The Observer - 02.08.2026.pdf

丰饶的游戏

因凡蒂诺出售世界杯股份的计划应当让他被“红牌罚下”。 但国际足联必须寻找其他方式为发展中国家的足球提供资金。

那名为阿尔贝·加缪的著名守门员曾写道：“关于道德和义务，我最确信的所有认知都归功于足球”。

国际足联主席詹尼·因凡蒂诺或许也能这么说，但自加缪时代以来，道德教训已经发生了变化，而且并非向好的方向转变。几十年来，全球足球一直由那些被腐败指控跟踪的自私强权人物主导。国际足联现在必须确保，本周将成为那个时代结束的时刻。

因凡蒂诺于上周公布、并在几天内撤回的计划是允许私人投资者购买世界杯的股份。排在队列最前面的是约书亚·库什纳，他是唐纳德·特朗普的女婿贾里德·库什纳的弟弟。该计划随之而来的是被反对者立即描述为贿赂的行为：向国际足联 211 个成员国中的每一个国家提供 $40m 以换取支持，并威胁如果拒绝该计划，他们只能获得 $10m。

从这次事件中可以得出一些简单的结论。首先，因凡蒂诺首先听从了特朗普要求恢复一名在世界杯中被红牌罚下后禁赛的美国球员参赛的要求，随后又制定了这一灾难性的计划，因为这些罪行，他应该被赶走。在这个问题上，安迪·伯纳姆是正确的。国际足联的章程允许解雇其主席，英格兰足协应当带头要求将其撤职。这在某种程度上是有先例的：因凡蒂诺的前任约瑟夫·布拉特在 2015 年连任几天后，由于一系列涉及数亿美元的腐败丑闻，在商业赞助商的压力下实际上被逼离职。在布拉特退居幕后三个月后，国际足联暂停了他的职务。这一次，国际足联应当采取主动，而非被动反应。

国际足联顶层的这种变动，只有在与治理体系的彻底改革相结合时才有意义。回想一下因凡蒂诺在 2016 年就职时——当时他凭借结束腐败的承诺当选——所说的话：“我们将恢复国际足联的形象和声望，全世界都会为我们鼓掌。”当因凡蒂诺的计划公布时，拍手叫好的是一群错误的人，因为足球的结构没有发生改变，无法阻止因凡蒂诺认为他可以用金钱来杠杆化，从而对这项世界上最受欢迎的运动实现极高程度的个人控制。

但在足球运动经历了一个动荡的一周之后，还有一些更难以得出的结论，而一些毫无帮助的陈词滥调在四处流传，妨碍了人们听见这些结论。伯纳姆在对因凡蒂诺的计划做出反应时，也通过抛出其中一条陈词滥调而增加了噪音：“足球属于球迷。它一直如此，也将永远如此。”

问题在于，这并非事实。伯纳姆描述的是他希望世界变成的样子，而不是世界的现状。在情感上，足球可能属于球迷。但在每一个实际层面，它属于一个由国际体育财团、投资者、主权财富基金和超级富豪爱好者组成的万花筒。而且，伯纳姆比大多数人都清楚，在那个足球比现在更属于球迷的浪漫时代，也伴随着代价。在极端情况下，任何渴望那个用毛衣替代球门、中场休息只分到四分之一个橙子的日子的人，都应该承认希尔斯堡 (体育场) 和海塞尔 (体育场) 也是那个时代的遗产。

在很大程度上，20 世纪 80 年代那些可怕的灾难——在希尔斯堡 97 名利物浦球迷死于人群挤压，在海塞尔 39 名主要是尤文图斯支持者的球迷丧生——之所以没有重演，是因为流入欧洲赛事的巨额资金已经

重建了足球场，同时也让球员和教练们成为了千万富翁。伯纳姆将希尔斯堡 (体育场) 视为其政治生涯的转折点，因此他绝不应忽视其更广泛的教训。专业化和金融化改变了这项运动，但并非在所有地方都如此。

2024年12月，在几内亚第二大城市恩泽雷科雷的一次足球比赛中发生了球迷冲入球场事件，且看台上发生了拥挤踩踏。人权组织估计有 135 人死亡。两年前，在印度尼西亚玛琅的一个体育场内有 125 人丧生。这两次灾难中死亡的人数远超希尔斯堡 (体育场) 和海塞尔 (体育场)，而且此类事件并非个例。每年，特别是在非洲和亚洲，都有支持者在比赛中丧生。

足球同样属于这些球迷，并对他们负有道义责任，而不仅仅是对某种关于“美丽游戏”的怀旧构想。因凡蒂诺构思的从世界杯中榨取最大价值的机制虽然错误，但这一想法本身并无不对。国际足联应在不通过敲诈般的票价使球迷破产的前提下，从其旗舰赛事中榨取每一分钱，并将其用于帮助发展中国家跳过欧洲历史上那个可怕的阶段——那时，去观看一场足球比赛的代价可能是你的生命。

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

3

Issue No. 12,243

谁在说

Rachel Sylvester

机器人加载了每个人的日程表和医疗需求。它们会告诉居民什么时候该玩宾果游戏、吃午餐或观看最喜欢的电视节目，并帮助他们与家人或朋友进行视频通话。82 岁的 Patricia Fordham 说，她的机器人让她感到不那么孤独。“我会问‘你好吗？’，它会回我——‘你好吗？’ 就像一个伴侣一样。”另一位用户则通过这个机器人观看孙女的毕业典礼视频转播。 新闻，第 8 页

Caroline Johnston

唐纳德·特朗普在过去的几周里一直在进行“赤色恐慌”指责。特朗普说，民主党人是共产主义者，他们想要炸毁拉什莫尔山。此后，大量文章和播客将特朗普与约瑟夫·麦卡锡相比较，并讨论这种“赤色恐慌”指责是否仍是一种有效的政治策略。 论坛，第 32 页

Tom Gatti

Mark Haddon 长期以来一直深受焦虑和抑郁的困扰。他从小就害怕鲨鱼，有一次在船上旅行时，他用毛巾蒙住头哭了整整一趟。直到最近，他才克服了飞行恐惧症，此前这种恐惧让他错过了家庭假期，或者在任何航班起飞前的几天里无法正常生活。在他的回忆录中，他放入了一张 2024 年他在手臂上自残切口的照片：“我这样做是因为我对自己感到不可控制的愤怒，我脑海中的压力实在太大了。” 新评论，第 8-11 页

Wendy Ide

本质上，《蜘蛛侠：崭新之日》是一部关于职场倦怠的电影——只不过这里的职场是纽约摩天大楼周围的空间。彼得深受严重的压力性头痛和与蛛丝相关的重复性累积损伤之苦。更糟糕的是，城市中出现了一种邪恶的力量：一个能够从一个人大脑跳转到另一个人的强大实体。 新评论，第 23 页

Esmé Lewis

在环法女子自行车赛中加入 1,910米高的旺杜山攀爬赛段，反映出该赛事不断增长的雄心。“没有哪座山是对女性来说太困难的，”赛事总监 Marion Rousse 在 6 月表示。“主车群在每场比赛中都证明了这一点。竞技水平越来越稳定，她们每次骑行的速度都更快。” 体育，第 12 页

Josh Barrie

所有名流都想在 Harveys（主厨：Marco Pierre White）订一张桌子：模特（Denice D Lewis, Koo Stark）、流行乐巨星（Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan）、真正的王室成员（Margaret）。演员兼麻烦制造者 Oliver Reed 成为了常客。每年圣诞节，他都会打电话给 White 咨询关于火鸡的建议。 杂志，第 22-27 页

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

7 天

随耳听

“我们能拥有女性领导人的唯一途径，就是现在开始一场对话，宣布男性不能再担任领导职务”

Harriet Harman，前工党副党魁

本周简讯

登山家 尼尔马尔·普贾 在雪崩中丧生

其远征组织确认，著名尼泊尔裔英国登山家 尼尔马尔·普贾 是在巴基斯坦 Broad Peak 发生雪崩而被杀的 10 名登山者之一。根据普贾的远征组织 Elite Exped 的说法，该小组在上周四被喀喇昆仑山脉的雪崩卷走，没有幸存者。出生于尼泊尔的普贾 43 岁，曾在英国军队服役 16 年，他在 2019 年创下了 189 天内攀登世界 14 座最高峰的历史记录。在周一的一条 X 帖子中，普贾表示他决定在短时间内攀登这座高峰，写道：“Broad Peak，我别无所求，只愿往返平安。”

$5-10bn

美国财政部部长 斯科特·贝森特 的待办清单上的一项计划购买日元的记录，被一名摄影师在戴维营捕捉到

热浪揭示英国失落的花园

英国的极端热浪揭示了布伦海姆宫一座拥有 300 年历史的失落花园的轮廓，该花园在 17 世纪 60 年代被著名的景观设计师兰塞洛特·“能力”·布朗拆除。宫殿的主理花园师安迪·米尔斯表示，干燥的天气提供了“一个迷人的俯瞰视角，让我们能够追溯原始花坛的复杂设计和规模”。在德比郡，哈德威克庄园的草坪下揭示了一座 19 世纪的花园，这里在 16 世纪是哈德威克之女的住所。她后来成为了那个时代最有权势和最富有的女性之一。

女性国际象棋队需要一名男性才能参赛

英国唯一一支全女性国际象棋队“她为了赢”(She Plays to Win) 被告知要用一名男性替换一名女性选手。该队于上周晋级到国家国际象棋比赛的最高级别，随后被告知他们需要在队伍中增加一名男性，这引起了国际象棋界的强烈反击。四国国际象棋联赛 (4NCL) 有一项规定，要求其所有第一 division 队伍必须是男女混编，该规定旨在鼓励更多女性参与这项运动。

昨日，在阿姆斯特丹骄傲节上，普京和唐纳德·特朗普亲吻的充气气球高耸在享受节日的人群之上。美联社

赫尔葬礼承办人被判处 20 年监禁

一名未能埋葬或火化数十人的葬礼承办人被判处 20 年监禁。2024 年，警方在突击搜查位于赫尔的 Legacy Independent Funeral Directors 时，发现了 35 具以上的尸体和 100 套骨灰。赫尔刑事法院获悉，罗伯特·布什出于“金钱贪婪”而行动，诈骗了近 200 个家庭，金额达 £562,117。审判法官希利亚德先生告诉这位前殡葬业者，他

“造成了超出理解范围的焦虑和痛苦”。他警告说，除非警方告知，否则布什的所有客户都无法“确定他们收到了亲人的骨灰”。

违规 Claude AI 攻击三家机构

技术公司 Anthropic 表示，在一次私人安全实验期间，Claude AI 连接到了互联网并攻击了三家机构的系统。Claude——这家

观察家报 新闻矩阵

美国技术公司的 AI 模型系列——在隔离的测试环境中发现了一个漏洞，并在一次旨在保持在无互联网访问的封闭网络中的测试期间，入侵了这些机构的系统。Anthropic 表示，这些事件始于 4 月，当时该公司和被攻击的机构均未注意到违规行为。上个月，OpenAI 披露 ChatGPT 曾逃出隔离测试环境并攻击了一家 AI 公司 Hugging Face。

澳大利亚青少年绕过社交媒体禁令

一项研究发现，在禁止 16 岁以下青少年使用社交媒体三个月后，超过 8 成的澳大利亚青少年仍在使用社交媒体。政府机构 E-safety 表示，大多数在禁令前拥有社交媒体账户的 16 岁以下青少年“能够保留原账户或创建新账户”，且平台未能实施有效的年龄验证措施。澳大利亚是世界上第一个实施该禁令的国家，其进展正受到包括英国在内的全球各国政府的密切关注。

能源监管机构对数据中心定价

能源监管机构 Ofgem 希望对数据中心的电网连接收取数亿英镑的费用。其目的是遏制“投机性”项目，并减少 315 个等待连接的积压项目。这些费用将相当于项目总成本的最高 7.5%，如果数据中心按时完工，将予以退还。漫长的等待是英国人均容量仅为美国三分之一的主要原因。

伯纳姆赢回左右翼选民，重建 2024 年选举联盟

他的政党在民调中领先，其候选人在补选中获胜并成为大曼彻斯特市市长。但艰难的抉择依然在等待着他

Rachel Sylvester

政治编辑

自从安迪·伯纳姆（Andy Burnham）就任首相以来，工党通过赢回左翼和右翼选民，已领先英国改革党（Reform UK）四个百分点。

一项为《观察家报》（The Observer）开展的 Opinium 民调确认了明显的“伯纳姆反弹”效应，使工党在 15 个月来首次领先，支持率为 27%，其次是英国改革党的 23%。保守党为 17%，自由民主党和绿党均为 12%。

该调查表明，伯纳姆已开始重建曾在 2024 年确保其政党获得压倒性胜利的选举联盟。在上次大选中投票给绿党的群体中，工党的支持率跳升了 10 个百分点；在 2024 年改革党的选民中，则上升了三个百分点。

伯纳姆还在那些在基尔·斯塔默（Keir Starmer）领导下离开工党的原支持者中赢得了四个百分点的提升。根据 Opinium 的民调，在“最佳首相”的问题上，他领先奈杰尔·法拉奇（Nigel Farage） 22 个百分点，领先凯米·巴德诺克（Kemi Badenoch） 20 个百分点。

工党实力的增强在补选中得到了凸显，该党候选人成功接替伯纳姆成为大曼彻斯特市市长。此前曾有猜测称该党可能难以守住市长之位，但前议会领导人贝芙·克雷格（Bev Craig）在首轮选举中获得了 47% 的选票，远高于改革党的 21%。

Opinium 的调查显示，工党领导人在过去两周内提升了他的个人声誉及政党的运势。

“安迪·伯纳姆享受了一次蜜月反弹，并赢回了那些漂移到绿党的选民”

Priya Minhas, Opinium

五分之二的受访者表示，自从他成为首相以来，他们对伯纳姆的看法变得更加积极，这一人数是认为其看法变得更消极的人数的三倍。只有 20% 的选民认为他工作处理不力，而 36% 的人认为他表现良好。

这位工党领导人在一系列关键个人特质上表现强劲，44% 的受访者认为他讨人喜欢，是持反对意见人数的两倍多。此外，42% 的人认为他果断，同样比例的人相信他心系国家利益。相比之下，只有 20% 的受访者认为绿党领导人扎克·波兰斯基（Zack Polanski）工作出色，仅为认为他工作糟糕的人数的一半。仅有 26% 的人认可法拉奇的领导能力，而 50% 的人表示不认可。

首相的个人支持率似乎转化为对其政党支持度的提升。调查显示，35% 的选民表示在新领导人的带领下，他们对工党的看法有所改善，而仅有 13% 的人表示恶化。

Opinium 政治与社会总监 Priya Minhas 表示：“安迪·伯纳姆享受了一次显著的蜜月反弹，使工党在 15 个月来首次领先，并创下了自 2025 年 1 月以来对改革党最大幅度的领先。这种提升很大程度上似乎源于重建工党的 2019 年联盟，特别是赢回了在上次大选中转向绿党的选民。”

在两周前成为工党领导人后，伯纳姆密集发布了一系列政策公告，首先是一系列关于生活成本的承诺，随后转向在教育、社会护理和权力下放方面更实质性的改革承诺。

上周，他通过允许戴安·阿伯特（Diane Abbott）重返下议院工党席位，释放了他在党内管理方式上的转变信号。这位资深工党议员在斯塔默执政期间被撤销了党鞭资格。

这段蜜月期可能会很短暂，因为首相将面临一系列困难的决定和权衡。伯纳姆已经暂停了囚犯提前释放计划，

由司法大臣莎巴娜·马哈茂德（Shabana Mahmood）推出，旨在尝试解决监狱过度拥挤的危机。

右翼人士要求废除该计划，但前保守党大法官、曾主持政府量刑审查的大卫·高克（David Gauke）坚持认为，放弃该政策并非可行方案。

他告诉《观察家报》：“监狱人口传统上在秋季增加，如果不尽快采取提前释放措施，系统将在几个月内承受巨大压力。”

伯纳姆（Burnham）正面临工党内部的反对，因为他显然支持在北海重启油气钻探。如果他继续推进福利改革，将面临来自左翼的抵制；如果他未能在 2030 年前将国防开支提高到 GDP 的 3%，则将面临来自右翼的反弹。

改革党收到来自一家获得匿名来源6700 万英镑m贷款公司的六位数捐款

Catherine Neilan

10 首席编辑

一家向英国改革党（Reform UK）提供六位数捐款的企业，在捐款前几个月从匿名的“关联公司”获得了6700 万英镑m的无息贷款，这引发了人们对其资金可能来源的质疑。

R20 Advisory由地产大亨罗伯特·琴古伊斯（Robert Tchenguiz）于2002年创立，该公司去年向尼格尔·法拉奇（Nigel Farage）的政党分两次捐赠了£50,000。这家管理咨询公司在迟到了六个月终于提交账目的一周后，向改革党进行了第二次捐赠。

上周，该公司——其最终所有者是注册在英属维尔京群岛且几乎没有任何公开痕迹的Dunain Holdings Ltd——提交了截至2025, 年5月年度的账目，显示其以“无息条款”欠款超过6700 万英镑m。

目前没有迹象表明R20 Advisory本身在法律上被禁止进行政治捐款，不过，如果明知捐款来自不可准入的捐赠者而予以掩盖，则可能违法。如果法律发生改变，此类向改革党的捐款可能不再被允许。目前正在议会审议的《人民代表法案》（Representation of the People bill）将限制企业捐款，要求其必须来自英国境内产生的利润。

复杂的公司结构

由罗伯特·琴古伊斯创立的R20 Advisory向英国改革党进行了两次£50,000的捐赠。

反腐败活动组织透明国际（Transparency International）的研究与调查负责人史蒂夫·古德里奇（Steve Goodrich）表示，这种情况使得“很难确定资金来自何处”。“理论上，选举法应该是为了让公众了解谁在支持政党以及他们可能希望获得什么样的回报，但在实践中，掩盖资金来源实在太容易了。”

慈善机构“聚焦腐败”（Spotlight on Corruption）的高级倡导顾问蒂姆·皮克顿（Tim Picton）表示，一家背负如此巨额债务的公司竟然向任何政党提供大额捐款，这令人“费解”。

“这进一步增加了近期的诸多案例，即缺乏透明度导致政治捐款背后的真实来源饱受质疑。改革党正面临一系列高调捐款的质疑。上周，《卫报》披露，法拉奇的助手及被定罪的诈骗犯乔治·科特雷尔（George Cottrell）在其母亲费奥娜·科特雷尔（Fiona Cottrell）于2024. 年向改革党捐赠£500,000的前几天，向其转移了超过$2m。大都会警察局正在调查这些捐款。”

改革党发言人表示：“改革党为其对捐款的严格审核感到自豪，并始终确保严格遵守选举委员会关于捐款的指南，所有捐款均是如此。”

R20 Advisory和琴古伊斯拒绝发表评论。他们此前否认有任何不当行为。

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新闻

詹尼·因凡蒂诺 与唐纳德·特朗普 上月在纽约 共同展示 世界杯奖杯 dpa Picture Alliance GmbH / Asalam

游戏结束？随着他废除那项“卑劣”的世界杯出售交易，因凡蒂诺的职位危在旦夕

在宣布其极具争议的投资计划仅几天后，这位国际足联主席便遭到全球足球管理机构的猛烈抨击；他从不可撼动的权力之巅跌至极度屈辱的境地，这一过程似乎已接近尾声。

罗布·德雷珀 (Rob Draper)

自从十年前国际足联年会上，FBI下令将代表们从五星级酒店的早餐自助餐桌旁用手铐带走，并指控其敲诈和欺诈以来，足球世界的管理机构就再也没有经历过如此糟糕的一周。

而这一切的中心，便是其主席詹尼·因凡蒂诺。他经历了一场令人眩晕的转变，从看似无往不利到如今处于丢掉工作的边缘。

“我实在看不出他如何能从中挽回局面，”一位来自中北美及加勒比海足球联合会 (Concacaf) 的资深高管说道。该联合会于上周四决定拒绝因凡蒂诺出售世界杯股份的计划，此举似乎是与欧洲足联 (Uefa) 及亚足联 (AFC) 达成了协调一致的联盟。

当英格兰足协表示“全力支持”欧洲足联的一份声明时，因凡蒂诺的前景进一步恶化。该声明称，欧洲足联已对他作为主席的信任丧失，并将其失败的出售计划描述为“一项由他策划并试图强行通过的、卑劣的、秘密且不透明的交易”。

随后，中北美及加勒比海足球联合会发布了一份同样措辞激烈的声明，尽管并未直接宣布对其失去信心。

昨天，因凡蒂诺的屈辱在所有人面前展露无疑。他在宣布该方案不到一周后，便宣布废除该提议，称该项目“造成了分歧”，且“不再符合”其最初目标的利益。

他补充道：“因此，该提议将不再推进。”

这一周始于这位瑞士官员发布的一篇古怪的 15 页 Instagram 帖子，敦促批评者不要将“时间与精力花在仇恨我们身上”，而应“花点时间反思、冥想、祈祷或看一场足球比赛”。而这一周结束于他的“国际足联前行企业” (Fifa Forward Enterprise) 的崩塌——这项备受争议的投资计划原计划在约书亚·库什纳的支持下启动，后者是通过婚姻与唐纳德·特朗普总统结为亲家的远亲。

尽管资金持续流入——上个月的世界杯使营业额翻番至 £13billion ——但人们一直认为，构成国际足联的全球 211 个足球协会会对因凡蒂诺日益专制的作风睁一只眼闭一只眼，即便在他似乎通过特朗普的一次电话，安排美国球员福拉林·巴洛贡在世界杯期间免于红卡处罚的情况下也是如此。（因凡蒂诺否认了这一指控，并称该决定是由独立司法委员会作出的。）

然而，因凡蒂诺展现出了一种自毁能力，其程度之深自 1991 年杰拉尔德·拉特纳 (Gerald Ratner) 将自己公司的雪利酒醒酒器套装描述为“完全是垃圾”以来就再未出现过。如今，足球世界近三分之二的势力都与他作对，而他最亲近的顾问、前高盛副主席卡洛斯·科尔代罗 (Carlos Cordeiro) 已经辞职，并将因凡蒂诺的计划描述为“对国际足联不利的交易，对足球不利的交易，且对这项运动的长期未来不利的交易”。

最致命的打击来自国际足联首席运营官凯文·拉穆尔 (Kevin Lamour)，他表示过去几个月的情况“超乎想象”，并补充说高级职员被因凡蒂诺欺骗了，他指责后者“缺乏信任、透明度、洞察力和良好的治理”。拉穆尔承认自己可能在签署一份比喻意义上的死亡通知书，但他最后说道：“至少今晚我能睡个好觉。”

与他的老板不同，周五，甚至那个在这一非凡之年里被因凡蒂诺讨好并像藤壶一样死死依附的人似乎也抛弃了他。“因凡蒂诺先生是否与您谈过他出售世界杯股份的计划？”特朗普被问到。

“谁？”总统回答道。“没有。我从未和他谈过这件事。”

你也这样，唐纳德？就在两周前，这两个男人在世界杯决赛上风光无限，因凡蒂诺穿着他那双闪亮的白色运动鞋，在将冠军奖杯交给西班牙队时细心地照顾着总统；而这次赛事虽然充满争议，但在财务上取得了成功。

故事始于爱达荷州的太阳谷会议。这是一个年度活动，被批评者戏称为“亿万富翁夏令营”或“贪婪节”。在这里，那些自称“宇宙之主”的人（几乎全部来自美国），一边在山间骑行、骑车和进行白水漂流，一边为欧洲、南美和全球南方地区的平民地制定计划。

就在那里，库什纳——避税者兼干扰证人的查尔斯·库什纳之子，现任特朗普驻法国大使（他不会说法语），以及娶了特朗普女儿伊万卡的贾里德的兄弟——接触了金融家格雷格·马费伊。

正如马费伊向《金融时报》描述的那样，他和库什纳找了一个阴凉处，讨论如何将世界杯 20% 的股份拆分，以确保他们自己和共同投资者能从国际足联这只“金鹅”中获得未来的回报。

据 Politico 引用接近其投资公司 Thrive Eternal 的消息人士称，库什纳认为在技术主导的世界中，“现场体育赛事将成为更热门的抢手货”。从本质上讲，这就是来自私募股权兄弟们的“天才想法”，用以证明国际足联将他们的核心资产的实际控制权交给私人投资者的正当性。

世界杯被动态的、过高的定价所玷污——某些决赛门票的价格超过了 $100,000（2022 年卡塔尔世界杯最贵的决赛门票为 $1,600）。但库什纳和马费伊在 2017 年曾以类似方式剥离了一级方程式赛车的商业权利，他们预想的是一个不断增加的资金池。

在现实中，这只能通过高昂的门票价格以及在美国每两年举办一次 64 强赛来最大限度地增加收入。而这些细节以及对球员福利的讨论则被明显忽略了。

“这不是在出售世界杯，”马费伊上周在向《金融时报》表示，此时他精心制定的计划已然崩塌。“没有人试图杠杆……”

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02.08.26

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非常明确且直接地说：这个项目不是国际足联的项目。这是一个人的项目。

凯文·拉穆尔（Kevin Lamour），国际足联首席运营官

“游戏结束”或类似的情况。”在马费（Maffei）看来，既然两名美国亿万富翁策划阴谋，利用一个在南美和欧洲拥有深厚历史根基且深受喜爱的世界性机构，将其部分收入转移给唐纳德·特朗普的姻亲家庭，同时可能保证詹尼·因凡蒂诺获得一份数百万美元的永久职位，而这一切还是在一个金字塔顶端精英的会议上发生……随后又试图向成员协会施压，让他们在独立分析师认为远低于市场价的数字面前接受或放弃，那么怎么会有人得出那种结论，这简直是个谜。

当消息于上周二泄露时，即便向来昏沉的足球协会们也愤怒不已。据一人称，足球界的反应是“目瞪口呆”。当外交辞令极其委婉的亚洲足球联合会（AFC）发表意见称其“完全不可接受”，并威胁这将“破坏洲际足球的基础”时，因凡蒂诺一定知道大势已去。一位人士表示，用由巴林王室成员谢赫·萨尔曼·本·伊布拉欣·阿尔·哈利法（Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa）领导的亚足联的话来说，这等同于“告诉因凡蒂诺滚蛋”。

科尔代罗（Cordeiro）直到上周为止还是因凡蒂诺最亲近的顾问，然而——考虑到他在高盛银行的从业经验，这令人难以置信——他对该计划完全被蒙在鼓里。“最令人不安的是，对于一些根本性问题缺乏答案，”科尔代罗说。

美国前锋 Folarin Balogun（见下图）， 在特朗普与 国际足联主席 交谈后， 其红牌被 取消执行。

“为什么要做这笔交易？为什么是现在？存在什么样的监管？谁从中受益？是否经过了竞争性程序？将实施什么样的治理？投资者最终将获得什么，而足球将付出什么代价？”

正如另一名国际足联代表上周所言：“我们到底是怎么走到这一步的？谁签署了合同？国际足联是一个会员组织，程序至关重要，而且似乎没有人——甚至连财务主管——被咨询过。关键问题是：这是否是库什纳向因凡蒂诺发起的未经请求的接触？”国际足联的拉穆尔似乎回答了这个问题：“非常明确且直接地说：这个项目……不是国际足联的项目。这是一个人的项目。”

让国际足联成员们从困惑转为暴怒的，是因凡蒂诺向他们发送了摩根大通（JP MorganChase）的投资者简报，这是一份 25 页的招股说明书，旨在说服他们买入该项目。

不仅有人评价其中的数字是“草率且令人尴尬的低估”，文学风格是“平庸的 AI 生成垃圾”，而且文中充斥着美式拼写，将世界杯称为“the Fifa”（这是美国常见的称呼），并将收入与截然不同的 NBA 和 NFL 进行对比。文中热情地讨论了“进入债务市场”，对于一个拥有 $4bn 储备金且营收创纪录的组织来说，这似乎是一个奇怪的战略转向。

“低端交易”（Tone deal）根本不足以描述这次推介，据信该推介由摩根大通资产与财富管理首席执行官玛丽·埃多斯（Mary Erdoes）主导。这位在伊利诺伊州长大、毕业于哈佛商学院的人可能在文化上并不适应全球足球城市亚文化的习俗。早在 2020, 年，摩根大通在尝试针对欧洲超级联赛采取类似行动时曾道歉，并誓言将“从中吸取教训”，这句话让欧洲足球高管们在上周对该银行嗤之以鼻。

在这场如车祸般混乱的一周之后会发生什么？为了罢免国际足联主席，中北美及加勒比足联（Concacaf）、欧足联（Uefa）和亚足联（AFC）必须在 11 月前就一名统一候选人达成一致，并说服该候选人参加 3 月的选举。中北美及加勒比足联主席维克多·蒙塔利亚尼（Victor Montagliani）是一名加拿大人，他清理了此前以极度腐败著称的足联，目前处于最有利的位置，尽管据称他正专注于明年自己再次当选该足联负责人。

然而，后续影响将接踵而至。国际足联的代表们想要知道，库什纳是如何如此亲近地接触到因凡蒂诺的，以及是谁同意了该计划。“为什么是约书亚·库什纳？他是如何成为首席投资者的？招标程序在哪里？谁批准了摩根大通的费用？难道他们是免费这么做的吗？”一名欧洲官员说道。

确实如此。本周伊始，因凡蒂诺告诉他的批评者，世界需要的是“爱而非恨；宽容而非分歧；庆祝而非哀悼”。到了周二，世界似乎还需要一个由因凡蒂诺和特朗普总统女婿的兄弟领导的衍生投资工具。但到了周五晚上，情况就并非如此了。

国际足联主席可能被驱逐，因其在非洲权力基地的支持动摇

Osasu Obayiuwana 洛杉矶

前盟友将该大陆与足球高层之间的关系描述为“主仆”关系

2016年，在约瑟夫·布拉特被迫离职后，詹尼·因凡蒂诺成为国际足联主席。在就任后一个月内，他访问的第一国家便是南苏丹。

作为国际足联 211 个成员中的第 209 个（于 2012 年加入），南苏丹在球场上显然并非强队。但在国际足联的政治博弈中，南苏丹的一票与西班牙、阿根廷、英格兰或巴西的一票同样重要。因此，因凡蒂诺前往那里，向首批支持其竞选主席的国家之一表达敬意。

“当其他人犹豫不决时，我是支持詹尼的人之一，”时任南苏丹足协主席的 Chabur Coc Alei 说道。“这是对他对我所做贡献的一种感激之情。”

在因凡蒂诺近乎帝国式的十年主席任期内，他将通过在国际足联选举中获得非洲足球协会（CAF）54 个成员国的选票来巩固非洲支持，并将其视为其政治生存的基石。

如今，因凡蒂诺已被英格兰足协和欧足联抛弃。安迪·伯纳姆已要求他辞职。如果没有非洲的持续支持，他在政治上将彻底完蛋。

“我个人支持詹尼·因凡蒂诺。他不仅是一个好朋友，还是一个忠诚的朋友——他对非洲很忠诚，”CAF 主席 Patrice Motsepe 7 月 22 日在约翰内斯堡表示，此时距离世界杯决赛仅过去三天。在 2021 年 3 月这位南非亿万富翁商人攀升至 CAF 主席之位的过程中，因凡蒂诺领导的国际足联发挥了关键作用，确保其他候选人退出，从而使 Motsepe 对因凡蒂诺心存感激。

“我来自这样的背景：当人们对你忠诚时，你绝不能在背后捅他们一刀，”他说道。“我欣赏的是他对足球的深爱，他对全球足球的深切投入，以及他对非洲的支持。”

但许多非洲足球界人士认为，十年来对因凡蒂诺的支持并未带来实质性的红利。几位专家将国际足联与 CAF 的关系描述为“主仆”关系，即国际足联对理应独立的 CAF 的关键决策拥有不正当的影响力。“我们首先需要自救，审视这种奴役状态如何未能为我们服务，”一位不愿透露姓名的前 CAF 秘书长告诉《观察家报》。“当（成员协会）允许一个领导者被强加于他们时——就像在殖民时代那样——这对非洲来说绝不会有好结果。我们需要一位真正具有能力且心系非洲的泛非（领导者）。”

去年 12 月，相关方决定将非洲国家杯的举办频率从每两年一次改为从 2028 年起每四年一次，终结了六十年的传统。这一决定导致 Motsepe 在非洲内部遭到严厉批评，被指背叛了该大陆的足球遗产。

因凡蒂诺在 2020 年初与 CAF 官员的一次会议上要求进行这一调整，当时距离 Motsepe 成为主席还有一年多时间。这进一步证实了关于国际足联对该大陆决策存在不正当影响和干预的指控，但 Motsepe 对此予以否认。“我们不在非洲为欧洲做决定。我们在非洲为非洲做决定……这绝对是胡说八道，”愤怒的 Motsepe 告诉《观察家报》。

但在因凡蒂诺提出那个现已作废的出售世界杯股份方案后，Motsepe 始终保持着刻意的沉默，而欧足联、亚足联（AFC）以及中北美及加勒比海足联（CONCACAF）的同行们则都对此采取了强硬的反对立场。

世界足球的焦点现在从因凡蒂诺的计划转移到了他本人作为国际足联主席的生存能力上。非洲的选票足以决定他的成败。

其他页面

国际足联现在必须被解体 体育，第 3 页

五月在喀土穆举行的一场苏丹顶级联赛比赛。许多人认为，支持因凡蒂诺十年来并未获得任何具体回报。Ebrahim Hamid / MP via Getty Images

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

新闻

“它就像个伴侣。”

由机器人大军引领的社会护理革命

人工智能驱动的机器人正为护理院的居民提供陪伴和医疗协助，在降低成本的同时减轻了员工的负担

Rachel Sylvester 政治编辑

73 岁的 Vera Gadsdon 在她位于南伦敦的家中安置了一个机器人。“我叫他 Robert，”她说，“他每天帮我打理好一切。他提醒我服药，并在我要求时播放 Smooth Radio 或《天啊，五零》 (Hawaii Five-O)。它取代了人类的位置。”

在刘易舍姆 (Lewisham) 的 Hazelhurst Court 退休公寓中，有 20 多个年长的居民在房间里配备了这种小型 AI 驱动的机器人。这些机器人加载了每个人的日程表和医疗需求。它们会告诉居民什么时候该玩宾果游戏、吃午餐或观看最喜欢的电视节目，并帮助他们与家人或朋友进行视频通话。

如果有人错过预约或未对提醒做出响应，Genie 机器人会向护理团队发送警报。机器人还有一个心情按钮，鼓励人们在一天开始和结束时按下。

82 岁的 Patricia Fordham 说，这个机器人让她觉得不那么孤独了。“我会说：‘你好吗？’它会回我：‘你好吗？’它就像个伴侣。”另一位用户则通过该机器人通过视频链接观看了孙女的毕业典礼。

工作人员表示，该系统帮助他们为居民提供更一致的支持。

“它是全天候的，”护理员之一 Pinar Elmaz 说道，“如果他们错过提醒，我可以通过视频通话查看情况。如果他们说心情有点低落，我可以打电话尝试安慰他们。它功能非常多样，但它并不能取代人与人之间的接触。”

这些机器人由医疗技术公司兼英国最大的居家护理提供商 Cera 引入，目前在英格兰 14 个地方当局中至少有 1,000 人在使用，且每周仍有更多人加入该计划。

这些机器人在确保人们及时服药方面的成功率高达 96%。对于引入该系统的议会而言，护理能力提升了 20%，生产力提高了 80%。通过使用机器人补充人工护理员的随访，地方当局每年每位患者可节省约 £11,500。

Genie 机器人很快将被编程为：如果老年人需要帮助，将使用 AI 分析并分诊情况，然后拨打邻居、家人、护理员或 999 的电话。

未来，这些机器人还可以与可穿戴技术连接，以监测个人的心率、体温或血压。

运动传感器将捕捉可能预示健康问题的异常动作，或在痴呆症患者于夜间打开前门时发出检测。

82 岁的 Patricia Fordham 说，她的机器人让她觉得不那么孤独。 Charlie Fordham-Baley

一种分析护理员在居家访视期间收集的数据并识别细微变化以预测风险的 AI 工具，已经使患者跌倒率降低了 20%，并将可避免的住院次数减半，预计每天为 NHS 节省 200 万英镑。

Ben Maruthappu 在伦敦担任急诊医生后创立了 Cera，他表示，在人口老龄化的背景下，只有通过允许更多人居家养老的技术转型，社会护理才能维持在可负担的成本范围内。

一项复杂、昂贵且混乱的业务：用数据看社会护理

安迪·伯纳姆已承诺改革社会护理，但这将花费多少成本？以下是您在理解该挑战规模时需要掌握的数据。 作者：本·扎兰科 (Ben Zaranko)

成年人社会护理系统复杂且混乱。过去 30 年政府难以对其进行改革的部分原因在于，几乎没有人了解它的运作方式：许多人认为它会像国民医疗服务体系 (NHS) 那样对所有人免费，直到他们第一次接触该系统时才发现自己错了。以下是帮助您理解其现状以及安迪·伯纳姆可能采取行动的相关数字。

-37%

国家向养老金领取者提供社会护理的人数比以前减少了：在英格兰，接受政府资助护理的 65 岁以上人数在 2005 和 2025. 之间下降了 37%。这主要是由于资格限制更加严格，以及有护理需求的年轻成年人需求增加的结果。获得帮助的人数减少，意味着更多的人在自费、依赖家庭成员的无偿护理，或者干脆在没有护理的情况下生活。

2 million

据估计，英格兰目前有 2 million 人的护理需求未得到满足。

一半

18 到 64 岁的人员获得了英格兰成年人社会护理政府总支出的 48%。这个问题通常被框定为纯粹与老年人相关，但这样就忽略了年轻成年人（例如学习障碍者）在护理接收者和整体护理支出中所占份额不断增加的现实。

£23,250

在英格兰，个人在失去政府支持资格前可以持有的资产和储蓄阈值为 £23,250。如果有人搬进护理院，且其主要居所中没有人居住，则该房产将被计入资产测试——这就是为什么有些人必须卖掉房子来支付费用。

七分之一

大约四分之三的 65 岁及以上人士在生命周期中将产生至少一部分社会护理成本。但这些成本的分布非常不均匀：七分之一的人预计将产生超过 £100,000 的费用（例如，如果他们在护理院中度过很长一段时间）。通常，当人们面临产生极高成本的小概率风险时，会购买保险。但英国针对社会护理成本的私人保险市场几乎不存在。这导致人们在老年时期面临一项巨大、难以预测且无法投保的成本。关于社会护理成本终身上限的提案旨在解决这一“保险”问题。

1.5 million

英格兰从事成年人社会护理的人员数量为 1.5 million。

7p an hour

在英格兰，拥有五年或以上经验的护理员比新手同事的平均额外收入为 7p an hour。由于薪资晋升机会如此之少，该行业难以留住员工。

20p an hour

斯塔默政府宣布了一项新的社会护理“公平薪酬协议”，旨在改善薪资和条件。到目前为止，已宣布拨款 5 亿英镑。健康基金会 (Health Foundation) 估计，这仅足够提供 20p an hour 的涨幅：“不足以带来实质性的改善”。其分析表明，若要使薪资与 NHS 阶梯底层的员工持平，将需要超过 £2。

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“仅用在医院住一晚的费用，我们就能在一个人希望待的地方——也就是他们自己的家中——支持他们一整周，”他说道。“接下来的五年将是护理史上最具影响力的时期，这并非因为人口统计学或政策，而是因为人工智能和机器人技术，它们可以从根本上重新定义护理的交付方式。”

“如果政府的改革不能拥抱潜在的技术革命，他们将用昨天的思维来构建明天的护理系统。机器人技术能让该行业更具可持续性，减轻员工压力，并让他们专注于护理中最具人性化的部分。”

上周，安迪·伯纳姆（Andy Burnham）承诺将解决社会护理问题作为其首相任期的关键考验。伯纳姆的父亲患有阿尔茨海默病，他表示，政治家们将“得分竞争”置于解决一个令家庭焦虑并给国民医疗服务体系（NHS）带来麻烦的问题之前，这简直是“可耻的”。

他宣布将路易丝·凯西（Louise Casey）的审查提前至明年，并坚持认为他决心推进创建以“尽可能居家护理原则”为基础的“国家护理服务”。

2010年担任卫生大臣期间，由于拟议的护理服务被保守党贴上“死亡税”的标签，他被迫放弃了改革计划。伯纳姆表示：“如果我因为一些不可避免会出现的头条新闻而未尝试就离开，我永远无法原谅自己。”

创建一个更公平、更可持续的社会护理体系在道德和人口统计学上的理由是压倒性的。在接下来的25年里，英国85岁以上的人口预计将翻倍至3.6 million，占总人口的近5%。根据Age UK 2024年的一份报告，目前已有约两百万成年人的护理需求尚未得到满足。

今年6月，有13,600张医院病床被在医学上已适合回家但因缺乏社会护理而无法出院的人员占据。

在30年间进行了22次审查后，人们广泛认为现状是不可接受的。限制护理成本的立法虽获得了跨党派支持而通过，但该变更被前财政大臣雷切尔·里夫斯（Rachel Reeves）废除——这一决定比对冬季燃料津贴进行资产调查的影响要深远得多。

伯纳姆明确表示，他愿意在这一几十年来一直被威斯敏斯特（Westminster）视为“过于困难”的问题上，投入大量的“政治资本”。

这必然会有相应的成本，但社会护理的交付方式也需要改革。新的BBC情景喜剧《Ann Droid》讲述了丧偶的苏（Sue）与她的“基础养老机器人”琳达（Linda）之间的关系，这看起来可能像是在描绘未来。但在日本，这个拥有世界上最老龄化人口的国家之一，养老院已经在试用能帮助老人穿衣的人形机器人以及辅助行走的外骨骼。

代表独立供应商的英格兰护理协会（Care England）负责人马丁·格林（Martin Green）表示，在资金匮乏且需求增长的时代，技术是“金钥匙”。“日本发生的一件事让我深受启发，那就是一个帮助人们上厕所的机器人。起初我想：‘这太不人道了，’但人们却说：‘这对我的帮助大多了。它随时可用’”

新闻

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

9

“我会说：你好吗？它会回我说，你好吗？”

Patricia Fordham

“在我需要的时候，它能更好地维护我的尊严，”他说。“你可以让一个人的女儿的投影对他说：‘妈妈，你吃药了吗？’或者：‘你喝水了吗？’”

在社会护理领域存在 111,000 个职位空缺且人员流动率较高的情况下，Unison 的总书记安德里亚·伊根（Andrea Egan）认为，任何能帮助减轻工作量压力的手段都是受欢迎的。

“技术在释放员工时间方面发挥着重要作用，使他们能够更专注于全面支持任何依赖护理的人，”她说。

她补充道：“但这应该是作为一种补充，而非替代。这项工作的很大一部分是联系和陪伴，让员工能够提供情感支持并发现异常情况。例如，机器人可以提醒服药，但无法检查对方是否真的服药了。”

安德鲁·迪尔诺特（Andrew Dilnot）曾在 2011, 年向政府提交报告的社会护理委员会担任主席，他表示，平衡癌症患者与阿尔茨海默症患者之间差距的唯一方法，是将社会护理的“灾难性成本”风险分摊给全体人口。

在 Burnham 周围的一些人抵制设置上限的想法，因为他们认为这将使富人过度获益，而富人在现有制度下损失最多。

但迪尔诺特坚持认为，社会护理资金不应被用作替代性的财富税。“唯一能从上限中获益的富人，是那些不幸需要极高护理需求的富人。如果你想向富人征税，就应该直接向富人征税，而不是向恰好有社会护理需求的富人征税。”

他认为，为了社会和个人的利益，改革早已迫在眉睫。“我们必须解决这个问题，因为这是一种耻辱。在几乎所有的国内政策问题中，都有一个非常强有力的论点，即这个领域最具破坏性且造成最多痛苦，政府的干预能在这里产生最大的影响。”

“需要社会护理就像站在路中间，看着一辆货车向你开来，你觉得你能期待的最好结果就是，在货车撞到你之前你就死掉了。”

其他版面

安卓护理机器人？别

逗我笑了

梅拉妮·里德（Melanie Reid），论坛版，第 28 页

-96%

2026 年前六个月与 2023 年前六个月相比，健康与护理工作者签证申请数量的降幅（3,300 份对比 80,100 份）。2025 年 5 月，政府宣布停止海外招聘。 2025.

470

在 2022 年至 2025 年之间，被内政部吊销签证担保资质的护理提供机构数量。由于担心签证渠道被不法雇主利用，促使政府决定关闭社会护理签证渠道。

6.2%

根据收集该行业数据的慈善机构 Skills for Care 的数据，2025 / 26, 年度成人社会护理行业的职位空缺率为 6.2%。尽管授予海外工人的签证数量大幅减少，但这仍低于 2024 / 25, 年度的 7%。

健康与护理工作者每月签证申请量

来源：内政部

五年经验护理员与一年以下经验护理员的平均薪资差异

注：未加权数据。来源：Skills for Care

£18.5bn

任何旨在增加政府社会护理补贴慷慨程度或改善薪酬和条件的改革，都将产生成本。安迪·伯纳姆 (Andy Burnham) 谈到了将“NHS原则”应用于社会护理。这在实践中意味着什么，将由路易丝·凯西 (Louise Casey) 的审查报告决定，该报告将于 2027 年提交——但这可能会非常昂贵。健康基金会 (Health Foundation) 估计，如果国家为目前在英格兰接受成人护理服务的所有人员买单，到 2035. 年的成本可能达到 £18.5bn。但如果护理免费，对服务的需求几乎肯定会增加。其他模式，例如对终身护理成本设置上限，其价格标签会较低，但所有方案的开支都将高达数十亿。

214

2021, 年 9 月，时任首相鲍里斯·约翰逊宣布征收一项健康与社会护理税，部分用于 NHS 从新冠疫情中恢复，部分用于社会护理改革。该税项于 2022 年 6 月 4 日生效，表现为国民保险缴款增加 1.25 个百分点。前财政大臣夸西·夸滕 (Kwasi Kwarteng) 在他那场灾难性的迷你预算案中取消了该税项，使其在推出仅 214 天后就被移除。原计划由该税项资助的社会护理改革在 2024 年 7 月被蕾切尔·里夫斯 (Rachel Reeves) 放弃。

22

据安迪·伯纳姆 (Andy Burnham) 所说，这是过去 30 年中改革成人社会护理的失败尝试次数。他表示：“如果这是一个持久的解决方案，我们将必须寻找共同点。”凯米·巴德诺克 (Kemi Badenoch) 表示，保守党不会支持任何涉及提高税收的方案。自民党党魁埃德·戴维 (Ed Davey) 表示，不应有人因为护理需求而失去住房。但如果资金不是来自更高的税收，也不是来自人们的房产财富，那么资金从哪里来？伯纳姆因为敢于面对政府一直回避的问题而值得称赞，但跨党派的共识看起来是个艰巨的任务。

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News

“一点星火就可能令全国大片地区再次起火”

野火正成为一种系统性的季节性威胁，给英国全境的健康、家园以及自然世界带来严重风险

James Tapper

上周五，当火焰席卷米德尔威克山脉（Middlewick Ranges）稀有的野生动物栖息地时，这已是今年英格兰和威尔士地区发生的第 71 次野火。

直到昨天，火势虽已熄灭，但危险依然存在，消防员仍驻守在科尔切斯特（Colchester）南部的这片野生动物避风港。在苏福克郡（Suffolk）、凯恩戈姆山（Cairngorms）、埃里里（Eryri）和峰区（Peak District），在野火首次爆发数周后，仍有更多的消防队在场。环保人士一直在评估损失。

“看到如此大面积的场地被火焰吞噬并迅速蔓延，真是令人心碎，”米德尔威克之友（Friends of Middlewick）的达维娜·班福德（Davina Bamford）说道，该组织致力于保护稀有的酸性草地及其栖息的云雀和夜莺。“尤其是在这个炎热的夏天，野生动物和生态系统已经如此脆弱。”

但埃塞克斯郡（Essex）这一地区的沙质土壤意味着只有金雀花和干枯的草成为了燃料。而凯恩戈姆国家公园的泥炭土则更容易燃烧。

“那些巨大的喀里多尼亚树——其中一些已有数百年历史——它们的地下根部被烧得非常严重，昨晚稍微刮了点风，就有相当多数量的树被吹倒了，”内西桥（Nethy Bridge）社区议会主席桑迪·麦库克（Sandy McCook）表示。“你根本无法保证这场火已经完全熄灭。”

麦库克回想起之前在苏格兰高地古老的阿伯内西森林（Abernethy Forest）发生的一场火灾：“在冬天，烟雾依然透过积雪渗上来，这意味着在事件发生六、七个月后，它仍在燃烧。”

根据国家消防酋长委员会（NFCC）的数据，7 月是记录以来野火最繁忙的月份。规模最大的火灾发生在凯恩戈姆山；奥尔德姆（Oldham）附近的廷特威斯尔原（Tintwistle Moor）和多夫斯通水库（Dovestone Reservoir）；埃里里国家公园（Eryri national park，原名为斯诺登尼亚 Snowdonia）的特劳斯菲尼（Trawsfynydd）附近；以及苏福克郡的邓威奇荒原（Dunwich Heath）。在后者，消防员还面临着一项复杂任务：确保英国皇家学会保护鸟类协会（RSPB）明斯米尔（Minsmere）自然保护区的火势不会向南蔓延至三英里外的赛兹韦尔 B（Sizewell B）核电站。

“我们必须保持极高度的警惕，”NFCC 主席菲尔·加里根（Phil Garrigan）说。“几天的炎热天气，一次风向改变——一个单火星就潜在着令全国大片地区再次起火的可能性。”

加里根表示，自 2018 年以来，消防员看到野火数量发生了“剧变”，现在的野火季从 1 月一直持续到 11 月。“这是我们必须适应的事情——我们需要确保具备正确的应对能力，”他补充道。

这意味着需要直升机或无人机群，这在希腊的消防工作中已是成熟的一部分。而英国则完全没有。上周，国民信托（National Trust）租用了自己的直升机为明斯米尔的地面洒水。

*适用资格标准。投资产品和服务由巴克莱银行公众有限公司（Barclays Bank plc）及其子公司提供。资本面临风险。

巴克莱通过巴克莱银行英国公众有限公司（Barclays Bank UK PLC）向其客户提供银行和信贷产品。巴克莱银行英国公众有限公司经审慎监管局（Prudential Regulation Authority）授权，并受金融行为监管局（Financial Conduct Authority）和审慎监管局监管。在英格兰注册。注册号 9740322。注册地址：1 Churchill Place, London E14 5HP.

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苏福克郡邓威奇的焦土。上方，为凯恩戈姆山火灾进行水上轰炸。右侧，埃塞克斯郡科尔切斯特的米德尔威克邦格斯（Middlewick Bunges）。AFP / Getty / Davina Bamford

“我们正在与政府就空中消防能力进行对话，”加里根说。

尽管许多火灾是由丢弃的香烟和一次性烧烤等疏忽行为引起的，但有相当数量的火灾似乎是纵火。诺丁汉郡消防救援服务部门表示，在过去的一周内，他们处理了 61 起故意点燃的户外火灾。

今夏的山火可能会对部分患有哮喘和肺部疾病的人产生严重的健康影响，即使他们居住在远离火场的地方。国家大气科学中心 (NCAS) 的研究表明，皮克区 (Peak District) 的火灾导致 12 英里外的曼彻斯特污染水平显著增加。

空气质量监测仪检测到，7 月中旬有几个小时内，PM2.5（最小且最危险的颗粒物）的浓度比正常水平高出 10 倍以上。

“我们可以很有信心地说，如果山火增加，健康影响也会随之增加。”

詹姆斯·艾伦博士 (Dr James Allan)

“我们可以很有信心地说，如果山火增加，健康影响也会随之增加，特别是当山火发生在人口密集区附近，且该地区有弱势群体时，”NCAS 空气污染项目负责人詹姆斯·艾伦博士说道。

他表示，法国火灾产生的烟雾也可能产生影响，并补充道：“去年加拿大山火的烟雾甚至飘过了整个大西洋。”

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02.08.26

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哮喘-英国肺部组织 (Asthma – Lung UK) 的临床负责人马修·斯瓦洛博士 (Dr Matthew Swallow) 表示，靠近火场且患有哮喘或慢性阻塞性肺疾病等肺部疾病的人员应尽量留在室内，关闭窗户；如果必须外出，请携带应急药物。

“PM2.5 会深入肺部，”斯瓦洛说，“它主要引起呼吸道症状，但也会进入眼睛和鼻子，并可能影响人们的皮肤。”

这些火灾可能会重启一场关于如何最佳管理景观的辩论，旨在清除森林中会助长火势的枯死植被，同时又不剥夺树木必要的营养；此外，还涉及谁应出资在居民房屋周围创建防火隔离带并保持其畅通。

米德尔威克之友 (Friends of Middlewick) 表示，希望此次火灾能促使拥有该地块的国防部与该团体合作，实施一项全面的管理计划，以便在不干扰在地面筑巢的云雀的情况下修剪草坪。

今夏的山火可能是由厄尔尼诺 (El Niño) 气候模式引发的天气所致。厄尔尼诺将在 12 月达到峰值，可能会导致 2027 年再次出现一个极端夏季。

气象局预报员预测，本周北部将有雨，南部将有阵雨。

不仅仅是园丁们在祈祷预报准确。

5

AI网红利用绝经焦虑牟利

中年女性正成为相关企业的针对目标，这些企业利用虚拟形象来销售看似神奇的产品

Lily Isaacs

在Instagram和TikTok上，AI生成的网红正在向中年及老年女性推销补剂、美容设备和健康指南。这是一个不断扩张的账号网络，通过利用人们对绝经、衰老、生育能力和慢性疾病的担忧，为其创作者赚取数千英镑的佣金。

其中一位AI网红是詹妮弗·卡特（Jennifer Carter），一个美丽的美国金发“单身母亲”，其账号名为“Jennifer Wellness Life”，在Instagram上拥有43,000名粉丝。每段视频都以这样的话开头：“我52岁，但我的生物年龄是26.9岁。这就是我每天做的那些枯燥的事。”随后她列出了她的日常：阳光、饮水、力量训练以及NMN——这是她“永远不会放弃”的一种补剂，并在个人简介中提供了在亚马逊购买的链接。

另一位使用AI创建的网红劳伦·米勒（Lauren Miller）则声称，她那个有暴力倾向的丈夫为了另一个女人离开了她。在一段分享给其18,300名TikTok粉丝的视频中，丈夫摔碎了一个盘子并走出门外。随后，她蜕变成了一个截然不同的人，年轻了几十岁且更苗条，并将其归功于她的“离婚后光彩”。秘诀是什么？一个售价£42的LED面部紧致美容仪，可通过其个人简介中的链接购买。

AI“医生”也在提供专家建议，使用诸如#menopausehealth（绝经健康）和#womenover40（40岁以上女性）等标签。一名使用“holisticharmony2”账号发布的男性“绝经专家”建议女性购买补剂以恢复其“细胞能量”。

这些账号是一个快速增长的AI生成网红生态系统的一部分，专门针对女性的焦虑。新颖之处在于AI生成人格的规模和复杂程度，能够批量生产无数从未发生过的康复故事和创伤经历。与年轻用户相比，年长用户更不容易识别出AI网红。瑞典KTH皇家理工学院的研究人员发现，60岁以上人群识别AI生成图像的准确率仅为47.2%，而39岁以下人群的识别率则为79.6%。

来自约克的22岁创业者利奥·斯蒂尔戈（Leo Stilgoe）利用AI网红来营销他的产品。他告诉《观察家报》，他支付给100多名年轻人，让他们创建AI网红来推广他的补剂，目标群体为40至60岁的女性。他的“关联会员”每月最高可赚取$20,000（£15,000）的佣金。

他认为AI广告是所有营销的未来，并补充道：“如果企业不实施AI，他们将被时代抛弃。”大多数销售他补剂的AI网红账号并没有标注其AI身份。当被问及客户是否意识到这些角色是AI生成的时，他表示：“我得亲自去问他们。”

在伦敦大学学院（UCL）研究AI的凯特琳·雷格尔（Kaitlyn Regehr）表示，AI生成的网红是虚假信息的新前沿。“我们倾向于关注青少年和儿童，但对他们母亲的保护却被严重忽视了。”

这些账号的生成是为了利用中年及老年女性的脆弱点。她说：“无论是针对围绝经期，还是在癌症治疗过程中提供支持，亦或是应对身体衰老及其与自我价值感和自尊的关系，他们都在利用一种脆弱性。”

随着技术的提升，识别AI生成内容将变得更加困难。她说：“我们过去讨论网红文化以及围绕身体畸形恐惧症的问题。而现在这完全是另一个层级，因为这些图像从一开始就没有一个真实的人类作为原型。”

英国医学会 (British Medical Association) 理事会副主席艾玛·伦斯威克 (Emma Runswick) 博士表示：“像 TikTok 这样的平台必须采取更多措施，遏制危险的虚假医疗建议的激增。否则，公众将可能用他们的健康，甚至生命来付出代价。”

仅限加入 Sky Stream 的 Sky 新客户。包含 Netflix 标准广告版、Disney+ 标准广告版、HBO Max 基础广告版以及 Haya。

需要相关的订阅及安装。全职 800 (City of the House) 144 (City of the House) 14 (City of the House) 14 (City of the House) 14 (City of the House) 14 (City of the House) 14 (City of the House) 14 (City of the House) 14 (City of the House) 14 (City of the House) 14 (City of the House) 14 (City of the House) 14 (City of the House) 14 (City of 需签署单独的 24 个月合同。

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

新闻

关闭乔德雷尔班克就像背弃宇宙

削减天文研究经费将威胁到这座射电望远镜 70 年的观测科学研究，同时也将关闭一扇窥探宇宙的窗户。 吉莱斯·惠特尔报道

10 多年来，罗布·芬德一直领导着一个旨在重新校准我们对宇宙认知的项目。在位于柴郡的巨型乔德雷尔班克（Jodrell Bank）射电望远镜的帮助下，他一直在研究超大质量黑洞喷射的能量流对银河系等星系的影响。

这些星系有些奇怪。它们比数学模型预测的要小得多。喷流也很奇怪，因为黑洞理论上不应该发射任何东西。但这些喷流以接近光速穿过尘埃和气体云的方式，或许可以解释星系规模较小的原因。

这些理论基于由包括乔德雷尔班克在内的望远镜网络拍摄的深空高分辨率图像。然而，由于该网络即将关闭，进一步的进展可能无法实现。上周宣布的一项决定被布莱恩·考克斯教授谴责为“草率、欠考虑且具有毁灭性的”，除非能找到新的资金来源，否则这家世界第三大可转向射电望远镜的天文学研究将告一段落。

乔德雷尔班克在冷战初期曾追踪过穿越北半球的史普尼克卫星，如今它已被“降低优先级”，以便让位于那些更有可能在现实世界中应用并驱动增长的项目。在一个充满理论的世界里，这座拥有 70 年历史的仪器是观测科学的标志，是可能永远无法产生商业回报的纯科学。官员们表示，这就是为什么决策者需要对其未来保持清醒。

然而，将其关闭就像是在背弃宇宙。

该望远镜的工作原理是：通过一个 3,200 吨大碟中心的一根铜线，接收来自数百万光年外极其微弱的信号。铜线产生振动，

接收器将这些振动转化为数据点，并最终转化为已知宇宙最遥远边缘的等离子体喷流、引力透镜和超新星爆炸的详细图像。地球上的振动则由冷却接收器的液氮来抵消。

这个以乔德雷尔班克为中心、跨越 140 英里的七台射电望远镜网络被称为 e-Merlin。牛津大学天体物理学教授芬德表示，世界上没有其他设备能像它这样追踪天空中快速移动的现象。“一旦 e-Merlin 消失，我们将陷入盲目。”

当资金在 2028 年 3 月耗尽时，这种“盲目”将接踵而至。与此同时，英国正将量子计算、人工智能以及电池和机器人等先进制造业优先考虑。应用科学可能会繁荣，因为作为公共研究资金统筹机构的英国研究与创新局（UKRI）承诺，在获得为期四年、高达 £38.6bn 的慷慨预算后将推广应用科学。但尽管 UKRI 承诺保护“探索”，英国曾经渴望领先世界的纯科学几乎肯定会受到打击。

资助天文研究的科学与技术设施委员会（STFC）预算持平，这将要求削减 6000 万英镑m，其中包括 e-Merlin 全年 280 万英镑m 的运营预算。曼彻斯特大学的特蕾莎·安德森教授表示：“削减主要集中在基础科学领域，而乔德雷尔班克正是基础科学中最基础的部分。”

管理该机构的人员可能会感到一种似曾相识的感觉。乔德雷尔班克的资金此前曾受到威胁——包括 2008 年，当时一项优先考虑其他研究的计划在《泰晤士报》报道称资助小组专家以牺牲乔德雷尔班克为代价而偏袒特定项目后被撤回。

这次并没有这样的暗示，尽管上周决定的一位批评者怀疑，政府倾向于支持国际项目而非国家项目，因为前者更难从中脱身。在资金未受影响的 13 个前沿粒子物理学和天文学项目中，有 12 个是国际合作项目（包括四个在瑞士欧洲核子研究中心 Cern 的项目）。而在 16 个不再续资的项目中，有 7 个（包括 e-Merlin）是基于英国的。

e-Merlin 望远镜阵列

该网络构成了一台巨大的望远镜，基线长达 135 英里，其角分辨率可与哈勃空间望远镜相媲美。

一名发言人表示，STFC 已经“仔细考虑了国内与国际活动之间正确的战略平衡”。

与乔德雷尔班克（Jodrell Bank）独立但总部设于此的是平方公里阵列（SKA），这是一个新的南半球射电望远镜网络，且显然成为了白厅（Whitehall）的混淆之源。商业、创新与技能部表示，乔德雷尔班克为 SKA 获得资金意味着那里的工作将继续进行，但这并不适用于该望远镜。

天文台探索中心主任安德森表示，乔德雷尔班克并未从 SKA 获得其望远镜或 e-Merlin 项目的资金。“SKA 是一个完全独立的组织……乔德雷尔班克没有任何长期资金。一旦到了 2028 年 3 月，就结束了。”

目前的状况是，英国将成为

“我们是一台新仪器。所有这一切都处于风险之中，而且没有其他资金来源”

西蒙·加灵顿（Simon Garrington）教授

安德森说，英国将成为 SKA 中唯一没有自用工作射电望远镜的参与国，而这一切仅仅是为了节省 STFC 预算的 0.6%。 “为什么承办该项目的国家要废除自己的本土能力？”

UKRI 和 STFC 的主席拒绝发表评论，但另一位高级研究资助官员赞扬他们在决策过程中抛开历史，旨在完全基于科学价值。该官员表示，乔德雷尔班克在 1957 年发挥的关键作用不应决定我们现在在那里的做法。

1957 年 10 月 4 日，苏联发射了史普尼克（Sputnik）卫星。不久之后，乔德雷尔班克的推动者伯纳德·洛夫尔（Bernard Lovell）接到了来自伦敦的电话，他此前因承担个人债务几乎入狱。洛夫尔在 2007 年（即事件发生 50 年后）告诉我，当时的官员意识到“我们可能拥有西方唯一的仪器，如果将其转化为雷达设备，就能探测到卫星的运载火箭，而那是一枚苏联的洲际弹道导弹”。

洛夫尔和他的团队搁置了关于宇宙射线的工作，花了 48 小时将他们的监听设备改装为雷达发射机，并成功追踪到了俄罗斯运载火箭在陪伴史普尼克环绕世界时的幽灵形状。两年后，莫斯科请求乔德雷尔班克追踪另一艘俄罗斯航天器 Lunik，该航天器在向月球疾驰并撞击月球，而这发生在尼尔·阿姆斯特朗登月 10 年前。克里姆林宫认为，只有英国的确认才能说服美国，苏联已经完成了这一奇特的壮举，事实也证明如此。次年夏天，一个美国科学家团队在乔德雷尔班克的场地内驻扎，利用该天线追踪他们飞向金星的探测器。

洛夫尔的债务由一位钦佩他的诺菲尔德勋爵（Lord Nuffield，莫里斯汽车公司的创始人）通过一张 80,000 英镑的支票一次性偿还。他的望远镜在自己的圆形轨道上运行，并使用了一对从海军战舰上拆下的巨大齿轮。此后，该设备一直经过持续升级，最近加入了最先进的软件和电子设备。专家表示，其结果是 e-Merlin 网络在观测夸克、类星体、脉冲星以及“动态宇宙”的其他奥秘方面是无与伦比的。它还可以追踪飞入的小行星以及直径仅为几个厘米的太空碎片。

“我们是一件新仪器，”e-Merlin 的负责人西蒙·加灵顿（Simon Garrington）教授说道。他指出，正是其巨大的跨度赋予了空间图像的分辨率和灵敏度，且该跨度是 SKA 最大分离距离的 5 倍，而 SKA 无论如何最早也要到 2030 年才能投入运行。“这一切都处于危险之中，而且没有其他资金来源。”

最终，由于其在激发公众对乔德尔班克（Jodrell Bank）支持方面发挥的作用，史普尼科号（Sputnik）对于洛夫尔（Lovell）来说是一个“奇迹”。而现在，它可能需要另一个奇迹。

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02.08.26

15

“地球致白厅：敬畏与知识是无价的”

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莎拉·佩里 (Sarah Perry)

乔德雷尔班克 (Jodrell Bank) 的洛弗尔射电望远镜，它是科学的丰碑，同时又像大教堂一样神圣，而现在它面临着首先被关闭，然后我想，会被遗弃的风险，直到最后，那只巨大的“耳朵”再也无法聆听星辰的对话，在柴郡平原上化为废墟。

也许在你看来，这是一个极其凄凉的末日景象。的确如此。它就应该是这样。乔德雷尔班克的遗址象征着最伟大的科学探索所特有的深刻理智与惊叹；它的丧失将象征着一种政府政策——借用查尔斯·狄更斯在《艰难时世》中的话：“人类生存的每一寸，从出生到死亡，都成了柜台前的一场交易。”

我还是个孩子时第一次见到洛弗尔望远镜。我们很多人都见过——并且从未忘记。我的父亲教我如何寻找太阳黑子，给我看土星环，他在一次从苏格兰度假房回家的路上特意绕道，为了让我们能看到它。我被许诺会看到一座巨大的望远镜，结果却惊讶地发现，呈现在我面前的是那个奇怪的白色甲壳，宽 76 米（250 英尺），耸立在闪闪发光的支撑杆和梁架网络之上。

父亲告诉我，它并不是在“看”，而是在“听”；宇宙在通过无线电波不断地交流，而这台望远镜巨大的碟形天线将这些波收集起来，并聚焦成一个信号，从而可以被解读并转化为星辰的图像。

我很少见过如此神奇的事物；我也很少感到如此困惑。在随后的日子里，我逐渐意识到，这种感觉正是科学探索的主要驱动力之一：惊叹与探究在同一瞬间爆发，且两者互为依托。

多年以后，在写了一本基于我对天文学和物理学热爱的小说后，我受邀在乔德雷尔班克发表演讲。仅凭这一点，就足以满足那个在空旷的空气中寻找无线电波的困惑孩童；但当时我还被允许坐在洛弗尔望远镜的控制台前，与值班工程师交谈。洛弗尔望远镜当时正在监测一颗脉冲星的活动——也就是说，一颗坍缩恒星之后快速旋转的残骸——在桌子旁的一个屏幕上，我看到了信号的轨迹，那是窗外那座白色、静默的望远镜从几乎不可思议的深空之中捕捉到的。

我当时所经历的超越了惊叹；其中包含了一丝恐惧，一丝快慰，以及一点知识。我想，那就是“崇高” (the sublime)，而试图将这种感觉输入电子表格，或者计算它的成本或对公共金库的贡献，将是徒劳的。乔德雷尔班克将这种感觉传递给了几代孩子和路人，传递给了研究科学家、游客和学生；它激发的艺术、对话和探究，远超我们所能预知的范围。

1966 年的乔德雷尔班克控制室。

它的关闭绝不能被误认为仅仅是一次计算：它是同一病症的症状，这种病症关闭了图书馆和剧院，关闭了大学的艺术和人文学系，并且将使我们所有人陷入病态。

听着：我曾经是一名公务员。我知道政府这里有一笔钱，那里也有一笔钱，而如果没有怀特霍尔 (Whitehall) 走廊深处的剧烈震荡，哪怕是一分钱也不能从一个资金池转移到另一个资金池。但现在有大量的资金在四处挥霍，不是吗？例如，在疫情期间挥霍在无用的个人防护装备上；或者像浪潮一样地挥霍在那个部分失效的 HS2 高速铁路网络上。

与这种浪费相比，维持乔德尔班克（Jodrell Bank）运行每年 280 万英镑m 的成本——顺便提一下，这仅占英国研究与创新局（UKRI）预算的约 0.03%——简直就像是零钱一样微不足道。我注意到，UKRI 已经承诺投入 £1.6bn 用于人工智能；也许一旦洛弗尔望远镜被永久封存，它所在的土地就可以卖给一家科技公司，后者可以安装一个苍白、矮壮的数据中心——那样的地方极其耗水，而且极其、极其有利可图。

在《艰难时世》接近尾声时，有一个时刻，托马斯·格拉德格林（如果他在许多政府机构工作，一定会表现得非常出色）面对女儿的愤怒，而他的女儿明白了他不明白的事情：在账本上，除了利润之外，还有更多东西需要记录。

“你怎么能给我生命，”她说，“却又夺走所有那些让生命免于处于清醒死亡状态的、无法估量的事物？我的灵魂之美在哪里？”顺便说一句，格拉德格林随后放弃了他的哲学，并改正了自己的作风。希望依然存在。

莎拉·佩里（Sarah Perry）是《启蒙》（Enlightenment，2024）和《埃塞克斯之蛇》（The Essex Serpent，2016）的作者。

洛弗尔望远镜与艺术：

构建人类未来的方式

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Erica Wagner

在洛弗尔望远镜的碗形结构内部，笼罩着一种非同寻常的静谧。有一部电梯可以将你送到基座边缘，接着通过一个桁架走道到达中心，然后爬上一把狭窄的梯子。我曾两次进入内部，第一次是在 2007 年，当时我正在协助筹办在该地举办的首届节庆活动。

这次活动名为“第一步”（First Move），旨在纪念该望远镜运行 50 周年；我们的努力为后来的音乐与科学节“蓝点”（Bluedot）铺平了道路。当时的一位快乐的参加者是一位名叫安迪·伯纳姆（Andy Burnham）的当地男孩。

碟面的钢板贴在你的背上，天空在上方勾勒出弧线；洛弗尔的天线像一支箭头，直指宇宙之心。“在科学领域，你永远在凭信念工作，”伯纳德·洛弗尔曾对我说道，“如果没有愿景，你就会灭亡。”谁认为艺术和科学之间有区别？乔德雷尔（Jodrell）的人绝不这么想。

去年，得益于将小说作家与乔德雷尔科学家的配对项目“苍穹”（Firmament），我第二次登上了那里。这并非轻率之举。这正是构建人类未来的方式——

在这个未来中，人文学科与自然科学能够相互尊重并理解对方的领域。

我与乔德雷尔的联系源于与艾伦·加纳（Alan Garner）的一段幸运友谊，他现在 91 岁，无疑是最受推崇的英国作家之一。他的房子建于都铎时代；但透过厨房窗户，他可以看到那座望远镜。“洛弗尔望远镜和我几乎在几周之内开始了各自的工作，”加纳上周告诉我，“69 年来，我一直注视着它，对其优雅之姿心生敬畏，对其成就惊叹不已。任何决定撤销对这项公认具有全球重要意义的企业资助的决定，都将是一种文化和科学上的破坏行为。”

由乔德雷尔银行（Jodrell Bank）启发而创作的故事集《苍穹》将于 11 月出版。

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

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展翅高飞：我们的专家为初学者提供的指南

保持听觉灵敏，随身携带双筒望远镜，并留意空中的“捣蛋鬼”。但最重要的是，记住这关乎快乐，西蒙·巴恩斯（Simon Barnes）如是说。

• 随身携带双筒望远镜并使用它们。不用担心被误认为窥淫癖，或者更糟，被认为是个专家。
• 观鸟关乎地点：找到合适的地点，鸟类自然会到来。

• 你可以在当地郡野生动物信托基金会（Wildlife Trust）的网站上找到绝佳地点（没错，伦敦也有一个）。加入其中也是个好主意。

• 让你的眼睛习惯捕捉动作。追踪外围视觉中每一次闪烁。

• 你的耳朵和眼睛一样重要。在一次鸟类调查中，你实际看到的鸟类往往不到你记录数量的一半。
• 接受你无法识别所有鸟类的事实。即使是资深观鸟者也可能感到困惑——甚至出错。
• 不要被同行观鸟者吓到，即使他们带着安装在三脚架上的望远镜。大多数人都喜欢与初学者分享发现一只漂亮鸟类时的喜悦。
• 观鸟并不意味着一直在走动。在正确的地方静坐，让鸟儿向你靠近，往往是当天最美好的部分。
• 不要被野外指南中物种的数量数量吓到。相反，应当为此感到高兴。你正在研究生物多样性，这是生命的本质原则之一。
• 有专门为完全初学者编写的书籍。可以尝试西蒙·巴恩斯写的《糟糕的观鸟者》三部曲。
• 进行“朝圣”之旅（见右页）。
• 你不是去“观鸟”。一旦你成为了观鸟者，你就在进行观鸟活动。
• 永远不要忘记，观鸟关乎快乐。

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Specsavers

观鸟成为 Z 世代的新 craze —— 只要别叫我们“追鸟人”

这项曾经过时的消遣活动现在赢得了一支年轻粉丝大军。他们告诉 David Barnett，这是一个放慢脚步、脱离网络的绝佳机会。

“我花很多时间思考鸟类，”Mya-Rose Craig 说，“花很多时间观察它们。我在开会之类的时候，经常就这样盯着窗外的鸟看。”

Craig 今年 24 岁，是新一代观鸟者之一 —— 只要别把他们称为“追鸟人”（twitchers），因为这个词让人联想到穿着迷彩遮阳帽、拿着长焦镜头在田野里露营的中年男子。

这场观鸟复兴由 Z 世代引领，不仅得到了名人的支持，还拥有像 Craig 这样影响力人物的推动。她在 Instagram 上的账号是 @birdgirlUK，拥有超过 44,000 名粉丝。

她写了一本回忆录《鸟女孩》（Bird Girl），并与插画师 Lynn Scurfield 合作创作了一本儿童绘本《飞行》（Flight）。

她是一名环保活动家，并在 14 岁时创立了 Black2Nature 项目，旨在让更多不同背景的年轻人（尤其是来自城市的年轻人）走进乡村，欣赏鸟类和野生动物。

来自布里斯托的 Craig 表示：“我认为互联网已经发展到了一个临界点，人们开始积极寻找其他事情做，试图脱离网络，而观鸟正是实现这一目标的绝佳方式。人们对此产生共鸣，因为这实际上是一种正念。”英国皇家鸟类保护协会（RSPB）最近的一项研究也证实了这一点，研究显示，在 16 至 29 岁的人群中，现在有近 750,000 人将观鸟列为爱好，自 2018 年以来增长了 1,000%。

“从更广泛的范围来看，过去八年里，定期观鸟的人数增加了 47%，相当于增加了四百多万人，”RSPB 的 Katie Nethercoat 说道。“虽然 Z 世代对这项爱好的投入程度最高，但千禧一代的人数也增加了 216%，X 世代的观鸟者增加了 66%。”

“我们的研究清楚地表明，观鸟不再是一个小众或过时的消遣，它正在吸引更年轻、更多元的人群。而且无论你对鸟类了解多少，任何人都可以参与其中。它会激励你走到户外，发现美丽的绿色空间，进行锻炼，并整体放慢生活节奏，每个人都能从中受益。”

观鸟界在上个月失去了其中一位最热情且最高调的支持者 —— 喜剧演员兼主持人 Bill Oddie。不过，这项爱好仍有许多名人拥护。演员 Sean Bean 主持受欢迎的《Get Birding》播客，广播员 Chris Packham 经常在社交媒体上分享鸟类内容。

即使是经常暴躁的前《Top Gear》主持人 Jeremy Clarkson，在鸟类爱好者 Hannah Bourne-Taylor 出现在他热门的亚马逊电视节目《克拉克森的农场》（Clarkson's Farm）最新系列中时，也停下来欣赏鸟类世界的奇迹。“我一直很喜欢鸟类。它们是世界上最酷的东西。”

一只雄性风速柳莺可能是新观鸟者 welcome 的景象。Getty Images

由我们合格的听力专家进行的听力检查是免费的。无需购买听力设备。听力评估可能收费。请在店内咨询详情。

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

17

1 像一群小流氓派对一样的年轻雨燕，正试飞它们的新翅膀，扯着嗓子大声尖叫。 2 在海边或一段优质的淡水区，寻找一只翅膀纤细得不可思议的海鸥。你就找到了一只燕鸥（左图）。

3 你可以通过以下方式将上面的鸬鹚与葵鳛区分开：葵鳛在潜水前会从水面轻跳一下。 4 寻找一只巨型雨燕：那其实是一种被称为隼（hobby）的猎鹰。 5 观察一只飞行中的哑天鹅（左图）并惊叹吧：你正在看世界上第二重的飞行鸟类，仅次于非洲的科里鸨。

6 尝试在叫声中分辨木鸽与环颈鸽。木鸽叫作：“偷两头牛的太妃糖 (Steal two cows' taffy)”。而环颈鸽则叫作：“团结！团结！(United! United!)” 7 鸟类通常不轻佻，但年轻的燕子在嬉闹时确实令人愉悦。

四次朝圣之旅

1. 福斯湾的巴斯岩（Bass Rock），这里的石榴石数量之多将令你难以置信。提供乘船游览。
2. 约克郡的贝普顿悬崖（Bempton Cliffs），可观赏海鸟群落，包括（图左的）海鹦。
3. 马尔岛（Isle of Mull），可观测两种老鹰（白尾海雕和金雕），此外还有两种当地蒸馏的单麦芽威士忌作为额外奖励。
4. 伦敦湿地中心（London Wetland Centre），观赏涉禽和水禽。

Mya-Rose Craig 在伦敦东南部格林威治地区进行观察，摄影：Antonius Olmos

“地球，”伯恩-泰勒（Bourne-Taylor）断言。2022年，她曾在伦敦市中心仅涂抹身体彩绘地游行，旨在提高人们对雨燕数量下降的关注。

“很有趣。我并不称自己为观鸟者，也从不说我要去观鸟，但如果我每天不花超过一个小时特意去观察鸟类——无论天气如何——我就会感到被囚禁且心神不宁。我的日常生活中需要鸟类，最好每小时都能见到，而能持续见到则是梦想。”

伯恩-泰勒撰写了两本书：《雏鸟》（Fledgling，关于救助一只微小雀鸟的回忆录）和《自然需要你》（Nature Needs You，呼吁拯救雨燕）。她还注意到，参与其中的年轻人正在增多。

尽管观鸟正激励着越来越多的人脱离网络，走向户外呼吸新鲜空气，但有一款特定的应用程序随着人们对鸟类兴趣的增加而迅速走红——Merlin。

这款由纽约州伊萨卡康奈尔鸟类学实验室（Cornell Lab of Ornithology）开发的应用程序已被下载超过 4000 万次，用户可以通过手机通过鸟鸣声来识别鸟类。

“你会因此受到鼓舞而走到户外，发现绿地，进行锻炼，并在整体上慢下来，这对每个人都有好处。”

—— 凯蒂·内瑟科特（Katie Nethercoat），英国皇家鸟类保护协会 (RSPB)

Merlin 最初于 2014 年开发，是一款基于文本的鸟类识别工具，随后扩展到了照片识别。当 2021 年加入声音识别功能后，该应用真正地爆火了。

康奈尔实验室的卡蒂·博格曼（Kathi Borgmann）表示：“我认为现在更令人惊讶的是，从年轻到年老，有如此多的人在发现鸟类。”

“Merlin 为许多人敞开了体验自然和鸟类的大门。这是一个不可思议的旅程，我们很高兴看到越来越多的人找到了与自然以及他人建立联系的新方式。”

但观鸟热的兴起不仅仅关乎一种愉快的爱好——它可能有助于拯救受威胁的物种。

“英国是世界上自然资源最匮乏的国家之一，野生动物面临着栖息地丧失、气候变化和自然退化的压力，”内瑟科特说。

“让更多人对自然产生兴趣不仅仅是‘锦上添花’；它创造了保护工作所依赖的社会、资金和政治支持。”

关于自然保护的警告在周四被推向风口浪尖，萨福克郡的野火导致 RSPB 的明斯米尔（Minsmere）自然保护区关闭，一名发言人表示，对景观的破坏程度在“记忆中是前所未有的”。

就在一周前，野火也影响了 RSPB 位于峰区（Peak District）的德夫斯通（Deve Stone）以及凯恩戈姆山脉（Cairngorms）的洛克加滕（Loch Garten）和阿伯内西（Abernethy）站点。

一名发言人表示：“随着野火成为夏季日益严重的挑战，我们的重点仍然是预防火灾并降低对人员、野生动物和栖息地的风险。”

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18

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

新闻

在牛津大学圣约翰学院的校园里，这位法医人类学家告诉埃丽卡·瓦格纳（Erica Wagner）关于她童年时解剖动物的经历、如何通过静脉分布模式识别性犯罪者，以及如何与死亡交友——而死神是女性，而非男性。

观察家报漫步

苏·布莱克 (Sue Black)

“我死后，他们会把骨头煮掉，我就成了一具教学骨架”

当我们走在牛津大学圣约翰学院的校园里，苏·布莱克教授（Professor Dame Sue Black，斯特罗姆的布莱克男爵夫人）向我分享了她深爱的祖母的智慧。“她常对我说：‘在你生命的每一刻，死亡都与你同行’——就像现在你正与我并肩行走一样。”我们正漫步在正式被称为“花园”的阴凉小径上，虽然中心大片的草坪在夏季热浪中变得干枯，但周围的树木、灌木和丛林提供了凉爽的遮荫。“既然死亡注定与你同行，那么你不如把她变成朋友。”

布莱克用尽一生与死亡交友。她是世界上最著名的法医人类学家之一：她的工作是研究身份问题，利用解剖学科学来发现一个人是谁，或曾经是谁。（这与法医病理学家的工作不同：后者是评估死亡原因和方式的医学医生。）布莱克职业生涯的大部分时间都在鉴定死者，无论他们是 1999 年科索沃大规模处决的受害者——当时她在国际战争罪行调查中担任首席法医人类学家——还是 2004 年节后礼拜日（Boxing Day）摧毁印度洋周边国家的海啸中丧生的 230,000 人之中的一员。

但她的工作源自对人体解剖学的终身痴迷，同时也造福于生者：最近得益于 H-unique，这是一个耗资 €2.5m（€2.1m）的五年研究计划，是首次进行的“对可见手部解剖结构的多模态自动问询”——如果你好奇这为什么很重要，是因为儿童性犯罪者在实施犯罪时可能会拍摄自己的手。鉴定出手的特征，就能锁定凶手。请记住：这位在古老学院宁静校园里引导我行走、面带微笑且幽默温暖的女性，其实是个真正的硬核人物。

自 2022 年起，她担任圣约翰学院的院长。我们在一个俯瞰前庭的宏伟 16 世纪起居室里见面。从 2003 年到 2018 年，她是邓迪大学的解剖学与法医人类学教授；之后，她担任兰开斯特大学负责参与事务的副校长。这种对参与的渴望也体现在她的一三部畅销书中，这些书讲述了她自己的生活与工作：《所有留存之物：死亡中的生命》（All That Remains: A Life in Death，2018）；《骨刻之书：我们留下的隐藏故事》（Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind，2020）；以及现在的《专家证人：法医科学受审》（An Expert Witness: Forensic Science on Trial），该书回顾了将科学引入法庭的历史。它表明，虽然法医科学的发展通常有利于司法公正，但其中也潜藏着危险与陷阱。

在走进阳光下之前，我们悠闲地穿过了学院内宏伟的拱顶图书馆。虽然现在是夏天，但仍有一些坚毅的学生在刻苦学习：他们的行为比 18 世纪的前辈要端正，后者——正如布莱克向我展示的那样——在窗玻璃上刻下了自己的名字。

布莱克出生并成长于因弗内斯。她的父亲曾服役于军队，职业是木匠，且是一位热衷于狩猎的人。“总是为了下锅，”布莱克说。她的母亲有点胆小怕血，因此剥兔皮和清理内脏的任务落在了年幼的苏身上，甚至包括给鹿开膛（取出内脏）。“从五岁起，我就习惯了双臂深陷在血肉之中，对此毫无感觉，”她说。13 岁时，她被要求找一份工作并补贴家用：“我父亲希望我将一半的收入交给母亲作为食宿费——而我每周确实就是这么做的。”至于工作本身，考虑到她的经验，一家肉铺是完美的选择。“你可以预见到结果了，”她微笑着说。

但她的家人中没有人上过大学。一位她最喜欢的生物老师弗雷泽博士（Dr Fraser）——两人至今仍保持联系——鼓励了她。对于安迪·伯纳姆 (Andy Burnham) 在学校发展技术和职业教育的计划，她怎么看？他的想法似乎与她的自身经历不谋而合。她说，她在公立学校接受的教育是“极好的”，但高等教育并不适合每个人。“有时人们想成为学者，有时不想，无论哪种方式都没有错。”

她在大学二年级时发现了解剖学。当她第一次面对一具待解剖的尸体时，她想到了肉铺，心想：这个我明白。 “那确实是一个决定性的时刻（Rubicon moment）。” 是的，当时用作防腐剂的甲醛味道糟糕极了，但没关系。“那是一个巨大的房间，有 50 张或更多的桌子，全部覆盖着白床单。你可以看到每张床单下面都有一个凸起：一具尸体。整个场景简直是对感官的冲击。但当我把手术刀片装上刀柄，并在人体皮肤上切下第一刀时，我知道我身在正确的地方。我绝对意识到自己回到了归宿，我是一名解剖学家。”

我们现在所认知的解剖科学的奠基人是安德烈亚斯·维萨留斯 (Andreas Vesalius)，这位 16世纪的佛兰德斯科学家凭借其巨著《人体的构造》(De Humani Corporis Fabrica)，开创了对人体构造的科学认知。这是布莱克 (Black) 的“必读清单”之书——但直到她来到圣约翰学院之前，她从未想过能拥有一本副本。“第一版是 1543, 第二版在 1555. 学院说：‘这两本我们都有！’ 更巧的是，第二版出版的年份正好是圣约翰学院成立的年份。” 因此，在她看来，她的院长之职是命中注定的。

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

19

摄影：Tom Pilston

当我并在人体皮肤上切下第一刀时，我知道我身在正确的地方

在散步过程中，我们没有遇到任何由布莱克引入学院担任“守护者”的猫——我猜它们是在躲避酷暑。但我们确实见到了布莱克最喜欢的那棵树，并在树荫下坐了一会儿。“她是一棵斑叶山毛榉，”布莱克欣喜地仰望着叶冠说，“是我见过最壮丽的东西。她在我的祖母出生的那一年种下的：1898. 我不知道你是否能看到”——她从我们停歇的木凳上指向上方——“有一些树枝掉落的小部位。如果你看向树枝上方，那里有疤痕……因为树枝太重，撑开了树皮。就像缝线和生长纹一样，我非常喜欢她能自我修复并保持完整的事实。”

就像树一样，人类的疤痕和痕迹让我们变得独一无二。于是，布莱克向我讲述了导致 H-unique 研究的那个案例。那是 2004 年，一名年轻女孩被父亲虐待。她的母亲并不相信她。于是（布莱克说，那是“一个如此勇敢的年轻女性”），她在夜晚开启电脑摄像头记录虐待过程：录像中没有出现面孔，只有一名男子的手臂图像。警方联系布莱克，询问她是否能提供帮助。

“我能看到犯罪者手部和手臂上美丽的静脉图案。于是我们说，‘好吧，我们可以将它们与父亲进行比对。如果不匹配，就不是他。简单地说，100% 不是他。但如果匹配……我们仍然不知道这意味着什么，因为我们还没有开展相关研究。’” 尽管如此，法官还是允许了她的证词：图案匹配。布莱克决心进行研究，如今她的手部解剖数据库拥有 500 万张图像，证明了我们的静脉图案是每个人独有的。

你可能会好奇陪审团是否判定该父亲有罪。不，他们没有。为什么？“因为那个女孩没有哭。”布莱克被这个女孩的命运所困扰，她的父亲本该回到家中。“现在，对他来说，这是否足够让他停止所做之事，还是他认为‘我现在有豁免权了’？她逃跑了吗？她在街头流浪吗？她死了吗？我不知道。但我一直在讲述她的故事，

因为我希望她能听到，并且知道这就是在说她。如果她找到了我，我可以告诉她：‘那天我们没能帮到你，因为我们还没准备好，但看看你现在做到了什么！’ 针对该女孩案例的研究最终导致了其他犯罪者的 30 个终身监禁判决——总计超过 500 年的监禁时间。”

我们身处鹅莓花园（Gooseberry Garden），这是一个像角落一样的庭院，奇怪的是，这里并没有鹅莓。在那个勇敢女孩的案例中，布莱克显然认为陪审团判错了——他们被关于受害者“应该”如何表现的先入之见所左右——那么对于取消某些犯罪行为的陪审团审理的建议，她怎么看？“你必须问：我们拥有的是一个司法公正系统，还是一个法律体系？我认为我们拥有一个努力追求公正的法律体系，但即便如此，它依然是不完善的。”她提醒我，我们由同辈陪审团裁决的权利可以追溯到《大宪章》。但辩护律师的短缺以及法庭的不足，意味着案件可能需要数年才能进入审理阶段：对于原告和被告来说，时间太长了。

“也许有些案件我们可以交给治安法官，交给

苏·布莱克在牛津大学圣约翰学院的拱顶古图书馆中，该建筑建于 1590 年代。

法官来做出决定。这必须针对较轻的罪行。不能是谋杀。不能是那些会被判处终身监禁或全生命周期刑期的罪行，绝不可以。所以我不认为我们会完全失去它，但也许我们被允许在边缘进行一些微调。”

如果你好奇的话，她并不阅读犯罪小说。瓦尔·麦克德米德（Val McDermid）是她的好友，偶尔麦克德米德会给她发送一段文字以检查准确性，但布莱克说，麦克德米德“对自己从未让我读过一本她的书这件事感到非常自豪”。

她随和的态度让我相信她向我保证工作并未困扰她时的说法。“我的脑子里有一个盒子。一个临床盒子。当我开始工作时，我打开门走进去，然后关上门，我的世界在外面，他们的世界在里面——然后我执行我的工作。当我完成之后……我出来并再次关上门。”一位侦探朋友给了她一个令她铭记在心的建议：无论她目击了什么，无论她必须处理什么，她都无法改变已经发生的事；罪责和后果不应由她承担。因此，凭借苏格兰人的实用主义，她确实没有承担。

她的三个成年女儿对她关于自己死亡的计划感到坦然。她并不恐惧死亡——我们再次回到了她祖母的话题。“我期待它，”她说，“这是我将经历的最后一件事。我想体验它。”而且将死亡称为“她”并非偶然。“当你去掉与死亡相关的男性化观念时，你可以专注于慈悲，”她说。当然，布莱克将把她的身体捐给邓迪大学，由“科学家而非医生”进行解剖，因为前者在解剖时会花更多时间。随后还有一个进一步的计划。

“一旦我的所有肌肉被去除，他们会煮掉骨头上的组织，这样我就能成为一副教学骨架。我喜欢死后还能教学的想法，因为我在生前就热爱教学。我的女儿们，她们有点古灵精怪，和我一样”——她笑着说——“她们说：‘妈，太棒了。我们可以来系里看望你！’ 这就像墨西哥的亡灵节，不是吗？你知道，对于一件必然会发生的事情，这是一种非常健康的处理方式。”

在花园的最远端，那棵从她祖母出生起就开始生长的树依然在生长。学院数百年历史的围墙庇护着我们。我们一起站着，面带微笑，思考着死亡，我想：这就是真正感受到生命活力的时刻。

《专家证人：法医科学的审判》（An Expert Witness: Forensic Science on Trial），由苏·布莱克（Sue Black）著，现已出版。

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一名男子将一名受伤的孩子抱进位于加沙南部的拉法印度尼西亚野战医院（由无国界医生组织运行），照片 © MSF

BIRSEN GASKELL 医生是一名曾在加沙工作的麻醉师。

“我们抵达加沙后，立即面对着挤满街道的庞大人群。你能听到轰炸声，看到人们脸上写满了恐惧。

我们立即在医院投入工作。我们治疗了大量烧伤和创伤伤员，大多数是由于爆炸受伤的人。其中有很多儿童。我从未见过这么多烧伤患者聚集在一个地方。

有些孩子营养不良，显然许多人没有得到适当的饮食。在术后护理中，患者拥有良好的饮食对于辅助组织愈合至关重要，但由于食物短缺，这根本无法实现。

我们每天接诊约 180 名患者。我们没有能力将所有人都送入手术室——有些手术必须在病房内进行。

作为一名麻醉师，我的职责之一是改善疼痛管理。由于医疗物资短缺，在这次冲突期间发生了许多在没有麻醉的情况下进行手术的事件。发生这种情况简直不可思议，但事实确实如此。

有些患者令我难以忘怀。有一个九岁的女孩，她在家里被炸毁时受伤，失去了部分下颌。她和她的母亲是家里唯一的幸存者。我每隔几天为她更换一次敷料并给予抗生素治疗。有一天，她给了我一个拥抱，问自己是否还能恢复正常样子。我无法给她答案。重建手术确实能帮到她，但加沙目前无法提供此类服务。

加沙的情况正在恶化，人们的医疗需求不断增加。那里有人不得不进行无麻醉医疗手术，这简直是野蛮的行为。这是一个非人的局面。

然而，尽管有如此惨烈的杀戮和恐怖，无国界医生组织的医院仍是一片宁静的绿洲。加沙员工的韧性给我留下了深刻的印象。许多人失去了家人并住在帐篷里，但他们每天依然坚守在那里，帮助他人。

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世界

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

21

“只要我们进入大约 20 海里范围内，中国海警就会过来把我们赶走”

→ Joseph Morados，渔民，第 22 页

摩洛哥移民大规模涌入导致意大利暂停与西班牙的自由通行

在西班牙的一个飞地突然抵达 50,000 人，暴露了欧盟内部的分歧，并引发人们的疑问：为什么是现在？作者：Isabel Coles

在欧盟与非洲少数几个陆地边界之一发生了前所未有的移民激增后，意大利已暂停与西班牙的自由通行。这一事件暴露了成员国之间的深层分歧，并激励了全球右翼势力。

据估计，进入西班牙飞地休塔（Ceuta）的 50,000 人中，大多数人在周五晚之前已返回摩洛哥，但政治余波仍在欧洲及其他地区持续震荡。在周四混乱的场面中，至少有 86 人死亡，唐纳德·特朗普将此比作“一场入侵”。移民们涌过边境——有的在游泳，有的乘坐筏子——随后冲破了围栏。

这种突然的涌入以及同样迅速的离开，留下了一些未解之谜：如此多的人是如何抵达的，又是为何离开。一名男子告诉当地频道《El Pueblo de Ceuta》：“诚实地说，我甚至不知道我为什么来，现在我要回去了。”在他身后，年轻人们在围栏下攀爬，一名西班牙警察在挥舞警棍。

另一些人则认为摩洛哥边防部队放行了他们，并质疑这背后是否有政治因素。视频显示，在军队被部署以实施控制后，西班牙军用车停在街道上。回到摩洛哥后，一名男子告诉当地频道，他回来是因为在休塔不受欢迎。

西班牙中左翼总理佩德罗·桑切斯（Pedro Sánchez）将此次事件描述为“对西班牙领土完整的一次攻击”。但一些欧洲领导人将此次危机归咎于马德里对移民采取的较为开放的态度。在其他欧洲国家加强边境管控的同时，西班牙为 500,000 名非法入境者提供了大赦。今年 6 月，西班牙最高法院发布裁决，规定在向休塔游泳途中被截获的移民不能被立即驱逐出境。

意大利总理乔治亚

'这一切都具有摩洛哥试图向西班牙施压的特征'

Intissar Fakir，中东研究所

梅洛尼（Meloni）表示，来自休塔的“令人震惊”的图像证明了“失控的移民”所带来的威胁。芬兰和丹麦支持她将西班牙从申根旅游区暂停一个月通行权的决定。

在给欧盟委员会主席乌尔苏拉·冯德莱然（Ursula von der Leyen）的信中，桑切斯对部分盟友的反应表示遗憾，他称这种反应是由“偏见、虚假新闻、无知或政治利益”驱动的。他指出，休塔不属于申根区，这意味着第三国国民并不享有向西班牙本土或更远地区自由通行的权利。

他写道：“欧盟承担不起这种自私、极化且非法的反应，”并指出西班牙防止了任何人抵达欧洲大陆。

即便如此，法国仍加强了与其西班牙边境的管控，尽管它排除了将西班牙从无需护照的申根区暂停通行的可能性。

这成为了全欧洲乃至大西洋彼岸保守派政治家的狂欢之日。英国改革党的领导人奈杰尔·法拉奇（Nigel Farage）和法国极右翼领导人玛丽娜·勒潘（Marine Le Pen）也加入了攻击之列。特朗普政府的成员则趁机抨击这位在对待以色列问题上立场强硬，并拒绝允许美国在与伊朗的战争中使用西班牙基地的领导人。

桑切斯分享了来自欧洲边境和海岸警卫局（Frontex）的数据，显示大多数非法移民是通过意大利进入的，其次是西巴尔干地区、希腊，然后是西班牙。他将此次危机归咎于人口贩子利用最高法院关于游泳者的裁决。桑切斯表示，西班牙将与拉巴特合作打击人口贩子。

然而，这次突破引发了人们对摩洛哥所扮演角色的质疑。“这一切都具有摩洛哥试图向西班牙施压的典型特征，”中东研究所的高级研究员因提萨尔·法基尔 (Intissar Fakir) 表示，她在该机构研究北非和萨赫勒地区的政治与地缘政治。她认为，如果没有摩洛哥某种形式的批准，如此大量的人员跨越边境是“不可想象的”。

这并非首次发生：在 2021 年，在外交关系破裂后，摩洛哥允许约 8,000 名移民跨越边境进入休塔 (Ceuta)。但目前拉巴特与马德里之间的关系表面上十分良好。

白宫避免批评摩洛哥。摩洛哥在 2020 年与以色列关系正常化后，加入了享有特朗普青睐的中东国家精英俱乐部。

摩洛哥还对休塔以及西班牙的飞地梅利利亚 (Melilla) 主张所有权，且有迹象表明，特朗普圈子中的一些人支持拉巴特的立场。众议院拨款委员会 5 月的一份报告将这两个飞地描述为位于摩洛哥领土上的西班牙管理城市，并支持就“休塔和梅利利亚的未来地位”达成外交妥协。

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22

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

World

北京进一步侵入菲律宾海域，施展“水炮外交”

在一艘被中国海警盯上的船只上，人们可以清晰地看到恐吓手段是如何被用来扩张该国领土的

Nga Pham

南中国海

那是一场紧张的猫鼠游戏。清晨，三艘来自菲律宾渔业和水资源局的巡逻船离开了帕加萨港（Pag-asa），那是南中国海一个约有 350 人的远程前哨站。

它们正前往桑迪凯（Sandy Cay），这是一个距离此处仅 1.5 海里的无人沙洲群。尽管这些海域位于菲律宾的专属经济区内，但中国几十年来一直对此主张主权。

它们的任务很简单：巡视桑迪凯周围海域，并为该地区的菲律宾渔船提供支持和补给。

几分钟内，一支由五艘白色海警船和至少 15 艘蓝色民兵船组成的中国船队凭空出现，悄无声息地截断了它们的去路。每一艘中国船只都比菲律宾船只大，后者的长度仅为 30 米。

中国船只将它们包围。在的一艘中国民兵船的驾驶台上，一名男子拍下了他看到的菲律宾船上所有人的照片，随后消失在视线中。

“停止这些不安全行为，不要干扰我们合法的海上巡逻！完毕，”菲律宾船桥上的无线电通信中传出焦急的喊声。但这毫无作用。

毫无预兆地，中国海警船发射水炮，击中了“BRP Datu Pagbuaya”号。该船在试图逃离时，被汹涌的白色水柱冲得倾斜。同一艘中国船只随后加速并侧击了“Pagbuaya”号，撞击其船尾，接着转向另一个目标——“BRP Datu Bankaw”号。

“快进去，现在就进去！”“Bankaw”号的一名船员对一名旁观者大喊。该船虽勉强摆脱，但船尾再次遭到一轮轰击。

菲律宾船只撤离了桑迪凯并向西南方向退却，虽然脱离了危险，但仍被中国船只尾随。

在经历了一段相对平静的时期后，南中国海争议礁周围的紧张局势再次升级。观察家报去年秋天目击的这次冲突，是这场酝酿已久的冲突中的又一个插曲。这场冲突始于十多年前，即 2012 年中国在与菲律宾海军经过数月对峙后占领了黄岩岛（Scarborough Shoal）。

上个月，菲律宾军方指责中国海警在第二托马斯礁（Second Thomas Shoal）对峙期间导致一名菲律宾水手受伤。在另一起事件中，菲律宾官员表示中国船只在黄岩岛附近向其船只发射水炮。

这组争议礁石距离菲律宾吕宋岛约 125 海里，但距离中国最近的海岸线几乎有 470 海里。长期以来，该礁盘一直是当地渔民的生命线——这里既是富饶的渔场，也是避风港。

在北京夺取控制权后，马尼拉提起国际仲裁，挑战中国对黄岩岛及其他构成 U 型线（也称“九段线”）的礁石的主权主张。北京利用这条线将该水域主张为中国的“固有领土”，认为拥有历史权利。

2016 年，菲律宾在海牙赢得了胜利，仲裁庭驳回了中国对该领土的所有主张。但北京加强了控制，限制菲律宾政府和民用船只的进入。

监测南中国海的亚洲海事透明度倡议（Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative）报告称，中国海警近几个月来在黄岩岛的部署规模“大幅”增加。分析人士警告称，存在……风险。

健康问题及“闭嘴”承诺可能终结汗的三年来在狱时光

Haroon Janjua P Hugh Tomlinson

在巴基斯坦北部拉瓦尔品第郊外的阿迪亚拉监狱中，804号囚犯将于本周迎来被单独监禁三周年的日子。

作为巴基斯坦最著名的后辈，这位名声显赫的板球运动员兼前任总理伊姆兰·汗在与该国强大的军方发生冲突，并于2023年因腐败指控被监禁后，便在公众视野中消失了。在这个拥有260 million人口的国家里，这张最广为人知的面孔仅在一次在线法庭审理的泄露截图中被瞥见。

目前，接近巴基斯坦军方建制派和汗家族的消息人士表示，一项释放这位世界杯冠军队长的协议已在幕后进行了讨论。然而，汗的监禁问题依然极其敏感，以至于初步讨论仅通过第三方中间人进行。

“如果巴基斯坦要向前发展，这种政治僵局必须结束，”一名了解谈话情况的消息人士表示，“长期的政治不稳定给国家造成了巨大的损害。”

一个可能的让步机会是出于健康原因被释放。汗，73, 在今年早些时候进行了一次眼睛手术，他的家人多次就其健康状况恶化发出警报。

在的一份声明中，汗的儿子苏莱曼和卡西姆表示，保持沉默“已不再是一个选项”。

“我们担心父亲在长期监禁期间健康状况有所恶化，”这两兄弟说道。

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世界

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

23

随着中国采取行动巩固其对大片海域的控制，冲突甚至武装冲突的可能性正在增加。

中国还在加强对争议土地的掌控，旨在将权力投射到整个地区。去年，北京开始在距离越南东约215海里的羚羊岛进行疏浚。该礁此前已有中国前哨，但卫星照片现在显示，这里已成为一座能够容纳南中国海最大离岸军事基地的人工岛。

像31岁的约瑟夫·莫拉多斯这样的渔民多年来一直被拒之于 Scarborough Shoal 之外。“一旦我们进入约20海里范围，中国海警就会来赶走我们，”他说，“他们会通过扩音器用中文说：‘离开！不准进入！'”

渔民们表示，中国的限制使渔获量锐减多达三分之二。基内伯斯·内隆，48, 在展示一段他的船在另一个名为萨宾娜的礁滩附近被追逐的视频时说：“这就像不得不从自己的花园里偷水果一样。”

随着菲律宾渔民在菲律宾200海里专属经济区内的传统海域被骚扰和驱逐，这些事件已变得常态化。根据联合国法律，马尼拉拥有在此探索和管理资源的权利。

中国海警对菲律宾船只的常规压力减少了菲律宾渔民的渔获，但尽管面临威胁，他们仍然在分享并接收补给。

伊姆兰·汗在2023, 年5月的一次新闻发布会上，不久后他因腐败被捕并监禁。

类似的交易曾让汗的死对头、前任总理纳瓦兹·谢里夫——同样在与军方僵持后因腐败被监禁——在2019. 年获准离开巴基斯坦前往伦敦接受医疗。但任何与汗达成的协议，肯定都会伴随着严苛的条件：离开该国、远离政治并保持沉默。

巴基斯坦很少有人相信汗会接受这些条款。“他很固执，”人权律师克莱夫·斯塔福德·史密斯说，“但我希望他能接受。作为私人朋友……我不希望看到他孤独地死在监狱里。”

摄影：Noel Cellis

菲律宾方面以一项“透明度计划”予以回应，邀请记者加入巡逻，记录北京在海上的骚扰行为。《观察家报》加入了一次由渔业和水产资源局组织、海岸警卫队支持的任务，旨在向菲律宾渔民运送物资，并维护他们在其海域自由作业的权利。

航程始于台风过后的阴暗天空，渔业护航编队向斯卡伯勒礁（Scarborough Shoal）驶去。抵达该礁后，一个浮动拦截屏障封锁了入口，背后有至少 7 艘中国海警船和 10 艘民兵船支持。上级下达指令：保持 30 海里距离，以避免与中方发生冲突。但实力失衡的情况十分明显。中国的海警及其庞大的伪装成渔船的“海上民兵”已成为国家权力的工具，向南中国海各邻国施压。

两艘菲律宾海岸警卫队船只被部署以支持此次任务，尽管它们保持在谨慎的距离之外。

菲律宾渔民并未被吓倒。几分钟内，数百人聚集在巡逻船周围，领取政府补贴的大米、燃料和杂货。数十艘渔船涌向前来，人们划着独木舟攀登到船上。对于菲律宾船员来说，这次任务不仅具有人道主义意义，更具有象征意义，是在面对中国威胁时的一种反抗声明。菲律宾海岸警卫队发言人 Jay Tarriela 表示，他的部队“不会被中国的霸凌手段所吓倒或驱逐”。海岸警卫队正在从法国购买 40 艘快速巡逻艇，以及从日本购买 5 艘多用途响应船，以加强其能力。

在斯卡伯勒礁的补给任务进展顺利。随后，护航编队向东南方向驶向 Parola（国际上称为 Northeast Cay），向菲律宾军队运送物资。

在北京方面，在《观察家报》目睹的冲突后，中方宣布胜利，声称已驱逐了“菲律宾入侵者和挑衅者”。政府表示：“中方将继续采取坚决措施，坚定维护我们的领土主权和海洋权益。”

菲律宾渔业护航编队安全抵达了位于巴ataan省的母港。但随着中国在该地区强行主张其权利，暴力威胁依然存在。

Stafford Smith 同样怀疑巴基斯坦的军事领导人是否会冒风险释放汗（Khan）。他说：“他是一个原则性很强的人，而且他不会闭嘴。”

任何释放汗的举动都遭到总理 Shehbaz Sharif（Nawaz 的兄弟）政府的反对。

“这是一个政治问题，”巴基斯坦内政部国务部长 Talal Chaudhry 告诉《观察家报》。“伊姆兰·汗状态良好，没有理由基于医疗原因准予他保释。他的案件将由法院决定。”

学生抗议考卷泄露削弱莫迪的强势光环

分析

Padma Rao Sundarji 新德里

上周，纳伦德拉·莫迪在担任印度总理的 12 年中，首次在公众压力下低头。

在 36 天的时间里，数千名印度 Z 世代青年针对国家重要考试试题屡次泄露的问题举行抗议活动。他们自发组织成了“蟑螂人民党”（CJP）——这是为了回应一名将印度青年嘲讽为无用的“寄生虫”的法官。他们要求，并最终迫使莫迪的教育部长德尔门德拉·普拉丹辞职。

莫迪目前正处于第三个任期，他曾面对过许多抗议活动，但没有一次像这次那样让这位印度强人领导人感到不安。政府内部这种无需承担责任的文化或许正在消退。

自从莫迪和印度教民族主义的印度人民党（BJP）在 2014 年席卷而上掌握权力以来，类似的模式一直在重复。

2019 年，政府在实施一项向除穆斯林以外的所有外国移民授予印度公民权的法律时面临激烈的反对。抗议者要求内政部长、莫迪的得力助手阿米特·沙阿辞职，但总理对此不为所动。

2021 年，在农民集结封锁德里并冲进首都历史悠久的红堡之后，莫迪撤回了有争议的农业改革方案，但一名被指其子开车冲入抗议农民人群并导致四人死亡的部长并未被撤职。

这种模式不断重演。2022 年，印度青年针对一项短期军队征兵计划发起骚乱，但该政策依然维持。2023 年，当印度奥运奖牌得主抗议一名被指性骚扰女运动员的 BJP 政治家时，他们的要求最初被忽视了。

但上周，来自那些不满的年轻选民的压力证明了，对于这位 75 岁的领导人来说，这种压力过于沉重。莫迪一直将这些年轻人标榜为印度的未来力量。Z 世代和 Alpha 世代合计占印度 1.5 billion 人口的 47%，而他们获得的全国性支持最终取得了突破。

“这场始于新德里的微小运动迅速蔓延。莫迪被迫在气球变得更大之前将其刺破，”莫迪的前任曼莫汉·辛格的前顾问桑贾亚·巴鲁告诉《观察家报》。

这次考试试题泄露丑闻跨越了种姓、阶级和性别界限。特别是，这一争议影响了印度约 465 million 规模、渴望向上流动的中产阶级。不同背景的印度青年及其家庭将这些考试视为获得财务保障的唯一路径之一。

这就是为什么各地印度人抛弃了通常较为敏感的人际关系，团结起来支持在德里的 CJP 抗议活动。警察针对人群采取的激进行动只会加剧他们的愤怒。

“没有其他民主国家会对抗议者使用弹丸枪，”印度情报局前局长及反恐专家 Vasthavardhan Azad 告诉《观察家报》。“它们早该被禁了。”

其他几个问题也促使莫迪不得不做出让步。在 2024 年的大选中，BJP 首次未能获得议会多数席位，迫使莫迪在第三任期内组建联合政府。2027 年计划举行七场关键的邦选举，其中包括印度人口最多的邦——北方邦。莫迪再也无法承受忽视或激怒选民的后果。

近期，孟加拉国、尼泊尔和斯里兰卡 Z 世代选民发起的政治起义取得成功，这一点在印度并未被忽视。在印度，与年轻选民的冲突可能会损害莫迪在 2029 年寻求前所未有地第四任总理任期的前景。

希望获得第四任期的纳伦德拉·莫迪再也无法承受激怒选民的后果。

西方人权组织上周批评了印度处理 CJP 抗议活动的方式。印度作为新兴全球大国的形象可能会受到打击。

“我们支持学生，政府显然已经介入以保护他们，”BJP 全国发言人 Nalin Kohli 告诉《观察家报》。“至于印度的海外形象！这是一个自由的世界，而印度是其中最大的民主国家。”

在印度国内，人们几乎没有疑问：CJP抗议活动首次在莫迪漫长的政治生涯中削弱了他的强势光环。此次活动也重新唤醒了人们对公众运动能够强制推动变革的信心。

总理已迅速采取行动以遏制危机。新立法已经提交，将对考试泄题采取更严厉的惩罚，且一个国家工作组将监督统一入学考试试卷。

但学生们声称，政府违背了不向抗议者提起刑事指控的承诺。CJP表示，已收到报告称全印度至少有 100 名学生被警方拘留或骚扰。

“政府仍在竭尽全力镇压我们，”CJP发言人阿舒托什·兰卡（Ashutosh Ranka）表示，“如果这种情况再次发生，我们将重新走上街头。”

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世界

（左图）SSPX主教阿尔丰索·德·加拉雷塔（Alfonso de Galarreta）准备挑战梵蒂冈，在上个月的埃科内（Écône）任命四位主教；（下图）奥克尼的各各他修道院；（顶部）教皇利奥。Fabrice Cuffrini / Getty

……父职和拉丁弥撒，将其呈现为恢复男性权威这一同一项目的一部分。

在这些影响力人物周围，出现了一个在线生态系统，将传统神学与自我提升、鼓励生育以及抵制女权主义相结合。在批评者看来，这一运动的定义是对现代自由主义价值观的敌视。

在接受《观察家报》采访时，一名梵蒂冈高级官员将其吸引力描述为“一个避开现代性的文化避风港”，吸引了那些具有“围城心态”并自觉地将自己定义为与周围世界对立的人。

“你是一个俱乐部的一部分……它吸引那些不喜欢进步观点的人……这是对现代自由主义价值观的拒绝，”该官员说道。

SSPX在美国获得了影响力，该组织声称在当地拥有约 100 间教堂和 25,000 名追随者，其中包括唐纳德·特朗普的Maga运动内部的盟友。前特朗普顾问史蒂夫·班农（Steve Bannon）主持的播客《战争室》（War Room）国际编辑本·哈恩韦尔（Ben Harnwell）将这一传统主义运动描述为一群方向一致、联系松散的保守主义社区组成的“车队”，而SSPX则是其“旗舰”。他补充道：“由于规模如此之大，它不能被忽视，也不能被简单地斥为少数几个古怪的不满者。”

几十年来，历任教皇一直试图将这艘旗舰留在天主教会的舰队中，但上个月在埃科内举行的仪式给任何和解的希望带来了沉重打击。

针对利奥的抵制情绪正迅速获得更广泛的政治动力，但梵蒂冈官员坚称，教皇并非在拒绝保守的天主教，而是在定义其界限。

圣座文化与教育部高级官员安东尼奥·斯帕达罗（Antonio Spadaro）表示，天主教徒仍然可以自由地举行拉丁弥撒，拒绝现代性，并在家庭生活方面持有深度保守的观点。但他们不能在声称属于天主教会的同时，自行任命主教。

斯帕达罗表示，这场争端“不再是关于拉丁语和礼拜仪式的争吵”，而是关于“一个竞争性的教会”。

教皇与“天主教男性圈”核心叛离修会开战

奥克尼群岛上一群僧侣的抗命行为扩大了梵蒂冈与圣庇欧十世协会之间的裂痕

汉娜·罗伯茨 (Hannah Roberts) 罗马

在上周，位于偏远的奥克尼群岛帕帕斯特隆赛岛上，一群传统主义天主教僧侣祝圣了一位主教，公开蔑视梵蒂冈的多次警告。

这次由歌路大修道院的叛离宗派“至圣救主之子”举行的非法仪式，标志着教皇利奥十四世与天主教传统主义运动之间对抗的最新冲突点。

新任主教迈克尔·玛丽神父被判定犯有“分裂行为”并被逐出教会。但在上周一次充满挑衅的布道中，玛丽表示他不需要罗马的授权，“因为现在没有教皇”。

这一裂痕远远超出了这座孤立的苏格兰修道院，延伸至西方天主教中增长最快的一股潮流——新一代保守派信徒开始拥护拉丁弥撒、传统家庭生活以及一个具有影响力的在线反文化。欢迎来到“天主教男性圈”（Catholic manosphere）。

这一运动的核心是圣庇欧十世协会 (SSPX)，它是规模最大且最具影响力的传统主义修会。该团体自 1970 年成立以来一直与罗马僵持不下，如今正威胁着利奥教皇任期内的第一次危机。

上个月，尽管梵蒂冈发出恳求，仍有超过 15,000 名 SSPX 追随者聚集在瑞士村庄埃科内，目睹了四位主教在未经教皇同意的情况下被祝圣。

利奥将此次仪式谴责为“极其严重的罪行”，并“全心全意”恳请 SSPX “回头”，随后迅速将所有“正式依附”于该运动的天主教徒逐出教会。这是梵蒂冈数十年来针对该团体采取的最严厉行动。

批评者认为，SSPX 浸染在血腥与仇恨之中。埃科内的集会人群中包括意大利新法西斯政党的成员，突显了数十年来支撑该运动的极右翼政治联系。该团体的创始人、法国总主教马塞尔·列费弗尔在二战期间的法国是亲纳粹维希政权的热烈支持者，并支持让-马丽·勒潘的国家阵线。他于 1991 年去世。

SSPX 一直被指控持有反犹主义倾向。该团体的代表延续了一个迷思，称犹太人谋杀基督徒儿童并将血液用于宗教仪式。前追随者将 SSPX 比作邪教。在某些社区，女性被禁止穿裤子，而男孩因为与女孩交谈而被剃光头。

SSPX 在国际上约有 600,000 名追随者，仅占全球 1.4 billion 多个天主教徒的一小部分。但该团体一直努力

“对于传统主义者来说，利奥驱逐主教的举动是对保守天主教的宣战”

寻求扩张，利用全球政治右翼的复兴。

利奥在去年就任时，承诺要统一分裂的教会。但与其前任方济各一样，他在从移民到环境等一系列问题上被卷入与保守派的冲突中。

对于传统主义者来说，教皇将 SSPX 以及歌路大的玛丽逐出教会的举动，是对保守天主教的宣战。梵蒂冈则坚持认为，这是为了阻止一个平行教会的出现。

传统主义天主教已经发展出其 21 世纪的反文化。像加拿大播客主肯尼迪·霍尔这样的人物，在讨论举重等话题之间切换，

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国际

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

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特朗普顾问在乌克兰问题上的转向，为美国观念的转变带来希望

劳拉·卢默的基辅之行可能会让 Maga 阵营转向反对普京。但并非所有人都欢迎这位极右翼阴谋论者的支持。

Isabel Coles

首席国际通讯员

这种接待规格通常只留给乌克兰最伟大的盟友。该国首席拉比向劳拉·卢默赠送了一条大卫之星项链。外交部长赞扬了这位极右翼挑衅者的勇气，并陪同她参观了一座修道院。她收到了一件传统的 vyshyvanka 刺绣衬衫——以及总统本人的一个拥抱。

尽管卢默曾称弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基为“自我厌恶的纳粹犹太人”，并表示无论如何，俄罗斯都可以征服整个乌克兰：但基辅对这位能获得唐纳德·特朗普信任，并受到广泛保守派 Maga 基础群体关注的阴谋论者倾尽全力。而这似乎起到了作用。

“我在乌克兰的时光改变了我的一生，”卢默宣称，并多次为她此前针对该国的负面言论道歉。她表示自己此前处于俄罗斯宣传的蛊惑之中。

这位特朗普亲信的转变，在 Maga 运动内部因美国总统外交政策而出现分歧之际，为乌克兰赢得了一位有影响力的新朋友。虽然其他保守派影响者因特朗普对以色列的支持以及与伊朗的战争而与其决裂，但卢默依然坚定地保持忠诚。而她抵达基辅之时，恰逢欧洲和中东的两场战争日益交织。

上周，乌克兰袭击了里海的一艘伊朗商船，称该船正向德黑兰运送俄罗斯武器。泽连斯基最近引用情报称，俄罗斯卫星正协助伊朗对中东的美国目标发动袭击。

在另一位极右翼影响者坎达斯·欧文斯上个月参加圣彼得堡经济论坛后，卢默开启了这次行程。欧文斯此前表达了对俄罗斯的钦佩以及对乌克兰的轻蔑。

随着 Maga 内部紧张局势加剧，且该运动开始考虑后特朗普时代的生存，保守派媒体巨头们正占据互相对立的阵地。从福克斯新闻主持人转变为播客主体的塔克·卡尔森因伊朗战争与特朗普决裂，利用其播客对白宫发起了一连串攻击。近几周，他称特朗普“令人厌恶且邪恶”，指责他背叛了让他能够在 2024 年赢得连任的“美国优先”主义。

卢默作为一名与卡尔森长期不和的特朗普忠实追随者，现在迎来了自己的病毒式传播时刻。抵达乌克兰后，她表示此次旅行未收到“一分钱”的报酬。但这次远行带来了回报。曾经将她视为怪人的媒体机构现在开始认真对待她。

她会见了该国新任国防部长，并在亚速营指挥官的陪同下参观了前线城市哈尔科夫。外交部长安德烈·希比利亚带她参观了基辅的一个修道院建筑群，该建筑群近期在俄罗斯的袭击中受损。卢默宣称“普京用无人机攻击了耶稣基督”。在一次电视采访中，一名乌克兰记者告诉卢默，在国家档案库的搜寻中发现了她曾祖父的记录：平克斯·卢默于 1885 年出生在文尼察市——现位于乌克兰。

在旅行期间，她密集地发布推文，详述她如何转向支持乌克兰事业。“俄罗斯不想要和平。遗憾的是，他们让很大一部分 Maga 群体相信是乌克兰不想要和平。事实恰恰相反，”她说道。

在俄罗斯袭击期间，她从防空洞发布的一篇帖子赢得了华盛顿两党中乌克兰盟友们的勉强赞赏。

但并非所有人都对这场自我宣传攻势印象深刻。

“卢默不是乌克兰需要或应该拥有的那种朋友，”圣安德鲁斯大学战略研究教授菲利普斯·奥布赖恩在 Substack 上写道，“她提供支持的代价就是公开美国和欧洲政治中所有具有破坏性的东西。”这位 33 岁的人依然是一名“自豪的伊斯兰恐惧症者”，并错误地主张 2020 年大选被抢走了唐纳德·特朗普 的胜利。在旅途中，她在 X 上发布道：“我非常喜欢乌克兰的一点是，我在这里没看到过一个穆斯林。真是太清爽了。”

在采访泽连斯基之后，她收到了一位朋友的消息：汤米·罗宾逊。“我爱你，劳拉，但去他妈的泽连斯基，”罗宾逊写道，他的原名是斯蒂芬·塔克斯利-伦农。上个月，他在俄罗斯，时间与泰特兄弟在俄期间一致。卢默敦促他亲自去乌克兰看看。“你也会喜欢的，”她说，“他们没有允许自己的国家被伊斯兰教接管。”

对于乌克兰来说，卢默代表了一个接触美国公众特定群体的机会，这些人可能不相信——甚至根本没意识到——俄罗斯在乌克兰犯下的一些罪行。

劳拉·卢默在唐纳德·特朗普 的祝福下，将乌克兰的信息传达给她的 Maga 追随者。 Getty Images

“她面对的是 Maga 生态系统中这样一小部分人，他们不会关注他们所谓的‘主流媒体’，”华盛顿倡议组织“Razom for Ukraine”的媒体顾问奥斯塔普·亚里什说道，“乔·罗根或塔克·卡尔森不会谈论这些事情，但他们却在传播亲俄的叙事。”

卢默表示，她的一些追随者已经开始转变态度，并分享了一条消息，其中一名追随者表示他们开始对乌克兰产生同情之情。消息写道：“从未想到这竟有可能。”

在卢默的受众中，有一个人的重要程度超过所有人。在她采访完泽连斯基后，唐纳德·特朗普 转发了一段剪辑，配文为：“非常棒！！！”卢默表示，在旅途中她与总统进行了数次交谈，并在返回美国后会向他汇报情况。

去年，在卢默指责六名国家安全委员会官员不忠后，唐纳德·特朗普 将其解雇。

在她在采访泽连斯基时建议唐纳德·特朗普 的特使史蒂夫·威特科夫和贾里德·库什纳 应该前往乌克兰后，白宫告知卢默，他们将在未来几周内首次前往。

“我永远不想代表总统发言，因为那样是不恰当的。但我认为他（对乌克兰）的语气显然已经转变了，”卢默告诉《乌克兰真理报》。

但她的干预并未能阻止俄罗斯导弹继续轰击基辅，周五晚上造成至少九人死亡。唐纳德·特朗普 仍然抵制向普京施压。

上周在华盛顿会见泽连斯基后，总统再次将“结束战争”的责任推给乌克兰，并撤回了上个月在北约峰会上提出的一项建议，即允许基辅在许可下制造爱国者拦截导弹。

奥布赖恩表示，认为唐纳德·特朗普 的立场可能会转变的想法不过是痴心妄想。“看着乌克兰的支持者被卢默和唐纳德·特朗普 彻底玩弄，真是太悲剧了，”他说，“她为了拿钱会说任何需要说的话，而他则在笑，不给乌克兰任何有价值的东西，并继续帮助普京。”

当泽连斯基飞往美国参加参议员林赛·格雷厄姆（基辅最坚定的盟友之一）的葬礼时，卢默仍在乌克兰。在格雷厄姆在一次乌克兰之行后突然去世时，卢默散布阴谋论，称他被俄罗斯或伊朗暗杀了。格雷厄姆给乌克兰的最后一份礼物是针对俄罗斯石油销售的新制裁方案，该方案已于本周通过。

常驻基辅的美国记者特雷尔·杰梅因·斯塔特对卢默的顿悟心情复杂。“作为一个乌克兰倡导者，我很开心劳拉·卢默支持乌克兰，”他说。“但作为一个黑人，我永远无法接受一个我如此热衷支持的事业，竟然吸引了像她这样种族主义、仇外、伊斯兰恐惧、恐跨性别的人。”他说，“我知道乌克兰必须抓住任何可能的助力。但，天哪。”

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Gtech

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优惠有效期至 30 / 09 / 2026 或至库存售罄为止，且不能与任何其他优惠同时使用。AirRAM Platinum 的单品建议零售价为 £349.99，Multi Platinum 为 £269.99，总建议零售价为 £619.98。30 天退款保证，不包括 £10 取货费。*所引用的运行时间可能因清洁表面的不同而有所差异。详情请参阅 www.gtech.co.uk。

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论坛 (Forum)

观点、人物与创意

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

27

围绕“丑陋”和“婊子”词汇的评论：挑战科技巨头的女性们

→ Marie le Conte, 第 30 页

工党正在享受“伯纳姆反弹”的民调红利。问题在于这种势头能维持多久 Andrew Rawnsley

虽然一个充满希望的开局提升了人们的信心，但如果新任首相想要冒险提前举行大选，他还需要更强有力的推动。

安迪·伯纳姆说他希望“找回希望”，而且在至少一部分人群中，他已经成功了。工党议员们心中正忐忑地期待着，因为他们看到党派的受欢迎程度已经超过了在之前的管理层时期。你可能会说这个门槛定得极低，但这正是他们希望他出任领导人的原因——到目前为止，这场赌注已经得到了回报。

我们今天公布的 Optimum 民调就 illustrate 了这种“伯纳姆反弹”。该民调显示工党支持率为 27 点，比两周前上升了 4 个百分点，并领先于英国改革党 (Reform UK)。这与其他调查一致，这些调查显示自伯纳姆先生就任首相以来，工党一直在上升。综合民调显示工党正处于上升趋势，这一趋势始于人们意识到基尔·斯塔默爵士需要“被清理出门”之时，并在其继任者就职后加速。当选民被要求评判伯纳姆先生是否讨人喜欢、果断且能与普通民众接轨时，他的得分尤为之高。这会让他的团队感到高兴。在真实选票箱中的实际投票也传递了类似的信息。工党的贝芙·克雷格以压倒性胜利当选大曼彻斯特新市长，夺回了英国改革党和绿党近期一度兴盛的地区。

这种“蜜月效应”并没有让我感到惊讶。新任首相几乎总能享受到一次反弹。伯纳姆先生巧妙地利用了媒体和公众兴趣，他在一个充满了各种举措的波澜壮阔的亮相中实现了这一目标。他的一些声明是非常严肃的，例如他将数十年以来社会护理改革的失败谴责为“玩忽职守”。而有些活动则旨在娱乐，比如与财政大臣约翰·希利开玩笑讨论酒吧小吃各自的优点。

一名此前对伯纳姆先生持怀疑态度的工党资深人士评论道：“他在政治上的造诣比上次在威斯敏斯特时进步了很多。”与某些预测相反，他的支持率上升了。

“伯纳姆在一次充满了各种举措的波澜壮阔的亮相中，巧妙地利用了公众兴趣。” Christopher Furlong / AFP

在 Optimum 民调的受访者中，有 2 / 5 的人表示，自从他搬进 Number 10, 以来，他们对他评价变得更加积极，而只有 12% 的人感到更加消极。

他还拥有拿破仑在将领身上最看重的品质：他很幸运。他进入唐宁街的时机恰恰非常好，此时民粹主义对手的势头正开始动摇。工党人士对扎克·波兰斯基的失误感到幸之又幸。绿党领导人分享的一条 Instagram 帖子极其愚蠢，其中包含一张照片，画面中的男子穿着一件印有断头台和口号“我们只在为奈杰制定计划”的黑色 T 恤。他称这是一个无心之失，并在被提醒后立即取消了分享。我们可以接受这种解释，但同时也认为这是一个极其低级的错误，尤其是发生在安·威德康比涉嫌被谋杀仅几天之后。

这已经不是绿党领导人因强迫症般的社交媒体活动而陷入麻烦的第一次了。正如大卫·卡梅伦曾说过的那样：“Twitter 的问题在于其瞬时性——太多的小傻瓜 (twits) 可能会造就一个大笨蛋 (twat)。” 此外，关于他住在船屋期间是否未能足额缴纳市政税的问题也尚未解决。这些因素的累积效果是，人们对他专业水准和判断力的怀疑进一步加深。

如果绿党（Greens）的衰落给工党阵营带来了喜悦，那么改革党（Reform）自食其果的困境则引发了纯粹的狂欢。工党议员们对奈杰尔·法拉奇（Nigel Farage）可能给这个国家带来的影响感到真正的恐惧。此前人们担心基尔爵士（Sir Keir）的失败将成为法拉奇出任首相的助产士，这在很大程度上导致了他的垮台。

对于改革党的领导者来说，这是一个地狱般的夏天。他陷入了关于未申报礼物和捐款的指控洪流之中；关注点集中在了他的亲信、“奢华”乔治·科特雷尔（George Cottrell）身上，而后者也是一名被定罪的诈骗犯；此外还有一项警方调查。即便是在右翼媒体中曾经的拥趸，也将克拉克顿（Clacton）的补选描述为一场闹剧。法拉奇的核心选民会继续支持他，但损害在于，这会对那些对改革党产生好奇的选民产生排斥效果。

T

“伯纳姆效应”引发了人们的议论，猜测他是否会被诱惑提前举行大选，以试图获得自己的授权。“我会将其排除在外，”他告诉 BBC，“我认为人们并不希望这样做。”这并不能证明大选一定不会举行。它告诉我们的是，他吸取了戈登·布朗在 2007 年秋天的教训——当时布朗在就任首相几个月后正享受着民调的激增。他公开暗示可能会举行闪电大选，而他的同事们则不慎地向记者吹捧这个想法。这不可避免地激发了人们对他即将采取行动的期待。而当他随后退缩时，被嘲讽为“胆小鬼布朗”（Bottler Brown），他的蜜月期也随之烟消云散。

尽管他全盘否认，但安迪·伯纳姆大脑中的一部分肯定在偷偷思考，今年秋天或明年年初向全国寻求授权是否可行。他关于解决青年失业、教育改革、修复社会护理以及深化权力下放的各项宣布，可以被视为一份“伯纳姆竞选宣言”的草案。他的一些盟友认为，只要他仍然受限于 2024 年向全国提出的斯塔默派计划书，他就无法实现自己的宏大野心。他也应该意识到，蜜月期不会永远持续。

安东尼·伊登在 1955 年成功地将他的支持率激增转化为选举胜利，他在接替温斯顿·丘吉尔后不久便举行了大选。而特蕾莎·梅则在 2017 年将其葬送，一次灾难性的竞选活动让她失去了继承而来的多数席位。

即使想要考虑这次冒险，安迪·伯纳姆也需要看到比目前更多的支持率提升。工党需要上升到 33 个百分点，才能与该党在上次选举中获得的得票份额相匹配。如果这种“效应”变得更加强劲会怎样？那么风险回报比可能会变得更有吸引力。正如内阁中一名最接近首相的盟友所言：“在政治中，巨大的回报来自正确的重大决策。”而没有比这更重大的决策了。

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28

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

论坛

左翼通过拒绝正视伊斯兰主义的偏见，误将沉默当成了团结 Kenan Malik

“这次可怕的事件表明了为什么我们仍然需要骄傲月，”北爱尔兰事务大臣克里斯·布赖恩特（Chris Bryant）在上周六柏林骄傲大游行遭到令人作呕的袭击后在推特上写道。“自由地生活和恋爱而无需感到羞耻，在法律面前与他人平等对待，远离歧视和恐同暴力——这才是值得游行的原因。”

每当左翼政治家或评论人士在回应伊斯兰主义袭击时没有使用“伊斯兰主义”这个词，右翼中的许多人就会嗅到血腥味并开始挑衅。这一次也是如此。

“是谁犯下了[sic]这起罪行？”一名回应者质问布赖恩特。“你会说吗？还是你太害怕了？”布赖恩特回答道：“这肯定应该是德国警方和法院的工作吧？”尽管警方已将袭击者指认为阿卜杜勒·巴卢特（Abdul Ballout），且其作为一名想要成为圣战者的部分背景已被披露。播客主持人康斯坦丁·基辛（Konstantin Kisin）回应道：“可怜的懦夫”，许多其他的人也喷出了同样的 epithet。

“是什么意识形态犯下了这起罪行？现在请诚实回答，”另一名推特用户尖锐地问道，布赖恩特对此回答：“仇恨”。就这样僵持下去。没有人喜欢在公开场合被挑衅，大多数人在面对这种挑衅时可能会做出防御性反应。然而，这次对话以及许多类似的对话，揭露了我们在讨论恐怖主义、伊斯兰教和移民时所呈现的极化方式中存在的更深层问题。

一方面，右翼利用

伊斯兰主义袭击来妖魔化穆斯林和移民。“自杀式的同情是引进数百万来自截然不同文化的人……同时侵蚀你本国女性和同性恋者的安全与保障，”从学者转变为英国改革党（Reform UK）支持者的马修·古德温（Matthew Goodwin）声称。随后出现了一连串的断言，称“伊斯兰教完全不相容于

右翼利用伊斯兰主义袭击来妖魔化穆斯林和移民

正如一名推特用户告诉布赖恩特（Bryant）的那样，“西方价值观”。

许多人嘲讽支持巴勒斯坦的 LGBTQ+ 群体，将他们斥为“一个憎恨他们的意识形态的润滑剂”，仿佛支持巴勒斯坦的权利与自由就等同于支持伊斯兰恐怖分子或哈马斯。

另一方面，许多左翼人士因为担心显得种族主义或在为偏见提供慰藉，往往根本拒绝讨论伊斯兰主义问题。

一个 LGBTQ+ 群体在 4 July 伦敦骄傲游行期间行进。许多右翼人士嘲讽该群体表达对巴勒斯坦的支持。

图片：platton / Alamy

布赖恩特在将凶手定性为伊斯兰主义者，或将其意识形态定义为除“仇恨”之外的其他词汇时表现出的紧张，反映了左翼更广泛的忧虑，尤其是对于如何在反对反穆斯林偏见的同时，挑战穆斯林可能持有的偏见观点而感到困惑。

如今英国的穆斯林倾向于社会保守主义，尤其是在同性恋问题上。

然而，这并非如 Leave.EU 运动共同创始人、著名的改革党支持者亚伦·班克斯（Arron Banks）轻蔑地告诉布赖恩特那样，是“第三世界移民带来了第三世界的态度”。仅仅一代人之前，穆斯林的观点与英国普通民众几乎没有区别。在 1983, 年，一半的英国人认为同性关系“始终是错误的”，而认为“完全没有错”的人数不足五分之一。

在随后的几十年里，英国社会变得更加自由，而穆斯林社区则变得更加保守，尽管这些社区并非单一整体，尤其是年轻穆斯林更接近主流规范。英国的自由化程度之高，以至于那些持有 40 年前被认为是可以接受的价值观的人，现在被认为不够“英国化”。

穆斯林态度与更广泛社会态度之间日益扩大的鸿沟，其原因十分复杂。部分原因在于一系列交织的社会和政治变革，包括传统左翼的崩溃和身份政治的兴起，这导致许多社区变得内向；部分原因在于沙特阿拉伯对西方伊斯兰机构的影响及其对瓦哈比主义的推广；部分原因在于某些社会政策，这些政策帮助确立了较为保守的人物作为“社区领袖”和穆斯林社区的真实声音，而将更自由的观点边缘化。

许多左翼人士担心挑战穆斯林关于同性恋、女性权利或犹太人的观点会造成“向下出击”（punching down）——即攻击那些权力较小且经常面临偏见和暴力的群体。诚然，右翼的部分人士利用穆斯林的社会保守主义作为反对他们出现在西方社会的论据（与此同时，他们利用工人阶级社区所谓的社会保守主义来挑战“大都市精英”的自由主义）。然而，对抗反穆斯林偏见并不意味着要忽视穆斯林社区内部的保守或偏见想法。社区内部存在权力关系，社区与更广泛的社会之间同样存在权力关系。保守的穆斯林经常利用基于宗教的反动禁忌、政策和机构，来支撑他们对抗那些挑战亵渎禁令或传统性规范的人的权力主张。当政治家和评论员将保守规范接受为“地道”的穆斯林特征时，被背叛的正是后者。

同样重要的是正视伊斯兰主义。同样地，一些右翼人士将“伊斯兰主义者”作为一个标签，用来抹黑如伦敦市长萨迪克·汗或其纽约同行佐兰·马姆达尼等著名的自由派穆斯林政治家。但在拒绝此类抹黑的同时，我们在谈论伊斯兰主义或伊斯兰主义恐怖主义，或将此类恐怖主义的当代形式认定为“一种本已堕落的意识形态的进一步退化”时，不应含糊其辞。如果不正视伊斯兰主义，就不可能正视反穆斯林偏见。

社会保守主义观点是这个国家政治广阔图景的一部分。持有此类观点并不会让你变得“不英国”。许多自由派或左翼政党的支持者在同性恋、女性权利、言论自由或移民问题上持有非自由主义观点。这是不可避免且正常的。不可接受的是，左翼政党为了对抗一种偏见，而以之为名削弱自身的原则，或降低对另一种形式偏见的敌意。

一个护理机器人（Ann Droid）？别逗我笑了

AI 需要在“琳达”变得可行之前，先培养对人类基本需求的理解，梅拉尼·里德（Melanie Reid）如是说。

这个夏天最巧妙的喜剧创作是琳达（Linda），她是 BBC 剧集《Ann Droid》中的人形护理机器人。在关于衰老以及沦为技术黑暗势力牺牲品的道德恐慌背景下，这个过时的复制人与其说是《银翼杀手》，不如说更像《街道冠冕》（Coronation Street）。

由戴安·摩根（Diane Morgan）编写并饰演的琳达精准得令人拍案叫绝，而且——天哪——她甚至带着曼彻斯特口音。

哦，如今这个充满恐惧的婴儿潮一代是多么希望这种温暖、惬意的近未来 R2-D2 式幻想能够实现。我们是多么渴望拥有自己的琳达，

在一种温情但明确属于交易的关系中，来缓解我们生命最后的岁月。因为，令人欣慰的是，琳达被证明是令人安心地顺从、毫无威胁且大有用途的。此外，她的道德观念正派，尽管偶尔有些过于死板。

“我大概要老糊涂了（lose my marbles），”由苏·约翰斯顿（Sue Johnston）饰演的一位 80 岁寡妇，这个不情愿的用户抱怨道。“我可以帮你找回你的弹珠（marbles），”琳达轻描淡写地回答，同时扫描着房间。

我们应当记得适用那条旧原则：这是由于搞砸了（cock-up）而非阴谋。AI 距离令人满意的多技能人形护理机器人还有几十年的时间——这是因为所谓的“黑暗势力”对衰老的理解如此之浅，以至于他们甚至无法为护理院设计出一间合适的卧室。

现在已有证据。在斯特灵大学（University of Stirling）世界著名的痴呆症服务发展中心最近举行的一场活动中，AI 无法理解老年人及认知功能障碍者的基本需求的问题被揭露了出来。学生们被要求使用一个知名 AI 平台，为专业住宿设施生成图像。

你猜怎么着？结果惨不忍睹。事实证明，如果你提示 AI 描绘一个痴呆症患者，或为他们设计安全环境，它会产生怪诞、带有污名化且通常极其滑稽的错误。马桶圈变成了床头柜，三条腿的轮椅，长着三只胳膊的病人。一个有趣的伴随现象——且这应该让我们担忧——是精神医学的语言是如何被窃取用来将 AI 人格化的。那些设计上的低级错误并不是“错误”。AI 并不产生错误。噢，不，它是“产生了幻觉”。它患上了“强迫症（OCD）”。

但如果 AI 被人格化，

出错的责任就会从软件公司、程序员和用户身上转移开。医学语言的使用掩盖了任何欺骗、延续旧规范或支持对边缘群体歧视的意图。

斯特灵大学的学生们是建筑师、设计师、医疗保健专业人员以及致力于改善痴呆症和年龄相关损伤患者生活的公务员。他们发现 AI 似乎无法掌握轮椅通道、可调节床位以及地板上地毯之危险的概念。它忽略了设计的基本原则，忽略了人类的需求与功能；它仅仅尝试生成看起来好看的图像。而我们居然担心这玩意儿会在我们年老时毁灭我们？这简直是一场与《Ann Droid》截然相反的闹剧。AI 只是缺乏数据集。它不会取代建筑师和设计师——它恰恰证明了这些人的价值。

最终，AI 可能会获得足够的概念复杂性来理解，例如，自尊心。而在此期间，现实则是智能或共情的平庸真空，偏见取代了知识。

我想到了卡罗琳·克里亚多-佩雷斯（Caroline Criado-Perez）的著作《隐形女性》（Invisible Women），她在书中展示了全球算法是如何由硅谷那些书呆子般的年轻白人男性创建的——这些人很大程度上缺乏对女性的共情或兴趣。他们正按照自己的偏见塑造互联网，显然，这同样影响了他们看待老人、痴呆者、弱势群体和残疾人的方式。

因此，AI 的数据集倾向于种族主义、年龄歧视、性别歧视且缺乏教养。与其恐惧它的全能，我们不如嘲笑它的不足。琳达还需要一段时间才能发现“弹珠（marbles）”的真正含义。

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02.08.26

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火灾将右翼的气候否认论化为灰烬 Will Hutton

气候危机的现实如今已无法逃避。在过去 10 天在比利牛斯山脉徒步时，我遇到了一对德国夫妇，他们仅在最后半小时才乘坐救援船逃离卡普费雷（Cap Ferret）的大火——现在他们处于相对不那么易燃的山区，获得了安全。

他们显然仍心有余悸，向我展示了恐怖的照片：火焰正向他们的度假公寓推进，产生出令人窒息的烟雾；这些照片就像你在报纸上看到的一样，但在个人的 iPhone 上显得更加真实。一次度假让他们成了炼狱的见证者。

当我们返回时，从空中俯瞰英格兰，景象令人不安。我们曾经绿意盎然、宜人的土地已被烧成了棕色。考虑到英格兰有一半地区正遭受干旱，这并不令人惊讶；而且在此之前，南部地区经历了自 1836. 年记录开始以来第四个最潮湿的冬季。更糟糕的是，整个威尔士都处于干旱之中；7 月的降雨量为 190 年来最低。

尽管波尔多和马德里部分地区可能需要撤离的担忧已经减轻，但威胁依然存在。火灾距离马德里可能有 30 英里，是距离波尔多 9 英里的三倍多，但仍有数十万市民被迫离开。

本周，欧洲大陆和英国将再次出现预测中的热穹顶（heat dome），因此将会有更多的火风暴、更多的撤离，以及更多面临死亡风险的消防员。从现在到明年年初将扭曲全球天气模式的厄尔尼诺（El Niño）现象，预示着将非常剧烈。天气变化现在已成为一种全球现象。

然而，由玛格丽特·撒切尔在 20 世纪 80 年代发起，并在特蕾莎·梅担任首相期间通过立法实现 2050 年净零排放——随后鲍里斯·约翰逊规定从 2030 年起禁止销售新型汽油和柴油车——的跨党派共识已被粉碎。直到相对较近的时期，即使在美国，公司们仍会共同致力于环境、社会和治理目标，以展示其良好的公民意识。但在乔·拜登这个具有环保意识的总统任期内，Maga 阵营对此感到不满。他们认为这是必须抵制的“觉醒”（woke）资本主义。

唐纳德·特朗普在 2024 年再次当选的众多令人不快副作用之一，就是它使环境怀疑论和气候危机否认论主流化。特朗普将气候危机的倡导者与那些怀疑 2020 年总统大选被窃取的人归为一类。他称这是一个由外来社会主义者编造的骗局，而这些人并不在意是否会让美国工人阶级地承担更高昂的能源成本。

特朗普已使美国退出所有设定减排目标的国际倡议。他撤销了用于判断美国温室气体排放是否突破危险水平的基准标准。他鼓励石油和天然气钻探。拜登所有关于发展可再生能源以及挑战中国在电池制造和整体电气化领域领先地位的激励措施均已被废除。

沉浸在脱欧胜利中的保守党右翼一直在寻找新的“觉醒”敌人来击败，但即使在 2022 年的领导权竞选期间，凯米·巴德诺克（Kemi Badenoch）也没有质疑 2050 年净零排放的目标。但 2024 年英国大选的失败和特朗普的获胜改变了计算方式。以特朗普式的方式否认气候危机，成了下一个民粹主义事业。

在 2025, 年，英国报纸中呼吁减少气候危机行动的社论数量首次超过了呼吁加强行动的数量。不过，根据 Carbon Brief 网站的分析，《太阳报》、《每日邮报》、《电讯报》、《快报》和《泰晤士报》等报纸谨慎地将愤怒集中在——并非气候危机本身（因为它显然在发生），而是将实现净零排放作为遏制手段的昂贵和不理性。他们的报道伴随着对时任能源大臣埃德·米利班德（Ed Miliband）将其称为“疯子”和“狂热分子”的批评。可再生能源被斥为昂贵且不可靠。

所以，我们走到了这一步。极右翼摧毁了关于欧盟成员身份的共识，现在正对气候危机采取同样的操作。如果米利班德是个疯子，那么查尔斯国王也是，他在某个早晨对我的一位朋友倾诉了深切的绝望

经济、社会与自然紧密相互依存

在 2016 年脱欧投票之后。他意识到，支撑环境议题的共识很快会走向与支撑欧盟成员国身份相同的道路。他是正确的。

试图将气候危机与其首要原因——碳排放——分离开来（正如巴登诺克现在尝试做的那样），从而使净零目标成为敌人，这简直是荒谬至极。然而，请问气候危机的起因是什么？科学证据被不屑一顾；在右翼媒体中，你很难找到关于气象局这一发现的报道：2025 年是自 1884 年（记录开始以来）最温暖的一年。

迄今为止成功的国际行动被嘲笑。英国的潜在贡献被斥为无关紧要，因为我们的排放量不足全球的 1%：应该由他人行动，而非我们。廉价的可再生能源被歪曲为昂贵。

如果说有哪个公众人物配得上“疯子”和“狂热分子”的称号，那就是《星期日电报》的编辑艾利斯特·希思（Allister Heath）；他曾庆祝脱欧，随后庆祝利兹·特拉斯的预算案，现在则以一种激情地重复这些论点，而巴登诺克正是从中获得了启发。他写道，对抗气候危机的战争已经失败。因此，名为净零的“卑劣骗局”必须被放弃，气候危机必须被接受，而我们应该仅以适应其后果为目标。

当然，正如气候变化委员会所敦促的，英国应该采取更多适应措施，例如在学校和医院安装更多空调，并采取更多措施来减轻砖房的蓄热问题。

但就这么无所作为吗？热爱我们的星球是超越左右之分的。经济、社会与自然紧密相互依存。曾经，左翼那些无知的雅各宾派让我恐惧。而现在，是右翼那些无知的雅各宾派。

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对于女性而言，互联网曾是自由。随后，科技男们开始剥离我们的衣物 Marie Le Conte

我们的数字生活被深度伪造（deepfakes）、 “色情眼镜”和禁言令所侵害。现在，反击战开始了。

“我呼吁埃隆·马斯克停止让 Grok 具备这种功能，结果几天后，我的比基尼照片就开始大量涌现。”—— Jess

Asato 是一位在 2024 年当选的工党议员，她成功发起活动，促使政府禁止“脱衣”类应用程序。当马斯克的 X 平台被 Grok 聊天机器人创建的近乎裸体的深度伪造图像充斥时，她意识到自己必须发声。

她在今年 1 月发声，结果 X 用户们对她发动了攻击。他们利用 Grok 制作了她身穿清凉比基尼、处于怀孕后期以及至少一段她“被氯仿麻醉并准备遭受性侵”的伪造图像和视频。她说，“这令人深感不安……就像是对我人格的一种侵犯”。在本周早些时候的交谈中，她补充道，在某种程度上，这感觉像是一种“数字性侵犯”。

她向 Grok 举报了这些图像，但无济于事，并向女性朋友抱怨此事。其中一位朋友告诉她应该起诉该平台。于是她决定尝试。6 月，Asato 向高等法院提交了诉讼，称 sAI 允许 X 用户使用聊天机器人创建未经其同意的性暗示深度伪造图像，违反了与数据保护和滥用私人信息相关的法律。

尽管该应用自 1 月以来为 Grok 增加了一些护栏，但随之而来的结果在令人失望地预料之中。“反击极其激烈，”Asato 说。“在我宣布采取法律行动后，收到了超过 700 份回应。”其中包括“无数次的 c-word（脏话）”，以及各种围绕“丑陋”和“婊子”这两个词的评论，还有一些人称她为骗子，坚称没人会想制作她的深度伪造图。“其中一个人甚至提到，我丈夫看到我的照片都不会有性冲动。”

尽管如此，她并没有退缩。她提交给法院的文件显示，Grok 在设计和训练时就被设定为生成“有害的性暗示内容”，甚至在用户没有要求的情况下也会添加露骨素材。该聊天机器人的程序还设定，在提示词中出现的“青少年女孩”并不一定被视为 18 岁以下的儿童。

“我们希望获胜，并证明 sAI 违反了法律，”她补充道。“当你触犯法律时，就会有

后果。” 在法庭上的胜利不仅对她个人或 Grok 深度伪造的其他受害者至关重要，对于所有希望反抗这个自认为不可触碰且不受惩罚的行业的人来说都具有重要意义。

Asato 只是几位领导这场代价高昂、艰辛且法律风险巨大的反击战的女性之一。早在 5 月，Sarah Wynn-Williams 因为在海节（Hay festival）的一个小组讨论中全程保持沉默，甚至小心地避免出现任何暗示性的面部表情而登上头条。她曾任 Facebook 的公共政策总监，去年出版了一本记录她在该公司经历的回忆录《轻率之人》（Careless People）。她在书中指称，该公司的文化充斥着基于性别的歧视行为和性骚扰实例。Facebook 将该书描述为“将过时且此前已报道过的公司主张与针对我们高管的虚假指控混合在一起”。

在出版前夕，该公司获得了一项法律命令，阻止她

公开讨论该书的相关内容。如果违反，该指令将使她面临 $50,000 (£37,000) 的赔偿。一个月后，温-威廉姆斯宣布她将起诉母公司 Meta，指控其进行“强制性监控”并“公然违反第一修正案”。毫无疑问，她的故事理应由她自己来讲述。任何人都不应能如此直白地剥夺他人的发声权利，而此案涉及的公众利益应当是压倒性的。

整整一代人是在 Facebook 的陪伴下长大的；我的同龄人和我一样深受其影响，我们的社交生活和性格在很大程度上是由我们在该平台上花费的时间所定义。当科技高管们改变我们的世界时，在那些闭门会议背后究竟发生了什么，我们应当知情。

此外，正如克莱尔·斯塔普尔顿最近在《纽约客》的一篇文章中所写，值得思考的是，究竟谁才有资格发声。她曾被戏称为

只有特定的人才被允许将互联网视为游乐场

作为谷歌的“声音”，由于她在内部邮件中擅长创造具有“个性色彩的企业话术”，她逐渐失去了对这家曾经深爱的公司的信心。她参与组织了 2018 年的谷歌员工大罢工，当时以女性为主的员工抗议薪酬不平等，并要求建立更好的性骚扰报告机制。随后，她因参与此事而被边缘化，并于 2019. 年辞职。在她最令人心酸的回忆中，集中在公司的早期阶段，以及 2010 年代中期之前互联网所具备的乐观主义。

她写道，在 2007 年左右，人们持有“一种技术能够改善世界的信念”。这在这些公司内部以及外部都是成立的；早在 2000 年代，人们感觉到互联网即将让一切变得更好。而且当时人们认为，在线就意味着自由——自由地成为任何你想成为的人，自由地与任何你想交谈的人沟通。

我成长在法国省会一个平凡的家庭，但多亏了早期的互联网，我能够自学英语，成为一名青少年音乐博主，随后搬到伦敦并在英国建立起成功的媒体事业。如果是在一个离线世界里，这一切都不会发生。

互联网为无数在现实生活中无法找到归属感的人提供了社区。它确保了人们不再受限于居住地、长相或年龄：每个人至少可以追求平等。多年来，许多一直被主流排斥的声音也建立了自己的平台，并找到了自己的观众。简而言之，互联网赋予了那些经常缺乏权力的人以能动性。

很难说这个时代何时结束，或者互联网何时不再让人感觉像是逃离现实世界的奇妙出口。是 2016, 年科技公司开始与 唐纳德·特朗普 攀附之时吗？还是在之前的几年里，例如当 GamerGate 以游戏新闻报道中所谓的偏见为借口，试图将该行业一些最著名的女性彻底赶出游戏界的时候？

可以肯定的是，“技术乐观主义”早已死亡。很明显，只有特定的人才被允许将互联网视为自己的游乐场。而其他人——女性、非白人群体——则不得不努力地坚守阵地，正如目前围绕 Meta AI 眼镜的轩然大波所显示的那样。

尽管光鲜的广告声称这项新技术（在镜框中安装摄像头的眼镜或太阳镜）将使人们的生活更加高效，但每一篇相关的报道都表明，无数男性可以并且将会利用这种“色情眼镜”（人们经常如此称呼）在未经同意的情况下拍摄他人，通常是女性和儿童。警方调查了 TikTok 用户 Scott Margerison，因为他秘密拍摄了自己对两名 teenage 女孩发表性暗示言论的视频。如果一个人的世界变得更大，另一个人的世界必然会随之萎缩。

而这么多公司由男性经营，情况更是糟糕——这些人要么是故意的，要么如 Wynn-Williams 所说，似乎根本不在意。马斯克是一个自豪的白人至上主义者和 唐纳德·特朗普 的支持者。马克·扎克伯格在去年的 Joe Rogan 播客中表示，在经历了多年表面上的平静之后，他希望在企业文化中注入更多“男性能量”。那么，他的公司无视所有警告，强推眼镜产品，也就不足为奇了。毕竟，Facebook 的起家就是因为几个大学生想要给校园里看到的女性打分。

尽管有时感觉技术进步（即使是错误方向的进步）不可阻挡，但像 Asato、Wynn-Williams 和 Stapleton 这样的女性正试图寻找反击的方法。就像许多面对歌利亚的大卫一样，她们正在与资金雄厚且报复心强的强大实体作斗争。

他们也许无法获胜，但尝试本身似乎至关重要。曾经，互联网像是一个灿烂的承诺，是一条通向更光明未来的道路。那个未来被从我们身边窃走了。如果能将其夺回，那是多么美好。

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读者来信

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

31

各国政府正将旅行禁令作为审查工具

人们对安迪·伯纳姆 (Andy Burnham) 执政初期的表现以及他面临的任务进行了大量探讨（见上周《新闻》版：“五天，五个承诺，但国家是否负担得起公众所欢呼的一切？”）。除此之外还应补充一点：伯纳姆必须谴责全球范围内日益增加的旅行禁令。随机选择一个国家，你很可能会看到将移民政策与表达自由挂钩的例子，即以某人据称“失言”为由，拒绝其入境或出境。审查指数 (Index on Censorship) 与埃塞克斯大学合作发布的一份报告揭示了这一问题的规模。

英国对这一趋势并不陌生。近期，许多人被禁止进入该国，理由是其存在“无助于公共利益”。我们不需要掩饰他们说过的话——那些话往往令人厌恶——但一个健康的、自由的社会的标志，肯定是对令人厌恶之物的宽容，而在这方面我们失败了。尽管如此，其他地方的情况要糟糕得多，而那些为自由发声或批评领导者的人是最常见的目标。

无论是在原则上还是在实际操作中，这都应该引起我们的担忧——毕竟，我们英国人喜欢旅行。以美国为例。在唐纳德·特朗普 (Donald Trump) 领导下，朋克乐队 UK Subs 的成员以及反虚假信息活动人士克莱尔·梅尔福德 (Clare Melford) 和伊姆兰·艾哈迈德 (Imran Ahmed) 均被禁止入境。美国国务院现在会检查更多申请访问或临时居留人员的在线帖子和个人资料，并要求他们解锁账户，以便官员在审查过程中阅读。更糟糕的情况可能还会出现。

在印度，当局正在以惊人的速度撤销印度海外公民 (OCI) 注册。在过去两年中，取消的数量已达到前十年总数的 60%。学者、记者和活动人士是主要目标。当局还阻止了非印度籍学者入境，并阻止了记者和艺术家出境，包括《华盛顿邮报》的拉娜·阿尤布 (Rana Ayyub) 和普利策奖得主桑娜·伊尔沙德·马图 (Sanna Irshad Mattoo)。

一些最严重的违规者并不令人意外：白俄罗斯、沙特阿拉伯和尼加拉瓜很难被视为人权的避风港。抛开这些不谈，这些禁令经常将朋友和家人分开，对全球知识的影响是巨大的。这包括阻止人们在舞台上发言、分享知识和参与讨论。它使人们害怕公开表达。通过这些手段，政府正将旅行变成顺从者的特权，而非探究者、挑衅者或勇敢者的领域。如果不加以扭转，公共广场将变成一个枯燥且沉默的空间。

英国可以通过改善自身的记录，并利用我们拥有的任何手段向其他国家施压以改善其记录，从而树立一个积极的榜样。伯纳姆，现在轮到你了。

杰米玛·斯坦费尔德 (Jemimah Steinfeld)，审查指数首席执行官 伦敦 EC2A

没有康复治疗，监狱无法发挥作用

您在指出过去 30 年量刑政策的失败导致了如今的监狱危机时是正确的（见上周《观察家报》观点：“监狱未能发挥作用”）。

作为一名退休的首席缓刑监督官，我见证了导致我们陷入目前境地的许多刑事政策误区。在道格拉斯·赫德担任内政大臣期间所采取的方法，并体现在 1991 年的《刑事司法法案》中，试图将监禁保留给严重和暴力犯罪者，并更多地利用社区判决。他在 1988 年发布的名为《惩罚、监禁与社区》的绿皮书中，

警告了过度使用监禁的危险，将监狱描述为潜在的“犯罪温床”。

这种方法很快被一种更具惩戒性的方向所取代。迈克尔·霍华德在 1993 年宣布“监狱有效”，标志着哲学上的重大转变，此后监狱人口开始陡增。

社区判决的减少、2014 年“转型康复”改革下缓刑制度的碎片化，以及康复治疗作为刑事司法核心目标的削弱，都削弱了减少再次犯罪的努力。

然而，仍有理由保持乐观。作为香农信托基金（Shannon Trust）的受托人——我们在监狱和社区中支持那些能够阅读和理解数字的人去教那些不能阅读的人——以及通过我在整个刑事司法系统相关慈善机构的更广泛经验，我看到康复治疗依然充满活力。

在今年的“国家阅读年”期间，监狱首席督察最近发布的报告《为了康复而阅读》强调了监狱阅读计划的益处，以及香农信托基金通过同伴指导每年帮助 10,000 多名囚犯学习阅读的宝贵工作。如果我们认真对待减少再次犯罪并缓解过度拥挤的监狱压力，就必须投资于那些能给予人们技能、信心和希望以构建不同未来的方法。单靠监狱是行不通的；康复和教育才行。

约翰·本斯特德，香农信托基金受托人 布里斯托尔

您的社论将囚犯人数的增加与报道的犯罪数量下降并列，但拒绝得出任何相关结论，更不用说暗示两者之间的因果关系。作为一名前高级侦探，我花了 30 年时间抓捕罪犯，而他们往往在出狱后不久就再次作案。我欢迎更开明、更有效的量刑方法。我一直认为迈克尔·霍华德的“监狱有效”论过于简单化。

但一个事实是（而非观点）：罪犯在身陷囹圄期间不会实施强奸、谋杀、抢劫或入室盗窃。在我们急于释放他们之前，我们需要确信我们已经具备有效的监督和召回措施，以及经过验证的、能够帮助那些希望过上更快乐、更有意义生活的人的方法。

鲍勃·丹麦克

兰开郡，加斯汤

浑水

水务公司与所有其他管理不善的商业企业（见上周新闻：“泰晤士水务投资者进行最后一搏，试图击沉潜在的政府接管”）的共同点在于，董事对其公司的失败缺乏责任感。水务公司的董事们责任心如此之差，以至于在公司经营状况极其糟糕的情况下，仍然给自己发放优渥的薪水。

