Reform UK’s claims have been challenged

Essex Police says there were ‘no incidents or issues’ surrounding the Clacton by-election amid a war of words fuelled by Nigel Farage’s failure to attend the count. The Reform UK leader won the by-election which he triggered by resigning as Clacton MP while facing scrutiny over donations he received from a cryptocurrency tycoon.

Mr Farage received 22,239 votes, a share of 62.8 per cent, with his nearest competitor Count Binface picking up 26.7 per cent. Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and Restore Britain all shunned the by-election, which was described by Labour as a ‘circus’.

While declaring he had won hours before the result was announced, Mr Farage said he would not be attending the by-election count. A Reform UK spokesman said overnight: “Essex Police advised Nigel not to attend the count tonight due to a credible threat against him.”

Click here for the latest on Greater Manchester’s politics in our newsletter

But that claim has been roundly disputed. Ian Davidson, acting returning officer and chief executive at Tendring District Council, said there was a ‘robust’ policing operation in place and that it was ‘a candidate’s decision whether or not to attend’.

In a new statement issued this morning (August 14), Essex Police said there were ‘no incidents or issues’ during polling day or throughout the night as votes were counted. “We have a full and robust policing operation in place around the Clacton by-election, as we do with all significant elections in our county,” a force spokesperson said.

“Throughout polling day our officers were visible right across Clacton and the Tendring district. We visited all 51 polling stations, our officers were out and visible on foot, in vehicles and our drone team patrolled by air. Our aim was to ensure the people of Clacton were able to go about their daily business, that people were able to cast their vote safely and that the count took place without issue.

“We are pleased to say all of these things happened and there were no incidents or issues throughout yesterday and into the early hours of this morning. We worked closely with Tendring District Council and their security teams throughout. We take the safety and security of our elected officials extremely seriously and, equally, we take our policing responsibilities around the democratic process seriously too.

“The decision of candidates to attend or not attend the election count is a decision for individuals and their security teams, our role is to make sure our policing operation is sufficiently robust to ensure the safety of all, and we are grateful to all of our officers, staff and the staff at Tendring District Council who worked through the night to ensure the safety of all.”

Mr Farage did attend a ‘Farage-fest’ in the Clacton constituency while the count was taking place. He told fans there: “I’m sad to say that after 33 years of being a candidate in active politics, I’ve been advised tonight by Essex Police that there is an organised campaign to disrupt and degrade the result that will take place in a few hours’ time. Once again it shows you the sheer intolerance, the sheer loss of fundamental democratic principles that those that went before us, fought in world wars, to fight for and preserve.”

Mr Farage added: “I’m not scared of these people, far from it. But I’m damned if I’m going to stand on a stage, having won a resounding victory, a ringing endorsement of all that I’ve tried to fight for, and you’ve tried to fight for, and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies, and I will not sadly be attending the count.”

Advertisement

After the claim was disputed earlier this morning, Reform MP Lee Anderson appeared on BBC Breakfast, insisting he believed his leader over the authorities. “Sometimes some of these police forces that we’ve been dealing with recently are about as honest as you lot at the BBC,” he said.

Mr Anderson added: “I’ve not spoken to Nigel about this. I’ve not spoken to Essex Police. If Nigel gets up on stage and says that he’s been advised not to attend the event, then I believe Nigel above the police, and especially above you lot at the BBC.”

Bridget Phillipson, chair of the Labour Party, told Sky News that viewers would ‘come to their own conclusions’. She said: “Well, of course, the safety of politicians is of the utmost importance and no-one should face threats or intimidation because of who they are and the job that they’re seeking to do.

“I don’t know exactly what’s gone on here, but like you, I’ve heard what the police have had to say, that they’ve pushed back a bit on on that suggestion, and I know that Nigel Farage is facing some criticism, even from within his own ranks, that he’s not, wasn’t, prepared to be at the count.

“And, you know, those who are responsible for running counts and the police oversight of that, they’re used to dealing with high-profile situations. But, you know, I think people will come to their own conclusions. It’s hard to know. Nigel Farage has given one version of events and we’ve heard something a bit different from the police responsible.”

Charred remains of homes burned by ‘apocalyptic’ wildfires could be seen today as drought-hit Britain continued to bake in a heatwave after the fifth warmest day ever.

Six properties were destroyed as 100 firefighters fought the blaze near a golf course at Stourbridge in the West Midlands, which spread rapidly through dry grass and woodland yesterday afternoon – setting alight homes with residents forced to flee.

A train derailment in East Sussex on a Southern service near Lewes that saw 150 people evacuated and two seriously injured may also have been a result of the heat.

Extremely hot weather will continue in south-east England, East Anglia, Lincolnshire and the Midlands today with temperatures reaching between 29C and 34C.

East Midlands Railway issued an ‘essential travel only’ alert for the third day in a row; while c2c, Great Western Railway and West Midlands Railway axed some services.

The UK hit 38.1C at Kew Gardens in London yesterday, making it the warmest day of 2026 so far. Yesterday was also the ninth day of 2026 when temperatures hit at least 35C, the fourth day for 36C, and the third for 37C – all three being new records.

The heatwave is set to continue into this weekend with temperatures of up to 30C in southern England, before highs slip to around 27C to 28C by the start of next week.

A UK Health Security Agency amber heat health alert remains active for all of England until 9pm tonight, which warns of increased demand on health services and a ‘rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions’.

Officials urged people to take precautions such as staying hydrated, checking in on vulnerable friends and family, and staying out of the sun at the hottest part of the day.

A fire engine stands near a burnt-out house this morning following the fire in Stourbridge

Advertisement

The blaze in Stourbridge forced some people to flee after it started tearing through homes

More than 100 firefighters were sent to Stourbridge after the fire started in nearby grassland

Two people were seriously injured following a train derailment in East Sussex yesterday

Rail bosses will investigate whether the steel tracks expanded in the heat and started to warp 

Advertisement

Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and West Sussex have now gone 63 days without rain as the drought intensifies, with Surrey close behind on 58 days and London on 52 days.

Some 45million people in England are now in drought-stricken areas, and 27million customers are under hosepipe bans – with many areas desperate for downpours.

The Met Office said some thunderstorms could hit central and south-eastern England tonight, but there is no meaningful rain in the forecast for the most parched areas.

Forecasters are however watching an area of low pressure which could influence UK weather from the southwest towards the end of next week and potentially bring rain.

Met Office chief forecaster Neil Armstrong said: ‘Friday will be a less hot day, with temperatures forecast to reach highs of 34C in the south-east.

‘Into the weekend temperatures could still hover over 30C in the south, with a gradual return to average over the next few days.’

Providing an outlook for rain, deputy chief forecaster Steven Keates said: ‘Many people are desperate for some rain to alleviate the impacts of the prolonged dry spell.

‘There is a chance of some thunderstorms developing in central and southeastern parts of England later on Friday into Saturday, however these are very uncertain.

‘A front moving south eastwards across the UK on Monday and Tuesday could bring northern areas some rain but amounts of rain in the south will be small at most and the majority will fall over Northern Ireland and Scotland.

