Putin’s recruiters scramble to avoid second mass mobilisation as Ukraine losses mount
In kitchens and Telegram chats across Russia, the same question is being asked with growing frequency: will Vladimir Putin order another mobilisation? Nearly five years into the war, Russia is scrambling to find enough soldiers to replenish its ranks, as voluntary recruitment slows and its forces suffer heavy losses on the battlefield in Ukraine. With Putin showing no sign of abandoning his far-reaching territorial demands, even as Russia’s summer offensive stalls, the Kremlin faces a growing manpower headache. “The problem for the Kremlin is that it is getting much harder to find people willing to fight, even for crazy money,” said Aleksei Tabalov, a human rights activist and director of an organisation that helps Russian conscripts. Putin last resorted to mobilisation in September 2022, when a series of dramatic battlefield setbacks forced the Kremlin to call up 300,000 reservists to stabilise the front. Since then, Moscow has avoided another deeply unpopular call-up by relying largely on high paid voluntary contracts to fill the ranks with roughly 1.3 million contract soldiers Russia has recruited since. Men, particularly from Russia’s poorer regions, have been offered life-changing signing bonuses and salaries on open-ended contracts amounting to several years of local wages, alongside substantial payouts to their families if they are killed. But Russia’s heavy losses mean it must continue finding new soldiers at a high rate. Western estimates put Russian casualties at more than 30,000 killed and wounded a month, a toll that reflects the army’s attritional “meat grinder” tactics, in which troops are repeatedly sent forward in small assault groups despite heavy losses. Moscow, meanwhile, now recruits roughly 1,000 soldiers a day, according to calculations by Janis Kluge, a Russia expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, which means most new recruits are used to replenish depleted units rather than expand Russia’s offensive capacity. That has once again raised the prospect of mobilisation. Top Russian officials have dismissed reports of an impending call-up, with former president Dmitry Medvedev describing them as “nonsense” and a “lying provocation” by Ukraine. Two people familiar with discussions in Moscow also said there was no indication that Putin had decided to order another mass mobilisation. A senior western official likewise said there were no signs that a decision had been taken. But fears that another call-up may be on the way have nevertheless increasingly entered everyday conversations. In Telegram chats used by local sports teams, work colleagues and groups of friends, Russians swap rumours about a possible mobilisation and share advice on securing exemptions or avoiding the draft. Some speculate that a new call-up could come after September’s elections to the Duma. “It’s guesswork right now whether mobilisation will actually happen,” said Ivan Chuviliaev, a spokesperson for Get Lost, a group that helps Russian soldiers desert. But he said the renewed speculation was already being exploited to boost recruitment. “The panic around mobilisation is being used by officials to pressure men into signing contracts,” Chuviliaev said. “The message is: mobilisation is coming anyway, so you might as well sign a contract now and get a payout before you’re forced to fight.” For now, people familiar with the Kremlin’s thinking say the authorities appear determined to strong-arm more men into signing contracts rather than risk another mobilisation. Over the summer, lawyers and activists have documented increasingly coercive recruitment tactics in several regions, with men detained on the street by police, taken from workplaces or summoned to stations – before being brought to military recruitment offices and pressed to sign contracts. “It has turned into a hunt for people,” said Tabalov. “Under various pretexts, through deception, blackmail, violence and threats, they are forcing them to sign contracts.” Tabalov said recruiters were increasingly targeting what he described as “socially marginalised” men, including those with debts, criminal cases or other vulnerabilities that could be used to put pressure on them to enlist. In the southern Penza region, where some of the most aggressive draft methods have been reported, videos posted online have shown men being driven away in vans as relatives protested outside recruitment offices. Activists say some have been threatened with prosecution or beaten until they agreed to sign. The search has widened elsewhere too. Universities, technical colleges and vocational schools have been encouraged to recruit students into newly formed drone units, offering another source of manpower for the military. Putin recently signed a law expanding the pool of convicted prisoners eligible to sign contracts with the army, including people convicted of “serious and especially serious crimes”. Much of the responsibility for finding soldiers has been pushed down to Russia’s regions. Governors and local administrations are expected to meet recruitment targets set by Moscow, giving the Kremlin some distance from the drive while leaving regional officials responsible