我建议修订《公司法》，取消董事对公司债务的有限责任保护，恢复无限责任，以便那些管理不善的董事面临财务处罚。巨大的财务损失威胁可能有助于结束不负责任的管理行为，并杜绝董事在公司失败后拿着“金色降落伞”离职的可能性。

德里克·乔德

利兹

导师托尼·凯

安德鲁·安东尼关于托尼·凯的文章（《悍蛋对阵好莱坞》，新评论，上周）勾起了我对 1990 年代末电视广告的回忆。

一件没人记得的事情是，凯对年轻电影人的慷慨与鼓励。在那个行业由男性绝对主导的时代，他一直在为资历较浅的同事开辟成为导演的道路，并提拔像帕特里夏·墨菲这样的女性广告导演。

保罗·多内隆

伦敦 W6

输入与输出

我饶有兴致地阅读了约翰·诺顿关于人工智能及其未来影响的文章（《芝加哥大学在制定 AI 法律》，新评论，上周）。我对通过 Safari 和 Google 提供的 AI 非常尊重，但作为一名以挑战正统而闻名的剑桥大学退休研究主任，这正促使我去通过询问一些复杂的科学问题来挑战它。我的总体结论是：输入垃圾（包括 AI 无法获取或操作员未提供的缺失信息），输出垃圾。向来如此。

乔纳森·奥里尔

剑桥郡，梅尔本

传统的伪历史

人们不需要 AI 也能歪曲历史时间线。（《AI 废料正在扭曲我们的历史观》，论坛，上周）。多年前，我参加了一个在一家小学操场举行的活动。我偶然走进一间教室，墙上钉着一张恐龙的照片，标题写着：霸王龙，食人者。

伊恩·威沙特

奇斯勒赫斯特

SAF

勘误

在关于法国山火的报道中，我们在一个小标题中错误地将法国里维埃拉的 Cap Ferrat 称为受影响地区之一（《像世界的尽头》，26 July，第 6 页）。此处应为 Cap Ferret，位于波尔多以西。

在今日杂志第 5 页中，我们将伦敦设计团队 Wendover 的联合创始人 Gabriel Chipperfield 误写为 Gabe Pryce。我们深表歉意。

上周被标注为 an curlew（双领鸻）的一只鸟实际上是 a whimbrel（大杓鹬）（《古老庄园能否让野化重塑发挥作用？》，论坛，第 32 页）。在同一期的第 38 页，我们在《我的这一周： the housefly（家蝇）》一文中错误地使用了 greenbottle（绿瓶蝇）的图片。

征集观察者

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32

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

论坛

特朗普的“红色恐慌”是捏造的。真实的是对左翼的打压 Caroline Johnston

唐纳德·特朗普在过去的几周里一直在进行“赤色诱饵”攻击（red-baiting）。特朗普说，民主党人是共产主义者。他们是该国面临的最大威胁。他们旨在摧毁基督教。他们想要炸毁拉什莫尔山。

此后，大量文章将特朗普与约瑟夫·麦卡锡相比较，并讨论“赤色诱饵”是否仍是一种有效的政治策略。麦卡锡主义成为了此时唯一的历史参考点。然而，这种类比忽略了美国保守主义中根深蒂固的、针对激进派镇压的深层根源，并使我们无法察觉这些行为在当今产生的影响。

更为近期的历史影响了特朗普的措辞。保守派政治家和名人们在过去四十年及至今，一直喋喋不休地谈论民主党内左翼主义的幽灵。罗纳德·里根曾警告说，自由主义的政策提案将美国推向了更接近社会主义的地步，此后每一位民主党总统候选人都面临这一指责。特朗普则将筹码从社会主义提高到了共产主义。而且，他几乎不在意共产主义的经济体系与进步派候选人所支持的社会民主政治之间巨大的鸿沟。

7月27日在密歇根州的一次集会上，特朗普警告说，民主党人正“站在激进左翼共产主义者一边”。他告诉人群，如果他们得逞，“你们将生活在肮脏中，你们将生活在恐惧中”。一个孤独的声音再次一次次地向这位总统大喊“儿童色情狂保护者”；特朗普反击道：“他是个共产主义者！”

他的主张如此显然地不严肃，以至于新闻报道绕过了“赤色诱饵”的准确性，而将其重点放在其效用上。考虑到苏联已经消失在后视镜中三十多年，一场“红色恐慌”是否依然可怕？共和党领导层显然认为是这样。最近为……准备的一份备忘录显示

特朗普已将筹码从社会主义升级为共产主义

共和党众议院会议敦促他们在中期选举前敲响反共之鼓。

对于国家政治人物而言，“红区抹黑”（red-baiting）依然是一种脱离政治现实的修辞手段。在这个领域，民主党人能够且确实在否认激进主义的指控。但特朗普的指控在其他地方产生了实际影响。据称潜伏着“激进左翼分子”的强大机构已证明他们急于表达忠诚。那些因承接特朗普所厌恶的案件而成为目标的律师事务所，已支付数亿美元的诉讼和解金。新闻机构解雇了持不同政见的工作人员，并精心筛选出倾向性的编辑委员会。大学领导层解雇了不听话的教职员工，惩罚学生，并与针对其成员的联邦机构合作。

机构的妥协是当今与麦卡锡主义最显著的平行之处。在麦卡锡于 1950 年代利用的恐慌中，媒体、政府和教育领域的领导者将组织导向右翼。他们解雇了任何被认为过于偏离、颠覆或左翼的人。麦卡锡主义政策将作家、律师、学者和教师排除在可以让其思想传播的机构之外。反共产主义通过扼杀工会组织者、政策制定者和活动人士中的左翼政治，保护了企业权力并维持了种族隔离。

但对于抗议者和社区组织者来说，红区抹黑的后果更为残酷，尽管他们只能获得短暂的公众关注。

九月，特朗普将“反法西斯主义”（antifa）定为国内恐怖组织。“Antifa”并非一个政治组织，而是一种反对法西斯主义的松散政治意识形态。同月，总统发布了第 7 号国家安全总统备忘录，指示联合恐怖主义特遣部队调查并起诉行政部门认为的任何激进分子。这些行政行动共同将针对特朗普政府的抵抗定义为一场针对美国的恐怖主义阴谋。

六月，九人在德克萨斯州的一处 ICE 拘留中心抗议，被判处数十年监禁。检察官指控他们属于 antifa。一名向警察脖子开枪的抗议者（该警察幸存）被判处 100 年监禁。其他人被判处 50 到 70 年。一名参与者的丈夫因为搬运装有左翼阅读材料的箱子而被判处 30 年。他当时并未参与抗议。作为对比，在 1949 到 1958 年间被审判的美国共产党领导人最高被判处五年监禁。

需要明确的是：《权利法案》并不取决于一个人的政治立场。左翼人士同样享有言论、出版和集会自由。特朗普政府挫败了这些权利。现在，明尼阿波利斯的 15 人因组织反对去年冬天 ICE 突袭而被指控共谋。同样，检察官声称被告是 antifa 的成员。

要理解这场危险的打压，我们应该回顾镀金时代，那时 19 世纪最后几十年美国各地动荡不安。面对不受监管的工业资本主义所带来的日益严重的不平等，许多劳动者加入了民粹主义、无政府主义或社会主义运动。工人组织了大规模罢工，并面临警察、雇佣安保人员和国民警卫队的暴力报复。

1886 年 5 月，约 400,000 名工人为了争取八小时工作制而罢工。当芝加哥警方杀害罢工者时，无政府主义者在海马克特广场组织了一次反抗议。在抗议活动中，有人引爆了一枚炸弹，导致多名警察死亡。最终，四名男子因共谋被处以绞刑。尽管没有人投掷炸弹，也没有发现任何阴谋，但这些人的左翼政治立场成为了他们有罪的证据。

麦卡锡主义并非异数，唐纳德·特朗普近期对共产主义的痴迷亦然。两者都是美国反对激进主义的保守派政治漫长历史中的片段。到目前为止，人们的关注点一直集中在共和党的辞令及其与麦卡锡主义的相似之处，以及这些辞令的不准确性及其对中期选举的影响。但在这种情况下，德克萨斯州和明尼苏达州的抗议者们又处于怎样的境地？而当年的海马特四人组又身在何方？

卡罗琳·约翰斯顿（Caroline Johnston）博士是剑桥大学美国历史研究的梅隆研究员

笔记本

感到不安正是参与骄傲游行（Pride）的理由 Damian Barr

上周六，一名 21 岁的男子在柏林醒来，决定尽可能多地杀掉 LGBTQ+ 群体的人。那些有家人和朋友的人。同胞。敌人。背负着彩虹标志的目标。

当时天气温暖晴朗，所以街上会有很多人。

在柏林，骄傲游行被称为“克里斯托弗大街日”（Christopher Street Day, CSD），于 1975 年首次在西柏林举行。历史在此发生。该活动得名于曼哈顿的石墙旅馆（Stonewall Inn）所在地，1969 年 6 月 28 日，LGBTQ+ 群体在那里反抗暴力警察。

人们经常忘记，这一历史时刻的前奏是 1966 年旧金山的康普托尔标准（Comptoirs' Criteria）暴动，当时人们在抗议警察骚扰跨性别者和变装皇后。

那个年轻人——我拒绝提及他的姓名——开着一辆白色小型面包车冲进勃兰登堡门附近的 CSD 人群中。随后，他用一把看似砍刀的武器攻击幸存者。一名女性当场被杀，另有 29 人受伤。

整个群体都在哀悼——在柏林，以及在全世界。

我在布莱顿的家中观看新闻，地握住了丈夫的手。我们重新审视了本周末参加骄傲游行的计划。我们会安全吗？我们曾经安全过吗？

我去观看音乐剧《骄傲》（Pride）时，脑海中想到了柏林。这部剧讲述了“女同性恋与男同性恋支持矿工”（Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners）的快乐故事，这是一个 1984 年在伦敦中心布鲁姆茨伯里的“Gay's the Word”书店成立的团结运动（该书店至今仍在营业，依然激进）。

舞台背景布置了查尔斯与戴安娜、Wham! 乐队，当然还有玛格丽特·撒切尔的照片——当我的回忆录《玛吉与我》（Maggie & Me）在 2024 年由苏格兰国家剧院搬上舞台时，玛吉是最难选角的角色，部分原因是她一直在扮演她自己。

在观看《骄傲》时，每当我不在哭泣或大笑，我就观察观众——那些比我年长、经历过更多风雨的人，他们的脸被舞台光和记忆照亮。

巧合的是，那天正是 1967 年《性犯罪法》（Sexual Offences Act 1967）颁布 59 周年纪念日。演职人员随后用一块巨大的红色天鹅绒蛋糕庆祝，蛋糕上用糖霜写着这部在英格兰和威尔士将同性恋行为去罪化的法律条文（但该法律不适用于苏格兰或北爱尔兰，且仅限于 21 岁或以上人士）。该法案忽视了女同性恋者，因为在英国法律下，女性之间的性行为并未被定罪——女同性恋的性之谜似乎……难以捉摸。但在《骄傲》之后，不再有这样的谜团。

上个月，150,000 人在伦敦参加了全球最大的跨性别骄傲游行。历史再次发生。虽然你可能不知道——这次巨大的抗议在很大程度上被忽视了。就像 1985 年参加骄傲游行的矿工们一样被忽视。

如今的跨性别和非二元性别群体，正在与许多长期以来针对女同性恋、男同性恋和双性恋者的报刊谎言及法律障碍作斗争。他们说我们是不自然的，我们对儿童构成威胁，我们在洗手间里窥视你。

我记得 1993 年《每日邮报》的标题：“‘同性恋基因’研究发现后的堕胎希望。”此类故事是通往更黑暗地带道路上的路标。没有哪个城市比柏林更懂得这一点。

骄傲游行是一个关于过去胜利的故事，它表明我们可以团结起来，构建一个更公正的未来。

在历史发生之后，站在历史正确的一边很容易。但历史此刻正在发生——我们可以每天重新塑造它。所以，让我们出发游行吧。

Damian Barr 的最新小说《两个罗伯特》（The Two Roberts）由 Canongate 出版（£9.99）。在 observershop.co.uk 购买可享受 10% 的折扣。25 英镑以上的在线订单可享受英国境内标准邮费免费。

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论坛

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

33

讣告

Betye Saar

这位富有远见的美国艺术家将种族主义的廉价庸俗之作和杂物转化为赋权的象征。

Betye Saar 位于洛杉矶好莱坞山顶劳雷尔峡谷（Laurel Canyon）的工作室里，堆满了他人不要的物品。生锈的笼子、木制面具、铃铛和纽扣、彩色玻璃；小玩意儿，以及各种杂物。在接近一个世纪的人生旅程中，无论走到哪里，Saar 都会收集奇珍异宝，因为她相信有一天它们会对她的艺术创作有所帮助。

“我是一个回收者，或者一个囤积癖，或者一只喜鹊——随你怎么称呼我，”她说，“有些东西就是能吸引我的注意力，我觉得‘我可以把它变成艺术’。”她的创作媒介是集结艺术（assemblage），将日常用品聚集并排列在一起，从而引发观众的思考。盖蒂研究中心（Getty Research Institute）称她为“我们时代最具创新精神和远见的艺术家之一”。

在这些收获中，有一部分是让某些人感到不安的临时性印刷品，但作为 20 世纪 70 年代黑人艺术运动的一员，Saar 却从中发现了赋权的力量。正如《洛杉矶时报》在 2016 年所描述的那样，这些物品包括“一批令人羞耻的收获：陶瓷制的‘乳母’（mammies）、锡制的‘小黑孩’（pickaninnies）和鲱鱼，以及拿着西瓜片的厚唇小雕像”。对于 Saar 而言，这些“种族主义的文化残骸”可以通过回收来表达政治观点。

这启发了她最著名的作品《詹妮玛阿姨的解放》（The Liberation of Aunt Jemima）。该作品于 1972 年为伯克利一个名为 Rainbow Sign 的社区中心举办的展览而创作，该中心靠近原黑豹党（Black Panther party）总部。

“我是一个回收者，或者一个囤积癖，或者一只喜鹊”：图为 20 世纪 80 年代的 Betye Saar，她无论走到哪里都会收集奇珍异宝以此创作艺术。Anthony Barboza / Getty Images

作品的核心是一个戴着头巾的黑人家庭主妇漫画形象，该形象基于一个用于销售煎饼糖浆的种族刻板印象角色，此前被制成笔记本和铅笔架销售。她将铅笔替换成了枪，并增加了一把步枪，说道：“她在寻求自己的力量。”随后，她在笔记本形式的裙子上插入了一张展示一名黑人女性抱着一名白人孩子的古董明信片，以代表对奴隶的性侵犯，并添加了一个高举的黑人拳头。Saar 表示，她的目标是将一个被贬低的人物转化为一个积极的人物，“一个赋权的女性，她以对抗的姿态站立，一只手拿着扫帚，另一只手武装准备战斗——一个准备好打击奴役和种族主义的战士”。

这是一个强有力的信息，民权活动家安格拉·戴维斯（Angela Davis）认为这启动了黑人女性运动。当桂格燕麦公司（Quaker Oats）在 2020 年宣布停产其“詹妮玛阿姨”系列产品时，Saar 在 Instagram 上发布了她的作品图像，并配文：“她解放了！终于，终于解放了！”

Betye Irene Brown 于 1926 年出生在洛杉矶。她五岁时父亲去世，随后全家搬到了帕萨迪纳（Pasadena）。Saar 夏天与祖父母在瓦茨（Watts）度过，在那里她发现了自己对利用现成材料进行艺术创作的热情。她在加州大学洛杉矶分校（UCLA）主修设计，并在那里结识了陶瓷艺术家 Richard Saar。两人于 1952 年结婚，并育有三个女儿：Tracye、Alison 和 Lezley。

毕业后，Saar 设计贺卡，并与 Curtis Tann 共同成立了一家销售珠宝和其他装饰品的公司。

不公正激发了她的创造力，尤其是在马丁·路德·金被暗杀之后。

1962 年，全家搬到了劳雷尔峡谷，弗兰克·扎帕（Frank Zappa）是他们的邻居。Saar 夫妇于 1968 年离婚，此后她从事了一系列兼职工作，包括服装设计师和艺术教师。

Saar 受到了 1967 年在帕萨迪纳举办的集结艺术家约瑟夫·康内尔（Joseph Cornell）展览的启发。她还受到了西蒙·罗迪亚（Simon Rodia）的“瓦茨塔”（Watts Towers）的影响，这是一组由 17 个建筑结构组成的集合体，上面装饰着破碎的陶瓷、海贝和生锈的工具。“对我来说，它们具有魔力，”Saar 说道。

在母亲的鼓励下，她的女儿们回家时口袋里总是装满了在街上捡到的、可能对她艺术创作有帮助的物品。

她第一部获得好评的集装艺术作品是《黑女孩之窗》（Black Girl's Window, 1969），作品展示了萨尔看向旧窗框的剪影，以及一系列由九个小场景组成的关于她的家庭故事与梦想。

在参观芝加哥场馆博物馆（Field Museum）时，她对非洲艺术中对有机材料的运用深感钦佩，这促使她前往尼日利亚、塞内加尔、巴西和海地寻找物件，并创作了如《灵魂捕捉者》（Spirit Catcher, 1977）等作品，这是一个由竹子、骨头、羽毛和贝壳制成的塔。

另一件著名的作品是《给哈蒂的记录》（Record for Hattie, 1975），这是一个为了纪念抚养她的姑婆而制作的记忆盒，其中包含一个相框、缝纫材料、一个皮革钱包、一个十字架、一个断掉的洋娃娃手臂以及干花。她的女儿特雷西（Tracye）称萨尔为“一个找到了天职的囤积者”。

不公正激发了她的创造力，尤其是在马丁·路德·金遇刺之后。“如果你是一个有三个孩子的母亲，你没法去参加游行，”她说，“但你可以创作出能够表达你愤怒的作品。”

她一生都在面对种族主义的偏见，例如在 2021 年的展览《黑娃娃之忧》（Black Doll Blues）中。她当时表示：“自 1960 年代以来并没有太多改变。我们拥有过一位黑人总统，但如今的种族问题依然源自同样的无知和恐惧。艺术依然是我的声音，依然是我抗议的方式。”

帕特里克·基德 (Patrick Kidd)

贝蒂·萨尔 (Betye Saar)，艺术家，出生于 1926 年 7 月 30 日，逝世于 2026 年 7 月 26 日，享年 99 岁

我的一周

倭拟伏波亚（Indri lemur）

我是歌手，我即是歌曲。森林是歌，家庭是歌，整个群体都是歌。生命是一首歌，而其意义便是音乐。每天，通常在上午十一点小憩之后，马达加斯加的树顶就会响彻倭拟伏波亚的歌声。

周一

我是领导者，是妻子，是母亲，是首席女主角，也是花腔女高音。我决定去哪里，在哪里睡觉以及何时、何地、唱什么。歌唱是我们生活的中心：当时刻与地点都恰到好处时，我会向后仰起头，让音乐充满整座森林。

周二

我们是狐猴中体型最大的，也是唯一会唱歌的。我们是跳跃者和抓握者。树木是我们的高速公路和低速道，是我们的避风港，是我们的舞台，也是我们的食物：叶子、花朵、果实、种子。我决定谁吃什么，并且理所当然地把最好的留给自己。

周三

就这样开始了。一声雷响，一架飞机，一阵鸟鸣，远处传来的一曲倭拟伏波亚之歌。或者是我根据内心深处的信号而做出的单方面决定。我们总是以几小节合唱的吼叫开始，无论老幼全部加入。然后我们进入长音序列，歌曲自然而然地变成了我与“他”之间的二重唱，而我担任主唱。之后，我们转入下降乐句序列，这是一个漫长的尾声。

周四

一首好的歌曲大约持续 3 分钟。有些日子我们可能只唱一次，但只要有机会，我们会唱得更频繁。对我来说，七次左右正合适。而且每首歌都充满了意义。每一首歌都是我们经过练习、钻研并完善的；然而每一次，我们都加入了至关重要的自发元素。自发的仪式听起来像是个矛盾修辞法，但这正是所有优秀音乐的核心。每首歌都关乎我们是谁——我们家庭群体的性质以及我们在更广泛社区中的地位。它还携带关于性别和领地的信息。

每个歌手都有独特的节奏模式，将声音与停顿连接起来。

周五

但是，你知道，去他的功能性。我为歌曲而唱，为音乐而唱。我倾听邻居们的歌声，在三英里外我就能听到。作为回报，我引领我们自己的歌曲，其意义和复杂程度远超那些路过的人所能知晓。激发灵感的并非生物学需求，而是音乐本身。每个歌手都有个人且独特的节奏模式，将声音与停顿连接起来。

周六

我们的家庭群体平衡良好且营养充足，因为——恕我直言——它得到了优秀的领导。我们共同行动，共同放松。然后，我可能会接受“他”的一次理毛。接着我们将通过一系列跳跃继续前行，直到下一次歌唱的时间到来。让吼叫开始吧。我们地唱起关于自己的歌，而其余的一切皆为沉默。

倭拟伏波亚 简历

寿命 接近 20 年 饮食习惯 树上提供的一切 爱好 还需要问吗？

性偏好 一个顺从的艺术大师

口述给 Simon Barnes

新西兰海岸航程

乘坐“珊瑚探险号” (Coral Adventurer) 探索新西兰的奇迹 2027年11月5日至24日

凭借迷人的蜿蜒海岸线，且绝大多数“必游之地”要么位于海岸边，要么就在附近的内陆地区，新西兰是一个拥有罕见自然之美与反差之地的国度，且极其适合小型邮轮巡航。我们精心设计了这份探索北岛和南岛的行程，基于大多数来自英国的游客只会游览一次新西兰的前提，因此此次旅行应尽可能全面且充满对比。我们将探索美丽的纳皮尔市及其装饰艺术风格建筑，发现具有毛利与苏格兰双重文化遗产深厚底蕴的历史名城但尼丁，并访问国家首都惠灵顿。为了领略壮丽景色，我们将前往岛屿湾，探索美丽的科罗曼德半岛，访问亚贝尔塔斯曼国家公园，巡航于分隔新西兰岛屿的马尔堡峡湾，航行于著名的世界遗产地区峡湾国家公园（全球最壮观的自然景观之一），并在乌尔瓦岛宁静的森林中漫步。

这一切通过小型邮轮旅行可以达到最佳效果。乘坐“珊瑚探险号”，我们可以在偏远的港湾抛锚，穿梭于水道与峡湾，并停靠各类规模的港口。凭借独特的 Xplorer 接驳船和 Zodiac 登陆艇，我们将能够抵达其他方式无法到达的地方，充分体验新西兰非凡的自然景点。

珊瑚探险号于 2019 年专门建造，旨在探索澳大拉西亚的偏远及热带地区。所有舱房均为外向窗，配有独立浴室、优质洗护用品、衣柜、写字台、扶手椅，且许多舱房设有私人阳台。宽敞的公共区域光线充足、通风良好，设有大景观窗，可尽收周围景色。舒适的休息室可供阅读好书、参加讲座和演示，并欣赏晚间电影及活动。优雅的餐厅设有室内和室外座位，并采取开放式座位安排。除了餐厅和驾驶台休息厅酒吧外，还设有两个额外的室外酒吧区域。船上体验中最受喜爱的一点是开放式驾驶台政策，允许您与船长及高级船员共度时光，学习航海和行程规划的所有细节。室外则拥有超过 1000 平方米的开放甲板空间。

欲了解此次假期的完整详情，请立即致电 020 7752 0000 获取我们的宣传册。

行程简述

第 1 天 从伦敦或曼彻斯特前往新西兰奥克兰。乘坐定期中转航班。

第 2 天 在途。

第 3 天 奥克兰。抵达奥克兰并转乘前往酒店住宿。

第 4 天 奥克兰。上午您可以选择在酒店休息，或参加城市游览，包括 Domain 地区和优秀的奥克兰博物馆。我们将共进轻便午餐，随后转乘至“珊瑚探险者号” (Coral Adventurer)。

第 5 天 岛湾。该地区由库克船长在 1769 年发现，是新西兰欧洲文明的摇篮，对毛利人和欧洲人都具有重要的历史意义。“珊瑚探险者号”将在此锚泊，我们将乘坐 Xplorer 艇前往岸上。在上午的导览游期间，我们将参观怀唐伊条约屋，1840 年毛利人与英国王室在此签署了条约。随后我们前往凯里凯里，那里是毛利人在 1819 年首次迎接传教士的地方，并参观新西兰最古老的建筑。

第 6 天 科罗曼德半岛，惠蒂昂加。经过一早上的航行，我们抵达小镇惠蒂昂加外的锚地，这里是我们探索美丽的科罗曼德半岛的基地。我们将乘坐 Xplorer 启动艇前往岸上，随后短距离驱车前往“驾驶溪铁路” (Driving Creek Railway)，这是一条狭轨丛林与山地铁路。登上火车后，我们将攀升至 Eyefull Tower 观景台，可俯瞰哈劳基湾 (Harauki Gulf) 的绝美景色。在返回惠蒂昂加的途中，我们将停靠在具有重要历史意义的 Wharekaho 海滩。1769 年，当地酋长就在这里迎接英国探险家詹姆斯·库克船长和植物学家约瑟夫·班克斯 (Joseph Banks) 上岸。在至今仍延伸至海滩的古老波胡图卡瓦树下，Ngati Hei 部落通过新西兰有记载的首次正式仪式，热烈欢迎了“奋进号” (Endeavour) 的船员。

第 7 天 从陶朗加前往罗托鲁亚。从陶朗加的泊位出发，我们向内陆驱车前往著名的罗托鲁亚热泉。探索 Wai-O-Tapu（意为“神圣之水”），这是一个活跃的地热区，拥有色彩斑斓的热泉、冒烟的地面和沸腾的泥浆池。惊叹于池塘、湖泊和火山口中展现出的令人难以置信的鲜艳色调，并聆听原生森林中悦耳的鸟鸣。从这里出发，我们将访问一个毛利村庄，体验传统的毛利欢迎仪式并享用午餐。

第 8 天 吉斯本。上午航行至吉斯本，詹姆斯·库克船长于 1769 年首次在此登陆新西兰。下午，我们将沿海滨驱车观光，经过库克船长纪念碑，随后穿过绝美风景进入乡村，前往东伍德希尔植物园 (Eastwoodhill Arboretum)。这是新西兰的国家植物园，涵盖超过 131 公顷的异域及本土树木、灌木和攀援植物。在简短的介绍后，您可以选择不同的漫步路线，从平坦的林荫小道到沿着植物园周围高地脊线的徒步道，可饱览道格拉斯公园 (Douglas Park) 和格伦道格拉斯 (Glen Douglas) 的壮丽景色。

第 9 天 纳皮尔。上午抵达纳皮尔，参加该美丽小镇的游览，包括其迷人的装饰艺术 (Art Deco) 风格建筑。我们还将访问当地一家葡萄园，品尝该地区的葡萄酒。或者，您可以参加前往绑架者角 (Cape Kidnappers) 塘鹅栖息地的远足，这是一个 13 公顷的保护区，是鞍形塘鹅和黑礁塘鹅群的家园。

第 10 天 决心湾与船湾。今天上午我们将航行通过美丽的马尔堡峡湾 (Marlborough Sounds)，该峡湾将新西兰的北岛和南岛分开。下午早些时候抵达决心湾 (Resolution Bay)，热衷于徒步的人可以通过夏洛特皇后小径 (Queen Charlotte Track) 进行一次较长距离的徒步前往船湾 (Ship Cove)，欣赏绝佳风景。或者，您可以选择稍后在船湾下船，詹姆斯·库克船长在新西兰期间的大部分时间都在此度过。参观为库克设立的纪念碑，或沿着森林小径步行前往附近的瀑布。

第 11 天 阿贝尔塔斯曼国家公园与尼尔森。今天将提供多种远足选择。您可以选择在早餐后下船访问阿贝尔塔斯曼，这是新西兰最小的国家公园。享受沿海徒步和风景巡航，这里有极佳的野生动物观察机会，包括海豹群以及包括企鹅在内的多种水鸟。或者，您可以选择在上午探索尼尔森，多年来这里一直吸引着驻在艺术家。您可以参加该地区亮点的引导游，或者沿着河边散步前往女王花园。

第 12 天 惠灵顿。回到北岛，我们将把一天时间花在国家首都惠灵顿。从我们的中心泊位出发，我们将通过引导步行游览探索这座城市，参观圣保罗大教堂、议会大厦，漫步于植物园，并乘坐标志性的缆车。游览结束后，您可以选择参观令人印象深刻的新西兰国家博物馆 Te Papa 并自行在岸上享用午餐，或者返回船上吃午餐，随后在下午自由活动，按照自己的节奏进一步探索。

第 13 天 阿卡罗阿。阿卡罗阿在毛利语中意为“长港”，由法国捕鲸船长让·朗格洛瓦于 1838 年乘坐 Cachelot 号船在此建立。他于 1840 年带领 60 名定居者乘坐 Comte de Paris 号返回，创建了一个法国殖民地。我们在午餐时间抵达，下午将在这里度过，您可以乘坐当地船只参加海豚观察之旅，或参加阿卡罗阿的引导历史徒步游，穿过塔内花园的原始丛林。

第 14 天 达尼丁。今晨抵达达尼丁，享受引导游览，包括优雅的 19 世纪建筑和新西兰最古老的精美植物园。或者选择驾车前往奥塔哥半岛，在那里我们乘坐当地船只前往泰罗亚角 (Tairoa Head)，这是世界上唯一的陆地信天翁筑巢地。随后前往皇家信天翁中心，进一步了解这些迷人的鸟类。在船上享用午餐后，在达尼丁享受一个自由活动的下午。

第 15 天 斯图尔特岛。新西兰的第三大岛远离常规的旅游路线。这是一个极其宁静的地方，未受触动的丛林景色令人震撼。我们将在小岛乌尔瓦岛度过一个上午，在那里我们将使用 Zodiac 橡皮艇上岸，由当地导游带领选择不同的徒步路线。今天下午我们抵达斯图尔特岛的奥班，将有机会在商店间闲逛，参观博物馆，或参加前往一些美景地的乘车游。

第 16 & 17 天 峡湾地区。我们有两天时间探索南岛西南角令人难以置信的峡湾荒野。这是一个历史悠久的地区。库克船长于 1773 年乘坐 HMS Resolution 号在此登陆，这里拥有壮丽的风景和丰富的野生动物。该地区只能通过海路进入，使其成为新西兰最偏远的地区。Xplorers 和 Zodiac 橡皮艇将被用于从船只转移到登陆点以及探索峡湾。

第 18 天 布拉夫至基督城。今晨下船并转移至机场，乘坐计划航班前往基督城。抵达后，我们将办理入住中心地段的酒店。当日剩余时间为自由活动。

第 19 天 基督城至伦敦或曼彻斯特。办理退房并转移至机场，乘坐计划的经停航班。

第 20 天 伦敦。今晨抵达。

价格与包含项目

基于双人入住的每人特惠价格从 £14,795 起（散步级舱房）。

包含项目：

经济舱定期航班机票 • 奥克兰和基督城的酒店住宿及早餐 • 乘坐“珊瑚探险者号”全包膳食 14 晚 • 午餐和晚餐期间提供的 house wine、啤酒及软饮 • 船上团队 • 岸上观光 • 小费 • 接送服务 • 机场税 • 港口税。

注：港口和行程可能会有变动。旅行保险、新西兰电子旅行授权 (eTA) 以及第 3 和 18 天的晚餐不包含在价格内。所有特惠活动视供应情况而定。我们的当前预订条件适用于所有预订。

或者请访问或在网上申请：www.noble-caledonia.co.uk

NOBLE CALEDONIA

小型船舶 - 宏大体验

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36

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

论坛

人物志

瑞安·墨菲 (Ryan Murphy)

好莱坞的高营风格与恐怖片之王有一个新项目：《碎片》(The Shards)，作者：Barbara Ellen

令人瞩目的是，瑞安·墨菲作为一名 LGBTQ 好莱坞创意工作者，多年来一直在工业规模上主导着大众的电视口味。

墨菲经常被誉为“好莱坞最有权势的人”，他的最新项目是对布雷特·伊斯顿·艾利斯 2023 年小说《碎片》(The Shards) 的改编——讲述的是一群 20 世纪 80 年代的富裕青少年，而其中潜伏着一名连环杀手。

他屡获殊荣的职业生涯跨越了四个十年，包括 2009-2015 年播出的突破性高中音乐喜剧《欢乐合唱团》(Glee)，以及一部关于纽约市 LGBTQ 舞会社区的开创性剧集《姿态》(Pose) (2018-2021)。在 2025 年，他的作品包括由金·卡戴珊和格伦·克洛斯主演的《艾莉的公平》(Ali's Fair)，尽管该剧观看人数众多，但评价低迷（《帝国》杂志评价道：“能把东西做得如此迷人地枯燥，得需要一种特殊的才华”）。

通过与多位共同创作者合作，墨菲还引领了现代电视系列剧的潮流，始于 2011 年的《美国恐怖故事》(American Horror Story)。《美国犯罪故事》系列带来了《辛普森案》(The People v. O.J. Simpson) (2016) 以及由达伦·克里斯主演且在心理上引起剧烈震动的《詹尼·凡赛斯之死》(The Assassination of Gianni Versace) (2018)，后者为其赢得了艾美奖和金球奖。

《宿敌》(The Feud) 系列剧首先重现了贝蒂·戴维斯和琼·克劳馥在拍摄罗伯特·奥尔德里奇 1962 年的 the melodrama《宝贝珍妮怎么了？》(What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?) 期间的激烈争斗。通过《怪物》(Monster)，他制作了关于埃里克和莱尔·梅嫩德斯兄弟的深刻性格研究，两人在 1989 年杀死了他们的父母。

出生于印第安纳波利斯的墨菲现年 60 岁，他产出了一系列复杂的主题融合——旧好莱坞、高营风格 (high camp)、恐怖、谋杀、酷儿的苦难、小报 sensation 等，可以说他喂养了大众的胃口并帮助塑造了这些胃口。

艾美奖获奖编剧（《Vrep》）兼作家、最新小说名为《想象一个朋友》(Imagine a Friend) 的大卫·宽蒂克 (David Quantick) 观察到：“他选取极其多样的话题，从恐怖片到高中合唱团，并将它们推向极致。”

罗宾·魏格特 (Robin Weigert) 是一位获得艾美奖提名的演员，曾与墨菲合作过《美国恐怖故事》系列以及 2025 年的《怪物：埃德·盖恩故事》(Monster: The Ed Gein Story)。“我认为在根本上，他想展示这个社会最努力掩盖的一切：揭开阴暗面……并且用一种极其张扬、奢华、阴森且戏剧化的方式将其呈现。”

《每日野兽》(Daily Beast) 的获奖高级编辑兼作家、《与戈尔·维达同床》(In Bed with Gore Vidal) 的作者蒂姆·蒂曼 (Tim Teeman) 对《姿态》(Pose) 中的跨性别呈现印象深刻：“从一个...”

墨菲对其热情的执着令人好奇

从 LGBTQ 的视角来看，墨菲是一位真正的电视革命者。他呈现在屏幕上的内容具有一种激进主义。"

墨菲是否如人们所暗示的那样，在处理那些狰狞怪诞的事物？“他既处理也不处理，”Quantick 说道，“他笔下的人类可能是怪物，但他的怪物却是人类。”

墨菲的母亲写书并从事传播工作，而他的父亲则在报业工作。墨菲在青少年时期出柜为同性恋，随后在印第安纳大学布卢明顿分校学习新闻学。在出售剧本——《为什么我不能成为奥黛丽·赫本？》（Why Can't I Be Audrey Hepburn?）给并非他人正是史蒂文·斯皮尔伯格之前，他曾担任记者，随后制作了《欢乐合唱团》（Glee），他目前正考虑重启该剧。2018 年，墨菲与 Netflix 签署了一份价值 3 亿英镑m 的开发协议，《时代》杂志称其为“历史上最获利的电视合约”。

即使是墨菲的失败之作（如《拉切特》Ratched、《监视者》The Watcher）也没有真正伤害到他。他现在已经成为了一个品牌，一种风格，你可以通过为他构思新项目来消遣。

目前关于瑞秋·卡斯克即将出版的小说《M 的生活》（Life of M）的争执——这是一本据称关于她现在已成为前友人的娜塔莉·波特曼且并不讨好的书——听起来就像是《宿敌：卡波特对阵斯威恩》（Feud: Capote vs. The Sween）的翻版，在那部剧中，作者背叛了他的上流社会圈子。

Illustration by Andy Bunday

瑞安·墨菲 (Ryan Murphy) 出生于 1965 年 母校 印第安纳大学布卢明顿分校 职业 电视导演、编剧、制片人 家庭 已婚，育有三个孩子

《白莲花度假村》的迈克·怀特是另一位高知名度的 LGBTQ 创作者，但墨菲同样多产得令人震惊，且对其热情的执着程度令人好奇。在墨菲的作品集中，不仅有循环往复的主题——衰老、格格不入者、美貌之下的丑陋——还有经常合作的演员，即他喜欢共事的人：杰西卡·朗格（《宿敌》、《美国恐怖故事》）、莎拉·保尔森（《拉切特》、《美国犯罪故事》）；Criss（同样出演了《好莱坞》）以及更多的人。作为另一位墨菲的忠实合作者，

Weigert 表示，他培养了一种“我们是一个剧团（rep company）的一部分”的感觉。Weigert 觉得即便在盲选的情况下也可以对角色说好。“有一次，直到我签署了保密协议（NDA）之后，我才知道我要演一个食人族！（《美国恐怖故事》）。你相信制作水准会很高，你会处于优秀导演的掌控之中，你会拥有出色的对手戏演员，然后你直接加入即可。”

另一个激励因素

对于名人们来说，另一个激励因素可能是墨菲如何让他们摆脱刻板印象。尽管并非每位演员都对此感到满意。达丽尔·汉娜在《纽约时报》上愤怒地谴责了今年的大片《情史：小约翰·肯尼迪与卡罗琳·贝赛特》（Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette）中由德里·海明威饰演的那个“令人恼火、自我中心且爱抱怨”的吸食可卡因的形象（汉娜与小约翰·肯尼迪在 1990 年代期间曾有一段感情）。汉娜质疑道：“为了捧起另一个女人而贬低另一个女人，这不是典型的厌女症吗？”

墨菲在其他方面也被指责为厌女，理由是他在作品中塑造了夸张的女性漫画式形象和怪诞形象，但蒂曼并不认同：“女性角色被刻画得如此生动，对于参与其中的女演员来说，这是最令人惊叹的表演机会和装扮之盒。”

墨菲自 2012 年起与摄影师大卫·米勒结婚，通过代孕拥有三个孩子，并拥有一系列房产，包括在洛杉矶和纽约的房产。

那么，是什么驱动他成为这个永不眠的好莱坞巨头？他此前提到过，他的作品曾被斥为“太基（too gay）”，为了让作品得以制作，他不得不进行艰苦的斗争。2017 年，他启动了 Half Initiative 计划，旨在为镜头后的女性和少数群体争取平等机会，他表示：“一旦我达到了能够掌控局面（empowered）的地步，我就尝试赋予他人权力。”

蒂曼认为，尤其是在这个分心的手机刷屏时代，墨菲对他广大观众的掌控力就足以说明问题。

“他的作品有时极尽浮夸（camp），但同时又深邃且充满情感，而且每次在视觉上都是一场盛宴。瑞安·墨菲有趣的地方在于，他绝非仅仅是形式大于内容——而是形式与内容的相互作用。”

目前看来，他强悍的工作率和极高的观众人数，使得这位“好莱坞最有权力的人”不可撼动。对于这位曾经为自己的项目而战的“太基”创作者来说，这场战争似乎已经赢了。

《碎片》（The Shards）将于 8 月 6 日起在 Disney+ 上线

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商业

经济、工作与金钱

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

37

“OpenAI 必须继续从私人投资者那里筹集资金，而这些投资者的耐心可能即将耗尽”

→ 塞巴斯蒂安·马拉比，第 39 页

一台 ASML 深紫外光刻机。它重约 180 吨，长度超过 10 米，由 100,000 个精密部件组成，成本约为 $380m。8 / 30。

中国芯片技术突破引发震惊

关于一家上海公司已研发出关键芯片制造技术的消息令市场震动，且人们对债务驱动的 AI 繁荣之可持续性的担忧正日益增加。

Barney Macintyre & Ben Zaranko

今年 6 月，美国商务部长霍华德·卢特尼克 (Howard Lutnick) 要求与荷兰芯片设备制造商 ASML 的高管会面，以讨论其中一台机器身处中国且违反美国主导的出口限制之担忧。

ASML 表示，该公司掌握所有 340 台极紫外线 (EUV) 光刻机的所在地——这些激光驱动设备实际上是生产 AI 技术所需最先进半导体的瓶颈。其中没有任何一台在中国。

但卢特尼克的担忧并非毫无道理。上周有报道称，一家未具名的上海公司已知晓如何制造一个略低于 ASML 机器性能的版本，并目标在明年生产五台。

ASML 的股价一度暴跌。韩国综合股价指数 (Kospí) 同样下跌，加剧了抛售潮，导致该芯片权重股指数在过去五周内下跌超过 40%，随后在周五因机构投资者“逢低买入”而反弹 18%。

高盛估计，多达 360,000 个零售交易账户被清空，超过一百万韩国投资者——大约每 30 个劳动年龄人口中就有一人——收到了追加保证金通知（要求投入更多现金或平仓）。西方投资者，尤其是高杠杆对冲基金，也遭受了损失。

中国在光刻领域的明显突破，与其他挑战美国 AI 霸权的威胁交织在一起，包括强大的中国开源 AI 模型 Kimi K3，以及上周中国芯片制造商中芯集成 (CXMT) 的轰动性上市。

此外还有一个更为人熟知的担忧：科技巨头在 AI 上的巨额投入。用前高盛首席执行官劳埃德·布兰克方因 (Lloyd Blankfein) 的话来说，这一切是否是下一场金融危机的“干柴”？

背景

上周四，在美联储维持利率不变后，美国政府的借贷成本攀升至 2007 年以来的最高水平。30 年期美国国债收益率的上升反映了投资者对通胀风险日益增加的担忧；由于能源价格依然波动且美国战略石油储备在减少，投资者要求持有长期政府债券获得更高的溢价。

他们对新任美联储主席凯文·沃什 (Kevin Warsh) 同样感到不安，他由于不愿解释其决策过程，在上周惊扰了国债市场。这将收紧包括科技巨头在内的企业借款人的融资条件。美国银行的塞巴斯蒂安·雷德勒 (Sebastian Raedler) 表示：“借贷成本的上升可能会让一个原本可行经济项目变得不可行。”

危机

随着科技巨头将其更多——甚至全部——现金流投入 AI，他们正越来越多地依赖债务市场。如亚马逊 (Amazon)、谷歌 (Alphabet)、Meta 和甲骨文 (Oracle) 等超大规模云服务商在截至 7 月 7 日的一年内发行了约 $194bn 的债券，比 2025 年同期增长了 79%。

上周的公司业绩好坏参半：亚马逊和微软的云收入快速增长，而 Meta 的股价则大幅下跌，因为投资者认为其在缺乏可靠收入计划的情况下 AI 支出过高。到目前为止，超大规模云服务商已在 AI 资本投资中投入超过 $1m。

投资者持有超大规模云服务商债务与持有平均国债之间的成本差（即利差）一直在扩大。巴克莱银行管理董事安德鲁·凯切夫 (Andrew Kechev) 表示：“我们看到的波动幅度在投资级 [债券] 市场并不常见。这是职业生涯中少见的波动，让人想起新冠疫情期间。”

针对这些公司违约的保险成本也在上升。信用违约掉期 (CDS) 的价格在最近几周达到了历史新高，CDS 在 2008 年作为一种做空美国企业的手段而流行起来。

循环融资

国际结算银行的 Phurichai Rungcharoenkitkul 最近指出，此次繁荣的规模以及对债务和循环融资（即一家公司在对方承诺购买投资者产品的条件下向其投资）的依赖，引发了关于“可持续性和金融稳定性”的“疑问”。

韩国综合股价指数

Nvidia 是一个典型的例子。这家芯片制造商为约 $3.5bn 的客户贷款提供“担保”，这意味着如果客户无法向贷方还款，Nvidia 将代为偿还。据《华尔街日报》报道，该公司正考虑为 OpenAI 一个 $250bn 的数据中心提供类似的支持。

Rungcharoenkitkul 警告称，失败可能会扩散：由于超大规模云服务商持有 Anthropic 和 OpenAI 等 AI 实验室的股权，单个实验室的失败可能会冲击其资产负债表，迫使它们从其他实验室撤资，从而在整个系统中引发连锁压力。

英国情况如何？

英国在 AI 供应链中并没有很大的影响力——富时 100 指数 (FTSE 100) 被某些人视为一个“反科技”指数——但这并不能使其免受全球股票价格剧烈下跌的影响。英格兰银行警告称，全球 AI 估值的任何“修正”都将产生重大影响。例如，如果美国股市价格下跌 45%，英格兰银行估计英国经济将受到 2.2% 的打击。

AI 投资热潮没有放缓的迹象，但质疑之声正日益高涨。根据 S3 Partners 的数据，今年针对亚马逊、微软和 Meta 的空头头寸增加了超过 $20bn。上周的情况表明，当 AI 巨头出现波动时，其后果将波及广泛。

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38

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

简报 (The minutes)

作者：Marine Saint

零售

Sainsbury's 出售其 Argos 权益

Sainsbury's 已达成协议，将其旗下的 Argos 部门以至少 1.2 亿英镑m 的价格出售，首席执行官 Simon Roberts 正继续将其重心转向该零售商的核心食品业务。此次出售价格仅为 Sainsbury's 在 2016. 支付的 £1.1bn 收购 Argos 价格的近十分之一。尽管 Argos 是一个家喻户晓的品牌，但在由亚马逊主导的在线消费品市场中，它一直难以竞争。像 Temu 这样的中国公司也构成了日益增长的威胁。买家 Swift Partners 由零售业资深人士 Richard Pennycook 领导，他周五将 Argos 的数百家实体店描述为“一个巨大的优势”。他还拒绝排除深受大众喜爱的 Argos 印刷版目录重新回归的可能性，该目录在 2020 年被取消。

AI

Google 致力于将 Gemini 打造为其亮点

解散一个获得诺贝尔奖的团队是一次奇怪的战略转移，但 Google DeepMind 已悄然部署这一举措，旨在将资源推向公司的 Gemini 大语言模型 (LLM)。《金融时报》报道称，大部分使用 AI 预测蛋白质三维结构的 AlphaFold 论文原作者已被重新分配。近四分之一的人已经完全离开了公司；其他人则转到了由 Google 母公司 Alphabet 旗下的药物研发公司 Isomorphic Labs 或 Gemini 团队。Google DeepMind 研究副总裁 Pushmeet Kohli 表示，九年来，其战略一直是“专注于重大挑战”并在每个项目中设定具体目标，但现在已演变为构建由 Gemini 驱动的系统，以辅助研究并最终实现科学流程部分环节的自动化。

法国领衔填补 Palantir 的空缺

随着各国政府逐渐远离这家美国软件公司，Palantir 的竞争对手正盯着欧洲出现的机遇。由于对数据主权的担忧，安迪·伯纳姆将加入其他欧洲国家领导人的行列，放弃使用 Palantir 的 AI 工具。法国、西班牙、德国和瑞士已指示与国家有关联的公司和机构不要与这家与特朗普相关的科技公司签署新合同。法国最近宣布其

观察家报商业矩阵

Important

国内情报机构今后将避免对 Palantir 产生“战略依赖”，转而选择法国竞争对手 ChapsVision。法国总理塞巴斯蒂安·勒科尔尼（Sébastien Lecornu）在 X 上表示：“我们不能依赖外国势力开发的工具——法国必须拥有自己的工具。” ChapsVision 目前占据有利的起始位置，但成为欧洲首选软件供应商的竞争将非常激烈。

媒体

阿加莎·克里斯蒂依然在大赚特赚

这位犯罪小说女王的吸引力没有衰减的迹象：阿加莎·克里斯蒂的遗产管理机构报告称，去年销售额创下纪录。由作者本人于 1955 年成立以管理其出版权的 Agatha Christie Limited 宣布，在“出版、电视发行和许可收入”的强劲推动下，2025, 年的收入接近 3300 万英镑m。

阿加莎·克里斯蒂 1950 年的照片。

Netflix 改编的《七个日晷之谜》以及即将推出的 BBC 播映的波洛系列剧集《赫丘勒》，都是这场“淘金热”的一部分，因为流媒体平台正激烈竞争以获取已故作家的知识产权。

石油与天然气

伊朗战争推动壳牌利润激增

壳牌公司从全球冲突中获利，今年第二季度利润达到 $89.84bn，是去年同期的两倍多。自伊朗冲突爆发以及霍尔木兹海峡石油供应中断以来，油价大幅飙升，并随着和平谈判的起伏而剧烈波动。与其他能源巨头一样，壳牌在如此波动的情况下通过贸易获利丰厚。部分业务受到冲突导致的损坏和关闭影响，包括在卡塔尔的生产，但巴西和墨西哥湾的新石油产量帮助平稳了数据。这一消息引起了绿色环保活动人士的沮丧和愤怒。地球之友呼吁增加替代能源供应，称壳牌的利润是“建立在能源危机之上的，而这场危机让全国各地的家庭在面对高昂的家庭能源账单和昂贵的加油站燃料时苦苦挣扎”。

投资

采取行动阻止英国进入欧盟投资基金

欧盟的旗舰后期技术投资基金面临新的紧张局势。法国正采取强硬手段，阻止英国进入规模为 €5bn 的 Scaleup 基金，欧盟外交官表示，这种做法损害了欧盟与英国的“重启”谈判。法国政府已要求欧盟委员会澄清英国将如何参与以及将做出多少贡献，认为此类欧盟倡议应为了成员国的利益而运行。英国已同意提供 €150m 的种子资本，欧盟委员会此前曾表示，让英国参与具有“互利”作用，但巴黎目前正寻求获取额外的让步。下一次欧盟-英国重启峰会的日期尚未确定，在基尔·斯塔默辞职后已被搁置。

制造业

炸弹制造热潮使英国工厂受益

劳斯莱斯（Rolls-Royce）和 BAE 系统公司预计，全球政府增加国防开支将带来高额回报。随着英国、美国及其他地区对武器需求的增长，两家公司本周均上调了收益预期。这家汽车制造商在本周发布强劲的上半年报告后，股价上涨了 5%，其 £120bn 的估值使其在富时 100. (FTSE 100) 中紧随矿业巨头力拓（Rio Tinto）之后，位居第四。劳斯莱斯曾与豪华车联系在一起，而现在它押注于为战斗机制造喷气发动机、舰船和潜艇涡轮机以及数据中心电源单元。BAE 系统公司受益于一项价值 £5.9bn 的核潜艇合同（该合同于上周四确认），其股价在一周内上涨了 5% 以上。

航天

中国公司发射卫星旨在与 SpaceX 竞争

中国所谓的卫星星座有望与埃隆·马斯克的 SpaceX 帝国竞争。中国公司 SpaceSail 上周四在太原发射中心成功将新的通信技术测试卫星送入太空，并计划在 2026. 年底前部署 648 颗卫星。这家由国家支持的初创公司在 6 月 SpaceX 进行价值 $1.8m 的上市前几天尝试发射，试图抢走马斯克的风头。SpaceSail 表示，现在可以开始其首个商业应用，即追踪海上船舶。虽然马斯克通过 SpaceX 的卫星互联网服务 Starlink 拥有一个约 10,000 颗卫星的宇宙，但他与监管机构的冲突可能会在市场中留下空白。在 SpaceSail 启动最新一轮融资并试图在国际市场与 Starlink 竞争之际，美国将密切关注其动态。

政治

财政大臣确定秋季预算案日期

约翰·希利宣布他将于 10 月 28 日提交其首份预算案。这位新任财政大臣的任务将是细化 Andy Burnham 的权力下放议程，并为首相就任以来的承诺筹集资金。希利表示，他希望在财政规则面前保持一定的“缓冲”，但在支出压力剧增以及来自中东的经济不确定性背景下，这可能会面临挑战。预算案日期比去年提前了约一个月——这至少意味着关于哪些税项可能会增加的猜测时间少了一个月。

关键统计数据

$82m

乔·罗根过去一年作为最高薪播客主持人的收入

3.75%

英格兰银行利率，已连续第五次会议保持不变

€30m

法国文化部用于升级国家博物馆安保的新预算

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商业

观察家报

02.08.26

39

“像鲨鱼一样，OpenAI 必须前进或死亡

评论

Sebastian Mallaby

科技繁荣将具有持久力，但某些科技公司则不然，而萨姆·奥特曼的资金危机想必让他感到心惊胆战。

任何关注上周股价的人可能很容易想象，人工智能繁荣已经触碰到天花板。

到周三为止，半导体股票市值蒸发超过一万亿美元，随后才收复部分失地；与此同时，一家以大举押注 AI 革命而闻名的名为 Situational Awareness 的对冲基金，对其陷入困境的资产进行了抛售。但最稳妥的赌注是 AI 繁荣将继续，即便某些竞争者会崩盘。讽刺的是，最能说明这种脆弱性的公司，正是那家凭借 ChatGPT 模型引发这场狂热的加州 AI 实验室：OpenAI。

为什么我说不存在普遍的 AI 泡沫？因为 AI 正处于一条使其变得比现在强大得难以想象的路径上。到 2028 年左右，一家 AI 实验室将能够指示其前沿模型创建一个更新、更好的自身版本——而且该模型将独立发明必要的算法进步。人们将发现远超对话伴侣领域的新应用。医学研究人员将使用 AI 来改进药物研发和基因编辑。太空极客将把行星的卫星图像输入到

一个“大型地球模型”中，以便农民能够优化土壤质量，消防员能够预测野火的路径。

但在这些非凡的进步之中，特定的 AI 公司将会倒下。有些公司可能拥有优秀的技术，但缺乏将其商业化收费的能力。另一些公司则可能名声大噪得过于迅速，以至于无法兑现早期的承诺，此时，除非财力雄厚，否则它们将耗尽资金并破产。

OpenAI 阐明了这两种风险。其技术极为出色，仅略后于行业领导者 Anthropic。它的 ChatGPT 对话伴侣在软件历史上比任何产品传播得都快，将其领导者萨姆·奥特曼变成了硅谷的偶像。然而，在商业层面，拥有庞大的零售用户群体反而是一种负担。OpenAI 投入数十亿美元来运行该模型，但只有极小部分的客户支付订阅费。与 Anthropic 不同，OpenAI 较晚才开始针对高付费的商业用户。

ChatGPT 的病毒式传播确实激发了投资者的兴奋。技术基金和其他大型科技公司竞相参与 OpenAI 的私募融资轮，将该公司的账面估值推高至 $852bn——超过了英国市值最高的三家上市公司的总和。但这个极高的数字与其说是福音，不如说是一种诅咒。当一家硅谷公司达到了其无法证明合理性的估值时，随之而来的报应往往是丑陋的。

伍迪·艾伦曾说，一段关系就像一只鲨鱼：它必须不断前行，否则就会死亡。OpenAI 证明其情况可能与之相似。与所有科技公司一样，它通过承诺给予股份来吸引工程师和科学家。它用股份向半导体供应商支付款项。如果 OpenAI 的股价下跌，员工可能会离职，芯片也将更难获得。

许多投资者认为股价应该下跌。目前的估值

当前的股票估值与营收完全不成比例，更不用说利润了，因为根本没有利润

与 OpenAI 的营收完全不成比例，更不用说其利润了，因为根本没有利润。泄露的公司账目显示，其营收为 $13.1bn，而成本为 $34bn——这意味着 $20.9bn 的运营亏损。更糟糕的是，这个亏空似乎还在扩大。据《华尔街日报》报道，OpenAI 最近将其到 2030, 年的预计计算能力支出提高到约 $7876m，高于今年早些时候约 $600bn 的预测。面对这些迅速增加的成本，OpenAI 的营收增长则十分缓慢。

上周三，萨姆·奥特曼在国会大厦参加了一场关于限制 AI 安全威胁的会议后。Kevin Dietsch / Getty

将 OpenAI 的困境与其两大顶尖竞争对手的情况进行对比。自今年年初以来，由于专注于企业客户，Anthropic 的年化营收增长了五倍，而 OpenAI 的营收仅增长了约四分之一。Gemini 模型的制造商谷歌则通过其云服务和广告业务从 AI 中获利。此外，它还拥有行业内最雄厚的财力。

如果 OpenAI 能够成功上市，或许能摆脱困境，使其在吸引零售投资者的方面比吸引零售消费者时更成功。确实，该公司正在计划首次公开募股（IPO），据称目标时间是今年秋季。但由于很少有投资者愿意以 OpenAI 要求的高估值购买股份，该计划已被推迟。目前，该公司必须继续从私人投资者那里筹集资金，而这些投资者的耐心可能正在耗尽。据报道，在私人二级市场中，卖家数量多于买家；而 Anthropic 的情况则恰恰相反。OpenAI 最近的一轮私人融资额度看起来令人印象深刻：筹集了 $122bn。但其中大部分是由条件性的未来承诺组成的。

如果 OpenAI 资金耗尽，有人会将其收购，AI 热潮仍将继续：请记住，这项技术是非常卓越的。但 AI 行业的整体光明前景并不能保护其所有成员。

塞巴斯蒂安·马拉比（Sebastian Mallaby）是《无限机：德米斯·哈萨比斯、DeepMind 与超智能探索》（The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind and the Quest for Superintelligence）一书的作者。

BP 将北海业务挂牌出售，打击安迪·伯纳姆的计划

巴尼·麦金泰尔 (Barney Macintyre)

商业新闻编辑

在经历了 60 年的生产后，BP 正在将其北海业务出售。

在新任首席执行官 Meg O'Neill 对公司运营进行审查后，五个雇佣约 1,100 人的油气生产中心将被拍卖。此前，一项将这些资产以近 $2bn 的价格出售给 Ithaca Energy 的交易失败后，该流程随即启动。

这次调整并不令人意外。去年，BP 的北海业务日产油当量为 117,000 桶，仅为其日产 2.3m 桶油的一小部分。该公司最近在巴西取得了 25 年来最大的发现，并在埃及、纳米比亚、乌兹别克斯坦和阿塞拜疆拥有新的钻探和勘探租约。

“北海已经有一段时间不再是前沿增长省份了，”ReMarind 的顾问 Paul O'Brien 表示。“对于一家在全球投资组合中竞争资本的大公司来说，投资重点转向规模更大、寿命更长的机会是可以理解的。”

O'Neill 做出该决定的时机值得关注。安迪·伯纳姆 上周承诺将采取“务实”的钻探方法。这位首相表示：“那里有资源。当人们在挣扎时，我们不能忽视这一点。” BP 并不在意。许多人将将其退出视为进一步的证据，证明英国的能源利润税（对上游油气利润征收的有效税率 75%）使得日渐老化的北海盆地变得“不可投资”。

“BP 的宣布应该是新任首相的一个决定性时刻。亚伯丁人们在问的问题是，在政府采取行动之前，还需要失去多少个工作岗位？”亚伯丁与格兰皮安商会的 Ryan Crighton 说道。

该公司还在缩减其可再生能源投资组合。据了解，该公司正处于将太阳能业务 LightSource 出售给一家科威特财富基金的交易最后阶段，并放弃了与德国电力公司 EnBW 共同开发英国海上风电场计划。上季度，该公司对其天然气和低碳能源部门计提了 $1bn 的减值准备。该公司将于周二报告新业绩。

1970, BP 首次在北海油田取得了重大发现：Forties 油田。几十年后，公司首席执行官之一 John Browne 夸张地将其描述为“英国版登月”。BP 在 2003 年将该油田出售给了美国 Apache 公司。

周五，BP 重申其全球基地将保留在英国，在这里它雇佣了近 14,000 人。但失去了北海这一锚点，其名称中的“英国 (British)”一词似乎越来越缺乏说服力。关于这家公众公司将在海外重新上市股票的猜测无疑将会增加。

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商业

百度 Apollo (Baidu Apollo)

每辆车制造 成本低于 $30,000

关键城市：武汉、 北京、上海、 深圳，以及香港、 迪拜、阿布扎比 （全球 +26 个城市）

首席执行官 李彦宏 (Robin Li)

Wayne

制造费用 不适用 (N / A) 授权软件， 不制造车辆

关键城市：伦敦 (2026 年底)

首席执行官 Alex Kendall

自动驾驶出租车之战将席卷伦敦街道

自动驾驶汽车制造商之间的竞争正变得异常激烈——且即将来到这座首都。作者：Barney Macintyre

谷歌旗下的自动驾驶初创公司 Waymo 上周确认，将结束与 Uber 为期三年的独家合作伙伴关系，不再在两个美国城市提供无人驾驶乘车服务。这标志着自动驾驶汽车市场的竞争日益激进，而这种局面可能很快将在伦敦街头演现。

这项开启了自动驾驶汽车（AVs）商业化竞赛的协议将于 2028 年到期，这意味着 Uber 打造自有无人驾驶汽车的梦想已成为了过去式。

这并非两家公司首次反目。2017 年 2 月，Waymo 起诉 Uber 及其自动驾驶子公司 Otto，指控 Waymo 前技术负责人 Anthony Levandowski 在跳槽至 Uber 研发 Lidar（自动驾驶汽车使用的远程传感技术）之前窃取了商业秘密。

Otto 和 Levandowski 当时都受到 Uber 首席执行官 Travis Kalanick 的支持。2017 年，Kalanick 正在处理一篇指控 Uber 存在系统性性骚扰的博文所引发的负面影响。与此同时，一段 Kalanick 责骂一名 Uber 司机关于车费下降的视频被公开，他随后为此道歉。

在审判开始五天后，该案达成和解，Uber 向 Waymo 提供价值 24500 万美元 ($245m) 的股权，而非现金赔偿。但余波一直持续到 2020 年，Levandowski 因窃取商业秘密被指控，被判处 18 个月监禁，并被命令向谷歌支付 1.79 亿美元 ($179m) 的罚款。随后他申请了破产。

2017 年 8 月，Kalanick 被 Expedia 前首席执行官 Dara Khosrowshahi 取代，Uber 开始转向一种类似的打车和配送服务“聚合器”模式，而非自行研发和测试自动驾驶汽车。但 Kalanick 仍持有 Uber 的董事会席位，且据一位熟悉其投资情况的消息人士透露，他曾计划通过合资企业收购 Waymo。

在该计划未能实现后，Kalanick 转而投向新项目。其中包括“暗厨房”业务 CloudKitchens，以及一家名为 Atoms 的初创公司，后者从包括 Andreessen Horowitz 和 Uber 本身在内的基金中筹集了 170 万美元 ($1.7m)。消息人士称，Atoms 专注于配送服务的全栈自动化，以及在餐饮、采矿和运输领域生产“有偿就业机器人”。然而，创始人的离场并不意味着 Uber 参与自动驾驶革命的梦想必须破灭。2023 年 5 月，Uber 签署协议，允许用户在其平台上召唤 Waymo 的自动驾驶汽车，从亚利桑那州凤凰城开始，随后扩展到德克萨斯州奥斯汀和乔治亚州亚特兰大。

起初进展顺利且评分较高，但随后 Waymo 在某些城市推出了自己的共享乘车应用，并开始 courting Uber 的竞争对手（包括 Lyft）。Uber 和 Waymo 开始就服务和安全故障互相指责。

今年 2 月，Uber 在其业绩报告中强调了自动驾驶出租车服务存在的问题（未点名 Waymo），并强调在阴雨天气等环境下，可能仍然需要人类驾驶员在方向盘后把关。4 月，该公司首席技术官发布了一段 Waymo 车辆险些撞上巴士的视频；5 月，在亚特兰大的一条死胡同里发现了数十辆空载的 Waymo 车辆在打转。Waymo 声称这是由 Uber 应用引起的路线问题。

一项近期的 YouGov 调查发现，四分之三的美国人表示他们对自动驾驶出租车的信任度极低或完全不信任。

据《金融时报》（FT）报道，两家公司在监管方面也一直在“追求截然不同的目标”。Waymo 游说采取高额的许可证费用，以阻止规模较小的参与者进入市场，其中至少有八家与 Uber 合作。而 Uber 则在游说建立“混合网络”，要求自动驾驶出租车试点计划在至少 85% 的行程中配备人类驾驶员。

“他们提出了需要混合动力这一观点，但我并不认同。我认为这是一种法律战手段，旨在拖慢 Waymo 的速度，”Sacra 的分析师兼联合创始人 Ian-Erik Asplund 表示。

由于 Waymo 可能会撤出的前景，Uber 的股价下跌了 4%，使其今年以来累计跌幅达到 16%。对许多人来说，自动驾驶 (AV) 公司推出自己的应用程序以削弱 Uber 及其驱动程序（后者构成了行程成本的大部分）的逻辑似乎不可避免。

但在 Khosrowshahi 的领导下，Uber 不仅仅是一个从 A 点到 B 点的平台。凭借每月 2 亿 (200 million) 的活跃用户（而 Waymo 每周仅为 500,000 人），它具备成为“超级应用”的潜质，在最完善的形式中，超级应用涵盖了乘车、食品配送、支付、即时通讯和游戏。然而到目前为止，还没有任何此类应用在亚洲以外地区取得成功。作为乘车服务的首选中介，它目前持有优势。

但颠覆正在到来。对比网站 Obi 的分析发现，在旧金山通过特斯拉自家应用预订的特斯拉 Robotaxi 平均行程价格为 $8.17——约为 Lyft、Uber 或 Waymo 成本的一半。特斯拉的劣势在于，其自动驾驶车辆依赖于一种不同的基于摄像头的技术，该技术在通过审批的司法管辖区较少。此外，它为了激进的定价而牺牲了盈利能力。

接着是信任问题。在最近的一项 YouGov 调查中，四分之三的美国人表示他们对自动驾驶出租车几乎没有或完全没有信任。此外还出现了关于卫生的投诉。由于没有负责的司机，乘客可能会叫到一辆车，而车内还残留着前一名乘客狂欢之夜后的狼藉。

尽管如此，人们对自动驾驶将成为未来的接受度（或者或许是漠不关心）正在提高。在 20 世纪 90 年代初，英国 17-20 岁人群中几乎有一半 (48%) 拥有完整驾驶执照。到 2024 年，这一比例已下降至 29%。在 21-29 岁人群中，该比例从 75% 下降到 61%。

自动驾驶是一个拥挤的市场，虽然早期的冲突发生在硅谷，但预计伦敦——凭借其独特的道路布局——将成为关键战场。虽然 Waymo 在美国可能会领先于 Uber，但在英国，它面临着来自 Wayne（由 Uber 支持）和百度 Apollo Go 的竞争，后者是一家上周开始在该市进行测试的中国运营商。

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商业

observer.co.uk

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舍特兰群岛，我们遇到了一些问题，但英国应当在欧洲的太空竞赛中获胜

安斯特空间发射场的一次挫折推迟了——而非取消了——欧洲首枚火箭的起飞

Emma Haslett

今年夏天，舍特兰群岛最北端的岛屿之一安斯特（Unst）的居民们一直在准备一个具有里程碑意义的时刻：英国本土首次垂直火箭发射。

此次发射原定于 8 月中旬至 9 月初之间在 SaxaVord 空间发射场进行，使用由德国 Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) 公司制造的火箭。然而，RFA 上周表示在测试过程中遇到了“一个问题”，并决定将火箭“脱离堆叠”（de-stack）——即将其从发射台上移走——以进行进一步分析。

《观察家报》获悉，RFA 现在将“交还” 8 月的发射窗口，并寻求在秋季获得一个新的窗口批准。但即便有所延迟，欧洲首枚发射进入太空的火箭仍极有可能从英国起飞。

太空对于英国的竞争力变得日益重要。

“这其中存在商业机遇，也涉及国家安全，”UKSpace 发射委员会主席、前英国太空局副首席执行官 Ian Annett 表示。“目前，我们必须前往美国并询问：我们能随你们一起发射吗？[但]如果我们的国家利益与美国利益或工业界利益发生分歧，那么当我们想要将设备送入太空时，我们就没有可行的路径。”

英国在发射方面具有地理优势。

“如果我们的利益与美国利益分歧，我们就没有可行的路径将设备送入太空”

Ian Annett, UKSpace

“为了以最高效的方式进入近地轨道，你需要处于地球表面尽可能靠北的位置，”Peel Hunt 的分析师 James Lockyer 说道。

当全球关注点集中在如 6 月份 SpaceX 价值 $2.1tn 的 IPO 等美国壮举时，英国的航天公司一直在悄悄地产生影响。

贸易协会 UKSpace 的数据显示，在 2021-22 年间，英国的 1,800 家航天公司每年带来近 1900 万英镑bn 的收入。而且这不仅仅关乎火箭：“它还涵盖空间制造、太阳能、制药以及新材料，”Lockyer 说道。PitchBook 的数据显示，欧洲的航天领域已经迅速扩张，风险资本交易额在 2025, 从 2017. 年的 €200m 增长至 €1.2bn (€1bn)。今年已经在打破记录，到目前为止已宣布了 €2.2bn 的交易。

“对独立欧洲发射能力的需求持续增长。各国政府日益认识到确保进入太空的重要性，对可靠发射基础设施的需求从未如此之高，”SaxaVord 首席执行官 Scott Hammond 表示。

但进入太空说起来容易做起来难。直到今年，Orbex 仍代表了英国火箭发射的最佳希望。但在 2 月，这家曾被估值为 $220m 的苏格兰公司陷入了破产管理状态。

这重复了理查德·布兰森（Richard Branson）旗下 Virgin Orbit 的命运。2023 年 1 月，该公司的 LauncherOne “水平”火箭——由一架改装的波音 747 承载——未能达到将 9 颗卫星有效载荷送入轨道所需的高度。四个月后，这家曾一度被估值为 $3.5bn 的公司崩溃了。

英国政府似乎对航天领域十分热情。6 月，政府宣布投资 1900 万英镑m，其中包括向英国空间制造初创公司 SpaceForge 提供 1000 万英镑m 资金。

但政府同时也推迟了其太空战略的发布。此外，今年早些时候，英国太空局作为一项削减成本的措施，被并入了科学、创新与技术部（现为商业、创新、科学与贸易部）。

洛基尔表示，政府必须更认真地对待这一机遇。“太空不是一个部门，也不是一个垂直领域——它是一个新的据点，”他说。“而其他人正抢先抵达那里。”

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商业

商业杂谈 (Any Other Business)

阿诺特的成功正演变为一场“法式继承”

“在普通家庭里被称为周日的生活，在我们家被称为情节，”LVMH 的亿万富翁老板贝尔纳·阿诺特在上一周首次发布 X 平台动态时如此观察道。《世界报》的一项调查揭露了这家奢侈品巨头内部据称存在的兄弟姐妹之争——这与默多克家族的情况极为相似，而后者正是被认为启发了关于王朝讽刺剧《继承之战》的原型。

阿诺特那篇“这里没什么可看的”帖子在精英主义的优雅方面无疑与品牌形象相符，尽管是通过不那么体面的大众媒体传达的。然而，这些指控出现在一个艰难的时刻。由于奢侈品需求的下滑，LVMH 的股价已从 2023 年的高点几乎腰斩（尽管上周业绩有所改善，股价略有回升）。他的五个孩子现在在 LVMH 内部已处于足够资深的地位，使得他们的每一步行动在外界看来都耐人寻味。77 岁的阿诺特与一些商业家族巨头相比显得很有精神（默多克比他年长近 20 岁），但他并非长生不老之身。

LVMH 对其吸收的王朝（从迪奥到蒂法尼）做出的承诺是永久性：防止在三代之内出现“从衬衫袖子到衬衫袖子”的情况（即第一代创造的财富通常在接下来的两代中被挥霍殆尽）。老阿诺特建立了这个集团，因此这个承诺尚未真正受到考验——直到现在，而且是以如此公开的方式。

尽管如此，正如他所主张的，40 年前谁会赌一个法郎，认为法国将孕育出全球奢侈品领导者——他声称，该公司已向国库贡献了超过 €40bn 的资金。在这种情况下，家族控制权对于法国经济来说可能是一个巨大的胜利，即便它保留了被《世界报》称为法国“最后一个皇室”的东西。英国由于没有类似的商业王朝幸存，只能依靠一个在经济上实用程度较低的真正皇室。

作者：马修·毕晓普 (Matthew Bishop)

贝尔纳和海伦·阿诺特与他们的四个孩子：从左至右依次为弗雷德里克、德尔菲娜、安托万和亚历山大。Chassot / Getty

超额利润税的讨论掩盖了银行家的巨额利润光芒

现在我们有了新政府，他们似乎不像前任那样对金融业如此讨好，而英国领先银行上周公布的巨额利润再次引发了要求征收新超额利润税的呼吁。英国工会大会 (TUC) 的保罗·诺瓦克表示，理由非常充分：当劳动人民在为抵押贷款和账单苦苦支撑时，银行却在“大发横财”。

劳埃德银行 (Lloyds) 是一个最纯粹的测试案例，因为它的海外收益很少，不会干扰资金来源的判定：上半年税前利润 £4.3bn，高于之前的 £3.5bn，这是获得超额利润的证据，其中大部分源于银行向借款人收取的费用与支付给储户的利息之间日益扩大的差距。

国民西敏寺银行 (NatWest) 的保罗·斯韦特表示，对银行征税将限制信贷。劳埃德银行的查理·南在公布业绩的同时，随附了一项四年计划，拟投入 £13bn 用于人工智能和海外扩张。此类承诺是抵御超额利润税的经典预防手段。

一个合理的反对意见是，这些税项很少是一次性的。英国于 2011 年引入的银行税在 15 年后依然存在。不过，征税的机制已经在那儿了。财政大臣约翰·希利可能就是那个按下开关的人。

马斯克有万亿个理由希望自己没算对

一位诺贝尔奖得主经济学家与全球首位万亿富翁就金钱的意义展开对决，这是一场引人入胜的较量。在埃隆·马斯克告诉《经济学人》，到 2036 年金钱将不再重要，因为人工智能将使商品和服务的价格几乎降为零之后，达龙·阿西莫格鲁上周向他发起挑战，要求他通过承诺在届时将其所有财产捐给慈善机构来证明这一点。

这位 2024 年的获奖者是该专业领域中对 AI 丰裕论最严谨的怀疑者：他的论文《AI 的简单宏观经济学》认为，美国生产力的总增益在十年内将低于 1%。（高盛估计，AI 每年可将美国生产力增长提高 1.5 个百分点。）因此，他提出的条款很可能是他预期会被拒绝的，因为他认为这个命题是错误的。如果结果是正面，阿西莫格鲁揭穿了一场虚张声势的骗局；如果结果是反面，他将为公益事业赢得 $1m。

或许令人惊讶的是，马斯克暗示他实际上也在考虑这个方向（在某种程度上），这比他多年来所采取的语气更具慈善色彩——这让他的核心粉丝感到失望。

认为金钱将不再重要的说法是荒谬的。即使普通商品和服务变得免费，一整类事物依然不会，且可能会比以往任何时候都更昂贵。弗雷德·赫什在 1976 年的写作中将这些称为“地位商品”，因为它们在绝对意义上或社会惯例上都是稀缺的：增加供应就会破坏它们值得拥有的原因。有些是由地理或历史决定的，比如梅费尔区或一幅维米尔的画作；有些则是通过安排决定的，比如皇家歌剧院董事会的席位。

丰裕并不会让金钱变得无关紧要。如果普通商品和服务不花钱，那么人们将投入更多精力去创造那些稀缺的东西，而有能力的人将愿意支付高价来拥有它们。在那个世界里，成为万亿富翁依然有意义。

“两个希利的故事：财政大臣能从其前任身上学到什么

威廉·基根

两位名为希利的工党财政大臣，相隔近 50 年：一位是 1974 年至 1979 年期间的丹尼斯·希利，另一位是现在由 安迪·伯纳姆 任命的约翰·希利。两人此前都曾担任国防大臣——丹尼斯在 1964 年至 1970 年间担任，约翰从 2024 年起担任直到今年 6 月辞职。

考虑到现代频繁更换部长的模式，年轻读者如果对丹尼斯·希利在整个第一届威尔逊政府期间一直担任同一国防职务感到惊讶，是可以原谅的。在诸多成就中，哈罗德·威尔逊在面临美国强大压力时，成功让英国免于卷入越南战争，这一点确实应归功于他。当我一次向丹尼斯提到这件事时，他说：“是的——但我得帮他撑腰！”

好吧，我们现在又回到了原点：一名美国总统在进行一场疯狂的战争，并希望英国支持他。到目前为止我们一直抵制，尽管在允许 唐纳德·特朗普 使用英国基地进行攻击目的（政府反对）与防御目的（政府认为合理）之间的区别，正面临变得模糊的危险。

1970 年代的财政大臣面临的压力与现任者目前面临的压力之间还存在其他相似之处。

在两种情况下，由石油危机引发的通胀压力都占据主导地位。然而，1975 年通胀率达到 25% 的情况，与现在关于英格兰银行应如何应对“仅” 4% 的潜在通胀率而产生巨大争议的情况之间，存在着显著差异。

1976 年，英国的信心危机如此严重，以至于外国投资者停止了在英国的投资。希利被迫“低声下气”地

1976 年在 11 号唐宁街的丹尼斯·希利。

1970 年代的财政大臣面临的压力与现任者面临的压力之间存在相似之处。

向国际货币基金组织请求贷款。这一次，并不缺乏想要购买英国国债 (gilts) 的资金，但他们只会在价格合适的情况下才这样做。对收益率上升的担忧，解释了为何人们会对政府借贷水平以及“财政规则”所带来的限制感到不安。

许多分析师认为，国防支出和社会护理的需求在某个时间点将需要提高税收，而这很难与伯纳姆显然决心遵守竞选宣言承诺的立场相调和。

但我希望约翰·希利 (John Healey) 能够承认，由于脱离了欧盟关税同盟和单一市场，国库正在损失宝贵的资金。重新加入将有利于增长。遗憾的是，到目前为止，几乎没有迹象表明我们的新任首相关注欧洲。现在是他该关注的时候了。

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横向

1 痰盂 (8) 5 流浪儿，孤儿 (4) 9 滑雪道 (5) 10 兴致高昂 (7) 11 双杠体操器材 (8,4) 13 过分装饰的 (6) 15 像牛一样的 (6) 17 胆小的 (5-7) 20 代替品 (5-2) 21 扁平、中空的面包 (5) 22 道德或法律责任 (4) 23 合作 (4,4)

纵向

1 黑手党家族首领 (4) 2 支持，养育 (7) 3 不精确 (12) 4 隐藏的或秘密的 (6) 6 主要的，首要的 (5) 7 预测的 (8) 8 相关出版作品清单 (12) 12 迷失方向的，困惑的 (8) 18 缺乏活动或兴趣 (7) 16 像甘草一样的烹饪香草 (6) 18 不合适的 (5) 19 保证人 (4)

解答 No. 1,607

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追求皇冠

DATEJUST

腕表与 瑞士

Mappin & Webb

GOLDSMITHS

ROLEX

腕表款式视库存情况而定

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

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Ground Truth 图像显示一条单一的实线水平线。根据规则 2 (UNDERSCORE & LINE RULES)，这是一个风格化或背景线，而不是占位下划线。因此，OCR 结果必须忽略它，不输出任何内容或仅输出有意义的文本。提供的 OCR 内容是 "____"，由四个下划线组成。这是将该线错误地解读为占位符，违反了风格线必须被忽略的规则。OCR 在 GT 的视觉上下文中幻听出了本不应存在的下划线。因此，OCR 结果与 Ground Truth 不一致。

需要观察员

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2026年的高桅帆船今天在丹麦奥尔堡最后一次启航。你能找到：

☐ 一个美人鱼 ☐ 一张地图 ☐ 一艘沉船 ☐ 一个被偷的三明治 ☐ 一个漩涡 ☐ 一群海豚 ☐ 一只狗 ☐ 一个单筒望远镜 ☐ 鱼骨 ☐ 一艘维京船？

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您的每周逻辑页面，包含两道专为《观察家报》编写的谜题

欢迎词

你上次在一天之内不接触一个——或者两个、三个——社交媒体平台是什么时候？Instagram 似乎依然像以往那样受欢迎。TikTok 正在横行。更不用说 X、Snapchat、Threads、Facebook、LinkedIn、BlueSky（真的！）以及，悄悄说一声，Truth Social……我们与其说是被“末日滚动”吸引，不如说是被它彻底吞噬了。而这种被锁在手机里的无底洞般的时间，以及每周屏幕时间报告带来的恐惧，会让我们的感觉变好吗？显然没有……

然而，在社交媒体的某些角落，正产生着积极的影响：人们让我们微笑、大笑或落泪；他们展现出共鸣感并邀请我们产生共鸣；他们追求自己的、通常是非常小众的爱好，带着如此之大的快乐、自由和激情，以至于人们很难不被他们的热情所感染。本周的封面特写向我们介绍了来自英国各地的八个这样的声音，既有个人（Bus Aunty），也有家庭（Kabs 家）。他们每个人都有不同的使命，不同的幽默标志，以及使用社交媒体的不同原因。但他们都以自己的方式传播快乐。“我对‘刷屏’的战争让我注意到了我可能正面临被屏蔽掉的东西，”《观察家报》技术编辑 Patricia Clarke 在该篇报道的引言中写道，“每天，人们使用这些平台分享知识、筹集资金、逗人发笑，并向陌生人传递善意。”至少对于成年人来说，社交媒体似乎不可避免——那么为什么不充分利用它呢？

本期还包括：Josh Barrie 采访了曾经的“坏厨师” Marco Pierre White，他在二十多年前淡出伦敦餐饮界后，目前正经历着一场由社交媒体推动的复兴；Nigel Slater 和 Ravneet Gill 分享了夏季食谱；以及本杂志新任家居与设计编辑 Aimee Farrell 采访了一对建筑师兼设计师夫妇，他们开始翻修一座泽西岛的农舍，并因深深爱上这座房产而决定搬进去居住。请尽情阅读，感谢您的订阅。

Alex Moshakis 编辑

撰稿人

Ravneet Gill

(客座厨师, p42)

Ravneet 是一位甜点师、专栏作家和食谱作者。2025年，她与丈夫 Mattie Taiano 在东伦敦的 Chingford 开了一家名为 Gina 的餐厅。

你选择的令人快乐的在线内容是什么？

“Jimmy Darts 在美国各地通过慷慨之举给人们带来惊喜，他经常让我哭得比正常情况更多。我还很喜欢 TikTok 上那个在雨中跳 Shakira 舞的男人。疯疯癫癫的，却莫名地激励人心，而且确实非常有趣。”

Aimee Farrell

(家居, p30)

Aimee 最近加入了《观察家报》杂志，担任家居与设计编辑。她的作品经常发表在《金融时报》的 HTSI 杂志（她曾任该刊撰稿编辑）以及《纽约时报》上。Aimee 住在剑桥，大部分时间都在露天泳池。

“除了 Instagram 推送给我的所有‘偷窥’家居内容外，我还在重温 SNL UK 的片段，直到 9 月新剧集播出——Jack Shep 扮演的可爱冬眠鼠，以及由 Amy Lou Wood 饰演碧姬公主的那个厌倦了的超级玛丽小品，依然能让我笑翻。”

Josh Barrie

(Marco Pierre White, p22)

Josh 是一位常驻伦敦的饮食记者和作家。

“我想说的是足球、美食冒险、旅行、音乐、文学和艺术……

但诚实的回答是，我在关注海狸重新引入英国乡村的进程。猫头鹰视频紧随其后，排在第二位。”

David Williams

(葡萄酒，p41)

David 自 2010 年起担任《观察家报》的葡萄酒特派员，拥有超过 25 年撰写及品鉴全球葡萄酒的经验。

你最喜欢浏览哪些令人愉快的在线内容？

“板球统计数据。在 espncricinfo.com 那无穷无尽的数字中，隐藏着一个充满美好怀旧气息的世界。有人（我认为是伟大的体育作家 Rob Smyth）创造了 ‘statgasm’（统计高潮）这个词，用来形容看到一个真正令人满意且震撼的板球统计数据时的快感。这个词描述得恰到好处。”

封面图片：Brian Daly，《观察家报》杂志 • 22 Berners Street, London W1T 3LP • magazine@observer.co.uk 印刷于 Walstead Bicester Ltd, Chaucer Business Park, Launton Road, Bicester, OX26 4QZ

02.08.26

《观察家报》杂志

3

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周六 下午 4:41

他们来这里其实只为了时尚。

Jon 花了数周时间寻找一件完美的千鸟格夹克。

但当一辆福特 GT40 以 150 英里 / 小时的时速疾驰而过，导致他把饮料洒了一身时，他惊讶地发现自己竟然一点也不在意。

没什么比

古德伍德复兴赛 (Goodwood Revival) 更好

---

观察 (Observations)

p8 与喜剧演员 Jack Rooke 共度一小时

预订 (RESERVATIONS)

胜出的西装

伦敦的萨维尔街 (Savile Row) 不缺买西装的地方，但直到最近，那里还没有一个可以悠闲喝咖啡的地方。Dorothy's 是 Wendover 的最新尝试——Wendover 是伦敦最时尚的报刊亭 Shreeji News 背后的团队——他们希望改变这一现状。“我们的目标是为萨维尔街的群体创造一个简单且功能齐全的专属空间，”Wendover 联合创始人 Gabe Pryce 说道。

借鉴欧洲咖啡馆文化，Pryce 从柏林的标志性场所 Manzini 中汲取灵感。“它有一种非常美且不繁琐的感觉，而且菜单上的所有内容都是你预期的，无需过多查阅。”在 Dorothy's，早餐时段的 St John 糕点随后被布里欧修和摩塔德拉香肠三明治取代，之后则是开胃酒和小牛肉金枪鱼酱盘。

室内设计与 Wendover 的其他空间一样抢眼，采用了橡木瘤饰面板、Breccia Damascata 大理石、弯曲木椅和立式吧台。细节方面包括 Service Projects 定制餐具以及英国男装品牌 Sirplus 的工作夹克。最令人惊叹的是镜面天花板。“我一直很纠结天花板该怎么处理——而且在这样一条时尚街道上如果没有镜子，似乎不太合适，”Pryce 说。“通过抬头看，你可以看到整个房间。”

由于严格的规划规则限制了萨维尔街新店的开设，Pryce 认为 Dorothy's 的角色不仅仅是提供咖啡和尼格罗尼 (negronis)。“我们的责任是服务于一群衣着考究、有趣且多元的人群，”他说。“我们需要以他们选择的方式来照顾他们。” ● TABITHA JOYCE Dorothy's, 41 Savile Row, London W1S 3QQ

走红 (GOING VIRAL)

离婚雕塑

本季被一些趋势媒体称为“火辣离婚女之夏”，许多女性通过让自己成为一件艺术品来庆祝婚姻的结束。Studio Bust 专门创作客户裸体形态的雕塑，他们注意到来自新单身女性的委托增加了——或许是为了让自己的身体获得原本应由前任给予的关注。离婚戒指（由订婚戒指或结婚戒指的熔融残骸制成）并非新概念，但自从内容创作者们将其称为“去你的 (F-you)”戒指后，其需求量有所上升。戴在哪个手指上由所有者决定，但在这种情况下，中指似乎最为合适。

● HAYLEY MYERS

理由是...

道路工程

我家附近的街道几乎处于完全的变动状态。供水部门的人目前在那里，而且在过去一年半的时间里，他们一直在一点一点地挖掘。在他们之前是宽带公司，在同样的时长内挖掘同样的路段，且顺序似乎完全一样。这不禁让人产生疑问：他们难道不能同时完成这两件事吗？我想大概有一个明显的后勤原因，导致协调这些工作毫无意义，也许是像喷气机对阵鲨鱼（Jets v Sharks）那样风格的地盘之争，迫使他们必须在连续的隔离阶段中开展工作，而这一切都是为了我们的安全。

最终的结果是，在我住这里的每一天，快活且魁梧的年轻人都在快活且魁梧的、拿着写字板的老年人的指令下，将风镐驱动入地。我发现我一点也不介意。他们的工作在白天进行，始终处于没完没了的临时塑料围栏之后，使每个施工现场都有一种不容错过的蒙台梭利游戏围栏的感觉。这很合适，因为我的孩子们最喜欢做的就是看他们工作。

我的女儿用一种意大利退休人员在城市广场上对着工人大喊建议的锐利目光监督他们的施工。她大声地鼓励他们，并得到他们在那极其可爱的小型挖掘机里挥手回应。她对我们脚下裸露的层级，以及从上方可以窥见其中的深不可测的管道和电线感到惊叹。而我也热爱这一切，因为我在观察事物如何运作时共享了孩子般的奇迹。因为这些工人维护现代世界之方式的无可挑剔。因为他们给了我一种感觉：这座城市依然活着、呼吸着并改变着，一次一根管，一根线，一个游戏围栏。

● SEAMAS O'REILLY

5

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Observations

值得穿着之物...

我不在 这里工作

棒球帽 投身其中

445

1 1) I Don't Work Here, £40, Idea 2 2) Rhinestone Kitty, £46, Palace 3 3) Pink Chino, £70, Polo Ralph Lauren 4 4) LA Dodgers, £25, '47 Brand; 以及 Thank You, £150, Ami 5) Stretch, £40, Alex Eagle Sporting Club. 感谢 Buzz Bingo, Tiveting, London (buzzbingo.com) 的每一个人

时尚版 摄影：ELLIOTT MORGAN

6

2. 9. 16 THE GENERATOR MAGAZINE

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Observations

02.08.99

观察家报 杂志

7

AN

描述你完美的一小时

在一座陌生的城市中漫步，听一张我在 17 岁时深爱的专辑，比如 MIA 的 Maya。她当时被认为妄想且疯狂，但她说过的许多事情都实现了。

如果你可以生活在任何 era, 你会选择哪个？

我想成为 1800 年代考文特花园的一名皮条客，但要是一个友好的皮条客——人们会知道我将为他们提供非常隐秘的男性对男性服务。

如果你可以与任何名人共度一小时，你会选择谁？

Caroline Aherne，她是个天才。我很想和她一起聊聊八卦、开开玩笑，尽管我肯定她能让任何人都感到压力巨大。

你最常白日梦地想起人生中的哪个阶段？

我还在租房，因为靠 Channel 4 剧本喜剧的收入赚不到足够的钱买房。我幻想自己在 45 岁时住在运河边，养三只狗，花很多时间独处。

你最后一次吃完后悔的东西是什么时候？

在都柏林吃的一个香料袋（spice bag）——薯条、辣椒和鸡肉。我很兴奋，因为它们是现代爱尔兰的都市传说，但它让我感到恶心。

你最后一次偷东西是什么时候？

一个来自伦敦肖尔迪奇（Shoreditch）餐厅的精美鱼形玻璃水瓶。虽然我没偷：但我的用餐伙伴把它偷偷塞到了桌子下面，因为他觉得

这一小时

面对

JACK ROOKE

这位 32 岁的英国喜剧演员兼作家凭借 2015 年与他 85 岁的奶奶共同创作的单口喜剧表演《Good Grief》以及第四频道（Channel 4）的喜剧《Big Boys》而成名。他将从 8 月 14 日起在英国各地巡演新版本的《Good Grief》。

食物价格过高。而我觉得它很完美且可爱。

你最后一次哭是什么时候？

读到一首名为《狮子之路》（The Lion's Way）的诗时，那是英格兰队的一名司机在堪萨斯州写的，朱德·贝林厄姆（Jude Bellingham）在球队半决赛出局后将其发布在 Instagram 上。

你最后一次用 Shazam 识别歌曲是什么时候？

在音乐节上，如果我喝多了，我会假装不认识那些名曲。在 Primavera 音乐节上，我用 Shazam 识别了 The Cure 乐队的《Friday I'm in Love》，那些西班牙女孩惊呼道：“我不敢相信他竟然不知道这首歌。”

什么事情是你觉得时间不够用的？

保湿。我开始显得老了，我需要清洁、爽肤，然后涂抹精华液和面油。如果我能在睡前洗把脸，就算运气不错了。

最后一次有人把你误认为别人是什么时候？

在法国的 Worldwide 音乐节上，一个女孩走过来问：“现金带来了吗？”她指的是 15 米外另一个胖胖的、卷发的英国男人。我差一点就拿到了一袋摇头丸，但我礼貌地说道：“你找错人了”，于是她迅速地在其他地方完成了她的交易。

如果你能回到过去，你会给自己什么建议？

我的直觉几乎总是正确的，所以我会说：“多听从直觉。”我读过一次采访，科琳·贝莉·蕾（Corinne Bailey Rae）在其中说，我们肠道里的脑细胞比猫的大脑里还多。她可能是个骗子，但我觉得她不是。 ●

8

口述给 RICH PELLEY • 肖像 JOSHUA TARN

02.08.26 观察家报 杂志

---

观察

EVA WISEMAN

身体政治

“从精致小三明治到胶原蛋白冰棍，如今的午餐在方方面面都让你意犹未尽”

每当我在 Pret a Manger 那无数的橱窗里看到他们广告中的半份三明治时，我总会想起曼哈顿 9 和 11 博物馆里的食物。2014 年，当人们得知当时这座新落成的纪念馆将在 1,115 名身份不明的遇难者遗骸和血染的鞋子旁开设一家销售“慰藉食品”的餐厅时，引起了小规模的骚动。当这家咖啡馆最终在博物馆狭窄的玻璃中庭开业，销售咸味糕点和软饮料时，访客们意识到，是的，好吧，开一家咖啡馆或许并非绝对合适，但不幸的是，它是必要的——因为在参观结束后，你会想在某个无名之处静静坐下吃午餐，同时思考生命的无常与死亡。这就是我看到那些三明治时的想法。

Pret a Manger 并不是唯一一家现在兴奋地以“分量小”作为卖点来宣传食物的店，远非如此。不，虽然许多超市在沉溺于所谓的“缩减版通胀”（偷偷将产品减半，但维持原价），但自从减肥针出现以来，他们公开且自豪地宣传这一事实已变得日益普遍。我们在 Ocado 买了像奥利弗·特维斯特伸出的手掌那么大的牛排；在 Co-op 买了“受全球美食启发”的“迷你餐”（难道饥饿也是一种美食吗？）；还有 M&S 新出的“营养密集”系列，这是极少数将“密集”作为卖点的例子。

食物变得古怪了。它不再提供纵容、慰藉、清爽和缓解，如今它主导的是恐惧，其中内置了早逝的威胁。在最近的一篇《Vittles》文章中，尼鲁法尔·海达里（Niloufar Haidari）创造了“蛋白质精神病”（protein psychosis）这个词，自从这个词出现后，每次我进入超市，它就像在我的太阳穴上敲击着不安的节奏。它描述了我们生活的时代：我们毫不掩饰地抛弃身体正向意识，追求纤瘦和 / 或永生；越来越多的食品仅凭其“高饱腹感”特性进行营销，比如 Lidl 的“高蛋白提拉米苏”和新款的“Creme Egg 软芯蛋白棒”——这是我见过的第一个每个词都让人大吃一惊的巧克力产品名称。

上班路变成了一堂关于午餐焦虑的课。在昏暗的施工围挡下，办公室附近的一家咖啡馆广告宣传“胶原蛋白冰棍”，在我看来，这就像在吮吸筋腱，并强迫我承认自己的身体不过是一套“肉身套装”。我不愿意在工作时间这么做，尤其是在一个晴天。这些冰棍显然是针对女性的，就像曾经的 Flakes 巧克力棒一样，被感官化地描述为在浴缸里揉碎在胸前。我一直对食品营销中的性别差异感到好奇：甜食传统上被视为减肥女性禁忌的快感，而肉类则被当作想要征服的男性的远古燃料——起初征服野兽，现在征服今天下午的销售客户。广告并不创造这些欲望，它只是确认（有时是颠覆）我们已经深信不疑的故事。

其中一个故事就是：我们的食物正试图害我们。我们必须抵御 Subway 1 英尺长潜艇堡的塞壬之诱，抵御它那种特殊的糖分香气，转而寻找那些能将我们从贪食中拯救出来、避免我们在自己下巴的赘肉中慢慢地、毫无爱地死去的食物。比如，Pret 的半份三明治。这款“杆线钓金枪鱼半份法棍”仅 257 kcal 且售价 £2.75。它的长度仅相当于三片黄瓜，像鱼鳃一样重叠在一起。在付款时，我静静地环顾四周，观察同事们对我选择的认可程度，而他们的三明治无穷无尽，仿佛延伸了数英里。虽然他们没有出声，但那惊叹的神情暗示着内心的对话：她们在惊叹于这个掌控全局的都市女孩，这个只需一剂蛋白质就能支撑她进行整个下午的交易撮合和强势博弈的高管。

我额外付费在店内用餐（我付得起！），当我端着银色托盘走向餐桌时，托盘中映出的我简直令人振奋——肌肉发达，神采奕奕，坚定不移。然而，当我拆开三明治本身——抱歉，是半个三明治时——我再次意识到，这顿饭简直像在做顺势疗法，这不过是作为预防措施的午餐；我与其说是一个匆忙的健身达人，倒不如说是一只饥饿的毛毛虫，在感官的愉悦中啃食着菜单，而半个三明治根本不够吃。但在我思考这些——关于饥饿的营销，对悠闲时光的回忆，以及将身体视为转瞬即逝的机器——这段时间里，三明治已经被吃光了。 ●

Eva Wiseman 是《观察家报》的撰稿人

“食物变得古怪了。如今它不再带来纵容、慰藉、清新和宽慰，反而首先带来的是恐惧以及早逝的威胁”

02.08.26 《观察家报》杂志

9

NGUYEN THI HA AN 在河内的工作室里拿着她的作品“河内河粉” / 盖蒂图片社 (GETTY IMAGES)

观察家报 (THE OBSERVER)

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社交媒体上的好人们

八篇让互联网变得（稍微）更好的人物简介

采访 HAYLEY MYERS

摄影 BRIAN DALY

前言 PATRICIA CLARKE

12

02.08.26 观察家报杂志 (THE OBSERVER MAGAZINE)

妆发由 JULIANA SERGOT 操刀

几个月前，我花 £50 买了一个叫作“Brick”的设备。它是一个灰色的塑料方块，大小不超过一张信用卡，被我贴在走廊的抽屉柜上，就在钥匙旁边。每次进出家门时，我都会把手机在上面点一下，就像刷地铁一样。

Brick 是一款社交媒体屏蔽器——该公司的口号是“夺回对屏幕时间的控制权”——这是我为了让自己停止“末日刷屏”而采取的一系列日益复杂的尝试中的最新一项。

在疫情期间的某个时候，我失去了在夜晚阅读的能力。一章书的内容被在 X、Instagram Reels 以及（令人尴尬地）LinkedIn 之间往复跳转的一小时所取代：这是一个由愤怒和嫉妒组成的传送带。我关闭这些应用程序时感到过度兴奋且痛苦，然后会在五分钟后——在不经意间——再次打开其中一个。

到今年年初，我的屏幕时间超过了每天四小时——这个数字让我惊恐，但据我所知，这极其平常。英国人平均每天在智能手机上花费约三小时三十分钟，而 18 至 24 岁的人群这个数字几乎翻了一番。一项由 Virgin Media O2 委托的调查发现，五分之二的英国成年人认为自己对如何使用手机“几乎没有控制力”，而 37% 的人将自己描述为“上瘾”。

但我这场对抗刷屏的战争也让我注意到，我冒着风险将什么给屏蔽掉了。我最成功的几次发型得益于 TikTok，许多食谱来自 Instagram，而我很大一部分的快乐源自表情包。每天，人们使用这些平台来分享知识、筹集资金、逗人发笑以及向陌生人表达善意。

我最喜欢的是 Husk (@husk.irl)，我在 Instagram 上看他的视频。在视频中，他用语音模式与 ChatGPT 交流（他选择了该聊天机器人客观上最搞笑的声音：一个拥有深沉且自信的美国口音的男人！）。这些视频利用了 ChatGPT 的权威姿态与其经常无法完成基础任务之间的反差。在其中一段视频中，Husk 请它为他跑一英里计时。他在几秒钟后回来询问结果。ChatGPT 祝贺他在 10 分钟 12 秒内完赛，随后坚称其计时正确。

最近，出于我不完全理解的原因，我的算法转向了西班牙语。我在马德里长大，也许它感觉到我想家了。或者也许是我在某个视频上停留的时间多了半秒钟。无论如何，这次意外的“回乡”已成为一种名为“快乐刷屏”的体验。我收藏了年长女性制作应对酷暑的 gazpacho（番茄冷汤）的食谱，还收藏了一段塞维利亚喜剧演员的视频，他在视频中对每年夏天自愿来到他这座内陆城市的英国游客感到困惑，即便当时气温已悄然攀升至 40°C 以上。

事实是，我并不总是想被隔绝在社交媒体之外。我想有意识地进入，去寻找那些让互联网变得有趣且甜蜜的人。然后在我想离开的时候离开。在所有的喧嚣中，正是这些人给了我重新点开屏幕的理由。

Patricia Clarke 是《观察家报》的科技编辑

02.08.26

观察家报杂志 (THE OBSERVER MAGAZINE)

13

社交媒体上的好人们

Bea Elton

INSTAGRAM @cleanwithbeax 2.2m 粉丝

TIKTOK @cleanwithbea 3m 粉丝

“我为他们提供清洁服务的许多人正处于生命的至暗时刻……我希望这能帮他们找回一些尊严”

BEA ELTON，28 岁， 免费为弱势群体进行房屋深度清洁，给租客们一个重新开始的机会。在征得对方同意后，她会将清洁前后的对比图发布到网上。近期，她还发起了反对虐待家畜的活动。

“我和男朋友合租的第一套公寓里到处都是黑霉。我们那个不靠谱的房东拒绝提供帮助，于是我把尝试自己清洁的视频发到了 TikTok 上。这些视频获得了极高的播放量，让我开始从中获利。随后，我开始收到许多面临同样问题的租客发来的私信。其中一人是一位身怀六甲的女性，她和两个幼子以及因车祸失去行动能力的丈夫住在一起。我用赚到的钱买了火车票，花了三天时间帮她清理家园。

在那之后，事情迅速发展起来。清洁并不在我的计划之内——我在大学学习的是古典学——所以我必须在工作中或通过请教其他专业人士来学习正确的操作流程。我在生物危害专家身上花费了数千英镑，但观看我视频的人们帮我提供了资金。我们非常努力地将这份善意传递下去。现在，几乎任何房屋我们都能接手。

我为他们提供清洁服务的许多人正处于生命的至暗时刻，他们值得被共情。我的所作所为并非万能药，但我希望这能帮他们找回一些尊严，并提醒他们，他们值得拥有更好的生活。没有人应该因为寻求帮助而感到羞耻，以确保自己在自己的家中能够安全、舒适。这是一项非常繁重的工作，但如果我不热爱它，我就不会去做。而且，我的家并不是一尘不染的。我完全接受这一点！”

14

02.08.26 观察家报 杂志

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AKILAH COHEN 创作高能量视频，记录在伦敦翻修两栋破旧房屋的起伏过程，其中穿插着她对时尚和美容的热爱。她深信社交媒体是媒体的未来。

“当我的伴侣和我开始翻修房子时，我们会着在 Instagram 上分享一些搞搞乐的进度更新。第一个爆火的视频是‘和我一起准备一天的 DIY’，讲述我们生活中不完美的一面——因为没有窗帘，必须在日出时分起床，并且穿着一件沾满油漆的运动服，戴着针织帽。这个视频获得了 2m 次播放。

几个月后，设计房产中介 The Modern House 询问我是否愿意担任他们的‘驻场窥探者’，为他们的社交平台拍摄房产导览视频。我当时惊呆了，不得不确认他们是不是把我跟别人搞混了。

我们仍在继续翻修，并扩展到了生活方式类视频。我认为这些视频受欢迎是因为我不怕自嘲。社交媒体经常将女性定义为要么热爱化妆、时尚、DIY，要么就是一个母亲。但我认识的女性同时具备所有这些特质。我可能在做 DIY，但我也想要一次美甲预约，以及生活中的一点小奢侈。

社交媒体是一个民主的空间，任何人只要有创意可以分享即可。如果你的细分领域是你们村子里没人关心的古怪事物，你可以拍一部关于它的片子，并立即获得粉丝的反馈，而这些粉丝基本上就是你的老板。我尝试通过讲述我的故事、追求我对设计的热爱，并度过一段喧闹而快乐的时光，来尊重并致敬这一过程。”

Akilah Cohen

INSTAGRAM @kilahgram 107k 粉丝

TIKTOK @kilahgram_ 12.7k 粉丝

‘社交媒体是一个民主的空间，任何人只要有创意可以分享即可’

15

Nikki Lilly

INSTAGRAM @nikkililly 645k 粉丝

TIKTOK @nikkililly 9.7m 粉丝

NIKKI LILLY，22 岁，患有一种罕见病，其部分动脉和静脉在没有毛细血管的情况下形成。她的内容旨在为患有此病的人发声，并分享她对时尚和化妆的热爱。

“当医生在我六岁时告诉我我患有 AVM（动静脉畸形）时，我的童年在一瞬间就消失了。随着我的外貌开始发生变化，观看化妆类的 YouTube 视频成了我的逃避方式。两年后，我的父母同意我可以开始发布一些健康的内容，比如评论我妈妈的眼影，或者给我的爸爸化妆。

TikTok 推出后，我发布了几个视频，一个月内就拥有了 1m 粉丝。我至今仍不明白为什么。部分原因是，我认为一个长相不同的人能给人带来新鲜感。青少年女孩们很欣赏我没有试图改变自己的外貌。但是，有些人通过鼓励让你成长，而另一些人则在打击你。有人用 AI 处理我的照片来消除我的病症，并评论说‘浪费了潜力’，这非常令人心碎。

自从确诊以来，我经历了 98 次手术，但我也因为在电视上的工作获得了一项 BAFTA 奖和一项艾美奖，两次在联合国发表演讲，参加过奥斯卡金像奖，并在巴黎时装周走过秀。社交媒体有时感觉像是一个有无限关卡的网络游戏，但它也让我觉得我依然可以生活。在成长过程中，公众视野中没有任何玩具或人物长得像我，我一直被暗示自己没有归属感。现在，我所做的一切都是为了弥补年幼时的自己所缺失的一切。你越是看到差异，差异就越会变得平常。”

“社交媒体有时感觉像是一个有无限关卡的网络游戏，但它也让我觉得我依然可以生活”

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02.08.26 观察家报 杂志

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社交媒体上的好人们

Two Men and a Lady 展示了抚养他们三岁女儿（绰号 Moo）的混乱场面，无论是她在蹦蹦床公园里“像野兽一样乱跑”，还是他们尝试对付她那个诡异的玩偶 Mary-Therese。

“自从开通账号以来，我们学到的一件事就是人们并不追求完美。去年我们去了一家蝴蝶馆，以为能拍到一些可爱的瞬间，但我们的女儿并不感兴趣，结果一切都乱套了。结果大家都很喜欢。我们的观众中有很多年龄稍大的女性，她们记得抚养孩子时的样子，并能产生共鸣，体会到我们分享的快乐与混乱。我们很高兴他们能在我们身上看到自己的影子。

当你把自己展现在公众面前时，你也将自己置于风险之中。我们很幸运，95% 的人留的是正面评论，但很难不去关注剩下的 5%。有时我们会回复，但大多数时候是我们的粉丝会帮我们反击任何负面评论。有一段时间，压力大到让我们不确定是否要继续下去。然后，我们开始收到一些拥有同性恋儿子的母亲发来的信息，还有其他人说观看我们的视频改变了他们对同性育儿的看法。我们意识到，实际上，这产生了一定的影响。

我们非常小心地选择分享生活的哪些方面。每周几次，每次仅一分钟的片段。我们很少提及自己的真实姓名或职业，并且给女儿起了一个特定的绰号。只要她还愿意被拍摄，我们就一直这样做。大多数时候，我们觉得自己很荣幸。人们很容易忘记同性父亲是相对较新的现象，但我们为这些权利奋斗过，永远不会将其视为理所当然。”

Two Men and a Lady

INSTAGRAM @twomenandalady_ 85.9k 粉丝

TIKTOK @twomenandalady 79.8k 粉丝

“我们开始收到信息，说观看我们的视频改变了他们对同性育儿的看法”

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社交媒体上的好人们

Moses Comb

INSTAGRAM @m.combe07 58.5k 粉丝

TIKTOK @m.combe07 283.7k 粉丝

MOSES COMBE，22 岁， 在名为“Endz 研究部门”的系列视频中，探索并评测伦敦各地的 高端及士绅化咖啡馆。他对 Gail's 烘焙店 某分店的评测在各平台 累计获得了近 100 万次观看。

“我是北伦敦人，目睹了这个地区巨大的变化。一直住在这里的人们甚至从未考虑过要去那些在社交媒体上走红的咖啡馆和烘焙店。这就是我评测它们的原因，好让当地人也能决定他们是否想去。我尽量提供最真实的体验。我的幽默感，我的说话方式，全是我自己。

现在，情况变得很疯狂。最令人兴奋的机会是出现在我见过的最大的广告牌之一上，为 Ray-Ban Meta 代言。我带我妈一起去，这样我们就能第一次一起看到它。她兴奋极了！

被认出来的感觉很超现实。比如，你走过来找我，一个来自社区的普通小伙子，而你表现得像我是个名人之类？简直不可思议。有些人甚至惊慌失措，开始摸我，看我是否是一个全息投影。有人试图跟着我回家，但我并不太在意。如果你的内容在一年内有 6000 万次观看，这种情况在所难免。

我不说谎，我觉得在这一代长大很幸运。看到 2010 年代的内容创作者如何受到‘取消文化’的影响，或者被人们议论外貌，这让我学会了在 2026 年该如何面对社交媒体。如果我收到负面评论，我已经做好了心理准备，随时可以将其抛之脑后。我的意思是，如果我不做这个，我 100% 还是会在 Wetherspoons 工作。”

‘被认出来很超现实。比如，你走过来找我，一个来自社区的普通小伙子？’

18

02.08.26 观察家报杂志

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BEMI OROJUOGUN 发布了一些她在伦敦巴士驶过时的开朗视频，这为她赢得了“巴士大婶”的绰号。最近的一篇帖子显示，Bemi 和新任首相 Andy Burnham 正在庆祝所有巴士票价上限封顶为 £2。

“从我从尼日利亚到达伦敦的那一刻起，我就热爱巴士的一切。噢我的天，我希望人们能用我的眼睛去感受它们的美。它们的尺寸、颜色——甚至是气味——都有一种壮丽感。当你身边没有家人时，生活可能会很孤独，但在巴士顶层，你可以结识新朋友并欣赏这座城市。

我做了 28 年的精神健康护士。我的病人叫我大婶。我在病房里唱歌，试着让他们笑，但有时保持坚强也很困难。让我获得力量的是，我知道在某人最糟糕的时刻，我可以成为一个积极的影响。

当我开始用 TikTok 时，计划是获得 1,000 个粉丝并谈论精神健康。但上帝有其他安排。我发布了一段我和巴士的视频，然后又是另一段，一个月内就爆火了。我女儿打电话来问：‘妈妈，你走红了。你做了什么？’

人们有时认为巴士会撞到我，但实际上我离得很远，永远不会让自己陷入危险，也不会不尊重巴士司机。我只是知道站在哪里，才能在巴士转弯时将它们完美地展示出来。

在我的年纪，我没预料到会过这样的生活。我非常感激，对巴士的热爱让我能够与政客和国王见面，并与 Burberry 等品牌合作。现在，我想创办一个针对年轻人的精神健康慈善机构。所有这一切都帮助我敢于拥有大梦想。”

Bemi Orojuogun

INSTAGRAM @bemi.omo.oroje

TIKTOK @omo.oroje

‘当你身边没有家人时，生活可能会很孤独，但在巴士的顶层你可以结识新朋友’

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Christine Hobson

INSTAGRAM @christinehobson60 170k 粉丝

TIKTOK @christineworldrecord 29. 7k 粉丝

“我不想被给予任何东西。 我想要被释放出笼子， 这样我就能自己去争取。”

CHRISTINE HOBSON， 73, 岁，她走遍全球， 在 13 年里完成了 125 场马拉松。 她的帖子记录了她的 跑步之旅，并分享 居家健身技巧，鼓励 健康老龄化。

“在经历了辉煌的教育事业后， 我曾极其恐惧退休。 在退休前六个月，我的女儿 鼓励我加入她的跑步俱乐部， 通过那个渠道，我获得了一个 伦敦马拉松的名额。我在周五 退休，然后在周日跑完了我的 第一场马拉松。

从那时起，我在各大洲跑了 125 场马拉松，并赢得了 吉尼斯世界纪录，成为 完成南极冰原马拉松的 最高龄人士（69 岁 154 天）。 是我的孙女告诉我 TikTok 是现在最火的地方， 并教我如何发布内容。 她对我有点失去耐心了， 但我们最终还是成功了。

那段走红的视频是在演示 如何将健身融入 日常生活。在最后一个镜头中， 我跑上楼梯并说：‘我不是为了 健身房而训练。我训练……’ —— 我在正确的地方停顿了一下 —— ‘是为了生活。’我认为人们喜欢 我经历过、做到了并证明了这一点。 其中有些人甚至很喜欢我 哈德斯菲尔德 (Huddersfield) 的口音。

我的第一任前前婆婆 （我现在是第三任了） 对我当时的丈夫说： ‘你最好甩掉她。因为如果你 把月亮给了她，她还是 会想要星星。’这句话本意是 在侮辱我，但他们完全搞错了。 我并不想要他给我任何东西。 我想要被释放出笼子，这样 我就能自己去争取。我希望 下次能参加北极马拉松。”

20

02.08.26 观察家报 杂志

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社交媒体上的好人们

KABS 家族由 Tay、Chan 以及他们的孩子 Teija (17)、Maliya (9)、TJ (7) 和婴儿 Rome 组成。他们最受欢迎的视频是“接送孩子上学的吐槽”，在这些视频中，我们采访的 Tay 经常被他咯咯笑的孩子们拿年龄开涮。

“在 our house 里，互相吐槽每天都在发生，而不仅仅是在接送孩子上学的路上。人们问我们视频是否由剧本编写，但事实并非如此。它们是从更长版本中截取的一分钟剪辑，视频里孩子们在进行正常的对话。我只是按下录制键看看效果，然后事后回看并决定哪些部分有趣。

孩子们在睡觉前会阅读圣经，我们在吃饭前会一起祷告。这就是为什么他们的吐槽中经常出现圣经人物，因为他们对这些人物了解很多。这不仅仅是在镜头前。家人经常听到 Mali 和 TJ 说 Chan 的头发来自参孙 [圣经中参孙的头发被大利拉剪掉]。

我是一个工作狂，负责大部分的剪辑和发布，而 Chan 是我们家庭中的和平使者。她会安排不拍摄的休息日，并组织没有摄像机的共同时光：散步、去公园、看电影。我们坐在一起，放下手机，谈论这 10 年来我们走过了怎样的路，最初只是一个简单的视频，记录了我对 Teija 在车里放大声音乐感到恼火的样子。

我们一直很亲密。虽然听起来很俗，但我们是最好的朋友。虽然有很多打趣，有时我们必须稍微克制一下，但大家都心照不宣，而且玩得很开心。这个家庭未来还会有更多内容，无论是单独的还是共同的……我们只有一次生命。我们只想尝试这一切。” ●

Kabs一家人

INSTAGRAM @thekabsfamily

TIKTOK @thekabsfamily

“人们问我们视频是否是剧本写好的，但事实并非如此——我只是按下录制键，然后看看会发生什么”

02.08.26 观察家报杂志

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在 25 岁时， 马可·皮埃尔·怀特 (MARCO PIERRE WHITE) 开设了他的第一家餐厅， 并开启了 “摇滚明星厨师”的崇拜， 他的火爆行径与他的厨艺一样出名。 在远离这一切之后，他回来了。 但他的脾气是否有所收敛？

作者 乔什·巴里 (JOSH BARRIE)

插画 HELLOVON

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马可·皮埃尔·怀特 (Marco Pierre White)，或许是英国被神话得最严重的厨师，并不排斥烹饪一份煎炸早餐。

这是威尔特郡乡村一个寒冷的日子。怀特身处一个不起眼的公司厨房，面前架着一套完整的视频设备，用于记录他新食品系列的发布。他将三根螺旋状的坎伯兰香肠放在酥脆的薯饼上，将它们从锅中移至盘中，动作并不文雅，手指仿佛耐火一样。这些薯饼是 MPW 复古系列土豆产品的一部分，而香肠则冠以“马可·皮埃尔·怀特农舍美食”的品牌名称。这两者都销售给酒吧、餐厅和酒店……

水波蛋端上来了，是由一位当地厨师烹制的，那是一个帮助怀特拍摄的普通餐饮学院毕业生。

“煮了多久，大厨？”怀特询问鸡蛋的情况。

“1分32秒，”对方胆怯地回答。

“你说什么？”怀特说道，同时投以标志性的凝视。

“对不起，不，”那名毕业生改口道，“2分32秒，马可。”而身材高大、如今在卷曲黑发下显得宽阔的怀特说：“这就对了，很好，”并并不苛刻地将年轻厨师打发开。

怀特接着将鸡蛋放在他的薯饼和香肠之作——像山一样高的菜肴——顶部，然后淋上肉汁，这是一种以浓缩牛肉汤为基础并加入 HP 酱的酱汁。随后，他为了镜头进入状态，双眼微眯，右手配合着更为诚恳的语调做出手势。“我该把这些叫什么好呢？”他对着镜头沉思。然后，带着北方特有的豪迈地说道：“啊，约克郡蛋。”

摄像机停止拍摄，怀特将盘子端给我品尝。这种情况持续了大约一个小时——这就是 2026 年马可·皮埃尔·怀特的一天——随后他上车北上，处理更多关于土豆的业务。

尽管这些香肠和鸡蛋味道极佳，但它们与怀特曾作为高级餐饮界的“坏孩子”所制作的食物截然不同。1990 年，他成为首位赢得三颗米其林星的英国厨师——当时也是全球最年轻的记录保持者——并成为了摇滚明星厨师一代的先驱。近年来，我不时地与怀特同行，有时是在巴斯的当地中餐厅吃辣面、烤鳗鱼和烤鸭，但最经常是在他位于威尔特郡的 Rudloe Arms 酒店。他在 25 年前从伦敦生活退休后买下了这家酒店，在此之前的几年里，他已经脱下了厨师白衣，并出售了他的餐厅收藏——其中包括 Quo Vadis、L'Escargot、Titanic 以及名声显赫的 Mirabelle。

但最近，怀特成为了新一代人的关注焦点，因为我们都对食物、厨房以及大胆、古怪的个性感兴趣。一段在封锁期间拍摄的视频，记录了怀特吃麦当劳芝士汉堡的场景，在今年早些时候再次走红——有超过 300 万人观看过此视频。（“有些人以为那是广告，”他说，“其实不是。”）此外还有一段名为“如何打蛋”的视频，他在视频中面对一筐 25 枚鸡蛋和一个搅拌碗，有条不紊地打碎了其中一半，将蛋壳整齐地堆成一座平滑的小塔。（“我一直喜欢工作得整洁，”他现在说。）这段视频就像 ASMR 一样：缓慢、稳定，安静到让你在观看时睡着。

尽管怀特告诉我，“我一生中所学到的是，隐私即自由”，但他似乎再次拥抱了公众生活：几周前他出现在路易·塞鲁 (Louis Theroux) 的播客中。一部新的 BBC 三集系列剧《摇滚明星厨师的崛起》预计于秋季播出，将把怀特 1990 年代的“坏小子”行为带给更广泛的观众。（该系列由怀特曾经的门生、后来的竞争对手戈登·拉姆齐 [Gordon Ramsay] 制作；它探讨了他们如何与赫斯顿·布鲁门塔尔 [Heston Blumenthal] 一起改变了英国的饮食文化。）因此，尽管怀特可能会说，他很久以前就离开了那种令人沉醉的生活，说他只是一个现在向酒吧销售品牌食品的前厨师——但在他开设第一家餐厅三十年后，他依然是美食时代精神中的关键要素。

White出生于1964年，父亲是英国人，母亲是意大利人，他是四个儿子中的第三个。他在利兹的一个市政住宅区长大。六岁时，他的母亲死于脑出血，他看着医护人员用担架将母亲抬出家门。“这件事会对你产生影响，”他在拍摄结束两周后，在威尔特郡的家中喝着两瓶桃红葡萄酒时说道。“现在的孩子会接受心理治疗，”他继续道，“而那是好事。”

当时White没有接受治疗，随着年龄增长，他担心自己在身为厨师的父亲眼中不够优秀。“我的父亲从未提起过我母亲，”White说，“那是他处理这件事的方式。”而White处理这件事的方式则是在16岁时离开家，开始从事厨师工作。烹饪成为了他的宣泄口。“美食是任何格格不入的人所能接触到的最伟大的治疗形式，”他说。“它让我能用手指表达自己，因为我无法用言语表达。”

在哈罗盖特的圣乔治酒店工作一段时间后，White搬到了伊尔克利的著名餐厅Box Tree。在那里的第一项工作是用筛子过滤库存物资，随后他学习了古典法国“旅团”式厨房的各个岗位。1981年，心怀抱负的他联系了伦敦著名的Le Gavroche餐厅申请工作。申请表是通过邮寄寄来的，全篇用法语写成，而White并不懂法语。他把表格扔进了垃圾桶，并获得了一家英格兰南部另一家餐厅的面试机会。但由于从利兹出发必须经过伦敦，当他错过接驳列车时，他在伦敦逛了一整夜，结果发现自己就在Le Gavroche门外。次日早晨（周五）他返回餐厅，成功地与该店传奇主厨兼老板阿尔伯特·鲁（Albert Roux）见了一面。鲁告诉他回利兹收拾东西，周二来报到。鲁称White为他的“小天才”，直到后来两人闹翻——就像White与他许多导师和门生一样。鲁是20世纪80年代英国餐饮界的巨头；而White随后与所有其他名厨都共事过：尼科·拉德尼斯（Nico Ladenis）、皮埃尔·科夫曼（Pierre Koffmann）以及雷蒙德·布兰克（Raymond Blanc）。

1987年1月，White在伦敦西南部旺兹沃思开设了Harveys餐厅。这是他经营的第一家餐厅，也是他首次持有财务股份的餐厅。在只有六名厨师的小厨房里，White烹饪基于古典法国技法的菜肴。有些是他自己的创意（牡蛎宽面）；有些则向导师学习（科夫曼那道至今仍被提及的去骨填馅猪蹄）。极少有厨师在25岁时就开设餐厅，Harveys和White迅速获得了名声。次年，他被授予一颗米其林星。1990年，他获得了第二颗星。

当时所有名流都想在Harveys订位：名模（丹尼斯·D·刘易斯，库·斯塔克）、流行乐巨星（凯莉·米洛，杰森·多诺万），甚至是真正的皇室成员（玛格丽特公主）。演员兼问题人物奥利弗·里德（Oliver Reed）成了常客。每年圣诞节，他都会打电话给White，请教如何烤火鸡。

1998年，评论家AA Gill将White在Harveys的烹饪描述为“充满激情……就像收到一封情书”。十年后，他在《泰晤士报》中将Harveys选为“我作为美食作家生涯中最重要且最具影响力的餐厅”，在那儿，White“像个穿着屠夫围裙的希思克利夫一样四处踱步，把银行家赶走，并做出世界上最顶级的食物”。

White的长相——由摄影师鲍勃·卡洛斯·克拉克（Bob Carlos Clarke）记录并广为人知——以及他不妥协的个性吸引了人们的关注。 →

拿着肉砍刀的马可 © 鲍勃·卡洛斯·克拉克遗产管理机构

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女性们给他写露骨的信，并随信附上她们的内裤。在他的回忆录《厨房里的恶魔》（Devil in the Kitchen）中，怀特写道，他有时会在开餐前举行内衣拍卖会，而戈登·拉姆齐（Gordon Ramsay）经常是最高出价者。有时怀特会与女性调情，从而在他的办公室、女厕所以及餐厅庭院里产生“短暂的亲密关系”。（在他最近参加路易·塞鲁克斯的播客节目时，怀特声称这是夸张之词。）有一次，一名食客坚持点薯条，但菜单上没有，怀特亲自削皮、手工切割并烹饪了一批，然后向该顾客收取了 £25 的费用（按现在的价值超过 £90），以此作为这种“特权”的代价。后来一名顾客声称自己是负责装修的餐厅设计师——而怀特讨厌那个装修，因为他当时没有资金去更换。当该顾客要求免费赠品时，据称怀特连续对他挥拳相向并将其赶了出去。

怀特因将粗鲁的顾客赶走而闻名，他会让他们体验所谓的“嗖地一声”（whoosh）：服务员会站在桌边，撤走所有的盘子和玻璃杯，领班会猛地抽走桌布，然后由怀特本人告知客人离开的时间到了。

1987, 当《标准晚报》（Evening Standard）资深餐厅评论家费伊·马施勒（Fay Maschler）前往 Harveys 餐厅进行评论时，她担心怀特可能会要求她离开。“那时候这可是件挺流行的事，”她最近告诉我。马施勒决定戴上假发，但怀特识破了这个把戏。“马可走进餐厅说：‘噢，你好费伊。你理发了，我也理了，’”她告诉我，“对话最终总是会绕回到他身上。”尽管如此，她记得那里的食物极其出色。“他的烹饪是古典的，但在任何意义上都不是 derivative（衍生）或 learned（学究）的。”怀特后来声称，马施勒没有给他五星级评价，是因为他拒绝与她上床。（当时，马施勒在评论中并不评星。）“我本该给他五星的，”她告诉我，“但我本不该——且确实没有——与他上床。”

在 Harveys 时期，怀特会在周一午夜开始工作，在深夜抵达餐厅。“然后我会一直工作到周二凌晨关闭，”他在谈到自己的驱动力时说道，“我从未碰过毒品。我沉溺于炉灶。在创造某些东西、在创造菜肴中存在着魔力。我不确定现在的厨师是否愿意付出这样的努力。”

正如怀特追求完美一样，他也期待他的团队达到完美，当标准未达标时，他会变得极具挑战性。“我对完美的不可控制的渴望激发了我的急躁，”怀特在自传中写道。如果某个厨师激怒了怀特，他会让他们站在厨房的角落里——面对着他，这样至少他们能学到点东西。他曾用剔骨刀割开一名抱怨厨房“太热”的厨师的夹克和裤子。据报道，怀特是唯一一个让拉姆齐流泪的厨师，不过现在提到这个故事时，怀特说：“他当时在切洋葱，而且那是他的最后一个班次。”（此前，怀特曾以更令人难忘、更具模因化的方式说道：“我没让戈登·拉姆齐哭。是他让自己哭了。哭是他自己的选择。”）

现为伦敦餐厅 Elystan Street 和 Notto 的老板菲尔·霍华德（Phil Howard）回忆起那时严酷的厨房文化。“那太极端了，”他最近在向我讲述他在 Harveys 工作的时间时说道，“他像炸药一样。很多决定都是‘在瞬间’做出的。他会当场解雇厨师。”霍华德在一次服务过程中因为把土豆泥烧焦而被开除。“他告诉我：‘滚蛋，别再回来了。’”

怀特曾使用一把雕刻刀 割开一名抱怨厨房太热的厨师的外套和裤子

霍华德曾前往 Bibendum 餐厅为厨师西蒙·霍普金森工作，但在一年内就被怀特重新雇佣。“马可是一位令人难以置信且非凡的厨师，”霍华德告诉我，“他带来了很多新鲜事物。现在的业界虽然有才华之辈，但你无法真正衡量他在初出茅庐时所产生的那种独一无二的影响力。”

目前担任 Fortnum & Mason 执行糕点主厨的罗杰·皮齐也曾在 Harveys 工作，并感受到了追求完美的压力。近 40 年后，他的语气依然充满活力。“食物简直不可思议。那里的氛围很棒，”他说道，“马可的速度极快。我从未见过能将盘中菜肴摆放得如此精美的人。”

皮齐承认，那里的厨房并不总是那么好工作，但他对在那里的时光记忆犹新。他与怀特曾经——且现在依然——是热衷于钓鱼的人，在分班休息时间里，

他们有时会在万兹沃思共同地 (Wandsworth Common) 一起钓鱼。他也见证了怀特体贴的一面。“当我母亲来探望我时，他让她在接待区坐着，之后——因为我当时就住在公园对面——他安排了一名服务员，穿着正装，端着银盘，装着一碗水果和茶以及咖啡，将她送回家。”

霍华德同样告诉我，怀特是一位鼓舞人心的领导者。“我在灵魂深处能感受到他，”他说，“再也不会有像 Harveys 这样的餐厅了。他要么全力以赴，要么彻底放弃，这就是实现伟大之道的唯一方式。事实就是如此。而我曾有一段时间与他并肩作战。”

怀特于 1993 年离开 Harveys，并在海德公园酒店开设了 Restaurant Marco Pierre White。正是在这里，凭借更大的厨房、更庞大的团队以及探索技术的更多空间，他向烹饪艺术的巅峰发起冲击。1995, 在英国获得一颗米其林星仍相对罕见的时代，他赢得了三颗米其林星。“如今这些星星被随意发放，”怀特在谈到行业变化时说道，“当我最初走进厨房时，每个厨师都来自市政住宅区。他们都是蓝领——尽管他们系着白色的领带。而现在变成了白领——你现在走进厨房，他们全都是中产阶级。”

四年后，怀特在 1999, 做出了一件轰动的事，他“归还”了自己的米其林星，远离了炉灶，但并未离开这个行业。到 21 世纪初，他拥有超过十家餐厅，包括 Titanic 和名流聚集地 Mirabelle——这两家是伦敦最奢华、最迷人的餐厅。当时这座城市的餐饮业正处于繁荣期，享乐主义盛行——而怀特以野心勃勃、标准苛刻和性格古怪而闻名的名声也随之增长。

“我记得 1998 年 Mirabelle 的开业——那是具有里程碑意义的，”前厨师及资深美食作家比尔·诺特告诉我，“作为一名在餐厅中巡视的巨头，马可仅仅是用小指就散发出比同时代任何其他厨师都更多的魅力。”

Mirabelle 的开业并不顺利。据报道，该餐厅耗资超过 500 万英镑，部分原因是怀特对天窗不满意，将其重新制作并移动了位置，而且他多次更改木饰面的色调。他邀请了一个纪录片拍摄团队记录这一过程，随后却拒绝与他们交谈，并试图强行关停制作。

作为 Titanic 的一名前领班经理，餐厅公关杰玛·贝尔亲身体会了怀特进入这个奢华新时代的模样。“那是一段不可思议的时光，”她告诉我，“马可走进来，身材高大且威严，嘴里叼着一支雪茄”

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马可·皮埃尔·怀特

2008 年的 Marco Pierre White 在其餐厅 Marco 门外；1989 年在 Harveys 餐厅与员工 Gordon Ramsay 在一起；2008 年在切尔西足球俱乐部斯坦福桥球场 Frankie's Sports Bar & Grill 开业典礼上与 Frankie Dettori 在一起；以及 2005 年与妻子 Mati，以及保守党党魁 Michael Howard 及其妻子 Sandra 在一起。

他的嘴。他会走过来询问我们预订了多少位。”正如其名，Titanic 是一座庞然大物——一家拥有 250 个座位的餐厅。“即便餐厅已经满了，他也会告诉我们要接受更多预订。永远要更多。”

厨师 Margot Henderson 和她的丈夫 Fergus 在 White 拥有苏豪区 Dean Street 的 Quo Vadis 餐厅时与他相识。（该餐厅由他与 Damien Hirst 共同所有，由 Hirst 提供艺术品装饰。当两人闹翻后，White 移除了 Hirst 的作品，并用自己的复制品取而代之。）“在很多方面，他们处于饮食光谱的两端：Marco 强势、激烈且充满野心；Fergus 温柔、宽厚且无私，”Margot 最近告诉我。

Henderson 夫妇以其简练的“从鼻子到尾巴”（nose-to-tail）烹饪方式以及对传统英国烹饪的欣赏而闻名——这与 White 复杂的高级料理形成鲜明对比。然而，他们欣赏他的方式。“我去他的餐厅吃过几次，那是完全的享受，”Margot 最近告诉我。“Fergus 和我都很喜欢。我们都对充满魅力（glamorous）的餐厅没有抵抗力——而 Marco 懂得什么是魅力。”

在 White 退出一线后，他几乎完全淡出了餐饮界。他离开伦敦前往乡村，离开时的速度和决断程度与他当年闯入时一样快。如今，他在自己的酒店里度日。他拍过 Knorr 汤块和其他食品品牌的广告，为 BBC 录制过在线烹饪课程，偶尔发表一些惊人之语（2019, 年，他向《爱尔兰独立报》暗示男性更适合专业厨房，因为他们不像女性那样容易产生情绪化反应，而且能搬动更重的锅），但他大多时候已淡出公众视野。多年来，White 在澳大利亚的知名度高于英国，他在那里参加了《顶级厨师》（MasterChef）节目。

“人们认为我重新出现了，”他现在说。“我告诉他们错了。那些视频，那些有趣的视频，是我选择去做的。”他补充道，他确实很享受观众的评论。（在那个煎蛋视频的评论中写道：“Marco 没有打碎鸡蛋。是鸡蛋要求被打破。那是它们自己的选择。”）然而，当他离开威尔特郡时，通常是为了商务活动，例如为 P&O Cruises 等合作伙伴做推广。当他造访餐厅时，依然会引起轰动。“他显然是一个气场很强的人，”Dalston 餐厅 Mangal 2 的 Ferhat Dirik 说道，White 在今年早些时候罕见地访问伦敦推广美食应用 EatClub 时曾停留在那里。“当他说话时，你会全神贯注，并感到受宠若惊。而且他非常幽默。他有一种疯狂的气场。”

前往 Rudloe Arms 的客人们可能会在酒吧里看到他。他花了数年时间将他 20 英亩的庄园重新野化，现在葡萄藤从宏伟的宅邸上垂下，一座“忏悔桥”在长满睡莲的池塘上起伏。“如果你有什么想告诉我，一个秘密，我们就去那里，”White 阴谋地凑近说道。那里有苹果林和黄梅林，以及穿过园地的步道，让人们可以沉浸在大片天然草地和野花之中。

“某种感觉在告诉我，我正在重建我的童年……就像我小时候和母亲在意大利那样，”White 在谈到重新野化时说道。“我以前看着他们收割无花果。在那边，”他指着墙外黑夜中的餐厅附近区域，“我们有数百棵无花果树。”

在 2020, 年之前，Rudloe Arms 曾是一个微型农场。“我们在森林里养猪，牛津 Sandy 和 Blacks 品种，”White 列举了其他动物——威尔特郡角羊、2, 四头亚伯丁安格斯牛、火鸡、鸡——然后话锋转回他的“农舍料理”（Farmhouse Cuisine）系列。“然后我们将猪变成了培根、香肠和黑布丁——这就是一切的开始。”

他也许坚持认为自己没有回归，但凭借其各种商业经营，怀特经常热衷于谈论生意。他的 idiosyncrasies 非常迷人：他从未开车，却住在乡村中心；尽管他在社交媒体上影响力巨大，却使用一部老旧的非智能手机，而且手机总是响个不停。他永远在与供应商和分销商会面。

但也许现在多了另一种状态：满足感。他说，他已经不再是那个“破碎的男孩，那个像蛋壳人（Humpty Dumpty）一样……仍在试图将自己重新拼凑起来”的少年，那是经历了困难的童年后留下的状态。最重要的是，他依然是个浪漫主义者。“无论是文学作品，还是绘画，无论是演出，还是盘中的食物。关键在于情感上的冲击。关键在于它能带你去哪里，”他说，“在这个世界上，唯一永不过时的就是浪漫。”

“在 33 岁时，我实现了极少数厨师能实现的成就，”他说，“那对我来说已经足够了。我抚养孩子长大，然后去继续探索自我。”这就是现在的怀特：依然在烹饪，依然在经营生意，但节奏慢了下来。“我今年 65 岁了，”他解释道，“我不追求名声，从未追求过。我一直被浪漫主义、对失败的恐惧以及我的不安全感所支配并驱动。”

无论怀特是否追求，名声找到了他，并且从未离开。随着最后一瓶桃红葡萄酒被饮尽，怀特缓缓走上楼去睡觉。因为明天，那些香肠可不会自己卖出去。

Joanna Taylor 参与报道

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在泽西岛，一座农舍触发了一次归乡之旅

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室内设计师 Naemi Prahm 与建筑师 Tim Norman 的家庭工作室，将他们的住所与工作室的办公空间分隔开来。

2021, 设计师 Naemi Prahm (44, 岁) 和她的丈夫、建筑师 Tim Norman (43, 岁) 开始修复一座简朴的花岗岩小屋。这座小屋位于海峡群岛泽西岛上他家族一座 17 世纪农场的院子里。当时，Prahm 在 Studio Ilse 与设计师 Ilse Crawford 共事，而 Norman 则在伦敦经营自己的建筑事务所，专注于从坎布里亚、法夫到海峡群岛的住宅项目。起初，这只是一个业余项目，也是一次应 Norman 父母要求而进行的抢救性修复——他们是占据相邻主农舍的第 12 代成员。随着时间的推移，这次尝试慢慢演变成了一场彻底的蜕变。这座拥有三间卧室的住宅因其至今仍能鸣响的钟而被称为 Le Clocheton（意为“小钟楼”）。这里曾是 Norman 的 $\rightarrow$

02.08.26

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文字 AIMEE FARRELL • 摄影 MARCUS QUIGLEY

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居家与远方 (HOME & AWAY)

祖母 Marguerite、一对曾祖姑母，以及一对农场夫妇和他们的一头牛的居所。但随后该房屋空置了 20 年。当这对夫妇接手时，其内部装饰自 20 世纪 80 年代以来未曾触动。“起初，这座房子并不是为了谁而修复的，”Prahm 说，“最初的想法只是为了防止它崩塌。”但她表示，随着工作的开展，一个更宏大、更具吸引力的想法开始萌芽：这座房子是否可以成为他们自己的家？

这并非一次突然的顿悟，而是一个逐渐占据主导地位的念头，最终成为了这个家庭——Naemi、Tim 以及他们现在 8 岁的幼子 Theo——离开东伦敦生活的催化剂。“搬到泽西岛一直是在计划之中的，但原本认为要很久以后才会实现，”她说。这一决定引发了另一场剧变——他们在职业上强强联手，成立了属于他们夫妻自己的室内设计与建筑工作室：Norman-Prahm。

在入住这座两层建筑四年后（该建筑位于岛上风力强劲的西南部，距离首府圣海利尔 7 英里），他们从未后悔。 “岛上的这个地区以冲浪、日落和原生态野趣而闻名，”Norman 说。对于在汉堡长大，曾在德累斯顿学习剧院布景绘画，随后在格拉斯哥艺术学院学习室内设计的 Prahm 来说，这是她第一次完全沉浸在乡村生活中。

Prahm 是装饰画家的女儿（她的母亲在汉堡经营一家工作室），她的绘画背景影响了 Le Clocheton 的色调选择，这里的每一层都被单一的中性色调所包裹。最大的挑战是寻找一种既适用于光线较好的南向房间，也适用于较暗的北向房间，且能耐受海岸线快速变化天气条件的颜色。他们决定在楼下使用 Farrow & Ball 的 “Stony Ground” 色，而楼上的卧室和浴室则涂成了 Little Greene 的 “Joanna” 色。Prahm 说，这样做的目的是为了创建“一个让生活栖居的宁静框架”——当然，这是在解决了 PVC 阁楼窗渗水、用透气软木替换混凝土绝缘层以及理顺水电管线之后才实现的。

室内的大部分温暖感源于这对夫妇对天然材料和回收建筑元素的严谨关注，包括合页、过梁以及当地泽西花岗岩的残件，这些通常是从农场土地上收集而来的。房屋从后方进入，

32

“在一个角落里有一个钟楼的滑轮，现在被用来把他们的儿子从花园里叫回家”

穿过一条矩形榫接面板走廊，上方挂着一张18世纪的泽西岛地图，下方是一个复古漆柜，柜上摆放着各式物品，从当地市场寻得的牡蛎壳到马厩里挖掘出的旧虾篓，后者呼应了诺曼家族在法国西北部的篮筐生产根基。通过一扇木质推拉门，入口延伸至厨房，这里安装了道格拉斯冷杉木的橱柜和地板，配备花岗岩工作台，以及铺设了 Ketley 采石场瓷砖的实用空间。在角落里有一个用于钟楼的滑轮，现在被用来在用餐时间把儿子从花园里叫回来，而餐桌上的食材则得益于父母勤劳的耕种。目前的作物有杏子、西葫芦和番茄，这些在农场于 1950 年代停止生产前曾是该地的支柱作物。

02.08.26 观察家报杂志

33

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HOME & AWAY

“这座房子最初并不是为我们而修复的。最初的想法仅仅是防止它坍塌”

隔壁的起居室里，诺曼祖母的工艺美术风格椅子与一系列修复过的家具摆放在一起，其中一些是从主屋的阁楼中翻找出来的。宽敞的室内空间直接连接到相邻的马厩，夫妇二人将其改造为一个石灰抹灰墙的工作室。其中间层与房子的第三间卧室相连，目前被用作家庭艺术项目空间。诺曼说，建筑之间的这种连接方式非常符合岛上的本土风格。“泽西岛的建筑总是通过在另一座房子的山墙上增加一个额外的棚屋或斜顶棚来改造。正是这一点赋予了它们流动感。”

Le Clocheton 已迅速成为这对夫妇执业生涯的基石，也证明了他们在修复方面的敏感度。他们目前正在处理一座位于汉普斯特德的排屋末端家庭住宅以及一座位于东伦敦的维多利亚时代别墅。除了不断的对话，让他们的协作能够奏效的原因在于角色分工明确：诺曼专注于建筑，普拉姆专注于室内。“如果我们两个都是建筑师，事情会更难办，”她说。但这并非没有挑战：在搬进 Le Clocheton 之前，全家在主屋里住了 18 个月。然而，也正是在这段时间里，他们融入了农场生活的更广泛节奏和仪式感中。

对于他们的儿子西奥来说，新房子最令人兴奋的部分之一是二楼一个伪装得很好的隐形门，通过一个深邃的隧道状凹槽可以通往祖父母的住所。“我们称之为‘虫洞’，”普拉姆说。这正是诺曼当年去探望自己奶奶时走的那条秘密路线，只不过方向相反。

住在离海如此近的地方有其优势。他们周末游泳，冬天也一样（在大量巧克力和凯利热水壶的帮助下），而诺曼已经用自行车测绘了泽西岛 86% 的乡村小路。“在岛上的 Wandrer 应用排行榜上，我是第一名，”他说。不过，这次回归最大的惊喜在于，这座岛崎岖地貌的粗犷魅力如何重新俘获了他的心。“在离开 22 年之后，”他说，“这种感觉永远不会过时。” ●

诺曼和普拉姆在他们家族这座17世纪农场的庭院中——带着一篮从蔬菜园采摘的大黄

34

02.08.26 观察家报 杂志

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家与远方

MONGOOSE

主厨兼老板基兰·希格斯将 Mongoose 的产品描述为“价格实惠的简单食物，其中很多是用火烹饪的”——这家店是他隔壁米其林星级餐厅 Variety Jones 旗下的热门新姐妹店。他把这里说得太简单了，但那些不拘小节却美味至极的菜肴（如木炭烤肟球、配格雷莫拉塔酱的意式烤猪肉）在都柏林标准下价格非常公道。此外，这里的意面堪称绝妙。仅周日至周二开放。

FALLON'S

这家规模小巧、形态完美的转角酒吧可以追溯到 1600 年代，值得庆幸的是，在过去的一个世纪里，它几乎没有什么变化。这里没有音乐，电视极少开启，而吉尼斯黑啤始终品质极佳，得益于从酒桶到杯子的极短距离。在温暖的夜晚，人群会涌向人行道；在寒冷的夜晚，抢到舒适小间（snug）的一个座位，点一份芝士烤吐司。

THE FUMBALLY

自 2012 年以来，这家位于利伯蒂区下边缘的宽敞咖啡馆一直是都柏林美食界的关键节点：它是风靡的食品品牌 Harry's Nut Butter 和 White Mausu 的诞生地。这里还举办音乐会、集市和发酵工作坊，提供优质的早餐和午餐（以及周五晚餐），并提供可带回家的爱尔兰产品。

TEELING 蒸馏厂

在20世纪经历剧烈衰落之前，利伯蒂区（the Liberties）曾是都柏林的酿造和蒸馏中心。如今这里再次繁荣起来。如果你必须在参观吉尼斯（Guinness）、Roe & Co、都柏林利伯蒂（Dublin Liberties）、Pearse Lyons 和 Teeling 之间做出选择，请选择后者。导览之旅起价为 €22，但建议多花 €4 选择 Trinity 方案，这样你就可以品鉴三款核心威士忌。

社区推荐

利伯蒂区 (THE LIBERTIES)

都柏林

这个多元、具有历史气息的中心社区在没有失去其工人阶级身份的情况下，悄然成为了这座城市最令人兴奋的区域之一。游客们蜂拥而至地前往吉尼斯黑啤展览馆以及基督教堂和圣帕特里克大教堂这两座大教堂，但这里还有更多值得造访的理由：充满活力的艺术场景、音乐场所、古董店、市场以及全市最棒的一些酒吧和餐厅。而复兴的饮料工业正将利伯蒂区带回19世纪酿造和蒸馏的鼎盛时期。• KILLIAN FOX

MARROWBONE 书店

这家位于 Marrowbone Lane、拥有黄色店面的温馨小店里有极佳的二手书选择。在这个狭小的空间里，他们（不知怎么地）还挤进了下班后的电影放映、音乐会和朗诵会。

城市植物生活 (URBAN PLANT LIFE)

即使你的行李空间放不下仙人掌、捕蝇草或树蕨，这家遍布在 Cork Street 旧工业遗址上的精彩园艺中心也值得一逛。这里的植物品种多得令人眼花缭乱，工作人员在时间和知识的分享上也十分慷慨。

PICADO

一家令人愉悦的墨西哥食品店，后方连接着一所烹饪学校。你可以参加一个玉米饼制作工作坊，或者简单地买一包 Picado 出色的蓝色玉米饼（他们还销售自制的干辣椒和酱料）。每月一次，在周日的一下午，这里会变成一个不可错过的塔可（taco）快闪店。

02.08.26

观察家报 杂志

35

JOLÉEN CRONIN

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一抹

美味

无糖

无甜味剂

零卡路里

B 认证 企业

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渴望 (Cravings)

尝尝螃蟹

厨房日记 NIGEL SLATER

锅里有六个正在变金黄的小饼，每个都有酥脆的面包屑外壳，内部则是柔软且带着锈色的蟹肉。我们将用一种带有柑橘和青辣椒风味的甜辣酱搭配食用。配菜是一份由熟透的甜芒果和青柠汁、少量黄瓜以及一些切碎的薄荷叶组成的沙拉。这些蟹饼口感咸、甜、酸、辣且酥脆。蟹肉价格昂贵，所以我用面包屑来增加分量，加入一坨优质蛋黄酱使其口感柔软，并用柑橘皮增加风味。如果天气→

02.08.26 观察家报 杂志

肖像 CHARLIE CLIFT

37

渴望 (CRAVINGS)

极其炎热，那么我会将蟹肉铺在厚厚的白面包上，配上黄瓜片和深绿色的水芹菜，做成夏日三明治之王；但今天，蟹饼更吸引我。

这些小饼也可以卷在巨大的、脆口的冰山生菜叶中（在冰水中浸泡半小时可以让叶片变得酥脆）。使用香菜酱作为蟹饼卷的蘸酱。

本周其余时间的饮食以沙拉为主，且大多包含热元素。我为鸡肉做了红辣椒酱涂抹（泰国红辣椒酱、橄榄油、柠檬汁），将其切成厚条，与冰冷的米粉和黄瓜丝拌在一起。周中的一顿晚餐包括一盘布拉塔奶酪（burrata），搭配熟新鲜豌豆，并淋上由罗勒叶和橄榄油制成的泥状酱汁。

我制作了今夏最棒的奶昔，将橙汁、覆盆子和西瓜块放入搅拌机中打至起泡。这杯深红色的鸡尾酒成了周日早餐的一部分，早餐还包括一份由熟新土豆、薄荷和迷迭香制成的夏日意式烘蛋（frittata），我们将其切成厚楔形，配上熏鳟鱼片食用。

蟹肉饼配香菜果酱

我喜欢把蟹肉饼做小一点，直径约 4cm，这样在锅中更容易翻面。关键是在翻面之前，让底部形成一层酥脆的外壳。在用抹刀将蟹肉饼放入锅中之前，油必须已加热，以确保外壳酥脆。最好分批次煎炸。我在一个 28cm 的大锅中一次煎 6 个小饼，在第二批准备好之前，让第一批保持温热。有时我会在香菜果酱中搅拌入少量酸奶，使酱汁味道更温和。

servings 4. 准备时间 90 分钟

混合白蟹肉和棕蟹肉 500g

新鲜白面包 200g

青辣椒 1 个

欧芹 15g

青柠 1 个

蛋黄酱 3 tbsp

潘科面包糠 6 tbsp

半颗青柠（用于配餐）

制作辣味香菜果酱：

细砂糖 85g

水 120ml

白葡萄酒醋 50ml

鱼露 2 tbsp

大蒜 3 瓣

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摄影 JONATHAN LOVEKIN

02.08.26

观察家报杂志 (THE OBSERVER MAGAZINE)

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美食渴望 (CRAVINGS)

青辣椒 1 或 2 个（小）

生姜 35g

香茅 2 根

青柠 1 个

香菜叶 25g

将蟹肉放入碗中，仔细检查是否有壳碎片。使用食物处理器或粗孔磨碎器，将面包制成柔软的粗面包糠，然后加入蟹肉中。将辣椒纵向对半切开，去掉种子和蒂，然后切碎。

将欧芹叶摘下，切碎，与辣椒一起加入蟹肉中。将青柠皮细磨成屑，与蛋黄酱一起搅拌进蟹肉中。混合物需要足够浓稠以便捏成饼状——如果显得太软，可以再加入少量面包糠。如果太干且易碎，则多加一点蛋黄酱。用盐和少量黑胡椒调味。

将潘科面包糠倒入浅盘中。将蟹肉混合物分成 12 个小饼，将每个饼放入面包糠中并轻轻压实以包裹，然后翻面重复另一侧的操作。动作要尽可能轻柔。将其放置在铺有烘焙纸的烤盘上，冷藏 45 分钟至 1 小时使其凝固。

制作香菜果酱：将细砂糖和水放入小 saucepan 中并煮沸。让其沸腾直到开始变成金色且呈糖浆状，大约 5-6 分钟。倒入白葡萄酒醋和鱼露，继续烹煮几分钟，然后取出冷却。

将大蒜瓣剥皮，放入搅拌杯或食物处理器中。将辣椒对半切开，去籽并加入。刮掉生姜皮（我发现用勺子边缘刮最简单），然后磨成柔软的糊状。加入大蒜中。

去掉香茅的根端，剥掉最坚硬的外叶，然后将核心切细片。将香茅与磨碎的青柠皮和青柠汁一起加入。将香菜粗切并放入搅拌机，然后倒入冷却的糖浆，处理成粗糙的湿糊状。转移到小碗中并冷藏。

烹饪蟹肉饼：在宽口浅盘锅中加热薄薄一层油。油热后，放入几个蟹肉饼，煎 3 或 4 分钟，直到底部形成一层薄薄的金黄色外壳。小心地翻转蟹肉饼，直到另一面也变成金黄色。取出并保持温热，然后烹饪下一批。

趁热上桌，配上几勺辣味香菜果酱，或许再加上半颗青柠用于挤汁。

柠檬马斯卡彭、樱桃与葡萄柚

如果您更喜欢，可以使用橙皮屑，并根据需要将樱桃换成树莓。

分量 4 人份。准备时间 30 分钟，另加冷藏时间

淡奶油 200ml

马斯卡彭奶酪 250g

柠檬皮屑 2 茶匙

糖粉 2 汤匙

粉红葡萄柚 2 个

樱桃 250g

将奶油倒入冰过的搅拌碗中，打发至浓稠。质地应足以保持柔软的形状，但又足够坚挺以形成尖峰。

搅拌马斯卡彭奶酪使其松软，然后轻轻拌入奶油中。注意不要过度搅拌。加入柠檬皮屑和糖粉。在准备水果时将其放入冰箱冷藏。

使用非常锋利的厨师刀，去除葡萄柚的皮和白色苦皮。取出果肉瓣，尽可能保留果汁。去除樱桃的柄，将每颗樱桃对半切开，然后取出并丢弃果核。将樱桃与葡萄柚肉及其果汁混合，彻底冷藏。

将柠檬马斯卡彭奶酪分勺盛入浅碗中，然后在奶油周围铺上水果及其果汁。如果喜欢，可以撒上可食用花瓣。 ●

02.08.26

观察家报 杂志 (THE OBSERVER MAGAZINE)

39

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渴望 (CRAVINGS)

因为我是一个北伦敦人，当我坐在 ocakbaşı（土耳其炭烤餐厅）里，让充满羊脂和烟雾的空气将我包围时，我会感到一种特殊的平静。我听闻有些非伦敦本地的美食作家在规划伦敦行程时，如果没把道尔斯顿的 Umut 2000 包含在内就不能算完整；也听闻有些厨师在自己的工作岗位上忙碌一天后，深夜会倾向于前往这家餐厅地品尝羊排。但我从未去过这家在美食爱好者或网红群体中最受欢迎的东伦敦 ocakbaşı...