‘The next meaningful rain forecast for these very dry areas could be towards the end of next week as an area of low pressure influences our weather from the southwest. The detail on this will become clearer over the coming days.’

It comes as a fire chief said crews were making progress tackling huge blazes in the West Midlands that led to thousands of 999 calls and caused ‘extensive’ devastation.

Chief fire officer Simon Tuhill, of West Midlands Fire Service, said one huge blaze in Stourbridge, which forced some people to flee after it started tearing through homes, was ‘one of the most significant’ incidents the region’s fire service has ever dealt with.

West Midlands Fire Service said this morning that crews were ‘making progress’ and ‘tactically working across several different areas of the site’.

Mr Tuhill was in touch with Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who released a statement to pay tribute to the firefighters on the ground battling the wildfires.

Advertisement

The Prime Minister said: ‘Awful to see homes and communities hit by fires across the country tonight as the heatwave continues.

‘My thoughts are with everyone affected, particularly those who have been injured or forced from their homes, and with the firefighters who have been taken to hospital.

‘I’m in touch with local leaders (including West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker) and will be speaking to emergency services on the ground as they continue their response.

‘Our firefighters are working in incredibly difficult conditions and putting themselves at risk to keep others safe. A huge thank you to them and everyone supporting the effort tonight.’

Mr Tuhill said that ‘the emergency service presence here will likely run into days’ and asked people to stay away from the area.

Nathan Hudson, from West Midlands Ambulance Service, said six people were treated by crews at the scene in the town, with two taken to hospital after suffering from smoke inhalation.

Mr Burnham has pledged to support fire and rescue services in the region with any additional resources they need, the county’s mayor Richard Parker told Sky News.

Angela Rayner, Secretary of State for housing, communities and local Government said: ‘We are working closely with the local Fire and Rescue Service and partners on the ground in Stourbridge and are being regularly updated.

‘I would like to thank the brave emergency services, and my thoughts are with people who have been forced to leave their homes.’

Speaking at the scene of the Stourbridge blaze, Mr Tuhill said more than 100 firefighters were sent to the scene, saying the fire is believed to have started in the grassland before spreading to homes nearby.

An investigation into how the fire in Stourbridge, West Midlands, started will now begin, the chief fire officer said.

‘Of course, we will carry out a joint investigation with police colleagues and our specialist fire investigation team,’ Mr Tuhill told a late-night press conference on Thursday.

‘They will be here on scene as soon as they can to start investigating the possible cause.’

Before the press conference, Mr Parker described the ‘multiple fires across our region’ as an ‘extremely worrying and fast-moving situation’.

In neighbouring Worcestershire, Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service said a number of homes had been damaged and 30 properties were evacuated in Pershore following a large fire on Lancelott Court.

The fire service said one person was treated for smoke inhalation following the incident at about 4.30pm, and about 200 homes in the area were left without power.

In Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, another blaze hit ‘a small number of properties and gardens’ in the Goldenhill area of the city.

Severn Trent Water warned of disruption to water supply across the West Midlands as a result of the wildfires.

The company said customers in Kidsgrove, near Stoke-on-Trent, may experience lower pressure and discoloured water because firefighters needed to use hydrants.

An aerial view shows destroyed houses following the wildfire in Stourbridge yesterday

Advertisement

A firefighter sprays water on burnt-out area following the grass fire in Stourbridge yesterday

A view of a burnt-out house today following the grass fire at Stourbridge in the West Midlands

A view of a burnt-out house today following the grass fire at Stourbridge in the West Midlands

In Warwickshire, the county’s fire and rescue service said it was responding to a ‘large fire’ in Salford Priors, Stratford-upon-Avon, which has been declared a major incident.

Elsewhere in the region, smoke from nearby wildfires forced the closure of the M6 northbound between junctions five and six – causing more than two hours of delays.

Explaining the closure, National Highways West Midlands said in a statement: ‘The fire keeps igniting. Fire commander at the scene not happy for M6 to be reopened until fire fully extinguished.’

Wollaston and Stourbridge Town councillor Andrew Southall said care home residents were evacuated alongside others as a result of the fire near Stourbridge golf course.

Resident Phillip Jones, who lives close to where the fire in Stourbridge took hold, told Sky News: ‘It was quite hard to breathe, actually, when we left the car, getting to the home.’

He added: ‘We have the golf course and then the cricket club between us and the fire.

‘So, at the moment, we have grab bags by the door, ready to leave if we have to leave, but it hasn’t come to that yet, thankfully for us.’

Footage on social media showed multiple buildings on fire and huge plumes of smoke coming from a nearby field.

The fire service said flames were spreading ‘across roads in places’, with people urged to stay indoors.

A fire engine stands near a burnt-out house this morning following the fire in Stourbridge

An aerial view shows destroyed houses following the wildfire in Stourbridge yesterday

A view of a burnt-out house today following the grass fire at Stourbridge in the West Midlands

Firefighters examine the burnt-out area following the grass fire in Stourbridge yesterday

Advertisement

A fire engine stands near a burnt-out house this morning following the fire in Stourbridge

Drone footage published by the force showed a heat map of flames threatening to engulf homes in the area as smoke billowed across the town.

Stourbridge town hall has been set up as a rescue centre for people who have had to flee their homes.

Councillor Andrew Tromans, who represents Wollaston and Stourbridge Town on Dudley Borough Council, described the scene of the fire in Stourbridge as ‘apocalyptic’.

In a statement on Facebook, he said: ‘The apocalyptic scenes in Norton and across Stourbridge are sadly just a taste of what is to come if we don’t act.’

He added: ‘It is my view, and it has been for a while, that Dudley councillors must have an emergency meeting about (how) we protect our borough from the impacts of climate change.’

Elsewhere, two people were taken to major trauma centres with ‘severe’ injuries following a train derailment in East Sussex, as rail bosses announced an investigation into the cause of the incident.

A major incident was declared by British Transport Police (BTP) after three carriages derailed on their side, trapping passengers on board the Southern train near Lewes yesterday afternoon.

Around 150 people had been on board the service travelling from London Victoria to Eastbourne, and have since all been evacuated.

Early speculation has focused on the possibility that the steel tracks expanded in the heat and started to warp, but investigators have yet to establish what caused the train to leave the rails.

Christian Wolmar, a transport expert, told the Daily Mail: ‘Well, there are two possible reasons this has happened. Obviously, the train track might have buckled before the train arrived.

‘But because the first carriages didn’t derail, it might be that the dryness from the heat has led to the embankment collapsing, and then the train made the rails buckle rather than the other way round.

‘I noticed yesterday when I was out on the heath for the eclipse – there’s just great big fissures in Hampstead Heath, big openings like an earthquake, and that must be happening in many places.

‘So it could be that there’s something like that that caused the embankment to partially collapse, and then the rails buckled under the weight of the train because the rails were unsupported.

‘Which could be the more likely explanation given that the first four carriages didn’t go down.’

Norman Baker, who is a former Lewes MP and an ex-transport minister, also suggested the derailment may have been caused by a section of the track buckling in the heat.

