There’s video footage of the large tornado that ripped through southwest France, injuring 39 and damaging homes. Heavy thunderstorms and strong winds have struck the country following months of extreme heat, leading to record-breaking wildfires.
Alicia Martinez pulls on an oversized, chocolate-brown leather jacket – an incongruous choice for the July heat in Los Angeles. Later that day, she plans to see The Odyssey in a frigid theater. But first, there is mass. Martinez, 24, enters Our Savior Parish, the castle-like church beside her workplace, the University of Southern California. Inside, she dips her fingers in holy water, makes the sign of the cross on her forehead, and enters the main part of the church in hushed reverence. Seated in the pews, backed by the dancing light of stained-glass windows, she’s flanked by faith of all ages. Some wear chapel veils. Others sport USC-branded apparel. All huddle shoulder-to-shoulder. At summer’s peak at USC, a secular university synonymous with Hollywood and Trojan football, another institution is quietly gaining ground: the Catholic church. More than a year ago, the Catholic faith called to her like “a pounding noise in her heart”, Martinez said, even though she has Protestant roots. This year, she completed the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults program (OCIA), the Catholic church’s formal initiation process for adults. The parish growth mirrors a larger trend. In April, when the Catholic church traditionally registers new members, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles reported 8,598 people preparing to be baptized or formally entering the church – the highest number of reported initiations for an archdiocese in the US, and a 54% increase from 2025. Across the US, the number of adults entering the Catholic church has climbed each year since the pandemic-low, according to a survey of dioceses. The increases have prompted talk of a religious revival. But experts say it’s too early to call it a trend. Religious disaffiliation and conversion are always in flux, says Michele Dillon, a sociology professor and dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of New Hampshire. Still, it’s an interesting moment for the church in the US, after decades of declining religious affiliation. Our Savior baptized 16 people this year, a record high, said Father Matt Wheeler, the pastor. Sixty-nine people enrolled in its OCIA program, a 57% increase from last year. Mass attendance grew so significantly that church leaders have, on occasion, redirected worshippers to an overflow area to watch a live stream. During mass, Wheeler often looks out at the sea of student faces and marvels to himself, “Wow. Nobody dragged these young adults here.” Martinez said that for her, the call of Catholicism was amplified by the loneliness of living in a big city, where she felt battles of good and evil were constantly unfolding before her eyes. “There’s so much wrong in the world,” said Martinez. She was drawn to Matthew’s Gospel, she said, which warns that as lawlessness increases, people’s love for one another will grow cold. For 20-year-old Kathryn Glavin, too, global crises – including war, injustice and division – lent urgency to the search for steadier ground in faith. For most of her life, she considered herself agnostic. Then, two years ago, the UC Santa Barbara student began noticing the Catholic church’s charitable work in her community. “I feel like it’s a dark time for a lot of people in the world,” said Glavin. “And I think that naturally is going to get people who reach for the light.” In April, Glavin was baptized at St. Mark’s University Parish in Isla Vista, a student enclave cradled by UC Santa Barbara and the Pacific Ocean. At St Mark’s, interest in Catholicism is blossoming, said Father Ryan Thornton. Established in 1965 to serve UC Santa Barbara, a secular university, the church is located between three fraternity houses – right in the middle of student life. At first, the parish understood the growing interest in Catholicism as part of a Covid-era holdover when church gatherings were temporarily restricted. But six years later, the parish has seen its largest initiation class – 56 people, said Thornton. “That clearly can’t be about the pandemic because the difference is too far,” said Thornton. “So, then the question is, ‘Well, what’s happening now?’” Once popular reasons to join the Catholic church, such as family pressure or a plan to marry a Catholic partner, have largely fallen away. Today, becoming Catholic is an active choice, said Thornton. He and other church leaders suspect the new generations of faithful, many raised by non-religious parents, have emerged spiritually hungry from a steady diet of social media reels and Love Island watch parties. Catholicism offers a counterweight: rituals and a history that reaches far beyond the algorithm. “In some ways, the superficiality of our society – the Instagrammable life – has been tried and found wanting,” said Thornton. The increase in initiations in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara is set against a backdrop of a decades-long national shift away from organized religion. For decades, Catholicism in the US has lost more people than it has gained through religious switching – people