© Doug Mills/The New York Times
© Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg
Swedish climate academic says he has been ‘kept in the dark’ over Home Office decision to revoke his travel authorisation
The Swedish climate academic Andreas Malm has condemned a travel ban imposed on him by the UK government as a “drift into authoritarianism” amid criticism of the move.
Malm, the author of How to Blow Up a Pipeline, said he had been “kept in the dark” by the UK’s immigration authorities over the reasons for his electronic travel authorisation (ETA) being revoked.
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© Photograph: Album/Alamy
© Photograph: Album/Alamy
© Photograph: Album/Alamy
IOPC launches independent investigation after referral by Scotland Yard over 2019 letter about Thomas Markle
Scotland Yard faces an independent investigation into its failure in 2019 to pass claims alleging wrongdoing by Thomas Markle, the father of the Duchess of Sussex, to law enforcement agencies overseas.
The force had referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over its handling of a letter written by Markle’s former wife, Roslyn Loveless. Markle, 82, is now facing claims of child sexual abuse in the Philippines, which he denies, and is under investigation by authorities there.
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© Photograph: Cyril Zingaro/KEYSTONE/AP
© Photograph: Cyril Zingaro/KEYSTONE/AP
© Photograph: Cyril Zingaro/KEYSTONE/AP
Swedish climate academic says he has been ‘kept in the dark’ over Home Office decision to revoke his travel authorisation
The Swedish climate academic Andreas Malm has condemned a travel ban imposed on him by the UK government as a “drift into authoritarianism” amid criticism of the move.
Malm, the author of How to Blow Up a Pipeline, said he had been “kept in the dark” by the UK’s immigration authorities over the reasons for his electronic travel authorisation (ETA) being revoked.
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© Photograph: Album/Alamy
© Photograph: Album/Alamy
© Photograph: Album/Alamy
You might think ponds are complicated things with liners, but you can make one from a washing-up bowl
Do you remember the 90s, when everyone was obsessed with “water features”, mostly thanks to Charlie Dimmock? A simpler time. Perhaps I’m hanging out with the wrong garden designers, but I rarely hear much talk of water features now. For years, Chelsea flower show gardens have featured subtle Cor-Ten steel-clad trickles or elegant mirrored ponds. There have been a fair few naturalistic streams (such as A Rewilding Britain Landscape by Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt, with beaver-gnawed twigs, which controversially won best in show in 2022), but scant fountains or burbling rocks. Water features are out, I guess. Ponds are in.
My mum built one the other day. Hers is smaller than a piece of A3, lined with rocks and terracotta seedling pots, with two metal ducks stuck around the edge in a boggy bit of her compact urban garden. You might hear “pond” and think complicated things involving liner and algae, but you could make one from a washing-up bowl – and there are plenty of benefits to doing so.
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© Photograph: nigel FRANCIS/Alamy
© Photograph: nigel FRANCIS/Alamy
© Photograph: nigel FRANCIS/Alamy
Home secretary’s colleagues fear homelessness will rise as a result of changes to the asylum system
Shabana Mahmood has infuriated ministerial colleagues by failing to share what they see as crucial information about the impact of her migration changes.
Sources say the home secretary has repeatedly refused to reveal how much she expects homelessness to rise as a result of changes to the asylum system.
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© Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Shutterstock
Home secretary’s colleagues fear homelessness will rise as a result of changes to the asylum system
Shabana Mahmood has infuriated ministerial colleagues by failing to share what they see as crucial information about the impact of her migration changes.
Sources say the home secretary has repeatedly refused to reveal how much she expects homelessness to rise as a result of changes to the asylum system.
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© Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Shutterstock
He has been in prison for 41 years for killing five members of his family. But if a phone call was made to the police by Bamber’s father on the night of the murders – as his team believes – one of the UK’s most notorious criminals could be exonerated
On 7 August 1985, five people were found dead at White House Farm in Essex, England: 28-year-old Sheila Caffell (known to her family as Bambi); her six-year-old twin sons, Daniel and Nicholas; and her 61-year-old adoptive parents, June and Nevill Bamber. All five had been shot with a rifle. Caffell’s 24-year-old brother, Jeremy Bamber, who was also adopted, had called to alert Essex police to a disturbance inside the farmhouse – he said his father had called to tell him – and had been outside with the police for four hours before the bodies were discovered. Caffell, who had recently been hospitalised with schizoaffective disorder and is said to have feared her children were going to be taken into foster care, was found with the rifle lying on her chest, pointing towards her neck. There were two gunshot wounds to her neck and chin and a bloodied Bible by her side.
The case was initially thought to be open and shut, a tragic murder-suicide committed by Caffell. But a month later, Bamber was arrested after relatives went to the police to voice their suspicions about him; his former girlfriend Julie Mugford then told police he had made a confession to her. The relatives went on to inherit from Nevill and June Bamber’s considerable estate after Bamber’s convictions. It was later discovered that Mugford had agreed to sell the story of their relationship to the News of the World for £25,000 if Bamber was convicted. Essex police and crown prosecutors had also agreed to drop charges against her for burglary, chequebook fraud and selling cannabis, because “prosecuting her could jeopardise her availability or credibility as a key witness” against Bamber.
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© Composite: Guardian Design; Sinenkiy/Getty
© Composite: Guardian Design; Sinenkiy/Getty
© Composite: Guardian Design; Sinenkiy/Getty
Commons report calls on Foreign Office to bail out soft-power flagship reeling from job cuts and asset sales
Ministers should explore writing off a crippling £197m loan to the British Council by converting as much of it as possible into “a grant or similar”, MPs have said.