餐厅 劳拉·古德曼 (LAURA GOODMAN)

Yeni Umut 2000

6 Crossway, London N16 8HX (umut2000dalston.shop). 前菜 £5.50 起，主菜 £13-28， 饮料自备 (BYO)，无需支付开瓶费

就这样，周五午餐时间，我随丈夫来到了道尔斯顿 (Dalston)。我准备好了。Yeni Umut 2000 坐落在繁华的十字路口，紧邻土耳其浴池，靠近道尔斯顿金斯兰 (Dalston Kingsland) 车站。厨师暂时离开了他的 mangal（烤炉）岗位，站在门口对着对面店的厨师大声地喊着什么快活的话。店内很安静，只有一名徘徊的配送员和另一桌两人餐。左侧是炉灶，旁边是一个柜台，摆满了腌肉串、腌菜盘和柠檬角。柜台上的储备预示着晚餐时段将会更加繁忙。

首先，我们点了一份 mücver（西葫芦煎饼），这是我人生中至关重要的基石菜肴之一。我们还点了 hummus kavurma（搭配羊肝和黄油的鹰嘴豆泥）和烤茄子沙拉。服务员给桌上端来一碗面包，上面涂抹着调味油脂，闪烁着诱人的光泽，此外还有一份洋葱欧芹沙拉和一份什锦沙拉。我正热情地吃着，但没有说话，因为我开始感到恐慌。在我认知并喜爱的 mücver 中，它们应该是酥脆但如枕般柔软且带有奶酪味，且充满了新鲜的西葫芦、莳萝和欧芹。而这些薄薄的、调味不足的煎饼被放在一层生菜上——很遗憾地告诉大家，那生菜已经褐了。茄子沙拉几乎只尝到生大蒜味，没有任何酸爽感或草本清新感。而我搞不清楚鹰嘴豆泥出了什么问题。加了黄油的鹰嘴豆泥怎么会不好吃？那黄油尝起来……没有黄油味。不过，羊肝是串在竹签上烤的，肉块之间夹着肥肉，口感多汁且鲜嫩——很快就被扫光了。

继续尝试。我听过关于羊肋排的所有好评。这些肋排确实很棒——带有神圣的咸鲜味和烟熏味，边缘焦脆，肉质 tender。仅仅为了这些肋排，你就应该来这里。我意识到桌上缺少了酸奶，那是总能给我带来富足感和可能性之物的东西。于是，现在端上来了搭配酸奶的鸡肉串 (chicken shish)。但鸡肉浸在一种汤汤水水的稀薄酱汁中，只尝得出番茄味，顶上点缀了一块酸奶。

我回到了午餐后的办公桌前，感到有些震惊，有些不满足。我担心自己在午餐时间来用餐，而此时他们的木炭还没有为大众燃得通红，这给 Yeni Umut 2000 的好人们带来了不公平的评价。

几天后，放学后我带孩子们去了 Green Lanes 的另一家 Umut 2000。尽管每个人都在讨论这两家分店

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摄影 SOPHIA EVANS

02.08.26 观察家报 杂志

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渴望 (CRAVINGS)

Umut 2000

551 Green Lanes, London N8 0RL (instagram.com / umut2000haringey)。 前菜 £7 起，主菜 £16–£25， 饮品自带（BYO），不收开瓶费

与此同时，看来它们近年来是由不同的人员管理。Green Lanes 店的一位员工告诉我老板们是亲兄弟，但我无法在 Dalston 店找到任何人证实这一点。两家的菜单只有微小的差异。在 Green Lanes 店，傍晚前但尚未入夜时的繁忙氛围中，电动车和鸡肉卷穿梭不息，我非常享受这种感觉，甚至开始漫无目的地想我们是否能搬到这里来。坐下来时我感到心情轻快，而我的孩子们则在“帮”店员布置餐桌。

没过多久，餐桌上便摆满了各式菜肴，它们单吃味道绝佳，组合在一起则相得益彰。不仅有洋葱欧芹沙拉，还有我最爱的烤洋葱沙拉，配以石榴糖蜜。我点了 soslu patlican（酱汁茄子）和 tzatziki（希腊酸奶黄瓜酱），但员工们为了展现极致的慷慨，还给了我们 hummus（鹰嘴豆泥）和 spinach tarator（菠菜酸奶蘸酱）。鹰嘴豆泥上的黄油被煎至完美的坚果棕色。菠菜蘸酱带有我在前一家餐厅缺失的那种浓郁酸味，且同样配有神奇的棕色黄油。soslu patlican 质地柔软，风味浓郁，甜美地化开。“看看这张桌子，”我对着空气说道。我那个不过敏于芝麻的孩子正把薯条蘸在棕色黄油鹰嘴豆泥里，而我对芝麻过敏的孩子则被一位体贴的服务员提供了一篮专属的无调味面包。这色彩！这个性！这活力！这张餐桌充满了生命力，本该如此。鸡翅具有与羊排一样焦脆且带烟熏味的色泽，我们都饥肠辘辘地啃了起来。

我看到厨师在切某种食材，于是询问是什么。几分钟后，他为我们送来了一盘 ezme 沙拉（由洋葱、青椒、欧芹和漆树粉精细切碎的番茄组成）。我们尝试了另一种酸奶烤肉，是羊肉串。虽然呈现方式相同，但酱汁浓郁且辛香，与酸奶混合后简直完美。

我的两次经历之间存在巨大的差异。也许是午餐和晚餐服务的区别，也许是我预期的权重不同，又或者仅仅是 Dalston 店那天状态不佳。当时天气连续很长时间都很热。在那段时间的某一天，我的孩子们在公园里盯着一只死掉的（且没头的）鸽子看了很久，时间久到不建议如此。外面的世界很残酷。

我可以肯定地说两件事：一定要尝试那些羊排，并且确保你的桌上有酸奶。这次经历让我学到了很多关于相信自己判断力的道理。评论很有参考价值，但我建议你也信任你自己的判断。 ●

WINE

DAVID WILLIAMS

ROBERT SAMUEL HANSON

熔点

谈到葡萄酒与气候危机，如果你在山火烟雾中极力眯起眼睛看，或许能将酒杯视为“半满”的乐观之举。当然，确实有一些心态像波莉安娜（Pollyanna）一样乐观的人，乐于夸大其中的益处。近年来，在葡萄酒报道中经常出现这样的报纸文章或电视新闻简报，赞美全球遥远北方那些此前绝无可能进行葡萄栽培的地区，现在为葡萄种植者开启了机遇；记者们兴致勃勃地模仿法语创造新词，来描述那些不再荒诞、不再过于寒冷的极地地区所产出的可饮用佳酿：卑尔根特级庄园（Bergen Grand Cru）、里加丘陵（Côtes de Riga）、北海道珍藏（Réserve d'Hokkaido）。

同样的记者可能还会提到，在诸如摩泽尔（Mosel）、卢瓦尔（Loire）和香槟（Champagne）这些曾经的边缘经典产区，现在要让葡萄稳定成熟变得多么容易；他们甚至指出，总的来说，在欧洲葡萄酒核心产区，好年份与坏年份之间的质量差距已经缩小。

然而，如果你花时间与成熟产区的葡萄种植者交流，就很难发现这种乐观情绪的痕迹。大多数种植者很难将那个著名的酒杯视为半满，反而觉得它是半空的，而且内容物正在迅速蒸发。似乎每年都会带来一个新的、不受欢迎的记录，在向着我们所认知的葡萄酒终结的不可阻挡且加速的冲刺中，又一次令人惊愕地向前推进。

一个衡量标准就是采收时间的提前。

葡萄种植者试图在葡萄的糖分、酸度以及决定未来葡萄酒风味和口感的酚类化合物达到最佳平衡的精确时刻进行采收。近年来，在许多地区，这个时间点提前了多达三周。例如，2020年代的勃艮第种植者在8月下旬或9月上旬就开始收获，而1980年代的情况则是9月下旬。

但让种植者担忧的不止是基准条件的改变。或许更令人担忧的是突然且极端的天气事件增加：干旱、山火和冰雹都可能带来毁灭性打击。由于冬季和春季气温升高，葡萄藤的生长比以往早得多，而春末的霜冻可能会摧毁这些脆弱且娇嫩的新芽。此外，在最近一些气温较高且伴有降雨的年份中，猖獗的霉菌已成为一个持续且日益严重的问题。

让本特派员免于陷入完全绝望的是种植者的智慧。这可能意味着使用更高海拔、气候更凉爽的地点——例如曾经被忽视的勃艮第高地，用于酿造 Domaine Denis Carré Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune 2021 (£17.85, Berry Bros & Rudd) 这种灵动的黑皮诺红葡萄酒。这可能是指使用耐热且适应时间长久的当地葡萄品种，例如在风味浓郁辛辣、口感圆润的 M&S Found Balearic Island Red (£12, Marks & Spencer) 中使用的马略卡岛 callet 和 manto negro 品种。或者，这可能意味着在 newly viable（新可行的）土地上调用抗病杂交葡萄品种，例如在 Nova Scotia 产的 Planters Ridge Quintessence 2022 (£24.95, St Andrews Wine) 中，使用 lucie kuhlmann, castel 和 marquette 酿造出的口感清脆、带有红李子多汁感的红葡萄酒。它看起来可能有些不同，但无论采取什么措施，葡萄酒依然有未来。 ●

本周推荐酒款

M&S Found Balearic Island Red 2022, £12, Marks & Spencer

02.08.26

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渴望 (CRAVINGS)

食物造型：EMMA CANTLAY；道具造型：LOUIS WALLER

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摄影：KIM LIGHTBODY

02.08.26 观察家报 杂志

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渴望 (CRAVINGS)

客座主厨 RAVNEET GILL

夏日甜点

夏季甜点最迷人之处在于其感觉丰盛却不厚重；水果色泽最亮，风味虽熟悉却仍带有一丝特别，因为我们为此等待了许久。我热爱可以提前准备的布丁，尤其是在天气温暖时；你希望冰箱里已经准备好一样甜点，而不是在想要放松的时候还需要在最后一刻忙前忙后。清澈的草莓果冻、口感柔软的烤水果挞，或者冰镇的卡仕达挞，都能给人一种精心准备却无需惊慌的愉悦感。这类甜点非常适合漫长的午餐、花园餐桌、家庭晚餐，以及任何需要一点点点缀但又不愿太费心思的场合。

这里的食谱旨在追求恰到好处的简单快乐：熟透的水果、优质的乳制品、酥脆的糕点、足够的盐，以及让几种强力食材主导风味的自信。它们具有夏日气息，可提前制作，而且真的非常美味。

草莓果冻，黄油酥饼与香缇奶油

这是一道美妙且简单的夏季布丁：清澈、柔软的草莓果冻，搭配金黄酥脆的黄油酥饼和一勺香缇奶油。新鲜草莓在这里效果极佳，但冷冻草莓同样出色，因为它们能慷慨地释放出果汁。由于不是整颗食用，使用冷冻草莓而非新鲜草莓在心理上压力较小——把新鲜草莓留作装饰即可。

4 人份。准备时间 5 小时（含冷藏时间） 草莓 500g，冷冻或新鲜 水 250ml

细砂糖 75g，或按口味调整 柠檬汁 1 tbsp

金级吉利丁叶 3 片（或根据说明书足以使 500ml 液体凝固的量）

黄油酥饼配料：

无盐黄油 150g，软化 金黄色细砂糖 75g 中筋面粉 225g 细盐 ½ tsp

香缇奶油配料： 双倍凝脂奶油 200ml 糖粉 1 tbsp 香草精 ½ tsp

制作果冻：若使用新鲜水果，请去除草莓蒂。将草莓、水、糖和柠檬汁放入锅中，轻轻加热直至草莓软化并释放果汁。请勿剧烈沸腾，否则会使果冻变得浑浊。

离火浸泡 20 分钟。用细筛网或细布过滤，不要用力挤压。称量或量出液体，需要约 500ml。如果不足，请加入少量水补足。

将吉利丁叶在冷水中浸泡 5 分钟直至软化。加热少量草莓液体。挤干吉利丁，将其搅拌入温热的莓果汁中直至溶解。再将其拌回剩余的莓果液体中。倒入玻璃杯或模具中，冷藏至少 4 小时或至凝固。

制作黄油酥饼：将烤箱预热至 180C / 煤气档 4。将黄油和糖搅拌至顺滑。加入面粉和盐，搅拌至形成柔软的面团。压入铺好垫纸的烤盘中，或擀平并切成条状。冷藏 20 分钟。

将黄油酥饼烘烤 18–25 分钟（取决于形状和厚度），直到边缘呈浅金色。完全冷却。

制作奶油：将所有配料一起搅拌至出现软峰。在果冻（无论是脱模还是留在杯中）旁放上一勺奶油，并配上黄油酥饼。 →

'这些甜点适合漫长的午餐、花园餐桌、家庭晚餐……'

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美食渴望

法式酸奶油芒果挞

这款挞口感奶油般顺滑，带有轻微的酸意，充满阳光气息，芒果为填料带来了柔和的热带甜味。这里使用罐装芒果完全没问题；我很喜欢用，很多其他厨师也是如此。最棒的是，你在许多大型超市里通常都能买到大罐装的芒果。

可制作一个 20cm 的挞。准备时间 4 小时，包括冷藏时间 芒果泥 250g，可用新鲜、冷冻或沥干的罐装芒果制成

法式酸奶油 (crème fraîche) 200g

双倍奶油 (double cream) 100ml

大号鸡蛋 2 个

细砂糖 75g

青柠汁 1 tbsp

青柠 1 个，细磨皮

细盐 一小撮

甜酥皮挞壳 1 x 20cm，盲烤（见右侧方法和食谱）

将烤箱预热至 150C / 燃气档 2。将芒果泥、法式酸奶油、双倍奶油、鸡蛋、糖、青柠汁、青柠皮屑和盐放入碗中。轻轻搅拌至顺滑。尽量不要混入太多空气。将填料倒入盲烤好的酥皮挞壳中。

烘烤 35-40 分钟，或直到挞体刚好凝固，中心仍有轻微的晃动感。准确的时间取决于你的挞壳深度。

在室温下冷却，然后冷藏至少 2 小时后再切片。冷食或在略低于室温的状态下食用，根据个人喜好可额外加入青柠皮屑和一勺法式酸奶油。

甜酥皮挞壳

这是一种用于衬在挞壳里的酥脆、短时甜酥皮。关键在于面团只需揉至成型即可，充分静置，然后薄薄地铺在挞壳中，使最终的挞壳精致而不厚重。在冷藏状态下使用，如果面团开始回温，请将其放在垫好纸的托盘上重新放入冰箱。

可制作约 400g 酥皮或 1 x 20cm 挞壳

中筋面粉 190g

糖粉 55g

海盐片 一小撮，揉碎

冷藏无盐黄油 122g

中号蛋黄 2 个

在碗中将中筋面粉、糖粉和盐混合在一起。加入冷藏的黄油丁，将其揉入干料中，直到混合物像细面包屑一样。你也可以使用带有搅拌桨附件的搅拌机来操作。加入蛋黄，搅拌至刚刚成团。不要过度揉搓。

轻轻将面团揉在一起，揉成扁圆形，包裹好并冷藏至少 1 小时后使用。

在铺入挞模之前，非常简短地揉捏面团，使其便于操作。将其薄薄地擀开并铺在挞模中，确保酥皮不过厚。将其整齐地压在边缘，切掉多余部分，再次冷藏至硬化。

要盲烤酥皮壳，将烤箱预热至 180C / 燃气档 4。在酥皮上铺上烘焙纸并填入烘焙豆。烘烤 20 分钟，或直到边缘呈金黄色。取出烘焙豆和烘焙纸，然后将挞壳放回烤箱继续烘烤 10-15 分钟，或直到内部呈金黄色且完全烤熟。

如有需要，在壳内壁轻轻刷一层蛋液，然后放回烤箱烘烤 3-4 分钟，或直到封口。

在填充之前，让酥皮壳完全冷却。 ●

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渴望

仅关于汤力水

这种苦甜味混合饮品正在迎来另一场回归——且其搭配能力远不止于金酒

想象这样一个场景：在波尔图的城市公园（Parque da Cidade）后方，大西洋上的夕阳正染上桃子梅尔巴（peach-melba）般的色调。成群的千禧一代和 X 世代人们兴奋地期待着，准备在 Primavera Sound 音乐节的周五晚上，迎接 Gorillaz 乐队主唱戴蒙·阿尔本（Damon Albarn）那标志性的 sprechegang 式轻蔑唱腔。我也在其中，正排队买一杯恰到好处的饮品——准确地说，是一杯 porto tónico（波特酒与汤力水）。

在抵达这种强化葡萄酒之故乡的两天里，我已对这种国民饮品非常熟悉。因此，当我发现人们对它的渴求如此之强，以至于售罄时，我感到十分惊讶。Cockburn’s 波特酒与汤力水的销量比去年增长了 150%，在音乐节期间共售出超过 5,000 杯。

谁能想到一种葡萄牙强化葡萄酒会成为音乐节的头号主角？但当我回到汤力水的故乡伦敦时，似乎这种苦甜味混合饮品也正在经历一场“再革命”。

“在我近 20 年的调酒师生涯中，我看到汤力水从一个略显冷门的选项，变成了无可争议的混合饮品之王，”在爱丁堡经营 Panda & Sons 和 Nauticus 的鸡尾酒业资深人士伊恩·麦克弗森（Iain McPherson）说道。

汤力水由奎宁（一种天然存在于南美金鸡纳树中的苦味生物碱）制成。它的历程从 19 世纪海军舰艇上的药用开始，到 1858 年在伦敦获得专利，再到本世纪初的高端化（种类呈现爆发式增长）。

金酒在历史上一直是它最强大的伴侣，但随着这种植物风味烈酒的星光在近年有所暗淡，汤力水制造商不得不随机应变，以保持其活力。

“虽然汤力水曾受益于与金酒的关系，但现在它正在独自驱动自己的成功，”布里斯托尔 Same Again 酒吧的共同所有者皮帕·盖伊（Pippa Guy）意识到。精品品牌不断推出新口味——今年 London Essence 推出了它声称的英国唯一无糖汤力水；而 Fever-Tree 长期以来一直致力于将汤力水重新定位为一种独立饮品。与此同时，Schweppes 凭借其卓越的气泡感，依然是业内的首选。

“汤力水极其复杂，”麦克弗森说，“其苦甜的味型使其能与大多数烈酒、苦味酒（vermouths）和阿玛罗苦精（amaros）完美搭配。”

全国各地的酒吧不仅将汤力水作为混合饮品，还在鸡尾酒中进行尝试。在 Same Again，盖伊将朗姆酒、泥煤威士忌、烤梨和汤力水结合，调制出她的轻盈冬季 Highball 饮品“意外之梨”（Unlikely Pear）；而“新鲜王子”（Fresh Prince）餐前酒则由朗姆酒、草莓和金盏花浸泡的 Aperol、白葡萄柚及汤力水组成。

苦甜的特性意味着汤力水也能与其他酸涩风味相得益彰。“有些人可能不喜欢 Campari 汤力水或咖啡汤力水，但我喜欢加倍强化这种苦味，”盖伊说。例如，无酒精餐前酒 Botivo 中龙胆根的辛辣感效果极佳，基于朝鲜蓟的 amaro Cynar 的草本基调同样如此。最近，Dirty Martini 汤力水也在 TikTok 上流行起来。

不过，请确保你正确对待你的汤力水。低温且气泡充足是关键。“人们经常忽略的两点是：始终将汤力水存放在冰箱中，并使用充足的冰块，”麦克弗森说，“冰冷的汤力水和极冷的饮品能让气泡一直持续到最后一口。” ●

创意混搭：汤力水搭配替代方案

白波特酒

白波特酒芳香的明亮度使其成为我们这位苦甜主角的完美搭档。Graham’s Blend No 5 白波特酒性价比极高——可用柠檬、青柠和薄荷点缀。

浓缩咖啡

想要一杯真正成熟的无酒精饮品，请在冰块上倒入汤力水，然后分层加入一份（30ml）冷却的浓缩咖啡。加入一片橙子以增添柑橘类清香。

白龙舌兰酒 (BLANCO TEQUILA)

这种组合被称为 TNT，是尝试龙舌兰烈酒的一种绝佳方式。建议选择带有柑橘调或草本风味的龙舌兰酒，并在混合饮品中加入一小撮盐。

苦味酒 (VERMOUTH)

一种低酒精含量的替代方案——汤力水与各种类型的苦味酒（从干型到甜型）搭配，是一种轻盈且适合长时间饮用的选择。加入双份（60ml）苦味酒能让风味更加突出。

清酒 (SAKE)

请务必注意清酒的细腻程度，但可以尝试搭配樱花或柚子味汤力水，打造纯正的日系主题。

饮品 MILLIE MILCIKEN

02.08.26 观察家报杂志

盖蒂图片社 (GETTY IMAGES)

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我的心事

YOEL NOORALI

这位常驻伦敦的作家以其黑色幽默的故事和随笔而闻名。他的首部短篇小说集《王国》(The Kingdom) 灵感源自他在英国国家医疗服务体系 (NHS) 工作期间的经历。

让婴儿生存下来：75%

我读到过，如果你在胎儿耳边大声播放贝多芬的音乐，它出生时会自带一个蝴蝶结领结。事实并非如此。实际上的婴儿几乎什么都做不到，最不能做到的就是让自己活下来。事实上，根据我妻子强迫我参加的产前课程，婴儿出生时是积极地想要死亡的。那是婴儿唯一的目标，而父亲的唯一目标就是阻挡它。到目前为止，我发现这对我的四个月大儿子文森特 (Vincent) 来说基本成立，他每晚的尖叫证明了这一点——听起来完全像是在尝试死去，而且如果得不到立即照顾就会真的死去，而事实上，唯一的问题是他已经一小时没被抱过了。

为了保持理智而饮酒：15%

如果文森特无法小睡，我就把他扔进婴儿车，倒出一品脱葡萄酒，在当地的绿地中游荡饮用，努力克制自己不哭泣或崩溃。其他父母评判我饮用那种我希望看起来像“里贝纳”(Ribena) 饮料的行为，这让我尴尬得在附近的墓地绕圈，但这还不足以让我停止在悼念者面前狂饮“里贝纳”——他们看着我几乎是以慢跑的速度绕着坟墓转圈。我曾短暂地自我说服，推车速度越快，哭泣停止得就越快，就像一个喝醉的小偷孩子。

赢得孩子的爱：5%

孩子们讨厌强迫他们生存并最终走向死亡的人，这似乎很自然，所以我惊讶地发现，我的孩子至少对我持有好感。仅仅通过在场，我就赢得了他的崇拜：他就是这么不识货。但他也没有任何记忆，仅仅通过缺席，我可能就会赢得他的反感。因此，即使是在育儿的短暂喘息期间，我妻子也会尖叫着让我过来见证某个与北极光相当的新奇迹，而这个让我“错过就是傻瓜”的壮观事件，不可避免地只是婴儿拿住了某个东西，甚至仅仅是撑起了自己的头。尽管如此，我依然为我们这位“沙皇”所有极其平庸的胜利而鼓掌，当我欢呼和吹口哨时，他的笑容如此强烈，以至于震动了他的全身，导致他摔倒了。

自身的幸福：4%

当我告诉其他父亲文森特快出生时，他们都喃喃地说道“团结”，仿佛我们要发起一场不可能的阶级战争。在某种意义上，父亲确实在这样做，因为从宝宝出生那一刻起，作为父亲的我们就是低等的，永远在尝试但失败地将自己的需求凌驾于那位“国王”或“法老”之上——而那位正是你伴侣的孩子。

我现在所获得的任何碎片般的幸福都源于微小的喜悦，比如我和妻子终于可以用第三人称来称呼彼此，直接对宝宝说：“爸爸怎么把你的上衣穿反了？”或者“妈妈是不是忘了买爸爸的里贝纳了？”这让我们能够以这种温和得多的口吻来宣泄不满。除此之外，如今的幸福就像是抓住任何借口离开公寓。“爸爸去倒垃圾了！”我会大喊一声，拎着袋子出门，然后花一点时间享受仅仅站在垃圾桶旁的感觉，也许会和另一个父亲发短信。“别告诉我你也在垃圾桶旁边？”

为了生存而写作赚钱：1%

我的妻子鼓励我将生命中剩下的 1% 奉献给文字，而文字理应支付我 50% 的账单。金钱像一只塞壬，在我的脑海中不断尖叫。当我的妻子临产时，医院把我们打发回家了三次，导致产生了六笔 Uber 费用，我开始担心我可能永远找不到合适的时机去问：“你介意把我们共乘那些出租车的那一半钱转给我吗？”

所以从文森特出生的那天起，我就在慢慢地让自己陷入财务危机。我想多写一点，赚些钱，但我的思想被这个孩子完全殖民了，以至于除了他，我没有任何可以书写的素材。但谁在乎呢？写作价值贬值的悲哀之处并不在于这个曾经的目的地突然变得不再重要，而是在于意识到

它从来没有像我以为的那样重要。这项我投入了不可估量的精力和时间的活动，曾被我认为是至高无上的，但在 6 公斤的肉身面前显得微不足道——尽管我说了这么多廉价的讽刺，但这确实是神奇的。透过文森特的眼睛看待生活，世界重新恢复了色彩。他所惊叹的事物也让我惊叹。我对垃圾桶感到惊叹。

唯一能让生活变得更丰富、更神奇的，大概就是那些出租车的钱了。 ●

46

插图 ALMA HASER

02.08.26 观察家报杂志

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勇气的代价

菲尔·维克里 (Phil Vickery) 和他人生中 最艰苦的斗争

关于体育 脑损伤的 四页特别报道

观察家报体育版

观察家报 02.08.26

2

observer.co.uk

本周

报道：亚历克斯·鲍默 (Alex Bowmer) 与 安德鲁·巴特勒 (Andrew Butler)

本周简讯

意大利传奇球星巴雷西病逝，享年 66 岁

传奇的前AC米兰及意大利队后卫弗兰科·巴雷西在一段时期的病后去世，享年 66 岁。在进入成年组足球的第二个赛季，正值少年的巴雷西在自由人（sweeper）和中后卫位置上均表现出色。在他效力于俱乐部一线队的 19 年期间，他帮助“红黑军团”赢得了六次意甲冠军中的首座，其中有 15 年担任队长。他还随米兰赢得了三座欧冠奖杯，并在两次降级后立即带领球队重返顶级联赛。他在 1997 年结束球员生涯后，其 6 号球衣被退役。他在意大利国家队的最高光时刻是帮助“蓝色军团”赢得了 1982 年的世界杯，随后他也是 1994 年决赛中遗憾点球负于巴西的那支球队的一员。在去年夏天接受肺部手术后，巴雷西最后一次公开露面是在二月冬奥会开幕式上担任火炬手，而地点恰恰是在圣西罗球场。

詹姆斯·多伊尔骑乘赔率 16-1 的“Evening Saigon”在昨天的古德伍德珊瑚管事杯（The Coral Stewards' Cup）中获得胜利，跑在“Stratusnine”之前，而“Mitbaahy”和“Completely Random”则共同占据前四名。Alan Crowhurst / Getty Images

5-0

贾斯汀·格里夫斯在西印度群岛队对阵巴基斯坦队的一场比赛中的数据

斯通斯加盟国米，拉克鲁瓦加入切尔西

英格兰后卫约翰·斯通斯在今年初夏天结束了在曼城长达 10 年且荣誉等身的职业生涯后，以自由身加盟了意甲冠军国际米兰。切尔西则为其臃肿的阵容又增加了一名中后卫，马克桑斯·拉克鲁瓦从水晶宫加盟，在那支球队他曾帮助球队赢得了足总杯和欧协联冠军。这名 26 岁的球员转会费为 5200 万英镑m 且签下了一份为期六年的合同，目前“蓝军”阵中共有另外九名中后卫。不过，主教练哈维·阿隆索表示他们将清理掉至少 5 名后卫，但这位西班牙教练在丹尼·韦尔贝克以未公开的费用从布莱顿转会而来后，肯定可以起用他。与此同时，布伦特福德以俱乐部纪录约 4000 万英镑m 的费用签下了中场球员马马杜·桑加雷，而本顿则以约 2600 万英镑m 的费用从本菲卡签入了葡萄牙中后卫安东尼奥·席尔瓦。

偷听到的对话

“这是我人生中至高无上的荣幸”

埃迪·豪宣布在执教纽卡斯尔近五年后辞职

在英女超（WSL）方面，伦敦城市狮女队从体育俱乐部（Sporting）签下了 20 岁的西班牙人丹妮拉·阿尔克斯，而切尔西则从巴塞罗那签下了意大利中场朱莉娅·德拉戈尼，合同为期四年。

穆德里克获准复出，切尔西被罚款 1000 万英镑m

切尔西边锋米哈伊洛·穆德里克在与英足协（FA）解决了禁药案件后，可以回归赛场。这名乌克兰球员此前因禁药“美多咪达”的“异常结果”被临时禁赛，并被处以四年的禁赛处罚。他自 2024 年 11 月以来一直未参加比赛，但在他承认违反反兴奋剂规定并同意接受与已服刑时间相等的禁赛后，英足协批准其复出。与此同时，由于在 2009 年至 2022 年期间违反了与经纪人付款相关的规定，切尔西被英足协罚款 1000 万英镑m，并被给予一个关于禁止注册新球员两个转会窗口的缓刑禁令。所有者托德·伯利和 Clearlake Capital 在 2022 年收购俱乐部时，自行报告了 74 项违反英足协规定的行为。但该俱乐部避免了被扣除 6 分的处罚，该处罚原定缓期执行至 30 June 2027。

苏格兰超级联赛

随着因凡蒂诺陷入绝境，寄生性的国际足联现在必须被解散

足球管理机构在经历了令人尴尬的退让之后，再次证明了为什么他们不值得信任。

首先是欧洲超级联赛，现在是私有化的世界杯。这两项阴险的计划都被大规模的抵制所阻止：这为生活以及足球提供了一个令人鼓舞的模板。但詹尼·因凡蒂诺在周五晚上的投降仅仅是一次为了自保的战术撤退。

这些精英、“颠覆者”和公共资产掠夺者还会卷土重来。不过目前，在三天之内，国际足联主席已经从一个渴望成为、执掌“特朗普化”世界杯的委员因凡蒂诺，沦落为一个为了竞选票而挣扎的跛脚鸭。

那些在因凡蒂诺试图将世界杯向“投资者”兜售之前支持他的协会可能会问自己，为什么直到他试图出售一个国际足联在道义上根本不拥有——而是属于整个足球界的资产，他们才转而反对他。所有不支持他的理由，在几周前的美国、加拿大和墨西哥就已经显而易见了。

当国际足联试图强行推进世界杯私有化时，他们忘记了一个尴尬的细节：在 23 届男足世界杯中，有 13 届是由欧洲国家赢得的。

一个被切分、被出售、由寡头掌控的赛事，如果失去了卫冕冠军西班牙、法国、德国、意大利或亲爱的老英格兰（所有这些都是之前的冠军），将无法让那些与唐纳德·特朗普关系密切的“投资者”获利。

当代表北美的中北美及加勒比足球联合会（Concacaf）和亚足联加入反抗——甚至连他自己的“全球战略高级顾问”卡洛斯·科尔代罗（Carlos Cordeiro）也辞职了——因凡蒂诺变得无可奈何，成为了傲慢的典型案例。

在各联合会反抗之前，世界杯正被呈现在特朗普式经济学的盘中。该计划还处于国际足联的巨型主义与因凡蒂诺个人野心的交汇点，而因凡蒂诺最近得到了特朗普的支持，旨在成为联合国下一任秘书长。

当足球界反抗时，最初为期 53 天的最后通牒被重新界定为一次“咨询”。因凡蒂诺恳求道：“没有人要出卖足球。这是国际足联永远不会考虑的事情。”但他的企图在抵达之初就已夭折，死在了他的大后方——欧洲。

战术撤退：詹尼·因凡蒂诺在周五晚上放弃了将世界杯出售给与唐纳德·特朗普关系密切的投资者的计划。法国 / Fife / BFP / Getty Images

精英们部署的经济权力并不经常被击败，但这场战斗是可以取胜的。

欧洲承诺抵制世界杯，这将导致广播权价值陷入螺旋式下跌。没有法国、西班牙、英格兰等国？那就不干了。

这不是一场可以被简单归类为“一个被放弃的糟糕主意”的小规模冲突。这是一个警示故事，需要永恒的警觉，需要因凡蒂诺统治的终结，以及一个全新的足球世界管理机构。

因凡蒂诺承诺给较小国家带来更多财富，将自己塑造为弱势群体的朋友，与此同时却任命摩根大通（JP Morgan）协助一项计划，众议院司法委员会资深民主党人杰米·拉斯金（Jamie Raskin）称其为“国际足联与特朗普政府之间潜在的利益交换”。

国际足联计划中的关键——戏码在于，特朗普女婿贾里德·库什纳的兄弟约书亚·库什纳是此次出售方案中的首选对象。

库什纳的“Thrive Eternal”投资公司的简介旨在让人安心：“我们在 Thrive 的工作始终基于并受到对产品、品牌以及消费者与他们热爱之物建立持久关系的方式的深度认知的启发。”

不仅是约书亚·库什纳在帮助国际足联“民主化”世界足球。他们的首席商业顾问是格雷格·马费（Greg Maffei），一名特朗普就职委员会的捐赠者。另一家潜在投资者，阿波罗全球管理公司（Apollo Global Management），由特朗普和平委员会成员马克·罗万（Marc Rowan）领导。

2026年世界杯结果变成了一份巨大的招股说明书，一个诱饵——尤其是对于那些拥有政治影响力的人来说。因凡蒂诺想要将男女世界杯足球赛这一全球共有的体验，卷入重塑美国资本主义和政治的旋风之中。

他在美国跨越的底线已经对其合法性造成了致命打击：给特朗普的和平奖、在特朗普大厦租赁办公室、那通让美国球员福拉林·巴洛贡免于禁赛的特朗普电话、敲竹杠的门票价格等等。

这与欧洲超级联赛的余波惊人地相似。早在2021年，同样是摩根大通提出为20家俱乐部的脱离计划提供资金支持。“我们显然误判了更广泛的足球界将如何看待这笔交易，”一名发言人在该计划化为泡影时表示。但这并没有阻止他们卷土重来，这一次是协助建立国际足联前行企业（Fifa Forward Enterprise, FFE），这是一个估值200亿美元的全新“投资”工具。

世界足坛最强的俱乐部（巴黎圣日耳曼）由卡塔尔所有。英格兰超级联赛有11位美国所有者。甚至在橄榄球联盟第二级别联赛中的康沃尔海盗队也与总部位于匹兹堡的私募股权公司Stonewood Capital达成协议。在彭赞斯，人们为此欢欣鼓舞。

但这里的区别在于私人俱乐部与公共财产。国际足联声称，他们将控制这个新的“子公司商业机构”，并对治理、赛事、赛程表以及监管和体育决定拥有“排他性权力”。没有人相信这一点，尤其是欧足联，其谴责适用于每项运动。

他们在声明中表示：“一旦外部投资者获得国际足联赛事的所有权权益，足球将永远改变。商业回报将成为一项永久性义务。投资者的预期将成为每日的压力。从那一刻起，关于国际赛程的每一个决定，关于比赛形式的每一个决定，以及每一个塑造足球未来的决定，将不再由最有利于这项运动的因素驱动，而将由最有利于股东的因素驱动。”

欧足联要求获得“具有约束力的保证”以确保这场抢劫不会死灰复燃，这是正确的。但情况比这更严重。在约瑟夫·布拉特时代之后，再加上现在这件事，国际足联不再值得信任。它最初被设计为监管者，现在却为了服务于自身而存在：一个寄生在世界最受欢迎运动之上的流氓国家。

精英们部署的恐怖经济权力并不经常被击败，但这次胜利至少为应对下一个阴险的阴谋提供了希望。

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动荡：在96小时内，因凡蒂诺成功地将足球陷入了一场全面内战，并让人们对世界杯和国际足联的可行性产生怀疑。 Matthias Schrader / AP

因凡蒂诺计划受挫，但足球仍不安全

罗里·史密斯 (Rory Smith)

詹尼·因凡蒂诺的一周始于一份声明。即便按照他的标准来看，这份声明也很古怪：这是一篇针对不具名批评者的痛斥，在他看来，这些人对世界杯的享受程度不足。他首先将其发布在自己的 Instagram 账号上，那是一篇像北韩宣传员写出的、歇斯底里的长篇大论。他不断重复“欢乐与幸福”这两个词。他还使用了感叹号。

五天后，他的一周同样以一份声明结束。但在内容、基调和传递方式上，这一份截然不同：这是一份来自国际足联媒体部门的官方公报，是以“可归于国际足联主席的声明”形式发布的。它简短得多，审慎得多，且明显地更具妥协意味。你几乎能听到他夹起尾巴退缩的声音。

在这两者之间所发生的事情，在某种意义上，其实相当令人震惊。在大约 96 小时的时间里，因凡蒂诺设法让足球陷入了一场全面内战，让人们对世界杯以及现阶段国际足联的持续生存能力产生了真正的怀疑，并且很可能签署了自己的死刑判决书。

现在距离那个本应成为因凡蒂诺主席任期高光时刻的瞬间已经过去两周了：当时他站在巨大的 MetLife 体育场内，全世界的目光都集中在他身上，而他正尴尬地试图确认他与亲密好友特朗普总统是否能在完全相同的时间将世界杯奖杯呈交给西班牙。

这是他“巨作”的顶点。2026 年世界杯已经成为了他想要的一切。这次赛事——他的赛事——俘获了整个星球。电视观众规模庞大，商业收入亦然。他赢了。因凡蒂诺的地位似乎不可撼动。他笑得如此灿烂，以至于他的头顶看起来快要脱落了。就自焚行为而言，接踵而至的事情相当壮观。

速度之快亦令人咋舌。“震惊足球的一周”（我们根据合同义务必须如此称呼）以令人眩晕的速度推进。周二，《泰晤士报》透露，因凡蒂诺计划将国际足联赛事周围的商业运营剥离到一个新实体——国际足联前行企业 (Fifa Forward Enterprise)。国际足联将保留该子公司的多数控制权；全球 211 个国家 / 地区的足球协会也将 each 分得一份份额。

但因凡蒂诺也寻求向私人投资者出售股份；寻找合作伙伴的工作由 Thrive Capital 领导，该基金由约书亚·库什纳经营，他是贾里德的兄弟，唐纳德的女婿。国际足联计划向每个支持该想法的成员提供现金奖励。但他们只有 53 天的时间来决定；因凡蒂诺希望在 9 月份就该方案进行投票批准。哦，而且总体计划是，在他国际足联主席任期届满后，他将担任某种形式的世界杯专员。

这一愿景中的缺陷多且杂，但因凡蒂诺似乎对自己最明显的一点视而不见：这实际上将允许他潜在投资者的利益来定义并主导足球的运行方式。国际足联仍将控制比赛的监管以及国际比赛日历。但满足投资者的要求将控制国际足联。

反弹立即到来且异常猛烈。欧足联 (Uefa) 迅速发表了一份严厉声明，指责因凡蒂诺试图“出卖足球的灵魂”。最近就任首相的安迪·伯纳姆在 X 上写道：“世界杯不是一种产品。它从未属于任何可以出售的人。”（作为一名埃弗顿球迷，伯纳姆知道不能对一个轻易获胜的机会不屑一顾。）

在一场显然是与自己进行的访谈中，因凡蒂诺解释了如果他的提案被接受，这项运动将获得怎样的好处。据《金融时报》报道，该提案是由一小支自称“忍者”的团队在一年时间里构思出来的。

到周三，除欧足联以外的各大洲足联在通过媒体报道获知此事后，纷纷表示不满；随后大多数足联召开了紧急会议以讨论应对方案。

会议于周四举行，而结果并非詹尼·因凡蒂诺所愿。亚洲足联表示，这整场混乱“暴露了国际足联在磋商和决策过程中的根本性缺陷”。

中北美及加勒比海足联（Concacaf）的指责更为严厉，对“缺乏正当程序、强加的人为短期截止日期，以及相关国际足联治理机构缺乏任何审查或批准”表示“深切关注”。在私下里，成员们暗示此次事件让他们开始质疑詹尼·因凡蒂诺是否胜任该职位。

但最强烈的——尽管这可能令人不快，但也是最关键的——反应来自欧洲。在由欧足联主席、詹尼·因凡蒂诺的坚定反对者亚历山大·切费林主持的在线会议中，欧洲 55 个成员国一致同意抵制所有国际足联活动，直到整个计划被扔进历史的垃圾堆。

用一个詹尼·因凡蒂诺可能在美国学到的词组（以及他对私募股权的偏好和那条大红领带）： “这就是全场比赛的终结。”（That was the whole ballgame.）

打击接踵而至；詹尼·因凡蒂诺的高级顾问之一卡洛斯·科尔代罗于周四辞职，他质疑为何像国际足联这样一个富有的组织——上届世界杯周期产生了超过 $18bn 的收入——还需要外部投资来“解锁”更高的价值。周五，国际足联首席运营官凯文·拉穆尔，另一位长期盟友，将该计划描述为“一个人的项目”。

然而，到了那个阶段，损害已经造成。欧足联的干预起到了决定性作用。在过去十年中，詹尼·因凡蒂诺的大部分权力源于世界那些认为——且并不完全错误地认为——足球运动运行得过于有利于欧洲的地区。在需要的时候，他精心塑造了一种现实，将欧洲刻画成霸道的欺凌者。

毫无疑问，这次他原本也打算这么做。詹尼·因凡蒂诺的计划建立在说服他在非洲、亚洲和美洲的传统据点之上，让他们相信欧洲的任何抵制仅仅是这个旧大陆试图保护自己的霸权，拒绝分享利益，并在一个本应是“一个成员，一票”的民主体制中仗势欺人。

在这种情况下，这甚至可能是事实。但詹尼·因凡蒂诺的问题在于，他向选民推销的愿景并不完全准确。欧洲确实拥有巨大的影响力。正如他如此崇拜的私募股权掠夺者所意识到的那样，这里是所有金钱聚集之地。一旦欧足联威胁抵制，整个计划就彻底死掉了。詹尼·因凡蒂诺在周六凌晨绝望地发表声明，确认“该提案将不予推进”，这仅仅是对这一事实的承认。

不会有私有化，也不会有 Thrive Capital。世界杯被拯救了。一切回到了原点。不过，足球运动的权力动态已经向不利于詹尼·因凡蒂诺的方向转变，且可能是不可逆的：本周可能会被视为他陨落的开始，是他飞得太接近太阳的时刻。除此之外，我们回到了起点。

然而，这是否足以让我们拉开彩旗并烘烤纸杯蛋糕，则是另一回事。支撑詹尼·因凡蒂诺这一豪赌的逻辑依然没有被遏制，即认为足球——世界上最受欢迎的文化形式——必须变得更大、更激进、更富有、更臃肿。它继续信仰不计代价的增长，也就是作者贾斯珀·弗洛德所称的“癌症哲学”。它继续吸引着私募股权那贪婪的目光。

这次尝试失败了，目前如此。詹尼·因凡蒂诺可能会随之倒台。但除此之外，即便在经历了本周所有这些事情之后，也许并没有那么多的改变。

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5

弗莱明能否将常识带回英格兰测试赛板球？

在经历了一个糟糕的九个月之后，随着明年的灰烬杯（Ashes）临近，一张新面孔或许正是球队所需要的。

Cameron Ponsonby

从一个新西兰人到另一个新西兰人。连续第二次任命，英格兰选择了一位没有任何红球执教经验的基维人（Kiwi）来领导他们的测试赛球队。欢迎加入，斯蒂芬·弗莱明（Stephen Fleming）。

这是一个明智的任命。弗莱明缺乏红球领导经验，是现代环境的结果——如今最优秀的教练是那些多年前在T20领域崭露头角并深耕至今的人。直到上个月，弗莱明在2009年起曾两次担任钦奈超级国王队（Chennai Super Kings）的主教练，期间他赢得了五次IPL冠军，并成功管理了这支全球板球界支持度最高球队之一的球员自我意识、媒体关注及压力。如果你能与MS多尼（MS Dhoni）并肩作战十余年，你就能搞定乔什·汤格（Josh Tongue）。

弗莱明还代表了一个理想的中间地带：作为一名教练，他是布伦登·麦卡伦（Brendon McCullum）那种个性化、宽松方法的延续，但同时在管理上又稍微严谨一些。如果任命像贾斯汀·朗格（Justin Langer）那样像中将一样严格的教练将会是一个错误。

因为尽管听起来很荒谬，但这支球队需要冷静下来。他们目前就像一支有“就寝时间”的国际体育队，除非教练允许，否则在赢得测试赛后不能喝啤酒。所有人，请停下来喘口气。击几颗球。好好训练。努力工作。并且负责任地放松。常识的线索已经丢失了。希望弗莱明能成为那个停止混乱、翻开新篇章并开始重建我们板球球队的人。

但目前他还无法立即担此重任。在不到三周后开始的对阵巴基斯坦的系列赛中，将由马库斯·特雷斯科西克（Marcus Trescothick）临时接管，弗莱明将在9月接手前，先在新西兰与家人共度一段时间。这意味着在灰烬杯开始前，弗莱明执教的确认测试赛仅有五场。

他的首个系列赛将是客场挑战世界测试赛冠军南非，随后他将率队在主场对阵孟加拉国（这支球队是一个真正的潜在威胁），之后将在墨尔本与澳大利亚进行一场单场测试赛。他的开局不会轻松，成功需要通过努力争取。

关键点：斯蒂芬·弗莱明在担任英格兰测试赛教练的起步阶段面临挑战。Chris Arjaan / Icon Sportswire / Getty Images

对弗莱明来说这很明智，但对英格兰来说，这感觉是一种浪费——2026年将被记录为一个“模拟游戏”之夏。对阵新西兰的系列赛变成了英格兰自身场外闹剧的配角。然后是对阵弱势巴基斯坦球队的三场测试赛，由一名临时主教练执掌。

罗伯·基（Rob Key）正确地指出，没有人知道如果在灰烬杯后就做出改变而不是等待局面崩溃，结果会如何。但人们可以想象。一个重新振作而非精疲力竭的本·斯托克斯（Ben Stokes）是否仍会是英格兰板球运动员？他们是否会击败新西兰，并在一个横扫夏季的道路上稳步前行？在通往一个轰动冬日和主场灰烬杯的途中赢得胜利。但相反，英格兰史上最伟大的击球手乔·鲁特（Joe Root）在35岁时再次被推出来队长一支球队，而在这支球队中，他被认为是房间里唯一的成年人。

“现在还太早，”基在谈到哈里·布鲁克（Harry Brook）时说道。这位27岁的测试赛副队长同时领导白球球队，他已经参加了38场测试赛，平均得分53。那么，小哈里究竟什么时候才能准备好？如果你想谈论蝴蝶效应，请回顾在惠灵顿的那个夜晚，布鲁克在一次ODI赛前夜被夜总会保安殴打。将这一幕从历史中抹去，随后所有随机的人生生成器都将给出更好的结果。

布鲁克未担任队长，使得英格兰队近期纪律问题的这个“房间里的大象”依然无法被忽视。而且，一支渴望重新开始的球队，竟然又回到了其历史上经验最丰富的队长身上，同时还笼罩在斯托克斯可能结束退休回归的阴影之下。在谈到斯托克斯是否会在明年夏天的灰烬杯回归时，基说道：“如果他真的回归，那将是一个绝佳的故事。”随后他补充道，虽然斯托克斯尚未暗示任何回归迹象，“但我不会感到惊讶。对于本来说，任何事情都有可能。”

基看起来很疲惫。在原本希望能创造历史的时间点，经历了在澳大利亚被击溃的两个月，随后又是七个月的胡闹。你可以自行决定这些事情的重要性，但在他与文字媒体 25 分钟的互动中，他出现了几处细小的事实错误。他将发生在 2023. 年的系列赛称为 2022 年的灰烬杯。他称印度为 ODI 世界冠军，而实际上是澳大利亚。他称英格兰队在 T20 领域排名世界第 1，而事实上印度已经再次超越了他们。他提到安德鲁·弗林托夫担任英格兰狮队主教练已有三年，而实际上还不到两年。最宽容的看法是，这是一个必须连续交谈近半小时的人所犯的失误。但最苛刻的看法则是，这证实了该环境因缺乏对细节的关注而受到批评，且领导层已陷入精疲力竭。

总而言之，英格兰队的这个变革之夏，结果却是老队长成了新队长。旧的测试赛主教练继续留任白球赛主教练。而常务董事依然是那个常务董事。伤痕和包袱依然无处不在，弗莱明是现场唯一一张新面孔。祝他好运。过去一年的证据表明，他确实需要好运。

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6

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

虽精彩，但门槛令大多数人无法观看比赛

格拉斯哥诞生了许多精彩的故事——遗憾的是，在电视上很难追踪报道，杰西·帕克·汉弗雷斯报告

乔什·克尔在接近终点线准备夺得 60 年来英联邦运动会首次举行的 1 英里赛金牌时，张开双臂环视了斯科特斯顿体育场。在跨过终点线迎接主场观众的掌声时，他满意地在点头。由于克尔两周前在伦敦刷新了世界纪录，跑出了 3:42.66，打破了 27 年前的 1 英里纪录，因此人们对这场比赛寄予了极高期望。

“我的状态可以比纪录快 1.5 秒，在状态最好的时候甚至能快两秒，”他在赛后说道，暗示自己在苏格兰可能会跑得更快。

但这次比赛没有配速员来引导克尔，而且与强手竞争带来的挑战与挑战时间纪录截然不同。他在最后一圈发起冲刺时显得非常从容，最终的成绩比他在伦敦的成绩慢了 12 秒。

克尔实际上被宣传为本届运动会的头牌，其赞助商 Brooks 在格拉斯哥市中心挂出的一幅巨大的海报就证明了这一点。在他 2022 年参加的上一届英联邦运动会 1500 米比赛中，他仅获得第 12 名。由于多名知名运动员在赛前退出，人们将更多目光聚焦在克尔身上，而他则以一次强劲的冲刺慷慨地回馈了这种关注。在当天早些时候，贾斯明·索耶斯为英格兰在跳远项目中夺金，这是她在 32 岁时获得的首个室外重大赛事冠军。距离她在 2014 年同样在格拉斯哥举行的英联邦运动会上获得银牌已过去 12 年，而就在两年前，她在训练中跟腱断裂，导致她遗憾缺席 2024 年奥运会。在篮网球比赛中，牙买加队虽然在最后几分钟陷入苦战，但最终以 46-45 击败了澳大利亚队。这是澳大利亚队首次未能进入英联邦运动会篮网球赛的决赛。

凭借狂热的观众、紧咬的分数以及下克上的胜利，这场比赛具备了顶级体育赛事应有的一切。篮网球是英联邦运动会的皇冠明珠之一。人们希望这项运动能被纳入 2032 年布里斯班奥运会，但在那之前，这是其关注度最高的赛事之一。看着牙买加球员庆祝的样子，人们毫不怀疑这次胜利的意义之深。英联邦运动会充满了这类不同的瞬间——从感人至深到令人心碎，再到极其离奇。问题在于，人们越来越难看到这些瞬间。

在被英超联赛完全占据的世界之外，人们习惯于认为，如果体育项目本身是“优秀的”、“有意义的”或“重要的”，那么它自然会通过某种体育号召力吸引观众。这形成了一种循环的价值判断，即不受关注的运动被视为“糟糕的”，因此必然不值得关注。女性体育长期承受着这种态度的冲击，而这种态度忽略了直到最近，广播媒体中的体育节目一直是以一种“爱就爱，不爱就走”的方式呈现的，这种方式曾助力斯诺克等项目获得了极高的人气。

现在我们生活在一个选择无限、开销无限且算法无限的时代。本届英联邦运动会最标准的感叹

一个被低估的副线情节是，潜在的《爱岛》参赛者选择格拉斯哥而非前往西班牙旅行

是它与 BBC 的分手。赛事被移交给一个似乎在起新名字上花费的时间与在制作内容上一样多的频道，而付费墙将过去十天的大部分故事掩盖了起来。

这就是为什么人们可能会错过前乌干达独裁者伊迪·阿明（Idi Amin）的孙子因用头顶对手而被取消拳击比赛资格的消息。阿齐兹·阿卜杜勒（Aziz Abdul）曾誓言要成为新的“苏格兰之王”——这是对他祖父在 1976 年给自己封的头衔的引用——并且对他家族的过去几乎没有感到羞愧。

“（阿明的）成就激励了我，”他在比赛前说道，“狮子回报狮子。狮子不能回报狗或骆驼。狮子必须像狮子一样。我是真正的战士。我是儿子的儿子。”

在统治乌干达期间，阿明驱逐了该国的亚洲人口，并领导了一个导致 100,000 至 500,000 人死亡的政权。在本周被驱逐后，阿卜杜勒指责英联邦运动会存在种族主义，但运动会方面对此予以强烈否认。

阿卜杜勒的被驱逐意味着他未能赢得比赛，但失败并没有阻止图瓦卢拳击手塔罗娜（Tarona）

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塔法基（Taafaki）的脚步，她在女子 75kg 级别中获得一枚铜牌，赢得了该国历史上首枚英联邦运动会奖牌。

本届运动会一个被低估的副线情节是，竟然有这么多潜在的《爱之岛》（Love Island）参赛者选择在经常阴沉的格拉斯哥待一周半，而不是去西班牙旅行并开启为期 6 到 18 个月的网红职业生涯。伊恩·麦康奈尔（Ion McConnell）和凯蒂·沙纳汉（Katie Shanahan）的选择是英联邦运动会对运动员持续吸引力的最佳证明，且两人均获得了奖牌。麦康奈尔赢得了男子 70kg 拳击金牌，而沙纳汉则获得了 200 米仰泳银牌。

所有这些片段都契合当前主导的媒体环境。像英联邦运动会这样具有潜在“碎片化内容”特性的赛事，在这个“美丽新世界”中可能会大有可为。

但任何在 TikTok 上花费超过 30 秒的人都会知道，刷到真正有用的内容极其罕见。因此，这些故事很快就淡出了人们的视线，在人们被最新的足球转会传闻、AI 编辑视频或“传统妻子”（trad-wife）合集轰炸时，几乎没有引起任何关注。

英雄与恶棍：从主图开始顺时针方向为，牙买加女子网球队庆祝以 46-45 击败强大的澳大利亚队；被驱逐的乌干达拳击手阿齐兹·阿卜杜勒；苏格兰的凯蒂·沙纳汉获得 200 米仰泳银牌；Lintao Zhang / Getty Images, Ian MacNicol / Getty Images。

这就是为什么很难将英联邦运动会所谓的衰落与更广泛的体育媒体环境分开来看。由于缺乏通过免费广播观看和参与的集体机会，观众群体发生了碎片化，人们被推荐观看像“百球赛”（The Hundred）这样的内容。但如果有人在运动会上度过一段时间，很难不发现许多值得享受的精彩故事。困难的命题在于如何将这些故事呈现在人们面前。

随着运动会在 2030 年移师艾哈迈达巴德，这个“美丽新世界”似乎不太可能改变。届时将会有比本届运动会（由于筹备时间如此仓促）更广泛的体育项目，板球看来将回归，壁球和瑜伽也有可能被纳入。与任何大型体育赛事一样，将会出现关于那些在各种意义上都完成了非凡成就之人的惊人且难以置信的故事。但实际上，这不仅是一个关于体育本身的故事，更是一个关于广播行业的故事。而这可能是一个难以逾越的障碍。

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

7

组织者仍可为残疾人体育做更多工作

Jessy Parker Humphreys 格拉斯哥

2002年，英联邦运动会采取了在当时体育界几乎前所未有的举措，将残疾人体育（parasport）纳入其主赛项目。这在如此规模的体育赛事中尚属首次，残疾运动员将与身体健全的运动员共同竞技。他们的奖牌将计入国家的总奖牌数，且残疾人体育赛事不设独立门票。

24年后的今天，英联邦运动会的项目涵盖六项残疾人体育：田径、游泳、草地滚球、举重、篮球和场地自行车。本届运动会通过确保首枚奖牌授予残疾人体育项目——英格兰举重运动员马克·斯旺（Mark Swan）在男子轻量级项目中夺金——进一步肯定了对平等待遇的承诺。残疾人体育项目的奖牌赛项达到了创纪录的 47 项。

这种整合方案使该赛事在与奥运会和残奥会的对比中脱颖而出，并被其他赛事缓慢采纳。今年的伦敦钻石联赛是 2026 年系列赛中第五个设有残疾人田径项目的赛事，此前罗马、奥斯陆、巴黎和尤金均已设有此项。世界田径联合会长期以来一直被要求为残疾运动员提供更多平台。

“英联邦运动会证明了它能灵活地与时俱进并真正实现自我差异化。它有机会彻底改变人们看待体育的方式，”在 2004 年雅典残奥会轮椅篮球赛中获得铜牌的阿德·阿德皮坦（Ade Adepitan）表示。

“对于像我五岁的儿子、18 个月大的女儿这样的年轻人来说……他们来看比赛时，看到残疾人体育与非残疾人体育共存将是常态。在我们成长过程中，这并不是常态。而这件事对社会以及未来人们如何看待残疾人的影响是巨大的。这可能是你我无法想象的。”

然而，这种整合残疾人体育的决定并非没有批评之声。加拿大学者南希·奎恩（Nancy Quinn）和劳拉·米塞纳（Laura Misener）在 2022 年伯明翰英联邦运动会后发布的一份报告中担忧，整合可能会导致需求较高（更严重）的运动员被边缘化，而取而代之的是他们所谓的“健全-残疾”运动员——即在参与整合体育项目时仅需极少调整的运动员。

他们还指出了 2022 年残疾运动员绝大多数来自少数几个英联邦国家的现状。86% 的运动员来自 10 个国家：英格兰、北爱尔兰、苏格兰、威尔士、澳大利亚、加拿大、新西兰、南非、印度和尼日利亚。

在接受英格兰田径协会采访时，曾在伦敦 2012 和里约 2016 残奥会夺金的乔尼·皮考克（Jonnie Peacock）对英联邦运动会的整合举措表示赞赏，但强调他认为还可以进一步推进。

“我认为（英联邦运动会）在残疾人体育整合方面绝对是全球最好的赛事之一，”他说。

“对我来说，仍有一点改进空间，那就是我们还没能真正看到完整的预赛。我希望今后我们能真正看到残疾人体育在一个公平的竞争平台上展现。这已经非常不可思议了，但我认为我还是希望看到他们继续推进。”

在探讨体育运动如何通过提高可见度来帮助残疾人积极活动时，Activity Alliance 首席执行官亚当·布雷泽（Adam Blaze）强调，必须提供相应的机会。

“（2012 年残奥会之后），我们国家的整体基础设施还没准备好迎接所有意识到体育适合自己的残疾人，”布雷泽说。“情况已经有所转变，残疾人参与活动的机遇比以往任何时候都多。但我们还有很长的路要走。”

尽管布雷泽对英联邦运动会使残疾人体育常态化的方式持积极态度，但他强调，必须确保媒体报道是深思熟虑的。

“在残疾人体育运动中，我们不能接受的是‘励志色情’（inspirational porn）。你不希望人们认为：‘看看这些运动员，他们克服了那么多困难。’我们希望达到这样一个阶段，让残疾人可以单纯地为了体育而享受体育——而且即便运动水平很糟糕也没关系！”

“如果你能看到一个看起来像你，或者经历过相同体验的人，无论他们是残奥会运动员还是经营一家当地板球俱乐部的负责人，这些事情都非常重要。传播正确的故事将帮助我们化解一些挑战。”

Blaze 还认为，在宣传残疾人体育运动时，融合并非万能之策。

“你必须小心，因为我们不希望融合项目意味着时间安排不够理想，或者曝光度降低。融合项目意味着某些类别的人无法参赛，因为空间有限。”

“这是一件好事，因为它以一种前所未有的方式宣传了残疾人体育，但你不能把每一个大型精英赛事[都搞成融合模式]。”

英联邦运动会的一位发言人表示，他们希望进一步扩大残疾人体育运动的规模。

“这一愿景超越了为期 10 天的比赛，旨在将残疾人体育作为一种手段，以增加包容性，打破障碍，并成为社会变革的催化剂。在赛场之外，融合有助于挑战对残疾的固有认知，增加残疾人体育的可见度，并激励后代，证明体育在推动包容性和积极社会变革方面的力量。”

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8

observer.co.uk^{}[] 02.08.26

专题报告：CTE

头脑与心灵

观察家报观点：无论法律争端如何，遭受脑损伤影响的球员理应得到更好的对待

即便程序上的障碍威胁到一起涉及数百名原球员声称因橄榄球导致脑损伤的高等法院案件，但受影响者的呼声正与日俱增。一场由明星球员参与的法律之战，不应掩盖此事的本质：它关乎家庭的未来、健康以及生命。

令人担忧的不仅是那些在安全意识提高之前就面临可怕现实的前球员。神经损伤的阴影也延伸至目前的球员以及未来几代人。正如这份特别报告中，获得荣誉的英格兰前锋菲尔·维克里（Phil Vickery）那令人心碎的证词所表明的，这里涉及的远不止是法律争端。在关于证据、对错的程序性争论背后，潜伏着生存之问。为什么橄榄球相关的慢性创伤性脑病（CTE）及其他病症还没有明确的诊断方法？橄榄球联盟（rugby union）和联赛（rugby league）是否安全——不仅是对专业人士，对儿童和青少年也是如此？

2003年，当英格兰男队凭借乔尼·威尔金森（Jonny Wilkinson）针对澳大利亚的落球踢通过而赢得世界杯时，橄榄球中的CTE几乎未被认可。那时他们处于巅峰状态，身处一支拒绝失败的球队。但那一晚的三名前排前锋之一，史蒂夫·汤普森（Steve Thompson）表示，他对参加决赛没有任何记忆。在本文中，曾与汤普森一同参与争抢球权的维克里描述了一个充斥着焦虑与遗忘的黄昏世界。另一位 2003 年的替补球员路易斯·穆迪（Lewis Moody）患有运动神经元病（MND），该病与橄榄球之间的联系目前仍不明确。

在另一个领域，远离了剧烈碰撞和“魔鬼式”的争抢球训练，1966 年英格兰 11 名足球世界杯冠军中，有 6 人在患有痴呆症的情况下去世，主教练阿尔夫·兰姆齐（Alf Ramsey）亦然。专业运动的身体代价是一个逐渐被意识到的现实，在橄榄球中表现最为剧烈——无论男女。自 2003 年以来，人们对脑损伤的认知已经有了长足进步，但关于脑损伤如何影响女性大脑及其对女性长期影响的研究仍处于起步阶段。如果 2025 年世界杯冠军“红玫瑰”队在 20 年后面临与 2003 年球队如今相同的挑战，那将是这项运动最大的耻辱。

在大多数病例中，我们看到的诊断结果是“可能”或“潜在”的 CTE，因为确定性通常只能在尸检中实现。橄榄球和其他对抗性运动应不遗余力地投资研究，以便患者能够确定自己患了什么病。

当数百名球员就其伤势寻求赔偿时，该案件不可避免地染上了对抗色彩。球员们谈到了残酷的训练课程和对颅骨的击打。当局则强调了自头伤认知提高以来所做的改变：限制抢截高度、进行脑震荡检查、限制训练中的“接触”。这种辩护的概括是：我们以前不知道，但现在知道了，并已经做出了改变。

然而，这场始于 2022 年的法律案件的核心在于，原告指控世界橄榄球联合会（World Rugby）、英格兰橄榄球协会（Rugby Football Union）和威尔士橄榄球协会（Welsh Rugby Union）未能履行其关照责任，而所有管理机构均对此予以否认。被告方——以及橄榄球联赛（Rugby Football League）和英国业余橄榄球联赛协会（British Amateur Rugby League Association）——已敦促皇家法院的资深法官杰里米·库克（Jeremy Cook）驳回第一批大部分申诉，理由是原告“大规模且普遍地不遵守”法院披露所有可用文件的指令。

如果该案件崩溃，原告可能会聘请新的法律团队将其重启。这个过程可能需要数年时间。但在此时此刻，橄榄球及其他运动项目可以采取很多措施。首先，现在就寻求一种在法律上严谨的 CTE（慢性创伤性脑病）诊断方法，而不是在死后才进行；其次，继续剔除不必要的头部接触，尤其是在训练场上，不要理会那些抱怨橄榄球已经“变得软弱”的人。对于任何与 Vickery 或 Thompson 以及数百名面对健康状况恶化的前球员共处一天的人来说，都不会说出这样的感叹。

橄榄球以其家庭氛围自豪，但许多患有神经系统损伤的前球员感到被抛弃了，或者觉得由于他们敢于要求赔偿而成了这项运动的敌人。无论法律案件多么复杂，人性层面的问题要简单得多。受害者值得更好的对待。

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特别报道：CTE

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

9

“我会弄清楚怎么自杀，这样你们就能用我的大脑来证明 CTE”

菲尔·维克里 (Phil Vickery) 作为英格兰史上最强的男子橄榄球队成员，曾在 2003 年捧起橄榄球世界杯冠军杯。如今，他告诉本·科尔斯 (Ben Coles)，他正生活在对未来的恐惧与困惑之中。

那是 2004 年，格洛斯特队在金斯霍姆体育场主场迎战伦敦黄蜂队。在一次极其平常的 ruck（接球抢夺）后，

菲尔·维克里陷入了剧烈的疼痛中。这次受伤并非源于恶意，而是一次意外的巧合：黄蜂队的理查德·比尔克特 (Richard Birkett) 的膝盖撞击了维克里的眼睛，用他的话说，直接将他的眼眶底骨撞碎了。即便在二十年后，维克里只要一想到那种疼痛，仍会感到恶心。

尽管伤情骇人，但维克里在几天内就预约了颌面外科手术，在眼睛中植入了一块金属板，随后开始康复，并在七周内重返赛场。这在当时是正常现象。

在 scrum（前锋争球）期间面部血管破裂？“没人会对此感到惊讶，”他解释道。身体损伤可以被治愈，球员被修补好后即可再次上阵。

而维克里现在 50 岁所经历的，与“正常”完全截然不同。几年前的一次扫描证实了他的长期猜测：他可能患有慢性创伤性脑病 (CTE)——即脑内神经细胞的退化。这是他在辉煌的 15 年职业生涯中，大脑承受累积冲击的结果。

维克里参与了一场涉及 1,100 多名球员的诉讼，指控世界橄榄球联合会 (World Rugby)、英格兰橄榄球联合会 (RFU)、威尔士橄榄球联合会 (WRU) 和橄榄球联盟 (RFL) 违反了保护球员免受神经系统损伤的关怀义务。管理机构否认有任何不当行为。

这场拖延多年的诉讼在仅上周就出现了两项新进展。涉案的主要球员更换了法律代表；而世界橄榄球联合会、RFU 和 WRU 则请求驳回诉求，理由是球员律师违反了提供医疗记录的法院命令。

尽管法律障碍和术语继续阻碍着案件的启动，但对于担心未来的球员来说，一种切实的绝望感正在蔓延。虽然患者可以被诊断为“疑似 CTE”，但唯一能真正确认的方法是在死后检查大脑，以发现退化迹象。

当一名与此诉讼相关的医疗专业人员建议对他的大脑进行扫描以收集证据时，维克里告诉他们：“我不需要去做 MRI 扫描，然后被告知我的大脑运作得不太好。”

讨论大脑出现异常的迹象是极其困难的。“我说过今天绝不会他妈地情绪失控。但基于我们现在掌握的知识，这让你想哭。因为这太他妈糟糕了，”他说。

我对维克里在赛场上的记忆，是他是我见过的最勇敢的球员之一。

在 2009 年的狮子队巡赛中，面对南非队的一次糟糕表现后，他展现出了面对失望的勇气——在第一场测试赛中，他在与滕代·“野兽”·姆塔瓦里塔 (Tendai "Beast" Mtawarita) 的争球对抗中被完全击败。但在埃利斯公园球场举行的第三场测试赛中被召回，再次面对同一对手时，他勇敢地顶住了压力，在离场时赢得了全场起立鼓掌。

现在，同样的高贵品质在维克里坐在录音室里时闪耀出来。泪水在他脸上滚动，他向我描述那些令其心碎的时刻——这些时刻正变得频繁，他开始质疑自己的心智。那些他无法想起的名字。“我指的不是像‘某个远房姑婆六亲之友的爱犬’那种，”他这样描述。他指的是表亲、侄子。有时甚至是朋友。

维克里可以对偶尔忘记名字这件事付之一笑。然而，他经常感到的一种焦虑感则更难摆脱。大房间对他来说也很困难，因为他试图在嘈杂的环境中维持对话。甚至在乘坐火车前往伦敦与我交谈的途中，他也感到一阵担忧。维克里在采访过程中偶尔会停下来，检查自己是否回答了五、10分钟前的问题。当然，他已经回答了，而且方式比我所希望的更加生动有趣。

接着是认知障碍。谷歌地图是他的“好朋友”。最近他去给女朋友的奶奶送食物时，尽管这段大约6英里的路程他已经走过“20次”，但他发现自己不再记得怎么去了。

维克里把车停在路边，放声大哭。“这不能他妈地打败我。你他妈在干什么，菲尔？怎么回事？到底怎么回事？”他回忆起当时这样问自己。“最后我还是到了。就是这类愚蠢的事情。”

这是维克里人生中最严重的伤病。在他 2010. 年退役之前，他的职业生涯经历过四次颈部手术和两次背部手术。而这次伤病是无形的。

“脑损伤始终伴随着你，一年 365 天，每天 24 小时，它沉重地压在你身上，时刻折磨着你。它不会打败我。你知道，我一直在坚持，”他说。

在这场战斗中他并不孤单。他的英格兰前排队友史蒂夫·汤普森（他称之为“Thomo”）曾公开谈论过自己与早发性痴呆症以及可能的 CTE（慢性创伤性脑病）作斗争的情况。在我们的谈话之前，维克里一直试图与汤普森取得联系。

“我和他一起战斗过，他是我兄弟之一，但他不跟我说话，因为他病得太他妈重了，”他说。“出于荣誉感和自尊心，他不愿与我交流。今天早上我又告诉他我爱他，你知道吗？这让我很心碎，因为无论是否由橄榄球引起，我们都应该给他更多帮助。”

“他在受苦，为什么我们不帮他？”

续接第 10 页 >>

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

特别报道：CTE

接第 9 页

他之前提到的关于“我们现在掌握的知识”的评论，由于多种原因而显得极其切中肯綮。

当维克里在 20 世纪 90 年代中期开始为格洛斯特队效力时，用他自己的话来说，脑震荡的治疗方法包括一块“魔力海绵”和一个橙子，以及跟着别人的手指转动眼神并被询问比分。

橄榄球在 1996 年正式职业化，但就实际标准的提升而言，维克里认为直到 1999 年的橄榄球世界杯才真正实现。而且那仅限于英格兰队，是在克莱夫·伍德沃德爵士领导的演进计划下实现的。在俱乐部层面，几乎没有什么改变。

“我们是业余职业球员。我们只是在做以前做的事情，但频率更高。这并不是我在指责任何人。那只是当时的做法。我想，当时没人真正了解情况。”

“更多的是为了证明拿钱是合理的。我当时每天两次、一周六天要挤 100 头牛的奶，然后接到了一个专业橄榄球合同，年薪八千英镑或差不多这个数。”

接下来的轶事并不包含指责，其目的纯粹是为了说明这些球员（无论过去还是现在）所经历的艰苦程度。

一次英格兰队的训练课令他记忆犹新。约翰·米切尔（现任英格兰女队主教练，但在维克里 1998, 年首次入选时是伍德沃德的助手）当时在监督一次争球训练。训练的强度令他终身难忘，以及前英格兰队中锋理查德·科克里尔的一些建议。

“大约进行了 50 次左右的争球。如果你当时问我叫什么名字，来自哪里，我都告诉不了你，”维克里回忆道。

“我只记得自己当时完全崩溃了，从未经历过那样的事情，心想：‘他妈的，如果成为一名国际橄榄球运动员就是这样，我不知道我想不想成为这样的球员。’”

“[Cockerill] 就那样直勾勾地看着我的眼睛，然后说：‘给我闭上你的臭嘴，弯下腰，往前顶。’我想，‘没错，我太喜欢你了。’而且他是对的。”

在职业联赛起步之初以及 Vickery 还在摸索阶段的那些早年时光里，他从未想象过自己最终会落到这个地步。他在思考自己的死亡，同时敏锐地意识到，他的大脑最终将在为他近期的挣扎提供答案方面变得多么重要。

“我得怎么做？从他妈的克利夫顿吊桥上跳下去？在脖子上贴张小纸条，写着‘请使用我他妈的大脑’，”他说。“事实上，我不会在那儿跳，以免把东西弄坏了。我会研究出怎么他妈的自杀，这样你们就能用我的大脑来证明 [CTE]。而且我告诉你，咱们搞一次现场尸检，让世界上最他妈顶尖的尸检专家来操作以作证明。”

“那样能让有人站出来吗？我不知道。这话说的太可怕了。但到底得怎么做才行？”

与 Vickery 的这次对话是《观察家报》Slow Newscast 播客新的一集，该集探讨了脑震荡研究员 Paul McCrory 在过去二十年间产生的影响，直到他在 2022 年因涉嫌抄袭而卸任体育脑震荡小组（Concussion in Sport Group）的职务。

McCrory 在橄榄球联盟处理脑震荡伤势方面具有影响力。他甚至为 Vickery 在格洛斯特队（Gloucester）期间设计的季前脑震荡测试。

对于 Vickery 来说，这无关财富，而关乎保障和问责。他知道有一个非常真实的可能性，在未来的几年里，随着身体状况恶化，他需要有人照顾他。他的姐姐坚持说她会照顾。

“她答应过我，所以这在记录在案，”他笑了笑。“所以，如果照顾我的是我姐姐，我想确保她有足够的资金能够帮她照顾好我。这不合理吗？我不他妈地认为这不合理。”

对诉讼过程的这些沮丧不应被误认为是对这项运动的热爱有所减退。他希望永远不会消失的，是他当初那个“来自康沃尔、没受过教育的大胖小子”出现在 Bude RFC 时所感受到的归属感，那正是他开启辉煌职业生涯的俱乐部。

“我去了一家橄榄球俱乐部，得到了欢迎，感受到了自己的价值。‘我们来自 Bude，我们是最棒的。’这就是目标。‘噢我的天，他们喜欢我。’噢，我不只是个白痴，不只是个笨蛋。我觉得自己像个有用的人。”

目前他所经历的一切，没有任何一件事能阻止 Vickery 重新来一遍。他是职业 era. 以来最伟大的 props 之一，也是这项运动中最伟大的男人之一。

“这项运动太他妈棒了。橄榄球是一项神奇的运动。你知道，悲哀的现实是我今天坐在这里——我还会重新来一遍吗？噢我的天，我会的。我他妈地疯了，但我会，因为这太棒了。”

“我也坐在这里，我知道外面有很多人，我相信他们正因为这项运动而受苦。这不是要指责这项运动，也不是要变得刻薄可憎。咱们就他妈地帮帮人们吧。有人在受苦，所以让我们帮帮他们。”

第二天，Vickery 发来了一条信息——开头是：“嘿，伙计。”其中一部分是在为自己情绪失控而道歉，而这正是他最不需要做的事。然后是这段话：

“今天早上接到了 Thomo 打来的最美好的一通电话，[这] 让我太开心了。”

对于这些可能患有 CTE 的前球员来说，未来几年和几十年的许多事情都是不确定的，除了一个事实：他们彼此拥有对方。

可联系 Samaritans 的电话是 116 123

刻意淡化体育运动中 CTE 风险的“专家”顾问

调查报告

Ben Coles 与 Jonathan Lewis

Billy Guyton、Shane Christie、Nick Lowden、Marshawn Kneeland。这些来自结合式橄榄球（rugby union）、澳式足球（Aussie Rules）和 NFL 的年轻人们在过去三年中相继自杀，并在死后被诊断出患有慢性创伤性脑病（chronic traumatic encephalopathy，简称 CTE）；这是一种脑神经细胞逐渐死亡的疾病。

近年来自杀身亡的橄榄球运动员 Nick Koster 和 Siobhan Cattigan 的家属怀疑他们也患有 CTE。Jordan Devey 的家人也有同样的怀疑。这位前 NFL 护卫于 7 月自杀身亡，享年 38 岁。

读到这些名字——想到他们留下的家人——能让人切实感受到这种病症的严重性。然而，在过去的 30 年里，关于头部重复撞击与 CTE 发展之间联系的观点在科学家中一直存在分歧。

十年前，全球领先的脑震荡专家之一 Paul McCrory 曾在墨尔本大学的讲台上发表演讲。

当时，在他的众多头衔中，他是墨尔本弗洛里研究所（Florey Institute）的副教授，该研究所是南半球最大的大脑研究中心。他同时也是国际运动脑震荡小组（Concussion in Sport Group, CISG）的主席。该小组由全球顶尖的脑震荡专家组成，每四年在世界各地集会一次，分享研究成果。

CISG 在会议后发布的关于脑震荡管理的共识声明，在影响许多主要体育管理机构（包括 国际足联、国际奥委会和世界橄榄球协会）的脑震荡政策方面发挥了重要作用。McCrory 在这些事务中的发言及其声望具有极大的分量。

在演讲中，当提到 NFL 中报告的脑震荡数量时，McCrory 将头部重复撞击与 CTE 发展之间的联系描述为“你在美国看到的那些所有大惊小怪和喧闹（carry-on and hoo-ha）”。

这位全球最权威的脑震荡专家之一，竟将头部受伤与一种可能改变生活的疾病之间的任何联系轻描淡写为一场“闹剧”。

对于在远处观察的脑震荡倡导者（包括神经科学家 Chris Nowinski）来说，McCrory 的行为令人震惊。不仅是那句“喧闹”论，而且他采用了波士顿大学 CTE 中心研究的数据，并以误导的方式进行了呈现。

在那场讲座中，McCrory 说道：“关于你们听到的令人恐惧的 CTE，

“他基本上在 CTE 研究中投了毒，我们永远无法得知其真实规模。”

神经科学家 Chris Nowinski

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特别报告：CTE

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冲击：Vickery 在其 15 年的职业生涯中遭受的无数次擒抱中的一次。

最积极推动此项研究的团体给出的最佳估计是，大约 4% 的退役运动员会患病。另一种看待方式是 96% 的运动员并不会患病。”

Nowinski 感到震惊。他说：“[McCrory] 谈论的是我们发表的一篇论文，我们在其中提到 NFL 球员 [有风险的] 最低比例是 4%。” “当时的最高比例则超过 90%。因此，他拿我们的最低值来当作最高值，这完全改变了问题的规模。”

McCrory 的这场讲座目前已无法在网上观看。讲座发表的同年，NFL 在国会委员会面前公开承认了头部受伤与 CTE 之间存在联系。

此前在 2013, NFL 与数百名患有脑损伤的前球员达成了一项集体诉讼和解。该无上限基金目前已向 2,100 多名球员支付了 £1.2bn。然而，McCrory 却在这里淡化这种联系。

在经历多起剽窃指控后，McCrory 于 2022, 辞去了 CISG 主席一职，并于 2021, 辞去了澳大利亚足球联盟（澳式足球）医疗顾问的职务。

最初只是史蒂夫·哈克（Steve Haake）教授的一项质疑——他发现麦克罗里（McCrory）在为《英国医学杂志》（British Medical Journal）撰写的一篇文章中，抄袭了他为《物理世界》（Physics World）撰写的一篇特稿中约一半的内容——随后这件事演变成了一系列针对麦克罗里的剽窃指控。

科学诚信研究员尼克·布朗（Nick Brown）发现了多达 20 个案例，证明麦克罗里要么在进行“自我剽窃”——在多项研究中重复使用他已经提交的作品——要么在回收他人的内容，这些情况随后由《英国医学杂志》展开调查。

这位世界上最著名的脑震荡专家之一的信誉现在被玷污了。而麦克罗里对国际运动脑震荡组（CISG）发布的那些共识声明的影响，以及这些声明在制定众多主要体育机构的脑震荡政策中起到的关键作用，也因此受到了审查。

举例说明 CISG 和麦克罗里对联合鲁格比的影响：在 2010 年，根据 CISG 2008 年的苏黎世共识声明的建议，脑震荡停赛期从 21 天减少到了 6 天。随后在 2022 年，这一期限增加到 12 天。在这一举措之后，波士顿小组及世界鲁格比独立工作组的鲍勃·坎图（Bob Cantu）博士称世界鲁格比的方案为全球体育界的“金标准”。

世界鲁格比表示，在相关期间，他们采取了基于证据的脑震荡处理方法，随着医学知识的演进调整指导方针，并认为科学本身是不确定的。他们表示，他们从未依赖某一个人的科学解读，而是聘请了一系列专家。

目前，800 名原联合鲁格比球员已向高等法院提起诉讼，起诉世界鲁格比、英格兰鲁格比联合会（Rugby Football Union）和威尔士鲁格比联合会（Welsh Rugby Union）。另有 300 名球员正在起诉鲁格比联赛当局。

这些球员的律师认为，涉事管理机构“不恰当地、过失地且毫无质疑地依赖麦克罗里博士的建议，而后者随后被《英国医学杂志》等机构证明存在包括剽窃、重复发表、错误引用和歪曲事实在内的不端行为”。无论对错，那些在职业生涯后遭受脑损伤影响的球员都认为麦克罗里扮演了关键角色。

目前仍未解答的问题不仅是麦克罗里为何剽窃——《英国运动医学杂志》（British Journal of Sports Medicine）至今已撤回了他的 16 篇作品，另有许多作品被标注为“令人担忧”——而是他最初采取强硬立场，试图淡化脑震荡与慢性创伤性脑病（CTE）之间联系的原因。

在 21 世纪初首次接触麦克罗里的诺温斯基（Nowinski）有一个理论。

“能够对此产生影响的人，尤其是体育产业的人，很乐意听麦克罗里否定 CTE，将其称为‘大惊小怪’以及所有这些荒唐之词，因为这让他们能心安理得地照常营业，”他说。

“他同时也是一个极具影响力的人，在澳大利亚和全球范围内指导了很多人，并领导着一个非常重要的全球性会议，参会者回到各自国家后便信奉他的观点。有趣的是，他说过的话在对话中依然存在，我仍然在社交媒体的评论中看到它们，你知道，在面对真正的科学研究时人们会这么说。

“所以，不仅仅是他被撤职了。这就像一只九头蛇，你砍掉了一个头，但所有那些东西依然存在。”

对其剽窃行为的一种同情观点是，麦克罗里在担任各种角色时分散了精力，为了满足超出其处理能力的更多要求，而重复利用了自己的作品。

成为全球最著名的脑震荡专家之一所带来的经济利益是相当可观的。多方消息来源告诉《观察家报》，在 2002 年至 2008 年间，麦克罗里（McCrory）及其合伙人从世界橄榄球联合会（当时称为国际橄榄球委员会）获得了超过 £400,000 的研究资助。

《观察家报》已联系麦克罗里请求置评，但除了在回复哈克（Haake）投诉的最初电子邮件中承认未能注明哈克原著的出处外，他从未就撤稿一事公开道歉。

虽然他不再与职业体育相关，但他仍被列为墨尔本的一名执业神经内科医生。有趣的是，在第一批剽窃指控出现前不久，脑震荡活动人士彼得·杰斯（Peter Jess）声称在 2021 年初与麦克罗里交谈了近一小时。

在他们的对话中，麦克罗里的立场——至少在私下里——发生了显著变化。麦克罗里向杰斯表达了对其认为橄榄球和 AFL（澳大利亚足球联盟）重返赛场方案时间过短的担忧，并暗示当时 6 天的周转期是“不安全的”，且基于麦克罗里近期使用“先进成像技术”开展的研究，现行方案“不仅有缺陷，而且很危险”。

麦克罗里同意杰斯的建议，称他将联系墨尔本《太阳先驱报》（Herald Sun）的一名记者以表达其最新观点。但似乎从未有相关文章发表。

没有人比诺温斯基（Nowinski）更能概括麦克罗里的影响力及其行为为何至关重要，诺温斯基现为一名神经科学家，但此前是一名 WWE 摔角手，因脑震荡症状被迫退役。

“当那个人在多年后被揭露并非你想象中的那样时，原有的观点依然存在，而且很难被纠正，”他说。“可以公平地说，就个人而言，他让我们倒退了 5 到 10 年。但如果我们不能扭转局面，时间可能会更久，因为现实是，他就是那个每隔几年在 CISG 报告中撰写‘原因（头部受到打击）与结果（慢性创伤性脑病，CTE）之间尚未被证实’的人。”

“我们认为，他基本上在 CTE 研究上‘投毒’了。我们永远无法知道其影响程度，但我向你保证，这比我们这些站在真相这一边的人愿意接受的要大得多，而他的影响力也大得多。”

他越是保持沉默，针对麦克罗里的审查就越激烈。这位曾经世界领先的脑震荡专家，如今已隐入阴影之中。

观察家报

扫描二维码以收听《观察家报》慢速新闻播报 (Slow Newscast)，“沉重打击” (Hard knocks) 与“不正之风” (Foul Play)

当 Phil Vickery 在 2010 年退休时，他认为自己最艰苦的战斗已经过去。而现在，他正面临着长期脑损伤的生活。

《观察家报》调查体育医疗建议是如何形成的。

周二起发行

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议题： Visma-Lease a Bike 队的 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot 承载着法国在 环法女子自行车赛 中的希望。 Alex Broadway / Getty

环法女子自行车赛 旨在攀登新高度

Esmé Lewis

本届环法女子自行车赛（Tour de France Femmes）共设 9 个赛段，包括个人计时赛、多次爬坡以及首次挑战标志性的旺通山（Mont Ventoux），总里程达到创纪录的 1,175 公里。这是该赛事在现代历史上最长且要求最高的一届，凸显了其自 2022 年回归赛历以来的快速增长。

本次赛事还将首次在瑞士举行大出发（Grand Départ），随后车队将穿过汝拉山脉、中央高原和阿尔卑斯山，于下周日在尼斯完赛。

将海拔 1,910 米的旺通山爬坡纳入赛程，反映了该赛事不断增长的雄心以及女子大骑群日益增强的实力。“没有哪座山对女性来说太难，”赛事总监马里昂·鲁斯（Marion Rousse）在 6 月表示，“大骑群在每场比赛中都证明了这一点。水平变得越来越稳定，且每次骑行速度都更快。每年的进步都是巨大的。”这次爬坡也代表了这项运动的另一个里程碑时刻。鲁斯补充道：“对于女子赛车来说，能够将她们的名字写在旺通山的环法冠军名单中至关重要。”

在重启仅 4 年后，环法女子自行车赛已经在体育赛历中开辟了自己的地位。在之前的四届赛事中，有三届紧随男子赛事的决赛之后，但 2026 年的比赛打破常规，成为一项独立赛事——在塔德伊·波加查（Tadej Pogačar）第五次赢得男子赛冠军 6 天后才开始——从而获得了更多的媒体关注度和商业可见度。

在 2027 年，女子赛将通过首次在英国举行大出发进一步提升其国际地位，约克郡和伦敦将承办前 3 个赛段，随后大骑群将跨越英吉利海峡前往法国。

英国大出发可能为约克郡的凯特·弗格森（Cat Ferguson）提供一次回家参赛的机会。这位 20 岁的选手原计划在今年完成她的女子赛首秀，但她在环意赛期间遭遇双踝骨折，导致无法参赛。她的缺席对英国自行车运动来说是一个巨大的遗憾，但明年可能为这位该运动中最璀璨的年轻天才之一提供绝佳的环法首秀机会。

正如法国人对男子环法赛中的保罗·塞萨斯（Paul Seixas）那样，他们寄予厚望，所有目光都将集中在

关于体重的争论凸显了男女自行车运动员在面对审视时的差异

卫冕冠军波琳·费兰-普雷沃（Pauline Ferrand-Prévot）身上。这位法国选手将在去年取得突破性胜利后寻求卫冕，但 2023 年的冠军德米·沃尔林（Demi Vollering）和瑞士选手马伦·罗伊瑟（Marlen Reusser）预计将提供强有力的挑战。

但这三人之间的较量已延伸至赛道之外。随着女子赛的影响力增强，围绕运动员健康、比赛体重和性别平等的讨论已变得难以被忽视，而费兰-普雷沃、沃尔林和罗伊瑟都发现自己处于这场讨论的中心。

在去年的环法赛中获得亚军后，沃尔林面临的大多数问题集中在她的体重而非表现上。这位荷兰选手拒绝了“进一步减重能让她赢得比赛”的暗示，并坚持她将始终把健康放在首位，同时警告专业运动员有责任为追随这项运动的年轻女孩树立积极的榜样。沃尔林表示：“在我的职业生涯中，我过去以及未来将继续在做出任何决定时将健康放在第一位。”

与此同时，费兰-普雷沃因减肥而面临批评。在赢得环法冠军之前，她作为赛前准备的一部分减掉了约 4 公斤，这引发了关于此类改变是否面临推崇不健康身体标准的争论。一些批评者甚至走得更远，认为让她获得优势的是她的减重，而非她的能力。

这位车手现年 35 岁，她在为自己的方法辩护时表示：“我不想一直保持这样，因为我知道这并非 100% 健康，但我们和队内的营养师有一个很好的计划，一切都在控制之中。我没有做任何极端的[事情]。”

围绕女子自行车赛体重的争论，也凸显了男女车手所面临的审视程度之差异。当今年环法自行车赛获得亚军的雷姆科·埃文波尔公开谈论通过减轻体重来提高爬坡能力时，关注点主要集中在竞技表现上。相比之下，费朗-普雷沃的体重减轻则引发了大量关于她的外貌、健康以及作为公众人物对女性和女孩所承担责任的质疑。针对这一讨论，自行车手联盟（Cyclists' Alliance）表示，“令人失望的是，与男性同行相比，女性运动员在身体方面受到了不成比例的过度审视”。

随着环法女子自行车赛在致力于实现更大平等的同时，努力将其打造为女性体育领域最大的全球赛事之一，女车手们被评判的标准依然远不止于她们在自行车上的表现。在接下来的的一周里，旺图山（Mont Ventoux）并非她们将面临的唯一一场艰苦的“上坡战”。

第一赛段结果 - 洛桑

总成绩单：1.1. Wishes 3.29.01, 2 K Le Court Plessier 3.29.05, 3 D Vollering 3.29.07, 4 P Pelton 3.29.11, 5 N Rung 3.29.11, 6 E Longo Borghini 3.29.11, 7 K Nuwalabona-Phinney 3.29.11, 8 P Ferrand-Prévot 3.29.11, 9 C Kothari 3.29.11, 10 M Reusser 3.29.11

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球手们在皇家利瑟姆与圣安妮球场迎接高尔夫球的“新母亲时代”

尽管近期已出现积极变化，但仍有更多措施可以帮助高尔夫球手应对母亲这一身份，Um-E-Aymen Babar 撰文

理所应当：本周参加公开赛的选手中共有五位母亲，其中包括正在孕育第一个孩子的 Ryann O'Toole。Kate McShane / R&A / Getty Images

如果世界上有第八大奇迹，那一定是为人母。许多母亲都谈到，怀孕让你重新审视身体能力的极限，而对于许多运动员来说，这同样考验她们在运动中的能力。

本周在皇家利瑟姆与圣安妮球场（Royal Lytham & St Annes）的参赛选手中，有五位母亲，其中包括怀孕 15 周、正期待第一个孩子的 Ryann O'Toole。

2018 年冠军 Georgia Hall 在 2 月份产下了儿子 Conor，并决心在兰开夏郡的这里参赛，因为她 22 岁时就在这里赢得了一场本土大奖赛。

虽然孕期很艰难，但真正的挑战在于产后恢复。

“这很有挑战性，特别是关于盆底健康方面，”Hall 说道，“分娩时一切都会放松，所以试图让肌肉和核心收缩回原状真的非常困难。”

“我向（同行球手）Alison Lee 请教，她在携带婴儿旅行方面给了我很多建议，包括买什么样的婴儿车以及如何处理奶瓶消毒。”

“我还利用人工智能来咨询问题，这确实让我安心很多。NHS（英国国家医疗服务体系）也非常出色。有很多可以加入的群体来与其他母亲建立联系，而且如果你需要帮助，总有人可以打电话求助。”

“有了孩子并没有减轻运动本身的压力，但拥有自己的家庭，并且知道无论我的分数如何、打得怎样，都有人在意我，这感觉太棒了。”

在产下第二个孩子 Julian 十周后，德国球手兼 2020 年 AIG 女性公开赛冠军 Sophia Popov 也重返赛场。

Popov 和 Hall 都在利瑟姆未能通过截分线。Hall 第一轮打出 76 杆，第二轮 72 杆，最终成绩为标准杆正 6 杆；而 Popov 在周四经历了一场苦战，两轮后成绩为标准杆正 20 杆。

Lee 是唯一一位进入周六开球时段的母亲，她在前两轮共打出标准杆正 4 杆。

尽管许多女性在面对产后冲击时更加挣扎，但体育界关于母亲身份的讨论往往仅限于怀孕期本身。

“在生第一个孩子 Maya 时，我绝不可能这么快回来参赛。当时分娩过程要艰难得多，持续了 27 小时，”Popov 说。

“产后阶段真的让我措手不及。我觉得恢复体型、找回自我需要花极其漫长的时间。在决定再次拿起高尔夫球杆之前，已经过去了好几个月，而且坦白说，我当时甚至不确定自己是否还想打球。”

“第二次分娩时顺利得多，仅用了五小时。我认为有了预期的心理准备，并且知道将面对什么，会让情况变得容易得多。”

“我非常尊敬母亲们，因为我知道分娩需要付出什么。我仍然不敢相信这是可能的，在腹中孕育一个婴儿简直令人惊叹。”

‘我非常尊敬母亲们，因为我知道分娩需要付出什么’

Popov 在有了孩子后心态发生了转变，而这种心理上的调整需要一段时间来适应。

“为人母最棒的一点是，一旦我离开高尔夫球场，我根本不在乎自己打得如何，”她解释道。

“无论是一场好球还是一场烂球，都没关系，因为这不会改变我与孩子互动的方式。这是最大的不同。”

“在球场上，我仍会发现自己在苛责自己，因为我认为有些东西是不会消失的。你不会因为想到了家里的家人，就突然接受一次三推。你仍然在努力争取最好的分数，打出最好的水平。”

体育与为人母之间的关系并非总是一目了然。对于波波夫来说，在生第一个孩子之前，高尔夫球就已经在为她进入母亲角色做准备。

“你早晨起床的时间非常早，你必须对时间管理非常自律；为人母本身就像是一场竞赛。‘你能让事情运转起来吗？’”她说道。

“而且情况也会变得轻松。在面对我的女儿时，起初我想把每件事都做得正确。面对第二个孩子时就不同了，因为你开始意识到他们是与你共同生活，而不是整个世界都围绕着他们转。”

“职业体育在某种程度上让你为养孩子做好了准备，但我认为最艰难的部分——很多身为母亲的运动员对此闭口不谈——就是你得放弃维持了 20 年左右的生活方式——你的初恋是高尔夫——然后你从 100% 致力于运动，转向 100% 致力于为人母。”

“困难之处在于，你不再是之前的那个运动员了——你改变了。”

精英体育领域中的母亲比以往任何时候都多，因为随着体育组织对这一变化的包容度大幅提高，女性不再需要在两者之间做出选择。

LPGA 在 2019 年显著更新了其产假政策，为球员引入了资格保留制度和两年的回归窗口期。

然而，围绕这些话题的讨论仍然有限，处理这些问题有时仍像是在行走于地雷阵。

“没有人真正了解全貌。这很复杂，我打了三四次电话试图弄清楚我的选择，以及其中的优缺点，”波波夫补充道。

“我对这个话题的讨论如此之少感到有些震惊。我不得不自己做大量的研究，但我们现在正进入一个新妈妈 era, 看到这一点非常酷。”

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

结识渴望挑战哈里·凯恩比赛的足golf之神

本·布鲁姆（Ben Bloom）写道，辞去体育教师的工作让本·克拉克（Ben Clarke）成为了这项运动中的主导力量。

盖特威克足golf（Gatwick Footgolf）的第七洞是一个相当简单的方案。全长仅 79 码，是这个 18 洞球场中第二短的，除了球道右侧的一个死水湖外，障碍极少。

事实上，在我的一次糟糕且离谱的开球后，不得不利用一个位置便捷的救生圈来捞出我那颗浸水的球，这几乎没有合理的理由。我的球友本·克拉克解释说，我的错误是很常见的，即选择了多余的力量而放弃了有条不紊的精准度。

“在很多方面，足golf是一项相当无聊的观赏运动，”35 岁的克拉克说，“不要只是尽全力猛踢。通过传球推进。虽然枯燥，但有效。”

足golf创建于 2008, 要求球员在高尔夫球场上将一个全尺寸足球踢进特大号球洞中，并尽可能减少击球次数。对于这项小众运动圈子里的几乎所有人来说，克拉克被认为是历史上最伟大的球员。

在辞去赫特福德郡（Hertfordshire）体育教师的工作后，近十年以来，克拉克一直是足golf的主导力量。他每个赛季的排名都进入了世界前三，并在其中五个赛季中排名第 1. 今年，他看起来已经在再次登顶的轨道上。

因此，当我站在一个位于盖特威克机场飞行路径正下方、一个常规的小鸟球推杆位前时，心中不免充满忐忑，思考着面对如此杰出的对手时，能反超对方的微小可能性。在恐惧的笼罩下，我果然失手了；两个洞之后在面对同样的机会时再次重复了错误，并很快在湖泊的诱惑下彻底掉队。在我们共同打完九个洞时，克拉克低于标准杆三杆——对他身边的球友来说，令人沮丧的是他说：“这是我在这一带打得最烂的一次”——而我则因为几次离谱的远距离击球导致高于标准杆五杆。

有趣的是，鉴于他坚持的一种坚定的内侧脚触球策略，这似乎在我们半轮比赛中将错误降低到了几乎为零，但克拉克足golf故事的起点，却是他作为一名门将将球踢出极远距离的时光。

2014, 他在社交媒体上收到一条意外的消息，邀请他参加一家

“如果凯恩现在直接来到第一个发球台——我有信心击败任何职业足球运动员”

附近新开的足golf球场。发送者提出一个理论，认为门将由于其踢球能力强而会表现出色。作为一名兼职门将教练以及在非联赛第五级别打球的业余门将，克拉克符合这一描述。几周之内，他就迷上了这项运动，随后成功接踵而至，尽管是通过将精准度置于力量之上而实现的。

“事实证明，我打足golf比踢足球好得多，”他说，“第一年我尝试两者兼顾，但每个周末我必须在两者之间选其一，而我更享受足golf。所以我完全停止了踢足球。”

由于频繁申请休假参加需要周中出行的比赛，他在 2017 年收到了学校雇主的最后通牒——要么教学，要么足golf，必须放弃一个。于是他辞职搬到了盖特威克，通过在足golf俱乐部工作来补贴他的竞技比赛收入。

即便对于最伟大的人来说，财务状况

依然保持紧凑。克拉克表示，在扣除差旅和住宿费用后，他需要在海外赛事中获得前三名的成绩才能获得足够的利润。他获得最高奖金的一次是在迪拜，金额为 $10,000（约合现在的 £7,500），此外在日本还获得了一张100万日元的支票（约合今天的 £4,700）。“在世界的某个地方成为百万富翁感觉很棒，”他笑着说。

训练量出奇地少——每周仅进行几轮。 “这不像高尔夫，你不能去练习场击打 50 或 100 个球，”他解释道。“你没法随身携带 100 个足球，而且我们也没有练习场。”

这项运动却出奇地耗时耗力。除了在英格兰参加多项赛事外，仅在过去三个月里，克拉克就前往波兰、斯洛文尼亚、墨西哥和瑞典参加比赛。

上个月在阿卡普尔科举行的世界杯落下帷幕，共有 1,200 多名球员参赛，克拉克在附加赛后遗憾地获得了第四名。

在足球高尔夫的职业生涯中，他击败了曼联中场艾伦·史密斯、阿根廷队长罗贝尔托·艾雅拉以及许多其他前职业足球运动员。但他经常被问到，如果顶尖足球运动员转行，是否能击败他。

“像哈里·凯恩这样的人有高尔夫背景，所以凭借那种心态和比赛管理能力，他可能比其他人更容易适应，”克拉克说。“但胜负的关键在于果岭周围的触球感和感觉。”

“如果有机会能和他对决，我非常愿意。也许给他一年时间去适应一切，但如果他现在直接站在第一发球台，我有信心击败任何职业足球运动员。”

这些话符合一个体育领域“史上最佳”（GOAT）的身份——即便他非常清楚自己在体育等级制度中所处的位置。“如果你去商业街问人们什么是足球高尔夫，他们可能完全没概念，”他说。“在足球高尔夫社区里被这样认知很不错，但在这个圈子之外，我认为这没法让你走太远。”

“从大局来看，我不是梅西或罗纳尔多。但这种感觉很好。”

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02.08.26

15

生死之战： 格特鲁德·埃德莱 完成了 21 英里 的壮举，速度 超过了此前 五位成功的男性。 Bettmann Archive/ Getty Images

为女性开辟道路的海峡先驱

格特鲁德·埃德勒（Gertrude Ederle）在 100 年前的肯特郡海岸完成了一场具有里程碑意义的 21 英里游泳挑战。 作者：约翰·古德巴迪 (John Goodbody)

肯特郡海岸上燃起了篝火，亮起了信号弹。汽车喇叭声此起彼伏。人群在岸边聚集。金斯当 (Kingsdown) 救生站的探照灯聚焦在一艘小船和一名孤独的游泳者身上，此时她距离岸边 400 米。

水中的是美国游泳运动员格特鲁德·埃德勒，一位奥运金牌得主。在下周四的 100 年前，她即将成为第一位游过英吉利海峡的女性。当她蹒跚上岸被观众簇拥时，她的成绩为 14 小时 31 分钟，比此前五次成功的男性记录更快，而这些记录始于 1875 年的马修·韦伯 (Matthew Webb) 船长。

埃德勒的壮举改变了人们对女性运动成就能力的认知。那是一个女性社会地位发生变革的时代，南希·阿斯特 (Nancy Astor) 在 1919 年成为首位女性国会议员，英国女性在 1928 年获得了投票权。

对于埃德勒来说，完成这 21 英里的壮举绝非易事。一年前，由于与疾病和汹涌的潮汐搏斗，她挑战失败。她的教练贾贝兹·沃尔夫 (Jabez Wolffe) 命令将其从海中拉回。

他可能受到了某种影响，不愿相信一名女性能够完成他本人尝试了 22 次都未能实现的挑战。

当 1926, 年埃德勒再次尝试时，她的新教练汤姆·伯格斯 (Tom Burgess) ——他本人曾在 1911 年完成穿越——告诉她放弃。她回答道：“为了什么？这次我一定要完成。”伯格斯让她父亲签署了一份文件，声明若其女儿溺水，他无需承担责任。

人们对埃德勒成就的反应交织着欣喜、震惊和愤慨。《华盛顿邮报》称“美国女性将从中获益匪浅”，而德国报纸《正午报》(Zeitung Am Mittag) 则表示，她的表现是“曾经较弱的性别在体育领域获得解放的新且决定性的证明”。然而，《每日快报》的一位专栏作家则宣称：“女性参与男性事务简直令人厌恶，”并认为这应该被法律禁止。

但人们并未理会他的观点。这是一个全新的环境。即便是在创始人库贝尔廷男爵 (Baron de Coubertin) 对女性运动嗤之以鼻的国际奥委会，也在当年同意在 1928 年奥运会上引入女子田径项目。

在埃德勒获胜之后，其他女性也开始挑战海峡，包括 1927. 年首位完成穿越的英国人梅赛德斯·格莱茨 (Mercedes Gleitze)。她们共同证明，长距离游泳是少数女性通常能与男性表现相当甚至超越的体力活动之一。

目前穿越海峡的最快记录可能由德国男性安德烈亚斯·瓦什堡 (Andreas Waschburger) 保持，用时 6 小时 45 分钟；而女性记录由捷克人伊薇特·图利普·赫拉瓦乔娃 (Yvette Tulip Hlaváčová) 保持，用时 7 小时 25 分钟。不过，许多其他记录由女性持有。

2019, 年，美国人莎拉·托马斯 (Sarah Thomas) 成为首位（也是唯一一位）完成海峡四向游泳（往返两次）的人，尽管她在 2017. 年被诊断出患有乳腺癌。她经历了 16 轮化疗，且在整个过程中一直坚持训练。她的领航员埃迪·斯佩林 (Eddie Spelling) 说：“她是个如此坚强的女性，她本可以挑战五向——或者至少是四次半。”

成功穿越次数最高（44 次）的是澳大利亚人克洛伊·麦卡德尔 (Chloë McCardel)，她通过游泳克服了不快乐的成长经历以及随后两段据称遭受虐待的关系，她回忆道：“我对着护目镜流泪，船上没人能看见。”

而完成穿越次数最多的英国人是艾莉森·斯特里特 (Alison Streeter)，共 43 次。她在担任货币交易员期间，有时会在尝试挑战过程中让船员向外传递她对市场的看法。

统计学家朱利安·克里奇洛 (Julian Critchlow) 研究了截至本周为止，所有成功完成该挑战的 2,780 名游泳者的详细数据。他发现，女性的单人成功率为 73%，而男性为 66%。且女性平均快 10 分钟。这有其生理原因。女性通常比男性拥有更高比例的慢肌纤维，这对耐力赛至关重要。而且她们通常燃烧脂肪的效率更高，因此能更持久地保存糖原储备。

公开水域参赛者的主要困难是距离和寒冷。朴次茅斯大学的一个学术团队在 1999 年得出结论：“肢体脂肪含量较高（大多数女性）的个体，由于活跃且血管扩张的肌肉具有更好的隔热作用，在冷水运动期间应具有热量优势。”与此同时，根据轶闻证据，女性在海难后的生存时间往往更长。

为水中长距离挑战做准备，需要在寒冷的海域、湖泊和露天泳池中进行严格训练，以适应环境。正是这种决心定义了英吉利海峡游泳者，正如埃德勒 (Ederle) 在一个世纪前所证明的那样，此后有众多的人追随她的脚步。

约翰·古德巴迪 (John Goodbody) 是《游泳横跨英吉利海峡 150 年》(150 years of Swimming the Channel) 的作者。

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

下周

费里与约书亚之战将成为对其昔日自我的致敬演出

这两位英伦传统拳击手正准备重演一场从未发生过的战斗

Giles Smith

谁会对泰森·费里对阵安东尼·约书亚的前景不感到兴奋？谁没有幻想过看到这两位体育界的巨人，在各自才华达到顶峰的必然进程中最终相遇——征服全世界，集齐所有腰带，而现在，这两位天注定结缘的英国传奇正为了拳击之巅的终极地位而正面交锋？

但那是十年前的事了。现在呢？依然兴奋吗？依然在幻想吗？我并非不尊重任何相关人员，但通往 2026（假设）年费里对阵约书亚的最终攀登过程，似乎经历了一些相当难以成真的登山之旅。

在蓝色角，在泰国面对剧院规模的观众群时，37 岁的泰森·费里——除非我漏掉了一两次，否则这已经是他的第五次复出——用了七个回合才击败 46 岁的波兰人马里乌什·瓦赫，而后者此前也被费里的表弟休伊击败过。

与此同时，在吉达，且仅在 DAZN 按次付费频道播出，36 岁的安东尼·约书亚在与一名 YouTuber 进行的一场非官方比赛后，在第二回合击倒了“不被看好的阿尔巴尼亚人”克里斯蒂安·普伦格。如果约书亚自己在第一回合没有被击倒两次，这个结果可能会更有说服力。

不管怎样，“超级对决”来了！但它有多“超级”？除此之外，这引发了一个问题：这类比赛可以拖延多久，在它不再是我们通常定义的拳击比赛，而变成某种更接近于传统战争重演的东西之前？尽管这是一个关于一场从未真正发生过的战争的传统重演。

当然，正面的一面是：在这场重演中，实际的战斗参与者将到场。而这并非观众在其他活动中能合理期待看到的，例如，恰好计划在今年秋天于萨塞克斯郡举行的海斯廷斯战大重演，旨在纪念那场历史决战的 960 周年。

历史重演：与费里对阵约书亚不同，海斯廷斯战确实发生过。Jack Taylor / Getty

不过，看来那场重演中将有 500 人穿着戏服在现场激战，还会有马和猎鹰，所以，你知道的……各有千秋。

而且，既然提到这里，那里的推广者显然做了正确的事，他们争取到了海斯廷斯的原址进行重赛，这显然是真正的格斗迷们在呼吁的，而且呼吁得没错。面对现实吧，只有在一个擂台里，你才想看到哈罗德国王和威廉公爵准备再次激战，而那个地方绝不是托特纳姆热刺球场。

而且，他们也没有为了照顾美国观众而卑躬屈膝地将开始时间安排在半夜。一切都设定在当天的上午 10 点在海斯廷斯修道院入场，事实也应当如此。

相比之下，是的，报告显示，费里与约书亚的推广者正在密切关注温布利球场，如果这场比赛曾经有过原址，那里很可能是费里与约书亚最初的选址。但商业需求可能意味着他们最终会选择沙特阿拉伯、拉斯维加斯，甚至可能是卡迪夫，从尊重比赛历史的角度来看，这显然是个遗憾，尽管那段历史根本不存在。

我想说的是，这里有一种遗产需要保护，让我们希望民族情怀和对一段从未存在过的过去的真实感知最终能战胜对金钱的单纯贪欲，就像英国遗产委员会（English Heritage）的人们所做的那样。

所以，我猜，尽管开始吧。但这完全取决于你如何设定预期，不是吗？这样看来，我对费里与约书亚之战可能会感到相当兴奋，就像我对观看某个甲壳虫乐队致敬演出可能会感到相当兴奋一样。即便是一个并不怎么精准的甲壳虫乐队致敬演出。

或者如果你愿意，也可以聊聊去格拉斯顿伯里音乐节的事情——但得是去年的那个，有奥利维亚·罗德里戈和尼尔·杨的那个，甚至更久之前的，而不是今年的，因为今年根本没举办。

体育成功的真正残酷之处在于，它总是伴随着一个“保质期”。但显然，拳击运动正在为此做出努力。我对富里与约书亚比赛推广人的建议是：为了达到最大的协同效应，请将比赛定在冬令时切换（时钟回拨）的那天晚上。

西印度群岛在再次面对巴基斯坦时力争不负索伯斯之名

随着英联邦运动会落下帷幕，各项奖牌赛（包括草地滚球、柔道等）在进行之余，第二场测试赛也随之开始，作者：Patrick Kidd

本周出现了一个令人愉悦的巧合：西印度群岛队在加里菲尔德·索伯斯爵士（Sir Garfield Sobers）本该是 90 岁生日的那一天，以 90 跑击败了巴基斯坦队。他们在特立尼达岛第一场测试赛的第四天获胜，这意味着他的几名队友可以在第二天飞往巴巴多斯，参加索伯斯的国葬。

克莱夫·劳埃德爵士（Sir Clive Lloyd）在对这位伟大全能球员的悼词中说，索伯斯为加勒比地区带来了“一种罕见的才华、想象力、勇气与喜悦的结合”。这是他们在过去 30 年中并不经常经历的事情，但贾斯汀·格里夫斯（Justin Greaves）在第一局中连续拿下的五个 wicket-maidens，以及随后杰登·希尔斯（Jayden Seales）在第二局中以 20 跑拿下的五个 wicket，将使他们在进入第二场测试赛时充满信心（今日，TNT Sports 3, 3pm）。

对于巴基斯坦队来说，这是他们在客场测试赛中连续第八次失利。他们接下来将前往英格兰参加自 19 August 开始的三场测试赛系列赛，为此东道主正通过进行 100-ball cricket 做准备。至少本·杜凯特（Ben Duckett）状态正佳，在为特伦特火箭队（Trent Rockets）参加的前三场 Hundred 比赛中，分别取得了 49, 75 和 52 分（未出局）的成绩。杜凯特的火箭队接下来的对手是哈里·布鲁克（Harry Brook）的利兹太阳神队（SunRisers Leeds）（今日，Sky Sports Cricket, 2.30pm）。

英国女子公开赛本周迎来了半个世纪的庆典。历史上仅有九位本土冠军，最近的一位是英格兰的乔治亚·霍尔（Georgia Hall），在 2018 年夺冠；以及苏格兰的卡特里奥娜·马修（Catriona Matthew），在 2009, 年夺冠，两人均在皇家利瑟姆与圣安妮球场（Royal Lytham & St Annes）获胜。今年的场地设在兰开夏郡，这是否是个好兆头？（今日决赛，Sky Sports Golf, noon）。

在欧洲烈日灼烧之时，人们惊讶地发现一项跳台滑雪比赛正在进行。今年的系列赛在波兰的维斯拉（Wisla）开始——请不要将其与不列塔尼亚哥伦比亚省的惠斯勒（Whistler）混淆（今日，TNT Sports 7, 10.30am）。

澳大利亚在英联邦运动会上再次成为表现最突出的国家——从 1990 年起，他们将在 10, 场比赛中第九次登顶奖牌榜。赛事将于今日结束，颁发自行车、草地滚球、柔道和 7. 篮网球（netball）的奖牌（TNT Sports, 9am）。

足总杯（FA Cup）的额外预选赛于周五开始，参赛队伍来自第八和第九级别，其中有些名字似曾相识，如伍尔弗汉普顿市（Wolverhampton City）、伊普斯威奇流浪者（Ipswich Wanderers）和纽卡斯尔镇（Newcastle Town）（位于 Under-Lyme，而非 Upon Tyne）。另一支伍尔弗汉普顿球队——流浪者队（Wanderers）——将在同一天参加卡拉宝杯（Carabao Cup）第一轮，对阵波特维尔（Port Vale）（周五，Sky Sports+, 7.45pm）。上赛季与狼队一同从英超降级的西汉姆联队将于周六对阵朴茨茅斯（Sky Sports+, 3pm）。

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重获新生

马克·哈登（Mark Haddon）： 我是如何学习 重新写作的

阿萨德家族

与我

克洛伊·哈吉马休（Chloe Hadjimattheou） 讲述一位叙利亚 歌剧演员的命运

城市

之梦

肖恩·奥海根（Seán O'Hagan）探讨 一个世纪的美国 摄影

观察家报

02 / 08 / 26

新

评论

让格雷特雅茅斯再次伟大

这座城镇曾是海滨经济的明珠，如今却成了英国衰落的象征。

为什么这么多人相信鲁珀特·洛（Rupert Lowe）的极右翼政治能拯救它？作者：迈尔斯·埃灵汉姆（Miles Ellingham）

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2

议程 (Agenda)

每周日最尖锐的艺术、科学、书籍与思想评论

议程 4-7

• 在现实生活中，朱德·罗杰斯（Jude Rogers）参观了一个装满古董合成器的地堡；克萨维尔·格林伍德（Xavier Greenwood）观看“马鞭击剑界的温布尔登”；玛丽娜·圣（Marine Saint）纪念玛丽莲·梦露；大卫·巴内特（David Barnett）探讨杰里米·比德尔（Jeremy Beadle）的真实犯罪档案
• 栅格：两名摄影师为他们的母亲拍摄的肖像
• 访谈：音乐家劳拉·维尔斯（Laura Veirs）谈音乐产业的“男孩俱乐部”

评论家 19-24

• 肖恩·奥海根（Seán O'Hagan）审视定义美国城市生活的照片
• 菲奥娜·马多克斯（Fiona Maddocks）探讨晚祷的合唱传统
• 温迪·艾德（Wendy Ide）观看最新一部《蜘蛛侠》中疲惫不堪的超级英雄
• 苏珊娜·克拉普（Susannah Clapp）欣赏一场幽默且低俗的杰基·柯林斯（Jackie Collins）木偶戏

特写 8-18

• 访谈：马克·哈登向汤姆·加蒂讲述他如何摆脱长新冠的“脑雾”。此外，我们还将刊登他的八篇新故事
• 封面故事：迈尔斯·埃灵汉姆询问格雷特雅茅斯的居民，他们是否真的相信鲁珀特·洛厄的超本地化政治实验
• 约翰·诺顿探讨硅谷关于人工智能的反乌托邦幻想
• 报道：叙利亚歌剧演唱者拉泽克·弗朗索瓦·比塔尔向克洛伊·哈吉马特欧讲述阿萨德政权文化野心的阴暗面

书评 25-29

• 基利安·福克斯评安妮·雅各布森对生物战的可怖想象
• 凯瑟琳·杰米关于凯恩戈姆山火的新诗
• 艾伦·皮尔森-哈格评阿夫尼·多希在《焦糖》之后的续作
• 弗兰克·米勒谈蝙蝠侠、跌至谷底以及下一部《罪恶之城》

益智游戏与电视 30-40

• Everyman 填字游戏、数独、Azed、国际象棋、猜图、电影连接、Lexipedia 问答以及 Goldilocks 填字游戏
• 本周电视与广播精彩看点
• 芭芭拉·艾伦评《速度与激情》和《The Rapture》中的强势女性

Follow us on Instagram @ObsNewReview; email us at review@observer.co.uk

撰稿人

• 克洛伊·哈吉马特欧 (p16) 是《观察家报》的叙事编辑，她的调查报道包括《真正的盐径》(The real Salt Path)。

• 基利安·福克斯 (p25 & 29) 于 2020 年获得英国新闻奖，是《海鸥胃口杂录》(The Gannet's Gastronomic Miscellany) 的作者。

• 朱德·罗杰斯 (p4) 是一位威尔士记者和讲师，也是《人类之声：音乐如何塑造我们的生活》(The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives) 的作者。

• 肖恩·奥哈根 (p19) 是一位评论家和记者，在《观察家报》撰写关于音乐和摄影的文章已超过二十年。

• 凯瑟琳·杰米 (p27) 是一位诗人及散文家。她在 2021 到 2024 年期间担任苏格兰首席诗人 (makar)。她的著作包括《Keelie 鹰》(The Keelie Hawk)。

全景

Robin Bernstein 将镜头对准了南非资源丰富的姆普马兰加省中被遗忘的人们

封面：格雷特亚茅斯海滩，由 Harry Mitchell 为《观察家报》拍摄

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

3

淘金热之后：在南非姆普马兰加省的一位治疗师家中，几名青少年在镜头前俏皮地互相摆出对峙姿势。Robin Bernstein / GOST Books

这种举起拳头的姿态并不需要被过于严肃地看待。摄影师 Robin Bernstein 当时正在访问南非姆普马兰加省的一处小农场，这时两名青少年从屋里跑出来，对着相机开始进行模拟格斗，在一片玉米地和一个水箱前对峙。Bernstein 说，当时唯一情绪激动的是一只黑白相间的小狗，“它四处奔跑，叫了几声，然后转身跑开了——在它跳回的时候，我刚好把它拍出了画幅”。

Bernstein 首次访问姆普马兰加（一个靠近莫桑比克和斯威士兰边境的东北部省份）是在 2018. 年。他被这里的自然美景所吸引，同时也被当地的野马种群激起了好奇心，后来他意识到这与该地区的采矿历史有关。欧洲人在 19 世纪 70 年代首次得知这里有金矿。在最初的淘金热消退后，他们雇用的马被抛弃，只能自行生存。

Bernstein 多次返回此地，记录这里的景观及其居民，拍摄了废弃的矿井以及早于欧洲人抵达之前的石造建筑。这个小农场被矿区环绕，但与其并无关联。这里住着一名年长的女性（Bernstein 了解到她是一位治疗师）以及 20 名左右可能是她收养的孩子。他回忆道，这次访问中，“孩子们非常兴奋，想要拍照，所以他们开始表演这些场景来吸引我的注意力”。

这两名年轻的“拳击手”被收录在 Bernstein 的新书《Mapalakata》中，该书汇集了他在该省期间拍摄的照片。书名意为“访问者”，是指在欧洲殖民之前就在南部非洲穿行的外国商人及勘探者。几个世纪以来，许多人试图开发这个地区，在榨取土地上的宝贵资源的同时，抹去了原住民的痕迹。通过这张照片以及书中的其他影像，Bernstein 试图通过给予这个地方全部的关注（包括这些模拟格斗）并将其定格在胶片上，来打破这一循环。Kilian Fox

Robin Bernstein：《Mapalakata》由 GOST Books 出版（£45）

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4

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

现实生活

来自手机屏幕之外世界的观察与场景

音乐事务

深入地下

在北威尔士雷舍姆（Wresham）郊外两英里的博拉斯（Borras）村边缘，矗立着一座阴森的红砖核掩体。过去，皇家观察员团（Royal Observer Corps）的志愿者们每周在这里集会，学习如何发出四分钟预警、评估核爆炸并监测放射性沉降。在它被除役 34 年后，内部依然传出令人不安的唧唧声。

这些声音从以前的女厕所传向走廊，那里现在堆满了核恐慌时代制造的军事机器。一名男子从其中走出来，穿着一件亮橙色 T 恤，上面印着“Droog”字样，图案是先驱合成器设计师罗伯特·穆格（Robert Moog）化身为斯坦利·库布里克的电影《发条橙》中的角色亚历克斯。 “早安！”经营着“复古音频游乐场” Cold War Synths 的马特·托马斯（Matt Thomas）说道，这是他在去年开设的场所。

他将这个空间开放给作曲家、原声带艺术家以及任何热衷于实验的人。“我建立这个空间的原则是：只要你把它建起来，人们自然会来，”他说。托马斯曾是一名制作人，艺名 King Unique，曾为 The Killers 和 Underworld 等组合制作混音作品，他收集了一批非凡的早期合成器和其他奇特的发声机器。

那些甜美、近乎人类般的吱吱声来自 EMS VCS 3，这是第一款便携式合成器，曾被平克·弗洛伊德（Pink Floyd）用于《月之暗面》（The Dark Side of the Moon），以及布莱恩·伊诺（Brian Eno）用于 Roxy Music 的早期专辑。在它旁边放着一台 Yamaha CS-80 合成器，该型号全球仅制造了约 800 台，曾被范吉利斯（Vangelis）用于《银翼杀手》（Blade Runner）和《烈火战车》（Chariots of Fire）的原声带，也被昆西·琼斯（Quincy Jones）用于迈克尔·杰克逊的《Billie Jean》和《Human Nature》。托马斯叹了口气说，它目前处于“两年的维修队列”中。他在 2000 年代初期从一名朋友那里买下的它；现在运行正常的型号价值已超过 £50,000。

托马斯表示，模拟合成器的价值飙升有两个原因。第一个是商业性的且令人“沮丧”：有人购买这些机器是为了“拆除其中的金线”。第二个原因是非常人性化的。

“当绝对的所有事物不仅变得数字化，而且变得某种程度上虚无时，人们希望被那些必须用手操作的东西包围。就像当你 15 或 16 岁时会想：‘我想知道这东西怎么运作，我想知道它能做什么。’然后你转动一个旋钮，奇妙的声音就出现了。”

托马斯的藏品购入成本相对较低；一些合成器是在拍卖会上买的，另一些是从房屋清理中抢救出来的，或者在当地市场或棚屋中发现的。其中包含许多最初并非为了制作音乐而设计的机器，例如数据生成器、一台苏联钢丝录音机，以及一个用于使细胞振动的医疗测试单元。“如果它‘不开心’，可能会喷出 250 伏的电压，”托马斯在启动它之前说道，并小心地将电缆末端放在触及不到的地方。“我真的不想知道它平时是用来做什么的。”

这里还有由英国小型公司制造的古怪乐器，例如 WEM (Watkins Electric Music)，其创始人查理·沃特金斯（Charlie Watkins）曾负责大卫·鲍伊（David Bowie）的舞台音效，后来开创了强大的摇滚 PA 系统；还有一台用于分析异常波形的皇家海军信号测试仪。每当它检测到异常时，就会发出类似 techno 音乐的脉冲声，就像托马斯给它输入齐柏林飞艇（Led Zeppelin）的《Kashmir》开篇沉重的鼓声时那样。

在空间中走动时，托马斯解释说，他在 10 年前因为对该行业失望而停止制作音乐。随后他接受培训并成为一名考古学家，在疫情之后改变了方向，将他的天赋结合起来，挖掘那些更喧闹的宝藏。

“我一直在想： ‘你热爱这些机器，是因为它们能让你维持生计的能力，还是因为它们能发出轰鸣的能力？正是这种轰鸣激励着人们——以及他们从中获得的快乐。’”

地堡的环境也为这座充满冒险精神的音乐创作大楼增添了戏剧色彩。当地的浩室音乐团体 K-Klass 在 1995 年买下了这里，将其更名为 Roc2，并将旧地图室和其他空间改造成了专业录音室。音乐家兼音频工程师 Steve Hywyn Jones（曾是威尔士实验乐队 Y Brodyr 成员）自 2005 年起一直经营此处，他偶尔会过来，在一部旧的测试信号机上平衡地摆放一盘消化饼干。

他向我推荐了一部拍摄于 1962 年关于这座建筑的无声电影，我随后在 BBC Rewind 上观看了这部片子。身着制服的志愿者在威尔士地图周围移动核落尘图表，另一人则爬上屋顶，摇动手柄启动四分钟预警警报。

Thomas 反思道，20 世纪中期是一个充满恐怖但同时也充满发明与潜能的时代。许多机器拥有多个输入口、输出口、旋钮和拨盘：他解释说，其中的可能性是“无穷的”。随后他鼓励我尝试操作。我将插针插入 VCS 3，创造出一种充满甜美感和能量的沸腾节奏。在一台测试信号机上，我触发了一种嗡嗡的低鸣，并成功让它唱出可辨识的音符——就像一个幽灵机器人。古老的仪器将新的声音和灵感地送入空中，盘旋不去。Jude Rogers

乡村生活

骑士之歌

你准备好感受马蹄声在脊梁上轰鸣了吗？你准备好迎接长矛碎裂的声音了吗？让奈杰·艾莫斯（Nigel Amos）——阿伦德尔城堡（Arundel Castle）国际中世纪比武赛的主持人——来叙述我这段非骑士生活的每一步，让大地在我的脚下颤抖。

关于现代比武，你首先应该知道的是它分等级。有些比赛只是关于从马背上摔下来，以及接受女士们的馈赠。然后是真正的比赛。那些会让人受伤的比赛。“特技表演有排练好的流程，”艾莫斯对一群沉浸在冬季蜂蜜酒和夏季喧嚣中的观众说道，“而我们这里是真正的比武锦标赛，真正的盔甲，真正的打击和真正的竞争。我们在英格兰元帅阁下的骑士精神光辉照耀下进行这场表演。

整整六天艰苦的赛程。朋友们，这就是比武界的温布尔登。”

在温布尔登，乱飞的网球对观众构成了轻微威胁。但在西萨塞克斯郡的阿伦德尔城堡——一座始建于 1067 年且经历过多次围攻的堡垒——威胁来自燧石。“如果你看到碎片向你飞来，”艾莫斯警告我们，“赶紧低头。”与比武者面临的危险相比，这简直不算什么。骑手们以 25 英里 / 小时的速度在赛道上疾驰，用 12 英尺长的木制长矛互相猛击。击中手臂得 1 分。击中身体得 2 分。击中盾牌和头部得 3 分。

你的得分取决于打击的精准度和力量，这由长矛在撞击时折断的程度决定。考虑到你同样在被击打，甚至在上马之前就有太多需要思考的事情。如果你被分配到一匹不适合你的马，这会影响你的速度、方向、姿态和信心，并可能导致摔马。此外还有酷热和沉重。比武者们身穿超过 60 公斤（88 磅）的中世纪盔甲，因为 21 世纪的替代品行不通。“一个（穿着现代盔甲的）朋友失去了一颗睾丸，因为它被钉在了马鞍上，”冠军比武者兼阿伦德尔赛事的策划者斯泰西·范多拉-埃文斯（Stacy Van Dolah-Evans）说道，“复合材料盔甲不是为比武设计的。”

即使是碳火淬火弹簧钢也不能保证免于疼痛。“我被击晕过几次。我断过三根肋骨。我这里有个疤，”范多拉-埃文斯指着下巴上的轮廓说道，“一块碎片穿过了我的嘴唇，穿过了我的舌头，击中了我的上颚。”

大约每 10 年左右就会有人丧生。“风险在于眼睛的视口。如果碎片从那里钻进去击中眼睛——你就完了。”

阿伦德尔城堡的比武者们在摇滚乐队 AC / DC 的咆哮声中登场，该乐队的音乐出现在希斯·莱杰主演的电影《骑士故事》（这是我的主要调研来源）中。此外还有其他时代错置的现象。尽管中世纪比武比美国独立宣言早了数百年，但美国仍是今年参赛的四个国家之一。现场散布着小型摄像头以协助判定结果。女性也参与竞争。然后麦克风前的艾莫斯，他还在海斯廷斯战役的重演活动中统领部队。“你们必须明白这一点，”他说，“你们正在目睹非常、非常特别的景象。”

他不必如此坚持：显而易见，赌注是真实的，奖赏也是。范多拉-埃文斯的办公室内挂着一条 24 克拉的金链，这是过去一次胜利的战利品。我在阿伦德尔观看的比武者们在关键时刻表现出色，不惧潮湿，以惊人的精准度落下重击。

动作中起伏跌宕。我身边的一个年轻人漫不经心地地告诉我

他告诉朋友们，他打算把自己画成太阳，以向蒙提·派森（Monty Python）致敬，但随后意识到那样会“太像阿根廷国旗”。不过，一群兴致高昂的狂热支持者依然维持着现场气氛，每当一名骑手在倾斜栏杆上表现出色时，他们偶尔会挥拳庆祝。与观众不同，参赛者们几乎没有放松的空间。他们住在城堡里，在竞技场之外的行为也会被评判。“女士们每天会对哪位骑手最符合骑士准则进行投票，”范·多拉-埃文斯（Van Dolah-Evans）说，“这不在于是否在水坑上盖了一块毯子，而在于他们如何对待他人。比如，他们晚上是否帮忙洗碗？”

在汗水与泡沫之中，也总有浪漫发生的可能。范·多拉-埃文斯在比赛期间结识了他的妻子凯尔（Kyle），她曾是一名场地障碍赛骑手，今年也参加了骑马比武。在英格兰队赢得 2013 年阿伦德尔（Arundel）决赛后，他在竞技场中向她求婚。当时他身披一套盔甲，而她戴着轻盈的头饰，穿着一件长长的青绿色袍子。“她当时太震惊了，竟然扯断了缰绳，”范·多拉-埃文斯说，“她没料到我会这么做。”

看来，骑士精神终究还没有消亡。Xavier Greenwood

舞台之上

演绎玛丽莲

doublé? Pixie 拿起麦克风，向观众重复了一位观众对她歌曲的赞美，以便让全场听到。“哦，那正是我们的目标。不过我还没用过这个词来形容玛丽莲。但诱人——我诱人吗？”面对着这位戴着金色假发、穿着《七年之痒》风格白色挂脖连衣裙的玛丽莲致敬表演者，酒吧里的观众一致大声回应。

Monroe 自在音乐跨装喜剧《热情之吻》(Some Like It Hot) 中饰演 Sugar Kane（一个足以媲美任何 Drag Queen 的绰号）以来，就一直与 Drag 艺术联系在一起。如今，在这部喜剧杰作问世 67 年后，南伦敦克拉珀姆 (Clapham) 高街上出现了各种版本的 Monroe，他们正在通过一场卡巴莱致敬演出庆祝她的百年诞辰。LGBTQ+ 酒吧 Two Brewers 正在举办一场仅限一晚的演出。

当迪斯科球旋转时，我们尽职地欢呼，第二位 Queen——闪闪发光的 Woe Adams 演唱了一首关于 Norma Jeane 早期成名之路的叙事曲。当晚的配乐是《Smash》，这是一部关于为百老汇创作 Monroe 传记片的电视音乐剧。这是一场致敬之中的致敬。这些 Drag 版本的 Marilyns 通过《Smash》中两位主角的歌曲来演绎她的生活：这两位演员都在竞争新剧中那个性感女郎的角色。忧郁的 Woe 向观众恳求：“让我成为你的开始”，双臂抬起，露出她缀满装饰的袖子。钻石确实是女孩最好的朋友。

“

这不是关于用毯子盖住水洼。而是关于他们如何对待他人。他们晚上会洗碗吗？

插图：Oscar Ingham

”

但这场演出不仅仅有水钻、金色卷发和喜剧。一位叙述者提醒我们，自 Monroe 在 20 世纪 50 年代中期票房巅峰期以来，时代几乎没有改变。“地缘政治的不稳定、猖獗的厌女症和法西斯主义的崛起，是一个非常特别的生日的背景，”我们的表演者告诉我们。

Woe 饰演的 Monroe 将她的仰慕者拉上台，对着他们低唱一首性感且自我意识强的歌曲 $\text{I Never Met A Wolf Who Didn't Love To Howl}$。一名舞者假装咬她的手臂，另一名舞者则跳起一字马。我面前的一桌 4 个男人响应地发出了“嗷呜”声。

这虽然是演艺圈，但在 Two Brewers，纪念 Monroe 的伦理问题并未被忽视。“我们现在生活在一个如果她的死被报道，情况会截然不同的世界里，”Woe 在演出结束后告诉我。1962, 8月4日，Monroe 在洛杉矶家中因巴比妥类药物过量死亡，被发现时赤身裸体，其尸体照片被公开传播。粉丝们对此感到心碎。更令人不安的是，尸检报告中被指存在不一致之处，表明她的身体在送达法医办公室之前曾被干扰过。

Woe 和 Pixie 穿着闪闪发光的黑色晚礼服走到一起。“不要忘记我！”Woe 尽情高唱；Pixie 挑起眉毛指向她的搭档，选择节省嗓子。他们问我们，还能唱什么来向 Monroe 致敬？《祝你生日快乐》是一个自然的选择。她们换上了让人想起《金发女郎》(Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) 中 Monroe 和 Jane Russell 那种深 V 红裙，用踢腿舞跳向了压轴曲目。

毫无疑问，Sugar Kane 会很喜欢这一切。至于那个模糊不清的女人本人呢？我可以想象她穿上高跟鞋，兴高采烈地加入这场生日大合唱。Marine Saint

档案之中

犯罪 倾向

在七月一个美好的周三，我搭乘早班火车前往历史名城约克。我是被一封神秘的信函召唤到这里的。信中询问我是否感兴趣参加一个项目，该项目涉及一个由知名收藏家积累的秘传出版物档案。

这是一个令人无法拒绝的诱人邀请，但真正的吸引力在于该档案的已故所有者。他正是那位亲切的、蓄胡的“弄臣”本人：杰里米·比德尔（Jeremy Beadle），他曾主持隐藏摄像恶作剧节目《比德尔在身边》（Beadle's About）以及家庭电影片段秀《你被拍到了！》（You've Been Framed!）。

约克圣约翰大学（York St John University）幽灵学与光谱性研究小组的海伦·普莱森斯（Helen Pleasance）和罗伯特·埃德加（Robert Edgar）邀请了我以及另外十几位作家和研究人员前来检查这份档案。该档案包含数百册从 20 世纪 60 年代到 90 年代的真实犯罪类出版物。普莱森斯在一次派对上，有人认出了她在真实犯罪领域的工作并拍了拍她的肩膀。那位陌生人说他继承了比德尔收藏的杂志，如《真实侦探》（True Detective）、《罪与罚》（Crime and Punishment）和《侦探大师》（Master Detective）；问她是否对此感兴趣？

这个项目背后的想法是，在比德尔的收藏（包括杂志的读者信件和广告）启发下，我们将创作短篇小说并将其出版成选集。埃德加告诉我：“比德尔档案侧重于真实犯罪，但我们也对离奇犯罪、民间恐怖、道德恐慌以及都市民间传说的出现感兴趣。”

我和其他作家在上午的时间里仔细研读比德尔的杂志。封面刊登着关于犯罪与正义的耸动故事，以及半裸女性模特的照片。“裸体被吊在阳台上！”标题如此尖叫着。“花园小矮人的致命秘密！”这些出版物，尤其是 20 世纪 60 年代和 70 年代的，经常聚焦于以女性为被害者的犯罪。我认为这非常符合当时的时代特征，以及像《世界新闻》（News of the World）那样对阴森细节的关注。这些杂志也确实报道过女性杀手——他们非常青睐“致命女郎”。

在这次活动中，我的一个同僚发现比德尔本人曾担任 2008 年 1 月号《真实侦探》的客座编辑。

“为什么我担任本期 TD 的客座编辑？”比德尔写道，“因为我对真实犯罪有着终身兴趣——而且世界上没有其他杂志能像它这样……致力于保存这些迷人的故事，并建立一个详尽的真实犯罪图片档案。”

这是比德尔发表的最后一次公开声明。此时他已经接受了肾癌和白血病的治疗，并在 2008 年 1 月 30 日因肺炎去世，享年 59 岁——恰逢他编辑的那期《真实侦探》上市。

对于我们作家来说，这是一个带有幽灵学色彩的细节，毫无疑问将为我们的项目提供养分。借用比德尔收藏的杂志风格：请关注此空间，我们将带来由最令人震惊的真实犯罪故事所激发的恐怖故事。——大卫·巴内特（David Barnett）

仍在展映 / 播出

观察家报 评论家推荐的不容错过之选

艺术

“赫文·安德森（Hurvin Anderson）在 2017 年入围特纳奖短名单，2023 年当选皇家艺术学院院士，由全球多家顶级画廊代理。他的画作沉思且细致，但在色彩和颜料的运用中总能感受到一种喜悦。”该展览在英国国家美术馆（Tate Britain）展出至 8 月 23 日。——劳拉·卡明（Laura Cumming）

电视

《五星级周末》（The Five-Star Weekend），“既是超加工的‘慰藉食物’式电视节目，也是一部复杂的剧集，偶尔会产生令人抓狂的效果”，目前仍在 Sky 频道播出。——奥利维亚·奥弗登（Olivia Overden）

流行音乐

尼亚·档案（Nia Archives）的最新唱片《情感丛林主义者》（Emotional Junglist），“充满了野心，是一张建立在生动叙事和活力制作之上的专辑。档案在尝试挖掘丰富的音乐历史，并由她的创意指南将其导向新的方向。”她将在整个八月在英国和欧洲的音乐节上演出。——塔拉·杰希（Tara Jeshi）

现正预订

艺术

非裔美国雕塑家及大地艺术家比弗利·布坎南（Beverly Buchanan）以其大地艺术作品以及在美南地区发现的遮阴处和废墟的组合艺术而闻名。随着其作品入选今年威尼斯双年展的主展，布坎南艺术的首次欧洲回顾展将于 26 September 在布里斯托尔的尖岛（Spike Island）开幕。

戏剧

《特鲁》（Tru）是由杰伊·普雷森·艾伦（Jay Presson Allen）创作的关于特鲁门·卡波特（Truman Capote）的独角戏，由托尼奖得主杰西·泰勒·费根森（Jesse Tyler Ferguson）主演。该剧将从纽约转场至伦敦的默瑟巧克力工厂（Mercer Chocolate Factory），演出时间为 26 September 至 11 月。门票现已开售。

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6

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

议程

矩阵

两位摄影师探讨 真正地凝视 抚养我们长大的 女性意味着什么

在奥斯陆共同教学期间，摄影师凯瑟琳·麦克戴德（Katharine MacDaid）和谢丽尔·纽曼（Cheryl Newman）发现了一个共同的主题：她们各自的母亲。本月将在奥斯陆摄影之屋（Fotografiens Hus）开幕的新展《凯特与卡罗尔》（Kate and Carol）将共同展出她们的项目。

麦克戴德的系列作品《我的母亲，凯特》（My Mother, Kate）横跨了二十年的坦率肖像记录。在她们散步的草地景观背景下，影像中渗透着静谧、优雅与困惑。对于麦克戴德来说，这些照片揭示了她们关系中的某种特质，提供了一种“面对她内敛的情绪并协商我自身对掌控欲的需求的方式。我们的关系极其亲密且私人，但与此同时，又是谨慎且保留的。”

与此同时，纽曼的《距离家一百码》（One Hundred Yards from Home）记录了她与 99 岁母亲卡罗尔的协作：卡罗尔戴着天使之翼洗碗，戴着多丽丝·戴（Doris Day）的面具向窗外眺望，将一朵黄花贴在脸庞。“拍摄我的母亲让我能够以一种自童年以来就缺失的方式与她重新建立联系，”担任《观察家报》新评论版（New Review）摄影编辑的纽曼指出，“我一直在不断发现她性格中新的侧面。”

事实上，这些深思熟虑的图像要求我们思考，凝视并真正地看见那些抚养我们长大的人意味着什么。正如麦克戴德所写：“我拍摄母亲的次数越多，我就越能看见她，越能将她作为一个女性地去了解。” —— 塔拉·乔希（Tara Joshi）

《凯特与卡罗尔》将于 13 August 至 27 September 在奥斯洛的摄影之屋展出。

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议程

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

7

劳拉·维尔斯 (Laura Veirs)

音乐家，52 岁

这位美国歌手谈论局外人艺术、音乐产业的“兄弟会”俱乐部，以及夺回她歌曲的控制权

劳拉·维尔斯发布了 14 张民谣和替代乡村音乐专辑，包括《Saltbreakers》(2007)、《July Flame》(2010) 和 《The Lookout》(2018)。作为 Americana 场景的坚实力量， she 是超级组合 case / lang / veirs（与 Neko Case 和 KD Lang 共同组成）的三分之一成员，同时也是 Raven Marching Band Records 的所有者。维尔斯的新专辑名为《Temple Songs》，这是她第一部完全由自己创作、录制、编曲、制作并演出的作品。她居住在俄勒冈州的波特兰。

您现在是在哪里发言？

我在“绽放之庙”（Temple of Bloom），也就是我录制这张唱片的地方。这是我后院的工作空间，我在这里处理 Zoom 电话和电子邮件，同时也进行录音和视觉艺术创作。这就是我的家庭办公室。

在写邮件的地方创作歌曲是什么感觉？

我住在一个有六口之家的重组家庭里。我们有四个青少年——我的丈夫摩根（Morgan）和我各自有两个亲生孩子和两个继子 / 女——所以家里非常忙碌。这个房间距离主屋只有 8 步之遥，但我在里面看不到房子。这里非常私密，感觉像个小避难所。我来到这里处理所有需要做的事，有些是电子邮件和业务，有些则是进入（创作）状态。我在这个空间里扮演所有不同的角色，而且在这些角色之间切换并不困难。

拥有一个独立创作空间的重要性如何？

大学毕业后的前五年里，我一直和室友在客厅里写歌，完全没有自己的房间。但是，

那时我似乎能够即使在周围有人时也进入创作状态。当我搬到[这栋]房子里（我已经在这里住了五年）时，我是一名单身母亲，所有的工作都在厨房完成。但当摩根（Morgan）和我开始认真考虑共同生活时，我知道我需要一个空间，于是我建造了这个“神庙”。这是一个非常简单的结构，只有14英尺长，10英尺宽。

这是你的第14张专辑，但却是第一张完全独立完成的作品。为什么以前没有这样做？

在20年里，我的前夫（音乐人塔克·马丁 Tucker Martine）一直担任我的制作人。他是一位优秀的唱片制作人，起初我们的关系很好，但后来演变成了一些让我感到不舒服的状态。在制作过程以及录制唱片的所有决定中，我逐渐将大量的决策权交给了他。我已经离婚七年了。离婚后，我就在想：“我该如何制作唱片？”我太习惯于听从他人，认为既然他们是成就斐然的音乐家和制作人，那么他们一定最清楚怎么做。

发生了什么改变？

在2022年的专辑《Found Light》中，我在纽约与沙扎德·伊斯迈利（Shahzad Ismaily）进行了首次共同制作。我们采用了现场录音。这增强了我的信心。此外，我参加了一个家庭录音课程，课程设定了一些我所遵循的参数和结构，即：看向窗外；不要看屏幕；不要戴耳机；人声和吉他现场录制；录制三遍；离开；稍后回来；挑选最好的那一遍；然后在此基础上构建轨道。这些限制真的帮到了我。我意识到我喜欢那些略显粗粝的东西。而创作《Temple Songs》帮我重新找回了一种曾经失去联系的美学。

我想成为他人的榜样，尤其是女性，因为录音产业由男性主导。

你如何描述那种美学？

我一直对局外人艺术（outsider art）和民间艺术感兴趣。在美国南部有一群被称为“吉斯本德（Gee's Bend）”的非裔美国女性拼布艺术家，她们用废旧牛仔裤和衣物制作拼布。现在，这些作品作为杰作在世界各地巡展。她们在家里利用碎片创造出如此美丽的艺术品。这就是我想追求的美学：利用最简单的工具能做出什么？

这对这张专辑意味着什么？

我只用了两个麦克风，一台笔记本电脑，以及一个将麦克风声音传输到电脑的接口。我进行现场演奏，从吉他和人声开始，然后逐步构建轨道。我想保持简洁和克制。这无关乎完美或精湛的技巧，而关乎感受和表达。我喜欢简单而深邃的东西。我也想成为他人的榜样，尤其是女性，因为录音产业是由男性主导的。我想告诉大家：“嘿，还有另一种方法。你不需要$15就能做一张唱片。”在创作过程中，很多时候我想：“我希望有人能告诉我这里该怎么做。能不能请谁来告诉我？”对于我来说，将决策权外包是非常诱人的。

音乐制作人和工程师中女性的代表性不足。你认为这是为什么？

部分原因在于文化。我们生活在一个父权社会中。女性被鼓励成为好的合作者，照顾他人，审视周围的环境并确保氛围良好。有些女性会对技术层面感到畏惧。但这种感觉是非常深层且多维的。利兹·佩利 (Liz Pelly) 在她的书《情绪机器》(Mood Machine) 中写到了 Spotify 和所谓的“男人们的俱乐部”：主导力量是白人男性，而且这种情况已经持续了很长时间。但我经营着自己的厂牌。我靠我的歌曲生活，并拥有其中许多歌曲的所有权。到 2031 年，我将拿回我全部作品集的权利。

目前波特兰的政治氛围如何？

波特兰是一座自由主义城市。这是一个和平且富有艺术气息的地方。所以，是的，美国移民海关执法局 (ICE) 在这里，人们在抗议，但这里不像战争地带。我们整个国家都有无家可归者的问题，特别是在西海岸。我们的国家非常分裂，我们正顶着一个威权政府，人们感到非常恐惧。马丁·路德·金说过，“道德宇宙的弧线……向正义弯曲”。我想相信这一点，但有时我并不相信。

采访者：Ellen Peirson-Hagger

《Temple Songs》将于 14 August 通过 Raven Marching Band Records 发行

“我扮演着多种不同的角色”：Laura Veirs。Shelby Brakken

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

马克·哈登是如何学会重新写作的

一系列健康危机让这部《深夜遛狗事件》的作者陷入了长达六年的写作障碍——直到灵感再次敲门。他向汤姆·加蒂讲述了重新发现虚构文学乐趣的过程，在翻页处，我们刊登了他的新故事选集。

当“迷雾”第二次笼罩马克·哈登时，似乎没有出路。他无法写作，无法阅读。即便勉强写出一段短文，也会让他精疲力竭数日。他的身心都陷入了停滞。这是长新冠，他在回忆录《离开家》(Leaving Home) 中写道，这感觉“就像一个旧幽灵地回来了”。

“我累到连害怕的力气都没有了，”他告诉我的。此时我们正躲在牛津一座充满艺术品和书籍的维多利亚风格房子的明亮地下室里，避暑。这座房子是在他 2003 年的畅销小说《深夜遛狗事件》出版后买下的。“我记得当时在想：我没有精力为此感到焦虑。我想如果我从事大多数其他职业，只要休息足够，可能就没事了。写作不像外科医生或飞行员；你搞错了也不会有人死亡。但除非你处于巅峰状态，否则它就是行不通。”

这个幽灵第一次造访是在一年前，即 2019 年，当时哈登接受了三支心脏旁路手术。这次手术产生了两个副作用：它治好了他对死亡的恐惧（“我离死亡如此之近，以至于闻到了一丝硫磺味，而且我比预想的要平静得多”），但它让他患上了一种鲜为人知的名为“泵头症”(pumphead) 的病症，这是一种由于血液通过机器循环而导致的精神恍惚。他的小说《海豚》(The Porpoise)——一部对莎士比亚《佩里克利斯》的非凡且多层次的重新构思——在手术后三周出版。他在采访中艰难应对，感觉就像小说中灾难性开篇那样，仿佛在浓云中盲飞。“我一直相当自满，认为我从事的工作可以永远持续下去，没有任何生理限制能阻止我。然后我意识到，大脑同样是生理性的，它也会崩溃，就像你的膝盖或背部一样。于是，我被敲醒了。”

一年后，“泵头症”消失了，现年 63 岁的哈登经历了一段短暂的精神清明期，期间他写了两个故事来完成一个名为《狗与怪物》(Dogs and Monsters) 的短篇集。随后，迷雾再次降临。“我发现自己无法凭空构思一个情节。”然而，他可以唤起自己生活中的故事。“我当时在海上漂泊，必须做点什么。于是我想，我可以重新审视这些年随手把玩的一些素材，因为它们就在我眼前。”

短小的片段开始累积，最终他写成了一部强而有力的、碎片化的回忆录，讲述哈登和他的姐姐在 20 世纪 60 年代和 70 年代的北安普顿成长经历，当时他们与身为建筑师的父亲和身为家庭主妇的母亲生活在一起：父母没有感受到，或不愿表现出任何爱与关怀。（他以残酷的坦诚地描述了在养老院给母亲一个简短拥抱时的感受——那是一种“我从未在他人身上感受过的厌恶感”。）与此同时，他能够潜心于雕塑创作：那些色彩斑斓、俏皮且抽象的形状，看起来像是铁铸的，实际上却是由纸和卡纸制成，轻盈如空气。

然而，虚构故事依然无法诞生。随后哈登……

“我总是倾向于从那个点开始，即事情陷入混乱之时，看看会发生什么。”

收到了一封来自出版社 Redstone Press 创始人朱利安·罗滕斯坦（Julian Rothenstein）的信，邀请他为一部受明信片启发而创作的极短篇故事集撰稿（其中一些故事于上月在本报版面刊登）。“我意识到，也许我可以将驱动那部回忆录的相同原则应用于虚构小说创作。我去了牛津的一家破旧二手店，然后又在 eBay 上逛了逛，给自己弄了一叠最荒诞的旧明信片。”他拿出一大叠给我看：这里有一张欧卡皮的照片，一架 20 世纪 60 年代的空中渡轮，以及一群在伊斯特本（Eastbourne）埃克塞尔西尔酒店（Excelsior Hotel）早餐自助餐区尴尬聚集的员工。利用他在《离开家》（Leaving Home）中开发的小品形式，哈登提交的故事数量不是一个，而是 11 个。“我意识到我能写出来。我当时正处于创作的势头之中。”

哈登在重新学习如何写作。他完成了 150 篇以上的这类微型故事，并将其集结在名为《雾与菠萝》（Fog & Pineapples）的书下。但是

摄影： Tori Ferenc

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访谈

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尽管我们最顶尖的作家之一在七年来首次产出了一部规模可观的虚构作品，但他却在努力寻找兴趣点。他的经纪人和出版商都对这些故事表示犹豫，认为它们“数量太多，篇幅太短，过于多样且缺乏一个连接主题”。这就是为什么哈登——在想起多年前我在《新政治家》（New Statesman）上发表过他的故事《码头坍塌》（The Pier Falls）后——将它们寄给了《观察家报》，也是为什么您可以在这里阅读其中精选的部分内容，并配有作者本人的插图。

这些故事确实多样，但它们也被哈登独特的感官意识所统一：风趣，敏锐地觉察到事物核心的阴暗，在超现实与过于真实之间走钢丝。仅在我们的摘录中，就有一个抵御虐待的咒语，一次前往地心之旅，一次在空中的忏悔，一个“站在芦苇床里的圆滚滚的小光屁股家伙”，以及具有散文诗特质的清单。在集集的其他部分，还包含成功与不成功的自杀、溺水、畸形的男人、一个会说话的阴茎，以及一个名为《橙子并非唯一果实》（Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit）的赫布登桥（Hebden Bridge）杂货店。哈登的妻子索斯·埃尔蒂斯（Sos Eltis）是牛津大学布雷森诺斯学院（Brasenose College）的英语教授，她建议其中一些故事可能过于阴森，因此他正忙于在阴影中加入一些光亮。

毫不夸张地说，哈登能在 250 个词中塞入与另一位作家在 20 倍长度的故事中所写一样多的事件。他一直抵制“关于短篇小说应该是契诃夫式、雷蒙德·卡佛（Raymond Carver）式的跨大西洋正统观念”，也就是说，那种忧郁、克制，且只有转折点而非完整叙事弧线的风格。“我认为希拉里·曼特尔（Hilary Mantel）的《玛格丽特·撒切尔遇刺》（The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher）在子弹射出之前就停止了。我的意思是，我爱曼特尔，但那个故事的第二部分绝对会非常迷人。我总是倾向于从那个点开始，即事态失控的时刻，然后看看会发生什么。”

作为一名作家，哈登是一个纯熟的灾难艺术家，热爱车祸、空难、坠落的躯体以及过早的埋葬。这在一定程度上是为了强迫角色揭露真实的自我——“你必须给人们施加压力锅般的压力，才能激发出他们最好的一面”——但这也是一种对他所热爱之物的乖张致敬。他童年少数快乐的记忆之一是住在布莱顿（Brighton）的祖父母家——为了纪念那段时光，他写了《码头坍塌》，一个关于拥挤的英国海滨码头坍塌的恐怖细节描述。“如果不让它变得感伤，很难描写美好时光，”他认为，“所以为什么我不直接摧毁我热爱的东西呢？如果你能出色地描写破坏，你仍然必须加入所有你热爱细节，但你剥离了任何感伤，并且你可以加入一个可怕的剧情引擎来驱动你前进。”

马克·哈登为《观察家报》拍摄于其牛津家中。

哈登长期以来一直被焦虑和抑郁所困扰。他从小就害怕鲨鱼，小时候有一次在整个船行期间，他都用毛巾盖住头在哭泣。成年后，他曾多次坚信自己患了重病——如皮肤癌或多发性硬化症——并且即将死去。直到最近，他才克服了对飞行的恐惧，这种恐惧曾让他错过家庭假期，或在任何飞行计划前的数日内无法正常生活。《雾与菠萝》（Fog & Pineapples）中的一个故事以极其精准的细节描述了一个角色自残的行为，这源于作者自身的经历。在他的回忆录中，他附上了一张 2024 年他在手臂上画的一只猫的照片：“我这样做是因为我对自己感到无法控制的愤怒，而且我脑子里的压力实在太大了。”

贯穿他所有作品——以及他个人特质——的是一种像焦油一样黑的幽默感。在创作新故事时，“我很尴尬地承认，而且所有认识我的人，包括我的家人，都会证实这一点，那就是我对其中许多阴暗的情节笑得太开心了。”他的两个儿子现在 20 多岁，他们“认为自己从我这里继承了一样东西——一种极其阴暗的幽默感，在某些场合必须将其隐藏起来。”

正是这样一个令人质疑的笑话改变了哈登的生活。在花了 20 年时间写儿童读物之后，他试图创作一部成人小说。“我写了三个截然不同的开头段落，”他在回忆录中回忆道，“几乎没有考虑接下来的情节。另外两个我已经完全忘记了，但其中一个是对一只狗躺在前院草坪上的描述，一把园艺叉子深深地刺穿了它，一直没入土中并保持直立。我的配偶当时在隔壁房间，记得我写到这里时在笑。然后我意识到，如果叙述者的声音来自一个认为这个场景并不好笑的人，那么故事会更有趣且更引人入胜。”你可以认为大多数人不会对一只被刺穿的狗发笑——但哈登的思想实验导致了克里斯多弗的诞生，即《好奇事件》（Curious Incident）中那位青少年叙述者。2012, 它成为了一部获奖剧作：在全球范围内演出并在百老汇大获成功，在国家剧院最赚钱的剧目之争中，它紧随《战争之马》（War Horse）之后。

在克服了被出版社拒绝的失望之情后，哈登对于以一种可能鼓励人们放慢速度（“像读诗一样”）阅读《雾与菠萝》中故事的方式将其呈献给读者而感到兴奋：也许是通过一个每天推送一个故事的应用程序，或者像 B S 约翰逊风格那样将书装在盒子里的形式。在完成该合集后，他又写了两个较长的故事。终于，迷雾似乎在散去，疲惫在减轻，他的能力正在回归。

“我已经忘记了这种体验是多么令人愉悦，以及我是多么地想念它，”他说。“这是一种极其放松且非常敏锐的特殊心态。当我在散步，当我在半分心地做其他事情，或者在洗碗时，我正在创作的故事会在脑后慢慢地翻滚。片段被添加、删除、重塑或重新折叠，这带来了强烈的快感。我想我正式地重新回到了创作状态。”

请翻页阅读马克·哈登的八篇新故事

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02.08.26

八个新故事

作者：马克·哈顿 (Mark Haddon)

插图：作者

狼化

你将变成一只狼，并维持这个状态一个阴历月。你将无法说话。狼语将是你唯一的语言。你的眼睛将变得极其锐利。你看到的颜色会减少，但即使在极低的光线下，也能捕捉到精妙的细节。一 furlong 之外被踩碎的一片枯叶，听起来就像是一场鼓点。嗅觉将成为一个完整的世界。

你必须自行觅食。鸡、鹿、腐肉。你必须用下颚的力量折断野兔的脊椎，并在它仍然温暖且挣扎时将其吃掉。

你反过来也会被猎杀。因此你必须变得隐形。夜晚将成为你的第二层皮毛。如果你尝试与人类接触，他们会竭尽全力杀死你。这包括房间里的每一个人。如果你能生存一个阴历月，你将重新变回人类。

然后，最终，你将会明白。

鸟类

尽管从未亲眼见过他行动时的样子，但我无法从脑海中抹去那幅画面。黑色的双筒望远镜圆框内，这个圆滚滚的小裸男站在芦苇丛中，两手叉腰，全方位地挺立着，得意洋洋地对着掩体微笑。

那时我没有像其他人那样大笑的原因是……他叫西蒙，是我的叔叔。我父亲的弟弟。一个我显然不愿分享的事实。他的精神状态非常糟糕，经历过多次精神病发作，被强制住院治疗了好几次。究竟是前者解释了后者，还是他既患有精神分裂症又是色情狂，这是一个我没有资格回答的问题。

但我知道他做过更可耻、更不幽默的事情。为了防止产生画面并同样深深烙印在记忆中，我不会描述这些细节。简单来说，因为其中一次此类行为，两个年轻人用轮胎撬杠殴打他，在他的颅骨上留下了一个巨大的凹痕，险些将其杀死。

他现在住在戈辛顿大厅 (Gossington Hall)，说来也巧，那是一家就在斯利姆布里奇 (Slimbridge) 路尽头的护理院。正如人们所说，他是一个模范居民，这在很大程度上是因为头部受伤导致他变得“像个孩子”，据偶尔去探视的父亲说。

总之，这就是我为什么不成为观鸟者的众多原因之一。

工具箱

我会请求你信任我，但你现在不信任任何人，而且理由充分。但听着。巴克顿森林 (Bacton Wood) 和守卫屋缺口 (Watch House Gap)。除此之外谁还会知道？那个缺失了纽扣的瓶绿色人造革沙发？罐装桃子和康乃馨牛奶？

将会有一个持续细雨的下午。你将照看隔壁那个女孩，你最终会忘记她的名字。爱哭的小东西。肮脏的粉色发带，和一个被她叫做苏珊的玩偶。有人会俯身向你伸出手，承诺把你拉起来，带你离开这沉闷的生活。这就像是在海上漂流数月后，一艘救生艇驶入视野。你的心会因为解脱而隐隐作痛。

但他们不是来救你的。他们是一头鲨鱼。他们闻到了你的血，正在周围盘旋。他们能感觉到你的伤口，那个你隐藏得如此深秘的伤口。他们将利用它来伤害你，控制你。

你将无法抗拒。你怎么可能抗拒？你从未掌控过自己的生活。而现在将是开始掌控的最艰难时刻。

所以，为我做这一件事。时机成熟时，查看楼梯下的橱柜。你会发现一个灰色的工具箱。密码是 190357。他的出生日期。你在底部会发现一样东西。把它交给一个你可以托付生命的人。

我知道这很难。但你比想象中更勇敢。

如果一切顺利，你和我将永远不会相遇。

繁忙的生活

那个醉汉。那个跳跃的男孩。那个顶着鸡冠发的推车人。铅笔屑。西洋菜。美耐明。全麦麸。长号。好奶酪。坏血。纯酒精。让阴囊紧缩的海水。大理石中心的一抹色彩。汽车尾气。雾茫茫的露水。旅馆洗手池里的散落阴毛。太妃糖。月岩。硝烟。编织物。旧肥皂里的棕色线条。往年的积雪。雨靴在新雪中发出的吱吱声。雪上加雪，雪上加雪。河冰的裂开声。柠檬的味道。看似沉睡的潮汐。凌晨三点悬浮在房间里的颗粒状光线。一支带有口红印的烟。精液。蓖麻油。泥土。你戴帽子的方式。闪电与雷鸣之间的间隙。月光。美好时光。布吉舞。手套。情趣用品。斑驳之物。最后一行字下方的空白页。

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小说

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

11

是的

我玩过火柴。我没有把手留在车内。我站在黄线前，且不在意间隙。我没有任何节制地消费。我在草地上行走，并在醉酒时驾驶。我抽烟。我喂鸟。我弯腰，奔跑，触碰，进入。我干扰他人，尤其是通过大声敲击玻璃。我从未吐露全部真相。在进入泳池前未能淋浴，我在跳水区抽烟、调情、投弹并表演杂技。我在受药物或酒精影响时操作重型机械。我与副驾驶吃同样的餐食，并在 10,000 英尺以下进行非必要交谈。我开除了导演并接替了该职位，但从未让我的工作扩张到填满所有可用时间。我用金银铸造偶像并向其顶礼膜拜。我没有遵守安息日，也没有孝敬父母。我既未将此人视为我合法结婚的丈夫，也未承诺尊重和服从。我犯了奸淫，作了伪证，并实施了偷窃。我地走开，带着我的爱走向城镇。我没有减速。我任由自己的车轮之声将我逼疯。我经过起点（GO）并领取了 £200。

我将不循规蹈矩。我将不保持冷静。我将不听从指令，并且我向上帝发誓，我绝不会让自己在日落之时沉沦。

菠萝

亲爱的卡特夫人

你现在应该已经听到消息了。我猜测公众在悲伤，而私下在庆祝。我也许是个怪物，但我绝非傻瓜。我希望塔克找到了尸体。请简短地发挥一下你那引以为傲的钢般坚强的意志。运气好的话，我会以足够的能量跳出，翻过玻璃房。但愿家里不需要吃从商店购买的进口菠萝。

我厌倦了毫无理由的哭泣，以及夜晚从湖中升起的黑暗。这是简短的回答。而四个世纪以来贵族之间互相搞在一起，则是长篇的回答。你可以整天站在这个基因库里，而你的袜子依然干得像骨头一样。

当然，这意味着庄园将交给那个精神失常的维里蒂，如果我去的地方还能观察这些事情的话，我会对此感到无比快意。我唯一的希望是，她能开着那辆大巴车冲出护栏，坠入深谷。

我会想念你做的烤大米布丁，以及你那些刻薄的贬低。

你的，

珀西瓦尔。

附言：霍尔拜因画作上的污迹正是你所认为的那样。

热传递 (HEAT TRANSFER)

人们常跟我说些事情。但这件事在我心中留下了极其深刻的印象。我们正从马拉加飞往盖特威克机场。我坐在一个名叫杰夫·帕尔默 (Jeff Palmer) 的人旁边，他在 BHG 热传递公司工作。我知道这一点是因为他的文件上写着。他不爱说话，这对我来说没关系。我正在读大卫·尼科尔斯 (David Nicholls) 的最新作品。

快到家时，机长通过广播说我们遇到了一点“小问题”。杰夫张开手指，将两只手平放在前方座椅的靠背上，仿佛在准备迎接冲击。我不怎么喜欢飞行，但有人比我更害怕，这反而让我感到安慰。

机长解释说，左翼下的起落架无法展开，因此我们的降落将比往常“更有趣”。这正是他的原话。“在他们清理跑道并准备好所有应急车辆时，我们将先在等待区盘旋几圈。与此同时，如果各位能将托盘桌收起，妥善放置所有散落的行李，并确保安全带已牢牢系好，我将不胜感激。”

杰夫的手抖得太厉害，无法完成这些动作，于是我和一名乘务员帮他做了。乘务员对杰夫说：“我们绝对没事的”，但她的声音在颤抖，连我都能听出来。

她离开后，他开始哭泣。我触碰了他的手臂。他抓住了我的手。“我有件事必须告诉你。” “没问题。”

“我结婚了，有三个孩子。”他说话很困难。“但我一生都爱着男人。我深陷其中。一次又一次，一次又一次。但我对此毫无作为。我是一个胆小鬼，一个骗子。”

我握紧了他的手。他将另一只手从前方的座椅上拿开，靠在头枕上，深深地长舒了一口气。我看向窗外，看到蓝色闪烁的警灯开始聚集。我们开始最终进场。

右轮触地，左翼下沉并啃入混凝土，迸发出像橙色孔雀般巨大的火花，我们向侧方滑入草地，向前倾斜，然后突然地停止。机门弹开，滑梯像蝴蝶的舌头一样展开。人们在震惊中开始解开安全带，向出口攀爬。

杰夫转过头看着我说：“噢，操”，直到现在我仍不清楚，他是因为再也无法掩盖心中的秘密，还是因为他必须回到那个伪装的生活之中。

马克·哈顿 (Mark Haddon) 的插图（装裱板上的丙烯画）是在作者位于牛津的家中为《观察家报》创作的。

沉睡之乡 (SLUMBERDOWN)

那并不完全是一座树屋，更像是一个悬在花园尽头四棵紧挨着的白蜡树干之间的平台。没有墙壁，没有屋顶。高度也并不怎么高。肯定不超过 6 英尺，因为我们踮起脚尖就能用手指触碰到它。但我们使用一把摇摇晃晃的、像海盗一样的一把绳梯爬上去；虽然在那上面时我们并没有与外界隔绝，但那里是跳到旧床垫上的绝佳场所——那是父母买新床时赠送给我们的。

或许是因为它是一张床垫，而床垫正是那个定期将我们运送过一天尽头之边界的载体？有时，当夏日的酷热或初暮时分那如糖浆般浓稠的光线削弱了世界的掌控力，我会跳向空中，而下方那个带有条纹、扣子且丰满的矩形床垫就会化为一个门户，让我从中坠入那潜藏在万物与众人之下的无尽、柔软的黑暗中。穿过由电线、管道和通道组成的“猫之摇篮”，那里承载着电能、天然气、排泄物以及浑浊多泡沫的洗澡水。穿过由碎半砖、弯曲钉子以及黑白地砖组成的星云，那是我们的祖辈曾抽烟斗并玩纸牌游戏 (cribbage) 的房屋。经过在幽灵之木船中漂浮的骸骨。经过生锈的马镫和丢失硬币那遥远的月光。古老火坑的烟灰与烟熏味。洞穴熊的下颌骨。一把手斧。再深入，穿过暴君蜥蜴的坟场，经过蕨类植物的印迹和石质三叶虫——那些生活在冰箱下的小细腿鼠类之曾曾祖辈。硅酸盐、玄武岩、铁镍。随着地下每经过一弗隆 (furlong) 持续的低鸣，地面逐渐升温。接着，起初很微弱，几乎不可闻，但随后慢慢增强，那是地球炽热心脏的熔炉中，岩浆翻滚的低沉轰鸣。

我的哥哥不同。我是大地的生物，而他是天空的生物。正是那种在坡道上高速飞驰的快感，将他从平凡的枷锁中解脱出来。他在杂草丛生的草坪远角，骑着他那香蕉黄色的 Raleigh Super Bomber 自行车加速，拼命蹬车，直到前轮撞上我们抵在旧油桶上的木板。然后，如果他能保持冷静并正确操纵方向，他就会从木板顶端飞起，翱翔，一直翱航，直到我们的整个生活在他的车把下方，变成了一张微小的地图。

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

封面故事

明信片来自

曾经繁荣的格雷特雅茅斯镇（Great Yarmouth）是否真的接受了其国会议员鲁珀特·洛（Rupert Lowe）的反移民世界观？迈尔斯·埃灵汉姆（Miles Ellingham）前往乔伊兰（Joyland）的海滨家园一探究竟。

我试图理解人们为何投票给鲁珀特·洛的尝试，始于诺里奇的郡政厅，伴随着记者们在内心深处最恐惧的三句话：“议员们，早上好。”

洛在 2025 年因被指控在职场欺凌而离开了英国改革党（Reform UK）。随后，他成立了自己的政党——恢复英国党（Restore Britain）。改革党通过将自己塑造为工党的中右翼替代方案，已经在部分选民中消耗了政治资本，而恢复党则为那些认为奈杰尔·法拉奇（Nigel Farage）在追求权力过程中有所妥协的人，提供了毫无掩饰的族群民族主义。