who move to another religious tradition or no religion – according to Pew Research Center studies. But the “nones” – people who identify as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular” – have leveled off in recent years, according to another Pew Research study. Even if the increase in new Catholics reflects a new national shift, one strong year cannot reverse decades of gradual decline, said Maureen Day, a sociologist and theologian. Still, Day said, the local data could signal that religion is appealing to people in new ways – and the losses could begin to reverse. What could signal a true reversal is sustained participation in church life, said Day. But that is difficult to track, especially at university parishes, where students graduate and move away. No one calls their former pastor to report that they are still going to church, Thornton said. Publicly available data do not show which parishes drove the archdiocese-wide increase. But Dillon said parishes’ increases shouldn’t be dismissed. “It’s real,” said Dillon. “It’s a real observable shift in those individual parishes and dioceses.” Catholicism, with its centuries of tradition, elaborate rituals and thicket of rules, can intimidate newcomers. But parish leaders said it’s helped that participants these days have more accessible entry points. They listen to Father Mike Schmitz’s podcasts. They can pray in the car with their Hallow app. And they can watch Bishop Robert Barron’s YouTube channel. Our Savior Parish leaders are intentional about making the gospel relatable to a younger audience, said Wheeler. At a July mass, he referred the congregation to his latest Instagram reel. John Ceballos said that what’s made a difference for him is the gentler message at Our Savior Parish. Ceballos was baptized Catholic, but he stopped practicing in his 20s, in part, because of the fire-and-brimstone messaging. “It was like, ‘Oh, here we go. You know, we’re all going to hell,’” says Ceballos with a laugh. Now, at Our Savior Parish, he says mass is all about love and community. “Now, everybody’s good. Everybody’s a child of God.” This year, Ceballos, 50, was the oldest participant in Our Savior’s OCIA program. The age gap became a running joke: Do you even know what a fax machine is? But when they began studying Catholic teachings, the age gap fell away: everyone was a beginner. Near the end of mass at Our Savior Parish, Catholics come forward in a communion procession to receive what the church teaches is the body and blood of Christ. Even in the summer, when many USC students are away, the procession threads along the entire length of the church. As it stretches on, people kneeling in prayer shift on their knees. Others sit. Aidan Freire has attended mass at Our Savior Parish for two years. Although another parish is less than a mile away, he is drawn to this one because of its energy. “I feel like this parish is really good because everyone’s young,” said Freire, 19. To him, the clearest measure of the parish’s draw comes during Communion, which is reminiscent of another experience. “It’s like a TSA security line.”
An island in the Venice lagoon boasting a Napoleonic fort and lush gardens is up for sale. Described as an “enchanting oasis of peace and beauty”, Crevan offers a “spectacular view” of Venice’s main island, but is far from its crowds. Located a few minutes by boat from the islands of Burano and Torcello and just slightly smaller than the size of a standard football pitch, Crevan was built in 1806 by the French military during the Napoleonic era as a strategic outpost to defend the northern Venetian lagoon from the Austrian empire. But in 1815 the island fell under Austrian rule before passing to the Italian state in 1866, after the annexation of Veneto to the Kingdom of Italy. Crevan continued to serve a military purpose until after the first world war. After years of neglect, it was bought by a private owner and its buildings restored as residential properties. Its most prominent feature is the Napoleonic fort, converted by the current owner into a small villa with four bedrooms and surrounded manicured lawns and vegetable and fruit gardens and trees. There is also a private mooring along the island’s small internal canal, and a helipad. Crevan has been listed for sale by several top property agencies, including Lionard Luxury Real Estate and Dimora Italian Real Estate, an affiliate of Christie’s International. The asking price, however, is strictly reserved for interested buyers. “Crevan offers the privilege of withdrawing from the world without ever leaving the universal allure of Venice,” Dimitri Corti, the founder and chief executive of Lionard Luxury Real Estate, said in a press release. “What one acquires is not simply a residence and a piece of land, but space, privacy and an entire landscape to preserve.” But Crevan has competition. Isola Santa Cristina, another island in the Venetian lagoon that for decades was owned by the heir to the Swarovski crystal empire, was put up for sale at about €24m in June. The luxury retreat comes with a huge villa, a saltwater swimming pool and vineyards. An octagonal-shaped island close to the Venice lido and dating back to the 1500s, when it was built as a defence post by the Republic of Venice, is also on the market.