The Commons public accounts committee said the government lacked a “positive vision” for the council, whose soft power value to the UK is put at £1bn a year. The MPs called on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to set out what more it could do to support the council and its work.
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© Photograph: UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
© Photograph: UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
© Photograph: UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Swedish author was due to speak alongside Palestine Action co-founder at event discussing ban on the group
Andreas Malm, the climate academic and author of How to Blow Up a Pipeline, has been blocked from entering the UK before he was due to speak alongside a co-founder of the banned group Palestine Action.
Malm was told by immigration officials his presence in the UK “may not be considered to be conducive to the public good”. He said the decision was “scandalous” and urged the government to reconsider.
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© Photograph: Jeremy Chan/Getty Images
© Photograph: Jeremy Chan/Getty Images
© Photograph: Jeremy Chan/Getty Images
Swedish author was due to speak alongside Palestine Action co-founder at event discussing ban on the group
Andreas Malm, the climate academic and author of How to Blow Up a Pipeline, has been blocked from entering the UK before he was due to speak alongside a co-founder of the banned group Palestine Action.
Malm was told by immigration officials his presence in the UK “may not be considered to be conducive to the public good”. He said the decision was “scandalous” and urged the government to reconsider.
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© Photograph: Abdullah Firas/ABACA/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Abdullah Firas/ABACA/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Abdullah Firas/ABACA/Shutterstock
Ministry of Justice figures show recalls rose 27% in year to June despite emergency measures to ease overcrowding
More people were recalled to jails in England and Wales in the first half of this year than were released, despite government efforts to reduce the prison population, according to figures released on Thursday.
Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data shows that 12,338 people were recalled to custody between the beginning of April and the end of June, while 12,278 people were released. It continues a trend set between January and March, when 13,193 people were returned to prison and 12,977 released.
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© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA
© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA
© Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA
Move comes as Philippines police investigate alleged child sexual abuse images reportedly found at Thomas Markle Sr’s former home
The Metropolitan police has referred itself to the police watchdog over potential errors in its handling of a 2019 letter warning of dangers to the security of the Duchess of Sussex posed by her father.
The letter made allegations about Thomas Markle, the father of Meghan, who is facing claims of child sexual abuse images offending linked to the Philippines, which he denies.
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© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA/AP
© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA/AP
© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA/AP
This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here.
Eighteen years after his first conviction, and seven years after his much-debated death, the ghost of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is suddenly inescapable again.
He’s the subject of scores of midterm campaign ads, each more lurid than the last. A second bill mandating the release of the Epstein files is currently kicking around Congress. And on Monday, House Democrats released a new report alleging that the Justice Department helped cover up details of Epstein’s relationship with President Donald Trump, calling — very aspirationally! — for an independent criminal investigation.
Of course, no one really expects Trump’s attorney general to name a special counsel to investigate the Trump administration. In a statement, one White House spokesperson panned the report as “a desperate attempt by crazed Democrats to distract Americans.” (The timing, just one week before the midterms, does seem pretty fortuitous.)
The document, which runs to 50 pages, draws on public accounts and staff interviews with an unspecified number of survivors, including a former pageant queen who alleges that Trump raped her in 1993. The woman had previously accused Trump of groping her, which a Trump spokesperson dismissed at the time as “fake.”
When it comes to Epstein, however, Democrats don’t need a lot of new material to damage Trump. The scandal, and his administration’s handling of it, continue to cast a long, dark shadow over Republicans.
That’s surprising to me, candidly, because the decades-old dealings of even a very despicable sex offender don’t have any bearing on Americans’ day-to-day costs or experiences. And Trump has been able to brush off a lot of other unsavory behavior and associations.
But the Epstein story has lodged in the brains of some voters who helped elect Trump — including young voters whose growing disillusionment could make a big difference in next week’s elections.
Many of these young voters “resent the fact that Trump’s basically become part of the establishment” and see the Epstein files as evidence of that, the political analyst Rachel Janfaza recently told Vox. Some also feel burned by Trump’s campaign promise to release the government’s investigative files on Epstein…and his about-face once in office.
Democrats, sensing an opening, are hammering the issue. Relentlessly so. According to data from the tracker AdImpact cited by NBC News, there are currently more than 500 campaign ads airing across the country that include the words “pedophile” or “predator.”
Many of them reference Epstein or the so-called Epstein files, and three-quarters are backed by Democrats. One recent ad featuring an Epstein survivor, and targeted at Kansas Republican Roger Marshall, slams the incumbent senator’s September 2025 vote to block a procedural measure that would have released the Epstein files. (The Senate later moved to release the files by unanimous consent.)
Another ad, this one in Maine, claims that Epstein’s “business partner” funneled $3 million to Sen. Susan Collins’s super PAC. (Importantly, the connection between Epstein and this purported partner is so tenuous as to be nonexistent.)
These ads will fade after Tuesday, of course. But you haven’t heard the last word on this. Should Democrats win control of either chamber, they’ll gain the power to subpoena witnesses and documents for yet more Epstein investigations.
Some Democratic leaders in the House are already salivating over that prospect.
➨ Ask better questions than “what do you do?” Small talk is often dominated by idle chatter about traffic, weather, or jobs. To actually get to know your conversation partner, try leading with questions that get at their interests: what a friend’s friend is reading, for example, or what a barista’s favorite beverage is. You can even draft a little list of go-to questions in advance to deploy in conversation when you need them. Just don’t treat the exercise like a checklist. The real key to better small talk is being curious.
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