He told Times Radio: ‘They’ll want to make sure that the railways are completely safe before any trains are allowed back on them and if it has been the case – that the rails have buckled – that will take considerably longer to repair.’

South East Coast Ambulance Service deputy chief paramedic officer, Michael Bradfield, said there had been a ‘mix of injuries of varied severity’ among the 20 people taken to hospital.

He told a press conference in East Sussex: ‘We have conveyed 18 people to several hospitals in the region.’

He added: ‘My colleagues said there were 20 people who went to hospital – we believe there were two who have made their own way and have self-presented at hospital.

‘There are a range of injuries, two of which were categorised as severe and were conveyed to a major trauma centre. The remaining are a mix of injuries of varied severity.’

He described the derailment as ‘complex and challenging to deal with’ and required ‘a carefully co-ordinated multi-agency response’.

Lucy McAuliffe, Network Rail’s route director for Sussex, said the railway between Haywards Heath and Lewes is likely to remain closed for some time as specialist teams carry out assessments.

‘I understand that people will have lots of questions about what has happened today,’ she told reporters.

‘I would like to reassure everyone that we are working closely with the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, who are on site to establish exactly what has happened.

‘At the moment, it would be inappropriate to comment as to the cause of this incident but more information would be provided as soon as we can.’

Outside a community centre hosting passengers nearby to the incident, Yana Ludwig, who was travelling alone on the train from London to Lewes, told reporters the experience was ‘completely terrifying’.

‘There was a banging. Everything just went topsy-turvy,’ the 56-year-old from the United States said. ‘It seemed like a really long time but it probably was 10 seconds of that before the carriage actually fell on the side.’

Ms Ludwig described being propped up over the top of another passenger. She added: ‘I’m pretty banged up.’

She said everyone in the train was checking their fellow passengers were OK, adding: ‘These moments everybody kind of pulls together.’

Fire engines, ambulances and police have been stationed along Landport Road in Lewes, alongside a double-decker bus, which was parked up by the community hub waiting for passengers to board.

Local resident Oriana Evans said she and her son helped casualties who were led off the train towards the community centre along the street, showing them where to go, including some passengers who were on holiday.

‘I walked and chatted to some of them in shock really,’ the 54-year-old jewellery maker said.

She said they told her they were alright but ‘really bruised’.

Photographs circulated online show at least two carriages of a train lying on their side, with two passengers standing on top.

On the trains today, East Midlands Railway said it was ‘advising that unless your journey is essential, you should not attempt to travel today’ because of the hot weather.

c2c cancelled 17 trains between London and Essex this afternoon and evening, starting with the 2.27pm service from Shoeburyness to Fenchurch Street.

Great Western Railway said a reduced service would run between London Paddington and Oxford from 1pm until 7pm; while trains in Cornwall between Truro and Falmouth were reduced to hourly; and the Okehampton branch line was replaced by buses.

On West Midlands Railway, buses replaced trains between Rugeley Trent Valley and Hednesford; and between Stourbridge Junction and Worcester Foregate Street.

It comes after the UK was gripped by extreme heat yesterday – making it the second time this year the country has seen temperatures reach 38C.

The high also surpassed the previous hottest day of 2026 when 38C was recorded in the late June heatwave as the UK struggled under a rare ‘red warning’ for extreme temperatures.

The only other time temperatures have reached 38C twice in a year was in 2022 when the UK recorded its hottest ever temperatures.

The intense heat has made 2026 the first year on record to see three separate days where temperatures reached the 37C threshold, as well as the first year with four days at 36C or above, and extends 2026’s record-breaking run of days above 35C.

A Met Office amber warning for extreme heat was in place yesterday for a swathe of England from London to Sheffield, parts of Cheshire and Greater Manchester, into Gloucestershire and Wiltshire in the South West and Shropshire and Herefordshire.

With record dry conditions in July and a dry start to August, nearly three-quarters of England and the whole of Wales are in drought, heaping pressure on water resources for households, agriculture and the environment.

England and Wales have already seen as many wildfires this year as during the whole of 2025.

Some 1,017 wildfires have been recorded in England and Wales this year, according to data shared by the National Fire Chiefs Council, the same as last year’s record-breaking total.

Crews from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service have continued battling a blaze which hit protected heathland in the New Forest after a van caught fire on the A31 near Ringwood on Sunday.

Record-breaking heatwaves in May and June led to the deaths of more than 2,800 people, while parts of the country were hit with two further heatwaves last month as England and Wales endured their driest July since records began in 1836.

A fifth heatwave of the year was declared early last week – and the Met Office has said summer 2026 is on course to be the hottest on record.

Chelsea’s deadline for Enzo Fernandez bids is at 5pm on Friday, with Manchester City and Real Madrid both weighing up moves that will cost £120million. The Blues are also being linked with Arsenal midfielders Myles Lewis-Skelly and Martin Zubimendi, while Manchester United may have been offered a boost in their pursuit of Lewis Hall as they also target Eduardo Camavinga. Liverpool remain confident of signing Bradley Barcola, though PSG team-mate Ibrahim Mbaye has apparently been deemed as too expensive.

In 1825, English artist George Chinnery left Calcutta for Macau, chased away by his disgruntled wife Marianne and his creditors. He’d been based in India for the past 23 years, having previously lived in Hyderabad and Dacca.

Besides running a debt of around 30,000 rupees (£232 today), Chinnery was, according to one Dictionary of National Biography, a “penniless fornicator” and “begetter of an uncertain number of illegitimate Chinnerys white, brown and yellow”.

While he became famous as a portraitist, Indian landscapes also take pride of place in Chinnery’s legacy. His vision of an early morning in the Bengal countryside projects an image of peace and harmony far removed from the realities of colonial India under the British Empire.

From the 1760s, a number of British artists arrived in India. These men were motivated both by the economic prospects of catering to expatriate communities and portraying unique subject matter for those back home. In so doing, these artists presented India not as it was, but remade it into an exotic land ripe for colonial rule.

In their artistic representations, India was dangerous but also a place of opportunities. Travelling across provinces, artists’ visual documentation helped claim and appropriate Indian landscapes. As these spaces were endowed with new meanings, in turn, the question of imperial authority’s legitimacy became entangled with art.

Indian picturesque: a blot on the landscape

Besides just a few unkempt and passive human figures, the foregrounding of decayed buildings in Chinnery’s painting speaks directly to the picturesque aesthetic that rose to prominence in the late 18th century. This style focuses on asymmetrical compositions, dramatic chiaroscuro (light and shadow), rugged textures and landscapes with classical ruins and rustic life. In this, picturesque artists turned rural England into a national ideal.

The picturesque style occurred in a time when the process of enclosure was increasing. This involved taking commonly used land and dividing it into privately owned fields to the benefit of wealthy landowners, while limiting poorer people’s access to land. The picturesque helped justify social inequalities by presenting wealthy landowners and their estates as natural and idyllic parts of the landscape.

In a similar way, as wealthy imperial officers returned to Britain and invested their money in land, the picturesque also helped present Britain’s colonial power as taming and improving foreign lands.