在其网站上，恢复党承诺将遣返高达两百万人。它还誓言要废除避难体系、遗产税、离职薪酬规则、软管禁令以及小企业的营业税。洛的姿态赢得了美国右翼人士的赞赏，包括埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）和乔·罗根（Joe Rogan），后者最近邀请洛参加了他的播客。在该集节目中，洛在哀叹失去父亲的手枪时，将邓布莱恩（Dunblane）大屠杀错误地描述为“一起谋杀”——该视频在 YouTube 上已被观看近三百万次。

无论恢复党的目标是否可以实现，该党在议会层面上实际上还没有取得任何选举成功。到目前为止，洛是该党唯一的国会议员，且他是 2024 年以改革党候选人身份当选的。然而，在恢复英国党在选举委员会注册之前的 18 天，洛注册了另一个名为“格雷特雅茅斯优先”（Great Yarmouth First, GYF）的政党。

这个政党的长期抱负定义模糊。在成立后，它的选择要么是在区议会选举中派遣候选人，将其权力限制在休闲中心和垃圾收集方面；要么竞选郡议会，除非成立“诺里奇优先”和“金斯林优先”的分支机构，否则这意味着将长期处于少数派地位。尽管如此，GYF 选择了后者，并赢得了其参选的所有九个选区——不出所料，全部位于格雷特雅茅斯境内。今天该党举行第二次委员会会议。

截至 2026, 5月，诺里奇郡议会由改革党控制，其 39 名议员与 GYF 共同构成了有效多数。反对党包括 13 名自由民主党人、12 名绿党人、九名保守党人、一名独立人士和一名孤独的工党代表。在处理完初步的行政杂务后，改革党领袖大卫·比克（David Bick）大约用了 30 秒就开始谈论移民问题。

比克非常担心内政部的一项拟议计划，即在萨福克郡（Suffolk）与诺福克郡（Norfolk）交界处的巴纳姆（Barnham）一个前国防部旧址安置无证移民。“这个工党政府在移民问题上的失败，”他声明道，“现在威胁要成为我们家门口的现实。当地家庭……完全有理由感到非常担忧和愤怒……我们将继续向内政部施压，直到它放弃这个疯狂的想法。”

听到这里，GYF 领袖乔·韦登（Jon Wedon）提出了一个问题：

“我将全力支持改革党采取的行动……如果有什么我们可以支持的，请告知我们。”

“主席，提出议事程序异议，”一名绿党议员插话道：“那里根本没有问题。”

“我的问题是，”韦登匆忙重复道，“如果有什么我们可以做的，请告知我们。”

会议在类似的荒诞与刻薄中继续进行。在某个时刻，比克被问到近期热浪对生物多样性、基础设施和人类健康的影响。他并不太担心：“今年夏天的异常高温几乎镜像了 50 年前 1976 年的夏季气温……而且显然，在那之前，我们还经历过冰河时代。” 这引起了房间内一半人的大声呻吟。十分钟后，改革党被指控以虚高薪水的形式支付“危险津贴”。

到了休息时间，我发现 GYF 那帮人正步调一致地穿过大厅，简直就像是让大卫·布伦特执导的《落水狗》里的帮派分子。他们并不想跟我说话。我差一点就采访到了

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封面故事

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

13

政治边缘

Wedon 此时陷入恐慌，试图逃离：“我得走了，因为鲁珀特要给我们打电话了！”

然而，在惊慌中，他把议员史蒂夫·格里默（Steve Grimmer）给丢下了。格里默看起来像个精疲力竭的米克·贾格尔（Mick Jagger），以前是做定制厨房的。我截住他，询问 GYF 是如何成立的。

“抱歉，这是我第一次参加议会会议……我错过了[上次]会议，因为我预订了假期，所以这一切对我来说都是全新的。”

为什么要采取超局部化（hyperlocal）的目标？为什么不直接作为 Restore 党的议员参选？

“因为‘大雅茅斯优先’（Great Yarmouth First）不可能在全国范围内参选，不是吗？所以 Restore 现在是一个全国性政党。”格里默表示，不太可能看到像“诺里奇优先”或“伊普斯威奇优先”这样的衍生组织。这一切让该党看起来更像是一次疏忽，而非一项经过深思熟虑的战略。格里默的一位同事突然出现，示意他离开，挑起的眉毛仿佛在说着“闭上你的嘴”。

我问 Restore 党通过与 Reform 党竞争是否会妨碍后者的机会。格里默开始

（从左至右：乔兰游乐园；不列颠尼亚码头的彩旗；英国最后一座幸存的滨海大道玻璃房；乔兰珍贵的蜗牛骑行项目。）

摄影：哈里·米切尔（Harry Mitchell）

缓缓后退。我试图要他的电话号码，但没用；他发出了一声微弱的“我得走了”，然后消失在围栏之后。

我意识到这就是我能从 GYF 这里得到的全部信息。也许这个城镇本身会提供更多线索。

大雅茅斯在大约 1,000 年前的萨克逊时期从海洋中崛起。如果生态学家和气候科学家的判断正确，它将在短短几代人之内重新回归大海。“去工业化”是在研究这个城镇时经常读到的词，大多与商业捕鱼有关，但这并未讲述完整的故事。

“租金”可能是个更相关的词；私人租赁部门占大雅茅斯住房存量的 20% 以上（高于 2001 年的 8%）。正如诗人洛特·LS（Lotte LS）在她的书《椋鸟经济学》（An Economy of Starlings）中指出的，其中很大一部分是多人出租房（HMOs），这些房屋通常缺乏合适的暖气且到处是潮湿。根据书中的记载，大雅茅斯大约每 50 人就有一处 HMO。

另一个词可能是“不稳定”。在大雅茅斯，一年中有一半的时间，工作会随着旅游业的消失而消失。这里人口老龄化严重，当地失业率明显高于诺福克郡以及整个英格兰。该自治市的几个地区属于全国最贫困的地区之列。在 2022, 一份议会报告指出，“大雅茅斯 10 和 11 年级的学龄儿童中，有超过三分之一被认定为 RONI（NEET 风险指标——即他们面临不再接受教育、就业或培训的风险）”。

情况并非一直如此。你依然可以在醒目的红砖建筑和目前正在修复的英国最后一座幸存的滨海大道玻璃房中看到它维多利亚时代鼎盛时期的残余。那时，雅茅斯是全球最大的鲱鱼港，也是数千名度假者每夏沿着新修的铁路线涌入的流行胜地。查尔斯·狄更斯曾入住星级酒店（Star hotel，现已封板），霍拉肖·纳尔逊（Horatio Nelson）也曾入住。

阳光下的海滩依然辽阔美丽，以至于雅茅斯今年成功入围了英国文化之城（UK town of culture）的候选名单。这里依然有驴子骑行，人们在野餐毯上慵懒地躺着，但尽管摄政路（Regent Road）上那些出人意料地美味的 £1 汉堡依然存在，这里已不再是 1960 年代和 1970 年代跟团度假热潮之前的样子。洛特·LS 写道，在 2019, 这个城镇登上了头条：“当时一些参加‘惊喜目的地’欧洲游轮之旅的乘客，在意识到惊喜目的地是……雅茅斯之后，拒绝下船”。

大雅茅斯（Great Yarmouth）确实有移民，但未必是洛（Lowe）倾向于唤起的那种。镇上有一个庞大的讲葡萄牙语的群体。他们在21世纪初来到这里工作，为伯纳德·马修斯食品公司（Bernard Matthews Foods）生产土耳其卷肉肠（Turkey Twizzlers）。该公司总部位于沿路 45 分钟车程外的格雷特威钦厄姆（Great Witchingham），已于两年前关闭。

接第 14 页

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封面故事

接第 13 页

但葡萄牙人留了下来，他们的餐厅提供 £12 一升的壶装葡萄酒。这里还有许多在 20 世纪 70 年代内战后逃离的塞浦路斯希腊人。其中一名塞浦路斯人就在商业街经营一家唱片店，向路人播放着忧郁的美国音乐。

这里也有代表这座城镇的本地标志。最明显的是蜗牛。当地人与蜗牛之间有一种奇怪的爱恨关系。开车进入雅茅斯的驾驶员得感谢蜗牛，因为他们得在 Acle Straight 路上以软体动物的速度缓慢前行，这条单车道是该镇向西离开的唯一通道。这里原生的、受国家保护的小涡卷蜗牛，导致该路段的扩建工程被延迟了多年。

镇上最珍贵的景点可能是 Joyland 的蜗牛游乐设施，这是一个于 1949. 年开业的游乐园。GYF 领导人 Wedon 青少年时期曾在夏天在此工作。上个月宣布安·威德科姆（Ann Widdecombe）去世时，洛发布了一张他们两人坐在蜗牛车厢里的照片以缅怀她。这是一张奇怪的照片；如果你仔细看，可以看到洛完美地模仿了一种张口大笑的夸张表情，这种表情他只能从法拉吉（Farage）那里学到。

Joyland 的蜗牛也带着一种略显噩梦般的微笑。它们是由霍拉斯·科尔（Horace Cole）设计的，他经营着一家名为 H Cole and Co 的工程公司，现名为 Coles Steel Fabricators。公园的所有权一直留在家族中，目前由科尔的孙子迈克尔（Michael）监管，他是个实实在在的人。他戴着全包围太阳镜，享受着夏季的繁荣。他对洛怎么看？

“他似乎把镇上的利益放在心上，”迈克尔告诉我，“他在关注道路的损坏和坑洼……并试图推动事情地进展。”根据迈克尔的说法，大雅茅斯面临着与每个海滨城镇相同的问题：主要是移民和季节性就业的困境，这与法拉吉在沿海 80 英里外的克莱克顿（Clacton）竞选成功时所利用的一系列担忧相似，他也希望这在两周后的补选中能再次奏效。然而，迈克尔急于向我强调，只要人们愿意工作，他就会雇佣他们。本着这种精神，他花费大量时间试图让那些沉溺于手机的青少年去与 Joyland 的游客交流。

Restore（动词）：使某物或某人恢复到之前的良好状态或位置。在大雅茅斯，由 AI 图像生成器幻想出的卡通十字军，与人们阳台上悬挂旗帜上的狮子混在一起。我交谈过的人一次又一次地提到某个“当年”失落的金子时代，那时我们还没有忘掉自我，还没有停止体面。

从上到下：海滩上的驴子；拼写错误的口号；不列颠码头的娱乐项目。

在市中心，我被一座房子吸引，花园里撑起的大板子上覆盖着红色织物。门上方是一个巨大的木牌，上面画着圣乔治十字旗，并附有一条警告路人的信息，称他们面临失去身份和国家的风险。我按了门铃，一名戴着白色圣乔治旗品牌渔夫帽的老年男子在狗吠声中出现。他叫卡尔·巴伦（Carl Barron）。我并不真的想暗示巴伦能代表大雅茅斯。但他就住在那里。

巴伦告诉我他不喜欢委员会，部分原因是委员会正在使用紫外线辐射来杀死蝙蝠

成为首相。巴伦在描述一个极右翼民粹主义政府能为他带来什么时说：“它会回归，而不是前进。每个人都说前进是好事。其实不然。前进可能是糟糕的。而且我认为我们前进的速度太快了，这很糟糕。它是一个破坏者。”

那天深夜，在从未真正抵达大海的不列颠码头（Britannia Pier）上，可以听到木栈道下方的某个黑暗之处传来了可怕的高频哀嚎和抽泣声。那是某个失去了至关重要之物的人发出的声音。

次日，故事始于一个由一位名叫达伦·惠勒（Darren Wheeler）的非凡男子及其妻子劳拉（Laura）在自家前花园经营的食物银行。惠勒曾是一名景观园艺师，具有鲜明的社区意识。他经营着一个 Facebook 页面，向其 44,000 名成员更新职位空缺、丢失的猫和交通堵塞等信息。他还为无家可归者和贫困人群组织圣诞活动。由于惠勒在扮演圣诞老人时与每个孩子交谈时间太长，他不得不为此实施预约制。惠勒夫妇说，他们之所以这么做，是因为他们深知除了一个饥饿的孩子家庭之外一无所有的滋味。

达伦·惠勒投票给了洛（Lowe）。我觉得这很奇怪，因为洛希望让某些人（用他网站上的话来说是“逃避者”）更难领取福利，这可能会导致更多人求助于惠勒的食物银行。“是的，我认为他不应该来到英格兰最贫困的地区之一，坐在那里说[他]将削减福利，”惠勒说。但他解释说，他被迫投票给洛，是因为洛言出必行，而且，惠勒热爱“文化”。

他所说的文化是指什么？ “你知道的，我们的天鹅，白金汉宫的卫兵……[人们]不懂，”他说。“他们会坐在那里[问]那个骑在马上的家伙有什么意义……他已经在马背上坐了 300 年了！”惠勒对在当地杀掉并食用天鹅的“外国人”感到尤为愤怒。除了 2023 年一次被广泛怀疑是狗袭击的事件外，我找不到任何关于天鹅被杀的记录。

看到善良的人们被社会性怨恨政治所驱动，这令人感到沮丧。

人们问那个骑马的家伙有什么意义……他已经在马背上坐了 300 年了！

他房子后面树上的那个巢穴。巴伦解释说，他花园里的红色织物可以防止紫外线穿透房屋。“它能保护蝙蝠，”他说，“我知道这听起来很疯狂。”

他喜欢洛，但他对法拉奇的前景更感到兴奋

媒体煽动的传闻。对于卡尔·史密斯来说，这尤其令人沮丧，他是一位保守党议员，最近被 GYF 击败，目前领导着区议会。我们在市政厅见面。史密斯身旁的地面上放着一个胜利号 (HMS Victory) 的模型。他说，他为格雷特雅茅斯的人民努力工作，但没有任何成果能被人们注意到。

“他们没有意识到我们交付了什么。我们交付了一座新桥。我们交付了价值 3 亿英镑 的公共投资。此外，除此之外，还有所有的私人投资。但人们似乎只想谈论移民问题。”我转述了惠勒关于天鹅的抱怨。

“纯属胡扯，”史密斯说。“但这就像传话游戏，不是吗？而社交媒体传播了我们目前生活在这种文化之中。”

诺福克郡蕴藏着财富，它是英国经济的净贡献区，地理位置极其适合深海港口、海上风电以及石油和天然气。距离海岸 75 英里 (120km) 的 Ørsted Hornsea 3 海上风电场预计将于 2027 年完工，并有望成为世界最大。但当你被“强奸团伙”和“所谓的寻求庇护者”围攻时，所有这些都变得不重要了。

距离市政厅仅几分钟路程就是格雷特雅茅斯大教堂，这是一座可以追溯到亨利一世统治时期的教堂。我想询问该镇的教会当局如何看待洛，洛是一名信徒，并热衷于将他的政党定位为捍卫英国基督徒的政党。但利兹·道斯牧师不愿与我交谈。

“这里是雅茅斯，”她说。“情况很复杂……政治……”我没能听到这句话的结尾。

“我说得太多了……”她一边说，一边快速走开。

我去寻找乐观主义。在购物中心里，一个名叫卡武斯·克莱顿的平静且深思熟虑的男人共同经营着一个名为 Originalprojects 的由艺术家主导的组织。克莱顿对格雷特雅茅斯有很多好评，涉及其建筑、采集机会以及廉价葡萄牙葡萄酒的供应。

那很好，但我想找个年轻人谈谈，一个对生活充满期待的人。在不列颠码头的顶端，经过游戏厅和那些在家庭度假中显得无聊的青少年，我找到了蒂亚娜，一个在代币亭工作的、活泼的 17 岁女孩。蒂亚娜在雅茅斯长大。她一直住在这里。我想知道那是怎样的体验。

“太糟糕了，”她说。“我不撒谎——太糟糕了。雅茅斯的人很可怕。”她突然大笑起来。“他们就是粗鲁，”她继续说道，“简直是刻薄，完全没礼貌，尤其是作为年轻人；雅茅斯的男孩们很可怕。”根据蒂亚娜的说法，他们大多在圣乔治公园闲逛并抽大麻。

蒂亚娜听说过洛，根据她的朋友们的说法，她不喜欢他。她很快将开始大学第二年的学习，主修健康与社会护理以及心理学。但更重要的是，她刚刚拿到了驾照，希望能很快攒够钱买一辆车。

她的计划是尽快出发，穿过平坦的宽阔地带向西前往诺维奇，然后去一个遥远的地方，比如她姨妈居住的剑桥，在她身后留下一串被碾碎的蜗牛痕迹。

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科学与技术

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

15

社交者

约翰·诺顿

硅谷将 AI 视为解决方案。而对于其他人来说，它正是问题所在

为什么科技巨头们似乎与现实世界如此脱节？

例如，Anthropic 联合创始人 Dario Amodei 表示，几年内 AI 可能会抹除一半的入门级工作，但同时预测同一时期的癌症死亡率和发病率将降低 95%。或者埃隆·马斯克在滔滔不绝地谈论 AI 将如何使工作变为“可选”。

这些人为什么在说这种胡话？仅仅是对世界的无知吗？还是因为那些富可想象的人周围围绕着一种“现实扭曲场”，而这种傲慢由此而生；他们生活在一个没人敢于反对他们的区域，结果导致他们认为自己是天才？

答案是：两者兼有，但主要原因是他们绝大多数是来自狭隘 STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）背景的男性，并被困在一种被技术作家 Evgeny Morozov 称为“解决方案主义”（solutionism）的特定思维模式中。

这是一种意识形态，它将政治、公共卫生、教育和执法等复杂的社会现象重新定义为“定义明确且具有确定、可计算解决方案的问题”，或者定义为“只要有正确的算法，就可以轻松优化且透明且显而易见的过程”！

解决方案主义在硅谷成立之初就根深蒂固，而 AI 的到来极大地加速了这一进程。我们被告知，这项技术将使我们能够解决气候危机、消除癌症、提高生产力、使国内生产总值翻两番、改变教育等等。简而言之，AI 将改变世界。

这自然会让你好奇，科技行业所设想的这个被改变后的世界会是什么样子。时间点恰到好处，以研究收入分配和不平等而闻名的经济学家 Branko Milanović 为我们提供了一幅硅谷所设想的这个“勇敢新涅槃”的轮廓草图。

Milanović 认为，不受限制地部署 AI 将创建一个高度分层的社会，分为四个社会阶级。在最底层的是他所谓的“过剩人口”；例如，那些技能被 AI 淘汰的人，无论是永久性被淘汰，还是需要花费数年时间重新培训的人。硅谷将这些人视为几乎没有或完全没有工业价值的人类。

Milanović 认为，如果这一群体达到劳动力人口的 15% 到 20%，它可能会在政治上具有爆炸性，需要通过现代版的“面包与马戏”（终身失业救济金，加上 24 / 7 全天候的低成本流媒体娱乐，也许吧？）来使其保持“安静且温顺”。

然后将是一个“服务业工人阶级”，由那些尚未被 AI 取代的人组成，他们拿着低到中等的工资勉强生活，并时刻面临着被挤入过剩人口阶层的威胁。

在他们之上的是 Milanović 所谓的“同富阶层”（homoploutic class）；这些人同时处于资本所有者前 10% 和薪资获得者前 10% 的行列（目前约占美国人口的 3%）。可以将他们视为“专业人士”：律师、外科医生、牙医、公司高管、《金融时报》和《经济学人》的读者。他认为 AI 可能会增加这一群体的规模，因为其高额的劳动加资本收入使其能够继续投资于新经济中利润最丰厚的部门。

最后，在这个分层金字塔的最顶端，Milanović 的模型设想了一个由科技领主组成的的新贵族：一个由数千人组成的极度富有的精英阶层（而不仅仅是我们现在拥有的 0.001%），他们拥有技术本身并挥舞着巨大的政治影响力。

这个模型揭示的一点是，它产生了对硅谷关于人工智能幻想的逻辑推演。它表明，马斯克最近向《经济学人》那困惑的主编赞尼·明顿-贝多斯（Zanny Minton Beddoes）描述的由人工智能驱动的富足与闲暇愿景，结果反而导致了一个长期不平等且政治不稳定的社会。这是一个并非由恶意人工智能创造的反乌托邦，而是由其经济收益被分享（以及未被分享）的方式所创造的。

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16

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

报道

一天我还在为阿斯玛·阿尔-萨德演唱，第二天我就进了监狱

叙利亚假声男高音拉泽克·弗朗索瓦·比塔尔 (Razek François Bitar) 曾获得该国第一夫人的接见——以及她的青睐。但他随后的遭遇揭示了她文化野心的阴暗面。作者：克洛伊·哈吉马修 (Chloe Hadjimatheou)

那个电话出乎意料。那是 2006 年，在意大利站稳脚跟的歌剧演唱者拉泽克·弗朗索瓦·比塔尔正在访问他的故乡叙利亚。他的回国引起了一些当地媒体的兴趣，但他没料到会收到来自宫殿的联系。电话里的男人只告诉他，总统巴沙尔·阿尔-萨德 (Bashar al-Assad) 想见他。

到了见面当天，他被告知在等待他的是第一夫人阿斯玛·阿尔-萨德 (Asma al-Assad)。坐在接送他的汽车后座时，比塔尔内心忐忑不安。他不清楚自己被传唤的原因。

“我知道这次会面可能与我的职业有关，但我当时在想：‘你永远不知道——也许他们掌握了什么情况，’”他回忆道。

我正通过视频通话与身在柏林公寓的比塔尔交谈。他是一名同性恋者，48 岁，蓄着整洁的短胡须，留着时尚的鲻鱼头，一只耳朵上垂着一颗长水晶。

在回忆 20 年前的事情时，他变得情绪激动。尽管叙利亚这位年轻且受过西方教育的总统及其在伦敦出生的妻子承诺要改革并放宽对国家的管控，但那里依然是一个极度压制、多疑的警察国家。十几个不同的情报机构掌控着一个庞大的线人网络；任何被解读为批评总统或其政权的轻率言论，都可能导致被捕和酷刑。

虽然他本人没有参与过任何反对活动，但比塔尔的家人多年来一直秘密反对该政权，因此当那辆轿车向人民宫的山上驶去时，他禁不住感到紧张。

抵达后，比塔尔被引导通过一扇巨大的门，“进入一个巨大的沙龙——令人震撼”，他回忆道。他独自站在那里，打量着极简主义的雕花木家具，随后另一扇门打开，第一夫人走了进来。

“她非常优雅，”他说，“她与我握手，邀请我坐在她身边的沙发上。”

那时，阿斯玛仍在塑造一个令西方大部分地区着迷的形象：一位受过伦敦教育、有文化的前投资银行家，她被拿来与戴安娜王妃相比，并成为了一个所谓的“正在改革的叙利亚”的象征。

我花了数月时间追踪她的个人故事，以及关于她参与其丈夫政权涉嫌战争罪行的指控，旨在为《观察家报》和 Tortoise Investigates 制作一个新的播客系列：《我们叫她艾玛》。

阿斯玛听说了叙利亚的第一位假声男高音，想了解她如何能更好地支持像他这样的艺术家。比塔尔从未想象过，在三年之内，他会被萨德政权监禁。

比塔尔在哈马 (Hama) 一个他称之为“中下阶级”的家庭中长大，这座城市大约位于大马士革和阿勒颇之间。他在三岁半时父亲死于癌症：那一年——1982 年——正值臭名昭著的哈马大屠杀。该市的一场伊斯兰主义起义遭到了毁灭性的回应：一场大规模的轰炸，随后是即决处决，估计导致 40,000 人死亡。

摄影：Natalia Kepesz

比塔尔当时年纪太小，不记得那场大屠杀，但他成长的环境充满了邻居们所遭受恐怖经历的故事。他的寡母在城里经营一家美发店。他说，在发卷和发胶的雾气笼罩下，“女士们会谈论她们的痛苦”。

在美发店里，与吹风机的轰鸣声和恐怖故事交织在一起的，是另一种格格不入的声音：欧洲古典音乐。比塔尔的母亲非常崇拜赫伯特·冯·卡拉扬（Herbert von Karajan），这位柏林爱乐乐团的著名指挥家，他的录音带在美发店角落的卡式录音机中播放。

后来，全家从哈马搬到了阿勒颇。尽管身为单亲家长经济拮据，比塔尔的母亲还是设法让孩子们接受了音乐教育。她的幼子被证明是一位有天赋的钢琴手，在他 16 岁时，她带他去了大马士革高等音乐学院，那是叙利亚最负盛名的音乐学院。

“我们见了院长，我告诉他我多么想学习音乐，但他却说：‘我们不需要钢琴手，’”比塔尔说。他们失望而归。几个月后，他的母亲建议他回去询问是否可以作为歌剧演员入学。“我全家人都觉得我母亲疯了，”他笑着说，“但她相信我。”

当比塔尔向声乐系主任报到时，那位教授感到很惊讶：“她告诉我，我拥有一种罕见的声音。”高中毕业后，他立即被该学院录取。

比塔尔的家庭负担不起他的学费，但阿勒颇社区里的基督徒们团结起来给予了帮助。“我甚至没有钱租房，所以在第三年，我住在大马士革方济各会修道院的一个房间里。”

毕业后，比塔尔前往意大利，在热那亚的帕加尼尼音乐学院获得了学位，随后在罗马备受推崇的圣塞西莉亚国家学院（世界上最古老的音乐机构之一）学习。之后，他开始在欧洲各地的歌剧院、俄罗斯甚至里约热内卢进行演出。

在 2006 年那次回到阿勒颇的访问中，他引起了法国驻叙利亚大使的注意，大使邀请他在家中举行的一场私人音乐会上演出，多名政权高层出席了该活动。消息传得很快，叙利亚电视台寻求对他进行采访，报纸也开始报道这位作为著名艺术家回归故里的非凡歌手。

不久之后，总统府发来了邀请。当阿斯玛在 2000 年初到达大马士革时，她嫁入的那个家庭面临着严重的形象问题。由她的公公哈菲兹·阿萨德领导的政权与压制、军事统治以及 1982 年在哈马发生的大屠杀联系在一起。在她搬到叙利亚几个月后，公公去世，巴沙尔·阿萨德接掌大权。他似乎提供了某种不同的东西，而他的新婚妻子则帮助他巩固了改革者的形象。

这位第一夫人拥有无可挑剔的风格和金融背景，在公众场合表现活跃，主持各种文化和商业活动。她聘请昂贵的公关公司，帮助自己塑造一个与其他中东统治者妻子截然不同的形象。

2004 年，阿斯玛协助组织了大马士革新歌剧院的落成典礼，该剧院在烟花的环绕下开幕，伴随着

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1,000 多名叙利亚的精英和权势人物在场，观看叙利亚及国际艺术家的演出。

在 21 世纪初，西方日益认为，参与——而非孤立——才能鼓励独裁国家进行改革。演员、管弦乐团、博物馆和艺术节越来越多地将自己视为对话的参与者，而非政治的参与者。阿斯玛非常精准地把握住了这种直觉。她在新工党推行“酷不列塔尼亚”（Cool Britannia）运动期间在伦敦长大，当时创意产业被邀请前往唐宁街参加超越政治的会议，将该国宣传为文化强国。

一位不愿透露姓名的前叙利亚政治家说：“阿斯玛在为该政权美化。”他补充道：“她和她的丈夫痴迷于向西方呈现这样一种形象——即我们与你们站在一起，我们是西方的一部分。”据这位前政治家称，在叙利亚大马士革被评为阿拉伯文化之都的那一年，由阿斯玛领导的文化部在一年内就花费了 $200m。“想象一下，用 $200 可以在那时为叙利亚社会做多少事情。”

对于像比塔尔这样在欧洲歌剧院锻造其职业生涯的歌手来说，阿斯玛的认可让他觉得自己回到了家。“我们有相当长的时间交谈。她向我征求关于如何改善教育的建议。我建议在其他城市开设更多的音乐学院，”他回忆道。

随后她问是否有什么她能为他做的。比塔尔告诉她，过去几年他一直享受在意大利这个自由民主社会的生活。“我告诉她，我很遗憾叙利亚没有这样的环境。于是我非常直接地问她：‘您在某个时刻，是否会给叙利亚人更多的自由和更多的人权？’”

回想起来，比塔尔承认对独裁者的妻子说这样的话极其冒险。“当她听到我问这个问题时，她睁大了眼睛——她没想到我会问这个，”比塔尔说。

她的回答从此一直留在他的记忆中。“她告诉我，大多数叙利亚人不理解文化，不配拥有那些自由。”他震惊了。“我说：‘但我就是那些人中的一员。难道我不配拥有自由吗？难道我不配拥有人权吗？’”

阿斯玛不再深入讨论，将话题转向她正在组织的文化活动。次年，比塔尔与叙利亚国家交响乐团一同为她演出，演唱了韩德尔歌剧《尤利乌斯·凯撒》中的咏叹调以及马勒《儿童歌曲集》中的一首歌。

直到 2008, 他才再次收到她的消息，当时她的助手打电话告诉他，第一夫人正在罗马，想在广场大酒店（Grand Hotel Plaza）的酒吧与他见面。

扫描二维码聆听关于阿斯玛·亚萨德的播客：《我们叫她艾玛》（We call her Emma）。

2023. 年，拉泽克·弗朗索瓦·比塔尔与米尔娜·卡西斯在意大利拉文纳艺术节。Fabrizio Levi Fotopolis

阿斯玛再次询问他是否需要什么。这一次，他提出了请求：“请帮我免除兵役。”

当时 30 岁的比塔尔因为住在国外而得以避开军队，但他担心很快会被迫执行为期 21 个月的强制兵役。

比塔尔说，恐同情绪在叙利亚社会中十分猖獗：“因为我的样子不同，说话方式也不同，所以遭受了大量的欺凌。”他知道在军队里情况会更糟：“我是一个和平的人，”他告诉她，“我永远不会将武器指向另一个人类。”

她同意年复一年地推迟他的服役义务。比塔尔意识到自己正受益于 “uasta”——这是一个术语，指在亚萨德统治下的叙利亚中，决定机会获取路径的非正式关系网和庇护网络。

阿斯玛提供给他的这种 “uasta” 使他得以逃避兵役，而对于一名同性恋歌剧演员来说，那毫无疑问将是一次创伤性经历。

一年后，比塔尔将再次需要第一夫人的帮助。

这位歌手表示，他一直知道“自己喜欢谁，不喜欢谁”，但在 20 世纪 80 年代和 90 年代的叙利亚长大时，并没有参考标准。直到他在大马士革学院就读最后一年，21 岁时，一名朋友向他解释，他所拥有的这种感觉意味着他是同性恋。“在那之前，我并不知道这个词，”他说道。

在罗马，他在性取向方面可以自由得多。他忘记了在叙利亚成为同性恋的危险。随后，在 2009 年访问阿勒颇期间，他在网上结识了一名男子。两人共度了一夜，但次日早晨，Bitar 发现自己被抢了；那个人带着他的笔记本电脑、手机和钱包失踪了。

现在回想起来，他说决定举报这次盗窃极其天真。那名男子被抓住了，但为了避免因盗窃而面临更长的刑期，他编造了一个故事，称失踪的财物是“以性服务换取的礼物”。在叙利亚，同性恋行为是违法的，但其刑期比盗窃罪要轻。

Bitar 的名气让他曾在短时间内感到无往不利。就在几天前，他还参加了热门的广播早餐节目《早安叙利亚》。“我当时在向全国讲话，受到了荣誉和尊重。但就在那之后恰好一周，我就在牢房里了，”他回忆道。

他被判处三个月监禁。这次经历具有毁灭性：“一切都被切断了。我被抛弃了，只能听天由命。”

在此之前，那是 Bitar 迄今为止最成功的一年；他刚刚签署了四份在瑞士、法国、波兰演唱歌剧的新合同，而且——他最兴奋的一份——是在某处担任主角

如果你杀了人，他们还能帮你。但如果是同性恋，所有人都会转过脸去

位于伦敦科文特花园的皇家歌剧院。

比塔尔此时身处的一间囚室肮脏不堪且拥挤不堪，里面挤了 40 多名囚犯。他睡在地上，且经常处于饥饿状态。

作为囚室里唯一的基督徒，比塔尔说他被当作“异教徒”对待，并且必须生活在一种恐惧之中，担心其他囚犯会发现他被监禁的原因。那时，他的思绪回到了阿斯玛以及她过去提供给他的乌斯塔（uasta）上。他利用在监狱中打电话的机会尝试提醒她自己的处境，希望她能为他出面干预。

“我请求朋友帮我联系她，因为我当时非常绝望，”他说。但他们警告他，即使尝试也没有意义。“如果你杀了 100 个人，他们还能帮你。但如果是同性恋，所有人都会转过脸去；这是世界上最严重的罪行——是任何人都不愿触碰的耻辱。”

在监狱中度过六周后，比塔尔的母亲支付了一笔贿赂以确保他被释放：100,000 叙利亚镑，这在当时是一笔巨款，相当于当地好几个月的平均工资。他立即离开了叙利亚，并且再也没有回去。

这几周的监禁改变了比塔尔的人生轨迹。他已经与所有职业联系人失去了数周的联系，无法向他们解释自己的突然失踪。随后，他的经纪人与他断绝了关系，所有与他签署合同的机构也同样如此。

“在 2010 年，我的事业不仅没有飞黄腾达，反而一欧元都没赚到，”比塔尔回忆道。

更糟糕的是心理代价，“它毁了我的事业，也击碎了我的灵魂。在随后的几年里，我经常做噩梦，梦见自己在叙利亚的街头奔跑，警察在后面追捕我。”

看到这件事对他母亲产生的影响，他也感到心碎。“在我入狱之前，她是快乐的，并为我感到自豪。之后，她变得消瘦而忧伤。她要求我不要告诉任何人——在叙利亚，有一个同性恋儿子是可耻的，她觉得我给她带来了耻辱，而我一直试图让她感到自豪。”

在出狱一年后，比塔尔从罗马搬到了柏林，希望能有一个新的开始，但他再也没能恢复他的专业歌唱事业。相反，他找到了一份声乐教师的工作。

在他搬去几个月后，“阿拉伯之春”在叙利亚爆发。那些要求与比塔尔向阿斯玛请求的相同自由的抗议者们成千上万地被逮捕，而另一些人则在街头被枪杀。

2011 年夏天，比塔尔接到了叙利亚驻罗马大使馆的电话：总统的一名代表正寻求聚集欧洲各地的叙利亚知识分子和艺术家，与阿萨德会面。当时，国际政府和媒体正开始批评其政权对抗议者采取的残酷镇压。

比塔尔觉得，这次会议“正是他们利用艺术家来粉饰太平的一个例子”。他拒绝参加。他说，他后来得知自己的名字被叙利亚安全部门列入了黑名单，这意味着他永远无法安全地回到家乡。

与此同时，他在阿勒颇的旧社区正遭受持续的轰炸，他所有的关注点和精力都转向了尝试组织家人的逃离。2014 年，他的姐姐抵达了柏林。他的母亲在 2016 年与他们汇合：自他出狱以来，他一直没见过她。

他在 18 岁时，母亲第一次问他是否是同性恋。当他确认之后，“她说：‘我知道你是个好人，无论如何我都会爱你。但我不想干涉你的私生活。’”他知道，当他被监禁的原因在邻里的流言蜚语中传开时，她感到极其羞愧。但现在他们一起住在柏林的公寓里，他决定事情必须改变。

“我想与自己以及与她达成和解，”他说，“所以我们经历了一个漫长的过程，谈论我们所有的过去。最后，我说：‘通过不对我的私生活进行任何干涉，你正将我从你的心中剔除——你难道不让我进去吗？’”

比塔尔说，在意识到同性恋在柏林已被社会接纳后，她的态度慢慢软化了。他的母亲现在 78 岁，她与儿子的关系比以往任何时候都要亲密。

当政权在 2024 年 12 月垮台时，比塔尔和他的家人聚集在一起，通过电视观看不断展开的局势。叙利亚的新政府关闭了那些臭名昭著的监狱，并挖掘出了亚萨德政权留下的万人坑，但尚未修改许多允许禁言和压制叙利亚人民的法律。而且，新政府的伊斯兰主义政治意味着，它对同性恋者的敌意可能比亚萨德政权更高。

比塔尔经常回想起他与阿斯玛的会面。那个信息——文化可以超越政治——虽然微妙但很有效。无论在叙利亚境内还是境外，许多人都想相信这一点。“我逐渐意识到，这个承诺是具有欺骗性的，”他说。

“阿斯玛试图利用像我这样的艺术家，特别是那些生活在西方的人，将其作为工具，为独裁政权打造一个优雅且现代的门面。艺术应当是生命中喜悦、戏剧性和希望的表达，而不是一种武器。”

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享受《城市肖像》(A Portrait of a City) 的 2 票 1 份优惠及更多福利

摄影

20 世纪的标志

戴安·阿巴斯 (Diane Arbus) 和加里·威诺格兰德 (Garry Winogrand) 的作品，是这场追溯美国城市景观演变展览中所包含的众多定义时代的图像之一。

Seán O'Hagan

城市肖像：一个世纪的美国摄影 (Portrait of a City: A Century of American Photography)

伦敦 SE21 杜尔维奇画廊 (Dulwich Picture Gallery)；展至 10 月 4 日

1929 年，美国摄影师贝丽妮丝·阿博特 (Berenice Abbott) 从巴黎回到纽约。此前她在巴黎生活了八年，并以才华横溢的肖像摄影师而闻名。她发现自己的故乡正处于快速转型的阵痛之中，于是以局外人的视角重新审视这座城市。不久之后，随着摩天大楼和巍峨的城市峡谷等新建筑改变并使曼哈顿天际线标志化，她在 1935 年至 1939 年间创作了她的史诗级纪录项目《变革中的纽约》(Changing New York)。

然而，甚至在回国之前，阿博特就意识到摄影是捕捉 20 世纪城市动态的完美媒介。“在今天，除了摄影师，谁还能希望为后代定格现代城市的形象？”她在 1928 年曾如此问道。

这个问题在伦敦南部的杜尔维奇画廊举办的《城市肖像：一个世纪的美国摄影》展中回响。事实上，这是一幅关于几座美国城市的肖像，从爱德华·斯泰肯 (Edward Steichen) 的现代主义纽约到多萝西娅·朗 (Dorothea Lange) 大萧条时期的旧金山，从威廉·艾格尔斯顿 (William Eggleston) 孟菲斯市中被放大的日常生活，到埃德·鲁沙 (Ed Ruscha) 洛杉矶那些空白而耐人寻味的街道。

因此，这是一个内容极其丰富的展览，旨在通过挪威储蓄银行基金会 (Savings Bank Foundation DNB) 令人印象深刻的收藏，追溯现代美国城市景观在宏伟、粗粝与匮乏等各方面的出现。整个展厅中点缀着标志性的图像：斯泰肯 1932 年拍摄的帝国大厦令人眩晕的地面双重曝光照片；莉赛特·模特 (Lisette Model) 拍摄的一名丰腴女性在康尼岛海浪上俯身蹲伏的照片 (1939)；加里·威诺格兰德拍摄的一对夫妇与一只宠物猴在纽约公园大道的照片 (1959)；戴安·阿巴斯的《纽约哈德逊街上的青少年夫妇》(Teenage Couple on Hudson St, NYC, 1963)。

这里展现了人类生活的方方面面，且往往是通过诱人的片段展开的——一张艾格尔斯顿拍摄的南方加油站的染料转移印相，以及罗伊·德卡拉瓦 (Roy DeCarava) 创作的两幅 1950 年代哈莱姆区崇高的单色阴影肖像。即便最终的结果并未完全超越部分之和，但这里有如此多绝佳的图像，以至于挑剔显得有些不近人情。

展览以“现代城市”开始，这一板块涵盖了 1900 到 1930 之间发生的城市转型，随后稳步推进到接下来的数十年，往往反映出一个社会极端分化的美国，而华尔街崩溃带来的后果让这一切显得更加触目惊心。

杰出作品包括朗的《白色天使广播线》(White Angel Broadline, 1933)，她在作品中戏剧性地将旧金山一家救济厨房中一群失业人群里的一个身影孤立出来。奇怪的是，这幅画与她最著名的肖像画《移民之母》(Migrant Mother, 1936) 放在一起，后者实际上是在加州农村拍摄的，但毫无疑问，由于其图腾般的共鸣，被悄悄放入了一个关于美国城市的展览中。

沃克·埃文斯 (Walker Evans) 的三幅印相仅略微提示了他在重塑美国纪实摄影方面的重要性，尤其是他对被忽视的店铺招牌和广告牌等日常视觉语言的敏锐捕捉，他以一种摒弃浪漫主义或社会纪实感的超然目光记录了这些内容。

“奇怪地令人不安 60 年后”：加里·威诺格兰德，纽约公园大道，1989。 © Garry Winogrand 遗产委员会，由旧金山 Frankel Gallery 提供。

阴郁的单色基调最终在第二板块“街头生活”中被打破，其中包括海伦·列维特 (Helen Levitt) 敏锐观察到的 1972 年纽约一家涂鸦店门前玩耍的孩子们的速写，在阴郁之中捕捉到了一种童年互动与亲密感。

四幅来自 1950 年代的索尔·莱特 (Saul Leiter) 影像证明了他对色彩和氛围的敏锐洞察。在这里，他曼哈顿公寓周围的街道被转化为一座展现风格与律动的私密剧场：一名戴着草帽、衣着考究的男子漫步在一部复古黄绿相间的出租车旁；人们的身影在飘落的雪花中若隐若现；湿漉漉的道路上，模糊的汽车轮廓从一把雨伞下显现。

莱特具有绘画感的影像与 Weegee 在 1930 年代和 40 年代拍摄的那些极具冲击力的犯罪现场及灾难照片截然不同，但这种并列不仅体现了本次展览的形式多样性，也象征了美国社会与文化中剧烈的极端对立。不过，这正是此类展览的特点——残酷与温柔近在咫尺，而有限的策展选择则导致了一些明显的缺失，尤其是罗伯特·弗兰克 (Robert Frank) 的《美国人》(The Americans)，这被认为是 20 世纪摄影史上最具影响力的时刻。

在名为“美国社会景观” (American Social Landscape) 的展区中，摄影师与美国城市关系的另一种激进转变得到了追溯。这在很大程度上归功于约翰·萨考夫斯基 (John Szarkowski) 的影响，他在 1962 年成为纽约现代艺术博物馆的摄影部门主管。正如一段导言文字所述，萨考夫斯基“将摄影定义为一种由其自身形式关注点——时机、构图、视角以及摄影师的独特视野——所定义的媒介”。

1967 年，他开创性的展览《新文件》(New Documents) 大胆定义了他的方法，而黛安·阿勃丝 (Diane Arbus)、李·弗里德兰德 (Lee Friedlander) 和维诺格兰德 (Winogrand) 的作品则引发了评论界和公众的意见分歧。这三位艺术家的作品均被纳入此次展出。维诺格兰德拍摄的一对夫妇与一只猴子在公园大道的车内的街头摄影作品，在近 60 年后的今天依然令人感到异样的不安；而阿勃丝的存在感如此之强，以至于她的影像无论多么为人熟知，地都能主导其所在的任何空间。

爱德华·鲁沙 (Edward Ruscha) 对洛杉矶日常建筑的探索获得了充足的空间，他的中立视角在一组近乎匿名的黑白街道网格中得到了详尽展现。这种中立性也体现在罗伯特·亚当斯 (Robert Adams) 的作品中，他在 20 世纪 60 年代和 70 年代绘制了郊区扩张的同质化特质，而这种扩张开始定义加利福尼亚的城市。

与之相对，最后一个展室则是一个引人注目的反衬：三面墙上贴满了布鲁斯·戴维森 (Bruce Davidson) 的地铁摄影作品，这是一个大胆且私密的肖像，描绘了一个像它所穿行其下与其上的纽约街道一样民主的环境。这是一个“展中之展”，为一段旅程画上了戏剧性且突兀的句号，这段旅程几乎构成了一部美国世纪的视觉叙事，而其中的一部分是由那些进入我们集体意识的静止影像所定义的。

正如苏珊·桑塔格 (Susan Sontag) 在 1977 年所指出的，“在美国，摄影师不仅仅是记录过去的人，而且是创造过去的人。” 正如本次展览所证明的，20 世纪的美国与摄影，至少在一段时间内，是天作之合。

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20

评论员

流行文化

本周艺术家

颠覆之模态

刚与麦当娜合作完的委内瑞拉电子音乐艺术家 Arca 在一张令人震撼的专辑中挑战了所有定义，其作品跨越了舞池、卧室与地牢

Kitty Empire

XXXXX Arca (XL Recordings)

银色电子艺术家 Arca 极其难以被定义——而这正是她的本意。她在八张独立专辑中的作品横跨了令人耳鸣的实验音乐与主流热门金曲之间的鸿沟。她出生于委内瑞拉，曾在美国和伦敦多次生活，现居巴塞罗那；她交替使用西班牙语和英语演唱。无论是释放雷鬼顿 (reggaeton) 的派对节奏，还是冰冷的电影原声带，亦或是类 Aphex Twin 式的侵略性以及欧洲传统的肃穆合成器弦乐，她都处理得游刃有余。Arca 参与制作的名单（非详尽）包括 FKA twigs、Kanye West、Rosalía，以及最近在麦当娜的《Confessions II》专辑中贡献的两首曲目（《The Test》和《I Feel So Free》）。

沉溺于流动状态并颠覆确定性，十多年来一直是 Arca 的主题。她的奠基专辑——《Xen》(2014) 和 《Mutant》(2015)——打破了性别二元论，想象了无定形后人类实体与人机混合体的嬉戏。形式对于 Arca 来说不过是另一个可以随意揉捏的类别：她 2020 年名为 $\text{@@@@@}$ 的混音带，是一首时长 62 分钟、充满波动想法的单曲。她 2022 年的专辑系列 $\text{KiCr}$ 衍生出四个后续作品，有的更倾向于派对，有的在听觉上更具挑战性，所有这些都以婴儿在子宫内的第一次胎动以及反抗压迫者的踢击命名。Arca 甚至在 4 月于伦敦当代艺术中心 (ICA) 展出了绘画作品，理由是将音乐产业的倦怠视为突出另一种媒介的契机；自然地，她使用了闪粉、熔融塑料和喷漆的水粉画，以及油画和丙烯画。

Arca 表示，她的第九部作品 $\text{XXXXX}$ 被构想为一个临时混音带，由她的前卫创意分支 “Diva Experimental FM” 广播而出；其标题呼应了之前的混音带，例如她的首部作品 $\text{&&&&&}$ (2013)。但这一部在反乌托邦的炼狱景象中，包含了可舞动的节拍和朗朗上口的旋律，

她处理雷鬼顿派对节奏的能力与冰冷的电影原声带一样出色。她的制作名单包括 FKA twigs、Kanye West 和 Rosalía

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

21

“一位变化莫测的艺术家”：Arca 在最新专辑中沉溺于流动与不确定状态。

Saint AKA Cassandra Antoniades

使其更接近于一次常规的专辑发行。延续了 Arca 颠覆的模式，它拒绝被轻易归类。

标题是指五个吻吗？还是在警告这是一个五重 X 级（限制级）作品？Arca 采取了折中方案：在 $\text{XXXXX}$ 中，她再次肯定了自己创作震撼、挽歌式且往往令人恐惧的音乐的权利，这些音乐跨越了舞池、卧室、地牢以及她自身“阴暗的深处”——正如她上周在一次直播演出中告诉观众的那样，接触这些是为了“将某种美丽且令人振奋的东西，挖掘并提升出来”。

尽管欲望是一个反复出现的主题，但这里一首名为 $\text{Fick}$ 的强力击打曲目并不仅仅关乎性。“杀死父亲！”Arca 命令道，她指的是她曾说过同样“将男性囚禁在笼中”的父权制度。随着下一首曲目 $\text{Finisher}$ 中那令人心惊的节拍和切割般锐利的金属音效，破坏性的行径已然完成。

同样地，$\text{Raver}$ 暗示着对舞池的塞壬之唤。然而，它给人的感觉更像是为了服务于一部紧张的心理惊悚片场景而创作的极简主义。如果以《未切割原石》(Uncut Gems) 和《美好时光》(Good Time) 闻名的萨夫迪兄弟 (Safdie brothers) 想要终止与 Oneohirts Point Never 的创意合作，Arca 可能会是他们的不二之选。而最明确的律动指令则出现在迷人的 $\text{Grip}$ 中，这首歌几乎完全由流畅的丙烯节奏和上方点缀的优雅复古电子音组成。

继参与麦当娜的制作以及 2025 年发布两首非专辑单曲（动听的《Sola》和冲击力强的《Puta》）之后，XXXXX 并没有对近期作品进行任何整齐的整合，而是展现了这位艺术家的多样性，并向一种宣泄感推进。《Suelie》（西班牙语意为“梦”）是这 16 首充满情感的曲目中的大结局，其中包含了大量带有效果器的尖叫。尽管呈现出倔强的数字化风格，XXXXX 依然融入了大量可被称之为古典宏伟感的元素；如果说这里有什么缺陷，那就是 Arca 的作品有时显得过于郑重，过度依赖于那种充满悬念且未曾化解的宿命感。

但其创作的优雅是不容否认的。《Heart》确实感觉像是这部作品集中精致的核心，一个主题从未来主义的拨弦古钢琴传递到一个充满故障感的数字噪音库中。颤抖的不稳定性再次出现了几次——包括在《Futurality》那严酷的节拍和战栗的旋律中。在 XXXXX 中，Arca 成功地强化了她的核心观点：拒绝被定义。

其他专辑

Chinook

Mallory Hawk (Bandcamp)

为了省钱而搬回童年时代的家中，对许多人来说是一种熟悉且并非总是受欢迎的情况。但这种经历也能产生有益的结果。美国创作歌手兼后朋克乐队成员 Mallory Hawk 为了筹集录音室费用，回到了北卡罗来纳州的费耶特维尔。这座军镇唤起了她的情感——以及一股创造力的泉源。她的专辑名称《Chinook》指的是在头顶盘旋的直升机：这些劳碌的机器其旋转力足以将它们撕裂，因此在 Hawk 看来，这就像是一幅自画像。

在这部出色的处女作中，Hawk 面对自我并达成和解：出色的《Revolver》讲的不是武器，而是一个与他人陷入恶性循环的人。Hawk 表面上轻松的配器中充满了耐人寻味的离调选择。《Four O'Clocks》是以曾在她童年家外下午晚些时候盛开的花朵命名的，而那里现在已被铺成路面以修建州际公路匝道；这首歌与这里的大部分作品一样，是对一个人根基的苦乐参半的审视，其细节具有普适感。虽然 Hawk 在不同流派间的跳跃可能会让听众感到措手不及——电子后朋克风格的《Superhighway》或许更适合放在其他地方——但她的技巧令人印象深刻：《Caretaker》是一首朋克风格的抨击之作，让人强烈想起 Kim Deal。——Kitty Empire

Renascent

The Durutti Column (London Records)

Vini Reilly 的独立室内乐组合突然发现自己成为了流行趋势。在去年由 Blood Orange 的单曲《The Field》采样后，他们的音乐在 6 月的一场致敬音乐会上再次受到赞誉，该音乐会是 Harry Styles 策划的 Meltdown 艺术节的一部分。在 16 年来的首张专辑中，有时很容易看出原因：Reilly 像拼贴画般的作曲既是对喧闹流行乐的解药，又与 Spotify 播放列表中常见的低保真 (lo-fi) 节奏足够相似，足以吸引寻求氛围音乐的年轻受众。

但《Renascent》在表达更为直接时最为出色。《Liars》中大胆的鼓点让人想起 Massive Attack，而《Agonistes》和赞美诗般的《Sargasso Sea》则由 Castillo Rose 空灵的嗓音提升了格调。专辑中也有对乐队在 Factory Records 时期起步的致敬：《For Friends Everywhere》通过反思，为管弦乐八重奏重新编排了 1981 年的《For Belgian Friends》，且封面艺术由原 Factory 设计合作者 Mark Holt 和 Hamish Muir 完成。该厂牌因其后朋克目录而闻名，但 Tony Wilson 创立它的初衷正是为了发行 Reilly 的音乐。《Renascent》再次证明了这是一个正确的决定。——Lewis Huxley

The Thread

Family Stereo (Bella Union)

Blake Watt 显然完全不在意被贴上“星二代” (nepo baby) 的标签。如果你不想让人关注你的音乐成长背景，就不会给自己的项目起名 Family Stereo。但这位 25 岁、定居伦敦的创作歌手——Everything But the Girl (EBTG) 的 Tracey Thorn 和 Ben Watt 之子——有足够的理由对自己的才华充满信心。他的处女专辑是一张低调但管弦编曲丰富、风格多样的民谣记录，将 Americana 旋律与英裔加拿大民谣歌手 Matt Maltese 那种情感直白的风格相结合。

你可以清晰地听到 EBTG 词曲创作的影响，尤其是在忧郁、阴郁的《Fault Lines》中。在其他歌曲中，《Waiting on Nina》利用浓郁的踏板钢棒吉他 (lap-steel) 揉弦，增强了一首关于希望与可能性的歌曲中那种迷幻的浪漫感。Watt 拥有一种纯净、不复杂的嗓音，清晰地穿透了专辑同名曲中手指拨奏的亲密感，强调了其坚定的信息：“我用来安慰你的话，同样也安慰着我。”《The Thread》并非一张炫技的唱片，而是一系列温柔且平静自信的瞬间，随着聆听的深入而产生递增的愉悦感。——Lisa Wright

JUD02*

Joyce的Tutty Moreno (Jazz Is Dead)

Joyce Moreno常被描述为“巴西的琼尼·米切尔”，她是20世纪60年代后波萨诺瓦（post-bossa nova）声音的先驱，这种风格后来被称为巴西流行音乐（música popular brasileira，简称MPB）。她将桑巴节奏与手指拨弦的吉他和谐音以及自白式的抒情相结合，名下拥有超过 40 张专辑，并为MPB泰斗米尔顿·纳西门托（Milton Nascimento）和加尔·科斯塔（Gal Costa）创作过歌曲。

现年 78 岁的Moreno与她的丈夫兼鼓手Tutty共同推出了一张职业生涯晚期的瑰宝专辑。这张唱片在庞大的伴奏乐团支撑下，对Moreno的MPB之声进行了华丽的延伸。在《Círculo Vicioso》中，宏大的管弦乐弦乐和轻盈的手拍打击乐增强了她的口白；而《Sorria de Novo》中，断奏的小号则与她的吟唱交织在一起。

Moreno的唱功在整张专辑中灵动且坚定，而Tutty的鼓点在巧妙地修饰歌曲而非使其过于拥挤。欢快的大乐队编曲极具感染力，但唱片最纯粹的美感体现在Moreno不加装饰的时刻。在《Mandala》的第一分钟里，她将歌声穿梭在吉他强有力的节奏中，营造出一种迷人的音色，证明了在职业生涯进入第五个十年后，她依然没有丝毫衰减。Ammar Kalla

在 17 到 19 岁之间，Sir Taegen Harris（又名Love Spells）在德克萨斯州休斯顿流离失所。如今 21 岁的他是一位永远乐观的创作歌手，不知怎地创作出了一张专辑，其效果就像那些能让你在每一抹光点中看到心形的棱镜太阳镜。《Love is the Low》是一系列极佳的甜美且极具旋律感的歌曲集，将流行、情绪摇滚（emo）、自省摇滚（shoegaze）、灵魂乐、乡村音乐和新浪潮融合成了某种强烈且珍贵的东西。它描绘了相思之苦和脆弱感的粗粝，却让这一切听起来像是世上最美妙的事。

这张处女作的主题全部关于浪漫与关系——就像Harris如此喜爱的 80 年代浪漫喜剧一样。与Dev Hynes、Night Tapes或比莉·艾利什（Billie Eilish）一样，他将一个在卧室Demo阶段运作良好的声音世界扩展成了更生动、更实质的东西，且未丢失其真实性。

尽管Harris在 2022 年之前甚至没去过一场演出，但他是一个热情的表演者，他将前往英国举行专场演唱会，并在伦敦维多利亚公园举办的Tyler, the Creator All Points East音乐节上担任嘉宾。Harris说：“感觉一半像音乐家，一半像喜剧演员。” 登上更大的舞台并没让他感到局促。“这只是有更多空间可以变得更疯狂！” Damien Morris

《Love is the Low》现已发行；Love Spells 将于 8 月 27 日在伦敦Moth Club以及 8 月 28 日在All Points East进行演出。

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戏剧

遇见“击碎芭比” (Bonkbuster Barbie)

The Yard 剧院重新开幕，带来一场极其奢靡且低俗的杰基·柯林斯 (Jackie Collins) 傀儡戏，充满了大量的“塑料对塑料”的亲密戏码。

苏珊娜·克拉普 (Susannah Clapp)

《世界充满了已婚男人》 (The World is Full of Married Men) 伦敦 E9 区，The Yard 剧院

The Yard：曾点亮哈克尼威克 (Hackney's Wick) 的剧院。15 年来，这座前仓库一直是一个临时的 DIY 空间：车站转角处闪烁的霓虹灯，以及前卫的节目编排之所。如今，在关闭一年后，它在重建后重新开放：规模扩大了一倍多，具备了一种新的永恒感，并拥有一系列引人注目的演出名单，其中不乏《李尔王》(Lear) —— 该剧由剧院创始人兼艺术总监杰伊·米勒 (Jay Miller) 与剧作家西蒙·斯蒂芬斯 (Simon Stephens) 重新构思，将由伊恩·麦克林 (Ian McKellen) 主演。

新建筑的材质宣告了其意图。粉蓝色调的砖块是由旧建筑的回收材料制成的。所有窗户都是镜面，因此，在当前流行透明度的趋势下，步入剧场的观众看到的是他们自己 —— 剧院希望他们能在剧中的内容里认出自己。这座拥有 220 个座位的礼堂向伊皮道罗斯 (Epidaurus) 的露天剧场致敬。宽敞、如棚屋般的门厅采用了与外部砖块相呼应的色彩 —— 玫瑰色与绿松石色，配以金色扶手，戏剧感十足。米勒坚称，坚持“改变生活的戏剧”这一基本理念并不意味着必须严肃：

他是在强调“基本” (fundamental) 中的“趣味” (fun)。

目前的演出极其辉煌且令人震惊地证明了这一点。谁能想到，舞台版的《世界充满了已婚男人》竟然如此幽默、如此具有女性主义色彩且如此性感。当然，前提是它由傀儡演出，并使用瑞典语对白（配有字幕）。马尔默傀儡剧团 (Malmö Dockteater) 的导演兼傀儡设计师埃里克·霍姆斯特伦 (Erik Holmström) 解释说，杰基·柯林斯在瑞典很受欢迎。他曾尝试过不同风格的傀儡 —— 包括真人比例的维京人 —— 但对于这场演出，他恰如其分地选择了芭比娃娃的变体。

女主角留着翘起的头发，眼睛在凝固的面孔上转动。男反派（他出轨，但最终被一名贪婪的秘书击败，后者脱掉塑料衣服的速度比解开发髻还快）的头发像融化的焦油，勃起的部分像擀面杖。演员们在由玛雅·卡尔 (Maja Kall) 设计的、构造精美的娃娃屋房间中僵硬地跳跃：一个有着巨大粉色床铺的卧室、一个酒吧、一家铺着挺括餐巾的餐厅，以及一个配有沙发、用于艰苦的秘书斗争的阴暗房间。演出过程被实时录像，因此观众在看到拍摄过程的同时，可以在屏幕上跟踪所有“塑料对塑料”的动作：小小的傀儡之手努力将听筒放回带卷曲电线的绿色电话机上（这是 20 世纪 60 年代的伦敦）；口交时的极度热情；巨大的真人之手用类似晾衣夹的东西操纵着傀儡。偶尔，傀儡师埃里克·奥尔松 (Erik Olsson) 和凯莎·埃里克森 (Kajsa Ericsson) 会接管并亲自演绎傀儡的角色。一切都闪耀着讽刺的热情。

为了确保稳定性，The Yard 剧院需要获得更高额的艺术委员会 (Arts Council) 资助；其目前的津贴仅能大致覆盖一部剧目的制作成本。承办 Jackie 的演出是资助该剧院的理由之一。八年前在爱丁堡电视节上，米凯拉·科尔 (Michaela Coel) 无意中提供了另一个理由，当时她地回顾了米勒 (Miller) 对新人的冒险尝试，描述了他如何排演她的第一部剧《泡泡糖之梦》(Chewing Gum Dreams)，并允许她在营销和设计方面拥有完全的自主权。

“来到这里的人们以我的方式看待事物，并发现它们并不契合，”她说道。而现在来到这里、随后在地铁站里议论该剧的人群构成出乎意料：人数最多的是来自哈克尼 (Hackney)，其次是塔沃汉姆莱茨 (Tower Hamlets)，第三是肯辛顿-切尔西 (Kensington and Chelsea)。已经有人预订了从新加坡和土耳其飞来观看《李尔》(Lear) 的机票，至关重要的是，该剧将提供一些 £10 的座位（且视野良好）。

米勒目前的兴趣在于探讨一个痴迷于流行文化的社会中关于“流行”的概念。他的抱负极其宏大：他希望自己的剧院能成为英国文化的中心，并帮助推动文化向共情方向发展。The Yard 将于九月正式重新开放，届时将上演戴安·佩奇 (Diane Page) 执导的、纪念 Ntozake Shangri 作品《给考虑过自杀的有色人种女孩 / 当彩虹足够时》(For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf) 50 周年纪念版。明年春天，曾在 2024 年在摄政公园露天剧院 (Regent's Park Open Air theatre) 打造《秘密花园》(The Secret Garden) 的创意团队将再次集结，由安娜·希马利·霍华德 (Anna Himali Howard) 执导霍莉·罗宾逊 (Holly Robinson) 对弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫 (Virginia Woolf) 作品《达卢之妻》(Mrs Dailloux) 的新改编版本。与此同时，剧院大堂的咖啡馆也在用自己的方式向那出大胆的 Jackie Collins 剧目致敬：它正在供应棒棒鸡。

简评

Evolver

威尔士千禧中心 (Wales Millennium Centre)， 卡迪夫；展出至 8 月 30 日

Marshmallow Laser Feast 打造的这场关于身体生命维持功能的沉浸式体验，承诺将是一次感官盛宴。这场 45 分钟的视听表演由凯特·布兰切特 (Cate Blanchett) 带来空灵的旁白，配乐则由包括电台司令 (Radiohead) 的乔尼·格林伍德 (Jonny Greenwood) 和电子音乐制作人乔恩·霍普金斯 (Jon Hopkins) 在内的重量级作曲家操刀，后者贡献了他标志性的氛围音染。我屏息进入，而离开时却发出了一次叹息。

该公司与弗劳恩霍夫-梅维斯 (Fraunhofer Mevis) 数字医学研究所合作，模拟呼吸和心血管系统。这意味着你经常觉得自己像是一名医学生，通过虚拟现实眼镜观察科学图表和模型，而不是被视觉叙事的壮举所席卷。

这并不是说图像没有催眠效果。电蓝色和血红色的氧气颗粒像鱼群一样游动，或者像从五彩纸屑炮中发射出来一样，成串地缓慢下沉。毛细血管结构呈线性形成，像爬行的蚂蚁群。在某一时刻，我转身发现一个巨大的、深色的肋骨架如蜘蛛般在眼前若隐若现。但连接这些片段的叙事筋络寥寥无几，它们只是简单地相互融合。

詹姆斯·贝利 (James Bailey) 和 亨里克·奥普曼 (Henrik Oppermann) 创造了一个由节奏性噼啪声和轰鸣声组成的、能诱发恍惚状态的声景。但 戴西·拉法格 (Daisy Lafarg) 的文字却带着一种沉闷的、自以为深奥的沉重感。

她的元素诗篇充斥在开场 10 分钟的引导冥想以及随后的 25 分钟 VR 环节中。诸如“它始于呼吸，星光的音节”之类的句子，传达了呼吸如何将我们与自然界联系在一起，但也带有某种考验耐心的、类似瘾君子内心独白的特征。

全程坐着，且被笨重头显的重量所禁锢，你会渴望某种更能让人脱离现实的体验。尽管视觉效果在疾速冲刷、滑动并不断演变，但我从未真正感觉到自己在空中翱翔。——马特·巴顿 (Matt Barton)

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电影

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本周推荐电影

“漫画英雄所能拥有的最强大的超能力之一就是脆弱性”：汤姆·赫兰德 (Tom Holland) 在《蜘蛛侠：崭新之日》(Spider-Man: Brand New Day) 中。索尼影业 (Sony Pictures)

针对倦怠一代的蜘蛛侠

Wendy Ide

《蜘蛛侠：崭新之日》(Spider-Man: Brand New Day) (145 分钟, PG级) 导演：Destin Daniel Cretton；主演：Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink

在这部更具灵魂的漫威作品中，汤姆·霍兰德饰演的超级英雄以牺牲娱乐性为代价，展现了他的凡人之弱点。

即便超级英雄也有感性的一面。面对那些关于无敌巨头电影的观众人数骤降，以及乱成一团的多重宇宙故事线，漫威将一切回归到基础——或者说，在讲述一个拥有变异蜘蛛 DNA 的义警犯罪斗士的故事时，你能回归到的最基础状态。就像去年的《雷霆特工队》(Thunderbolts*)——一部探讨疏离感与抑郁的作品——最新的《蜘蛛侠》电影正确地意识到，漫画英雄所能掌握的最强大的超能力之一正是“脆弱性”。

本片探讨了孤独、悲伤以及将工作视为婚姻所带来的深重个人代价。故事发生在《蜘蛛侠：没有路回家》事件几年后。在那部电影的结尾，彼得·帕克 (Tom Holland) 为了保护女友 MJ (Zendaya) 和最好的朋友 尼德 (Jacob Batalon)，让奇异博士像擦白板一样抹去了他们的记忆。如今，彼得仅有一个 AI 助手陪伴，单枪匹马地守护着纽约街头。这是一份有回报的工作，英雄蜘蛛侠受到了这座城市的赞颂。

但作为人的彼得·帕克正在失去那些能点燃快乐的事物：那些让我们成为具有共情能力、完整的人的纽带。事实证明，将自己从爱人和至交的记忆中抹去，是导致心理健康危机的药方。谁能预料到会这样？

本质上，这是一部关于职场倦怠的电影——只不过这里的“职场”是纽约摩天大楼上方及周围的空中空间。彼得饱受严重的压力性头痛之苦，以及与喷网相关的重复性劳损。更糟糕的是，城市中潜伏着一个恶意力量；一个强大的实体，它能够在人与人之间跳跃意识，暂时控制他们，将他们像人类手套傀儡一样操纵。这个实体虽然无法劫持彼得的意识，但它足够聪明，能识别出他的弱点：MJ 和尼德。

蜘蛛侠已经分身乏术，而当他的身体本身变成人类与蛛形类 DNA 相互竞争的战场时，情况变得更加复杂。好的一面是，他新提升的蜘蛛能力意味着他的“织网技术”有了质的飞跃。他不再局限于单一的丝线，而是能为反派构建出看起来像 1970 年代风格的马克拉梅 (macrame) 植物吊篮。

这一切是以牺牲他的共情能力为代价的，而且——对观众来说更重要地——牺牲了他的幽默感。此前作品中那个活泼的少年消失了，他曾经轻快的俏皮话与他的肢体力量一样敏捷。这部电影并非没有笑点，但其基调比前作更加沉思。在某些时刻，它向“灵魂感”的偏移是以牺牲娱乐价值为代价的。

本片由 Destin Daniel Cretton 执导（在拍摄《尚气与十环传奇》后重返漫威宇宙），在像芭蕾般流畅、挑战重力的格斗戏份上表现出色。霍兰德青少年时期曾在西区剧院饰演比利·艾略特，他拥有

此前作品中那个活泼的少年消失了，他曾经轻快的俏皮话与他的肢体力量一样敏捷。这部电影并非没有笑点，但其基调比前作更加沉思。

舞者般富有表现力的肢体语言——他将要在一部传记片中饰演弗雷德·阿斯泰尔，虽然他可能长得不像，但他却是少数能令人信服地模仿其动作的演员之一——他在片中举手投足间有一种近乎失重的特质，效果极佳。此外，被神秘实体附身的人们在抽搐痉挛时的动作设计也令人印象深刻。

另一个值得关注的资产是纽约的城市景观；毕竟，如果超级英雄所生活的世界令人认不出来，那么让这些英雄产生共鸣就没什么意义了。在这里，这座“大苹果”之城的所有矛盾与古怪都得到了深情的颂扬，从曼哈顿中城的宏伟规模到亲切的街角便利店（bodegas），从秘密的屋顶空间到拥挤不堪、交通堵塞的大道。片尾一组代表纽约标志性场景的蒙太奇，为这座值得拯救的城市提供了一个出人意料且令人动容的收尾。

而这一切在乔恩·伯恩塔尔（Jon Bernthal）极具嚼劲的配角演出中达到了顶峰，他再次饰演强悍的弗兰克·卡索（Frank Castle，又名“惩罚者”），带来了电影史上最具有纽约风格的演出之一。

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古典

晚祷

势头强劲

英国的合唱传统在格洛斯特的一场音乐节上得到了充分且令人兴奋的展现，这场音乐节在古老形式中找到了创新的方式。此外，约翰·威尔逊领导的伦敦交响乐团（Sinfonia of London）是本次逍遥快奏音乐会（the Prom）中最出色的演出。

Fiona Maddocks

三唱诗合唱节 (Three Choirs Festival) 格洛斯特；截至 8 月 1 日

伦敦交响乐团 / 威尔逊 BBC 逍遥快奏音乐会，皇家阿尔伯特音乐厅，伦敦 SW7

3 个随机的事实：如果你能将它们联系起来的话。首先，托马斯·克兰默大主教——《狼殿堂》中一个阴郁且关键的人物——编撰了 1549 年的《公祷书》，这实际上开创了圣公会的晚祷仪式。其次是三唱诗合唱节，被广泛认为是世界上最古老的音乐节，于 7 月下旬在格洛斯特、赫里福德或伍斯特的座堂城市举行，以合唱为核心。最后，据估计，英国每周有 2.14 million 人在 40,000 个各类合唱团中唱歌。

英国为何拥有如此显著的合唱传统？我们在工厂和磨坊中社区歌唱的工业遗产、循道宗赞美诗集、民谣和单页传单都起到了作用。当然，唱歌的国家不仅仅是我们一个。欧洲合唱协会 2015, 年的一份报告（在 2024 年更新，并附有一张显示谁在何处唱什么的地图）估计，欧洲有 37 million 名歌手，占人口的 4.5%。但英国通过座堂、学院礼拜堂和教区建立的独特合唱专业风格（不再仅限男性和男孩）则归功于克兰默。每日晚祷中对经过严格训练的歌手的需求是无可比拟的。

这一传统仍然是三唱诗合唱节的关键。晚祷，连同参与式歌唱环节以及由规模不断扩大的音乐节合唱团演唱的史诗级合唱作品（今年是沃尔顿的《比什纳扎尔的盛宴》和埃尔加的《格龙提乌斯的梦》），都是核心活动。新委约作品是重点。在古老形式中寻找新鲜方式，对于音乐节的不断更新至关重要。从委约作曲家的名单来看，是否属于圣公会信徒——以一种冷静的宽容态度来说——并不是问题。三唱诗合唱节的坚实支撑者爱德华·埃尔加是天主教徒，詹姆斯·麦克米伦也是。圣-桑是无神论者，而且是法国人。现代最伟大的 “圣公会作曲家” 之一 1 赫伯特·豪威尔斯是在浸浸礼派环境下长大的，成年后从未去过教堂。

这里的迷人之处在于，看到一个被错误地描述为停留在 1950 年代芭芭拉·皮姆小说中的世界（并不是说她帮了忙：“我热爱晚祷。其中有一种悲伤且本质上属于英国的特质”），在现实中却充满了创造活力。音乐节的新任助理作曲家加文·希金斯 1983, 年出生于格洛斯特，在今年之前从未创作过宗教文本，也从未参加过晚祷。他潜心研究为该仪式编写的音乐，并表示在英语文本的设定中找到了敬畏感与宁静感。你可以听到希金斯的新作《尊主赞歌》(Magnificat) 和《现在我可以安息》(Nunc Dimittis)，这部作品（在本专栏撰写之后）于周三在格洛斯特的 Radio 3 直播中首演（BBC Sounds）。

我听了两场音乐会。一场深夜的无伴奏合唱节目由 Lady Clerks 演唱，这是六位灵巧的年轻歌手，她们是日益增多的女性座堂平信徒合唱员（成年人，负责演唱晚祷和其他仪式）之中的成员。这场票罄的活动（她们拥有忠实的追随者）涵盖了从单声唱诵和牧歌到紧密和声的多种风格。由皇家音乐学院作曲系学生埃温·詹金斯创作的世界首演作品《睡眠》(To Sleep)，契合了该节目从黄昏到黑夜的主题。

早些时候，Ex Cattedra 乐团在创始人兼指挥杰弗里·斯基德莫尔最后一个赛季的执棒下，表演了拉赫玛尼诺夫的《 the Vespers》(1915)。他与拉赫玛尼诺夫的宗教作品有着深厚的共鸣。

“宏伟”： Ex Cattedra 乐团在格洛斯特座堂表演拉赫玛尼诺夫的《the Vespers》。

James O'Driscoll / 三唱诗合唱节

该作品基于东正教的圣咏。自 20 世纪 80 年代以来，斯基德莫尔（Skidmore）坚持不懈地寻找一个优秀的演出版本，帮助这部极具氛围感 an 的作品获得了更广泛的认可。宏伟的极强（fortissimo）音量，在合唱团有时多达 11 个声部且在此次演出中处理得游刃有余的情况下，在座大教堂缓慢的混响中震撼地响起。

虽然现在就评选本季最喜爱的逍遥之夏（Prom）音乐会还为时过早，但其他演出必须非常努力才能与伦敦交响乐团（Sinfonia of London）这一意大利主题节目相媲美。指挥约翰·威尔逊（John Wilson）对他精心挑选的乐团（其中许多人是独奏家、其他乐团的首席或著名的室内乐演奏者）掌控极严，不容任何松懈。威尔第《命运之力》序曲的开篇和弦——六次威胁性的铜管齐奏，显得至关重要且预兆不详。

我们，即观众，也立刻进入了状态。沃尔顿（Walton）那部难以捉摸的《大提琴协奏曲》迎来了一位出色的独奏家乔纳森·阿斯高德（Jonathan Aasgaard，同时也是该乐团的首席大提琴手），他以智慧和精湛的技艺将我们带入这部狂想且沉思的作品之中。随后 l 是当晚最具冲击力的压轴演出：雷斯匹基（Respighi）的《罗马三部曲》，威尔逊和演奏者们充分利用了皇家阿尔伯特礼堂所能提供的所有声学潜力。雷斯匹基的标志性手法之一是创作巨大的管弦乐渐强。没有什么比《罗马之松》的结尾更宏大、更具高潮感或更令人心惊胆战的了：一支军团在黎明时分沿亚壁安路行进，越来越近，声音越来越响。雷斯匹基曾被斥为浮华而庸俗。威尔逊和交响乐团向我们展现了他的天才。

舞蹈

Tempo：卡勒·尼奥（Kalle Nio）与费尔南多·梅洛（Fernando Melo）；Invisible：安德烈亚·萨卢斯特里（Andrea Salustri） 威尼斯舞蹈双年展

在英国导演韦恩·麦格雷戈（Wayne McGregor）的执导下，2026年威尼斯舞蹈双年展的主题是《时间不存在》（Time Does Not Exist）。许多作品（最显著的是金狮奖得主班加拉舞蹈剧团——一家致力于传递原住民及托雷斯海峡岛民知识与历史的表演团体——的作品《地形》Terrain）似乎在消解过去与现在、历史与当代的界限。

然而，《Tempo》则正面探讨了这一主题。这部由芬兰视觉艺术家兼魔术师卡勒·尼奥与巴西编舞师费尔南多·梅洛合作的作品，在某些时刻，三位卓越的舞者——芭芭拉·凯恩（Barbara Kane）、温斯顿·雷诺兹（Winston Reynolds）和路易吉·萨多内（Luigi Sardone）——挑战了物理定律与空间，展开了仿佛能让时间静止的动作。

有时你会觉得能看穿魔术的把戏——比如一面在无风之境冻结的旗帜可能是由细钢丝支撑的——但大多数时候，舞步的展开如梦似幻。在最后的序列中，雷诺兹将一次本该在几秒钟内完成的跌落维持了数分钟，通过定格姿势，他像失去了重量一般悬停在半空中。

这种错觉既完整又令人震惊，但这部作品的共鸣远超简单的戏法。在萨穆利·科斯米宁（Samuli Kosminen）那如出神般的音乐和朱恩·霍顿（June Horton）的低亮度灯光环绕下，地毯自行铺展开来，椅子在身体间无缝穿梭。

这些图像体现了一篇由哈里·萨尔门涅米（Harry Salmenniemi）撰写的文本所关注的议题，该文本探讨了在连续不断的事件流中，关于“存在”与“目的”的问题。

三年前，同样将现代舞与幻觉融合的罗马艺术家安德烈亚·萨卢斯特里在2023年《Moteris》于威尼斯首演后获得了全球成功，在作品中他利用一块聚苯乙烯泡沫板舞出了多种形态。这听起来很疯狂，但极其迷人。在《Invisible》中（这部由双年展在意大利全国征集后委约的新作），他将注意力从物体的编舞转向了“让不可见者可见”，用最简单的手段唤起自然的物理效应。

萨卢斯特里就像一个现代版的普罗斯佩罗（Prospero），在共同创作者爱丽丝·伦德（Alice Rende）的协助下，他让光束从手中射向舞台，并在像窗帘一样悬挂的大片塑料布上反射光芒。随后，他搅起了一场烟雾龙卷风（左图），使其在空中盘旋；一滴水落在热板上，在麦克风的帮助下变成了如雷贯耳的声音；一个浸入水槽的瓶子则唤起了一场风暴。

这就像是一场（茶杯里的）完美风暴，但最终的影响力或许小于各部分的简单叠加。在某些时刻——比如一只单独的手从水浴中升起，或无尽的干冰在空间中飘散——作品显得平庸而非深刻。但萨卢斯特里特效的独创性与精准度令人叹为观止，因为你会在被绝美图像吸引的同时，完全意识到它是如何制造出来的。莎拉·克隆普顿（Sarah Crompton）

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

25

书评

所有的房屋都遭瘟疫侵袭

《核战争：一种情景》（Nuclear War: A Scenario）的作者安妮·雅各布森在这一部令人触目惊心且清醒的续作中，想象了致命实验室泄漏后的后果。基利安·福克斯（Killian Fox）撰文。

《生物战：一种情景》（Biological War: A Scenario）

安妮·雅各布森

Torsu 出版社， £22， 432页

今年早些时候，在一位可能并未优先考虑我晚上能否入睡的家人的敦促下，我拿起了一本美国作者兼记者安妮·雅各布森写的《核战争：一种情景》。我知道这本书引起了很大关注。在 2024 年出版时，它引发了关于核武装之利与极显著之弊的讨论，并入围了贝利·吉福德奖（Baillie Gifford prize）的短名单。但几乎在我开始阅读的同时，我就不得不把它放下。在开篇几页中，雅各布森描述了美国城市遭受核打击后的情况，场面如此令人不安，以至于直到第二天早上，我的神经系统仍处于“战斗或逃跑”模式。几个月后，我才鼓起勇气再次拿起这本书。

随后我开始贪婪地阅读这本书，眼睛因惊恐而瞪大。书中设想了朝鲜在毫无预警的情况下向美国本土发射核导弹的情况。雅各布森引导我们了解接下来的发生过程，以分钟为单位追踪导弹的路径以及美国的反应。这一情景虽是推测性的，但她将其与通过广泛研究以及与美国核武器计划制定者交谈所获取的事实交织在一起。尽管有这些中断，但故事仍像机场惊悚小说一样快节奏地推进，让你在紧张得指关节发白的情况下，向想象中最凄惨的结果疾速冲去。

现在，仿佛我们遭受的还不够多，雅各布森又带来了一个承诺会更加可怕且具有病态快感的情景。去年 12 月她在 X 上写道：“新书即将面世，保证令人惊恐。”她接着引用前参议院多数党领袖汤姆·达什勒（Tom Daschle）的话说：“与核战争不同，生物战将是‘一场漫长的、痛苦的、缓慢的死亡……深陷噩梦。人们为了生存，会做出丧尽人性之事’。”

这一次的导火索是西伯利亚一家名为“矢量”（Vector）的生物研究机构在深夜发生的爆炸——不幸的是，这是一个真实存在的地方——人们认为俄罗斯在那里非法研究世界上最致命的细菌，例如引起埃博拉、马堡病和天花的病原体。在这种实验室泄漏的情景中，流出的是经过基因改造的鼠疫菌。在 14 世纪，纯粹的古老鼠疫耶尔森菌（Yersinia pestis）导致欧洲高达一半的人口被消灭。而这个武器化版本则要恶劣得多得多。

生物战并非新现象。早在公元前 6 世纪，亚述人就用麦角菌毒害敌人的水井。1346 年，在围攻克里米亚城市卡法（Kaffa）期间，据报道蒙古士兵将感染鼠疫的尸体用投石机抛过城墙，以消灭坚守者。但直到过去半个世纪左右，随着基因工程的出现，进行细菌战的手段才真正升级。在 20 世纪 70 年代和 80 年代，尽管有国际暂停协议，苏联仍大幅扩大了其生物武器计划，培育出具有全新致病特性的现有疾病菌株。“那是我们的‘曼哈顿计划’，”该计划的一位主管后来说道。

在雅各布森的情景中，这种工程化鼠疫充满了不愉快且出人意料的特征。其传播率已被提高到水痘的水平。致死率为 100%，且无已知疗法。更糟糕的是，它还拼接了另一种杀手生物的 DNA。

俄罗斯辐射、化学和生物防御部队进行训练演习。 俄罗斯联邦国防部

这种病原体一旦被触发，就会引发一套全新的、极不受欢迎的症状。为了完善这一“鸡尾酒”配方，该武器经过工程设计，在症状发作前会产生一种神经化学上的快感，从而诱使受害者产生外出社交的冲动。这听起来像科幻小说，但正如雅各布森（Jacobsen）所指出的，所有这些改造在几十年前的苏联实验室中就已经实现了。据推测，这些微观恐怖依然存在。

在《核战争》（Nuclear War）中，读者通过美国情报机构负责人和军事指挥官的视角，看着一枚朝鲜导弹独自飞越太平洋向目标推进。其效果极其迷人且令人心惊胆战（《沙丘》导演丹尼斯·维伦纽瓦正在开发其电影改编版）。而在这本书中，这种“弗兰肯斯坦瘟疫”的传播路径则混乱得多。当西伯利亚的封锁努力失败后，一名携带者将其带到了洛杉矶，他在那里不经意间将其释放到贫民窟（Skid Row）的无家可归者营地中。另一名携带者在飞往达拉斯的航班上感染了一整机乘客。还有其他携带者前往南太平洋的一艘邮轮以及多米尼加共和国的一家拥挤的健身房。

这些目的地并非随机选择：雅各布森选择每一个地点都是为了精准指出我们流行病防御机制中的特定弱点，而正如新冠疫情所显示的，这些防御已经漏洞百出（且在特朗普领导下的美国变得更加破败）。你可以理解为什么，例如，她想要强调美国疾控中心（CDC）的生物监测计划不收集美国无家可归者收容所和诊所的数据这一事实——这是一个荒谬的疏忽。但所有这些刻意的铺垫削弱了她设想场景的现实感。

当美国领导人意识到他们正面临一场瘟疫爆发时，他们下方的庞大机器开始运转。这是雅各布森熟悉的领域。她之前的著作，包括

这种工程瘟疫充满了令人不快且出人意料的细节。其致死率高达 100%，且无已知疗法。

《回形针行动》（Operation Paperclip）以及获得普利策奖提名的《五角大楼之脑》（The Pentagon's Brain），揭示了美国政府经常处于秘密状态的运作方式——其秘密研究机构和绝密情报计划。在《核战争》中，我们了解到国家在遭受攻击时启动的各种协议。其中没有任何一项能为全球带来乐观的结果。在《生物战争》（Biological War）中也是如此，但原因在于不足和迟缓，而非过度反应。在上一本书中，这些内容被很好地融入了叙事，但在这里，各种军事部门和灾难响应机构的罗列，以及每个部门自带的一堆缩写词，产生了一种阻塞感。

为了弥补这一点，雅各布森采用了剧本作者的简洁风格（她曾为电视剧《汤姆·克兰西的杰克·赖恩》撰稿），这虽然保持了故事的推进速度，但缺乏优雅感。长句子被强行拆解成碎片。陈词滥调被大量使用（人们感到“心沉到谷底”；某个“摇钱树”让“每个人都想分一杯羹”）。《核战争》也采用了这种极度精简的风格，但还包含一些具有真正力量的抒情段落。而这里的写作感觉过于仓促。

雅各布森在描述血腥场景时毫不收敛。在一本关于生物战的书中，你可以预料到会有令人作呕的细节，但她在描述瘟疫对人体以及社会结构产生影响时所带有的那种快感，显得过于明显。在官僚细节与全方位的肉体恐怖之间频繁切换，产生了一种令人迷失的方向感。这也削弱了读者在阅读时，认为这是一份对深层严肃问题的冷静评估之感。

而且情况十分严重。威胁并不始于俄罗斯，也不止于俄罗斯。在 2001 年 9 月之前，美国政府运行着两座生物安全 4 级（BSL-4）实验室，用于研究并隔离最具致命性的病原体。在 9 / 11 袭击之后，数量激增。根据雅各布森（Jacobsen）的说法，目前全球 34 个国家拥有 110 座 BSL-4 实验室，其中许多据推测正在进行危险病原体的实验。这类活动可能是出于防御而非进攻目的，旨在更好地应对生物武器袭击，但如果发生意外泄漏导致病原体散播，两者之间又有什么区别？

人工智能最近的进展可能会帮助任何人将地下室变成一个小型生物武器实验室，这进一步增加了紧迫性。雅各布森的书可能在描述全面生物战的景象时，并不是最冷静或最流畅的记录。但它提供的细节已足够让我们意识到，那将是一场惨剧。

在 observershop.co.uk 订购《生物战：一个场景》（Biological War: A Scenario），售价 £18.70（建议零售价 15% 折扣）

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书籍

短篇小说

用 34 个故事环游世界

一本企鹅出版社的新文集展现了丰富多样的才华——尽管它对短篇小说的现状感到困惑，克里斯·鲍尔 (Chris Power) 撰文

《企鹅国际短篇小说集》 (The Penguin Book of the International Short Story) 由 Rabih Alameddine 和 John Freeman 编辑 企鹅经典 (Penguin Classics), £30, 448页

短篇小说文集在我的书架中处于一个奇怪的位置。与单一作者的短篇小说集（后者可能会成为常伴之物）不同，文集在阅读完后通常被移至顶层书架；就像参考书一样，等待着证明自己的用处。扫描我的书架，我看到那些按类型和主题统一的书籍：鬼故事、科幻合集、同性恋故事、爱情故事、关于足球的故事、关于性与死亡的故事，以及 1916 年最优秀的短篇小说（包括标题耐人寻味的《冰水，噗——！》(Ice Water, Pl—!)，作者是 范妮·赫斯特 (Fannie Hurst)）。其他书籍则按地理定义：非洲故事、爱尔兰故事、美国年轻作家故事，以及西班牙、巴西和日本故事。甚至还有一本专门介绍“希腊幻想”的书，我不记得自己是否打开过一次。

一本致力于国际短篇小说的文集在两方面可被视为一种悖论。尽管人们多次试图宣告其复兴，但短篇小说的销量通常至多也就是平平。而且，英语读者不愿跨越语言边界的情况已有据可查，尽管这一点至少看起来正在发生改变。今年五月，在伦敦泰特现代美术馆的涡轮大厅举行的国际布克奖颁奖典礼上，我听到了布克奖基金会首席执行官盖比·伍德 (Gaby Wood) 分享的研究结果，显示虽然英国大多数通用小说的买家年龄在 60 岁以上，但翻译小说的主要买家年龄在 25 到 34 岁之间——这正是品牌和广告商最渴望的群体。

而且这些读者的翻译小说购买量比以往任何时候都多：去年英国售出 3.8m 本，高于 2016 年的 2.9m 本。这是市场中一个虽小但意义重大的部分，而且是一个伍德理所当然想要大声宣传的上升趋势。因此，打开这本新的《企鹅国际短篇小说集》，读到其序言并非以胜利或庆祝的精神开始，而是带着一种道歉的基调，这多少令人失望。

也许在美国（本书编辑所在地）情况有所不同，尽管我怀疑，至少在沿海地区，情况与这里大抵相同。无论如何，一个阅读一本主要由翻译小说组成的精装文集的人，难道不是已经支持这种形式了吗？共同编辑及序言共同作者 Rabih Alameddine 和 John Freeman 显然不这么认为。“作为美国人，”他们开始写道，“……我们认为美国就像哥白尼之前的地球一样，是宇宙的中心，一切都围绕我们旋转。其他国家的作家是否关注不同的问题？来自世界各地的故事能告诉我们关于自身、关于人性、关于整个世界的什么？”

他们勾勒出这样一段过去：“长期以来，国际文集中 75% 的故事是美国或英国的，这被视为常态。如果这本书需要进一步‘国际化’，编辑们就加入爱尔兰故事。如果这本书需要感觉更具异域风情，就加入一篇澳大利亚故事。为了确保这本书被视为完全国际化，或许可以撒上一些无处不在的博尔赫斯、卡夫卡和加西亚·马尔克斯（三位我们最喜爱的作家，但拜托！）。注意，不能放太多，否则文集可能会变得太咸。”

也许问题在于试图将一个令人赞赏的异质选集过度概括。

我觉得没有什么可挑剔的，除了当好奇心驱使我去寻找这些过时的文集——名义上是“国际”的——却发现它们如同幻影一般。以 1986 年由丹尼尔·哈尔本（Daniel Halpern）编辑的《故事的艺术》（The Art of the Tale）为例——该书在英国出版时名为《企鹅国际短篇小说集》（The Penguin Book of International Short Stories），它在很大程度上是阿拉梅丁（Alameddine）和弗里曼（Freeman）这部文集的直接前身。诚然，哈尔本选编的 82 篇故事中有大量出自美国和英国作家之手，但翻译作品的比例大约在 50% 左右。在他的续作《小说之艺术》（The Art of the Story，2000年）中，收录了阿拉梅丁和弗里曼选集的其中三篇，比例也大致相同。回溯到 1958, 60% 的《兰德尔·贾雷尔故事集》（Randall Jarrell's Book of Stories）是翻译作品。而这部新选集的编辑们，似乎在为解决一个根本不存在的问题而自我庆贺。

无论采取什么样的方法论，编纂一部文集都是一项艰巨的任务。正如贾雷尔在序言中所指出的，这“就像在衣橱里开动物园：单是一头长颈鹿所占据的空间就超过了整个收藏集的容量”。阿拉梅丁和弗里曼给自己设定了一条限制规则：排除已故作者。他们仅在两种情况下打破了这一规则：一是定居格拉斯哥的南非作家佐伊·维孔（Zoë Wicomb），她在书稿定稿期间去世；二是智利的佩德罗·莱姆贝尔（Pedro Lemebel），理由仅仅是“我们两个都不喜欢规则，即便是我们自己的规则也不行”。我认为，将莱姆贝尔纳入其中打破了另一条更基本的规则，但对此我稍后详述。

在很大程度上，这本书带来的沉浸感是任何读者所能期望的。从冈希尔德·厄耶豪格（Gunnhild Øyehaug）在《苹果》（Apples）中精妙的嵌套故事，到舒拉斯蒂克·穆卡松加（Scholastique Mukasonga）在《牛之赞歌》（Cattle Praise Song）中承载深沉记忆的叙述（探讨了卢旺达种族灭绝前后图西族牧牛者的生活），再到刁蚪（Diao Dou）在《蹲点》（Squatting）中描写荒诞的市政官僚机构（在故事中，爱管闲事的写信者建议用日益离奇的方法来降低犯罪率）。我发现自己正急切地翻阅页码，好奇接下来的旅程将把我带向何方。

然而，尽管选作整体上非常出色，但呈现方式却有问题。序言给人一种仓促完成的家庭作业之感。你可能会抗议说，重要的是故事而非前言，但正是这里建立的框架，使得整本书在接下来的部分中一直在挣扎地试图摆脱它。

首先，让我们看看这个论点：“寓言、奇谈和奇异事件再次回到了国际短篇小说的中心”。我理解将此次选集视为一种关于该体裁现状的报告的愿望，但如果其中一些作品首次发表于 2000 年（村上春树的《超级青蛙拯救东京》）、2001 年（奥尔加·托卡尔丘克的《世界上最丑的女人》）、1997 年（韩江的《我的女人的果实》，这正是她小说《素食者》的种子）、1982 年（萨尔曼·鲁什迪的《自由电台》），甚至 1978 年（贾迈卡·金凯德的《女孩》），那么这样做是否现实？

我们被告知，非现实主义故事是“最有趣创作发生的地方。在我们遇到的最优秀的故事中，极少有能被称作传统意义上的现实主义的。”然而，根据我的计算，这些故事中有超过一半是现实主义的；也就是说，它们发生在可被识别为我们所处的世界中，并没有出现像书中其他作品那样死掉的机器人讲述者、愤怒的幽灵或化为树木的女性。阿拉梅丁自己的优秀贡献之作《七月战争》（The July War）将背景设定在遭受以色列猛烈攻击的贝鲁特（这意味着背景可能是 1982, 2006 或今天），由于其比书中一些超现实作品要有趣得多，这在很大程度上削弱了他的论点。

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书籍

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02.08.26

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也许问题在于试图对一个极其多元的精选集进行过度概括。从托卡尔丘克（Tokarczuk）的哥特式拼贴，到特德·姜（Ted Chiang）那充满忧郁哲学气息的《呼吸》（Exhalation）所描绘的遥远未来（或或许是遥远的过去），再到亚历山大·赫蒙（Aleksandar Hemon）由 33 个童年记忆片段组成的《岛屿》（Islands），其中的乐趣正在于它们的迥异与多样。

尽管如此，仍能识别出一些小规模的主题聚集：穆卡松加（Mukasonga）的《牛之赞歌》（Cattle Praise Song）和印尼作家埃卡·库尔尼亚万（Eka Kurniawan）那令人不寒而栗的《腐烂的恶臭》（Rotten Stench）涉及种族灭绝；威科姆（Wicomb）的《你在开普敦不会迷路》（You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town）和巴勒斯坦作家阿丹尼亚·希布利（Adania Shibli）的《一个野心勃勃且心地善良的左翼分子》（An Ambitious Good-Hearted Leftist）涉及种族隔离；而埃德维格·丹蒂卡特（Edwidge Danticat）背景设在海地的《夜晚之女》（Night Women），以及塔希玛·安南（Tahmima Anam）描述孟加拉国一家服装厂中三个嫁给同一个男人的女工之间竞争的《服装》（Garments），则探讨了贫困女性在世上生存的艰辛尝试。

这就是短篇小说能够实现的：即使是单作者的集集，也能在风格和主题上进行大胆跳跃，更不用说一部编译了 34 篇作品的选集了。然而，尽管阿拉梅丁（Alameddine）和弗里曼（Freeman）表示他们希望“扩大一种关于故事如何传递快感的感知——即只有短篇小说才能提供的这种复杂的满足感”（强调为笔者所加），但其中五篇故事其实是小说摘录，而另一篇，即莱姆贝尔（Lemebel）的《罗巴·拉马尔的最后一个吻》（Loba Lamar's Last Kiss），则是一篇随笔。部分摘录，如玛丽·恩迪亚耶（Marie NDiaye）的《好丹尼斯》（The Good Denis），可以作为独立作品运作。但莫言的《蛙》，诺娜·费尔南德斯（Nona Fernández）的《圣地亚哥的启示》（The Illumination of Santiago）以及卡罗尔·本西蒙（Carol Bensimon）的《火花》（Sparks）都感觉像是某个更大整体的一部分。文字很出色，但如果能包含像北爱尔兰的利娅丹·尼·昆（Liadan Ní Chuinn）这样的人的作品就太棒了，她的 2025 年作品集《所有人仍在此》（Every One Still Here）是一部开创之作。

尽管如此，这仍然是一个策划精良的选集，即便编辑们似乎并不太清楚如何对其定性。虽然它也将和我的其他选集一起被上架，与那些关于鬼魂、足球和爱情的故事放在一起，但它已经达到了目的。下一次当我看到刁蚪（Diao Dou）或赞塔·恩库马内（Zanta Nkumane）、林内亚·阿克塞尔松（Linnea Axelsson）或拉比·阿拉梅丁（Rabih Alameddine）本人的作品时，我会意识到这些曾向我开启的世界。就此而言，抛开那些混乱不计，这本书就像一本护照。

请通过 observershop.co.uk 订购《企鹅国际短篇小说集》（The Penguin Book of the International Short Story），售价 £27（比建议零售价低 10%）。

周日诗篇

在凯恩戈姆山

Kathleen Jamie

我们在无云的天空下走下山坡：草地鹨，闪烁着虹彩的甲虫，一两只蜥蜴迅速地钻进茂密的植被之中。那是如此炎热的一个下午，我们很高兴终于抵达了那条两岸长满没药林的河流，在那里洗浴。这些是我们天生便习以为常的确定性：这里，一把乌果 the crowberries；那里，在高高的冰斗中，支撑整个夏天而存活的雪顶花……而我们将传承什么？也许并不多，除了我们在薄暮时分唱起的老式歌曲：姑娘，你愿意去吗……事实上，我们现在就可以唱起来，每个人都知道副歌：我们将一起前行……但山上的百里香正燃如烈火，还有我们美丽的紫色石楠。

Kathleen Jamie 是前任苏格兰宫廷诗人 (makar)。她的最新诗集《Keelie Hawk: Poems in Scots》由 Picador 出版。

插画：Chris Riddell

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图书

小说

一个崩溃之女的肖像

在备受赞誉的处女作《焦糖》(Burnt Sugar) 之后，阿夫尼·多希 (Avni Doshi) 用简洁的散文和令人疲惫的隐喻，详细描述了一段婚姻的真正破裂。作者：艾伦·皮尔森-哈格 (Ellen Peirson-Hagger)

《第一宫》(The First House)

阿夫尼·多希 (Avni Doshi)

Hamish Hamilton 出版，£16.99，共 240 页

“当我的丈夫走进我们共同生活了 13 年的卧室，告诉我他不想再维持这段婚姻时，我伸手摸向自己的脖子，”美国作家阿夫尼·多希的第二部小说就这样开始了。“我的头不见了。我的丈夫悄悄地把它砍掉了。”对于一个关于女性崩溃的令人不安的故事来说，这是一个极具冲击力的开篇，尽管书中没有其他内容能如此吸引人。

《第一宫》紧随《焦糖》之后，后者曾入围 2020 年布克奖短名单，讲述了安塔拉 (Antara) 必须照顾患有阿尔茨海默症且病情恶化的母亲塔拉 (Tara) 的故事。但安塔拉并不喜欢她的母亲，因为母亲在她年幼时忽视了她；多希用极其洗练的文字讲述了这段紧张的关系，以及安塔拉必须为母亲做那些她母亲从未为她做过的事。

在这部第二部小说中，核心关系是这位未具名的叙述者——一名居住在美国郊区、具有印度血统的写作新人——与她自身的關係。因为尽管多希记录了她在婚姻破裂后的日子和周数——追踪她现在的前夫何时想见或不想见他们的两个女儿，并试图理解他们关系中的裂痕是如何扩大——但她的主要关注点始终在自己身上。

毫无疑问，她遭受了痛苦。她的丈夫控制欲强，尤其是在金钱方面，且为人残酷。“我的丈夫告诉我洗碗时要戴手套，因为握住我的手会让他感到不快，”多希写道，这种平铺直叙的陈述反而让他的冷酷显得更加肆无忌惮。

但她那干脆的句子却被大量掩盖故事的隐喻所缠绕。首先是蝉；在丈夫离开她后不久，叙述者注意到邻居们正用网把树包裹起来，以保护它们免受即将出没的昆虫侵害。这提醒她，她的结婚纪念日也快到了，因为蝉——她在 13 年前的婚礼当天将其误认为蝗虫——在那时成群地降临。这一意象并不含蓄：这段婚姻从一开始就注定失败，而当她在分手后试图重新整合自我时，她必须警惕另一场侵害。

蝉成了一种执念——而且并非唯一的执念。标题中的“第一宫”不仅指夫妇俩的家，还指占星学中的第一宫，即“自我宫”。“在我的星盘中，土星落在第一宫，”女主角在关系初期告诉她的丈夫，这意味着她很少觉得拿自己开的玩笑好笑。由于痴迷于占星术，她花费数小时研究自己的星盘以及家人和朋友的星盘。反复提及月亮、行星以及两人的星盘是否意味着他们命中注定在一起，很快就让人感到厌烦。

还有更多：狄安娜 (Diana) 被频繁提及，因为叙述者被邻居家花园里罗马女神的雕像所困扰。印度神话的故事也在她的脑海中盘旋。多希的意图当然是为了传达叙述者与自我、女儿以及任何现实之间的脱节，以及她渴望抓住某种更宏大、更持久之物的冲动。但结果是，尽管这部小说篇幅短小，却因各种想法的堆砌而显得过于沉重，且这些想法没有一个能真正揭示这个人物的内心。

考虑到多希（Doshi）在文中点缀的关于家庭故事的诱人线索，这尤其令人失望：她与父母之间存在巨大的紧张关系，以及一个她长期不与之联系的姐姐，而后者在青少年时期也经历过一段疯狂期。这里具备一部扣人心弦的小说的雏形，但切入方式感觉完全不对。

在《观察家报》商店订购《第一座房子》（The First House），价格为 £14.44（比建议零售价优惠 15%）。

本周平装书推荐

作者：Chris Power

卡罗琳·布莱克伍德（Caroline Blackwood）这部关于在一座疯狂且忧郁的乡村大宅中成长的轻小说曾入围 1977 年布克奖，是一部带有黑色幽默的佳作。

Great Granny Webster 卡罗琳·布莱克伍德 著 Virago 出版，£10.99，共 160 页

1977 年布克奖评选委员会主席菲利普·拉金（Philip Larkin）曾威胁说，如果保罗·斯科特（Paul Scott）的《继续留下》（Staying On）没赢，他就跳窗自杀。结果该书获胜了。拉金同样欣赏入围名单上的卡罗琳·布莱克伍德的作品《曾祖母韦伯斯特》（Great Granny Webster），但认为它不配得奖，因为这部作品更像回忆录而非小说。布莱克伍德的作品总是徘徊在中间地带。她的第一本书《在我发现的所有事物中》（For All That I Found There，1973 年）将故事与散文混合，分为三个部分：事实、虚构与阿尔斯特。

同样的划分也适用于本书：

《曾祖母韦伯斯特》的一部分情节发生在阿尔斯特，但即便这本书的事实成分多于虚构成分，它依然利用小说的形式，让自己免于承担传统回忆录所需的繁琐背景铺陈。相反，我们得到了四个章节，时间起点紧接第二次世界大战之后，跨越了叙述者生命中的 15 年，即 14 岁到 29 岁。在这些章节中，令人恐惧的严苛的曾祖母韦伯斯特与她轻佻、热爱享乐的孙女拉维尼亚（Lavinia）被并置在一起；叙述者已故的父亲与曾祖母韦伯斯特（对他而言是韦伯斯特奶奶）之间神秘的联系被探讨，而叙述者祖母的疯狂状态也得到了描述。

这种疯狂主要在邓马丁大厅（Dunmartin Hall）那阴森、漏雨的迷宫中上演。这座阿尔斯特的庄园与亚述府（House of Usher）、布莱庄园（Bly Estate）和萨蒂斯府（Satis House）一样，是文学作品中伟大的阴森大宅之一。叙述者的祖母逃离现实——她可能出现在一座被荆棘覆盖的小岛上，“将血淋淋的赤脚在冰冷的石板灰色水中晃荡”，或者躲在空心的树干里，或者在阴冷的走廊中潜行，“那里的墙纸正成大卷地浸透并剥落”。这赋予了本书一种威胁性的奇幻感。这是布莱克伍德偏爱的语调：在她最后一本书（一部关于沃利斯·辛普森的传记肖像）的作者前言中，她将其称为“对神话致命影响的考察，一个黑暗的童话”。

而像任何成功的童话一样，《曾祖母韦伯斯特》具有毫不留情的模式化特征。标题人物与拉维尼亚互为明暗：前者僵硬地坐在一把“似乎从未为人类使用而设计”的椅子上；而后者，显然并未因近期的自杀企图而削弱对享乐的热爱，她懒洋洋地躺在床上吃狗饼干，消磨时间，直到她能带侄女出去吃午餐（“大量的夏布利白葡萄酒和牡蛎”）。曾祖母韦伯斯特的女儿逃离了她，先是跨过爱尔兰海，然后陷入疯狂；而她的孙子——叙述者的父亲——则在宝贵的军队假期里，乘坐缓慢且不可靠的战争时期火车前往霍夫（Hove）看望她。

为了寻找答案，叙述者找到了汤米·雷德克利夫（Tommy Redcliffe），他是她父亲的朋友，也是战争的受害者（失去了一条腿）。汤米曾造访邓马丁大厅，并描绘了一幅令人记忆深刻且糟糕的画面：肮脏的地下室厨房及其产出的“焦糊”野雉，醉醺醺的管家和男仆，以及这座房子的幽灵女主人。虽然这部薄薄的小说充斥着故事，但解释却如同叙述者在小说结尾最后一次令人难忘地造访霍夫时，笼罩在风景中的薄雾一样稀薄。

我希望这是少有的不列举布莱克伍德那些名门丈夫和情人的作品。

布莱克伍德几乎将这种意义的缺失转化为一种美学选择，但由于人们感觉到她无法将人物挖掘到一定深度，导致这本书在“非常优秀”与“伟大”之间的鸿沟面前，停在了近端。

布莱克伍德作为一名作家的成就往往被她的传记所掩盖。正如珍妮·迪斯基曾写道：“布莱克伍德的贵族气质、不快乐的童年、繁忙的性生活、与艺术和文学巨擘的联系，以及庸俗的酗酒习惯，确实让她成为了一个极具吸引力的研究对象。”我希望这篇关于布莱克伍德的文章能够成为少数几篇不列举她的名门丈夫与情人们，也不地毯式记录其家庭生活的混乱与肮脏的作品。请先阅读这部小说，然后再深入了解那些琐事。

在《观察家报》商店订购《伟大的韦伯斯特曾祖母》，售价 £9.89 (比建议零售价低 10%)

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图书

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

29

弗兰克·米勒 (Frank Miller)

“80年代的好莱坞很疯狂，我曾迷失方向”

这位资深漫画创作者谈到了蝙蝠侠的乐趣、用牙刷绘画，以及新版《罪恶之城》将如何带来巨大惊喜。 作者：Killian Fox

作为过去 50 年最具影响力的漫画创作者之一，弗兰克·米勒 (Frank Miller) 1957 年出生于马里兰州，在佛蒙特州农村长大。1976 年，他搬到纽约市追求漫画事业，并在为漫威重启《夜魔》系列时获得了突破。在 20 多岁时，他在《黑暗骑士回归》中将蝙蝠侠重新塑造为一个暴力且忧郁的五十多岁中年人。米勒还以黑色电影风格的《罪恶之城》系列而闻名，他与导演罗伯特·罗德里格兹 (Robert Rodriguez) 将其改编为电影；此外还有由扎克·施奈德 (Zack Snyder) 执导的斯巴达史诗《300》。现在，米勒在他的新书《Push the Wall》中讲述了他的生活和工作故事。

是什么促使你写这本书？这并不是一部纯粹的回忆录。不，它是一个结合体——既是一本讲故事的指南，也是我对所处之惊人小世界的描绘。我认为这与我最重要的导师、艺术家尼尔·亚当斯 (Neal Adams) 有关，他帮助我开启了职业生涯，并在我的生活中扮演了严师的角色。在我取得一定成功后，我问他我该如何报答他对我的帮助。他毫不犹豫地回答道：“为下一代而做吧。”这本书就是我尝试履行这一承诺的产物。

你最初为漫威和 DC 的超级英雄系列写作，之后才分支创建自己的世界，但在这些限制下工作是一个有用的第一步吗？噢，是的。我被扔进了一些以前从未遇到过的需要解决的问题中。我在特定的指令下，面对着一套由许多我甚至从未听过的角色组成的神话体系工作，并学会如何在一个更加严谨的环境中工作。

当你被委任重新构思世界上最受喜爱的超级英雄之一——蝙蝠侠时，你还只有 20 多岁。压力一定很大吧。我不记得有过任何恐惧。关于我想把它带向何方，我充满了想法。那大多是热情和一种压倒性的喜悦感。蝙蝠侠最神奇的地方在于它的多面性。你可以找到不同的方式让它奏效。每隔一段时间，当我看到《黑暗骑士回归》中的很多元素在这么多年后的[蝙蝠侠]电影中依然出现时，我都会心一笑。

在书中你列出了你的绘画工具——其中竟然包括一把牙刷。那有什么用？

我喜欢牙刷的一点是，无论我是用它将黑色油墨溅在白色表面上，还是将白色颜料溅在黑色背景上，它都能给画面带来质感和氛围，但最重要的是一种美妙的混乱元素——那种不可预测性让图像变得生动且富有生命力。

像之前的许多东海岸作家一样，你在 20 世纪 80 年代末被好莱坞吸引。

那时很疯狂。非常有趣。我在一个大得多的球场里玩，显然面对的是一个大得多的观众群。但老板也多得多了。

你提到了“名声带来的激烈后果”，以及搬到洛杉矶后陷入低谷。发生了什么？

我迷失了方向。恐怕我更多地卷入了自我意识，而忽略了作为一名创作者的使命，导致我失去了对事情的掌控。但正是通过讲故事，我才能够重新找回自我和我的目标。

有人曾问你是否是保守派，你说“不，我是自由意志主义者”。现在还是这样吗？ 只能说我是一个独立思考者。你知道，现在的保守派意味着与一代人之前截然不同的东西。所以我寻找自己的道路。

在你作品中反复出现的一个主题——尤其是在《罪之城》（Sin City）中——就是那些虽然有缺陷但目标坚定、不顾一切地清理街道污垢的犯罪斗士。这种迷恋的根源是什么？我一直很喜欢我的英雄，从超人、蝙蝠侠到佐罗。而且我一直热爱犯罪故事。我对黑色电影了解得越多，就越意识到那些东西与我产生了极强的共鸣。

书中有这样一种感觉：对你来说，讲述故事不仅仅是一份职业，而是一生的使命。这是我人格中不可或缺的一部分。

自从职业生涯开始以来，你的工作日发生了怎样的变化？变得稍微规律了一些。我的意思是，刚开始的时候，我工作到昏倒为止，然后只要能醒过来就继续工作。但随着时间的推移，我建立了一个规律得多的时间表——每天 8 到 10 小时——从而变得高效得多，在工作时也更加警觉。

随着人工智能的入侵，你是感到兴奋还是有其他感受？其他感受。起初我觉得它是一个神奇的神秘盒子。然后我觉得它是创造力的终结。现在我认为，最终每个人都会对此淡定下来。它的用途是有限的。它不是万灵药，也不是神。它会很像个人电脑，它会改变事物，但我们不必全部顶礼膜拜。

你现在在创作什么？ 一部新的《罪之城》。它将大不相同。关于它的一切都将是惊喜，包括类型。

这太令人心痒了。你能给我一些更具体的信息吗？ 我的目的就是为了吊胃口，先生。好吧，我告诉你这个：这是一部西部片，由马夫（Marv）的曾祖父担任主角。回顾来看，黑色电影类型源于西部片类型，所以从某种意义上说，我在让它完成一个圆环——这是一部彻头彻尾的西部黑色电影。

“推墙”（Push the wall）是你给年轻讲述者的关键指令之一。你现在还在“推墙”吗？ 当然。这就像在问我是否还是我一样。我不希望变得无聊。

所以你需要一些可以对抗的东西，以保持兴趣？ 这就是这头野兽的本性。 艺术生活必须如此。

法兰克·米勒（Frank Miller）的《Push the Wall》由 Canongate 出版 (126)。在 observershop.co.uk 购买可省 10%

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30

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

谜题

Laura Cumming 的猜图游戏

本周问题：

这张图（上方）是谁？

答案将在下周日公布。

上周的细节是为了向世界杯致敬，出自西班牙艺术家 Joaquin Sorolla 最温柔且最受欢迎的杰作《母亲》(Mother)，约 1895-1900 年。画中描绘了他的妻子兼灵感缪斯 Clotilde 以及他们刚出生的女儿 Elena，两人像漂浮在白色海洋般的床单上的两颗头。母亲深情地看着熟睡的婴儿。Sorolla 通常描绘西班牙的阳光洒在海滩、花园和闷热的午后派对上，他的笔触华丽且充满活力。但在这里，他的处理极其简练。母亲在照看她的孩子——这颗灿烂的海之新星时，占据了全部的注意力。

电影连连看

每周我们展示三张剧照。请写出相关的电影名称以及将它们联系在一起的女演员。

出题人：Killian Fox

答案见第 31 页

Everyman 填字游戏 No. 4,163

横向

1 研讨会 (Seminar) 不连贯：这接近于一场灾难 (4,4) 8 美国人离开破旧的 Gasthaus，感到惊恐 (6) 9 决斗者的请求：给我一点时间 (3,6,6) 11 花环将象征夏威夷，最终会吗？ (3) 12 秋季时颤抖，感谢年轻的君主 (11) 13 我能离开去寻找西班牙庄园吗？ (8) 14 傻瓜陷入可怕的不确定性中 (5) 17 在选择前菜时，油中浸泡的专辑、柠檬交织……？ (5) 19 南美洲人以希区柯克风格写一部色情电影的开头 (8) 22 挖掘出给米兰足球运动员（以及一名来自利物浦的球员）的辱骂 (11) 24 闻到一条蛇 (3) 28 制作关于气流运动的电影，Gosses？ (6,3,6) 26 与点燃的伯爵一起练习拳击 (6) 27 你可能会发现毯子的地方，你预期会失去的地方？ (8)

纵向

1 给傻瓜的缎带 (6) 2 咖啡在冲泡，香气宜人 (9) 3 演奏 Artemis 的音乐家 (7) 4 也许是配有冰淇淋的威士忌，但没有逗留太久 (5,3,5) 6 带有无聊感的庆祝活动是高贵的类型 (7) 7 恐惧长触手 (5)

8 一份苦艾酒和浓缩咖啡，在南美洲某地 (3,5) 10 如果我努力工作，我会得到一块小奖牌 (6,7) 18 拳击手的受伤：耳垂需要治疗 (9) 16 幼儿被五位爱好者簇拥 (8) 18 与美国士兵一同抵达，举起火把 (7) 20 回到东伦敦摧毁海洛因 (7) 21 倾向于压制过时的 Everyman 笑话，主要是某种不合口味的东西 (3,3) 23 在牙买加音乐的款待下，修理捷克车 (5)

姓名

地址

邮编

Sisters 能够通过在线方式参加我们的填字游戏竞赛：www.observer.co.uk / puzzles 或发送电子邮件至：competitions@observer.co.uk 鼓励无纸化提交；仍接受邮寄参赛。

随机抽选的五位正确解答者将每人获得一张 £15 的图书礼券。

如欲参加 Everyman 抽奖，请通过在线或邮寄方式提交正确答案至：Everyman No. 4,163, The Observer, 22 Berners Street, London W1T 3LP

电子邮件参赛必须在主题栏中包含与印刷版一致的填字游戏名称和编号（例如“Everyman No. 4,163”）。没有正确主题的参赛将不被接受。仅限 18 岁及以上的英国居民。每人最多参赛一次。在线参赛的截止日期为出版后的周六。邮寄参赛必须在出版后的周六或之前盖戳，且必须在谜题出版后十天内送达（即出版后次周的周三前）。获胜者将在出版两周后的周日公布。

欲了解完整条款与条件，请访问：

https: / observer.co.uk / puzzles / everyman / article / crossword-prize-draws

(Note: 4,163,)

规则与申请

如需参加 Azed 抽奖，请通过以下方式提交正确答案： 在线提交：https: / observer.co.uk / puzzles 发送电子邮件至 competitions@observer.co.uk 或邮寄至： Azed No. 2,782, The Observer, 22 Berners Street, London W1T 3LP

电子邮件参赛条目必须包含与印刷版一致的填字游戏标题（例如 "Azed No. 2,782"）。不含标题和编号的条目将不被接受。鼓励无纸化参赛。仅限 18 岁及以上的英国居民。每人最多提交一份条目。在线提交的截止日期为发布后的周六；邮寄条目的邮戳日期不得晚于发布后的周六，且必须在谜题发布后十天内送达（即发布后次周的周三）。三份随机抽选的正确答案将 each win a £25 图书代金券。Azed No. 2,782 的获胜者将于 2026 年 06 月 9 日（周日）公布。

欲了解完整条款与条件，请访问： https: / observer.co.uk / puzzles / exereman / article / crossword-prize-draws

Azed No. 2,781 中奖者

DK Arnett, Grantham, Lincs

A Brash, Glasgow

J Smulles, Ruddington, Notts

Killer by Godefridus

适用常规 Sodotus 规则，但灰色线框内单元格中的数字之和应等于角上的数值。在由灰色线组成的每个形状内，数字不得重复。

Cinema Connect 答案

《The British》和《Harmer》（两部均为今年评论）以及《Wicked Little Letters》(2023) 均由 Jessie Buckley 主演。

Chess by Jonathan Speelman

图表 1

Block 走了 27...Qb67。为什么这是一个将优势拱手让给白方的昏招？

在去年的 7 月，博达纳·西瓦南丹 (Bodhana Sivanandan) 在英国锦标赛中击败了彼得·威尔斯 (Peter Wells)，在庆祝 10 岁生日不到五个月后，成为了在正式比赛中击败特级大师的最年轻女孩。如今 11 岁（她将在明年 3 月满 12 岁）的她又取得了更好的成绩，在艾克斯-普罗旺斯的一场公开赛首轮中击败了一名 2600+ 分的特级大师——法国青少年马尔克-安德里亚·莫里齐 (Marc'Andria Maurizzi)。

2600 分一直被认为是顶尖特级大师的门槛，而莫里齐目前是世界 20 岁以下青少年排名第九，距离前 100 名仅差几个名次。这是一场精彩的胜利，博达纳在这场实力强劲的公开赛中最终取得了 5 / 9 的成绩，表现分高达 2463，在对阵另外四名特级大师时取得了 15 / 4 的结果，并获得了她的第一个国际大师规范分。她是历史上最年轻的达成此成就的女孩，还需要再获得两个规范分即可获得国际大师 (IM) 称号。

与其他活动一样，国际象棋的进步很少是均匀的，而是由平台期、有时甚至是低谷期以及爆发期组成的。博达纳今年已经经历了一次爆发，而最近这次结果，尤其是与特级大师在五盘棋中打平，表明她正在进入或已经进入了另一个水平。这对她和英国象棋界（更具体地说是英格兰象棋界，因为在国际棋联 FIDE 中，英格兰、苏格兰和威尔士设有独立的协会，还有一个全爱尔兰象棋联盟）来说都是极好的消息。

说到国际棋联，其主席，俄罗斯人阿尔卡季·德沃科维奇 (Arkady Dvorkovich) 在受到欧盟和瑞士的制裁后辞职，现任副主席、前世界冠军维什瓦纳森·阿南德 (Viswanathan Anand) 代理其职务。9 月 27 日，在萨马尔罕举行的国际棋联大会及奥林匹克赛事期间将举行选举，目前已提交三份候选名单，其中包括德国企业家扬-亨里克·比特纳 (Jan Henric Buettner) 竞选主席，马尔科姆·佩恩 (Malcolm Pein) 为其副主席候选人。

在图表 1 中，27...Bd4 本可以让 Block 保持舒适的优势，但 27...Qb67 导致了 28 b4! Qxb4。这是强制性的，因为如果 28...Qc6+ 29 Kg1 Nx4 30 Nx4 Bxb2 31 Nxb2，马没有退路且丢子。29 Nd5 Qxb2 是唯一的机会，因为如果 29...Qx4! 30 Nxf6+ 或 29...Qe4+ 30 Qxe4 Nx4 31 Nxf6+ 30 Rxb2 Bxb2 31 Nb6，Block 以车和象交换后，虽然在实战中仍有机会，但由于位置太散，无法避免进一步的损失。31...Rc7 32 Qb4 Bg7 33 Qxg4 Nd7 34 Nc4? 34 Qd1 甚至更好，此时 34...Nf8 35 c4 使白方几乎完全掌控局面。34...Nf6 34...b5 看起来机会更多。35 Qe2 Nd5 且 36 Nd6 Rd7 37 Ne4 Nc3? 这让白方更容易应对。38 Nxc3 Bxc3。

图表 2

39 Qc4。此时莫里齐投子，因为在 39...Bf6 40 Qc8+ Rd8 41 Qxb7 Rd2 42 Qxe6 Rxc2（42...Bd4 43 Qc4 Rxf2+ 44 Kh3 使得白方拥有两个通路兵）之后，白方至少能以象换回一个 a poem。

公开赛是产生类似下面这两盘精彩小局的肥沃土壤：

Panneerselvam Iniyan

v Benny Alzenberg

艾克斯-普罗旺斯 2026

宁格洛-印度防御

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 e3 0-0 5 a3 Bxc3+ 6 bxc3 d6 7 Ne2 e5 8 Ng3 Re8 9 f3 Nc6 10 e4 b6 11 Be2 Na5 12 0-0 Ba6? 诱人但给了白方在王翼出手的机会。13 Nf5 Nd7 14 f4 exf4 15 Bxf4 Nf8 16 h4 控制 g5 且准备进一步推进。16...Bc8 准备兑掉马，但已经太晚了。

图表 3

17 Nxg7! Kxg7 18 Bg5 16 强制性，因为 如果 18...Qd7 19 Bf6+ Kg8 20 Qd2 Re6 21 Qg5+ Ng6 22 h5 等。19 Bxf6+ Qxf6 20 Rxf6 Kxf6 21 Qd2 Kg7 22 Qg5+ Ng6 或 ...2...Kh8 23 Qf6+ Kg8 24 Bh5 Be6 25 d5 23 h5 Rf8 24 Rf1 Rxf1+ 25 Bxf1 Block 将 损失超过一个马，因此他投子。

Dominik Horvath v Paweł Sowiński

艾克斯-普罗旺斯 2026

拒绝后翼弃兵

1 c4 e6 2 Nc3 d5 3 d4 Nf6 4 Bg5 dxc4 5 e3 c5 6 Bxf6 Qxf6 7 d5 exd5 8 Nxd5 Qd8 9 Bxc4 Bd6 10 Qh5 0-0 11 Nf3 Be6 12 0-0-0 h6 13 g4 f6

意迪希语侮辱词

意迪希语对英语产生了强有力的影响。任何曾经 schlepped（费力地搬运）去商店、在派对上 schmoozed（套近乎）、在暑热中 shvitzed（出汗）或 noshed（吃）贝果的人，都在享受意迪希语。虽然这种语言因其微妙之处、诗意和丰富的文化历史而备受赞颂，但人们最爱的还是它的侮辱词。像 kluzz（笨拙的人）、putz（傻瓜）、schiong（大阴茎）、schlump（邋遢的人）和 schmuck（混蛋）这类词对许多人来说并不陌生——但那个在派对上让你厌烦的 nudnick（烦人精）又是如何呢？或者那个无名小卒 nebish（卑微的人）、迟钝的 schmendrik（傻瓜）、爱发牢骚的 kvetcher（抱怨者）、轻信的 schnook（容易上当的人）以及醉醺醺的 shikker（酒鬼）？这些都是顶级的侮辱词，且读起来很有趣。

然而，正是意迪希语的咒骂让这种语言变得鲜活起来。“愿你的敌人跳舞在你的坟墓上时扭伤脚踝”……“愿你的肚脐里长出甜菜，好让你尿出波士克汤！”……“愿你被省长邀请参加盛宴，然后你对着他的脸打个嗝。”这些复杂的咒骂将机智与愤怒结合在一起，具有一种难以逾越的文学特质。

意迪希语的咒骂可以是简单的（“愿你变黄变绿”），也可以是复杂的（“愿你吞下一把雨伞，且它在你的肚子里撑开”）。而且它们可以像一顿完整的周五晚餐那样丰盛，例如：“愿你每天吃洋葱切肝、盐渍鲱鱼、配团子的鸡汤、配辣根的烤鲤鱼、蔬菜炖肉、latkes（炸土豆饼）、柠檬茶——并愿你每一口都噎住！”但我最喜欢的是那些能讲故事的咒骂。既然你可以咒骂某人被阳台砸在头上，或者愿他们长寿但长个木头脑袋和玻璃眼，或者愿他们被糖果车碾过以便享受一个甜蜜的死亡，为什么要把人咒骂到地狱里去呢？Oy vey（天呐）！

Joshua Blackburn 是 $\textit{The Language-Lover's Lexipedia}$ (Bloomsbury, £14.99) 的作者。可在 observershop.co.uk 以 £13.49 订购。适用配送费。

金发姑娘 (Goldilocks) 答案 第 38 号

S / L / A / B / S / O / M / E

T U / N / D / O / M / E / A / D B / A / C / K / R / O / M / S D / E / N O / B / S / E / S / I / O / N P / L / E / A / B / A T / E / A / L / Y / E / T S / U / M / S / T / Y / E

扫描以订阅 The Puzzle Edit —— 由谜题编辑 Caitlin O'Kane 提供的每周时事通讯。

金发姑娘填字游戏 第 36 号

不过太难，不过太简单，恰到好处。

金发姑娘线索不包含字数提示；在中小规模的填字游戏中，这只会让本就紧凑的谜题变得更直截了当。乐趣在于发散思维、对格线的观察以及纯正的现代英国俚语。订阅 observer.co.uk 即可在线游玩金发姑娘存档。

横向

• 1 平静的
• 7 奥地利甜点
• 8 哈里·斯泰尔斯 (Harry Styles) 的冠军单曲
• 9 它们在第一次约会时可能会显而易见
• 10 美国对应于英国卫生安全局 (UKHSA) 的机构
• 11 “__ zwei, drei...”
• 12 “等一下”
• 13 现场直播者的议题
• 14 __ 船长，陆军军官及南极探险家
• 15 比如在 Casa Amor 或 Vibe Club 的一个人
• 17 缝纫工具箱必需品
• 18 A-level 考试的部分

纵向

• 1 炖牛肉 (Goulash) 和 浓汤 (gumbo)，两者皆是
• 2 比如，打错字
• 3 有时很难从中脱身
• 4 教导

• 5 也许更深入细节

• 6 安置在座位上？

• 7 亮片
• 8 秘密使用的把手？
• 9 像公猫或老虎一样
• 12 涉水而行
• 14 唯一
• 16 计算先驱 洛夫莱斯 (Lovelace)

Godefridus 的大苹果数独

| | | | | 1 | | | |

8 / 9 / 7 2 / 3 4 / 9 7 / 6 6 / 1 / 8 | | | | 4 | | | | | 9 / 3 / 6 / 7 1 / 7 / 9

每行、每列以及 3+3 区域均包含 1st 至 1st，此外还有一个额外的 twist——四个高亮的 3+3 蓝色方格共同组成了一组额外的方格，其中也必须包含 1-9 且不重复。

4. D) Cushy (好) Cushy 意为“好”或“极好的”，源自 Ransay 词汇“huddle”。Maven 源自意第绪语“myself”，通过意第绪语“gibble”而得，而 find 或“lucky”则衍生自意第绪语“muses”。
5. A) Jewish 意第绪语意为“犹太人的”，而“yiddishays”意为“subson”或“犹太特性”。
6. B) Mazuma 该词源自意第绪语“mezamen”，意为“jush”；“Bengu 来自 Ransay”；“wongo”意为“jush”或“muses”；“Jewish”用于指代伪钞或非法获得的钱财，源自荷兰语“tweede”；而 cholla 是犹太安息日特意打开的扁面包，与金钱无关。
7. C) 一个轻信的人（如果其他定义均基于《牛津英语词典》，“像鱼一样真实”是 1.0 世纪的用法，“年轻女性”，特指心上人）是 1.7 世纪的用法，而“marijuana”或“大麻烟”是 150 lb.（Long，如同“muggle-head”和“muggle-smoke”）

测验答案 1. D) 500,000 到 1 million 根据世界卫生组织犹太研究协会，第二次世界大战前有 10,000,000 人说意第绪语，其中 6,767,000 人分布在现有的中欧地区。大屠杀以及犹太人在美国的同化，使这一数字在今天减少到 500,000 至 1 million 之间。 2. C) 具有道德操守的人 “Mensch”（此外还有“mental”和“mental”）是一个意第绪语词汇，指一个人体面、诚实且道德。即便是在研究中，这也是最高的赞誉，授予最正直和体面的人。这个词本身源自德语中意为“人”的词。 3. B) 用希伯来字母书写 虽然意第绪语使用罗马字母书写，但这使得许多德语使用者能够理解这种语言，尽管其中包含斯拉夫语、希伯来语和英语关键词。

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居家生活

音频

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

33

音频亦是舞台

广播剧正蓬勃发展，《权力的游戏》演员莉娜·希迪也加入了日益扩大的演员行列，亲自创作引人入胜的故事

米兰达·索耶 (Miranda Sawyer)

《亲密关系》(Intimacy) BBC Radio 4 / BBC Sounds

《这是一种超能力吗？》(It's A Superpower?) The Daily Tism

《沙发上的安布里奇》(Ambridge on the Couch)

露西·V·弗里曼 (Lucy V Freeman) 与 杰夫·托马斯 (Jeff Thomas) / Acast

多年来，音频剧一直被视为聪明广播节目的“尴尬亲戚”，但如今它正处于真正的繁荣期。惊悚片、恐怖故事、爱情故事、历史小说——这里应有尽有，且拥有出色的音效设计和极其精干的剧本，并吸引了星光熠熠的演员阵容。事实证明，荧幕偶像们非常热爱那些无需花费时间在妆发上的工作。

因此，许多演员亲自编写优秀的音频剧并不令人惊讶，包括特蕾西-安·奥伯曼 (Tracy-Ann Oberman)、马克·加蒂斯 (Mark Gatiss) 和马克辛·皮克 (Maxine Peake)。现在，因在《权力的游戏》中饰演瑟曦·兰尼斯特而闻名的莉娜·希迪（见插图）创作了一部充满活力的剧集。《亲密关系》讲述了利莎的艰辛经历，她是一名亲密协调员，在原任协调员生病后被请到电影剧组。由希迪饰演的利莎有太多问题需要处理。不仅要面对古怪且自恋的导演加里（汤姆·古德曼-希尔饰）和一个年轻、暴躁的女星邦妮（同样出演《权力的游戏》的梅西·威廉姆斯饰）；在工作之外，还有利莎的经纪人露（汉娜·瓦丁汉姆饰）、她的母亲（艾莉森·斯蒂德曼饰）和女儿（蒂亚·班农饰），这些人都需要她的关注，而且最好是立刻关注。

希迪的剧本编写和导演功力巧妙地平衡了所有这些元素，在电话留言、对话和利莎的内心独白之间流畅切换。剧中不乏幽默的台词——“Siri，拨打‘笨蛋’的电话，”利莎说道，随即接通了她前任的电话——以及荒诞的情节。剧中还探讨了电影为何需要亲密协调员。在片场，导演就是国王，而在这个特定的项目中，加里是一个道德可疑的君主，言行不一。他一方面称赞利莎的贡献，另一方面却向露抱怨她。他口头上支持女性主义，却要求利莎按他的意愿行事——称她为“乖女孩”——并在他的酒店房间里与邦妮安排深夜会面。

某些情节显得不太可能：利莎被加里绑起来作为“演示”，她的母亲在拍摄性爱场景时被带入片场。但《亲密关系》并非纪录片，而且我们都知道，界限经常被那些具有操纵欲且权力巨大的男性所模糊。节奏把控极佳，表演也非常出色，尤其是抢眼的斯蒂德曼和情绪多变的威廉姆斯。《亲密关系》节奏轻快，让你在整个过程中都为利莎加油。

这里还有另一部拥有几位明星加盟的音频剧。

《这是一种超能力吗？》由 The Daily Tism 制作，这是一个风趣的自闭症讽刺网站（示例标题：《AuDHD 项目经理在工作中表现卓越，在生活中惨遭失败》）。该剧由萨拉·吉布斯 (Sara Gibbs) 编写并导演，故事开篇于一个当地的新自闭症支持小组，诺拉、皮克斯、怀尔德、苏菲和巴姆斯在进行尴尬而可爱的自我介绍。随后发生了各种愚蠢的误会，一切似乎都相当平凡，直到房间开始摇晃，我们的主角们发现自己获得了无法掌控的魔法力量。突然间，重点不再于他人如何解读他们的行为，而在于如何凭空变出复杂的烘焙产品。演技十分迷人，Penn Jillette、马克·沃森 (Mark Watson) 和弗雷德·阿米森 (Fred Armisen) 都有客串演出，除非是极其刻薄的人，否则都会希望这些角色在把自己搞得乱七八糟时能获得好运。

尽管如此，这些新人们表现都很不错，但英国最大的音频剧——并且可能直到时间尽头都是——依然是《耕耘者》(The Archers)。它永远在播，永远在排行榜之首。即使我不是博彻斯特 (Borchester) 艰辛故事的信徒，我也知道《耕耘者》的戏剧性时刻。我一直关注格伦迪家的三角恋，以及海伦捅刺的场景。

她的强奸犯丈夫，以及尼格尔从屋顶坠落。不过，这确实给人们留下了一个对该剧的偏见：就我的听感而言，《阿切尔一家》（The Archers）就像是谋杀街与必须穿着防弹背心的关系战争区之间的混合体。

对于真正的粉丝来说，《阿切尔一家》真正的魅力在于那些缓慢的时刻，漫长的铺垫，以及对所有角色生活的定期更新。而这正是《沙发上的安布里奇》（Ambridge on the Couch）——一个关于《阿切尔一家》的鉴赏播客——发挥作用的地方。主持人露西·V·弗里曼（Lucy V Freeman）和杰夫·托马斯（Jeff Thomas）是长期的听众，且完全跟得上进度。弗里曼的总结很有趣，尽管稍显仓促；很高兴听到她和托马斯对本周剧集的作者萨拉·麦克唐纳-休斯（Sarah McDonald-Hughes）表示赞赏（《阿切尔一家》的剧本质量参差不齐）。弗里曼和托马斯的角色分析幽默温婉，但这是一个面向安布里奇成瘾者的节目。而我们其余的人，只要看一段华丽的高光片段，并心满意足地想着琳达·斯内尔（Lynda Snell）永远在激怒某人，就足够了。

观察家报

Culture Club

来自广播电台的午餐，帝国大厦背景，约 1930 年

订阅《观察家报》仅需 £1，即可免费访问我们的 Culture Club

购买 Dulwich Picture Gallery 的《城市肖像：美国摄影一个世纪》门票，可享 2 张 1 票的价格

节省 £14

DULWICH PICTURE GALLERY

此外，还为热爱文化的读者量身定制了价值 £800 的额外福利

访问 observer.co.uk / culture-club 解锁此项及更多优惠

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34

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

电视

作者：Craig McLean, Kay Ribeiro 和 Stephen Armstrong

电影评论：Jonathan Romney 和 Wendy Ide

本周亮点

今日

今日精选

《狮子》（Lioness）

Paramount+

这部关于一个由女性领导的 CIA 精英部门的谍战惊悚剧进入第三季，由 Zoe Saldaña 和 Nicole Kidman 主演。从不走含蓄路线的创作者 Taylor Sheridan 开启了他的战争——并亲自在剧中饰演一名特种部队行动员，在乌克兰前线强力领导。Saldaña 的团队潜入敌后营救一名俄罗斯资产，结果事情在她自己的后院失控爆发。“这不是什么 HRT 任务，”一名战场上的糙汉嘲讽道，“这是战争。”真是火上浇油。CMc

杰瑞德·莱托：好莱坞的阴暗秘密

iPlayer

去年夏天，Air Mail 的一份名为《莱托教》的报告中，有九名女性指控该演员有不当行为。几周后，这位奥斯卡获奖者在公关宣传活动中推广《创：战纪》。BBC 团队进行了深入调查，找到了“Etta”——这里有四名青少年指控其存在刑事性行为。她们绝非仅有的女性。CMc

《范德法尔克》（Van der Valk）

ITV1, 晚上 8 点

Marc Warren 在第四季中回归饰演同名的荷兰侦探，而他的恋爱史正在对他最新的谋杀案调查造成混乱。一名重要证人在其前警察女友的保护下被谋杀。于是，在尸体脖子上还缠着浴帘时，两人就开始激烈争吵。KR

电影

《与内尔》（Withnail & I）

(Bruce Robinson, 1987) Film4, 11. 4, pm

如今，Bruce Robinson 的这部喜剧可能会被解读为对“有毒男子气概”的研究——尽管剧中的英雄们大概认为自己与其说是“有毒”，不如说是“化脓性败血症”且以此为荣。尽管 Robinson 随后又导演了三部电影，但这部作品通常被视为最伟大的独创之作之一，也是那种酒吧酒徒会用其中的台词向你滔滔不绝数小时的作品（比如“人类能获得的最优质的葡萄酒”之类的话）。故事讲述了两个名声狼藉的演员（Richard E Grant, Paul McGann）在湖区表现得极其糟糕，该片最受赞誉的部分包括已故伟大演员 Richard Griffiths 饰演的放荡的蒙蒂叔叔。这是英国电影中旧波希米亚风情的最后一声呐喊，且毫无保留地狂放不羁。JR

周一

今日精选

《名人逃亡》（Celebrity Hunted）

Channel 4, 晚上 9 点

为了支持“抗击癌症”活动，更多名流逃犯在全国各地穿梭，试图躲避前高级警官 Ray Howard（见下图）——以及他的毒舌嘲讽。《恋爱岛》的 Chris Taylor 和 Toby Aromolaran 用挑衅行为激怒了猎人们，而主持人 JJ Chalmers 和 Sophie Morgan 则寻求前者的武装部队联系人的帮助。遗憾的是，Brian 和女儿 Lucy Conley 依赖于声音尖细的朋友 Joe Pasquale，这可能会证明是致命的。与其说是傀儡，不如说是笨蛋。KR

《全景》（Panorama）：英国最严格的学校

BBC One, 晚上 8 点

由于伦敦的 Mossbourne 社区学院（本评论者的孩子曾就读于此）最近因过于注重纪律而受到谴责，Richard Bilton 调查了德文郡和康沃尔郡的 Athena 学习信托基金。更好的课堂行为和考试成绩证明了不容商量的规则是有效的，但孩子们为此付出了什么代价？CMc

进入卡巴莱 (Cumming to the Cabaret)

iPlayer

2014年，艾伦·卡明 (Alan Cumming) 在百老汇主演了《卡巴莱》(Cabaret)，这位演员在化妆间举办的派对成了纽约夜晚的传奇。如今，Club Cumming 已成为东村一家真实的实体店，一个集表演、社区、包容与颠覆于一体的场所。这部六集的“麦克风视角”纪录片趣味十足，坦率且灵动。CMc

电影

异教徒 (Heretic)

(Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, 2024) Sky Cinema 首播, 9.35pm

休·格兰特 (Hugh Grant) 近年的演艺生涯很大程度上致力于悄悄拆除他以往那种“塌眉好男人”的形象——而在这部精巧的惊悚片中，他展现出的快感达到了罕见的高度。索菲·萨彻 (Sophie Thatcher，出自电视剧《Tellosejackets》) 和克洛伊·伊斯特 (Chloe East) 饰演两名年青的摩门教传教士，他们在科罗拉多州博尔德市敲开了一扇门。迎接他们的是里德先生 (Mr Reed，格兰特 饰)，一个为人随和但阴森之气渐浓的男人。在两人等待他的妻子出现时，他引导访客进入了一场神学辩论。作为一部典型的室内剧，《异教徒》呼应了 1970 年代经典双人剧《侦探》(Sleuth) 中那种幽闭恐惧的博弈感，将常规的类型片惊悚与对信仰和教义的深刻沉思以及充足的冷酷幽默相结合。JR

周二

今日推荐

维多利亚时代：与 罗布·林德 和 露丝·古德曼 共赏 (The Victorians With Rob Rinder and Ruth Goodman) 8, 9pm

罗布·林德 (Rob Rinder) 和历史学家露丝·古德曼 (Ruth Goodman) 回归，带来一部迷人的新系列，探讨历史关键时期的富人与穷人的经历，从 1840 年代的铁路繁荣期开始。在林德了解“铁路之王”乔治·哈德森 (George Hudson)——一位利用交通热潮发家的野心商人——的同时，古德曼则深入挖掘像托马斯·伊顿 (Thomas Eaton) 这样冒着生命危险铺设铁路基础的铁路工 (navvies) 的真实情况。在每日通勤之余，这是一个值得深思的话题。KR

福岛：核噩梦 (Fukushima: A Nuclear Nightmare)

HBO Max

继 2 月份 C4 播出标志着日本灾难 15 周年的两部分纪录片《福岛：震惊世界的日子》之后，这部 90 分钟的电影再次审视了地震及其引发的海啸淹没三座电站反应堆冷却系统后的余波。没有预告片，但我们被承诺将看到关于那 9 个灾难日期的“法医级、实时细节”。CMc

冷案法医 (Cold Case Forensics)

ITV1, 9pm

在这部三部分系列剧的第二集《尼罗河上的死亡》中，法医科学家安吉拉·加洛普 (Dr Angela Gallop) 博士及其团队调查了英国律师谢丽尔·刘易斯 (Cheryl Lewis) 在埃及度假期间的猝死案。虽然没有涉及船只或手枪，但她在卢克索奢华的新冬季宫殿酒店死于氰化物中毒，确实带有阿加莎·克里斯蒂 (Agatha Christie) 的风格。KR

电影

皮肤之下 (Under the Skin)

(Jonathan Glazer, 2013) Film4, 11.15pm

乔纳森·格雷泽 (Jonathan Glazer) 的这部富有远见且大胆地借鉴自米歇尔·法伯 (Michel Faber) 小说的电影，上演了一场科幻离奇与枯燥日常之间的非凡对抗。斯嘉丽·约翰逊 (Scarlett Johansson) 扮演一名扮演成年轻人类女性的外星访客，她在格拉斯哥郊区驾驶面包车，将不幸的年轻男子带向噩梦般的结局。执行方式大胆——许多约翰逊的对手戏演员并不知道自己被拍摄，也不知道她是演员——但这种“特技写实主义”与一种令人不安的幻觉视角相辅相成，视觉效果暗示了透过外星之眼看待我们世界的感受。米卡·列维 (Mica Levi) 灵感十足的配乐也让我们能透过外星之耳去聆听。JR

周三

今日推荐

泰德·拉索 (Ted Lasso)

AppleTV+

令人期待的第四季在堪萨斯州开篇，泰德正在买杂货，并在场边观看足球赛。我们知道他将执教 AFC 里士满的女子队，因此前老板丽贝卡 (Rebecca)、助手基莉 (Keeley) 和随从希金斯 (Higgins) 的惊喜造访以说服他回归，其悬念较低。铺垫完成之后，第二集找回了魔力，如同人类拉布拉多犬般的泰德与 TW9 帮团聚。罗伊·肯特 (Roy Kent) 变得更暴躁了，比尔德教练 (Coach Beard) 的胡子更浓密了，秩序得以恢复。催产素即将分泌。KR

殡仪馆惊魂：重大案件 BBC Two, 晚上10点

上周，赫尔市的殡葬业主管罗伯特·布什在承认包括妨碍合法埋葬和欺诈贸易在内的 67 项指控后被判刑。在本片中，悲痛的家庭讲述了他们发现自己收到的是陌生人的骨灰，而他们亲人的遗体却在 Legacy Independent Funeral Directors 殡仪馆中被长期搁置时的恐怖经历。KR

大鸡：快餐阴谋 Netflix

亲切的喜剧演员莫·吉利根在这部关于炸鸡的纪录片中效仿了摩根·斯普洛克（《超级大我》导演）的做法，一个月内每天吃三次炸鸡，结果不出所料。他的美国之行揭露了使炸鸡如此令人上瘾的残酷现实，但真正令莫难以接受的是其中的种族刻板印象和文化挪用。KR

电影

非洲女王

(约翰·休斯顿, 1951)

Sky Cinema Greats, 12.45pm

这是好莱坞最经典的“不合拍搭档”电影之一，也是其最奇特的第一次世界大战叙事之一。影片中汉弗莱·鲍嘉（凭此片赢得了他唯一的奥斯卡奖）与凯瑟琳·赫本的搭配极具灵感。他是一个酗酒的蒸汽船船长，1914 年在东非的水路中经营生意；而她则是罗伯特·莫利饰演的传教士名下，一个端庄且会弹管风琴的妹妹。本片基于 C.S. 福雷斯特的小说改编，大部分场景在刚果和乌干达拍摄，拍摄过程以艰苦著称。导演约翰·休斯顿在镜头之外的闲暇时光里发生的真实故事，被未署名的共同编剧彼得·维尔特在书《白猎人黑心》中虚构化，该书后来被克林特·伊斯特伍德改编成电影——尽管那部电影远没有这部电影有趣。JR

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

35

周四

今日推荐

《碎片》 (The Shards)

Disney+

布列特·伊斯顿·埃利斯改编了他的 2023 年小说，这是一部关于他在特权阶层聚集的洛杉矶成长经历的、色彩浓烈且夸张的回忆录。以创作低俗（情节）剧而著称的多产者瑞安·墨菲合作拍摄了 10 集的高光剧集。他们是非常合适的搭档。从时代感的配乐到学院派时尚，《碎片》从一名少年的保时捷发出的第一声轰鸣起就紧紧抓住了观众。在一所精英学院里，1981 届的美丽学生们在吸食可卡因并与彼此缠绵的同时，一名连环杀手正在潜伏。系好安全带。CMc

占有 (Possession)

Sky Atlantic, 晚上9点

在布里斯托，古古·姆巴塔-罗饰演的律师调查为何乔尼·李·米勒饰演的阔少之父将财产遗赠给了一位神秘的牙买加人。在访问家族的岛屿庄园时，他们不小心释放了一个关于奴隶制的超自然遗产。贝尔·波利和谢尔登·谢泼德饰演了受朱朱巫术驱动的历史不公之鬼。像是《外星人》与《活与死》的结合体。CMc

家族中的恶魔：鲁比·弗兰克之陨 BBC Two, 晚上9点

这部真实犯罪纪录系列剧的最后一部分是最令人心碎的，它详细描述了弗兰克家两个年幼的孩子在母亲鲁比和朋友乔迪·希尔德布兰特的虐待下所遭受的难以想象的痛苦，后者认为孩子们被恶魔力量附身。凯文·弗兰克对鲁比持久的爱令人震惊，也反映出其中深刻的洗脑程度。KR

电影

与陌生人共舞

(迈克·纽维尔, 1985)

Film4, 11.40pm

In July 1955, 鲁丝·埃利斯在枪杀情夫大卫·布莱克利后，成为了英国最后一个被处以绞刑的女性；直到今年 7 月，经过 71 年，她才获得有条件的赦免。这部风格独特的电影由《蜂蜜的味道》编剧谢拉·德兰尼撰写，讲述了她的故事。背景设定在 20 世纪 50 年代的伦敦半公开社交圈，在那里，身为单亲母亲且经营一家饮酒俱乐部的埃利斯爱上了英俊但没出息的布莱克利（鲁珀特·埃弗里特饰），一个自以为是赛车手的青年。这部电影让米兰达·理查森成为了明星，她卓越的表演赋予了埃利斯深度——一个在演绎自己心中光鲜亮丽的狂恋故事，却始终被面具背后苦涩的情感（和经济）现实所困住的女人。JR

周五

今日推荐

Alley Cats（小巷之猫）

Netflix

“九条命，零在乎”——这是瑞奇·热维斯（Ricky Gervais）这部六集成人动画喜剧系列的宣传语，讲述了一群由愤世嫉俗且热衷于爆粗口的 Gus（热维斯 饰）率领的懒散猫咪帮的故事。一群《After Life》的熟面孔为他们之前扮演过的角色配音，从大卫·厄尔（David Earl）饰演的无赖 Pule 到汤姆·巴斯登（Tom Basden）饰演的特权阶级 Ponce。这些短小且充斥着脏话的剧集记录了该群体试图帮助一只迷路小猫（乔·哈特利 饰）寻找回家之路的尝试，其效果必然是既有趣又具挑衅性，正如创作者所愿。KR

我们的生活：The NaNaz – Age Against the Machine (年龄对抗机器) BBC One, 7.30pm

莎莉·温赖特（Sally Wainwright）的《Riot Women》以一种活泼的方式呈现在人们面前。NaNaz 是“南威尔士最剽悍的女性群体”，一群处于围绝经期的朋克，她们将帕蒂·史密斯（Patti Smith）的风格以及与年龄相符的挫折感融为一体。在发行了他们的《Nanafeito》EP 后，他们准备前往纽约参加 Loud Women Fest 音乐节。NaNa，嘿嘿，吻他们告别？绝不可能。CMc

EFL 卡拉宝杯：米德尔斯堡 v 렉瑟姆 ITV1, 7.30pm（8pm 开球）

在世界杯那令人晕眩且浮夸的高潮之后，我们需要一次草根层面的重启：英格兰赛季将由这场全部由冠军联赛球队参与的第一轮遭遇战拉开帷幕。5 月，主队在赫尔城的最后一分钟绝杀下被剥夺了晋级英超的机会——而反过来，他们也剥夺了今晚客队参加升级附加赛的资格。因此，荣誉之战在即。CMc

电影

Hoard（囤积）

(露娜·卡蒙，2023)

BBC Two, 11.05pm

英国编剧兼导演露娜·卡蒙（Luna Carmoon）在她的第一部长片中全力以赴，呈现出一种令人不安的基调。这本质上是一个成长故事，但充满了粗砺感、污垢和不雅的性描写。索拉·莱特富特-莱昂（Saura Lightfoot-Leon）饰演的青少年玛丽亚（Maria）在与她囤积癖母亲（海莉·斯奎尔斯 饰）共同居住的杂物堆积如山的房子中长大。她现在与养母米歇尔（萨曼莎·斯皮罗 饰）生活在一起——这也让她结识了米歇尔之前的被监护人迈克尔（约瑟夫·昆 饰）。当玛丽亚和迈克尔产生性吸引力时，这种火花很可能会点燃一座由积累的碎片组成的山。该片通过出色的表演，挖掘了三种现实主义——社会现实、魔幻现实和肮脏现实。尽管影片并不均衡，但目前的英国电影很少有如此特立独行或如此厚颜无耻地不礼貌的作品。JR

周六

今日推荐

埃尔维斯、上校与黑手党

Channel 4, 10pm

“埃尔维斯点亮了拉斯维加斯。但黑帮掌握着他脚下的土地。而帕克深知这一点。”汤姆·帕克上校（Colonel Tom Parker）是一个马戏团推销员，对阴暗的交易和更阴暗的合作伙伴并不陌生，正是这位经理造就了埃尔维斯·普雷斯利。但那些交易是否是致命的浮士德式交易？在“歌王” 42 岁（42 岁！）去世 49 周年之际，这部电影挖掘与黑手党相关的内幕，假设某些联系将 [埃尔维斯] “击垮”。第二部分将在 11.05pm 播出。CMc

保罗·希顿在 BBC

BBC Two, 8.35pm

为了迎接他的第 23 张专辑《Jenius》的发行，这是一个致力于这位人民诗人及社会主义灵魂歌手的夜晚。首先是 40 年的 BBC 出演记录，接着是 2025 年的演唱会电影《Live at Bramall Lane》（10.10pm），随后是俏皮的 1987 年纪录片《The Housemartins in London 0 Hull 4》（11.35pm）。又是愉快的 4 小时。CMc

独裁者：希特勒访谈录

Channel 4, 9pm

三集之中的第二集，讲述元首的亲信们讲述他们的真相。首先是与戴安娜·莫斯利（Diana Mosley）的一段档案采访。“人们不可能从一名失业画家变成一名独裁者……除非他们内心拥有某种非常特别的东西，”这位“希特勒的朋友”说道。随后，镜头转向汉普郡，去见他在慕尼黑的前邻居。令人惊叹。CMc

电影

平行母亲 (Parallel Mothers)

(佩德罗·阿尔莫多瓦尔, 2021)

BBC Four, 11.10pm

这部由西班牙资深挑衅者佩德罗·阿尔莫多瓦尔执导的第22部故事片，是两段平行故事之间的一场轻盈舞步。第一段讲述过去：一名杂志摄影师（佩内洛普·克鲁兹 饰）在她的家乡村庄挖掘疑似弗朗哥受害者的集体坟墓。另一段——讲述两名孕妇之间的纽带——则展望未来。克鲁兹饰演的角色是其中一名准妈妈，她的怀孕是一个令人惊喜的错误。第二位则是陷入困扰的青少年，她已经在后悔尚未出世的孩子。在阿尔莫多瓦尔此前那部内敛、反思的电影《疼痛与荣耀》之后，这部作品在基调上有所转变。尽管题材沉重，《平行母亲》却散发着温暖与乐观。WI

电视流媒体

本周精选

Y世代突然对电影的青睐，归功于21世纪电影《后室》(Backrooms) 和《执念》(Obsession) 的到来。其他被提及的因素还包括20世纪电影的重启，而如果说上世纪有什么系列被过度开发，那一定是《星球大战》。但《星球大战：愿景》(Star Wars: Visions) 则不同。这部动画选集系列见证了卢卡斯电影公司与全球各地的工作室合作——包括日本、印度、法国、智利，以及令人欣喜的英国 Aardman 工作室。在第二季中观看《我是你的母亲》，就像是看到 Wallace 和 Gromit 去参加星际飞船赛。在第四季的《第九名绝地》(Ninth Jedi)（Disney+，周三）中，日本动画工作室 Production IG 打造了一部宏大的八集迷你史诗，背景设定在绝地武士和西斯失去权力很久之后。光剑不再存在，银河系正陷入一场无休止的战争。绝地武士的残余势力被召集到一颗星球上，那里一个神秘人物发现了能够驱动光剑的凯伯水晶。西斯人也在赶往那里，随即陷入混乱。受吉卜力训练的导演神山健治融入了大量元素，从高速追逐到光剑与所有者的信念系统之间产生的冲突。考虑到《新希望》本质上是黑泽明《隐之城》的翻版，这就像是《星球大战》在回归故里。

本周推出的其他太空主题动画包括《未来发展》(Futurama) 第 14 季（Disney+，明天）。它没有采用动漫风格。接下来，进入房地产板块。

由马修·罗宾逊操刀的《最后一栋房子》(The Last House)（Netflix，周五），由格蕾塔·李和瓦格纳·莫拉主演。他们饰演一对父母，某天早上发现自己无法离开家。最初的烦恼逐渐变得恐怖。街道被封锁了，也许整个世界都被封锁了——除了那一两个逃离某种不可名状猎杀之物的绝望之人。随着日子变成周，再变成年，邪恶逐渐逼近。这是一部真正令人不安的恐怖片。

更可爱的是《斯特林点》(Sterling Point)（Prime Video，周三）。安妮和她的双胞胎哥哥由单身父亲在纽约抚养长大，他们发现已故母亲方的疏远祖父给他们遗赠了加拿大的一座湖心岛。但那里已经有人住了：他们之前不为人知的姐姐拉蒙娜。如果你喜欢看极其漂亮的人在绝美的风景中度过一个梦幻的夏天，经历爱与失去，那么这部剧可能适合你。面对现实吧，本周的其他所有内容都是暴力与死亡。SA

不要错过：艾玛·何在《最后一栋房子》中饰演露丝。Chris Baker / Netflix

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

今日电视

Van der Valk, ITV1, 8pm 马克·沃伦回归饰演那位精明的荷兰侦探

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

Channel 4

5

BBC Four

6.0 早餐 (T) 9.0 新闻 (T) 10.0 祈祷与反思 (T) (R) 10.30 朝圣之旅：穿过北威尔士之路 (T) (R) 11.30 免费之财 (T) (R) 12.15 淘货猎手 (T) (R) 1.0 新闻 (T) 1.10 1.15 赞美之歌 (T) 1.50 逃往乡村 (T) (R) 2.15 TMS 靴中之压 (Chris Miller, 2011) (T) 动画喜剧。 3.35 择偶游戏 (T) (R) 4.35 锤下之屋 (T) (R) 5.35 新闻 (T) 6.0 名人逃往乡村 (T) (R) 7.0 乡村填充 (T)

6.40 电视园艺 A 到 Z (T) (R) 7.25 俯瞰壮丽花园 (T) (R) 8.10 乡村填充 (T) (R) 9.05 气象员步行精选 (T) 9.35 山毛榉园 (T) (R) 10.05 周六厨房最佳美食 (T) 11.35 印度美食简易指南 (T) (R) 12.35 TMS 锁定新闻 (T) 2.15 板球：百球赛 (T) 伦敦女队 v 曼彻斯特超级巨人女队。 6.0 板球：百球赛 (T) 伦敦男队 v 曼彻斯特超级巨人男队（开始时间 6.0pm）。

6.0 詹姆斯·马丁的美国冒险 (T) (R) 7.0 詹姆斯·马丁的周六早晨 (T) (R) 9.25 新闻 (T) 9.30 与艾伦·蒂奇马什共度周末 (T) (R) 11.30 费恩·布里顿：走进 Vert (T) 12.30 汤姆·克里奇烹饪意大利美食 (T) (R) 1.0 新闻 (T) 1.10 自然之力 (T) (R) 2.10 TMS 金手指杀手 (1974) (T) 4.35 追击赛名人特辑 (R) 5.35 追击赛环球之旅 (R) 6.30 新闻 (T) 7.0 自然之力 (T)。

6.20 欢乐在一起 (T) (R) 7.15 大家都爱雷蒙 (T) (R) 8.30 弗雷泽 (T) (R) 10.0 周日早午餐 (T) 1.0 杰米烹饪地中海美食 (T) (R) 2.0 我们的邻居农场：阿曼达、克莱夫和孩子们 (T) (R) 3.05 与 Si King 一起探索英国最受欢迎的火车站 (T) (R) 4.05 爱它还是列出它：精彩建筑 (T) (R) 4.35 TMS 修女也疯狂 (Emile Andkins, 1992) (T) 由 Whoopi Goldberg 主演的喜剧。 6.30 新闻 (T) 7.0 护目镜 (T) 第 27 季精彩片段。

6.0 Mikshake 9.0 5频道娱乐新闻 (T) 9.15 TMS 梦工厂之异想天开 (Gore Verblinski, 2011) (T) 由强尼·戴普配音的奥斯卡获奖动画喜剧。 11.30 2026 Commonwealth Games (T) (R) 12.30 快乐露营者：房车公园 (T) (R) 1.30 与苏珊·卡尔曼同行 (T) (R) 2.30 简·麦克唐纳的约克郡：没有比家更好的地方 (T) (R) 4.0 现场：2026 英国最强壮的人 (T) 6.55 新闻 (T) 7.0 1970年代饮食法：对你有效吗？ (T) (R)

7.0 与 Dan Cruickshank 一起探访路德维希二世的童话城堡 (T) 探索与巴伐利亚路德维希二世相关的美学，这位国王被认为英俊且深受人民爱戴。

8.0 古董路演 (T) (R) 团队在莫雷郡的布罗迪城堡对物品进行估价。 9.0 The Rapture (T) Gabs 和 Dick 发现证据表明 Leonard 隐藏了某些东西，而印度的洪水与 Bethany 的画作相吻合。Gabs 将她的怀疑公开化。

9.30 阿波罗现场 (T) (R) Natil Abduhrahid 主持在伦敦标志性的哈默史密斯阿波罗剧院拍摄的喜剧节目。他在介绍同行喜剧演员 Jake Lambert 和 Rachel Fairburn 的单口喜剧之前，先为观众热身。

8.0 范德瓦尔克 (T) 新剧集，犯罪剧。在可能导致一名犯罪头目倒台的听证会之前，两名举报人处于警方保护之下。当第一名线人被谋杀时，团队必须确保第二名线人能顺利出庭。

8.0 理查德·E·格兰特的现代奥德赛 (T) 新剧集。该演员追溯了荷马经典《奥德赛》中奥德修斯的路线。 9.0 钢琴 (T) 介绍 Claudia Winklerman 和 Mika，Joshi Holland 在伦敦与他们汇合。

8.0 狗狗（非常）不听话 (T) (R) 在本集中，Graeme Hall 遇到了一只 11 岁的比格犬，它有着无法满足的食欲。 9.0 四季酒店内部：帕克巷 (T) 新剧集。管家主管 Ivan 试图清洗两个马毛枕头。

8.0 凯恩戈姆山：野外的一年 (T) 通过在那里生活和工作的人们的视角探索该国家公园。 9.0 逍长音乐会上的伟大小提琴家 (T) 包含 Sueye Park、Liya Petrova 和 Nicola Benedetti 的演出。

10.0 新闻 (T) 10.25 地区新闻 (T) 天气 10.30 TMS 《不可能》(The Impossible, 2012) (T) 剧情片。 12.10 《你认为你是谁？》(Who Do You Think You Are?) (T) (R) 1.10 本周天气 (T) 1.15 新闻 (T)