German investigators uncovered a third drone and suspected military explosives thought to be connected to an attempted attack on Leipzig airport, local media have reported. The drone was discovered in Kabelsketal, just to the west of the airport, along with about 50g (1.8oz) of a suspected military explosive on 14 August, 10 days after the unsuccessful sabotage. Leipzig airport is a cargo and military logistics hub used by Nato and Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines for transporting military supplies. The office of the prosecutor general, which is leading the investigation, declined to comment on Tuesday. But the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said the government would soon provide information about who it believed was behind the drone attacks. “They will pay for this,” Merz said, stopping short of naming a suspect, before a cabinet meeting in Brandenburg. He added that the government was “working intensively on this together with the security authorities and we will present our findings and comment on them shortly”. Intelligence sources cited by the broadcasters NDR and WDR and the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung said they suspected the involvement of Russian intelligence in the attempted attack. Moscow has denied involvement. The German government has so far avoided expressing a clear position as to whether it thinks Russia, or an actor close to it, is responsible. Merz said the attempted attack showed that Germany was increasingly becoming a target. “Attackers are increasingly ruthlessly accepting even serious property damage, and even injuries and deaths,” he said on Tuesday. A drone carrying explosives was found on 4 August near a Ukrainian Antonov cargo plane used for military supplies. According to investigators, the drone was apparently intended to land on the wings of the aircraft, which was filled with kerosene, but the explosive device did not detonate. Investigators say that about 20 minutes after the discovery of the first drone, a second drone possibly collided with a DHL cargo plane, which was forced to abort its landing manoeuvre and was diverted to Marseille. According to the latest media reports, an inspection of the DHL aircraft revealed damage to the tail section, suggesting a collision with an object. However, the drone has not yet been found. Investigators believe it could have been sucked into the engines after the collision and shredded into small pieces. The third drone was found in a field in a municipality that directly borders the western edge of Leipzig airport. Forensic technicians from the federal criminal police office found residues of a substance that initial assessments indicated could have been the highly explosive substance hexogen. This explosive also failed to detonate, but the investigators’ report, according to the media reports, stated: “The perpetrators may have had a far larger attack in mind than previously known to the public.” Other suspicious traces and components were also discovered close to the airport, the report said. In Kursdorf, investigators found an antenna attached to a tree, and other electronic parts, which may have been used to control the drones. Close by and near where witnesses reported hearing a loud bang on the day of the incident, investigators discovered a burnt patch and charred metal parts. If the drones had exploded, they could have caused a catastrophe, German officials said.
Gao Zhen, a prominent Chinese artist known for provocative sculptures of the former leader Mao Zedong, has been sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty of slandering China’s “heroes and martyrs”. The sentencing came two years after he was detained while visiting the country with his family, according to his wife and human rights groups. The case has attracted international condemnation, largely because the artworks at the centre of the case were created more than 10 years before China created the law under which Gao was charged. The law, which bans defamation of China’s heroes and martyrs, came into force in March 2018. Courts have previously used the law to charge people who challenge official accounts of Chinese history. Gao, 70, a Chinese citizen and US permanent resident, was detained on 26 August 2024 after returning to China with his wife and son. Police later raided his studio near Beijing. In one of Gao’s most famous works with his brother Gao Qiang, they depict Mao kneeling. In another, a firing squad made up of seven Mao statues point rifles at Jesus. Gao’s wife, Zhao Yaliang, told the Guardian that the two years since her husband’s detention had been a painful ordeal for the family. “His arrest and trial should never have happened. We have had no choice but to wait in anguish … I am very sad that it’s going to be this long,” she said after the verdict. According to his wife, two of Gao’s relatives were allowed to enter the Sanhe city people’s court in Hebei province for the verdict, while she waited with their son and several friends outside. “For two years he has suffered in the detention centre, while my son, our closest family members and I have also endured this torment,” she said. Gao’s family said he had fainted in detention and was afflicted with back, knee and respiratory problems. His wife said Gao had sustained heatstroke during the summer and described experiencing a feeling of “being close to death”. Weiquanwang, a human rights monitoring network, said Gao had been sentenced for “infringing the reputation and honour of heroes and martyrs”. The rights network said Gao’s studio and property had been sealed and that friends and supporters had been silenced. Artworks made by Gao during his time in detention and seen by the Guardian include a series of colourful paper cuttings. “A body can be confined, but clarity of mind is harder to take away. Mentally he remains remarkably sharp and unbroken,” said Gao Qiang, who spent decades producing art with him as the Gao brothers. “Art should never be a crime scene waiting to be discovered,” he said. In a handwritten letter sent from detention to his young son, Gao wrote: “Dad’s eyesight isn’t very good, and I don’t have my glasses, so my handwriting isn’t very good. “I hope I can finish my work as soon as possible and return to you and Mum,” he wrote. “Son, remember: Dad will always love you!” Sophie Richardson, a longtime China human rights campaigner, said: “Gao has been prosecuted for conduct that has never been criminal, and his family has endured collective punishment at the hands of the authorities, and that is criminal.” Sarah Brooks, the China director for Amnesty International, said the decision to sentence Gao to a maximum three-year prison term illustrated “the authorities’ determination to deter others from engaging in independent artistic expression”. Gao’s wife and their young son have been unable to leave China since his detention. Human rights campaigners said his wife was stopped from travelling abroad based on national security grounds. His young son is a US citizen but has been unable to leave without his parents. The Chinese foreign ministry was approached for comment. Yu-chen Li contributed to reporting.
