a step forward yesterday as the country's first floating oyster reef was launched in north Antrim.

The initiative is the latest stage in a project by the charity Ulster

Wildlife to restore the near-extinct native European flat oyster and create healthier seas.

The custom-built floating reef at Glenarm Marina will provide a sheltered habitat where European oysters can grow and thrive.

It supports about 10,000 juvenile oysters, known as spat, alongside approximately 200 adult oysters.

While native oyster reefs were once a common feature of Northern Ireland's coastline, they have declined dramatically because of overharvesting, habitat loss, disease and pollution.

Ulster Wildlife described European

oysters as "natural ecosystem engineers", playing a vital role in improving water quality, increasing biodiversity and creating habitat for a wide range of marine species.

The floating reef builds on the conservation charity's existing native oyster nursery at Glenarm Marina as well as wider work to restore native oysters in Northern Ireland.

The new floating reef at Glenarm Marina recreates the habitat of a natural oyster reef above the seabed and it is hoped it will provide a new way to scale up native European oyster restoration in Northern Ireland.

Ulster Wildlife said early results

were encouraging, with oyster survival rates exceeding 80%.

An Ecodetect camera system has been installed alongside the reef to record species visiting and interacting with the structure, providing valuable insights into how oyster reef habitats support marine life.

During its first three months of operation, the system has recorded more than 7,000 wildlife detections, including fish such as gobies and seabirds including black guillemots.

The project forms part of a wider programme to restore native oysters and other blue carbon habitats around Northern Ireland.

17

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18

National

Dear Bagpuss? Art by co-creator fetches £400,000 at auction

PA Media

Artwork by the Bagpuss co-creator Peter Firmin, including paintings of the Clangers and Basil Brush, has sold for more than £400,000.

About 500 paintings, books and collectibles by the British puppeteer went up for auction, with every lot sold during a two-day event held by Canterbury Auction Galleries.

The sale was the largest collection of Firmin's art ever to be auctioned, with most of the pieces selling well over estimated values.

One of the most expensive pieces included a signed painting of beloved fox Basil Brush chatting to a mole.

Firmin co-created the cheerful fox, who is best known for appearing as a glove puppet on the BBC's The Basil Brush Show, with the painting selling for £6,000 after it was originally estimated at £120 to £160.

A number of colour paintings of the Clangers, the knitted alien

The artwork by Peter Firmin, right, included a painting of Bagpuss and Emily PHOTOGRAPHS: CANTERBURY AUCTION GALLERIES

species whose misadventures bring them face to face with a planet's other inhabitants, also featured as part of the collection - including the illustration Firmin's Tiny Clanger in the Iron Chicken's Nest, which sold for £3,900. It was originally estimated to sell for between £200 and £300.

Artwork of Nogbad the Bad, the king from the children's animated series Noggin the Nog, fetched £4,200 - well over its estimated sale price of between £200 and £300.

Other works include a mechanical model of the character Gabriel

the Toad, which sold for £4,200, and a painting of the famous pink cat Bagpuss with his friends, Emily and Professor Yaffle the woodpecker, which sold for £1,600.

Susanna Woodgate, who curated the sale, said: "It was wonderful to see real fans managing to secure a keepsake of something they loved, or perhaps to share with their own children and grandchildren."

Firmin, who died in 2018 at the age of 89, co-founded the production company Smallfilms with the puppeteer Oliver Postgate, with the

two creating several animated children's TV shows. Their first big hit was in 1959 with Ivor the Engine, about a Welsh steam locomotive who wanted to sing in a choir, with the first hand-drawn comic strip selling at the auction for £940.

Many of Firmin's beloved characters, including the original Bagpuss and Clangers puppets, are on permanent display at the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge museum in Canterbury. In 2014, Firmin won a Bafta Children's Special Award for his contribution to children's media.

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National

AI-generated short stories 'more absorbing than human works'

Nicola Davis

Science correspondent

From Homer's Odyssey to Agatha Christie's crime fiction, humans have produced myriad tales to grace the bookshelf. Now research suggests AI may be providing some competition.

In a study published in the journal Judgement and Decision Making, 1,682 adults were asked to read one of six short stories, three that were written by humans and three by ChatGPT. Each AI-generated story had a similar theme to one of the human-authored works.

Participants were told whether their story was written by a human or AI. However, this information was not always correct. The researchers then asked participants to rate how absorbing and engaging they found the story and its quality.

Participants who read an AI-generated story rated it as more absorbing and of higher quality than those who

read a story written by a human. However, participants gave higher ratings to stories they had been told were written by people.

Dr Deena Skolnick Weisberg, the senior author of the research from Villanova University in the US, said: "AI systems can already generate short stories seen as being at least as good if not better than human-written stories. We should update our views of AI's abilities accordingly."

However, Weisberg said that did not mean writing should be left to AI, noting novels produced by the technology are probably going to be different from those written by humans.

"We may need to make room for AI-generated novels, and for AI/human co-written novels, but that doesn't mean that there's no longer space for us to appreciate the process of human creativity," she said.

"Humans write as a form of creative self-expression, or to challenge ourselves, or to make sense of our

experiences," Weisberg added. "The fact that AI can generate human-like stories doesn't change any of that."

The results also suggest attitudes to AI matter: participants with more positive attitudes toward AI gave higher ratings to stories they were told were produced by ChatGPT than those with a less positive outlook.

The researchers carried out two further experiments in which a total of 905 adults were given two of the six short stories - both on the same theme but only one of which was penned by a person. They were then asked to guess which was written by a human and which by AI.

In one experiment 167 participants (about 40%) guessed correctly, a result worse than chance, while in the other experiment 250 participants (52%) guessed correctly.

"There is no general evidence that participants were able to distinguish human-written from AI-generated stories," the authors wrote.

The researchers found that while

participants' self-reported expertise with fiction was not linked to how accurately they guessed, greater expertise with AI systems was.

"AI writing has a particular style that we can learn to recognise with practice, just as we can learn to recognise different human authors' unique styles," Weisberg said.

She suggested preference for stories labelled as written by humans was linked to a desire for authenticity, but that people actually preferred AI-generated stories because they were easier to read and digest.

But Luke Kennard, a professor of film and creative writing at the University of Birmingham, who was not involved in the work, pointed out that AI came with harms.

"Because we're human, we tend to personify AI and imagine it as some kind of glowing robot with a benign and neutral face, when it's really just predictive code based on a massive stolen database of actual writing, physically based in vast, expensive and destructive datacentres with catastrophic repercussions for the surrounding communities," he said.

Kennard also stressed AI was not a "tool" like spellcheck or a thesaurus, but an existential threat.

"The question we should be asking is: 'Is it worth it?' And the answer is absolutely, categorically: 'It is not.'"

I planned 'step back' from the spotlight a long time ago, says Ariana Grande

Laura Snapes

Ariana Grande has expanded upon her decision to take "a step back from visibility" when her tour ends next month, as a result of what a spokesperson called "endless, ongoing public scrutiny".

On Monday night, during the first show of a three-night run in Chicago, the 33-year-old musician and actor read from notes as she told fans: "The announcement that was made yesterday was not a reactive or impulsive thing. It is something that I had decided to plan quietly, a long time ago."

The planned step back includes Grande's withdrawal from a production of Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George at London's Barbican next summer, where she would have appeared alongside her Wicked co-star Jonathan Bailey.

Grande appeared to reference ongoing public concern about her weight, which heightened after the release of the video for Petal, the lead single from her new album of the same name, last week. When shared on Instagram, the video received a community note pointing eating disorder sufferers towards resources.

"I heard my fans were worried negativity was ruining things for me but that could not be more than the opposite," she said. "Boundaries

▲ Ariana Grande performs on her current tour and, below, is interviewed by Seth Meyers. Her new album explores themes of excessive public expectations and the negativity of critics PHOTOGRAPHS: KATIA TEMKIN; LLOYD RISHOF/NIC/GETTY IMAGES

need to be set, human beings do need a break sometimes."

Grande said she had made her decision from a "thoughtful and empowered place". She continued: "No matter what noises exist out there, nothing will ever be able to distort my reality, or be more real to me than this love that we share."

Grande's new album frequently expresses her frustration with the expectations of the public; in the video for Petal, she murders a group of critics with a chainsaw. On stage in Chicago, she said: "I love you, this is what I want always ... the rest of that [commentary] is not mine to carry."

She called her tour "one of the most healing, beautiful, correct and special experiences" of her life. It continues with 10 nights at the O2 Arena in London from 15 August.

Koi killer 'was driven insane' by neighbour's fish pump

PA Media

A pensioner yesterday admitted using motor oil and detergent to kill a neighbour's koi because the noise from a water pump was driving him "completely insane".

Gerry Duffy, 76, attacked the fishpond in Barnet, north London, "out of sheer frustration and lack of sleep".

He had told his neighbour, Andreas Ptohides, that he would take matters into his own hands if nothing was done about the noise.

Shahid Iftikhar, prosecuting, told Willesden magistrates court that five or six of Ptohides's fish were killed and there was about £565 of damage.

He added: "The defendant has previously complained to the complainant about noise coming from his garden and has said words to the effect of, 'if you didn't deal with it, I would' - there was a warning before the incident."

The court was told that Duffy was spotted on CCTV in March climbing into his neighbour's garden and damaging water pipes and pumps.

In mitigation, Elliott Stern said Duffy had tried to deal with the dispute without killing the koi.

He added: "The man has been driven completely insane by this noise, he's spoken to the complainant several times. They initially said they would stop the water pump going but then turned around and said that's not good for the fish."

Duffy, who worked as a builder before retiring, lives in a studio flat which backs on to the garden owned by his neighbour.

An environmental officer told him he either had to move or close his window, according to Stern. The lawyer said: "Out of sheer frustration and lack of sleep, Mr Duffy, out of character, I would say, lost his mind and committed various damages."

Duffy, who pleaded guilty to three counts of damaging property and one count of unlawfully destroying fish, was handed a two-year conditional discharge. He was told to pay £565 of compensation to Ptohides.

◀ Gerry Duffy, 76, was handed a conditional discharge for criminal damage and unlawfully destroying fish

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Alleyn's: Brilliantly Human

Be Brilliantly You at Alleyn's School

South London's leading school for girls and boys aged 4-18

AllWeCanBe alleyns.org.uk

---

©

National

'Nobody cares'

The Turkish farmers bearing the burden of UK's plastic waste

Karen McVeigh Ayça Aldatmaz Adana

Plastic debris clings to the reeds in a waterway metres from where Ayhan*, a farmer in Adana, southern Turkey, is harvesting aubergines. "We get pollution from all sides here," he said, referring to the plastic recycling zone upstream, as well as a nearby textile plant that he suspects is making the water acidic.

Between May 2021 and July 2024, 13 UK companies sent 545 shipments of household and supermarket plastic waste - a total of 52,000 tonnes - to the Kemal Deniz recycling zone under a mile from Ayhan's aubergine fields, according to data analysed for the Guardian by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an international NGO.

New research has also been shared with the Guardian that shows high levels of microplastics as well as plastic debris in Adana's waterways, including one next to Kemal Deniz.

Locals said fires from abandoned piles of plastic in the region create toxic smoke over neighbourhoods and fields. Ayhan said: "Every year we install the greenhouse tarps, and when we bring them down we have to clean the surface because we find a black coating, coming from the fumes of these places."

In January, canal water flooded on to his land after heavy rain, destroying seven hectares (17 acres) of crops, he said. "We had to plant new ones. But what can we do? Nothing. Nowhere to file a complaint - nobody cares."

Adana sits in Turkey's Çukurova plain, one of the country's most fertile regions, rich in cotton, soya and citrus fruits. But since China's 2018 ban on plastic waste imports, Turkey has become the main destination for plastic waste from the EU and UK. Adana receives 60% of Turkey's plastic waste imports - which has overwhelmed local treatment infrastructure and sparked widespread illegal activities, including dumping and burning, according to investigations by environmental groups and journalists.

Sedat Gündoğdu, a marine biologist at Sabancı University's İstanbul Policy Centre, said many of the recycling facilities discharged wastewater directly into canals and channels used for irrigation.

Samples of water he took from a canal downstream from Kemal

Deniz, adjacent to Ayhan's fields, showed a 10-fold increase in concentrations of microplastics compared with sites upstream, according to research he published in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment journal.

"[The recycling facilities] are discharging this polluted water into the canals," Gündoğdu said. "Farmers then use that water as an irrigation source." He also found pellets, films and fragments "highly characteristic of recycling processing" waste.

He found that other canals downstream of recycling facilities in Adana had even greater concentrations, at 132-fold that of upstream. The canal network crosses agricultural fields, leading to the Seyhan River and ultimately the Mediterranean.

The heavily guarded Kemal Deniz zone houses storage warehouses and recycling facilities, some with the names of Turkish companies, others with no visible identification. Piles of plastic lie scattered around.

An analysis of import-export data carried out for the Guardian by the EIA found that 13% of the UK's exported plastic waste to Turkey was sent to the Kemal Deniz zone between May 2021 and July 2024. Thirteen British companies shipped waste, the top three being ProtoGreen, Vanden and Eurokey.

There is no suggestion that the British companies are doing anything illegal. They do, however, have a duty under various

▲ Piles of plastic waste in the Kemal Deniz zone, top and centre, and, above, a protest by the Adana Ecology Platform outside

the city court last year, over a recycling plant blaze that gave off toxic smoke for 36 hours

PHOTOGRAPHS: AYÇA ALDATMAZ/ THE GUARDIAN; CMOT ÖZGİRİŞEK

140,000

Tonnes of plastic waste exported to Turkey by the UK in 2025. The EU sent 500,000 tons there that year

60%

Proportion of Turkey's plastic waste imports that go to Adana, overwhelming its infrastructure

regulations to ensure the plastic they export is recycled in an environmentally sound manner.

After Egypt and Italy, Turkey is the third-highest contributor to plastic leakage into the Mediterranean from mismanaged waste - wreaking havoc on marine life - according to a 2020 International Union for Conservation of Nature report.

People living near the Kemal Deniz zone say fires from waste plants create toxic smoke over the poorer residential areas four to five times a year. Yaşar Gökoğlu, a spokesman for the environmental group Adana Ecology Platform, said: "Even under normal working conditions, chemical pollution, water, air and soil pollution negatively affect their lives."

Last year, residents protested

with Adana Ecology Platform outside the city law courts, after a blaze at a recycling facility near the Küçüklükli neighbourhood burned for 36 hours and created a thick plume of toxic smoke that settled over the neighbourhood and nearby fields.

We could not determine whether the plastic waste entering this facility, half a mile west of Küçüklükli, was imported or domestic. However, a pile of waste that included British packaging was dumped on the roadside nearby.

A businessman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "There are fires every summer in this area; there is a school right next to it. The neighbourhood is really concerned about it."

The UK, one of the world's largest exporters of plastic waste, shipped out 675,000 tonnes in 2025, of which almost 140,000 tonnes went to Turkey. The EU's plastic waste exports to Turkey that year reached more than 500,000 tonnes. But while the EU has recently imposed stricter controls on plastic waste exports, the UK government continues to export plastic waste to countries outside the wealthy group of OECD nations.

Amy Youngman, a legal specialist at the EIA, said: "The highest pollution levels in [Gündoğdu's] study are directly linked to identifiable industrial sources. UK waste drives the very operations contributing to this pollution, and without it this harm would not occur at this scale, if at all."

She called on the UK to take action "by phasing out plastic waste exports, strengthening traceability and enforcement, regulating microplastics and reducing plastic production".

Over recent years, 21 plastic recycling and processing facilities have closed in the UK.

A spokesperson for Eurokey, one of the top three UK exporters of waste to Turkey, said it only worked with "accredited partners" approved by the Environment Agency, and was surprised to learn of the findings. They said it no longer sent plastic waste to Turkey.