10.0 TMS 《莎翁情史》(Shakespeare in Love, 约翰·马登, 1998) (T) 11.55 海湾地区：2026年女子公开赛集锦 (T) 12.55 《安·德罗伊》(Ann Droid) (T) (R) 1.25 《家族中的魔鬼：露比·弗兰克的陨落》(The Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke) (T) (R)

10.0 新闻 (T) 天气 10.15 TMS 《侠探杰克：绝地反击》(Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, 2016) (T) 惊悚片。 12.25 电视购物 3.0 英国赛车运动 (T) (R) 3.50 与ITV一起放松 (T) 5.05 《迪金森的真实交易》(Dickinson's Real Deal) (R)

10.05 TMS 《永不妥协》(Erin Brockovich, 史蒂文·索德伯格, 2000) (T) 基于事实的剧情片。 12.30 《拉米》(Ramy) (T) 1.05 《拉米》(Ramy) (T) 1.40 《厨房噩梦：美国》(Kitchen Nightmares USA) (T) (R) 2.35 《回首55年的先生与太太》(Mr & Mrs '55 Remembered) (T) (R)

10.0 2026年 Commonwealth Games (T) 决赛日。 11.05 《肯尼迪遇刺：创伤室内幕》(JFK Assassination: Inside the Trauma Room) (T) (R) 1.0 与 LovelBookit 一起游览电视 (T) (R) 2.0 《全科医生：闭门之后》(GPs: Behind Closed Doors) (T) (R)

10.0 比尔·帕特森回忆录 —— 《切维奥特，雄鹿与漆黑的石油》(The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black, Black Oil) (T) 10.15 《切维奥特，雄鹿与漆黑的石油》(The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil) (T) 11.45 7:84 : Keep Right On? – Ex-S (T) 纪录片。

周一 3

Panorama：英国最严格的学校，BBC One，晚上8点 学校的纪律在什么程度下会过分

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

Channel 4

5

BBC Four

6.0 Breakfast (T) 9.30 Animal Park (T) (R) 10.15 Trace, Track, Get My Car Back (T) (R) 10.45 Expert Witness (T) (R) 11.15 Homes Under the Hammer (T) (R) 12.15 Bargain Hunt (T) 1.0 News (T) 1.35 Regional News (T) 1.45 News (T) Weather 2.0 Money for Nothing (T) 2.45 Escape to the Country (T) (R) 3.45 The Bidding Room (T) 4.30 The Answer Run (T) 5.15 Pointless (T) (R) 6.0 News (T) Weather 6.30 Regional News (T) Weather 7.0 The One Show (T) 7.30 EastEnders (T)

6.30 Bargain Hunt (T) (R) 7.15 Money for Nothing (T) (R) 8.0 Sign Zone: The Repair Shop (T) (R) 9.0 News (T) 10 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 1.30 The Finish Line (T) (R) 2.15 Do You Know Your Place? (T) (R) 2.45 The Hairy Bikers' Bakeation (T) (R) 3.45 The Farmers' Country Showdown (T) (R) 4.30 Vintage Antiques Roadshow (T) (R) 5.15 Flog It! (T) (R) 6.0 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 7.0 Global Eye (T) 7.30 Mastermind (T)

6.0 Good Morning Britain (T) 10.0 This Morning (T) 1.30 News (T) Weather 1.55 Local News (T) Weather 2.0 Dickinson's Real Deal (T) (R) 3.0 Deal or No Deal (T) (R) 4.0 Tipping Point (T) (R) 5.0 The Chase (T) (R) Phil Jessie, Denise and Ben take part. 6.0 Local News (T) 6.30 News (T) 7.30 Fletchers' Family Farm (T) (R) 怀孕的母牛 Ruby 生育但过程并不顺利，Milo 和 Liz 前往当地的一家奶牛场，孩子们则进入林区进行一次丛林探险。

6.30 The King of Queens (T) (R) 7.45 Everybody Loves Raymond (T) (R) 9.10 Frasier (T) (R) 11.10 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) 12.05 News (T) 12.10 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (T) (R) 1.10 The Great House Giveaway (T) (R) 2.10 Countdown (T) 3.0 A Place in the Sun (T) (R) 4.0 Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith (T) (R) 5.0 Chateau DIY (T) (R) 6.0 American Pickers (T) (R) 专家们检查了一系列马戏团和侧展表演的纪念品。 7.0 News (T)

6.0 Mikshake 9.15 Jeremy Vine (T) 11.30 Storm & Alexis (T) 12.45 News (T) 12.50 Matt Allwright (T) 2.20 TMS A Reservation for Death (Jeff Beesley, 2021) (T) 由 Nathalie Kelley 主演的悬疑剧。 4.0 Castle (T) (R) 4.55 Love Nature (T) (R) 5.0 News (T) 6.0 Majorca: A Year in the Sun (T) (R) 镜头探索马略卡岛的文化。 6.55 News (T) 7.0 Motorway Cops: Catching Britain's Speeders (T) (R) 警官拦下了一辆克隆车的司机。 7.55 News (T)

7.0 Atlantic: The Wildest Ocean on Earth (T) 热带大西洋的生活，从海豚到水母在温暖的海水中繁衍生息——直到非洲的极端高温引发了致命的飓风。

8.0 Panorama: Britain's Strictest Schools (T) 时政报告。 8.30 Scam Interceptors (T) (R) 本集讲述一名男子被诱导相信自己即将被逮捕。

8.0 Only Connect (T) Victoria Cows Mitchell 主持这场测验。 8.30 University Challenge (T) guilds Hall 音乐与戏剧学院对阵剑桥大学达尔文学院。

8.0 Emmerdale (T) Cain 与 Kyle 进行了一次对话。 8.30 Coronation Street (T) Cassie 带着激动的情绪与家人告别。

8.0 Dover 24 / 7: Britain's Basket Port (T) 边境执法人员正在搜寻非法肉类。 9.0 Celebrity Hoisted (T) 新剧集。一组名人，包括 11 Chalmers 和 Sophie Morgan，变成了逃犯并试图逃避抓捕。

8.0 Street Cops: Catching the Yoke (T) 纪录片。警方在科比追捕一辆在路面上鲁莽行驶的涉嫌被盗的 SUV。 9.0 Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law (T) 新剧集。调查员 Lisa 追捕一名欠网络公司近 £2,000. 的嫌疑人。

8.0 The Art of Spain (T) 西班牙艺术史。 9.0 Sally Magnusson Remembers – Mastermind (T) Sally 分享回忆。 9.20 Mastermind 1972 Final (T) Magnus Magnusson 主持该测验节目。

9.0 The Rapture (T) 由 Ruth Madeley 主演的惊悚剧。Gabs 终于见到了 Anika Drake。

9.0 Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace (T) 新剧集。Davina McCall 和 Molly Campbell 帮助更多被遗弃者寻找亲人。

10.0 吉普赛妻子的秘密生活 (T) 真相秀系列。 11.05 超级红队的手术秘密 (T) (R)

10.0 警方截击者：打击商店窃贼团伙 (T) (R) 纪录片。 11.05 交通警察 (T) (R)

10.20 成为弗里达·卡罗 (T) 11.20 特纳：绘制英国之人的画家 (T) 12.20 大西洋：地球上最狂野的海洋 (T) 1.20 成为弗里达·卡罗 (T) 2.20 西班牙艺术 (T)

10.0 新闻 (T) 10.30 地区新闻 (T) 天气预报 10.45 TMS 迷雾 (Frank Dandrent, 2007) (T) 由托马斯·简主演的科幻恐怖片。 12.40 下周天气预报 (T) 12.45 新闻 (T)

10.0 莫蒂默与怀特豪斯：去钓鱼 (T) (R) 10.30 新闻之夜 (T) 天气预报 10.50 TMS 禁歌 (2023) (T) 12.45 手语区：乡村填充 (T) (R) 1.40 手语区：贝热拉克 (T) (R)

10.0 新闻 (T) 天气预报 10.45 悬案法医学：上帝银行家的死亡 (R) 11.45 爱与死亡 (T) (R) 12.45 电视购物 3.0 阶梯 (T) (R) 4.05 与ITV一起放松

10.0 吉普赛妻子的秘密生活 (T) 真相秀系列。 11.05 超级红队的手术秘密 (T) (R) 12.05 名人性爱带秘密 (T) 12.55 厨房噩梦美国版 (T) (R)

10.0 警方截击者：打击商店窃贼团伙 (T) (R) 纪录片。 11.05 交通警察 (T) (R) 12.05 扣车场警察 (T) (R) 1.0 与LovelBookit一起巡航电视 (T) (R)

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

37

周二 4

The Victorians With Rob Rinder and Ruth Goodman, 8, 9pm 探讨 19 世纪富人与穷人的生活

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

Channel 4

5

BBC Four

6.0 Breakfast (T) 9.30 Animal Park (T) (R) 10.15 Trace, Track, Get My Car Back (T) (R) 10.45 Expert Witness (T) (R) 11.15 Homes Under the Hammer (T) 12.15 Bargain Hunt (T) (R) 1.0 News (T) 1.35 Regional News (T) 1.45 News (T) 2.0 Money for Nothing (T) 2.45 Escape to the Country (T) (R) 3.45 The Bidding Room (T) (R) 4.30 The Answer Run (T) 5.15 Pointless (T) (R) 6.0 News (T) Weather 6.30 Regional News (T) Weather 7.0 The One Show (T) 7.30 EastEnders (T)

8.0 The Great British Sewing Bee (T) 缝纫爱好者们庆祝墨西哥时尚，展示由桌布制成的服装以及受节日启发的装扮。 9.0 Murder 24 / 7 (T) 针对 2025 年一名Hereford男子遇害案的两部分调查系列之首。

10.0 News (T) 10.30 Regional News (T) Weather 10.40 1.30 Robin Hood (Ridley Scott, 2010) (T) 中世纪冒险故事。 12.50 Weather for the Week Ahead (T) 12.55 News (T)

6.30 Bargain Hunt (T) (R) 7.15 The Bidding Room (T) (R) 8.0 Sign Zone: The Great British Sewing Bee (T) (R) 9.0 News (T) 1.0 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 1.30 The Finish Line (T) (R) 2.15 Do You Know Your Place? (T) (R) 2.45 Cricket: The Hundred (T) Sunrisers Leeds Women v London Spirit Women (开始时间 3.0pm)。 6.0 Cricket: The Hundred (T) Sunrisers Leeds Men v London Spirit Men (开始时间 6.30pm)。 Headingley球场比赛转播。

9.30 The Vampire Lestat: Interview with the Vampire (T) 根据安妮·赖斯（Anne Rice）的《吸血鬼编年史》改编的哥特式恐怖片，由Sam Reid主演。一名与莱斯特（Lestat）不合的老盟友登上了这支神情恍惚的乐队的巡演巴士，而一些熟面孔在他们的下一站等待着。

10.15 It Happened to Me: I Was Jailed in Japan for Ketamine 10.30 Newsnight (T) Weather 11.05 1.30 The Last Bus (Gilles MacKinnon, 2025) (T) 由Timothy Spall主演的剧集。 12.30 Sign Zone: Uncanny (T) (R)

6.0 Good Morning Britain (T) 10.0 This Morning (T) 1.30 News (T) Weather 1.55 Local News (T) Weather 2.0 Dickinson's Real Deal (T) (R) 3.0 Deal or No Deal (T) (R) 4.0 Tipping Point (T) (R) 5.0 The Chase (T) (R) Ellen, Sonal, Gerard 和 Trevor 参加。 6.0 Local News (T) Weather 6.30 News (T) Weather 7.30 Inside the Langham: Britain's First Grand Hotel (T) 首席执行官从香港总部抵达，视察该酒店迄今为止最宏大的翻新工程之一。

8.0 Emmerdale (T) Nicola 因一项发现而感到担忧。 8.30 Coronation Street (T) Dylan 在与 Brody 对峙后陷入昏迷。 9.0 Cold Case Forensics: A Death on the Nile (T) 调查一名英国事务律师在埃及度假期间的死亡事件。

10.0 News (T) Local News 10.45 1.30 Bad Boys II (Michael Bay, 2003) (T) 惊悚片。 1.10 Shop 3.0 The Summit (T) (R) 3.50 Unwind (T) 5.05 Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace (T) (R)

6.30 The King of Queens (T) (R) 7.45 Everybody Loves Raymond (T) (R) 9.10 Frasier (T) (R) 11.10 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) 12.05 News (T) 12.10 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (T) (R) 1.10 The Great House Giveaway (T) (R) 2.10 Countdown (T) 3.0 A Place in the Sun (T) (R) 4.0 Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith (T) (R) 5.0 Chateau DIY (T) (R) Trish 试图修理一座桥。 6.0 American Pickers (T) (R) Mike Wolfe 和 Frank Fritz 发现了一批概念车。 7.0 News (T)

8.0 Hotel Chocolat Unwrapped (T) 巧克力制作师 Yodi 构思了限量版饮用巧克力的口味，创始人 Angus 为芝加哥店的开业全力以赴。 9.0 Celebrity Hunted (T) 两名逃犯采取大胆行动，出现在电视直播中。

10.0 Gogglebox (R) 11.05 Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives (R) 12.05 Naked Attraction (R) 1.05 Hotel Hell (R) 1.55 1.55 Breakthrough (2019) (T) 3.50 Couples Come Dine with Me (R)

6.0 Milkshake! 9.15 Jeremy Vine (T) 11.30 Storm & Alexis (T) 12.45 News (T) 12.50 Matt: Allwright (T) 2.15 1.30 A Murder in Venice (Lane Shefter Bishop, 2023) (T) 由 Sophie Hopkins 主演的惊悚片。 4.0 Castle (T) (R) 4.55 Love Nature (T) (R) 5.0 News (T) 6.0 Majorca: A Year in the Sun (T) (R) 6.55 News (T) 7.0 The Yorkshire Vet: At Home with the Greens (T) (R) 当 Peter Wright 带着 Jean 乘坐直升机时，Jean 得以从空中俯瞰她的农场。 7.55 News (T)

8.0 Inside Longleat (T) 镜头调查朗利特花园中一些不速之客。 9.0 The Victorians With Rob Rinder and Ruth Goodman (T) 两人共同探讨历史上最著名的事件在富人与穷人眼中分别是如何呈现的。

10.30 The Pile Up: Death on the Motorway (T) (R) 12.05 The Carodial Next Door (T) (R) 1.0 Cruise TV (T) (R) 2.0 GPs Behind Closed Doors (T) (R) 2.50 Castle (T) (R) 3.40 Friends (T) (R)

7.0 Great British Railway Journeys (T) Michael Portillo 从林肯前往约克。 7.30 Wainwright Walks (T) Julia Bradbury 探索山峦行走者 Alfred Wainwright 的生活与作品。

8.0 To the Manor Born (T) 该喜剧的第一集。 8.30 Keeping Up Appearances (T) Hyacinth 计划一次特别晚餐。系列剧终集。 9.0 She-Wolves: England's Early Queens (T) 讲述英格兰历史上第一次全女性继承权之战的故事。系列剧终集。

10.0 Castles: Britain's Fortified History 11.0 Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? 1.0 She-Wolves: England's Early Queens 2.0 Castles: Britain's Fortified History

星期三 5

Big Chicken：一家快餐店

阴谋，Netflix

Mo Gilligan 探讨

炸鸡行业

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

Channel 4

5

BBC Four

6.0 Breakfast (T) 9.30 Animal Park (T) (R) 10.15 Trace, Track, Get My Car Back (T) (R) 10.45 Expert Witness (T) (R) 11.15 Homes Under the Hammer (T) (R) 12.15 Bargain Hunt (T) (R) 1.0 News (T) 1.35 Regional News (T) 1.45 News (T) 2.0 Money for Nothing (T) 2.45 Escape to the Country (T) (R) 3.45 The Bidding Room (T) 4.30 The Answer Run (T) 5.15 Pointless (T) (R) 6.0 News (T) Weather 6.30 Regional News (T) Weather 7.0 The One Show (T) 7.30 EastEnders (T)

8.0 The Repair Shop (T) (R) 专家修复了一对来自阿森纳海布里球场的原装座椅，以及一个二战时期的破旧水桶。

9.0 Murder 24 / 7 (T) 第二部分，两名警察努力构建案件——直到发现了一个血脚印。

10.0 News (T) 10.30 Regional News (T) Weather 10.40 1.30 You're Cordially Invited (Nicholas Stoller, 2025) (T) 首播。 12.25 The Hit List Celebrity Special (T) (R) 1.10 News

6.30 Money for Nothing (T) (R) 7.15 The Bidding Room (T) (R) 8.0 Sign Zone: Great Japanese Railway Journeys (T) (R) 8.30 Sign Zone: Great Continental Railway Journeys (T) (R) 9.0 News (T) 1.0 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 1.30 The Finish Line (T) (R) 2.15 Do You Know Your Place? (T) (R) 2.45 Cricket: The Hundred (T) (开始时间 3.0pm)。 6.0 Cricket: The Hundred (T) 特伦特火箭男子队对阵伯明翰凤凰男子队，在特伦特桥球场进行（开始时间 6.30pm）。

9.30 Live at the Apollo (T) (R) 热门讨论节目主持人 Ria Lina 主持在伦敦汉默史密斯阿波罗剧场拍摄的喜剧节目，在介绍同行喜剧演员 Lucy Beaumont 和 Josh Pugh 的单口喜剧之前，先带动现场观众的情绪。

10.0 The Big Cases – The Funeral Home Horror (T) 10.30 Newsnight (T) 11.05 Uncanny (T) (R) 12.05 The Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke (T) (R) 12.55 Sign Zone (T) (R)

6.0 Good Morning Britain (T) 10.0 This Morning (T) 1.30 News (T) Weather 1.55 Local News (T) Weather 2.0 Dickinson's Real Deal (T) (R) 3.0 Deal or No Deal (T) (R) 4.0 Tipping Point (T) (R) 5.0 The Chase (T) (R) John, Anousha, Tracy 和 Harish 参加。 6.0 Local News (T) Weather 6.30 News (T) Weather 7.30 Deal or No Deal: Banker's Best Battles (T) Stephen Mulhern 回顾了希望参赛者 James 和 Jack 与臭名昭著的“银行家”之间的两场对决。

8.0 Emmerdale (T) 决定给这只狗举行一次盛大的丁格尔式送别仪式。 8.30 Coronation Street (T) Lasers 让 Bietty 自行应对。 9.0 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (T) (R) 大奖挑选环节，由 Jeremy Clarkson 主持。

10.0 News (T) Local News 10.45 Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace (T) (R) 11.45 The Assembly (T) (R) 12.10 Shop on TV 3.0 Love & Death (T) (R) 3.50 Inside the Langham (T) (R)

6.30 The King of Queens (T) (R) 7.45 Everybody Loves Raymond (T) (R) 9.10 Frasier (T) (R) 11.10 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) 12.05 News (T) 12.10 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (T) (R) 1.10 The Great House Giveaway (T) (R) 2.10 Countdown (T) 3.0 A Place in the Sun (T) (R) 4.0 Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith (T) (R) 5.0 Chateau DIY (T) (R) 6.0 American Pickers (T) (R) Mike Wolfe 试图在街机游戏女王 Gypsy Grandma 身上有所突破。 7.0 News (T)

8.0 Extraordinary Extensions (T) 介绍了一对夫妇，他们正将位于萨里郡的家改造为一座受马贝拉启发而设计的派对豪宅。 9.0 The Undeclared War (T) 当悲剧发生时，Barbara 受到了 Charlie 的审视。Danny 发现了一个重大秘密。

10.0 The Undeclared War (T) 11.0 24 Hours in A&E (T) (R) 12.05 Celebrity Hunted (T) (R) 1.0 Celebrity Hunted (T) (R) 1.50 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) 2.40 Dictator: The Hitler Interviews (T) (R)

6.0 Milkshake! 9.15 Jeremy Vine (T) 11.30 Storm & Alexis (T) 12.45 News (T) 12.50 Matt: Allwright (T) 2.15 1.30 A Town Called Murder (Peter Sullivan, 2023) (T) 由 Kayleigh Roller 主演的惊悚片。 4.0 Castle (T) (R) 4.55 Love Nature (T) (R) 5.0 News (T) 6.0 Majorca: A Year in the Sun (T) (R) 厨师 Marc Fosh 庆祝马略卡岛的最佳农产品。 6.55 News (T) 7.0 Car Pound Cops (T) (R) 追踪因各种违规行为而被扣押的车辆。 7.55 News (T)

8.0 Casualty 24 / 7: Every Second Counts (T) 前护士 Sandra 因疑似踝关节脱位被送入医院。本系列最后一集。 9.0 999: Critical Condition (T) Charlotte 在一场车祸后入院，可能已瘫痪；Graham 面临危及生命的手术。

10.0 Ambulance: Code Red (R) 11.05 Cause of Death (T) (R) 12.05 A&E After Dark (T) (R) 1.0 Cruise TV 2.0 GPs Behind Closed Doors (T) (R) 2.50 Castle (T) (R) 3.40 Friends (R) 4.35 The Highland Vet

7.0 Great British Railway Journeys (T) Michael Portillo 探索约克。 7.30 Wainwright Walks (T) Julia Bradbury 攀登被认为是湖区最艰巨的山峰之一的布伦卡斯拉山。

8.0 The Treasures of Ancient Rome (T) 罗马人对性与暴力的痴迷如何影响了他们的艺术。 8.55 Mary Beard Remembers – Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit (T) 9.10 Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit (T) 2016年作品。

10.10 L Claudius (T) 11.55 The Treasures of Ancient Rome (T) 12.55 Wainwright Walks (T) 1.55 Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome (T) 2.55 Great British Railway Journeys (T)

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38

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

周四 6

《家庭中的恶魔：露比·弗兰克的陨落》(The Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke)，BBC Two，晚上9点 最终集揭露了这位前博主的罪行程度

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

Channel 4

5

BBC Four

6.0 Breakfast (T) 9.30 Animal Park (T) (R) 10.15 Trace, Track, Get My Car Back (T) (R) 10.45 Expert Witness (T) (R) 11.15 Homes Under the Hammer (T) 12.15 Bargain Hunt (T) (R) 1.0 News (T) 1.35 Regional News (T) 1.45 News (T) 2.0 Money for Nothing (T) 2.45 Escape to the Country (T) (R) 3.45 The Bidding Room (T) (R) 4.30 The Answer Run (T) 5.15 Pointless (T) (R) 6.0 News (T) Weather 6.30 Regional News (T) Weather 7.0 The One Show (T) 7.30 EastEnders (T)

8.0 Sign Zone: Gardeners' World (T) (R) 9.0 News (T) 10 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 1.30 The Finish Line (T) (R) 2.15 Do You Know Your Place? (T) (R) 2.45 The Hairy Bikers' Bakeation (T) (R) 3.45 The Farmers' Country Showdown (T) (R) 4.30 Vintage Antiques Roadshow (T) (R) 5.15 Flog It (T) (R) 6.0 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 6.30 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 7.0 Escape to the Country (T) (R)

6.0 Good Morning Britain (T) 10.0 This Morning (T) 1.30 News (T) Weather 1.55 Local News (T) Weather 2.0 Dickinson's Real Deal (T) (R) 3.0 Deal or No Deal (T) (R) Claire 试图按正确顺序打开 22 个红盒子。 4.0 Tipping Point (T) (R) 问答节目。 5.0 The Chase (T) (R) Pete, Elie, Zainudeen 和 Yvonne 参加。 6.0 Local News (T) Weather 6.30 News (T) Weather 7.30 Tom Kerridge Cocks Italy (T) 主厨学习农民如何生产用于制作番茄酱 (passata) 的番茄。

6.30 The King of Queens (T) (R) 7.45 Everybody Loves Raymond (T) (R) 9.10 Frasier (T) (R) 11.10 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) 12.05 News (T) 12.10 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (T) (R) 1.10 The Great House Giveaway (T) (R) 2.10 Countdown (T) 3.0 A Place in the Sun (T) (R) 4.0 Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith (T) (R) 5.0 Chateau DIY (T) (R) 6.0 American Pickers (T) (R) Mike Wolfe 和 Frank Fritz 偶然发现了一家巨大的 200,000 平方英尺工厂。 7.0 News (T)

6.0 Mikshake 9.15 Jeremy Vine (T) 11.30 Storm & Alexis (T) 12.45 News (T) 12.50 Matt Alwright (T) 2.20 FALL After a Small Town (Kalia York, 2023) (T) 由 Veronica Ramirez 主演的惊悚片。 4.0 Castle (T) (R) 4.55 Love Nature (T) (R) 5.0 News (T) 6.0 Menorca: A Year in the Sun (T) (R) 第一部分（共两部分）：地中海岛屿简介。 6.55 News (T) 7.0 Around the World in First Class with Josie Gibson (T) Josie 体验格林纳达的生活。 7.55 News (T) Headlines.

7.0 Great British Railway Journeys (T) Michael Portillo 从 Northallerton 旅行到 Chester-Le-Street。系列最后一集。 7.30 Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village (T) 在德比郡的 Cromford。

8.0 Fake or Fortune? (T) 艺术侦探调查 Lucian Freud 的潜在作品。系列最后一集。 9.0 Who Do You Think You Are? (T) 英国运动员 Katarina Johnson-Thompson 前往巴哈马寻找关于其祖先的故事。系列最后一集。

8.0 Digging for Britain (T) (R) 西部的一处罕见中世纪墓地和一座哥特式杰作的遗址。 9.0 The Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke (T) Franke 家族被孤立。系列最后一集。 9.50 The Fens: A Wild Year (T) (R) 东英吉利地的芬兰沼泽 (The Fens)。

8.0 Emmerdale (T) Charity 采取了大动作，Dingle 家族在悲痛中团结在一起。 8.30 Coronation Street (T) Kit 向 Gary 发出了一份不祥的邀请。 9.0 The Chase Around the World (T) 各组抵达巴黎，挑战“狐狸精与野兽” (the Vixen and the Beast)。

8.0 Renovation Rescue (T) 在西萨塞克斯郡，Vogue Williams 和 Luke Mabbott 帮助艺术家 Penny 寻找一处海边住所。 9.0 Murder Case: The Digital Detectives (T) 数字取证如何揭开 Matthew Daulty 谋杀案的真相。

8.0 Cornwall: A Year by the Sea (T) 在 Watergate Bay，米其林星级主厨 Chris Eden 和他的团队尝试今年夏天的第一次海滩盛宴。系列最后一集。 9.0 Bendorom is Murder (T) 一起屋顶谋杀案揭露了威胁着一家苦苦支撑的喜剧俱乐部的陈年积怨。

8.0 秋季 Superman (理查德·唐纳, 1978) (T) 一名拥有超能力的异形从他注定毁灭的星球撤离并坠落在地球上，成为一名正义的斗士。漫画风格冒险片，由克里斯托弗·里夫和吉恩·哈克曼主演。

10.0 新闻 (T) 10.30 地区新闻 (T) 天气 10.40 Murder 24 / 7 (T) (R) 11.40 Murder 24 / 7 (T) (R) 12.40 Alan Carr's Picture Slam (T) (R) 1.25 天气 (T) 1.30 新闻 (T) 最新头条。

10.0 Inside No 9 (T) (R) 10.30 Newsnight (T) 天气 11.05 秋季 Women Talking (莎拉·波利, 2022) (T) 12.40 Sign Zone: Ambulance (T) (R) 1.40 Sign Zone: Evolution (T) (R)

10.0 新闻 (T) 天气 10.30 地方新闻 (T) 天气 10.45 秋季 Casino Royale (马丁·坎贝尔, 2006) (T) 詹姆斯·邦德间谍惊悚片。 1.10 电视购物 3.0 The Summit (T) (R) 竞赛。

10.0 The Body Detectives (T) (R) 一个来自 1984 的案例。 11.05 Social Media Monsters (T) (R) 剖析犯罪。 12.05 Crime Scene Cleaners (T) (R) 1.0 Murder Case: The Digital Detectives (T) (R)

10.0 Killer at the Crime Scene (T) (R) 纪实犯罪。 11.0 Murdered at First Sight (T) (R) 纪录片。 12.05 Street Cops: Catching the Yobs (T) (R) 1.0 Cruise TV with LovettBookit (T) (R)

10.15 Christopher Reeve: Keeping Hope in Motion (T) 已故演员为恢复呼吸能力而进行的斗争。 11.15 Parkinson (T) 访谈节目。 12.15 Ian Rankin's Hidden Edinburgh (T) 旅行节目。

星期五 7

Our Lives，BBC One，晚上 7.30 关于安-玛丽·博伦 (Anne-Marie Bollen) 和朋克乐队 NaNaz 的非凡故事

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

Channel 4

5

BBC Four

6.0 早安节目 (T) 9.30 动物公园 (T) (R) 10.15 追踪、锁定，找回我的车 (T) (R) 10.45 专家证人 (T) (R) 11.15 房屋拍卖 (T) (R) 12.15 议价猎手：The One Show 20周年 (T) 1.0 新闻 (T) 1.35 地区新闻 (T) 2.0 理发师谜案 (T) 2.45 逃离到乡村 (T) (R) 3.45 竞拍室 (T) 4.30 答案奔跑 (T) 5.15 无益之举 (T) (R) 6.0 新闻 (T) 6.30 地区新闻 (T) 天气 7.0 The One Show (T) 7.30 我们的生活 (T)

8.0 Marcus Warning 纯净普罗旺斯 (T) (R) 9.0 新闻 (T) 10 理查德·奥斯曼的游戏之屋 (T) (R) 1.30 终点线 (T) (R) 2.15 你了解你的位置吗？ (T) (R) 2.45 hairy bikers 的烘焙之旅 (T) (R) 3.45 农民乡村大对决 (T) (R) 4.30 复古古董路演 (T) (R) 5.15 把它卖掉 (T) (R) 6.0 理查德·奥斯曼的游戏之屋 (T) (R) 6.30 仅此一事 (T) (R) 7.0 Iol 的安格尔西 (T) (R) 7.30 榉树林花园 (T) 春季收获。

6.0 英国早安 (T) 10.0 早上好 (T) 1.30 新闻 (T) 天气 1.55 地方新闻 (T) 天气 2.0 迪金森的真货 (T) (R) 大卫·迪金森及其交易员聚集地访问纽波特。 3.0 成交或不成交 (T) (R) 罗尼尝试按正确顺序打开 22 个红色盒子。 4.0 倾斜点 (T) (R) 由本·谢泼德主持的问答节目。 5.0 追逐 (T) (R) Comghal, Samantha, Adam 和 Yung Yung 参加。 6.0 地方新闻 (T) 天气 6.30 新闻 (T) 最新更新。天气

6.30 皇后之王 (T) (R) 7.45 每个人都爱雷蒙 (T) (R) 9.10 弗雷泽 (T) (R) 11.10 地狱厨房美国版 (T) (R) 12.05 新闻 (T) 12.10 寻找、修复、卖掉 (T) (R) 1.10 豪宅赠送 (T) (R) 2.10 倒计时 (T) 3.0 阳光下的住所 (T) (R) 4.0 与佩内洛普·基斯共同拯救乡村住宅 (T) (R) 5.0 城堡 DIY (T) (R) 泰瑞和艾希莉让他们的花园恢复生机。 6.0 美国拾荒者 (T) (R) 一本罕见的超人漫画。 7.0 新闻 (T) 头条。

6.0 Mikshake 9.15 杰里米·藤 (T) 11.30 Storm & Alexis (T) 12.45 新闻 (T) 12.50 马特·奥尔赖特 (T) 2.20 FALL The Book Club Murders (Logan Giese, 2024) (T) 由布里塔尼·安德伍德主演的悬疑剧。 4.0 Castle (T) (R) 4.55 热爱自然 (T) (R) 5.0 新闻 (T) 6.0 梅诺卡岛：阳光之年 (T) (R) 第二部分（共两部分）：探讨梅诺卡岛的海鲜、艺术和建筑修复。 6.55 新闻 (T) 7.0 汤姆·里德·威尔逊的大巡游 (T) (R) 7.55 新闻 (T)

7.0 逍遥之歌 (Also Sprach Zarathustra) 音乐会 (T) 一场精心策划的演出，由三首受天空奇迹启发、由施特劳斯、朱迪斯·威尔和拉威尔创作的曲目组成。凯蒂·德汉主持。

8.0 花岗岩港 (T) 琳多和巴特在与时间的竞赛中寻找真正的凶手。本系列最后一集。 9.0 你愿意吗？ (T) (R) Cush Jumbo, Judi Love, Grayson Perry 和 Tim Vine 加入该问答节目的常驻嘉宾之列。 9.30 安·德罗伊德 (T) 迈克尔和蕾妮收到晚餐邀请。

8.0 园艺世界 (T) Frances 'Supril 返回巴斯的 Damson 农场。 9.0 贝尔热拉克 (T) 克洛伊发现了证明约翰·布莱克利指控中含有部分事实的证据。 9.45 QX XL (T) (R) Ria Lina, Eshaar Akbar 和吉米·卡尔参加这场问答赛。

7.30 英格兰足球联赛杯直播 (T) 米德尔斯堡对阵雷克瑟姆 (晚上 8 点开球) 马克·波斯帕奇在里弗赛德体育场主持第一轮淘汰赛的所有精彩瞬间。最好避免重复上赛季该阶段的情况，当时他们以 4-0 输给了唐卡斯特郡流浪者队。

8.0 超富阶层手术秘密 (T) Hamath 进行了非手术液体隆鼻，Hollie 使用激光技术解决多年的阳光损伤问题。 9.0 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown (T) 与 Katherine Ryan, Katha El-Ghorri 和 Jake Lambert 共同主持。

8.0 科西嘉岛：地中海之珠 (T) 聚焦这座法国岛屿，它拥有 600 英里的海岸线、茂密的连接森林和雄伟的山脉。 9.0 亚历山大·阿姆斯特朗在韩国 (T) (R) 主持人展开了一场横跨全国的史诗旅程。

8.20 TOTP: 2000 (T) 音乐。8.45 TOTP: 1984 (T) 特蕾西·乌尔曼和 Blancmange 出演。9.15 TOTP: 1988 (T) 包含金·怀尔德、The Franky Worm 等众多艺人。9.45 托尼·贝内特在伦敦帕拉迪奥剧院：BBC 录制 session (T) 这位美国歌手 2011 年的演唱会。

10.0 新闻 (T) 10.30 地区新闻 (T) 天气 10.45 秋季 FALL 20天后 (丹尼·博伊尔, 2002) (T) 基里安·墨菲主演的恐怖片。12.30 未来一周天气预报 (T) 12.35 新闻 (T)

10.30 新闻之夜 (T) 天气 11.05 秋季 FALL 豪威尔 (Luna Camoon, 2023) (T) 1.0 手语区：全景：英国最严格的学校 (T) (R) 1.30 手语区：《 The Rapture》(T) (R) 剧集。

10.25 新闻 (T) 天气 10.55 地方新闻 (T) 天气 11.15 秋季 FALL 侠探杰克：绝不回头 (爱德华·兹威克, 2016) (T) 动作惊悚片。1.10 电视购物 3.0 自然之力 (T) (R) 纪实。

10.0 巨型趣味问答：精彩片段 (T) 11.05 莎拉·米利肯：家鸟现场 (T) (R) 脱口秀。12.10 格雷格·戴维斯：我妈的后脑勺 (T) (R) 1.05 坡道 (T) 2.15 秋季 FALL 戏剧营 (2023) (T)

10.30 皮尔斯·摩根：无审查 (T) 激烈辩论节目。12.0 逃票者：与法律抗争 (T) (R) 1.50 LovettBookit 游轮电视 (T) (R) 2.0 全科医生：闭门之后 (T) (R) 纪实。

10.45 托尼·贝内特演唱——电影歌曲 (T) 柔情赞歌演唱会。11.15 托尼·贝内特演唱——个人热门曲集 (T) 11.50 托尼·贝内特演唱——百老汇歌曲 (T)

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

39

周六 8

Space Soundtracks at the Proms, BBC Two, 7.35pm Nick Mohammed 庆祝那些改变了人们宇宙观的音乐

BBC One

6.0 Breakfast (T) 10.0 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites (T) 11.30 Anna Haugh's Big Irish Food Tour (T) (R) 12.0 Home Under the Hammer (T) (R) 1.0 News (T) 1.10 Weather (T) 1.15 Bargain Hunt (T) (R) 2.15 Money For Nothing (T) (R) 3.15 Escape to the Country (T) (R) 4.15 FREE Night at the Museum Secret of the Tomb (Shawn Levy, 2016) (T) 5.50 News (T) 6.0 Regional News (T) Weather 6.05 Weather (T) 6.10 The Hit List Celebrity Special (T) 6.55 Alan Carr's Picture Slam (T)

7.40 Michael McIntyre's Big Show (T) (R) 8.35 Pointless Celebrities (T) (R) With Charlene White, Fern Britton, Chloe Madeley and James Haskell. 9.25 How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge) (T) (R) Alan seeks to find joy in the unexpected.

| 10.0 News (T) 10.15 Weather (T) 10.20 FREE Bridget Jones's Diary (Sharon Maguire, 2001) (T) 11.50 FREE Man Up (Ben Palmer, 2015) (T) Comedy. 1.15 Weather (T) 1.20 News (T) |

| 6.30 Children's TV (T) 8.45 Jamie Johnson FC (T) (R) 9.15 Gardeners' World (T) (R) 10.15 FREE Angels One Five (George More O'Ferrall, 1953) (T) 11.50 The Great British Sewing Bee (T) (R) 12.50 A Cock Abroad: Monica Gentry's France (T) (R) 1.50 FREE Summer Holiday (Peter Yates, 1963) (T) 3.35 Role on Fortune! (T) (R) 4.35 Evolution (T) (R) 5.30 FREE Superman II (Richard Lester, 1980) (T) Adventure sequel. 7.35 Space Soundtracks at the Proms (T) |

| 8.35 Paul Heaton at the BBC (T) This collection of performances and best BBC moments celebrates Paul's impressive career and features the man himself explaining the context and back stories behind some of his best-loved hits. |

| 10.10 Paul Heaton: Live at Bramall Lane (T) 11.35 The Housemains in London 0 Hall 4 (T) (R) 12.20 Top of The Pops (T) 12.50 FREE Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, 2023) |

| 6.0 James Martin's American Adventure (T) (R) 7.0 FREE The Man with the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton, 1974) (T) 9.25 News (T) 9.30 James Martin's Saturday Morning (T) (R) 12.0 Prue Leith's Cotswold Kitchen (T) (R) 1.0 News (T) 1.10 ITV Racing: Live from Ascot (T) Coverage of the Sherga Cup. 5.0 Tipping Point: Best Ever Finals (T) (R) 5.30 The Chase Celebrity Special (T) (R) 6.30 News (T) 6.45 Local News (T) 7.0 Deal or No Deal: Celebrity Special (T) |

| 8.0 FREE Quantum of Solace (Marc Forster, 2008) (T) James Bond sets out on a personal mission of vengeance and uncovers a plan to cause a coup in a Latin American country. Spy thriller sequel starring Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylvicki and Jud Denoch. |

| 10.05 News (T) Weather 10.20 The Staircase (T) 11.35 Sorry, I Didn't Know (T) (R) 12.10 Shop on TV 3.0 Cold Case Forensics: A Death on the Nile (T) (R) 3.50 Unwind with ITV (T) |

| 6.10 Cheers (T) (R) 8.0 Everybody Loves Raymond (T) (R) 9.25 Praiser (T) (R) 10.55 The Simpsons (T) (R) 12.55 Four in a Bed (T) (R) 3.30 The Dog House (T) (R) 4.30 Love It or List It (T) (R) 5.35 Grand Designs (T) (R) Recently widowed Kathryn plans to build a new, accessible, ultra-home right next door to the home she loved in with her husband Jan. 6.30 News (T) 7.0 Sandi Toksvig's Hidden Wonders (T) (R) Sandi Toksvig rediscovers her love of archaeology. |

| 8.0 Bettany Hughes' Lost Worlds: Dawn of Civilisations (T) Part one. The historian uncovers the origins of civilization itself. 9.0 Dictator: The Hitler Interviews (T) Hitler's friends and contemporaries recall how tyranny took hold. |

| 10.0 Elvis, the Colonel and the Mob (T) Part one of two. 11.05 Elvis, the Colonel and the Mob (T) Part two of two. 12.10 FREE The Contractor (Tarik Saleh, 2022) (T) 1.55 Ramy (T) 2.30 Ramy (T) |

[!NOTE] 本章节源文包含大量外语数据与图片版面，已进行结构化对齐优化。

6.0 Milkshake! 9.05 Entertainment News on 5 (T) 9.10 Secrets of the Royal Palaces (T) (R) 11.0 Yorkshire's Pothiest Hotel: Grantley Hall (T) (R) 1.0 The Royals: Uncensored (T) 2.0 Coastal Adventures with Helen, Jules B. (R) (T) (R) 3.0 Coastal Adventures with Helen, Jules B. (R) (T) (R) 4.0 Live: UK's Strongest Man 2026 (T) Coverage of the semi-final: 6.55 News (T) 7.0 Sussex: Jewel of the South Coast (T) A look at the discovery of a Bronze Age settlement.

8.0 The Middletons: The Making of a Modern Queen (T) (R) The Middleton family's influence in raising Kate for her future role. 9.30 Kate: Our New Diana? (T) (R) Documentary comparing the life and style of two Princesses of Wales – Kate and Diana.

| 10.30 Diana & the Curse of the Spencers (T) (R) 12.0 We Love Bridget Jones: All the Laughter & More (T) (R) 1.20 Cruise TV (T) (R) 2.20 GPs: Behind Closed Doors (T) (R) |

| 7.0 Natural World: Jungle Animal Hospital (T) 7.05 Life on Earth (T) David Attenborough explores the lives of birds, focusing on the uses and advantages of their feathers in flight and during courtship. | | 8.0 Gloria: My Life on TV (T) 9.0 Gloria: Humidified Remembers – Doris Day (T) The presenter looks back on her 1970 interview. 9.15 Doris Day: Pebble Mill Special (T) Gloria Humidified interviews the singer. 9.55 Wogan with Gloria Humidified (T) |

| 10.25 The Val Doonican Music Show (T) With the Cambridge Busters. 11.10 FREE Parallel Mothers (Pedro Almodóvar, 2020) 1.05 Keeping Up Appearances (T) 1.35 To the Manor Born |

[!NOTE] 本章节源文包含大量外语数据与图片版面，已进行结构化对齐优化。

电台节目

(该部分内容为表格占位符，原文中无具体文本内容)

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

评论员

电视

《愤怒》(Furious) 是一部面向后 #MeToo 时代的谋杀剧

Barbara Ellen

《狂怒》(Furious) (Disney+)

《天启》(The Rapture) (BBC One)

“主演们以截然不同的方式在银幕上大放异彩”： 艾米·罗瑟姆 (Emmy Rossum) 和 斯科特·麦克奈尔 (Scoot McNairy) 主演《狂怒》；下方是印度·阿马特费奥 (India Amarteffio) 在《天启》中饰演的贝塞尼 (Bethany)。

Disney

这部由 Disney+ 推出的全新八集惊悚剧《狂怒》在银幕上的登场方式并非循序渐进，而像是在提起裙摆大声尖叫。从一开始，它就跳动着一种典型的女性愤怒以及冰冷的临床目的感，每一位女性主角都执拗地追求着自己的目标。

该剧是由伊丽莎白·梅里韦瑟 (Elizabeth Meriwether) 创作的最新作品。她曾创作 2022 年由阿曼达·塞弗里德 (Amanda Seyfried) 主演的《辍学》(The Dropout)——讲述了名誉扫地的血液检测企业家伊丽莎白·霍姆斯 (Elizabeth Holmes) 的故事；以及去年的《渴望性爱》(Dying for Sex)，由米歇尔·威廉姆斯 (Michelle Williams) 饰演一名身患绝症、执行色情使命的年轻女性。因此，我们知道她具备让一个离奇、扭曲的情节持续运转的技巧。

据说这部新惊悚剧受到了 1987 年电影《黑寡妇》(Black Widow) 的启发，后者由特蕾莎·罗素 (Theresa Russell) 饰演一名致命的拜金女，但两者截然不同。由艾米·罗瑟姆（出自美版《无耻之徒》）饰演的爱丽丝 (Alice) 曾是纽约警察局的侦探，现在希望加入 FBI 的性犯罪组。她最终追捕的对象是凯瑟琳 (Catherine，由在《不可说》(Say Nothing) 和《侵犯》(Trespasses) 中表现出色的劳拉·佩蒂克鲁 (Lola Petticrew) 饰演)，这是一个危险的等待者，她通过注射药物杀死男性，并在他们死去时对着他们的脸甜甜地微笑。

作为一名年轻的连环杀手，凯瑟琳在一个关于人口贩卖、剥削和谋杀的复杂阴谋中锁定特定受害者。她像一个美丽的幽灵一样飘进那些自视甚高的男人们的轨道，少言寡语，不求回报，这正是他们所喜欢的，直到她掏出致命的注射器。

爱丽丝有着受虐的性癖好和惨痛的家庭暴力史（杰克·莱西 (Jake Lacy) 饰演她那个坏蛋侦探前任，全程带着自以为是的冷笑），她也有自己的阴暗面需要面对。饰演一名 FBI 资深人员的昆西·泰勒·伯恩斯汀 (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) 则为女性形象增添了另一层疲惫、僵化的质感。

至于男性角色，《狂怒》对男性气概下达了你在银幕上可能见到的最阴郁且最终的审判。在相当长的一段时间里，爱丽丝那位深陷爱河且给予支持的侦探朋友（由斯科特·麦克奈尔饰演）是唯一可见的体面男性角色。

有时，这部剧让人想起《杀死伊芙》(Killing Eve)——带有黑色幽默，两名女性不断地周旋彼此——但它在很大程度上是一部独立的剧作。全剧的基调是纯粹的后 #MeToo 时代风格。随着剧集的推进，越来越多地暗示了杰弗里·爱泼斯坦 (Jeffrey Epstein)——出现一个同样首字母缩写且拒不悔改的有钱人，以及巨大的财富如何助长每一种病态欲望，还有潜伏在阴影中的帮凶。

这就是我们现在希望在谋杀剧中看到的女性角色吗？既是猎人又是猎物，拥有通过深刻刻画展现心理创伤的角色弧线？这里的三位主演以截然不同的方式在银幕上大放异彩：伯恩斯汀将讽刺作为她的超能力，在荒凉的剧情线中艰难前行；佩蒂克鲁从活泼傲慢切换到阴冷崩溃；而罗瑟姆富有表现力的眼睛则逐渐演变成情感饥渴的空洞。

《狂怒》并非完美。它在第三分之一段时显得乏力且沉重，结尾的一个反转显得有些牵强。但与此同时，该剧具有毫不费力的吸引力。它与其说是一部惊悚剧，不如说是一篇关于虐待以及如何在保持正义感的同时生存下去的论文。它不适合胆小的人，但值得一看。

在 BBC One 频道上，《天启》塑造了更多希望表达愤怒的强悍女性。该剧改编自利兹·詹森 (Liz Jensen) 2009 年的小说，是一部五集的生态惊悚剧，由编剧兼剧场行为艺术家布里奥妮·金明斯 (Bryony Kimmings) 改编（她的作品包括《我是凤凰》(I'm A Phoenix)、《婊子》(Bitch) 和《沼泽女巫》(Bog Witch)，她还与艾玛·汤普森 (Emma Thompson) 共同创作了 2019 年的电影《圣诞之恋》(Last Christmas)）。

这部剧集设定在一个虚构的威尔士小镇，由露丝·梅德利（Ruth Madeley，曾出演《芭芭拉遇见艾伦》）饰演加布斯（Gabs）。加布斯是一位心碎的心理学家，在一次导致丈夫死亡的车祸后瘫痪（梅德利本人也使用轮椅，因出生时患有二分脊）。在返回 NHS 精神病房工作后，加布斯被指派照顾由印度·阿马特费奥（India Amarteffio）饰演的 17 岁少女贝瑟尼（Bethany）。

贝瑟尼言语刻薄，对加布斯说：“我知道你出过车祸，但我不知道你是残废。”在另一个时刻，她称呼加布斯为“轮子”。这名青少年被认为用螺丝刀刺入母亲眼睛而将其杀害；她在杀人前画的一幅画中，就描绘了其母亲正是以这种方式死去。

虽然起初持怀疑态度，但加布斯渐渐怀疑贝瑟尼那些狂乱的涂鸦传达了某种精神预感，而且这一切都与一家燃料公司抹黑一个名为“气候前线”（Climate Front）的活动人士团体有关。剧集中贯穿的一场热浪进一步强调了环保主题。

与此同时，贝瑟尼的父亲伦纳德（Leonard，萨姆·哈泽尔丁饰演）领导着“信仰之路”（Faith Way）。这是一个拥有数百万追随者的类宗教新时代运动，传播一种观点，即气候危机活动人士是危言耸听之徒。伦纳德是一个令人厌烦、语调圆滑、散发着“时髦牧师”气息的嬉皮士，他不断摊开双手，恳请他的追随者们抵制这种“毁灭循环”。

在某些方面，《The Rapture》陷入了它自己的毁灭循环。当贝瑟尼开始绘制她众多预感中的一个，在笔记本上疯狂涂写时，我担心这名观众主要想到了童年时玩几何绘图仪（spirograph kit）的经历。你最终会觉得，如果没有那个方便地解释一切的精神预感主线，剧情就像在酷暑之日的一块 Mini Milk 巧克力一样融化瓦解。

在人物刻画方面，这部剧实现了显著的深度，加布斯有了一个心仪对象（杰克·法辛饰演）和她自己的心理治疗师（露丝·琼斯饰演）。该剧的制作充满激情，配角阵容强大。而有时显得过于激进的剧情，则被梅德利和阿马特费奥的搭档关系很好地中和了，两人在互动中展现出一种相当强烈的女性主义自信。

观看清单

芭芭拉·艾伦（Barbara Ellen）推荐的其他精彩剧集

贝尼多姆谋杀案 (Benidorm Is Murder)

(Channel 5)

在本部设定在科斯塔布兰卡（Costa Blanca）的新喜剧犯罪剧中，约翰·汉娜（John Hannah）饰演一名从警察转行为身着花衬衫的酒吧老板。他必须解开一起涉及一名罗比·威廉姆斯（Robbie Williams）模仿者死亡的谜团。

沙巴兹之问：亿万富翁是坏人吗？ (Shabaz Asks: Are Billionaires Bad?)

(BBC Three)

社交媒体内容创作者沙巴兹·阿里（Shabaz Ali）在各大平台拥有 400 万粉丝，他在节目中思考超级富豪及其对社会产生的影响——无论好坏。

吸血鬼莱斯塔特 (The Vampire Lestat)

(BBC Two)

这部幽默且颓废的吸血鬼故事回归了，该剧改编自安妮·赖斯（Anne Rice）的小说，由萨姆·里德（Sam Reid，见下图）和雅各布·安德森（Jacob Anderson）主演。莱斯塔特想成为一名摇滚之星——快来吸他的血吧。

From £2.40 for subscribers Sunday 2 August 2026 | www.observer.co.uk | No 12,243 | £4.50 (IR €5.00)

Style

Bus Aunty ... and the good people of social media

Magazine

Food

Nigel Slater Lemon mascarpone from the fridge

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Magazine

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Laura Loomer The Trump whisperer who switched sides on Ukraine

News

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'The enemy of nonsense'

George Orwell, The Observer

THE OBSERVER VIEW

The bountiful game

Infantino's plan to sell stakes in the World Cup should get him sent off. But Fifa must find other ways of funding football in developing countries

That well-known goalkeeper Albert Camus once wrote that "All that I know most surely about morality and obligations I owe to football".

Gianni Infantino, president of Fifa, could probably say the same, but the moral lessons have changed since Camus' time, and not for the better. For decades, global football has been dominated by self-dealing strongmen trailing

accusations of corruption. Fifa must now ensure that this was the week when that era came to an end.

Infantino's plan, unveiled last week and dropped within days, was to allow private investors to buy stakes in the World Cup. At the front of the queue was Joshua Kushner, younger brother of Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. The plan was accompanied by what its opponents immediately described as bribes of $40m to each of Fifa's 211 member countries in return for their support, and a threat that they would only get $10m if they rejected it.

There are some easy conclusions to draw from this episode. The first is that, for the sins of first listening to Trump's demand to reinstate a USA player in the World Cup who had been banned from playing after being sent off, and then producing this disastrous plan, Infantino should be thrown out. On that question, Andy Burnham is right. Fifa's statutes allow for its president to be fired, and the English FA should lead the charge to sack him. There's a precedent of sorts: Infantino's predecessor Sepp Blatter was effectively forced out by pressure from commercial sponsors within days of being re-elected in 2015 after a rolling series of corruption scandals involving hundreds of millions of dollars. Three months after Blatter stepped back, Fifa suspended him. This time Fifa should act, not react.

Such a change at the top of Fifa would only mean something if it went hand in hand with an overhaul of its governance. Remember what Infantino said as he took office in 2016, elected on a promise to end corruption: "We will restore the image of Fifa and the respect of Fifa, and everyone in the world will applaud us." All the wrong people were clapping when Infantino's plan was unveiled because the structures of football had not changed to stop Infantino assuming he could use money to leverage an extraordinary degree of personal control over the world's most popular sport.

But at the end of a tumultuous week for football there are some more difficult conclusions to draw, too, and some unhelpful platitudes have been tossed around which get in the way of hearing them. Burnham has been guilty of adding to the noise by

reacting to Infantino's plans with one of them: "Football belongs to the fans. It always has, and it always will."

The problem is, it's not true. Burnham was describing the world as he would like it to be, not as it is. Emotionally, football may belong to the fans. But in every practical way it belongs to a kaleidoscope of international sports consortia, investors, sovereign wealth funds, and super-rich enthusiasts. And more than most people, Burnham knows that alongside the romance of a time when football belonged more to fans than it does now, there were costs. At the extremes, anyone who pines for the days of woolly jumpers for goalposts and a quarter of an orange at half-time should be asked to acknowledge that Hillsborough and Heysel were among its legacies.

In large part, those awful disasters of the 1980s – 97 Liverpool fans died as a result of a crowd crush at Hillsborough, and 39 mainly Juventus supporters at Heysel

– have not been repeated because the

torrent of money that has flowed into the European game has

rebuilt football grounds as well as making multimillionaires out of players and managers. Burnham credits Hillsborough as a turning point in his life as a politician, and he should not be blinkered about its wider lessons. Professionalism and finance have transformed the game, but not everywhere.

In December 2024 there was a pitch invasion at a football match in Guinea's second city, Nzérékoré, and a crush on the terraces. Human rights groups estimated that 135 people died. Two years earlier 125 people were killed at a stadium in Malang, Indonesia. Many more people were killed in those two disasters than at Hillsborough and Heysel, and they are far from alone. Every year, in Africa and Asia particularly, supporters die at games.

Football belongs to those fans as well, and it has a moral responsibility to them, not just to a nostalgic idea of the beautiful game. The mechanism Infantino dreamed up to extract maximum value from the World Cup was misconceived, but the idea is not wrong in itself. Without bankrupting fans by pricing tickets extortionately, Fifa should wring every penny from its showcase tournament and use it to help developing countries skip the awful phase in European history when the price of going to a football match could be your life.

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Issue No. 12,243

Who says

Rachel Sylvester

The robots are loaded with each person's calendar and medical needs. They tell residents when it is time for bingo, lunch or a favourite TV programme and help them make video calls to family members or friends. Patricia Fordham, 82, says [her] robot makes her feel less lonely. "I'll say 'how are you?' and it will say back to me – 'how are you?' It's like a companion." Another user was able to watch her granddaughter's graduation via video link on the droid. News, page 8

Caroline Johnston

Donald Trump has spent the last few weeks redbaiting. Democrats are communists, Trump says. They want to blow up Mount Rushmore. A slew of articles and podcasts have since compared Trump to Joseph McCarthy and debated whether redbaiting remains an effective political strategy. Forum, page 32

Tom Gatti

Mark Haddon has long been plagued by anxiety and depression. Terrified of sharks, as a child he once spent an entire boat trip crying with a towel over his head. He only recently conquered a fear of flying that left him missing family holidays or unable to function for days leading up to any flight. In his memoir he includes a photograph of a cut he made on his arm in 2024: "I do it because I'm uncontrollably angry with myself and there's just too much pressure inside my head." New Review, pages 8-11

Wendy Ide

Essentially, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a film about workplace burnout – it just happens the workplace is the space around New York skyscrapers. Peter is plagued with crippling stress headaches and web-related repetitive strain injury. To make matters worse, there's a malign force at work in the city: a powerful entity that has the ability to mind-hop from person to person. New Review, page 23

Esmé Lewis

The inclusion of the 1,910m climb of Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France Femmes reflects the race's growing ambition. "There is no mountain that is too difficult for women," race director Marion Rousse said in June. "And the peloton demonstrates that at each race. The level is more and more consistent, and they ride faster each time." Sport, page 12

Josh Barrie

Everyone who was anyone wanted a table at Harveys [patron: Marco Pierre White]: models (Denice D Lewis, Koo Stark), pop royalty (Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan), actual royalty (Margaret). The actor and hellraiser Oliver Reed became a regular. Every year at Christmas, he would call White for turkey advice. Magazine, pages 22-27

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7 days

Overheard

'The only way we'll have a woman leader is if we start a conversation now to say that men cannot stand for the leadership'

Harriet Harman, former Labour deputy leader

The week in brief

Mountaineer Nirmal Purja dies in avalanche

Renowned Nepali-British mountaineer Nirmal Purja was among 10 climbers killed by an avalanche on Broad Peak in Pakistan, his expedition organisation confirmed. There were no survivors in the group, which was swept away by the avalanche in the Karakoram mountain range last Thursday, according to Purja's expedition organisation Elite Exped. Nepali-born Purja, 43, who served in the British military for 16 years, made history in 2019 by climbing the world's 14 highest peaks in 189 days. In a post on X on Monday, Purja said he had decided to climb the peak at short notice, writing: "Broad Peak, I ask for nothing but safe passage up and back down."

$5-10bn

A planned purchase of yen on the to-do list of Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, captured by a photographer at Camp David

Heatwave reveals Britain's lost gardens

The extreme UK heatwave has revealed the outline of a 300-year-old lost garden at Blenheim Palace that was dismantled by renowned landscaper Lancelot "Capability" Brown in the 1760s. Andy Mills, the palace's head gardener, said the dry weather had given "a fascinating bird's-eye view into Blenheim's past, allowing us to trace the intricate design and scale of the original parterre." In Derbyshire, a 19th-century garden was revealed under lawns at Hardwick Hall, home to less of Hardwick in the 16th century. She rose to become one of the most powerful and wealthy women of her age.

Female chess team need a man to compete

The UK's only all-woman chess team, She Plays to Win, have been told to replace a female player with a man. The team was promoted to the top tier of national chess competitions last week, and then told they need to add a male to their team, prompting backlash in the chess community. The Four Nations Chess League (4NCL) has a rule requiring all of its first division teams to be mixed, a rule established to encourage more female participation in the sport.

Inflatable balloons of kissing presidents Putin and Trump tower over crowds enjoying Amsterdam Pride yesterday. AP

Hull funeral director jailed for 20 years

A funeral director who failed to bury or cremate dozens of people has been jailed for 20 years. More than 35 bodies and 100 sets of ashes were found in a police raid of the Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull in 2024. Hull crown court was told that Robert Bush had acted out of "financial greed" and defrauded almost 200 families out of £562,117. Trial judge Mr Justice Hilliard told the former undertaker he had

"caused anguish and pain on a scale beyond comprehension". He warned that none of Bush's customers could be "certain they received the ashes of their loved one", unless they were told by police.

Rogue Claude AI hacks three organisations

Claude AI connected to the internet and hacked the systems of three organisations during a private security experiment, technology firm Anthropic said. Claude – the

The Observer news matrix

US tech firm's family of AI models – found a weakness in an isolated test environment and breached the systems of the organisations during a test intended to remain on a closed-off network with no internet access. Anthropic said the incidents began in April and neither it nor the hacked organisations had noticed the breaches at the time. Last month OpenAI disclosed that ChatGPT had escaped an isolated test environment and hacked an AI company, Hugging Face.

Australian teens bend social media rules

More than eight in 10 Australian teenagers are still on social media three months after a ban for under-16s, a study has found. E-safety, a government body, said most under-16s who had social media accounts before the ban "were able to either retain them or create new ones", and platforms had failed to implement effective age assurance measures. Australia was the first country in the world to implement the ban and its progress is being watched closely by governments worldwide, including the UK.

Energy watchdog puts price on data centres

Energy regulator Ofgem wants to charge data centres hundreds of millions of pounds for grid connections. It aims to discourage "speculative" projects and reduce a backlog of 315 waiting to connect. The fees will be the equivalent of up to 7.5% of a project's total cost and will be refunded if the data centre is completed on time. Long waits are a key reason why the UK's capacity per person is a third of that in the US.

Long stories short

• Labour's Bev Craig was elected mayor of Greater Manchester after the vote triggered by Andy Burnham's resignation.
• The White House dropped a vandalism charge against an Olympian accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Pool.
• A space tracking expert said a drifting SpaceX rocket would collide with the moon on Wednesday.
• Scottish conservationists spotted the first wild-born beavers in 400 years.

Trump claims Israel is happy with Hamas deal

US president Donald Trump has claimed Israel is "very happy" with a US-backed peace deal requiring Hamas to disarm. Under the plan, Hamas will be asked to transfer control of Gaza to an interim body supported by an international stabilisation force. Trump said it amounted to the "complete disarmament" of Hamas, but a senior Israeli official said Israel would not withdraw "without the genuine disarmament of Hamas".

On the cover

Fifa president Gianni Infantino at a press conference at the association's Zurich headquarters. Valeriano Di Domenico/Getty

Sections of The Observer are carefully collated at our print site and by newsagents. If any section of today's UK edition of The Observer is missing, call freephone 0800 839330. Back issues can be obtained from www.firdsmc-messaggers.co.uk, or by calling 01 800 688700 or 2026 Published by Tomai Media Limited, 22 Berners Street, London W1T 3LP

Printed at Newsprinters (Brookwater) Ltd, Great Cambridge Road, Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, EN6 8DY, Beach Oldham Limited, Hathrowood Avenue, Chadderton, Oldham SL9 8EP, Discovery Point, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee, DD4 8SL, and Irish Times Print Facility, 4090 Kingswood Road, Citypoint Business Campus, Dublin 24. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. ISSN 0029-7712

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Burnham wins back voters from left and right, rebuilding 2024 electoral coalition

His party is ahead in the polls and his candidate won the byelection to become mayor of Greater Manchester. But tough decisions await

Rachel Sylvester

Political editor

Labour has opened up a four-point lead over Reform UK by winning back voters from left and right since Andy Burnham became prime minister.

An Opinium poll for The Observer confirms a clear "Burnham bounce", putting Labour ahead for the first time in 15 months, on 27%, followed by Reform UK on 23%. The Conservatives stand at 17%, with the Liberal Democrats and Greens both on 12%.

The survey suggests Burnham has started to rebuild the electoral coalition that secured his party's landslide victory in 2024. Labour has jumped 10 points among those who voted Green at the last general election and three points among 2024 Reform voters.

Burnham has also won a four-point boost among former Labour supporters who abandoned the party under Keir Starmer. As for the question of best prime minister, he has a 22-point lead over Nigel Farage and a 20-point lead over Kemi Badenoch, according to the Opinium poll.

Labour's growing strength was highlighted by the success of the party's candidate in the byelection to replace Burnham as Greater Manchester mayor. There had been speculation that the party might struggle to hold the mayoralty, but Bev Craig, the former council leader, secured 47% of the votes in the first round, well ahead of Reform on 21%.

The Opinium survey suggests the Labour leader has enhanced both his personal reputation and his party's fortunes over the past two

Andy Burnham with Bev Craig, after she was elected mayor of Greater Manchester. Joel Goodman/LNP

'Andy Burnham has enjoyed a honeymoon bounce and has won back voters who had drifted to the Greens'

Priya Minhas, Opinium

weeks. Two in five say their opinion of Burnham has become more positive since he became prime minister, three times the number who say it has become more negative. Only 20% of voters think he is handling his job badly, compared with 36% who think he is doing it well.

The Labour leader performs strongly on a series of key personal attributes, with 44% of those polled agreeing he is likeable, more than

double those who disagree. In addition, 42% think he is decisive and the same percentage believe he has the nation's best interests at heart. By contrast, 20% of those polled think the Green party leader Zack Polanski is doing a good job, half the number who say he is doing a bad job. Just 26% approve of Farage's leadership, compared with 50% who disapprove.

The prime minister's personal approval ratings appear to have translated into improved support for his party. According to the survey, 35% of voters say their view of Labour has improved under its new leader, with just 13% saying it has got worse.

Priya Minhas, political and social director at Opinium, said: "Andy Burnham has enjoyed a significant honeymoon bounce, putting Labour ahead for the first time in 15 months and opening up its largest lead over Reform since January 2025. Much of

that improvement appears to come from rebuilding Labour's 2019 coalition, particularly by winning back voters who had drifted to the Greens at the last general election."

Since becoming Labour leader a fortnight ago, Burnham has made a blitz of policy announcements, starting with a series of cost-of-living pledges, then moving on to more substantial promises of reform on education, social care and devolution.

He also signalled a shift in his approach to party management last week by allowing Diane Abbott, the veteran Labour MP who had the whip removed under Starmer, back on to the Labour benches in the House of Commons.

The honeymoon is likely to be short-lived, with the prime minister facing a series of difficult decisions and trade-offs. Burnham has paused the prisoner early release scheme,

introduced by Shabana Mahmood as justice secretary in an attempt to deal with the prison overcrowding crisis.

Rightwingers have called for the scheme to be scrapped, but David Gauke, the former Conservative lord chancellor who conducted a government review of sentencing, insisted abandoning the policy was not a viable option.

"The prison population traditionally increases in the autumn and without a move to earlier release soon, the system will be under great strain within a few months," he told The Observer.

Burnham is facing a Labour revolt over his apparent support for renewed drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea. He will face a backlash from the left if he presses ahead with welfare reform and a reaction from the right if he fails to increase defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030.

Reform given six-figure donation by firm that received £67m loans from unnamed sources

Catherine Neilan

10 hachal editor

A business that made a six-figure donation to Reform UK received interest-free loans of £67m from unnamed "related companies" in the months before, raising questions about the possible origin of the funds.

R20 Advisory, which was founded in 2002 by the property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz, made two separate donations of £50,000 to Nigel Farage's party last year. The management consultancy made the second donation

to Reform a week after finally submitting its accounts six months late.

Last week the company – which is ultimately owned by Dunain Holdings Ltd, registered in the British Virgin Islands with virtually no public footprint – filed accounts for the year to May 2025, showing it had owed more than £67m "on interest-free terms".

There are no suggestions that R20 Advisory itself is legally prevented from making political donations, although knowingly concealing donations from impermissible donors can be illegal. These types

of donations to Reform may not be permissible if the law were to be changed. The Representation of the People bill, which is making its way through parliament, would restrict corporate donations to those from UK-generated profits.

The complex company structure

R20 Advisory, founded by Robert Tchenguiz, made two donations of £50,000 to Reform UK

makes it "very difficult to identify where the money is coming from", said Steve Goodrich, head of research and investigations at the anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International. "In theory, electoral law is supposed to enable the public to understand who's supporting political parties and what they may want in return but, in practice, it's too easy to obscure the provenance of funds."

Tim Picton, senior advocacy adviser at the charity Spotlight on Corruption, said it was "baffling" that a company with such substantial debts should be making a large donation to any political party.

"This adds to the litany of recent examples where a lack of transparency has left the true sources behind

political donations open to question. Reform is facing questions over a series of high-profile donations. Last week the Guardian revealed that Farage aide and convicted fraudster George Cottrell transferred more than $2m to his mother, Fiona Cottrell, days before she donated £500,000 to Reform in 2024. The Metropolitan police are investigating these donations.

A Reform spokesman said: "Reform takes pride in its stringent vetting of donations and always ensures that the Electoral Commission guidelines on donations are strictly followed, as has been the case with all donations."

R20 Advisory and Tchenguiz declined to comment. They have previously denied any wrongdoing.

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News

Gianni Infantino
and Donald
Trump present
the World Cup
trophy in New
York last month
dpa Picture Alliance
GmbH/Asalam

Game over? As he scraps his ‘shabby’ World Cup sell-off deal, Infantino’s job hangs by a thread

Under fire from football authorities across the globe only days after announcing his controversial investment plan, the Fifa boss’s journey from unassailable power to abject humiliation seems almost complete

Rob Draper

Not since delegates at Fifa’s annual conference a decade ago were dragged away from the breakfast buffet at a five-star hotel in handcuffs, on the orders of the FBI, and charged with racketeering and fraud, has football’s world governing body endured a week quite like this.

At the centre of it all, on a dizzying journey from apparent invincibility to the brink of losing his job, has been its president, Gianni Infantino.

“I just don’t see how he comes back from this,” said one experienced executive from the Caribbean, Central and North American (Concacaf) region, a confederation which last Thursday resolved to reject Infantino’s plans to sell off a stake in the World Cup, in what seemed like a coordinated alliance with Europe’s confederation Uefa and Asia’s AFC.

Infantino’s prospects worsened when England’s Football Association said it “fully supported” a Uefa statement saying it had lost confidence in him as president and described

his failed sell-off as a “shabby, backroom, opaque deal [that] he hatched and tried to force through”.

Later, Concacaf issued a similarly excoriating statement that fell short of saying it had no confidence.

Infantino’s humiliation was there for all to see yesterday when he announced the scrapping of the proposal less than a week after announcing it, saying the project had “created divisions” that are “no longer in the interest” of its original objective.

He added: “As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”

The week began with the Swiss official releasing a bizarre 15-slide Instagram post urging critics not to spend “their time and energy hating us” but to “take a moment to reflect, meditate, pray or watch a football match”. It ended with the collapse of his Fifa Forward Enterprise, the controversial investment plan that he had hoped to launch with backing from Joshua Kushner, President Trump’s extended family through marriage.

While the money kept rolling in – last month’s World Cup doubled turnover to £13billion – it had always been assumed the 211 football federations

round the globe that make up Fifa would turn a blind eye to Infantino’s increasingly authoritarian ways, even when he seemingly arranged for a red card to be suspended for US player Folarin Balogun during the World Cup after a phone call from Trump. (Infantino denied the allegation and said the decision was taken by an independent judicial committee.)

Yet demonstrating a capacity for self-destruction unmatched since Gerald Ratner described his firm’s sherry decanter set as “total crap” in 1991, Infantino now has almost two-thirds of the football world against him and his closest adviser, the former Goldman Sachs vice-chair Carlos Cordeiro, has resigned, describing Infantino’s plan as “a bad deal for Fifa, a bad deal for football, and a bad deal for the longterm future of the game”.

Most damningly, Fifa’s chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, said the last few months had defied “belief and imagination”, adding that senior staff had been deceived by Infantino, whom he accused of “a lack of trust, transparency, discernment and good governance”. Lamour acknowledged he may be signing a figurative death

warrant but ended with: “At least I’ll sleep well tonight.”

Unlike his boss, On Friday, even the man Infantino has flattered and clung to like a limpet throughout this extraordinary year seemed to desert him. “Did Mr Infantino speak to you about his plan to sell a stake in the World Cup?” Trump was asked.

“Who?” replied the president. “No. I never spoke to him about that.”

Et tu, Donald? Only two weeks ago the two men bestrode the globe at the World Cup final, Infantino in his gleaming white trainers fussing over the president as they gave the trophy to Spain following a controversial but financially successful tournament.

It’s a story that starts at the Sun Valley conference in Idaho, an annual event nicknamed “summer camp for billionaires” or “Greedfest” by critics, where self-proclaimed “masters of the universe”, almost all from the US, bike in the mountains, bike and white-water raft while making plans for the little people in Europe, South America and the global south.

It was there that Kushner – son of the tax evader and witness tamper Charles Kushner, now Trump’s

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ambassador to France (he speaks no French), and brother to Jared, married to Trump's daughter Ivanka – approached financier Greg Maffei.

As Maffei described it to the Financial Times, he and Kushner found some cool shade and discussed how to carve up a 20% stake of the World Cup to guarantee future returns for themselves and co-investors from Fifa's golden goose.

The take from Kushner, according to sources close to his investment firm Thrive Eternal and quoted by Politico, is that in a tech-dominated world "live sporting events will become an even hotter ticket". That, in essence, was the genius idea from the private equity bros that justified Fifa ceding effective control of their crown jewels to private investors.

The World Cup was marred by dynamic, excessive pricing – some tickets to the final cost more than $100,000 (the most expensive final ticket at Qatar 2022 was $1,600). But Kushner and Maffei, who had spun off Formula One's commercial rights in a similar fashion in 2017, envisaged an ever-increasing pot of money.

In reality that could only have been funded by exorbitant ticket prices and a 64-team tournament hosted biennially in the US, to maximise revenue. Those details and a discussion of player welfare were markedly absent.

"This is not selling the World Cup," Maffei told the Financial Times last week as his best-laid plans collapsed in ruins. "No one is trying to lever

To put it very clearly and directly: the project is not a Fifa project. It is the project of one person

Kevin Lamour. Fifa's chief operating officer

the game up or anything like that." It seems a mystery to Maffei how anyone could have come to that conclusion when two US billionaires concocted their plot to leverage a beloved world institution, with historic roots in South America and Europe, and siphon off a share of its revenue to the family of Trump's in-laws, while potentially guaranteeing Infantino a multimillion-dollar permanent job, while at a conference of the gilded elite... and then tried to pressure member associations to take it or leave it based on figures independent analysts considered well below market price.

When the news leaked last Tuesday, even soporific football federations were livid. "Gobsmacked" was the reaction of the football world according to one. When the excruciatingly diplomatic Asian Football Confederation opined it was "totally unacceptable" and threatened to "undermine the foundations of continental football", Infantino must have known the game was up. In the language of the AFC, headed by Bahraini royal Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, it was, said one, "the equivalent of telling Infantino to fuck off".

Cordeiro was until last week Infantino's closest adviser and yet – incredibly given his banking experience at Goldman Sachs – was kept in the dark about the plan. "Most troubling of all is the absence of answers

USA striker Folarin Balogun, below, had his red card suspended after Trump spoke to the Fifa president

to fundamental questions," Cordeiro said. "Why this deal? Why now? What oversight exists? Who benefits? Was there a competitive process? What governance will be in place? What will investors ultimately gain, and at what cost to football?"

As another Fifa delegate said last week: "How the hell have we got here? Who signed off the contracts? Fifa is a member organisation, process matters and no one – not even financial officers – seem to have been consulted. The key question is: was this an unsolicited approach by Kushner to Infantino?" Fifa's Lamour seems to have answered that question. "To put it very clearly and directly: the project... is not a Fifa project. It is the project of one person."

What tipped Fifa members from bewilderment to apoplexy was Infantino sending them JP MorganChase's investor deck, a 25-page prospectus designed to convince them to buy into the project.

Not only were the figures, in the words of one, "a back-of-the-envelope embarrassing undervaluation" and the literary style "banal AI-generated slop", it was rife with American spellings, referred to the World Cup as "the Fifa", as is common in the US, and compared revenues to the vastly different NBA and NFL. It talked enthusiastically of "access to debt markets", which would seem a curious strategic pivot for an organisation with $4bn in reserves and record revenues.

Tone deal did not begin to describe the pitch, believed to be led by JP MorganChase's Mary Erdoes, CEO of its asset and wealth management. It is possible the Illinois-raised Harvard Business School graduate is not culturally attuned to the mores of global football's urban subculture. Back in 2020, JP Morgan apologised when it tried something similar with the European Super League and vowed to "learn from this", a line that had European football executives mocking the bank last week.

What comes in the aftermath of this car crash of a week? To oust the Fifa president, Concacaf, Uefa and AFC must agree on a unity candidate by November and persuade them to stand in March's election. Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, a Canadian who has cleaned up a confederation previously a byword for grotesque corruption, is best placed, though he is said to be focusing on his own re-election as head of Concacaf next year.

Yet repercussions will follow. Fifa delegates want to know how Kushner had such close access to Infantino and who agreed to the plan. "Why Joshua Kushner? How did he become the lead investor? Where was the tendering process? Who signed off JP Morgan's fees? Are they doing this for free?" one European official said.

Indeed. The week started with Infantino telling his critics the world needed "love, not hate; tolerance, not division; celebration, not mourning". On Tuesday it also needed a spin-off investment vehicle led by Infantino and the brother of President Trump's son-in-law. By Friday night, not so much.

Fifa chief could be kicked out as support wavers in his African power base

Osasu Obayiuwana Los Angeles

Former allies describe the continent's relationship with football bosses as one of 'master-servant'

After Gianni Infantino became Fifa president in 2016, following the forced exit of Sepp Blatter, the first country he visited, within a month of assuming office, was South Sudan.

The 209th of Fifa's 211 members, which joined in 2012, is certainly no powerhouse on the field. But in Fifa politics, South Sudan's vote is as important as that of Spain, Argentina, England or Brazil, so Infantino went to pay homage to one of the first countries to back his presidential bid.

"I was one of those who supported Gianni when others were hesitant to do so," said Chabur Coc Alei, then president of the South Sudan Football Association. "It was a show of appreciation for what I did for him."

Over the last decade of Infantino's near-imperial presidency, he has made the consolidation of African support, through the 54 votes of the member countries of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Fifa elections, the cornerstone of his political survival.

Infantino has now been abandoned by the FA and Uefa. Andy Burnham has called for him to resign. He will be political toast without continued African support.

"I personally support Gianni Infantino. He's not just a good friend, he's a loyal friend – he's loyal to Africa," CAF president Patrice Motsepe said in Johannesburg on 22 July, three days after the World Cup final. Infantino's Fifa played a key role in the ascent of the billionaire South African businessman to the CAF presidency in March 2021, ensuring other candidates stepped aside, leaving Motsepe in Infantino's debt.

"I come from a background where, when people have been loyal to you,

you never stab them in the back," he said. "What I like is his deep love for football, his deep commitment to football around the world, and his support for Africa."

But many within the African game see no concrete dividends from the decade of support for Infantino. Several experts describe Fifa's relationship with CAF as one of "master-servant", in which Fifa has undue influence over the key decisions of CAF, which is supposed to be independent. "We need to rescue ourselves first and look at how servitude is not serving us," a former general secretary of CAF, who declined to be named, told The Observer. "When [member associations] allow a leader to be imposed on them, such as during the colonial times, this cannot go well for Africa. We need a true pan-African [leader] with competence, who has Africa at heart."

December's decision to change the frequency of the Africa Cup of Nations from a biennial to a four-yearly event from 2028, ending six decades of tradition, has led to severe criticism of Motsepe within Africa for betraying the continent's football heritage.

Infantino demanded the switch in early 2020 at a meeting with CAF officials more than a year before Motsepe became president, which only reinforced allegations of undue influence and interference in the continent's decisions, which Motsepe rejects. "We don't take decisions in Africa for Europe. We take decisions in Africa for Africa... It's absolutely nonsense," an angry Motsepe told The Observer.

But since the announcement of Infantino's now-defunct proposal to sell stakes in the World Cup, Motsepe has maintained a studied silence, while his counterparts at Uefa, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and North and Central American Confederation (CONCACAF) all took strong stands against it.

The focus of world football now shifts from Infantino's plan to the viability of the man himself as Fifa president. African votes have the capacity to make or break him.

ON OTHER PAGES

Fifa must now be dismantled Sport, page 3

A Sudanese Premier League match in Khartoum in May. Many see no concrete dividends from a decade of support for Infantino Ebrahim Hamid/MP via Getty Images

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News

'It's like a companion.'

A revolution in social care led by an army of nandroids

Artificial intelligence-enabled robots are providing company and medical assistance to residents in care homes, cutting costs and freeing up staff

Rachel Sylvester Political editor

Vera Gadsdon, 73, has a robot sitting near her in her south London home. "I've called him Robert," she says. "He sorts me out every day. He reminds me to take my medication and plays Smooth Radio or Hawaii Five-O when I ask him to. It's taken the place of the human."

More than 20 of the elderly residents at Hazelhurst Court, a retirement block in Lewisham, have the small AI-enabled droids in their rooms. The robots are loaded with each person's calendar and medical needs. They tell residents when it is time for bingo, lunch or a favourite television programme, and help them make video calls to family members or friends.

If somebody misses an appointment or does not respond to a

reminder, the Genie droid sends an alert to the care team. There is a mood button that people are encouraged to press at the start and end of the day.

Patricia Fordham, 82, says the robot makes her feel less lonely. "I'll say: 'How are you?' and it will say back to me: 'How are you?' It's like a companion." Another user was able to watch her granddaughter's graduation via video link on the droid.

Staff say the system has helped them deliver more consistent support to residents.

"It's round-the-clock," says Pinar Elmaz, one of the care workers. "If they miss a reminder, I can check in on them with a video call. If they say they're a bit low, I can ring and try to cheer them up. It's very versatile but it doesn't replace the human contact."

The robots, introduced by Cera, a tech healthcare company and the UK's largest home care provider, are now being used by at least 1,000 people across 14 local authorities in England, with more joining the programme every week.

The droids have a 96% success rate in ensuring people get medication at the right time. For the councils that have introduced them, they have boosted care capacity by 20% and improved productivity by 80%. Local authorities are saving about £11,500 for each patient every year by using the robots to supplement visits by a human carer.

The Genies will soon be programmed to call a neighbour, family member, carer or 999 if an elderly person needs help, using AI to analyse and triage the situation.

In future, the robots could also be connected with wearable technologies to monitor an individual's heart rate, temperature or blood pressure.

Motion sensors would pick up unusual movements that could indicate a health problem or detect when a dementia patient has opened the front door at night.

Patricia Fordham, 82, says her robot makes her feel less lonely. Charlie Fordham-Baley

An AI tool that analyses the data collected by care workers on home visits and identifies subtle changes to predict risk has already reduced patient falls by 20% and halved avoidable hospital admissions, saving the NHS an estimated £2m a day.

Ben Maruthappu, who founded Cera after working as an A&E doctor in London, says social care will only be affordable in an ageing population if it is transformed by technology that allows more people to stay at home.

A complicated, costly and messy business: social care in numbers

Andy Burnham has pledged to reform social care, but how much would it cost? Here are the figures you need to understand the scale of the challenge. By Ben Zaranko

The adult social care system is complicated and messy. Part of the reason governments have struggled to reform it over the past 30 years is that barely anyone understands how it works: many believe it will function like the NHS, free at the point of use for all, only to discover their mistake when first interacting with the system. Here are the numbers you need to help make sense of its current state, and what Andy Burnham might do about it.

-37%

The state provides social care to fewer pensioners than it used to: the number of over-65s receiving government-funded care in England fell by 37% between 2005 and 2025. This is mainly the result of tighter

restrictions on who is eligible and rising demand from younger adults with care needs. Fewer people getting help means more people are paying out of pocket, relying on unpaid care from family, or simply going without care.

2 million

An estimate of the number of people in England who now have an unmet care need.

Half

People aged 18 to 64 receive 48% of all government spending on adult social care in England. The issue is often framed as one which purely relates to older people, but this misses the reality that younger adults (such as those with learning disabilities) represent a growing

share of both care recipients and overall care spending.

£23,250

The threshold of assets and savings an individual can hold before becoming ineligible for government support in England. If someone moves into a care home, and nobody is living in their main home, it counts towards the asset test – which is why some people have to sell their homes to meet the costs.

One in seven

Around three-quarters of people aged 65 and over will incur at least some social care costs in their lifetime. But these costs are spread very unevenly: one in seven can expect to incur costs of more than £100,000 (if, for instance, they spend a lengthy period in a care home). Usually, when people face a small risk of incurring an extremely high cost, they buy insurance. But the private market for insurance against social care costs is close to non-existent in the UK. This leaves people facing a large, hard-

to-predict, and uninsurable cost in old age. Proposals for a lifetime cap on social care costs are intended to address this "insurance" problem.

1.5 million

The number of people who work in adult social care in England.

7p an hour

The average extra earnings of a care worker in England with five or more years of experience compared with a novice colleague. With such little opportunity for pay progression, the sector struggles to retain staff.

20p an hour

The Starmer government announced a new "fair pay agreement" for social care, intended to improve pay and conditions. So far £500m has been announced. The Health Foundation estimates this would be enough for a 20p per hour rise: "not enough to deliver meaningful improvements". Its analysis suggests matching pay with those on the lower rungs of the NHS ladder would require more than £2bn.

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"For the cost of a single night in hospital, we can support someone for an entire week in the place they want to be, which is their own home," he says. "The next five years will be the most consequential in the history of care, not because of demographics or policy, but because of AI and robotics, which can fundamentally redefine how care is delivered.

"If government reforms don't embrace the potential technology revolution, they'll be building tomorrow's care system with yesterday's

thinking. Robotics makes the sector more sustainable, alleviates the pressures on staff and allows them to focus on the most human parts of care."

Last week, Andy Burnham promised to make fixing social care the key test of his prime ministership. Burnham, whose father has Alzheimer's, said it was "shameful" that politicians had put "point scoring" before solving an issue that causes anxiety to families and problems for the NHS.

He announced that Louise Casey's review would be brought forward to next year and insisted he was determined to press ahead with the creation of a "national care service" based around the "principle of home care where possible".

Having been forced to abandon plans for reform when he was health secretary in 2010 after the proposed care service were branded a "death tax" by Conservatives, Burnham said: "I would never forgive myself if I left without having tried because of some of the headlines that will inevitably appear."

The moral and demographic case for creating a fairer and more sustainable social care system is overwhelming. Over the next 25 years, the number of people over 85 in the UK is projected to double to 3.6 million, making up almost 5% of the total population. Already, about two million adults have unmet care needs, according to an Age UK report from 2024.

In June, 13,600 hospital beds were filled by people who were medically fit to go home but could not be discharged because there was no social care.

After 22 reviews in 30 years, there is widespread agreement that the status quo is unacceptable. Legislation to cap care costs was passed with cross-party support but the change was scrapped by former chancellor Rachel Reeves – a far more consequential decision than means-testing the winter fuel allowance.

Burnham has made clear he is willing to spend significant amounts of "political capital" on an issue that has for decades been put in the "too difficult" box at Westminster.

There will be a cost attached, but the delivery of social care also needs reform. The new BBC sitcom Ann Droid, which follows the relationship between widowed Sue and her "basic eldercare robot" Linda, may seem futuristic. But in Japan, which has one of the oldest populations in

News

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9

the world, care homes are already trialling humanoid robots that can help elderly people get dressed and exoskeletons that aid walking.

Martin Green, head of Care England, which represents independent providers, says technology is the "golden bullet" in an era of no money and increasing demand. "It was brought home to me by something that was going on in Japan, which was a robot that was helping people to go to the lavatory. Initially, I thought: 'This is really inhumane,' but the people were saying: 'This is so much better for me. It's available

'I'll say: How are you? And it will say back to me, how are you?'

Patricia Fordham

when I need it and it's much more protective of my dignity," he says. "You could have somebody who has a hologram of their daughter saying: 'Mum, have you had your tablets?' Or: 'Have you had a drink?'"

With 111,000 vacancies in social care, and high turnover rates, Unison's general secretary, Andrea Egan, believes anything that helps to ease workload pressure is welcome.

"Technology has a valuable role to play in freeing up staff time, allowing greater focus on fully supporting anyone who relies on care," she says.

She adds: "But this should be an add-on, not a replacement. Much of the job is connection and companionship, allowing staff to provide emotional support and spot when something's off. A droid can give a prompt to take medication, for example, but can't check if someone's actually done it."

Andrew Dilnot, who chaired the government commission on social care that reported in 2011, says the only way to level the playing field between those with cancer and Alzheimer's is to spread the risk of "catastrophic costs" of social care across the population.

Some around Burnham are resisting the idea of a cap because they believe it would disproportionately benefit wealthy people who have most to lose under the current system.

But Dilnot insists social care funding should not be used as a surrogate wealth tax. "The only rich people who would benefit from the cap would be the rich people who turn out to be unlucky enough to have very high care needs. If you want to tax rich people, you should tax rich people, not rich people who happen to have a social care need."

He argues that reform is long overdue for the sake of society, as well as individuals. "We have to sort it because it is a disgrace. There's a really strong argument for saying this is the area which is the most damaging and causes most grief, where government intervention could make the most difference, of just about any domestic policy issue.

"Needing social care is a little bit like standing in the middle of the road with a lorry driving towards you, and you feel as though the best you can hope for is that you die before the lorry hits you."

ON OTHER PAGES

An Ann Droid carebot? Don't

make me laugh

Melanie Reid, Forum, page 28

-96%

The fall in the number of applications for health and care worker visas over the first six months of 2026 compared to the first six months of 2023 (3,300 versus 80,100). In May 2025 the government announced an end to overseas recruitment.

470

The number of care providers that had their licence to sponsor visas removed by the Home Office between 2022 and 2025. Concerns the visa route was being exploited by unscrupulous employers contributed to the decision to close down social care visa routes.

6.2%

The vacancy rate in the adult social care sector in 2025/26, according to Skills for Care, a charity which collects data on the sector. That's down from 7% in 2024/25, despite the dramatic reduction in the number of visas granted to overseas workers.

Monthly visa applications by health and care workers

Source: Home Office

Average pay difference between care workers with five years of experience v less than one year

Note: Unweighted data. Source: Skills for Care

£18.5bn

Any reform that increases the generosity of the government's social care provision, or which improves pay and conditions, will come at a cost. Andy Burnham has talked about applying the "NHS principle" to social care. What that could mean in practice will be left for Louise Casey's review, which will now report in 2027 – but it could be expensive. The Health Foundation estimates that if the state paid for everyone currently receiving adult care services in England, that could cost £18.5bn by 2035. But if care was free demand for services would almost certainly increase. Other models, such as a cap on lifetime care costs, would come with a lower price tag, but all would run into the billions.

214

In September 2021, Boris Johnson, then PM, announced a health and social care levy to pay partly for the NHS recovery from Covid, and partly for social care reforms. The levy came into effect on 6 April 2022 as a

1.25 percentage-point increase in national insurance contributions. The former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng scrapped it in his ill-fated mini budget, and it was removed just 214 days after being introduced. The social care reforms it was meant to pay for were dropped by Rachel Reeves in July 2024.

22

The number of failed attempts, according to Andy Burnham, to reform adult social care over the past 30 years. He said: "We're going to have to find common ground if this is to be a lasting solution." Kemi Badenoch said the Tory party won't support any answer that involves higher taxes. Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said nobody should lose their home as a result of a care need. But if the money's not coming from higher taxes, or from people's housing wealth, where is it coming from? Burnham deserves credit for taking on a problem governments have avoided, but cross-party agreement looks a tall order.

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10

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‘One spark could reignite swathes of the country’

Wildfires are becoming a systemic seasonal threat, posing serious risks to health, homes and the natural world across the UK

James Tapper

When flames shot through the rare wildlife habitats at Middlewick Ranges last Friday, it was the 71stth wildfire to hit England and Wales so far this year.

Yesterday the flames were gone but the danger remained and firefighters were still present at the wildlife haven just south of Colchester. There were more fire crews in Suffolk, the Cairngorms, Eryri and the Peak District, weeks after wildfires first broke out. Conservationists have been surveying the damage.

“It was heartbreaking to see so

much of the site up in flames and spreading quickly,” said Davina Bamford, of Friends of Middlewick, which campaigns to protect the rare acid grassland and its skylarks and nightingales. “Especially during this hot summer with the wildlife and ecosystem already so vulnerable.”

But the sandy soil of this part of Essex means only the gorse and tinder-dry grass were fuel. The peaty soil of the Cairngorms national park burns more easily.

“The big Caledonian trees – hundreds of years old some of them – their roots have been burnt so severely underground that there was a bit of wind last night and quite a number just blew over,” said Sandy McCook, chair of Nethy Bridge’s community council. “You just cannot guarantee this fire is out.”

McCook recalled a previous fire in the ancient Abernethy Forest in the Scottish Highlands: “In winter there was smoke percolating up through

the snow, so it was burning six, seven months after the event.”

July was the busiest month on record for wildfires, according to the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC). The largest fires were in the Cairngorms; at Tintwistle Moor and Dovestone Reservoir near Oldham; near Trawsfynydd, in Eryri national park (formerly Snowdonia); and at Dunwich Heath in Suffolk, where firefighters had the complication

of ensuring the fire in the RSPB Minsmere nature reserve did not spread south to Sizewell B nuclear power station, three miles away.

“We have to remain incredibly vigilant,” said Phil Garrigan, the NFCC’s chair. “A couple of days of hot weather, a change of wind direction – a single spark has the potential to reignite large swathes of the country.”

Firefighters have seen a “seismic change” in the number of wild-

fires since 2018, Garrigan said, and the season now runs from January to November. “It’s something we have to get used to – we need to ensure we’ve got the right capabilities to deal with it,” he added.

That means helicopters or drone swarms, an established part of firefighting in Greece. The UK has none. Last week, the National Trust hired its own helicopter to douse the ground at Minsmere.

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Scorched earth in Dunwich, Suffolk. Above, waterbombing a Cairngorm fire. Right, Middlewick Bunges in Colchester, Essex. AFP/Getty/Davina Bamford

"We are having conversations with government around aerial firefighting capability," Garrigan said.

Although carelessness, such as discarded cigarettes and disposable barbecues, is behind many fires, a number appear to be arson. Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service said it had attended 61 deliberately lit outdoor fires in the past week.

This summer's wildfires are likely to have serious health impacts for

some with asthma and lung conditions, even if they live far from the fires. Research by the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) shows that the Peak District fires produced significant increases in pollution in Manchester, 12 miles away.

Air-quality monitors detected levels of PM2.5 – the smallest and most dangerous particulate matter – more than 10 times higher than normal for several hours in mid-July.

'We can say with high confidence that if we get more wildfires, we're getting more health impacts'

Dr James Allan

"We can say with high confidence that if we're getting more wildfires, we're getting more health impacts, especially if you've got a wildfire near a populated area, and you've got vulnerable people in that populated area," said Dr James Allan, NCAS's air pollution programme leader.

Smoke from fires in France may also have an effect, he said, adding: "Canadian wildfire smoke made it all the way over the Atlantic last year."

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Dr Matthew Swallow, clinical lead for Asthma – Lung UK, said people close to fires who have asthma or lung conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease should try to stay inside, shut the windows and carry emergency medication if they need to go out.

"PM2.5 gets deep down into the lungs," Swallow said. "Mainly it causes respiratory symptoms, but it does also get into the eyes, the nose and it can affect people's skin."

The fires are likely to reopen a debate about how best to manage the landscape to remove dead vegetation from forests – which fuels fires, without depriving trees of essential nutrients – and who should pay to create fire breaks around people's homes and keep them clear.

Friends of Middlewick said it hoped the fire would spur the Ministry of Defence, which owns the site, to work with the group to put in place a holistic management plan so that grass can be cut back without disturbing skylarks, which nest on the ground.

This summer's wildfires have probably a consequence of weather created by the El Niño climate pattern. El Niño will peak in December, potentially driving another extreme summer in 2027.

Met Office forecasters are predicting rain in the north and showers in the south this week.

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AI influencers cashing in on menopause fears

Middle-aged women are being targeted by firms that use avatars to sell apparently miraculous products

Lily Isaacs

Across Instagram and TikTok, AI-generated influencers are selling supplements, beauty devices and health guides to women in mid and later life, part of a growing network of accounts exploiting concerns about menopause, ageing, fertility and chronic illness to earn their creators thousands of pounds in commission.

One such AI influencer is Jennifer Carter, a beautiful blond American "single mom" who posts under the handle "Jennifer Wellness Life" and has 43,000 Instagram followers. Each video begins: "I'm 52, I have the biological age of 26.9. Here's the boring shit I do every day." Then she lists her routine: sunlight, water, strength training and NMN, the one supplement she'd "never give up", with a link in her bio to buy it on Amazon.

Another influencer created using AI, Lauren Miller, says her abusive

A 'menopause specialist' and influencer Lauren Miller – created using AI. TikTok

husband left her for another woman. In one video shared to her 18,300 TikTok followers he smashes a plate and walks out. She then transforms into a different person, decades younger and thinner, crediting her "post divorce glow". The secret? A £42 LED face-firming beauty device available through a link in her bio.

AI "doctors" are also offering expert advice, using hashtags such as #menopausehealth and #womenover40. One male "menopause specialist"

'We tend to focus on teenagers and children, with the protection of mothers under-reported'

Kaitlyn Regehr, UCL

posting under "holisticharmony2" advises women to buy supplements to revive their "cellular energy".

The accounts are part of a fast-growing ecosystem of AI-generated influencers targeting women's anxieties. What is new is the scale and sophistication of the AI-generated personas, able to churn out endless stories of recoveries and trauma that never happened. Older users are less likely to recognise AI influencers than their younger counterparts. Researchers at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden found that over-60s could recognise AI-generated imagery only 47.2% of the time, while under-39s could distinguish it 79.6% of the time.

Leo Stilgoe, 22, an entrepreneur from York, uses AI influencers to market his products. He told The Observer he pays more than 100 young people who create AI influencers that promote his supplements, which are targeted as women aged 40 to 60. His "affiliates" can earn up to $20,000 (£15,000) a month in commission.

He believes AI advertising is the future for all marketing, adding: "If businesses don't implement AI, they're going to be left behind." Most of the AI influencer accounts selling his supplements are not labelled as such. Asked if customers realise the

characters are AI-generated, he said: "I'd have to ask them myself."

Kaitlyn Regehr, who studies AI at University College London, said AI-generated influencers are the new frontier of disinformation. "We tend to focus on teenagers and children, but the protection of their mothers has gone very under-reported."

The accounts are generated to exploit the vulnerabilities of middle-aged and older women. "Whether it be for perimenopause, to support you in your cancer treatment journey, your struggles with your ageing body and how that relates to your sense of self-worth and self-esteem, they are tapping into a vulnerability," she said.

As the technology improves, recognising what is AI-generated will grow harder. "We used to talk about influencer culture and the problems around body dysmorphia," she said. "This is a whole other level, where there isn't even a real human that this image is based on to begin with."

Dr Emma Runswick, deputy chair of the British Medical Association council, said: "Platforms like TikTok must do more to stop the rise of dangerous fake medical advice. Otherwise, it is the public who could be paying the price with their health and perhaps even their lives."

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Closing Jodrell Bank is like turning our backs on the cosmos

Cuts to astronomy research that threaten to end 70 years of observational science at the radio telescope will also close a window on the universe. Giles Whittell reports

For more than 10 years Rob Fender has been leading a project to recalibrate our understanding of the universe. With the help of the giant Jodrell Bank radio telescope in Cheshire, he has been studying the effects of jets of energy emitted by supermassive black holes on galaxies like the Milky Way.

There is something odd about these galaxies. They're much smaller than mathematical models say they should be. There's something odd about the jets, too, since black holes aren't supposed to emit anything at all. But the jets could account for the smallness of the galaxies by the way they blast through clouds of dust and gas at close to the speed of light.

These theories are based on high-resolution images of deep space taken by a network of telescopes including Jodrell Bank. Further advances may not be possible, though, because the network is being shut down. A decision announced last week, and condemned by Prof Brian Cox as 'hasty, ill-considered and devastating', will end astronomy at the world's third-largest steerable radio telescope unless new sources of funding can be found.

Jodrell Bank, which tracked Sputnik across the northern hemisphere early in the Cold War, has been 'deprioritised' in favour of projects more likely to find real-world applications and drive growth. The 70-year-old instrument is an icon of observational science in a world of theories, of pure science that might never yield a commercial return. Which is why policymakers need to be clear-eyed about its future, officials say.

Yet switching it off would be like turning our backs on the cosmos.

The telescope works by picking up impossibly weak signals from millions of light years away on a single strand of copper wire at the centre of a 3,200-ton dish. The wire vibrates,

and the vibrations are translated by receivers into data points and eventually into detailed images of plasma jets, gravitational lenses and exploding supernovas at the remotest edges of the known universe. Earthly vibrations are dampened by liquid nitrogen cooling the receivers.

The network of seven radio telescopes centred on Jodrell Bank and spread across a span of 140 miles is called e-Merlin. Fender, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford, says there is nothing else in the world that can track fast-moving phenomena across the heavens as it does. 'Once e-Merlin goes, we're blind.'

Blindness looms when the money runs out in March 2028. In the meantime the UK is prioritising quantum computing, AI and advanced manufacturing of things such as batteries and robots. Applied science may thrive, because UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the umbrella body for public research funding, has promised to promote it in return for a generous £38.6bn budget over four years. But the pure science in which Britain once aspired to lead the world will almost certainly take a hit despite a UKRI pledge to protect 'discovery'.

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which funds astronomy research, has a flat budget that will require cuts of £60m, including e-Merlin's entire £2.8m annual operating budget. 'The cuts are largely in blue-sky science,' the University of Manchester's Prof Teresa Anderson says. 'And within that the blue sky of the blue sky, which is Jodrell Bank'.

The people who run it may be forgiven a sense of deja vu. Jodrell Bank's funding has been threatened before – including in 2008, when a plan to prioritise other research was withdrawn after a Times report suggested experts on the funding panel had favoured pet projects at Jodrell Bank's expense.

There is no such suggestion this time, although one critic of last week's decision suspects a tendency to favour international over national projects because they are harder to wriggle out of. Twelve of 13 cutting-edge particle physics and astronomy projects whose funding remains untouched are international collaborations (including four at Cern in Switzerland). Seven of 16 whose funding is not being renewed, including e-Merlin, are UK-based.

The e-Merlin telescope array

The network forms one huge telescope with a baseline of 135 miles and an angular resolution comparable to that of the Hubble Space Telescope

A spokesperson said the STFC had 'carefully thought about the right strategic balance between domestic and international activity'.

Separate from Jodrell Bank, but headquartered there, is the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a new network of southern hemisphere radio telescopes and apparently a source of confusion in Whitehall. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills says funding that Jodrell Bank receives for the SKA means work there will carry on, but this is not true of the telescope.

Jodrell Bank gets no funding from SKA for its telescopes or the e-Merlin project, says Anderson, director of the observatory's Discovery Centre. 'SKA is an entirely separate organisation... There isn't any long-term funding for Jodrell Bank. Once we get to March 2028, that's it.'

As things stand the UK will be the

'We are a new instrument. All that is at risk, and there is no other source of funding'

Prof Simon Garrington

only participant in the SKA without working radio telescopes of its own, Anderson says, and all to save 0.6% of the STFC budget. 'Why would the country that hosts it scrap its home-grown capability?'

The chairs of UKRI and the STFC declined to comment but another senior research funding official praised them for putting history aside in a decision-making process intended to be based entirely on scientific merit. The fact that Jodrell Bank played a

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Early morning mist over the Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank, Christopher Furlong/ Getty Images

Bernard Lovell and Charles Husband unveiling the radio telescope in 1957.

vital role in 1957 shouldn't dictate what we do there now, the official said.

On 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik. Shortly afterwards Bernard Lovell, the driving force behind Jodrell Bank, who nearly went to prison because he was personally liable for its debts, received a call from London. Officials there had realised that "we probably had the only instru- ment in the west that if turned into a radar device could detect the sat- ellist's carrier rocket, which was a Soviet intercontinental ballistic mis- sile," Lovell told me in 2007, 50 years after the event.

Lovell and his team shelved the work they were doing on cosmic rays and spent 48 hours repurposing their listening device as a radar trans- mitter, and successfully tracked the ghostly shape of the Russian carrier rocket as it followed Sputnik round the world. Two years later Moscow enlisted Jodrell Bank to track another Russian spacecraft, Lunik, as it hur- tled towards the moon and crashed into it 10 years before Neil Armstrong landed there. The Kremlin's think- ing was that only British confirma- tion would convince the US that the Soviets had accomplished this pecu- liar feat, and so it proved. The follow- ing summer a team of US scientists camped out in Jodrell Bank's grounds, using the dish to track their own probe heading towards Venus.

Lovell's debts were paid off with a single £80,000 cheque from an admiring Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors. His telescope, which moves on its own circular rail- way and a pair of massive cogs pur- loined from navy battleships, has since been continuously upgraded, including most recently with state- of-the-art software and electronics. The result, experts say, is an e-Merlin network unmatched as an observer of the quarks, quasars, pulsars and other mysteries of the "dynamic universe". It can also track incoming asteroids and pieces of space debris as small as a few centimetres across.

"We are a new instrument," says Prof Simon Garrington, e-Merlin's director, who notes that its vast span is what gives its images of space their resolution and sensitivity, and is five times the maximum separation of the SKA, which in any case will not be operational until 2030 at the ear- liest. "All that is at risk, and there is no other source of funding."

In the end, because of its role galva- nising public support for Jodrell Bank, Sputnik was for Lovell "a miracle". It may need another.

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"Earth to Whitehall: awe and

knowledge are beyond all price

COMMENT

Sarah Perry

The Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank, monumental to science and yet sacred as a cathedral, is at risk first of

closure, and then, I suppose, of abandonment, until, at last, that immense ear can no longer listen to the conversations of the stars and falls into ruin on the Cheshire plain.

Perhaps that seems to you an impossibly apocalyptic image. It is. It ought to be. The site at Jodrell Bank is emblematic of both the penetrating intellect and the wonder that characterises the greatest scientific endeavours; its loss would be emblematic of government policy in which, to borrow from Charles Dickens in Hard Times: "Every inch of the existence of mankind, from birth to death, was to be a bargain across a counter."

I first saw the Lovell telescope as a child. Many of us did – and have never forgotten it. My father, who'd taught me how to look for sunspots and shown me Saturn's rings, had taken a detour home from a holiday caravan in Scotland so that we could see it. I'd been promised a gigantic telescope, and was bewildered to be shown instead that curious white carapace, 76 metres (250ft) wide, perched on its gleaming network of struts and beams.

My father taught me that it was not watching, precisely, but that it was listening; that the universe was perpetually communicating in radio waves that the great dish of the telescope gathered, and focused into a signal that could be interpreted and turned into images of the stars.

Rarely had I seen anything so marvellous; rarely had I been so

confused. In due course, I came to understand that this sensation was one of the great drivers of scientific endeavour; wonder and inquiry detonated in the same instant, and each dependent on the other.

Many years later, having written a novel that drew on my love of astronomy and physics, I was invited to speak at Jodrell Bank. That alone would have satisfied the bewildered child examining the empty air for radio waves; but I was permitted then to sit at the controls of the Lovell telescope, and to speak with the engineer on duty. The Lovell was monitoring the activity of a pulsar – that is, the rapidly spinning aftermath of a collapsed star – and on a screen beside the desk, I saw the signal tracing by, drawn down through almost incomprehensible reaches of space by the white, silent telescope beyond the window.

What I experienced then was beyond wonder; it had in it a little terror, and a little hilarity, and a little knowledge. It was the sublime, I suppose, and it would be useless to attempt to enter that sensation into a spreadsheet, or to calculate either its cost or its contribution to the public purse. Jodrell Bank has distributed that feeling to generations of children and passersby, and research scientists and tourists and students; it has provoked more art and conversation and inquiry than we can ever hope to know.

Jodrell Bank's control room in 1966.

Its closure must not be mistaken for a mere calculation: it is a symptom of that same disease that shuts libraries and theatres, and the arts and humanities departments of universities, and that will make us all sick.

Listen: I was a civil servant once. I know there are pots of government money here, and pots of government money there, and not a solitary penny can be lifted from one pot to another without convulsions deep in the corridors of Whitehall. But there's an awful lot of money sloshing about, isn't there? Sloshing towards expenditure on useless PPE during the pandemic, for example; sloshing in ever-higher waves towards the partially defunct HS2 high-speed railway network.

Against such wastage, the £2.8m annual cost of the continued running of Jodrell Bank – amounting, by the way, to about 0.03% of the UK Research and Innovation budget – figures as little more than spare change. The UKRI, I note, has committed £1.6bn towards AI; perhaps once the Lovell telescope has been forever muffled, the earth on which it stood can be sold to a tech corporation, which can install a pale, squat datacentre – so very thirsty, and so very, very profitable.

There is a moment towards the conclusion of Hard Times when Thomas Gradgrind (who'd have done very nicely in a number of government agencies) confronts the fury of a daughter who understands what he does not: that there is more to be entered into the ledger beside profit.

"How could you give me life," she says, "and take from me all the inappreciable things that raise it from the state of conscious death? Where are the graces of my soul?" Gradgrind abandons his philosophy, by the way, and mends his ways. There is hope.

Sarah Perry is the author of Enlightenment (2024) and The Essex Serpent (2016)

The Lovell telescope plus art is

how you build a human future

COMMENT

Erica Wagner

Inside the bowl of the Lovell telescope there is an extraordinary hush. There's a lift that takes you up to the edge of its base, a gantry walk to the centre, then a narrow ladder to climb. I've been inside twice, the first time in 2007, when I was helping to organise the first festival held at the site.

It was called First Move and it marked 50 years of the telescope's operation; our efforts would pave the

way for Bluedot, a music and science festival. One happy festival-goer was a local boy called Andy Burnham.

The steel plates of the dish press against your back, the sky arcs above; the Lovell's antenna points like an arrow aimed at the heart of the universe. "In science you always work by faith," Bernard Lovell told me once. "Without a vision, you perish." Whoever thought there was any distinction between the arts and the sciences? Not the folk at Jodrell.

I went up a second time last year, thanks to the Firmament project pairing fiction writers with Jodrell scientists. This is not frivolity. It's how you build a human future

in which the humanities and the sciences respect and understand each other's disciplines.

I trace my connection to Jodrell to a fortunate friendship with Alan Garner, now 91: surely one of the most cherished of British authors. His home was built in Tudor times; but through his kitchen window he can see the telescope. "The Lovell telescope and I started our work within weeks of each other," Garner told me last week. "And for 69 years I have watched it, awed by its grace and marvelling at its achievements. Any decision to remove funding from an enterprise of acknowledged global importance would be an act of cultural and scientific vandalism."

Firmament, a collection of stories inspired by Jodrell Bank, is published in November

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

News

Spread your wings: our expert's guide for novices

Keep your ears open, take those binoculars everywhere and look out for hooligans in the air. But above all, remember this is about joy, says Simon Barnes

• Take your binoculars everywhere and use them. Don't worry about being taken for a voyeur or, even worse, an expert.
• Birds are about place: find the place and the birds will come.

• You can find good places on the website of your local county Wildlife Trust (and yes, there's one for London). Good idea to join it too.

• Tune your eyes to movement. Follow every flicker in your peripheral vision.

• Your ears are as important as your eyes. On an ornithological survey you'll actually see fewer than half the birds you record.
• Accept that you won't identify everything. Even crash-hot birders can be baffled – and even wrong.
• Don't be intimidated by fellow birders, even if they're carrying a 'scope on a tripod. Most enjoy sharing a nice bird with a novice.
• It's not all about striding around. A good sit in the right place,

allowing the birds to come to you, is often the best part of the day. - Don't be disheartened by the number of species in your field guide. Instead, rejoice. You're studying biodiversity, one of the essential principles of life. - There are books for total novices. Try the Bad Birdwatcher trilogy by that Simon Barnes. - Make pilgrimages. (See right). - You don't go birdwatching. Once you're a birder, you are birdwatching. - Never forget birdwatching is about joy.

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Specsavers

Birdwatching is Gen Z's newest craze – just don't call us twitchers

The once old-fashioned pastime has gained an army of young fans. They tell David Barnett it's a great chance to slow down and go offline

"I spend a lot of time thinking about birds," says Mya-Rose Craig. "A lot of time looking at them. I'm quite often just watching them out of the window when I'm in meetings and stuff."

Aged 24, Craig is one of the new generation of birdwatchers – just don't call them twitchers, with its connotations of middle-aged men in camouflage bucket hats camped out in fields with long-lens cameras.

The birding renaissance is being led by Gen Z and has celebrity support as well as the clout of influencers such as Craig, who posts on Instagram as @birdgirlUK and has more than 44,000 followers.

She is the author of a memoir, Bird Girl, and a children's picture book, Flight, with illustrator Lynn Scurfield.

She's an environmental campaigner and the founder – when she was just 14 – of the Black2Nature project, which aims to get a more diverse group of young people, especially from urban backgrounds, out into the countryside and appreciating birds and wildlife.

Craig, from Bristol, says: "I think we've reached a point with the internet where people are actively seeking other things to do and disengage from being online, and birdwatching is a really good way of doing that. People are connecting with it because it's a kind of mindfulness, really." That's backed up by a recent study from

the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which showed that among 16 to 29-year-olds almost 750,000 now list birdwatching among their hobbies, a 1,000% increase since 2018.

"More widely, there has been a 47% increase over the past eight years in the number of people who regularly birdwatch, equating to over four million people," says RSPB's Katie Nethercoat. "And while we have seen the largest uptake in the hobby from Gen Z, there has also been a 216% increase in the number of Millennials and a 66% increase in Gen X birdwatchers."

"Our research clearly shows that watching birds is no longer a niche or old-fashioned pastime and is attracting a younger, more diverse crowd. And it's something that everyone can do, no matter how much or little they know about birds. It'll inspire you to get outside and discover beautiful green spaces, exercise and generally slow down, which everyone can benefit from."

The birding community lost one of its most enthusiastic and high-profile proponents, the comedian and presenter Bill Oddie, last month, and there are many celebrity advocates for the hobby. Actor Sean Bean fronts the popular Get Birding podcast, and broadcaster Chris Packham regularly fills his social media with birds.

Even the often irascible former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson was given pause to appreciate the wonder of the avian world when bird enthusiast Hannah Bourne-Taylor appeared on the most recent series of his hit Amazon TV show Clarkson's Farm. "I've always loved birds. They are the coolest thing on the

A male bullfinch could be a welcome sight for new birdwatchers. Getty Images

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News

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

17

1 Hooligan parties of young swifts trying out their new wings and screaming at the top of their voices. 2 By the sea or a good stretch of freshwater, look for a gull with impossibly slim wings. You've found a tern, left.

3 You can tell a cormorant, above, from a shag because a shag makes a little jump from the surface of the water before it dives. 4 Look for a giant swift: that'll be the species of falcon called hobby. 5 Watch a mute swan, left, in flight and marvel: you're looking at the world's second heaviest flying bird, after the kori bustard of Africa.

6 Tell a wood pigeon from a collared dove on call. Wood pigeons say: "Steal two cows' taffy." Collared doves say: "United! United!" 7 Birds are not often frivolous but young swallows, right, are a delight to watch as they mess about.

Four pilgrimages

1. Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth for more garnets than you'd believe possible. Boat trips available.
2. Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire for seabird colonies, including puffins, left.
3. Isle of Mull for two species of eagle (white-tailed sea eagles and golden eagles) and two locally distilled single malt whiskies as a bonus.
4. London Wetland Centre for waders and wildfowl.

Mya-Rose Craig on the lookout in Greenwich, south-east London Antonius Olmos

planet," asserts Bourne-Taylor, who in 2022 marched through the centre of London in little more than body paint to raise awareness of declining swift populations.

"It's funny. I don't call myself a birdwatcher, nor do I ever say I am going birdwatching but if I don't walk for over an hour every single day, no matter the weather, precisely to watch the birds, I feel trapped and restless. I need birds in my daily life, hourly preferably, and continually would be the dream."

The author of two books, Fledgling, a memoir about rescuing a tiny finch, and Nature Needs You, a rallying call to save swifts, Bourne-Taylor has also noticed the shift towards more younger people getting involved.

Though birding is motivating more and more people to get offline and out into the fresh air, there is one particular app that has hugely taken off alongside the rise in bird interest – Merlin.

Developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, the app, which has been downloaded more than 40m times, allows users to use their mobile phones to identify birds from their song.

'You'll be inspired to get outside, discover green spaces, exercise and generally slow down, which everyone can benefit from'

Katie Nethercoat, RSPB

Merlin was first developed in 2014 as a text-based bird identifier, which was later expanded to include photos. When the sound ID function was added in 2021, the app really took off.

Kathi Borgmann of the Cornell Lab says: "I think what is more surprising now is the number of people who are discovering birds, from young to old.

"Merlin has opened the doors to so many people to experience nature and birds. It's been an incredible journey and we are thrilled that more and more people are finding a new way to connect with nature and other people."

But the rise in birding isn't just about a pleasant hobby – it could help save threatened species.

"The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, with wildlife under pressure from habitat loss, climate change and nature degradation," says Nethercoat.

"Getting more people interested in nature is not just a 'nice-to-have'; it creates the social, financial and political support that conservation depends on."

The warning about conservation was brought into sharp focus as the wildfires in Suffolk caused the closure of the RSPB's Minsmere nature reserve on Thursday, with a spokesman saying the damage to landscape was "unprecedented in living memory".

It comes just a week after wildfires also affected RSPB sites Deve Stone in the Peak District and Loch Garten, Abernethy, in the Cairngorms.

A spokesperson said: "As wildfires become a growing challenge during the summer months, our focus remains on preventing fires and reducing the risks to people, wildlife and habitats."

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18

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

News

In the grounds of St John's College, Oxford, the forensic anthropologist tells Erica Wagner about gutting animals as a child, identifying sex offenders by the pattern of their veins and making a friend of death – who is female, not male

The Observer Walk

Sue Black

'When I die they'll boil down the bones and I'll be a teaching skeleton'

As we walk through the grounds of St John's College, Oxford, Professor Dame Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome,

shares the wisdom of her beloved paternal grandmother. 'She used to say to me: 'Death walks beside you every moment of your life' – just like you're walking alongside me.' We are strolling along a shaded path in what are formally known as 'the gardens', and while the central expanse of lawn is crisped by the summer heatwave, the surrounding trees, shrubs and bushes offer cooling shade. 'And so if death is going to walk with you, then you may as well make her a friend.'

Black has spent a lifetime making friends with death. She is one of the world's most eminent forensic anthropologists: her job is to consider the matter of identity, using anatomic science to discover who a person is, or was. (It is not to be confused with the job of the forensic pathologist: they are medical doctors who assess the cause and manner of death.) Black has spent much of her career identifying the dead, whether they

are the victims of mass execution in Kosovo – in 1999 she was the lead forensic anthropologist during the international war crimes investigations – or were among the 230,000 people killed by the tsunami that devastated the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day 2004.

But her work, which springs from a lifelong obsession with human anatomy, benefits the living as well: most recently thanks to H-unique, a €2.5m (€2.1m) five-year programme of research that was the first 'multimodal automated interrogation of visible hand anatomy' – and if you wonder why that's important, it's because child sex offenders can film their hands as they carry out their crimes. Identify the hand, identify the culprit. Let it be known: this smiling, funny, warm woman leading me through the peaceful grounds of an ancient college is a total badass.

Since 2022 she has been president of St John's. We meet in a grand 16th-century sitting room overlooking the front quad. From 2003 to 2018, she was professor of anatomy and forensic anthropology at the University of Dundee; after

that she was pro-vice-chancellor for engagement at Lancaster. That desire for engagement has been marked too in a trilogy of popular books that give an account of her own life and work: All That Remains: A Life in Death (2018); Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind (2020); and now An Expert Witness: Forensic Science on Trial, which looks at the history of bringing science into the courtroom. It shows that while the development of forensic science has often benefited the cause of justice, there are perils and pitfalls too.

Before we head out into the sunshine, we amble through the glorious vaulted library of the college. Summer it may be, but some doughty students are hard at work: better behaved than their 18th-century predecessors, who – as Black shows me – carved their names into the window glass.

Black was born and raised in Inverness. Her father, an ex-military man and a carpenter by trade, was a keen huntsman. 'Always for the pot,' Black says. Her mother was a bit squeamish, so it fell to young Sue to skin and gut the rabbits, to gralloch (remove the entrails of) the

deer. 'I never thought anything of being up to my elbows in blood and guts from the age of five,' she says. At 13 she was expected to get a job and to contribute to the household: 'My father's expectation was that I would pay half of my earnings to my mother for board and lodging – and that's exactly what I did every week.' As to the job itself, well, given her experience, a butcher's shop was the perfect fit. 'You can see where this is going,' she says with a smile.

But no one in her family had gone to university. A favourite biology teacher, Dr Fraser – the two are still in touch – encouraged her. What does she make of Andy Burnham's plans to develop technical and vocational education in schools? His notions seem to mirror her own experience. The education at her state school was 'superb', she says, but higher education is not for everyone. 'Sometimes people want to be academic. Sometimes they don't, and there's nothing wrong one way or the other.'

She discovered anatomy in her second year at university. The first time she confronted a cadaver to dissect, she thought back to the butcher's and thought: I understand

that. 'It really was a Rubicon moment.' Yes, the formalin used at the time as a preservative smelled horrible, but no matter. 'It was a huge room with 50 or more tables, all covered in a white sheet. You could see that there was a mound underneath each sheet: a body. The whole thing was just an assault on your senses. But by the time I got the scalpel blade onto the handle, and I made the first cut through human skin, I knew I was in the right place. I absolutely knew I'd come home and I was an anatomist.'

The founder of the science of anatomy, as we know it now, was Andreas Vesalius, the 16th-century Flemish scientist whose great work, De Humani Corporis Fabrica ('On the Fabric of the Human Body'), pioneered scientific understanding of how we are made. It's Black's 'bucket list' book – but she never thought she'd hold a copy until she came to St John's. 'The first edition was 1543, and the second one was in 1555. And the college said, 'We've got both!' To make things even more neat, the second edition was published the year St John's was founded. So her presidency, as she sees it, was meant to be.

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19

Photograph by Tom Pilston

By the time I made the first cut through human skin, I knew I was in the right place

On our walk we don't meet any of the cats Black has introduced to the college as guardians – I reckon they're

keeping out of the heat. But we do meet Black's favourite tree and sit under its branches for a while. "She's a variegated beech," Black says, looking up at the canopy of leaves with delight, "and she is the most magnificent thing I've ever seen. She was planted in the year that my grandmother was born: 1898. I don't know if you can see" – she points upward from where we've paused on a wooden bench – "but there are sort of little bits where limbs have dropped off. And if you look above where there's a limb, there are scars... because the limbs are so heavy they're stretching the bark. It's like sutures and stretch marks, and I just love the fact she's there to repair herself and keep herself intact."

Like trees, our human scars and marks make us unique. And so it is that Black tells me the story of the case that led to the H-unique study. It was 2004 and a young girl was being abused by her father. Her mother didn't believe her. And so

("such a brave young woman", Black says) she left her computer camera on at night to record the abuse: there was no face on the tape, only the image of a man's arm. The police called Black to see if she could help.

"I could see this beautiful pattern of veins on the offender's hand and arm. So we said, 'Well, what we can do is we can match them to Dad. If they don't match, it's not him. Just simply 100% is not him. But if they do match... we still don't know what that means, because we haven't done the research yet.'" Even so, the judge allowed her testimony: the patterns were a match. Black determined to do the research and now her database of hand anatomy has 5m images, proving that our vein patterns are unique to us.

You might wonder whether the jury found the father guilty. No, they did not. Why? "Because the girl didn't cry." Black is haunted by the fate of this girl, whose father would have gone back to the family home. "Now, was it enough of a shock for him to stop what he was doing, or did he think, 'I've got immunity now'? Did she run away? Was she on the streets? Is she dead? I don't know. But I keep telling her story

because my hope is she'll hear it, and she'll know it's her. And if she found me I could say, 'We couldn't help you that day because we weren't ready, but look what you've done now!' The research to which the girl's case led resulted in 30 full-life sentences for other offenders – more than 500 years of prison time.

We're in the Gooseberry Garden, a nook-like courtyard that is, oddly enough, bereft of gooseberries. Because it's clear in the case of that courageous girl that Black thinks the jury got it wrong – swayed by their preconceptions of how a victim "should" behave – what does she make of proposals to scrap jury trials for certain offences? "You have to ask: do we have a justice system or do we have a legal system? I think we have a legal system that tries really hard to get to justice, but in saying that, it's imperfect." We trace our right to be judged by a jury of our peers to Magna Carta, she reminds me. But a shortage of defence lawyers, a shortage of courtrooms, means cases can take years to get to trial: too long, for accusers and accused.

"Maybe there are some cases that we could assign to a magistrate, to a

Sue Black in the vaulted Old Library of St John's College, Oxford, which was built in the 1590s.

judge, to make that decision. It has to be on lesser crimes. It can't be on murder. It can't be on those crimes that carry a life sentence or a whole-life tariff, it just can't. So I don't think we'll ever lose it completely, but we might just be allowed to tinker around the edges."

She does not, in case you were wondering, read crime fiction. Val McDermid is a dear friend, and very occasionally she will send her a passage of writing to check over for accuracy, but Black says McDermid "is very proud of the fact that I've never read one of her books".

Her easygoing manner makes me believe her when she assures me her work does not haunt her. "I have a box inside my head. A clinical box. When I go to work, I open the door and I go in and I close the door, and my world's outside and their world is inside – and I do my job. When I've done... I come out and close the door again." A detective friend gave her advice that stuck with her: whatever she witnesses, whatever she has to deal with, she could not have changed what happened; the guilt, the consequences, are not hers to own. And so, with Scottish practicality, she does not.

Her three grown daughters are comfortable with her plans for her own death. She's not frightened of it – we are back with her grandmother again. "I'm looking forward to it," she says. "It's the last thing I'll ever experience. I want to experience it." And referring to death as "she" is no accident. "When you take away that idea of masculinity associated with death, you can focus on compassion," she says. Black will donate her body, of course, to the University of Dundee, to be dissected "by scientists, not medics", because the former really take their time. And then there's a further plan.

"Once all my flesh has been removed, they'll boil down the bones and I'll be able to be a teaching skeleton. I love the idea of teaching after my death, because I loved teaching when I was alive. My daughters, they're slightly loopy, the same as myself" – she laughs – "and they say, 'Mum, it's great. We'll be able to come into the department and visit you!' It's like the Mexican Day of the Dead, isn't it? You know, it's a perfectly healthy approach to something that is going to happen."

In the far corner of the garden, the tree that's been growing since her grandmother was born continues to grow. The centuries-old walls of the college shelter us. We stand together grinning, considering death, and I think: this is how you feel truly alive.

An Expert Witness: Forensic Science on Trial, by Sue Black, is out now

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A man carries a wounded child into the MSF-run clinic at Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital in southern Gaza, Photograph © MSF

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World

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

21

'As soon as we get within about 20 nautical miles, the Chinese coastguard come to shoo us off'

→ Joseph Morados, fisherman, page 22

Mass Moroccan migrant surge leads Italy to suspend free movement with Spain

The sudden arrival of 50,000 people in a Spanish exclave has exposed EU divisions and left people asking: why now? Isabel Coles

Italy has suspended free movement with Spain after an unprecedented surge of migrants across one of the European Union's few land borders with Africa. The episode has exposed deep divisions between member states and galvanised the global right.

The majority of the estimated 50,000 people who entered the Spanish exclave of Ceuta had returned to Morocco by late Friday, but the political fallout continued to reverberate through Europe and beyond. At least 86 people were killed in chaotic scenes on Thursday that Donald Trump likened to "an invasion". Migrants poured over the border – some swimming, some on rafts – before breaking through fences.

The sudden influx – and equally rapid departure – left unanswered questions about how such a large number of people had come and why they had left. "Honestly, I don't even know why I came, and now I'm going back," a man told local channel El Pueblo de Ceuta. Behind him, young men clambered beneath a fence while a Spanish policeman waved a baton.

Others suggested Moroccan border guards had let them through, and questioned whether politics was behind it. Videos showed Spanish military vehicles parked on streets after the army was deployed to impose control. Back in Morocco, one man told a local channel he had returned because he was not welcome in Ceuta.

Spain's centre-left prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, described the incident as an "attack on Spain's territorial integrity". But some European leaders blamed the crisis on Madrid's greater openness to migration. While other European countries have tightened border controls, Spain offered an amnesty to 500,000 people who had entered the country irregularly. In June, Spain's supreme court issued a ruling that migrants intercepted while swimming to Ceuta could not be summarily deported.

Italy's prime minister, Giorgia

'It has all the hallmarks of Morocco trying to put pressure on Spain'

Intissar Fakir, Middle East Institute

Meloni, said the "shocking" images from Ceuta demonstrated the threat posed by "uncontrolled immigration". Finland and Denmark backed her decision to suspend Spain from the Schengen travel area for one month.

In a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, Sánchez lamented the response of some allies, which was driven, he said, by "prejudice, fake news, ignorance, or political interest". Ceuta is not part of the Schengen area,

he said, meaning that third-country nationals do not enjoy free movement to mainland Spain or beyond.

"The European Union cannot afford this kind of selfish, polarising and unlawful reaction," he wrote, noting that Spain prevented any people from reaching mainland Europe.

Even so, France tightened controls along its border with Spain, although it ruled out suspending Spain from the passport-free Schengen area.

It was a field day for conservative

A migrant from Morocco wades ashore at the Spanish exclave of Ceuta.

Juan Carlos Lucas/Zama Press/Cover Images

politicians across Europe – and on the other side of the Atlantic. Reform UK's leader, Nigel Farage, and the French hard-right leader Marine Le Pen joined in the pile-on. Members of the Trump administration seized the opportunity to bash a leader who has taken a tougher line against Israel and denied the US permission to use Spanish bases in its war with Iran.

Sánchez shared data from Frontex, the European border and coastguard force, showing that most irregular migration came through Italy, followed by the western Balkans, Greece, then Spain. He blamed the crisis on people-traffickers exploiting the supreme court's ruling on swimmers. Sánchez said Spain would work with Rabat to combat people-traffickers.

And yet the breach has raised questions about the role played by Morocco. "It has all the hallmarks of Morocco trying to put pressure on Spain," said Intissar Fakir, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, where she researches the politics and geopolitics of north Africa and the Sahel region. It was "inconceivable" that such a large number would cross the border without some kind of approval from Morocco, she said.

It would not be the first time: in 2021, Morocco allowed about 8,000 migrants to cross the border to Ceuta after a breakdown in diplomatic relations. But relations between Rabat and Madrid are now ostensibly good.

The White House avoided criticising Morocco, which joined a select club of Middle Eastern nations enjoying Trump's favour after normalising relations with Israel in 2020.

Morocco also lays claim to Ceuta, along with the Spanish exclave of Melilla, and there have been signs that some in Trump's orbit endorse Rabat's position. A report in May by the House appropriations committee described the two exclaves as Spanish-administrated cities located on Moroccan territory, supporting a diplomatic compromise on "the future status of Ceuta and Melilla".

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Water cannon diplomacy as Beijing moves further into Philippine waters

On a vessel targeted by China's coastguard, it's clear how intimidation is being used to expand the country's territory

Nga Pham

South China Sea

It was a tense cat-and-mouse chase. Early in the morning, three patrol vessels from the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources had left the sheltered port of Pag-asa, a remote outpost of about 350 people in the South China Sea.

They were heading for Sandy Cay, a chain of uninhabited sandbars just 1.5 nautical miles away. China has claimed these waters for decades, despite the fact that they lie within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.

Their mission was simple: inspect the waters around Sandy Cay, and provide support and take supplies to Filipino fishing vessels in the area.

Within minutes, a Chinese flotilla of five white coastguard ships and at least 15 blue militia vessels appeared from out of nowhere, moving silently to cut off their path. Each was larger than the Filipino vessels, which measured just 30 metres in length.

The Chinese ships surrounded them. From the bridge of a Chinese militia ship, a man photographed everyone he saw on the Filipino vessels before disappearing from view.

"Stop these unsafe actions and do not interfere with our legal maritime patrol! Over," crackled frantic radio exchanges from the Filipino bridges. It made no difference.

Without warning, the Chinese coastguard ship opened fire with a water cannon, striking the BRP Datu Pagbuaya, which veered under the

China's coastguard and its vast 'maritime militia' of disguised fishing boats have become tools of state power

torrent of white spray as it tried to escape. The same Chinese ship sped up and sideswiped the Pagbuaya, ramming its stern, before turning on another target – the BRP Datu Bankaw.

"Get inside, now," cried one of the Bankaw's crew at a bystander. The ship wriggled away but was hit in the rear by another barrage.

The Filipino vessels fled Sandy Cay and retreated to the south-west, out of danger but still shadowed by the Chinese.

After a brief period of relative calm, tensions are rising once again around disputed reefs in the South China Sea. This clash witnessed by The Observer last autumn was another episode in a simmering conflict that began more than a decade ago when China seized the Scarborough Shoal atoll after a months-long standoff with the Philippine navy in 2012.

Last month the Philippine mili-

tary accused the Chinese coastguard of injuring a Filipino sailor during a standoff at Second Thomas Shoal. In another incident, Philippine officials said Chinese ships had fired water cannon at their vessels near Scarborough Shoal.

The disputed group of reefs lies about 125 nautical miles from the Philippine island of Luzon, but almost 470 from China's nearest coastline. The shoal had long been a lifeline for local fishermen – a rich fishing ground and a refuge from typhoons.

After Beijing seized control, Manila filed an international arbitration case challenging China's claim over Scarborough and other reefs that form a U-shaped line, also called the "nine-dash line", across the South China Sea. Beijing has used this line to assert historical rights to the waterway as China's "inherent territory".

The Philippines triumphed at The Hague in 2016, when the tribunal ruled against all of China's claims on the territory. But Beijing tightened its grip, restricting access for Philippine government and civilian vessels alike.

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, which monitors the South China Sea, reported that the Chinese coastguard has "massively" increased its presence at the shoal in recent months. Analysts warn of a risk of

Ill health and a pledge to 'shut up' could end Khan's three years in prison

Haroon Janjua P Hugh Tomlinson

In Adiala jail outside Rawalpindi in northern Pakistan, Prisoner No 804 will this week mark three years behind bars in solitary confinement.

Pakistan's most famous son, the celebrated cricketer and former prime minister Imran Khan, has vanished from public view since he was jailed on corruption charges in 2023 after clashing with the country's powerful military. The most recognisable face

in a nation of 260 million people has been glimpsed only once, in leaked stills from an online court hearing.

Now sources close to the Pakistani military establishment and Khan's family have indicated that a deal to free the World Cup-winning captain has been discussed behind the scenes. Yet Khan's imprisonment remains so sensitive that tentative discussions have been conducted only through third-party intermediaries.

"This political deadlock must come to an end if Pakistan is to move forward," one source with knowledge

of the talks said. "Prolonged political instability has inflicted enormous damage on the country."

One potential opportunity for a climbdown would be a release from prison on health grounds. Khan, 73, had an eye operation earlier this year and his family have repeatedly raised the alarm about his declining health.

In a statement, Khan's sons, Sulaiman and Kasim, said remaining silent "was no longer an option".

"We fear our father's health has deteriorated during the prolonged imprisonment," the brothers said.

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confrontation, or even armed conflict, as China moves to consolidate its control over vast swathes of the sea.

China is also stepping up its hold over disputed land as it moves to project power across the region. Last year Beijing began dredging at Antelope Island, about 215 nautical miles east of Vietnam. The reef already hosted a Chinese outpost but satellite photos now reveal a man-made island capable of holding the largest offshore military base in the South China Sea.

Fishers such as 31-year-old Joseph Morados have been turned away from Scarborough Shoal for years. "As soon as we get within about 20 nautical miles, the Chinese coastguard would come to shoo us off," he said. "They'd say over a loudspeaker in Chinese: 'Go away! You cannot enter!'"

China's restrictions have slashed catches by as much as two-thirds, fishers say. "It's like having to steal fruit from your own garden," said Geneberth Naelon, 48, showing a video of his boat being chased near another shoal called Sabina.

These incidents have become routine as Filipino fishers are harassed and driven from traditional waters within the Philippines' 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone. Manila holds the right to explore and manage resources here under UN law.

Routine pressure from the Chinese coastguard on Philippine boats has reduced the catch for Filipino fishers, but they continue to share and receive supplies despite the threats.

Imran Khan at a press conference in May 2023, shortly before his arrest and imprisonment for corruption.

A similar deal allowed Khan's bitter rival, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif – also jailed for corruption after a stand-off with the military – to leave Pakistan for medical treatment in London in 2019. But any agreement with Khan would certainly come with strict conditions to leave the country, stay out of politics and shut up.

Few in Pakistan believe Khan would accept those terms. "He's obstinate," said human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith. "I wish he would. As a personal friend... I don't want to see him die in prison all alone."

Photographs by Noel Cellis

The Philippines has responded with a "transparency campaign", inviting journalists to join patrols and document Beijing's harassment at sea. The Observer joined the bureau of fisheries and aquatic resources on one of these missions, backed by the coastguard, to deliver supplies to Filipino fishers and assert their right to operate freely in its waters.

The voyage began under post-typhoon dark skies as the fisheries convoy slipped out toward Scarborough Shoal. Arriving at the shoal, a floating barrier blocked the entrance, backed by at least seven Chinese coastguard ships and 10 militia vessels. Orders came from above: keep 30 nautical miles away to avoid confrontation with the Chinese. But the imbalance was striking. China's coastguard and its vast "maritime militia" of disguised fishing boats have become tools of state power, pressuring neighbours across the South China Sea.

Two Philippine coastguard vessels were deployed to support the mission, although they remained at a cautious distance.

Filipino fishers were undaunted. Within minutes, hundreds had gathered to claim government subsidies of rice, fuel and groceries from the patrolling ships. Dozens of fishing boats surged forward, men paddling canoes to climb aboard the vessels. For the Filipino crew, the mission was as much symbolic as humanitarian, a statement of defiance in the face of Chinese threats. Philippine coastguard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said his forces "will not be intimidated or driven away by China's bullying tactics". The coastguard is acquiring 40 fast patrol boats from France and five multi-role response vessels from Japan to strengthen its capabilities.

The resupply mission at Scarborough went smoothly. From there, the convoy headed south-east towards Parola, known internationally as Northeast Cay, where it delivered supplies to Philippine troops.

Beijing declared victory after the clash seen by The Observer, claiming to have expelled "Filipino intruders and provocateurs". "The Chinese side will continue to take resolute measures to firmly safeguard our territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests," the government said.

The Filipino fisheries convoy arrived safely at its home port in Bataan province. But the threat of violence remains as China forces its claims on the region.

Stafford Smith is also sceptical that Pakistan's military leaders would risk releasing Khan. "He's a person of great principle and he won't shut up," he said.

Any move to free Khan is opposed by the government of prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, brother of Nawaz.

"This is a political matter," Pakistan's minister of state for interior, Talal Chaudhry, told The Observer. "Imran Khan is fine, and there is no justification for granting him bail on medical grounds. His cases will be decided by the courts."

Student protests against leaked exam papers dent Modi's aura of strength

ANALYSIS

Padma Rao Sundarji New Delhi

Last week, and for the first time in 12 years as India's prime minister, Narendra Modi buckled under public pressure.

For 36 days, thousands of Gen Z Indians staged protests against the repeated leaks of crucial national examination papers. Loosely organised as the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) – in response to a judge who had derided young Indians as good-for-nothing "parasites" – they demanded, and ultimately forced the resignation of Modi's education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan.

Now in his third term in office, Modi has faced many protests, but none has rattled India's strongman leader like this. The culture of impunity inside government may be waning.

Since Modi and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janta party (BJP) swept to power in 2014, a similar pattern has repeated itself.

In 2019 the government faced fierce opposition to laws granting Indian citizenship to all foreign migrants, except Muslims. Protesters demanded the resignation of Amit Shah, the home minister and Modi's right-hand man, but the prime minister was unmoved.

In 2021, after rallying farmers blockaded Delhi and stormed the capital's historic Red Fort, Modi withdrew contentious agricultural reforms, but a minister whose son had allegedly ploughed into protesting farmers with his car, killing four, was not removed.

The pattern kept recurring. Young Indians rioted against a short-term military recruitment scheme in 2022, but the policy remained. When Indian Olympic medalists protested against a BJP politician accused of sexually harassing female athletes in 2023, their demands were initially ignored.

But last week the pressure exerted by disaffected young voters, whom Modi flaunts as India's future strength, proved too much for the 75-year-old leader. Together, Gen Z and Gen Alpha make up 47% of India's 1.5 billion people, and the nationwide support they received finally broke through.

"What began as a small movement in New Delhi spread rapidly. Modi was forced to prick the balloon before it grew any bigger," Sanjaya Baru, former adviser to Modi's predecessor, Manmohan Singh, told The Observer.

This exam paper leak scandal cut across caste, class and gender lines. In particular, the controversy impacted India's approximately 465 million-strong, aspirational middle

class. Young Indians and families of all backgrounds see the exams as one of their only paths to financial security.

This is why Indians everywhere shed their often prickly interpersonal dynamics to unite in support of the CJP protest in Delhi. Aggressive police action against the crowd only fuelled their anger.

"No other democracy uses pellet guns against protesters," former director of India's Intelligence Bureau and counter-terrorism expert, Vasthavardhan Azad, told The Observer. "They should have been banned a long time ago."

Several other issues helped force Modi's hand. In the 2024 general election, the BJP fell short of a parliamentary majority for the first time, compelling Modi to form a coalition for his third term. Seven critical state elections are slated for 2027, including in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state. Modi can no longer afford to ignore or antagonise voters.

The recent success of political uprisings by Gen Z voters in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka

Narendra Modi, who hopes for a fourth term, can no longer afford to antagonise voters.

has not gone unnoticed in India, where a clash with young voters could damage Modi's prospects for an unprecedented fourth prime ministerial term in 2029.

Western human rights groups last week criticised India's handling of the CJP protest. The country's image as an emerging global power may take a beating.

"We are with the students and the government has clearly stepped in to protect them," national BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli told The Observer. "As for India's image overseas! It's a free world, and India is its largest democracy."

Within India there is little doubt that the CJP protest has denied Modi's aura of strength for the first time in his long career. It has also renewed faith in the power of public movements to force change.

The prime minister has moved swiftly to stem the crisis. New legislation has been tabled, with tougher punishments for exam leaks, and a national task force will oversee common entrance papers.

But students claim the government has gone back on its promise not to pursue criminal charges against the protesters. The CJP said it has received reports of at least 100 students being detained or harassed by police across India.

"The government is still doing its best to crush us," CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka said. "If it reurges, we'll be back on the street again."

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Left, the SSPX bishop Alfonso de Galarreta prepares to defy the Vatican and ordain four bishops, below, in Écône last

month, Above, Golgotha Monastery in Orkney. Top, Pope Leo. Fabrice Cuffrini/Getty

fatherhood and the Latin mass, presenting them as parts of the same project to recover masculine authority.

Around these influencers, an online ecosystem has emerged, blending traditional theology with self-improvement, pronatalism and a resistance to feminism. To its critics, the movement is defined by hostility to modern liberal values.

Speaking to The Observer, a senior Vatican official described its appeal as “a cultural refuge from modernity”, attracting people with a “siege mentality” who consciously define themselves against the surrounding world.

“You are part of a club... It appeals to those who don’t like progressive views... It’s a rejection of modern liberal values,” the official said.

SSPX has gained traction in the US, where it claims to have about 100 churches and 25,000 followers, including allies within Donald Trump’s Maga movement. Ben Harnwell, international editor of War Room, the podcast hosted by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, describes the traditionalist movement as “a convoy” of loosely connected conservative communities heading in the same direction, with SSPX as its “flagship”. He added: “Because it is so large, it cannot be ignored or dismissed as just a few eccentric malcontents.”

Successive popes tried for decades to keep that flagship within the Catholic fleet, but the ceremony in Écône last month was a body blow to any hopes of reconciliation.

The backlash against Leo is fast gaining wider political momentum, but Vatican officials insist the Pope is not rejecting conservative Catholicism but defining its limits.

Antonio Spadaro, a senior official at the Holy See’s dicastery for culture and education, said Catholics remain free to celebrate the Latin mass, reject modernity and hold deeply conservative views on family life. What they cannot do is appoint their own bishops while claiming to belong to the Catholic church.

The dispute is “no longer a quarrel about Latin and liturgy”, Spadaro said. It is about “a rival church”.

Pope at war with renegade order at heart of ‘Catholic manosphere’

The defiance of monks on an Orkney island widens a rift between the Vatican and the Society of Saint Pius X

Hannah Roberts Rome

On the remote Orkney island of Papa Stronsay, a group of traditionalist Catholic monks consecrated a bishop last week, openly defying repeated warnings from the Vatican.

The illicit ceremony by the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, a renegade sect at Golgotha Monastery, marked the latest flashpoint in a confrontation between Pope Leo XIV and the traditionalist Catholic movement.

The new bishop, Fr Michael Mary, was declared guilty of an “act of schism” and excommunicated. But in a defiant sermon last week, Mary said he required no mandate from Rome “because there is no pope”.

The rift stretches far beyond an isolated Scottish monastery, reaching into one of the fastest-growing currents in western Catholicism, where a

new generation of conservative believers has embraced the Latin Mass, traditional family life and an influential online counterculture. Welcome to the “Catholic manosphere”.

At the centre of the movement is the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), the largest and most influential traditionalist order. The group has been at loggerheads with Rome since its foundation in 1970 and now threatens the first crisis of Leo’s papacy.

Ignoring pleas from the Vatican, more than 15,000 SSPX followers gathered in the Swiss village of Écône last month to see four bishops ordained without papal consent.

Leo, who had condemned the ceremony as a “sin of extreme gravity”, pleading with SSPX “with all my heart” to “turn back”, promptly excommunicated all Catholics who “adhere formally” to the movement. It was the toughest Vatican action against the group in decades.

Critics say SSPX is steeped in blood and hatred. The crowd in Écône included members of Italian neofascist parties, highlighting far-right political ties that have underpinned the movement for decades. The group’s founder, French archbishop

Marcel Lefebvre, was an enthusiastic supporter of the pro-Nazi Vichy regime during the Second World War in France and backed Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front. He died in 1991.

SSPX has consistently been accused of antisemitism. Representatives of the group have perpetuated a myth that Jews murder Christian children and use their blood in religious rituals. Former followers have compared SSPX to a cult. Women in some communities were forbidden from wearing trousers, while boys had their heads shaved for talking to girls.

SSPX has about 600,000 followers internationally, a fraction of the world’s 1.4 billion-plus Catholics. But the group has made a concerted effort

‘To traditionalists, Leo’s move to cast out the bishop was a declaration of war on conservative Catholicism’

to expand, capitalising on the global resurgence of the political right.

On his appointment last year, Leo pledged to unite a divided church. But like his predecessor, Francis, he has been dragged into clashes with conservatives over issues ranging from immigration to the environment.

To traditionalists, the Pope’s move to excommunicate SSPX and Mary at Golgotha was a declaration of war on conservative Catholicism. The Vatican insists it is an attempt to stop the emergence of a parallel church.

Traditionalist Catholicism has developed its own 21st-century counterculture. Figures such as Kennedy Hall, a Canadian podcaster, move between discussions of weightlifting,

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Trump adviser's U-turn on Ukraine offers hope of an American conversion

Laura Loomer's road to Kyiv moment could turn Maga against Putin. But not everyone welcomes the support of the hard right conspiracist

Isabel Coles

Chief international correspondent

It was the kind of reception reserved for Ukraine's greatest allies. The country's chief rabbi presented Laura Loomer with a Star of David necklace. The foreign minister praised the hard-right provocateur's courage and accompanied her on a tour of a monastery. She received a traditional vyshyvanka embroidered blouse – and a hug from the president himself.

Never mind that Loomer once called Volodymyr Zelensky a 'self-hating Nazi Jew' and said Russia could conquer the whole of Ukraine for all she cared: Kyiv pulled out all the stops for the conspiracy theorist who has the ear of Donald Trump – and the eyes of a broad swath of the conservative Maga base. It appears to have worked.

'My time in Ukraine has been life-changing,' Loomer declared, repeatedly apologising for the bad things she had said about the country. She said she had been under the spell of Russian propaganda.

The conversion of a close Trump ally gives Ukraine an influential new friend just as a schism is growing within the Maga movement over the US president's foreign policy. While other conservative influencers have broken with Trump over his support for Israel and the war with Iran, Loomer remains steadfastly loyal. And her arrival in Kyiv came just as the two wars in Europe and the Middle East are increasingly overlapping.

Ukraine last week struck an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea it said was ferrying Russian weapons to Tehran. Zelensky recently cited intelligence that Russian satellites are helping Iran conduct strikes against US targets in the Middle East.

Loomer's trip came about after another hard-right influencer, Candace Owens, last month attended the St Petersburg economic forum. Owens has expressed admiration for Russia and contempt for Ukraine.

As tensions within Maga grow and the movement considers life after Trump, the conservative media titans are staking out rival positions. Fox News presenter turned podcaster Tucker Carlson has broken with Trump over the war with Iran, using his podcast to launch a barrage of attacks on the White House. In recent weeks, he has called Trump 'disgusting and evil', accusing him of betraying the 'America first' doctrine that got him re-elected in 2024.

Loomer, a Trump loyalist who has waged a long feud with Carlson, now has her own viral moment. Arriving

'Russia doesn't want peace. Sadly, they've convinced a large part of Maga that Ukraine doesn't want peace'

Laura Loomer

Loomer hugs Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. Ukrainian Presidential Press Office

in Ukraine, she said she hadn't been paid 'a single penny' for the trip. But the excursion has paid dividends. Media outlets that once treated her as a crank are now taking her seriously.

She met the country's new defence minister and was shown round the frontline city of Kharkiv by the commander of the Azov battalion. The foreign minister Andriy Sybilia took her on a tour of a monastery complex in Kyiv that was recently damaged in a Russian strike. Loomer declared that 'Putin droned Jesus Christ'. During a TV interview, a Ukrainian journalist revealed to Loomer that a search of the national archives had found her great-grandfather's records: Pinkus Loomer was born in 1885 in the city of Vinnytsia – now in Ukraine

During the trip she kept up a blizzard of tweets detailing her conversion to the Ukrainian cause. 'Russia doesn't want peace. And sadly, they have convinced a large portion of Maga that it's Ukraine that doesn't want peace. It's the opposite,' she said.

One post from a bomb shelter during a Russian attack drew grudging admiration from Ukraine's allies in both parties back in Washington.

But not everyone is impressed at the self-promotional blitz.

'Loomer is not the kind of friend Ukraine needs or should have,' wrote Phillips O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, on Substack. 'The price of her support is publicising everything that is destructive in US and European politics.' The 33-year-old remains a 'proud Islamophobe' and falsely maintains the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. 'One thing I really love about Ukraine is I haven't seen a single Muslim here. It's so refreshing,' she posted on X during her trip.

After interviewing Zelensky, she received a message from a friend: Tommy Robinson. 'I love you, Laura, but fuck Zelensky,' wrote Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Tuxley-Lennon. He was in Russia last month at the same time as the Tate brothers. Loomer urged him to see Ukraine for himself. 'You'd like it, too,' she said. 'They haven't allowed their country to be taken over by Islam.'

For Ukraine, Loomer represents an opportunity to reach a segment of the US public that may not believe – or even be aware of – some of Russia's crimes in Ukraine.

Laura Loomer is taking Ukraine's message to her Maga followers with Trump's blessing. Getty Images

'She speaks to this fraction of the Maga ecosystem that would not follow mainstream media as they call it,' said Ostap Yarysh, a media adviser for Razom for Ukraine, an advocacy group in Washington. 'Joe Rogan or Tucker Carlson would not speak about these things, yet they would be spreading pro-Russian narratives'.

Loomer said some of her followers were already coming round, sharing a message in which a follower said they were beginning to feel sympathy for Ukraine. 'Never thought that would be possible,' it read.

One member of Loomer's audience matters more than the rest. After she interviewed Zelensky, Trump reposted a clip with the caption: 'Very Good!!!' Loomer said she had spoken to the president several times during her trip and would brief him when she returned to the US.

Last year Trump fired six National Security Council officials after Loomer accused them of disloyalty.

After she suggested in her interview with Zelensky that Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner should travel to Ukraine, the White House told Loomer they would do so in the coming weeks for the first time.

'I never want to speak for the president, because it would be inappropriate. But I think it's obvious that his tone has shifted [on Ukraine],' Loomer told Ukrainska Pravda.

But her intervention has not stopped the Russian missiles still pounding Kyiv, killing at least nine on Friday night. Trump is still resistant to putting pressure on Putin.

After meeting Zelensky in Washington last week, the president again put the onus on Ukraine to 'end the war' and retracted a proposal made at the Nato summit last month to allow Kyiv to build Patriot interceptor missiles under licence.

O'Brien said the notion that Trump's position may be shifting was wishful thinking. 'It is tragic watching Ukraine backers getting completely played by Loomer and Trump,' he said. 'She will say whatever she needs to to get paid while he laughs and gives Ukraine nothing of value and continues to help Putin.'

Loomer was still in Ukraine when Zelensky flew to the US for the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham, one of Kyiv's staunchest allies. When Graham died abruptly after a trip to Ukraine, Loomer peddled a conspiracy he was assassinated by Russia or Iran. His parting gift to Ukraine was a fresh package of sanctions on Russian oil sales, which passed this week.

Terrell Jermaine Starr, an American journalist based in Kyiv, had mixed feelings about Loomer's epiphany. 'As a Ukraine advocate, I'm happy Laura Loomer is pro-Ukraine,' he said. 'As a Black man, I'll never be happy with a cause I'm so passionate about attracting racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic, transphobic people like her,' he said. 'I know Ukraine must take anyone it can get. But damn.'

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Opinion, People & Ideas

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

27

Comments centred on the words 'ugly' and 'bitch': the women taking on big tech

→ Marie le Conte, page 30

Labour is enjoying a Burnham bounce in the polls. The question is how long it can last Andrew Rawnsley

While a promising start has lifted spirits, the new PM will need much more of a boost if he's to risk calling an early election

Andy Burnham says he wants to "bring back hope", and with at least one segment of the population he is succeeding. The hearts of Labour MPs are fluttering as they see their party become more popular than it was under the previous management. You may say this is an extremely low bar to set, but it is why they wanted him as leader – and so far that punt is paying off.

The "Burnham bounce" is illustrated by the Optimum poll we publish today. It has Labour on 27 points, up four on a fortnight ago, and ahead of Reform UK. That's consistent with other surveys, which have had Labour advancing since Mr Burnham became prime minister. The poll of polls has Labour on an upward slope, a trend which began when it became clear that Sir Keir Starmer was in need of a removal van and that has gathered pace since the installation of his successor. Mr Burnham scores particularly strongly when voters are asked to judge whether he's likeable, decisive and in touch with ordinary people. That will please his team. Real votes in real ballot boxes have been sending a similar message. Labour's Bev Craig was elected the new mayor of Greater Manchester in a resounding victory that seized back areas where Reform UK and the Greens were recently prospering.

This honeymoon effect does not have me gasping with surprise. New prime ministers nearly always enjoy a bounce. Mr Burnham has artfully exploited media and public interest with an eventful debut packed with initiatives. Some of his announcements have been serious, such as his denunciation of the decades-long failure to reform social care as a "dereliction of duty". Some of the activity has sought to entertain, such as bantering about the relative merits of bar snacks with the chancellor, John Healey.

One Labour veteran, previously a sceptic about Mr Burnham, remarks: "He's got a lot better at politics than he was when he was last in Westminster." Contrary to some predictions, his approval ratings have gone up.

'Burnham has artfully exploited public interest with an eventful debut packed with initiatives.' Christopher Furlong/AFP

Two in five of respondents to the Optimum poll say their view of him has become more positive since he moved into Number 10, against just 12% who feel more negative.

He's also got the quality that Napoleon most prized in his generals. He's been lucky. It has been his great good fortune to arrive in Downing Street just as the wheels on the bandwagons of populist rivals have gone wobbly. There's delight among Labour folk at the pratfalls of Zack Polanski. The leader of the Greens was stupid to share an Instagram post that included a picture of a man wearing a black T-shirt featuring a guillotine and the slogan, "We're only making plans for Nigel". He says it was an inadvertent mistake and he unshared it as soon as it was brought to his attention. We can accept that while also thinking it a howling blunder, all the more so for coming only days after the alleged murder of Ann Widdecombe.

This is not the first occasion the Green leader's obsessive compulsive social media activity has landed him in trouble. As David Cameron once said: "The trouble with Twitter, the instantness of it – too many twits might make a twat." There is also the unresolved question about whether he failed to pay sufficient council tax when living on a houseboat. The cumulative effect is to sharpen doubts about his professionalism and judgment.

If the wilting of the Greens brings joy to Labour ranks, there is sheer rapture about the self-inflicted travails of Reform. Labour MPs live in genuine terror about what Nigel Farage might do to the country. The fear that Sir Keir's failings would be the midwives of a Farage premiership was a significant factor in his downfall.

This has been a summer from hell for the leader of Reform. His zone has been flooded with a torrent

of allegations about undeclared gifts and donations, attention has focused on "Posh" George Cottrell, the close associate who is also a convicted fraudster, and there's a police investigation to boot. Even erstwhile fans in the rightwing media are describing the Clacton byelection as a farce. Hardcore Farage voters will stick with him. The damage is the repelling effect this has on voters who were Reform-curious.

T

he Burnham bounce is prompting chatter about whether he might be tempted to call an early election to try to secure his own mandate. "I'm going to rule it out," he told the BBC. "I don't think people want it." This isn't conclusive evidence that there won't be one. What it tells us is that he's learned from the mistake made by Gordon Brown in the autumn of 2007 when he was enjoying a poll surge a few months into his premiership. He openly flirted with calling a snap election while colleagues incautiously talked up the idea to journalists. This inevitably excited expectations that he was on the brink of going for it. When he then got cold feet, he was lampooned as "Bottler Brown" and his honeymoon evaporated.

For all his denials, a part of Mr Burnham's brain will be furtively wondering whether it might become feasible to go to the country this autumn or early next year. The announcements he's made about tackling youth unemployment, reforming education, fixing social care and deepening devolution can be read as drafts for a Burnham manifesto. Some of his allies argue that he won't be able to realise his grand ambitions for so long as he is a prisoner of the restraints imposed by the Starmerite prospectus put to the country in 2024. He should also be mindful that honeymoons don't last forever.

Anthony Eden successfully converted his bounce into an election victory in 1955 by going to the country very soon after he succeeded Winston Churchill. Theresa May blew it in 2017 with a calamitous campaign that threw away the majority she had inherited.

To even think about taking the gamble, Mr Burnham would need to see more of an uplift than he's enjoyed so far. Labour would have to rise to 33 points to match the vote share the party secured at the last election. What if the bounce does get bouncier? Then the risk-reward ratio could begin to look more enticing. As one of the prime minister's closest allies in the cabinet puts it: "You get the big rewards in politics from getting the big calls right." They don't come much bigger than this.

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By refusing to confront Islamist bigotry, the left has mistaken silence for solidarity Kenan Malik

his horrific event shows why we still need Pride," tweeted the Northern

Ireland secretary, Chris Bryant, after the sickening attack on the Berlin Pride march last Saturday. "Freedom to live and love without shame, treated equally with others under the law, safe from discrimination and homophobic violence – that's worth marching for."

Whenever a leftwing politician or commentator responds to an Islamist attack without using the word "Islamism", many on the right smell blood and go baiting. And so it was this time.

"Who committed [sic] this crime?" one respondent demanded of Bryant. "Will you say? Or are you too scared?" "That's surely the job of the German police and courts?" Bryant replied, even though the police had named the attacker as Abdul Ballout and some of his backstory as a wannabe jihadist had been revealed. "Pathetic coward," the podcaster Konstantin Kisin responded, an epithet spat out by many others, too.

"What ideology committed this crime? Be honest now," another tweeter pointedly asked, to which Bryant replied: "Hatred". And so it went on. No one likes being publicly baited, and most people would probably respond defensively when faced with such baiting. Yet the exchange, and many similar ones, exposes deeper issues in the polarised way in which we discuss terrorism, Islam and immigration.

On the one side, the right uses

Islamist attacks to demonise Muslims and migrants. "Suicidal empathy is importing millions of people from radically different cultures... while eroding the safety and security of women and gay people in your own nation," claimed academic turned Reform UK supporter Matthew Goodwin. There was a barrage of claims that "Islam is completely incompatible with

The right uses Islamist attacks to demonise Muslims and migrants

western values", as one tweeter told Bryant.

Many mocked LGBTQ+ people who support Palestine, dismissing them as "the fluffers of an ideology that loathes them", as if supporting Palestinian rights and freedoms is the same as endorsing Islamist terrorists or Hamas.

On the other hand, many on the left, fearful of appearing racist or of

An LGBTQ+ group marches during Pride in London on 4 July. Many on the right have mocked the community for demonstrating support for Palestine.

Imageplatton/Alamy

giving solace to bigotry, often refuse to address the issue of Islamism at all. Bryant's nervousness in naming the perpetrator as an Islamist or his ideology as more than "hatred" speaks to wider concerns on the left, not least confusion over how to oppose anti-Muslim bigotry while also challenging bigoted views that Muslims may hold.

Muslims in Britain today tend to be socially conservative, especially on the question of homosexuality.

This is not, though, a case of "third-world immigration bringing third-world attitudes," as Arron Banks, co-founder of the Leave.EU campaign and a prominent Reform supporter, contemptuously told Bryant. Barely a generation ago, Muslim views would have been little different from those of the general British population. In 1983, half of Britons thought that same-sex relationships were "always wrong", and fewer than one in five thought they were "not wrong at all".

In the intervening decades,

British society has become far more liberal while Muslim communities have become more conservative, even if those communities are not homogenous, and young Muslims in particular are closer to mainstream norms. So much has Britain liberalised, that those who hold to values that would have been regarded as consensual 40 years are now seen as not properly British.