China has denounced the threat of US sanctions for its trade with Iran, saying any such measures would be illegal, and warned it would take “all necessary measures” to protect its national interests. Beijing’s rejection of the US threat of secondary sanctions for any country or entity continuing to trade with Tehran had been predicted. China buys an estimated 80% of Iran’s oil exports and it has defied previous US efforts to limit the flow of revenue to the Tehran regime. Its statement of opposition raises the question of how far the Trump administration would be prepared to go in confronting China and its financial system in the drive to isolate Iran. In making the sanctions threat on Monday, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, announced an initial set of sanctions on 60 individuals, entities and vessels for alleged involvement in trade with Iran, but there were no Chinese financial institutions on the list, despite their involvement in financing the Iranian oil trade. The omission reflected US caution. Asked why the Trump administration had not declared immediate sanctions and had stopped short of naming potential sanctions targets, Bessent replied: “Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?” Financial and trade experts say the administration is well aware of the risk of Chinese retaliation before a scheduled summit next month between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. China could strike back through financial markets or with limits on its export of critical minerals. The spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, Lin Jian, told reporters on Tuesday: “Cooperation between China and Iran has always been conducted within the framework of international law and should not be interfered with or disrupted. “China has already stated many times that it firmly opposes illegal unilateral sanctions. China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its own rights and interests.” Iran has been economically wrecked by the war and the accompanying US blockade, but it maintained its defiance in response to Bessent’s threats of total isolation. The economy minister, Ali Madanizadeh, said on state television: “Our defence is no longer so defensive; the enemies should wait for an attack.” An oil tanker was reportedly hit on Tuesday by an unidentified projectile at the mouth of the strait of Hormuz. Only two commercial vessels were reported to have successfully made the transit through the narrow waterway on Monday. The declaration of what Bessent called Operation Economic Outcast suggests that the prospects of a resolution to the conflict with Iran are still remote. It also suggests a lean towards economic measures and away from military force after a six-month war that has not brought about the intended Iranian capitulation. The near closure of the strait of Hormuz and knock-on effect on oil prices and the global economy is a political risk for Trump as congressional elections loom in November. The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, insisted that further military action was not off the table. “By no means are we foreclosing using kinetic strikes anywhere in the strait of Hormuz or around Iran,” Hegseth told reporters on Monday. Bessent called the sanctions campaign unprecedented and compared it to the D-day Normandy landings, a turning point in the second world war. “Today, in that same spirit, we are launching an economic onslaught against Iran’s financial connections around the globe,” he said. “Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.” He said the US had identified those that continued to deal with Iran and each violator would be given a deadline to cut ties or face US sanctions. He said the deadlines imposed would depend on individual circumstances. “Any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the US dollar system,” he said. “The clock just started ticking.” Bessent said Trump was “making phone calls to world leaders with specific requests to cease their interactions with the regime”, but he did not specify whether the US president would talk to his Chinese counterpart. Sina Toossi, a senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy, said: “After nearly six months without a military or diplomatic victory, Washington appears to be trying to accomplish through intensified economic strangulation what military force has so far failed to achieve. But Tehran is answering that zero-sum approach with one of its own.” In apparent anticipation of the US measures, the United Arab Emirates, a close US and Israeli ally, announced it was suspending trade ties with Iran. Turkey, another trading partner with Iran, which has been critical of the US-led campaign against the Islamic Republic, has yet to respond to the US threat of sanctions. Andrew Miller, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said: “The announcement of new economic sanctions on Iran and those countries trading with it signals what is plain to all: this war has brought the United States no closer to eliminating Iran’s nuclear programme or crippling the Iranian regime. But while sanctions can be effective, it is highly unlikely they will produce a quick settlement favourable to the United States.”