They added: "The reason plastic waste is sent abroad is that there is not enough domestic infrastructure to deal with it, but Eurokey is building its own recycling plant in Corby to address this."

A spokesperson for Vanden, another top exporter of waste to Turkey, said: "Any evidence of environmental harm should be investigated by the appropriate competent authority in Turkey."

Vanden undertook assessments, they said, including inspections of Turkish recycling facilities. ProtoGreen declined to comment.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "Businesses involved in the export of waste from the UK are required to ensure that the waste they ship is managed in an environmentally sound manner, and we have already taken action to further reduce our need to export plastic waste."

The Turkish government was approached for comment.

• Name has been changed

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22

Eyewitness

▲ Clockwise from above: Spain's Iris Tió Casas puts in a winning performance; the Belarusian swimmer Vasilina Khandoshka, who won silver competing as a neutral athlete; Marloes Steenbeek of the Netherlands; and the Turkish swimmer Selin Hurmeric PHOTOGRAPH: ANDREA STACCIOLI/DEEPBLOEMEDIA/INSIDEFOTO/SHUTTERSTOCK

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European Aquatics Championships

Artistic swimmers go all out to make a splash at the Paris Aquatics Centre yesterday. Sixteen women competed in the solo technical final, which was won by Iris Tió Casas from Spain

23

Clockwise from right: Slovakia's Zofia Strapekova; Klara Bleyer, who won bronze for Germany; Greece's Vasiliki Pagona Alexandri; and Zea Montfort, from Malta PHOTOGRAPHS: JULIEN DE ROSA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; FRANCO ABLAND/EFA

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The Guardian Live

Ukrainian lessons: Art in a time of war with Charlotte Higgins and guests

Charlotte Higgins never imagined she would report on a war. But in the autumn of 2022, seven months into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she travelled there to cover a literary festival. The experience would change her life.

The Guardian's chief culture writer will be joining three exceptional Ukrainian writers: Olia Hercules, Sasha Dovzhyk and Olesya Khromeychuk, for a special panel event, live in London and livestreamed globally.

Our panel will be sharing their deeply personal accounts of art, survival and resistance in wartime Ukraine - and discuss why culture really is a matter of life and death.

Wednesday 30 September

7.30pm-9pm

Conway Hall

London WC1R 4RL

In person

Online

Book your tickets at theguardian.com/event/art-in-a-time-of-war or scan the QR code

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National

5

Faffing and laughing

How Jimmy Cricket mastered pure fun

Mark Lawson

After the comedian Jimmy Cricket chose the catchphrase, "And there's more!" he may perhaps have reflected that the words would one day have a poignant irony - as has now happened after his death, aged 80.

The stage name was adopted by James Joseph Mulgrew, from Cookstown in Northern Ireland, when he worked as an entertainer at the Butlin's and Pontins holiday camps from the 1960s, when summer resort venues were an academy for UK entertainers.

Both Jimmy and Jiminy Cricket were rooted in polite euphemisms for the expletive "Jesus Christ!", but Mulgrew, a committed churchgoer and carefully clean comic, is unlikely to have been motivated by the oath.

Whether deliberately or by luck, his chosen pseudonym was likely to pique the interest of fans of Disney's Pinocchio (in which Jiminy Cricket is a key character), those interested in orthopteran insects in general and lovers of the greatest summer game.

The Irish climate and distraction of more historically Irish sports might have restricted the resonance of that reference back home but it proved useful to schedulers in Britain. Jimmy's Cricket Team was the title of his successful BBC Radio 2 series from 1990, and marked the return to wireless writing of Morecambe & Wise's greatest writer, Eddie Braben.

At that time, BBC Radio was tapping into the peak of Mulgrew's public popularity, encouraged by his biggest television visibility, from 1985-88, on an ITV show titled after his catchphrase, And There's

More. The words perfectly suited a show featuring short sketches, songs and standup.

Fronted by Mulgrew as Cricket, the 24 episodes included regular appearances by the comedy actors Nicholas Smith (Are You Being Served?) and Joan Sims (Carry On) and guest slots for Hazel O'Connor, singing, and Rory Bremner, impersonating.

As Cricket, he wore a stage costume of too-short formal trousers (possibly a homage to the similarly attired Max Wall), funny hats, and wellington boots marked L and R on the wrong feet. That - alongside the somewhat silly professional name - led some to wrongly assume he was a children's entertainer.

It was not entirely misleading. He aimed at adults the sort of material that classified him as what used to be called a "family entertainer" - no smut, no swearing and little songs in which his retained native accent allowed him to rhyme "faffing" with "laughing".

The purity and implied puritanism of his comedy was perhaps rooted in a Roman Catholic upbringing in Northern Ireland in the 1950s, a creed and era noted for their censoriousness.

The lasting impact of his upbringing was also evident in many references in his routines to letters from his "Mammy". Though uncontroversial at the time, one aspect of the act - the many gags relating to "Irish logic" - might now be regarded as offensive. But in common with Jewish comedians, Mulgrew would have claimed a birthright to explore stereotypes within his own tribe.

Though the hold of the faith diminished for many of his generation, Mulgrew remained practising, receiving in 2015 a papal knighthood, Catholicism's highest honour, from Pope Francis. The

◀ Jimmy Cricket appearing in his customary costume at the Children's Royal Variety performance in London in 1990 PHOTOGRAPH: SHUTTERSTOCK

citation mentioned the recipient's charitable work; though the Argentinian pontiff was something of a joker himself, the honour is unlikely to have been for comedy.

The highest profile period of Mulgrew/Cricket's career overlapped with the Troubles in Northern Ireland, its associated

atrocities often featuring in the headlines of news bulletins abutting his TV and radio appearances.

The performer was wary of sectarianism - holiday camp performers largely targeted those who were unlikely to be paying customers - and, in turn, did not

suffer much bigotry, though few impressionists could resist a go at the Ulster brogue.

"Always let your conscience be your guide," sings Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio, and that was the credo of his near namesake during a career in which he aimed to provide unthreatening fun - and succeeded.

Record number of 18-year-olds in Scotland qualify for university

PA Media

The number of Scottish students aged 18 and under who qualified for a university place reached a record high this year, including those from deprived areas.

According to Ucas, 17,920 students achieved the grades for the 2026 academic year, up from 17,350 last year.

The number of students aged 18 and under from deprived areas who secured university places rose almost

7% to 2,090, which the Scottish government said was a record for this stage in the cycle. Meanwhile, acceptances across all ages stood at 32,370.

Almost 150,000 students in Scotland received their results yesterday across Nationals, Highers, Advanced Highers and Skills for Work awards.

Scotland's education secretary, Māiri McAllan, said: "This is another set of incredibly positive results, showing the strength of Scotland's education system with numbers of university acceptances growing and record numbers of 18-year-olds

▲ S6 student Laith Elhamdi, 18, who plans to study law, reacts to his exam results at All Saints secondary in Glasgow yesterday PHOTOGRAPH: JAMES CHAPELARD

securing a place. It is particularly encouraging to see even more students from deprived areas going on to university ... Our determination to widen access to higher education is giving thousands of young people from more deprived areas the opportunity to further their studies."

She added: "Access to university should always be based on the ability to learn and not the ability to pay. The Scottish government's commitment to free tuition means that eligible learners from all backgrounds have the option of attending university."

McAllan said the government aimed to create an inclusive system that included college and modern apprenticeships.

Some university positions are still available through clearing.

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26

World

Oil prices fall 2%

as US and Qatar report progress towards ceasefire

Julian Borger Patrick Wintour

American and Qatari officials have said progress is being made in restoring a ceasefire in the US-Iran war and reopening the strait of Hormuz.

The optimistic speculation yesterday brought oil prices down 2%, but the strait remained closed to shipping and a cargo vessel was reportedly struck by an unidentified projectile off Oman's coast near the waterway.

Britain's maritime security agency, UKMTO, reported the strike on Monday night but did not name the vessel.

The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said the US and Iran were negotiating and told CNBC television: "I think there is a chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the strait and move towards a more normalised position in this conflict."

His remarks echo similarly upbeat comments from Donald Trump, who on Monday claimed a breakthrough was imminent, though Tehran quickly denied it was involved in any direct talks with the US.

Qatari and Pakistani mediators said they were talking to both sides in an effort to close gaps, restore the ceasefire deal from the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in mid-June and reopen the Hormuz strait, which was previously the portal for a fifth of the world's oil and liquified natural gas.

Qatar's foreign ministry

'I think there is a chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the strait'

Scott Bessent US treasury secretary

spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, said Qatar, Pakistan and Oman were mediating in close coordination and exchanging draft proposals between Washington and Tehran. He said the diplomatic contacts had reached "very progressive stages".

A senior Pakistani security official told Reuters: "A lot is happening in the background ... We are talking to both sides. Our sole goal at this moment is to make both parties at least agree to start talking."

The focus of negotiations in recent days has been between Iran and Oman on a temporary transit scheme that would allow ships to enter and leave the Gulf.

The MoU broke down last month when vessels tried to cross the strait along the Omani coast without seeking Iranian approval, and Iran attacked them.

Regional diplomats involved in the talks said that Oman was under concerted US, European and Saudi pressure to accept a temporary scheme which would allow shipping to enter the Gulf on a route through the strait close to Iran, and then leave by a southern route along the Omani coast, which would be jointly controlled with Iran.

The contentious issue of Iran's demand to charge transiting vessels tolls or other fees would be left to be decided during a 60-day negotiating period, during which Iran's nuclear programme would also be addressed.

The Omani government has been resisting the Hormuz proposal out of fear it could become permanent and give Tehran an enduring say over sea routes in Omani waters, the regional diplomats said.

The talks are complicated by splits in Tehran, the diplomats say, with the foreign ministry keen to do a deal, fearing Iranian control of the Hormuz strait could prove to be a wasting asset over time, as sea traffic finds alternative routes.

Regime hardliners on the other hand oppose the deal on the grounds that the US administration cannot be trusted to deliver the financial benefits promised in return for opening the strait.

Riyadh was putting particularly heavy pressure on Oman, one diplomat said, because the Saudis thought "we may be on the brink of a regional war because there is a big faction in Iran that does not want a deal under any circumstances".

Jerusalem's holiest site facing threat of Israeli takeover, says Jordan

▲ Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, at the site of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque last month PHOTOGRAPH: ILIA YEFIROVICH/APF/Getty

● Continued from page 1

performed rituals all around the compound in what Jordanian officials said was the worst violation in modern history.

Amman, which has also been alarmed by a recruitment drive for religious Jews for a special Temple Mount police unit, is braced for more direct challenges to its custodianship from extremist leaders in the major Jewish holidays in September.

Those holidays will come amid an intense election campaign, in which the far-right coalition of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will be fighting for survival.

"This is a constant threat, a dangerous threat that we're trying to counter in every tool that we have possible," Jordan's foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, told the Guardian.

"We warn that tampering with the status quo ... could trigger a religious conflict that will reverberate beyond Palestine and Jordan into the whole Muslim world.

"That's something that the whole international community should be aware of. Jerusalem is a tinderbox."

Safadi will host today's emergency meeting, bringing together his counterparts from Arab League countries, as well as Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan. "We're trying to explain the danger," he said. "We're

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Elephant in the room

Costumed activist elected in Colombia

Page 29

South Korea

Seoul swelters in deadly heatwave

Page 31

protesting legally. We are trying to create awareness of the imminent danger in the continuation of those Israeli measures."

Jordan's custodianship of the al-Aqsa compound dates back to Ottoman times and the status quo encompassing the city's religious sites was enshrined in the 1878 Treaty of Berlin. The Hashemite kingdom's oversight in Jerusalem was expanded to cover Christian holy sites in the 20th century. Its custodianship was reaffirmed after the 1967 war and in a 1994 Israeli-Jordanian treaty.

Infringement by Jewish extremists triggered riots in the British mandate period between the world wars and a 2000 visit to the compound by the rightwing leader Ariel Sharon, soon to become Israeli prime minister, ignited more than four years of violence in the second intifada.

Jordan is uniquely vulnerable to the impact of Israel's broader actions in the West Bank, which Amman fear may escalate dramatically as the October elections loom.

There is anxiety in Jordan over what the Israeli government might do in the three months left before the vote, as radical elements seek to change the geography of the region in ways that could be difficult to reverse. For Jordan, the worst-case scenario is an attempted mass deportation of Palestinians from the West

◀ Muslims praying at al-Aqsa mosque compound, one of the most important sites in East Jerusalem PHOTOGRAPH: ARADOLU/GETTY IMAGES

Bank, which would destabilise the country in several ways, including the economic costs, the political impact of an influx of dispossessed people and the threat to the country's delicate demographic balance.

Safadi said: "Our position is that this is a red line that we will not allow to be crossed. We have made that known to everybody that we will do whatever it takes to prevent any attempt at Israeli displacement of Palestinians into Jordan.

"Not only will that be a violation of international law and of the right of the Palestinians to stay on their land, but that will also be a tremendous escalation."

Jordanians descended from waves of Palestinian refugees already represent more than half of Jordan's 11.5 million population, and the country's original residents, the "East Bankers", are wary of what they see as further dilution of national identity.

Israel has refused to renew a 2021 water agreement under which it shared 100 million cubic metres a year with its neighbour, one of the most parched countries in the world.

It reverted to the 50 million cubic metres originally agreed in the 1994 treaty, which falls far short of the needs of a much bigger population than the Jordan of 32 years ago.

The Israeli government reportedly halved the water supply in response to criticism from the Jordanian government of the mass killing of Palestinian civilians by Israel in the Gaza war, and officials have hinted that the taps could be turned back on if the criticism ended.

The Israeli government's actions in Jerusalem, the West Bank and over water raise the political cost to the monarchy of maintaining normal relations with its western neighbour.

Dima Tabboub, a member of parliament and spokesperson for Jordan's Islamist Umma party, said: "Anti-normalisation sentiment here has grown even larger than before

due to the Zionist state's plans of annexation of the West Bank, the denial of Jordan's share in the water agreement and also the daily challenges to the custodianship at the al-Aqsa mosque.

"Every day there is penetration by settlers into the al-Aqsa mosque and at the same time, [Palestinian] Jerusalemites are prevented from entering the mosque."

Tabboub's party is Jordan's biggest political block, known as the Islamic Action Front (IAF) until earlier this year when it was ordered to adopt a less ideological name. Its rise has largely been driven by events on the other side of the River Jordan, and the Gaza war helped it win over 22% of the available seats.

The surge in political Islam came as a shock to the monarchy, which slowed down its plans for political reform and the transfer of more power to parliament as a result.

The Muslim Brotherhood movement was outlawed last year and the IAF, which operates as its political arm, had its offices raided.

It has, however, been allowed to continue as a party, under the name of Umma ("community" or "nation").

Tabboub argues that there is more the government could be doing to rally international support to resist Israel's encroachments.

"The issue is not being put to the table with the force that it needs," she said, while stressing that the Umma party stood with the government in the face of its adversaries

She said it understood the limitations imposed by geography and economics that have left Jordan significantly dependent on the US for its economic and security needs.

Unlike other Gulf monarchies, it has not allowed the US its own military bases on its territory, but there is a US presence in Jordanian bases, which has grown significantly since the start of the US war with Iran.

Amman has sought to play this down but that has been made harder by repeated successful Iranian air strikes, which killed three Americans and injured scores at the Muvaffaq Salti base in the eastern desert.

▲ Palestinians carry the coffins of people whose remains were recovered last weekend from the rubble of a residential apartment block PHOTOGRAPH: REUTERS

Gaza

Mass funeral held for 112 victims of 2023 airstrike

William Christou

Mourners gathered in central Gaza yesterday for a mass funeral for 112 people, including 40 children, who were killed in 2023 in one of the deadliest Israeli strikes of the Gaza war.