for finding enough men in their own territories. Around that system, a lucrative recruitment industry has emerged. Regional governments offer thousands of dollars not only to soldiers who sign contracts but also to those who find them, with “bring a friend” schemes paying residents for every person they persuade to enlist. Private recruiters and public-sector employees scour social media for candidates, while advertisements for military contracts have become ubiquitous online. Russian regions have paid recruiters at least 7.7bn roubles ($96m) since such schemes were introduced, according to the independent Russian outlet IStories. One recruiter in central Russia, speaking to the Guardian on condition of anonymity, said his organisation was expected to find between 20 and 30 men each month, with bonuses for exceeding the target and penalties for falling short. “It was easier last year,” the recruiter said. “Now it is getting harder.” The recruiter said mobilisation was also being discussed in his office, but that there had been no orders or indications that a new draft was imminent. Another mass call-up, however, would carry significant political risks for the Kremlin. The 2022 call-up triggered one of the biggest episodes of domestic disruption since the invasion began, prompting a mass exodus of Russians and a sharp drop in Putin’s approval ratings. It would also come at a potentially sensitive moment. Recent polling suggests confidence in the course of the war is weakening, with the share of Russians who believe the campaign in Ukraine is going well falling to its lowest level since April 2022. For now, analysts say Moscow is more likely to step up recruitment efforts through higher bonuses, pressure on regional officials and increasingly coercive tactics. Whether that will be enough could ultimately determine if Putin resorts to another mobilisation, said Tabalov, the activist. The options before the Kremlin, Tabalov said, could range from another mass call-up to a more selective mobilisation, sending existing conscripts to the front or quietly calling up reservists for frontline service. “I don’t think they’ll be able to recruit enough people under the current system,” Tabalov said. “Then they’ll be faced with the question of what form mobilisation should take.”
Almost 500 arrested on suspicion of starting wildfires in France this summer
Almost 500 people have been arrested on suspicion of starting wildfires in France since the start of the summer, authorities have said, as firefighters in half a dozen European countries tackle ferocious blazes amid a record-breaking heatwave. With three out of five Europeans facing temperatures of at least 30C on Friday and about 150 million enduring 35C or more, France’s interior ministry said 474 people, including 183 minors, had been detained over wildfires in the country since 1 July. About 70% of those arrested were suspected of deliberately starting fires and the rest of doing so accidentally, it said. French media said a 15-year-old boy had been detained in connection with a fire near Bordeaux airport that killed two firefighters in July. French authorities on Friday evacuated more than 525 people from the village of Luglon in the south-west region of Landes after a new wildfire tore through almost 1,100 hectares (2,700 acres) of tinder-dry pine forest in less than 24 hours. “The situation is unfavourable and the fire remains raging,” Gilles Clavreul, a regional official, told reporters, adding that 500 firefighters were tackling the flames and six water-dumping aircraft had been sent to assist. Roads to the village were closed. Luglon is about 62 miles (100km) south-east of the popular holiday destinations of Arcachon Bay and the Lège-Cap-Ferret peninsula where two huge wildfires destroyed more than 50,000 hectares in late July, forcing the evacuation of as many as 220,000 people. Scientists say climate breakdown is causing more frequent and more extreme weather events, evaporating soils and waterways, fuelling wildfires and leading to thousands of excess deaths in France. Europe is heating at about twice the global average rate. In western Germany, more than 2,000 people fled their homes early on Friday morning to take shelter in a nearby primary school after a wildfire in the nearby Hürtgen forest spread to within a few hundred metres of the village of Gey. “This forest fire threatens to hit the local community hard,” Mona Neubaur, the deputy premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, posted on social media. Unexploded second world war ordnance was also hampering firefighting efforts. The news agency dpa reported explosions could be heard as munitions detonated in the flames, forcing firefighters to stay out of the area, not far from the Belgian border, for safety. German army tanks and helicopters were providing support. In Croatia, a wildfire driven by strong winds descended on the tourist town of Lokva Rogoznica on the Dalmatian coast overnight, engulfing houses, forcing about 1,000 people to evacuate and injuring several dozen, fire brigade and health officials said. Of 36 people treated by ambulance services in the city of Split, about 15.5 miles to the north, 14 were admitted to hospital and seven had life-threatening