In India, artists were using the picturesque to reshape colonial landscapes according to British ideas of progress and civilisation and to tell stories that celebrated colonial power.

In their painting of India, the British fascination with ruins became a visual trope to signify Indians’ political decadence and loss of connection with their histories and heritage. Take Thomas Daniell’s 1795 depiction of an ancient building near Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi (above). This image fed into wider commentary on the gradual decline of Delhi as the seat of the Mughal empire.

The building is reduced to a shadow of its former eminence, the limited life in its surroundings generating an impression of neglect that might be solved by British intervention. The new colonial masters were celebrated as harbingers of modernity. Through depictions like this, travelling artists, though attracted for mercenary reasons, became a mouthpiece for burgeoning imperial power.

How a monument became a cliché

Such picturesque visions enabled Britons to understand India on their terms and it was ultimately a process of objectification. Pre-colonial cultural and religious references came to be relegated to the background.

Take the Taj Mahal in Charles Ramus Forrest’s 1824 painting (below), which is divested of political metaphors central to how the Mughal Empire presented its identity and power.

The garden complex of the Taj is based on a quadrilateral plan, in the Mughal Charbagh style, replicating the four gardens of paradise mentioned in the Quran, symbolising divine grace and approbation. The architecture drew on Timurid traditions (1370 to 1507), as Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor, was proud of his lineage and sought to actively revive the legacy of his ancestor, Timur (Tamerlane). The building is believed by certain scholars to be a replica of the throne of God on the Day of Judgement in Islam, which consists of Allah’s throne (the Arsh) and the gardens of Paradise.

Simplifying these architectural complexities, however, Forrest reduces the Taj to an ornamental delight to be enjoyed by a European audience during their boat rides along the river Yamuna, pictured in the foreground.

Memorialisation of conquest

While visual imagery of travel made it possible for the British to control the interpretation of India’s past and insert themselves, it also facilitated the creation of imperial mythologies.

Commemorating sites of war played an important role. During the Third Anglo-Mysore war (1790 to 1792), successes against the ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, led the British to envision themselves as the incumbent power. Destruction cleared the path for occupation as territories were laid bare for takeover, as evident in Robert Home’s 1794 depiction of Tipu’s gardens in Bangalore (below).

Devoid of its vegetation and former grandeur in wartime, the once beautifully ordered landscape is turned into a picturesque scene. This ruggedness is romanticised as the remnant of a bygone era, to be discarded in favour of a new beginning.

Mysore soon evolved into a site of British personal and collective memories, embedding sacrifices for imperial cause as a matter of national pride. Previously, more tragic sites had served this memorial purpose. For instance, The Black Hole of Calcutta, a small, cramped dungeon at Fort William, where supposedly more than a hundred imprisoned Britons suffocated in 1756.

It is telling that, by the 19th century, British tourism was built around and reinforced the idea that Britain’s empire and territorial conquests were things to be proud of.

Tourists often fail to appreciate the experience of ordinary Indian people, which has influenced how destinations are marketed. These 18th-century western artists wandering across South Asia, their fortunes and, above all, their art, can tell us how this perspective surfaced.

As a place bereft of its own political identity by conquest, India was ripe for romantic projections of western might. In our age of travel, we must question these ways of seeing.

Rangers are out of the Europa League and will now play in the Conference League for the first time in the club’s history

Dejected Derek McInnes has conceded his struggling Rangers squad isn’t currently equipped for Europa League competition.

The new Ibrox manager witnessed his team exit UEFA’s second-tier competition following a 1-1 stalemate against Jagiellonia Bialystok at home.

Lawrence Shankland’s spot-kick in the opening period had levelled the tie after the Polish side’s 2-1 advantage from the first leg last week.

However, Rangers’ tactical adjustment handed Bialystok the initiative, and Nik Prelec’s vital second-half strike secured their progression to the play-off stage.

McInnes’ charges now drop into the Conference League for the first occasion in the club’s existence, reports the Daily Record.

He confessed: “The club’s built for the Europa League and Champions League. And that’s the intention, to get there.

“But I’m not sure the team’s quite ready for it at the minute.

“And it pains me to say that, to be honest. It does.

“We need to get more quality. We need to try and get more confidence into the team. But there wasn’t an outcome that we wanted.”

Rangers’ American ownership endured tough questioning from frustrated Ibrox shareholders during this week’s shareholder meeting.

The bulk of grievances focused on the persistent transfer blunders that appear to be setting the Light Blues up for another challenging season.

Moves for PSV winger Couhib Driouech and AEK Athens defender James Penrice are believed to be nearing completion.

Yet while McInnes is eager for reinforcements, he stood by the recruitment staff tasked with delivering new signings. He commented: “Until deals are done and over the line, it’s tough for me to actually comment on that.

“You know, we’re actively trying to get players in. The club is working so hard. I see it first hand.

“My office is next door to the recruitment lads and to everybody else and there’s constant conversation. So everybody’s working extremely hard to get the necessary players, the type of players that we require at the club.

“We’re not just signing any players. We’re hopeful we can land a few. I know Andrew Cavenagh said at the shareholders’ meeting between three and five. So there’s still a lot to do to get that type of number in.”

It’s abundantly clear Rangers need fresh faces urgently.

McInnes has taken charge of four matches but remains without a win as Ibrox boss.

His team began positively in a 3-5-2 formation and took the lead when ex-Celtic defender Yuki Kobayashi handled a delivery from impressive fellow Japanese international Daisuke Yakota.

However, a tactical shift to four at the back after the interval allowed the Polish side back into the contest, and it’s Bialystok who progress to face Georgian outfit Iberia 1999 – while Rangers will now meet Czech side Jablonec.

McInnes lamented: “I think it was justified to be honest. It wasn’t good enough. What we served up throughout the second half wasn’t good enough.

“We’ve got to be honest with that, we’ve got to own it. I thought the game was a bit too open at times for us to happen.

“Obviously, Gassama and Yokota playing as effectively wing-backs, we were asking a lot of them at times.

“But I thought we paid dividends in terms of penalty box action, getting the goal. I thought we were good value for going in 1-0 at half-time, but I still thought that Jagiellonia had a couple of scares.

“And mostly again on when the ball was dead and on transitions. So, there was a bit of anxiety there. I thought we took Thelo Aasgaard off at half-time, just felt we wasn’t getting involved in the game enough.

“And we go a back four, and the reason we’d go a back four is to try and get Gassama and Yokota a wee bit more effective higher up the pitch.

” Because I think it was a lot to ask of them to do that for 90 minutes, playing in the position they were in. And by doing that, hopefully to provide the service a bit more regularly for Shankland and Ryan Naderi. We have to say, once again, it’s not another 90-minute performance.

“That’s been aimed at Rangers for a while now. Last season, I think it was aimed at strong 45 minutes. It wasn’t followed up. It’s been a continuation of that this season already.

“In the four games we’ve played, we’ve had some good moments, but it’s not been good enough. And it’s certainly not a strong enough 90-minute performance. And I just thought that, although I didn’t think we were great in the second half, I didn’t think we were creating too much.

