Four of the UK’s largest mortgage providers are cutting their rates for the second time in three weeks. Halifax, Nationwide, HSBC and TSB are reducing their fixed-rate deals by between 0.2 and 0.7 percentage points, says the Daily Mail, raising the prospect of a “mortgage price war” that will ease pressure on “embattled homeowners”. At least 36 people have died as wildfires rage across the Hawaiian island of Maui. Hundreds of buildings in the historic town of Lahaina have been destroyed, with winds from a passing hurricane fanning the flames and frustrating rescue efforts. A record number of Brits are snapping up last-minute tickets abroad to escape the soggy summer weather, says The Times. British Airways Holidays has seen a 22% year-on-year increase in bookings over the past 30 days; in the last week of July, Club Med’s sales were up 146%.
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From pariah to peacemaker: the return of MBS |
Mohammed bin Salman is currently “dancing at all kinds of weddings”, says Daniel Böhm in Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Fresh from negotiations with top US officials about a potential mutual security pact, the Saudi crown prince invited high-ranking representatives from almost 40 countries to his Jeddah palace, where they discussed a “peaceful solution” for Ukraine. Joe Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, attended talks with India and Brazil; even China, “Russia’s most important ally”, made an appearance. And while it didn’t produce “concrete results”, everyone left satisfied. The Ukrainians were glad their position was “finally being heard outside Europe and America”; countries of the Global South were pleased that their host had put them “on an equal footing with the West”.
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The summit’s success shows that MBS is well on his way to establishing Saudi Arabia as an “international player of global standing”. No longer satisfied with using his “immeasurable” oil reserves as political fodder, he is now establishing himself as the master peacemaker. Last year, he negotiated a prisoner exchange between Kyiv and Moscow; in the spring, Volodymyr Zelensky was welcomed with “drums and trumpets” to the Arab summit in Jeddah. MBS has also been pivotal in negotiations between its “arch-enemy” Iran and China. A few years ago he was on a “confrontational course everywhere”, warring with Yemen and blackmailing both the West and Russia over oil prices. The war in Europe has offered him the chance to make amends, and position himself as a crucial diplomatic broker.
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Social media is awash with fully-grown adults proudly showing off their dollhouses, says Nicole Cooley in The Guardian. More than 200,000 people follow Kate Ünver on Instagram, where she shares her miniature furnishings like printers and bookshelves; others post tours of their toy homes on TikTok, showing off everything from diddy swimming pools to kitchens fitted with tiny top-end stainless steel appliances. According to one millennial miniature-lover, the hobby enables people who can’t afford a human-sized house to experience the “pleasure and fulfilment” of interior design.
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A group of Democrats have had a cunning idea, says Celia Walden in The Daily Telegraph: they want the Donald Trump court proceedings broadcast live on TV, so voters can see how awful he really is. What are they smoking? “Trump is a TV star.” That’s how he became president – his whole political appeal is bound up in the thrill of the “what’s he done now?” news alert. So if anything can get him back in the Oval Office, it’s “handing him the starring role in the country’s highest-rated legal drama of all time”. He won’t be “cowed” by the gravity of his situation – he’ll remain an “unabashed, storm-weathering, charismatic bulls***er”, who, crucially, believes every word he says. And “he’ll convince a lot of other people to believe it too”.
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Cutting cardiovascular risk in the American sitcom Malcolm in the Middle |
The idea that you should walk 10,000 steps a day was never based on real science – marketing executives in Japan made it up in the 1960s to promote a new pedometer. But after the largest study of its kind, researchers say they’ve found the real magic number: it’s 2,337. That’s apparently enough to reduce your risk of dying prematurely from heart disease or a stroke, with each additional 1,000 cutting risk of death from any cause by a further 15%.
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Starmer’s caution is a double-edged sword |
To understand today’s Labour Party is to “recognise fear”, says Robert Shrimsley in the FT. Pundits debate whether Keir Starmer is more like Tony Blair, Gordon Brown or Harold Wilson, but in truth he may be more like Ed Miliband or Neil Kinnock – leaders who seemed destined for victory, “only to see it snatched away”. Labour honchos know this, which is why their driving emotion now is “terror”. Every Tory announcement is seen as a “potential trap”. Caution is so embedded that “if Rishi Sunak announced the slaughter of the first born, Starmer might hesitate to commit to its repeal until the full fiscal implications had been considered”.
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As Starmer has “tacked steadily towards the centre”, he has junked not only policies dear to his Corbynite predecessors, but also positions he once held himself. On everything from the environment to gender and Brexit, he has been single-minded in “scraping the barnacles from the boat”. Tories depicting Labour as “dangerously red” are fighting the wrong battle. Starmer’s biggest weakness isn’t his supposed leftie inclinations – it’s his commitment to matching Tory promises. After the party’s Uxbridge by-election defeat was attributed to animus over Ulez, for example, Starmer didn’t just distance himself from the policy – he also watered down Net Zero commitments and vowed not to revoke new oil and gas drilling licences. This not only provides his opponents with the easy attack line that he can’t be trusted; it also bakes the Conservative consensus into the mainstream. “Even if the Tories lose power, they may still be setting the agenda.”
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A rousing speech delivered by former Ireland rugby star Ronan O’Gara to the French team he now coaches, La Rochelle, has racked up more than six million views on Twitter, after fans noted the mixture of heavily Cork-accented French and some choice English words. “L’opportunité est f***ing énorme,” he told players. Are you hungry to win the game, he asked in French, or are you planning on taking a “f***ing vacance”? Watch the full motivational mélange here.
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Becoming an MP is expensive, says Patrick Kidd in The Times, “but not as much as before bribing voters became illegal 140 years ago”. In 1802, William Paxton spent £15,690 (about £1.5m today) on his campaign to win the seat of Carmarthenshire. His expenses included 11,070 breakfasts, 36,901 dinners, 25,275 gallons of ale and 11,068 bottles of spirits. “He lost by 46 votes.” |
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It’s “Hank the Tank”, a notorious ursine bandit who has finally been captured after a year on the run. The 227kg black bear is believed to have broken into 21 homes around Lake Tahoe, as well as trawling through people’s rubbish and smashing windows. Officials in California say Hank, who is actually female, will be “relocated” to a sanctuary in Colorado. Her three cubs will be taken to a different facility, in the hope that they can “discontinue the negative behaviours they learned” from their mum and be returned to the wild.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” AA Milne |
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