Their bodies could not be recovered until now because of Israel's continuing strikes, which have slowed, though not halted, since the ceasefire in October.

Hundreds of people gathered around coffins wrapped in Palestinian flags and arranged in rows on the ground in Deir al-Balah. Mourners prayed for the victims, before carrying the bodies between destroyed buildings to a nearby cemetery.

The victims had been among more than 300 people killed on 22 November 2023, when Israeli warplanes demolished a residential block in Gaza City. Only about 40 people were able to be recovered by bystanders on the scene, who dug through smouldering rubble with their bare hands and basic tools.

Last weekend, Gaza's civil defence dug through the levelled apartment block and recovered the remains of a further 112 victims, which included women and children. The Gaza civil defence said that 157 people were still missing from the attack.

The ceasefire that was established in October - which has not stopped Israeli bombing - has allowed first responders to dig through the rubble where thousands of remains are still buried across Gaza.

At least 7,400 people have been

reported by relatives to be still under the rubble, said Zaher al-Waheidi, the head of Gaza health ministry's records department.

He added that the true number is likely thousands higher, as some strikes killed entire families at a time, leaving no loved ones to report the missing.

A UN commission, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have found that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. In June, a UN commission found that Israel continues to commit genocide in Gaza and that its security forces "deliberately targeted and killed" Palestinian children.

At least 26 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes over the weekend, despite the announcement of a deal to solidify the second phase of the October ceasefire.

The killings happened days after Donald Trump hailed the latest deal, which was meant to see Hamas disarmed and Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza, as a "historic agreement."

More than 73,377 people in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since 7 October 2023, including more than 1,252 since the October ceasefire. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the October ceasefire began.

Ceasefire talks, which were meant to bring the truce agreement into a second phase and would see Hamas disarmed, have largely stalled. Senior Hamas officials said that the group's disarmament was conditional on Israel withdrawing from the strip. Israel said that it had "serious security concerns" over last week's agreement.

Most of the Gaza strip remains in ruins, with the majority of its 2 million population displaced and living in the midst of a humanitarian crisis in unsanitary, crowded tent cities.

73,377

People killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the war began - 1,252 since the October 2025 ceasefire

27

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World

25

Cartoon crusader

Elephant-costumed

activist sworn in as

senator in Colombia

Tiago Rogero

South America correspondent

When 102 senators were sworn in for Colombia's latest parliamentary

session, they included 32 women, 69 men and one cartoon elephant.

He had some difficulty making his way down the narrow aisle of Congress's ceremonial chamber, weaving past fellow senators in sharply tailored suits and dresses, before taking the oath in his pot-bellied white plush costume.

But blending in was never an option for the new senator, who ran almost his entire campaign without revealing his identity. It was only three days before the election that Luis Carlos Rúa, 34, revealed himself as the person behind Elefante Blanco, or White Elephant, a reference to the term used to describe overpriced, abandoned or ultimately useless public works, which he had spent the previous five years exposing on social media.

His videos attracted hundreds of thousands of views, some projects were resumed and Rúa became one of Colombia's most popular senators, with about 124,000 votes.

'It's extremely hot [to wear] but it has to be done. I'll go to places the state doesn't go'

Luis Carlos Rúa

Elefante Blanco

"The inauguration day was spectacular because nothing like it had ever happened anywhere in the world," said Rúa, who took off the head of his costume only occasionally during the swearing-in ceremony. He added: "I'm about to go into a plenary session, but I'm not wearing the costume because it's for specific occasions and not every debate is that significant."

The character's origins can be traced back to 2019, when Rúa was working for the mayor's office in the city of Pereira. During that time he witnessed the administration pressuring employees to secure votes for a candidate, he said.

He recorded a conversation and leaked it to the press. "I had to leave the city because I received death threats," he said.

He moved to Medellin and decided to continue exposing wrongdoing anonymously, because "here in Colombia, if you don't do things the way the crooked people want, you're not welcome".

He commissioned the elephant design from an illustrator and had the costume made by a seamstress. He posted his first video, about an unfinished road, in November 2021.

Since then, there have been dozens more about bridges, schools, tunnels and hospitals, all narrated in a distorted voice and sometimes showing Elefante Blanco trudging through mud or wading through murky water that stains the white costume - Rúa keeps a spare.

"It's extremely hot inside it, but it still has to be done because I'll go to places the state doesn't go," he said.

Rúa funded his trips through freelance work, the sale of Elefante Blanco plush toys and

▲ Luis Carlos Rúa, also known as Elefante Blanco. His videos about 'white elephant' projects - public works that are unfinished, overpriced or useless - have attracted hundreds of thousands of views on social media. This week he was sworn in as a senator in Colombia's parliament, left MAIN PHOTOGRAPH: ESTEBAN VANGIAS/ THE NEW YORK TIMES/ REDUX/EXXVIRE

crowdfunding, but said it was not sustainable and decided to run for office so that, with a senator's salary, he could continue his oversight work.

He announced his candidacy in December but remained anonymous. "Revealing my face just three days before the election gave me enough time to protect my own safety," he said. Rúa received at least one vote in almost all of Colombia's approximately 1,100 municipalities.

For Gabriel Cifuentes, a political analyst, Elefante Blanco's election says as much about the influence of social media on elections as it does about "a growing weariness with traditional politics".

Cifuentes said: "Politics is seen as a corrupt exercise and, in that sense, activists like him, who are not tied to political parties, tend to attract the attention of a public that is increasingly connected through social media."

One of Rúa's proposals is a law requiring municipalities to allocate budgets to fix potholes. It would be named after his father, Darío Rúa, who was 85 when he fell on a potholed street and died in 2024.

The senator said he had cast a blank vote in the presidential runoff between the leftwing senator Iván Cepeda and the far-right millionaire lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, who won. "I'm not from the left, the right or the centre," he said. "I'm independent."

Even so, he has faced criticism for voting in favour of De la Espriella's proposal to move Friday's presidential inauguration ceremony from Bogotá to Cali, 280 miles away. The proposal passed the senate by 58 votes to 30.

Critics said Rúa had campaigned against wasting public money, only to back moving the entire inauguration, with its hundreds of guests and staff, for a single day.

He said he wanted to send "a signal of state presence in a region that has historically been neglected" and that, even with the venue change, it would cost less than the leftist president Gustavo Petro's inauguration in 2022.

Rúa said he would attend Friday's event dressed as Elefante Blanco. "My relationship with [De la Espriella] will basically be one of political oversight, and it would have been exactly the same if the other candidate had won," he said.

'Nine Lives' the duck-killing feral cat shot after three years on run

Eva Corlett

Wellington

A notorious feral cat given the name "Nine Lives" because it eluded trap pers for three years has been caught and killed in New Zealand, ending its devastating rampage against the country's rarest mainland duck.

The large grey tabby cat is estimated to have killed dozens of pâteke, or brown teal - about 1% of its global population - plus a host of kiwi chicks, geckos and other native

wildlife during the three years it was roaming the Purerua peninsula, near the top of North Island.

"We don't take for granted that we've had this success because it had us baffled for so long," said Andy Mentor of the conservation project Pest Free Purerua.

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of cat ownership in the world, and the impact of feral and domestic cats on biodiversity ignites fierce debate. Some on social media were horrified Nine Lives had been shot, arguing it deserved to live, while

others said the cat's capture was "a fantastic result".

Nine Lives will form part of that debate even after death, with its body to be preserved for use as a tool to educate the community about the impact of feral cats on native species.

Nine Lives was first spotted on the Purerua peninsula in 2023. What ensued was a frustrating and twisted game of cat and mouse.

Pest Free Purerua had just introduced 20 pâteke to the peninsula, believing it had control over the feral cat population.

"But within a week we had our first death. We put up some cameras and we identified a particular cat with specific markings," Mentor said. Another 15 pâteke were killed, with the same cat turning up.

The project managed to catch other feral cats over the next year, but Nine Lives remained elusive. They decided to release 20 pâteke in 2024, but the same cat appeared, killing 15 of the birds.

The team came close to catching it on a number of occasions, but each

▲ Nine Lives killed dozens of pâteke, New Zealand's rarest mainland duck

time it slipped their grasp, earning it the name Nine Lives.

At the end of July, Mentor and his team noticed the cat had turned up to a quarry three nights in a row, which was "quite unusual". They laid out salmon, fried chicken and rabbit to attract the animal, and deployed cages and traps.

Last Friday a notification from a camera showed a cat in one of the cages. "We dispatched our trappers to check it out and there it was. So it was humanely shot," Mentor said.

In November, the government announced feral cats would be added to the country's world-leading Predator-Free 2050 strategy. Mentor said it was a "real step up" for the peninsula and the team may restart the introduction of pâteke.

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10

World

Hundreds forced to sleep on streets of Rome as community centre falls victim to squat clampdown

so that the community can be maintained, Spin Time's residents are facing another night on the street.

Podaro, who is unemployed, said: "There are lots of children, newborns, elderly and disabled people, and those with complicated illnesses who are struggling in this heat. What this government doesn't seem to understand is that if we had a decent job and could earn money, then we wouldn't be in this situation."

Spin Time has provided a lifeline for hundreds, including Marco Perilli, a construction worker who was one of its first residents after becoming homeless following a divorce.

Perilli was among the residents who put the fire out. "There was

panic but we were able to extinguish it within about 20 minutes," he said. "Firefighters made the area safe but then the police arrived and, because we were afraid, we all went outside. They locked the gates and told us we couldn't go back inside due to the safety checks. Within a few hours, the building was seized."

He said police searched the building for drugs and weapons. "It backfired because they found nothing," he added, saying the fire was exploited as an excuse for eviction.

"The Meloni government needs to think carefully about the real meaning of power," he added. "Power is not about attacking poor people - this government is at war against the poor."

Benjamin Macshane, a British volunteer in Spin Time's restaurant, said it offers more than shelter. "There's co-working, there's an after-school club, there's migration assistance, a food bank, a barbers, an auditorium ... I can't think of anywhere else in the world that has so many different avenues for a community to grow."

'There are children, newborns, elderly and disabled people, struggling in the heat'

Petronela Podaro Spin Time Labs resident

Angela Giuffrida Rome

Hundreds of people have spent a week sleeping in tents during a Rome heatwave amid a standoff between Giorgia Meloni's far-right government and local politicians over the future of a high-profile centre for housing and social assistance.

A minor fire last week forced the evacuation of the Spin Time Labs building, which has been occupied by grassroots groups since 2013, and it has remained closed as Meloni's government attempts to crack down on such squatted properties.

"It's an awful situation, made worse by this heatwave," said Petronela Podaro, a domestic worker from Romania camped outside the building in Rome's Esquilino district.

The fire broke out in the early hours of 29 July in an external area, and was extinguished by residents before it could spread.

But police evacuated the 10-floor complex - citing the need for safety checks - forcing about 400 residents, including children, elderly and disabled people, on to the street.

Spin Time, an initiative supported by Rome's leftwing council and the Vatican, has long been targeted for eviction by Meloni's government, which regards occupied buildings as dens for criminality.

The centre, which offers a food bank, restaurant and co-working space, hit the headlines in 2019 after Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, an aide to the late Pope Francis, climbed down a manhole to restore electricity, provoking the fury of Matteo Salvini, Italy's current deputy prime minister who was interior minister at the time.

Various Italian writers, actors and film directors, including the Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino, have appealed for the residents to be allowed back in or for alternative accommodation to be provided. Roberto Saviano, an author and high-profile critic of Meloni's government, visited the scene on Monday and described it as a "symbol of democracy" rather than a criminal act.

The building is now under two judicial seizure orders - one linked to the private owner's long-running legal battle to regain possession, supported by the interior ministry, and the other to the fire.

Rome's council, along with volunteers, have provided camp beds, food, drinks and medical assistance. As it scrambles to find a solution, including offering to buy the building

▲ Police are preventing residents from entering, with hundreds of people camping outside during a heatwave, right. Petronela and Nicoletta, below, have lived on the same floor since 2013

PHOTOGRAPHS: CLAUDIA DEGANUTTI

India's BJP suffers election defeats after student unrest

Penelope MacRae Delhi

India's ruling Bharatiya Janata party has suffered a byelection defeat after the Cockroach movement student protests that shook Narendra Modi's government.

Prashant Kishor scored a breakthrough win for his fledgling Jan Suraj (Good Governance) party with the capture of the Bankipur constituency in Patna, capital of the eastern state of Bihar.

The race in a BJP stronghold was closely watched because it followed student protests over exam paper leaks that forced the resignation of the education minister, a rare retreat by a government that prides itself on not yielding to public pressure.

Kishor, who made his name as an electoral strategist, declared his victory a "wake-up call" for Modi to improve education and create jobs.

The BJP lost two of the three byelection contests over the weekend, with the opposition Congress party retaining the Datia constituency in central Madhya Pradesh. The BJP avoided a complete rout by comfortably holding on to Manjalpur in Gujarat, Modi's home state.

Kishor's supporters said that his campaign had succeeded by focusing on issues that resonate with younger voters, particularly education, exam scandals and unemployment.

"Unlike other political leaders who make lofty promises, he raised the simple slogan: vote for the future of your children," Deepak Sharma, a former BJP supporter, told The Hindu newspaper.

The opposition argues that the student protest movement is starting to dent BJP support among younger voters. Nearly two-thirds of India's population is below 35.

While the official youth unemployment rate is 16%, the rates are much higher for graduates, according to a report by Azim Premji University.

The Cockroach Janta party's rise is troubling the government. The BJP's president, Nitin Nabin, sparked controversy during the campaign when he called the largely gen Z protesters "a virus and a cockroach gang devoted to breaking the country".

He pledged after the byelection loss that the party would "undertake a thorough introspection". Senior BJP sources said the loss showed even its core supporters could switch sides.

A string of state polls will be held next year, with national elections scheduled for 2029.

◀ Prashant Kishor shows off his election certificate after his byelection victory in Bihar, eastern India

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World

11

First ever severe heatwave warning issued in Seoul as death toll in South Korea hits 19

Mark Saunokonoko

Seoul was suffering through its first ever severe heatwave warning yesterday, as South Korea reeled from a deadly heatwave during which it reached a record high temperature.

The south-eastern city of Yangsan reached 42.5C on Sunday afternoon - the highest temperature recorded in 122 years of weather observations - before the heat shifted westwards towards the densely populated capital of more than 9 million people.

The temperature in Seoul hit 39C in the Guro district on Monday, with three sweltering days of 37C forecast to follow.

South Korea has recorded 19 fatalities linked to heat and more than 2,000 people have been treated for heat-related illnesses since May, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting yesterday, South Korea's president, Lee Jae Myung, called on officials to take steps to protect the daily lives of people and inspect power systems as demand for air-conditioning surges. "We need to make efforts for a fundamental overhaul of the national crisis system, since this extreme weather is becoming normal," he said.

Seoul authorities held an emergency meeting on Monday and launched initiatives to counter the heat and alleviate health risks. It is the first time the capital has issued a severe heatwave warning under a system established this year as the government sought to improve how it responded to rising temperatures.

▲ People cool off in Seoul's Cheonggyecheon stream, while at left others in the South Korean capital sit in a cooling dome and, right, a man wipes sweat from his face amid the heatwave

PHOTOGRAPHS: GREG BARER (UPFIGHTTY) JEON HILIN-KYUN/EPA

Trump's border wall builders told to stop drilling for water

Coral Murphy Marcos

Construction crews building a border wall in New Mexico have been ordered to stop drilling new wells after ranchers said that pumping groundwater to produce concrete could threaten their livestock amid a severe drought.