“But for us to lose the goal that we do, where it’s your set play. I think the first forward pass that they play is in the bottom left-hand corner in front of Copland Road. And for it to end up scoring at the top right-hand corner in front of the Broomloan is just madness. It’s inexplicable how we don’t make a foul, how we don’t stop their flow and attack. How we don’t just sanitise that whole situation. There’s no lack of bodies.

“It’s lack of intelligence. It’s lack of doing the right thing, to be honest. Just make a foul and stop the attack.

“And I think once they equalised, it was so difficult. Because the players lost more confidence. The situation becomes a bit desperate.

“And I just thought we lost all our composure after that. That for me is not great to watch.”

Sign up to our free sports newsletter to get the latest headlines to your inbox.

Gigantic wildfires are raging across Europe, causing 500 tourists to be evacuated from a Greek beach while thousands have been forced to flee Croatia, France and Germany.

In northern Greece, water-bombing planes, helicopters and more than 200 firefighters battled for hours to stop the flames spreading across the Halkidiki peninsula, south of the city of Thessaloniki. 

Authorities in Germany ordered about 1,800 people to evacuate their homes in the early hours of Friday, after a wildfire in the western region spread towards a village close to the border with Belgium.

Residents should leave the village of Gey at once and go to an assistance centre set up at a primary school in the nearby village of Strass, municipality officials said in a statement at 4am.

In Croatia, an inferno forced hundreds of people to flee from a small tourist town on the country’s Adriatic coast, as firefighters battled Friday to contain the rapidly expanding blaze.

More than 150 firefighters were deployed to Lokva Rogoznica, where flames quickly swept through surrounding pine forests and vegetation, before moving into residential areas and destroying homes and vehicles, local media reported.

At least 1,000 people displaced by the fire were moved into a local sports hall in Omis, south of Split, local officials said.

In France, around 400 people were evacuated after a blaze broke out in the Landes forest, near the town of Luglon, burning through 600 hectares. 

People evacuates on small boats during a wildfire as a plume of smoke rise into the sky near the village of Siviri, northern Greece, on August 13

A wildfire approaches the resort of Siviri, as seen from an evacuation boat off Siviri, on the Halkidiki peninsula, Greece, August 13

Advertisement

The wider European continent, the world’s fastest-warming, has been fighting an unusually active wildfire ⁠season, ​as a wetter winter ​fed growth in vegetation that dried out during rolling ​heatwaves.

In Greece, the blaze was later brought under control, the regional civil protection chief said, though crews remained on alert for flare-ups.

Two injured firefighters were taken to hospital, the fire service added.

Within hours of erupting, the fire bore down on homes around the popular resorts of Siviri and Fourka, which are packed with summer tourists. 

The region is dominated by flammable pine forests.

Greece’s civil protection agency sent evacuation warnings by phone to people in the two resorts.

And more than 480 tourists in bathing costumes, and many carrying children in their arms, were evacuated by sea in small boats and coast guard and fire brigade vessels, according to fire service officials and ERT public television.

A fire service spokesman said the evacuation had to be by sea as the flames were getting close to the beaches.

Some were moved to nearby beaches, while about 200 tourists were taken to a ship waiting at sea.

More than 480 tourists in bathing costumes, and many carrying children in their arms, were evacuated by sea in small boats and coast guard and fire brigade vessels, according to fire service officials and ERT public television

A fire service spokesman said the evacuation had to be by sea as the flames were getting close to the beaches

Dozens queued on a pontoon at Fourka waiting to flee as smoke blotted out the sky over the resorts, according to images broadcast by ERT.

There were also traffic jams of cars trying to leave Fourka and Siviri.

ERT said a three-kilometre-long (1.8 mile) wall of flames up to 30 metres (100 feet) high was closing in on the resorts.

‘We are on the beach and looking for a way to get away,’ Sophia, a homeowner in the region who only gave her first name, told AFP by phone.

‘From where we are, we can see that flames have reached the town and the houses.’

Firefighters said strong winds made the battle difficult.

The Greek authorities had issued a maximum five alert for fires for much of the Greek mainland.

Halkidiki authorities had banned the public from entering the region’s pine forests.

Weather forecasters have predicted winds of up to 100 kilometres (60 miles) an hour on Friday.

Greece is badly hit by wildfires every year. Experts say the risk is growing because of human-fuelled climate change that has made droughts and other weather phenomena more extreme.

Already this month, two crew from a helicopter helping to battle a forest fire near Athens died when their aircraft collided with another helicopter in mid-air.

The fire destroyed 110 square kilometres (42 square miles) of forest.

Firefighters work to extinguish a wildfire in Omis, Croatia, August 13

Advertisement

Flames engulf trees as a wildfire burns in Luglon, France, August 14

Smoke rises from a forest scorched by a wildfire near the village of Zogaj, close to the coastal town of Ulcinj, Montenegro, on August 13

Smoke rises as a wildfire rages near residential buildings in the village of Bijela, Montenegro on August 12

Croatia which is experiencing a prolonged heatwave that has brought record temperatures to several towns and cities along the Adriatic coast in recent days.

A coastal road running through Lokva Rogoznica was closed after parts of it were affected by the fire. Long queues of vehicles formed on routes heading towards Omis.

Croatian fire chief Slavko Tucakovic told state-run broadcaster HRT the situation was extremely worrying and that firefighters are expected to have a difficult night ahead.

Tucakovic called in firefighting teams from other parts of the country to reinforce crews already at the scene, according to a statement posted on the Croatian firefighting association’s Facebook page.

Four Canadair water-bombing aircraft, unable to fly at night, were on standby to assist operations at dawn.

Omis deputy mayor Ivan Pivcevic told the regional Slobodna Dalmacija daily that strong winds had caused the fire to spread. Split regional governor Blazenko Boban told the state-run HINA news agency that some people had suffered burns.

Earlier on Thursday, firefighters, backed by Canadair aircraft, brought another large wildfire on the island of Brac, off the coast near Split, under control.

The fire comes as parts of Europe endures another spell of exceptionally hot weather this summer, with several countries facing elevated wildfire risks and authorities issuing heat-related warnings.

In Germany, authorities said a major emergency response was triggered by a wildfire affecting about 25 hectares (62 acres) of woodland near Gey, in the Hürtgenwald municipality of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Firefighters and emergency services battled to restrain the flames, while the B399 road through the area was closed.

Large swathes of Germany are tackling dry conditions and high risks of forest fires, weather officials say.

With its scenic beaches, good schools and family-friendly environment, the coastal town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, was the ideal place for Patrick and Lindsay Clancy to raise their three young children.

The Microsoft executive, 38, and his wife, a former cheerleader and maternity nurse, were popular members of the small and affluent community 35 miles south of Boston and regarded as loving and devoted parents to Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan.

To neighbours they seemed like a typical young couple juggling busy schedules and a growing family. Yet on a chilly winter’s day three years ago, the lives of these outwardly normal, middle-class parents were consumed by tragedy.