injuries, local health officials said. Emergency shelters opened in several nearby towns. “It was a strong fire, it swept everything on its way ... there has been huge material damage,” Slavko Tucaković, the regional chief fire commander, said on Friday, adding that the blaze appeared to have calmed by Friday morning. The country’s prime minister, Andrej Plenković, said on a visit nearby Omiš, where the evacuees were sheltering in a sports hall, that the blaze was “one of the worst fires in recent years” but “the most important” there were no confirmed fatalities so far. A stretch of a major coastal highway was shut. “Everything flared up in a second,” Goran Lović, the owner of a cafe near where the fire broke out, told the Jutarnji List newspaper. “It just happened all of a sudden, there was an open flame.” In north-east Spain, an army unit removed the remains of three 11th-century Aragonese kings from the San Juan de la Peña monastery after it was threatened by a wildfire and took them to a museum in nearby Huesca. The fire, which began on Monday, intensified on Thursday, authorities said, driven by higher temperatures and strong winds that have enabled it burn through more than 9,000 hectares, forcing the evacuation of 16 towns and villages. A much larger wildfire in southern Spain also worsened on Thursday. It has so far burned 31,000 hectares in the province of Huelva and forced the evacuation of about 700 people. In northern Greece, a fleet of small boats evacuated about 500 holidaymakers from beaches on Thursday as a forest fire threatened Siviri and Fourka, two popular resorts on the Halkidiki peninsula, south of the city of Thessaloniki. The 2-mile-long fire front, with flames up to 30 metres (98ft) high, was brought under control later in the day, the regional civil protection chief said, though crews remained on alert for flare-ups. Two injured firefighters were taken to hospital, the fire service added. A maximum level-five alert for fires was issued for much of the Greek mainland and local officials in Halkidiki have banned access to the region’s dense pine forests. Winds of up to 62 mph are forecast for Friday. In the UK, wildfires raced across the West Midlands, burning several houses to the ground in “one of the most significant” incidents the region’s fire service has ever had to deal with, the regional fire chief, Simon Tuhill, said. Reuters and Agence-France Press contributed to this report
Benjamin Netanyahu describes UK as ‘first Islamic republic to get a nuclear weapon’
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called the UK “the Islamic republic of Britain” in a podcast interview, where he also described the country as the “first Islamic republic to get a nuclear weapon”. His comments, made during an interview for Israel’s army radio, played into a common far-right Islamophobic trope about Britain’s small Muslim population. Netanyahu praised positive coverage of Israel by the journalist Randolph Churchill, the son of former prime minister Winston Churchill, over half a century ago, then said: “Go find that in today’s Britain, in what is called the Islamic republic of Britain.” Rather than challenge Netanyahu’s comments, the host questioned whether he is unfairly singling out the UK, asking: “Isn’t all of Europe is like that?” Netanyahu replies by doubling down. “Yes, but you know someone said the first Islamic republic with nuclear weapons will be the Islamic republic of Britain.” Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, has had a nuclear arsenal since the 1990s. Relations between the UK and Israel have been increasingly strained in recent months, especially since Andy Burnham took over in No 10. Shortly before becoming prime minister, he apologised for Labour’s initial response to Israel’s military action in Gaza, saying the party “didn’t get it right” and needed to “do better” under his leadership, signalling a significant shift in the UK’s approach to the Middle East. In July, he said he would “do more to put pressure on the Israeli government”, including through further sanctions on individuals and entities, as well as a potential ban on the trade of goods with illegal settlements. The US vice-president, JD Vance, made remarks similar to Netanyahu’s comments during the 2024 presidential campaign, saying the UK could become the first “truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon”. London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has also been a frequent target of racialised attacks from rightwing leaders abroad, including Donald Trump, seeking to gain political advantage from Islamophobic lies. Muslim leaders in the UK have said that hate crimes targeting their community are hitting new levels amid a rise in far-right rhetoric and growing support for anti-immigrant political parties. Avi Dabush, who is running for the Knesset with Israel’s opposition Democrats party, attacked Netanyahu for mocking a critical ally at a time when Israel faces unprecedented global isolation. “That’s what happens when there’s a horrific diplomatic failure, and an inability to rally countries in the world in favour of our interests,” he said in a social media post. Leading the most far-right government in Israel’s history, Netanyahu has alienated traditional allies while aligning with far-right figures, including some with a history of antisemitism. The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to requests for comment on whether Netanyahu’s statement represented the official position of the Israeli government. The British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