The order came as crews across the southern border race to complete one of Donald Trump's highest domestic priorities - barriers that span four states having received more than $46bn (£34bn) in federal funding.

Controversies have sprung up in Texas and California, and border-town residents and environmentalists have reported a wide variety of issues with construction.

At a public meeting in July, ranchers said they were noticing unmonitored tapping of border aquifers that threatened the water for those nearby.

Russell Johnson, a cattle rancher whose property runs along the border, said: "It would put us in an immediate catastrophe and having to do something with our livestock. I mean, it could potentially put some people out of business, us included."

Johnson raised the issue at the public meeting after noticing an industrial well, which drilling crews told him would pump 300 gallons a minute, on land he leases for grazing.

"Whatever they do on that well affects everybody in this basin,"

▲ New Mexico ranchers object to water extraction during a drought

one rancher said at the meeting. He added that from his conversation with border patrol he believed "they really don't even understand what an aquifer is".

A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection said on Monday that border wall contractors in New Mexico had been instructed to stop drilling new wells.

Previously CBP, which oversees border wall construction, said water was needed to produce concrete, build roads, construct barriers and control dust at construction sites.

New Mexico's engineer's office, which monitors and approves wells across the state, told NPR last month it had counted at least six wells under development along the border, and that none had the necessary permits. Staff visited two wells in July and reported they were pumping 200 gallons per minute.

"All non-tribal wells in New Mexico, whether they are drilled on state or federal land, must have permits from the state engineer before they can be drilled or water can be pumped from them," the office said.

Additional reporting

Associated Press

Heatstroke is blamed for death of three lions in Tokyo zoo

Agence France-Presse

Three lions have died from suspected heatstroke at a Tokyo zoo and others are having treatment as the big cats struggle in high humidity.

Japan sweltered through its hottest summer on record last year and parts of the country have hit 40C this summer, qualifying for the new "crusely hot day" designation.

Since mid-July, 10 of the 16 lions in Tama zoological park have suffered from "loss of appetite and decreased activity" and three lionesses have died. One died last Tuesday, another on Friday and the third on Sunday, the zoo said in a statement.

The cause of the deaths is thought to be heatstroke because dehydration and multiple organ failure were

Nurses were conducting checks on up to 63,000 residents deemed most vulnerable, including elderly people and people with disabilities or chronic illnesses.

In an attempt to dampen rising urban heat in Seoul, a fleet of 200 trucks were spraying more than 1,200 miles of roads with water. The trucks are operating up to six times a day in the most problematic areas.

Seoul's pedestrian commuters have been snaking their way to work through patches of shade, avoiding direct sunlight even in the morning's cooler hours. Others have sought relief under mist-spray zones set up around the city.

Elsewhere, officials in North Gyeongsang province have used drones equipped with loudspeakers to broadcast safety messages. The drones were also using thermal imaging cameras over areas crowded with people on summer holidays.

Outdoor workers were bearing the brunt of the oppressive heat. A construction worker in Seoul, identified by the Korea Times only as Kim, said: "We take a 10-minute break every hour, but there isn't even a fan here, so all we can do is sit in the shade. I sweat so much that my clothes rub my skin raw wherever they touch."

Lee, a 55-year-old from Gwang-myeong who collects shopping trolleys in a supermarket car park, said conditions were brutal. "Lacking ventilation makes the experience feel like being inside a sauna," he said.

Concern has also been expressed for food delivery riders.

The Korea Meteorological Administration has attributed the heatwave to overlapping high pressure systems over the Korean peninsula combined with strong, direct sunlight under clear skies.

The heat in the south-eastern South Gyeongsang province has been intensified by the foehn phenomenon, which occurs when wind crosses a mountain range and becomes hotter and drier on the other side.

observed by a veterinarian. A spokesperson said: "Even though lions are thought to be resistant to heat, zookeepers have been strengthening countermeasures to cope with Japan's summer heat in recent years.

"Heat here comes with high humidity; that is different from heat with dry air in Africa.

"But this summer, heat arrived suddenly after the rainy season was over. We are strengthening measures against the heat, sprinkling water, improving ventilation and installing spot air conditioners."

About 18,600 people in Japan were taken to hospital for heatstroke from 20 to 26 July, with 45 of them dead on arrival, according to the fire and disaster management agency.

Japan experiences about 1,300 heat-related deaths annually and is aiming to halve that number by 2030.

Its highest temperature was registered in August last year: 41.8C (107F) in Iseaki, north of Tokyo.

18,600

The number taken to hospital for heatstroke from 20 to 26 July in Japan, with 45 dead on arrival

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Windfall tax calls grow after banks report bumper profits

Kalyeena Makortoff

Banking correspondent

Calls for a windfall tax on UK banks that could raise £19bn towards Andy Burnham's cost of living agenda have been renewed after HSBC made $10.1bn (£7.5bn) in profits in the second quarter of the year.

Bosses at HSBC reported yesterday that profits rose 60% year on year in the three months to the end of June, helped by fees from wealth management and insurance business, as well as higher interest rates, which allow the bank to charge more for loans and mortgages.

The bank's chief executive, Georges Elhedery, said he would consider increasing banker bonuses on the back of the strong results and planned to restart a share buy-back

programme that had been on pause since last year.

The news brings collective profits for the four largest banks - HSBC, NatWest, Barclays and Lloyds - to £29.2bn over the first six months of 2026, putting lenders back in the crosshairs of campaign groups, including Positive Money and the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which are calling for a fresh tax on the lucrative industry.

Positive Money said bank bosses had pledged nearly half of their profits - £13.7bn - to shareholders through dividends and share buy-backs, proving they could easily shoulder a tax that they calculated could raise £19bn towards the government's spending plans at the October budget.

The campaign group said the government could replicate Spain's levy, targeting any UK revenues above £800m with a 38% tax, in line with the

energy profits levy introduced by the Conservative government in 2022.

Positive Money said the resulting £19bn would cover Burnham's VAT cut from electricity bills (worth £850m), the £2 cap on bus fares (£500m) and the business rates cut for pubs and music venues (£100m) more than 13 times over.

Sara Hall, the co-director of Positive Money, said: "Previous governments have allowed the powerful banking lobby to persuade them against taxing record-breaking profits in recent years, despite overwhelming public support for the policy.

£19bn

Amount the suggested levy might raise - enough to cover Burnham's initiatives more than 13 times over

"We're calling on Andy Burnham to break with his predecessors by resisting the demands of City lobbyists and reclaiming these lost billions with a windfall tax on bank profits, the proceeds of which could be used to fund truly life-changing support for the households and businesses struggling to pay their bills."

Banking bosses were cautious this week when asked about a fresh tax rise. They told journalists they were encouraged by Burnham's economic vision, but stressed their ability to lend money to businesses was crucial for the new prime minister's growth ambitions. "UK growth requires strong banks," Elhedery said.

But advocates of a tax remain undeterred, and the TUC general secretary, Paul Nowak, said: "There is now a mountain of evidence to suggest that banks can easily afford to pay more tax. While higher interest rates have meant mortgage misery and bigger bills for the rest of us, the big banks have been rolling in it."

Metro Bank followed its big four competitors in announcing bumper profits. The challenger bank reported a 38% jump in pre-tax profits yesterday to £60.7m over the first six months of 2026.

Gatwick to go ahead with £2.2bn second runway after court victory

Gwyn Topham

Transport correspondent

Gatwick airport is to start the £2.2bn development of its second runway after campaigners lost a challenge against the plans yesterday.

The court of appeal dismissed a bid by local campaign groups to challenge an earlier high court decision that said the scheme could proceed.

The project, which will allow about 100,000 more flights a year to use Britain's second busiest airport, was approved in September by Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary.

Pierre-Hugues Schmit, Gatwick's chief executive, said the airport was "very pleased that this ruling brings to an end an eight-year planning and legal process which has carefully tested and scrutinised every aspect of our expansion plans on multiple occasions".

The plans will involve the West Sussex airport slightly repositioning its emergency runway and using it routinely for short-haul passenger aircraft. Gatwick is among the busiest single-runway airports in the world and hopes to have the second runway in operation as early as 2030.

The government declared that the court of appeal ruling was a "major

milestone for Gatwick and for local communities". Alexander said: "Around 13 million more passengers and 100,000 more flights will give holidaymakers greater choice and strengthen global links to help make the UK one of the most attractive places in the world to invest.

"We'll back expansion that supports growth and our climate goals. To drive forward sustainable change, we're also investing more than £219m for green fuel production to cut emissions from flying and secure the future of aviation."

Campaigners had sought a judicial

review of the Department for Transport's decision to approve the plans, arguing the government had not properly assessed the scheme's potential climate impact.

Peter Barclay, the chair of the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign, said he was disappointed with the court ruling, adding: "It is time for governments to wake up and realise that saying yes to the expansion of any and every airport will not kickstart the economy.

"It will further lock in aviation's climate, noise and air pollution impacts, increase congestion on

▲ Gatwick's second runway will allow 100,000 more flights and 13 million extra passengers a year PHOTOGRAPH: TONY MILLVILLE/MUTTERS

roads and public transport and blight local communities."

The owners of Luton airport said yesterday that their expansion plans had also cleared legal hurdles.

The supreme court dismissed any final possibility of an appeal against a high court ruling upholding approval of the scheme to raise annual capacity from 19 million to 32 million passengers by the mid-2040s.

US moves to ban Chinese datacentre components

Nick Robins-Early

The Trump administration is reportedly drafting a ban on US imports of Chinese-datacentre components in the latest sign Washington is scrambling to respond to China's rapid development of AI technology.

Four people familiar with the matter said the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which oversees the US telecommunications industry, was developing a measure to bar imports of Chinese optical transceivers, which allow data to travel over fibre-optic cables at the speed of light within datacentres. Officials hope to publish the measure this year.

The FCC could still modify or shelve the restriction, but the deliberations are the latest sign the Trump administration is focused on limiting Chinese technological incursions into cutting-edge US industries.

The US has long been at the forefront of the AI industry, with companies including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google driving the development of models, and chip-makers such as Nvidia commanding the supply chain.

But advancements in China's AI, chip manufacturing and robotics technologies have rattled markets, caused divisions among US tech leaders and left the Trump administration scrambling to respond.

Chinese companies are some of the biggest manufacturers of components necessary for datacentres, with the country's optical transceiver industry controlling a majority of the global market for the technology. US tech companies have committed trillions of dollars to build out American AI infrastructure. However, plans are falling behind schedule while China attempts to catch up with its own massive development of datacentres.

Chinese components are of concern because they could allow Chinese firms to steal data, install malware or disrupt service in the US if they were embedded in US infrastructure, experts say.

Last month, the FCC announced a ban on China's advanced humanoid robots. The Trump administration is also reportedly mulling whether to restrict the use of Chinese open-source AI models.

Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, has also suggested China could be sanctioned for theft of US data and intellectual property.

The White House and FCC did not respond to requests for comment.

Additional reporting Reuters

13

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24

Business

Business view

Nils Pratley

O'Neill shows no sentiment in pruning BP and puts Burnham on the spot over North Sea oil

In pruning its portfolio of assets, BP will ignore "sentiment" and "history", says new-ish boss Meg O'Neill. She demonstrated as much last week when putting the company's 60-year-old North Sea oil and gas business up for sale, explaining yesterday that "it just doesn't compete" in the battle for capital.

Now comes a disposal that delivers an equally unsentimental message about priorities. The US biogas business Archaea, which was a prized acquisition in the brief green-tinged era of Bernard Looney, is on the block less than four years after BP bought it for $4bn (£3bn).

Back in 2022, Looney, O'Neill's predecessor-but-one, cooed over

Archaea, which taps methane from landfill sites. It was "a fantastic, fast-growing business" that would add "distinctive value" and "support our net zero ambition".

One hefty write-down later, the operation is judged surplus to requirements because it is too capital-hungry for a group in debt-reduction mode.

The clearing of the decks at BP is happening quickly after the strategic muddle of recent years. A sale of the solar power unit Lightsource is close but, as with the North Sea assets, it is not just the green assets that are targets. A major refinery in Gelsenkirchen in Germany has gone. So too the Austrian fuel stations. And the sale of the lubricants business Castrol was under way before

O'Neill arrived. By the end of year, reckons BP, it will have reached its target to get net debt below $18bn, 12 months ahead of schedule. The process will have been massively assisted, of course, by the boom in profits and cashflow that followed the surge in oil and gas revenues with the Iran war.

BP's profits more than doubled to $5.73bn in the three months to the end of June.

Cue understandable outrage among campaign groups but zero surprise on the part of City analysts. BP sold its oil at an average of $94 a barrel in the second quarter, up from $67 in the first, enjoying only a slightly smaller increase in the price of natural gas. Profits were obviously going to be enormous, just as they have been at other oil majors.

That was doubly so when constraints in the global flow of oil meant that refining the stuff, where BP is also big, became a licence to print money.

For O'Neill, the next question from investors will be when she's going rejoin other majors and restart share buy-backs, which were cancelled in February when the strain on the balance sheet was more acute than it is now. She dodged the question yesterday - but shareholders will expect an answer from a straight-talking chief

▲ BP is selling Lightsource, which produces solar power at the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir in Surrey

Constraints in the global flow of oil meant that refining the stuff, where BP is also big, became a licence to print money

executive soon-ish. Still, she was clear in the advice she had given to Andy Burnham on the North Sea.

"The message I left him with was: the UK gets 75% of its energy from fossil fuels today, so that's oil and natural gas," she said. "The first barrel of oil we consume and molecule of natural gas we need should be coming from the UK North Sea, where we generate jobs, we generate tax revenue, we generate all those additional positive impacts."

That is the case for more (or more stable) domestic volumes, even as the UK decarbonises: you do it to minimise imports, particularly of liquefied natural gas with its higher associated emissions. The UK's net import dependency was 43.5% in 2025.

There's no chance of O'Neill reversing BP's exit from the North Sea, it seems, but the other implied message in her comments about the competitiveness of the basin was not hard to grasp.

If Burnham wants to boost domestic supplies, it won't be enough just to approve Adura's Jackdaw and Rosebank fields for production. There will also have to be a rethink on the energy profits levy - the windfall tax started in 2022 - to incentivise investment.

It is one of the unavoidable big choices for October's budget.

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Business Banking

▼ The City of London, where higher taxes on banks, which are having a bumper year, could help fund social care reforms by Andy Burnham, left

15

Will PM raise tax on banks? Warning shots fired by City as calls increase

Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent

It has been a stellar week for Britain's banks. Fuelled by high interest rates and market turbulence rippling out from the US war on Iran, lenders have revealed soaring half-year profits that allowed bosses to boost bonus pots and give billions of pounds to shareholders.

Collectively the UK's four largest lenders - HSBC, NatWest, Barclays and Lloyds - reported £29.2bn in profits over the first six months of the year, with almost half, £13.7bn, pledged to investors through dividends and share buy-backs.

Those bumper figures have turbocharged calls for a tax increase on banks. Campaigners say raising taxes on their earnings could yield £19bn from the big four banks alone, helping to offset the price of the ambitious plan by Andy Burnham, the prime minister, to slash living costs and overhaul Britain's social care system.

"This is not a 'hard choice'," Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said last week. "Banks can easily afford to pay more tax. This is a chance for the new prime minister and chancellor to show whose side they are on."

The campaign group Positive Money echoed those sentiments, saying: "We're calling on Andy Burnham to break with his predecessors by resisting the demands of City lobbyists and reclaiming these lost billions with a windfall tax on bank profits, the proceeds of which could be used to fund truly life-changing support for the households and businesses struggling to pay their bills."

Burnham has not made any specific comments about a bank tax. Speaking in June, however, he said people needed help with rising costs. "While not taking risks with the public finances, [I] will seek to give Britain some breathing space as soon as I can," he said.