A Maine Coon kitten from Wisconsin overcame a perilous bout with pneumonia to break a 24-year-old world record for most toes on a cat, setting the new mark at 29. Erebus Anomaly’s unique story received US national media attention on Monday, when ABC’s World News Now program recounted what one of his owners called a “miraculous” recovery from illness in his infancy – and the subsequent Guinness World Record that he clinched. Erebus’s unprecedented wealth of toes is evidently attributed to a genetic trait, polydactyly, that causes some cats to be born with extra phalanges and – according to a 2016 article in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery – is relatively common in Maine Coons. Furthermore, Erebus’s biological father was born with six toes on each paw, giving him a total of 24, which is six more than the normal amount for a cat, as World News Now reported. That helped set the stage for Erebus to be born in March with eight toes on one paw and seven on the rest. Erebus, in other words, had a total of one more toe than the Guinness World Record-setting 28 counted on a Canadian pet named Jake in 2002 – and then tied in March by Michigan kitten Toby. And Erebus’s owners, Kendra Vandenbloomer and Hunter Nett of Kaukauna, Wisconsin, later told local news outlet WFRV it was quickly obvious to them that he might attain the record. Yet Erebus, from the Appleton community of Kaukauna, had much more to navigate than just Guinness World Records’ verification process. At one point, after noticing that their cat was breathing through his mouth, Vandenbloomer and Nett learned Erebus had suffered a potentially deadly medical emergency known as an aspiration event – when something that’s supposed to be in the stomach, like food or liquid, gets into the airways. He required a trip to an emergency veterinarian, which saw Erebus get diagnosed with pneumonia, be placed in an oxygen machine and undergo a course of medication. Erebus’s outlook for a time was grim, Vandenbloomer and Nett said on World News Now. Notably, his lungs had a white appearance despite the fact that they were supposed to be black, Vandenbloomer said on the program. He ultimately improved, though, in a turn of events that Vandenbloomer described as “definitely miraculous”. And to confirm Erebus had fully recovered, his owners had X-rays taken. In the end, those X-rays served a purpose beyond punctuating Erebus’s health scare. They were also important documentation for the application that Vandenbloomer and Nett submitted on his behalf for recognition by Guinness World Records. The famous organization which curates a database of more than 40,000 world records then bestowed the title of most toes on a cat to Erebus on 13 May, according to the group’s website. “It’s crazy to think that one of the scariest times in his life led right into the beginning of his world record journey,” read a message on a social media account created for Erebus by Vandenbloomer and Nett. The pair run a breeding cattery named BlueNorthern Maine Coons, and they were asked by ABC’s Danny New whether Erebus might be rehomed. “He’s staying with us,” Vandenbloomer replied. “He’s a gorgeous boy.”