US firms that kept DEI policies despite ‘go woke, go broke’ threats thrived
Conservative backlash was supposed to put an end to the diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI) movement as companies were warned “go woke, go broke”. In January 2025, Donald Trump delivered a death knell, ending DEI within the federal government with executive orders and threatening to target companies that still supported it. Companies including Google, Goldman Sachs, McDonald’s and Walmart that had embraced DEI years earlier fell into line and announced an end to their policies. But new research published Friday and shared exclusively with the Guardian found that companies that resisted the pressure and kept their DEI practices, including Costco, Apple and Delta Air Lines, performed just as well as their competitors who pulled back. For the research, Jacob Grumbach, an associate professor at at the University of California at Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, analyzed how S&P 500 companies fared after Trump’s January executive order. He used what economists define as “abnormal returns” – the difference between how a stock was expected to perform versus how it actually performed – to isolate the impact of a company’s DEI decision. What he found was the firms that kept their DEI policies or voted down anti-DEI shareholder resolutions did just as well financially, even after Trump’s executive order, as firms that didn’t. In the days after the executive orders were signed, companies that kept their DEI policies actually performed better on the stock market than those that didn’t. Whether or not DEI benefits a company’s bottom line can depend on its consumers. Grumbach noted companies that publicly stood firm on their DEI policies might have known they could weather a political storm. Apple, for example, may have known it could maintain its DEI efforts in a way that Tractor Supply, another prominent company that pulled back its policies, could not. The “go woke, go broke” movement found its power in 2023, when a series of conservative backlashes against companies gained momentum. Bud Light sales dropped following a conservative boycott after the beer company featured transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Target became an embodiment of its name after fury erupted over its pride month merchandise. Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, embarked on a prolonged fight with Disney after the company vocally opposed the state’s “don’t say gay” bill. “Cracker Barrel has fallen,” a conservative group wrote after the restaurant chain celebrated pride month on social media Then, also in 2023, the US supreme court ruled that race-conscious admissions policies in higher education were unconstitutional, opening the floodgates for legal challenges against DEI policies in other places, including the workplace. “That really created a lot of fear and panic in corporate America and is what led to a lot of the pullbacks around DEI,” said David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at New York University’s law school. “When Trump came into office for the second time, that just poured fuel on an already raging fire.” After Trump’s executive orders, companies had to weigh the risks. Many quietly scrapped the DEI promises they had made after the murder of George Floyd and the racial reckoning it inspired. Some ended up facing a reverse backlash: the Twin Cities Pride parade dropped Target, which is based in Minneapolis, as a sponsor after the company withdrew some of its DEI policies. But the reality of this pullback was likely different from what was seen in the headlines, Glasgow said. Of the many companies he spoke to, most “made adjustments to their diversity principles on account of legal and regulatory environments”. “Often what’s going on is something more in the messy middle, where they’re sticking with some things, deleting others and then reframing or rebranding some,” Glasgow said. While there was “no perfect way” to measure whether a firm was pulling back its DEI policies, Grumbach kept track of company policies by analyzing news coverage, pulling anti-DEI shareholder proposals and keeping track of the proposals’ votes, and using data from an activist group called DEI Watch, which maintains a tracker of companies. “No matter how we measure DEI in companies, we find the same answer,” he said: holding on to DEI promises ultimately had no impact on financial performance. Grumbach said the implications go beyond DEI and illustrates how organizations fare after resisting authoritarian policies. “What happens when you don’t comply with that executive branch pressure in a moment of great fear in these civil society organizations?” Grumbach said. “This shows that large US corporations really do have leeway and the ability to sort of do noncompliance to executive branch pressure and end up fine.”