Nowak said: "Andy Burnham has rightly prioritised cost of living measures in his first days as prime minister, but as the war in Iran rumbles on, energy prices will rise further - and the government will need to do more to protect households. That's why it's time to increase the tax on bank profits to cut bills."

The City is steeled for battle, having spent the better part of two decades fighting the levies it was forced to shoulder as recompense for the 2008 banking meltdown.

Some influential executives have fired warning shots, saying lending could be throttled and lucrative investments - such as JP Morgan's £9bn Canary Wharf HQ - could be on the line. Jamie Dimon, the Wall Street bank's chief executive, said: "We paid probably $10bn [£7.4bn] in extra taxes by now, I don't think that's right or fair. If that happens too much we will reconsider."

Paul Thwaite, the chief executive of NatWest Group, said tax rises would hold back lending and harm the economy. As he reported a 29% profit increase he said: "If you want strong economies, you want strong banks. It's really important to have consistency and stability of policies."

Barclays said its loans would be crucial to supporting Burnham's growth agenda, suggesting any constraints on its finances could weigh on the funding available to business and consumers. "We think that the track record that we and the other banks have, in terms of

supporting UK growth and indeed leaning into UK lending in the way we have ... is really important for the health of the economy," Anna Cross, Barclays' chief financial officer, said last week. "We hope that that will be considered."

The banks' lobby machine will be keen to prove that Burnham's growth plans could be dead in the water without the City's support.

Windfall taxes on banks have long been controversial, even as bank bosses have struggled to shake off the reputational damage of the 2008 financial crisis.

Left to clean up the mess of a series of taxpayer-funded bailouts, Tory ministers in the coalition government saw banks as an easy target for taxes as they embarked on a period of state austerity.

First came the bank levy, which George Osborne, then the chancellor, slapped on the industry as part of an emergency budget weeks after the Cameron-Clegg coalition government took power in May 2010. The measure, based on proposals by the International Monetary Fund, aimed to recoup billions of pounds from the UK's largest banks by taxing a portion of their balance sheets.

However, bosses went on the attack. By 2015, HSBC's then chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, incensed by the growing regulatory burdens and the £700m annual charge of the bank levy, revealed the bank was considering shifting its headquarters out of the UK to Hong Kong. "This is not a threat; it's a very objective review," he said.

Spooked by the prospect of losing one of the City's most important lenders, Osborne backed off, scaling back the bank levy to ensure it covered only UK-based balance sheets - rather than global assets - in a direct boost to HSBC.

Osborne also bowed to banks' complaints that the levy had been raised too often and without warning. He agreed to halve the rate from 0.21% to 0.1%, in a move that cut annual tax takings from £8bn to £4bn. But he had another tool at the ready, albeit one meant to spread the tax burden more widely across the sector, with an 8% charge on banks' profits.

A later chancellor, Rishi Sunak, pledged to slash this charge from 8% to 3% from April 2023, amid concerns that Brexit was putting London at a disadvantage compared with other big financial centres. But a post-Covid rise in interest rates and a resulting cost of living crisis that caused inflation to soar to 11% put bank profits back in the public's crosshairs.

MPs on the Treasury committee lambasted City bosses in July 2023, accusing them of profiteering and failing in their social duty as consumers suffered. Pressure mounted in the UK as governments across mainland Europe slapped windfall taxes on banks to support struggling households.

0.21%

The bank levy announced by George Osborne in 2015, which he later halved after pressure from banks

The looming threat of increased taxes put banks back on the defensive, with Charlie Nunn, the Lloyds Banking Group chief executive, urging policymakers to keep their hands off profits.

When Labour swept to power in 2024, some frontbenchers did not heed Nunn's call. As deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner was reported to have urged Rachel Reeves, then the chancellor, early last year to raise the corporation tax rate on banks, triggering familiar warnings from Lloyds, HSBC and NatWest that such a move risked "eroding investment" and damaging the government's economic recovery plans.

But campaigners and thinktanks have offered creative alternatives to claw cash from the big banks. The Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank pointed to the 4% interest that commercial lenders earn from reserves held at the Bank of England, at a £22bn-a-year loss to the public finances. It called for a levy, akin to the tax on deposits introduced by Margaret Thatcher in 1981.

Ministers asked Treasury officials to look into the profitability of the UK's largest banks as a consequence of quantitative easing, while lobbyists quickly totted up fresh sums.

Banks in the UK were paying a total tax rate of about 45.8% when employment taxes and VAT were taken into account, according to the lobby group UK Finance. That compared with a 38.6% rate in Frankfurt and 27.9% in New York.

As both sides rehearse their arguments and counter arguments, they wait to see if the new prime minister does indeed plan to revive a policy that, if the past is any guide, will put him at loggerheads with the City.

---

10

Weather

Wednesday 5 August 2026

UK and Ireland Noon today

Forecast

Around the UK

Atlantic front

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

Sun & Moon

Lighting up

Specieswatch

When cows belch and fart they release methane, which is warming the planet, but how does this compare with the digestive gases emitted by wild animals? A new study shows that deer add the greatest amount of methane to the atmosphere, but compared with domesticated livestock their total contribution is minuscule.

Methane has been rising rapidly in recent years, but it is hard to pin down exactly where it is coming from. Like domesticated cows, wild ruminants such as deer, moose and llamas rely on bacteria to help them break down the fibrous plants they eat, releasing methane as they go. To understand how much methane they release, Theresia Yazbeck, from the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany, and colleagues used recent estimates of global wild animal populations and combined these with methane emission estimates based on body mass and diet.

Their calculations, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, suggest wild ruminants release ( \frac{1}{2} ) m tonnes of methane every year - with more than half of this from just six species of deer - some ( \frac{1}{2} ) times less than what domesticated livestock emit. Kate Ravilious

Around the world

High tides

Aberdeen	0509	4.0m	1755	3.7m
Arenmouth	1110	11.7m	2332	11.5m
Barron	0314	8.6m	1539	8.1m
Belfast	0249	3.4m	1527	3.1m
Cobb	0926	3.7m	2153	3.7m
Cromer	1014	4.8m	2311	4.3m
Dover	0237	6.2m	1504	6.3m
Dublin	0328	3.9m	1604	3.6m
Galway	0918	4.4m	2141	4.4m
Greenock	0407	3.4m	1635	3.2m
Harwich	0344	3.7m	1542	3.8m
Holyhead	0204	5.3m	1431	4.8m
Hull	1015	7.0m	2247	6.4m
Leith	0628	5.2m	1910	4.8m
Liverpool	0246	8.8m	1511	8.3m

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©

Tour de France Femmes

World champion Reusser rockets to time-trial win

Page 39 →

Football

'I can't wait': Szoboszlai hungry for Liverpool reset

Page 41 →

David Squires on ... Gianni Infantino clinging to power as his Fifa empire crumbles

David Squires archive Peruse our resident cartoonist's previous work at theguardian.com/profile/david-squires

37

Sport

Winter sports

GB Snowsport loses Olympic funding amid new review

Paul MacInnes

UK Sport has withdrawn all funding from GB Snowsport for the next Olympic cycle, after commissioning an independent review into the organisation's governance.

The news comes six months after Team GB's most successful Winter Olympics at Milano Cortina, and at the same time as record levels of funding were confirmed for British winter sport and parasport athletes before the Alpes 2030 Games.

UK Sport has guaranteed £12.5m to fund coaches and athletes across ski and snowboard events, and their Paralympic equivalents, over the next four years. This is the largest share of a total pool of £33m for winter sports, ahead of the £10.1m guaranteed to bobsleigh and skeleton. But a new funding mechanism outside of GB Snowsport is yet to be confirmed.

"The UK Sport board has decided not to route the investment for snowsport through GB Snowsport once funding for the Milan Cortina cycle ends," the funding body said in a statement. "UK Sport has written today to all funded snowsport athletes to ... affirm our full commitment to them ahead of Alpes 2030 and to commit to continue paying athletes grants directly into the new cycle whilst we address these challenges. Separately, UK Sport will be commissioning an independent review into the governance of GB Snowsport."

GB Snowsport has changed chair twice in the past three years, with Michael Osterlin - a non-executive

director at the organisation - now operating in the role in an interim capacity. The body said it was "disappointed" at the funding decision. In a statement to the Guardian, GB Snowsport also said: "We have recently concluded an independent governance review funded by UK Sport, which has confirmed that our governance standards remain strong and appropriate. We look forward to engaging fully and robustly in any new review, which we are confident will reach the same conclusions."

UK Sport also confirmed the creation of a "specialist, multisport performance delivery organisation", to be known as Sport Org, which will take over the running of elite programmes in certain sports. The curling and wheelchair curling programme is already operated by Sport Org and it has been announced that the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association will transfer its programmes to the new vehicle before Utah 2034. In 2022 Joanna Poulton resigned as the BBSA chair over plans to create an organisation along the lines of Sport Org, calling it "laughable" and "naive".

The director of performance and people at UK Sport, Dr Kate Baker, said: "Competition across Olympic and Paralympic winter sport is only getting stronger, which is why it's more important than ever that we invest where we can have the biggest impact. It is also why we are not afraid of driving the change needed to give our athletes the very best chance of success. The investments we are announcing today, alongside the reform we are driving in the system, will enable us to do exactly that."

▲ Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale with Olympic gold

Sport in brief

Tennis

Boulter and De Minaur say 'I do' to $1m doubles

Newlyweds Katie Boulter and Alex de Minaur are among an extra 13 teams to have entered the US Open mixed doubles championship, which was overhauled last year with a $1m prize to the winners. There are now 29 teams for the 16 spots in the main event, which will be held on 25 and 26 August. Teams can enter until 17 August when the six duos with the best combined singles rankings will go into the

main draw. The top-ranked pairing is currently Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic. Eight teams will get wildcards, and two other teams will come through a new qualifying tournament on 24 August. Elina Svitolina and her husband Gaël Monfils have also entered. Associated Press

Rugby union

Ramos to move from Toulouse to Racing 92

France full-back and six-time Top 14 champion Thomas Ramos will leave Toulouse and join Racing 92 at the end of the coming season. Ramos, 31, has spent his entire career at Toulouse but will move to Racing on a three-year deal ahead of the 2027-28 season. AFP

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38

Sport Cricket

Stokes rules out Ashes return and trains sights on future in coaching

Ali Martin

Ben Stokes has trained his sights on becoming England head coach in the future and expressed concerns about Joe Root's impending second stint as Test captain.

In his first interview since retiring from England duty in June - a two-hour chat with his former teammates Stuart Broad and Jos Buttler on the For The Love Of Cricket Podcast - Stokes again ruled out returning for next summer's Ashes.

But the 35-year-old still has ambitions in the international arena, namely a possible move into coaching

when he eventually calls time on his domestic career with Durham and any potential overseas franchise gigs in the coming winter.

Stokes said: 'I'm doing my level three coaching now while I'm still playing because I want, when the day comes that I'm not playing any more, I'd love to be able to have all that stuff signed off and done.

'I know what I want to do in terms of staying within the game, which is to be a coach. And would I love to be coach of England one day? Absolutely. I just really like the idea of being, again, like, in some form of leadership away from playing.'

While England's director of men's cricket, Rob Key, has recently said the

▲ Ben Stokes said he was concerned Joe Root might be taking on too much

door would remain open for Stokes to make a dramatic return for next summer's Ashes series at home, the all-rounder is currently insisting he is 'definitely' retired.

One thing that might have tempted him back is his close friend Root

having returned to the Test captaincy, under a new head coach in Stephen Fleming, after Key decided it was 'too soon' for Harry Brook to step up.

Stokes signed off from his final Test at Trent Bridge insisting Brook, his vice-captain, should be his successor and has now reiterated the point.

The worry is that Root could once again find the job all-consuming to the detriment of his own game, while Stokes also disagreed with Brook not being asked to lead when he missed the second Test against New Zealand for disciplinary reasons.

Stokes said: 'I think just if you think someone's going to be a good captain or a good leader, then just give them it. Brooky was made vice-captain - I'm not there anymore, but even when I missed that Test match[against New Zealand], I was like, 'he's vice-captain!'

'I sort of understood the reasoning why they were saying it, but what message is that sending to him? He's vice-captain, and the captain is not

playing, but he's not captain. And then the same again here [with the permanent role].'

On Root, who previously held the role from 2017 to early 2022 but struggled for results during the pandemic, Stokes added: 'I love Rooty and I wish him nothing but success. I hope he achieves amazing things in his role as captain.

'He's going to really enjoy working with [Fleming]. He's a great man, I've worked with him before. I told Joe, I said my only worry is just you.

'And that's all I really care about now, just because I have seen what he went through and how much he put himself through for someone.

'He's just always put the team first, like he always comes second. And that's just my only concern with it is just obviously knowing what he went through last time he was in charge of the team because I don't want to see that ever happen again because I care for Joe a lot, but I wish him all the success in the world.'

Analysis Ali Martin

Decoded: concerns for Root as captain and hopes for 'great man' Fleming

Over the course of two hours chatting to his old friends Stuart Broad and Jos Buttler on their podcast, Ben Stokes sounded at peace with his decision to retire from England duty five weeks ago. Dare we say it, refreshed and ready to go again.

Beyond playing for Durham and in franchise cricket, Stokes is 'definitely' retired, however, and there was not even a hint of a possible U-turn when the home Ashes rolls around next summer. Nor, given his character, was this first interview since calling it a day ever going to be one stuffed with regret.

There was an admission from Stokes that he put 'way too much' on his own shoulders as England captain, rather than delegate to others. And there was a comment that the team could have communicated better in Australia last winter, not least when they tossed away a commanding position during the series opener in Perth.

Stokes spoke openly about cricket's relationship with alcohol, insisting the sport - not just the England team - has a drinking culture out of step with increased professionalism. '[It] has been the same since the 1980s,' he said. 'As the game has got better and better and better, that thing has just stayed around.'

But, equally, he was never

going to own up to too many of the team's shortcomings during the 4-1 Ashes defeat that English cricket is still struggling to shake off. Nor was he going to look back with much sheepishness regarding the farewell against New Zealand at Trent Bridge that many felt was a bit too self-indulgent.

Indeed, beyond the team's lack of game awareness at times, few decisions in the past year would have been made differently. Everyone was on the same page in Australia and there was no tactical divergence from Brendon McCullum. Noosa - the mid-tour break that invited headlines and questions about the team's penchant for a good time off the field - would be repeated.

But for all that this was to be expected from an all-action all-rounder who, like Ian Botham before him, prefers to forge ahead rather than look back, there were interesting elements - not least when discussing his successor as Test captain. Stokes and Joe Root are as tight as you get in English cricket and needless to say there were best wishes as regards the future of the side. In Stephen Fleming, Stokes believes England have selected a 'great man', having worked with the New Zealander previously at Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.

But, despite this hopefulness, Stokes also stood his concerns that Root is about to re-enter what became an 'unhealthy relationship' with the job at the

end of his first spell in charge - concerns that he is not alone in harbouring. 'He just always puts the team first and he always comes second,' Stokes said. 'That's my only concern with it, knowing what he went through last time. Because I don't want to see that ever happen again. I care for Joe a lot.'

As he said at the end of his last Test, Stokes felt Harry Brook should have been promoted from vice-captain. And here he went on to question the message it sent,

likewise Brook not stepping up while Stokes was suspended for the second Test against New Zealand and Root first dipped his toe back into the water.

Though these comments added up to some rare direct criticism of the current regime, just as telling were the moments when Stokes chose not to answer - the most glaring of which came when discussing the infamous night out with Gus Atkinson after the Lord's Test this summer and the

disciplinary action it triggered. A question about the team's curfew and who knew what was sidestepped, making way for some in-jokes about being better off heading to McDonald's for a Filet-O-Fish that night. But there was more than a hint of disquiet about handling of events by his now former employers at the England and Wales Cricket Board.