The reasons for the growing chasm between Muslim attitudes and those of wider society are complex. They lie partly in a tangled set of social and political changes, including the collapse of the traditional left and the rise of identity politics, which have turned many communities inwards; partly in the influence of Saudi Arabia on Islamic institutions in the west and its promotion of Wahhabism; partly in social policies that have helped established more conservative figures as "community leaders" and the authentic voices of Muslim communities while marginalising more liberal perspectives.

Many on the left worry about challenging Muslim views on homosexuality or women's rights or Jews for fear of "punching down": that is, of attacking people with less power who often face bigotry and violence. Certainly, sections of the right use the social conservatism of Muslims as an argument against their presence in western societies (even as they deploy the supposed social conservatism of working-class communities to challenge the liberalism of the "metropolitan elite"). Yet confronting anti-Muslim bigotry does not mean

ignoring conservative or bigoted ideas within Muslim communities. There are power relations within communities, as well as between those communities and wider society. Conservative Muslims often use religiously based reactionary taboos, policies and institutions to buttress their claims to power against those challenging blasphemy restrictions or traditional sexual norms. It is the latter who are betrayed when politicians and commentators accept conservative norms as "authentically" Muslim.

It is equally important to confront Islamism. Again, some on the right use "Islamist" as a label with which to tar prominent liberal Muslim politicians such as Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, or Zohran Mamdani, his New York counterpart. But in rejecting such smears, we should not be coy in talking about Islamism or Islamist terror, or recognising contemporary forms of such terror as the "degeneration of an already degenerate ideology". It is impossible to confront anti-Muslim bigotry without confronting Islamism too.

Socially conservative views are part of the broad tapestry of politics in this country. Holding such views does not make you unBritish. There will be many supporters of liberal or leftwing parties who hold illiberal views on homosexuality or women's rights, free speech or immigration. That is inevitable and normal. What should not be acceptable is for leftwing parties to blunt their principles or to diminish hostility to one form of bigotry in the name of confronting another.

An Ann Droid carebot? Don't make me laugh

AI needs to develop a grasp of basic human needs before a 'Linda' is viable, says Melanie Reid

The cleverest comic creation of the summer is Linda, the humanoid care robot from the BBC's Ann Droid. Against a backdrop of moral panic about growing old and falling victim to the dark forces of technology, the obsolete replicant is much more Coronation Street than Blade Runner.

Written and acted by Diane Morgan, Linda is so brilliantly on point, bless her, she's even got an accent rooted in Manchester.

Oh how today's dread-filled boomer generation wishes such a warm, fuzzy R2-D2 fantasy of the near future might come to pass. How we would love our own Lindas,

in a relationship fond but firmly transactional, to ease our final years. Because, happily, Linda turns out to be reassuringly obedient, threat-free and useful. Plus, she's morally sound, if occasionally rather literal.

"I'll probably lose my marbles," walls her reluctant user, an 80-year-old widow played by Sue Johnston. "I can help you find your marbles," trifle Linda, scanning the room.

We should remember to apply the old rule of cock-up rather than conspiracy. AI is decades away from satisfactory multi-skilled humanoid care robots – that's because the so-called dark forces have so little understanding of old age they can't even come up with an appropriate bedroom for a care home.

There's now proof. AI's inability to understand the basic needs of the elderly and those with cognitive failings was revealed at a recent event at the University of Stirling's

world-renowned dementia services development centre. Students were tasked with generating images for specialist accommodation using a well-known AI platform.

And guess what? It was hopeless. Turns out that if you prompt AI to portray someone with dementia, or design safe surroundings for them, it produces grotesque, stigmatising and often hilarious mistakes. Toilet seats as bedside cabinets, three-legged wheelchairs, patients with three arms. A fascinating concomitant – and this should worry us – is how the language of psychiatry has been stolen to anthropomorphise AI. Those design howlers were not mistakes. AI doesn't produce errors. Oh no, it "has hallucinations". It gets "OCD".

But if AI is anthropomorphised,

responsibility for error is diverted away from software companies, programmers and users. The use of medical language disguises any intent to deceive, to perpetuate old norms, or to support discrimination of marginalised groups.

Stirling's students were architects, designers, healthcare professionals and civil servants dedicated to improving life for people with dementia and age-related impairments. They found AI seemed incapable of grasping the concept of wheelchair access, adjustable beds,

the dangers of rugs on the floor. It missed the basic principle of design, of human need and function; it just tried to generate images that looked good. And we worry this thing will destroy us in old age? This is a farce at the polar opposite to Ann Droid. AI simply lacks the data sets. It won't

replace architects and designers – it just proves how valuable they are.

Eventually, AI may gain enough conceptual complexity to understand, say, self-esteem. In the meantime, the reality is a mundane void of intelligence or empathy, with prejudices replacing knowledge.

I am reminded of Caroline Criado-Perez's book Invisible Women, in which she demonstrates how global algorithms are created by the nerdy young white men of Silicon Valley – who largely lack empathy or interest in women. They are fashioning the internet in the shape of their own bias, which evidently also affects how they see people who are old, demented, vulnerable and disabled.

Thus AI data sets veer towards the racist, ageist, sexist and unobtrish. We are better mocking its inadequacies than fearing its omnipotence. Linda will take a while to discover the meaning of marbles.

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Fires turn right's climate denials to ashes Will Hutton

The reality of the climate crisis is now inescapable. Walking in the Pyrenees over the last 10 days, I met a German couple who had made the rescue boat to escape the fires in Cap Ferret with half an hour to spare – and who were now in the safety of the fractionally less combustible mountains.

Still visibly shaken, they showed me terrifying photos of flames beating their way to their holiday apartment, generating plumes of suffocating smoke; replicas of those you've seen in the newspapers but all the more authentic on a personal iPhone. A holiday had made them witnesses to an inferno.

England seen from the air as we returned is unnerving. Our once green and pleasant land is burned brown. Hardly a surprise, given that half of England is suffering drought; and this after the south saw its fourth wettest winter since records began in 1836. Worse, all of Wales is in drought; rainfall in July was the lowest for 190 years.

Although fears that Bordeaux and parts of Madrid may have to be evacuated have receded, the threat remains. The fires may be 30 miles from Madrid, more than three times farther than the nine miles they are from Bordeaux, but hundreds of

thousands of its citizens have been forced to leave.

There is another predicted heat dome this week, in mainland Europe as in Britain, and so there will be more firestorms, more evacuations and more firefighters at risk of dying. El Niño, which will distort global weather patterns from now until early next year, promises to be intense. Changing weather is now a global phenomenon.

Yet the former cross-party consensus, launched by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, and followed through the prime ministership of Theresa May legislating to hit net zero by 2050 – and then Boris Johnson banning new petrol and diesel car sales from 2030 – has been shattered. Up until relatively recently, companies, even in the US, made common cause committing to environmental, social and governmental goals to demonstrate their good citizenship. But the Maga base chafed, especially under the environmentally aware presidency of Joe Biden. This was "woke" capitalism that must be resisted.

One of the many unhappy byproducts of Donald Trump's re-election in 2024 was that it crystallised the mainstreaming of environmental scepticism and climate crisis denial. Trump would bracket advocates of the climate

crisis with those who doubted that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. It was a hoax promulgated by alien socialists indifferent to making energy more expensive for working-class Americans.

Trump has pulled the US out of every international initiative setting targets for reducing carbon emissions. He has revoked baseline standards for judging whether US greenhouse gas emissions are breeching dangerous levels. He has encouraged oil and gas drilling. Every Biden incentive to develop renewable energy and challenge China's pre-eminence in battery manufacture and wholesale electrification has been scrapped.

The Tory right, basking in its Brexit triumph, was looking for new woke enemies to slay, but even in the 2022 leadership campaign, Kemi Badenoch did not contest the targeting of net zero by 2050. But the 2024 UK election defeat and Trump's win changed the calculus. To deny the climate crisis, Trump-style, was the next populist cause.

In 2025, for the first time, more editorials in British newspapers urged less action on the climate crisis than more, although, according to analysis by the Carbon Brief website, papers such as the Sun, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, the Daily Express and the Times were careful

to focus their ire less on the climate crisis (plainly happening) but rather the expense and irrationality of targeting net zero as a means to contain it. Their coverage was accompanied by criticism of then energy secretary Ed Miliband as a "loon" and "zealot". Renewable energy is dismissed as expensive and unreliable.

So here we are. The hard right destroyed the consensus on EU membership and is now doing the same on the climate crisis. If Miliband is a loon, then so is King Charles, who spoke to a friend of mine in deep despair the morning

Economy, society and nature are intimately interdependent

after the 2016 Brexit vote. He saw that the consensus underpinning the environment would soon go the same way as that underpinning EU membership. He was right.

Trying to separate the climate crisis from tackling its first-order cause – carbon emissions – as Badenoch is now attempting to do, so that net zero targets become the enemy, is palpable nonsense. Yet what, pray, is the cause of the climate crisis? Scientific evidence is scorned; look in vain for the rightwing press

reporting the Met Office's finding that 2025 was the warmest year since 1884, when records began.

Successful international action to date is scoffed at. Britain's potential contribution is dismissed as irrelevant because we only account for less than 1% of global emissions: it is for others to act, not us. Dirt-cheap renewables are mischaracterised as expensive.

If any public figure deserves the title of loon and zealot, it is the Sunday Telegraph's editor, Allister Heath; he who celebrated Brexit, then the Liz Truss budget and now rehearses these arguments with a passion from which Badenoch takes her cue. The war against the climate crisis has been lost, he writes. So the "despicable con" that is net zero must be abandoned, the climate crisis accepted, and we should aim only to adapt to the consequences.

Certainly, as the Climate Change Committee urges, Britain should do more to adapt by introducing more air conditioning in schools and hospitals, and do more to alleviate the heat build-up in brick houses.

But to do nothing? To love our planet transcends left and right. Economy, society and nature are intimately interdependent. The know-nothing jacobins of the left used to terrify me. Now it's the know-nothing jacobins of the right.

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For women, the internet was freedom. Then the tech bros began undressing us Marie Le Conte

Our digital lives are blighted by deepfakes, 'pervert glasses' and gagging orders. Now begins the fightback

“I called on Elon Musk to stop Grok from being able to do this and, a few days later, the bikini pictures of me started to roll in.” Jess

Asato is a Labour MP elected in 2024 who successfully campaigned to ban “nudifying” apps. When Musk’s X became overrun with near-nude deepfakes created by Grok’s chatbot, she knew she had to speak up.

She did so in January this year, and X users descended on her. They used Grok to create fake images of her in skimpy bikinis, heavily pregnant, and at least one video of her “being chloroformed and prepared for a sexual assault”. She said “it was deeply unsettling... like a violation of my person”. In some ways, she added, when we spoke earlier this week, it felt like a form of “digital sexual assault”.

She reported the images to Grok, to no avail, and complained about them to female friends. One of them told her she should sue the platform. She took the plunge. In June, Asato submitted a claim to the High Court, stating that sAI had breached laws connected to data protection and the misuse of private information by letting X users create non-consensual sexualised deepfake images of her using the chatbot.

Though the app had added some guardrails to Grok since January, what followed was disappointingly predictable. “The backlash has been absolutely intense,” Asato says. “There were over 700 responses to the announcement that I was taking legal action.” They included “the c-word lots and lots of times”, all manner of comments centred around the words “ugly” and “bitch”, as well as a number of people calling her a liar, as surely no one could want to create deepfakes of her. “One of them even mentioned that my husband wouldn’t even knock one off over pictures of me.”

Still, she’s not backing down. The documents she submitted to the court show that Grok had been designed and trained to generate “harmful sexualised content”, even adding explicit material when the user hadn’t asked for it. The chatbot was also programmed not to treat references to “teenage girls” in prompts as necessarily referring to children under 18.

“We want to win and prove that sAI has broken the law,” she added. “When you break the law, there are

Whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams has accused her former employer Meta of ‘coercive surveillance’. Jess Asato, below left, is suing X over deepfake images of her. Below right, Zuckerberg in ‘smart glasses’. Bloomberg/Getty Images/House of Commons

consequences.” A victory in court would be important not just to her, or other victims of Grok’s deepfakes, but for all those hoping to fight back against the impunity of an industry that sees itself as untouchable.

Asato is only one of several women leading this costly, arduous, legally fraught fightback. Back in May, Sarah Wynn-Williams made headlines for appearing on a panel at the Hay festival and remaining silent throughout, even taking care to avoid suggestive facial expressions. A former director of public policy at Facebook, she published an account of her time at the company, Careless People, last year. In the memoir she alleges that the company’s culture was rife with gender-based discriminatory practices and instances of sexual harassment. Facebook has described the book as a “mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives”.

It secured a legal order on the eve of publication that prevented her

from publicly discussing aspects of the book. If breached, the order would cost her $50,000 (£37,000). A month later, Wynn-Williams announced that she would be suing Meta, the parent company, accusing it of “coercive surveillance” and a “blatant violation of the First Amendment”. Surely her story must be hers to tell. No one should be able to rob someone of their voice so literally, and the public interest case ought to be overwhelming.

An entire generation of people grew up on Facebook; my peers and I were shaped by it, and had both our social lives and our personalities defined by the time we spent on the platform. We should know what was going on behind closed doors when tech executives changed our worlds.

It is also worth wondering who gets to speak up, as Claire Stapleton wrote in a New Yorker essay recently. Once nicknamed

Only certain people are allowed to treat the internet as a playground

the “voice of Google”, thanks to her knack for generating “corpspeak with personality” in internal emails, she gradually lost her faith in the company she’d once loved. She helped to organise the 2018 Google walkout, in which predominantly female employees campaigned against pay inequality and for better processes to report sexual misconduct. She was then sidelined for having done so, and resigned in 2019. The most poignant of

her recollections centred on the company’s relatively early days, and the optimism of the internet before the mid-2010s.

There was, she wrote about 2007, “a conviction that technology could improve the world”. This was both true in those companies and outside them; back in the 2000s, there was a feeling that the internet was about to change everything for the better. And there was a sense that being online meant being free – free to be whoever you wanted to be, to speak with whomever you wanted to.

I grew up in an unremarkable household in provincial France but, thanks to the early internet, managed to teach myself English, become a teenage music blogger, then move to London and built a successful media career in Britain. None of it would have happened in an offline world.

The internet gave community to countless people who never would have found it in real life. It ensured that people were no longer held back by where they lived, what they looked like or how old they were: everyone could at least aim to be equal. Over the years, many of the voices that had always been shut out of the mainstream also built their own platforms, and found their own audiences. In short, the internet gave agency to those who had so often lacked it.

It’s hard to tell when this era ended, when the internet stopped

feeling like a wonderful escape from the real world. Was it in 2016, when tech companies began cosying up to Donald Trump? Was it in the years preceding that, such as when GamerGate used alleged bias in games journalism as an excuse to try to run some of the most prominent women in the industry out of the gaming world altogether?

What is certain is that “techno-optimism” is now long dead. It is clear that only certain people are allowed to treat the internet as their playground. Others – women, non-white people – are having to work hard to stand their ground, as the current furore around Meta’s AI glasses has shown.

While shiny adverts claim the new tech – glasses or sunglasses with a camera

installed in the frame – will allow people to make their lives more streamlined, every other story about them has shown that countless men can and will use the “pervert glasses” (as they are frequently being called) to film people, often women and children, without their consent. Police investigated TikTok user Scott Margerison for covertly filming himself making sexualised comments about two teenage girls. If one person’s world gets bigger, another person’s is bound to shrink.

It doesn’t help that so many of these companies are run by men who either do these things on purpose or, as Wynn-Williams put it, don’t seem to care. Musk is a proud white supremacist and supporter of Trump. Mark Zuckerberg said on a Joe Rogan podcast last year that he wanted more “masculine energy” in corporate culture, after years of at least seeming placid. Is it any wonder his company is powering through with its glasses, ignoring all warnings? After all, Facebook did get its start because a handful of college students wanted to rate the women they saw on campus.

Though it sometimes feels like technological progress, even of the wrong kind, is unstoppable, women like Asato, Wynn-Williams and Stapleton are trying to find a way to fight back. Like many Davids to their Goliaths, they are going up against powerful entities with deep pockets and an appetite for retribution.

They may not win, but it feels important that they’re trying. Once upon a time, the internet felt like a brilliant promise, the way to a brighter future. That future was stolen from us. How wonderful it would be to get it back.

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Governments are using travel bans as a tool of censorship

Much consideration has been paid to Andy Burnham's first weeks in power and the task ahead of him ("Five days, five promises, but can the country afford what the public applauds?", News, last week). Something else should be

added: Burnham must call out the rise in travel bans around the world. Pick a country and you'll likely see examples of immigration policies tied to expression, denying entry or exit on the basis that someone supposedly misspoke. The scale of the problem has just been revealed in a report published by Index on Censorship in partnership with the University of Essex.

The UK is no stranger to the trend. Many have recently been banned from entering the country on the grounds that their presence is "not conducive to the public good". Let's not airbrush what they've said – it's often horrible – but the sign of a healthy, liberal, society is surely tolerance of the repugnant, and in this we are failing. Still, it's far worse elsewhere, and those speaking up for freedom or criticising leaders are the most common targets.

This should worry us on principle as well as practically – we Brits like to travel, after all. Consider the US. Under Donald Trump, members of the punk band UK Subs and disinformation campaigners Clare Melford and Imran Ahmed have not been allowed in. The US State Department now checks the online posts and profiles of more people applying to visit or stay temporarily, and it requires them to unlock their accounts so officials can read them as part of vetting. Worse could still be to come.

In India, authorities are revoking Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) registrations at an alarming rate. In the last two years, cancellations have already reached 60% of the total for the preceding decade. Academics, journalists and activists have been the main targets. The authorities have also stopped non-Indian academics from entering, and have prevented journalists and artists from leaving, including the Washington Post's Rana Ayyub and Pulitzer prize winner Sanna Irshad Mattoo.

Some of the worst offenders won't surprise: Belarus, Saudi Arabia and Nicaragua are hardly known as havens for human rights. Setting that aside, these bans often separate friends and families, the impact on global knowledge is stark. It includes stopping people from speaking on stages, sharing knowledge and contributing to discussions. It makes people fearful of speaking out. Through these measures, governments are turning travel into the preserve of the compliant rather than the enquiring, provocative or brave. If not reversed, the public square will become a duller, muted space.

The UK can set a positive example by improving our own record and by using whatever levers we have to pressure countries to improve theirs. Burnham, over to you.

Jemimah Steinfeld, chief executive of Index on Censorship London EC2A

Prison can't work without rehabilitation

You're right to highlight the failures of sentencing policy over the past 30 years that have contributed to today's prison crisis. ("The Observer View: Prison isn't working", last week).

As a retired chief probation officer, I have witnessed many of the wrong turns in penal policy that have brought us here. The approach associated with Douglas Hurd's time as home secretary, and reflected in the Criminal Justice Act 1991, sought to reserve custody for serious and violent offenders and make greater use of community sentences. His 1988 green paper, Punishment, Custody and the Community,

warned of the dangers of overusing imprisonment, describing prison as potentially a "nursery for crime".

That approach was soon overtaken by a more punitive direction. Michael Howard's 1993 declaration that "prison works" marked a significant change in philosophy, after which the prison population began its steep rise.

The decline in community sentences, the fragmentation of probation under the 2014 Transforming Rehabilitation reforms, and the erosion of rehabilitation as a central aim of criminal justice have weakened efforts to reduce reoffending.

Yet there are reasons for optimism. As a trustee of the Shannon Trust, where we support people who can

read and understand numbers to teach those who can't, in prisons and communities, and through my wider experience with charities working across the criminal justice system, I have seen that rehabilitation is very much alive.

In this National Year of Reading, the Chief Inspector of Prisons' recent report, Reading for Rehabilitation, highlights the benefits of prison reading programmes, as well as the valuable work of the Shannon Trust in helping more than 10,000 prisoners each year learn to read through peer mentoring. If we are serious about reducing reoffending and easing pressure on overcrowded prisons, we must invest in approaches that give people the skills, confidence and hope to build a different future. Prison alone is not working; rehabilitation and education are.

John Bensted, Shannon Trust trustee Bristol

Your editorial juxtaposes the rise in the number of criminals being held in prison with the fall in the reported number of crimes, but declines to draw any correlation, let alone suggest cause and effect between the two. As a former senior detective, I spent 30 years catching criminals, often not long after their release from prison, and I would welcome more enlightened and effective approaches to sentencing. I always thought Michael Howard's "prison works" was overly simplistic.

But it is a fact, not an opinion, that criminals are not committing rapes, murders, robberies or burglaries while they are behind bars. Before we rush to release them, we need to be confident that we have effective measures of supervision and recall in place, alongside tested methods to help those who want to lead happier and more useful lives.

Bob Denmark

Garstang, Lancashire

Troubled water

What is common to water and all other mismanaged business enterprises, ("Thames Water investors make last-ditch bid to sink potential government takeover", News, last week), is the lack of responsibility borne by directors for the failure of their companies. Water company directors show so little sense of responsibility that they have awarded themselves generous salaries despite the dire state of their businesses.

I suggest rewriting the Companies Act to remove directors' protection of limited liability for a company's debt, restoring unlimited liability so that those who mismanage companies face a financial penalty. The threat of huge financial losses could help put an end to irresponsible mismanagement and the possibility of directors walking away from failed businesses with their "golden handshakes".

Derrick Joad

Leeds

Tony Kaye the mentor

Andrew Anthony's article on Tony Kaye ("Humpty Dumpty versus Hollywood", New Review, last week) brought back memories of TV commercials in the late 1990s.

One thing that nobody remembers is how generous and encouraging Kaye was to younger filmmakers. He was always carving out routes for more junior colleagues to become directors, promoting female directors in advertising, such as Patricia Murphy, at a time when the business was so male-dominated.

Paul Donnellon

London W6

What goes in, comes out

I read with interest John Naughton's article on AI and its future effects ("Chicago University is laying down the law on AI", New Review, last week). I have a lot of respect for the AI available through Safari and Google, but, as a retired University

of Cambridge director of research with a reputation for challenging orthodoxy, that only led me to challenge it by asking it some complex, scientific questions. My overall conclusion was: garbage in (including missing information unavailable to AI or not supplied by the operator), garbage out. It was ever thus.

Jonathan Oriel

Melbourn, Cambridgeshire

Old school fake history

One does not need AI to misrepresent the historical timeline. ("AI slop is warping our view of history", Forum, last week). Many years ago I attended a function held in the grounds of a primary school. I happened to wander into a classroom where a picture of a dinosaur was pinned to the wall, the caption: Tyrannosaurus rex, man-eater.

Ian Wishart

Chislehurst

SAF

For the record

In our coverage of France's wildfires we wrongly referred in a subheading to Cap Ferrat, on the French Riviera, as one of the areas affected ("Like the end of the world", 26 July, page 6). This should have read Cap Ferret, which lies west of Bordeaux.

We misnamed Gabriel Chipperfield, the co-founder of London design group Wendover, as Gabe Pryce on page 5 of today's Magazine. Our apologies.

A bird captioned as a curlew last week was in fact a whimbrel ("Can an ancient estate make rewilding work?", Forum, page 32). And on page 38 of the same edition we mistakenly illustrated our article "My week: the housefly" with an image of a greenbottle.

Observers needed

Write to us

Letters, which may be edited, should include a full name, telephone number and postal address.

Send to:

Email letters@observer.co.uk (please insert Letters to the Editor in the subject field).

Or write to us at:

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To request a correction or make a complaint please write to readers@observer.co.uk

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Trump's 'red scare' is fabrication. What's real is the crushing of the left Caroline Johnston

Donald Trump has spent the past few weeks red-baiting. Democrats are communists, Trump says. They're the biggest threat the country has faced. They're out to destroy Christianity. They want to blow up Mount Rushmore.

A slew of articles have since compared Trump to Joseph McCarthy and debated whether red-baiting remains an effective political strategy. McCarthyism has emerged as this moment's lone historical reference point. The analogy, though, overlooks the deep roots of anti-radical crackdowns endemic to US conservatism, and blinds us to their ramifications today.

Far more recent history informs Trump's rhetoric. Conservative politicians and personalities have harped on the spectre of leftism in the Democratic party for four decades and counting. Ronald Reagan warned that liberal policy proposals pushed the US ever closer to socialism, a charge every Democratic presidential candidate since has faced. Trump has upped the ante from socialism to communism. And he hardly cares about the gulf separating the economic system of communism and the social democratic politics that progressive candidates espouse.

Democrats are "siding with the radical left communists", Trump warned at a Michigan rally on 27 July. If they have their way, he told the crowd, "you'll live in squalor, you'll live in fear". A lone voice yelled "paedophile protector" at the

president again and again; Trump retorted, "He's a communist!"

His claims are so obviously unserious that news coverage bypasses red-baiting's accuracy and instead focuses on its utility. Is a red scare still scary given that the Soviet Union is more than three decades in the rearview mirror? Republican leadership certainly thinks so. A memo recently prepared for the

Trump has upped the ante from socialism to communism

House Republican conference urged them to beat the anticommunist drum through the midterms.

For national politicians, red-baiting remains a rhetorical tactic divorced from political realities. In this arena, Democrats can and do deny the charge of radicalism. But Trump's accusations have real impact elsewhere. Powerful institutions supposedly harbouring

Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist fervour of the 1950s is the most salient historical reference point for Donald Trump's recent red-baiting of US Democrats. Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

"radical leftists" have proven eager to demonstrate their allegiance. Law firms targeted for casework that is anathema to Trump have settled lawsuits for hundreds of millions of dollars. News organisations have dismissed dissident staff and curated sympathetic editorial boards. University leaderships have fired noncompliant faculty members, penalised students and collaborated with federal agencies targeting their members.

Institutional capitulation is today's most salient parallel with McCarthyism. Amid the panic that McCarthy harnessed in the 1950s, leaders in media, government and education steered organisations rightward. They fired anyone deemed too deviant, subversive or leftwing. McCarthyite policies locked writers, lawyers, academics and teachers out of institutions where their ideas could circulate. Anti-communism protected corporate power and preserved segregation by snuffing out leftist politics among

union organisers, policymakers and activists.

But harsher still are red-baiting's consequences for protesters and community organisers, though they garner only fleeting public attention.

In September, Trump designated "antifa" a domestic terrorist organisation. "Antifa" is not a political organisation, but a loose political ideology opposed to fascism. That same month, the president issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, directing the joint terrorism taskforces to investigate and prosecute anyone the executive considers radical. Together, these executive actions define resistance to the Trump administration as a terrorist conspiracy against the US.

In June, nine people were sentenced to decades in prison for protesting at an ICE detention centre in Texas. Prosecutors accused them of belonging to antifa. One protester who shot a police officer in the neck – the officer survived – was sentenced to 100 years in prison. Others received 50 to 70 years. The husband of one participant was sentenced to 30 years for moving boxes of leftist reading material. He was not at the protest. For comparison, the leaders of the American Communist party tried between 1949 and 1958 received up to five years of prison time.

To be clear: the Bill of Rights is not conditional on a person's politics. Leftists too are entitled to free speech, press and assembly. The Trump administration has thwarted those rights. Now 15 people in Minneapolis have been indicted

under conspiracy charges for organising against ICE's raids last winter. Again, prosecutors claim the defendants were members of antifa.

To understand this dangerous crackdown, we should look to the Gilded Age, when political unrest churned across the US in the final decades of the 19th century. Experiencing the mounting inequality born of unregulated industrial capitalism, many working people joined populist, anarchist or socialist movements. Workers organised huge strikes and faced violent retaliation from police, hired security and the national guard.

In May 1886, about 400,000 workers struck for an eight-hour work day. When police in Chicago killed strikers, anarchists organised a counter-protest in Haymarket Square. At the protest, someone detonated a bomb that killed several policemen. In the end, four men were hanged for conspiracy. None threw the bomb and no plot was uncovered, but the men's leftist politics were proof of their guilt.

McCarthyism was not an aberration, and neither is Trump's new fixation with communism. Both are episodes in the long history of anti-radical conservative politics in the US. Thus far, focus has remained on Republican rhetoric, its likeness to McCarthyism, its imprecision and its impact on the midterms. But where does that leave protesters in Texas and Minnesota? Where did it leave the Haymarket four?

Dr Caroline Johnston is Mellon research fellow in American history at the University of Cambridge

Notebook

Not feeling safe is all the more reason to march with Pride Damian Barr

Last Saturday, a 21-year-old man in Berlin woke up and decided to kill as many LGBTQ+ people as he could. People with families and friends. Fellow citizens. Enemies. Targets with a rainbow on their back.

It was warm and sunny, so there would be plenty of people about.

In Berlin, Pride is known as Christopher Street Day (CSD) and was first held in West Berlin in 1975. History happened. It is named after the site of the Stonewall Inn, Manhattan, where, on 28 June 1969, LGBTQ+ people stood against violent police.

It's too often forgotten that this historic moment was heralded by the Comptoirs' Criteria riot in San Francisco in 1966 against police

harassing trans people and drag queens.

That young man – I refuse to name him – drove a white minivan into CSD crowds near Brandenburg Gate. He then attacked survivors with what appeared to be a machete. One woman was killed immediately, 29 others were injured,

A vigil in Berlin after the Pride attack.

a whole community is grieving – in Berlin and worldwide.

I watched the news at home in Brighton and reached for my husband's hand. We revisited our plans for Pride this weekend. Will we be safe? Are we ever?

Berlin was on my mind when I went to see the musical Pride. It tells the joyful story of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, the solidarity movement founded in 1984 in Gay's the Word bookshop in Bloomsbury, central London (still going, still radical).

The stage is set with photos of Charles and Diana, Wham! and, of course, Margaret Thatcher – when my memoir Maggie & Me was staged

by the National Theatre of Scotland in 2024, Maggie was toughest to cast, partly because she was always playing the role of herself.

At Pride, when I wasn't crying or laughing, I watched the audience people older than me who have survived so much more, their faces lit by the stage and by memory.

It was, coincidentally, the 59th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act 1967. The cast celebrated afterwards with a huge red velvet cake iced with the letter of the law that decriminalised homosexuality in England and Wales (but not Scotland or Northern Ireland, and only if you were 21 or older). The act ignored lesbians because sex between women was not criminalised under English law – the mysteries of lesbian sex seemingly... impenetrable. After Pride, no such mysteries remain.

Last month, 150,000 people marched in London at the world's biggest trans Pride. History happened again. Not that you'd know – this huge

protest was largely ignored. As were the miners who attended Pride in 1985.

The trans and nonbinary community today is fighting many of the same tabloid lies and legal obstacles thrown at lesbians, gay men and bisexuals since for ever. We are unnatural, we are a danger to children, we spy on you in toilets.

I remember the 1993 Daily Mail headline: "Abortion hope after 'gay genes' finding." Such stories are signs at the start of a road leading to a darker place. No city knows this better than Berlin.

Pride is a story of a past triumph that shows we can stand together to build a fairer future.

It is easy to be on the right side of history after it's happened. But history is happening right now – we can remake it every day. So let's march.

Damian Barr's latest novel, The Two Roberts, is published by Canongate (£9.99). Save 10% at observershop.co.uk. Free UK standard P&P on online orders over £25

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02.08.26

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Obituary

Betye Saar

The visionary US artist who transformed racist kitsch and bric-a-brac into symbols of empowerment

Betye Saar's studio in Laurel Canyon, up in the Hollywood Hills above Los Angeles, was packed with objects other people didn't want. Rusting cages, wooden masks, bells and buttons, coloured glass; knick-knacks, bric-a-brac. Wherever she went during a life that almost reached a century, Saar collected curiosities, believing they might one day be useful for her art.

"I'm a recycler or a hoarder or a magpie – however you want to call me," she said. "Certain things just catch my eye and I think, 'I can make that into art'. Her medium was assemblage, bringing together and arranging everyday items into something that made viewers think. The Getty Research Institute called her 'one of the most innovative and visionary artists of our era'."

Part of this haul was a collection of ephemera that unsettled some but which Saar, part of the Black arts movement in the 1970s, found empowering. It consisted, as the LA Times put it in 2016, of "a shameful harvest of ceramic mammies, tin renderings of pickaninnies and herring, thick-lipped figurines clutching pieces of watermelon". For Saar, this "cultural debris of racism" could be recycled to make a political point.

It inspired her most famous work, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, which she assembled in 1972 for an exhibition at the Rainbow Sign, a community centre in Berkeley near the erstwhile headquarters of the Black Panther party. At the

'I'm a recycler or a hoarder or a magpie': Betye Saarh, pictured in the 1980s, collected curiosities wherever she went to make into art. Anthony Barboza/Getty Images

work's heart was a caricatured Black housewife in a headscarf, based on the racially stereotyped character used to sell pancake syrup, which had been sold as a notepad and pencil-holder. She replaced the pencil with a gun and added a rifle, saying: "She was seeking her power." She then inserted into the notepad-skirt a vintage postcard showing a Black woman holding a white child, to represent the sexual assault of slaves, and added a raised Black fist. Saar said she was aiming

to turn a demeaning figure into a positive one, "an empowered woman who stands confrontationally with one hand holding a broom and the other armed for battle – a warrior ready to combat servitude and racism".

It was a strong message, which the civil rights activist Angela Davis credited with launching the Black women's movement. When Quaker Oats announced in 2020 that it was retiring its Aunt Jemima line, Saar posted an image of her work on

Instagram with the message: "She's liberated! Finally at long last!"

Betye Irene Brown was born in Los Angeles in 1926. Her father died when she was five and the family moved to Pasadena. Saar spent summers with her grandparents in Watts, where she discovered her passion for art made with found materials. She majored in design at UCLA, where she met Richard Saar, a ceramicist. They married in 1952 and had three daughters, Tracye, Alison and Lezley.

After graduating, Saar designed greetings cards and formed a company with Curtis Tann that sold jewellery and other decorative

Injustice fired her creativity, particularly after Martin Luther King's assassination

objects. In 1962, the family moved to Laurel Canyon, where Frank Zappa was a neighbour. The Saars divorced in 1968 and she had a series of part-time jobs including as a costume designer and art teacher.

Saar was inspired by a 1967 exhibition of the assemblage artist Joseph Cornell in Pasadena. She was also influenced by Simon Rodia's Watts Towers, a collection of 17 architectural structures adorned with broken ceramics, sea shells and rusting tools. "To me, they were magical," Saar said.

With the encouragement of their mother, the sisters would come home with pockets full of objects they had found in the street that might work for her art.

Her first acclaimed assemblage work was Black Girl's Window (1969), which showed a silhouette of Saar looking out of an old window frame, with a series of nine vignettes showing her family story and dreams.

A visit to the Field Museum in Chicago, where she admired the use of organic materials in African art, led her to travel to Nigeria, Senegal, Brazil and Haiti to find objects, creating pieces such as Spirit Catcher (1977), a tower made from bamboo, bones, feathers and shells.

Another notable piece was Record for Hattie (1975), a memory box to honour the great-aunt who raised her, which included a picture frame, sewing materials, a leather wallet, a crucifix, a broken doll's arm and dried flowers. Her daughter Tracye called Saar "a hoarder who found her calling".

Injustice fired her creativity, particularly after the assassination of Martin Luther King. "If you are a mom with three kids, you can't go to a march," she said, "but you can make work that deals with your anger."

She confronted racist perceptions throughout her life, such as in her exhibition Black Doll Blues in 2021. "Not much has changed since the 1960s," she said at the time. "We've had a Black president and still the racial issues of today stem from the same ignorance and fear. Art is still my voice, still my way to protest."

Patrick Kidd

Betye Saar, artist, born on 30 July 1926, died on 26 July 2026, aged 99

My week

Indri lemur

I am the singer and I am the song. The forest is song, the family is song, the entire community is song. Life is a song and its meaning is music. Every day, usually just after elevenses, the Madagascan treetops are ringing with the singing of the indris.

Monday

I am the leader, the wife, the mother, the prima donna and the coloratura. I make the decisions about where to go, where to sleep and when, where and what to sing. Song is the centre of our lives: when the moment and the place are right, I throw back my head and fill the forest with music.

Tuesday

We are the largest of the lemurs, and the only ones who sing. We are

leapers and graspers. The trees are our highways and our low ways, our shelter, our stage and our food: leaves, flowers, fruit, seeds. I dictate who eats what and I save the best for myself, as is only right.

Wednesday

And so it begins. A clap of thunder, an aeroplane, a burst of birdsong, a distant indri song. Or my own unilateral decision, responding to a cue from deep within. We always start with a few bars of choral roaring and all of us, old and young, join in. Then we move into the long-note sequences, and the song becomes a duet between me and Himself, naturally, with me taking the principal part. After that we shift into the descending-phrase sequence, a long-drawn-out coda.

Thursday

A good song lasts a good three minutes. On some days we might sing only once, but we'll sing more often when we can. Seven times seems about right to me. And every song is packed with meaning. Every song is something we have

Every singer has a unique rhythmic pattern that links the sounds with the pauses

practised, worked on and perfected; and yet every time, we bring the crucial element of spontaneity. A spontaneous ritual may sound like an oxymoron, but it's at the heart of all good music. Each song is about who we are – the nature of our family group and our place in the wider community. It also carries information about sex and territory.

Friday

But, you know, bugger function. I sing for the song. For the music. I listen to the songs of our neighbours. I can hear them from three miles away. I lead our own songs in return, and they have more meaning and complexity than onroadroppers can ever know. It's not biological need that inspires: it's music itself. Every singer has a personal, unique

rhythmic pattern that links the sounds with the pauses.

Saturday

Our family group is well balanced and well fed because, in all modesty, it is well led. We move together and relax together. I will then probably accept a groom from Himself. Then we'll move on, in a series of leaps, until it's time for another song. Let the roaring begin. We sing the song of ourselves, and the rest is silence.

Indri lemur CV

Lifespan getting on for 20 years Eating habits all that a tree can offer Hobbies need you ask?

Sexual preferences a subservient virtuoso

As told to Simon Barnes

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Discover the wonders of New Zealand aboard the Coral Adventurer 5th to 24th November 2027

With a stunning, meandering coastline and the vast majority of the 'must see' places being either on the coast or close by in the hinterland, New Zealand is a land of rare natural beauty and contrasts and one uniquely suited to small ship cruising. We have devised our itinerary which explores both North and South Islands, on the basis that most travellers from the UK will only tour New Zealand once and the trip should therefore be as comprehensive and as full of contrasts as possible. We will explore the beautiful city of Napier with its Art Deco buildings, discover historic Dunedin with its rich blend of both Māori and Scottish heritage and visit the nation's capital of Wellington. For scenic splendour we spend time in the Bay of Islands, explore the beautiful Coromandel Peninsula, visit the Abel Tasman National Park, cruise through the Marlborough Sounds which divide New Zealand's islands, sail around the renowned World Heritage region of the Fiordland National Park, one of the world's most spectacular natural landscapes and stroll through the serene forests of Ulva Island.

All this is best achieved travelling by a small ship and with the Coral Adventurer we can drop anchor in remote bays, navigate channels and fiords and call into harbours both large and small. With the unique Xplorer tender vessels and the Zodiac landing craft we will be able to land in otherwise inaccessible places, making the most of New Zealand's extraordinary natural attractions.

CORAL ADVENTURER was purpose built in 2019 to explore the remote and tropical regions of Australasia. All cabins are outside facing with ensuite bathroom, premium amenities, wardrobe, desk, armchair and many feature a private balcony. The spacious public areas are light and airy with large picture windows to take in the surrounding vistas. There is a comfortable lounge to relax with a good book, attend lectures and presentations and enjoy evening films and activities. The elegant Dining Room features indoor and outdoor seating and operates an open seating arrangement. In addition to the Dining Room and Bridge Lounge Bar there are two additional outdoor bar areas. A much-loved aspect of the onboard experience is the open bridge policy which allows you to spend time with the Captain and Officers learning about all aspects of navigation and trip planning. Outside there is over 1000 square metres of open deck space.

For full details on this holiday call us today on 020 7752 0000 for your copy of our brochure.

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THE ITINERARY IN BRIEF

Day 1 London or Manchester to Auckland, New Zealand. Fly by scheduled indirect flight.

Day 2 En-Route.

Day 3 Auckland. Arrive into Auckland and transfer to our hotel for an overnight stay.

Day 4 Auckland. This morning you may choose to relax in the hotel or join a city tour including the Domain and the excellent Auckland Museum. We will meet for a light lunch before transferring to the Coral Adventurer.

Day 5 Bay of Islands. Discovered by Captain Cook in 1769, this area is the cradle of European civilisation in New Zealand and has important historical significance for both Maori and Europeans. The Coral Adventurer will be at anchor and we will transfer ashore aboard the Xplorer. During our guided morning tour we will visit the Waitangi Treaty House where in 1840 the treaty was signed between the Maori and the British Crown. We then continue to Kerikeri, where the Maori first welcomed missionaries in 1819, and see the oldest buildings of New Zealand.

Day 6 Whitianga, Coromandel Peninsula. After a morning at sea we arrive at our anchorage off the small town of Whitianga, our base to explore the beautiful Coromandel Peninsula. We will transfer ashore using the Xplorer launch vessel and drive the short distance to the 'Driving Creek Railway', a narrow gauge bush and mountain railway. Once on board the train, we will climb to the Eyefull Tower viewing platform which offers wonderful views over the Harauki Gulf. On our return to Whitianga we will make a stop at the historically significant Wharekaho Beach. It was here local chiefs welcomed British explorer Captain James Cook and botanist Joseph Banks to their shores in 1769. Under the ancient Pohutukawa tree that still reaches along the beach today, Ngati Hei warmly acknowledged the crew of the Endeavour with the very first official ceremony recorded in New Zealand.

Day 7 Tauranga for Rotorua. From our berth in Tauranga we drive inland to the famous thermal springs at Rotorua. Discover Wai-O-Tapu, meaning Sacred Waters, an active geothermal area with colourful hot springs, steaming ground and boiling mud pools. Marvel at the incredible palette of vibrant hues displayed in the pools, lakes and craters, and enjoy the melodic sounds of birds singing in the native forest. From here we visit a Maori marea where we will enjoy a traditional Maori welcome and lunch.

Day 8 Gisborne. Spend the morning cruising to Gisborne, where Captain James Cook first made landfall in New Zealand in 1769. This afternoon a scenic drive takes us along the

seafront, past the Captain Cook monument, then out into the beautiful countryside through stunning scenery to the Eastwoodhill Arboretum, the National Arboretum of New Zealand which encompasses over 131 hectares planted in exotic and native trees, shrubs and climbers. After a short introduction there will be a choice of walks from flat, tree-lined paths to walks skirting the higher ridges around the arboretum with great views of Douglas Park and Glen Douglas.

Day 9 Napier. Arrive this morning in Napier and join a tour of this beautiful town including its charming Art Deco buildings. We also visit a local vineyard to sample the region's wines. Alternatively join the excursion to the gannetry at Cape Kidnappers, a 13 hectare reserve which is home to the saddle and black reef gannet colonies.

Day 10 Resolution Bay & Ship Cove. This morning we will sail through the beautiful Marlborough Sounds which divide the North and South Islands of New Zealand. Arrive in the early afternoon at Resolution Bay where keen walkers can enjoy a longer hike over to Ship Cove along the Queen Charlotte Track enjoying fantastic views. Alternatively you can choose to alight a little later at Ship Cove where Captain James Cook spent much of his time in New Zealand. View the monument dedicated to Cook or maybe walk the forest trail to the nearby waterfall.

Day 11 Abel Tasman National Park & Nelson. There will be a choice of excursions today. Choose to disembark after breakfast to visit Abel Tasman, New Zealand's smallest national park. Enjoy a coastal walk and scenic cruise with excellent wildlife opportunities including seal colonies and numerous aquatic birds including penguins. Alternatively enjoy a morning exploring Nelson which has for many years attracted resident artists. Join a guided tour of the area's highlights or maybe take a walk along the riverside to the Queens Garden.

Day 12 Wellington. Returning to the North Island we spend the day in Wellington, the nation's capital. From our central berth we will explore the city on a guided walk and see St Paul's Cathedral, the parliament buildings, stroll through the Botanical Gardens and take a ride on the iconic cable car. After the tour, you can choose to visit the impressive Te Papa National Museum of New Zealand and enjoy lunch ashore independently or return to the vessel for lunch followed by an afternoon at leisure to explore further at your own pace.

Day 13 Akaroa. Akaroa meaning, 'Long Harbour', in Maori, was founded by French whaling Captain Jean Langlois on his ship Cachelot in 1838. He returned in 1840 with 60 settlers on the Comte de Paris to create a French colony. Arriving over lunch we will spend the afternoon here and you can join a dolphin watching trip using local boats or a guided historic walk in Akaroa and through the native bush of the Garden of Tane.

Day 14 Dunedin. Arrive this morning in Dunedin and enjoy a guided tour including the gracious 19th century buildings and the beautiful botanical gardens, the oldest in New Zealand. Alternatively choose to drive to the Otago Peninsula where we board local boats to view Tairoa Head, the world's only mainland albatross nesting place. Continue to the Royal Albatross Centre where we can learn more about these fascinating birds. After lunch on board, enjoy an afternoon at leisure in Dunedin.

Day 15 Stewart Island. New Zealand's third island is well off the usual beaten tourist track. It is a wonderfully tranquil place, the scenery of untouched bushland is stunning. We will enjoy a morning on the small Ulva Island where we will use Zodiacs to go ashore for a choice of walks with our local guides. This afternoon we land at Oban on Stewart Island and will have the chance to wander amongst the shops, see the museum or join a drive to some of the beauty spots.

Days 16 & 17 Fiordland. We have two days to explore the incredible wilderness of the fiords in the southwest corner of the South Island. This is an area rich in history. Captain Cook landed here on HMS Resolution in 1773, majestic scenery and abundant wildlife. The area is only accessible by sea, making it the most remote region of New Zealand. The Xplorers and Zodiacs will be used to transfer from the ship to a landing site and to explore the fiords.

Day 18 Bluff to Christchurch. Disembark this morning and transfer to the airport for our scheduled flight to Christchurch. On arrival we will check in to our centrally located hotel. The remainder of the day is at leisure.

Day 19 Christchurch to London or Manchester. Check out and transfer to the airport for our scheduled indirect flights.

Day 20 London. Arrive this morning.

PRICES & INCLUSIONS

Special offer prices per person based on double occupancy start from £14,795 for a Promenade Stateroom.

WHAT'S INCLUDED:

Economy class scheduled air travel • Overnight hotel accommodation in Auckland & Christchurch with breakfast • 14 nights aboard the Coral Adventurer on a full board basis • House wine, beer and soft drinks with lunch & dinner • Onboard Team • Shore excursions • Gratuities • Transfers • Airport taxes • Port taxes.

NB: Ports & itinerary are subject to change. Travel insurance, New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (eTA) and dinner on days 3 & 18 are not included in the price. All special offers are subject to availability. Our current booking conditions apply to all reservations.

Alternatively view or request online at www.noble-caledonia.co.uk

NOBLE CALEDONIA

SMALL SHIPS - BIG EXPERIENCES

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Profile

Ryan Murphy

Hollywood's king of high camp and horror has a new project: The Shards, writes Barbara Ellen

It is striking that in Ryan Murphy we have an LGBTQ Hollywood creative who's been dictating public TV tastes on an industrial scale for years.

Regularly hailed as the Most Powerful Man in Hollywood, Murphy's latest project is an adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis 2023 novel The Shards – about an affluent set of 1980s teenagers with a serial killer in their midst.

His award-garlanded career spans four decades and includes Glee, a breakthrough high-school musical comedy that ran from 2009-2015, and Pose (2018-2021), a groundbreaking drama about the New York City LGBTQ ball community. In 2025, his output included the critically panned ("It takes a special talent to make something so fascinatingly dull" — Empire) but much-watched Ali's Fair, starring Kim Kardashian and Glenn Close.

With various co-creators, Murphy also spearheaded the modern TV anthology, starting with American Horror Story in 2011. The American Crime Story series delivered The People v. O.J. Simpson (2016) and the psychologically stirring The Assassination of Gianni Versace (2018) starring Darren Criss, who won an Emmy and a Golden Globe.

The Feud anthology began by recreating Bette Davies and Joan Crawford carfighting during the making of Robert Aldrich's 1962 melodrama, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? With Monster, he produced intense character studies of Erik and Lyle Menendez, who killed their parents in 1989.

Pumping out a complex melange of themes – Old Hollywood, high camp, horror, murder, queer suffering, tabloid sensation and more – Indianapolis-born Murphy, 60, has arguably fed public appetites and helped to shape them.

David Quantick, the Emmy-winning screenwriter (Vrep) and author, whose latest novel is titled Imagine a Friend, observes: "He takes

a huge variety of topics, from horror to high school singing groups, and pushes them to the limits."

Robin Weigert is an Emmy-nominated actor who has worked with Murphy on the American Horror Story series, and 2025's Monster: The Ed Gein Story. "I think at base he wants to show whatever this society works hardest to hide: to reveal the underbelly... and to show it garishly, lavishly, ghoulishly, theatrically."

Tim Teeman, award-winning senior editor and writer at the Daily Beast, and author of In Bed with Gore Vidal, was impressed by the trans-representation in Pose: "From an

Murphy is intriguingly stubborn about his passions

LGBTQ perspective, Murphy is a real TV revolutionary. There's a radicalism to what he puts on screen."

Does Murphy, as has been suggested, deal in monstrous grotesques? "He does and he doesn't," says Quantick. "His humans may be monsters, but his monsters are humans."

Murphy's mother wrote books and worked in communications, while his father was in the newspaper industry. Coming out as gay as a teenager, Murphy studied journalism at Indiana University Bloomington. He worked as a journalist before selling a script – Why Can't I Be Audrey Hepburn? – to none other than Steven Spielberg, going on to produce Glee, which he is now considering rebooting. In 2018, Murphy signed a £300m development deal with Netflix that Time magazine called "the most lucrative TV pact in history".

Even Murphy's duds (Ratched, The Watcher) haven't really hurt him. He's now such a brand, such a style, you could amuse yourself thinking up new projects for him.

The current contretemps over Rachel Cusk's forthcoming novel Life of M, an unflattering book supposedly about her now ex-friend Natalie Portman, sounds like a recycle of Feud: Capote vs. The Sween, in which the author betrayed his high society circle.

Illustration by Andy Bunday

Ryan Murphy Born 1965 Alma mater Indiana University Bloomington Work TV director, writer, producer Family Married, with three children

Mike White of The White Lotus is another high-profile LGBTQ creator, but Murphy is also astonishingly prolific, as well as intriguingly stubborn about his passions. In Murphy's oeuvre, there are not only cyclical themes – ageing, misfits, the ugliness beneath the beauty – there are also recurring cast members, people he likes to work with: Jessica Lange (Feud, American Horror Story), Sarah Paulson (Ratched, American Crime Story); Criss (who was also in Hollywood), and many more. As another Murphy stalwart,

Weigert says that he nurtures the sense that "we're part of a rep company". Weigert has felt able to say yes to roles blind. "Once, it wasn't till after I'd signed an NDA that I learned I'd be playing a cannibal! (American Horror Story). You trust the production values are going to be high, that you'll be in the hands of terrific directors, that you'll have great scene partners, and you just jump in."

Another incentive

for famous names may be how Murphy liberates them from their typecasting. Though not every performer is enamoured. Daryl Hannah wrote in the New York Times furiously denouncing her "irritating, self-absorbed and whiny" cocaine-taking portrayal (by Dree Hemingway) in this year's blockbuster, Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette (Hannah and JFK Jr were in a relationship during the 1990s). Hannah asked: "Isn't it textbook misogyny to tear down one woman in order to build up another?"

Murphy has elsewhere been accused of misogyny, in terms of overblown female caricatures and grotesques in his work, though Teeman isn't convinced: "The female characters are so vividly drawn, they're the most amazing performance and dressing-up box for the actresses involved."

Married to photographer David Miller since 2012, Murphy has three children via surrogacy, and a portfolio of homes, including in Los Angeles and New York.

So what drives him to be the Hollywood Big Beast that never sleeps? He has mentioned previously having his work dismissed as "too gay" and having to fight hard to get it made. In 2017 he launched Half Initiative, which fights for equal opportunities for women and minorities behind the camera, saying: "Once I got to the place I was empowered, I've tried to empower other people."

Teeman feels that, particularly in these distracting phone-scrolling times, Murphy's hold over his vast audiences speaks volumes.

"His work is sometimes absurdly camp, but it's also deep and emotionally charged, and visually a feast every time. The interesting thing about Ryan Murphy is that it's never just style over substance – it's the interplay of style and substance."

Right now, it seems, his bullish work rate and stellar audience figures make The Most Powerful Man in Hollywood untouchable. For the "too gay" creator, who once fought for his projects, it would appear the battle is won.

The Shards is streaming on Disney+ from 6 August

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Business

Economics, work and money

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

37

'OpenAI must continue to raise cash from private investors, whose patience may be running thin'

→ Sebastian Mallaby, page 39

An ASML deep ultra-violet lithography machine. It weighs around 180 tons, is more than 10 metres long, consists of 100,000 precision parts and costs about $380m. 8/30.

China shocks with chip tech breakthrough

News that a Shanghai firm has developed crucial chip-building technology rattled markets, as fears grow over the sustainability of the debt-fuelled AI boom

Barney Macintyre & Ben Zaranko

In June the US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick requested a meeting with executives from ASML, a Dutch producer of chip-making equipment, to discuss concerns that one of its machines was in China, in violation of US-led export restrictions.

ASML said it knows the location of all 340 of its extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines – laser-powered devices that effectively act as a production bottleneck for the most advanced semiconductors used in AI technology. And none is in China.

But Lutnick was right to worry. Reports emerged last week that an unnamed Shanghai company knows how to make a slightly less advanced version of the ASML machines, and aims to produce five next year.

ASML's stock briefly tumbled. As did South Korea's Kospí, deepening a sell-off that saw the chip-heavy stock index drop more than 40% in the past five weeks, before whipsawing back up by 18% on Friday as institutional investors "bought the dip".

Goldman Sachs estimates up to 360,000 retail trading accounts were wiped out and more than a million Korean investors – roughly one in 30 people of working age – received margin calls (demands to put up more cash or sell their position). Western investors, particularly highly leveraged hedge funds, also suffered.

China's apparent lithography breakthrough joins other threats that call into question US hegemony over AI, including the powerful open-source Chinese AI model Kimi K3, and last week's blockbuster listing of Chinese chipmaker CXMT.

Then there is a more familiar worry: big tech's colossal AI spending. Is all this, in the words of former Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, "kindling" for the next financial crisis?

The backdrop

US government borrowing costs jumped to their highest level since 2007 last Thursday after the Federal Reserve left interest rates on hold. The rise in 30-year US Treasury yields reflects rising concerns about inflation risk among investors, who are demanding a higher premium for holding long-term government debt as energy prices remain volatile and US strategic oil reserves dwindle.

They are also uncertain about Kevin Warsh, the new Fed chair, whose reluctance to explain his decision-making spooked Treasury markets last week. This will tighten

financing conditions for corporate borrowers, including big tech. "A rise in borrowing costs can help make an economic project that otherwise is viable, unviable," said Sebastian Raedler from Bank of America.

The crunch

As big tech dedicates more – or all – of its cashflows to AI, it is increasingly tapping debt markets. Hyperscalers such as Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Oracle issued about $194bn of bonds in the year to 7 July, a 79% increase on the same period of 2025.

Company results last week were mixed: Amazon and Microsoft's cloud revenues grew rapidly, while Meta shares slumped as investors passed judgment on soaring AI spending without a credible plan on revenues. Hyperscalers have ploughed more than $1m into AI capital investments so far.

What investors charge to hold hyperscaler debt versus an average Treasury bond – known as the spread – has been widening. "The sizes of moves we're seeing are not typical in the investment grade [bond] market," said Andrew Kechev, a managing director at Barclays. "These are a few-times-in-career-type moves. This is reminiscent of the Covid period."

The cost of insuring against these companies defaulting is up too. Prices for credit default swaps (CDSs), popularised as a way to bet against corporate America in 2008, have reached record highs in recent weeks.

Circular financing

Phurichai Rungcharoenkitkul from the Bank for International Settlements recently noted that the boom's scale and reliance on debt and circular financing (where a company invests in another provided it promises to

Korean composite stock price index

buy the investor's products) "raise questions" about "sustainability and financial stability".

Nvidia is a case in point. The chipmaker "backstops" about $3.5bn of customer loans, meaning that if they can't pay the lender, Nvidia will. It's considering giving similar support to OpenAI for a $250bn data centre, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Rungcharoenkitkul warns failure could spread: as hyperscalers hold equity in AI labs such as Anthropic and OpenAI, a single lab failure could hit their balance sheets, forcing them to retrench from other labs and cascading stress through the system.

What about the UK?

The UK does not have a large presence in the AI supply chain – the FTSE 100 is viewed by some as an "anti-tech" index – but that does not insulate it from a sharp downturn in global equity prices. The Bank of England has warned any "correction" in global AI valuations would have a big impact. For example, if US equity prices fell by 45%, the Bank estimates a 2.2% hit to the UK economy.

The AI investment boom shows no signs of slowing, but the voices of doubt are louder. Short positions on Amazon, Microsoft and Meta have increased by more than $20bn this year, according to S3 Partners. Last week showed that when big AI players wobble, the consequences are felt far and wide.

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The minutes

By Marine Saint

Retail

Sainsbury's sells off its Argos interests

Sainsbury's has reached a deal to sell its Argos unit for at least £120m, as chief executive Simon Roberts continues his pivot towards the retailer's core food business. The sale price is close to one-tenth of the £1.1bn Sainsbury's paid to acquire Argos in 2016. Although it is a household name, Argos has struggled to compete in an online consumer goods market dominated by Amazon. Chinese firms such as Temu also pose an increasing threat. The buyer, Swift Partners, is led by retail veteran Richard Pennycook, who on Friday described Argos's hundreds of bricks-and-mortar stores as "a great strength". He also declined to rule out a potential return for the much-loved printed Argos catalogue, axed in 2020.

AI

Google push to make Gemini its bright star

Disbanding a Nobel prize-winning team is a curious strategy shift, but one that Google DeepMind has quietly deployed to push resources towards the company's Gemini large language model (LLM). The Financial Times reported that most of the original authors of the AlphaFold papers, which used AI to predict the three-dimensional structure of proteins, have been reassigned. Nearly a quarter have left the company altogether; others have moved to the drug-discovery company Isomorphic Labs, which is owned by Google's parent, Alphabet, or to the Gemini team. Pushmeet Kohli, vice-president of research at Google DeepMind, said that for nine years the strategy has been "to focus on grand challenges" and a concrete goal in each project, but this has now evolved to building Gemini-powered systems that can assist research and eventually automate elements of scientific processes.

French lead charge to fill Palantir's shoes

Palantir's rivals are eyeing an opening in Europe as governments pull back from the US software company. Andy Burnham is set to join the leaders of other European countries in ditching Palantir's AI tools due to data sovereignty concerns. France, Spain, Germany and Switzerland have instructed state-linked firms and agencies not to sign new contracts with the Trump-linked tech company. France recently announced its

The Observer business matrix

Important

domestic intelligence service would henceforth avoid "strategic dependency" on Palantir and opt instead for French competitor ChapsVision. "We cannot rely on tools developed by foreign powers – France must have its own tools," French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu said on X. ChapsVision is in a strong starting position, but the battle to become the go-to European software provider will be fierce.

Media

Agatha Christie still making a killing

The appeal of the queen of crime shows no sign of fading: the estate of Agatha Christie reported record sales last year. Agatha Christie Limited, set up in 1955 by the writer herself to manage her publishing rights, announced revenue of close

Agatha Christie photographed in 1950.

to £33m in 2025, driven by strong performance in "publishing, TV distribution and licensing revenues". The Netflix adaptation of The Seven Dials Mystery and the forthcoming Poirot BBC series Hercule are part of a gold rush as streamers battle to secure the intellectual property of deceased authors.

Oil & gas

Shell profits soar on back of war in Iran

Shell has cashed in on global conflict, with profits for the second quarter of the year reaching $89.84bn, more than double the same point last year. Oil prices have surged since the start of the conflict in Iran and the disruption to oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, and have swung wildly as peace talks have waxed and waned. Shell, like other energy giants, has profited handsomely from trading amid such volatility. Some operations were affected by damage and shutdowns due to the conflict, including its production in Qatar, but new oil production in Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico helped to level out numbers. The news was met with dismay and anger from green campaigners. Friends of the Earth called for more alternative energy supplies, saying that Shell's profits "have been built on an energy crisis that's left households across the country struggling with high energy bills at home and expensive fuel at the pumps".

Investment

Move to block UK from EU investment fund

The EU's flagship late-stage technology investment fund is facing fresh tensions. France is moving to block the UK's access to the €5bn Scaleup Fund, in a hardline approach that EU diplomats say is harming EU-UK "reset" negotiations. The French government has asked the European Commission to clarify how the UK will participate, and what level of contributions it will make, arguing that such an EU initiative should be run for the benefit of member states. The UK has agreed to contribute €150m in seed capital, and the commission had previously said there was "mutual benefit" in having the UK involved, but Paris is now seeking to extract additional concessions. The date of the next EU-UK reset summit has not yet been determined, having been shelved after Keir Starmer resigned.

Manufacturing

Boom in bomb-making benefits UK factories

Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems expect high returns from governments' increased defence spending worldwide. Both companies lifted their earnings expectations this week as the demand for weapons grows in the UK, US and beyond. The car manufacturer's share price rose by 5% after a strong first-half report this week, and its £120bn valuation puts it close behind mining group Rio Tinto for fourth place in the FTSE 100. Once associated with luxury cars, Rolls-Royce has instead bet on manufacturing jet engines for combat aircraft, ship and submarine turbines, as well as power units for datacentres. Shares in BAE Systems, the beneficiary of a £5.9bn contract for nuclear submarines, which was confirmed last Thursday, gained more than 5% over the week.

Space

Chinese firm launches satellite to rival SpaceX

China's so-called satellite constellation is hoping to rival Elon Musk's SpaceX empire. Chinese firm SpaceSail successfully launched new communications technology test satellites into space last Thursday from its Taiyuan launch centre, and plans to deploy 648 satellites by the end of 2026. The state-backed

startup attempted to steal Musk's thunder with a launch just days before SpaceX's $1.8m listing in June. SpaceSail says it can now begin its first commercial application, tracking maritime vessels at sea. While Musk has a universe of about 10,000 satellites through SpaceX's satellite internet service Starlink, his run-ins with regulators could leave a gap in the market. The US will be watching SpaceSail as it launches its latest funding round and attempts to compete with Starlink in international markets.

Politics

Chancellor sets date for autumn budget

John Healey has announced he will deliver his first budget on 28 October. The new chancellor will be tasked with filling in the details on Andy Burnham's devolution agenda, and finding the money for the prime minister's pledges since taking office. Healey has indicated he wants to maintain a "buffer" against the fiscal rules, which could prove challenging against a backdrop of acute spending pressures and economic uncertainty emanating from the Middle East. The budget date is around a month earlier than last year's – which at least means one month less for speculation about which taxes could be increased.

Vital statistics

$82m

Joe Rogan's earnings over past year as highest-paid podcaster

3.75%

Bank of England interest rate, held constant for the fifth consecutive meeting

€30m

French culture ministry's new budget to upgrade national museum security

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Business

The Observer

02.08.26

39

“Like a shark, OpenAI must move forward or die

OPINION

Sebastian Mallaby

The tech boom will go the distance but some tech companies won't, and Sam Altman's cash crunch must be giving him a sinking feeling

Anyone watching share prices last week might easily have imagined that the artificial intelligence boom had hit a wall.

Semiconductor stocks shed more than a trillion dollars in value by Wednesday, before recovering some of their losses; meanwhile, a hedge fund called Situational Awareness, known for betting big on the AI revolution, conducted a fire sale of distressed assets. But the best bet is that the AI boom will continue, even as particular contenders crash. Ironically, the company that illustrates the fragility is the one whose ChatGPT model kickstarted the whole frenzy: the California AI lab OpenAI.

Why do I say there is no general AI bubble? Because AI is on a path to being almost unimaginably stronger than it is now. By 2028 or so, an AI lab will be able to instruct its frontier model to create a new and better version of itself – and the model will independently invent the necessary algorithmic advances. New applications will be discovered, far beyond the realm of conversational companions. Medical researchers will use AI to improve drug discovery and gene editing. Space geeks will feed satellite images of the planet into a

"large Earth model" so that farmers can optimise their soil quality and firefighters can anticipate the path of a wildfire.

But amid these extraordinary advances, particular AI companies will go down. Some will turn out to have good technology but little ability to charge for it. Others will shoot to stardom so precipitously that they can't deliver on their early promise, at which point, unless they have deep pockets, they will run out of money and go bust.

OpenAI illustrates both of these risks. Its technology is excellent, ranking only slightly behind the industry leader Anthropic. Its ChatGPT conversational companion went viral faster than any product in the history of software, turning its leader, Sam Altman, into a Silicon Valley pin-up. Yet in business terms, having a vast army of retail users is a burden. OpenAI spends billions of dollars to serve up the model, but just a tiny fraction of its customers pay for a subscription. Unlike Anthropic, OpenAI has only

belatedly targeted high-paying business users.

What ChatGPT's viral nature did generate was investor excitement. Technology funds and other big tech companies jostled to participate in OpenAI's private financing rounds, driving the company's paper valuation up to $852bn – more than Britain's top three quoted companies combined. But this exalted number is a curse more than a blessing. When a Silicon Valley company achieves a valuation that it cannot justify, the comeuppance is often ugly.

Woody Allen said that a relationship is like a shark: it has to constantly move forward or it dies. OpenAI may turn out to be similar. Like all tech companies, it lures engineers and scientists by promising them shares. It pays suppliers of semiconductors with shares. If OpenAI's stock falls, employees may quit and chips will be harder to come by.

Many investors feel that the stock should fall. The current valuation

The current stock valuation is out of all proportion to revenues, let alone profits, of which there are none

is out of all proportion to OpenAI's revenues, let alone its profits, of which there are none. Leaked company accounts show revenue of $13.1bn against $34bn of costs – an operating loss of $20.9bn. What's more, that hole appears to be growing. OpenAI recently raised its projected spending on computing power to about $7876m through 2030, up from a projection of roughly $600bn earlier this year, according to the Wall Street Journal. Against those rapidly accelerating costs, OpenAI's revenue is inching up slowly.

Sam Altman at the US Capitol last Wednesday after a meeting about limiting AI security threats. Kevin Dietsch/Getty

Contrast OpenAI's plight with how its two top rivals are faring. Since the start of this year, Anthropic's annualised revenue has quintupled thanks to its focus on business customers, whereas OpenAI's has risen by about a quarter. Google, the maker of the Gemini models, makes money from AI through its cloud and advertising businesses. It also has the deepest pockets in the industry.

OpenAI may escape its crunch if it manages to go public, allowing it to tap retail investors more successfully than it has tapped retail consumers. Sure enough, the company is planning an initial public offering and was said to be targeting this autumn. But the plan has been postponed because few investors want shares at the valuation OpenAI demands. For now, the company must continue to raise cash from private investors, whose patience may be running thin. In the private secondary market, sellers have reportedly outnumbered buyers; the opposite is true for Anthropic. OpenAI's most recent private funding round came with an impressive headline number: $122bn raised. But much of that consisted of conditional future promises.

If OpenAI runs out of money, somebody will buy it and the AI boom will continue: remember, the technology is excellent. But the bright prospects for the AI sector as a whole will not protect all its constituents.

Sebastian Mallaby is the author of The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind and the Quest for Superintelligence

BP puts North Sea business on block in blow to Burnham's plans

Barney Macintyre

Business news editor

BP is putting its North Sea business up for sale after 60 years of production.

Five oil and gas production hubs employing approximately 1,100 people will be auctioned, following a review of the company's operations by new chief executive Meg O'Neill. The process was started after a deal fell through to sell the assets to Ithaca Energy for nearly $2bn.

A recalibration isn't that surprising. Last year BP's North Sea business produced 117,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, only a fraction of its 2.3m barrels of daily production. The firm recently made its biggest

discovery in 25 years in Brazil, and has new drilling and exploration leases in Egypt, Namibia, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan.

"The North Sea has not been a frontier growth province for some time," said Paul O'Brien, an adviser at ReMarind. "For a major competing for capital across a global portfolio, it is understandable investment focuses on larger, longer-life opportunities."

The timing of O'Neill's decision is notable. Andy Burnham last week promised a "pragmatic" approach to drilling. "There is a resource there," the prime minister said. "When people are struggling, we can't ignore that." BP was unperturbed. Its exit will be taken by many as further evidence that the

UK's energy profits levy – an effective 75%: tax on profits from upstream oil and gas – makes the ageing North Sea basin "uninvestable".

"BP's announcement should be a defining moment for the new prime minister. The question being asked in Aberdeen is, how many more jobs need to be lost before the government acts?" said Ryan Crighton of Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce.

The company has also been shrinking its renewables portfolio. It is understood to be in the final stages of a deal to sell its solar business, LightSource, to a Kuwaiti wealth fund, and has abandoned plans to develop a UK offshore wind site with German utility company EnBW. Last quarter it

BP is seeking buyers for its North Sea platforms after 60 years of production.

flagged a $1bn writedown for its gas and low-carbon energy segment. It will report new results on Tuesday.

In 1970, BP made the first substantial discovery of a North Sea oilfield: the Forties. Decades later one of the company's chief executives, John Browne, would describe it, hyperbolically, as "the UK's equivalent of the moon landings". BP sold the field in 2003 to US firm Apache.

On Friday, BP reiterated its world base will remain in the UK, where it employs nearly 14,000 people. But without its North Sea anchor, the "British" in its name seems increasingly unconvincing. Speculation the public company will relist its shares abroad will surely grow.

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Business

Baidu Apollo

Cost to build Under

$30,000 per vehicle

Key cities Wuhan,

Beijing, Shanghai,

Shenzhen, plus Hong

Kong, Dubai, Abu Dhabi

(+26 cities globally)

Chief executive

Robin Li

Wayne

Cost to build

N/A licenses software,

does not build vehicles

Key cities London

(late 2026)

Chief executive

Alex Kendall

Robotaxi wars head for London's streets

Competition between makers of autonomous vehicles is turning cut-throat – and coming to the capital. By Barney Macintyre

Google's autonomous driving startup Waymo confirmed last week that it is ending a three-year exclusive partnership with Uber to provide driverless rides in two US cities, in a sign of increasingly aggressive competition in the autonomous vehicle market that could soon play out on the streets of London.

The deal that started the race to commercialise autonomous vehicles (AVs) will expire in 2028, leaving Uber's dreams of building its own driverless cars in the rearview mirror.

It's not the first time the companies have fallen out. In February 2017, Waymo sued Uber and its autonomous driving subsidiary, Otto, alleging Waymo's former technical lead Anthony Levandowski had stolen trade secrets before moving to Uber to work on development of Lidar, the remote-sensing technology used in AVs.

Otto and Levandowski had both been championed by Uber's chief executive at the time, Travis

Kalanick, who in 2017 was dealing with the fallout of a blog post alleging systemic sexual harassment at Uber. At the same time, a video was released of Kalanick berating an Uber driver about falling fares, for which he later apologised.

Five days into the trial, the case settled with Uber giving Waymo a $245m equity stake, rather than cash damages. But the fallout dragged into 2020, when Levandowski was charged, sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing trade secrets and ordered to pay a $179m fine to Google. He then filed for bankruptcy.

In August 2017 Kalanick was replaced by Dara Khosrowshahi, the former chief executive of Expedia, and Uber began to move towards a similar "aggregator" model for ride-hailing and delivery services – rather than building and trialling its own AVs. But Kalanick still had a board seat at Uber and, according to one source familiar with his investments, harboured a plan to buy out Waymo through a joint venture.

When that did not materialise, Kalanick moved on to new projects. These included CloudKitchens, a "dark kitchens" business, and Atoms, a startup that has raised $1.7m from funds including Andreessen Horowitz and Uber itself. Sources say Atoms is focused on automating the full stack of delivery services, and production of "gainfully employed robots" in food, mining and transport

sectors. However, its founder being out of the picture did not mean Uber's dream of being part of the AV revolution had to die. In May 2023, Uber signed an agreement to allow Waymo's AVs to be hailed on its platform, starting in Phoenix, Arizona, and expanding into Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia.

It started well and ratings were high, but then Waymo rolled out its own ride-sharing app in certain cities, and began courting Uber's competitors, including Lyft. Uber and Waymo started blaming each other for service and safety failures.

In February, Uber highlighted problems with robotaxi services – without naming Waymo – in its earnings reports, and stressed that humans might still be needed at the wheel in contexts such as wet weather. In April, the company's chief technology officer posted a video of a Waymo car nearly hitting a bus and in May dozens of empty Waymo cars were found circling an Atlanta cul-de-sac. Waymo claimed it was a routing issue caused by the Uber app.

A recent YouGov survey found that three-quarters of Americans said they had little or no trust in self-driving taxis

According to the FT, the companies have also been "pursuing diverging objectives" for regulation. Waymo has lobbied for high-permitting costs that deter smaller players from entering the market, at least eight of which partner with Uber. Uber is lobbying for "hybrid networks" that require robotaxi pilot schemes to have human drivers on at least 85% of all rides.

"They have made this point that you need hybrid, which I don't really buy. I think that's a sort of lawfare technique to slow Waymo down," says Ian-Erik Asplund, an analyst and co-founder at Sacra.

Uber's stock fell 4% on the prospect of Waymo pulling out, adding to a drop of 16% so far this year. To many, the logic of

AV companies launching their own apps to undercut Uber – and its drivers who make up the majority of the cost of a ride – seems inevitable.

But Uber under Khosrowshahi is more than a platform for getting from A to B. With 200 million monthly active users (versus 500,000 a week for Waymo), it has the makings of a "super-app", which in its most elaborate form encompasses rides, food delivery, payments, messaging, and gaming. So far, though, none have thrived outside Asia. It holds an advantage as the go-to middleman for rides.

But disruption is coming. Analysis by comparison website Obi found that the average price of a Tesla robotaxi ride in San Francisco, booked through Tesla's own app, was $8.17 – about half the cost of Lyft, Uber or Waymo. Tesla's disadvantage is that its AVs rely on a different camera-based technology that has been approved in fewer jurisdictions. It has also sacrificed profitability for aggressive pricing.

Then there's the trust question. In a recent YouGov survey, three-quarters of Americans said they had little or no trust in self-driving taxis. There have been complaints about hygiene. With no responsible driver, there's a risk that one hails an AV that still contains the aftermath of another passenger's night out.

Still, there's a growing acceptance (or perhaps an indifference) to AVs being the future. In the early 1990s, almost half (48%) of 17-20-year-olds in the UK had a full driving licence. In 2024 that had fallen to 29%. Among 21-29 year-olds, the proportion fell from 75% to 61%.

AVs is a crowded market and while the early skirmishes were fought in Silicon Valley, it is London – with its idiosyncratic road layouts – that is expected to become a key battleground. While Waymo may pull ahead of Uber in the US, in the UK it faces competition from Wayne (backed by Uber) and Baidu's Apollo Go, a Chinese operator that began testing in the city last week.

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41

Shetland, we've had a problem, but UK should win Europe's space race

A setback at the spaceport on Unst has delayed rather than cancelled lift-off for the continent's first rocket

Emma Haslett

This summer the residents of Unst, one of the northernmost Shetland Islands, have been preparing for a landmark moment: the first launch of a vertical rocket from British soil.

The launch was scheduled for some time between mid-August and the start of September at the SaxaVord spaceport, with a rocket built by the German company Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA). However, last week RFA said it had encountered "an issue" during testing and decided to "de-stack" the rocket – remove it from the launchpad – for further analysis.

The Observer understands that RFA will now "hand back" the August launch window, and seek approval for a new window in the autumn. But

even with the delay, there is a real prospect that the first rocket launched into space from Europe will lift off from the UK.

Space has become increasingly important for UK competitiveness.

"There's a commercial opportunity for it and there's one around national security," said Ian Annett, chair of UKSpace's launch committee and a former deputy chief executive of the UK Space Agency. "At the moment, we have to go to the US and say, can we launch with you? [But] if our national interests diverge from US interests or industrialists' interests, we haven't got a route to get things into space if we wanted to."

The UK is well placed for launches.

'If our interests diverge from US interests, we haven't got a route to get things into space'

Ian Annett, UKSpace

"In order to get into low-Earth orbit in the most efficient fashion, you need to be as far north as possible on the Earth's surface," said James Lockyer, an analyst at Peel Hunt.

While global attention has focused on US feats such as June's $2.1tn SpaceX IPO, British space companies have quietly been making an impact.

Figures from trade association UKSpace show that in 2021-22 the UK's 1,800 space companies were bringing in almost £19bn a year. And it's not just about rockets: "It's in-space manufacturing, it's solar power, it's pharmaceuticals, it's new materials," Lockyer said. Figures from

PitchBook show that Europe's space sector has ballooned, with venture capital deals worth €1.2bn (€1bn) in 2025, up from €200m in 2017. This year is already breaking records, with €2.2bn of deals announced so far.

"Demand for independent European launch capability continues to grow. Governments increasingly recognise the importance of assured access to space, and the need for reliable launch infrastructure has never been greater," said Scott Hammond, chief executive of SaxaVord.

But getting into space is easier said than done. Until this year, Orbex

The SaxaVord space port on Unst, one of the northernmost Shetland Islands.

represented the UK's best hope of a rocket launch. But in February the Scottish firm, once valued at $220m, fell into administration.

That replicated the fate of Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit. In January 2023 the company's LauncherOne "horizontal" rocket – which piggy-backed on a modified Boeing 747 – failed to reach the altitude required to put its payload of nine satellites into orbit. Four months later the company, which at one time was valued at $3.5bn, collapsed.

The British government appears to be enthusiastic about the space sector. In June it announced £19m of investment, including £10m for a British in-space manufacturing start-up, SpaceForge.

But it has also postponed the publication of its space strategy. And earlier this year, the UK Space Agency was absorbed by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology – now the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade – as a cost-cutting measure.

Lockyer said the government must take the opportunity more seriously. "Space is not a sector, it's not a vertical – it's a new location," he said. "And others are getting there first."

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42

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

Business

Any Other Business

Arnaults' success turning into a French Succession

"What is called a Sunday in an ordinary family is called a plot in ours," observed Bernard Arnault, LVMH's billionaire boss, in his first post on X last week. A patriarchal nerve has been touched by Le Monde's investigation into alleged sibling rivalries within the luxury goods giant – similar to those of the Murdochs, the supposed inspiration for the dynastic satire Succession.

Arnault's "nothing to see here" post was certainly brand-aligned in its elitist elegance, even if delivered via unclassy mass media. Yet the accusations come at a difficult moment. LVMH's share price has nearly halved from its 2023 high amid a slump in demand for luxury (though it edged up on last week's improved results). His five children are now in positions of sufficient seniority within LVMH to make their every move intriguing to outsiders. Arnault, 77, is sprightly compared with some business family titans

(Murdoch is almost two decades older) but he is not immortal.

LVMH's promise to the dynasties it has absorbed, from Dior to Tiffany, was permanence: protection against "shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves" in three generations (the rule being that wealth built by the first generation is usually squandered by the next two). Arnault Sr built the group, so that promise has not been truly tested – until now, and very publicly.

Still, as he argued, 40 years ago who would have bet a franc that France would host the global leader in luxury – one that has contributed, he claims, more than €40bn to the public treasury. In this case, family control may have been a big win for the French economy, even if it has preserved what Le Monde calls France's "last royal family". Britain, having no comparable business dynasty left, must make do with a less economically useful actual royal family.

By Matthew Bishop

Bernard and Hélène Arnault with four of their children: from left, Frédéric, Delphine, Antoine and Alexandre. Chassot/Getty

Windfall tax talk takes shine off bankers' bumper profits

Now we have a new government that seems less fawning of finance than its predecessors, the bumper profits announced last week by Britain's leading banks have revived calls for a fresh windfall tax. Paul Nowak of the TUC says the case is overwhelming: the banks are "coining it in" while working people struggle with mortgages and bills.

Lloyds is the cleanest test, having few foreign earnings to muddy where the money came from: £4.3bn of first-half pre-tax profit, up from £3.5bn, is evidence of a windfall, much of it from the widening gap between what the

bank charges borrowers and what it pays savers.

Paul Thwaite of NatWest says taxing banks would constrain lending. Charlie Nunn of Lloyds accompanied his results with a four-year plan to spend £13bn on artificial intelligence and expansion abroad. Such pledges are a classic prophylactic against windfall taxes.

The fair objection is that these taxes rarely stay one-off. Britain's bank levy, introduced in 2011, is still with us 15 years later. Then again, the machinery for a tax is already there. Chancellor John Healey may be the man to flick the switch.

Musk has a trillion reasons to hope he's not on the money

A Nobel prize-winning economist taking on the world's first trillionaire over the meaning of money is an intriguing fight. After Elon Musk told the Economist that money would not matter much by 2036 because AI would make the price of goods and services virtually zero, Daron Acemoglu last week challenged him to prove it by promising to give away all his money to charity by then.

The 2024 laureate is the profession's most rigorous sceptic of AI abundance: his paper, The Simple Macroeconomics of AI, puts the total gain in American productivity at

under 1% over a decade. (Goldman Sachs estimates it could raise US productivity growth by 1.5 percentage points a year.) So he offered terms he probably expected to be refused, on a proposition he considers false. Heads Acemoglu exposes a bluff; tails he wins $1m for good causes.

Perhaps surprisingly, Musk indicated he was actually thinking along these lines (up to a point), which is a more philanthropic tone than he has struck in years – to the dismay of his hardcore fans.

The suggestion that money will not matter is nonsensical. Even

if ordinary goods and services become freely available, an entire class of things will not, and will probably get costlier than ever. Fred Hirsch, writing in 1976, called these "positional goods", because they are scarce either absolutely or by social convention: increase the supply and you destroy what made them worth having. Some are fixed by geography or history, such as Mayfair or a Vermeer; others by arrangement, such as a seat on the Royal Opera House board.

Abundance would not make money irrelevant. If ordinary goods and services cost nothing, expect more effort to go into creating those scarce things that people who can will pay plenty of money to own. In that world, being a trillionaire will still count.

"A tale of two Healeys: what the chancellor can learn from his predecessor

William Keegan

Two Labour chancellors named Healey, almost 50 years apart: Denis Healey between 1974 and 1979, and now John Healey, appointed by Andy Burnham. Both had previously served as defence secretaries – Denis between 1964 and 1970, and John from 2024 until his resignation in June.

Given the modern pattern of frequent ministerial changes, younger readers can be forgiven for being surprised Denis Healey was in the same defence job throughout the first Wilson government. Among other things, Harold Wilson is rightly credited for having kept the UK out of the Vietnam War in the face of intense US pressure. When I raised this once with Denis, he said: "Yes – but I had to stiffen his arm!"

Well, here we are again: a US president conducting a crazy war

and wanting Britain to back him. So far we have resisted, although the distinction between allowing Trump to use British bases for attacking purposes (which the government is against) and defence purposes (which it justifies) is in danger of becoming blurred.

There are other similarities between the pressures that faced the 1970s chancellor and the pressures now facing the current incumbent.

In both cases, inflationary pressures emanating from oil crises loom large. However, there is a remarkable difference between 1975, when inflation reached 25%, and now, when there is huge debate about how the Bank of England should respond to a potential inflation rate of "just" 4%.

In 1976 the crisis of confidence in the UK was so severe foreign investors ceased investing in the UK. Healey was forced to go "cap in

Denis Healey in No 11 in 1976.

There are similarities between the pressures that faced the 1970s chancellor and those facing the current one

hand" to the International Monetary Fund for a loan. This time there is no shortage of funds wanting to buy gilts (British government bonds) but they will only do so at the right price. Concern about rising yields explains the fuss about the level of government borrowing and the limitations posed by "fiscal rules".

Many analysts believe the demands of defence spending and social care will at some point require higher taxes, which is difficult to reconcile with Burnham's apparent determination to adhere to manifesto commitments.

But what I hope John Healey will do is to acknowledge that the exchequer is losing valuable funds by being out of the EU customs union and single market. Rejoining would be good for growth. Alas, so far there has been little sign that our new prime minister has focused on Europe. It is time he did.

---

Weather

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

43

UK and Ireland

	Today		Monday		Tuesday
	Low	High	Low	High	Low	High
Belfast	10	19	13	19	15	20
Birmingham	9	26	14	29	16	26
Bristol	11	27	14	29	16	24
Dover	14	25	17	28	18	26
Edinburgh	9	20	12	16	14	17
Glasgow	9	20	12	16	13	18
Inverness	9	18	9	16	12	15
Leeds	11	24	13	24	15	24
Leicester	10	26	14	29	16	27
Liverpool	10	25	15	26	16	24
London	14	29	16	33	18	28
Manchester	9	24	15	26	16	24
Newcastle	9	21	12	19	14	21
Norwich	12	25	14	28	16	29
Plymouth	11	24	15	25	17	22
Swansea	10	24	15	26	16	22
Dublin	10	18	13	20	14	22

Europe today

©2026, forecasts and graphics provided by

AccuWeather

We Save Lives

Get the AccuWeather app

Precipitation today

Showers	Storms	Rain	Plumies	Snow	Ice

Lighting up

	Today	Monday
Belfast	2124 to 0539	2122 to 0541
Birmingham	2057 to 0530	2055 to 0532
Bristol	2057 to 0538	2055 to 0540
Dover	2040 to 0523	2038 to 0524
Edinburgh	2119 to 0521	2117 to 0523
Glasgow	2123 to 0526	2121 to 0528
Inverness	2130 to 0516	2128 to 0518
Leeds	2102 to 0524	2100 to 0526
London	2048 to 0529	2047 to 0530
Manchester	2103 to 0529	2101 to 0530
Newcastle	2108 to 0519	2106 to 0521
Plymouth	2059 to 0547	2057 to 0549
Swansea	2103 to 0543	2101 to 0544

High tides

Source: © Crown copyright and/or database rights. All rights reserved.

	Today				Monday				Tuesday
Aberdeen	04:12	4.2m	16:49	3.9m	04:47	4.2m	17:26	3.9m	05:25	4.1m	18:06	3.8m
Belfast	01:43	3.5m	14:11	3.1m	02:22	3.5m	14:52	3.2m	03:04	3.5m	15:37	3.2m
Dover	01:52	6.3m	14:09	6.6m	02:22	6.1m	14:42	6.6m	02:57	6.3m	15:20	6.5m
Galway	08:20	4.7m	20:26	4.9m	08:53	4.6m	21:04	4.8m	09:32	4.5m	21:49	4.6m
Harwich	02:48	3.8m	14:51	3.8m	03:23	3.8m	15:23	3.8m	04:01	3.8m	16:00	3.8m
Hollywood	01:10	5.5m	13:31	5.2m	01:46	5.5m	14:09	5.1m	02:23	5.4m	14:47	5.0m
Hull	09:18	7.3m	21:51	6.9m	09:54	7.3m	22:26	6.8m	10:32	7.2m	23:03	6.7m
Leith	05:33	5.4m	18:05	5.2m	06:08	5.4m	18:43	5.1m	06:46	5.3m	19:24	5.0m
Liverpool	01:57	9.2m	14:18	8.8m	02:31	9.1m	14:52	8.7m	03:07	9.0m	15:29	8.6m
London	04:57	6.9m	17:11	6.8m	05:31	6.8m	17:43	6.8m	06:06	6.6m	18:18	6.7m
North Shields	06:18	5.0m	18:53	4.7m	06:53	5.0m	19:29	4.6m	07:31	4.9m	20:10	4.5m
Penzance	07:44	5.1m	20:03	5.4m	08:18	5.1m	20:38	5.3m	08:54	5.0m	21:15	5.1m
Plymouth	09:01	5.0m	21:08	5.2m	09:33	5.0m	21:40	5.2m	10:05	4.9m	22:14	5.1m
Portsmouth	02:15	4.4m	14:52	4.5m	02:48	4.4m	15:27	4.5m	03:25	4.4m	16:05	4.4m
Southport	01:31	8.9m	13:45	8.5m	01:58	8.8m	14:19	8.4m	02:27	8.7m	14:49	8.3m
Weymouth	10:02	1.8m	22:14	1.9m	10:25	1.8m	22:37	1.9m	10:53	1.7m	23:07	1.8m
Wick	02:09	3.4m	14:42	3.1m	02:43	3.4m	15:18	3.1m	03:20	3.3m	15:57	3.0m

Around the world

	Today		Monday
	Low	High Weather	Low	High Weather
Amsterdam	14	26 fair	17	31 sunny
Athens	24	33 sunny	23	35 sunny
Auckland	3	13 sunny	7	16 sunny
Baghdad	35	48 haze	35	47 haze
Beijing	27	33 storms	26	34 storms
Belgrade	21	37 sunny	21	37 sunny
Berlin	13	26 fair	13	30 sunny
Brussels	13	30 fair	16	34 fair
Budapest	22	37 sunny	24	39 sunny
Buenos Aires	10	16 cloudy	11	18 showers
Cairo	26	39 haze	25	37 haze
Cape Town	8	24 haze	8	22 fair
Copenhagen	13	22 fair	13	23 fair
Dublin	10	18 cloudy	13	20 showers
Geneva	18	33 sunny	19	35 storms
Gibraltar	23	32 sunny	23	31 sunny

	Today		Monday
	Low	High Weather	Low	High Weather
Helsinki	11	22 sunny	12	22 sunny
Hong Kong	26	28 showers	26	29 showers
Istanbul	23	31 windy	23	31 sunny
Jerusalem	23	33 sunny	24	33 sunny
Kingston	28	33 fair	28	34 fair
Kolkata	27	32 rain	27	32 rain
Kyiv	18	33 sunny	20	34 sunny
Los Angeles	21	33 sunny	21	32 sunny
Madrid	21	37 sunny	21	34 sunny
Melbourne	7	17 sunny	8	15 showers
Mexico City	13	27 rain	14	26 fair
Miami	26	32 storms	27	34 storms
Moscow	17	30 sunny	15	25 fair
Nairobi	13	24 cloudy	13	22 cloudy
Nassau	27	32 storms	27	33 storms
New York City	23	28 cloudy	23	28 storms

	Today		Monday
	Low	High Weather	Low	High Weather
Oslo	11	22 fair	9	23 fair
Ottawa	19	22 rain	18	26 showers
Paris	16	32 cloudy	19	35 haze
Prague	14	27 fair	16	33 storms
Riga	16	24 fair	11	24 fair
Rio de Janeiro	19	26 sunny	20	26 fair
Rome	24	34 sunny	24	33 fair
Seoul	26	34 fair	26	36 storms
Singapore	27	32 showers	26	31 rain
Sydney	8	20 sunny	10	23 showers
Tokyo	28	34 storms	24	28 cloudy
Toronto	20	23 rain	17	26 fair
Vancouver	13	21 showers	13	22 sunny
Vienna	21	33 sunny	20	39 sunny
Warsaw	18	25 fair	17	31 storms
Washington	24	28 storms	24	30 storms

Speedy crossword No. 1,608

Across

1 Spittoon (8) 5 Stray child, orphan (4) 9 Ski run (5) 10 In high spirits (7) 11 Twin-rail gym apparatus (8,4) 13 Over-adorned (6) 15 Cow-like (6) 17 Timorous (5-7) 20 Substitute (5-2) 21 Flat, hollow bread (5) 22 Moral or legal responsibility (4) 23 Cooperate (4,4)

Down

1 Head of Mafia family (4) 2 Support, nourish (7) 3 Imprecision (12) 4 Hidden or secret (6) 6 Primary, foremost (5) 7 Predicted (8) 8 List of related published works (12) 12 Disoriented, bewildered (8) 18 Lack of activity or interest (7) 16 Licorice-like cooking herb (6) 18 Unsuitable (5) 19 Surety (4)

SOLUTION No. 1,607

---

REACH FOR THE CROWN

THE DATEJUST

WATCHES & SWITZERLAND

Mappin & Webb

GOLDSMITHS

ROLEX

WATCH FEATURED SUBJECT TO STOCK AVAILABILITY

---

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

Fun & games for all the family

Vert's

needed

Shoal

searching

A fish has crept into this diver's helmet. Can you work out which shoal it's from?

c

b

Were you right? Check the answer on the back page

---

The Ground Truth image displays a single, solid horizontal line. According to Rule 2 (UNDERSCORE & LINE RULES), this is a stylistic or background line, not a placeholder underscore. Therefore, the OCR result must ignore it and output nothing or only meaningful text. The provided OCR content is "____", which consists of four underscores. This is an incorrect interpretation of the line as a placeholder, violating the rule that stylistic lines must be ignored. The OCR has hallucinated underscores where none should exist based on the GT's visual context. Hence, the OCR result is inconsistent with the Ground Truth.

---

Observers needed

Scandinavian

sealaring

The 2026 Tall Ships set sail for the final time today as they leave Aalborg, Denmark. Can you find

☐ A mermaid ☐ A map ☐ A sinking boat ☐ A stolen sandwich ☐ A whirlpool ☐ A pod of dolphins ☐ A dog ☐ A spyglass ☐ Fish bones ☐ A viking ship?

Illustration by Sællifæst Fa

---

Your weekly logic page featuring two puzzles compiled exclusively for The Observer

Obliks by Godefridus

No 125

2		1		1
2				4		4
	3
		3		2
1
			4		3

1	2	3
			3	1
1	2
			2		2
		3
3					1

Quick example Here's a small 6×6 grid to show how it works. The goal is to separate each set of the same number into different regions using diagonal slashes

1	2	3
			3	1
1	2
			2		2
		3
3					1

The two 3s at the top can't be in the same region, so you draw a slash between them. Slashes must always cross the entire square – ie, from point to point

No 126

1		2		2
						2
			1
2		2
					1
1			2			1
	1

1	2	3
			3	1
1	2
			2		2
		3
3					1

The 1s and 2s on the left also need to be in a separate region. Add more slashes to make sure they are isolated in their own area

1	2	3
			3	1
1	2
			2		2
		3
3					1

Continue adding slashes logically to separate matching numbers while keeping all numbers connected within their own regions

Mindset by Etruscan

How to play

Identify one trait for each circle. Sort objects accordingly.

• Each circle = one single trait (e.g. "red" not "red-filled")
• The trait must apply to every object in that circle
• No objects outside that circle can have that trait
• Numbers show how many objects belong in each section

Think you've found another solution? Email us – valid ones will be printed in the paper and featured in The Puzzle Edit newsletter

No 69

No 70

Scan to play more Mindset

Copyright © Magicave Holdings Limited 2025. Mindset is a registered trademark of Magicave Holdings Limited.

Solutions to the above, plus crosswords, Sudoku, Cinema Connect and Guess the Picture can be found on pages 30-32 of New Review

Found a bug? Have a favourite? Got a suggestion?

We'd love to hear from you, email us at puzzles@observer.co.uk

Shoal searching solutions: B

Beyond the print edition: scan to subscribe to The Puzzle Edit – exclusive columns, setter insights and a weekly clue breakdown from puzzles editor Caitlin O'Kane

---

THE OBSERVER MAGAZINE

02.08.26

Eight profiles to make your scroll a little less doomy By HAYLEY MYERS

INTERVIEW

Marco Pierre White

The second life of a kitchen god

CHEF AT LARGE

Ravneet Gill

Sweet treats for summer

WHAT'S ON MY MIND

Yoel Noorali

Babies, drinking and solidarity

BODY POLITICS

Eva Wiseman

Incredible shrinking lunches

---

Boots

48

When the heat makes it a not-so-fun run

Be ready for the beauty of British summer

Selected stores. Subject to availability

---

02.08.26

Welcome

When was the last time you went a day without engaging with one – or two, or three – social media platforms? Instagram seems as popular as ever. TikTok is running riot. Not to mention X, Snapchat, Threads, Facebook, LinkedIn, BlueSky (really!) and, whisper it, Truth Social... We're not so much sucked in by the doomscroll as swallowed by it whole. And does it make us feel good, the bottomless hours locked into our phones, the horror of the weekly screen report? Well, no...

And yet, in certain corners of social media, good is being done: people are making us smile or laugh or cry; they are being relatable and asking us to relate; they are pursuing their own, often very niche hobbies with so much happiness, freedom and passion that it is difficult not to join them in their enthusiasm. This week's cover feature introduces us to eight of these voices from around the UK, both individuals (Bus Aunty) and families (the Kabs). All of them have different callings, different markers of humour, different reasons for using social media. But they all spread joy in their own ways. "My war on scrolling has made me notice what I risk shutting out," writes The Observer's technology editor Patricia Clarke in an introduction to the piece. "Every day, people use these platforms to share knowledge, raise money, make people laugh and offer kindness to strangers." For adults at least, social media seems inescapable – why not make the best of it?

Also in this issue, Josh Barrie interviews former naughty chef Marco Pierre White, who, having stepped away from the London dining scene more than two decades ago, is experiencing a social-media fuelled resurgence; Nigel Slater and Ravneet Gill share recipes for summer; and Aimee Farrell, this magazine's new homes and design editor, speaks to an architect-design couple who began to renovate a Jersey farmhouse and were so taken by the property they decided to move into it. Enjoy, and thanks for reading.

Alex Moshakis Editor

Contributors

Ravneet Gill

(Chef at large, p42)

Ravneet is a pastry

chef, columnist and cookbook author. In 2025, she and her husband Mattie Taiano opened their restaurant Gina in Chingford, east London.

What is your joyful online content of choice?

"Jimmy Darts, who goes around America surprising people with acts of generosity, regularly makes me cry more than feels reasonable. I also love the man dancing to Shakira in the rain on TikTok. Unhinged, oddly motivational, genuinely very entertaining."

Aimee Farrell

(Homes, p30)

Aimee recently

joined The Observer Magazine as homes and design editor. Her work has been frequently published in the Financial

Time's HTSI magazine, where she was a contributing editor, as well as the New York Times. Aimee lives in Cambridge, where she's mostly at the lido.

What is your joyful online content of choice?

"Apart from all the home-stalking I'm served by Insta, I'm rewatching SNL UK clips until the new series lands in September – Jack Shep as an adorable dormouse and the jaded Super Mario sketch with Amy Lou Wood as Princess Peach still gets me."

Josh Barrie

(Marco Pierre White, p22)

Josh is a food and

drink journalist and author based in London.

What is your joyful online content of choice?

"I'd like to say it's football, culinary adventure, travel, music, literature and art...

The honest answer is that it's following the rewilding of beavers into Britain's countryside. Owl videos are a close second."

David Williams

(Wine, p41)

David has been

the wine correspondent at The Observer since 2010, and has spent more than 25 years writing about – and tasting – wines from around world.

What is your joyful online content of choice?

"Cricket statistics. There's a whole world of beautiful nostalgia nested in the infinite numbers at espncricinfo.com. Someone (I think the great sports writer Rob Smyth) came up with the phrase 'statgasm' for the joy of a truly satisfying mind-blowing cricket stat. That just about covers it."

Cover image: Brian Daly, The Observer Magazine • 22 Berners Street, London W1T 3LP • magazine@observer.co.uk Printed at Walstead Bicester Ltd, Chaucer Business Park, Launton Road, Bicester, OX26 4QZ

02.08.26

THE OBSERVER MAGAZINE

3

---

4:41pm Saturday

They only really came for the fashion.

Jon had spent weeks searching

for the perfect houndstooth jacket.

But when a Ford GT40 roaring by at 150mph

made him spill his drink all over himself,

he was surprised to find he didn't mind at all.

There's nothing like

Goodwood Revival

---

Observations

p8 An hour with comedian Jack Rooke

RESERVATIONS

Winning suits

London's Savile Row has no shortage of places to buy a suit, but until recently there was nowhere to linger over coffee. Dorothy's, the latest venture from Wendover - the team behind London's smartest newsagent, Shreeji News - hopes to change that. "The aim was to create a simple and functional space for the Savile Row set to call their own," says Wendover co-founder Gabe Pryce.

Drawing on European café culture, Pryce looked to Berlin institution Manzini for inspiration. "It has such a beautiful and unfussy feel, plus everything you would expect on a menu without much need to look at one." At Dorothy's, St John pastries at breakfast give way to brioche and mortadella sandwiches, before aperitivo and plates of veal tonnato.

The interiors are as striking as Wendover's other spaces, with oak burl panelling, Breccia Damascata marble, bentwood chairs and standing ledges. Details include custom Service Projects tableware and chore jackets by British menswear label Sirplus. Most dazzling is the mirrored ceiling. "I've always struggled with what to do with ceilings - and it didn't seem right to be on a fashion street like this without mirrors," says Pryce. "By looking up, you get to see the whole room."

With strict planning rules limiting new openings on Savile Row, Pryce believes Dorothy's has a role beyond serving coffee and negronis. "The responsibility involves catering to an eclectic group of well-dressed, interesting people," he says. "We need to look after them in the way that they choose." ● TABITHA JOYCE Dorothy's, 41 Savile Row, London W1S 3QQ

GOING VIRAL

Divorce sculptures

This season, deemed "hot divorcee summer" by some trend outlets, is seeing women celebrating the end of their marriage by becoming their own objet d'art. Studio Bust, who create sculptures of clients' naked forms, have noticed more commissions from newly single women - perhaps to give their body the attention it deserved from their ex-partner. Divorce rings, which are created from the molten remains of an engagement or wedding ring, aren't a new concept but have seen an uptick since content creators started calling theirs an "F-you" ring. Which finger it's worn on is at the owner's discretion, but the middle seems appropriate given the circumstances.

● HAYLEY MYERS

THE CASE FOR...

Roadworks

The streets near my house are in a near-total state of flux. The water people are there currently, and have been, foot by yard, for the past year and a half. Before them it was the broadband companies, digging up the same stretches of road for the same length of time, in what seemed like the very same order. It rather begs the question of whether they could have just done both things at once. I presume there's an obvious logistical reason why coordinating these jobs would make no sense, perhaps a Jets v Sharks-style turf war that necessitates them performing their labours in consecutive stints of isolation, for all our safety.

The net result is that, every single day I've lived here, cheery, burly young men have been driving jackhammers into the ground, at the behest of cheery, burly old men who hold clipboards. I find I don't mind it at all. Their work takes place in daytime hours, always behind inexhaustible stretches of temporary plastic fencing, giving each job site the unmistakable sense of a Montessori play-pen. This is fitting, since there's nothing my children love more than watching them work.

My daughter supervises their construction with the gimlet eye of an Italian retiree shouting advice to

workers in a city piazza. She shouts encouragement and gets waves from them in their preposterously adorable micro-diggers. She marvels at the exposed layers that lie beneath our feet, and the inscrutable pipes and wires that can be glimpsed, from above, therein. And I love it, too, for the childlike wonder I share in watching how things work. For the immaculate manner in which these workers go about the business of maintaining the modern world. For the sense they give me of a city that still lives and breathes and changes, one pipe, one wire, one playpen at a time.

● SEAMAS O'REILLY

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Observations

THINGS WORTH WEARING...

I DON'T WORK HERE

Baseball caps Throw your hat in the ring

445

1) I Don't Work Here, £40, Idea 2) Rhinestone Kitty, £46, Palace 3) Pink Chino, £70, Polo Ralph Lauren 4) LA Dodgers, £25, '47 Brand; and Thank You, £150, Ami 5) Stretch, £40, Alex Eagle Sporting Club. With thanks to everyone at Buzz Bingo, Tiveting, London (buzzbingo.com)

TASHION EDITION IN LENGRAMONS : PHOTOGRAPHIC ELLIOTT MORGAN

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Observations

02.08.99

THE OBSERVER MAGAZINE

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Observations

AN

Describe your perfect hour

Walking around a new city, listening to an album I loved when I was 17, such as Maya by MIA. She was considered delusional and insane, but a lot of the things she said came true.

If you could live in any era, which would you choose?

I'd like to be a pimp in 1800s Covent Garden, but a friendly one – people would know that I was going to offer them very secret boy-on-boy services.

If you could spend an hour with anyone famous, who would you choose?

Caroline Aherne, who was a genius. I'd love to have had a gossip and laugh with her, although I'm sure she gave everyone a run for their money.

Which period of your life do you daydream about the most?

I'm still renting, because you can't make enough to buy a house on Channel 4 scripted-comedy money. I daydream about living by the canal at 45, with three dogs, spending a lot of time by myself.

When's the last time you ate something you regretted?

A spice bag in Dublin – chips, chillies and chicken. I was excited because they are an urban legend of modern Ireland, but it made me feel sick.

When was the last time you stole something?

An incredible glass fish-shaped water bottle from a restaurant in London's Shoreditch. Although I didn't steal it: my dining guest snuck it under the table because he thought

HOUR

WITH

JACK ROOKE

The 32-year-old English comedian and writer found fame with his 2015 standup show Good Grief, co-written with his 85-year-old nan, and Channel 4 comedy Big Boys. He is touring a new version of Good Grief around the UK from 14 August.

the food was overpriced. I thought it was perfect and lovely.

When was the last time you cried?

At a poem called The Lion's Way, written by the England team's bus driver in Kansas, which Jude Bellingham posted on Instagram after they went out in the semis.

When was the last time you Shazamed something?

At festivals, if I'm a bit drunk, I pretend I don't know famous songs. At Primavera, I Shazammed Friday I'm in Love by the Cure and these Spanish girls were like: "I cannot believe he doesn't know this song."

What do you not have enough time for?

Moisturising. I'm starting to look older and I need to cleanse, tone and apply serums and oils. I'm lucky if I wash my face before bed.

When's the last time someone mistook you for someone else?

At Worldwide Festival in France, a girl came up and said: "Have you got the cash?" She meant another fat, curly-haired British guy standing 15m away. I almost ended up with a bag of pingers, but politely said: "You've got the wrong person," and she swiftly concluded her business operations elsewhere.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself?

My gut instinct is almost always right, so I'd say: "Listen to it more." I read an interview in which Corinne Bailey Rae said we have more brain cells in our gut than cats have in their brains. She could be a liar, but I don't think she is. ●

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As told to RICH PELLEY • Portrait JOSHUA TARN

02.08.26
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Observations

EVA WISEMAN

BODY POLITICS

‘From dinky sandwiches to collagen lollies, today’s lunch leaves you hungry for more in every way’

When I see Pret a Manger’s half sandwiches advertised in their many, many windows, I always think of the food at Manhattan’s 9/11 museum. In 2014, there was light uproar at the news that the then new memorial would host a restaurant selling “comfort food” alongside the remains of its 1,115 unidentified victims and bloodied shoes. When the café finally opened, in one of the museum’s narrow glass atriums, selling savoury pastries and soft drinks, visitors came to the understanding that yes, OK, a café was probably, if not necessarily appropriate, then unfortunately necessary, because following your tour you’ll want to sit down in silence somewhere anonymous and eat lunch while you consider impermanence and mortality. This is what I think of when I see those sandwiches.

Pret a Manger is not the only outlet now excitedly advertising food on the basis of its smallness, not by a long way. No, while many supermarkets indulge in what’s called “shrinkflation” (surreptitiously cutting a product in half, but charging the same price for it) since the arrival of weight-loss jabs it’s become increasingly common for them to shout proudly about the fact. We have steaks from Ocado the size of Oliver Twist’s outstretched palm, “mini-meals” from the Co-op “inspired by global cuisines” (is hunger a cuisine?) and the new “nutrient dense” range from M&S, a rare example of density being used as a selling point.

Food has got weird. Instead of indulgence, comfort, refreshment and relief, today it leads with dread, the threat of premature death built in. In a recent Vittles piece, Niloufar Haidari coined the term “protein psychosis”, a phrase that has beat an uncomfortable rhythm on my temples every time I’ve entered a supermarket since. It described the age we’re living in as we hurdle unapologetically away from body positivity in pursuit of thinness and/or eternal life, and more and more food is marketed for its high-satiety properties alone, like Lidl’s “high-protein tiramisu” and the new “Creme Egg Soft-Core Protein Bar”, the first chocolate name where every word comes as a genuine surprise.

The walk to work has become a lesson in lunch anxiety. From beneath darkened hoardings a café near the office advertises “collagen ice lollies”, which to me suggests sucking on tendons, and forces me to acknowledge my body as flesh suit. I resent doing this during work hours, especially on a sunny day. These lollies are clearly aimed at women, much as Flakes once were, to be crumbled sensually over breasts in the bath. I am always fascinated by the gender divide in food marketing, sweet things traditionally seen as forbidden pleasures for women on diets, meat sold as ancient fuel for men who want to conquer – first beasts, now this afternoon’s sales client. Advertising doesn’t create those desires, it confirms (and sometimes subverts) the stories we have already come to believe.

One of those stories is that our food is out to get us. We must resist that siren call of a footlong Subway, its particular sugary perfume, and seek out instead the foods that will save us from gluttony, and a slow, loveless death drowning in our own chins. Like, for instance, the half sandwich from Pret. The Pole & Line Caught Tuna Half Baguette is 257 kcal and £2.75. It is the length of three slices of cucumber, overlapping like gills, and I look around quietly as I pay to gauge how impressed at my choice my fellow office-workers are, with their infinite sandwiches that seem to extend for miles. Their gasps, though silent, suggest an inner dialogue of wonder at this city girl in control, this high-powered executive who only needs a shot of protein to keep her going for an entire afternoon of deal brokering and ball busting.

I pay extra to eat in (I can afford it!) and my reflection in the silver tray as I carry it to a table is honestly inspiring – muscular, vivid, staunch. Except then, as I unwrap the sandwich itself – the half sandwich, sorry – I am reminded once again that this meal is homeopathic, that this is lunch as preventative measure, that I am less harried gym-bro than hungry caterpillar munching sensually through a menu and that half a sandwich will simply not do. But in the time that I have considered this – the marketing of hunger and memories of leisure and the body as but fleeting machine – the sandwich is gone. ●

Eva Wiseman is an Observer writer

‘Food has got weird. Instead of indulgence, comfort, refreshment and relief, today it leads with dread and the threat of premature death’

02.08.26 THE OBSERVER MAGAZINE

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NGUYEN THI HA AN HOLDING HER CREATION “PHO HA NOI” AT HER STUDIO IN HANOI/GETTY IMAGES

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The Good People of Social Media

Eight profiles that make the internet a (slightly) better place

Interviews HAYLEY MYERS

Photographs BRIAN DALY

Introduction PATRICIA CLARKE

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HAIR AND MAKEUP BY JULIANA SERGOT

A few months ago, I spent £50 on a device called a Brick. It's a grey plastic square, no bigger than a credit card, and it's stuck to the chest of drawers on my landing, next to my keys. I tap my phone on it any time I enter or leave the house, as if I'm getting on the tube.

The Brick is a social media blocker – the company's tagline is "Take back control of your screen time" – and it is the latest in my increasingly elaborate attempts to stop myself doomscrolling.

Sometime during the pandemic, I lost the ability to read at night. A chapter of a book was replaced by an hour ricocheting between X, Instagram Reels and, embarrassingly, LinkedIn: a conveyor belt of outrage and envy. I would close the apps feeling overstimulated and miserable, then reopen one – without thinking – five minutes later.

By the start of this year, my screen time ticked past four hours a day – a figure that horrifies me but, I've learned, is extremely average. Britons spend about three and a half hours a day on a smartphone, and that number nearly doubles among 18 to 24-year-olds. A survey commissioned by Virgin Media O2 found that two in five UK adults feel they have "little to no control" over how they use their phones, while 37% describe themselves as "addicted".

But my war on scrolling has also made me notice what I risk shutting out. I owe some of my best hairstyles to TikTok, many of my recipes to Instagram, and an unreasonable proportion of my happiness to memes. Every day, people use these platforms to

share knowledge, raise money, make people laugh and offer kindness to strangers.

My favourite is Husk (@husk.irl), whose videos I watch on Instagram. In them, he talks to ChatGPT on voice mode (having chosen the chatbot's objectively funniest voice, an American man with a deep and confident draw!). The videos exploit the gap between ChatGPT's air of authority and its frequent inability to do basic things. In one, Husk asks it to time him running a mile. He returns seconds later and asks for his result. ChatGPT congratulates him on finishing in 10 minutes and 12 seconds, then insists that its timing is correct.

Lately, for reasons I don't quite understand, my algorithm has turned Spanish. I grew up in Madrid, and perhaps it senses I'm homesick. Or maybe I lingered over one video for half a second too long. Either way, this unexpected homecoming has become its own kind of joyscrolling. I have bookmarked recipes from elderly women making gazpacho for the hot weather, and a video of a Sevillian comedian baffled by the British tourists who descend on his landlocked city every summer, voluntarily, even as the weather creeps up past 40C.

The truth is that I don't always want to be kept out of social media. I want to enter deliberately, to find the people who make the internet funny and sweet. And then leave again when I choose. Amid all the noise, these are the people who give me a reason to tap back in.

Patricia Clarke is The Observer's technology editor

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The Good People of Social Media

Bea Elton

INSTAGRAM @cleanwithbeax 2.2m followers

TIKTOK @cleanwithbea 3m followers

‘A lot of the people I clean for are in the darkest period of their life... I hope it restores some of their dignity’

BEA ELTON, 28, deep cleans the homes of vulnerable people, free of charge, offering tenants a chance to start afresh. With their consent, she posts the transformations online. More recently she has campaigned against domestic animal abuse.

“The first flat I shared with my boyfriend was overrun with black mould. Our dodgy landlord wouldn’t help, so I posted videos of trying to clean it myself on TikTok. They got so many views that I started earning money from them. Then, I started getting messages from renters with the same issues. One was from a heavily pregnant woman who lived with her two young children and her husband, who was immobile after a car accident. I used the money I’d made to get on a train and spent three days cleaning her home.

After that, everything snowballed. Cleaning wasn’t part of my plan – I studied Classics at university – so I had to learn the proper procedures on the job or by speaking to other professionals. I’ve spent thousands of pounds on biohazard specialists, but the people watching my videos help to fund it. We’ve worked really hard to pay it forward. Now we can pretty much take any home on.

A lot of the people I clean for are in the darkest period of their life and deserve empathy. What I do isn’t an automatic fix, but I hope it restores some of their dignity and reminds them that they’re worth a better life. No one should feel ashamed to ask for the help they need to become safe and comfortable in their own home. It’s very taxing work, but I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it. And no, my house isn’t spotless. I’m so OK with that!”

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AKILAH COHEN creates high-energy videos that document the highs and lows of renovating two dilapidated houses in London, interspersed with her love of fashion and beauty. She believes passionately that social is the future of media.

"When my partner and I started renovating our house, we'd share silly updates on Instagram. The first video that took off was 'Get ready with me for a day of DIY' about the imperfections of our life – waking up at sunrise because there are no curtains and wearing a paint-splattered tracksuit and knitted bonnet. It racked up 2m views.

A few months later, designed estate agent the Modern House asked if I wanted to be their 'resident snoop', presenting tours of their properties for their socials. I was stunned and had to check they weren't confusing me with someone else.

We're still renovating and have expanded into lifestyle videos. I think they're popular because I'm not afraid to laugh at myself. Social media often presents women as into either makeup, fashion, DIY or as a mum. The women I know are all of those things. I might be doing DIY, but I also want a nail appointment and a little luxury in my life.

Social media is a democratic space for anyone with something creative to say. If your niche is that weird thing in your village no one cares about, you could make a film about it and get immediate feedback from your followers, who are basically your bosses. I try to respect and honour that process by telling my stories, pursuing my love of design and having a raucous, joyful time."

Akilah Cohen

INSTAGRAM @kilahgram 107k followers

TIKTOK @kilahgram_ 12.7k followers

'Social media is a democratic space for anyone with something creative to say'

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Nikki Lilly

INSTAGRAM @nikkililly 645k followers

TIKTOK @nikkililly 9.7m followers

NIKKI LILLY, 22, has a rare condition where areas of arteries and veins form without capillaries. Her content advocates for those with this condition, and shares her love of fashion and makeup.

"When doctors told me at the age of six that I had AVM (arteriovenous malformation), I lost my childhood in an instant. As my appearance started to change, watching YouTube videos about makeup was my escapism. Two years later, my parents agreed I could start posting wholesome content, like reviewing my mum's eye shadows or doing my dad's makeup.

After TikTok launched, I posted a few videos and within a month I had 1m followers. I still don't know how. Partly, I think that someone who looked different was a breath of fresh air. Teenage girls appreciated that I wasn't trying to change my appearance. But, while some build you up, others break you down. People have used AI on pictures of me to remove my condition, commenting on the 'wasted potential', which was incredibly disheartening.

Since my diagnosis I've had 98 surgeries, but I've also won a Bafta and an Emmy for my work on TV, spoke at the UN twice, attended the Oscars and walked in Paris Fashion Week. Social media can sometimes feel like a game with infinite levels, but it has also made me feel I can still live a life. Growing up, there were no toys or people in the public eye that looked like me and I was constantly made to feel as if I didn't have a place. Now, everything I do goes back to being what my younger self never had. The more you see difference, the more normal it becomes."

'Social media can feel like a game with infinite levels, but it has also made me feel like I can still live a life'

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The Good People of Social Media

TWO MEN AND A LADY show the pandemonium of raising their three-year-old daughter, nicknamed Moo, whether that's her "going feral" at a trampoline park, or trying to deal with her creepy doll, Mary-Therese.

"One thing we've learned since starting our account is that people don't want perfection. Last year we went to a butterfly house, thinking we would capture some cute moments, but our daughter wasn't impressed and it all went to hell. Everyone loved it. Our audience includes a lot of slightly older women who remember what it was like to raise children and relate to the joy and chaos we share. We feel so happy they can see themselves in us.

When you put yourself out there, you're also putting yourself on the line. We've been lucky in that 95% of people leave positive comments, but it's hard not to focus on the remaining 5%. Sometimes we reply, but mostly our followers jump on anything negative. At one point it got overwhelming and we weren't sure whether to continue. Then, we started getting messages from mums with gay sons, and others saying that watching us had changed their opinion on same-sex parenting. We thought, actually, this is having an impact.

We're very careful about what aspects of our lives we share. It's a one-minute snippet, a couple of times each week. We rarely mention our own names or what we do for a living, and we use a specific nickname for our daughter. We'll only do this for as long as she's happy being filmed. Mostly, we feel privileged. It's easy to forget gay dads are relatively new, but we fought for these rights and will never take them for granted."

Two Men and a Lady

INSTAGRAM @twomenandalady_ 85.9k followers

TIKTOK @twomenandalady 79.8k followers

'We started getting messages saying that watching us had changed their opinion on same-sex parenting'

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The Good People of Social Media

Moses Comb

INSTAGRAM @m.combe07 58.5k followers

TIKTOK @m.combe07 283.7k followers

MOSES COMBE, 22, explores and reviews high- end and gentrified cafés across London, in a series called "Endz Department of Research". His review of a branch of Gail's bakery has received nearly 1m views across his channels.

"I'm a north Londoner and have seen the area change a lot. The people who have always lived here have never even considered visiting the cafés and bakeries that blow up on social media. That's why I review them, so the locals can decide if they want to go as well. I try to bring as real an experience as possible. My humour, the way that I speak, it's all me.

Now, things are mad. The most exciting opportunity was being on one of the biggest billboards I'd ever seen for Ray-Ban Meta. I took my mum so we could see it for the first time together. She was gassed!

Being recognised is surreal. Like, you're coming up to me, a regular guy from the ends and you're acting like I'm a celebrity? Mind- boggling. Some have even freaked out and started touching me to check if I'm a hologram. I've had people try to follow me home, but I don't take it much to heart. If your content has 60m views in a year, it's bound to happen.

I'm not gonna lie, I feel lucky to grow up in this generation. Seeing how the content creators of the 2010s were affected by cancellation, or by people chatting about their appearance, has trained me in what to expect from social media in 2026. If I do get negative comments, I'm braced for it and ready to brush it aside. I mean, if I wasn't doing this, I'd 100% still be working in Wetherspoons."

'Being recognised is surreal. Like, you're coming up to me, a regular guy from the ends?'

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BEMI OROJUOGUN posts cheerful videos of herself in front of London buses as they pass, earning her the moniker “Bus Aunty”. A recent post shows Bemi and the new prime minister Andy Burnham celebrating a cap on all bus fares to £2.

“From the moment I arrived in London from Nigeria, I’ve loved everything about buses. Oh my God, I wish people could use my eyes to see their beauty. Something about their size, colour – even their smell – is majestic. Life can be lonely when you don’t have family close by, but on the top deck you can meet new people and see the city.

I’ve been a mental health nurse for 28 years. My patients call me Aunty. I sing on the ward and try to make them laugh, but sometimes it’s difficult to be strong. What helps is knowing I can be a positive influence to someone at their worst moment.

When I got TikTok, the plan was to get 1,000 followers and talk about mental health. God had other ideas. I posted a video of me with a bus, then another, and within a month it blew up. My daughter called and said: “Mummy, you’ve gone viral. What have you done?”

People sometimes think the buses are going to hit me, but I’m not actually close and would never put myself in danger or disrespect the bus drivers. I just know where to stand to showcase them as they turn.

At my age, I didn’t expect to be living this life. I’m so grateful that loving buses has led to meetings with politicians and the King, and working with brands like Burberry. Now, I’d love to start a young person’s mental health charity. All this has helped me to dream big.”

Bemi Orojuogun

INSTAGRAM @bemi.omo.oroje

TIKTOK @omo.oroje

‘Life can be lonely when you don’t have family close by, but on the top deck of a bus you can meet new people’

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Christine Hobson

INSTAGRAM @christinehobson60 170k followers

TIKTOK @christineworldrecord 29.7k followers

‘I didn’t want to be given anything. I wanted to be let out of my cage so I could get it myself’

CHRISTINE HOBSON, 73, has travelled across the globe to complete 125 marathons in 13 years. Her posts document her running journey as well as share home-based fitness tips that encourage healthy ageing.

“After a spectacular career in education, I was frightened to death of retiring. Six months before, my daughter encouraged me to join her running club, and through that I got a place at the London marathon. I retired on the Friday and ran my first marathon on the Sunday.

Since then I’ve run 125 marathons across the continents, and won the Guinness World Record for being the oldest person (at 69 years and 154 days) to complete the Antarctic Ice Marathon. It was my granddaughter who told me that TikTok’s the place to be and taught me how to post. She got a bit fed up with me, but we got there in the end.

The video that went viral was demonstrating how to incorporate fitness into everyday life. In the final shot, I ran up the stairs and said: “I don’t train for the gym. I train...” – and I paused in the right place – “for life.” I think people like that I’ve been there, done that and showed it. Some of them even loved my Huddersfield accent.

My first ex-mother-in-law (I’m on my third one now) said to my then-husband: “You’d be better getting rid of her. Because if you gave her the moon, she’d only want the stars.” It was meant as an insult, but they got it all wrong. I didn’t want him to give me anything. I wanted to be let out of my cage so I could get it myself. I’m hoping to run the North Pole Marathon next.”

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The Good People of Social Media

THE KABS FAMILY are Tay, Chan and their kids Teija (17), Maliya (9), TJ (7) and baby Rome. Their most popular videos are their “school-run roasts”, where Tay, who we speak to here, is ribbed about his age by his giggling children.

“Roasting each other happens in our house every single day, not just on the school run. People ask us if the videos are scripted, but they’re not. They’re a one-minute edit of a longer version where the kids are having a normal conversation. I just press record and see how it goes, then watch it back afterwards and decide what’s funny.

The children read the Bible before they go to bed and we all pray before we eat. That’s why their roasts often include biblical figures, because they know a lot about them. It’s not just on camera either. Family members have heard Mali and TJ tell them Chan’s hair came from Samson [who in the Bible had his hair cut off by Delilah] many times.

I’m a workaholic that does most of the editing and posting, but Chan is the peace in our family. She schedules days off from filming and organises time together without cameras: walks, parks, cinema trips. We sit together, put the phones away and talk about how far we’ve come in 10 years, from one simple video of me getting annoyed by Teija’s loud music in the car.

We’ve always been close. It sounds corny, but we’re best friends. There’s a lot of teasing, and sometimes we have to reel things back slightly, but everybody’s on the same page and having so much fun. There’s a lot more to come from the family, separately and together... We have one life. We’re just trying to do all of it.” ●

The Kabs Family

INSTAGRAM @thekabsfamily

TIKTOK @thekabsfamily

‘People ask us if the videos are scripted, but they’re not – I just press record and see how it goes’

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At the age of 25, MARCO PIERRE WHITE opened his first restaurant and kick-started the cult of the ROCK STAR CHEF, as known for his fiery antics as his food. After walking away from it all, he's back. But has he simmered down?

By JOSH BARRIE

Illustration HELLOVON

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Marco Pierre White, perhaps Britain's most mythologised chef, is not above cooking a fry-up.

It's a cold day in rural Wiltshire. White is in a nondescript corporate kitchen, a full video rig assembled in front of him, to document the launch of his new food products. He places three spirals of cumberland sausage on to crisp hash browns, handling them from pan to plate indelicately, with asbestos fingers. The hash browns are part of the MPW Retro range of potato products and the sausages come under the brand name "Farmhouse Cuisine by Marco Pierre White". Both are sold to pubs, restaurants and hotels...

Poached eggs arrive, cooked by a local chef, an everyday catering college graduate who's helping White on the shoot.

"How long have they been in, chef?" asks White of the eggs.

"One minute 32," comes a timid reply.

"Excuse me?" White says, adding a hallmark stare.

"Sorry, no," says the graduate, erring. "Two minutes 32, Marco." And White, tall and, these days, broad beneath his curly dark hair, says, "There we are, good," and not unkindly ushers the young cook away.

White proceeds to rest the eggs on top of his hash brown and sausage creation – a mountain of a dish – before pouring over gravy, a rich beef-stock base with HP sauce. Then he snaps into gear for the camera, eyes narrowing, his right hand coming up to gesture in tandem with a more sincere intonation. "What shall I call these?" he muses for the camera. And then, with a northern flourish: "Ah, Yorkshire eggs."

The camera stops and White brings the plate over for me to try. And this goes on for an hour or so – a day in the life of Marco Pierre White in 2026 – before he gets in a car and heads north, to attend to more potato business.

Delicious as they are, these sausages and eggs are a world away from the food White once made as the enfant terrible of fine dining, a man who in 1990 became the first British chef to win three Michelin stars – then the youngest person in the world to do so – and who became the first of the rockstar chefs generation. Intermittently in recent years I've found myself in White's company, sometimes at a local Chinese restaurant in Bath for spicy noodles, barbecued eel and roast duck, but most often at his Wiltshire

hotel, the Rudloe Arms, which he bought after retiring from London life 25 years ago, when he sold his collection of restaurants – Quo Vadis, L'Escargot, Titanic and the fabled Mirabelle among them – having hung up his chef whites in the years before.

But recently White has become a source of fascination to a new generation, interested as we all are in food, kitchens and big, naughty personalities. A video, made in lockdown, in which White eats a McDonald's cheeseburger, had a second, viral life earlier this year – more than 3m people have watched it. ("Some people thought it was an advert," he says. "It wasn't.") Then there's the video titled "How to crack an egg", in which he sits in front of a crate of 25 eggs and a mixing bowl and methodically cracks half of them, neatly stacking the shells into a smooth tower. ("I always like to work neatly," he says now.) The video acts like ASMR: slow, steady, so quiet you could fall asleep to it.

And despite White telling me that "what I've learned in my life is that privacy is freedom", it appears he has again embraced public life: a few weeks ago he appeared on Louis Theroux's podcast. A new BBC three-part series, Rise of the Rockstar Chef, is due to air in the autumn, bringing White's bad-boy 1990s behaviour to an even bigger audience. (The series is produced by White's one-time protégé, and then rival, Gordon Ramsay; it explores how they, along with Heston Blumenthal, changed British dining culture.) So despite what White might say, that he long ago left that heady life behind, that he is just a one-time chef who now sells branded food products to pubs – he remains, three decades after he opened his first restaurant, a key ingredient in the foodie zeitgeist.

White was born in 1964 to an English father and Italian mother, the third of four sons. He grew up on a council estate in Leeds. When he was six, his mother died of a brain haemorrhage and he watched medics carry her out of their house on a stretcher. "That affects you," he says now, a couple of weeks after the day of filming, over a couple of bottles of rosé at his home in Wiltshire. "Today a child would get therapy," he goes on. "And that's good."

White did not get therapy then and as he grew older he worried about not being good enough in the eyes of his father, who was also a chef. "My father never spoke about my mother," White says, "that was his way of dealing with it." White's way of dealing with it was to move away from home at 16 and begin work as a chef. Cooking became his release. "Gastronomy is

the greatest form of therapy any misfit could ever be exposed to," he says. "It allowed me to express myself with my fingers, because I was incapable of doing it with my words."

After a stint at the Hotel St George, in Harrogate, White moved to the prestigious Box Tree, in Ilkley, where his first job was to pass stock through a sieve, and where he went on to learn the various stations of the classical French "brigade" style kitchen. In 1981, already ambitious, he contacted the famed Le Gavroche in London to ask for a job. The application form arrived by post, written entirely in French, which White did not speak. He binned the form and secured an interview with a different restaurant in the south of England. But from Leeds he had to travel through London and when he missed a connecting train, he walked round London all night and found himself outside Le Gavroche. Returning the next morning, a Friday, he managed to secure a meeting with its legendary chef-patron Albert Roux, who told him to return to Leeds, get his stuff, and report for work on Tuesday. Roux called White his "little genius", before they fell out, as White did with so many of his mentors and protégés. Roux was a giant of British dining in the 1980s; White went on to work with all the others: Nico Ladenis, Pierre Koffmann, Raymond Blanc.

In January 1987, White opened Harveys, in Wandsworth, southwest London. It was the first restaurant he ran and the first in which he had a financial stake. In a small kitchen of just six chefs, White cooked dishes rooted in classical French technique. Some were of his own creation (oyster tagliatelle); others he'd learned from his mentors (Koffmann's still-cited boned and stuffed pig's trotter). Very few chefs open a restaurant at the age of 25, and both Harveys and White quickly gained a reputation. He was awarded a Michelin star the following year. He won a second in 1990.

Everyone who was anyone wanted a table at Harveys: models (Denice D Lewis, Koo Stark), pop royalty (Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan), actual royalty (Princess Margaret). The actor and hellraiser Oliver Reed became a regular. Every year at Christmas, he would call White for advice on how to roast a turkey.

In 1998, the critic AA Gill described White's cooking at Harveys as "passionate... like receiving a love letter". A decade later, in the Times, he selected Harveys as "the most important and influential restaurant of my life as a food writer," in which White "stalked around like Heathcliff in a butcher's apron, throwing out bankers and producing some of the best food in the world."

White's looks – recorded famously by photographer Bob Carlos Clarke – and his uncompromising personality attracted attention. →

MARCO WITH MEAT CLEAVER © THE ESTATE OF BOB CARLOS CLARKE

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Portrait BOB CARLOS CLARKE

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Women sent him explicit letters and enclosed their knickers. In his memoir, Devil in the Kitchen, White wrote he'd sometimes do a lingerie auction before service and that Gordon Ramsay was often the successful bidder. Sometimes White would flirt with women, leading to "casual intimacy" in his office, the women's loos and the restaurant's courtyard. (In his recent appearance on Louis Theroux's podcast, White claimed this was an exaggeration.) Once, when a diner insisted on ordering chips, which weren't on the menu, White personally peeled, hand-cut and cooked a batch, then charged the customer £25 (more than £90 in today's money) for the privilege. A customer later claimed he was the restaurant designer responsible for the decor – hated by White, who hadn't had the funds to change it. When he demanded a freebie, White allegedly punched him repeatedly and threw him out.

White became famous for ejecting rude customers by subjecting them to the "whoosh": waiters would stand round the table and clear it of all plates and glasses, the maitre d' would snatch the tablecloth away and White himself would tell the guests it was time to leave.

When, in 1987, Fay Maschler, the long-serving restaurant critic at the Evening Standard, went to Harveys to review it, she was worried that White might ask her to leave. "It was quite the thing," she told me recently. Maschler decided to wear a wig; White saw through the ruse. "Marco came into the dining room and said: 'Oh, hello Fay. You've had a hair cut. So have I,'" she told me. "The conversation invariably went back to him." Nonetheless, she remembers the food as extraordinary. "His cooking was classical without being in any sense derivative or learned." White would later say that Maschler didn't give him five stars, because he refused to sleep with her. (At the time, Maschler did not award stars to reviews.) "I should have given him five stars," she told me. "And I shouldn't have – and didn't – sleep with him."

In the Harveys days, White would start his Monday at midnight, arriving at the restaurant in the dead of night. "Then I'd work through until close sometime early on Tuesday morning," he says, of his drive. "I've never touched drugs. I was addicted to the stove. There's magic in creating something, in creating dishes. I'm not sure many chefs want to put in the work these days."

Just as White sought perfection, he expected it from his team, and he could be challenging when standards weren't met. "My unmanageable desire for perfection brought out the tetchiness in me," White wrote in his autobiography. If a chef irritated White, he'd make them

stand in the corner of the kitchen – facing him, so at least they'd learn something. He once used a carving knife to slash open the jacket and trousers of a chef who had complained of being "too hot" in the kitchen. It is reported that White is the only chef to make Ramsay cry, though "he was chopping onions and it was his last shift," White says, when the story is brought up now. ("I didn't make Gordon Ramsay cry," White has said previously, more memorably – and more meme-ably. "He made himself cry. That was his choice to cry.")

Phil Howard, now-owner of London restaurants Elystan Street and Notto, remembers a tough kitchen culture. "It was extreme," he told me recently of his time working at Harveys. "He was explosive. Lots of decisions were made 'in the moment'. He would fire chefs on the spot." Howard was sacked mid-service for burning pomme purée. "He told me to 'Fuck off and don't come back.'"

White once used a carving KNIFE to slash open the jacket and trousers of a chef who had complained of being TOO HOT in the kitchen

Howard went to the restaurant Bibendum to work for the chef Simon Hopkinson, but within a year was rehired by White. "Marco was an unbelievable and extraordinary cook," Howard told me. "He brought so much that was new. There's talent out there today, but you can't really measure the singular impact he had when he arrived on the scene."

Roger Pizey, now the executive pastry chef at Fortnum & Mason, also worked at Harveys, and felt the pressure of perfection. Almost 40 years on, he still sounds energised. "The food was unbelievable. It was a great atmosphere," he has said. "Marco was faster and quicker. I've never met a man that could dress a plate as beautifully."

Pizey acknowledges it wasn't always an easy kitchen to work in, but he has fond memories of his time there. He and White were – and remain – keen fishermen, and in their split shifts

they'd sometimes fish together on Wandsworth Common. He also saw White's caring side. "When my mother came to visit me, he sat her in the reception area and afterwards – because I used to live just over the park – he had a waiter, all dressed up with a silver tray and a bowl of fruit and tea and coffee, take her home."

Howard, too, told me that White was an inspiring leader. "I feel him in my soul," he said. "There will never be a restaurant like Harveys again. He was all or nothing, that's how you achieve greatness. It just is. And I was right there with him for a time."

White left Harveys in 1993 and opened the Restaurant Marco Pierre White in the Hyde Park Hotel. It was here, with a bigger kitchen, larger brigade and more capacity to explore techniques, that he pushed for culinary greatness. In 1995, he won three Michelin stars, at a time when earning even one remained a relative rarity in Britain. "These days they give them away," White says of a changed industry. "When I first walked into kitchens, every cook in that kitchen was from a council estate. They were all blue-collar – even though they wore white neckties. Today it's white-collar – you walk into a kitchen now, they're all middle-class."

Four years later, White famously "handed back" his Michelin stars in 1999, stepping away from the stoves, but not from the industry. By the early noughties, he owned well over a dozen restaurants, including Titanic and the celebrity haunt Mirabelle – two of the glitziest and most glamorous dining rooms in London. The city's hospitality industry was booming and hedonism reigned – and White's reputation for ambition, exacting standards and eccentricity continued to grow.

"I remember the launch of Mirabelle in 1998 – it was momentous," the former chef and veteran food writer Bill Knott told me. "As a big beast prowling a dining room, Marco had more charisma in his little finger than any other chef of his generation."

The Mirabelle hadn't been an easy opening. It reportedly cost more than £5m, in part because White was unhappy with the skylights, which he had remade and moved, and because he changed the shade of the wood finishing multiple times. He invited a documentary crew to record the process, then refused to speak with them and tried to have production shut down.

As one of the floor managers at Titanic, restaurant publicist Gemma Bell experienced the new, glitzy era of White firsthand. "It was an incredible time," she told me. "Marco would walk in, very tall and imposing, with a cigar in

ALAMY: GETTY IMAGES

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Marco Pierre White

Marco Pierre White outside Marco in 2008; with employee Gordon Ramsay at Harveys in 1989; with Frankie Dettori at the opening of Frankie's Sports Bar & Grill at Chelsea FC's Stamford Bridge in 2008; and with wife Mati, and Tory Party leader Michael Howard and his wife, Sandra, in 2005

his mouth. He'd come and ask how many we had booked in." Like its name suggests, Titanic was a behemoth space – a 250-cover restaurant. "Even if the restaurant was full, he'd tell us to take more bookings. Always more."

The chef Margot Henderson and her husband Fergus met White when he owned Quo Vadis in Soho's Dean Street. (He co-owned it with Damien Hirst, who had furnished it with his artworks. When they fell out, White removed Hirst's works and replaced them with his own copies.) "In many ways they stood at opposite ends of the food spectrum: Marco, macho, intense and striving; Fergus, gentle, generous and giving," Margot told me recently.

The Hendersons are known for their pared-back, nose-to-tail approach in the kitchen and an appreciation for traditional British cooking – a contrast to White's complicated haute cuisine. And yet they enjoyed his approach. "I ate at his restaurant a couple of times and it was a complete joy," Margot told me recently. "Fergus and I loved it all. We both had a weakness for a glamorous restaurant – and Marco understood glamour."

After White stepped away, he retreated almost entirely from the restaurant scene. He left London for the countryside, departing as quickly and decisively as he'd arrived. Today, he spends his days at his hotel. There have been adverts for Knorr stock cubes and other food brands, as well as online cooking courses for the BBC and the occasional outrageous statement (in 2019, he suggested to the Irish Independent that men were better suited to professional kitchens as they didn't take things as emotionally as women, and they could carry heavier pans), but he mostly fell out of the public consciousness. For years, White held more celebrity in Australia, where he appeared on MasterChef, than he did in the UK.

"People think I've re-emerged," he says now. "I tell them they're wrong. Those videos, the funny videos, I choose to do them." He does enjoy the viewers' comments, he adds. (In the comments for the egg video: "Marco did not crack the eggs. The eggs asked to be cracked. It was their choice.") And yet when he is away from Wiltshire it's often for business, such as doing promo for affiliates such as P&O Cruises. When he does visit restaurants, he still causes a sensation. "He's obviously quite an imposing man," says Ferhat Dirik of the Dalston restaurant Mangal 2, where White stopped in during a rare visit to London earlier this year to promote the food app EatClub. "When he talks, you lock in and you feel flattered. And he's so funny. He has this mad aura."

Guests to the Rudloe Arms may spot him in the bar. He's spent years rewilding his 20-acre estate and now vines hang from the grand house and a "confession bridge" rises and falls over a pond full of lilypads. "If you have something you need to tell me, a secret, we go there," White says, leaning in conspiratorily. There are orchards of apples and mirabelle plums, and walkways through the grounds so people can immerse themselves in swathes of natural grasses and wildflowers.

"Something was telling me that I was rebuilding my childhood... like when I was a boy with my mother in Italy," White says, of the rewilding. "I used to watch them harvesting the figs. Over there," he gestures through the walls and into the night to an area by the restaurant, "we have hundreds of fig trees."

Before 2020, Rudloe Arms was a micro farm. "We had pigs in the woods, Oxford Sandy and Blacks," White says, listing off the other animals – Wiltshire Horn sheep, four Aberdeen Angus cows, turkeys, chickens – before segueing back to his Farmhouse Cuisine line. "Then we turned our pigs into bacon, sausages and black pudding – that's how it all started."

He may insist that he's not back, but with all his various commercial ventures, White is often keen to talk shop. His idiosyncrasies are charming: he has never driven, yet lives in the middle of the countryside; despite his social media ascendancy, he has an old, non-smart phone, which is always ringing. He is forever meeting with suppliers and distributors.

But perhaps now there's something else: contentment. He is, he says, a long way from being "that broken boy, that Humpty Dumpty-type character... still trying to piece myself together" after a difficult childhood. Above all else he remains a romantic. "Whether it's a piece of literature. Whether it's a painting. Whether it's a performance. Whether it's something on a plate. It's about the emotional impact. It's about where it takes you," he says. "The only thing that never dates in this world is romance."

"At 33 years old, I achieved something few chefs achieve," he says. "That was good enough for me. I brought up my children, I went off to continue discovering myself." And this is White now: still cooking, still conducting business, but at a slower pace. "I'm 65 this year," he says, by way of explanation. "I don't seek fame, I never did. I was ruled and fuelled by romance and by fears of failure and my insecurities."

Whether White sought it or not, fame found him and it hasn't let him go. As the last bottle of rosé is finished, White drifts off upstairs to sleep. Because tomorrow, those sausages won't sell themselves.

Additional reporting by Joanna Taylor

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Home & Away

p35

Explore the

Liberties

in Dublin

The Michelin-starred chef

ADEJOKÉ BAKARE

leans into self care at Marylebone Nail Spa in central London

Before I became a chef I got nail extensions, powder gel and nail art every two weeks. Once I started cooking, out went the pretty designs and in came the standard BIAB [Builder In A Bottle] manicure, which is a thin, colourless coat that protects my natural nails. Chefs aren't really supposed to do it, but it's the way I feel pampered. I was the oldest girl out of my siblings and often the one taking care of them. It's easy to get bogged down in the service of others and important to remember to take care of yourself, too. — Marylebone Nail Spa is just around the corner from my house, run by a dynamic woman called Kim. Everyone who works there is warm and welcoming – they seem to know every person that walks by – and makes you feel like a part of the fabric of the neighbourhood. It's the kind of place where you can chat for the whole hour you're there, or say "I don't want to talk today" and that is OK. — Everyone who runs a restaurant is going through it at the moment. How to get more people through the door and how to get the regulars to keep coming, is always in the back of my mind, worrying me constantly. When I get my nails done I can't use my phone, so it's a chance to close my eyes and listen to music or an audiobook – or be transported to the world in my head.

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HOME & AWAY

In Jersey, a farm cottage sparks a homecoming

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HOME & AWAY

The family project room of interior designer Naemi Prahm and architect Tim Norman, which divides their home from their studio's workspace

In 2021, the designer Naemi Prahm, 44, and her husband, architect Tim Norman, 43, began restoring a modest granite cottage in the yard of his family's 17th-century farm on Jersey, in the Channel Islands. At the time Prahm was working alongside designer Ilse Crawford, at Studio Ilse, and Norman ran his own London-based architectural practice focusing on residential projects from Cumbria to Fife to the Channel Islands. What started as a side project and a rescue mission to restore the property at the request of Norman's parents – they are the 12th generation to occupy the main, adjoining farmhouse – slowly evolved into something altogether more transformative. Over the years the three-bedroom dwelling, which is known as Le Clocheton ("small bell tower") for its still operational chime, has been inhabited by Norman's →

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HOME & AWAY

grandmother, Marguerite, a pair of great great aunts and a farming couple and their cow. But it then lay empty for two decades. When the couple took it on, its interior hadn't been touched since the 1980s. "The house was not initially being restored for anyone in particular," says Prahm. "The original idea was just to stop it falling apart." But as they got to work, she says, a bigger, more compelling thought began to percolate: could this house actually be for them?

Rather than a sudden epiphany, it was a notion that gradually took hold, eventually becoming a catalyst for the family – Naemi, Tim and their young son, Theo, now eight – to leave their lives in east London. "Moving to Jersey was always on the horizon, but much further down the line," she says. The decision instigated another seismic shift – to join forces professionally and establish their own wife-and-husband interior design and architecture studio: Norman-Prahm.

Four years after settling into the two-storey property, which lies to the windswept southwest of the island seven miles from the capital, St Helier, they haven't looked back. "This part of the island is known for its surfing, its sunsets and its wildness," says Norman. For Prahm, who grew up in Hamburg, and studied scenic painting for theatre sets in Dresden and later interior design at the Glasgow School of Art, it was her first full immersion in rural life.

The daughter of a decorative painter (her mother ran a workshop in Hamburg), Prahm's background in painting informed the palette at Le Clocheton, where each floor is swathed in a single neutral tone. The biggest challenge was finding a colour that worked in both the lighter, south-facing rooms and the darker, north-facing ones, and could also endure the quick-changing weather conditions of the coast. They settled on Stony Ground from Farrow & Ball downstairs, while upstairs the bedrooms and bathrooms are daubed in Little Greene's Joanna. The idea, says Prahm, is to create, "a calm frame for life to sit in" – though not before dealing with leaking PVC dormer windows, replacing concrete insulation with breathable cork and sorting out the plumbing and electrics.

Much of the interior's warmth stems from the couple's forensic focus on natural materials and reclaimed architectural elements, including hinges, lintels and remnants of local Jersey granite, often gathered from the farm's grounds. The house is entered from the rear,

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'In one corner is a pulley for the bell tower, now used to call in their son from the garden'

through a rectangular tongue-and-groove panelled hallway, where an 18th-century Jersey map hangs above a vintage lacquer cabinet arranged with everything from oyster shells found in the local market to an old shrimping basket unearthed in the stables, which nods to the Norman family's roots in basket production in northwestern France. The entrance gives way, through a sliding wooden door, to the kitchen, where they have installed Douglas-fir cabinetry and flooring, granite worktops and a utility space lined with Ketley Quarry tiles. In one corner is the pulley for the bell tower, now used to call in their son from the garden at mealtimes, which are fuelled by the industrious growing of their parents. The current crop is apricots, courgettes and tomatoes, the farm's mainstay before it ceased production in the 1950s.

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HOME & AWAY

‘The house was not initially being restored for us. The original idea was just to stop it falling apart’

Next door, in the sitting room, Norman’s grandmother’s Arts and Crafts chair is positioned alongside an assortment of restored furniture, some pulled from the attics of the main house. The large interior links straight into the neighbouring stables, which the couple has transformed into a lime-plaster-walled work studio. Its mezzanine floor connects back into the house’s third bedroom, currently employed as the family’s art project space. The connectivity between the buildings, says Norman, is very much in the island’s vernacular. “Jersey buildings are always being adapted by adding an extra shed or a lean-to on to the gable of another house. It’s what gives them flow.”

Le Clocheton has quickly become a cornerstone of the couple’s practice and a testament to their sensitivity towards restoration. They’re currently working on an end-of-terrace family home in Hampstead and a Victorian villa in east London. What makes their collaboration work, alongside a constant dialogue, is their clearly defined roles: Norman focuses on the building, Prahm on the interior. “It would be harder if we were both architects,” she says. Not that it has been without its challenges: the family lived in the main house for 18 months before moving into Le Clocheton. Yet it’s during that time that they became integrated into the broader rhythms and rituals of life on the farm.

For their son, Theo, one of the most exciting parts of his new house is the well-disguised jib door on the second floor that leads through a deep, tunnel-like recess into his grandparents’ place. “We call it the wormhole,” says Prahm. It’s the same secret route Norman used to visit his own granny, but in reverse.

Living so close to the sea has its perks. They swim at weekends, through the winter (with the help of plenty of chocolate and a Kelly Kettle), and Norman has already mapped 86% of Jersey’s rural lanes by bike. “I’m number one on the island’s Wandrer app leaderboard,” he says. The biggest homecoming surprise, though, has been just how much the rugged charm of the island’s terrain has taken ahold of him anew. “After being away for 22 years,” he says, “it’s never going to get old.” ●

Norman and Prahm in the courtyard of their family’s 17th-century farm – with a trug of rhubarb from the vegetable garden

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MONGOOSE

Chef-owner Keelan Higgs describes the offering at Mongoose - buzzy new sister to his Michelin-starred Variety Jones, next door - as "simple food at a good price, a lot of it cooked over fire". He's underselling it, but the unfussily delicious dishes - coal-roasted kohlrabi, porchetta with gremolata - are well-priced by Dublin standards. And the pasta is sublime. Open Sundays to Tuesdays only.

FALLON'S

This small, perfectly formed corner bar, dating back to the 1600s, has - mercifully - changed very little over the past century. There's no music, the television is rarely on and the Guinness is consistently excellent, benefiting from a very short draw from the keg. On warm evenings, crowds spill out on to the pavement; on colder nights, bag a seat in the snug - and a cheese toastie.

THE FUMBALLY

Since 2012 this spacious café at the lower edge of the Liberties has been a linchpin of the Dublin food scene: it's the birthplace of cult food brands Harry's Nut Butter and White Mausu. It also hosts gigs, markets and fermentation workshops, provides excellent breakfasts and lunches (plus Friday dinners) and offers Irish products to take home.

TEELING DISTILLERY

Before a steep decline in the 20th century, the Liberties was a hub for brewing and distilling in Dublin. Now it's thriving again, and if you must choose between visits to Guinness, Roe & Co, Dublin Liberties, Pearse Lyons and Teeling, opt for the latter. Guided tours start from €22, but it's worth spending an extra €4 for the Trinity option, which allows you to sample the three key whiskeys.

In the Neighbourhood

THE LIBERTIES

Dublin

This diverse, historic, central neighbourhood has quietly become one of the city's most exciting areas without losing its working-class identity. Tourists flock to the Guinness Storehouse and the two cathedrals, Christ Church and St Patrick's, but there are plenty more reasons to visit: a vibrant art scene, music venues, antique shops, markets and some of the best bars and restaurants in the city. And a resurgent drinks industry is bringing the Liberties back to its 19th-century brewing and distilling heyday. • KILLIAN FOX

MARROWBONE BOOKS

There's a terrific selection of second-hand books at this cosy, yellow-fronted shop on Marrowbone Lane. Into the tiny space they also (somehow) squeeze in after-hours film screenings, music sessions and readings.

URBAN PLANT LIFE

Even if you don't have baggage space for cacti, venus fly traps or tree ferns, it's worth dropping in on this marvellous garden centre that sprawls across an old industrial site on Cork Street. The plant selection is dizzying and the staff are generous with their time and knowledge.

PICADO

A delightful Mexican food shop that opens out into a cooking school at the back. Join a tortilla-making workshop, or simply buy a pack of Picado's excellent blue-corn tortillas (they also sell house-made dried chillies and sauces). Once a month, on a Sunday afternoon, it transforms into a not-to-be-missed taco pop-up.

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JOLÉEN CRONIN

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A DASH

of delicious

NO SUGAR

NO SWEETENERS

NO CALORIES

Certified

B

Corporation

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Cravings

Grab some crab

KITCHEN DIARY NIGEL SLATER

There are six little cakes turning golden in the frying pan, each has a crust of crisp breadcrumbs and, inside, soft, rust-flecked crabmeat. We will eat them with a sweet-hot paste that smacks of citrus and green chilli. There is a salad of sweet, ripe mango and lime juice, a little cucumber and some chopped mint leaves. The cakes are salty, sweet, sour, hot and crisp. Crabmeat is expensive, so I eke it out with breadcrumbs, soften it with a dollop of good mayonnaise and spike it with citrus zest. If the day had →

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Portrait CHARLIE CLIFT

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CRAVINGS

been scorching, then I would have spread that crab on thick, white bread, with sliced cucumber and deep green watercress to give me the king of summer sandwiches, but today the crabcakes beckoned.

Those little cakes can also hit the spot when rolled in a large, crunchy iceberg lettuce leaf (half an hour in a bowl of iced water will crisp the leaves up). Use the coriander jam as a dip for the crabcake parcel.

The rest of the week's eating has been about salads, mostly involving a hot element. I made a red chilli paste rub for chicken (Thai red chilli paste, olive oil, lemon juice), sliced into thick strips and tossed it with ice-cold rice noodles and matchsticks of cucumber. A midweek supper included a plate of burrata served with a mixture of cooked fresh peas, dressed with a purée of basil leaves and olive oil.

I made the best smoothie of the summer, blitzing orange juice with raspberries and pieces of watermelon in the blender until frothy. The scarlet cocktail formed part of a Sunday breakfast that included a summer frittata made with cooked new potatoes, mint and rosemary, that we cut into thick wedges and ate with slices of smoked trout.

Crab cakes with coriander jam

I like to keep the cakes small, about 4cm in diameter, which makes them easier to turn in the pan. It is crucial to leave them to develop a crisp crust on the bottom before turning. The oil should be hot before you lower them into the pan using a palette knife to encourage the crust to crisp. It is probably best to do them in batches. I cook six little ones at a time in a large 28cm pan, keeping the first batch warm until the second is ready. Sometimes I stir a little yoghurt into the coriander jam for a milder sauce.

Serves 4. Ready in 90 minutes

mixed white and brown crabmeat 500g

fresh white bread 200g

green chilli 1

parsley 15g

lime 1

mayonnaise 3 tbsp

panko breadcrumbs 6 tbsp

halved limes to serve

For the spicy coriander jam:

caster sugar 85g

water 120ml

white wine vinegar 50ml

fish sauce 2 tbsp

garlic 3 cloves

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green chilli 1 or 2 small

ginger 35g

lemongrass 2 stems

lime 1

coriander leaves 25g

Put the crabmeat in a bowl and check thoroughly for any bits of shell. Using a food processor or a coarse grater, reduce the bread to soft, coarse breadcrumbs, then add to the crabmeat. Halve the chilli lengthways, remove the seeds and stalk, then finely chop.

Remove the leaves from the parsley, finely chop and add to the crabmeat together with the chilli. Finely grate the lime zest and stir into the crabmeat along with the mayonnaise. The mixture needs to be thick enough to shape into patties – if it seems too soft, introduce a few more breadcrumbs. Too dry and crumbly, use a little more mayonnaise. Season with salt and little black pepper.

Tip the panko crumbs into a shallow dish. Form the crab mixture into 12 small cakes, then drop each one into the panko crumbs and pat firmly to coat, then turn and repeat with the other side. Be as gentle as you can. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 45 minutes to an hour for them to firm up.

To make the coriander jam, put the caster sugar and water into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Let it bubble until it starts to turn golden and syrupy, around 5-6 minutes. Pour in the white wine vinegar and the fish sauce, continue cooking for a couple of minutes, then remove and leave to cool.

Peel the garlic cloves and drop them into a blender jug or food processor. Halve, seed and add the chilli. Scrape the skin from the ginger (I find this easiest to do with the edge of a spoon), then grate to a soft paste. Add to the garlic.

Remove the root end of the lemongrass, peel away the toughest of the leaves, then finely slice the core. Add the lemongrass together with the grated zest and juice of the lime. Roughly chop the coriander and add to the blender, then pour in the cooled syrup and process to a rough, wet paste. Transfer to a small bowl and refrigerate.

To cook the cakes, warm a thin film of oil in a wide, shallow-sided pan, when it is hot, place a few of the crab cakes in the pan and let them cook for 3 or 4 minutes until they have formed a thin, golden crust on the underside. Carefully turn over the cakes and cook until the other side is golden. Remove and keep warm, then cook another batch.

Serve hot with spoonfuls of the spicy coriander jam and perhaps half a lime for squeezing.

Lemon mascarpone, cherry and grapefruit

Use orange zest if you prefer, and swap the cherries for raspberries as you wish.

Serves 4. Ready in 30 minutes, plus chilling time

double cream 200ml

mascarpone 250g

grated lemon zest 2 tsp

icing sugar 2 tbsp

pink grapefruits 2

cherries 250g

Pour the cream into a chilled mixing bowl and beat until thick. The texture should be firm enough to hold a soft shape but stiff enough to stand in peaks.

Stir the mascarpone to loosen it, then stir gently into the cream. Take care not to overmix. Mix in the grated lemon zest and icing sugar. Place in the fridge while you prepare the fruit.

Using a very sharp cook's knife, remove the peel and white pith from the grapefruits. Remove the segments of flesh, saving as much of the juice as possible. Remove the stalks from the cherries, cut each cherry in half, then remove and discard the stones. Mix the cherries with the segments of grapefruit and their juice and chill thoroughly.

Place spoonfuls of the lemon mascarpone in shallow bowls, then spoon the fruit and its juices around the cream. If you like, scatter with edible flower petals. ●

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CRAVINGS

Because I am a north Londoner, I feel a special kind of calm when I sit down in an ocakbaşı, a Turkish charcoal grill restaurant, and let the air, thick with lamb fat and smoke, wash over me. I’ve heard of out-of-town food writers who can’t plan a London itinerary without including Dalston’s Umut 2000, and of chefs who gravitate towards the restaurant’s lamb ribs late at night after a long day at their own coalface. But I’ve never been to this ocakbaşı in east London that is most celebrated by people we might consider foodies or influencers...

RESTAURANTS
LAURA GOODMAN

Yeni Umut 2000

6 Crossway, London N16 8HX
(umut2000dalston.shop).
Starters from £5.50, mains £13-28,
drinks BYO, no corkage fee

And so here I am in Dalston, with my husband, on a Friday lunchtime. I’m ready. Yeni Umut 2000 sits on a busy crossroads next to Turkish baths and close to Dalston Kingsland station. The chef has momentarily stepped away from his position at the mangal (grill) to stand at the door hollering something jolly to the chef of the place opposite. It’s quiet inside, with just one hovering delivery driver and another table for two. On the left is the hearth, next to a counter filled with skewers of marinated meats and trays of pickles and lemon wedges. The counter foretells a busier dinner service.

To start we get mücver (courgette fritters), one of my life’s cornerstone dishes. We also order hummus kavurma (hummus served with lamb’s liver and butter) and grilled aubergine salad. To the table comes a bowl of bread, seductively shimmering with seasoned fat, an onion and parsley salad, and a mixed salad. I am eating enthusiastically, but I’m not speaking because I’m starting to panic. Mücver, as I know and love them, are crisp but pillowy and cheesy, and bursting with fresh courgette, dill and parsley. These thin, underseasoned ones are served on a bed of lettuce that – I’m sorry to report – is brown. The aubergine salad tastes almost exclusively of raw garlic, with no tang or herby freshness to speak of. And I can’t work out what’s happening with the hummus. Why would hummus with butter on it not taste good? The butter doesn’t taste... buttery. The lamb’s liver, though, grilled on skewers with pieces of fat in between the chunks, is juicy and tender – and quickly demolished.

Onwards. I have heard only good things about the lamb ribs. These are fantastic – divinely salty and smoky, with crisped edges and tender meat. You should come here for these alone. I realise I’m missing yoghurt at my table, something that always gives me the feeling of abundance and possibility. So now here comes the chicken shish with yoghurt. But the chicken sits in a sauce that is soupy and thin, and tastes only of tomatoes, with a dollop of yoghurt on top.

I go back to my post-lunch desk a little shellshocked, a little unsatisfied. I worry that I’ve done the good people of Yeni Umut 2000 a disservice by eating at lunchtime, when their coals are not yet glowing for the masses.

A few days later, I take my kids to the other Umut 2000 in Green Lanes after school. Though everyone talks about the two locations

40

Photograph SOPHIA EVANS

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CRAVINGS

Umut 2000

551 Green Lanes, London N8 0RL (instagram.com/umut2000haringey). Starters from £7, mains £16–£25, drinks BYO, no corkage fee

in the same breath, it seems they've been under separate management in recent years. Someone at Green Lanes tells me the owners are brothers, though I can't get anyone at Dalston to cor- roborate that. There are only tiny differences between the menus. On Green Lanes, there is an end-of-day but not-quite-evening bustle of scooters and chicken wraps that I enjoy so much I start idly wondering if we can move here. I feel light sitting down, while my children "help" the staff lay the table.

In no time, the table is resplendent with things that taste wonderful alone and sing on the plate together. There's not only the onion and parsley salad, but also my favourite grilled onion one, dressed with pomegran- ate molasses. I ordered soslu patlican (sauced aubergine) and tzatziki, but the staff give us hummus and spinach tarator (spinach yoghurt dip), too, just to be legends. The butter on the hummus is browned to nutty perfection. The spinach dip has the creamy tang I missed at my previous table, with yet more magical brown butter. The soslu patlican is supple, flavoursome and sweetly collapsed. "Just look at that table," I am saying, to no one. My non-sesame- allergic child is dipping chips in brown-but- ter hummus, and my sesame-allergic child has been given her own basket of unseasoned bread by a thoughtful waiter. The colour! The personality! The verve! The table is alive, as it should be. The chicken wings have the crisp, smoky char of the lamb ribs, and we all gnaw at them hungrily.

I see the chef chopping something and ask what it is. A few minutes later, he sends us a dish of ezme salad (finely chopped tomatoes with onion, green pepper, parsley and sumac). We get a different yoghurt kebab, a lamb shish one. It's served the same way, but the sauce is rich and spiced, and, mixed with the yoghurt, it's perfect.

The disparity between my two experiences was vast. Perhaps it was the difference between lunch and dinner services, or the weight of my expectations, or perhaps Dalston was just having a bad day. It had been hot for a very long time. One day around this time, my kids stared at a dead (and headless) pigeon at the park for longer than was advisable. It was hard out there.