Sending her husband to pick up medication from a local pharmacy and a takeaway dinner, Lindsay did something seemingly unfathomable. In a methodical act of violence that would have lasted several minutes, she strangled her three children in the basement of the house, then went back upstairs and attempted to kill herself by slashing her wrists and neck, swallowing crushed pills and jumping from a second-floor window.

Returning to the family’s colonial-style clapboard house after less than an hour, Patrick Clancy found two unimaginable scenes – his wife lying severely injured on the ground in their garden and his three tiny children unconscious with rubber exercise bands around their necks.

The children were rushed to hospital, where Cora and Dawson were declared dead. Medics resuscitated infant Callan after a cardiac arrest but, after three days on life support, he was deemed brain dead and passed away too.

Last month Lindsay Clancy’s trial for murder began at Plymouth Superior Court in Massachusetts, and quickly gripped both US and global audiences. Televised live each day, with its gut-wrenching evidence from first responders, a first-hand account from the bereaved father of the events leading up to the deaths and periodic outbreaks of uncontrollable sobbing from Lindsay, it’s been dubbed ‘America’s saddest murder trial’.

Patrick Clancy described his wife’s whispered words after killing the children: ‘She said she heard a man’s voice telling her if she didn’t do it now, she would lose her chance’

Now podcasts, true crime forums and social media platforms are buzzing with comments from dedicated armchair sleuths, all attempting to answer the fraught and increasingly divisive question at the trial’s heart.

Why did she do it?

What’s more, in some parts of the online crime commentariat, people are asking a further, still wilder question. Did she do it?

The case centres on Lindsay’s mental health after giving birth to Callan and, by extension, the care given to mothers suffering postpartum conditions in general.

Lindsay had been struggling for months with serious issues after the birth of Callan – and Patrick was struggling to support her. The couple repeatedly sought help for her worsening mental state after she reported having symptoms that included severe insomnia, heart-racing anxiety and thoughts about killing herself.

She told another mother that she ‘felt like a zombie’ and wrote in a notebook that she felt ‘completely overwhelmed’ looking after three small children and as though she was ‘drowning’.

The Clancys consulted doctors and other experts, and Lindsay, who turned 36 this week, was prescribed at least a dozen medications in the space of just a few months, including antidepressants, antipsychotics, sleep aids and anti-anxiety drugs.

With no improvement in her health, on New Year’s Eve 2022, she voluntarily checked herself into the McLean psychiatric hospital, one of the state’s top-ranked mental health facilities. However, staff deemed her a ‘low risk’ patient and she was discharged after five days.

Nineteen days later, on the evening of January 24, 2023, she killed her children.

In the wood-panelled US courtroom in Massachusetts, the prosecution led by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague claims Lindsay connived to get her husband out of the house and deliberately, carefully and cold-bloodedly planned the murders.

Lindsay’s defence lawyer Kevin Reddington, who is fast becoming an internet sensation for his calm, forensic questioning style and obvious compassion for Lindsay, says his client does not dispute her role in their deaths. Instead, he argues that she was let down by a negligent medical community who over-medicated her and failed to properly diagnose her.

He claims she is not criminally responsible for the triple killings because she was suffering a postnatal crisis of mental health that warped her sense of reality. Doctors who diagnosed her with postpartum depression, he argues, failed to identify accurately the much rarer and more acute condition of postpartum psychosis (PPP), a severe illness linked to stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes after childbirth.

Lindsay and Patrick with their children Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan

Affecting about one in 1,000 mothers, PPP symptoms include high or low moods, hallucinations, delusions and extreme confusion.

At one point in his evidence, Patrick described his wife’s whispered words after killing the children: ‘She said she heard a man’s voice telling her if she didn’t do it now, she would lose her chance.’

As a result of the fall from the window that night, Lindsay is now paralysed from the waist down and in a wheelchair. As she sits at the defence table, occasionally clutching Reddington’s hand, she cuts a frail, guilt-ridden figure and has often been difficult to watch.

On one particularly emotional day in court, she hid behind her long dark hair and her body shook with sobs as autopsy photos of baby Callan were shown to jurors.

On another traumatic day, when Patrick’s piercing screams were heard on a 911 call after he discovered their children’s bodies, she repeatedly broke down. It was the first time she had heard the emergency call.

Moments earlier, Patrick described coming home from his errands and calling out to his family. When no one answered, he searched the children’s rooms and the bathroom, before finding blood throughout the main bedroom and a window open.

Now the armchair detectives are lining up to weigh in with their opinions. Much of it has been sensible and considered analysis of the evidence, with many online commentators – mostly women – rooting for Lindsay.

Some have talked about their own experiences with post-birth depression, saying that, even if they didn’t hurt their babies, they have sympathy for what the young mother was going through and that men cannot fully understand the complexity of postnatal medical conditions.

But in an unexpected and disturbing development, there is scant compassion for Patrick, with some claiming that he has questions to answer too. Did he support his wife enough? Should he not have stepped up to look after the children more when she was so clearly at crisis point? Even more sinister are outright accusations from a small but growing number of conspiracy theorists – with no evidence to back up their claims – that Patrick is the true guilty party and that he framed his wife, gaslighted her and made her believe she killed the children. ‘My gut reaction is that he did it,’ declares one commentator, while another writes righteously: ‘I definitely believe that the husband did it… someone should tell the judge.’

The Clancy family home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, where Lindsay is alleged to have carried out the murders

‘The nature of social media is that it breeds conspiracy theories and everybody gets to be a dime store detective in a case like this,’ former prosecutor and criminal defence attorney Jack Rice told the Daily Mail. ‘We’re seeing more and more people making things up in their heads. Evidence becomes superfluous and it’s just people’s opinions that count these days. We’re already seeing in politics that if you say something with confidence it must be true and now it’s bleeding into the criminal justice system.’

While Judge William Sullivan reminded jurors at the start of the trial that they cannot decide the case based on emotion, no such restriction applies to the millions watching this family tragedy from the sidelines and some are clearly taking full advantage of it. Online antipathy towards Patrick is one of the hottest topics of discussion about the Clancy case, despite law enforcement officials and prosecutors repeatedly stating that he had no involvement in the heartbreaking event and has been cleared of any wrongdoing.

Keyboard warriors have pointed to the bereaved father’s demeanour as being ‘cold’ in the witness box, when it appeared to those in the courtroom that the businessman was desperately trying to maintain his equilibrium while being forced to relive every parent’s worst nightmare.

Critics have also pointed out that he was ‘quick’ to marry again after divorcing Lindsay, with some amateur sleuths suggesting he was having an affair before the murders. Patrick married fertility doctor Rachel Danis in New York in April this year, three years after the tragedy.

Most popular in online discussion groups are examinations of ‘inconsistencies’ in evidence put before the jury so far. A theory that Patrick changed his shoes went viral with claims that he wore boots when he went to pick up medication for his daughter at the pharmacy then changed into sneakers minutes later to pick up takeaway food, as seen on CCTV footage. The apparent difference, however, is more likely to be due to lighting in the different stores. Others claim a ‘suspicious’ email sent that evening raises further questions. Having left the house at about 5.15pm, Patrick arrived at the pharmacy at about 5.32pm, yet an email to his staff was time-stamped 5.24pm.

Social media users have asked how he could send a work email when he was supposed to be running errands. Questioned by his wife’s attorney, Patrick said he wasn’t sure whether the email was sent from his laptop or his mobile phone, adding to the confusion. If from the laptop, amateur detectives say he must have been at the house rather than the shops, which does not fit the police timeline. No evidence has been presented in court to suggest this theory.

Other ‘anomalies’ include the weight of a bed allegedly moved by Lindsay so she could leap from the second-floor window. Online conspiracy theorists claim she could not have moved the heavy piece of furniture alone and that Patrick staged the scene having pushed her out of the window.

Perhaps the biggest of the online oddball theories is that Patrick committed the crimes himself and framed his wife because he wanted to make a new life without his family. Some people have gone further and suggested that Patrick himself was the male voice in his wife’s head telling her to kill herself and her children.

Assistant DA Jennifer Sprague holds up as evidence the pyjamas of Callan Clancy during the trial

A recent poll on TikTok of 63,000 people said 91 per cent of respondents think Patrick is guilty.

‘People want a villain,’ says Rice, one of America’s most respected legal commentators. ‘Who can’t look at three dead children and think somebody must pay?

‘They’re shifting the blame on to him [Patrick] because people think she [Lindsay] wasn’t in her right mind or people have a hard time believing a mother could kill her children. I think how calm he was on the witness stand made people decide it was inappropriate for someone who was the innocent parent and that there must be something nefarious going on. That was the starting shot and then people began looking for any other inconsistency.’

With conspiracy theories of Patrick’s guilt spreading, even the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper, the Boston Globe, has felt compelled to address the fact that the internet is putting the bereaved father on trial amid ‘misinformation and lies’.

Alex Piquero, professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Miami, says: ‘What concerns me most is that people jump to conclusions and affect other people’s thinking without all the facts in hand. It is not instructive or helpful and can have negative consequences.’

In a further twist, a social worker called Emily Thorndike posted a TikTok video contradicting the prosecution’s claim that the McLean Hospital, where Lindsay was treated for her mental health issues, offered a five star, world class service. Turning whistleblower, she ‘wanted to correct the misinformation the prosecutor is using’ and went viral with the claim that a single doctor was responsible for 23 patients over one holiday period.

Defence attorney Reddington has now asked for Thorndike to take the stand, to the prosecution’s dismay. Judge Sullivan has said he will make a ruling on the matter in due course.

‘Everybody is watching this case and everybody has opinions but that doesn’t always mean those opinions have no value,’ says Rice of the emerging evidence. ‘They may see something that everybody else misses.’

Meanwhile Patrick has said he forgives his wife and believes she was ill rather than evil. He has made no comment about the false accusations being levelled at him online nor the fact that his life is being put under a microscope by millions of strangers.

He and Lindsay have both filed separate lawsuits accusing her multiple medical providers – some of whom she only met over Zoom – of failing to properly diagnose, treat and monitor her.

If the jury find her guilty of murder, she faces life in prison without parole. If she’s found not guilty because she lacked criminal responsibility, she’ll be committed to a state psychiatric facility. Whatever happens, you only have to look at her in the courtroom to see that her life is ruined for ever.

The trial is set to continue for several weeks, giving online commentators more time to spout their spurious theories – to the agony of the two grieving parents at the heart of a story that could have leapt from the pages of a Greek tragedy.

Brad Pitt surprised fans this week when he revealed he is drinking again after seven years of sobriety. 

The actor, 62, has been candid about his alcohol consumption over the years, going teetotal after his split from Angelina Jolie amid accusations that he flew into an intoxicated rage and poured alcohol over his family while on a private jet in 2016.

On Thursday, a source close to Brad’s camp told the Daily Mail that the star’s return to drinking was a ‘gradual process in recent years’. You can read more about that here.

Yet his journey with sobriety first began in the Noughties, when he gave up marijuana after becoming a father. 

Brad adopted Angelina’s adopted children Maddox, Zahara and son Pax in 2006 before welcoming daughter Shiloh later that year and twins Knox and Vivienne in 2008.  

During an appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher in 2009, Brad revealed that he no longer smoked cannabis, explaining: ‘I’m a dad now. You want to be alert and my eyes used to glaze over when I did that.’

Brad also revealed that his marijuana habit had impacted his education, previously revealing he was two credits short of graduating college. 

He explained: ‘All I had to do was write a paper. What kind of guy is that? That guy scares me, the guy who always leaves a little on his plate. For a long time, I thought I did too much damage – drug damage. 

‘I was a bit of a drifter. A guy who felt he grew up in something of a vacuum and wanted to see things, wanted to be inspired. I followed that other thing. I spent years f**king off. But then I got burnt out and felt that I was wasting my opportunity. It was a conscious change.’

His marijuana use had threatened to spiral out of control, with Brad saying in 2012: ‘I got really sick of myself at the end of the Nineties.

‘I was hiding out from the celebrity thing; I was smoking way too much dope; I was sitting on the couch and just turning into a doughnut; and I really got irritated with myself. I got to: “What’s the point? I know better than this.”‘

Brad credited a trip to Morocco where he witnessed ‘extreme poverty’ and other social injustices with inspiring him to clean up his act, saying: ‘I stopped grass then – I mean, pretty much – and decided to get off the couch.’

In 2017, Brad touched on his sober journey again when he revealed that he ‘stopped everything except boozing when I started my family.’

Speaking about six months after Angelina filed for divorce, he confessed: ‘I can’t remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn’t boozing or had a spliff, or something. Something. 

‘And you realize that a lot of it is, cigarettes, you know, pacifiers. And I’m running from feelings. I’m really, really happy to be done with all of that. I mean I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family.’

‘But even this last year, you know, things I wasn’t dealing with. I was boozing too much. It’s just become a problem.’ 

On giving up alcohol, he continued: ‘And I’m really happy it’s been half a year now, which is bittersweet, but I’ve got my feelings in my fingertips again. I think that’s part of the human challenge: You either deny them all of your life or you answer them and evolve.’

On the winery he owned with Angelia Jolie, Brad said: ‘I enjoy wine very, very much, but I just ran it to the ground. I had to step away for a minute’ (pictured at his Château Miraval vineyard)

Advertisement

On the winery he co-owned with Angelia, Brad added: ‘I enjoy wine very, very much, but I just ran it to the ground. I had to step away for a minute. 

‘And truthfully I could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka. I was a professional. I was good.’

Yet he said it was time for a change because he didn’t ‘want to live that way anymore’, noting that he’d replaced alcohol with ‘cranberry juice and fizzy water.’ 

Brad later credited Bradley Cooper – who got sober two decades ago after struggling with alcohol and cocaine addiction – with helping him give up alcohol. 

When introducing Bradley at the 2020 National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala, Brad shared: ‘I got sober because of this guy. And every day’s been happier ever since.’

The Fight Club star also revealed on a separate occasion that he used alcohol ‘as a disservice to myself, as an escape.’