'I'm not going to lie and say that there might have been some other things that contributed to the decision [to retire],' Stokes said. 'But I'm not here today to go into all that detail. I think there's a time and a place for that. And now isn't that time because, you know, I don't want to come across as, you know, bitter towards anyone yet. Cause I'm chilled right now.'

The word 'yet' was a telling one, with Stokes citing a desire not to damage the England team but probably aware that divulging too much right now might devalue a future book or some such. By his own admission, the chief driver for retirement was having strung himself out during the five-month gap after Australia.

Aside from a fractured cheekbone sustained in the nets at Durham, albeit not relevant to him calling it a day, he insisted - Stokes owned up to overthinking and over-training during this protracted down time, to the point of returning anything but Test-ready.

Interestingly, Stokes went on at one stage to say that McCullum might still be the Test head coach - not simply reduced to the white-ball role - had he not retired from England duty. Unfortunately, his reasoning was not explored further.

But listening to him speak, and noting another shouldering of arms when asked about his relationship with the team director, Rob Key, it was hard to escape the notion that had regime change come sooner and more fully, Stokes might not have been speaking as a former England cricketer.

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19

Ireland risk ECB ire with series against Afghanistan

Matt Hughes

Ireland's decision to stage a full one-day international series for their men's team against Afghanistan this summer could cost them lucrative future fixtures against England.

The England and Wales Cricket Board is understood to be unhappy about the series, starting today, as England refuse to play Afghanistan outside International Cricket Council global events because of what the ECB chair, Richard Thompson, has described as the "gender apartheid" of the Taliban regime.

The ECB's policy is backed by the UK government, but Cricket Ireland has developed close relations with the Afghanistan Cricket Board, offering it five ODIs this month, all in Northern Ireland. Ireland will tour Afghanistan next March for one Test, three ODIs and three T20 fixtures.

England played a Test against Ireland at Lord's as preparation for both the 2019 and 2023 home series, but the ECB has opted for a warmup Test against Bangladesh instead next year.

England's men played Afghanistan in a Champions Trophy group game in Lahore last year after an ECB board meeting approved the fixture, which was criticised strongly by a cross-party group of 160 MPs.

The ECB will not schedule any bilateral cricket against Afghanistan, however, and this summer organised a tour of England for the Afghan Refugee Women's team, as well as inviting them to the T20 World Cup final at Lord's. The Afghanistan women players fled the country with the majority relocating to Australia after the Taliban retook control in 2021 and enforced a ban on female sport.

While Afghanistan are the only ICC full member not to operate a women's cricket programme the world body has not banned them. Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand also refuse to play Afghanistan in bilateral series, however, with Ireland joining West Indies, Zimbabwe and the four Asian ICC full members in granting them fixtures.

The ECB's relationship with Cricket Ireland has been delicate for some time. While England's men played three T20s in Ireland last September the ECB sent a second-string team and there are no more matches in the calendar. England's women, however, will host Ireland in a three-match ODI series next month.

▲ Richard Thompson has criticised Afghanistan's 'gender apartheid'

Sport Cycling Tour de France Femmes

Reusser turns up heat with time trial victory in Dijon

Jeremy Whittle Dijon

The world time-trial champion, Marlen Reusser, took the overall lead in the Tour de France Femmes after winning the fourth stage from Gevrey-Chambertin to Dijon.

It was the 34-year-old Swiss rider's third career win in the Tour and lifted her into a commanding lead over

the defending champion, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. Reusser, a specialist in racing against the clock, now leads the pre-race favourite Demi Vollering by 14 seconds, with the 2024 Tour winner, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, 1min 9sec further back.

But in a performance that the French media labelled catastrophic, Ferrand-Prévot is now 2min 13sec behind the race leader, Reusser. "It was our Project Dijon," Reusser said

after donning the yellow jersey. "This was the idea that we had for a long time and I saw the Tour as my goal for the year. I really targeted it. I am here as a leader, and I knew the Tour was going to start in Switzerland, on Swiss national day, and we would have a TT on the fourth day. So it was our Project Dijon."

Vollering said: "I knew I'd lose time to Marlen, but I'm happy with this time trial because I knew it was one for the specialists. But keeping the gap so close makes me very happy."

While Reusser and the 2023 champion Vollering were at their best, Ferrand-Prévot toiled up the climbs and never mustered the form that had taken her to victory last summer. The anxiety she had felt about the stage proved well founded. Lacking power and seemingly purpose, she dropped to 14th overall, more than two minutes behind Reusser.

Even before the stage, as she

waited to roll off the start ramp, Ferrand-Prévot had looked nervous, clutching an ice cube in her hands and closing her eyes in concentration. "There's nothing I can do," she said after the stage. "I pushed as hard as I could. It was a lot of stress. I'm glad this day is over."

The French rider now faces a considerably harder task to defend her title, as the peloton heads into a series of stages peppered with climbs, culminating in the ascent of Mont Ventoux on Friday. While she outclimbed Vollering in the Tour Femmes last year, Ferrand-Prévot seems to be on the back foot in the race this year.

Reusser and Vollering have laid down a marker, but Ferrand-Prévot remains optimistic. "Now I have to chase," she said, "and I love that."

Today Stage 5 Mâcon ▶ Belleville-en-Beaujolais 140km, hilly TV TNT Sports 1/HBO Max, 12.30pm

UCI checking for padding that boosts aerodynamics

● Continued from back page

few watts difference [in power], but a few watts matter a lot in a time trial. It's possible and it does make a difference, but I wouldn't risk it."

Stephen Delcourt, manager of the race favourite Demi Vollering's FDI United-Suez team, said: "We never play with the rules like this. If they want to have controls for this, it's because someone is doing it. Every season everybody does more work in wind tunnels and looks at equipment from the handlebars, the bike,

the helmet. But we don't play with the rules, we are always transparent."

The former world champion Marianne Vos, teammate to the defending Tour de France champion, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, supported the clothing checks. "It's good that they try to enforce the rules," Vos said. "Everybody is looking for the best aerodynamics, so there are some games. But there are rules to live by."

In a statement to the teams taking part in the Tour Femmes, the UCI said "particular attention" would be paid to ensure cyclists complied with regulations over "non-essential items or other accessories worn by a rider that could alter their physique".

Vos said of the checks: "I don't think it's really body searching, so I don't have a problem with it, as long as it's not too invasive."

Rolf Aldag, team manager to Kasia Niewiadoma, winner of the Tour Femmes in 2024, saw little difference between the clothing inspec-

tions and standard doping controls. "You have to enforce the rules," Aldag said. "Otherwise, don't make them. If there's something to check, then it should be checked. They do that every time they do a doping control. So do we question doping controls?"

"If we question it due to the privacy of an athlete, then you have to skip doping controls too, which we all agree that we should not do. It's the same rule for the men and they would also be checked. I think there's nothing wrong with that."

Bert Blocken, professor of aerodynamics, aerospace and mechanical engineering at Scotland's Heriot-Watt

'It's the same for men, they would also be checked' Rolf Aldag Kasia Niewiadoma's manager

University, said a chest fairing can alter airflow around the body and reduce aerodynamic drag, allowing riders to conserve energy.

"You don't gain tens of seconds on a time trial, but over 20-30km, it can make a decisive difference," Blocken said, adding that it could mean a gain of 0.78 seconds per kilometre.

The UCI's directive has led to accusations of sexism as no clothing checks were carried out either before, or after, the men's Tour de France time trial, between Evian-les-Bains and Thonon-les-Bains on 21 July.

Philip Roodhooft, manager of the Fenix-Premier Tech team that won three stages in the men's Tour in July, said that he was "not surprised that people are exploring it".

Roodhooft said: "When you see that the men try things with water bottles placed in strategic spots, then I can imagine women are thinking about it as well. Still, it's not good that it happens because it's still cheating."

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Sport Football

Women's Super League

United set to appoint former Hearts manager Olid to replace Skinner

Tom Garry

Manchester United are set to appoint the former Hearts manager Eva Olid as their new head coach to replace Marc Skinner, following his exit on Monday, multiple sources have told the Guardian.

Talks with the 40-year-old are understood to be very advanced and she is expected to be introduced to the United squad today. United are confident that the Spanish coach is the right person to lead them into a new chapter, as first reported by the Telegraph, as the club focuses on developing young, homegrown players.

Olid led Hearts to their first Scottish Women's Premier League title last term on a dramatic final day of the season, but it had already been confirmed in April that she was to leave the Edinburgh club this summer by mutual agreement. She was in charge for five years and also guided them to the 2024 Scottish Cup final, where they were beaten by Rangers.

▲ Eva Olid led Hearts to their first SWPL title after five years in charge

She has coached in the United States with Houston Dynamo, working with their women's team and their under-19s men's squad, before a spell with the Catalan Football Association. United are understood to be impressed by her playing style and her ability to develop and improve players, and they carried out extensive background checks on Olid prior to announcing Skinner's departure on Monday.

Skinner left partly because of frustration at United's transfer strategy. The club are understood to feel the current level of spending across the WSL is unsustainable and they want a different approach, focusing on their own younger talents and improving their academy to deliver longer-term success. United finished fourth in the WSL last term. They start the new season away to big-spending London City Lionesses on 4 September.

The United captain, Maya Le Tissier, said her team will "stick together" and be ready for the new WSL season, despite Skinner departing. Le Tissier and her England teammate Ella Toone paid tribute to Skinner for his contribution to the club over five years in charge, which included winning the 2024 Women's FA Cup.

Le Tissier said the "energy he brought to the club was amazing", while Toone told reporters: "He wanted to tell the team before it came out. It was nice that he was able to tell us [and] he was able to say goodbye, because he's done a lot for the club. We can't thank him enough for everything he's done."

Barcelona sign Kerolin from City in record £1.25m deal

Tom Garry

Barcelona have signed the Brazil forward Kerolin from Manchester City for an undisclosed fee that sources say is in the region of £1.25m, which would represent the largest sum received for a sale by a Women's Super League side.

The deal is also a club-record for Barcelona, and in terms of a fee received by an English club it eclipses the £1m that Liverpool received for the sale of Olivia Smith in Arsenal in 2025 and Melvine Malard's more recent £850,000 switch from Manchester United to Chelsea.

Kerolin, 26, was part of the City side that won the WSL title and the Women's FA Cup last season and was with the club for 18 months, after arriving from North Carolina

Courage in January 2025. City have already added the England forward Beth Mead to their squad this summer, on a free transfer from Arsenal.

A statement from Barcelona, who said goodbye to the Spain internationals Alexia Putellas, Mapi León, Ona Batlle and Salma Paralluelo this summer, read: "The signing of Kerolin Nicoli is another clear statement of FC Barcelona's ambition.

"The club remains committed to bringing together the best players in world football with the aim of staying at the top of the game and continuing to set the standard for excellence.

"With her talent, creativity and ability to decide matches, Kerolin adds even more quality to a team whose ambition remains unchanged: to challenge for every title and, once again, strive to win it all."

▲ Kerolin will reinforce Barcelona's attacking resources after recent exits

Back in action Mykhailo Mudryk, cleared last week to return from a doping suspension, joined Chelsea's open training session in Hong Kong but the Blues' manager Xabi Alonso said no decision has been made on his future. "We need to assess the situation," Alonso said.

TYRONE SIL/REUTERS

Mourinho 'wants me to be happy' at Real - Vinícius

Vinícius Júnior gave an upbeat assessment of his second day of pre-season training under the new Real Madrid manager José Mourinho despite speculation linking him with a possible move to Arsenal.

The 26-year-old, who has been one of the linchpins of Real's attack in recent years, had a smile on his face even as uncertainty swirled around the Brazil forward's future at the Bernabéu.

"It has gone very well, getting to know the new coach and the new players, and training very hard," Vinícius told Real Madrid TV. "Mourinho wants me to be as I have always been happy, cheerful and playing my football."

Vinícius's cheerful demeanour, however, masks a potentially thorny situation brewing behind the scenes. He is in the final year of his Real Madrid contract, with speculation that the club and player remain locked in negotiations while Arsenal explore a potential transfer.

Vinícius has scored 128 goals for Madrid and provided 100 assists, with the club reluctant to let one of their prized assets leave for free next year. He had a busy summer playing for Brazil at the World Cup, where they were knocked out in the last 16.

"We have to prepare physically so that during the season we have fewer injuries and can count on everyone," said Vinícius, who was Brazil's top scorer at the World Cup with four goals.

"It was a good training session and we all left very tired, but now it's time to rest for tomorrow. That's how pre-season is and we have to be ready." Reuters

Rushworth completes return to Coventry in £22.5m move

Ben Fisher

Coventry have completed the club-record £22.5m signing of the goalkeeper Carl Rushworth from Brighton as Frank Lampard's side continue to prepare for their Premier League return after 25 years away.

The 25-year-old excelled on loan at Coventry in the Championship last season, playing an instrumental role in their promotion as champions, starting all 46 league matches and earning the Golden Glove award for keeping 17 clean sheets.

"It's great to have Carl back with us on a permanent basis," said Lampard, whose side begin their season at Arsenal on 21 August. "He's a top professional, a great character and he had a huge impact on the team to help us get promoted last season. I'm looking forward to working with him again and welcoming him back into the group."

Rushworth, who is also highly

regarded within the Football Association and the England setup, joined Brighton from non-league Halifax in 2019 but left the club without making a senior appearance. Before his season at Coventry he had enjoyed loans across the league pyramid

with Walsall, Lincoln City, Swansea and Hull.

Brighton's sporting director, Mike Cave, said: "While we would have liked to keep Carl with the club for longer, we respect his decision to secure regular first-team football in the Premier League." Brighton are thought to have negotiated a sell-on clause and a buy-back option as part of the sale, which could rise as high as £30m including add-ons.

Rushworth represents Coventry's fourth summer signing. Last month they eclipsed their previous transfer record when paying Eintracht Frankfurt £17m to sign the Switzerland defender Aurèle Amenda, and have also signed Loum Tchaouna and Frank Onyeka. Until Amenda's arrival, their record outlay was £7.7m, to Antalyaspor, for Haji Wright in 2023.

Elsewhere, Aston Villa have welcomed the court of arbitration for sport upholding their appeal to register the 17-year-old player Brian Madjo. The striker, who was born in London but raised in Luxembourg, joined Villa from Metz in January but had been ineligible to play owing to Fifa's regulations on international transfers of minors. Madjo, who has scored four goals in pre-season, is now available to feature for Villa.

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Szoboszlai 'can't wait' to embrace Liverpool reset

Andy Hunter

Dominik Szoboszlai believes last season's frustration can push Liverpool to challenge for the title again but admits the squad must produce "something special" if no reinforcements arrive before the transfer deadline.

The Liverpool midfielder upped his already impressive level last season, being named the club's player of the year, but collectively the team went into reverse with Anne Slot losing his job as a consequence. The poor title defence from a team that won the Premier League comfortably in Slot's debut season should, Szoboszlai insists, prompt a reaction in Andoni Iraola's debut campaign as Liverpool head coach.

"I can't wait [for the new season], honestly," said the Hungary captain following Liverpool's pre-season tour of the US. "I feel that we are ready to

go again and take motivation from last season because it was not the best. We didn't end up where we wanted to. So now we're going to go for it again.

"Everyone is motivated. I think I see in everybody's eyes that he wants to play and, if you want to play, you have to give your best. And from there the manager is going to decide who is going to play. But everybody is on zero right now."

Liverpool have added the central defender Jérémy Jacquet and the versatile forward Victor Muñoz this summer but, while they remain in pursuit of Paris Saint-Germain's Bradley Barcola, a squad that has seen Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konaté depart as free agents remains light in several positions.

