What if someone told you the truth about the economy? For years, UK governments have tried spending more, spending less, cutting red tape, leaving the EU, levelling up, and they have still failed to increase growth per person. So what’s the lesson from the great British fairytale? On the latest episode, the rebel economists Karel Williams and Sukhdev Johal explain to Aditya Chakrabortty why they believe praying for growth is a fool’s dream – and why it won’t improve your life

Aditya’s suggested reading list for Karel Williams and Sukhdev Johal:

As we say in the podcast, I’ve championed the work of Karel and Sukhdev and their colleagues in the Guardian for many years, and some of my columns are a good introduction to their approach.

• In our conversation we look at what life after growth looks like for towns and suburbs, and what it should look like. This report from South Wales in 2016 examines the present-day reality.

• For a broader analysis of how the UK has become highly unequal and increasingly stagnant, try this.

• As part of the Foundational Economy collective, Karel and Sukhdev put a lot of their analysis into freely available working papers. That circumvents the leisureliness and expense of academic publishing and gets their arguments in front of a wider public. A good example is this one on the cost of living crisis.

• More recently, they’ve focused on the broken water system of England and Wales in a book called Murky Water: Challenging an Unsustainable System.

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Intercity train operator’s compensation bill likely to top £70m this financial year amid rise in claims across network

Avanti West Coast paid out more than £20m to passengers in just three months this summer in refunds for disrupted journeys on Britain’s main intercity rail network.

The intercity operator paid out almost as much in a four-week period to 25 July – £9.3m – as its annual profits for each of the past two years. It repaid a further £12.2m in the subsequent eight weeks.

Amid the chaos, havoc and war caused by a capricious and amoral US president, countries are waking up to the dangers of being excluded and abused by America

Never has there been a time when the world has been more interconnected than now. What happens in the secretive inner councils in Tehran, the mountains of south-west Yemen, the steppe of the Donbas, the still bloody wasteland that is Gaza and even the elegant boulevards of Paris and Milan have a common thread.

One cannot understand one set of conflicts without weaving them into another, and it is this very interdependence that is making each problem so contagious, layered and difficult to resolve, leaving the world to live as if trapped inside a pressure cooker on the brink of an explosion.

The prime minister will speak with King Charles and others at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Antigua and Barbuda

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As “summit season” begins, reaffirming ties with fellow leaders on the world stage could be a circuit breaker for Anthony Albanese amid domestic and economic woes, analysts have said.

But a likely interest rate hike, triggered by higher-than-expected inflation, while the prime minister is overseas will make his job – and the treasurer’s – even harder.

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The Ukrainian president called the US decision strong, but added that delivery of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles ⁠could take years

The US has approved the sale ⁠of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles ⁠to Ukraine for an estimated $2.1bn, but Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned deliveries could take years and stockpiles were needed now to counter Russian ballistic missile attacks.

“The proposed sale will improve Ukraine’s capability to meet current and future threats by improving its integrated air and missile defense capabilities,” the US state department said in a statement on Friday.

The Ukrainian president called the US decision strong, but added that delivery of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles ⁠could take years

The US has approved the sale ⁠of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles ⁠to Ukraine for an estimated $2.1bn, but Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned deliveries could take years and stockpiles were needed now to counter Russian ballistic missile attacks.

“The proposed sale will improve Ukraine’s capability to meet current and future threats by improving its integrated air and missile defense capabilities,” the US state department said in a statement on Friday.

Rex Patrick’s latest transparency fight is over what he calls ‘most open secret in the history of Australian spying’ – maybe even the world

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A campaign to uncover any documents relating to whether Australian spies bugged Timor-Leste to gain the upper hand in sensitive oil and gas negotiations will be a little less secret after a critical win by the former senator Rex Patrick.

The politician turned transparency advocate is trying to finally lift the lid on the top-secret mission in 2004 that became a public scandal years later after an ex-spy and a former attorney general attempted to mount a case in The Hague.

Marco Rubio pulls plug on traditional photo op at meeting of foreign ministers after about one-third of countries threaten boycott

The traditional “family photo” to open the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting has been abruptly cancelled in the US after a host of nations – including Australia and the UK – refused to appear beside the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, pulled the plug after several European officials, the UK and Australia made it known they would boycott or walk out of the snapshot that often kicks off such international gatherings.

Marco Rubio pulls plug on traditional photo op at meeting of foreign ministers after about one-third of countries threaten boycott

The traditional “family photo” to open the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting has been abruptly cancelled in the US after a host of nations – including Australia and the UK – refused to appear beside the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, pulled the plug after several European officials, the UK and Australia made it known they would boycott or walk out of the snapshot that often kicks off such international gatherings.

Rex Patrick’s latest transparency fight is over what he calls ‘most open secret in the history of Australian spying’ – maybe even the world

• Get our daily political email, free app or daily news podcast

A campaign to uncover any documents relating to whether Australian spies bugged Timor-Leste to gain the upper hand in sensitive oil and gas negotiations will be a little less secret after a critical win by the former senator Rex Patrick.

The politician turned transparency advocate is trying to finally lift the lid on the top-secret mission in 2004 that became a public scandal years later after an ex-spy and a former attorney general attempted to mount a case in The Hague.