Friday briefing: Nigel Farage’s Clacton circus is finally over, but his financial reckoning is just beginning
Good morning. Less than an hour ago, the results of the Clacton byelection were declared, confirming that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has been re-elected MP for the Essex coastal constituency on 22,239 votes, in a surreal contest boycotted by every other major political party. Farage increased his general election vote by just over 1,000 votes, despite a lower turnout. His closest challenger, Count Binface, the intergalactic space warrior created by comedian Jon Harvey, who Farage claimed earlier this morning to be “the candidate of the establishment” won 9,455, a career best. After forcing a byelection (at an estimated cost of £200,000 to the taxpayer), Farage has now proved conclusively that he can see off a human dustbin and a bevy of other fringe and novelty candidates. The declaration came later than your standard byelection precisely because of specialist counting arrangements required for a 34-strong, 90cm long ballot paper – the longest in British political history – which includes 20 independents and three Monster Raving Loony candidates, but none of the main political parties, who refused to participate in what they described as a “media circus” and “vanity project”. But don’t let this carnival of democracy distract you from what’s really going on – a desperate, wasteful, irresponsible and ultimately fruitless attempt to divert focus away from the ongoing scrutiny of Farage and Reform UK’s financial dealings. But what next for Nigel? That’s the subject of today’s First Edition, after the headlines. Five big stories Extreme heat | The UK has recorded its hottest day of the year so far with a provisional temperature of 38.1C in southern England as Europe sweltered under a major heat dome. UK news | Sixth-formers have record-breaking exam results in academic and vocational subjects, allowing more than a quarter of a million 18-year-olds to go on to higher education. US news | Newly disclosed records reveal the US government extensively spied on prominent leftwing organisations and on protesters as part of a vast operation into groups opposing the immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year. World news | The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has spread to a sixth province. The World Health Organization said the outbreak was on track to surpass the deadliest in history. UK news | Lawyers representing four men convicted of terror offences are increasingly hopeful that revelations from the undercover policing inquiry could boost the chances of their case being reopened. In depth: ‘I don’t think the byelection has helped Reform at all’ Farage refused to attend the count in person, citing police advice about a “campaign to disrupt… the result”. A number of outlets reported that Essex Police had not advised any candidate to stay away from the count, while acting returning officer Ian Davidson said it was Farage’s decision “whether or not to attend”. Instead, he spent the early hours of the night at “Farage Fest”, held at an airfield on the outskirts of the constituency, with a ferris wheel and festival tents. There Farage declared “a resounding victory” to supporters. The count itself was rather more “low energy”, our reporter Sammy Gecsoyler told me around 5am. “It’s a foregone conclusion and there’s not a lot of excitement,” he said, describing a range of colourful and eccentric candidates milling around Clacton Leisure Centre. Farage may claim that this result proves voters don’t care about his finances. But his re-election means the standards commissioner’s investigation into his finances can resume, which might be as soon as today, or when the Commons returns in September. A brief reminder: Daniel Greenberg’s twofold investigation – which Reform MP Sarah Pochin has denounced as a “kangaroo court” – was opened in May after the Guardian revealed Farage had accepted a £5m gift from the Thailand-based crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne in April 2024, before he stood in the last general election. Farage insists he failed to declare the gift because he had no intention of returning to politics at the time, a claim undermined when it emerged that he struck a secret comeback deal in March and April 2024 with Richard Tice, then Reform leader. Greenberg’s inquiry was later widened to look at whether Farage should have declared financial support from his friend and convicted fraudster George Cottrell, after reports he provided Farage with accommodation, security and social media staffing. Reform UK claimed this was a “baseless and contrived story” and that no rules had been broken. It’s uncertain how long this investigation will take, but there’s an expectation that – certainly on the Harborne gift – Farage is likely to face significant censure. If that means suspension from the Commons for 10 or more sitting days, he could face a recall petition, where another byelection would be triggered if 10% of his weary constituents demanded it. *** A counterproductive ploy? Well ahead of the results declaration, Count Binface posted an instructive meme suggesting that – whether he triumphed at the count, Farage was returned on reduced turnout, with a shrunken majority or simply to face a renewed standards investigation – his campaign had been a success. “I don’t think the byelection has helped Reform at all,” Rowena Mason, the Guardian’s Whitehall editor who has been closely following the contest, tells me. “Farage wanted it to be a great vindication and show of public support for him, but because none of the main parties are running against him , it proves nothing”. Politico analysis published yesterday revealed Reform has spent £10,000 on social media adverts, like this final campaign clip of Farage strolling down a sun-drenched street wearing the salmon slacks every golfer covets and urging voters to “tell the establishment where to go”. Is this splash of cash in what should’ve been a shoo-in win indicative of internal jitters? As Rowena reports: “From colleagues and pollsters who’ve been in Clacton this week, their sense is that voters are generally annoyed with Farage for wasting time and money. They’re irritated that their town has turned into a joke”. Still, the Reform leader enjoys a solid core of support in Clacton – which has the highest levels of economic inactivity (those not working or seeking employment) of any constituency in England and Wales. In 2024 Farage won 46% of votes with 58% turnout, securing a majority of 8,405. Yesterday’s turnout of 44.4% was lower than the general election, but Farage still increased his vote. “It’s far less certain that he would win a second byelection,” Rowena cautions, “in which case we would see a resurgent Labour party, Reform having slid in the polls and the Conservatives doing a little bit better.” Farage is also very anxious about ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe’s new hard right outfit Restore Britain: “That’s why you’ve seen them swing to the right instead of doing a politically more sensible thing of concentrating on winning over swing voters and people on the broader right”. It’s exactly the same mistake that the Conservatives have been making with Reform, she points out. With financial scandals piling up, immigration numbers falling, and a new Labour PM with the comms capability and (apparent) authenticity to beat Farage at his own game, this summer could not feel like a starker contrast to 2025, when Reform dominated the news agenda and the polls week after week. So isn’t it a shame that this byelection has only served to concentrate people’s minds on Farage’s personal fortunes and potential misdemeanours. “Reform seem to be trapped in this conversation around their finances, and this has only made it worse”. *** Threats to our reporting That’s certainly where our attention is. After her revelation of the £5m donation, the Guardian’s City editor, Anna Isaac, has steadily revealed a much wider story about donations and loans worth millions that Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice and his company received from George Cottrell and Cottrell’s mother, Fiona. These caused bankers to issue “suspicious activity reports” because of potential money-laundering concerns to the National Crime Agency, as they had done with the Harborne donation. Earlier this week it emerged that Tice had issued a legal threat to the Guardian, singling out Anna for her reporting on these financial transactions. Tice is now suing the NCA, claiming that the information could only have come from an officer within the agency. In a separate letter to the Guardian, Tice’s lawyers made clear they would be seeking disclosure of documents that could reveal the details of Anna’s sources. Politicians cross-party and anti-corruption campaigners have since condemned the threats to Anna, with Labour chair Bridget Phillipson accusing Tice of mounting a “deeply chilling attempt to silence the free press”. *** Back in Clacton … Whenever Guardian reporters visited Clacton during the campaign, they encountered deep-seated frustration that the constituency had yet again been turned into a clown show, as well as a healthy disregard for the snobbery that too regularly sneers at Reform supporters. They heard from independently minded voters happy to stick two fingers up at the Westminster establishment – this is the only place in Britain ever to have elected a Ukip MP at a general election, remember – and others who feel they have nothing left to lose. Or that other parties have treated Clacton with contempt, rather than try to understand why so many people voted for Farage. A key theme of Reform’s digital campaign presented Farage – a privately educated former commodities broker who previously had no connection with the constituency – as a champion for local residents. But according to Hansard, he has made only six mentions of Clacton since elected two years ago. Local resident Sarah Elizabeth Cox wrote in the Guardian earlier this week that Clacton residents deserved an MP who noticed the homeless people lining the coastal paths in tents, how locals have been priced off commuter trains, worsening health, low employment rates and lack of affordable homes. Instead: “Farage used us as a pawn, and the media treats us as clickbait.” What else we’ve been enjoying I loved hearing from end of life experts about how to have a truly meaningful life. Poppy Leaf sheep or horseshoe crab? If, like me, you can’t get enough Invertebrate of the Year chat, our Science Weekly podcast hosts nominate their favourites. Libby I thought readers questions for Imelda Staunton were INCREDIBLE in our interview with her. I was so surprised by some of them! Poppy Moira Donegan’s column about AOC’s decision to go public about freezing her eggs explains why what shouldn’t be a radical act sure feels like one in the current climate. Libby I found our interview with Andrew Rannells (who played Elijah in Girls) fascinating, and also quite touching. Poppy Sport Athletics | Britain’s Amy Hunt struck gold in the 200m to complete the sprint double, while Mark English became Ireland’s first European Championship men’s gold medallist by winning the 800m Football | Manchester City have rejected Barcelona’s second bid of around €60m (£51m) for Rodri, while Chelsea have set a 5pm (BST) Friday deadline for the club to bid £120m for Enzo Fernández. Football | The Championship is the perfect stage for players to show off their talent before progressing to top-flight football. We’ve picked seven players we’re excited to see in the Championship this season. Something for the weekend Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read, play and listen to right now TV My Brilliant Career | ★★★★★ Sybylla, the charmingly irrepressible and irrepressibly charming heroine of My Brilliant Career, is played utterly convincingly and with vim, vigour and joy by Philippa Northeast in the new adaptation of Miles Franklin’s 1901 Australian classic of the same name. Creator Liz Doran must have wept with happiness when they found an actor capable of bringing so much to an already glorious script – and who embodies the joie de vivre upon which so much of the plot, as everyone she meets becomes part of her orbit, depends. Doran’s TV adaptation retains all the book’s sense of defiance but adds a welcome soupcon of more optimism too. It crackles with intelligence and wit, gives all of its characters room to breathe and, without ever becoming superficial, never loses its lightness of touch. A joy. A brilliant, brilliant joy. Lucy Mangan Music Chelsea Wolfe: The Dark | ★★★★☆ The Dark’s sublime opener Cold is inspired by a lack of sleep, as the gothic singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe taps into the insomnia that can result from a fracturing relationship. “Baby, when I’m next to you / Feels so cold / And it’s hard to sleep / And it’s hard to feel so alone,” she sings, dramatically ending up feeling as if she is “crying underwater / Screaming at the surface”. Meanwhile, Dancer in the Sky is the closest Wolfe has come to an epic, anthemic love song, with an exquisite arrangement. In fact, a lot of these songs wouldn’t sound incongruous being performed before huge crowds holding phones or lighters in the air. Wolfe recently became the unlikely face of a perfume range (Ghosts, obviously) and is clearly edging towards to the mainstream, but after two decades at the culty coal face this powerful, mature collection should take her to a wider audience. Dave Simpson Film Steal This Story, Please | ★★★★☆ Before there was Michael Moore, there was campaigning journalist Amy Goodman – and she is still doggedly asking questions, an earnest gadfly buzzing around the flinching faces of Trump placemen, challenging and provoking and annoying. With her listener-funded syndicated radio show Democracy Now!, on the air since 1996, Goodman is flying the flag for journalism of the unfashionably homespun progressive left, while America’s corporate news media are sheepishly capitulating to their tech oligarch owners. This documentary from Carl Deal and Tia Lessin is a portrait of Goodman and her life and times. The title is her somewhat ironic mantra: please, everybody, by all means steal our stories about corruption and demagoguery. Sadly, the big news media are often