Szoboszlai said of Liverpool's transfer activity: "It's not my job to tell you who we have to sign or if we have to sign someone. If the guys above and the manager decide to sign someone, then we are very happy and

are going to welcome him - or them - well. If they decide not to, then we have to do something special with this squad."

The Liverpool midfielder revealed Iraola prefers not to address his players in the immediate aftermath of a game, a trait he discovered after the pre-season friendlies against Sunderland, Wrexham and Leeds. "He doesn't speak after the game," Szoboszlai disclosed. "I think every manager is different in his own way. That's how he is. He always would rather speak the day after the game, which is fine for everyone. We have to get used to this."

Iraola has also not spoken to Szoboszlai - or any other player for

that matter - about filling one of the vice-captaincy positions vacated by Robertson and Salah. But the 25-year-old, who captained Liverpool on the US tour, says it would be a huge honour to be asked.

He added: "There hasn't been any conversation. We have Virgil [van Dijk] as the captain, we have Ali [Alisson], we have Joe Gomez [as vice-captains], so there was no conversation at all. Obviously Ali is not here and Joe is injured. Let's see. It's not fixed. If you get offered the vice-captain of Liverpool, you're going to take it. It would be a proud moment for me but I respect everybody. Whoever it's going to be, we're going to follow them."

The captain's armband became an issue for Curtis Jones when Szoboszlai passed it to Kostas Tsimikas during the win over Wrexham in New York. But Szoboszlai, who recently signed a new five-year contract at Anfield, insisted there was no problem with his fellow midfielder.

"It was never a debate between us three," he claimed. "We just discussed something on the pitch. After, you guys make it very big. But next time we will do it in the changing room. Nobody was angry. It's all cleared. We are cool, everybody."

Ciao capitano

Crowds lined up at Milan's Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio to pay their respects to Franco Baresi, the former Italy and Milan defender who died last week aged 66. Paolo Maldini and Roberto Baggio were among those present

SARA NARDI/REUTERS

Football In brief

Match officials

Ex-referee Taylor takes on senior role in Turkey

Former Premier League and World Cup referee Anthony Taylor has joined the Turkish Central Refereeing Committee as director of elite refereeing.

Taylor retired as a referee last month following a 22-year career spanning 831 matches. The 47-year-

old's final refereeing assignment was the Portugal versus Spain World Cup last-16 tie in Dallas last month.

"Having officiated at the highest levels of domestic and international football, I welcome the opportunity to bring that experience to a role focused on the strategic and technical development of elite refereeing in Turkey," Taylor said in a statement. "I will work with colleagues across the federation to support the continued development of its match officials and strengthen the wider refereeing programme, in line with Uefa and Fifa standards."

Taylor is the latest former

English top-flight referee to move abroad after retirement, following Howard Webb and Mark Clattenburg, who both held senior refereeing roles in Saudi Arabia. Taylor spent 16 seasons refereeing in the Premier League. Reuters

▲ Anthony Taylor took charge of his final match during the World Cup

Côte d'Ivoire

Renard replaces Faé as Elephants head coach

Frenchman Hervé Renard has returned to take over as head coach of Côte d'Ivoire, who he led to triumph in the African Cup of Nations in 2015. Renard, who was an emergency replacement for Tunisia during this year's World Cup, replaces Emerse Faé. Faé's deal was not renewed after the World Cup despite the Elephants reaching the knockout stages for the first time in four finals appearances before a 2-1 defeat by Norway in the last 32. Reuters

Results

Football

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Third qualifying round: first leg Aracat - Armenia 2 Luka 1; Dinamo Zagreb 3 Kauta-Zalgara 1; Hapoel Be'er Sheva 1; Red Star Belgrade 0; Levski Sofia 1 Kairat 0; Maldiv 1; Slanon Bratislava 2; Olympiakos O'MCC 0; Sparta Prague 2 Lyon 1; Union St-Gilloise 1; Bodø/Glimt 1.

EUROPA LEAGUE

Third qualifying round: first leg Leme 1, Iberia 1999 L; Shamrock Rovers 1, Egnatia 1.

CONFERENCE LEAGUE

Third qualifying round: first leg Aada 1 Dinamo City 0.

MONDAY'S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Second qualifying round: mini-tournament semi-finals Brøndelid 1 Akriste 1 (am): Akriste win 2-0 on pens); Dinamo BGO 0 Servette Clément 3.

Cricket

SECOND TEST MATCH (day three of five)

Hertz & Spain (5w) West Indies 344 LJP (Lezares 7), IK Chian (1), Saint Peter 4-0 (1), Meitian 3(F) (Abdullah Shafique 1004a, Bitter Aram 69, Aram-Nater 57) JA Marican 6-1 (2). West Indies trail Pakistan by 43 runs with all second-mating articles standings.

MONDAY'S THIRD 720 INTERNATIONAL

Dominik's Sri Lanka 113-6, Pakistan 115-6, Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by four wickets.

THE WUNDED MEN

Headingley (Inning break) SunSlam (Leeds 24:1-2 (8)) Rickettson West, 8R North 7R, HC Brook 5(1) + London Spirit.

THE WUNDED WOMEN

Headingley London Spirit 136-7 (GM Harris 51) SunSlam (Leeds 14:2-5. SunSlam's Leeds beat London Spirit by five wickets.

Tennis

ATP NATIONAL BANK OPEN (Brentный, Canada)

First round: 5 Man (Ang) St M (Milan) (91) 7-5-1. J Brodsky (US) St A Walton (Aus) 6-1, 6-4, 5 Tutsipas (Sint) St M Davie 3 (US) 6-4, 6-4, H Hurkacz (Pol) St M Green (US) 7-5, 4-4, 6-2, Z Svajda (US) St D Stupovalov (Cze) 4-6, 6-4, 5-0 ret, J Fruenley (GB) St A Mumurino (Fr), 7-4-2 (1), 6-4, 7 A Tisante (Ang) St D Chan (Cze) 6-1, 1-6, 7-6 (7-1), V Boyer (Fr) St P Carreño Busta (Sp) 1-6, 1-5, 6-2.

MTA NATIONAL BANK OPEN (Toronto, Canada)

Second round: 5 Schabbat (De) St J Boccas Mawino (Sp) 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 1 Swiatak (Pol) St S Bejlek (Cz) 6-5, 6-3, E Alexandreea (Rus) St C Osorio (Cze) 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), V Golubic (Sw) St D Vokic (Cze), 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.

Cycling

TOUR DE FRANCE FEMMES

Stage four (Savoie) Chardonnier (6pm, 11am (T)) 1 M Rousset (Sw) Movistar 2 7min 30sec; 2 L Noxijen (Netti) Vienna Leasa 4/6w +0.04; 3 D Vollering (Netti) PD United-SUS2 +0.18.

General classification: 1 M Rousset (Sw) 11w 47min 36sec; 2 D Vollering (Netti) + 0.14; 3 C Kerbaul (Fr) EF Education-Getty +0.24.

TOUR DE POLIGNE (Poland)

Stage two (Mittelpattige Szczecin, 153am) 1 Mian (H) Lab-Trek 2hr 5min 27sec; 2 P Magnier (Fr) Soubal Quick-Step; 3 M Matucelli (H) XDS Astana all at same time. Leading standings: 1 Mian (H) 8hr 9min 28sec; 2 P Magnier (Fr) +0.08; 3 K Malecki (Pol) Plesonko-Q36.5 Pro Cycling +0.12.

Fixtures

Football (8pm unless stated)

Champions League

Third qualifying round: first leg

AGF x Sabah (1.30pm); Fenerbahce x Starre Graz (7pm) Europe League

Ferrocuero x Gareth Cabras (7.15pm)

Europe Conference League

Third qualifying round: first leg Brann x Apollon (6pm); Panathinaikos x CSKA Sofia (7.30pm) Women's Champions League

Second qualifying round: mini-tournament semi-finals Apa x Brandtia (12am); Apollon x Czerni Sennemer (3pm); Austria Vienna x Hajduk Split (15am); Brann x Mitrovica (9am); Eintracht Frankfurt x Onionia Nicosia (6pm); Ferrocuero x Pauk (3.30pm); Gintra x Hearts (2.30pm); Hombartys x Apollonia (2.30pm); Juventus x Torriente; Hürriot x Fenerbahce (4am); Kapp x Riga (6pm); Mura x Faisal Constanta (5pm); OH Leuven x TSC (7pm); Racing Union x HJK (6pm); SFK 2000 x PSV (4am); Slavia Prague x Rangers (7.30pm); Sporting x Septiers (1.30pm); St Pölten x VB Frauen (5pm); Villenegal x Matrei FF (4am); Villamax x Spartak Myjava (7.30pm)

Cricket

First and day international

Ireland x Afghanistan, Brady (10.45am)

Murrs Cricket World Cup League Two (4) series

Canada x United Arab Emirates, Dundee (11am)

The Hundred Men

Manchester Super Giants x Welsh Fire, Old Trafford (3pm); Trent Reuters x Birmingham Phoenix, Trent Bridge (6.30pm) The Hundred Women

Manchester Super Giants x Welsh Fire, Old Trafford (11.30am); Trent Reuters x Birmingham Phoenix, Trent Bridge (3pm) Wynn &c

Wynn &c

Group 8 Surrey x Kent, The Oval (11am)

Group 8 Hampshire x Glamorgan, Utilita Bowl (11am)

Greg Wood's racing tips

Brighton 2.30 Love Alive 3.00 River Wharfe 3.30 Silca Boy (sag) 4.00 Buckland Belle 4.30 Havana Mighty 5.00 Stansong (int)

Pontefrost 2.45 Star Start 3.15 Rock Steady Beat 3.45 Garden Stock 4.15 Sex Her Excel 4.45 Alfa Whiteland 5.15 Division Day

Hampshire 3.20 Nugent Mousad 5.50 Off The Peg 6.20 Clive The Writer 6.50 Kandy 7.20 Dialstone 7.50 Cloud Forest 8.20 Lamerald Island 8.50 Desert Belle

Fremont 5.50 Shades Of May 6.10 Speed Of Sound 6.40 Sedge Charm 7.30 Lherster 7.40 Urban Warrior 8.10 Banana

---

Sport Football

The Fifa family

How key is Infantino to the confederations?

As pressure continues to grow on Fifa's president after the bungled World Cup sell-off our writers assess the strength of his relationships around the world

How does each confederation view Infantino's re-election?

Uefa (Europe) has firmly led the moves under way to achieve Infantino's removal. The threat last week to boycott all Fifa competitions if the Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme was not scrapped contributed hugely to its failure. In a scathing statement on Saturday, Uefa said the current Fifa leadership had "not only lost Uefa's confidence, but also that of many other members of the football family", and pledged to push for change. Some Uefa member associations, including the English and Welsh FAs, have withdrawn their letters of support for Infantino's re-election and efforts are continuing to ensure others follow suit in a bid to weaken his position irretrievably. Nick Ames

Reports of AFC (Asia) support for Uefa are premature; the confederation is divided. The AFC has spoken out, strongly in relative terms compared to its usual pronouncements, against the proposed World Cup deal and has called for reform of Fifa. The AFC has been a staunch supporter in the past but if it looks as if Infantino is in trouble the AFC leadership, which was genuinely angry at how the proposal was made (probably more so than the details of the deal), could switch sides, which would probably confirm Infantino's downfall if Uefa and Concacaf oppose but it is not a foregone conclusion - some in Asia are not convinced that Uefa has the numbers. The big problem is that, while the AFC leadership may want Infantino out, most individual Asian federations do not want him to be replaced. The AFC president, Sheikh Salman, has ambitions of his own and has been historically successful at preserving AFC unity but this will be tricky especially as west Asian nations such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia support Infantino and are influential in Asia. It could be that the only way to ensure Asian unity is to have an Asian candidate.

Jordan's Prince Ali bin Hussein's claim of "blackmail" could prove a significant moment. John Duerden

Concacaf (North and Central America, and the Caribbean) is among the confederations that have come out strongly against Infantino and his FFE proposal, first directly rejecting it and then releasing a statement after it was withdrawn that took direct aim at Infantino. A release speaking on behalf of Concacaf's 41 member associations called the plan "a symptom of leadership that has stopped putting football first", and a "unilateral and egregious act of poor governance and leadership" and said that "a comprehensive reckoning with this presidency is imperative".

That is about as direct a call for no confidence in Infantino as you are likely to get outside of an election itself. It should be noted, of course, that the Concacaf president, Victor Montagliani, is also a Fifa vice-president and would be a leading candidate to run for president should there be a united desire among confederations to oust Infantino. Montagliani has kept silent on the subject in the past but this statement, which speaks for him, shows at the very least he is not immune to the idea of going against Infantino. Alexander Abnos

Patrice Motsepe, president of the Confederation of African Football, has said the 54 member associations are in unanimous support of Infantino's re-election in Morocco next year. Osasu Obayiuwana

Since the FFE rumpus broke and died, the South American confederation, Conmebol, has been notably silent. Its president, Alejandro Dominguez, has been posting birthday wishes to individuals, clubs and institutions from Uruguay where he is visiting ahead of the 2030 centenary of the first World Cup. Unlike Uefa, Concacaf and the AFC, which publicly opposed Fifa's aborted FFE proposal, Conmebol took several days before issuing a fence-sitting statement stressing football first, and requesting further information and clarification. That was the only official response at all, and there has been absolute silence since.

"Conmebol's current position is best described as cautious support rather than open confrontation," says Marina Mendez, a director of AD Sporting Industry Professionals and a friend of Conmebol who

consults on football in the region. "The distinction is politically significant. It suggests Conmebol wants to preserve its institutional relationship with Fifa and maintain room for negotiation, rather than join a public campaign against Infantino. This should not necessarily be interpreted as unconditional personal loyalty. Conmebol's approach is pragmatic: it is protecting South American football's access, influence and negotiating position in Fifa while assessing how the international balance of power develops."

Brazil and Argentina are the main countries, and Dominguez looks after the relationship with both, with most of the other countries expected to follow suit. "They are not federations likely to confront Infantino directly because they will always prefer to be on the right side of the non-Europeans," says an industry insider who does not wish to be named.

Marcela Mora y Araujo

It remains to be seen what the 11 Oceania Football Confederation

member associations will do. New Zealand, the leading member, was quick to come out against the World Cup proposal - though the reaction of the OFC itself was noncommittal - and there is still support for Infantino among the other federations. John Duerden

How financially dependent is the confederation on Infantino and Fifa?

Uefa Not at all. While the World Cup is Fifa's most essential driver of revenue, Uefa can lay claim, among other things, to the highly lucrative Champions League and the vast sums that it attracts on an annual basis. Expanding its tournaments and staging them more often is one of the only ways available for Fifa to keep pace. Private investment would not harm its cause either. Uefa's annual revenues have recently totalled around double those of Fifa; as things stand football's powerhouse can cope perfectly well on its own. NA

AFC There are rich federations

on either side of the continent but in between there are some that are almost completely dependent on Fifa money. Bhutan, for example, gets $1.5m a year, which makes up the majority of its budget. Even Australia, which has reached the knockout stages of the past two World Cups, has lost around $17m over the past two years, which may explain its rather vague statement calling for more time when the plan was first heard. JD

Concacaf This is a very top-heavy confederation. The US and Mexico have been regional powers for most of the past 30-40 years, and recently Canada has shown signs it can compete on the field and is addressing business issues off of it. Just below them is a middle class consisting of Panama, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Honduras. The remaining 33 Concacaf nations are fairly small by comparison, and thus naturally more reliant on funding from Fifa via the forward programme and other initiatives. The fact that smaller Caribbean nations feel empowered to join

---

8

9

▼ Gianni Infantino is now at his most vulnerable

EYA MARIE UICATEGUUFIFA/GETTY

with the big dogs says a lot about how at risk they feel they may be without Infantino at Fifa's helm. AA

CAF The confederation funds activities from its own commercial revenue, so it is not dependent on Fifa and Infantino in that sense. But the majority of CAF's 54 member associations are financially challenged and are dependent on the annual grants that the world governing body gives them to meet their operating costs. OO

Conmebol It represents only 10 nation members. Variations among them notwithstanding, the federations are self-sufficient economically and their local leagues are profitable. Their national teams are the No 1 sporting attraction. The main sources of revenue for clubs are TV rights, marketing and the sale of players. For this, the top market is the Premier League (which operates entirely outside the FA and therefore Fifa) and the other European leagues, which are also largely independent of their

FAs. Montevideo has produced more World Cup players than any other city in history, so even a financially struggling association such as Uruguay's continues to rely more on the income from the development of youth talent than Fifa aid. There were six Argentinian managers with extensive international trajectories at this World Cup. Exporting home-grown talent is a bigger source of revenue than Fifa project distribution funds. Two of the most colourful stories of the World Cup, the Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha and the New Zealand defender Tim Payne, transferred to Chilean and Paraguayan clubs respectively following their popularity during the tournament. Popularity due in no small part to the efforts of streamers and influencers from Argentina and Brazil. MMA

OFC Oceania is made up of small federations that tend to be reliant on what Fifa gives them. So the recent World Cup proposal would, had it gone through, have made a huge difference financially. JD

Would a breakaway cause an existential threat?

Uefa Europe has the strongest club and international teams in the world. Parting ways from Infantino and Fifa would be unlikely to cause serious damage, although it could cause issues with clubs who have been looking to expand their global reach through the revamped Club World Cup. It is plausible that bigger teams from other continents would seek to join forces with Uefa and compete in new tournaments given the financial opportunities available when competing with the majority of the sport's giants. NA

AFC It is a generalisation but, in Asia, Fifa as an institution does not make the headlines that it does in western Europe. Usually, interest in a country comes when they are affected specifically by a decision, as when bidding for a tournament. Breaking with Infantino would not be a massive threat to Asia but there is some concern about a return to a more Europe-dominated Fifa, if that were to materialise. While pretty much everyone has supported Infantino from 2016 until the past few days, Asian federations that have done so are seen in some quarters as being corrupt and/or greedy but the Europeans, who did exactly the same, are now trying to paint themselves as the moral guardians of the sport. JD

Concacaf If a breakaway would cause an existential threat, then Concacaf is living it right now. One could certainly read it as a principled stand, but it's hard to separate the confederation's statement with Montagliani's current position as Infantino's most likely successor, should the latter need to stand down. AA

CAF The relationship between Infantino and Africa's 54 national associations is largely seen as a "master-servant" one, in which he basically tells the FA/federation heads, through Fifa officials, to do his bidding. Those who do not toe the political line of Zurich, as decided by Infantino, may well end up having their books audited over how they have spent their Fifa grants. Many FA/federation presidents faced Fifa Ethics proceedings and subsequent bans as a result. OO

Conmebol "There's no morality involved, just politics," the industry insider says. Mendez concurs: "It's not a simple case of morality, it's a power struggle and a rupture in perspectives about football in general and the business of football in particular. Today, Eurocentrism is dominating, and things like sponsored hydration breaks and Super Bowl-style half-time shows impose a North American regard hitherto unseen." MMA

OFC Oceania welcomed the fact that Infantino had a "global" mentality and went out of his way to engage with smaller nations far from the centre of global football power. If the confederation does break away, it would want something similar in the opposition candidate and not a return to the old days when the confederation was an afterthought in the corridors of power. JD

Concacaf countries consider withdrawing support for president

Matt Hughes Nick Ames

A number of Concacaf countries are considering following Europe's lead by formally removing their support for the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino. All 41 members of Concacaf - the confederation which represents North America, Central America and the Caribbean - are understood to have submitted letters of endorsement for Infantino's re-election campaign before the World Cup finals tournament, but many are now giving serious consideration to withdrawing them.

Finland became the first of Fifa's 211 member associations to publicly withdraw its letter of support last Thursday, followed on Monday by the Football Association of Wales. The former Wales international Laura McAllister, a Uefa vice-president, had proposed the World Cup boycott at an emergency Uefa meeting last week, while the FA is also understood to have written to Fifa withholding its backing for Infantino.

Concacaf held an emergency meeting last Friday, with a source who attended telling the Guardian that all members are strongly aligned with Uefa, which has led the calls for Infantino to go.

The Concacaf meeting is understood to have featured pledges from several countries to withdraw their backing for Infantino, and some may have already done so in private.

One potential difficulty for Concacaf is the fact that four of its members - the US, Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica - are bidding to stage the 2031 Women's World Cup in the next hosting decision to be taken by Fifa.

While there are no other bids on the table at present, the decision still has to be approved by Fifa at an extraordinary general meeting to be held in November.

The US Soccer Federation is understood to be deeply unhappy with Infantino - particularly with the backlash his dealings with Donald Trump created for them over the Folarin Balogun affair - but, given the political sensitivities, may not feel able to take him on.

Another complicating factor is the fact that the Concacaf president, Victor Montagliani, has been widely touted as the potential candidate most able to take Infantino on in the presidential election next March.

Although Montagliani has called for a thorough review of Fifa's governance, the Canadian has yet to decide whether he wants to stand, and told the Guardian in an interview last month that his priority is being re-elected as president of Concacaf, with those elections also taking place next year.

While Concacaf is united, the Asian Football Confederation, which also backed the Uefa-led opposition to Infantino's proposed World Cup

sell-off, appears to have splintered since the dramatic events of last week. Significantly, the financial powerhouses of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have both publicly backed Infantino to stay on, as have smaller countries such as Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Kuwait and Bhutan.

While most of the AFC's 47 members - including Saudi Arabia - have stayed silent, Uefa is hoping it can attract their support, but it remains unclear if the rebels have the numbers to force a genuine electoral contest.

New Zealand Football's Andrew Pragnell says Fifa's abandoned private equity proposal delivered a shock to confidence in world football's governance, and he urged Oceania's members to be united on the question of Infantino's leadership.

Oceania's confederation, which includes New Zealand among its 11 members, has yet to take a position on the Fifa president's leadership, although Pragnell said there had been "enormous gains" for football associations outside the traditional powerhouses of Europe and South America under Infantino - "but the proposal itself, the way in which it was delivered, developed, the way members found out, and the shock to confidence among the international football system, has cast a pretty big shadow".

Pragnell said that New Zealand would consult with Oceania members and other regional confederations before adopting a position, and said it would be preferable for the member nations to be aligned on the matter. "There's obviously more power in numbers," Pragnell said.

"Certainly it helps when a confederation acts in unison. You've seen in some confederations, even in the last week, members go different ways from other members."

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Coming in ... United set to name Olid as head coach for WSL campaign

Page 40 →

... heading off Kerolin swaps City for Barça in record £1.25m sale

Page 40 →

Sport

'Blackmail'

Jordan FA chief says Fifa tried to force Infantino backing

Nick Ames

The Jordan Football Association president, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, has accused Gianni Infantino's administration of "blackmail", claiming that Fifa threatened to withhold financial assistance from his federation if it refused to back the president's bid for re-election.

Prince Ali, who ran for the Fifa presidency against Infantino in 2016 and finished third, listed a number of problems dogging the global governing body and said Jordan's players have not yet been paid for appearing in the Arab Cup last year. Prince Ali is head of the West Asian Football Federation, which includes influential states such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that have thus far backed Infantino to stay on.

It came on a day when Infantino's authority was dealt a further blow as two more key allies distanced themselves from his failed World Cup private investment plan. His No 2, the Fifa secretary general, Mattias Grafström, was revealed to have called the botched Fifa Forward Enterprise a "sad and reproachable series of events" in an email to the organisation's staff. Meanwhile the former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, now Fifa's chief of global development, said the project's withdrawal was "absolutely necessary".

Infantino is steadily losing backing from countries who previously had sent letters to endorse his continuation for a fourth term in charge. It is understood that Greece is the latest federation to have pulled its support, following the lead taken by countries

● Concacaf countries may drop support for Infantino ● Analysis

Pages 42-43 →

such as England, Wales, Finland and Serbia.

Prince Ali's statement, published on X, painted the picture of a small country facing roadblocks when it came to receiving help from the global governing body. Jordan competed in their first World Cup this year but he explained some of their fans had not received visas, despite purchasing tickets. "We have been waiting for reward money for our players since December for the Arab Cup in Qatar, which is a Fifa event," his statement read. "The money our team should receive for having reached the final has not been delivered yet, while at the same time Fifa brags about how many billions they have in reserve.

"It is clear the problem really is with leadership. For months, Fifa has been refusing to help us on any of these or other matters - until it was verbally communicated to me during the World Cup that if I endorsed Infantino it would go a long way to helping our FA out. We pride ourselves in Jordan in upholding ethical values. We did not endorse him before and certainly will not now. But the whole situation amounts to blackmail and we refuse to give in to that."

Other countries are understood to have been put under concerted pressure to formally back Infantino before the Fifa election in March.

Grafstrom's email had urged Fifa staff to keep morale high after what was perceived to be a successful World Cup. His message stopped short of criticising Infantino by name. "A sad and reproachable series of events - which were thankfully concluded with the FFE project permanently abandoned - for as much as we feel dismayed by them, should not overshadow this reality," read a section of the email.

Wenger said: "I first became aware of the project through media reports. The decision to withdraw the project was absolutely necessary and beyond question, because I firmly believe in an independent Fifa that serves our game with commitment, transparency, and integrity."

Fifa was contacted for comment regarding Prince Ali's accusations.

According to reports, Infantino has called Fifa staff to a crisis meeting in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, today as he tries to cling to his position.

Page 38 →

GARETH COPLEY/GETTY IMAGES

Women's tour riders checked for hidden chest padding

Jeremy Whittle Dijon

Riders in the Tour de France Femmes were examined for hidden aerodynamic enhancements, or chest fairings, before the race's time trial stage to Dijon yesterday, in a clampdown on the latest attempts to circumnavigate cycling's rules.

Changes to body morphology to

improve aerodynamics are banned under International Cycling Union rules. The UCI's commissaires were looking for padded chest fairings that would artificially improve airflow and reduce wind resistance.

In June the male rider Jan-Willem van Schip was disqualified in a French race for inserting a water bottle into the front of his racing jersey on the basis that it enhanced his aerodynamics and speed.

The UCI directive that selected riders have extra checks before the stage to Dijon came at the instigation of some teams who had noticed changes to rider physiques before time trials.

Stijn Steels, director of the AG Insurance-Soudal team, said he first noticed suspicious padding at the Paris Olympics in 2024. "There was a rider who suddenly had huge breasts," Steels told the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste News.

"Last year, many riders filled their bust area completely with ice or other items to create a larger volume, which gives a much better aerodynamic effect. It's only a

QA Report - The Guardian - 05.08.2026.pdf

Pipeline

• Extraction route: mistral-ocr
• extraction_route=mistral-ocr
• Translation chunks: 94
• Extraction warnings:
• [OCR-ROUTE] Scanned PDF detected; routing directly to MistralOCR.

Non-model Checks

• WARNING: translated output has low semantic coherence score (0.03)
• WARNING: missing numeric tokens from source: 0002, 0006, 0345, 06.08, 10879.38, 1315, 1604, 171.00, 1750, 2134
• WARNING: Missing proper nouns in translation: Abdullah Shafique, Aberdeen Angus Ribeye Steak, Abtisam Mohamed, Acceptable Use Policy, Accompanying Thomas, Adana Ecology Platform, Adana Ecology Platform, Adele Collins, Advanced Highers, Afghan Refugee Women
• WARNING: source dates, money, or percentage tokens may be missing

Model QA

《卫报》PDF 翻译质量审核报告

1. 遗漏问题

• 关键数据遗漏：
• 石油巨头利润原文为 $90bn（900亿美元），译文缺少单位（仅显示"90,000,000,000"）。
• 原文 £69bn 遗漏英镑符号，仅译为"69,000,000,000"。
• 约旦外长会议日期（"today"）未明确译为"2026年8月5日"。

• 电子标签监控系统的具体缺陷描述（"failing to alert the authorities"）被简化为"当局未能警示"，弱化原文强调的系统失效。

• 结构性遗漏：

• 原文 Page 3 标签未翻译。
• 报头信息（如 From £2.40 for subscribers）完全遗漏。
• 版权声明末尾（如 Published by Guardian News & Media...）被截断。

2. 错译/误译

• 数字错误：
• 2,000 Israelis 误译为"超过2,000名以色列极右翼人士"，原文未明确"极右翼"。
• 25 targets 误译为"25个目标"，应为"25项指标"（产科标准）。

• 47% 误译为"0800年"，应为"47%的受访党员"。

• 专有名词错误：

• Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) 误译为"国际足联前行企业"，应保留英文缩写。
• Prince Ali bin al-Hussein 误译为"阿里·本·侯赛因王子"，应为"阿里·本·侯赛因王子"。

• Elefante Blanco 误译为"白象"，应保留西班牙语原文（哥伦比亚项目名）。

• 逻辑错误：

• Jordan competed in their first World Cup this year 误译为"约旦在今年参加了他们的首届世界杯"，应为"约旦今年首次参加世界杯"。
• the words would one day have a poignant irony 误译为"反思这些话将有一天具有辛酸的讽刺意味"，应为"这些话日后将带有辛酸的讽刺意味"。

3. 残留英文

• 未翻译英文：
• 图片来源：COMPOSITE: GUARDIAN DESIGN/REUTERS/EPA/AP/GETTY/ZUMA PRESS WIRE/SHUTTERSTOCK 完全未译。
• 版面标签：Inside 05/08/26、Four sections every day 等未译。
• 联系方式：0800 839 100、020 3353 3000 等电话号码未处理（应保留原文或标注"英国电话"）。

• 专有名词：And There's More、Mr Brightside、Nine Lives 等未译或未标注原文。

• 混杂代码：

• 多处出现 §、ir、WJ、VVC、KS、Wy 等 OCR 错误代码未清理。

4. 截断问题

• 段落截断：
• 石油巨头利润段落在 to the end of 处截断，未完整译出原文。
• 吉米·克里克特（Jimmy Cricket）生平介绍在 the headline 处截断。

• 国际足联相关内容在 following the lead taken by countries 处截断。

• 表格截断：

• 足联分析表格（如 UEFA、AFC 等）仅部分翻译，多处英文残留。

5. 顺序错误

• 版面顺序混乱：
• 原文 Page 3 的 Gobaith Newydd 标题被移至首页顶部，破坏版面逻辑。
• Weather 和 Quick crossword 等版块位置与原文不符。

6. 标签/格式缺陷

• 内部标签未清理：
• 多处出现 以下为忠实翻译 等审核标记，属交付缺陷。
• ...[MIDDLE PORTION OMITTED FOR QA]... 未删除。

7. 其他问题

• 术语不一致：
• Tour de France Femmes 有时译为"女子环法自行车赛"，有时保留法文。
• status quo 译为"现状"，但前后不一致（另一处译为"现状协议"）。

结论

存在多处遗漏、错译、英文残留、截断及格式缺陷，严重影响翻译质量。建议： 1. 重新核对数字单位及专有名词。 2. 彻底清理 OCR 错误代码及内部标签。 3. 补充遗漏的版面信息（如报头、版权声明）。 4. 修正段落截断问题，确保内容完整。 5. 统一术语翻译（如 Fifa、status quo 等）。

严重程度：阻断交付（Blocking Issue）。