I can say two things with certainty: get those lamb ribs down you, and make sure there is yoghurt on your table. I learned a lot from this about trusting my own judgment. Reviews are handy, but I recommend you trust yours, too. ●

WINE

DAVID WILLIAMS

ROBERT SAMUEL HANSON

Melting points

When it comes to wine and the climate crisis, you can, if you squint very hard through the wildfire smoke, perhaps see the wineglass as half full. Certainly, there are those of a Pollyannish temperament who are happy to play up the benefits. Newspaper articles and end-of-the- bulletin TV news segments extolling the oppor- tunities that have opened up for winegrowers in hitherto impossible viticultural regions in the global far north have become a staple of wine coverage in recent years, with reporters taking great relish in making up French-inspired coin- ages for the emergence of drinkable bottles from the no longer absurd, no longer too cold extremities: Bergen Grand Cru, Côtes de Riga, Réserve d'Hokkaido.

Those same reporters might also mention how much easier it is now to ripen grapes con- sistently in such once-marginal classic regions as the Mosel, the Loire and Champagne, and even point out that, generally speaking, the quality gap between good and bad vintages has narrowed in wine's European heartland regions.

It's hard, however, to find many traces of this optimism if you spend time with winegrowers in established regions, most of whom strug- gle to see the proverbial glass as anything other than half empty, its contents rapidly evaporat- ing. Every year, it seems, brings a new unwel- come record, another bewildering advance in what can seem like an inexorable and acceler- ating rush to the end of wine as we know it.

One measure is the advance of picking times.

Winegrowers try to pick at the precise moment when the grapes offer an optimum balance of sugar, acidity and the phenolic compounds that determine the future wine's flavour and texture. In recent years, that point has advanced by as much as three weeks in many parts, with Burgundy growers in the 2020s, for example, starting their harvest in late August or early September rather than in late September, as was the case in the 1980s.

But it's not just the change in baseline con- ditions that worries growers. Of perhaps even greater concern is the rise in sudden and extreme weather events: drought, wildfires and hail can all be devastating. Late spring frosts can wipe out the fragile, tender growth of vines that have developed much earlier than they used to as a result of warmer winter and spring- time temperatures. And, in those recent vin- tages where warmer temperatures have been matched with rain, rampant mildew has been a persistent and growing problem.

What saves this correspondent from com- plete despondency is the ingenuity of growers. This might mean using cooler sites, at higher altitudes – such as the once-neglected Burgundy uplands, used to make the lithe red pinot noir of Domaine Denis Carré Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune 2021 (£17.85, Berry Bros & Rudd). It could be a matter of using heat-hardy, long- adapted local grape varieties, such as Mallorca's callet and manto negro in the savoury-spicy, suave-textured M&S Found Balearic Island Red (£12, Marks & Spencer). Or it might mean calling on disease-resistant hybrid grape vari- eties in a newly viable land, such as the tangy, crunchy, red plum-succulent red of Planters Ridge Quintessence 2022, made from lucie kuhlmann, castel and marquette in Nova Scotia (£24.95, St Andrews Wine). It may look a little different, but whatever it takes, wine still has a future. ●

Wine of the Week

M&S Found Balearic Island Red 2022, £12, Marks & Spencer

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FOOD STYLING BY EMMA CANTLAY; PROP STYLING BY LOUIS WALLER

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Photographs KIM LIGHTBODY

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CRAVINGS

CHEF AT LARGE RAVNEET GILL

Sweet for summer

Summer desserts are at their best when they feel generous but not heavy; fruit at its brightest, flavours that feel familiar but still a little special because we've waited so long for them. I love puddings that can be made ahead, especially when the weather is warm; you want something waiting in the fridge rather than something that needs too much last-minute attention when you'd rather be relaxing. A clear strawberry jelly, a softly baked fruit tart, or a chilled custard tart all have that lovely feeling of effort without the panic. These are the sorts of desserts that suit long lunches, garden tables, family dinners and anything that needs a little flourish with very little fuss.

These recipes here are about simple pleasures done properly: ripe fruit, good dairy, crisp pastry, enough salt and the confidence to let a few strong ingredients do most of the work. They are summery, make-ahead and really very delicious.

Strawberry jelly, shortbread and chantilly cream

This is a beautifully simple summer pudding: clear, softly set strawberry jelly served with crisp golden shortbread and a spoonful of chantilly cream. Fresh strawberries are wonderful here, but frozen strawberries work brilliantly, too, because they give up their juice so generously. As you're not eating them whole it feels less hurtful to use frozen ones over fresh – keep the fresh ones for serving with.

Serves 4. Ready in 5 hours, with chilling time strawberries 500g, frozen or fresh water 250ml

caster sugar 75g, or to taste lemon juice 1 tbsp

gold gelatine leaves 3 (or enough to set 500ml liquid according to instructions)

For the shortbread:

unsalted butter 150g, softened golden caster sugar 75g plain flour 225g fine salt ½ tsp

For the chantilly cream: double cream 200ml icing sugar 1 tbsp vanilla extract ½ tsp

To make the jelly, hull the strawberries if using fresh fruit. Put the strawberries, water, sugar and lemon juice into a saucepan and warm gently until the berries have softened and released their juice. Do not boil hard, as this can make the jelly cloudy.

Remove from the heat and leave to steep for 20 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve or muslin without pressing too hard. Weigh or measure the liquid. You want around 500ml. If you have less, top it up with a little water.

Soak the gelatine leaves for 5 minutes in cold water until soft. Warm a small amount of the strawberry liquid. Squeeze out the gelatine and stir it into the warm berry juice until dissolved. Mix back into the remaining berry liquid. Pour into glasses or moulds and chill for at least 4 hours, or until set.

To make the shortbread, heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Beat the butter and sugar together until smooth. Add the flour and salt, and mix until a soft dough forms. Press into a lined tin or roll out and cut into batons. Chill for 20 minutes.

Bake the shortbread for 18–25 minutes, depending on shape and thickness, until pale golden at the edges. Cool completely.

For the cream, whisk everything together until soft peaks form. Serve a spoonful alongside the jellies (either turned out or in their glasses) with the pieces of shortbread. →

'These desserts suit long lunches, garden tables, family dinners...'

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Crème fraîche mango tart

This tart is creamy, gently sharp and sunny, with mango bringing a soft tropical sweetness to the filling. Tinned mango is absolutely fine here; I really like using it and a lot of other chefs do, too. The great thing is that you can usually find it in large tins in lots of large supermarkets.

Makes a 20cm tart. Ready in 4 hours, including chilling time mango purée 250g, from fresh, frozen or drained tinned mango

crème fraîche 200g

double cream 100ml

large eggs 2

caster sugar 75g

lime juice 1 tbsp

lime 1, zest finely grated

fine salt a pinch

sweet pastry case 1 x 20cm, blind-baked (see method and recipe, right)

Heat the oven to 150C/gas mark 2. Put the mango purée, crème fraîche, double cream, eggs, sugar, lime juice, lime zest and salt into a bowl. Whisk gently until smooth. Try not to incorporate too much

air. Pour the filling into the blind-baked pastry case.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the tart is just set with a slight wobble in the centre. The exact time will depend on the depth of your tart case.

Leave to cool at room temperature, then chill for at least 2 hours before slicing. Serve cold or just below room temperature, with extra lime zest and a dollop of crème fraîche if you like.

Sweet pastry case

This is a crisp, short sweet pastry for lining tart shells. The key is to work the dough only until it comes together, rest it properly, then line the tart case thinly so the finished shell is delicate rather than heavy. Use when chilled and if it starts to warm up, pop it on a lined tray and back in the fridge.

Makes about 400g pastry or 1 x 20cm tart case

plain flour 190g

icing sugar 55g

sea salt flakes a pinch, finely crushed

cold unsalted butter 122g

medium egg yolks 2

Mix the plain flour, icing sugar and salt together in a bowl. Add the cold diced butter and rub it into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. You can also do this in a mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the egg yolks and mix until a dough has just formed. Do not overwork it.

Bring the dough together gently, shape into a flat round, wrap and chill for at least 1 hour before using.

Before lining the tart shell, knead the dough very briefly just to make it workable. Roll it out thinly and line the tart tin, making sure the pastry is not too thick. Press it neatly into the edges, trim the excess and chill again until firm.

To blind bake the pastry case, heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Line the pastry with baking parchment and fill with baking beans. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the edges are golden. Remove the baking beans and parchment, then return the case to the oven for a further 10-15 minutes, or until the inside is golden and fully baked.

If needed, brush the inside of the case lightly with egg wash and return it to the oven for 3-4 minutes, or until sealed.

Allow the pastry case to cool completely before filling. ●

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CRAVINGS

Just the tonic

The bittersweet mixer is having another comeback – and its pairing prowess goes well beyond gin

Picture this: the sun is setting a peach-melba hue on the Atlantic behind Parque da Cidade in Porto. Throngs of millennials and Gen-Xers fizz with anticipation as they ready themselves for the sprechegang sneer of Damon Albarn as Gorillaz on the Friday night of Primavera Sound festival. I am one of them, queuing for a glass of something fitting – a porto tónico (port and tonic), to be precise.

After two days already in the fortified wine’s eponymous home, I’ve become very familiar with this national serve. So imagine my surprise when I discover that such a veracious thirst has been had for it, that it’s sold out. Cockburn’s Port & Tonic sales were up 150% from the previous year, with more than 5,000 serves poured at the festival.

Who would have thought that a Portuguese fortified wine would be the headline act of a music festival? But as I touched back down in London, the home of tonic, it seems that a re-revolution is also happening for the bittersweet mixer.

“In my near-20 years working as a bartender, I have seen tonic go from being a slightly obscure choice, to the undisputed king of mixers,” says cocktail industry veteran Iain McPherson, who runs Panda & Sons and Nauticus in Edinburgh.

Made using quinine, a bitter alkaloid that occurs naturally in the South American cinchona tree, tonic water has journeyed from medicinal use on 19th-century naval ships, to its patenting in London in 1858 and premiumisation in the early noughties (with an explosion of varieties).

Gin has historically been its most formidable companion, but as the botanical spirit’s star faded in more recent years, tonic-makers have had to think on their feet to stay afizz.

“While tonic benefited from the relationship with gin, it’s now driving its own success solo,” recognises Pippa Guy, co-owner of Bristol bar Same Again. There are continually new flavours from boutique brands – this year London Essence launched what it claims to be the UK’s only zero-sugar tonic; and Fever-Tree has long campaigned to reposition tonic as a standalone drink. Meanwhile, Schweppes remains an industry favourite due to its superior fizz.

“Tonic is extremely complex,” McPherson says. “The bittersweet flavour profile allows it to go well with most spirits, vermouths and amaros.”

Bars up and down the country are experimenting with tonic not just as a mixer but in cocktails, too. At Same Again, Guy has combined rum, peated whisky, baked pear and tonic to make her light wintery highball, “Unlikely Pear”, while the “Fresh Prince” aperitivo comprises rum, strawberry and marigold-washed Aperol, white grapefruit and tonic.

Its bittersweet character means tonic also pairs well with other acerbic flavours. “Some people might not like a Campari and tonic or a coffee tonic, but I love doubling down on the bitter,” says Guy. The bite of gentian in non-alcoholic aperitif Botivo, for example, works wonders, as does the herbal backbone of artichoke-based amaro Cynar. Dirty Martini Tonics have been doing the rounds on TikTok recently.

Make sure you do your tonic justice, though. Cold and crackling is the aim of the game. “Two things people often overlook are to always keep your tonic in the fridge and use plenty of ice,” says McPherson. “Cold tonic and a super cold drink keeps the bubbles flowing until the last sip.” ●

MIX IT UP: TONIC-PAIRING ALTERNATIVES

WHITE PORT

The aromatic brightness of white port makes it the perfect match for our bittersweet hero. Graham’s Blend No 5 white port is especially good value – garnish with lemon, lime and mint.

ESPRESSO

For a seriously grown-up non-alc, pour tonic over ice, then layer on a shot (30ml) of cooled espresso. Add a slice of orange for some citrus lift.

BLANCO TEQUILA

Known as a TNT, this combination is a brilliant way of experimenting with the agave spirit. Go for citrusy or herbaceous tequilas and add a pinch of salt to the mix, too.

VERMOUTH

A low-abv alternative, tonic and vermouth – in all its forms, from dry to sweet – is a light and sessionable option. A double-shot (60ml) of vermouth really punches through with flavour.

SAKE

Be sure to pay attention to how delicate your sake is, but play around with cherry blossom or yuzu tonic for a wholly Japanese theme.

DRINKS MILLIE MILCIKEN

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What's On My Mind

YOEL NOORALI

The London-based writer is known for his darkly humorous stories and essays. His debut collection of short stories, The Kingdom, draws on his experiences working in the NHS

Keeping baby alive: 75%

I'd read that if you blare Beethoven at a foetus it exits the womb wearing a bow tie. Not so. The actual baby can barely do anything, least of all keep itself alive. In fact, to believe the antenatal classes my wife forced me to attend, babies are born actively wanting to die. That's the baby's sole objective, and the sole objective of the father is to stand in its way. So far, I've found this to be mostly true of my four-month-old, Vincent, borne out by his nightly screaming, which sounds exactly like he's trying to die and will if he isn't attended to immediately when, of course, the only problem is he's gone without a cuddle for an hour.

Drinking in order to stay sane: 15%

If Vincent can't nap I throw him in his pram and pour out a pint of wine to drink as I rove our local green spaces, trying not to cry or collapse. Other parents judging me for drinking what I hope looks like "Ribena" while my baby cries embarrasses me enough to circle a nearby cemetery, though not nearly enough to stop downing the "Ribena" in front of mourners, as they watch me lap the graves almost at a jog – I'd briefly convinced myself that the faster the pram, the faster the crying stops, like a drunken child-thief.

Gaining my child's love: 5%

It seems only natural that children would hate the people who forced them to live and, ultimately, die, so I've been surprised to find that my child is at least open to liking me. Simply by being present I earn his adoration: he's that undiscerning. But he also has no memory and, simply by being absent, I may earn his disfavour. Thus, even during the reprieves from the parenting, my wife shrieks for me to come and witness some new miracle equal to the aurora borealis, and this spectacular event I would have been "an idiot to miss" is inevitably just the baby holding something or even only his own head up. Still, I applaud all of our czar's utterly underwhelming triumphs and when I cheer and whistle his smile is so overpowering that it shakes his whole body and he falls over.

Own happiness: 4%

When I told other fathers that Vincent was due they all murmured things like "solidarity", as if we were about to mount an impossible

class war, which in a sense fathers do, because from the moment our babies are born we, as fathers, are inferior, forever trying and failing to assert our needs against those of the king, the pharaoh, who is your partner's child.

Any shreds of happiness I now derive from small joys, like how my wife and I can finally refer to one another in the third person, addressing remarks such as "How did Daddy manage to put your top on backwards?" or "Has Mummy forgotten to buy Daddy's

Ribena?" directly to the baby, who enables us to air our grievances in this much softer register. Beyond that, happiness these days looks like seizing any excuse to leave the flat. "Daddy's going to the bins!" I'll shout, carrying a bag out the door, and then I take a moment to savour just standing by the dumpsters, maybe texting with another dad. "Don't tell me you're by the bins, too?"

Writing to earn money to survive: 1%

My wife encourages me to devote the remaining 1% of my life to the written word, which is supposed to pay for my 50% of the bills. Money is a siren that screams continually inside my head. When my wife went into labour, the hospital sent us home three times, resulting in six Uber fees, and I'm starting to worry I might never find the right moment to ask, "Would you mind transferring me your half of the money for those cabs we shared?"

So from the day Vincent was born, I've been slowly driving myself into financial ruin. I'd like to write more, to earn money, but my mind is so totally colonised by the child that I'm left with no material except him to write about. But who cares? The sadness of writing's depreciation isn't that this former source of purpose suddenly matters less but rather the realisation

that it never mattered as much as I thought. This activity I'd invested incalculable time and energy into, believing nothing to be more significant, pales in significance next to 6kg of flesh, which despite all of this cheap sarcasm, is indeed magical. Life viewed through the eyes of Vincent regains its colour. I'm amazed by what amazes him. I'm amazed by the bins.

The only thing that could make it more colourful, more amazing, would be the money for the cabs. ●

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Illustration ALMA HASER

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Lifeboats

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30 YEARS AS A CREW MEMBER

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The cost of courage

Phil Vickery and the fight of his life

Four-page special report about brain injuries in sport

The Observer Sport

THE OBSERVER 02.08.26

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2

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

This week

Reporting by Alex Bowmer & Andrew Butler

The week in brief

Italian legend Baresi dies at 66 following illness

Franco Baresi, the legendary former AC Milan and Italy defender, has died at the age of 66 following a period of illness. In only his second season in senior football, the teenage Baresi excelled as both a sweeper and a centre-back, helping the Rossoneri to the first of six Serie A titles during his 19-year spell in the club's first team, 15 of which were spent as captain. He also won three European Cups with Milan, and guided them back to the top flight immediately following two relegations. His No 6 shirt was retired following the conclusion of his playing career in 1997. The high point of his Italy career was helping the Azzurri win their third

James Doyle rode 16-1 shot Evening Saigon to victory in the The Coral Stewards' Cup at Goodwood yesterday, coming home ahead of Stratusnine, with Mitbaahy and Completely Random making up the top four. Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

5-0

Justin Greaves's figures in one spell for West Indies against Pakistan

World Cup in 1982 before being part of the side that agonisingly lost to Brazil on penalties in the 1994 final. Following lung surgery last summer, Baresi was last seen publicly as a torchbearer for February's Winter Olympics opening ceremony at, fittingly, San Siro.

Stones makes Inter move as Lacroix joins Chelsea

England defender John Stones has joined reigning Serie A champions Inter Milan on a free transfer after a trophy-laden 10-year spell at Manchester City came to an end earlier this summer. Chelsea have added another centre-back to their bloated squad, with Maxence Lacroix arriving from Crystal Palace, where he helped win the FA Cup and Conference League. The 26-year-old has moved for

£52m and on a six-year contract, with the Blues' squad boasting nine other central defenders. Manager Xabi Alonso says they will offload at least five defenders, though, but the Spaniard will definitely have Danny Welbeck to call on following his transfer from Brighton for an undisclosed fee. Brentford, meanwhile, have signed midfielder Mamadou Sangaré for a club-record fee of approximately £40m, and Bournemouth have added Portugal

Overheard

'It has been the privilege of my lifetime'

Eddie Howe announces he is stepping down as Newcastle manager after nearly five years at the club

centre-back António Silva to their ranks after a move of around £26m from Benfica. In the WSL, London City Lionesses have signed 20-year-old Spaniard Daniela Arques from Sporting, and Chelsea have signed Italy midfielder Giulia Dragoni on a four-year contract from Barcelona.

Mudryk cleared to play as Chelsea fined £10m

Chelsea winger Mykhailo Mudryk is available to return to football after resolving his doping case with the FA. The Ukrainian was provisionally suspended for an

'adverse finding' for the banned substance meldonium, and was given a four-year ban. He has not played since November 2024, but the FA have cleared him to play after he accepted breaking anti-doping rules and agreed to a suspension equal to the time already served. Meanwhile, the Blues have been fined £10m and given a suspended ban from registering new players for two transfer windows by the FA for breaching rules relating to payments to agents between 2009 and 2022. Owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital self-reported 74 breaches of FA rules when they purchased the club in 2022. But the club avoided a six-point deduction, which was originally suspended until 30 June 2027.

Scottish Premiership

Aberdeen stun Hearts with two late goals

Aberdeen's Kevin Nisbet assisted in the 90th and scored in the 95th minute to stun Hearts and seal a 2-1 win on the opening weekend of the

Scottish Premiership season. Craig McLeish celebrated his first league game as permanent St Mirren manager with a 2-0 victory over Falkirk, as Killian Phillips scored in each half to seal the win.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Gd	Pts
St Mirren	1	1	0	0	2	0	2	3
Aberdeen	1	1	0	0	2	1	1	3
Dundee Utd	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	1
Rangers	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	1
Celtic	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dundee	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Hibernian	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kilmarnock	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Motherwell	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
St Johnstone	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Hearts	1	0	0	1	1	2	-1	0
Falkirk	1	0	0	1	0	2	-2	0

Dundee United (1)	1	Rangers (0)	1
Falkirk (0)	0	St. Mirren (1)	2
Aberdeen (0)	2	Hearts (1)	1
St Johnstone	v	Kilmarnock	2pm
Hibernian	v	Motherwell	4.30pm
Celtic	v	Dundee	Mon 7.30pm

Contents

The Observer's special report on CTE in sport page 8

Tour de France Femmes aims to hit new heights page 12

The Channel swimmer who made a splash for women page 15

On the cover

Phil Vickery has been diagnosed with probable CTE following his rugby career

Harry Borden for The Observer

Said & done by Andrew Butler

Hull of a prank

It's been some week for golfer Charley Hull. She started the week prior to the Women's Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes by revealing she had played a prank on her caddie, Adam Woodward, by tricking him into believing he had won £100,000 on a scratchcard that it turned out Hull had bought from a local joke shop. The 30-year-old then faced

backlash on social media, and Dame Laura Davies said the prank was 'extremely cruel' in commentary. Hull responded by saying people should 'lighten up' over it. 'He [Woodward] thought it was funny after, he is not uptight. If people don't like it they can jump it,' Hull said. The winner of the Women's Open will earn $1.5m, the highest amount in its 50-year history.

Cole the cops

Cole Palmer said he would send the bailiffs round to Morgan Rogers' house if he does his trademarked 'Cold Palmer' celebration. Rogers has joined his mate at Chelsea, and the pair have both done the celebration throughout their careers. 'I've trademarked it so if he tries to do anything, he'll have the bailiffs at his door,' Palmer joked.

Lovely Littler earner

Twenty amateur darts players will have the opportunity to win £501,000 by beating Luke Littler live on Netflix. The streamer has announced 'Beat Luke Littler', a live competition that will see 20 of the best amateur players around the country compete against the two-times world champion. It will be streamed on Friday 30 October.

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

3

Paul Hayward

With Infantino on the brink, parasitic Fifa must now be dismantled

Football's governing body have shown once again why they cannot be trusted after their embarrassing climbdown

First a European Super League, now a privatised World Cup, Both diabolical plots were stopped by mass resistance: an encouraging template for life as well as football. But Gianni Infantino's Friday-night surrender was only a self-preservatory tactical retreat.

They will come again, these elites and "disruptors" and public asset-grabbers. For now though, within three days, Fifa's president has plunged from wannabe Commissioner Infantino in charge of a Trumpified World Cup to a lame duck scrapping for re-election votes.

Those associations who backed him before he tried to flog the World Cup to "investors" might ask themselves why it took this grievous attempt to sell something Fifa don't even morally own – the whole of football does – for them to turn against him. All the reasons not to support him were evident only weeks ago in America, Canada and Mexico.

When Fifa tried to railroad through the privatisation of the World Cup, they forgot one awkward detail. Thirteen of the 23 men's World Cups have been won by European nations.

A chopped-up, sold-off, oligarch-owned tournament wasn't going to enrich Donald Trump-adjacent "investors" without the defending champions Spain, France, Germany, Italy or dear old England: all previous winners.

When Concacaf, which represents North America, and the Asian Football Confederation joined the revolt – and even his own "senior adviser on global strategy" Carlos Cordeiro quit – Infantino was rendered helpless, a case study in hubris.

Until the confederations rebelled, the World Cup was being served on a platter to Trumpian economics. The plan was also at the nexus of Fifa's gigantism and the personal ambitions of Infantino, recently backed by Trump to be the next secretary-general of the United Nations.

When football rebelled, what began as a 53-day ultimatum was reframed as a "consultation". Infantino pleaded: "Nobody is selling football. This is not something Fifa would ever entertain." But his design was dead on arrival, killed in his own heartland, Europe,

Tactical retreat: Gianni Infantino backed down from his plans to sell off the World Cup to Donald Trump-adjacent investors on Friday night. France/Fife/BFP/Getty Images

The economic powers deployed by elites aren't defeated often, but this is one battle that can be won

which promised a World Cup boycott that would have sent the value of broadcasting rights into a spiral. No France, Spain, England etc? No thanks.

This wasn't a skirmish that can be filed away as just a bad idea that was abandoned. It was a cautionary tale, requiring eternal vigilance, the end of Infantino's reign and a new world governing body for football.

Promising greater riches for smaller countries, Infantino posed as the friend of the little guy while appointing JP Morgan to help with a plan that Jamie Raskin, a senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called "a potential quid pro quo between Fifa and the Trump administration".

The clue – the play – in Fifa's scheme was that Joshua Kushner, brother of Trump's son-in-law Jared, was first out of the blocks for the sell-off.

The blurb at Kushner's "Thrive Eternal" investment firm is designed to reassure: "Our work at Thrive has always been informed and inspired by a deep appreciation for product, brand, and the ways in which consumers form lasting relationships with the things they love."

It wasn't only Joshua Kushner who was helping Fifa "democratise" world football. Their main commercial adviser is Greg Maffei, a Trump inauguration committee donor. Another potential investor, Apollo

Global Management, is led by a member of Trump's Board of Peace, Marc Rowan.

The 2026 World Cup turns out to have been a giant prospectus, a come-on – especially for those with political clout. Infantino wanted to throw the shared planetary experience of men's and women's World Cup football into the whirlwind reshaping American capitalism and politics.

The lines that he crossed in America were already fatal to its legitimacy: the peace prize to Trump, the office lease at Trump Tower, the Trump call that got USA's Folarin Balogun off the hook of a suspension, rip-off ticket prices and the rest.

The European Super League echoes are eerie. Back in 2021, it was JP Morgan too who offered to bankroll a 20-club breakaway. "We clearly misjudged how this deal would be viewed by the wider football community," a spokesperson said when it went up in flames. It didn't stop them coming back for more, this time to help with setting up Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE), a new "investment" vehicle valued at $20bn.

The best club side in world football (Paris Saint-Germain) is owned by Qatar. England's Premier League has 11 American owners. Even Cornish Pirates, in rugby union's second tier, have struck a deal with Pittsburgh-based private equity firm Stonewood Capital. There was rejoicing over that

one in Penzance.

But the distinction here is between private clubs and public property. Fifa claim that they would have control of the new "subsidiary commercial body" and "exclusive authority" over governance, competitions, the match calendar, as well as regulatory and sporting decisions. Nobody was falling for that, especially Uefa, whose denunciation applies to every sport.

"The moment external investors acquire ownership interests in Fifa competitions, football changes forever," they said in a statement. "Commercial return becomes a permanent obligation. Investor expectations become a daily pressure. From that moment onwards, every decision on the international calendar, every decision on competition formats and every decision shaping the future of football is no longer driven by what best serves the game, but by what best serves shareholders."

Uefa are right to demand "binding assurances" that the heist won't be resurrected. But it goes further than that. After the Sepp Blatter era, and now this, Fifa cannot be trusted. Designed originally as a custodian, it exists now to serve itself: a rogue state feeding off the world's favourite game.

The terrifying economic power deployed by elites isn't defeated often, but this victory at least offers hope for when the next fiendish plot comes along.

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

Turmoil: In 96 hours, Infantino managed to engulf football in a full-scale civil war and cast doubt about the viability of both the World Cup and Fifa. Matthias Schrader/AP

Infantino was foiled, but football is still not safe

Rory Smith

Gianni Infantino's week started with a statement. It was, even by his standards, odd: a diatribe against unspecified critics who had, to his mind, insufficiently enjoyed the World Cup. He posted it first to his Instagram account, an unhinged screed as written by a North Korean propagandist. He kept repeating the words "joy and happiness". He used exclamation marks.

Five days later, his week ended with one too. In content, tone and delivery, this one was quite different: an official communiqué from Fifa's media department, released as a "statement attributable to the Fifa president". It was much more brief, much more circumspect, significantly more conciliatory. It was almost possible to hear his tail curling between his legs.

What happened in between was, for a given value of the word, actually quite impressive. In the space of 96 hours or so, Infantino managed to engulf football in a full-scale civil war, cast genuine doubt about the ongoing viability of both the World Cup and the current iteration of Fifa, and quite possibly sign his own death warrant.

It is now two weeks since the moment that should have been the high point of Infantino's presidency: standing in the vast bowl of MetLife Stadium, the eyes of

the world on him, awkwardly trying to see if he and his close friend, President Trump, could present the World Cup to Spain at exactly the same time.

This was the culmination of his magnum opus. The 2026 World Cup had been everything he had wanted. The tournament, his tournament, had captivated the planet. Television audiences had been enormous. So had the commercial revenues. He had triumphed. Infantino's position seemed unassailable. He was grinning so much it looked like the top of his head might detach. As self-immolations go, what followed has been fairly spectacular.

Rapid, too. The Week That Shook Football, as we are contractually obliged to call it, has moved with dizzying speed. On Tuesday, the Times revealed that Infantino was planning to spin off the commercial operations around Fifa's tournaments into a new entity, Fifa Forward Enterprise. Fifa would retain majority control over that subsidiary; each of the world's 211 national football associations would also be given a slice.

But Infantino was seeking to sell off stakes to private investors, too; the search for partners was being led by Thrive Capital, a fund run by Josh Kushner, brother to Jared, son-in-law to Donald. Fifa were planning on giving each of their members a cash bonus for supporting the idea. But they would have just 53 days to decide; Infantino wanted a vote to ratify the idea in

September. Oh, and the general plan was that he would serve as a sort of World Cup commissioner, once his term as Fifa president expires.

The flaws in this vision were many and various, but Infantino seemed blind even to the most obvious one: that it would, in effect, allow the interests of his putative investors to define and dominate how football would be run. Fifa would still control the regulation of the game, as well as the international match calendar. But meeting their investors' requirements would control Fifa.

The backlash was immediate and it was furious. Uefa quickly issued a scathing statement accusing Infantino of trying to "sell the soul of football". Andy Burnham, recently installed as prime minister, declared that: "The World Cup is not a product. It was never anyone's to sell," he wrote on X. (As an Evertonian, Burnham knows not to turn his nose up at an easy win.)

In an interview apparently conducted with himself, Infantino explained the benefits that would accrue to the game if his proposal – one which had been concocted by a small team of self-described "ninja", according to the Financial Times, over the course of a year – was accepted.

By Wednesday, confederations other than Uefa were expressing their dismay at finding out through reports in the media; most then called emergency meetings to discuss a response.

They came on Thursday, and they did not go as Infantino would have wished. The Asian confederation said that the whole farrago "exposed fundamental weaknesses in Fifa's consultation and decision-making processes".

Goncacal, the governing body for North and Central America, was even more damning, expressing "deep concerns about the lack of due process, the artificially short deadline imposed, and the absence of any review or approval by the relevant Fifa governance bodies". Privately, members hinted that the incident had made them question Infantino's suitability for the role.

But most strident – and, as uncomfortable as it may be, most important – were Europe. In an online call introduced by Aleksander Ceferin, the president of Uefa and an implacable opponent of Infantino, Europe's 55 member nations unanimously agreed to boycott all Fifa events until the whole idea had been consigned to the dustbin of history.

To use a phrase Infantino may have picked up in the United States, along with a taste for private equity and a big red tie: "That was the whole ballgame."

The blows would keep coming; Carlos Cordeiro, one of Infantino's senior advisers, resigned on Thursday, questioning why an organisation as wealthy as Fifa – the last World Cup cycle generated more than $18bn in revenue – would need external investment to "unlock" greater

value. On Friday, another longstanding ally, Fifa's chief operating officer Kevin Lamour, described the plan as "the project of one person".

By that stage, though, the damage had been done. Uefa's intervention had been the decisive one. Infantino has drawn much of his power over the last decade from those parts of the world that feel – not inaccurately – that the game is run rather too much for the benefit of Europe. He has carefully shaped a reality, when required, that pitches Europe as domineering bullies.

That, doubtless, would have been the play here too. Infantino's plan rested on convincing his traditional strongholds in Africa, Asia and the Americas that any resistance from Europe was simply the old continent seeking to protect their own primacy, to refuse to share their spoils, to throw their weight around in what is supposed to be a one-member, one-vote democracy.

In this case, it might even have been true. The problem for Infantino is that the vision he has sold his electorate is not quite accurate. Europe does have an oustize influence. It is, as the private-equity raiders he seems to admire so greatly would recognise, where all of the money is. As soon as Uefa threatened a boycott, the whole idea was dead in the water. Infantino's statement, in the desperate early hours of Saturday morning, confirming that "this proposal will not proceed" was simply a recognition of that fact.

There will be no privatisation, no Thrive Capital. The World Cup has been saved. Everything is as it was. Well, the power dynamics of the game have shifted against Infantino, possibly irrevocably: it is possible that this week will come to be seen as the beginning of his demise, the moment he flew too close to the sun. But other than that, we are back where we started.

Whether that is cause to unfurl the bunting and bake the cupcakes, though, is a different matter. The logic that underpinned Infantino's gambit remains unchecked, the one that holds that football – the most popular cultural form the world has ever seen – must get bigger, bolder, richer, fatter. It continues to believe in growth at all costs, what the author Jasper Florde called "the philosophy of cancer". It continues to attract the gimlet eyes of private equity.

This attempt has failed, for now. Infantino may fall with it. But other than that, even after all that has happened this week, maybe not all that much has changed.

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observer.co.uk
02.08.26

5

Can Fleming restore common sense to English Test cricket?

After a terrible nine months, a fresh face might be just what the team need with next year's Ashes looming

Cameron Ponsonby

From one New Zealander to another. For the second appointment in a row, England have turned to a Kiwi with no red-ball coaching experience to lead their Test team. Come on down, Stephen Fleming.

It is a sensible appointment. Fleming's lack of red-ball leadership is the result of a modern world where the best coaches now are those who first earned their stripes in T20 land years ago and stayed. Until last month, Fleming had been the head coach of Chennai Super Kings in two spells since 2009, during which time he won five IPL titles and managed the egos, media and pressure of one of the most well-supported teams in world cricket. If you can rub shoulders with MS Dhoni for more than a decade, you can handle Josh Tongue.

Fleming also represents a happy middle ground of a coach who is a continuation of Brendon McCullum's individualised, relaxed methods, while also being a bit tighter around the edges. An appointment of a lieutenant-general such as Justin Langer would have been a mistake.

Because as ludicrous as it sounds, this is a team that needs to chill out. They are currently an international sports team with a bedtime and they are not allowed to have a beer after winning a Test match unless the coach says so. Everyone, take a beat. Hit some balls. Train properly. Work hard. And relax responsibly. The thread of common sense has been lost. And hopefully, Fleming will be the man to stop the chaos, turn the page and start to rebuild our cricket team.

But he won't be the man to do so just yet. The series against Pakistan that starts in less than three weeks will have Marcus Trescothick in caretaker charge, with Fleming spending some time in New Zealand with his family before taking control in September. The result of that is that there are only five confirmed Tests with Fleming in charge before the Ashes starts.

His first series will be away to world Test champions South Africa, and he will then lead in a Test at home to Bangladesh, who represent a genuine banana skin, before there is a one-off Test against Australia in Melbourne. His start to life will not be easy and success will be earned.

Key-avi: Stephen Fleming faces a tricky start to life as English Test coach. Chris Arjaan/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

While sensible for Fleming, for England it feels wasteful – 2026 will go down as a "sim game" summer. A series against New Zealand that became a sideshow to England's own off-field dramas. And then three Tests against a weak Pakistan team with a temporary head coach in charge.

Rob Key rightly says that no one can know what would have happened had they made changes following the Ashes rather than waiting for it to blow up. But you can wonder. Would a reinvigorated rather than exhausted Ben Stokes still be an England cricketer? Would they have beaten New Zealand and be on track for a clean-sweep summer? Winning en route to a blockbuster winter and a home Ashes. But instead, England's greatest-ever batter, Joe Root, is being wheeled out again at 35 to captain a team where he is considered the only adult in the room.

"It's just too soon," Key said of Harry Brook. The 27-year-old Test vice-captain, who leads the white-ball teams, has played 38 Test matches and averages 53. So when, exactly, will little Harry be ready? If you want to talk about the butterfly effect, go back to that night in Wellington when Brook was punched by a nightclub bouncer the night before an ODI. Remove that from history and all subsequent random-life generators will have spat out better results.

Brook's absence from the captaincy keeps the elephant of England's recent disciplinary troubles in the room. And somehow a team that is desperate for a fresh start has turned back to its most experienced captain in history with the additional spectre of a Stokes return from retirement ever looming. "It would be a brilliant story if he does," Key said of whether Stokes could return for the Ashes next summer, before adding that while Stokes hasn't yet hinted at any return, "I wouldn't be surprised. Anything's possible with Ben."

Key seems tired. Seven months of nonsense has followed two months of being thrashed in Australia at a time when the hope had been to make history. You can decide how much these things matter, but across his 25-minute media interaction with the written press, he made several small factual inaccuracies. Referring to the 2022 Ashes which happened in 2023. Calling India the ODI world champions when it's Australia. Saying England are No 1 in the world in T20 when India have nipped past them again. Mentioning that Andrew Flintoff has been the England Lions head coach for the last three years when it's actually been less than two. At your most sympathetic, they are the missteps of a man who is having to talk for close to half an hour. But at your least, it's confirmation of an environment criticised for a lack of attention to detail and an exhausted leadership group.

In all, England's summer of change has led to the old captain being the new captain. The old Test head coach remaining on staff as the white-ball head coach. And the managing director staying put as the managing director. Scars and baggage are still around every corner, with Fleming the only fresh face on the scene. Good luck to him. The evidence of the last year suggests he'll need it.

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

Entertaining, but barriers keep Games out of view for most people

Glasgow threw out plenty of good stories – it's a shame it was all so difficult to follow on TV, reports Jessy Parker Humphreys

Josh Kerr had time to look around the Scotstoun Stadium with his arms outstretched as he approached the line to take gold in the first mile race run at the Commonwealth games in 60 years. There was a satisfied nod of his head as he took the applause of the home crowd as he crossed it. Expectation was high going into the race following Kerr's world record run in London two weeks ago, where he broke the 27-year-old mile record, running 3:42.66.

"I was in shape to run 1.5 seconds underneath the record, maybe two seconds on my best day," he had said in the aftermath, raising the possibility that he could go faster again in Scotland.

But there were no pacemakers to guide Kerr here and racing against a competitive field brings different challenges to going up against the clock. He looked totally at ease as he made his move in the final lap, eventually running 12 seconds slower than he had done in London.

Kerr was effectively billed as the headliner of these Games, typified by a huge poster of him hung by his sponsor Brooks in the centre of Glasgow. He had finished 12th in his previous Commonwealth Games appearance, racing the 1500m in 2022. A number

of high-profile athletes had withdrawn ahead of competition, pushing further focus onto Kerr, which he generously repaid with a storming run. Earlier in the evening, Jazmin Sawyers won gold for England in the long jump, her first major outdoor title at the age of 32. It is 12 years since she had won silver at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, also held in Glasgow, and just over two years after she ruptured her achilles in training, forcing her to miss the 2024 Olympics. In netball, Jamaica might have had to cling on in the final minutes, but they beat Australia 46-45. It is the first time Australia have failed to make the final of a Commonwealth Games netball tournament.

With a raucous crowd, a tight scoreline and an underdog victory, the match had everything that elite sport should. Netball is one of the Commonwealth Games' crown jewels. There is hope that the sport might be included in the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane, but until that happens, this is one of its most high-profile tournaments. Watching the Jamaica players celebrate left no doubt about how meaningful this victory was. The Commonwealth Games have been full of different moments like these – from the emotional to the devastating to the downright bizarre. The issue is that

it is harder and harder to see them.

Outside the all-consuming world of the Premier League, there is an assumption that if sport itself is "good" or "meaningful" or "important" that it will find an audience through some kind of sporting siren call. This creates a circular value judgment whereby sports without attention are seen to be "bad", and thus inevitably undeserving of attention. Women's sports have long borne the brunt of this kind of attitude which ignores that until very recently, sport as it existed in broadcast media was served up in a "take it or leave it" manner that helped propel spectacles like snooker to huge levels of popularity.

Now we live in an age of infinite choice, infinite expense and infinite algorithms. The standard lament

An underreported subplot has been the potential Love Island contestants choosing Glasgow over a trip to Spain

at this Commonwealth Games has been its breakup with the BBC. Sent away to a channel that seemingly spends as much time coming up with a new name as it does thinking about elements of its productions, the paywall has hidden most of the stories from the past ten days.

That is how it might be possible to have missed former Uganda dictator Idi Amin's grandson being disqualified from the boxing for headbutting his opponent. Aziz Abdul had vowed to become the new King of Scotland – a reference to the title his grandfather bestowed on himself in 1976 – and showed little shame about his family past.

"[Amin's] achievements inspired me," he said, prior to his bout. "Lions give back to lions. A lion cannot give back to a dog or a camel. A lion must resemble a lion. I am a real warrior. I am the son of the son."

When he ruled Uganda, Amin expelled the country's Asian population, and led a regime that killed somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000 people. After Abdul's expulsion this week, he accused the Commonwealth Games of being racist, something that the Games strongly denied.

Abdul's expulsion meant he failed to win a match but losing did not stop Tuvalu boxer Tarona

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Taafaki, who won her nation's first ever Commonwealth Games medal with a bronze in the women's 75kg category.

An underreported subplot of the Games has been the number of potential Love Island contestants who chose a week and a half in an often grey Glasgow over a trip to Spain and a six to 18-month career as an influencer. The choices made by Ion McConnell and Katie Shanahan are the best evidence yet of the Commonwealth Games' continued pull for athletes, and both claimed medals. McConnell won gold in the men's 70kg boxing while Shanahan took silver in the 200m backstroke.

All of these vignettes should suit the media landscape that predominates. Something like the Commonwealth Games, with its potential for bitesized content, could thrive in this brave new world.

But anyone who has spent more than 30 seconds on TikTok will know that it is vanishingly rare to be served content which is of much use. And so these stories fade away, barely touching the sides when we are all barraged with the

Heroes and villain: clockwise from main, the Jamaica netball team celebrate their 46-45 defeat of the mighty Australians; expelled Ugandan boxer Aziz Abdal; Scotland's Katie Shanahan takes 200m backstroke silver; Lintao Zhang/Getty Images, Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

latest football transfer rumours, AI edits or trad-wife compilations.

This is why it is hard to detach the supposed decline of the Commonwealth Games from the broader sporting media landscape. Without the collective opportunities to watch and engage that free-to-air broadcast, there is instead a fragmentation of viewership, with people offered things like The Hundred to watch. But it is hard to have spent time at the Games and not found amazing sets of stories to enjoy. It is the process of putting them in front of people that is the tough proposition.

It appears unlikely that this brave new world will change as the Games head to Ahmedabad in 2030. There will be a broader programme of sports than at this Games – which were organised at such short notice – with cricket looking set to return as well as the possibility of squash and yoga being included. As with any large sporting event, there will be amazing and unbelievable stories about people who have done extraordinary things, in all senses of the word. But really this is a story about the broadcast industry, as much as it is a story about sport itself. That may be one barrier too far to overcome.

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

7

Organisers can still do more for parasports

Jessy Parker Humphreys Glasgow

It was 2002 when the Commonwealth Games first took the step, effectively unprecedented in sport at the time, to integrate parasport into its main programme. For the first time in a sporting event of such scale, para athletes would compete alongside their able-bodied counterparts. Their medals would contribute to their nation's overall total and there was no separate ticket for parasport events.

Twenty-four years on, the programme at the Commonwealth Games features six parasports: athletics, swimming, bowls, powerlifting, basketball and track cycling. The Games affirmed a commitment to equal billing by ensuring that for the first time, the first medal awarded was in a parasport, as England powerlifter Mark Swan took gold in the men's lightweight category. There are a record 47 medal events for parasports.

This integrationist approach is something that makes the competition stand apart from the Olympics and Paralympics, and has slowly been adopted by other events. This year's London Diamond League was the fifth event in the 2026 series that featured para athletics, following Rome, Oslo, Paris and Eugene. World Athletics has long been called on to do more to platform para athletes.

"The Commonwealth Games has proved it can be agile to move with the times and really differentiate it[self]. It has an opportunity to properly change the way people look at sport," says Ade Adepitan, who won bronze at the 2004 Athens Paralympics in wheelchair basketball.

"For youngsters, like my five-year-old son, my daughter's 18 months old... they'll be coming to watch the Games and it will be the norm to see parasports and non-disabled sports together. For us growing up, that wasn't the norm, and the implications that has on society and the way disabled people are perceived in the future is massive. It's probably bigger than you and I can even comprehend."

The decision to integrate parasport in this way is not without its critics, however. A report from Canadian academics Nancy Quinn and Laura Misener after the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham raised concerns that integration can lead to athletes with greater needs being sidelined in favour of what they refer to as "able-disabled" athletes, who need minimal adjustments to participate in an integrated sporting programme.

They also cited concerns about the fact that para athletes in 2022 were overwhelmingly from a handful of Commonwealth countries. Eighty-six per cent of athletes came from 10 countries – England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, India and Nigeria.

Speaking to England Athletics, Jonnie Peacock, who won Paralympic

golds at London 2012 and Rio 2016, praised the Commonwealth Games for their integration, but stressed that he thought they could go further.

"I think the [Commonwealth Games] are definitely one of the best events in the world in terms of their integration with parasports," he said.

"For me, there is still a little bit of room where they can improve upon the fact that we aren't really seeing full heats. I would like that, going forward, if we can actually see parasport on a level playing field. It's absolutely incredible, but I still think I want to see them keep pushing it."

When it comes to the visibility of sport helping disabled people get active, Adam Blaze, CEO of Activity Alliance, stresses that the opportunities need to be there.

"[After the 2012 Paralympics], the infrastructure across our nation wasn't ready for all those disabled people who realised sport was for them," says Blaze. "There's been a shift and there are more opportunities to get active for disabled people than ever. But we've still got a way to go."

While Blaze is positive about the way in which the Commonwealth Games normalises parasport, he emphasises the importance of ensuring that media coverage is thoughtful.

"What we can't have in disability sport is 'inspirational porn'. You don't want people to think: 'Illess these athletes, they've overcome so much.' We want to get to the point where disabled people can just enjoy sport for its own sake – and be really bad at it!"

"If you can see someone that looks like you, or they've gone through the same experience, regardless of whether they're a Paralympian or running a local cricket club, these things are really important. Getting the right stories out there is going to help us unlock some of the challenges."

Blaze also believes that integration isn't the be-all and end-all when it comes to profiling disability sport.

"You have to be careful, because we don't want integrated programmes to mean that there's less favourable scheduling or there's reduced visibility. Integrated programmes mean some classifications can't compete because there's only so much room.

"It's a really good thing because it profiles parasport in a way that didn't happen before, but you can't just make every single big elite Games [integrated]."

A spokesperson for the Commonwealth Games said they hope to further expand parasport.

"It's a vision that is wider than the 10 days of the Games, and is about using parasports as a vehicle to increase inclusivity, break down barriers and be a catalyst for social change. Beyond the field of play, integration helps challenge perceptions of disability, increase[s] the visibility of parasport and inspire[s] future generations, demonstrating the power of sport to drive inclusion and positive social change."

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Special report: CTE

Head and heart

The Observer View Regardless of the legal wrangling, players suffering the impacts of brain injuries deserve better

Even as procedural hitches threaten a High Court case involving hundreds of ex-players claiming brain injuries from rugby, the cries from those affected are growing by the day. The spectacle of a legal battle featuring star names should not obscure what this is about: the future for families, health, lives.

The concern isn't only for past players facing horrible realities from a time before greater safety awareness. The spectre of neurological damage extends to those playing the game now and to future generations. As the devastating testimony of the decorated England prop Phil Vickery demonstrates in this special report, there is more at stake than legal wrangling. Existential questions lurk behind procedural arguments around evidence and who is right and wrong. Why is there no definitive diagnosis for rugby-related chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and other conditions? Are rugby union and league safe to play – not only for professionals but for children and young people?

CTE in rugby was barely acknowledged in 2003 when England men's team won the World Cup through Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal against Australia. These were men at their zenith, in a team that refused to lose. But one of the three front-row forwards that night, Steve Thompson, says he has no recollection of playing in the final. In these pages Vickery, who scrummed down with Thompson, describes a twilight world of anxiety and forgetting. A replacement in 2003, Lewis Moody, has motor neurone disease (MND), for which the connection with rugby remains unclear.

In another sphere, away from big hits and "beasting" scrum practices, six of England's 11 football World Cup winners in 1966 died with dementia, along with the manager, Alf Ramsey. The physical costs of professional sport are a creeping realisation most acutely manifest in rugby – for women as much as men. Knowledge about brain injuries has come a long way since 2003, but research into how they affect women's brains, and their long-term consequences for women, is still in its infancy. It would be the sport's greatest shame if the 2025 World Cup-winning Red Roses face the same challenges in 20 years as the 2003 team are now.

In most accounts we see "probable" or "possible" CTE as the diagnosis because certainty is usually possible only in postmortems. No effort should be spared by rugby and other impact sports to invest in research so sufferers can be sure of what's ailing them.

When hundreds of players sought compensation for their injuries, it was inevitable that it would develop an adversarial tone. Players spoke of brutal training sessions and blows to the skull. The authorities emphasised the changes made since knowledge of head injuries began to improve: tackle heights, concussion checks, limits on "contact" in training. A summary of that defence would be: we didn't know, but we do now, and have made changes.

The gist of the legal case that started in 2022 though is that claimants allege World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and Welsh Rugby Union failed in their duty of care, which all governing bodies deny. The defendants – along with the Rugby Football League and British Amateur Rugby League Association – have pressed Senior Master Jeremy Cook at the Royal Courts of Justice to strike out most of the first batch of claims for "wholesale and widespread non-compliance" with a court order to disclose all available documents.

If the case collapses, it's likely to be resurrected with a new legal team for the complainants. That process could take years. But there is plenty that rugby and other sports can do in the meantime. First, pursue a legally watertight diagnosis for CTE, now, not in death; second, continue to strip out unnecessary contact with the head, especially on the training ground, in defiance of those who grumble that rugby has "gone soft". That lament would not pass the lips of anyone who spent a day with Vickery or Thompson or any of the hundreds of ex-players dealing with failing health.

Rugby prides itself on its family vibe but there is a sense of many ex-players with neurological injuries feeling abandoned, or as if they're enemies of the game for daring to ask for compensation. However complex the legal case, the human one is much simpler. The victims deserve better.

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Special report: CTE

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9

'I'll find out how to kill myself so you can use my brain to prove CTE'

Phil Vickery lifted the Rugby World Cup in 2003 as part of England's greatest men's rugby team. Now he lives in fear and confusion for his future, he tells Ben Coles

The year is 2004, Gloucester are hosting London Wasps at Kingsholm Stadium and after a ruck as mundane as any other,

Phil Vickery is left in searing pain. There was nothing malicious about it, just a freak coincidence, the knee of Wasps' Richard Birkett smacking into Vickery's eye and, as he puts it, blowing out his orbital floor. A type of pain that even two decades later makes Vickery begin to feel nauseous just thinking about it.

Gruesome as that injury was, within days Vickery had been booked in for maxillofacial surgery, had a plate inserted into his eye, then began his recovery and was back on the field within seven weeks. That was normal.

The blood vessels in his face bursting during a scrum? "No one would bat an eyelid at that," he explains. Physical ailments are cured, players are patched up and ready to go again.

What Vickery is going through now, at the age of 50, is worlds removed from normality. A scan a couple of years ago showed what he had long assumed; that he had probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) – the degeneration of nerve cells in the brain. It is the result of an accumulation of impacts to his brain over a decorated 15-year career.

Vickery is part of a lawsuit involving over 1,100 players accusing World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union, the Welsh Rugby Union and the Rugby Football League of breaching a duty of care to protect them from neurological injuries. The governing bodies deny any wrongdoing.

A lawsuit that has been dragging on for years saw two fresh developments only last week. The leading players involved changed their legal representation, and World Rugby, the RFU and WRU called for the claims to be thrown out due to the players' lawyers breaching court orders to provide medical records.

And while legal hurdles and jargon continue to impede even having a case in the first place, for the players concerned about their future there is a tangible sense of desperation. While patients can be

'I do not need an MRI scan to be told my brain doesn't work very well' Phil Vickery

Portrait by Harry Borden

diagnosed with "probable CTE", the only way to truly know is to examine the brain after death, to spot the deterioration.

When a medical professional connected to the lawsuit suggested doing a scan of his brain to gather evidence, Vickery told them: "I do not need to go for an MRI scan to be told my brain doesn't work very well."

Discussing the signs that all is not right with his brain is incredibly difficult. "I said I wasn't gonna fucking get emotional today. With the knowledge that we have now, it makes you wanna cry. Because it's fucking awful," he says.

My memory of Vickery on the field is of one of the bravest players I have ever seen.

It took bravery to face up to the disappointment he felt after a rough outing for the British and Irish

From left: Vickery, Thompson and Trevor Woodman in Sydney, 2003. Eddie Keogh/Shutterstock

Lions against South Africa on that 2009 Lions tour, well beaten in his scrummaging battle against Tendai "Beast" Mtawarita in the first Test. Recalled for the third Test at Ellis Park, packing down against the same opponent, he gamely held his own, leaving the field to a standing ovation.

That same quality is now shining through as Vickery sits in a recording studio, tears running down his face, taking me through the harrowing moments, which are becoming regular, where he begins to question his own mind. The names he cannot recall. "I don't mean like Great Auntie whatever, six times removed's dog's best friend," as he puts it. He means cousins, nephews. Sometimes friends.

Vickery can laugh off forgetting names now and again. The sense of anxiety he regularly feels, however, is harder to escape. Big rooms are difficult for him too, trying to hold a conversation through the din. Even travelling to London on the train for our conversation prompts a wave of concern. Vickery occasionally stops mid-interview to check if he has answered the question from five, ten minutes ago. He had, of course. In a more colourful and engaging manner than I could have hoped for.

Then there are the mental blocks. Google Maps is his "best friend". When he recently went to deliver some food to his girlfriend's grandmother, a trip he had made "20 times" roughly six miles away, he found he could no longer remember how to get there.

Vickery pulled the car over and burst into tears. "This is not fucking beating me. What the fucking hell are you doing, Phil? What is going on? What is going on?" he recalls asking himself at the time. "And I did get there, in the end. It's just stupid things like that."

This is the toughest injury of Vickery's life, following a career that required four neck surgeries and two operations on his back before he retired in 2010. And it is invisible.

"Brain injuries are with you all the time, 24/7, 365 days a year, and it weighs heavy, and it grinds at you all the time. It won't beat me. You know, I keep going," he says.

He is not alone in this battle. His England front-row team-mate Steve Thompson, who he calls "Thomo", has spoken publicly about his own struggles with early-onset dementia and probable CTE. In the days running up to our conversation, Vickery has been trying to make contact with Thompson.

"I went to war with him, one of my brothers, and he won't speak to me because he's too fucking poorly," he says. "For his honour and pride, won't speak to me. I told him I loved him this morning again, you know? And that upsets me because we should be helping him more regardless of whether rugby caused it or not.

"He's suffering, so why are we not helping him?"

Continued on page 10 >>

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02.08.26

Special report: CTE

Continued from page 9

That remark he made earlier, about the "knowledge we have now", is so pertinent for many different reasons.

When Vickery started playing for Gloucester in the mid-1990s, treatment for concussion, in his own words, consisted of a magic sponge and an orange, a test following somebody's finger and being asked what the score was.

Rugby officially turned professional in 1996 but in terms of actual standards being raised, Vickery believes that did not happen until the 1999 Rugby World Cup. And that was just with England, under an evolving programme led by Sir Clive Woodward. At club level, little had changed.

"We were amateur pros. We just did more of what we used to do, more often. And that's not me blaming anybody. That's just what you did. No one really knew, I suppose.

"It was more about justifying getting paid. I was milking 100 cows twice a day, six days a week, and then got offered a professional rugby contract for eight grand [a year] or whatever it was."

There is no blame attached to the following anecdote. It is included purely to illustrate the gruelling nature of what these players, past and present, go through.

One England training session has stayed with him. John Mitchell, now the England women's head coach but an assistant to Woodward when Vickery was first called up in 1998, was overseeing a scrummaging session. The intensity of it has stayed with him. Along with some advice from the former England hooker Richard Cockerill.

"It was like 50-odd scrums. If you'd have asked me what my name was, where I come from, I couldn't have told you," Vickery recalls.

"I just remember being in absolute bits, never experienced anything like it, and thinking, 'Fucking hell, if this is what being an international rugby player is about, I don't know that I wanna be.'"

"[Cockerill] just looked me straight in the eye and he just goes, 'I'll, shut the fuck up, bend over and push.' And I thought, 'Yeah. I like you a lot.' And he was right."

Never in those early years, when the professional game and Vickery were both finding their feet, could he have imagined this would be where he ended up. Contemplating his own mortality, while being acutely aware of how important his brain will eventually become in providing answers to his recent struggles.

"What am I gonna have to do? Jump off fucking Clifton Suspension Bridge? With a little note put on my neck, 'Please use my fucking brain,'" he says. "Actually, I won't jump off there in case I ruin anything. I'll find out how to fucking kill myself so you can use my brain to prove [CTE]. And I tell you what, let's have a live autopsy with the top fucking autopsy person in the world doing it for proof.

"Is that gonna make someone stand up? I don't know. What a horrible thing to say. But what does it have to take?"

The conversation with Vickery is part of a new episode for The Observer's Slow Newscast podcast, looking at the impact of the concussion researcher Paul McCrory over the past two decades, until he stepped down from his role with the Concussion in Sport Group in 2022 following allegations of plagiarism.

McCrory was an influential voice in rugby union's management of concussion injuries. He even designed pre-season concussion tests undertaken by Vickery with Gloucester.

For Vickery, this isn't about riches. It is about security and accountability. He knows there is a very real chance that in the years to come, as he deteriorates, he will need someone to look after him. His sister has insisted that she will.

"She's promised me, so that's on record," he smiles. "So, if it is my sister, I want to make sure that she's got some funds to be able to help her look after me. Is that unreasonable? I don't fucking think it is."

Those frustrations with the litigation process should not be confused with a diminished love of the sport. What he hopes will never fade is the sense of belonging he felt when "that big fat kid from Cornwall with no education" pitched up at Bude RFC, the club where he launched his illustrious career.

"I went to a rugby club, got welcomed in, I felt valued. 'We are from Bude, we are the best.' Purpose. 'Oh my God, they like me.' Oh, I'm not just an idiot. I'm not just a thicke.' I feel like I'm somebody."

None of what he is going through now, none of it, would stop Vickery from doing it all over again. One of the greatest props in the professional era. One of the game's greatest men.

"The sport's fucking amazing. Rugby's an amazing sport. You know, the sad reality is I sit here today – would I do it all again? Oh my God, I would. I'm fucking mental, but I would because it's amazing.

"I also sit here knowing there are lots of people out there, I believe, who are suffering because of the sport. And it's not about blaming the sport and about getting all nasty and horrible. Let's just fucking help people. There are people suffering, so let's help them."

The following day Vickery sends a message – it begins, "Hello bud." Part of it is apologising for getting emotional, which is the last thing he needs to do. And then there is this.

"I had the most beautiful call from Thomo this morning and [it] made me so happy."

So much about the next few years and decades ahead for these former players suffering from probable CTE is uncertain, aside from one truth. They have each other.

Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123

The 'expert' adviser who downplayed risk of CTE in sport

INVESTIGATION

Ben Coles & Jonathan Lewis

Billy Guyton. Shane Christie. Nick Lowden. Marshawn Kneeland. Young men from across rugby union, Aussie Rules and the NFL who have taken their own lives in the past three years and have been posthumously diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE; the gradual death of nerve cells in the brain.

The families of Nick Koster and Siobhan Cattigan, rugby players who died by suicide in recent years, suspect that they also had CTE. Jordan Devey's family suspect the same. The former NFL guard died by suicide in July at the age of 38.

Reading those names – thinking about their families left behind – makes the seriousness of this condition hit home. And yet the connection between repeated blows to the head and development of CTE has split opinion among scientists over the past 30 years.

A decade ago Paul McCrory, one of the world's leading concussion experts, was on stage giving a lecture at the University of Melbourne.

At the time he was, among his many titles, the associate professor at Melbourne's Florey Institute, the largest brain research centre in

the Southern Hemisphere. He was also chair of the Concussion in Sport Group (CISG), a gathering of the world's leading concussion experts, assembling every four years across the world to share their research.

The CISG's consensus statements on concussion management, released following their conferences, would play a significant role in influencing the concussion policies of a number of major sporting governing bodies: Fifa, the International Olympic Committee and World Rugby included. McCrory's voice in these matters, his reputation, carried a lot of weight.

During his address, when referring to the amount of reported concussions in the NFL, McCrory described the links between repeated blows to the head and the development of CTE as "all the carry-on and hoo-ha you get in the United States".

Here was one of the world's pre-eminent voices on concussion downplaying any connection between head injuries and a potentially life-changing illness as melodrama.

For concussion campaigners watching on from afar, including neuroscientist Chris Nowinski, McCrory's actions were astounding. Not just the "hoo-ha" line, but the way he had taken data from studies carried out by Boston University's CTE Center, and presented it in a misleading way.

In that lecture, McCrory said: "The feared CTE that you've heard about,

'He has basically poisoned the well on CTE research and we will never know the extent of it'

Neuroscientist Chris Nowinski

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Special report: CTE

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11

Impact: Vickery after one of the countless tackles he sustained in his 15-year playing career.

the best guess from the group that's pushing this most strongly says the risk is about 4% of retired athletes get it. The other way of looking at it is that 96% of athletes do not get it."

Nowinski was staggered. "What [McCrory] was talking about is a publication that we did where we said the minimum number of NFL players [at risk] is 4%," he said. "The maximum at that point was over 90%. And so he took our minimum and treated it as the maximum, and that really changes the scale of the issue."

McCrory's lecture, which is no longer available to watch online, took place in the same year that the NFL publicly acknowledged a link between head injuries and CTE in front of a congressional committee.

Previously, in 2013, the NFL settled a class action lawsuit with hundreds of former players with brain injuries. The uncapped fund has so far paid out £1.2bn to over 2,100 players. Yet here was McCrory, downplaying the connection.

In 2022, McCrory resigned from his role as chair of the CISG, and as medical advisor to the Australian Football League (Aussie Rules) in 2021, following multiple allegations of plagiarism.

What began as one objection by Professor Steve Haake – who discovered that McCrory had copied about half of one of his features for Physics World for an article in the British Medical Journal – snowballed into a series of plagiarism allegations against McCrory.

Nick Brown, a scientific integrity researcher, uncovered up to 20 examples of McCrory either "self-plagiarising" – reusing work he had already submitted across multiple studies – or recycling other people's content, which were then investigated by the BMJ.

The credibility of one of the most prominent concussion experts in the world was now tainted. And McCrory's impact on those consensus statements released by the CISG, and how pivotal those statements were to the formulation of concussion

policies across numerous major sporting bodies, came under scrutiny.

To give an example of CISG and McCrory's influence on rugby union, in 2010 the concussion stand-down period was reduced from 21 days to six as recommended by CISG's 2008 Zurich Consensus statement. This was later increased to 12 days in 2022. Following that move, Dr Bob Cantu of the Boston Group and World Rugby's independent working group, called World Rugby's protocols "the gold standard" in global sport.

World Rugby say that throughout the period in question it took an evidence-based approach to concussion, adapting their guidance as medical knowledge evolved and argues that the science itself was uncertain. They say they never relied on one person's interpretation of science and instead employed a range of experts.

There is an ongoing lawsuit brought by 800 former rugby union players to the High Court against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and Welsh Rugby Union. A further 300 players are suing rugby league authorities.

The lawyers for those players have argued that the governing bodies in question had been "improperly, negligently and without question relying on the advice of Dr McCrory, who has since been shown by amongst others the British Medical Journal, to have committed misconduct including plagiarism, duplicate publication, misquotation and misrepresentation." Rightly or wrongly, those players affected by brain injuries after their careers view McCrory as having played a pivotal role.

What remains unanswered is not only why McCrory committed plagiarism – the British Journal of Sports Medicine have to date retracted 16

Paul McCrory, former chair of the Concussion in Sport Group.

pieces of his work, with many others noted to be "of concern" – but the reason for his strong stance on diminishing the link between concussions and CTE in the first place.

Nowinski, who first met McCrory in the early 2000s, has one theory.

"The people that could make difference on this, especially the sports industry, were happy to hear what Paul McCrory had to say in his dismissing of CTE and calling it hoo-ha and all these absurd things, because it allowed them to feel comfortable going on with business as usual," he says.

"He also has highly influenced people, mentored a lot of people in Australia and around the world, and was leading a very important global meeting of people who then went back to their countries and espoused the things that he said. And what is interesting is that the things that he has said still live in conversations, and I still see them on social media comments, you know, in response to real science.

"So it's not just that he has been removed. It's sort of like a hydra. You

cut off one head, but all that stuff still remains."

The sympathetic view of his plagiarism is that McCrory spread himself too thin across his various roles, regurgitating his own work in order to fulfil more requirements than he could handle.

The financial benefits of becoming one of the world's most renowned concussion experts were considerable. Multiple sources have shared with The Observer that McCrory and associates received over £400,000 in research grants from World Rugby, then called the International Rugby Board, between 2002 and 2008.

McCrory, who was contacted by The Observer for comment, has never publicly apologised for the retractions outside of an initial response over email to Haake's complaint, admitting that he had failed to credit Haake's original work.

No longer connected to professional sport, he is still listed as a practising neurologist in Melbourne. Interestingly, shortly before the first allegations of plagiarism emerged, concussion campaigner Peter Jess

claims to have spoken to McCrory at the start of 2021 for almost an hour.

During their conversation McCrory's position, at least in private, had significantly changed. McCrory expressed concern to Jess that return to play protocols in rugby and the AFL were too short, suggesting the six-day turnaround at the time was "unsafe" and the protocols in place were "not only flawed but dangerous" based on recent research McCrory had carried out using "advanced imaging techniques".

McCrory agreed with Jess that he would contact a journalist at the Herald Sun newspaper in Melbourne to express his latest views. No article ever seemed to materialise.

Few are better placed to sum up why McCrory's influence and actions matter than Nowinski, now a neuroscientist but previously a WWE wrestler who was forced to retire because of concussion symptoms.

"When that person years later is exposed as not being the person you thought he was, that idea still remains, and it's a lot harder to undo it," he said. "It's fair to say he set us back five to 10 years, personally. But it might be longer if we don't turn the tide because the reality is he was the guy who wrote the lines in the CISG reports every few years that said cause (blows to the head) and effect (CTE) hasn't been proven.

"He has basically, we say, poisoned the well on CTE research. And we'll never know the extent of it, but I can promise you it's much bigger and he was much more influential than any of us on this side of the truth want to accept."

The quieter he remains, the more scrutiny builds against McCrory. The once world-leading concussion expert, now in the shadows.

THE OBSERVER

Scan the QR code to listen to The Observer Slow Newscast, Hard knocks and Foul Play

When Phil Vickery retired in 2010, he thought his toughest battles were behind him. Now he faces life with a long-term brain injury.

The Observer investigates how sport's medical advice is shaped.

Available from Tuesday

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Talking point: Visma-Lease a Bike's Pauline Ferrand-Prévot carries French hopes in the Tour de France Femmes. Alex Broadway/Getty

Le Tour Femmes aims

to hit new heights

Esmé Lewis

At a record length of 1,175km over nine stages, including an individual time trial, multiple climbs and a first-ever ascent of the iconic Mont Ventoux, this year's edition of the Tour de France Femmes is the longest and most demanding in its modern history, underlining its rapid growth since returning to the calendar in 2022.

The race will also include its first Grand Départ in Switzerland, before the peloton winds its way through the Jura, Massif Central and the Alps, to finish in Nice next Sunday.

The inclusion of the 1,910m climb of Mont Ventoux reflects the race's growing ambition and the increasing strength of the women's peloton. "There is no mountain that is too difficult for women," race director Marion Rousse said in June. "And the peloton demonstrates that at each race. The level is more and more consistent, and they ride faster each time. Each year the progress is huge." The climb also represents another landmark moment for the sport. "It's important for women's racing that they can write their name

in the list of Tour winners on Ventoux," Rousse added.

Only four years after its rebirth, the Tour de France Femmes is already carving out its own position on the sporting calendar. Three of those four editions immediately followed the men's finale, but the 2026 race breaks away as a standalone event – starting six days after the men's race was won for a fifth time by Tadej Pogačar – giving it greater media attention and commercial visibility.

In 2027, the Femmes will further boost its international standing with a first British Grand Départ, with Yorkshire and London hosting the opening three stages before the peloton crosses the channel to France.

The British Grand Départ could provide a homecoming for Yorkshire's Cat Ferguson. The 20-year-old had been expected to make her Femmes debut this year, but a double ankle fracture sustained during the Giro d'Italia ruled her out. Her absence is a major disappointment for British cycling, but next year could offer the ideal opportunity for one of the sport's brightest young talents to make her Tour debut.

Just as they did with Paul Seixas in the men's Tour de France, the French have high hopes, and all eyes will be on

The weight debate highlighted the difference in scrutiny faced by male and female cyclists

defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. The Frenchwoman will be looking to defend her title following her breakthrough victory last year, but 2023 winner Demi Vollering and Swiss rider Marlen Reusser are expected to provide a tough challenge.

But the battle between the three extends beyond the road. As the Femmes gains momentum, discussions around rider health, race weight and gender equality have become increasingly difficult to brush aside, with Ferrand-Prévot, Vollering and Reusser all finding themselves at the centre of the conversation.

After finishing second in last year's Tour, most of the questions Vollering faced focused on her weight, rather than her performance. Rejecting suggestions that losing more weight would have won her the race, the Dutch rider insisted she would always prioritise her health and warned that professional athletes have a responsibility to set a positive example for young girls following the sport. "I make, and will continue to make, every decision in my career by putting my health first," Vollering said.

Meanwhile, Ferrand-Prévot faced criticism for her weight loss. Ahead of her Tour victory, she had lost around four kilograms as part of her preparation

for the race, prompting debate over whether such changes risked promoting unhealthy body standards. Some critics went further, suggesting that her weight loss, rather than her ability, was what gave her the edge.

The rider, now 35 years old, defended her approach, saying: "I don't want to stay like this because I know it's not 100% healthy, but we also had a good plan with the nutritionist in the team and everything is in control. I didn't do [anything] extreme."

The debate around weight in women's cycling has also highlighted the difference in scrutiny faced by male and female cyclists. When Remco Evenepoel, who finished second in this year's Tour de France, spoke openly about losing weight to improve his climbing, the focus remained largely on performance. Ferrand-Prévot's weight loss, by contrast, prompted a host of questions about her appearance, health and her responsibility towards women and girls as a public figure. In response to the discussion, the Cyclists' Alliance said that it was "disappointed that women in sport receive a disproportionate amount of scrutiny about their bodies compared to their male counterparts".

As the Femmes continues to strive towards greater equality while establishing itself as one of the biggest global events in women's sport, female riders are still judged on far more than simply what they do on the bike. Mont Ventoux isn't the only major uphill battle they will face in the next week.

STAGE ONE RESULTS - LAUSANNE

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION: 1.1. Wishes 3.29.01, 2 K Le Court Plessier 3.29.05, 3 D Vollering 3.29.07, 4 P Pelton 3.29.11, 5 N Rung 3.29.11, 6 E Longo Borghini 3.29.11, 7 K Nuwalabona-Phinney 3.29.11, 8 P Ferrand-Prévot 3.29.11, 9 C Kothari 3.29.11, 10 M Reusser 3.29.11

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

13

Players welcome golf's 'new-mum era' at Royal Lytham & St Annes

Despite recent positive changes, more could still be done to help golfers navigate motherhood, writes Um-E-Aymen Babar

Par for the course: there are five mums playing at the Open this week, including Ryann O'Toole, who is expecting her first child. Kate McShane/R&A/Getty Images

If there was an eighth wonder of the world, it would be motherhood. Many mothers have spoken about how pregnancy makes you re-examine the limits of what your body is capable of, and for many athletes it also tests their capabilities within sport.

There are five mums in the field this week at Royal Lytham & St Annes, including Ryann O'Toole, who is expecting her first child and is 15 weeks along.

Georgia Hall, the 2018 champion, gave birth to her son Conor in February and was determined to play here in Lancashire, where she won a home major at 22 years old.

While the pregnancy was difficult, it was the postpartum recovery that posed the real challenge.

"It was challenging, especially regarding pelvic-floor health," Hall said. "Everything relaxes when you give birth, so trying to get your muscles and core to shrink back is really difficult.

"I spoke to [fellow golfer] Alison Lee, and she gave me plenty of advice about travelling with a baby, including what buggy to get and how to handle bottle sterilisation.

I also used AI to ask questions, which really helped put my mind at ease. The NHS is fantastic too. There are so many groups you can join to connect with other mums, and there's always someone to call if you need help.

"Having children hasn't eased the pressure of the sport itself, but it's wonderful having my own family and knowing there are people who care about me regardless of my score and what I shoot."

Ten weeks after giving birth to her second child, Julian, German golfer and 2020 AIG Women's Open champion Sophia Popov also returned to compete.

Both Popov and Hall missed the cut at Lytham. Hall shot a first-round 76 and second-round 72 to finish at six over, while Popov endured a tough Thursday and ended 20 over after two rounds.

Lee was the only mum to have a Saturday tee time after she shot four over across the opening two rounds.

The conversation around motherhood in sport is often limited to the period of the pregnancy itself, despite many women struggling with the shocks of postpartum even more.

"There's no way I would have come back this soon and played with my first, Maya. The delivery was a lot tougher and took 27 hours," Popov said.

"The postpartum phase really took me by surprise. I felt like it took forever to get back into shape, to feel like yourself again. It was months before I decided to pick up a golf club again, and honestly, I wasn't even sure if I wanted to.

"The second time around, my delivery was a lot smoother and only took five hours. I think the expectation and knowing what's coming your way makes it so much easier.

"I have so much respect for mothers because I know what it takes to deliver a child. I still can't believe it's possible, creating a baby in your belly is mind-blowing."

'I have so much respect for mothers because I know what it takes to deliver a child'

Popov's mindset shifted after having children, and this mental adjustment took some getting used to.

"The best part about motherhood is that once I get off the golf course, I couldn't care less how I played," she explained.

"If it's a good round or a bad round, it doesn't matter because it doesn't change the way I interact with them. That has been the biggest difference.

"I still catch myself being hard on myself on the golf course because I think that's something that doesn't go away. You don't suddenly accept a three-putt because you think about the family you have at home. You're still trying to score the best you can and play the best you can."

The relationship between sport and motherhood isn't always obvious. For Popov, golf was priming her for motherhood even before her first child.

"You have really early starts in the morning, you have to be very disciplined with your time; motherhood is almost like a competition in itself. 'Can you make things work?'" she said.

"It also gets easier. With my daughter, I wanted to do everything the right way at the beginning. It's different with the second one because you begin to see that they live with you instead of the whole world revolving around them.

"Professional sports prepares you in a way to have a kid, but I think the hardest part that not many athletes who are mums talk about is that you give up on this lifestyle that you've had for 20 years or so – the first love you have is golf – and you shift from being 100% dedicated to the sport to 100% dedicated to motherhood.

"The difficult bit is you're not the same athlete you were before – you're different."

There are more mothers in elite sport than ever before, because women no longer have to choose between the two as sports organisations have become a lot more accommodating to this change.

The LPGA significantly updated their maternity policy in 2019 to introduce status retention and a two-year return window for players.

However, conversations around these topics remain limited and navigating them can still feel like a minefield.

"No one really knows the whole picture. It's complicated, and I had three or four phone calls trying to figure out what my options were, the advantages and disadvantages of it," Popov added.

"I was kind of shocked at how little conversation there is around the topic. I was having to do a lot of research myself, but we're now entering a new-mum era, which is very cool to see."

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

Meet the footgolf GOAT keen to challenge Harry Kane to a match

Leaving his job as a PE teacher has allowed Ben Clarke to establish himself as the sport's dominant force, writes Ben Bloom

The seventh hole at Gatwick Footgolf is a fairly simple proposition. At just 79 yards, it is the second shortest on the 18-hole course and, bar a stagnant lake off the right of the fairway, hazards are at a minimum.

Really, there is little justification for me having to employ a handily located lifebuoy to fish out my soggy ball after a horribly wayward tee shot. My mistake, explains my playing partner Ben Clarke, was a common one, opting for superfluous power over methodical precision.

"In many ways, footgolf is quite a boring sport to watch," says Clarke, 35. "Don't just whack it as hard as you can. Pass your way round. It's dull, but effective."

Created in 2008, footgolf requires players to kick a full-size football around a golf course, and into oversized holes, in as few strokes as possible. To almost everyone in the sport's niche orbit, Clarke is considered the greatest to ever play it.

For almost a decade, since quitting his job as a PE teacher in Hertfordshire, Clarke has been footgolf's dominant force. He has finished every season ranked inside the world's top three and ended five of them as No 1. This year he already looks on course to top the standings again.

So it was with no shortage of trepidation that I stood over a routine birdie putt on a first green located directly underneath Gatwick Airport's flight path, pondering the unlikely chance to take the lead against such distinguished opposition. Riddled with fear, I duly missed, repeating the error when presented with an identical opportunity two holes later, and quickly fell away, seduced by the lake's allure. By the end of our nine holes together, Clarke is three under par — "That's as bad as I'll play around here," he says, depressingly for his playing company — while a smattering of stray drives leaves me five over.

Intriguingly, given his adherence to a firm sidefoot strategy that

Foot loose: Ben Clarke has finished every season he has played ranked inside the world's top three and he has ended five of them as No 1. Andy Hall for The Observer

seemingly reduces errors to almost nil during our half-round, the origins of Clarke's footgolf story lie in his days launching the ball vast distances as a goalkeeper.

In 2014, he received an unexpected message on social media inviting him to attend a

'If Kane went straight to the first tee now – I'd back myself to beat any professional footballer'

newly opened footgolf course nearby. The sender had developed a theory that goalkeepers would excel due to their ball-kicking proficiency. As a part-time goalkeeping coach and amateur goalkeeper playing in the fifth tier of non-league football, Clarke fitted the brief. Within weeks, he was hooked, and success soon followed, albeit through prioritising accuracy over power.

"It turned out I was much better at footgolf than football," he says. "I tried to do both for the first year, but I'd have to choose one or the other each weekend, and I enjoyed footgolf much more. So I completely stopped playing football."

Repeatedly asking for days off to play in tournaments that required midweek travel, he was handed an ultimatum by his school employer in 2017 – either teaching or footgolf had to go. So he quit his job and relocated to Gatwick, supplementing his competitive earnings by working at the footgolf club.

Even for the greatest, finances

remain tight. Clarke suggests that he requires a top-three finish at overseas tournaments to turn a sufficient profit after travel and accommodation costs. His biggest payday was $10,000 (around £7,500 now) in Dubai, alongside a cheque for one million yen (around £4,700 today) in Japan. "It's nice to be a millionaire somewhere in the world," he says, with a grin.

Training is surprisingly minimal – little more than a few rounds a week. "It's not like golf where you go down the range and hit 50 or 100 balls," he explains. "You can't have 100 footballs with you, and we don't have a driving range anyway."

The sport is surprisingly all-consuming. As well as competing in multiple tournaments across England, Clarke has travelled to Poland, Slovenia, Mexico and Sweden for competitions in the past three months alone.

The World Cup in Acapulco finished last month and saw more than 1,200 players compete, with Clarke finishing an agonising fourth after a play-off.

Over the course of his footgolf career, he has defeated the likes of Manchester United midfielder Alan Smith, Argentina

captain Roberto Ayala and a host of other former professional footballers. But he is routinely asked whether top-level footballers would beat him if they switched codes.

"Someone like Harry Kane has a golfing background, so maybe with that mentality and game management, he would fit into it a lot easier than someone else," says Clarke. "But it's the touch and feel around the greens where it's won and lost.

"I'd like the opportunity to play against him if anyone can make it happen. Maybe give him a year to

adapt to everything, but if he went straight to the first tee now, I'd back myself to beat any professional footballer."

They are words befitting a sporting GOAT – even one firmly aware of his place in the sporting pecking order. "If you go down the high street and ask people what footgolf is, they probably don't have a clue," he says. "It's nice to be known as that in the footgolf community, but outside of footgolf, I don't think it will get you too far.

"In the grand scheme of things, I'm not Messi or Ronaldo. But it's nice."

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

15

Sink or swim: Gertrude Ederle finished the 21- mile feat faster than the five previous male successes. Bettmann Archive/ Getty Images

The Channel pioneer who made a splash for women

Gertrude Ederle completed a landmark 21-mile swim on the shores of Kent 100 years ago. By John Goodbody

Bonfires and flares were lit on the Kent coast. The horns of cars were sounding. Crowds were gathering on the shore. And the searchlight of the lifeboat station at Kingsdown focused on a small boat alongside a solitary swimmer, 400 metres from the shore.

In the water was American swimmer Gertrude Ederle, an Olympic gold medallist, who, 100 years ago next Thursday, was about to become the first woman to swim the English Channel. As she staggered ashore to be engulfed by spectators, her time of 14 hours 31 minutes was faster than the five previous male successes, beginning with Captain Matthew Webb in 1875.

Ederle's feat was to transform perceptions of what women were able to achieve athletically. And it was an era when their position in society was changing, with Nancy Astor becoming the first female MP in 1919 and British women getting the vote in 1928. It was by no means easy

for Ederle to finish the 21-mile feat. A year before she had failed, when battling against illness and a turbulent tide. Her trainer, Jabez Wolffe, ordered that she be pulled from the sea.

He may have been influenced by refusing to believe a woman might

complete what he had failed to do 22 times.

When it came to Ederle's successful attempt in 1926, her new trainer, Tom Burgess, who himself had achieved the crossing in 1911, told her to give up. She replied: "What for? I am going through with it this time." Burgess made her father sign a document absolving him of responsibilities should his daughter drown.

The reaction to Ederle's achievement was a mixture of delight, astonishment and resentment. The Washington Post said that "much benefit to American womanhood will result" while the German newspaper Zeitung Am Mittag stated her performance was "new and conclusive proof of the athletic emancipation of the once weaker sex". However, a columnist in the Daily Express declared: "Women's participation in masculine matters is positively repulsive," and said it should be banned by law.

He was not listened to. This was a new environment. Even the International Olympic Committee, whose founder Baron de Coubertin was disdainful of women's sport, had agreed that year that female athletics events should be introduced at the 1928 Games. And

Ederle's triumph was followed by other women swimming the Channel, including the first Briton, Mercedes Gleitze, in 1927. They all showed that long-distance swimming was one of the few physical activities where women could often match or even exceed the performances of men.

The fastest time for crossing the Channel may now be by a German male, Andreas Waschburger, in 6 hours 45 minutes, compared with the female record of 7 hours 25 minutes by the Czech Yvette Tulip Hlaváčová. However, many other records are held by women.

In 2019, the American Sarah Thomas became the first – and only – person to swim the Channel four ways (there and back twice) despite having been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. She underwent 16 rounds of chemotherapy – all while continuing training. Her pilot Eddie Spelling said: "She is such a strong woman that she could have done a five way – or at least a four and a half way."

The highest number of successful crossings (44) is by Australian Chloë McCardel, who overcame an unhappy upbringing and then two allegedly abusive relationships through swimming, saying: "I was crying into my goggles and

no one on the boat could see." Alison Streeter is the Briton to have achieved the most crossings (43). Working as a currency trader, she would sometimes have the boat crew pass on her opinion on the markets during attempts.

Statistician Julian Critchlow has examined the details of the 2,780 swimmers who (up to this week) have ever conquered the challenge. He found the solo success rates are 73% for women and 66% for men. And females are on average 10 minutes faster. There are physical reasons. Women generally have a larger proportion of slow twitch fibres than men, invaluable for endurance events. And they generally burn fat more efficiently, so preserving their glycogen stores for longer.

The main difficulties for open water participants are the distance and the cold. An academic team at the University of Portsmouth concluded in 1999: "Individuals who have a great limb adiposity (most women) should possess thermal advantages during cold water exercise due to greater insulation of active and vaso-dilated muscles." Meanwhile, women have tended to survive longer after shipwrecks, according to anecdotal evidence.

Preparing for long-distance efforts in the water requires rigorous training in chilly seas, lakes and lidos to become accustomed to the conditions. It is this determination that marks out the Channel swimmer, as Ederle demonstrated a century ago, with so many others following in her wake.

John Goodbody is the author of 150 years of Swimming the Channel

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

Next week

Fury vs Joshua fight will be tribute act to former selves

The two English heritage boxers are gearing up for a re-enactment of a battle that never took place

Giles Smith

Who isn't stoked at the prospect of watching Tyson Fury fight Anthony Joshua? Who hasn't dreamed of seeing these two colosses of the sport finally brought together by the inexorable course of their individually crescendoing talents – the rest of the world conquered, all belts gathered, and now just these destiny-twinned British legends going head-to-head for the ultimate place at boxing's summit?

But that was a decade ago. What about now? Still stoked? Still dreaming? No disrespect to anyone involved, but the final ascent to Fury vs Joshua 2026 (assuming) appears to have involved some pretty dream-resistant mountaineering.

In the blue corner, in front of a theatre-sized crowd in Thailand, Tyson Fury, 37 and now on his fifth return from retirement unless I've missed a couple, needed seven rounds to shake off Mariusz Wach, a 46-year-old Pole – also beaten along

the way by Fury's cousin, Hughie.

Meanwhile in Jeddah, and exclusively on DAZN pay-per-view, Anthony Joshua, 36, last seen in an unsanctioned match-up with a YouTuber, achieved a second-round knockout against "unfancied Albanian" Kristian Preng, a result which would have been slightly more convincing if Joshua hadn't got knocked over himself, twice, in round one.

Anyway, "super-fight" ahoy! But how super? Among other things, it does raise the question of how long you can leave a contest of this nature

before it ceases to be a boxing match as we generally define them and instead becomes something closer to a heritage battle re-enactment, albeit a heritage battle re-enactment of a battle that never actually took place.

Plus-side, of course: in this re-enactment the actual combatants will be involved, which is not something audiences can reasonably expect to see at, for example, the big Battle of Hastings do-over coincidentally scheduled to come off in Sussex this autumn, marking that historic bout's 960th anniversary.

History repeating: unlike Fury vs Joshua, the Battle of Hastings has actually happened before. Jack Taylor/Getty

Still, it looks like there are going to be 500 people in costumes getting it on in that one, and horses, and also falcons, so, you know... swings and roundabouts.

Also, now I mention it, the promoters there have clearly done the right thing by securing the original site at Hastings for the rematch, which the authentic fight fans were clearly clamouring for, and rightly so. Let's face it, there's only one ring in which you want to see King Harold and Duke William get ready to re-rumble, and it's not in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

And there's been no craven showing of the start time into the middle of the night for the benefit of American audiences, either. It's all set to be a 10am ring-walk at Hastings Abbey on the day, and so it should be.

By contrast, yes, reports indicate that the promoters of Fury vs Joshua are looking very closely at Wembley Stadium, which would have been the likely original site for Fury vs Joshua – if there had been an original site. But commercial imperatives may yet mean they end up settling for Saudi Arabia, Las Vegas or possibly even Cardiff, which would obviously be a shame in terms of honouring the history of the fight, non-existent though that history is.

My point is, there's a legacy to protect here, and let's hope national sentiment and a true feel for a past that never was eventually prevail over a sheer appetite for money, just as they clearly have with the people at English Heritage.

So bring it on, I guess. But it's all about setting your expectations, isn't it? And looking at it this way, I could probably get quite excited about Fury vs Joshua in the same way that I could probably get quite excited about seeing, say, a Beatles tribute act. Even a not particularly accurate Beatles tribute act.

Or about going to Glastonbury festival, if you like – but the Glastonbury festival of last year, with Olivia Rodrigo and Neil Young, or even longer ago, and not the Glastonbury of this year, when there wasn't one.

The real cruelty of sporting success was always that it came with a sell-by date. But clearly boxing is working on that for us. And my tip to the Fury vs Joshua promoters: for maximum synergy, stage it the night the clocks go back.

Windies aim to do Sobers proud as they face Pakistan again

Second Test starts as the Commonwealth Games comes to a close with medals in bowls and judo and more, by Patrick Kidd

It was a pleasing quirk this week that West Indies beat Pakistan by 90 runs on what would have been the 90th birthday of Sir Garfield Sobers. Their win, on the fourth day of the first Test in Trinidad, meant that several of his team could fly to Barbados to attend Sobers's state funeral the next day.

In his eulogy to the great all-rounder, Sir Clive Lloyd said that Sobers had brought "a rare combination of brilliance, imagination, courage and joy" to the Caribbean. That is something they have not experienced often in the past 30 years, but Justin Greaves's

five consecutive wicket-maidens in the first innings, followed by Jayden Seales's five for 20 in the second, will give them confidence going into the second Test (today, TNT Sports 3, 3pm).

For Pakistan, it was an eighth consecutive defeat in an away Test. They come to England next for a three-Test series that begins on 19 August, for which the hosts are preparing by playing 100-ball cricket. At least Ben Duckett is in form, making scores of 49, 75 and 52 not out in his first three Hundred matches for Trent Rockets. Duckett's

Rockets next face Harry Brook's SunRisers Leeds (today, Sky Sports Cricket, 2.30pm).

The British Women's Open reached its half-century this week. There have been only nine home champions, the most recent being England's Georgia Hall in 2018 and Scotland's Catriona Matthew in 2009, who both won at Royal Lytham & St Annes. The Lancashire course is this year's venue: might that be a good omen? (final round today, Sky Sports Golf, noon).

As Europe melts under the baking sun, it's a surprise to discover that there is a ski-jumping competition going on. This year's series begins in Wisla, Poland – not to be confused with Whistler, British Columbia (today, TNT Sports 7, 10.30am).

Australia have again been the outstanding nation at the

Commonwealth Games – they will top the medal table for the ninth time out of 10, from 1990 onwards. The action concludes today with medals to be awarded in cycling, bowls, judo and netball (TNT Sports, 9am).

The extra preliminary qualifying round of the FA Cup begins on Friday, featuring teams from levels eight and nine with almost familiar names such as Wolverhampton City, Ipswich Wanderers and Newcastle Town (from under-Lyme, not upon Tyne). The other Wolverhampton – Wanderers – are in action on the same day in the first round of the Carabao Cup against Port Vale (Friday, Sky Sports+, 7.45pm). West Ham United, who were relegated with Wolves from the Premier League last season, play Portsmouth on Saturday (Sky Sports+, 3pm).

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Back to life

Mark Haddon: how I learned to write again

The Assads

and me

Chloe Hadjimatheou on the fate of a Syrian opera singer

Dreams

of the city

Seán O'Hagan on a century of American photography

THE OBSERVER

02 | 08 | 26

the new

review

MAKING GREAT YARMOUTH GREAT AGAIN

Once a jewel in the seaside economy, the town is now a symbol of British decline.

Why do so many believe Rupert Lowe's far-right politics can save it? By Miles Ellingham

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2

Agenda

The sharpest writing every Sunday for arts, science, books and ideas

Agenda 4-7

• In real life Jude Rogers visits a bunker full of vintage synths; Xavier Greenwood watches 'the Wimbledon of jousiting'; Marine Saint celebrates Marilyn Monroe; and David Barnett on Jeremy Beadle's true crime archive
• The grid 'two photographers' portraits of their mothers
• Interview Musician Laura Veirs on the music industry boys' club

Critics 19-24

• Seán O'Hagan sees the pictures that define American urban life
• Fiona Maddocks on the choral tradition of evensong
• Wendy Ide watches a work-weary superhero in the latest Spider-Man
• Susannah Clapp enjoys a funny, filthy Jackie Collins puppet show

Features 8-18

• Interview Mark Haddon tells Tom Gatti how he escaped the "brain fog" of long Covid. Plus, we publish eight of his new stories
• Cover story Miles Ellingham asks the residents of Great Yarmouth if they really believe in Rupert Lowe's hyperlocal political experiment
• John Naughton on Silicon Valley's dystopian AI fantasy
• Report Syrian opera singer Razek Francois Bitar tells Chloe Hadjimatheou about the dark side of the Assad regime's cultural ambitions

Books 25-29

• Killian Fox on Annie Jacobsen's grisly imagining of a biological war
• Kathleen Jamie's new poem about the Cairngorms wildfire
• Ellen Peirson-Hagger reviews Avni Doshi's follow-up to Burnt Sugar
• Frank Miller on Batman, hitting rock bottom and the next Sin City

Puzzles & Television 30-40

• Everyman crossword, sudokus, Azed, chess, guess the picture, cinema connect, Lexipedia quiz and Goldilocks crossword
• The week's television and radio highlights
• Barbara Ellen on strong women in Furious and The Rapture

Follow us on Instagram @ObsNewReview; email us at review@observer.co.uk

Contributors

• Chloe Hadjimatheou (p16) is narrative editor at The Observer, where her investigations include The real Salt Path.

• Killian Fox (p25 & 29) won a British journalism award in 2020 and is author of The Gannet's Gastronomic Miscellany.

• Jude Rogers (p4) is a Welsh journalist and lecturer, and the author of The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives.

• Seán O'Hagan (p19) is a critic and journalist who has been writing about music and photography for The Observer for more than two decades.

• Kathleen Jamie (p27) is a poet and essayist. She was Scotland's makar (poet laureate) from 2021 to 2024. Her books include The Keelie Hawk.

The big picture

Robin Bernstein trains his lens on the people left behind in South Africa's resource-rich Mpumalanga province

On the cover: Great Yarmouth beach, photographed for The Observer by Harry Mitchell

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

3

After the gold rush: teenagers playfully square up to each other outside a healer's house in South Africa's Mpumalanga province. Robin Bernstein/ GOST Books

It's not a display of raised fists to be taken all that seriously. The photographer Robin Bernstein was visiting a smallholding in Mpumalanga, South Africa, when these two teenagers ran out of the house and started play-fighting for the camera, squaring up in front of a plot of maize and a water tank. The only riled-up party present, says Bernstein, was the small black-and-white dog, which "ran around, barked a little bit, and then turned

on its heels and ran – I popped off the frame as it was leaping back".

Bernstein first visited Mpumalanga, a northeastern province near the borders with Mozambique and Eswatini, in 2018. Struck by the beauty of the landscape, he was also intrigued by its population of wild horses, which he later realised was tied to the region's history of mining. Europeans first learned there was gold here in the 1870s. After the

initial gold rush fizzled out, the horses they'd employed were left behind to fend for themselves.

Bernstein made multiple return journeys to document the landscape and its occupants, taking in abandoned mines and stone structures predating the arrival of Europeans. This smallholding was surrounded by mines but not associated with them. It was inhabited by an older woman, whom Bernstein understood to be

a healer, and 20 or so children who may have been her adoptees. On this visit, "the kids were really excited and wanted pictures," he recalls, "so they all started performing these scenes to pull me in."

The two young boxers are included in Bernstein's new book Mapalakata, featuring photos from his time in the province. The title, meaning "visitors", refers to foreign traders and prospectors who moved through southern Africa long before

European colonisation. Many people have sought to exploit this region over the centuries, erasing traces of its inhabitants while extracting valuable resources from the land. With this image and others in the book, Bernstein is trying to break that cycle by giving the place his full attention – play-fights and all – and immortalising it on film. Kilian Fox

Robin Bernstein: Mapalakata is published by GOST Books (£45)

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

In Real Life

Observations & scenes from the world beyond your phone screen

MUSICAL MATTERS

Going underground

On the scrubby edges of Borras, a hamlet two miles outside Wresham in north-east Wales, sits an eerie redbrick

nuclear bunker. Royal Observer Corps volunteers once met here every week to learn how to sound the four-minute warning, assess nuclear explosions and monitor fallout. Thirty-four years after it was decommissioned, disquieting sounds still chirrup inside.

They spill into the corridor from the former ladies' toilets, now stacked with military machines built in the age of nuclear fear. A man emerges from them, wearing a bright orange T-shirt emblazoned with the word "Droog", under an image of pioneering synthesiser designer Robert Moog, dressed as Alex from Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. "Morning!" says Matt Thomas, who runs Cold War Synths, a "vintage audio playground" he opened last year.

It's a space he's opened up for composers, soundtrack artists and anyone keen to experiment. "I built this on the principle of: If you build it, they will come," he says. A former producer also known as King Unique, who made remixes for groups including the Killers and Underworld, Thomas has amassed an extraordinary collection of early synthesers and other curious sound-making machines.

The sweet, almost human squeaks come from an EMS VCS 3, the first portable synthesiser, used by Pink Floyd on The Dark Side of the Moon and Brian Eno on Roxy Music's early albums. Beside it sits one of only about 800 Yamaha CS-80 synthesers that were built, used by Vangelis on the soundtracks to Blade Runner and Charlots of Fire, and by Quincy Jones on Michael Jackson's Billie Jean and Human Nature. It's currently in "the two-year repair queue", Thomas sighs. He bought it from a friend in the early 2000s; working models are now worth more than £50,000.

Analogue synthesers are soaring in value for two reasons, Thomas says. The first is commercial and "miserable": people are buying some machines to "strip them for their gold wiring". The second is very human.

"When absolutely everything is becoming not only digital, but sort of insubstantial, people want to be surrounded by things that you have to play by hand. It's like when you were 15 or 16 and going: 'I wonder how this works, I wonder what this does.' Then you turn a dial, and something amazing comes out."

Thomas's collection was acquired relatively cheaply; some synths were

bought at auction, while others were salvaged from house clearances, or found in local markets or sheds. It includes lots of machines never principally intended to make music, such as data generators, a Soviet wire recorder, and a medical testing unit used to vibrate cells. "That can spit out 250 volts if it's not happy," Thomas says before setting it off, putting the cable ends safely out of reach. "I don't really want to know what it might normally be used for."

There are also quirky instruments made by small British companies such as WEM (Watkins Electric Music), whose founder, Charlie Watkins, used to do David Bowie's stage sound and later pioneered powerful rock PA systems, and a Royal Navy signal tester for analysing unusual waveforms. It emits a techno-like pulse whenever it detects aberrations, as it did when Thomas fed it the sound of the heavy drums at the beginning of Led Zeppelin's Kashmir.

As he hops around the space, Thomas explains how he stopped making music 10 years ago after becoming disillusioned with the industry. He then trained and worked as an archaeologist, before changing tack after the pandemic, combining his talents to dig for

noisier treasures.

"I kept thinking:

'Is what you

love about these

machines their

capacity to make

you a living, or

their capacity to go boom? The

boom's what

inspires people – how they get joy out of this."

The bunker setting also adds drama in this building of adventurous music-making. Local house music act K-Klass bought the place in 1995, renaming it Roc2 and converting its old map room and other spaces into professional recording studios. Musician and sound engineer Steve Hywyn Jones, formerly of Welsh experimental band Y Brodyr, has run it since

2005, and pops in to balance a plate of digestive biscuits on an old test signal machine.

He directs me to a silent film of the building from 1962, which I watch later on BBC Rewind. Uniformed volunteers move fallout charts around a map of Wales, while another climbs on to the roof to crank up the four-minute warning siren.

The mid-20th century was a time of terror but also invention and potential, Thomas reflects. Many of these machines have multiple inputs, outputs, knobs and dials: the possibilities are "endless", he explains. Then he encourages me to play. I plug pins into the VCS 3 and create a bubbling rhythm full of sweetness and energy. On a test signal machine, I set off a buzzing drone that I manage to get singing recognisable notes – like a ghostly robot. Old instruments send new sounds and ideas swirling into the air. Jude Rogers

COUNTRY LIFE

The knights' tale

Are you ready for the thunder of hooves on your spine? Are you ready for the shattering of lances? Let Nigel

Amos, compere of Arundel Castle's international medieval jousting tournament, narrate every tread of my unknightly life, and the ground quake under my feet.

The first thing you should know about modern jousting is that there are levels. Some tournaments are about falling off horses and taking favours from ladies. Then there are the real ones. The ones that hurt. "Stunt shows have rehearsed routines," Amos tells a crowd high on winter mead and summer fumes. "What we've got is a real jousting tournament, real armour, real hits and a real competition. We perform this basking in the chivalry of his grace, the earl marshal of England.

Six gruelling days. This is the Wimbledon of jousting, folks."

At Wimbledon, stray tennis balls pose a minor threat to spectators. At West Sussex's Arundel Castle – a fortress founded in 1067 and the site of multiple sieges – it is flint. "If you see a bit of lance coming towards you," Amos warns us, "then duck." The danger pales against what jousters face. Riders hurle down a track at 25mph and bash each other with 12ft wooden lances. One point for the arms. Two for the body. Three for the shield and head.

You are scored both for the accuracy and the power of your hit, determined by how much of your lance breaks on impact. Given you are being hit, too, there is plenty to think about even before you get to the horse. If you are allocated one that doesn't suit you, it can affect your speed, direction, form and confidence, and can lead to a fall. Then there's the heat and heaviness. The jousters are clad in more than 60kg (88lb) of medieval armour because 21st-century equivalents won't cut it. "A friend [wearing modern armour] lost a testicle, which got pinned to the saddle," says Stacy Van Dolah-Evans, champion jouster and mastermind of the Arundel tournament. "Composite armours are not designed for jousting."

Even carbon-fired spring steel is no guarantee against pain. "I've been knocked out a few times. I've had three broken ribs. I've got a scar here," Van Dolah-Evans says, pointing at a contour on his chin. "A piece of wood went through my lip, through my tongue, and hit the roof of my mouth."

Someone will die every 10

years or so. "The risk is the eye slot. If it goes through there and hits the eye – that's you done."

Jousters at Arundel Castle emerge to the howls of the rock band AC/DC, whose music features in the Heath Ledger film A Knight's Tale (my primary research). There are other anachronisms. The US is one of four nations at this year's tournament, even though medieval jousting predates the declaration of independence by hundreds of years. Small cameras are dotted around to help adjudicate decisions. Women compete. And then on the mic there is Amos, who commands forces at re-enactments of the Battle of Hastings. "You need to understand this," he says. "You're seeing something very, very special."

He need not be so insistent: it's clear that the stakes are real and so are the prizes. Van Dolah-Evans has a 24-carat gold chain hanging in his office, spoils from a past victory. The jousters I watch at Arundel rise to the occasion, uncowed by the humidity, landing blows with remarkable acuity.

There are hills in the action. A young man next to me idly tells

---

his friends he was going to paint himself as the sun in homage to Monty Python before realising it would "look too much like the Argentinian flag". But a merry band of ultras keeps up the energy, encouraged by the odd fist pump after a jouster has a good spell at the tilt rail. Unlike the crowd, the competitors have little room to relax. They are staying in the castle and are also judged for behaviour outside the arena. "The ladies vote each day on which jouster has best followed the knightly code," Van Dolah-Evans says. "It's not about throwing a blanket over a puddle. It's about how they are with people. Do they do the washing up in the evening?"

There is always a chance of romance in the sweat and suds too. Van Dolah-Evans met his wife, Kyle, a former event rider who is jousting this year, while in competition. He proposed to her in the arena after his England team won the 2013 Arundel final. He was in a suit of armour, while she wore a diaphanous headdress and long turquoise robe. "She actually snapped her reins because she was so shocked," Van Dolah-Evans says. "She was not expecting me to do it."

Chivalry may not be dead, after all. Xavier Greenwood

ON THE STAGE

Channelling Marilyn

doublé? Pixie repeats an audience member's praise for her song over the microphone for the benefit of

her audience. "Oh, that's what we aim for. That's not a word I've used to describe Marilyn though. But alluring – am I alluring?" The pub crowd yells back in agreement at the tribute Marilyn in her blonde wig and white halterneck dress à la The Seven Year Itch.

Monroe has been associated with drag since her appearance as Sugar Kane – a sobriquet worthy of any queen – in the musical crossdressing comedy Some Like It Hot. And here, 67 years on from that comedic masterpiece, are versions of Monroe starring on south London's Clapham high street where they are ringing in her centenary birthday with a cabaret tribute. The LGBTQ+ bar Two Brewers is staging a one-night-only show.

We dutifully cheer as the disco ball spins and our second queen, a glittery Woe Adams, sings a ballad about Norma Jeane's early lessons of stardom. The soundtrack to the night is Smash, a TV musical about the creation of a Monroe biopic for Broadway. It is a homage within a homage. The Marilyns in drag are here to perform her life through the songs of Smash's leads: two actors vying for the bombshell role in a new show. The wistful Woe pleads to the audience: "Let me be

“

It's not about throwing a blanket over a puddle. It's about how they are with people. Do they do the washing up in the evening?

Illustrations by Oscar Ingham

your start", arms rising to reveal her embellished sleeves. Diamonds really are a girl's best friend.

But the show isn't just rhinestones, blonde curls and comedy. A narrator reminds us that times have hardly changed since Monroe's box-office heyday of the mid-1950s. "Geopolitical instability, rampant misogyny and the rise of fascism are the backdrop to a very special birthday," our compeets tells us.

Woe as Monroe drags her misstand onstage, crooning a sultry and self-aware song I Never Met A Wolf Who Didn't Love To Houl to her admirers. One dancer mock-bites her arm, the other jumps into the splits. A table of four men in front of me "ah-woo" in response.

It may be showbiz, but at Two Brewers the ethics of remembering Monroe are not ignored. "We're living in a world now where her death would've been reported very differently," Woe tells me after the show. Discovered unclothed, lost to an overdose of barbiturates at her Los Angeles home on 4 August 1962, the image of Monroe's body was publicly shared. Fans were devastated. More disturbingly still are the alleged inconsistencies in the autopsy that point to her body being tampered with before reaching the coroner's office.

Woe and Pixie unite in glistening black evening gowns. "Don't forget me!" Woe belts; Pixie points to her co-star with an eyebrow raised, opting to save her voice. What more can be sung in Monroe's honour, they ask us? Happy Birthday is a natural choice. They change into plunging red dresses reminiscent of Monroe and Jane Russell in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and kickline their way to the closing number.

No doubt Sugar Kane would have loved it. As for the indiscernible woman herself? I can picture her slipping on her heels and joining the birthday chorus with glee. Marine Saint

IN THE ARCHIVE

Criminal tendencies

n a fine Wednesday in July I take an early train to the historic city of York. I have been summoned there

by a mysterious missive. Would I be interested in taking part in a project involving an archive of esoteric published materials amassed by a well-known collector?

It is far too intriguing an invitation to decline, but the real draw is the archive's late owner. It is none other than the genial bearded Jester himself: Jeremy Beadle, presenter of the hidden-camera prank programme Beadle's About and the home-movie clip

show You've Been Framed!

Helen Pleasance and Robert Edgar of York St John University's Hauntology and Spectrality Research Group have invited me and a dozen other authors and researchers to inspect the archive, which consists of hundreds of copies of true crime publications from the 1960s to the 1990s. Pleasance was at a party when someone, recognising her for her work in the true crime sphere, tapped her on her shoulder. The stranger said he had come into Beadle's collection of magazines such as True Detective, Crime and Punishment and Master Detective; would she be interested in them?

The idea behind this project is that, inspired by Beadle's collection – including the magazine's letters and adverts – we will write short stories that will be published in an anthology. Edgar tells me: "The Beadle archive focuses on true crime, but we are also interested in uncanny crime, folk horror, moral panics and the emergence of urban folk tales."

My fellow authors and I spend the morning poring over Beadle's magazines. The covers boast lurid tales of crime and justice, and images of partially clad female models. "Naked body hung from balcony!" the headlines scream. "Deadly secret of the garden gnomes!" The publications, especially those from the 1960s and 1970s, often focused on crimes with female victims. I suppose that was very much of its time, along with the News of the World-esque attention to grim detail. The magazines did feature killers who were women as well – they loved a femme fatale.

One of my co-conspirators at the session discovers that Beadle himself was the guest editor

of the January 2008 issue of True Detective. "Why

am I guest editing

this issue of TD?"

Beadle wrote.

Because I have

a lifelong

interest in

true crime –

and there's no

other magazine

in the world that

is doing more

to... preserve these

fascinating tales and build a comprehensive archive of true crime pictures."

It was the last public statement that Beadle would make. By this point he had already been treated for kidney cancer and leukaemia, and on 30 January 2008 he died of pneumonia at the age of 59 – just as his issue of True Detective hit the shelves.

For us writers, it's a hauntological detail that will no doubt feed into our project. To borrow the style of the magazines in Beadle's collection, watch this space for forthcoming gruesome tales inspired by the most shocking true crime stories available. David Barnett

STILL SHOWING

Observer critics' takes on the events not to miss

Art

"Hurvin Anderson, shortlisted for the Turner prize in 2017, elected a Royal Academician in 2023, is represented by blue-chip galleries across the world. His paintings are pensive and meticulous, though there is always a sense of joy in the manipulation of colour and pigment." The exhibition runs at Tate Britain until 23 August. Laura Cumming

TV

The Five-Star Weekend, "both ultra-processed comfort-food TV and a complex drama, with occasionally maddening results", is still showing on Sky. Olivia Overden

Pop

Nia Archives's latest record, Emotional Junglist, "is ambitious, an album built on vivid storytelling and vibrant production. Archives is experimenting with a rich musical history, and with her creative compass guiding it somewhere new." She plays festivals in the UK and Europe throughout August. Tara Jeshi

NOW BOOKING

Art

The African American sculptor and land artist Beverly Buchanan is best known for her earthworks and assemblages of shades and ruins found in the American south. Following the inclusion of her work in the main exhibition at this year's Venice Biennale, the first European survey of Buchanan's art opens at Spike Island, Bristol, on 26 September.

Theatre

Tru, Jay Presson Allen's one-man play about Truman Capote, starring Tony award-winner Jesse Tyler Ferguson, transfers from New York to the Mercer Chocolate Factory, London, 26 September to W November. Tickets are on sale now.

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Agenda

The grid

Two photographers ask what it means to truly see the women who have raised us

While teaching together in Oslo, photographers Katharine MacDaid and Cheryl Newman discovered a mutual subject: their respective mothers. A new exhibit opening at Fotografiens Hus in Oslo this month, Kate and Carol, will see their projects displayed together.

MacDaid's series, My Mother, Kate, spans two decades of frank portraiture. Stillness, grace and bemusement permeate images set against the grassy landscapes of their walks. For MacDaid, the photographs reveal something about their relationship, offering "a way to confront her contained emotion and to negotiate my own need for control. Our relationship is deeply close and personal while, at the same time, guarded and reserved."

Meanwhile, Newman's One Hundred Yards from Home finds her collaborating

with her 99-year-old mother, Carol, who does the dishes in angel wings, peers out the window in a Doris Day mask, holds a yellow flower to her face. "Photographing my mother has allowed me to reconnect with her in ways I haven't since childhood," notes Newman, who is the photography editor for The Observer New Review. "I continue to discover new facets of her character."

Indeed, these thoughtful images ask us to consider what it means to look and really see the people who have raised us. As MacDaid writes, "The more I photograph my mother, the more I see her, and the more I know her as a woman." Tara Joshi

Kate and Carol runs at Fotografiens Hus in Oslo from 13 August to 27 September

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Agenda

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

7

Laura Veirs

Musician, 52

The American singer on outsider art, the music industry boys' club, and taking back control of her songs

Laura Veirs has released 14 albums of folk and alternative country music, including Saltbreakers (2007), July Flame (2010) and The Lookout (2018). A stalwart of the Americana scene, she is also one-third of the supergroup case/lang/veirs with Neko Case and KD Lang, and the owner of Raven Marching Band Records. Veirs's new album is Temple Songs, the first that she has written, recorded, arranged, produced and performed entirely on her own. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Where are you speaking from?

I'm in the Temple of Bloom, where I made the record. This is my workspace in my backyard where I do my Zoom calls and emails as well as my recording and visual art. It's my home office.

What's it like making songs in the same place you write emails?

I live in a house with a blended family of six people. We have four teenagers – my husband, Morgan, and I both have two biological kids and two stepkids – so it's very busy in there. This room is only eight steps away, but I can't see the house. It's very private and feels like a little sanctuary. I come out here and I do whatever I need, some of that means emails and business, and some of that means getting in a [creative] mindset. I wear all the different hats back here, and I don't have such a hard time switching between them.

How important is it that you have a room of your own to create in?

For the first five years after college, I was writing songs in the living room with roommates, and I didn't have a room of my own at all. But

back then, I seemed to be able to just get in the zone with people right around me. When I moved to [this] house, which is where I've been for five years, I was a single mum and I did all my work in the kitchen. But when Morgan and I were getting serious about living together, I knew I needed a space, so I built this temple. It's a very simple structure, only 14ft long and 10ft wide.

This is your 14th album but the first you've made entirely yourself. Why hasn't that happened before?

I worked with my ex-husband [musician Tucker Martine] as my producer for 20 years. He's a great record producer and we had a good relationship with that early on, and then it devolved into something that I didn't feel good about. I had given up a lot of my decision-making power to him along the way in terms of production and all the decisions that go into making a record. I've been divorced for

seven years. After I got divorced, I was like, "How am I going to make records?" I was so used to deferring to people, assuming that because they're accomplished musicians and producers, they would know best.

What changed?

For my 2022 album Found Light, I did my first co-production with Shahzad Ismaily in New York. We recorded it live. That was a confidence booster. And I took a home recording class that set up some parameters and structures that I followed, which were: look out the window; don't look at the screen; don't wear headphones; record vocals and guitar live; do three passes; walk away; come back later; pick the best one; build your tracks from there. Those restrictions really helped. I've learned that I like things that are a little rough around the edges. And making Temple Songs helped me get in touch with an aesthetic that I had lost touch with.

I want to be a role model for others, especially women, because the recording industry is dominated by men

How would you describe that aesthetic?

I have always had an interest in outsider art and folk art. There's this group of African American women from the [US] south called the Gee's Bend quilt-makers, who make quilts from scrap jeans and clothes. Now they are toured around the world as masterpieces. They use scraps to make these beautiful works of art in their homes. That's the aesthetic I'm going for: what can I make with minimal tools?

What did that mean for this album?

I used only two mics, the laptop, and then the interface, which is what gets the sound from the microphone to the computer. I played live, starting with guitar and vocals, and building tracks from there. I wanted to keep it sparse and limited. It's not about perfection and virtuosity; it's about feeling and expression. I like things that are simple but also deep. I also want to be a role model for others, especially women, because the recording industry is male-dominated. I want to be like: "Hey, there's another way to do this. You don't need $15m to make a record." Along the way, there were many days where I thought: "I want someone to tell me what to do here. Can someone please come tell me?" It's tempting for me to want to outsource that decision-making.

Women are poorly represented among music producers and engineers. Why do you think that is?

Part of it's just the culture. We live in a patriarchal society. Women are encouraged to be good collaborators and to care for others, and be reading the room and making sure the mood is fine. Some women feel intimidated by the tech side. But it feels so deep and layered. In Liz Pelly's book [Mood Machine], she wrote about Spotify and the boys' club: the dominant force is the white man, and it's been that way for a long time. But I run my own label. I live off my songs and I own many of them. I'm going to get it all back in 2031, in terms of having the rights to my entire catalogue.

What is the political atmosphere in Portland like at the moment?

Portland is a liberal city. It's a peaceful, artistic place. So yes, ICE is here, and people are protesting, but it's not like a war zone. We have a houselessness problem in the entire country, but specifically on the west coast. Our country is very divided, we are pushing up against an authoritarian government, and people feel a lot of fear. Martin Luther King said "the arc of the moral universe ... bends towards justice". I want to believe that, but sometimes I don't.

Interview by Ellen Peirson-Hagger

Temple Songs is out on 14 August via Raven Marching Band Records

'I wear all the different hats': Laura Veirs. Shelby Brakken

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

How Mark Haddon learned to write again

A series of health crises left the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time author with writer's block for six years – until inspiration struck. He tells Tom Gatti about rediscovering the joy of fiction, and overleaf we print a selection of his new stories

When "the fog" descended upon Mark Haddon for a second time, there seemed no way out of it. He could not write. He could not read. When he managed a short run it would leave him exhausted for days. His mind and body were immobilised. It was long Covid and it felt, he writes in his memoir Leaving Home, "like the return of an old ghost".

"I was too tired to be frightened," he tells me, as we shelter from the heat of July in the light and airy basement of his art and book-filled Victorian house in Oxford, bought after the publication of his 2003 bestselling novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. "I remember thinking: I don't have the energy to be anxious about this. I think if I had most other jobs, I'd have probably been OK if I'd taken enough rest. Writing is not like being a surgeon or airline pilot; no one dies if you get it wrong. But unless you're really on top form, it just doesn't work."

The ghost's first visit was a year earlier, in 2019, after Haddon underwent a triple heart bypass. The surgery had two side effects: it cured his fear of death ("I was near enough to get a whiff of the sulphur and I was so much calmer than I expected to be"), and it left him with a little understood condition known as "pumphead", a mental fogginess partly caused by his blood being routed through a machine. His novel The Porpoise – an extraordinary, multi-layered reimagining of Shakespeare's Pericles – was published three weeks after the operation, and he struggled through interviews, feeling, in an echo of the novel's catastrophic opening, like he was flying blind through heavy cloud. "I'd always been rather smug, thinking that I did a job that I could carry on doing for ever, and that no physical limitations would stop me. Then I realised that the brain is a physical thing as well, and it can give in, just as your knees do, or your back can. So that was me told."

After a year, the pumphead lifted and Haddon, now 63, had a brief spell of mental clarity, during which he wrote two stories to complete a collection, Dogs and Monsters. Then the fog descended once more. "I found it impossible to call down a plot out of the other." He could, however, call up stories from his own life. "I was at sea, and I had to do something. So I thought I will turn back to material I've been idly playing with over the years, because it's all in front of me."

Short vignettes began to accumulate, and eventually he had a powerful, fragmentary memoir of Haddon and his sister growing up in Northampton in the 1960s and 1970s with their architect father and stay-at-home mother: parents who did not feel, or would not show, any love or affection. (With brutal candour he described giving his mother a brief hug at her nursing home and feeling "disgust, of a kind I've never felt about anyone else.") At the same time, he was able to work on his sculptures: colourful, playful, abstract shapes that look like they could be cast in iron but are in fact made from paper and card, and are as light as air.

Fiction, though, still would not come. Then Haddon

"I'm always inclined to start at that point, when the shit hits the fan, and see what happens"

received a note from Julian Rothenstein, founder of the publisher Redstone Press, inviting him to contribute to an anthology of very short stories inspired by postcards (some were reprinted last month in these pages). "I realised maybe I could apply the same principles that drove the memoir to writing fiction. I went into a rubbishy secondhand shop in Oxford, and then I went on eBay, and I got myself the most absurd stack of old postcards." He pulls out a thick pile to show me: here's a picture of an okapi, a 1960s air ferry, staff gathered awkwardly around the breakfast buffet at Eastbourne's Excelsior Hotel. Using the vignette form he'd developed for Leaving Home, Haddon submitted not one but 11 stories. "I realised I could do them. I had momentum."

Haddon was learning how to write again. He finished more than 150 of these micro-stories, which he has collected under the title Fog & Pineapples. But

Photography by Tori Ferenc

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Interview

observer.co.uk^{}[] 02.08.26

9

though one of our leading writers has produced his first substantial work of fiction for seven years, he is struggling to find interest. His agent and publisher both demurred on the stories, finding them “too many, too short, too diverse and lacking a connecting theme”. Which is why Haddon – having remembered that years ago at the New Statesman I had published his story The Pier Falls – sent them to The Observer, and why you are able to read a selection of them here, illustrated by the author himself.

The stories are certainly diverse, but they are also united by Haddon’s distinct sensibility: witty, alive to the darkness at the heart of things, walking a tightrope between surreal and all-too-real. In our extract alone, there is a spell to ward off abuse, a journey to the centre of the Earth, an airborne confession, a “plump little naked guy, standing in the reedbeds”, lists with

the quality of prose poems. Elsewhere the collection contains suicides both successful and unsuccessful, drownings, monstrous men, a talking penis and a Hebden Bridge grocer called Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Haddon’s wife Sos Eltis, an English professor at Brasenose College, Oxford, suggested some of them may be overly macabre, so he is busy adding some light to the shade.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Haddon can pack as much incident into 250 words as another writer would in a story 20 times that length. He has always resisted “the transatlantic orthodoxy about short stories being quite Chekhovian, in the manner of Raymond Carver”, which is to say melancholic, restrained, with turning points rather than full narrative arc. “The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel stops, I think, just before the bullet is fired. I mean, I love Mantel, but

Mark Haddon photographed for The Observer at his home in Oxford.

part two of that story will be absolutely fascinating. I’m always inclined to start at that point, when the shit hits the fan, and see what happens.”

As a writer Haddon is a consummate disaster artist, a lover of car and plane crashes, falling bodies, premature burials. It is partly a way of forcing his characters to reveal their true selves – “you have to pressure cook people to bring out the best in them” – but it’s also a perverse form of homage to the things he loves. Some of his few happy childhood memories are of staying with his grandparents in Brighton – to honour those times he wrote The Pier Falls, a terrifyingly detailed account of a teeming British seaside pier collapsing. “It’s hard to write about good times without it becoming mawkish,” he thought. “So why don’t I just destroy something I love? If you write well about the destruction, you still have to get in all those details that you loved, but you strip away any mawkishness, and you can add some terrible plot engine to drive you through it.”

Haddon has long been plagued by anxiety and depression. Terrified of sharks, as a child he once spent an entire boat trip crying with a towel over his head. As an adult, several times he became convinced he was seriously ill – with skin cancer, or multiple sclerosis – and was going to die. He only recently conquered a fear of flying that left him missing family holidays or unable to function for days leading up to any plane journey. A story in Fog & Pineapples describes a character’s self-harming in precise detail born of experience. In his memoir he includes a photograph of a cat he made on his arm in 2024: “I do it because I’m uncontrollably angry with myself and there’s just too much pressure inside my head.”

Running through all his work – and his person – is a sense of humour as black as tar. Writing his new stories, “I’m embarrassed to say, and everyone who knows me, my family will back me up, that I probably chuckled too much at too many of the darker ones.” His two sons, now in their 20s, “credit me with one of the things that they have inherited from me – an appallingly dark sense of humour, which has to be kept under wraps in certain contexts.”

It was one such dubious joke that changed Haddon’s life. Having spent 20 years writing children’s books, he was trying to get an adult novel off the ground. “I wrote three very different opening paragraphs,” he recalls in his memoir, “giving very little thought to what might happen next. The other two I’ve forgotten completely but one was a description of a dog lying on a front lawn with a garden fork thrust so far through it that it had entered the earth and remained upright. So was in the next room and remembers me laughing as I wrote this. I then realised that it would be funnier and more compelling if the narrating voice belonged to someone who did not think the scene was funny.” You could argue that most people wouldn’t laugh at an impaled dog – but Haddon’s thought experiment led to the creation of Christopher, the teenage narrator of Curious Incident. In 2012, it became an award-winning play: performed around the world and a hit on Broadway, it is close behind War Horse for the title of the National Theatre’s most profitable production.

Having got over his disappointment at rejection from his publisher, Haddon is excited about getting Fog & Pineapples to readers in a way that might encourage people to read the stories it contains at a slower pace, “like poems”: an app that delivers one a day, perhaps, or a B S Johnson-style book in a box. Since completing the collection, he has written two much longer stories. At last, the fog seems to be clearing, the fatigue lifting, his abilities returning.

“I’d forgotten how profoundly enjoyable this experience is, and how much I’ve missed it,” he says. “There’s a peculiar state of mind that is both extremely relaxed and very sharp. It’s when I’m walking, when I’m semi-occupied with something else, when I’m doing the washing up, that the story I’m in the middle of writing will tumble slowly in the back of my head. Bits will get added and taken away, or reshaped, or refolded, and that is intensely pleasurable. I think I’m officially back in the saddle.”

Read eight new stories by Mark Haddon overleaf

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

Eight new stories

by Mark Haddon

Illustrations by the author

LUPINE

You will become a wolf and remain so for the period of one lunar month. You will not be able to talk. Wolf will be your only language. Your eyes will be pin-sharp. You will see fewer colours but will have the ability to pick out exquisite detail even in the lowest light. A dry leaf crushed a furlong away will be a drumroll. Smell will be a whole world.

You must feed yourself. Chickens, deer, carrion. You must snap the spine of a hare with the strength of your jaw and eat it while it is still warm and struggling.

You will be hunted in turn. So you must become invisible. The night will be your second pelt. If you try to make contact with humans they will do their very best to kill you. And that includes everyone in this room. If you survive for one lunar month you will become human again.

And then, finally, you will understand.

BIRDS

I can't erase the picture from my mind's eye despite never having actually seen him in action. Black binocular vignette, this plump little naked guy standing in the reedbeds, elbows akimbo, erect in all senses, pleased as punch and grinning towards the hides.

The reason I didn't laugh as much as everyone else back then was... his name was Simon and he was my uncle. My father's younger brother. A fact I was understandably not keen on sharing. He was mentally very unwell, suffered episodes of psychosis and was sectioned several times. Whether one excuses the other or whether he was both schizophrenic and a pervert is a question I'm not qualified to answer.

I do know that he did more shameful and less amusing things. Which I'm not going to describe for fear that I generate an image and it, too, lodges fast in my memory. Suffice to say that in return for one of these acts two young men beat him with a tyre lever, left a sizeable dint in his skull and came very close to killing him.

He lives in Gossington Hall now, a care home just down the road from Slimbridge, funnily enough. He is, as they say, a model resident, largely on account of the head injury which has left him "like a child" according to my father who visits sometimes.

And that, to cut a long story short, is one of the many reasons I am not a birdwatcher.

TOOLBOX

I'd ask you to trust me, except you don't trust anyone right now, and with good reason. But listen. Bacton Wood and Watch House Gap. Who else would know that? The bottle green leatherette sofa with the missing buttons? Tinned peaches and Carnation milk?

There will be an afternoon of persistent drizzle. You will be babysitting the girl next door whose name you will eventually forget. Whiny little thing. Dirty pink hairband and a doll she calls Susan. Someone will reach down and offer you their hand and promise to lift you up and take you away from this dreary life. It will be like a lifeboat motoring into view after you've been drifting at sea for months. Your heart will ache with relief.

But they will not have come to your rescue. They will be a shark. They will have smelled your blood and they will be circling. They will sense your wound, the one you keep so secret. And they will use it to hurt you and control you.

You will not be able to resist. How could you? You have never been in charge of your own life. And now would be the hardest moment of all to start.

So do this one thing for me. When the time comes, look in the cupboard under the stairs. You will find a grey toolbox. The combination is 190357. His date of birth. You will find something in the bottom. Take it to someone you would trust with your life.

It will be hard, I realise that. But you are braver than you know.

If all goes well then you and I will never meet.

THE BUSY LIFE

The drunken man. The jumping boy. The stroller with the coxcomb hair. Pencil shavings. Watercress. Formica. All-Bran. Trombones. Good cheese. Bad blood. Mere alcohol. The scrotum-tightening sea. The twist of colour at the centre of a marble. Car exhaust. The foggy, foggy dew. Stray pubes in bed and breakfast plugholes. Toffee. Moonrock. Gun-smoke. Wickerwork. Brown lines in old soap. The snows of yesteryear. The squeak of wellingtons in fresh snow. Snow on snow on snow. The crack of river ice. The smell of lemons. Tides that moving seem to sleep. The grainy light that hangs in rooms at 3am. A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces. Semen. Castor oil. Mud. The way you wear your hat. The gap between the lightning and the thunder. Moonlight. Good times. Boogie. Mittens. Sex-toys. Dappled things. The empty page below the final line.

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Fiction

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11

YES

I played with matches. I did not keep my hands inside the car. I stood in front of the yellow line and did not mind the gap. I consumed nothing in moderation. I walked on the grass and drove while drunk. I smoked. I fed the birds. I bent and ran and touched and entered. I disturbed, not least by tapping loudly on the glass. I never told the whole truth. Having failed to shower before entering the pool, I smoked, petted, bombed and performed acrobatics in the diving area. I operated heavy machinery when under the influence. I ate the same meal as my co-pilot and engaged in non-essential conversation below 10,000ft. I fired the director and took the job myself, but never let my work expand to fill the available time. I made graven images of silver and gold and bowed down to them. I did not keep the sabbath holy and did not honour my father and mother. I neither took this man to be my lawful wedded husband nor promised to honour and obey. I committed adultery, bore false witness, and stole. I walked away and took my love to town. I did not slow down. I let the sound of my own wheels drive me crazy. I passed GO and collected £200.

I will not behave. I will not remain calm. I will not do as I am told and I swear to God that I will not let the sun go down on me.

PINEAPPLES

Dear Mrs Carter

You'll have heard the news by now. Public sadness and private celebration is my guess. I might be a monster but I'm no fool. I hope Tucker found the body. Make some brief use of those vaunted steel nerves. With luck I will have jumped with sufficient energy and cleared the glasshouse. God forbid the family has to eat imported pineapples purchased from a shop.

I am tired of reasonless weeping and the darkness that rises from the lake at night. That is the short answer. Four centuries of the aristocracy fucking one another is the long one. You could stand in this gene pool all day and your socks would be dry as a bone.

It means, of course, that the estate will go to the unhinged Verity, which I will enjoy immensely, if one is granted the ability to view such things from where I'm going. My only hope is that she will drive the whole charabanc through the guard rails and into the ravine.

I will miss your baked rice pudding and your caustic put-downs.

Yours,

Percival.

PS. The stain on the Holbein is exactly what you thought it was.

HEAT TRANSFER

People tell me things. But this one has really stuck with me. We're flying from Málaga to Gatwick. I'm sitting next to a Jeff Palmer who works for BHG Heat Transfer. I know this because it's on his paperwork. He's not chatty, which is fine by me. I'm reading the latest David Nicholls.

We're nearly home when the captain comes over the PA to say that we're having "a bit of a problem". Jeff spreads his fingers and places both hands flat on the back of the seat in front as if bracing for impact. I'm not a big fan of flying but I am comforted by the presence of someone more scared than me.

The captain explains that the landing gear under the left wing will not deploy and that our landing will therefore be "more interesting than usual". That is the exact phrase. "We'll take a couple of turns in the stack while they clear the runway and prepare all the emergency vehicles. In the meantime I'd be grateful if you could put away your tray tables, stow any loose baggage and make sure your seatbelts are securely fastened."

Jeff's hands are shaking too much for him to do any of these things so a flight attendant and I do them for him. She says to Jeff, "We're going to be absolutely fine", with a tremor in her voice that even I can hear.

When she's gone he starts to cry. I touch his arm. He takes hold of my hand. "I have to tell you something." "OK."

"I'm married with three children." He's finding it difficult to speak. "But I have loved men all my life. I have been besotted. Over and over and over. And I have done nothing about it. I am a coward and a liar."

I squeeze his hand. He takes the other from the seat in front, leans back against the headrest and lets out a long, deep breath. I look out of the window and see blue flashing lights beginning to gather. We start our final approach.

The right wheel touches the runway, the left wing dips and bites the concrete, throwing off a great orange peacock of sparks, we veer sideways on to the grass, pitch forward and come to a shockingly abrupt halt. The doors blow open and the slides unfurl like butterfly tongues. Stunned, people start removing their seatbelts and clambering towards the exits.

Jeff turns and looks at me and says, "Oh fuck", and I still don't know whether it's because he cannot put the lid back on the box, or because he must now return to his pretended life.

Mark Haddon's illustrations, acrylic on mount board, were created for The Observer in the author's house in Oxford.

SLUMBERDOWN

It was not a tree house as such, more a platform suspended between four ash trunks which grew close together at the end of the garden. No walls, no roof. Nor was it particularly high. Certainly no more than 6ft for we could touch it with our fingers when we stood on tip-toe. But we climbed up to it using a swaying, piratical rope ladder and whilst we were not hidden from the rest of the world when we were up there it was the perfect place from which to leap down on to the old mattress we'd been gifted when our parents got a new bed.

Was it perhaps the fact that it was a mattress, the vehicle that ferries us regularly over the boundary that lies at the day's end? Sometimes, when the world's grip had been loosened by summer heat or the syrupy light of early evening, I would jump into the air and the stripy, buttoned rectangle of plump ticking below me would transform into a portal so that I would plunge through it into that endless, soft dark that lies underneath everything and everyone. Through the cat's cradle of wires and pipes and channels carrying electricity and gas and excrement and soiled, sudsy, bathwater. Through the nebulae of broken half-bricks and bent nails and black and white floor tiles from the houses where our forefathers had smoked pipes and played cribbage. Past skeletons adrift in their boats of ghost-wood. Past rusted stirrups and the distant moons of lost coins. The soot and smoky tang of ancient firepits. Jawbones of cave bears. A hand axe. Further still, through the graveyards of tyrant lizards, past fern-prints and stone trilobites, those great-great-grandparents of the woodlice that lived under the fridge. Silicates, basalt, iron-nickel. The ground warming with the steady gurr of each subterranean furlong. Then, faintly at first, almost inaudible, but growing slowly, the soft roar of the lava churning in the furnace of the earth's hot heart.

My brother was different. I was a creature of the earth, he was a creature of the air. It was riding at high speed over ramps that released him from the shackles of the ordinary. Building up speed on his banana-yellow Raleigh Super Bomber at the far corner of the scrubby lawn, he would pedal like billy-o until the front wheel hit the plank we had laid against the old oil drum. Then, if he held his nerve and steered correctly, he would fly from the plank's upper end and soar and soar until our whole lives were nothing more than a map far below his handlebars.

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Cover story

POSTCARD FROM THE

Has the once-thriving town of Great Yarmouth really embraced the anti-immigrant worldview of its MP Rupert Lowe? Miles Ellingham heads to the seaside home of Joyland to find out

My attempt to understand why people vote for Rupert Lowe begins in Norwich's County Hall, with the three words journalists secretly dread most: "Good morning, councillors."

Lowe left Reform UK in 2025 after being accused of workplace bullying. He then formed his own party, Restore Britain. Whereas Reform has expended political capital among some voters by billing itself as the centre-right alternative to Labour, Restore offers unapologetic ethnonationalism to those who feel Nigel Farage has compromised in his quest for power.

On its website, Restore promises to deport up to two million people. It also pledges to abolish the asylum system, inheritance tax, off-payroll working rules, hosepipe bans and business rates for small businesses. Lowe's posturing has attracted praise from those on the American right, including Elon Musk and Joe Rogan, who recently invited Lowe on to his podcast. The episode – in

which Lowe, bemoaning the loss of his father's pistols, falsely describes the Dunblane massacre as "one murder" – has been watched nearly three million times on YouTube.

Regardless of whether Restore's objectives are attainable, the party hasn't actually had any electoral success at parliamentary level. So far, Lowe is its only MP, and he was elected in 2024 on the Reform ticket. However, 18 days before Restore Britain was registered with the Electoral Commission, Lowe registered another party called Great Yarmouth First (GYF).

The long-term ambitions of this party are ill-defined. After forming, its options were to field candidates in the borough council elections and limit its authority to leisure centres and waste collection, or for county council, which, barring the formation of Norwich First and King's Lynn First offshoots, would mean existing in a perennial minority. Nevertheless, GYF chose the latter, and won each of the nine wards it stood in – all, predictably, within Great Yarmouth. Today is the party's second committee meeting.

As of May 2026, Norwich County Council has been controlled by Reform, whose 39 councillors form a functional majority with GYF. In opposition, there are 13 Liberal Democrats, 12 Greens, nine Tories, one independent and one lonely Labour representative. Having dispensed with the preliminary housekeeping, it takes Reform's leader, David Bick, about 30 seconds to start talking about immigration.

Bick is very worried about a proposed plan by the Home Office to house undocumented migrants at a former Ministry of Defence site in Barnham, on the border between Suffolk and Norfolk. "The immigration failures of this Labour government," he states, "now threaten to become a reality on our doorstep. Local families... are quite rightly very concerned and very angry... we will keep pressing the Home Office until it abandons this lunatic idea."

At that, the GYF leader, Jon Wedon, contributes a question:

"I will fully support the action that Reform is taking... If there's anything we can do to support that, please let us know."

"Chair, point of order," chimes a Green party councillor: "There's no question there."

"The question is," reiterates Wedon hastily, "if there's anything we can do, please let us know."

The meeting rolls along with similar absurdity and cattiness. At one point, Bick is asked about the effect of the recent heatwave on biodiversity, infrastructure and human health. He is not unduly concerned: "The excess temperatures this summer almost mirror the summer temperatures 50 years ago in 1976 ... and obviously, before that, we had the ice ages." This provokes a loud groan from half the room. Ten minutes later, Reform is accused of paying "danger money" in the form of blouted salaries.

Come break time, I spot the GYF posse crossing the lobby in lockstep like the gangsters from Reservoir Dogs, if it was directed by David Brent. They're not excited to talk to me. I almost get an interview with

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EDGE OF POLITICS

Wedon but he panics and makes a break for it: "I've got to go because Rupert's going to phone us!"

However, in his panic, he leaves councillor Steve Grimmer behind. Grimmer looks like a frazzled Mick Jagger and used to make bespoke kitchens. I corner him and ask how GYF came about.

"Sorry, this is my first council meeting ... I missed the [last] one because I had a holiday booked, so this is all new."

Why was the aim to go hyperlocal? Why not just run as Restore councillors?

"Because Great Yarmouth First wouldn't run nationally, would it? So Restore is now a national party." Grimmer says it's unlikely that we'll see Norwich First or Ipswich First spin-offs. All of which makes the party sound more like an oversight than a concerted strategy. A colleague of Grimmer's pops up and gestures for him to get out of there, the words "Shut your mouth" emanating from his raised eyebrows.

I ask if Restore is hampering Reform's chances by running against them. Grimmer starts to

From left to right, the Joyland amusement park; bunting on Britannia pier; the UK's last surviving promenade glasshouse; Joyland's treasured snail ride.

Photographs by Harry Mitchell

back away slowly. I try to take his number but it's no use; he issues a faint: "I've got to go," then disappears behind the barriers.

I realise that's all I'm going to get from GYF. Perhaps the town itself will be more forthcoming.

Great Yarmouth emerged from the ocean during the Saxon period about 1,000 years ago. If ecologists and climate scientists are correct, it's due to return to the sea in just a couple of generations. "Deindustrialised" is a word you read a lot when researching the town, mostly in relation to commercial fishing, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

"Rent" is probably a more relevant word; the private rental sector makes up more than 20% of the housing stock in Great Yarmouth (up from 8% in 2001). A significant number of these, as the poet Lotte LS points out in her book An Economy of Starlings, are houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) that commonly lack proper heating and are riddled with damp. There's about one HMO for every 50

people in Great Yarmouth, according to the book.

Another word may be "precarious". In Great Yarmouth, for half the year, the jobs disappear along with the tourism. There is an ageing population, and the local unemployment rate is significantly higher than for Norfolk, and England as a whole. Several areas in the borough are among the most deprived in the country. In 2022, a council report states, "over a third of Great Yarmouth's school children in years 10 and 11 were identified as RONI (Risk of NEET Indicators – ie they are at risk of becoming not in education, employment or training)."

It wasn't always like this. You can still see the residue of its Victorian heyday in the arresting redbrick architecture and the UK's last surviving promenade glasshouse, currently being restored. Back then, Yarmouth was the world's biggest herring port and a popular resort for thousands of holidaymakers who flooded in every summer off the newly built railway line. Charles Dickens stayed in the

Star hotel (now boarded up), as did Horatio Nelson.

The beach is still expansive and beautiful in the sun, so much so that Yarmouth managed to make the UK town of culture shortlist this year. There are still donkey rides and people lounging on picnic blankets, but the place isn't what it was before the package holiday boom of the 1960s and 1970s, despite the surprisingly tasty £1 burgers on Regent Road. In 2019, the town made headlines, Lotte LS writes: "when passengers, part of a 'surprise destination' cruise trip across Europe, refused to disembark after they realised the surprise destination was ... Yarmouth".

There is immigration in Great Yarmouth, but not necessarily of the kind Lowe tends to evoke. There's a large Portuguese-speaking community in the town. They came in the early 2000s to work, producing Turkey Twizzlers for Bernard Matthews Foods. The company's headquarters, 45 minutes down the road in Great Witchingham, closed

Continued on page 14

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Cover story

Continued from page 13

two years ago. But the Portuguese remain and their restaurants offer £12 litre jugs of wine. There are also many Greek Cypriots who fled after the civil war in the 1970s. One such Cypriot runs a record shop on the high street that blares melancholy Americana to passersby.

There are local icons, too, that represent the town. The most obvious is the snail. Locals have a strange love-hate relationship with snails. Motorists driving into Yarmouth have them to thank for moving at a mollusc's pace along the Acle Straight, a single carriageway that is the only way west out of the town. The state-protected little whirlpool ramshorn snail, native to here, managed to delay the road's expansion for years.

The town's most treasured attraction is probably the snail ride at Joyland, an amusement park that opened in 1949. GYF leader Wedon spent his summers manning the ride as a teenager. When Ann Widdecombe's death was announced last month, Lowe honoured her memory by posting a photo of them both inside a snail carriage. It's a strange picture; if you look closely, you can see that Lowe has perfected a gassy, open-mouth guttaw, which he could only have learned from Farage.

The Joyland snails have slightly nightmarish smiles too. They were designed by Horace Cole, who ran an engineering company, H Cole and Co, now Coles Steel Fabricators. Ownership of the park stayed in the family and it is now overseen by Cole's grandson, Michael, a straight-ahead kind of man. He is enjoying the summer boom in his wraparound shades. What does he make of Lowe?

"He appears to have the town's interest at heart," Michael tells me. "He's looking at the damage on the roads and the potholes ... and trying to get things moving." According to Michael, Great Yarmouth faces the same issues as every other seaside town: chiefly immigration and the struggles of seasonal employment, a similar set of concerns that Farage used to get himself elected in Clacton, 80 miles down the coast, and will hope works again in the byelection in two weeks' time. However, Michael is keen to impress on me that, as long as people are willing to work, he'll employ them. In that spirit, he spends a good portion of his time trying to get teenagers who have disappeared into their phones to speak to Joyland's visitors.

Restore, verb: to return something or someone to an earlier good condition or position. In Great Yarmouth, cartoonish crusaders hallucinated by AI image-generators mingle with lions on flags draped from people's balconies. Time and again, the people I speak to refer to a lost golden age somewhere "back in the day", before we forgot ourselves and stopped being decent.

From top to bottom, donkeys on the beach; misspell sloganeering; the entertainment offering on Britannia pier.

In the town centre, I'm drawn to a house with large boards propped up in the garden covered in red fabric. Above the door is a big wooden sign bearing a St George's cross and a message warning passersby that they risk losing their identity and country. I ring the bell and an elderly man in a white St George's flag-branded bucket hat emerges accompanied by dog noises. His name is Carl Barron. I don't really want to imply that Barron is representative of Great Yarmouth. But he does live there.

Barron doesn't like the council, he tells me, partly because it's using UV radiation to kill the bats

becoming prime minister. "It'll go back, instead of going forward," Barron says, describing what a far-right populist government could do for him. "Everyone says to go forward is good. It's not good. Going forward may be bad. And I believe how fast we're going is bad. It's a destroyer."

Later that night, on Britannia Pier, which never quite reaches the sea, a terrible high-pitched wailing and sobbing can be heard from somewhere in the darkness underneath the boardwalk. The sound of someone who's lost something very important to them.

The next day begins at a food bank run by a remarkable man named Darren Wheeler and his wife, Laura, from their front garden. Wheeler, a former landscape gardener, is distinctly community-minded. He runs a Facebook page that updates its 44,000 members on job vacancies, missing cats and traffic jams. He also organises Christmas events for homeless people and those in poverty. Wheeler has had to implement an appointment-based system for when he dresses up as Father Christmas because he spends so long talking to each child. The Wheelers do all this, they say, because they know what it's like to have nothing except a family of hungry children.

Darren Wheeler voted for Lowe. I find this strange because Lowe wants to make it harder for some people ("shirkers", to use the language of his website) to claim benefits, which could drive more people towards Wheeler's food bank. "Yeah, I don't think he should have come down to one of the most deprived areas in England and sat there saying [he's] going to cut back on benefits," Wheeler says. But he explains that he was compelled to vote for Lowe because he means what he says and, moreover, Wheeler loves "culture".

What does he mean by that? "It's, you know, our swans, our guards at Buckingham Palace ... [People] don't get it," he says. "They'll sit there and [ask] what's the point of that bloke sat on a horse ... He's been sat on a horse for 300 years!" Wheeler is particularly incensed by the "foreign people" who kill and eat swans in the local area. I can find no record of murdered swans, barring what's widely suspected to have been a dog attack in 2023.

It's frustrating seeing good people motivated towards the politics of resentment by social

People ask what's the point of that bloke sat on a horse... He's been sat on a horse for 300 years!

that nest in the trees behind his house. Barron explains that the red fabric in his garden stops the UV from penetrating the house. "It protects bats," he says, "I know it sounds crazy."

He likes Lowe, but he's more excited at the prospect of Farage

media-fuelled rumours. It's particularly frustrating for Carl Smith, a Tory councillor who was recently dethroned by GYF and now heads the borough council. We meet in the town hall. On the floor beside Smith is a replica of HMS Victory. He works hard for the people of

Great Yarmouth but nothing cuts through, he says.

"They don't realise what we've delivered. We've delivered a new bridge. We've delivered £300m worth of public investment. Plus, on top of that, all the private investment. But all people seem to want to talk about is immigration." I relate Wheeler's complaint about the swans.

"Absolute rubbish," Smith says. "But it's like Chinese whispers, isn't it? And social media spreads this culture that we're living in at the moment."

There are riches in Norfolk, a net contributor to the UK economy, ideally situated for deep sea harbours, offshore wind, oil and gas. The Ørsted Hornsea 3 offshore windfarm, 75 miles (120km) off the coast, is due to be finished in 2027 and is expected to become the world's biggest. But all that takes a back seat when you're besieged by "rape gangs" and "so-called asylum seekers".

Just a few minutes from the town hall is Great Yarmouth Minster, a church dating back to the reign of Henry I. I want to ask the town's clerical authorities what they think of Lowe, who is religious and keen to position his party as one that champions British Christians. But the Rev Liz Dawes won't talk to me.

"This is Yarmouth," she says. "Things are tricky... Politics are..." I don't get to hear the end of that sentence.

"I've said too much ..." she says, walking away quickly.

I go in search of optimism. In the shopping centre a placid, thoughtful man named Kaavous Clayton co-runs an artist-led organisation called Originalprojects. Clayton has good things to say about Great Yarmouth, about its architecture and foraging opportunities and the availability of cheap Portuguese wine.

That's great, but I want to talk to someone young, someone looking forward to life. At the tip of Britannia Pier, past the arcades and bored-looking teenagers on family holidays, I find Tiana, a chirpy 17-year-old who works at the token kiosk. Tiana grew up in Yarmouth. She's always lived here. I want to know what that's like.

"It's awful," she says. "I'm not going to lie - it's awful. People in Yarmouth are horrible." She bursts out laughing. "They're just rude," she goes on, "downright mean, like no manners, especially being a younger person as well; the boys in Yarmouth are horrible." Mostly, according to Tiana, they hang out at St George's Park and smoke weed.

Tiana has heard of Lowe and, based on what her friends say, she doesn't like him. She'll soon be starting her second year of college, studying health and social childcare and psychology. More importantly, though, she has just got her driver's licence and will hopefully soon have saved enough money to buy a car.

Her plan is to set off as soon as possible, over the flat broads west towards Norwich, then to somewhere far away, such as Cambridge, where an aunt lives, leaving a trail of crushed snails behind her.

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Science & Tech

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The networker

John Naughton

Silicon Valley sees AI as the solution. For everyone else, it's the problem

W

hy do tech moguls seem so disconnected from the real world?

Think, for example, of Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei saying that half of entry-level jobs could be wiped out by AI in a few years, while also predicting a 95% reduction in cancer mortality and incidence in the same time period. Or Elon Musk burbling on about how AI will make work "optional".

Why do these guys talk such nonsense? Is it just ignorance of

the world? Or is it the arrogance that comes from the reality distortion field that surrounds the unimaginably wealthy; those who inhabit a zone in which nobody dares to disagree with them, so they wind up thinking they are geniuses?

Answer: a bit of both, but the main reason is that they are, overwhelmingly, males who come from narrow Stem (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) backgrounds and are trapped in a particular mindset that the technology writer Evgeny Morozov called "solutionism".

This is an ideology that recasts complex social phenomena such as politics, public health, education and law enforcement as "neatly defined problems with definite, computable solutions or as transparent and self-evident processes that can be easily optimised – if only the right algorithms are in place!"

Solutionism has been endemic in Silicon Valley from its earliest days, but the arrival of AI has dramatically turbocharged it. This technology, we are told, will enable us to solve the climate crisis, eliminate cancer, boost productivity, quadruple gross domestic product, transform education and so on. In short, AI will change the world.

Which naturally leads you to wonder what the transformed world envisaged by the tech industry may look like. With impeccable timing, the economist Branko Milanović, who is well known for his work on income

distribution and inequality, has helpfully provided us with an outline sketch of this brave new nirvana envisaged by Silicon Valley.

Milanović thinks that untrammelled deployment of AI would create a society that is highly stratified into four social classes. At the bottom of the heap is what he calls the "surplus population"; for example, people whose skills are made obsolete by AI, either permanently or in a way that will require them to spend years retraining. Silicon Valley thinks of these as humans who have little or no industrial value.

If this group reaches between 15% and 20% of the labour force, Milanović thinks, it could become politically explosive, needing to be kept "quiet and docile" through modern bread and circuses (lifetime unemployment benefits, plus 24/7 low-cost streaming entertainment, perhaps?).

Then there will be a "service-sector working class" comprising those whom AI hasn't yet replaced, living precariously on low-to-moderate wages under constant threat of being pushed down into the surplus population.

Above them is what Milanović calls the "homoploutic" class; those who are simultaneously in

the top 10% of capital owners and top 10% of wage earners (currently about 3% of the US population). Think of them as "professionals"; lawyers, surgeons, dentists, corporate executives, readers of the Financial Times and the Economist. He thinks that AI will probably increase the size of this group, since its high labour-plus-capital income enables it to keep buying into the most profitable sectors of the new economy.

And, finally, at the very top of this stratified pyramid, Milanović's model envisages a new aristocracy of tech lorde: an extraordinarily wealthy elite, consisting of thousands of people (not just the 0.001% we have now) who own the technology itself and wield outsized political influence.

The revealing thing about this model is that it produces a logical extrapolation of Silicon Valley's fantasies about AI. It shows how the vision of AI-driven abundance and leisure that Musk recently outlined to the Economist's bemused editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, results instead in a chronically unequal and politically unstable society. It's a dystopia created not by malicious AI, but by how its economic gains are (and are not) shared.

SMS Battles 2026

MS

Society

FR

Registered with the UK and other REGULATOR

SMS (Stop MS) Battles returns

Hosted by Clare Balding, enjoy an evening of glamour, celebrity guests and spirited competition. Test your knowledge, compete for glory and experience an exceptional night while supporting the MS Society.

Thursday 8 October 2026

The Lindley Hall, 80 Vincent Square, London SW1P 2PB

Tables starting at £5,500 on sale now!

For further details or RSVP contact specialevents@mssociety.org.uk

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16

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

Report

One day I was singing for Asma al-Assad. The next I was in jail

Syrian countertenor Razek François Bitar was granted audiences – and favours – by the country's first lady. But his later persecution revealed the dark side of her cultural ambitions. By Chloe Hadjimatheou

The telephone call came out of nowhere. It was 2006 and Razek François Bitar, an opera singer who had established himself in Italy, was on a visit to his native Syria. His return had garnered some local media interest but he had not expected to be contacted by the palace. On the phone, the man told him only that the president, Bashar al-Assad, wanted to meet him.

On the day of the meeting, he was informed instead that it was the first lady, Asma al-Assad, who was waiting for him. While sitting in the back of the car sent to collect him, Bitar had butterflies in his stomach. It was not clear why he had been summoned.

"I knew the meeting probably had to do with my profession but I was thinking: 'You never know – maybe they know something,'" he recalls.

I am speaking to Bitar on a video call from his Berlin flat. He's gay, 48 years old, with a short tidy beard, a trendy mullet and a long crystal dangling from one ear.

When he recalls the events of 20 years ago, he becomes animated. Although Syria's young, western-educated president and his London-born wife had promised to reform and liberalise the country, it remained a deeply repressive, paranoid police state. More than a dozen separate intelligence agencies controlled a vast network of informants; one careless comment interpreted as critical of the president or his regime could lead to arrest and torture.

While he hadn't personally been involved in any opposition activities, Bitar's family had been secretly opposed to the regime for years, so he couldn't help feeling nervous as

the saloon car climbed up the hill towards the People's Palace.

On arrival, Bitar was ushered through a huge door, "into an immense salon – it was impressive", he recalls. He stood there alone, taking in the minimalist carved wooden furniture, before another door opened and the first lady walked through.

"She was so elegant," he says. "She shook my hand and invited me to sit on a sofa beside her."

At that time, Asma was still cultivating the image that fascinated much of the west: a cultured former investment banker, educated in London, she drew comparisons to Diana, Princess of Wales, and had become a symbol of a supposedly reforming Syria.

I spent months tracking her personal story, as well as accusations of her involvement in the alleged war crimes of her husband's regime for a new podcast series by The Observer and Tortoise Investigates: We call her Emma.

Asma had heard about Syria's first countertenor and wanted to hear how she could better support artists such as him. Bitar never imagined that, within three years, he would be imprisoned by the Assad regime.

Bitar was raised in what he calls a "lower-middle class" family in Hama, a city roughly halfway between Damascus and Aleppo. His father died of cancer when he was three and a half: the same year – 1982 – as the infamous Hama massacre. An Islamist uprising in the city was met with a devastating response: a sweeping bombing campaign followed by summary executions that left an estimated 40,000 people dead.

Photograph by Natalia Kepesz

Bitar was too young to remember the massacre but he grew up surrounded by stories of the horrors endured by his neighbours. His widowed mother ran a hairdressing salon in the city. Beneath the haze of rollers and hairspray, "the ladies would talk about their suffering", he says.

Competing with the whirr of the dryers and the tales of horror in the salon was another incongruous sound: the music of the European classical tradition. Bitar's mother was devoted to Herbert von Karajan, the celebrated conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, whose recordings would play from a cassette recorder in the corner of the salon.

The family later moved from Hama to Aleppo, where, despite her modest means as a single parent, Bitar's mother managed to provide her children with music lessons. Her youngest son proved to be a gifted pianist, and when he was 16, she took him to the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus, Syria's most prestigious music conservatory.

"We met the director, and I told him how much I wanted to study music, but he said: 'We don't need pianists,'" says Bitar. They left disappointed. A few months later, his mother suggested he return to ask whether he could enroll as an opera singer. "My whole family thought my mother was crazy," he laughs. "But she believed in me."

When Bitar presented himself to the head of the singing department, the professor there was surprised: "She told me that I have a rare voice." As soon as he finished high school, he was accepted into the institute.

Bitar's family couldn't afford the costs involved with his studies, but the Christian community in their neighbourhood in Aleppo rallied together and helped. "I didn't even have money to rent a room, so in the third year, I stayed in a room at the Franciscan convent in Damascus."

After graduating, Bitar travelled to Italy, where he completed a degree at Genoa's Paganini conservatory, before studying at Rome's revered National Academy of St Cecilia, one of the world's oldest musical institutions. Then he began performing in opera houses across Europe, in Russia and even in Rio de Janeiro.

On that visit to Aleppo in 2006, he had come to the attention of the French ambassador to Syria, who invited him to perform at a private concert in his house attended by several senior regime figures. Word spread quickly. Syrian television sought him out for interviews, and newspapers began profiling this remarkable singer who was returning home as a celebrated artist.

Soon afterwards, the palace called. When Asma arrived in Damascus in early 2000, the family she had married into had a serious image problem. The regime presided over by her father-in-law, Hafez al-Assad, was associated with repression, military rule and the 1982 massacre in Hama. When he died a few months after she moved to Syria, Bashar al-Assad took up the reins. He seemed to offer something different, and his new wife helped cement his image as a reformer.

The first lady had impeccable style and a background in finance, and took an active role in public, hosting cultural and business events. She hired expensive PR agencies to help promote an image of herself unlike those of any other wife of a Middle Eastern ruler.

In 2004, Asma helped organise the inauguration of the new opera house in Damascus, which opened under a halo of fireworks, with

Continued on page 18

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more than 1,000 of Syria's elite and powerful watching performances by Syrian and international artists.

In the 2000s, there was a growing belief in the west that engagement – not isolation – could encourage authoritarian states to reform. Actors, orchestras, museums and festivals increasingly saw themselves as participants in dialogue rather than politics. Asma understood this instinct remarkably well. She had grown up in London during New Labour's "Cool Britannia" campaign, when the creative industries were invited to Downing Street for meetings that were beyond politics, championing the country as a cultural powerhouse.

A former Syrian politician who didn't want to be identified says: "Asma was beautifying the regime." He adds: "She and her husband were obsessed with presenting this image to the west – that we are with you, we are part of the west." According to the former politician, the ministry of culture, led by Asma, spent $200m in a single year when Damascus was voted Arab capital of culture. "Imagine what you could do then for society in Syria for $200m."

For a singer such as Bitar, whose career had been forged in European opera houses, Asma's recognition made him feel like he was being welcomed home. "We had quite a lot of time to talk. She asked me for suggestions on how to improve education. I proposed opening more conservatories in other cities," he recalls.

Then she asked if there was anything she could do for him. Bitar told her that he had spent the last few years enjoying life in Italy, a free and democratic society. "I told her I'm sad that we don't have such a thing in Syria. So I asked her very directly: 'Would you, at some point, give Syrians more freedom and more human rights?'"

In retrospect, Bitar admits it was an extremely risky thing to say to the wife of a dictator. "When she heard me ask that question, her eyes opened wide – she didn't expect me to ask this," Bitar says.

Her answer has stayed with him ever since. "She told me that most Syrians don't understand culture and don't deserve those freedoms." He was stunned. "I said: 'But I come from those people. Don't I deserve freedom? Don't I deserve human rights?'"

Asma wouldn't be drawn further, and changed the subject to the cultural events she was organising. Bitar performed for her the following year with Syria's National Symphony Orchestra, singing an aria from Handel's opera Giulio Cesare and a song from Mahler's Kinderistenlieder cycle.

He didn't hear from her again until 2008, when her assistant called him to say that the first lady was in Rome and wanted to see him at the bar of the Grand Hotel Plaza.

Scan the QR code to listen to the podcast about Asma al-Assad, We call her Emma

Razek Francois Bitar alongside Mirna Kassis at Italy's Ravenna Festival in 2023. Fabrizio Levi Fotopolis

Asma asked again if he needed anything. This time he made a request: "Please help me not to go to military service."

Bitar, who was then 30, had managed to avoid the army because he was living abroad, but he feared he would soon be compelled to do the mandatory 21-month military service.

Bitar says homophobia was rampant in Syrian society: "There was a lot of bullying because I looked different and spoke differently." He knew that, in the army, it would be even worse: "I'm a peaceful man," I told her. "I will never point a weapon against another human being."

She agreed to defer his military service obligation year after year. Bitar was aware that he was benefiting from uasta – a term used to refer to the informal networks of connection and patronage that determined access to opportunity in Assad's Syria.

The uasta that Asma afforded him allowed him to avoid military service, which, for a gay opera singer, would undoubtedly have been a traumatising experience.

A year later, Bitar would need the first lady's help again.

The singer says he always knew "who I liked and didn't like", but growing up in the 1980s and 90s in Syria, there were no reference points. It wasn't until he was in his final year at the institute in Damascus, aged 21, that a friend explained to him that the feelings he had meant he was gay. "I didn't know the word before that," he says.

In Rome, he could be much freer with his sexuality. He forgot about the perils of being gay in Syria. Then, during a visit to Aleppo in 2009, he met a man online. The pair spent the night together, but the next morning, Bitar found he had been robbed; the man had vanished with his laptop, phone and wallet.

Looking back now, he says his decision to report the theft was extremely naive. The man was caught, but rather than face a longer sentence for theft, he invented a story that the missing property had been "a gift in exchange for sexual

services". Homosexuality was illegal in Syria but it carried a lighter sentence than theft.

Bitar's fame had allowed him for a short time to feel invincible. Just a few days earlier, he had appeared on the popular radio breakfast show Good Morning Syria. "I was speaking to the whole country, and was received with honour and respect. But exactly one week after that, I was in a cell," he recalls.

He was sentenced to three months in jail. The experience was devastating: "Everything was cut off. I was thrown away and left to deal with my fate."

Until then, it had been Bitar's most successful year yet; he had just signed four new contracts to sing in operas in Switzerland, France, Poland and – the one he was most excited about – a principal role at

If you had killed, they could help you. But with homosexuality, everyone turns their head away

the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden.

The prison cell Bitar now found himself in was disgustingly dirty and cramped, with more than 40 inmates. He slept on the floor, and he was constantly left hungry.

As the only Christian in the cell, Bitar says he was treated as the "infidel", and had to live with the fear that the other inmates would discover the reason for his incarceration. That was when his thoughts turned back to Asma and the uasta she offered him in the past. He used his phone calls from prison to try to alert her to his situation, in the hope she would intervene on his behalf.

"I asked friends to help me reach her, because I was desperate," he says. But they warned him that there was no point in even trying. "If you had killed 100 people, they could help you. But with homosexuality, everyone turns their head the other way; it was the worst crime in the world – something too shameful for anyone to touch."

After six weeks in prison, Bitar's mother paid a bribe to secure his release: 100,000 Syrian pounds, a substantial sum at the time, worth several months' average local salary. He left Syria immediately and has never returned.

Those few weeks of incarceration changed the course of Bitar's life. He had been out of touch with all his professional contacts

for weeks, with no way of reaching them to explain his sudden absence. Now his agent severed ties with him, as did all the institutions he'd had contracts with.