uninterested. Peter Bradshaw Game Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls (PS 5, PC) | ★★★★☆ Developer Arc System Works, a fan-favourite studio famous for its hyper-fluid and extremely technical anime-style fighting games, has been on a long journey to usurp Capcom’s throne. With Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, it may have finally achieved this difficult task. It can feel like a traditional 1v1 fighter at times, but judicious and careful deployment of your team is what separates good players from great. It feels amazing to flip the momentum of a match: to recover from a seemingly endless combo chain and subject your opponent to one of your own, using your team as a single organic unit. It offers very little to those who aren’t interested in fighting for fighting’s sake. Yet while the package is spare, the product is dazzling: it’s a sensory assault that challenges players to find calm in the storm of superpowered brawls, to really dig in and learn the clockwork of meter management, character mastery and team building. Joshua Rivera The front pages “Universities fear financial turmoil amid slump in overseas students”, is the front page of the Guardian today. On the heatwave, the Times splashes “Houses burn and train derails on hottest day”, the Mirror says “Britain on fire”, the Mail writes “Inferno”. Elsewhere, the i Paper writes “24 million people face paying even higher water bills … to firms losing 1.2 billion litres a day from leaks”, the Telegraph has “China ‘funding Palestine marches’”, and the FT says “Anthropic investors bet on record $2tn IPO valuation”. Metro leads on “Record 2.5m trips to A&E”, the Express writes “Don’t hand out ‘rewards for their failure’”, and the Sun’s front page is “Horror on the 2.24”. Today in Focus Prisons are full – who should be released early? Former prison governor Judith Feline on the reality of our overcrowded prisons and Peter Walker on why it’s causing a headache for Andy Burnham. Cartoon of the day | Nicola Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad On Wednesday evening, millions of people in Europe watched a rare solar eclipse. When the Guardian asked them to share their photographs and experiences of an evening spent trying to catch a glimpse without burning their eyes, all sorts of beautiful responses came back. From those who basked in what they described as “a few minutes of glory”; to those who couldn’t be more impressed by the humble colander’s eye protecting properties – their responses are well worth a read. “It was a great chance to take a moment to be in nature, surrounded by our community and folks of all ages, all pausing to observe the eclipse,” as one of them put it. 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Indonesia wildfires threaten orangutans rescued from animal traffickers
Orangutans rescued from wildlife traffickers face a new threat from the record number of fires that have broken out in Indonesia in recent weeks. Flames have come within metres of an animal rehabilitation centre in West Kalimantan as hot, dry and windy conditions have been amplified by a powerful El Niño and the human-driven climate crisis. In the first 13 days of August, Indonesia registered more than three times more forest fire hotspots than in the whole of the same month last year. This followed a record number of blazes between January and July. West Kalimantan has been at the epicentre. After 40 days without rain, there have been dozens of severe outbreaks of fire in the region. Flames threatened the Yiari orangutan rehabilitation centre this week. The fire moved rapidly from 1km away to within 100 metres of the perimeter within days, prompting staff to relocate the 60 resident orangutans to enclosures in the middle of the centre. Indonesia authorities have water-bombed the forest to try to control the blaze, and teams from the centre joined the firefighting efforts as the air quality worsened, posing a threat to animals and the wider ecosystem. The centre’s director, Dr Karmele Llano Sánchez, said in her latest update that battling the fire had been relentless. “We were fighting it until 3am, but this morning it has reignited. The teams are working round the clock but they are exhausted.” The situation had reportedly stabilised as of Thursday evening, with all the animals safe, but the meteorological agency has said the hot, dry conditions are likely to continue and could lead to more outbreaks. Indonesian authorities have urged people to avoid setting fires and to remain vigilant because the peak of the fire season is usually in September and October. Yiari is seeking funds for more firefighting equipment. It warned of the growing threat earlier this year after a fire started for land clearing spread into one of its ecosystem restoration sites.