Good morning. The UK government yesterday backed Ofcom to take “tough action” against social media companies that fail to remove posts celebrating dangerous driving, in response to a series of unsafe, and sometimes deadly, viral trends. Young men are filming themselves driving the wrong way down busy streets, accelerating to extreme speeds on narrow rural roads and putting a vehicle in “ghost mode” – switching off headlights and taillights at night – for clicks and kudos. Andy Burnham labelled people who share such content as “truly reprehensible” after two police officers died in a head on collision in the early hours of Saturday morning near Middlesbrough. Their vehicle crashed into a car driving the wrong way down the A66. Five young men aged between 17 and 23 were inside, all of whom died too. The previous weekend, a family of four were seriously injured in a night-time collision with a car driving the wrong way along the M9 in County Kildare, Ireland. All five teenage boys in that car also died. These are extreme examples of a devastating and far more quotidian phenomenon: the deaths of young lads in cars on our roads. For today’s First Edition I spoke to Crystal Owen, whose 17-year-old son Harvey died in a car crash in 2023, about what makes young men so vulnerable on the roads and how a single simple reform might change things. Before that, the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Andy Burnham has backtracked on his proposal to rip up the government’s housing plans and boost social home building. UK news | Rupert Lowe, the leader of Restore Britain, is on course to earn as much from the social media platform X as he does from his salary as an MP, after surging income from posts that include demands for mass deportations. Iran | The US has threatened to impose severe sanctions against any country or entity maintaining economic ties with Iran, hoping to achieve with economic measures what military means have so far failed to do. Europe news | People trying to cross the Channel to the UK have reported an increase in French police use of violence on beaches to prevent them from getting into dinghies, according to a French NGO. Climate crisis | The climate damage caused by developing the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields under consideration by the UK government would destroy their economic benefits many times over, according to an analysis. In depth: ‘It is madness to hand the keys to a lethal weapon to a child of 17’ The details of these recent tragedies remain unclear – yesterday afternoon 12 people were arrested on suspicion of offences including being involved with organised crime as part of the investigation into events leading up to the A66 crash. The news from Middlesbrough and Kildare has been heartbreaking, Crystal Owen tells me. “Obviously your attention is on the police officers, but you also see all the online comments about the kids … What they did was horrendous but it’s their families who are left to pay the price having lost a child.” Owen lost Harvey, a college student who dreamed of opening an Italian-style cafe and spent his spare time with a cookbook open, in November 2023. He and three friends were on a camping trip in Wales when the car they were in left a rural road during heavy rain and flipped on to its roof, landing in a flooded ditch and trapping them. All four drowned. Since then, Owen has become a dedicated campaigner for graduated driving licences – which place restrictions on newly qualified drivers while they build up road experience – and which she believes might have saved her son’s life. “It is madness to think that we are handing the keys to a lethal weapon to a child of 17 that can’t even buy a pint of alcohol, yet they can be responsible for other people’s lives,” she says. *** Just how dangerous are young drivers? Road casualty data clearly shows that younger people are disproportionately represented. In 2024, drivers aged between 17 and 24 were involved in 20% of collisions on British roads that resulted in death or serious injury – but they hold only 6% of driving licences. Young male drivers are at greatest risk – among those aged 17 to 29, males made up around three-quarters of those killed or seriously injured last year. These tragedies extend well beyond the young men behind the wheel: 50% of those killed or seriously injured in crashes involving a young driver are other road users, and a further 21% are passengers in vehicles driven by these younger drivers. Road safety charity Brake argues these figures alone make a powerful case for change, and their Young Driver Safety report published in April revealed a well of public anxiety, with 59% of respondents worrying – 23% a lot – that this might happen to them or someone they love, and 54% of 18-to 24-year-olds having been in a crash involving a young driver, or knowing someone who has. *** Why do young men crash more? A combination of youth and inexperience puts these drivers at greater risk of injuring themselves or others. Brain-mapping research shows that the prefrontal cortex – a part of the brain associated with reasoning and risk assessment – continues to develop into the mid-20s, with young men’s maturing slightly later than their female peers. A lack of day to day experience also lessens a younger driver’s ability to spot hazards or react safely to a sudden or unexpected event. This is especially true on rural roads, where crashes involving new drivers – who likely learned in an urban environment – tend to involve a single car. “There’s a misconception that most of these crashes are caused by reckless driving,” says Owen, “but most of them are caused by age and inexperience.” Seatbelt wearing remains a significant issue: around a third of young people killed in cars are not belted up and yet this simple action reduces the risk of death by 50%. *** What’s the solution? The Labour government published its long-awaited road safety strategy earlier this year, the first comprehensive national plan for more than a decade. There was much in it that campaigners have welcomed, such as including targets for reducing road deaths for the first time in the UK since 2010, and proposing a gap of