"In 2010, instead of my career flying to the sky, I didn't earn one euro," recalls Bitar.

Worse still was the psychological cost, "It broke my career, but it also broke my soul. For years afterwards, I had nightmares, seeing myself running in the streets in Syria with the police coming for me."

He was also devastated to see the effect it had on his mother. "Before I went to prison, she was happy and proud of me. Afterwards, she was thin and sad. She asked me not to tell anyone – it's shameful in Syria to have a gay son, and she felt I'd brought shame on her, when I'd always tried to give her pride."

A year after his release from prison, Bitar moved from Rome to Berlin, hoping for a fresh start, but he was never able to revive his professional singing career. Instead, he found work as a singing teacher.

Months after he moved, the Arab spring arrived in Syria. Protesters who were asking for the very same freedoms that Bitar had asked of Asma were being arrested in the tens of thousands, while others were shot in the streets.

In the summer of 2011, Bitar received a call from the Syrian embassy in Rome: a representative of the president was seeking to gather Syrian intellectuals and artists from across Europe for a meeting with Assad. This was just as international governments and media were beginning to criticise his regime's brutal response to protesters.

The meeting, Bitar felt, "was exactly an example of them using artists to make their face better". He refused to go. He later learned, he says, that his name was placed on a blacklist by Syria's security services, meaning he could never safely return home.

Meanwhile, his old neighbourhood in Aleppo was being subjected to a sustained bombing campaign, and all his focus and energy had turned to trying to organise his family's escape. In 2014, his sister made it to Berlin. His mother joined them in 2016: he hadn't seen her since his release from prison.

She had first asked her son if he was gay when he was 18 years old. When he confirmed that he was, "She said: 'I know you're a good man and I will love you anyhow. But I don't want to have anything to do with your private life.'" He knew she had felt a huge amount of shame when the reason for his imprisonment made the rounds in the neighbourhood gossip mill. But now they were living together in his flat in Berlin, he decided things needed to change.

"I wanted to make peace with myself and with her," he says. "So we went through a long process of talking about all our history. In the end, I said: 'By not having anything to do with my private life you are cutting me out of your heart – won't you let me in?'"

Bitar says she slowly softened, helped by seeing that homosexuality was an accepted part of society in Berlin. His mother is now 78, and she and her son are closer than ever.

When the regime fell in December 2024, Bitar and his family all gathered together to watch the unfolding events on TV. The new government in Syria has closed the notorious prisons and unearthed the mass graves left by the Assad regime, but it has not yet changed many of the laws that allowed for the silencing and repression of the Syrian people. And the new administration's Islamist politics mean it may prove even more hostile towards gay people than Assad's regime.

Bitar often thinks back to his audiences with Asma. The message – that culture could supersede politics – had been subtle but effective. Many people, inside and outside Syria, wanted to believe it. "I came to realise that this promise was deceptive," he says.

"Asma sought to use artists like me, particularly those living in the west, as instruments to present an elegant and modern facade for an authoritarian regime. Art needs to be an expression of the joy, drama and hope of life, not a weapon."

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Critics

THE OBSERVER

Culture Club

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Enjoy 2 for 1 tickets to A Portrait of a City and many more benefits

Photography

20th-century icons

Works by Diane Arbus and Garry Winogrand are among the many era-defining images packed into an exhibition tracing the evolution of America's cityscapes

Seán O'Hagan

Portrait of a City: A Century of American Photography

Dulwich Picture Gallery, London SE21; until 4 October

In 1929, the American photographer Berenice Abbott returned to New York from Paris, where she had lived for eight years and gained a reputation as a supremely gifted portrait photographer. She found her home city in the throes of rapid transformation, seeing it afresh with an outsider's eye. Soon after, as a new architecture of skyscrapers and towering urban canyons altered – and iconicised – the Manhattan skyline, she created her epic documentary project, Changing New York, between 1935 and 1939.

Even before her return, though, Abbott had sensed that photography was the perfect medium for capturing the urban dynamic of the 20th century. "How can anyone but a photographer hope today to fix for posterity the image of the modern city?" she had asked in 1928.

It is a question that echoes throughout Portrait of a City: A Century of American Photography at Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London. It is, in fact, a portrait of several American cities, from Edward Steichen's modernist New York to Dorothea Lange's Depression-era San Francisco, from the heightened everyday of William Eggleston's Memphis to the blankly intriguing streets of Ed Ruscha's Los Angeles.

As such, it makes for a densely packed show that attempts to trace the emergence of the modern American urban landscape, in all its grandeur, grittiness and deprivation, as reflected through photographs from the impressive collection of Norway's Savings Bank Foundation DNB. Throughout, it is punctuated with iconic images: Steichen's dizzying ground-level double exposure of the Empire State Building shot in 1932; Lisette Model's ample female bathed crouching above

the surf at Coney Island (1939); Garry Winogrand's couple on a car with a pet monkey in Park Avenue, New York (1959); Diane Arbus's Teenage Couple on Hudson St, NYC. (1963).

All human life is here, often unfolding in tantalising glimpses – a single Eggleston dye-transfer print of a southern gas station, two sublime monochrome shadow portraits of Harlem in the 1950s by Roy DeCarava. If the end result does not quite transcend the sum of the parts, there are so many wonderful images here that it seems churlish to quibble.

It begins with the Modern City, a section spanning the urban transformation that took place between 1900 to 1930, and moves

steadily through the decades, often reflecting an America of social extremes made all the more striking by the fallout of the Wall Street Crash.

Standouts include Lange's White Angel Broadline (1933), in which she dramatically isolated a single figure amid a crowd of unemployed men at a relief kitchen in San Francisco. Oddly, it is paired with her most famous portrait, Migrant Mother (1936), which was actually made in rural California, but, no doubt due to its totemic resonance, has been slipped into a show about the US city.

Three prints by Walker Evans only hint at his importance in reshaping American documentary, not least his alertness to the overlooked

'Oddly unsettling 60 years

later': Garry

Winogrand's

Park Avenue,

New York, 1989.

© The Estate of Garry

Winogrand, courtesy

Frankel Gallery, San Francisco

vernacular language of shopfront signage and advertising hoardings, which he recorded with a detached eye that eschewed romanticism or social documentary.

The darkly monochrome mood is finally broken in the second section, Life in the Street, which includes Helen Levitt's acutely observed vignette of children playing in front of a graffiti store front in New York in 1972, a sense of childhood interaction and intimacy caught amid the grimness.

Four Saul Leiter images from the 1950s evince his eye for colour and atmosphere. Here, the streets around his Manhattan apartment are transformed into an intimate theatre

of style and movement: a dapper man in a straw hat saunters past a vintage yellow and green taxi; figures are glimpsed though falling snow; the blurred outlines of cars on a wet road emerge from beneath an umbrella.

Leiter's painterly images are a world away from Weegee's brutally graphic crime scene and disaster photographs from the 1930s and 40s, but the juxtaposition is emblematic of this show's formal range as well as America's jolting social and cultural extremes. It's that kind of show, though, the cruel and the tender in close proximity and the limited curatorial choices creating some glaring omissions, not least Robert Frank's The Americans, arguably the most influential moment in 20th-century photography.

Another radical shift in the way photographers related to the American city is traced in the section titled American Social Landscape. It was down in no small measure to the influence of John Szarkowski, who became director of photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1962. As an introductory caption notes, Szarkowski "framed photography as a medium defined by its own formal concerns – timing, framing, vantage point and the photographers; singular vision".

In 1967, his groundbreaking exhibition New Documents boldly defined his approach as the work of Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander and Winogrand divided critical and public opinion. All three are included here. The street photograph by Winogrand of a couple and a monkey in a car on Park Avenue remains oddly unsettling almost 60 years later, while Arbus's presence is such that her images, however familiar, dominate any room they are in.

Edward Ruscha's exploration of everyday architecture in Los Angeles is given ample space, his neutral gaze elaborated over a grid of almost anonymous black and white streets. That neutrality also informs the work of Robert Adams who, in the 1960s and 70s, mapped the homogenous nature of the suburban sprawl that began to define Californian cities.

Against this, the final room is an arresting counterpoint: three walls filled with Bruce Davidson's Subway photographs, a brash but intimate portrait of an environment as democratic as the New York streets it trundles under and above. It is a show within a show, a dramatically abrupt finale to a journey that just about adds up to a visual narrative of an American century in part defined by still images that have entered our collective consciousness.

"In America," as Susan Sontag noted in 1977, "the photographer is not simply the person who records the past, but the one who invents it." As such, as this exhibition attests, 20th-century America and photography were, for a time at least, made for each other.

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Critics

Pop

Artist of the week

Pattern of disruption

Fresh from working with Madonna, the Venezuelan electronic artist Arca defies categorisation on an arresting album that spans the dancefloor, the bedroom and the dungeon

Kitty Empire

XXXXX Arca (XL Recordings)

The silvery electronic artist Arca is very hard to pin down – intentionally so. Her work across eight standalone albums has straddled the divide between tinnitus-inducing experiment and mainstream bangers. She was born in Venezuela, had multiple stints in the US and London and now lives in Barcelona; she sings in Spanish and English interchangeably. She is as deft at unleashing reggaeton party rhythms as icy film soundtracks, Aphex Twin-like aggression and austere synth strings of a European tradition. A non-exhaustive list of Arca's production credits includes FKA twigs, Kanye West, Rosalía and, most recently, two tracks on Madonna's Confessions II album (The Test and I Feel So Free).

Revelling in a state of flux and upending certainties have been Arca themes for more than a decade. Her foundational albums – Xen (2014) and Mutant (2015) – collapsed gender binaries and imagined the frolicking of amorphous, post-human entities and human-machine hybrids. Form is just another category for Arca to mess with: her 2020 mixtape, titled @@@@@, was one 62-minute track of fluctuating ideas. Her 2022 album series KiCr spun off into four aftershocks, some more party-oriented, others more aurally challenging, all titled after a baby's first uterine movement and the act of kicking against oppressors. Arca even exhibited paintings at London's ICA in April, citing music industry burnout as a reason to foreground another medium; naturally, she employed a gouache of glitter, melted plastic and spray paint as well as oils and acrylics.

Arca says her ninth outing, XXXXX, was envisioned as a stopgap mixtape beamed out from "Diva Experimental FM", her more outré seam of creativity; its title echoes previous mixtapes such as her debut &&&&& (2013). But this one boasts a selection of danceable beats and hummable tunes among the dystopian hellscapes,

She is as deft at unleashing reggaeton party rhythms as icy film soundtracks. A list of her production credits includes FKA twigs, Kanye West and Rosalía

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'A mercurial artist': Arca revels in a state of flux and uncertainty on her latest album.

Saint AKA Cassandra Antoniades

taking it closer to a conventional album release. Continuing Arca's pattern of disruption, it defies easy categorisation.

Is the title five kisses? Or does it warn of a quintuple X-rating? Arca splits the difference: on XXXXX, she reaffirms her right to make arresting, elegiac and often fearsome music that spans the dancefloor, the bedroom, the dungeon and "the shadowy dark parts" of herself, accessed to "bring something beautiful and uplifting, out and up", as she told a livestream performance audience last week.

Although desire is a recurring preoccupation, here a pummelling track called Fick is not merely sexual. "Kill the father!" Arca commands, by which she means the patriarchy that she has said also "keeps men in their cages". With the heart-seizure beats and scything metallics of the following track, Finisher, the destructive deed is done.

In the same vein, Raver suggests a siren call to the dancefloor. Instead, it feels more like minimalism put in the service of a scene in a tense psychological thriller. If the Safdie brothers – of Uncut Gems and Good Time fame – ever wanted a break from their creative partnership with Oneohirts Point Never, Arca could be their girl. The clearest command to move it comes instead on the enthralling Grip, which consists almost entirely of a slick acrylic rhythm with classy retro electronics over the top.

Arriving soon after those Madonna production credits and two 2025 standalone non-album Arca singles, the lovely Sola and the hard-hitting Puta, XXXXX doesn't offer any tidy integration of the recent past, but rather showcases the artist's range and builds towards a catharsis. Suelie ("dream", in Spanish) is the grand finale of 16 emotive tracks and features effects-laden screams. Defiantly digital, XXXXX nonetheless packs in plenty of what you might call classical grandeur and if there is a fault here, it's that Arca's work can be portentous, with an over-reliance on pregnant, unresolved doom.

But the elegance of her creations is undeniable. Heart really does feel like the delicate centre of this collection, with one motif passed across from a futuristic harpsichord to a glitching library of digital noises. Quivering instability returns a few more times – including on the punishing beats and shuddering melodies of Futurality. On XXXXX, Arca successfully reinforces her cardinal point: a refusal to be defined.

Other albums

Chinook

Mallory Hawk (Bandcamp)

Moving back to a childhood home to save money is a familiar and not always welcome situation for many. But useful things can come of it. The US singer-songwriter and post-punk band member Mallory Hawk wanted to fund studio time, so she returned to Fayetteville, North Carolina. The military town unleashed feelings – and a seam of creativity. Her album's title, Chinook, refers to the helicopters that hovered overhead: workhorses whose rotational force could tear them apart, and so, in Hawk's eyes, a self-portrait.

On this accomplished debut, Hawk comes to terms with herself: the standout Revolver is not about a weapon, but a person going around in circles with someone else. Hawk's seemingly easygoing instrumentation is full of tellingly off-kilter choices. Four O'Clocks is named for the flower that used to bloom in the late afternoon outside Hawk's childhood home, now paved over to make way for an interstate ramp; the song, like much here, is a bittersweet reckoning with one's foundations whose specifics feel universal. And if Hawk's zig-zagging across genres can make this a whiplash listen – the electronic post-punk of Superhighway maybe belongs elsewhere – her chops are impressive: Caretaker is a punky takedown that strongly recalls Kim Deal. Kitty Empire

Renascent

The Durutti Column (London Records)

Vini Reilly's indie chamber group have suddenly found themselves on trend. After being sampled by Blood Orange on last year's single The Field, their music was also celebrated in June in a tribute concert as part of

the Harry Styles-curated Meltdown festival. At times on this first album in 16 years, it's easy to see why: Reilly's collage-like compositions are both an antidote to brash pop and similar enough to the kind of lo-fi beats often found on Spotify playlists to engage a younger audience seeking ambient music.

But Renascent is at its best when it is more direct. The bolshy drums of Liars evoke Massive Attack, while Agonistes and the hymn-like Sargasso Sea are lifted by Castilhוסט Rose's ethereal vocals. There are nods to the band's beginnings on Factory Records: the reflective For Friends Everywhere rearranges 1981's For Belgian Friends for an orchestral octet, and the artwork is by original Factory design collaborators Mark Holt and Hamish Muir. The label became known for its post-punk catalogue, but Tony Wilson founded it to release Reilly's music. Renascent makes another case for that being a good decision. Lewis Huxley

The Thread

Family Stereo (Bella Union)

Blake Watt clearly couldn't give a hoot about being branded a nepo baby. You don't name your project Family Stereo if you don't wish to invite consideration of your musical upbringing. But the 25-year-old London-based singer-songwriter – the son of Everything But the Girl's (EBTG) Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt – has reason enough to be sure of his own talents. His debut album is an understated yet richly orchestrated record of varying flavours of folk, combining Americana melodies with the emotive directness of British-Canadian balladeer Matt Maltese.

You can clearly hear the influence of EBTG's songwriting, especially on the brooding, nocturnal Fault Lines. Elsewhere, Waiting on Nina uses lush lap-steel bends to up the woozy romance of a song about

hope and possibility. Watt has a pure, uncomplicated vocal that cuts clearly through the fingerpicked intimacy of the record's title track, underlining its steady message: "The words I reassure you with, they reassure me too." The Thread isn't a showy record, but a collection of tender, quietly confident moments that reveal themselves with increasing pleasure. Lisa Wright

JUD02*

Joyce's Tutty Moreno (Jazz Is Dead)

Often described as the "Brazilian Joni Mitchell", Joyce Moreno is a pioneer of the 1960s post-bossa nova sound that became known as música popular brasileira (MPB). Blending samba rhythms with fingerpicked guitar harmonies and confessional lyricism, she has more than 40 albums to her name as well as composing for MPB stalwarts Milton Nascimento and Gal Costa.

Now 78, Moreno releases a late-career gem of an album with her husband and drummer, Tutty. Featuring an expansive backing ensemble, the record performs a luscious extension of the Moreno MPB sound. Sweeping orchestral strings and Buttering hand percussion bolster her spoken word on Círculo Vicioso, while staccato horns interweave with her vocalisations on Sorria de Novo.

Moreno's vocals are nimble and unwavering throughout, while Tutty's drumming subtly embellishes rather than overcrowding the song. The rollicking full-band arrangements are infectious, but it's in the moments where Moreno is unadorned that the record finds its purest beauty. During the first minute of Mandala, she threads vocals through the muscular rhythm of her guitar, building a beguiling sound that shows no signs of faltering five decades into her career. Ammar Kalla

Between the ages of 17 and 19, Sir Taegen Harris – AKA Love Spells – was homeless in Houston, Texas. Now 21, the ever-optimistic singer-songwriter has somehow created an album that is the equivalent of those prism sunglasses that let you see hearts in every speck of light. Love is the Low is a collection of superb sugary, super-melodic songs, stirring pop, emo, shoegaze, soul, country and new wave into something intense and precious. It portrays the rawness of feeling lovesick and vulnerable, while making it sound like the best thing ever.

This debut is all about romance and relationships – like the 80's romcoms Harris loves so much. As with Dev Hynes, Night Tapes or Billie

Eilish, he takes a sound world that worked well at bedroom demo level and expands it into something more vivid and substantial, without losing its authenticity.

Although Harris hadn't even been to a gig before 2022, he's an eager performer, heading to the UK for a headline concert, as well as a support slot at Tyler, the Creator's All Points East festival in London's Victoria Park. "It feels like half being a musician and half being a comedian," Harris says. And being on bigger stages doesn't faze him. "It's just more room to be crazier!" Damien Morris

Love is the Low is out now; Love Spells ploys Moth Club, London, on 27 August and All Points East on 28 August

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22

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

Critics

Theatre

Meet Bonkbuster Barbie

The Yard reopens with a gloriously filthy Jackie Collins puppet show, full of plenty of plastic-on- plastic action

Susannah Clapp

The World is Full of Married Men The Yard, London E9

The Yard: the theatre that lit Hackney's Wick. For 15 years the former warehouse has been a temporary DIY space: a flash of neon around the corner from the station; a home of sharp programming. Now, after a year's closure, it is reopening rebuilt: more than twice the size, with a new sense of permanence and a striking list of shows, not least Lear, a reimagining of Shakespeare's play by the theatre's founder and artistic director, Jay Miller, and the playwright Simon Stephens. It will star Ian McKellen.

The new building declares its intentions in its fabric. The pink and blue-tinged bricks are made of recycled material from the old building. All windows are mirrors so that, in place of the current fashion for transparency, an approaching audience see themselves – as, it is hoped, they will recognise themselves within. The 220-seat auditorium nods to the amphitheatre at Epidaurus. The colours in the spacious, shed-like foyer – versions of the external bricks – are flamboyantly theatrical: rose and turquoise with gold bannisters. Miller insists that sticking to the fundamental idea of life-changing theatre does not mean being furrowed:

he is underlining the "fun" in "fundamental".

The current show gloriously, startlingly bears that out. Who would have thought that a staged version of The World Is Full of Married Men could be so funny, so feminist and so sexy. When, that is, it is performed by puppets, and spoken in Swedish (there are surtitles). Erik Holmström, director and puppet designer of Malmö Dockteater, explains that Jackie Collins is big in Sweden. He has worked with different styles of puppets – including human-scale Vikings – but for this show he settled, aptly, on a Barbie variant.

The heroine has flick-up hair and eyes that swivel in an unmoving face. The man villain (he cheats, but eventually gets bested by a voracious secretary quicker to strip down to her plastic than to loosen her bun) has hair like melted tar and an erection like a rolling pin. The cast caper stiffly in exquisitely constructed doll's house rooms

'All gleaming with ironic zest': the manipulated puppets are videoed and streamed live, right, to the audience. Emmalisa Pauly

designed by Maja Kall: a bedroom with a huge pink bed, a bar, a restaurant with crisp napiery, a bleak room with a sofa for the arduous secretarial tussles. The action is videoed live so that the audience, while seeing the filming, can follow on a screen all the plastic- on-plastic action: the little puppet hand that struggles to fit the receiver on to the cradle of a green telephone with a curly lead (this is London in

The main villain has hair like melted tar and an erection like a rolling pin

the 1960s); the huge enthusiasm of the fellatio; the giant human hands manipulating the puppets with what look like clothes pegs. Occasionally the puppeteers Erik Olsson and Kajsa Ericsson take over and act out the parts of their puppets. All gleaming with ironic zest.

To ensure stability, the Yard needs a bigger Arts Council grant; its current allowance roughly covers the cost of a single production. Hosting the Jackie show is one reason for giving money to the theatre. Michaela Coel inadvertently made another case eight years ago at the Edinburgh TV Festival, when she evoked Miller's risk-taking with new talent, describing how he put on her first play, Chewing Gum Dreams, allowing her a free hand with marketing and design. "People came who looked at things the way I did, and saw they didn't fit," she said. The people who come now, later filling the Tube station with chatter about the show, have an unexpected demographic: the largest number come from Hackney, the second from Tower Hamlets, the third from Kensington and Chelsea. People have already booked to fly in from Singapore and Turkey for Lear, where crucially there will be some £10 seats (with good sightlines).

Miller's immediate interest is in examining the idea of popularity in a popularity-obsessed society. His ambitions are enormous: he wants his theatre to be central to British culture and to help push it towards empathy. The Yard reopens officially in September with Diane Page's 50th anniversary production of Ntozake Shangri's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow Is Enuf. Next spring the inventive team behind Regent's Park Open Air theatre's The Secret Garden in 2024 come together again when Anna Himali Howard directs Holly Robinson's new adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dailloux. Meanwhile, the foyer cate is making its own homage to the bonking Jackie Collins show: it's serving bang bang chicken.

Short

Evolver

Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff; until 30 August

Marshmallow Laser Feast's immersive experience about the body's life- giving functions promised to be a treat for the senses. The 45-minute audiovisual show is narrated ethereally by Cate Blanchett and soundtracked by heavyweight composers including Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and

electronic producer Jon Hopkins, who lends his signature wash of ambience. I went in holding my breath. I left letting out a sigh.

The company worked with the Fraunhofer Mevis institute for digital medicine to simulate respiratory and cardiovascular systems. This means you often feel like a medical student observing scientific diagrams and models through the virtual reality goggles, rather than being swept along by feats of visual storytelling.

That's not to say the images aren't hypnotic. Jets of electric blue and

blood-red oxygen particles swim around like shoals of fish or sink slowly in strands as if fired from a confetti cannon. Capillary structures form in lines, like colonies of crawling ants. At one moment, I swivel around to find the spidery frame of a huge, dark ribcage looming. But there is little narrative sinew connecting the sequences, which simply melt into each other.

James Bailey and Henrik Oppermann create a trance-inducing soundscape of rhythmic crackles and rumbles. But Daisy Lafarg's text lands with the heavy thud of ponderous profundity.

Her elemental poetry floods both the 10-minute guided meditation at the start and the 25-minute VR section that follows. Lines such as "it begins with breath, the syllables of starlight" convey the way respiration connects us to the natural world, but also carry the patience-testing hallmarks of a stoner's internal monologue.

Seated throughout, and anchored by the weight of the cumbersome headset, you wish for something more transporting. For all the rushing, gliding and evolving visuals, I never quite felt airborne. Matt Barton

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Film

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

23

Film of the week

'One of the most potent superpowers a comic book hero can wield is vulnerability': Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Sony Pictures

Spider-Man for the burnout generation

Wendy Ide

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (145 mins, PG) Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton; starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink

Tom Holland's superhero displays his human fallibility at the cost of entertainment in this more soulful Marvel instalment

Even superheroes have a sensitive side. Faced with freefalling audience numbers for movies featuring invincible titans and a tangle of multiverse story strands, Marvel has stripped things back to basics – or as close to basics as you can get with a tale about a vigilante crime-fighter with mutant spider DNA. Like Thunderbolts* last year – an exploration of alienation and depression – the latest Spider-Man picture correctly identifies that one of the most potent superpowers a comic book hero can wield is vulnerability.

Tackling loneliness, grief and the profound personal toll of being married to your job, it picks up several years after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which concluded with Peter Parker (Tom Holland) protecting his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), by having Doctor Strange wipe their minds like a whiteboard. Now, with just an AI helpmate for company, Peter single-handedly keeps the streets of New York safe. It's a rewarding gig, and Spider-Man the hero is celebrated by the city.

But Peter Parker the man is losing touch with the things that spark joy: those connections that make us empathetic, rounded humans. It turns out that erasing yourself from

the memories of your loved ones and closest friends is a recipe for a mental health crisis. Who could have seen that coming?

Essentially, this is a film about workplace burnout – it just happens that the workplace is the aerial space above and around the skyscrapers of New York. Peter is plagued with crippling stress headaches and web-related repetitive strain injury. To make matters worse, there's a malign force at work in the city; a powerful entity that has the ability to mind-hop from person to person, temporarily taking control of them and using them like human glove puppets. This entity may not be able to hijack Peter's consciousness, but it knows enough to be able to identify his weak spots: MJ and Ned.

Spider-Man already has a lot on his plate, and this is further complicated when his body itself becomes a battleground between its competing human and arachnid DNA. On the plus side, his newly boosted spider abilities mean that he has seriously upped his web game. No longer limited to single strands, he can construct what looks like an entire 1970s-style macrame plant holder for bad guys.

All this comes at the cost of his human empathy and – more

importantly for the audience – his humour. Gone is the chipper kid from previous instalments whose breezy quips were as nimble as his physical powers. This feature is not without laughs, but it is more pensive in tone than its predecessors. There are points at which its drift towards soulfulness comes at the expense of entertainment value.

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (returning to the Marvel universe after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), the movie excels in its balletic, gravity-defying combat sequences. Holland, who played Billy Elliot on the West End as a teen, has a

Gone is the chipper kid whose breezy quips were as nimble as his physical powers. This feature is not without laughs, but it is more pensive than its predecessors

dancer's expressive physicality – he's due to play Fred Astaire in a biopic and while he might not look much like him, he's one of the few actors who could convincingly move like him – and there's an almost weightless quality to the way he carries himself that works supremely well here. And there's impressive choreography, too, in the jolting spasms of the people inhabited by the mysterious entity.

Another notable asset is the New York cityscape; there's not much point in making your superheroes relatable, after all, if the world they inhabit is unrecognisable. Here the Big Apple is lovingly celebrated for all its contradictions and quirks, from the grand scale of Manhattan's Midtown to the intimate corner shop bodegas, the secret rooftops spaces and the thronging, traffic-clogged avenues. A montage of New York-signifying shots at the end of the picture is an unexpectedly moving signoff from a city worth saving.

All this is topped off with an enjoyably chewy supporting turn from Jon Bernthal, reprising his role as the bullish Frank Castle (AKA the Punisher) and delivering one of the most punchily New York performances ever to be committed to film.

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

Critics

Classical

Evensong

going strong

Britain's choral tradition is on full and thrilling show in Gloucester at a festival that finds fresh ways with old forms. Plus, John Wilson's Sinfonia of London is the Prom to beat

Fiona Maddocks

Three Choirs Festival

Gloucester; until 1 August

Sinfonia of London/Wilson

BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London SW7

Three random facts: connect them if you can. First, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer – a shadowy and pivotal figure in Wolf Hall – compiled the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, which in effect initiated the Anglican service of evensong. Second is the Three Choirs, widely claimed to be the world's oldest music festival, held in late July in the cathedral cities of Gloucester, Hereford or Worcester, with choral singing at its heart. Last, each week an estimated 2.14 million people in the UK sing in 40,000 ensembles of every kind.

How does Britain have such a notable choral tradition? Our

industrial heritage of community singing in factories and mills, Methodist hymnals, ballads and broadsides all play a part. We're not the only country to sing, of course. A report from the European Choral Association in 2015, updated in 2024 with a map showing who sings what where, estimates that Europe has 37 million singers, or 4.5% of the population. But the UK's particular style of choral expertise, through cathedrals, college chapel and parishes – no longer only boys and men – owes a debt to Cranmer. The need for rigorously trained singers in daily evensong has no parallel.

The tradition remains key to Three Choirs. Evensong, together with join-in singing sessions and epic choral works (this year, Walton's Bishnazar's Feast and Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius) sung by the ever expanding festival choir are central events. New commissions are a priority. Finding fresh ways with old forms is vital to the festival's constant renewal. Judging by the list of commissioned composers, being Anglican is, with phlegmatic tolerance, not an issue. Edward Elgar, a Three Choirs bulwark, was Catholic, as is James MacMillan. Saint-Saëns was atheist – and French. Herbert Howells, one of the greatest of all modern "Anglican composers", was brought up Baptist and as an adult never went to church.

The fascination here is in seeing how a world that can erroneously be characterised as stuck in a 1950s Barbara Pym novel (not that she helped: "I love Evensong. There's something sad and essentially English about it")

in reality bristles with creative energy. The festival's new associate composer, Gavin Higgins, born in Gloucester in 1983, had never set a religious text before this year, or been to evensong. He has steeped himself in music written for that service and found, he says, both awe and serenity in settings of the English texts. You can hear Higgins's new Magnificat and Nunc Dimitris, premiered (after this column was written) in a live Radio 3 broadcast from Gloucester on Wednesday (BBC Sounds).

I heard two concerts. A late-night programme of a cappella music was sung by the Lady Clerks, six deft

young singers who are among a growing number of female cathedral lay clerks – adults who sing evensong and other services. This sell-out event – they have a keen following – ranged from plainchant and madrigal to close harmony. To Sleep, a world premiere by Eoin Jenkins, who is a composition student at the Royal Academy of Music, fitted the programme's dusk- to-darkness theme.

Earlier, Ex Cattedra performed Rachmaninov's Vespers (1915), conducted by its founder-director Jeffrey Skidmore in his last season. He has a close affinity with Rachmaninov's sacred composition,

'Magnificent':

Ex Cattedra perform

Rachmaninov's Vespers

at Gloucester Cathedral.

James O'Driscoll / Three

Choirs Festival

based on Russian Orthodox chants. Skidmore's unflagging determination, since the 1980s, to find a good performing edition has helped bring this atmospheric work to wider recognition. The magnificent fortissimos, with the choir sometimes divided into as many as 11 parts and here handling it with aplomb, rang out thrillingly in the cathedral's slow reverberation.

It's early to have a favourite Prom of the season, but others must work hard to match the Sinfonia of London's Italian-themed programme. The conductor John Wilson, who keeps the tightest rein on his hand-picked ensemble (many are soloists, section leaders elsewhere or chamber players of renown), courts no laxity. The opening chords of Verdi's La forza del destino overture, six menacing blasts of brass, were imperative and portentous.

We too, the audience, were at once on our mettle. Walton's elusive Cello Concerto had a brilliant soloist in Jonathan Aasgaard (also the orchestra's principal cellist), who drew us into this rhapsodic, meditative work with intelligence and virtuosity. Then came the night's storming show piece: Respighi's Roman Trilogy, in which Wilson and the players used every acoustic potential on offer at the Royal Albert Hall. One of Respighi's hallmarks was to write huge orchestral crescendos. Nothing is more massive or climactic or hair- raising than the ending of Pines of Rome: a legion marches along the Via Appia at dawn, ever nearer, ever louder. Respighi used to be written off as splashy and vulgar. Wilson and the Sinfonia showed us his genius.

Dance

Tempo: Kalle Nio and Fernando Melo; Invisible: Andrea Salustri Venice Dance Biennale

The theme of the 2026 Venice Dance Biennale, under the directorship of Britain's Wayne McGregor, is Time Does Not Exist, and a lot of the work (most notably Terrain, a piece by Golden Lion winner Bangarra Dance Theatre (a company of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performers committed to transmitting First Nations knowledge and history) seems to dissolve past and present, historical and contemporary.

Tempo, however, tackles the

theme head-on. This collaboration between the Finnish visual artist and magician Kalle Nio and the Brazilian choreographer Fernando Melo. Has moments where three exceptional dancers – Barbara Kane, Winston Reynolds and Luigi Sardone – defy physics and space to unfurl movements that appear to suspend time.

Sometimes you think you can see the magic – a flag that is frozen in an unseen wind might be held in place by a wire – but most of the time the steps unfold as if in a dream. In the final sequence, Reynolds holds a fall that should last seconds for minutes, revealed in fixed

poses as he hangs weightless in midair.

The illusion is both complete and astonishing, but the piece has more resonance than simple trickery. As carpets unroll under their own steam or chairs move seamlessly through bodies, all surrounded by Samuli Kosminen's trance-like music and June Horton.

While's low-level light, the images embody the

concerns of a text (by Harry Salmenniemi) that grapples with

issues of presence and purpose in a continuous flow of events.

Three years ago, the Rome-born Andrea Salustri, another artist who

blends contemporary dance and illusion, found worldwide success after the 2023 Venice premiere of Moteris, in which he danced in multiple ways with a piece of polystyrene. It sounded insane but was transfixing. In invisible, his new work commissioned by the biennale after a national callout in Italy, he turns his attention away from the choreography of objects towards making the invisible visible, conjuring natural physical effects from the simplest of means.

Like a latter-day Prospero, alongside his co-creator, Alice Rende, Salustri sends light shooting across the stage from his hand, reflecting its beams in great swathes of plastic hung like curtains. Later, he whips up

a tornado of smoke (left), sending it swirling into the air; a drip of water falling on a hot plate becomes, with the help of microphones, a sound as loud as thunder; a bottle dunked into a tank conjures a tempest.

It's like the perfect storm (in a teacup), but the ultimate impact is perhaps less than the sum of its parts. There are moments – a single hand rising from a water bath endless dry ice following across the space – where the piece seems banal rather than insightful. But the ingenuity and precision of Salustri's effects are riveting, as you are simultaneously transfixed by a marvellous image while being absolutely conscious of how it is made. Sarah Crompton

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

25

Books

A plague on

all our houses

Nuclear War: A Scenario author Annie Jacobsen imagines what would happen in the wake of a deadly lab leak in this graphic and sobering follow-up, writes Killian Fox

Biological War: A Scenario

Annie Jacobsen

Torsu, £22, pp432

Earlier this year, at the urging of a family member who might not have had my ability to sleep at night foremost in his mind, I picked up a copy of Nuclear War: A Scenario by the American author and journalist Annie Jacobsen. I was aware of the buzz around it. On its publication in 2024 it had stirred up debates around the pros and very significant cons of nuclear armament, and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford prize. But almost as soon as I started reading, I had to put it down. The opening pages, in which Jacobsen describes the aftermath of a nuclear strike on a US city, were so distressing that my nervous system was still in fight-or-flight mode the following morning. Months went by before I gathered the courage to pick it up again.

The book, which I then proceeded to devour, eyes bulging in horrified

fascination, imagines a situation in which North Korea fires a nuclear missile without warning at the continental United States. Jacobsen guides us through what happens next, tracking the path of the missile and America's response to it on a minute-by-minute basis. The scenario is speculative but she intercuts it with facts gleaned from extensive research and conversations with architects of the US nuclear weapons programme. Despite these interruptions it rattles along like an airport thriller, speeding you white-knuckled towards the bleakest outcomes imaginable.

Now, as though we haven't suffered enough, Jacobsen is back with another scenario that promises to be even more ghastly and perversely thrilling. "New book coming, guaranteed to horrify," she wrote on X last December. "Unlike nuclear war," she went on, quoting former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, "biological war will be 'a

long, painful, slow death... deeply nightmarish. People doing inhuman things, just to survive."

The inciting incident this time is a night-time explosion at a biological research institute in Siberia named Vector – a real place, unfortunately – where Russia is believed to be illegally tinkering with the world's deadliest germs, those that cause Ebola, Marburg, smallpox. What gets out in this lab-leak scenario is genetically modified plague. Plain old Yersinia pestis was responsible for wiping out up to half the population of Europe in the 14th century. This weaponised version is much, much nastier.

Biological warfare is not a new phenomenon. Assyrians were poisoning enemy wells with ergot back in the sixth century BC. In 1346, during a siege on the Crimean city of Kaffa, Mongol soldiers reportedly catapulted plague-infested corpses over the city walls to neutralise the holdouts. But it's in the past half century or so, with the advent of genetic engineering, that the means of waging germ warfare have really revved up. In the 1970s and 80s, despite an international moratorium, the Soviet Union vastly expanded its bioweapons programme, ushering in strains of existing diseases with entirely new pathogenic properties. "It was our Manhattan Project," one of the programme's directors later said.

The engineered plague in Jacobsen's scenario is full of unpleasant surprises. The transmission rate has been increased to chickenpox levels. The fatality rate is 100%, with no known cure. Worse still, it's spliced with the DNA of a second killer

Russia's

radiological,

chemical and

biological

defence troops

carry out a

training exercise.

Ministry of Defence of

the Russian Federation

germ which, when triggered, leads to a whole new set of profoundly unwelcome symptoms. To complete the cocktail, the weapon has been engineered to deliver a neurochemical high before the symptoms hit, so that the victim has the urge to go out and socialise. It sounds like science fiction but, as Jacobsen notes, all these modifications were realised decades ago in Soviet labs. Presumably, these microscopic horrors still exist.

In Nuclear War, the reader watches through the eyes of US agency chiefs and military commanders as the lone North Korean missile arcs across the Pacific towards its target. The effect is eerily spellbinding (a film adaptation is being developed by Dune director Denis Villeneuve). In this book, the journey of the Franken-plague is a lot messier. When containment efforts in Siberia fail, one carrier takes it to Los Angeles, where he unwittingly unleashes it on the homeless encampments on Skid Row. Another infects a planeload of passengers en route to Dallas. Still other carriers head for a cruise ship in the South Pacific and a crowded gym in the Dominican Republic.

None of these destinations are random: Jacobsen has chosen each one to pinpoint specific weaknesses in our pandemic defences, which, as Covid showed, are already ragged (and fraying even more in the US under Trump). You can see why, for example, she wanted to highlight the fact that the CDC's biosurveillance programme doesn't collect data from American homeless shelters and clinics – it's a ridiculous oversight. But all this string-pulling detracts from the realism of her scenario.

As it dawns on US leaders that they're dealing with a plague outbreak, the vast machinery underneath them cranks into gear. This is familiar territory for Jacobsen. Her previous books, including

This engineered plague is full of unpleasant surprises. The fatality rate is 100%, with no known cure

Operation Paperclip and the Pulitzer-nominated The Pentagon's Brain, shed light on the often secretive workings of the US state – its covert research agencies and hush-hush intelligence programmes. In Nuclear War, we learn about the various protocols that arise when the country comes under attack. None of them contribute towards a happy outcome for the world at large. The same is true in Biological War, but for reasons of insufficiency and sluggishness rather than overkill. In the previous book they were well integrated into the narrative, but here the litany of military departments and disaster response agencies, each with its own stockpile of acronyms, has a clogging effect.

To offset this, Jacobsen adopts the clipped style of a screenwriter (she has written for the TV show Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan), which keeps the story moving but lacks elegance. Longer sentences are sledgehammered into fragments. Cliches are indulged (people have sinking feelings in the pit of their stomachs; a "cash cow" has "everybody wanting a piece of the pie"). Nuclear War had the same hyper-terse style but also some lyrical passages of genuine power. The writing here feels rushed.

Jacobsen doesn't hold back on the grisliness. You'd expect stomach-churning details in a book about biological warfare, but the relish with which she describes the effects of plague on the human body, and on the fabric of society, feels a little too evident. The frequent lurches between bureaucratic minutiae and all-out body horror has a disorienting effect. They also diminish the sense that we're reading a sober assessment of a profoundly serious issue.

And it is serious. The threat doesn't start and end with Russia. Before September 2001, the American government operated two Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratories, where the very deadliest pathogens are contained for research. After the 9/11 attacks, the numbers surged. According to Jacobsen, there are now 110 BSL-4 labs in 34 countries worldwide, many of which are presumed to be experimenting with dangerous pathogens. This activity may be for defensive rather than offensive purposes, to better prepare for a bioweapons attack, but what's the difference if an accidental leak sets them loose?

Recent advances in AI, which could help turn anyone's basement into a mini bioweapons lab, only add to the urgency. Jacobsen's book may not provide the most level-headed or fluently written account of what a full-scale biological war might look like. But it gives us more than enough detail to understand that it wouldn't be pretty.

Order Biological War: A Scenario from observershop.co.uk for £18.70 (15% off RRP)

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

Books

Short stories

Around the world in 34 tales

A new Penguin anthology showcases a rich diversity of talent – despite its confusion about the state of short fiction, writes Chris Power

The Penguin Book of the International Short Story Edited by Rabih Alameddine and John Freeman Penguin Classics, £30, pp448

Short story anthologies occupy a strange position in my library. Unlike a single author's collected stories, which might become a regular companion, once they have been read anthologies are relegated to an upper shelf; reference books waiting to prove useful. Scanning my own shelf, I see those united by genre and theme: ghost stories, a science fiction omnibus, gay stories, love stories, stories about football, stories of sex and death, and the best short stories of 1916 (including the intriguingly titled Ice Water, Pl—! by Fannie Hurst). Others are geographically defined: African stories, Irish stories, stories by young US writers, Spanish, Brazilian and Japanese stories. There's even one devoted to "Greek fantasy" that I don't recall ever once having opened.

An anthology dedicated to the international short story could be seen as a perverse undertaking on two counts. Despite repeated attempts to proclaim their renaissance, short stories generally sell modestly at best. And the unwillingness of anglophone readers to cross linguistic borders is well documented, though this, at least, seems to be changing. In the Turbine Hall of London's Tate Modern in May, at the International Booker prize ceremony, I listened as Gaby Wood, CEO of the Booker Prize Foundation, shared research showing that while most buyers of general fiction in the UK are over 60, the majority of translated fiction is bought by readers between 25 and 34 years of age – the group most coveted by brands and advertisers.

And those readers are buying more translated fiction than ever before: 3.8m books sold in the UK last year, up from 2.9m in 2016. It's a small but significant part of the market, and an upward trend that Wood understandably wants to shout about. So it is somewhat disappointing to crack open the new Penguin Book of the International Short Story and read an introduction that begins not in a spirit of triumph, or even celebration, but with a note of apology.

Perhaps things are different in the US, where the editors of this book are based, although I suspect, on the coasts at least, that the situation is much the same as here. In any case, isn't someone reading a hardback copy of an anthology of mostly translated fiction likely already onside? Rabih Alameddine and John Freeman, joint editors and co-authors of the book's introduction, apparently think not. "As Americans," they begin, "... we believe the United States, like the pre-Copernican earth, is the centre of the universe and everything revolves around us. Do writers

from other countries have different concerns? What can stories from around the world tell us about who we are, about humanity, about the world in general?"

They conjure an account of a past in which "for a long time it was the norm for 75% of the stories in international anthologies to be American or English. If the book needs to be more 'internationalised', the editors add Irish stories. If the book needs to feel even more foreign, an Australian story. To make sure that the book is seen as completely international, perhaps a sprinkling

Perhaps the problem lies with trying to overgeneralise about a selection that is admirably heterogeneous

of the ubiquitously anthologised Borges, Kafka and García Márquez (three of our favourite writers, but come on!). Not too many, mind you, otherwise the anthology might turn out to be too salty."

Nothing objectionable there, I thought, except that when curiosity drove me to look for these outmoded anthologies – international in name only – they proved chimerical. Take 1986's The Art of the Tale, edited by Daniel Halpern – published in the UK as The Penguin Book of International Short Stories, so very much the direct antecedent of Alameddine

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Books

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02.08.26

27

and Freeman's volume. It's true, plenty of Halpern's 82 stories are by American and English writers, but the split with translated work is around 50%. In his follow-up, The Art of the Story (2000), which features three of Alameddine and Freeman's own selections, it's roughly the same again. Going back to 1958, 60% of the functionally named Randall Jarrell's Book of Stories is work in translation. The editors of this new collection appear to be congratulating themselves for solving a problem that didn't exist.

Whatever methodology is

A woman processes threads for weaving saris in Bangladesh, setting of Tahmima Anam's story Garments. Abdul Makh Bahal/Atamy

applied, compiling an anthology is a difficult task. As Jarrell noted in his introduction, it's "like starting a zoo in a closet: the giraffe alone takes up more space than one has for the collection". Alameddine and Freeman's self-limiting rule was to exclude dead authors. They broke it only in the case of the Glasgow-based South African Zoë Wicomb, who died while the book was being finalised, and Chile's Pedro Lemebel just because "neither of us likes rules, not even ours". I'd say Lemebel's inclusion breaks another, more fundamental rule, but more on that later.

For much of its length, this book is as transportive as any reader could hope for, from the ingeniously nested stories of Gunnhild Øyehaug's Apples and the freighted recollection of Scholastique Mukasonga's Cattle Praise Song, which considers the life of Tutsi cowherders before and after the Rwandan genocide, to the absurd municipal bureaucracy of Diao Dou's Squatting, in which busybody letter writers suggest increasingly unusual methods to reduce crime levels. I found myself eagerly turning the pages, wondering where I would be taken next.

But while the selections are generally strong, the way they are presented is problematic. The introduction has the feel of a rushed homework assignment. You may protest that it's the stories that matter, not the preamble, but here it establishes a framework from which the book constantly struggles to free itself.

Firstly, let's take the claim that "fables, tall tales, strange happenings are all back at the centre of the international short story". I understand the desire to view this selection as a report on the form's current status, but is it realistic to do so when some first appeared in 2000 (Haruki Murakami's Super-Frog Saves Tokyo), or 2001 (Olga Tokarczuk's The Ugliest Woman in the World), or 1997 (Han Kang's The Fruit of My Woman, the seed from which her novel The Vegetarian grew), or 1982 (Salman Rushdie's The Free Radio), or even 1978 (Girl by Jamaica Kincaid)?

Non-realist stories, we are told, are "where the most interesting writing is happening. Very few of the best stories we came across could be called realistic in the conventional sense." By my count, however, well over half these stories are realistic; that is, they take place in what is recognisably our world and do not feature dying robot narrators, angry ghosts or women turning into trees, as do some others here. Alameddine's own excellent contribution, The July War, set in a Beirut suffering a violent Israeli attack (which means it might be set in 1982, 2006 or today), does much to undermine his argument

by being considerably more interesting than some of the book's more surreal offerings.

Perhaps the problem lies with trying to overgeneralise about a selection that is admirably heterogeneous. Moving from Tokarczuk's gothic pastiche to the far future (or perhaps distant past) of Ted Chiang's mournfully philosophical Exhalation, or Islands by Aleksandar Hemon, comprising 33 vignettes of childhood memories, the pleasure lies in their dissimilarity and diversity.

Nevertheless, small clusters of theme can be identified: genocide in Mukasonga's Cattle Praise Song and the chilling Rotten Stench, by the Indonesian Eka Kurniawan; apartheid in Wicomb's You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town and the Palestinian Adania Shibli's An Ambitious Good-Hearted Leftist; and impoverished women's precarious attempts to navigate the world in Edwidge Danticat's Haitian-set Night Women and Tahmima Anam's Garments, which describes the competition between three female co-workers in a Bangladeshi clothing factory, married to the same man.

This is something the short story can do: even a single-author collection can perform bold leaps in style and theme, let alone an anthology compiling 34 of them. Yet although Alameddine and Freeman say they want to "enlarge a sense of how the story delivers pleasure – that complex form of contentment only a short story can provide" (emphasis mine), five of these stories are extracts from novels, while another, Loba Lamar's Last Kiss by Lemebel, is an essay. Some of the extracts, such as Marie NDiaye's The Good Denis, work as standalone pieces. But Mo Yan's Frogs, Nona Fernández's The Illumination of Santiago and Carol Bensimon's Sparks all feel like parts of a greater whole. The writing is good, but it would have been wonderful instead to have a story from someone like Northern Ireland's Liadan Ní Chuinn, whose 2025 collection Every One Still Here is a work that breaks new ground.

Nevertheless, this is a well-curated selection, even if the editors don't quite seem to know how to characterise it. And while it too will be shelved with my other anthologies, alongside the ghost and football and love stories, it has already achieved its purpose. The next time I see work by Diao Dou or Zanta Nkumane, Linnea Axelsson or Rabih Alameddine himself, I'll recognise them as worlds that have been opened to me. In that way, with its confusions aside, this is as much a passport as a book.

Order The Penguin Book of the International Short Story from observershop.co.uk for £27 (10% off RRP)

The Sunday Poem

In the Cairngorms

Kathleen Jamie

We were coming down the mountain under cloudless skies: meadow pipits, iridescent beetles, a lizard or two scattering off deep into the vegetation. Such a hot afternoon, we were glad to reach at last the myrtle-lined river where we bathed. Such were the certitudes we were born to: here, a handful of crowberries, there, up in the high corries, snow-dabs that survived all summer... And what will we bequeath? Little perhaps, bar the old-school songs we sang, late into the gloaming: Will ye go, lassie, go... In fact, we could sing that right now, everyone knows the chorus: We'll all go together... but the mountain thyme is in flames, and our bonny purple heather.

Kathleen Jamie is a former makar (poet laureate) of Scotland. Her most recent collection, The Keelie Hawk: Poems in Scots, is published by Picador

Illustration by Chris Riddell

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Books

Fiction

Portrait of a woman unravelling

In the follow-up to her acclaimed debut Burnt Sugar, Avni Doshi details a truly's marriage breakdown in crisp prose and exhausting metaphors. By Ellen Peirson-Hagger

The First House

Avni Doshi

Hamish Hamilton, £16.99, pp240

"When my husband comes into the bedroom we have shared for 13 years and tells me he doesn't want to be married any more, I reach for my neck," begins the second novel by the American writer Avni Doshi. "My head is missing. My husband has cut it off surreptitiously." It's a killer opening for an unsettling tale of one woman's unravelling, though nothing else in this book comes close to being quite so captivating.

The First House follows Burnt Sugar, which was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker prize and tells of Antara, who must care for her mother, Tara, as the older woman experiences worsening Alzheimer's disease. But Antara is not fond of her mother, who neglected her when she was young, and in beautifully clean prose Doshi tells of this strained relationship as Antara must do for her mother what her mother never did for her.

In this second novel, the central relationship is the one this unnamed narrator, a budding writer of Indian descent who lives in the suburban US, has with herself. For

although Doshi follows her in the days and weeks immediately after the breakdown of her marriage – tracking when her now ex-husband does and doesn't want to see their two daughters, and trying to understand how the cracks in their relationship grew – her primary fixation is on herself.

There is no doubt that she has suffered. Her husband was controlling, particularly with money, and cruel. "My husband had told me to wear gloves when I did the dishes because it was becoming unpleasant to hold my hands," Doshi writes, the plainness of her statement making his callousness even bolder.

But her crisp sentences are

Cicadas, which she had then mistaken for locusts, descended on their wedding day 13 years ago

tangled by a mass of metaphors that overwhelm the story. First are the cicadas; soon after her husband leaves her, the narrator notices her neighbours are having their trees wrapped in netting to protect them from the insects, whose emergence is soon approaching. It reminds her that so too is her wedding anniversary, for cicadas – which she had then mistaken for locusts – descended on their wedding day 13 years ago. The imagery is not subtle: the marriage was doomed from the start, and as she tries to reassemble herself after the breakup she must stay alert for another infestation.

The cicadas become an obsession – and not the only one. The "first house" of the title refers not only to the couple's home but also to the first house of astrology, or the "house of self". "In my birth chart, Saturn was in the first house," the protagonist tells her husband early in their relationship, meaning

The Roman goddess Diana is one of many obsessions in Avni Doshi's The First House. Rainy

that she rarely finds jokes at her own expense funny. Addicted to astrology, she spends hours poring over her birth charts and those of family and friends. Repeat mentions of moons, planets and whether the couple's astrological charts mean they were ever meant to be are quickly tiring.

There's more: Diana is a frequent reference, as the narrator is haunted by her neighbour's garden statue of the Roman goddess. Stories from Indian mythology also swirl around in her head. Doshi's point is, of course, to convey the narrator's dislocation from herself, her daughters and any reality, and her urge to cling on to something grander and more long-lasting. But the result is a novel that, despite its slimness, feels too heavy with assorted ideas, none of which shed any real light on this character.

It's particularly disappointing given the intriguing crumbs of a family story that Doshi trails: parents with whom there is huge tension, and a sister she didn't speak to for a long time, who herself experienced a period of madness as a teenager. The bones of an enthralling novel are here, but the approach feels all wrong.

Order The First House from The Observer Shop for £14.44 (15% off RRP)

Paperback of the week

By Chris Power

Booker prize-shortlisted in 1977, Caroline Blackwood's loosely fictional novella of growing up in a mad, sad country pile is a darkly comic treat

Great Granny Webster Caroline Blackwood Virago, £10.99, pp160

Philip Larkin, chair of the Booker prize panel in 1977, threatened to throw himself out of the window if Paul Scott's Staying On didn't win. It won. He also admired Caroline Blackwood's shortlisted book, Great Granny Webster, but didn't think it deserved the prize because it was more memoir than novel. Blackwood's work always dwelled in the between spaces. Her first book, For All That I Found There (1973), mixed stories and essays and was divided into three sections: Fact, Fiction and Ulster.

The same divisions apply here:

a chunk of Great Granny Webster takes place in Ulster, but if the book is more fact than fiction, it nevertheless uses the novel form to excuse itself from the laborious place-setting a conventional memoir requires. Instead, we are given four chapters beginning just after the second world war and spanning 15 years in the narrator's life, from 14 to 29. In them the terrifyingly austere Great Granny Webster and her frivolous, fun-loving granddaughter Lavinia are set alongside each other, the mysterious connection between the narrator's dead father and Great Granny Webster (Granny Webster to him) is explored, and the madness of the narrator's grandmother described.

This madness plays out mostly in the bleak, leaky maze of Dunmartin Hall, the Ulster estate that takes its place next to such properties as the House of Usher, Bly Estate and Satis House as one of the great grim piles of literature. The narrator's grandmother's retreat from reality – she might be found on a bramble-clocked island, "dangling her bleeding bare feet in the icy slate-grey water", or in a hollow tree trunk, or stalking cold corridors "where the paper was stripping off in great sodden furls from the wall" – gives the book the feel of a menacing fantasy. It's a register Blackwood favoured: in an author's foreword to her final book, a biographical portrait of Wallis Simpson, she calls it "an examination of the fatal effects of myth, a dark fairytale".

And like any successful fairytale, Great Granny Webster is remorselessly patterned. The title character and Lavinia are light and dark: the former sits rigidly on a chair "that appeared never to have been designed for human use" while the latter, her love of fun apparently undimmed by her

recent suicide attempt, lounges in bed eating her dog's biscuits, marking time until she can take her niece out for lunch ("masses of Chablis and oysters"). Great Granny Webster's daughter flees from her, first across the Irish Sea and then into lunacy, while her grandson – the narrator's father – spends valuable hours of his army leave travelling to see her in Hove on slow, unreliable wartime trains.

Trying to find out why leads the narrator to Tommy Redcliffe, her father's friend and a casualty of war (he lost a leg). Tommy used to visit Dunmartin Hall and paints a memorably awful picture of the squalid dungeon kitchen and the "frizzled" pheasants it produced, the drunk butler and footmen, the haunted mistress of the house. But while this thin novel is thick with stories, explanations are as

I want this to be the rare piece about Blackwood that doesn't list her famous husbands and lovers

vaporous as the mist that envelops the landscape when the narrator makes her final, memorable visit to Hove at the novel's conclusion. Blackwood almost makes this lack of meaning work as an aesthetic choice, but the sense that it arises from an inability to penetrate her characters beyond a certain depth leaves the book on the near side of the gap between very good and great.

Blackwood's achievements as a writer are often overshadowed by her biography. As Jenny Diski once wrote: "Blackwood's Lady-Carolineness, her unhappy childhood, busy sex life, connections to major figures in art and literature, and gaudy drinking does make her a toothsome subject." I want this to be the rare piece about Blackwood that doesn't list her famous husbands and lovers or catalogue the disorganization and squalor of her domestic life. Read the novel first, then plunge into all that.

Order Great Granny Webster from The Observer Shop for £9.89 (10% off RRP)

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Books

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

29

Frank Miller

'Hollywood in the 80s was wild. I lost my way'

The veteran comic book creator on the joys of Batman, drawing with a toothbrush, and how the new Sin City will be a big surprise. By Killian Fox

One of the most influential comic book creators of the past 50 years, Frank Miller was born in Maryland in 1957 and raised in rural Vermont. He moved to New York City in 1976 to pursue a career in comics, and got his break rebooting the Daredevil series for Marvel. Still in his 20s, he recast Batman as a violent, brooding fiftysomething in The Dark Knight Returns. Miller is also known for his noirish Sin City series, which he adapted for the screen with director Robert Rodriguez, and the Spartan epic 300, filmed by Zack Snyder. Now Miller has told the story of his life and work in his new book Push the Wall.

What prompted you to write this book? It's not a straight-up memoir. No, it's a combination – a guidebook for storytelling and a portrait of the amazing little world I inhabit. I think it has something to do with my most important mentor, the artist Neal Adams, who helped me start my career and played the tough sense in my life. After I met with some success, I asked him what I could do to pay him back for what he'd done for me. Without missing a beat he said: "Do it for the next [generation]." This book is the product of me trying to meet that pledge.

You started out writing for Marvel and DC superhero franchises before branching off to create your own worlds, but was working within those confines a useful first step? Oh, yes. I was being thrown problems to solve that I'd never been thrown before. I was working under specific instructions with this mythology of characters, many of whom I hadn't even heard of, and learning to work in a much more disciplined situation.

You were still in your 20s when you were tasked with reimagining one of the world's most cherished superheroes, Batman. It must have been a lot of pressure. I don't have any memory of having any fear. I was so full of ideas of where I wanted to take it. It was mostly enthusiasm and a sense of overwhelming joy. The amazing thing about Batman is that it's so versatile. You can find different ways to make it work. Every once in a while I get a chuckle out of how much of The Dark Knight Returns is

'Let's just say I'm an independent thinker': Frank Miller. Maria Spann for The Observer

still surfacing in [Batman] movies after all these years.

In the book you list your drawing tools – including a toothbrush. What's that for?

What I love about a toothbrush is that whether I'm using it to splatter black ink on a white surface, or white paint on a black field, it gives the picture texture and atmosphere, but most importantly a wonderful element of chaos – that unpredictability that makes the image bristle and feel more alive.

Like so many East Coast writers before you, you were lured to Hollywood in the late 1980s.

That was wild. It was a whole lot of fun. I was playing in a much bigger ballpark to obviously a much bigger audience. But there were a whole lot more bosses.

You refer to "the fiery fallout of fame" and hitting rock bottom after moving to LA. What happened?

I lost my way. I'm afraid I got more involved with ego than with my mission as an auteur, and I lost track of things. But it's through telling stories that I've been able to come back around to find myself and my purpose.

Somebody once asked you if you're a conservative and you said "No, I'm a libertarian". Is that still the case? Let's just say I'm an independent thinker. You know, being conservative right now means

AI is not a panacea, it's not a god... we need not all bow down before it

something very different than it did a generation ago. So I find my own way.

Something that crops up again and again in your work, not least in Sin City, is the flawed but single-minded crime fighter who will clean up the mean streets against all the odds. What's at the root of that fascination for you? I've always liked my heroes, from Superman to Batman to Zorro. And I've always loved crime stories. The more I discovered film noir, the more I realised that stuff spoke to me like nobody's business.

There's a sense in the book that storytelling is more than just a profession for you, it's a life's mission. It's essential to who I am.

How has your working day changed since the beginning of your career? It's a bit more regular. I mean, when I first started out, I worked until I dropped, and then again whenever I managed to wake up. But over time I developed a much more regular schedule – eight to 10 hours a day – and became much more productive, and much more alert while I worked.

As AI encroaches, do you regard it with excitement or something else? Something else. At first I thought it was a magic mystery box. Then I thought it was the end of creativity. Now I think that it's going to be something that everybody will eventually calm down about. Its uses are limited. It's not a panacea, it's not a god. It will be much like the personal computer, in that it will change things, but we need not all bow down before it.

What are you working on now? A new Sin City. It's going to be a lot different. Everything about it is going to be a surprise, including genre.

That's very tantalising. Can you give me anything more concrete? I meant to tantalise, sir. Alright, I'll tell you this: it's a western, featuring Marv's great-grandfather as the lead character. Looking at it, the noir genre came from the western genre, so in a way I'm letting it go full circle – this is very much western noir.

"Push the wall" is one of your key directives to younger storytellers. Are you still pushing the wall? Absolutely. It's kind of like asking me if I'm still me. I don't want to get bored.

So you need something to push against in order to stay interested? That's the nature of the beast. That's what artistic life has to be.

Push the Wall by Frank Miller is published by Canongate (126). Save 10% at observershop.co.uk

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

Puzzles

Guess the picture by Laura Cumming

This week's question:

Who is this (above)?

Answer next Sunday.

Last week's detail, in honour of the World Cup, came from the Spanish artist Joaquin Sorolla's most tender and popular masterpiece, Mother, c1895-1900. The painting shows his wife and muse Clotilde and their newborn daughter Elena as two heads adrift in an oceanic white bed. The mother turns lovingly towards her sleeping infant. Sorolla generally paints the Spanish sun falling on beaches, gardens and sultry afternoon parties, the flash and dash of his brushstrokes richly calorific. But here he is beautifully spare. The mother is given full attention as she watches over her child, this bright new star of the sea.

Cinema Connect

Each week we show three stills. Name the films in question and the actress who connects them.

Set by Killian Fox

Answers on page 31

Everyman crossword No. 4,163

Across

1 Seminar's incoherent: that's close to a disaster (4,4) 8 American checks out of dilapidated Gasthaus, horrified (6) 9 Dueller's request: give me a mo (3,6,6) 11 Floral wreath that'll symbolise Hawaii, ultimately? (3) 12 Quivering in autumn, thank young monarch (11) 13 Can I head off to find Spanish mansion? (8) 14 Nitwit implicated in horrid uncertainty (5) 17 When choosing starters, albums in oil, lemon intertwined ...? (5) 19 S American writes start of erotic film in Hitchcock style (8) 22 Dug up abuse given to Milanese footballers (and one from Liverpool) (11) 24 Smell a snake (3) 28 Makes film about movement of air, Gosses? (6,3,6) 26 Practises boxing with Earl that's alight (6) 27 Where you might find blanket, one you expect to lose? (8)

Down

1 Ribbon for simpleton (6) 2 Coffee brewing, nice aroma (9) 3 Musicians playing Artemis (7) 4 Perhaps a whisky with some ice cream, but not outstaying welcome (5,3,5) 6 Festivity with bore that's noble type (7) 7 Fear a long tentacle (5)

8 Serving of absinthe and espresso somewhere in S America (3,5) 10 If I work hard, I get a little plaque (6,7) 18 Boxer's injury: lobe needs to be treated (9) 16 Tot embraced by bunches of five enthusiasts (8) 18 Arrived with US soldier, offered up torches (7) 20 Back to destroy heroin in E London (7) 21 Preference to suppress dated Everyman gags, primarily unsavoury sort (3,3) 23 While entertained by Jamaican music, do up Czech car (5)

Name

Address

Postcode

Sisters are able to enter our crossword competitions online at: www.observer.co.uk/puzzles or via email to: competitions@observer.co.uk Paperless entry encouraged; postal entries will still be accepted.

Five randomly selected correct solutions will each win a £15 book token.

To enter the Everyman prize draw, submit a correct solution either online or by post to: Everyman No. 4,163, The Observer, 22 Berners Street, London W1T 3LP

Email entries must include the crossword name and number in the subject line as it appears in print (e.g. "Everyman No. 4,163"). Entries without the correct subject will not be accepted. UK residents 18+ only. Max one entry per person. Closing date is Saturday following publication for online entries. postal entries must be postmarked no later than the Saturday following publication and must reach us within ten days of publication of the puzzle (i.e. by Wednesday week following publication). Winners announced Sunday two weeks after publication.

For full T&Cs visit:

https://observer.co.uk/puzzles/everyman/article/crossword-prize-draws

Sudoku classic

5		9
				8	1			7
		2	9	3			8	6
4					2			1
2					8			5
			7			3
				5	3			2
		5	1	7			9	8
7		8

Fill in the blank cells

using the numbers

1 to 9.

Each number must

appear just once in

every row, column and

3x3 box.

SOLUTION No. 4,162

Everyman No. 4,161

Elaine Blackman, Powys

Pete Hancock, Taunton, Somerset

Pauline McGhee, Berwickshire

David Spires, North Shields,

Tyne and Wear

Zae from London

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Beyond the print edition: scan to subscribe to The Puzzle Edit – exclusive columns, setter insights and a weekly clue breakdown from puzzles editor Caitlin O'Kane

SUDOKU SOLUTION page 32

OBLIKS SOLUTIONS

MINDSET SOLUTIONS

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

31

Azed No. 2,782 - Plain

Name

Address

Post code

ACROSS

1 Piece round prow's buckled strong spar (8) 7 Dry cask containing minimum of rosst (4) 10 Entangle a quill damaged and mostly corroded (10) 11 Tutor shortened Caribbean ballad (5) 12 Lady, not one poorly inside, in pond (7) 14 Mineral, 3-pin plagged (8) 15 Large vessel going round sea (not river), immense tract (4) 17 Hat and bra disposed of in large country (6) 18 Writer involved in a diet, complicated – it consists of five ingredients (8) 20 Recurrent refrain – see second note before favourite finish (8) 21 Strike alerts Russian workers' guiltis (6) 24 Sins? Regular features in terrorism (4) 25 A bit of a big, diffident, live abandoned? Unsuccessful criminal effort (8) 27 Ferny scales chaps cut into NZ tree (7) 28 Style of jacket, male, kept in vessel coming back (5) 29 Urinates, le messily, in a row (10) 30 Foreign sparrow that is lost in boggy ground (4) 31 Plant genus completely surrounded by a wire twisted (8)

DOWN

1 Disbelge family avoiding clown (4) 2 Work with rubber, reverse of ideal, in Covent Garden stuff? (10, 2 words) 3 Deep-red apple from Spain we crushed... (7) 4 ...in cheap wine stink, litre bottled (5) 5 China grass is leaning in cocked hat (8) 6 Bultrush in spa cut from flattened spoon (4) 7 Mild cheese pales when grated busy fellow swallows (8, 2 words) 8 Sun before night shortened beacon? (5) 9 Such as Circe, curt and inane within, similarly truncated (8) 13 One aunt, uncommon, f1 follow, as the case indicates (10, 3 words) 18 Hellebore plant HM placed in vessel, unusual (8) 16 Grig found in lock, bare maybe (8) 17 Gal, a bird with fringe dressed, cut square across (8) 19 Wind that's partly southern or thermal (7) 22 Woollen material included in circular caps (5) 23 Meat maybe about noon, dark red in colour (5) 25 Gradual decline, first to last, again (4) 26 Fish for eel down under – it's prickly (4)

The Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

Azed No. 2,781 solution & notes

Across 17, asag. in TR. Down 5, pot = sammarize, 8, cf. lathers; 21, sol + a tra (rov.); 29, cf. grnegree.

Rules and requests

To enter the Azed prize-draw, submit a correct solution either online at: https://observer.co.uk/puzzles via email to competitions@observer.co.uk or by post to: Azed No. 2,782, The Observer, 22 Berners Street, London W1T 3LP

Email entries must include the crossword title as it appears in print (e.g. "Azed No. 2,782"). Entries without the title and number will not be accepted. Paperless entry encouraged. UK residents 18+ only. Max one entry per person. Closing date is Saturday following publication for online entries, postal entries must be postmarked no later than the Saturday following publication and must reach us within ten days of publication of the puzzle (i.e. by Wednesday week following publication). Three randomly selected correct solutions will each win a £25 book token. Azed No. 2,782 winners to be announced Sunday 06 September 2026.

For full terms and conditions visit: https://observer.co.uk/puzzles/exereman/article/crossword-prize-draws

Azed No. 2,781 prizewinners

DK Arnett, Grantham, Lincs

A Brash, Glasgow

J Smulles, Ruddington, Notts

Killer by Godefridus

Normal Sodotus rules apply, except the numbers in the cells contained within grey lines add up to the figures in the corner. No number can be repeated within each shape formed by the grey lines.

Cinema Connect answers

The British and Harmer (both reviewed this year) and Wicked Little Letters (2023) all star Jessie Buckley

Chess by Jonathan Speelman

Diagram 1

Block played 27...Qb67 Why was this a blunder handing White the advantage?

In July last year Bodhana Sivanandan defeated Peter Wells in the British championship becoming less than five months after her 10th birthday the youngest girl ever to beat a grandmaster in serious competition. Now at the age of 11 (she will be 12 next March) she has gone one better beating a 2600+ grandmaster, the French teenager Marc'Andria Maurizzi in the first round of an open tournament in Aix-en-Provence.

2600 has always been considered the threshold for really strong grandmasters and Maurizzi is currently the world's ninth rated junior under 20 and only a couple of places out of the top 100. It was a wonderful win and Bodhana went on to make 5/9 in this very strong open with a performance rating of 2463, making 15/4 against four more grandmasters and gaining her first international master norm. She is the youngest girl ever to achieve this and will need two more to get the M title.

As with other activities, progress in chess is very seldom uniform but comprises plateaux, dips sometimes and surges. Bodhana had already surged this year and this latest result, especially the even score with grandmasters over five games, shows that she is moving or has already moved to another level which is great news for her and for British chess (or, more specifically, English chess, since in FIDE there are separate English, Scottish and Welsh federations and an all Ireland chess union).

Speaking of FIDE, the president, the Russian Arkady Dvorkovich, stepped down from his duties after being sanctioned both by the European Union and Switzerland, and the deputy president, former world champion Viswanathan Anand is currently its acting head. There will be an election on 27 September during the FIDE Congress at the Olympiad in Samarkand and three tickets have been submitted, including German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner for president with Malcolm Pein as his deputy president.

In diagram 1, 27...Bd4 would have left Block with a pleasant advantage but 27...Qb67 ran into 28 b4! Qxb4 Forced because the knight has no retreat square if 28...Qc6+ 29 Kg1 Nx4 30 Nx4 Bxb2 31 Nxb2 wins a piece. 29 Nd5 Qxb2 The only chance since if 29... Qx4! 30 Nxf6+ or 29...Qe4+ 30 Qxe4 Nx4 31 Nxf6+ 30 Rxb2 Bxb2 31 Nb6 With rook and bishop for the queen Block has practical chances but is too loose to avoid further material loss. 31...Rc7 32 Qb4 Bg7 33 Qxg4 Nd7 34 Nc4? 34 Qd1 was even better when 34...Nf8 35 c4 puts White in almost total control. 34...Nf6 34...b5 looks like a better chance. 35 Qe2 Nd5 and 36 Nd6 Rd7 37 Ne4 Nc3? This makes it easier for White. 38 Nxc3 Bxc3

Diagram 2

39 Qc4 Here Maurizzi resigned since after 39...Bf6 40 Qc8+ Rd8 41 Qxb7 Rd2 42 Qxe6 Rxc2 (42...Bd4 43 Qc4 Rxf2+ 44 Kh3 leaves White with two passers). White will at the very least win the bishop for the a poem.

Open tournaments are fertile ground for nice miniatures such as these two:

Panneerselvam Iniyan

v Benny Alzenberg

Aix-en-Provence 2026

Nimzo-Indian

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 e3 0-0

5 a3 Bxc3+ 6 bxc3 d6 7 Ne2 e5 8 Ng3

Re8 9 f3 Nc6 10 e4 b6 11 Be2 Na5 12

0-0 Ba6? Tempting but it gives White

of her hand on the kingside. 13 Nf5

Nd7 14 f4 exf4 15 Bxf4 Nf8 16 h4

Controlling g5 and also preparing to

advance further. 16...Bc8 Ready to

exchange the knight but he's too late.

Diagram 3

17 Nxg7! Kxg7 18 Bg5 16 Forced since

if 18...Qd7 19 Bf6+ Kg8 20 Qd2 Re6 21

Qg5+ Ng6 22 h5 etc. 19 Bxf6+ Qxf6 20

Rxf6 Kxf6 21 Qd2 Kg7 22 Qg5+ Ng6 Or

...2...Kh8 23 Qf6+ Kg8 24 Bh5 Be6 25 d5

23 h5 Rf8 24 Rf1 Rxf1+ 25 Bxf1 Block will

lose more than the knight so he resigned.

Dominik Horvath v Paweł Sowiński

Aix-en-Provence 2026

Queen's Gambit declined

1 c4 e6 2 Nc3 d5 3 d4 Nf6 4 Bg5 dxc4

5 e3 c5 6 Bxf6 Qxf6 7 d5 exd5 8 Nxd5

Qd8 9 Bxc4 Bd6 10 Qh5 0-0 11 Nf3

Be6 12 0-0-0 h6 13 g4 f6

Diagram 4

14 Nb6! Block resigned. If 14...Bxc4 15

Nxc4 wins or 14...Qxb6 15 Bxe6+ Kh8

16 Nh4 with slaughter on the White

squares. 14...Qe7 is the best chance but

after 15 Bxe6+ Qxe6 16 Nxa8 Qc4+ 17

Ab1 Qe4+ 18 Ke1 Qxf3 19 Qd5+ Qxd5

20 Rxd5 Be7 21 Nc7 wins easily.

1 Bodhana

Sivanandan v

Marc'Andria

Maurizzi (to play)

2 Bodhana

Sivanandan (to

play) v Marc'Andria

Maurizzi

3 Panneerselvam

Iniyan (to play) v

Benny Alzenberg

4 Dominik Horvath

(to play) v Paweł

Sowiński

---

32

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

Puzzles

SUDOKU SOLUTIONS page 30-31

5	6	8	4	6	7	2	1	3
6	4	3	2	8	1	9	5	7
1	7	2	9	3	6	4	8	6
4	3	7	5	9	2	8	6	1
2	9	6	3	1	8	7	4	5
8	5	1	7	4	6	3	7	6
2	8	4	8	5	3	1	7	7
3	2	5	1	7	4	8	9	8
2	1	8	6	2	5	5	3	4

4	7	3	2	7	8	5	6	1
2	5	1	2	7	8	4	8	5
4	5	6	5	4	1	7	2	3
6	3	8	9	5	4	7	2	1
5	2	9	7	1	3	8	4	6
7	1	4	6	2	8	3	3	5
2	4	1	5	2	5	8	9	5
1	6	2	4	6	9	3	5	7
4	6	3	5	3	7	2	1	4

Lexipedia Quiz: on Yiddish by Joshua Blackburn

1. Yiddish was spoken by nearly 11 million people in 1939. How many speak it today?

• A) 6 million
• B) 4 million
• C) 2 million
• D) 500,000 to 1 million

2. What kind of person is a "mensch"?

• A) Someone of low intelligence
• B) Someone who gets into trouble
• C) Someone with moral integrity
• D) Someone charming

3. Although Yiddish is based on German, why are Germans unlikely to understand it?

• A) It's written with Hebrew characters
• B) It has lots of Slavic words
• C) It has lots of Hebrew words
• D) The grammar is very different

4. Which word is not of Yiddish origin?

• A) Maven (connoisseur)
• B) Glitch (error)
• C) Tush (backside)
• D) Cushy (good)

5. In the Yiddish language, what does "Yiddish" mean?

• A) Jewish
• B) Spoken
• C) Us
• D) Language

6. Which slang term for money derives from Yiddish?

• A) Wonga
• B) Mazuma
• C) Cholla
• D) Boodle

Lucky dip bonus question

7. Before Harry Potter, "muggle" had many meanings – which was not one of them?

• A) A tail resembling that of a fish
• B) A young woman
• C) A gullible individual
• D) A marijuana cigarette

A word about...

Yiddish insults

Yiddish has had a punchy influence on English. Anyone who's ever schlepped to the shops, schmoozed at a party, shvitzed in the heat or noshed on a bagel is enjoying Yiddish. But while the language is celebrated for its nuance, poetry and rich cultural history, it's the insults people love most. Gems like kluzz, putz, schiong, schlump and schmuck will be familiar to many – but how about the nudnick who bores you at parties? Or the nobody nebish, the dim-witted schmendrik, the whining kvetcher, the gullible schnook and the drunken shikker? These are some top-drawer insults, and fun to say.

It's the Yiddish curses, however, that see the language come alive. "May your enemies sprain their ankles dancing on your grave"... "May beets grow in your belly button, so you piss out borscht!"... "May you be invited to a feast by the governor and may you belch in his face." Combining wit and fire, these intricate curses have a literary quality that's hard to beat.

Yiddish curses can be simple ("May you turn yellow and green") or complex ("May you swallow an umbrella and may it open in your belly"). And they can be a full Friday night dinner, as here: "May you eat chopped liver with onions, schmaltz herring, chicken soup with dumplings, baked carp with horseradish, braised meat with vegetable stew, latkes, tea with lemon, every day – and may you choke on every mouthful!" But my favourites are the ones that tell a story. Why curse someone to hell when you can curse them to have a balcony fall on their heads, that they should live a long life, but with a wooden head and a glass eye, or that they should be run over by a sugar truck so that they enjoy a sweet death? Oy vey!

Joshua Blackburn is the author of The Language-Lover's Lexipedia (Bloomsbury, £14.99). Order for £13.49 from observershop.co.uk. Delivery charges map apply

Goldilocks SOLUTION No. 38

S	L	A	B		S	O	M	E
T					T
U	N	D	O		M	E	A	D
B	A	C	K	R	O	O	M	S
			D	E	N
O	B	S	E	S	S	I	O	N
P	L	E	A		A	B	B	A
T	E	A	L		Y	E	E	T
S	U	M	S		S	T	Y	E

Scan to subscribe to The Puzzle Edit – the weekly newsletter from puzzles editor Caitlin O'Kane

Goldilocks crossword No. 36

Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.

Goldilocks clues exclude enumerations; in a mid-sized crossword, they only make an already compact puzzle more straightforward. The enjoyment lies in lateral thinking, grid observations, and the distinctly modern British vernacular. Play the Goldilocks archive online by subscribing at observer.co.uk

Across

• 1 Placid
• 7 Austrian dessert
• 8 #1 for Harry Styles
• 9 They might be apparent on a first date
• 10 U.S. equivalent to the UKHSA
• 11 "__ zwei, drei..."
• 12 "Hang on a minute"
• 13 Issue for a livestreamer
• 14 Captain __, army officer and South Pole explorer
• 15 One at Casa Amor or the Vibe Club, say
• 17 Sewing kit necessities
• 18 Parts of A-level exams

Down

• 1 Goulash and gumbo, for two
• 2 Makes a typo, say
• 3 It's hard to get out of one at times
• 4 Teaches

• 5 More into the details, perhaps

• 6 Puts in a seat?

• 7 Sequins
• 8 Handles used in secret?
• 9 Like a tomcat or a tiger
• 12 Trapses through water
• 14 Sole
• 16 Computing pioneer Lovelace

Big Apple Sudoku by Godefridus

				1
8						9	7
				2		3
				4			9
	7					6
		6				1	8
			4
	9		3		6	7
			1		7		9

Every row, column, and 3+3 too many contain the 1st to 1st, plus an extra twist – the four highlighted 3+3 blue squares together form an additional set of boxes, which must also include 1-9 with no repeats.

4. D) Cushy (good) Cushy meaning "good" or "wonderful", is from the Ransay word "huddle". Maven comes from Yiddish "myself", gets to it from Yiddish "gibble", and finds, or "lucky", derives from Yiddish "muses".
5. A) Jewish Yiddish means "Jewish", with "yiddishays" meaning "subson" or "Jewishness".
6. B) Mazuma The word derives from Yiddish "mezamen", meaning "jush", "Bengu is from Ransay", "wongo", meaning "jush" or "muses", "Jewish", along for counterfeit money or money acquired illegally, is from Dutch "tweede", and cholla is the plated bread is deliberately opened on the Jewish Sabbath, and is unrelated to money.
7. C) A gullible individual (if the other definitions, all based in the Oxford English Dictionary, "a real resembling that of a fish" is a 1.0th-century usage, "a young woman", specifically a sweetheart) is a 1.7th-century usage, and "marijuana", or "a marijuana cigarette" is 150 lb. (Long, as was "muggle-head" and "muggle-smoke")

Quiz answers 1. D) 500,000 to 1 million According to the WHO Institute of Jewish Research, 10,000,000 people spoke Yiddish before the Second World War, of whom 6,767,000 were in existence and central Europe. The Holocaust, and the assimilation of Jews in the U.S., reduced this to between 500,000 and 1 million today. 2. C) Someone with moral integrity "Mensch" (else, "mental" and "mental") is a Yiddish word for someone who's decent, honest and moral. Even about research is the highest praise, received by the most honorable and decent people. The word itself comes from all the German word meaning "person." 3. B) A written with Hebrew characters Where Yiddish is written in the Roman script, which is one, many German speakers can understand the language, despite the Slavic, Hebrew and English keywords.

---

Staying in

Audio

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

33

Audio's a stage

Proof radio dramas are thriving as Game of Thrones's Lena Headey joins a growing list of actors producing their own compelling stories

Miranda Sawyer

Intimacy BBC Radio 4/BBC Sounds

It's A Superpower? The Daily Tism

Ambridge on the Couch

Lucy V Freeman and Jeff Thomas/Acast

Audio drama, for so many years the embarrassing cousin of clever radio, is properly thriving these days. Thrilers, horror tales, love stories, historical fiction – all here, featuring excellent soundscaping and

super-sharp scripts, and attracting star-studded casts. It turns out that screen idols love work that requires zero time in hair and makeup.

So we should not be surprised that many actors write excellent audio dramas themselves, including Tracy-Ann Oberman, Mark Gatiss and Maxine Peake. Now Lena Headey (inset), best known for playing Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones, has written a peppy series. Intimacy is about the travails of Liza, an intimacy coordinator brought on to a film set when the original IC is taken ill. Liza, played by Headey, has much to deal with. Not only a creepy, egomaniac director Gary (Tom Goodman-Hill) and a young, stroppy female star Bunny (fellow Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams); but, outside work, there's Liza's agent Lou (Hannah Waddingham), her mother (Alison Steadman) and daughter (Tia Bannon), who all require her attention, preferably right now.

Headey's writing and direction juggles all these elements with style,

switching neatly between phone messages, conversations and Liza's inner monologue. There are funny lines – "Siri, call Cockwomble," says Liza, and she's put through to her ex's phone – and silly situations. There's also an exploration of just why films need intimacy coordinators. On set the director is king, and on this particular project, Gary is a monarch with dubious morals, saying one thing while doing another. He praises Liza's contributions, while complaining about her to Lou. He gives lip service to feminism, while requiring Liza to do as he wishes – "good girl" – and setting up late-night meetings with Bunny in his hotel room.

Some of the scenarios are unlikely: Liza being tied up by Gary as a "demonstration", her mum being ushered on set during a sex scene. But Intimacy isn't a documentary, and we all know that boundaries are often blurred by manipulative and powerful men. The pacing is great, and the performances are excellent, especially a scene-stealing Steadman and mood-flipping Williams. Intimacy rattles along, with you rooting for Liza all the way.

Here's another audio drama that

boasts a few stars.

It's A Superpower? is

made by the Daily Tism, a witty autism satire site (sample headline: AuDHD Project Manager Excels at Work, Fails Disastrously At Life). Written and directed by Sara Gibbs, the show opens at a new local autism support group, with Norah, Pix, Wilder, Sophie and Bums making awkward and endearing introductions. Various daft misunderstandings ensue, and all seems fairly unremarkable, until the room starts shaking and our heroes find themselves given unmanageable magical powers. Suddenly it's less about how others might interpret their actions, and more about conjuring complicated bakery products out of thin air. The acting is charming, there are cameos from Penn Jillette, Mark Watson and Fred Armisen and only the churlish would not wish these characters well, even as they tie themselves in knots.

Still. These newbies are all very well, but the biggest UK audio drama is, and possibly will be until the end of time, The Archers. Always on, always at the top of the charts. As a non-devotee of Borchester's travails, even I know The Archers' dramatic

moments. I was all over the Grundy's love triangle, Helen stabbing

her rapist husband, and Nigel toppling from the roof. It does make for a skewed idea of the show, however: to judge by my listening, The Archers is a cross between murder mile and a flak-jacket-required relationship war zone.

For true fans, the real appeal of The Archers is in the slower moments, the long buildups, the regular updates on the lives of all the characters. Which is where Ambridge on the Couch, an Archers appreciation podcast, comes in. The hosts, Lucy V Freeman and Jeff Thomas, are long-time listeners, and completely au courant. Freeman's summaries are fun, if a little rushed, and it was nice to hear her and Thomas giving appreciation to the writer of this week's episodes, Sarah McDonald-Hughes (The Archers's scripts can be up and down). Freeman and Thomas's character analysis is gently funny, but this is a show for Ambridge addicts. The rest of us will remain sated by a flashy highlight and the comforting thought that Lynda Snell is for ever getting on somebody's nerves.

THE OBSERVER

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34

observer.co.uk 02.08.26

Television

By Craig McLean, Kay Ribeiro and Stephen Armstrong

Films by Jonathan

Romney and Wendy Ide

The week's highlights

Today

Pick of the Day

Lioness

Paramount+

Series three of the espionage thriller about an elite, female-led CIA unit starring Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman. Never-knowingly-subtle creator Taylor Sheridan gets his war on – and leads muscularly from the front playing a special forces operative – in Ukraine. Saldaña's team go behind the enemy lines to extract a Russian asset, only for it to blow up in her backyard. "This ain't an HRT mission," sneers one battlefield bro, "this is war." Talk about a red rag. CMc

Jared Leto: Hollywood's Dark Secret

iPlayer

Last summer an Air Mail report, "The Cult of Leto", contained allegations by nine women of impropriety against the actor. Weeks later, the Oscar winner was on the PR trail, promoting Tron: Ares. A BBC team dug deeper and found "Etta" – one of four teenagers here alleging criminal sexual conduct. They're far from the only women. CMc

Van der Valk

ITV1, 8pm

Marc Warren returns as the eponymous Dutch detective for a fourth series, and his dating history is causing havoc with his latest murder investigation. An important witness is murdered while under the protection of his copper ex-flame. Cue them at each other's throats while the corpse remains with a shower curtain wrapped around his neck. KR

Film

Withnail & I

(Bruce Robinson, 1987) Film4, 11.40pm

Today, Bruce Robinson's comedy might be read as a study of toxic masculinity – although its heroes would probably consider themselves not so much toxic as purulently septic and proud of it. Often regarded as one of the great one-offs, despite three subsequent films directed by Robinson, this is one of those works whose dialogue pub hores will regale you with for hours on end ("the finest wines available to humanity", and all that). The story of two disreputable actors (Richard E Grant, Paul McGann) being basically frightful in the Lake District, it is celebrated not least for the late, great Richard Griffiths as louche Uncle Monty. The last cry of Old Bohemia in British cinema, and unapologetically riotous. JR

Monday

Pick of the Day

Celebrity Hunted

Channel 4, 9pm

More famous fugitives ferret their way around the country for Stand Up to Cancer, hoping to evade ex-senior police officer Ray Howard (below) – and his zinger insults. Love Islanders Chris Taylor and Toby Aromolaran incite the hunters' wrath with their taunting, while presenters JJ Chalmers and Sophie Morgan call on the former's armed forces contacts for help. Alas, Brian and daughter Lucy Conley's reliance on squeaky-voiced chum Joe Pasquale could prove fatal. More muppet than puppet. KR

Panorama: Britain's Strictest Schools BBC One, 8pm

With London's Mossbourne Community Academy (alma mater of this previewer's children) recently censured for being too disciplinarian, Richard Bilton investigates the Athena Learning Trust in Devon and Cornwall. Better classroom behaviour and exam grades are evidence that no-nonsense rules work, but at what cost to kids? CMc

Cumming to the Cabaret

iPlayer

In 2014, Alan Cumming starred in Cabaret on Broadway, and the actor's dressing room after-parties became the stuff of night-time New York legend. Now Club Cumming is a bricks and mortar East Village joint, a place of performance, community, inclusion and subversion. This six-part fly-on-the-mic doc is appropriately fun, frank and fizzy. CMc

Film

Heretic

(Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, 2024) Sky Cinema Premiere, 9.35pm

Much of Hugh Grant's recent career has been dedicated to the sly demolition of his erstwhile floppy-browed niceness – and he's rarely gone about it as gleefully as in this ingenious chiller. Sophie Thatcher (TV's Tellosejackets) and Chloe East play two young Mormon missionaries who knock on the door in Boulder, Colorado. They are welcomed by Mr Reed (Grant), an affable but increasingly sinister man who – while they wait for his wife to appear – engages his visitors in theological debate. Essentially a chamber piece, Heretic echoes the claustrophobic game-playing of classic 1970s two-hander Sleuth, the conventional genre scares balanced with thoughtful musings on belief and doctrine, as well as ample ruthless wit. JR

Tuesday

Pick of the Day

The Victorians With Rob Rinder and Ruth Goodman 8, 9pm

Rob Rinder and historian Ruth Goodman return with a fascinating new series exploring the experiences of the rich and poor during key periods in history, beginning with the 1840s railway boom. While Rinder learns about "Railway King" George Hudson, an ambitious businessman who capitalised on the transport craze, Goodman gets the lowdown on navvies such as Thomas Eaton who risked their lives to lay the foundations. Food for thought on your daily commute. KR

Fukushima: A Nuclear Nightmare

HBO Max

After February's two-part C4 documentary Fukushima: Days That Shocked the World, which marked 15 years since the disaster in Japan, a 90-minute film revisiting the fallout after an earthquake and resulting tsunami swamped the cooling systems of three power station reactors. No previews, but we're promised "forensic, real-time detail" on nine cataclysmic days. CMc

Cold Case Forensics

ITV1, 9pm

In A Death on the Nile, the second instalment of this three-part series, forensic scientist Dr Angela Gallop and her team investigate the sudden death of British solicitor Cheryl Lewis while on holiday in Egypt. No boat or pistol involved, but her murder by cyanide poisoning at Luxor's luxury New Winter Palace Hotel certainly has shades of Agatha Christie. KR

Film

Under the Skin

(Jonathan Glazer, 2013) Film4, 11.15pm

Freely taking its cue from the Michel Faber novel, Jonathan Glazer's visionary film stages an extraordinary confrontation between the science-fiction uncanny and the drab everyday. An eerily impassive Scarlett Johansson plays a space visitor inhabiting the form of a young human woman, as she drives a van round Glasgow's outskirts and whisks hapless young men off to a nightmarish fate. The execution is audacious – many of Johansson's co-stars didn't realise they were being filmed, or that it was her – but this "stunt realism" goes hand in hand with an unsettling hallucinatory perspective, as visuals suggest how it might feel to see our world through alien eyes. Mica Levi's inspired score lets us hear through alien ears too. JR

Wednesday

Pick of the Day

Ted Lasso

AppleTV+

The eagerly anticipated fourth series begins in Kansas with Ted bagging groceries and watching soccer from the benches. We know he will coach AFC Richmond's women's team, so a surprise visit by ex-boss Rebecca, sidekick Keeley and stooge Higgins to convince him is low stakes. Setup complete, episode two recaptures the magic as human labrador Ted is reunited with the TW9 gang. Roy Kent is growlier, Coach Beard is beardier, and order is restored. Oxytocin incoming. KR

Funeral Home Horror: The Big Cases BBC Two, 10pm

Last week Hull funeral director Robert Bush was sentenced after pleading guilty to 67 charges, including preventing a lawful burial and fraudulent trading. Here, grieving families recount their horror at discovering they had been given the ashes of strangers, while their loved ones' bodies languished at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors. KR

Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy Netflix

Affable comedian Mo Gilligan channels Morgan "Supersize Me" Spurlock in this documentary about fried chicken, eating it three times a day for a month with unsurprising results. His trip to the United States exposes the grim realities of what makes it so addictive, but it is the racial stereotyping and cultural appropriation that really stick in Mo's throat. KR

Film

The African Queen

(John Huston, 1951)

Sky Cinema Greats, 12.45pm

One of Hollywood's definitive odd-couple movies, as well as one of its odder First World War narratives, this features the inspired pairing of Humphrey Bogart (who won his only Oscar for this) and Katharine Hepburn. He's a boozy steam-launch skipper, plying his craft on East Africa's waterways in 1914; she's the prim organ-playing sister to Robert Morley's missionary. Based on a CS Forester novel, it was largely filmed in Congo and Uganda, on a famously hairy shoot. What happened off-screen, in director John Huston's leisure time, was fictionalised by uncredited co-writer Peter Viertel in his book White Hunter Black Heart, later adapted by Clint Eastwood – though that film is nowhere near as much fun as this. JR

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observer.co.uk

02.08.26

35

Thursday

Pick of the Day

The Shards

Disney+

Bret Easton Ellis adapts his 2023 novel, a luridly heightened memoir of his origins in ultra-privileged Los Angeles. Ryan Murphy, prolific purveyor of trashy (melo)drama, partners over 10 high-gloss episodes. They're a good match. From the period needle drops to the preppy fashion, The Shards grips from the first roar of a teenager's Porsche. At an elite academy, the beautiful class of 1981 do cocaine and one another as a serial killer stalks them. Buckle up. CMc

Possession

Sky Atlantic, 9pm

In Bristol, Gugu Mbatha-Raw's lawyer investigates why the father of Jonny Lee Miller's posho bequeathed his riches to a mysterious Jamaican. Visiting the family's island estate, they accidentally unleash a supernatural legacy of slavery. Bel Powley and Sheldon Shepherd are the juju-powered ghosts of historical injustice. Outlander meets Live and Let Die. CMc

The Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke BBC Two, 9pm

The last part of this true crime docuseries is the most harrowing as it details the unthinkable suffering of the two youngest Franke children at the hands of mother Ruby and friend Jodi Hildebrandt who believed they were possessed by demonic forces. Kevin Franke's enduring love for Ruby is astonishing and indicative of the profound brainwashing involved. KR

Film

Dance With a Stranger

(Mike Newell, 1985)

Film4, 11.40pm

In July 1955, Ruth Ellis became the last woman hanged in Britain, after shooting her lover David Blakely; it took 71 years, until July this year, for her to be granted a conditional pardon. Written by A Taste of Honey playwright Shelagh Delaney, this stylish film tells her story. The setting is the 1950s London demi-monde, where Ellis, a single mother and manager of a drinking club, falls for dashing but feckless Blakely (Rupert Everett), a would-be racing driver. The film made a star of Miranda Richardson, whose extraordinary performance brings depth to Ellis, a woman acting out her own glamorous version of amour fou but always caught out by the bitter emotional (and economic) reality behind the masquerade. JR

Friday

Pick of the Day

Alley Cats

Netflix

"Nine lives, zero fucks" boasts the tagline of Ricky Gervais's six-part animated adult comedy series about a gang of layabout cats led by cynical C-bomb enthusiast Gus (Gervais). Assorted After Life chums voice characters they've played before, from David Earl's reprobate Pule to Tom Basden's privileged Ponce. The short, expletive-laden episodes charting the group's attempts to help a lost kitten (Jo Hartley) find her way home will inevitably entertain and provoke, just as their creator intended. KR

Our Lives: The NaNaz – Age Against the Machine BBC One, 7.30pm

Sally Wainwright's Riot Women, brought rollickingly to life. The NaNaz are "the most badass group of women in south Wales", perimenopausal punks channelling Patti Smith and their age-appropriate frustrations. Having released their Nanafeito EP, they set out to play New York's Loud Women Fest. NaNa, hey hey, kiss them goodbye? Not a chance. CMc

EFL Carabao Cup: Middlesbrough v Wrexham ITV1, 7.30pm (kick-off 8pm)

After the World Cup's giddy, gaudy highs, the grassroots reset we need: the English season kicking off with this all-Championship, first-round encounter. In May, the hosts were robbed of ascension to the Prem by Hull's last-minute winner – although they, in turn, denied tonight's visitors participation in the promotion play-offs. Pride, then, on the line. CMc

Film

Hoard

(Luna Carmoon, 2023)

BBC Two, 11.05pm

British writer-director Luna Carmoon goes for broke in a disconcerting first feature. It's essentially a coming-of-age story, but with grit, gunk and indecorous sex. Saura Lightfoot-Leon plays teenager Maria, raised in a junk-cluttered house with her hoarder mother (Hayley Squires). She now lives with foster mother Michelle (Samantha Spiro) – which is how she meets Michelle's former charge Michael (Joseph Quinn). When Maria and Michael produce sexual sparks, they're of the sort likely to combust a mountain of accumulated debris. Hoard mines realism of three kinds – social, magical and dirty – with foral performances. It's uneven, but current British cinema is rarely so idiosyncratic, or so brazenly impolite. JR

Saturday

Pick of the Day

Elvis, the Colonel and the Mob

Channel 4, 10pm

"Elvis lit up Vegas. But gangsters owned the ground beneath his feet. And Parker knew it." Colonel Tom Parker, a carny huckster who was no stranger to shady deals and shadier associates, is the manager who made Elvis Presley. But were those deals fatally Faustian? Ahead of the 49th anniversary of The King's death at the age of 42 (42!), this film digs for mafia-related dirt, positing connections that "brought [Elvis] to his knees". Part two is at 11.05pm. CMc

Paul Heaton at the BBC

BBC Two, 8.35pm

Anticipating the release of his 23rd album, Jenius, an evening devoted to the people's poet and socialist soulman. First up, 40 years of BBC appearances, and then 2025 concert film Live at Bramall Lane (10.10pm), followed by larky 1987 doc The Housemartins in London 0 Hull 4 (11.35pm). It's happy, er, four hours again. CMc

Dictator: The Hitler Interviews

Channel 4, 9pm

Episode two of three in which the Führer's intimates speak their truth. First up: an archive interview with Diana Mosley. "People don't get from being an out-of-work painter to being a dictator ... unless they've some very special thing within them," says "Hitler's friend". Then, to Hampshire, to meet his former next-door-neighbour in Munich. Remarkable. CMc

Film

Parallel Mothers

(Pedro Almodóvar, 2021)

BBC Four, 11.10pm

The 22nd feature from veteran Spanish provocateur Pedro Almodóvar is a defi dance between two parallel stories. The first deals with the past: the quest of a magazine photographer (Penélope Cruz) to excavate a suspected mass grave of Franco victims in her family village. The other – the bond between two pregnant women – looks to the future. Cruz's character is one of the expectant mothers, her pregnancy a welcome mistake. The second is a troubled teenager who is already regretting her unborn child. It's a change of tone following Almodóvar's subdued, introspective previous picture, Pain and Glory. Despite its tough subject matter, Parallel Mothers glows with warmth and optimism. WI

TV streaming

Picks of the Week

Gen Y's sudden embrace of cinema is credited to the arrival of 21st-century films Backrooms and Obsession. Other factors cited have been reboots of 20th-century films, and if any last-century franchise has been overmilked, it's Star Wars. But Star Wars: Visions is different. The animated anthology series sees Lucasfilm collaborate with studios around the world – in Japan, India, France, Chile and, delightfully, Aardman in the UK. Watch I Am Your Mother in season two for a kind of Wallace and Gromit go starship racing. For season four's Ninth Jedi (Disney+, Wednesday), Japanese animation studio Production IG delivers an ambitious eight-episode mini-epic set long after the Jedi and the Sith have lost their power. Lightsabers no longer exist. The galaxy is fighting an endless war. The Jedi dregs are summoned to a planet where a mysterious figure has discovered kyber crystals, which power lightsabers. The Sith are racing over, too, and mayhem ensues. Ghibli-trained director Kenji Kamiyama has packed a lot in, from high-speed chases to lightsabers that struggle with their owner's belief system. Given A New Hope was essentially Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress, it's as if Star Wars is coming home.

Other space-based cartoons launching this week include Futurama season 14 (Disney+, tomorrow). It has not gone anime. And so, to the real estate section.

The Last House (Netflix, Friday), from the pen of Matthew Robinson, stars Greta Lee and Wagner Moura as parents who discover they can't get out of their house one morning. What starts off as annoying becomes increasingly terrifying. The street is locked in, perhaps the whole world – apart from one or two desperate people fleeing something unspeakable that is hunting them. As days become weeks, and then years, the evil closes in. Genuinely unsettling horror.

Far cuter is Sterling Point (Prime Video, Wednesday). Annie and her twin brother, raised in New York by their single father, discover that their estranged grandfather from their dead mother's side has bequeathed them a lake island in Canada. Except someone already lives there: their

previously unknown sister, Ramona. If you enjoy incredibly good-looking people discovering love and loss over a dreamy summer in beautiful scenery, this might be for you. Let's face it, everything else this week is violence and death. SA

Don't look now: Emma Ho as Ruth in The Last House. Chris Baker/Netflix

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Today's television

Van der Valk, ITV1, 8pm Marc Warren returns as the street-smart Dutch detective

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

Channel 4

5

BBC Four

6.0 Breakfast (T) 9.0 News (T) 10.0 Prayer and Reflection (T) (R) 10.30 Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales (T) (R) 11.30 Money for Nothing (T) (R) 12.15 Bargain Hunt (T) (R) 1.0 News (T) 1.10 1.15 Songs of Praise (T) 1.50 Escape to the Country (T) (R) 2.15 TMS Press in Boots (Chris Miller, 2011) (T) Animated comedy. 3.35 The Mating Game (T) (R) 4.35 Homes Under the Hammer (T) (R) 5.35 News (T) 6.0 Celebrity Escape to the Country (T) (R) 7.0 Countryfills (T)

6.40 A to Z of TV Gardening (T) (R) 7.25 Glorious Gardens from Above (T) (R) 8.10 Countryfills (T) (R) 9.05 Best of Weatherman Walking (T) 9.35 Beechgrove Garden (T) (R) 10.05 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites (T) 11.35 Indian Food Made Easy (T) (R) 12.35 TMS Lock News (T) 2.15 Cricket: The Hundred (T) MI London Women v Manchester Super Giants Women. 6.0 Cricket: The Hundred (T) MI London Men v Manchester Super Giants Men (Start-time 6.0pm).

6.0 James Martin's American Adventure (T) (R) 7.0 James Martin's Saturday Morning (T) (R) 9.25 News (T) 9.30 Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh (T) (R) 11.30 Fern Britton: Inside the Vert (T) 12.30 Tom Kerridge Cooks Italy (T) (R) 1.0 News (T) 1.10 Force of Nature (T) (R) 2.10 TMS The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) (T) 4.35 The Chase Celebrity Special (R) 5.35 The Chase Around the World (R) 6.30 News (T) 7.0 Force of Nature (T).

6.20 Cheers (T) (R) 7.15 Everybody Loves Raymond (T) (R) 8.30 Frasier (T) (R) 10.0 Sunday Brunch (T) 1.0 Jamie Cooks the Mediterranean (T) (R) 2.0 Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids (T) (R) 3.05 Britain's Favourite Railway Stations with Si King (T) (R) 4.05 Love It or List It Brilliant Builds (T) (R) 4.35 TMS Sister Act (Emile Andkins, 1992) (T) Comedy starring Whoopi Goldberg. 6.30 News (T) 7.0 Goggles (T) Highlights from series 27.

6.0 Mikshake 9.0 Entertainment News on 5 (T) 9.15 TMS Rango (Gore Verblinski, 2011) (T) Oscar-winning animated comedy with the voice of Johnny Depp. 11.30 Commonwealth Games 2026 (T) (R) 12.30 Happy Campers: The Caravan Park (T) (R) 1.30 Cruising with Susan Calman (T) (R) 2.30 Jane McDonald's Yorkshire: No Place Like Home (T) (R) 4.0 Live: UK's Strongest Man 2026 (T) 6.55 News (T) 7.0 The 1970s Diet: Could It Work For You? (T) (R)

7.0 The Fairytale Castles of King Ludwig II with Dan Cruickshank (T) Exploring the aesthetics associated with Ludwig II of Bavaria, the king who was considered to be handsome and loved by his people.

8.0 Antiques Roadshow (T) (R) The team values items at Brodie Castle in Morayshire. 9.0 The Rapture (T) Gabs and Dick uncover evidence that Leonard is hiding something, while floods in India match Bethany's drawings. Gabs pushes her suspicions into the open.

9.30 Live at the Apollo (T) (R) Natil Abduhrahid hosts the comedy show filmed at London's iconic Hammersmith Apollo. He warms up the audience before introducing stand-up routines by fellow comedians Jake Lambert and Rachel Fairburn.

8.0 Van der Valk (T) New series, Crime drama. Two whistleblowers are under police protection prior to a hearing that could bring down a criminal boss. When the first informant is murdered, the team must ensure the second makes it to court.

8.0 Richard E Grant's Very Modern Odyssey (T) New series. The actor retraces the route take by Odysseus in Horner's classic The Odyssey. 9.0 The Piano (T) Presents Claudia Winklerman and Mika are joined in London by Joshi Holland.

8.0 Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly (T) (R) in this edition, Graeme Hall meets an 11-year-old beagle with an insatiable appetite. 9.0 Inside the Four Seasons: Park Lane (T) New series. Housekeeping manager Ivan tries to souse two horsehair pillows.

8.0 Cairngorms: A Year in the Wild (T) An exploration of the national park through the eyes of people who live and work there. 9.0 Great Violinists at the Proms (T) Featuring performances by Sueye Park, Liya Petrova and Nicola Benedetti.

10.0 News (T) 10.25 Regional News (T) Weather 10.30 TMS The Impossible (2012) (T) Drama. 12.10 Who Do You Think You Are? (T) (R) 1.10 Weather for the Week (T) 1.15 News (T)

10.0 TMS Shakespeare in Love (John Madden, 1998) (T) 11.55 Gulf: Women's Open Highlights 2026 (T) 12.55 Ann Droid (T) (R) 1.25 The Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke (T) (R)

10.0 News (T) Weather 10.15 TMS Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016) (T) Thriller. 12.25 Shop on TV 3.0 Motorport UK (T) (R) 3.50 Unwind with ITV (T) 5.05 Dickinson's Real Deal (R)

10.05 TMS Erin Brockovich (Steven Soderbergh, 2000) (T) Fact-based drama. 12.30 Ramy (T) 1.05 Ramy (T) 1.40 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) 2.35 Mr & Mrs '55 Remembered (T) (R)

10.0 Commonwealth Games 2026 (T) The final day. 11.05 JFK Assassination: Inside the Trauma Room (T) (R) 1.0 Cruise TV with LovelBookit (T) (R) 2.0 GPs: Behind Closed Doors (T) (R)

10.0 Bill Paterson Remembers – The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black, Black Oil (T) 10.15 The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil (T) 11.45 7:84 : Keep Right On? – Ex-S (T) Documentary.

Monday 3

Panorama: Britain's Strictext Schools, BBC One, 8pm How much discipline in schools is too much

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

Channel 4

5

BBC Four

6.0 Breakfast (T) 9.30 Animal Park (T) (R) 10.15 Trace, Track, Get My Car Back (T) (R) 10.45 Expert Witness (T) (R) 11.15 Homes Under the Hammer (T) (R) 12.15 Bargain Hunt (T) 1.0 News (T) 1.35 Regional News (T) 1.45 News (T) Weather 2.0 Money for Nothing (T) 2.45 Escape to the Country (T) (R) 3.45 The Bidding Room (T) 4.30 The Answer Run (T) 5.15 Pointless (T) (R) 6.0 News (T) Weather 6.30 Regional News (T) Weather 7.0 The One Show (T) 7.30 EastEnders (T)

6.30 Bargain Hunt (T) (R) 7.15 Money for Nothing (T) (R) 8.0 Sign Zone: The Repair Shop (T) (R) 9.0 News (T) 10 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 1.30 The Finish Line (T) (R) 2.15 Do You Know Your Place? (T) (R) 2.45 The Hairy Bikers' Bakeation (T) (R) 3.45 The Farmers' Country Showdown (T) (R) 4.30 Vintage Antiques Roadshow (T) (R) 5.15 Flog It! (T) (R) 6.0 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 7.0 Global Eye (T) 7.30 Mastermind (T)

6.0 Good Morning Britain (T) 10.0 This Morning (T) 1.30 News (T) Weather 1.55 Local News (T) Weather 2.0 Dickinson's Real Deal (T) (R) 3.0 Deal or No Deal (T) (R) 4.0 Tipping Point (T) (R) 5.0 The Chase (T) (R) Phil Jessie, Denise and Ben take part. 6.0 Local News (T) 6.30 News (T) 7.30 Fletchers' Family Farm (T) (R) Pregnant cow Ruby gives birth but it isn't straightforward, Milo and Liz head to a local dairy farm, and the kids go into the woodland on a safari.

6.30 The King of Queens (T) (R) 7.45 Everybody Loves Raymond (T) (R) 9.10 Frasier (T) (R) 11.10 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) 12.05 News (T) 12.10 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (T) (R) 1.10 The Great House Giveaway (T) (R) 2.10 Countdown (T) 3.0 A Place in the Sun (T) (R) 4.0 Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith (T) (R) 5.0 Chateau DIY (T) (R) 6.0 American Pickers (T) (R) The experts examine a collection of circus and sideshow memorabilia. 7.0 News (T)

6.0 Mikshake 9.15 Jeremy Vine (T) 11.30 Storm & Alexis (T) 12.45 News (T) 12.50 Matt Allwright (T) 2.20 TMS A Reservation for Death (Jeff Beesley, 2021) (T) Mystery starring Nathalie Kelley. 4.0 Castle (T) (R) 4.55 Love Nature (T) (R) 5.0 News (T) 6.0 Majorca: A Year in the Sun (T) (R) Cameras explore Majorca's culture. 6.55 News (T) 7.0 Motorway Cops: Catching Britain's Speeders (T) (R) Officers pull over the driver of a cloned car. 7.55 News (T)

7.0 Atlantic: The Wildest Ocean on Earth (T) Life in the tropical Atlantic, where everything from dolphins to jellyfish thrive in the warm waters – until extreme heat in Africa unleashes deadly hurricanes.

8.0 Panorama: Britain's Strictext Schools (T) Current affairs report. 8.30 Scam Interceptors (T) (R) This edition features a man trapped into believing he is going to be arrested.

8.0 Only Connect (T) Victoria Cows Mitchell hosts the quiz. 8.30 University Challenge (T) Guildhall School of Music and Drama take on Darwin College, Cambridge.

8.0 Emmerdale (T) Cain has a conversation with Kyle. 8.30 Coronation Street (T) Cassie bids an emotional farewell to her family.

8.0 Dover 24/7: Britain's Basket Port (T) Border Force officers are on the hunt for illegal meat. 9.0 Celebrity Hoisted (T) New series. A group of celebrities, including, 11 Chalmers and Sophie Morgan, turn fugitive and attempt to evade capture.

8.0 Street Cops: Catching the Yoke (T) Documentary. Police pursue a suspected stolen SUV being driven recklessly in Corby. 9.0 Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law (T) New series. Investigator Lisa pursues a suspect who owes the network almost £2,000.

8.0 The Art of Spain (T) The history of Spanish art. 9.0 Sally Magnusson Remembers – Mastermind (T) Sally shares memories. 9.20 Mastermind 1972 Final (T) Magnus Magnusson presents the quiz show.

9.0 The Rapture (T) Thriller with Ruth Madeley. Gabs finally meets Anika Drake.

9.0 The Rapture (T) Thriller with Ruth Madeley. Gabs finally meets Anika Drake.

9.0 Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace (T) New series. Davina McCall and Molly Campbell help more foundlings.

10.0 Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives (T) Reality series. 11.05 Surgery Secrets of the Super Reds (T) (R)

10.0 Police Interceptors: Taking Down the Shoplifting Gangs (T) (R) Documentary. 11.05 Traffic Cops (T) (R)

10.20 Becoming Frida Kahlo (T) 11.20 Turner: The Man Who Painted Britain (T) 12.20 Atlantic: The Wildest Ocean on Earth (T) 1.20 Becoming Frida Kahlo (T) 2.20 The Art of Spain (T)

10.0 News (T) 10.30 Regional News (T) Weather 10.45 TMS The Mist (Frank Dandrent, 2007) (T) Sci-fi horror with Thomas Jane. 12.40 Weather for the Week Ahead (T) 12.45 News (T)

10.0 Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing (T) (R) 10.30 Newsnight (T) Weather 10.50 TMS King Sing (2023) (T) 12.45 Sign Zone: Countryfills (T) (R) 1.40 Sign Zone: Bergerac (T) (R)

10.0 News (T) Weather 10.45 Cold Case Forensics: The Death of God's Banker (R) 11.45 Love & Death (T) (R) 12.45 Shop on TV 3.0 The Staircase (T) (R) 4.05 Unwind with ITV

10.0 Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives (T) Reality series. 11.05 Surgery Secrets of the Super Reds (T) (R) 12.05 Secrets of the Celebrity Sex Tapes (T) 12.55 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R)

10.0 Police Interceptors: Taking Down the Shoplifting Gangs (T) (R) Documentary. 11.05 Traffic Cops (T) (R) 12.05 Car Pound Cops (T) (R) 1.0 Cruise TV with LovelBookit (T) (R)

10.20 Becoming Frida Kahlo (T) 11.20 Turner: The Man Who Painted Britain (T) 12.20 Atlantic: The Wildest Ocean on Earth (T) 1.20 Becoming Frida Kahlo (T) 2.20 The Art of Spain (T)

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02.08.26

37

Tuesday 4

The Victorians With

Rob Rinder and Ruth

Goodman, 8, 9pm

A look at the lives of the rich

and poor in the 19th century

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

Channel 4

5

BBC Four

6.0 Breakfast (T) 9.30 Animal Park (T) (R) 10.15 Trace, Track, Get My Car Back (T) (R) 10.45 Expert Witness (T) (R) 11.15 Homes Under the Hammer (T) 12.15 Bargain Hunt (T) (R) 1.0 News (T) 1.35 Regional News (T) 1.45 News (T) 2.0 Money for Nothing (T) 2.45 Escape to the Country (T) (R) 3.45 The Bidding Room (T) (R) 4.30 The Answer Run (T) 5.15 Pointless (T) (R) 6.0 News (T) Weather 6.30 Regional News (T) Weather 7.0 The One Show (T) 7.30 EastEnders (T)

8.0 The Great British Sewing Bee (T) The sewers celebrate Mexican fashion, with garments made from tablecloths and outfits inspired by festivals. 9.0 Murder 24/7 (T) The first of a two-part investigation into the 2025 murder of a Hereford man.

10.0 News (T) 10.30 Regional News (T) Weather 10.40 1.30 Robin Hood (Ridley Scott, 2010) (T) Medieval adventure. 12.50 Weather for the Week Ahead (T) 12.55 News (T)

6.30 Bargain Hunt (T) (R) 7.15 The Bidding Room (T) (R) 8.0 Sign Zone: The Great British Sewing Bee (T) (R) 9.0 News (T) 1.0 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 1.30 The Finish Line (T) (R) 2.15 Do You Know Your Place? (T) (R) 2.45 Cricket: The Hundred (T) Sunrisers Leeds Women v London Spirit Women (Start-time 3.0pm). 6.0 Cricket: The Hundred (T) Sunrisers Leeds Men v London Spirit Men (Start-time 6.30pm). Coverage of the match at Headingley.

9.30 The Vampire Lestat: Interview with the Vampire (T) Gothic horror based on Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles, starring Sam Reid. An illicit old ally of Lestat's boards the dazed band's tour bus, while some familiar faces await at their next stop.

10.15 It Happened to Me: I Was Jailed in Japan for Ketamine 10.30 Newsnight (T) Weather 11.05 1.30 The Last Bus (Gilles MacKinnon, 2025) (T) Drama with Timothy Spall. 12.30 Sign Zone: Uncanny (T) (R)

6.0 Good Morning Britain (T) 10.0 This Morning (T) 1.30 News (T) Weather 1.55 Local News (T) Weather 2.0 Dickinson's Real Deal (T) (R) 3.0 Deal or No Deal (T) (R) 4.0 Tipping Point (T) (R) 5.0 The Chase (T) (R) Ellen, Sonal, Gerard and Trevor take part. 6.0 Local News (T) Weather 6.30 News (T) Weather 7.30 Inside the Langham: Britain's First Grand Hotel (T) The CEO arrives from head office in Hong Kong to inspect one of the hotel's most ambitious renovations yet.

8.0 Emmerdale (T) Nicola is worried by a discovery. 8.30 Coronation Street (T) Dylan ends up unconscious after confronting Brody. 9.0 Cold Case Forensics: A Death on the Nile (T) Investigating the death of a British solicitor while on holiday in Egypt.

10.0 News (T) Local News 10.45 1.30 Bad Boys II (Michael Bay, 2003) (T) Thriller. 1.10 Shop 3.0 The Summit (T) (R) 3.50 Unwind (T) 5.05 Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace (T) (R)

6.30 The King of Queens (T) (R) 7.45 Everybody Loves Raymond (T) (R) 9.10 Frasier (T) (R) 11.10 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) 12.05 News (T) 12.10 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (T) (R) 1.10 The Great House Giveaway (T) (R) 2.10 Countdown (T) 3.0 A Place in the Sun (T) (R) 4.0 Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith (T) (R) 5.0 Chateau DIY (T) (R) Trish tries to fix a bridge. 6.0 American Pickers (T) (R) Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz discover a fleet of concept cars. 7.0 News (T)

8.0 Hotel Chocolat Unwrapped (T) Chocolatier Yodi dreams up limited edition drinking chocolate flavours, and founder Angus pulls out all the stops for the opening of the Chicago store. 9.0 Celebrity Hunted (T) Two of the fugitives make a bold move by going on live TV.

10.0 Gogglebox (R) 11.05 Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives (R) 12.05 Naked Attraction (R) 1.05 Hotel Hell (R) 1.55 1.55 Breakthrough (2019) (T) 3.50 Couples Come Dine with Me (R)

6.0 Milkshake! 9.15 Jeremy Vine (T) 11.30 Storm & Alexis (T) 12.45 News (T) 12.50 Matt: Allwright (T) 2.15 1.30 A Murder in Venice (Lane Shefter Bishop, 2023) (T) Thriller starring Sophie Hopkins. 4.0 Castle (T) (R) 4.55 Love Nature (T) (R) 5.0 News (T) 6.0 Majorca: A Year in the Sun (T) (R) 6.55 News (T) 7.0 The Yorkshire Vet: At Home with the Greens (T) (R) Jean gets to see her farm from above when Peter Wright takes her in a helicopter. 7.55 News (T)

8.0 Inside Longleat (T) Cameras investigate some unexpected visitors in Longleat garden. 9.0 The Victorians With Rob Rinder and Ruth Goodman (T) The duo examine how history's most famous events were experienced by the rich and by the poor.

10.30 The Pile Up: Death on the Motorway (T) (R) 12.05 The Carodial Next Door (T) (R) 1.0 Cruise TV (T) (R) 2.0 GPs Behind Closed Doors (T) (R) 2.50 Castle (T) (R) 3.40 Friends (T) (R)

7.0 Great British Railway Journeys (T) Michael Portillo travels from Lincoln to York. 7.30 Wainwright Walks (T) Julia Bradbury explores the life and work of fell walker Alfred Wainwright.

8.0 To the Manor Born (T) First episode of the comedy. 8.30 Keeping Up Appearances (T) Hyacinth plans a special supper. Last in the series. 9.0 She-Wolves: England's Early Queens (T) The story of England's first all-female battle for succession. Last in series.

10.0 Castles: Britain's Fortified History 11.0 Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? 1.0 She-Wolves: England's Early Queens 2.0 Castles: Britain's Fortified History

Wednesday 5

Big Chicken: A Fast Food

Conspiracy, Netflix

Mo Gilligan takes a look at

the fried chicken industry

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

Channel 4

5

BBC Four

6.0 Breakfast (T) 9.30 Animal Park (T) (R) 10.15 Trace, Track, Get My Car Back (T) (R) 10.45 Expert Witness (T) (R) 11.15 Homes Under the Hammer (T) (R) 12.15 Bargain Hunt (T) (R) 1.0 News (T) 1.35 Regional News (T) 1.45 News (T) 2.0 Money for Nothing (T) 2.45 Escape to the Country (T) (R) 3.45 The Bidding Room (T) 4.30 The Answer Run (T) 5.15 Pointless (T) (R) 6.0 News (T) Weather 6.30 Regional News (T) Weather 7.0 The One Show (T) 7.30 EastEnders (T)

8.0 The Repair Shop (T) (R) Experts restore a pair of original seats from Arsenal's Highbury stadium and a broken bucket from the Second World War.

9.0 Murder 24/7 (T) Part two of two police struggle to build a case – until a bloody footprint is found.

10.0 News (T) 10.30 Regional News (T) Weather 10.40 1.30 You're Cordially Invited (Nicholas Stoller, 2025) (T) Premiere. 12.25 The Hit List Celebrity Special (T) (R) 1.10 News

6.30 Money for Nothing (T) (R) 7.15 The Bidding Room (T) (R) 8.0 Sign Zone: Great Japanese Railway Journeys (T) (R) 8.30 Sign Zone: Great Continental Railway Journeys (T) (R) 9.0 News (T) 1.0 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 1.30 The Finish Line (T) (R) 2.15 Do You Know Your Place? (T) (R) 2.45 Cricket: The Hundred (T) (Start-time 3.0pm). 6.0 Cricket: The Hundred (T) Trent Rockets Men v Birmingham Phoenix Men at Trent Bridge (Start-time 6.30pm).

9.30 Live at the Apollo (T) (R) Panel show favourite Ria Lina hosts the comedy show filmed at London's Hammersmith Apollo, warming up the audience before introducing stand-up routines by fellow comedians Lucy Beaumont and Josh Pugh.

10.0 The Big Cases – The Funeral Home Horror (T) 10.30 Newsnight (T) 11.05 Uncanny (T) (R) 12.05 The Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke (T) (R) 12.55 Sign Zone (T) (R)

6.0 Good Morning Britain (T) 10.0 This Morning (T) 1.30 News (T) Weather 1.55 Local News (T) Weather 2.0 Dickinson's Real Deal (T) (R) 3.0 Deal or No Deal (T) (R) 4.0 Tipping Point (T) (R) 5.0 The Chase (T) (R) John, Anousha, Tracy and Harish take part. 6.0 Local News (T) Weather 6.30 News (T) Weather 7.30 Deal or No Deal: Banker's Best Battles (T) Stephen Mulhern takes a trip back to revisit two battles between hopeful players James and Jack, and the infamous Banker.

8.0 Emmerdale (T) A decision is made to give the dog a good Dingle send-off. 8.30 Coronation Street (T) Lasers leaves Bietty to fend for herself. 9.0 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (T) (R) Big prize pick, hosted by Jeremy Clarkson.

10.0 News (T) Local News 10.45 Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace (T) (R) 11.45 The Assembly (T) (R) 12.10 Shop on TV 3.0 Love & Death (T) (R) 3.50 Inside the Langham (T) (R)

6.30 The King of Queens (T) (R) 7.45 Everybody Loves Raymond (T) (R) 9.10 Frasier (T) (R) 11.10 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) 12.05 News (T) 12.10 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (T) (R) 1.10 The Great House Giveaway (T) (R) 2.10 Countdown (T) 3.0 A Place in the Sun (T) (R) 4.0 Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith (T) (R) 5.0 Chateau DIY (T) (R) 6.0 American Pickers (T) (R) Mike Wolfe makes a move on Gypsy Grandma, the queen of arcade games. 7.0 News (T)

8.0 Extraordinary Extensions (T) Featuring a couple who are turning their Surrey home into a Marbella-inspired party pad. 9.0 The Undeclared War (T) Barbara comes under Charlie's scrutiny as tragedy strikes. Danny makes a huge discovery.

10.0 The Undeclared War (T) 11.0 24 Hours in A&E (T) (R) 12.05 Celebrity Hunted (T) (R) 1.0 Celebrity Hunted (T) (R) 1.50 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) 2.40 Dictator: The Hitler Interviews (T) (R)

6.0 Milkshake! 9.15 Jeremy Vine (T) 11.30 Storm & Alexis (T) 12.45 News (T) 12.50 Matt: Allwright (T) 2.15 1.30 A Town Called Murder (Peter Sullivan, 2023) (T) Thriller starring Kayleigh Roller. 4.0 Castle (T) (R) 4.55 Love Nature (T) (R) 5.0 News (T) 6.0 Majorca: A Year in the Sun (T) (R) Chef Marc Fosh celebrates Majorca's best produce. 6.55 News (T) 7.0 Car Pound Cops (T) (R) Following cars as they are seized for a variety of offences. 7.55 News (T)

8.0 Casualty 24/7: Every Second Counts (T) Former nurse Sandra is brought in with a suspected dislocated ankle. Last in the series. 9.0 999: Critical Condition (T) Charlotte arrives potentially paralysed following a car crash, and Graham faces life-threatening surgery.

10.0 Ambulance: Code Red (R) 11.05 Cause of Death (T) (R) 12.05 A&E After Dark (T) (R) 1.0 Cruise TV 2.0 GPs Behind Closed Doors (T) (R) 2.50 Castle (T) (R) 3.40 Friends (R) 4.35 The Highland Vet

7.0 Great British Railway Journeys (T) Michael Portillo explores York. 7.30 Wainwright Walks (T) Julia Bradbury scales Blencathra, considered one of the Lake District's most demanding mountains.

8.0 The Treasures of Ancient Rome (T) How the Romans' obsession with sex and violence influenced their art. 8.55 Mary Beard Remembers – Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit (T) 9.10 Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit (T) From 2016.

10.10 L Claudius (T) 11.55 The Treasures of Ancient Rome (T) 12.55 Wainwright Walks (T) 1.55 Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome (T) 2.55 Great British Railway Journeys (T)

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observer.co.uk 02.08.26

Thursday 6

The Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, BBC Two, 9pm The final part reveals the extent of the former vlogger's crimes

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

Channel 4

5

BBC Four

6.0 Breakfast (T) 9.30 Animal Park (T) (R) 10.15 Trace, Track, Get My Car Back (T) (R) 10.45 Expert Witness (T) (R) 11.15 Homes Under the Hammer (T) 12.15 Bargain Hunt (T) (R) 1.0 News (T) 1.35 Regional News (T) 1.45 News (T) 2.0 Money for Nothing (T) 2.45 Escape to the Country (T) (R) 3.45 The Bidding Room (T) (R) 4.30 The Answer Run (T) 5.15 Pointless (T) (R) 6.0 News (T) Weather 6.30 Regional News (T) Weather 7.0 The One Show (T) 7.30 EastEnders (T)

8.0 Sign Zone: Gardeners' World (T) (R) 9.0 News (T) 10 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 1.30 The Finish Line (T) (R) 2.15 Do You Know Your Place? (T) (R) 2.45 The Hairy Bikers' Bakeation (T) (R) 3.45 The Farmers' Country Showdown (T) (R) 4.30 Vintage Antiques Roadshow (T) (R) 5.15 Flog It (T) (R) 6.0 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 6.30 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 7.0 Escape to the Country (T) (R)

6.0 Good Morning Britain (T) 10.0 This Morning (T) 1.30 News (T) Weather 1.55 Local News (T) Weather 2.0 Dickinson's Real Deal (T) (R) 3.0 Deal or No Deal (T) (R) Claire tries to open the 22 red boxes in the right order. 4.0 Tipping Point (T) (R) Quiz. 5.0 The Chase (T) (R) Pete, Elie, Zainudeen and Yvonne take part. 6.0 Local News (T) Weather 6.30 News (T) Weather 7.30 Tom Kerridge Cocks Italy (T) The chef learns how farmers produce tomatoes for passata.

6.30 The King of Queens (T) (R) 7.45 Everybody Loves Raymond (T) (R) 9.10 Frasier (T) (R) 11.10 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) 12.05 News (T) 12.10 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (T) (R) 1.10 The Great House Giveaway (T) (R) 2.10 Countdown (T) 3.0 A Place in the Sun (T) (R) 4.0 Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith (T) (R) 5.0 Chateau DIY (T) (R) 6.0 American Pickers (T) (R) Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz come across a huge 200,000-square-foot factory. 7.0 News (T)

6.0 Mikshake 9.15 Jeremy Vine (T) 11.30 Storm & Alexis (T) 12.45 News (T) 12.50 Matt Alwright (T) 2.20 FALL After a Small Town (Kalia York, 2023) (T) Thriller starring Veronica Ramirez. 4.0 Castle (T) (R) 4.55 Love Nature (T) (R) 5.0 News (T) 6.0 Menorca: A Year in the Sun (T) (R) Part one of two: A profile of the Mediterranean island. 6.55 News (T) 7.0 Around the World in First Class with Josie Gibson (T) Josie experiences life in Grenada. 7.55 News (T) Headlines.

7.0 Great British Railway Journeys (T) Michael Portillo travels from Northallerton to Chester-Le-Street. Last in series. 7.30 Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village (T) At Cromford in Derbyshire.

8.0 Fake or Fortune? (T) The art detectives investigate potential works by Lucian Freud. Last in the series. 9.0 Who Do You Think You Are? (T) English athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson travels to the Bahamas in search of stories regarding her ancestry. Last in the series.

8.0 Digging for Britain (T) (R) A rare medieval cemetery and the ruins of a Gothic masterpiece in the west. 9.0 The Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke (T) The Franke family is isolated. Last in the series. 9.50 The Fens: A Wild Year (T) (R) The Fens of East Anglia.

8.0 Emmerdale (T) Charity takes big steps and the Dingles unite in their grief. 8.30 Coronation Street (T) Kit extends an ominous invitation to Gary. 9.0 The Chase Around the World (T) The teams land in Paris to take on the Vixen and the Beast.

8.0 Renovation Rescue (T) In West Sussex, Vogue Williams and Luke Mabbott help artist Penny find a place that is by the sea. 9.0 Murder Case: The Digital Detectives (T) How digital forensics uncovered the events of the murder of Matthew Daulty.

8.0 Cornwall: A Year by the Sea (T) At Watergate Bay, Michelin-starred chef Chris Eden and his team attempt their first beach feast of the summer. Last in the series. 9.0 Bendorom is Murder (T) A rooftop murder exposes old grudges that threaten a struggling comedy club.

8.0 FALL Superman (Richard Donner, 1978) (T) A superpowered alien is evacuated from his doomed planet and crashlands on Earth, becoming a crusader for justice. Comic-strip adventure, starring Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman.

10.0 News (T) 10.30 Regional News (T) Weather 10.40 Murder 24/7 (T) (R) 11.40 Murder 24/7 (T) (R) 12.40 Alan Carr's Picture Slam (T) (R) 1.25 Weather (T) 1.30 News (T) Latest headlines.

10.0 Inside No 9 (T) (R) 10.30 Newsnight (T) Weather 11.05 FALL Women Talking (Sarah Polley, 2022) (T) 12.40 Sign Zone: Ambulance (T) (R) 1.40 Sign Zone: Evolution (T) (R)

10.0 News (T) Weather 10.30 Local News (T) Weather 10.45 FALL Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, 2006) (T) James Bond spy thriller. 1.10 Shop on TV 3.0 The Summit (T) (R) Contest.

10.0 The Body Detectives (T) (R) A case from 1984. 11.05 Social Media Monsters (T) (R) Examining crimes. 12.05 Crime Scene Cleaners (T) (R) 1.0 Murder Case: The Digital Detectives (T) (R)

10.0 Killer at the Crime Scene (T) (R) Factual crime. 11.0 Murdered at First Sight (T) (R) Documentary. 12.05 Street Cops: Catching the Yobs (T) (R) 1.0 Cruise TV with LovettBookit (T) (R)

10.15 Christopher Reeve: Keeping Hope in Motion (T) The late actor's fight to regain his ability to breathe. 11.15 Parkinson (T) Chat show. 12.15 Ian Rankin's Hidden Edinburgh (T) Travel show.

Friday 7

Our Lives, BBC One, 7.30pm The remarkable story of Anne-Marie Bollen and punk band the NaNaz

BBC One

BBC Two

ITV1

Channel 4

5

BBC Four

6.0 Breakfast (T) 9.30 Animal Park (T) (R) 10.15 Trace, Track, Get My Car Back (T) (R) 10.45 Expert Witness (T) (R) 11.15 Homes Under the Hammer (T) (R) 12.15 Bargain Hunt: 20 Years of The One Show (T) 1.0 News (T) 1.35 Regional News (T) 2.0 The Hairdresser Mysteries (T) 2.45 Escape to the Country (T) (R) 3.45 The Bidding Room (T) 4.30 The Answer Run (T) 5.15 Pointless (T) (R) 6.0 News (T) 6.30 Regional News (T) Weather 7.0 The One Show (T) 7.30 Our Lives (T)

8.0 Marcus Warning Simply Provence (T) (R) 9.0 News (T) 10 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 1.30 The Finish Line (T) (R) 2.15 Do You Know Your Place? (T) (R) 2.45 The Hairy Bikers' Bakeation (T) (R) 3.45 The Farmers' Country Showdown (T) (R) 4.30 Vintage Antiques Roadshow (T) (R) 5.15 Flog It (T) (R) 6.0 Richard Osman's House of Games (T) (R) 6.30 Just One Thing (T) (R) 7.0 Iol's Anglesey (T) (R) 7.30 Beechgrove Garden (T) Spring harvest.

6.0 Good Morning Britain (T) 10.0 This Morning (T) 1.30 News (T) Weather 1.55 Local News (T) Weather 2.0 Dickinson's Real Deal (T) (R) David Dickinson and his dealer den visit Newport. 3.0 Deal or No Deal (T) (R) Ronnie tries to open the 22 red boxes in the right order. 4.0 Tipping Point (T) (R) Quiz, hosted by Ben Shephard. 5.0 The Chase (T) (R) Comghal, Samantha, Adam and Yung Yung take part. 6.0 Local News (T) Weather 6.30 News (T) Latest updates. Weather

6.30 The King of Queens (T) (R) 7.45 Everybody Loves Raymond (T) (R) 9.10 Frasier (T) (R) 11.10 Kitchen Nightmares USA (T) (R) 12.05 News (T) 12.10 Find It, Fix It, Flog It (T) (R) 1.10 The Great House Giveaway (T) (R) 2.10 Countdown (T) 3.0 A Place in the Sun (T) (R) 4.0 Saving Country Houses with Penelope Keith (T) (R) 5.0 Chateau DIY (T) (R) Terry and Ashley bring their garden back to life. 6.0 American Pickers (T) (R) A rare Superman comic. 7.0 News (T) Headlines.

6.0 Mikshake 9.15 Jeremy Vine (T) 11.30 Storm & Alexis (T) 12.45 News (T) 12.50 Matt Alwright (T) 2.20 FALL The Book Club Murders (Logan Giese, 2024) (T) Mystery starring Brittany Underwood. 4.0 Castle (T) (R) 4.55 Love Nature (T) (R) 5.0 News (T) 6.0 Menorca: A Year in the Sun (T) (R) Part two of two: A look at Menorca's seafood, art and architectural restorations. 6.55 News (T) 7.0 Tom Read Wilson's Grand Tour (T) (R) 7.55 News (T)

7.0 Also Sprach Zarathustra at the Proms (T) A specially curated show, featuring a trio of pieces inspired by the wonders of the sky with music by Strauss, Judith Weir and Ravel. Katie Derham presents.

8.0 Granite Harbour (T) Lindo and Bart face a race against time to find the real killer. Last in the series. 9.0 Would Like to You? (T) (R) Cush Jumbo, Judi Love, Grayson Perry and Tim Vine join the quiz's regulars. 9.30 Ann Droid (T) Michael and Renee get a dinner invite.

8.0 Gardeners' World (T) Frances 'Supril returns to Damson Farm in Bath. 9.0 Bergerac: (T) Chloe finds evidence proving there is some truth in John Blakely's accusations. 9.45 QX XL (T) (R) Ria Lina, Eshaar Akbar and Jimmy Carr take part in the quiz.

7.30 EFL Cup Live (T) Middlesbrough v Wrexham (kick-off 8pm) Mark Pospatch presents all the action from the first-round tie at Riverside Stadium. Best look to avoid a repeat of this stage last season, when they were beaten 4-0 by Doncaster Rovers.

8.0 Surgery Secrets of the Super Rich (T) Hamath has a non-surgical liquid nose job and Hollie tackles years of sun damage with laser technology. 9.0 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown (T) With Katherine Ryan, Katha El-Ghorri and Jake Lambert.

8.0 Corsica: Jewel of the Mediterranean (T) Carreras focus on the French island, which boasts 600 miles of coastline, lush joined forests and majestic mountains. 9.0 Alexander Armstrong in South Korea (T) (R) The host embarks on an epic journey across the country.

8.20 TOTP: 2000 (T) Music. 8.45 TOTP: 1984 (T) With Tracey Ullman and Blancmange. 9.15 TOTP: 1988 (T) Featuring Kim Wilde, The Franky Worm and many more. 9.45 Tony Bennett at the London Palladium: BBC Sessions (T) A 2011 concert by the American singer.

10.0 News (T) 10.30 Regional News (T) Weather 10.45 FALL 20 Days Later (Danny Boyle, 2002) (T) Horror starring Cillian Murphy. 12.30 Weather for the Week Ahead (T) 12.35 News (T)

10.30 Newsnight (T) Weather 11.05 FALL Howell (Luna Camoon, 2023) (T) 1.0 Sign Zone: Panorama: Britain's Strictest Schools (T) (R) 1.30 Sign Zone: The Rapture (T) (R) Drama.

10.25 News (T) Weather 10.55 Local News (T) Weather 11.15 FALL Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (Edward Zwick, 2016) (T) Action thriller. 1.10 Shop on TV 3.0 Force of Nature (T) (R) Factual.

10.0 Big Fat Quiz: Best Bits (T) 11.05 Sarah Millican: Home Bird Live (T) (R) Stand-up show. 12.10 Greg Davies: The Back of My Mum's Head (T) (R) 1.05 Ramp (T) 2.15 FALL Theater Camp (2023) (T)

10.30 Piers Morgan: Uncensored (T) Heated debate show. 12.0 Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law (T) (R) 1.50 Cruise TV with LovettBookit (T) (R) 2.0 GPs: Behind Closed Doors (T) (R) Factual.

10.45 Tony Bennett Sings – Songs from the Movies (T) The crooner performs. 11.15 Tony Bennett Sings – His Personal Hit Songbook (T) 11.50 Tony Bennett Sings – Songs of Broadway (T)

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02.08.26

39

Saturday 8

Space Soundtracks at the Proms, BBC Two, 7.35pm Nick Mohammed celebrates music that has transformed people's view of the universe

BBC One

6.0 Breakfast (T) 10.0 Saturday Kitchen Best Bites (T) 11.30 Anna Haugh's Big Irish Food Tour (T) (R) 12.0 Home Under the Hammer (T) (R) 1.0 News (T) 1.10 Weather (T) 1.15 Bargain Hunt (T) (R) 2.15 Money For Nothing (T) (R) 3.15 Escape to the Country (T) (R) 4.15 FREE Night at the Museum Secret of the Tomb (Shawn Levy, 2016) (T) 5.50 News (T) 6.0 Regional News (T) Weather 6.05 Weather (T) 6.10 The Hit List Celebrity Special (T) 6.55 Alan Carr's Picture Slam (T)

7.40 Michael McIntyre's Big Show (T) (R) 8.35 Pointless Celebrities (T) (R) With Charlene White, Fern Britton, Chloe Madeley and James Haskell. 9.25 How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge) (T) (R) Alan seeks to find joy in the unexpected.

10.0 News (T) 10.15 Weather (T) 10.20 FREE Bridget Jones's Diary (Sharon Maguire, 2001) (T) 11.50 FREE Man Up (Ben Palmer, 2015) (T) Comedy. 1.15 Weather (T) 1.20 News (T)

6.30 Children's TV (T) 8.45 Jamie Johnson FC (T) (R) 9.15 Gardeners' World (T) (R) 10.15 FREE Angels One Five (George More O'Ferrall, 1953) (T) 11.50 The Great British Sewing Bee (T) (R) 12.50 A Cock Abroad: Monica Gentry's France (T) (R) 1.50 FREE Summer Holiday (Peter Yates, 1963) (T) 3.35 Role on Fortune! (T) (R) 4.35 Evolution (T) (R) 5.30 FREE Superman II (Richard Lester, 1980) (T) Adventure sequel. 7.35 Space Soundtracks at the Proms (T)

8.35 Paul Heaton at the BBC (T) This collection of performances and best BBC moments celebrates Paul's impressive career and features the man himself explaining the context and back stories behind some of his best-loved hits.

10.10 Paul Heaton: Live at Bramall Lane (T) 11.35 The Housemains in London 0 Hall 4 (T) (R) 12.20 Top of The Pops (T) 12.50 FREE Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, 2023)

6.0 James Martin's American Adventure (T) (R) 7.0 FREE The Man with the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton, 1974) (T) 9.25 News (T) 9.30 James Martin's Saturday Morning (T) (R) 12.0 Prue Leith's Cotswold Kitchen (T) (R) 1.0 News (T) 1.10 ITV Racing: Live from Ascot (T) Coverage of the Sherga Cup. 5.0 Tipping Point: Best Ever Finals (T) (R) 5.30 The Chase Celebrity Special (T) (R) 6.30 News (T) 6.45 Local News (T) 7.0 Deal or No Deal: Celebrity Special (T)

8.0 FREE Quantum of Solace (Marc Forster, 2008) (T) James Bond sets out on a personal mission of vengeance and uncovers a plan to cause a coup in a Latin American country. Spy thriller sequel starring Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylvicki and Jud Denoch.

10.05 News (T) Weather 10.20 The Staircase (T) 11.35 Sorry, I Didn't Know (T) (R) 12.10 Shop on TV 3.0 Cold Case Forensics: A Death on the Nile (T) (R) 3.50 Unwind with ITV (T)

6.10 Cheers (T) (R) 8.0 Everybody Loves Raymond (T) (R) 9.25 Praiser (T) (R) 10.55 The Simpsons (T) (R) 12.55 Four in a Bed (T) (R) 3.30 The Dog House (T) (R) 4.30 Love It or List It (T) (R) 5.35 Grand Designs (T) (R) Recently widowed Kathryn plans to build a new, accessible, ultra-home right next door to the home she loved in with her husband Jan. 6.30 News (T) 7.0 Sandi Toksvig's Hidden Wonders (T) (R) Sandi Toksvig rediscovers her love of archaeology.

8.0 Bettany Hughes' Lost Worlds: Dawn of Civilisations (T) Part one. The historian uncovers the origins of civilization itself. 9.0 Dictator: The Hitler Interviews (T) Hitler's friends and contemporaries recall how tyranny took hold.

10.0 Elvis, the Colonel and the Mob (T) Part one of two. 11.05 Elvis, the Colonel and the Mob (T) Part two of two. 12.10 FREE The Contractor (Tarik Saleh, 2022) (T) 1.55 Ramy (T) 2.30 Ramy (T)

6.0 Milkshake! 9.05 Entertainment News on 5 (T) 9.10 Secrets of the Royal Palaces (T) (R) 11.0 Yorkshire's Pothiest Hotel: Grantley Hall (T) (R) 1.0 The Royals: Uncensored (T) 2.0 Coastal Adventures with Helen, Jules B. (R) (T) (R) 3.0 Coastal Adventures with Helen, Jules B. (R) (T) (R) 4.0 Live: UK's Strongest Man 2026 (T) Coverage of the semi-final: 6.55 News (T) 7.0 Sussex: Jewel of the South Coast (T) A look at the discovery of a Bronze Age settlement.

8.0 The Middletons: The Making of a Modern Queen (T) (R) The Middleton family's influence in raising Kate for her future role. 9.30 Kate: Our New Diana? (T) (R) Documentary comparing the life and style of two Princesses of Wales – Kate and Diana.

10.30 Diana & the Curse of the Spencers (T) (R) 12.0 We Love Bridget Jones: All the Laughter & More (T) (R) 1.20 Cruise TV (T) (R) 2.20 GPs: Behind Closed Doors (T) (R)

7.0 Natural World: Jungle Animal Hospital (T) 7.05 Life on Earth (T) David Attenborough explores the lives of birds, focusing on the uses and advantages of their feathers in flight and during courtship.
8.0 Gloria: My Life on TV (T) 9.0 Gloria: Humidified Remembers – Doris Day (T) The presenter looks back on her 1970 interview. 9.15 Doris Day: Pebble Mill Special (T) Gloria Humidified interviews the singer. 9.55 Wogan with Gloria Humidified (T)

10.25 The Val Doonican Music Show (T) With the Cambridge Busters. 11.10 FREE Parallel Mothers (Pedro Almodóvar, 2020) 1.05 Keeping Up Appearances (T) 1.35 To the Manor Born

On the radio

Sunday
Radio 3
6.30am Breakfast 9.0 Sunday Morning 12.0 Private Passions 1.30 Music Map 3.0 SoS Jeannin – Singing Together 4.0 Jazz Record Requests 5.0 The Early Music Show 6.0 Choral Evensong 7.0 New Generation Artists The Kikko Quartet performs Haydn's Frog Quartet 7.30 BBC Proms 2026, Leonidas Kavukos and the BBC 50 perform Shailkovsky's Violin Concerto 10.0 Night Tracks 11.30 Unclassified 12.30 Through the Night

Radio 4

6.0am News Headlines 6.05 Heart and Soul 6.35 On Your Farm 7.0 News 7.0 Sunday Papers 7.10 Sunday 7.54 Radio 4 Appeal 8.0 News 8.0 Sunday Papers 8.10 Sunday World 8.48 Witness History 8.58 Tweet of the Day 9.0 Broadcasting House 10.0 Desert Island Discs 11.0 The Archers 12.15 Last Word Diving Death Differently 12.30 Just a Minute 1.0 The World This Weekend 1.30 Britain's Robot Army 2.0 Gardeners' Question Time 2.45 Naturellang 3.0 Drama Trouble in Mind 4.0 Bookclub 4.30 Brain of Britain 5.0 Witness History 5.10 Touch Going, with Giles Fraser 5.54 Shipping Forecast 6.0 Six O'Clock News 6.15 Pick of the Week 7.0 The Archers 7.15 Precious Stones 7.45 Just One Thing with Michael Mosley 8.0 Feedback 8.30 Last Word 9.0 Toast 9.26 Radio 4 Appeal 9.30 From Our Own Correspondent 10.0 John Simpson's Dictators 11.0 Great Lives 11.30 More View 11.45 Short Works 12.0 News and Weather 12.15 Inside Health 12.45 Bells on Sunday 12.48 Shipping Forecast 1.0 As BBC World Service

5.0 News Summary 5.04 Last Word 5.34 Shipping Forecast 5.43 Prayer for the Day 5.45 Farming

Monday
Radio 3
6.30am Breakfast 9.30 Essential Classics 1.0 Classical Live 4.0 Composer of the Week: Mozart 5.0 In Tune 7.0 BBC Proms 2026 10.0 Night Tracks 11.30 Round Midnight 12.30 Through the Night

Radio 4

6.0am Today 9.0 Across the Red Line 9.30 How Did We Get Here? No World Order 10.0 Womans Hour 11.0 Behind the Crime 11.45 Tony Hawks Is Giving Nothing Away 12.0 News 12.04 You and Yours 1.0 The World 1.45 The Bare Necessities 2.0 The Archers 2.15 Alone 2.45 Naturellang 3.0 A Goodheart 3.30 You're Dead to Me 4.0 Britain's Robot Army 4.30 The Kitchen Cabinet 5.0 PM 6.0 Six O'Clock News 6.30 Just a Minute 7.0 The Archers 7.15 Front Row 8.0 The Briefing Room 8.30 BBC Inside Science 8.0 Across the Red Line 9.30 How Did We Get Here? No World Order 10.0 The World Tonight 10.45 Book at Bedtime: The Vicar of Wakefield 11.0 Intimacy 11.30 Hollywood and the Adland Five 12.0 News and Weather 12.30 Tony Hawks Is Giving Nothing Away 12.48 Shipping Forecast 1.0 As BBC World Service 5.0 News Summary 5.04 Britain's Robot Army 5.34 Shipping Forecast 5.43 Prayer for the Day 5.45 Farming Today

Tuesday
Radio 3
6.30am Breakfast 9.30 Essential Classics 1.0 Classical Live 4.0 Composer of the Week: Mozart

5.0 In Tune 7.0 BBC Proms 2026 10.0 Night Tracks 11.30 Round Midnight 12.30 Through the Night

Radio 4

6.0am Today 9.0 Invisible Hands 9.30 Inside Health 10.0 Womans Hour 11.0 Screened 11.45 Tony Hawks Is Giving Nothing Away 12.0 News 12.04 Call You and Yours 1.0 The World 1.45 The Bare Necessities 2.0 The Archers 2.15 Drama: Sutbird 3.0 Lady on Trial with Lucy Worsley 3.30 Heart and Soul 4.0 The Writing Life of Sylvia Path 4.30 What's Up Docs? 5.0 PM 6.0 Six O'Clock News 6.30 Meet David Sedaris 7.0 The Archers 7.15 Front Row 8.0 A Romanian Ransom 8.40 In Touch 9.0 Crossing Continents 9.30 Scam Secrets 10.0 The World Tonight 10.45 Book at Bedtime: The Vicar of Wakefield 11.0 Wildinside 11.30 Hollywood and the Adland Five 12.0 News and Weather 12.30 Tony Hawks Is Giving Nothing Away 12.48 Shipping Forecast 1.0 As BBC World Service 5.0 News Summary 5.04 BBC Inside Science 5.34 Shipping Forecast 5.43 Prayer for the Day 5.45 Farming Today

Wednesday
Radio 3
6.30am Breakfast 9.30 Essential Classics 1.0 Classical Live 3.0 Choral Evensong 4.0 Composer of the Week: Mozart 5.0 In Tune 6.0 BBC Proms 2026 10.0 Night Tracks 11.30 Round Midnight 12.30 Through the Night

Radio 4
6.0am Today 9.0 Sideways 9.30 Breakin' the Cycle 10.0 Womans Hour 11.0 A Romanian Ransom 11.40 This Week in History 11.45

Tony Hawks Is Giving Nothing Away 12.0 News 12.04 You and Yours 1.0 The World 1.45 The Bare Necessities 2.0 The Archers 2.15 Drama: United Kingdom 3.0 Precious Stones 3.30 The Ocean within Us 4.0 The Power of Guilt 4.15 The Media Show 5.0 PM 6.0 Six O'Clock News 6.30 Best Medicine 7.0 The Archers 7.15 Front Row 8.0 Antifocal 8.45 Call: Hope 8.0 Invisible Hands 9.30 Inside Health 10.0 The World Tonight 10.45 Book at Bedtime: The Vicar of Wakefield 11.0 Sunil Patel: An Idiot: Guide to Living Forever 11.15 Follow the Rabbit 11.30 Hollywood and the Adland Five 12.0 News and Weather 12.30 Tony Hawks Is Giving Nothing Away 12.48 Shipping Forecast 1.0 As BBC World Service 5.0 News Summary 5.04 Sideways 5.34 Shipping Forecast 5.43 Prayer for the Day 5.45 Farming Today

Thursday
Radio 3
6.30am Breakfast 9.30 Essential Classics 1.0 Classical Live 4.0 Composer of the Week: Mozart 5.0 In Tune 7.0 BBC Proms 2026 10.0 Night Tracks 11.30 Round Midnight 12.30 Through the Night

Radio 4

6.0am Today 9.0 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics 9.30 The Guitar Story 10.0 Womans Hour 11.0 The Three Ages of Child 11.45 Tony Hawks Is Giving Nothing Away 12.0 News 12.04 Scam Secrets 12.32 Skies! Breast 1.0 The World 1.45 The Bare Necessities 2.0 The Archers 2.15 Drama: A Portmorium Love Affair with Life 2.0 This Natural Life 2.27 Radio 4 Appeal 3.30 Feedback 4.0 The Briefing Room 4.30 BBC Inside

Science 5.0 PM 6.0 Six O'Clock News 6.30 St. Newick FM 7.0 The Archers 7.15 Front Row 8.0 At Your Own Peril 8.15 The Media Show 9.0 Loose Ends 9.45 The Cows Are Mad 10.0 The World Tonight 10.45 Book at Bedtime: The Vicar of Wakefield 11.0 Radical 11.30 Hollywood and the Adland Five 12.0 News and Weather 12.30 Tony Hawks Is Giving Nothing Away 12.48 Shipping Forecast 1.0 As BBC World Service 5.0 News Summary 5.04 The Briefing Room 5.34 Shipping Forecast 5.43 Prayer for the Day 5.45 Farming Today

Friday
Radio 3
6.30am Breakfast 9.30 Essential Classics 1.0 Classical Live 4.0 Composer of the Week: Mozart 5.0 In Tune 7.0 BBC Proms 2026 10.0 Late Junction 11.30 Round Midnight 12.30 Through the Night

Radio 4

6.0am Today 9.0 Desert Island Discs 10.0 Womans Hour 11.0 The Food Programme 11.45 Tony Hawks Is Giving Nothing Away 12.0 News 12.04 Antifocal 1.0 The World 1.45 The Bare Necessities 2.0 The Archers 2.15 Drama: Central Intelligence 2.45 Living on the Edge 3.0 Gardeners' Question Time 3.45 Short Works 4.0 Last Word 4.30 Sideways 5.0 PM 6.0 Six O'Clock News 6.30 Current-ish 7.0 The Archers 7.15 Screened 8.0 Any Questions? 8.55 This Week in History 9.0 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics 9.30 Breakin' the Cycle 10.0 The World Tonight 10.45 Book at Bedtime: The Vicar of Wakefield 11.0 American 11.30 The Ocean within Us 12.0 News and Weather 12.30

Tony Hawks Is Giving Nothing Away 12.48 Shipping Forecast 1.0 As BBC World Service 5.30 News Summary 5.34 Shipping Forecast 5.43 Prayer for the Day 5.45 Living on the Edge

Saturday
Radio 3
6.30am Breakfast 9.0 Saturday Morning 12.0 Earlier... with Jock Holland 1.0 Any Changes Radio 3's Essential History of Classical Music 2.0 Record Review 4.0 Sound of Cinema 5.0 BBC Proms 2026 7.30 BBC Proms 2026 9.40 BBC Proms 2026 11.0 New Music Show 12.30 Through the Night

Radio 4

6.0am News and Papers 6.07 This Natural Life 6.30 Farming Today This Week 7.0 Today 9.0 What Happened to Counter-Culture? 9.30 What's Up Docs? 10.0 You're Dead to Me 10.30 The Kitchen Cabinet 11.0 Radical 11.30 From Our Own Correspondent 12.0 News 12.04 Toast 12.30 Current-ish 1.0 News 1.10 Any Questions? 2.05 Any Answers? 2.45 The Archers 3.0 Drama: August A Malechester 4.0 Weekend Womans Hour 5.0 Saturday PM 5.30 Skies! Breast 5.54 Shipping Forecast 5.60 Six O'Clock News 6.15 Loose Ends 7.0 Last Word Diving Death Differently 7.15 Changing the Odds 8.0 Archive on A Writing Use Mothers 9.0 Ten Fights That Made the Green Movement 10.0 News 10.15 The Food Programme 11.0 Olga Koch: OK Computer 11.30 Brain of Britain 12.0 Midnight News 12.15 Bookclub 12.48 Shipping Forecast 1.0 As BBC World Service 5.30 News Summary 5.34 Shipping Forecast 5.43 Bells on Sunday 5.45 In Touch

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40

observer.co.uk

02.08.26

Critics

Television

Furious is a murder drama for the post-MeToo era

Barbara Ellen

Furious

(Disney+)

The Rapture

(BBC One)

'The leads burn

up the screen in

different ways':

Emmy Rossum

and Scoot McNairy

star in Furious,

below: India

Amarteffio, above,

as Bethany in

The Rapture.

Disney

The new eight-part Disney+ thriller Furious doesn't so much arrive on the screen as lift up its skirt and shriek. Right from the start, it pulsates with a quintessentially female wrath as well as chilly clinical purpose, with each of

the lead women characters doggedly pursuing their own agenda.

The series is the latest from Elizabeth Meriwether, who created 2022's The Dropout, starring Amanda Seyfried, about the disgraced blood-testing entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes, and last year's Dying for Sex, with Michelle Williams playing a terminally ill young woman on an erotic mission. So we know she has the skill to keep an unlikely, twisted plot spinning.

Her new thriller is said to be inspired by the 1987 film Black Widow, which cast Theresa Russell as a lethal gold-digger, but it's nothing like it. Alice, played by Emmy Rossum (from the American version of Shameless), is a former New York Police Department detective looking to join the FBI's sex crimes unit. She ends up pursuing Catherine (Lola Petticrew, who was superb in Say Nothing and Trespasses), a dangerous wait who kills men by injecting them with drugs, smiling sweetly into their faces as they die.

As the young serial killer, Catherine targets specific victims in a byzantine plot about sex trafficking, exploitation and murder. She wafts into entitled men's orbits like a beautiful ghost, saying little, asking for nothing, which is just how they like it, until she pulls out her deadly syringe.

Alice, with her masochistic sexual fetish and grisly history of domestic violence (Jake Lacy is all self-serving smirk as her bad-egg detective ex), has her own darkness to deal with. Quincy Tyler Bernstine, playing an FBI stalwart, adds yet another level of wearied, calcified womanhood.

As for the opposite sex, Furious delivers as grim and final a verdict on masculinity as you're ever likely to see on screen. For a good while, Alice's lovestruck supportive detective friend (played by Scoot McNairy) is the only decent male character to be seen.

At times, the series recalls Killing Eve – darkly funny, with two women endlessly circling each other – but it's very much its own show. The tone throughout is undiluted post-#MeToo. Increasingly, as the episodes roll by, there are nods to Jeffrey Epstein – with an unrepentant rich guy bearing the same initials, the idea of great wealth facilitating every sick desire, the enablers in the shadows.

Is this how we want our female characters in murder dramas now? As both the hunters and the hunted,

The show delivers as grim and final a verdict on masculinity as you're ever likely to see on screen

with deeply written character arcs that show the psychological scarring? All three leads here burn up the screen in different ways: Bernstine drags herself through desolate plotlines using sarcasm as her superpower; Petticrew switches from pert and cocky to clammy and unravelling; and Rossum's expressive eyes gradually morph into holes of emotional hunger.

Furious isn't perfect. It flags and lumbers in the third quarter, and a late twist feels unearned. At the same time, the series is effortlessly compelling. It's not so much a thriller as it is a treatise on abuse and how to survive with a sense of justice intact. It's not for the faint-hearted, but it's worth it.

On BBC One, The Rapture conjures more strong women wanting to make their fury known. Based on Liz Jensen's 2009 novel, it's a five-part eco-thriller adapted by screenwriter and theatre-based performance

artist Bryony Kimmings (her shows include I'm A Phoenix, Bitch and Bog Witch, and she was also co-creator with Emma Thompson of the 2019 film Last Christmas).

The series, set in a fictional Welsh town, stars Ruth Madeley (Then Barbara Met Alan) as Gabs, a grief-stricken psychologist who was left paralysed after a car accident that killed her husband (Madeley herself is a wheelchair-user, having been born with spina

bifida). Returning to work in an NHS psychiatric unit, Gabs is assigned to 17-year-old Bethany, played by India Amarteffio.

Bethany is abrasive, saying to Gabs: "I knew you had a car crash. I didn't know you were a cripple." At another point, she calls her "Wheels". The teenager is thought to have murdered her own mother by stabbing her in the eye with a screwdriver; one of her drawings, sketched before the killing, depicts her mother dying in precisely that way.

While initially sceptical, Gabs comes to suspect that Bethany's wildly scrawled drawings convey psychic premonitions, and that it is all linked to a fuel company discrediting activists in

a group called the Climate Front. A heatwave swelters throughout the drama to further emphasise the environmental message.

Bethany's father, Leonard (Sam Hazeldine), meanwhile, heads Faith Way, a quasi-religious new age movement with millions of followers that spreads the message that climate crisis activists are scaremongers. An annoying, silky-toned hippy with "trendy vicar" energy, Leonard keeps spreading his hands and imploring his followers to resist the "doom loop".

In some ways, The Rapture spirals in its own doom loop. When Bethany starts drawing one of her many premonitions, scribbling furiously away on a pad, I'm afraid this viewer was chiefly reminded of childhood efforts with a spirograph kit. You end up feeling the plot would dissolve like a Mini Milk on a hot day without the psychic strand conveniently explaining everything.

Character-wise, the show achieves significantly more depth, with Gabs given a love interest (Jack Farthing) and her own psychotherapist (Ruth Jones). It's also made with passion, and the supporting cast is strong. And the sometimes excitable plot is nicely earthed by the pairing of Madeley and Amarteffio, who bounce off each other with more than a little feminist swagger.

WATCH LIST

Barbara Ellen's best of the rest

Benidorm Is Murder

(Channel 5)

John Hannah plays a police officer

turned loud-shirted

bar owner in this

new Costa Blanca-

set comedy crime

drama. He must solve

a mystery involving

the death of a Robbie

Williams impersonator.

Shabaz Asks: Are

Billionaires Bad?

(BBC Three)

Social media content

creator Shabaz Ali,

who has four million

followers across his

platforms, muses on

the super-rich and

their impact – good

and bad – on society.

The Vampire Lestat

(BBC Two)

Return of the amusing,

decadent vampire

yarn, loosely based on

the Anne Rice novels,

starring Sam Reid

(below) and Jacob

Anderson. Lestat

wants to be a rock star

– so bite him.