Asked if he found it ‘necessary’ to quit drinking altogether, Brad replied: ‘To some degree, yes.’

He went on to tell the New York Times in 2019: ‘I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges.’

In AA, he said: ‘You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard. It was this safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself.’

Brad later called AA a ‘wake up call’, explaining how he went from being ‘shy’ to ‘pretty much on my knees and I was really open.’ 

Brad later credited Bradley Cooper – who got sober two decades ago after struggling with alcohol and cocaine addiction – with helping him give up alcohol (pictured in 2024)

Speaking on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast last year, he mused: ‘I was trying anything and everyone. Anything anyone threw at me. It was a difficult time. I needed rebooting. I needed to wake the f**k up in some areas.

‘I just thought it was just incredible men sharing their experiences, their foibles, their missteps, their wants, their aches, and a lot of humor with it. I thought it was a really special experience.’

He went on to note that meetings soon became ‘something I’d look forward to.’

This week, however, Brad revealed he had begun drinking again – but insisted he is now more mindful of his consumption.

In a wide-ranging interview with Esquire, the actor admitted he had gotten ‘back off the wagon’ after the interviewer noticed the star had offered him a glass of wine.

When asked if the beverage was for guests, Brad responded: ‘No, I got – I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon,’ he said, offering a little laugh.

He continued: ‘In a more restrained manner. I got overconfident a couple times, went, “Yep, nope, not good for me.” Not in big quantities.’

Brad then clarified he is now able to ‘have a few’ glasses of wine but is unable to indulge any further, stating: ‘Well… I can have a few. But I can’t have a lot. I have to be professional about it.

The interviewer then noted that Brad had becoming something of a morning person in recent years and ‘you can miss a lovely morning when you drink too much the night before, and it’s just not as interesting.’

Following the admission, a source told The Daily Mail: ‘This was a personal decision. He has spent years reflecting on his relationship with alcohol and knows what works for him.’

Angelina was said to have reacted to the news that Brad was off the wagon by saying she was ‘not surprised’, with a source adding ‘she knew this was always a possibility’ (pictured in 2015)

Angelina was also said to have reacted to the news, with a source claiming to Rob Shuter’s Naughty But Nice column that the actress was ‘not surprised’, adding, ‘she tried to warn people. She knew this was always a possibility.’

The insider added that Jolie had ‘long believed that sobriety did not necessarily mean the underlying problems [Brad had] had disappeared.

‘She doesn’t believe Brad has fundamentally changed. She believes Brad is who Brad is, and no amount of sobriety or reinvention changes that,’ they claimed.

The Daily Mail has contacted Brad and Angelina’s representatives for comment. 

For help and support with alcohol issues in the UK, contact Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) for free on 0800 917 7650 or email help@aamail.org 

In the US, AA can be reached on 212–870–3400

It has been recommended by many viewers as the ‘most binge-worthy show to watch’ on the streaming platform, according to viral Reddit threads

A Netflix series has managed to seize everyone’s attention, with a significant number of people putting it forward as the ultimate recommendation for ‘binge-worthy shows to watch’ on the streaming platform.

Many people have taken to Reddit to sing the praises of one particular Netflix series, with the show having successfully enthralled audiences across the globe.

Across multiple Reddit threads that have gone viral, one show recommendation appears to be the common thread, with countless people listing it as a ‘must-see’ suggestion. The series in question is none other than The Queen’s Gambit.

Starring Anya Taylor-Joy in the lead role, the series landed on Netflix during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and propelled Anya to stardom, turning her into a household name.

The coming-of-age period drama – based on Walter Tevis’ 1983 novel of the same name – soared to extraordinary levels of popularity during the devastating pandemic, providing an absorbing and compelling escape for people the world over, reports Wales Online.

Since its release on October 23, 2020, the Netflix original series has only continued to accumulate admiration and affection from viewers with each passing year.

So much so, that endless recommendations on viral Reddit threads persistently cite it as the most binge-worthy series available. As someone who devoured the series herself the moment it was released, I can vouch for the merit of that recommendation.

In the Netflix subreddit, one popular post with 1.9k comments asks: “The most binge worthy Netflix show or movie you’ve ever watched. You ever start a show or movie on Netflix thinking you’ll just watch one episode, then suddenly it’s 3am and you’ve watched the whole thing? Just curious what people’s recommendations are for ones that really had you hooked.”

Countless users flocked to the comment section of the thread, with a number singling out The Queen’s Gambit as their top pick.

One of the highest-rated comments simply reads “Queen’s Gambit” and the suggestion itself garnered 466 upvotes. Fellow Redditors appeared to echo the recommendation, as one wrote: “Watched in one night, rewinded after every microsleep. The book was also a great experience.”

Another user described it as ‘one of the best shows I’ve seen’, while a further Redditor agreed: “Me too! I’ve watched it three times so far!”.

The Queen’s Gambit takes its name from a chess opening, and follows the remarkable life and rise to prominence of fictional American chess prodigy Beth Harmon, portrayed by Taylor-Joy. It traces Beth’s journey as the rising star of chess during the 1950s and 60s, all while she secretly battles a drug and alcohol addiction.

The Queen’s Gambit was written and directed by Scott Frank, who co-created the series with Allan Scott, who owns the rights to Tevis’ book. From the very outset, The Queen’s Gambit began to garner widespread acclaim, and in an unprecedented first, the Netflix original series went on to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series – the first streaming service production to ever win the category.

The Queen’s Gambit scooped a total of 11 Primetime Emmys, two Golden Globe Awards for Best Limited Series or Television Film and Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film for Taylor-Joy. She also went on to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie during that awards season.

Advertisement

One Redditor said on the thread: “I slept not a moment that night. A perfect show.”

While another added: “Yep that was absolutely binge material!”.

Yet another user echoed the show’s binge-worthy sentiment: “Damn, this is the only series here I have actually watched! And it was excellent, watched it all in 1-2 days, as I recall.”

In a separate viral Reddit thread, a user asked: “What’s that one Netflix show you think is an absolute must-watch? The kind where you’d say, “I can’t believe you haven’t seen this yet. ” Looking for something great to start next, classics or hidden gems both welcome.”

Once again, recommendations for The Queen’s Gambit flooded the comments section, with one Redditor writing: “Great show, one of those ‘I watched it because everyone said it was great’ and it really was!” Another viewer commented: “I watched it with two other friends and all of us have completely different TV viewing preferences. We all loved Queen’s Gambit!”.

While one fan of the series described it as ‘probably the best that I watched in the past decade’, another Redditor remarked, “I’d heard it was great but otherwise didn’t know what it was, my roomie put it on one day and I was hooked. Really well done.”

One Reddit user added: “If you only want one [recommendation], Queen’s Gambit.”

Taylor-Joy is joined by Bill Camp, Moses Ingram, Christiane Seidel, Rebecca Root, Chloe Pirrie, Akemnji Ndifornyen and Marielle Heller alongside a larger ensemble cast, all of whom have garnered glowing praise from both critics and viewers alike.

The Queen’s Gambit is streaming now on Netflix.