either three or six months after the theory test before taking the practical exam, a response to intensive “fast track” driving courses, which cram learning into one or two weeks and remove the need for drivers to clock up practice hours. But many were very disappointed that graduated licences were excluded. Graduated licences place restrictions on newly qualified drivers – such as stricter alcohol limits, constraints on carrying similar-age passengers, or curbing night-time driving – until they’re more seasoned behind the wheel. Similar policies in Australia, Canada and some US states have proven successful in reducing deaths and injuries. In Canada, there have been 83% fewer teenage driver deaths since it was instituted in the 1990s. *** Will Burnham back change? Some campaigners I have spoken to believe that opposition to graduated driving licences came directly from No 10, rather than the Department for Transport, amid concerns that the move would be politically unpopular just as over 16s were newly enfranchised. But the Brake survey found that a majority of British 18-to 24-year-olds were actually in favour of these limits. From October, a form of graduated licence will be introduced in Northern Ireland, when drivers under 24 years old will be barred from carrying other young passengers between 11pm and 6am for six months after passing their test. The Northern Irish reforms also require a minimum six-month gap between passing the theory test and taking the practical test, similar to what the UK government is proposing. Many believe graduated driving licences are the missing piece of the puzzle, and there is some hope now that Heidi Alexander, one of only four secretaries of state who managed to retain their position in Burnham’s cabinet reshuffle, may have a change of heart as she considers consultation responses alongside the new PM, who is known to take transport seriously. Owen is pragmatic: driving licence reform may not have made any difference to the devastation witnessed on Britain’s roads in recent weeks. “This is obviously the extreme end, and we’ve always said that graduated licences aren’t going to stop every crash. But even if they stopped 40% of deaths and serious injury, which is the average internationally, that is a huge amount of lives”. Until then, she says, “more and more funerals are going to keep happening.” What else we’ve been enjoying I was mightily relieved reading Emine Saner’s piece on the arrival of US tipping culture in the UK – apparently it’s not just me who enters an etiquette tailspin when asked to add service charge for a pint. Lucinda Everett, newsletters team I read Sanghmitra Singh’s reflections of the changing mood in Glasgow with a heavy heart. In case you missed it, she writes as part of Pass the Mic, a scheme that encourages more female experts of colour to contribute to national media. Libby Hazaran Rahim Dad and Changeez Nazir’s report on how families in Nasirabad, Pakistan survive without fans, fridges or ventilation in high temperatures of up to 50C is a staggering, saddening read. Lucinda I did appreciate Annie Zaleski’s read on the White Stripes drummer Meg White, who is finally receiving the recognition she’s due thanks to younger fans who aren’t saddled with sexist cultural baggage of previous generations. Libby “Startled parrot”, “Duracell battery” and “someone wearing a hat made out of their own hair, on top of their own hair” are just some of the ways Guardian writers describe their worst ever haircuts in this brilliant roundup. Lucinda Sport Football | Chelsea’s front three of João Pedro, Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer were all on target as they began the Xabi Alonso era with a 3-2 win at Fulham. Cricket | Brydon Carse has been stood down from England’s squad for the second Test against Pakistan this week as footage of him in police handcuffs outside a bar in Derby city is investigated by the sport’s disciplinary body. Cycling | Richard Plugge has criticised cycling’s governing body for a lack of action following the recent death of Fin Tarling and said that cycling’s leading teams should take responsibility for ensuring safety. The front pages “Burnham accuses Kremlin of ‘outrageous’ threats to Britain”, is the Guardian’s front page today, while the Telegraph writes “UK handed secrets to foil Putin’s saboteurs”. The Times leads with “‘Realistic’ Burnham hints at tax increases in budget”, and the i Paper has “Council house boost: Rayner reveals plan for 70,000 homes to tackle crisis”. The Mail splashes “Record 1 in 7 on antidepressants as pill use rockets”, and the FT leads on “Trump pledges to bump Canadian car tariffs to 50% after trade talks collapse”. The Sun has “War on deadly joyride vids”, and the Express says “Remove ‘sick’ danger driving footage now” and Metro writes “Time to halt the hellrides”. The Latest UK hands secret missile technology to Ukraine Andy Burnham is making his first foreign visit as prime minister to Ukraine, marking the country’s independence day. Burnham will use the trip to announce that the UK government will declassify information about missiles to help Ukraine build its own. Lucy Hough speaks to senior international correspondent Luke Harding. Cartoon of the day | Nicola Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad The mysterious arrival of two wild beavers in the Pensthorpe nature reserve last December marked the first time the species had been recorded in Norfolk since being hunted to extinction in the 16th century. Now, conservationists at Pensthorpe are celebrating an even more joyous arrival – a pair of newborn kits. Richard Spowage, manager at Pensthorpe, says the three-month-old kits, the first born in the county for 500 years, are “very playful” and enjoy feeding on willow and water mint. Pensthorpe is now crowdfunding an application to Natural England for permission to legally introduce wild beavers into the region. “Reintroducing beavers to our landscapes makes a huge difference to nature’s recovery and where releases are managed carefully, they can secure long-term environmental benefits,” says Matt Heard, spokesperson for Natural England. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply